The Grinch(es) take Seoul for Christmas

[bPeteb]

I have pretty much worked from home 100% since the epidemic. It’s now a 20 minute walk away, so my intent is to go in once or twice a month, maybe.

The lunchtime temptation though is out of my office new home office window

 

[drron]

Great TR. Recognised a few of the places as we have had a couple of trips plus cruise stops. However actively looking to go back as long as we can use up some of our life miles.

 

[OZDUCK]

Another excellent TR by you - thanks.

 

[Justinf]

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We stayed at Y Collection by Unboundi and loved it. Y COLLECTION BY UNBOUNDI GYEONGJU ≡ Gyeongju, South Korea ≡ Lowest Booking Rates For Y Collection By Unboundi Gyeongju in Gyeongju, Amenities
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Quirky and odd with a bed pretty much on the floor and no lifts so definitely not for everyone. We were on the second floor that was more like one and a half floors up. The bed was super comfy and it had heated floors so the bed was also warm. Like with each hotel we stayed at we could also open the window so fresh air, very cold fresh air, was always available.
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The fake stuff was so bizarre. A fake garden and fake books. Love it!
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we had of course bought some beers from one of the local convenience stores. One a wit with tangerine again and one an ale. Both very good
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a simple breakfast was included and served down on the ground floor in the morning
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Dinner time. We wandered around and decided on a place in teh same street as the hotel that had an image of a stylised cow/steer on the door. We thought why not, we've tried the pork.

Yet again google translate came to our rescue. The owner came and typed into her phone that the specialty was raw beef. We love a bit of beef tartare so we were fine.

Here was the menu. Sadly translate does not give us the name in Englis. On my 28 degrees card it says 'Woo Raw Fish Jeon'. No fish was seen on the premises.
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and translated
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in handsight we chose the wrong set, or what we wanted was misunderstood. We wanted the stew, dumplings and raw beef and got raw beef and stew, a LOT of raw beef. It was delicious

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it clearly wasn't cold or wintery enough outside. Lets bring that wintery feeling inside with a projection of snow!!
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after diiner we walked back towards the hotel and stopped off at a place that was called craft beer bar or something similar. Craft beers on the whole meant foreign beers so we had a couple of whiskey highballs and then a couple more Terras or something similar
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and then it was back to the hotel (room 202)
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for some weird wrestling sumo kind of thing on tv
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“Alcoholic beverage order is required”
Oh ok then.
Thanks for the TR.

 

[Notyourbag]

Great trip report. Was reading along with interest as we're heading to Seoul in April.

Nice new pad in Brisbane too!

 

[Lynda2475]

@bPeteb great TR. I am headed to South Korea in April so have taken note of some of the recommendations as will also be in Seoul, Jeju and Busan (plus a few other places).

 

[Justinf]

I’ll be in Seoul tomorrow so you have inspired me to take a beer tour.

 

[Dieselcanberrra]

Loved your trip report. Thankyou. Are you using the same tour company when you return to Africa? We are currently looking at Kiboko tours (I think your previous trip was with them) and were interested in any thoughts/recommendations on them. Thanks again

 

[bPeteb]

Loved your trip report. Thankyou. Are you using the same tour company when you return to Africa? We are currently looking at Kiboko tours (I think your previous trip was with them) and were interested in any thoughts/recommendations on them. Thanks again

Thank you. As I said at the end of the report we couldn't fault Kiboko as a company. The bus needed a bit of maintenance but when you consider the roads those vehciles travel on it's not surprising that it did. We chose the tour because it was small group and 16 was if anything still a few too many for us.

I can only talk to our lodge based trip. There are many shorter options and camping options as well.

We're a bit torn at to whether we'd recommend going in the opposite direction with the only issue being not ending in CT. The end of the tour is not as animal intensive and was a bit of an anticlimax but CT was beautiful to spend a few days in. I think I would say start in CT and finish in Vic Falls. Then do what we did and stay over in Livingstone and do the Rhino walk, boat cruise, ultralight etc

For May/June we're doing a 21 day private tour. Yes, very fancy! It's with a very young company called Tapestry of Africa. We invited a friend so there will be three of us in the vehicle. Mid-range lodges. Original quote was just under US$7000 each for the two of us. When we added our friend we decided to lower the cost for him (his solo price was quite a bit more than our twin share) by splitting three ways so it ended up being just under US$7200 each. A little sad that the dollar has tanked, but such is life.