hi from seoul!

hi pops and mops!

the travelling sisters are in seoul now... it has been a fun time so far and we are both well... :-)

yesterday, after reaching incheon airport, we took an airport limo bus to the ascott apartment (missed a stop and took a cab to the apartment)... then after resting, we walked to the palace (Gyeongbukgung) which is very near our apartment... we were fortunate to reach there just when the palace guard was changing and it was a colourful sight...

lunch was a nice pumpkin pasta thingy with chips, at the Korean National Palace Museum...

then we walked to this quaint shopping area with lots of interesting shops and art galleries called Insadong, where we also had a Korean dinner...

oh, and we also popped by the Korean Tourism Office, which had friendly English speaking staff and who gave us tips on travelling Seoul... there, we rented the traditional Korean costumes (called a hanbok)... think your daughters look good in them? :-) we're looking out for nice cheap hanboks to buy home! :-)

Koreans wear the traditional costumes to pay respects (bai nian) to their elders during the lunar new year... so maybe we'll do that next year... haha...

anyway, after dinner, we went shopping at Dongdaemun (dong da men in mandarin, i.e. East Big Gate), this used to be the eastern gate of Seoul city but now it's a shopping area... we covered 7 storeys of one of the shopping malls and Ping was exhausted after that! Wen still wants to go back for more!!

Today, we lazed around in our room till 11am... then we went to the world's biggest church Yeoiudo Full Gospel Church... it has 1 million members all over the world and about 100,000 in Seoul alone... the service we attended had 10,000 people and they have 12 services a week... the service was in Korean but they provided headphones with English and Chinese translations...

we wanted to go to the prayer mountain after church but missed the bus (cos a church elder was talking to us and it was pretty inspiring)... so we went back to the palace for a very interesting (and free!) performance... there, a nice Korean guy (working for Kia Motors and in the palace with his colleagues to take photos) with a super-pro camera took lots of photos for Wen with our memory card...

oh, we went to eat the pumpkin pasta again... :-) wanted to try the Korean red bean porridge but it was out of stock, so Wen ate some Emperor's food (which we know as glutinous rice back home)... and Wen had a great time taking photos of all the food...

and now, we are at Itaewon, a very happening place with a big foreigner population... everywhere on the streets, people are speaking English... we happily ate ice-cream and tried shopping for a hanbok... and Wen tried to buy a winter sweater cos she complains that all our warm clothes are black coloured and not nice for taking photos... fortunately, she has her purple scarf and gloves... :-)

so, as you can see, we are having fun here and enjoying our differences! :-)

tomorrow, we will head to the Winter Sonata ski resort... tell you more then... :-)