What a week! Bee Gees Concert, Nanta Show, Itaewon, and Great Food

I know we struggle to get new updates done on the blog but thanks to a 5 day visit from mum morley there is lots to mention.

Mum came in Tuesday evening and Clariza and I suprised her at the airport. We have a limousine company at the hotel who so very kindly offered to pick up mum for free, so we had a lovely limousine ride back into Seoul and went home.

Wednesday I headed off to work and Clariza and Mum spent the day visiting Namdeamun Markets, a few palaces, and Insa-Dong. Then in the evening the three of us were supposed to go to the BeeGess concert via Robin Gibb, but unfortunantly Clariza ended up with a migraine early evening so it was mum and I to rock on! We teamed up with three other guys from the hotel and went to the concert at the COEX.

I just got to say I am so glad we did not have to pay for the tickets. (Our hotel had the group staying with us) We had in our hand 165,000 Won tickets but we sat in an open convention floor that was not only not carpeted, but we sat on plastic lawn chairs! Man, if I was in Australia paying the price we were paying for the tickets, there would have been a riot!

So the sedated crowd sat for the first hour as we had all predicted and finally when the concert was over, and when the encore began did the crowd finally stand up and begin to boogie! They did about another 5 songs and it was over. It was a fun concert, glad we went, but all of us said we would have never paid that price if we had too.

Thursday, Mum & Clariza shopped all day at the COEX, including some manecures & pedicures! (Oh, the hard life!) and in the evening we ate at our hotels buffet restaurant, the Grand Kitchen. I tell you it has to be the best buffet in town. I know it is my hotel, but still we have eaten at a few buffet restaurants and this is the best by a mile,

Friday, Clariza and Mum did some walking around Gangnam area where the hotel is, COEX mall again, and visited the temple across the road form the COEX InterContinental. In the evening I had a early function to attend at the hotel and then we met up at the COEX InterContiental and had dinner at Asia Live Restaurant. A great restaurant as has a huge menu with Korean, Chinese, Japanese, and Indian dishes.

Saturday, I got to sleep in, and then we headed into Iteawon. Of course we took the subway and in 45 minutes from our station (Samseong) we were there. Actually after being here three months now it was the first time that we actually went to Iteawon during the day time. We started as everyone does at the Hamilton Hotel and worked our way around the streets of Iteawon. We found a few clothing places in the back alleys that had great womens black market clothing and Clariza spent about 100,000 on some great winter jackets that had the cut out Italian labels! We then ate at the Outback SteakHouse, had a great meal, and then walked around a little more.

Now for the expats, especially the Americans and Canadians I found the store that sells all the foreign foods like Pop-Tarts, etc.. If you stand at Hamilton and look across to Burger King, cross over there to the Burger King side and walked down the street that is where burger king is and walk past a few antique stores and after about 250 metres there is a clear glass door with a red painted frame with no sign and you walk in and it is a very small shop with all the stuffs you need.

Anyway we then walked to the main road and took a taxi to the Nanta theatre for our 4pm show. The theatre is very close to the City Hall. Nice theatre, very mixed crowd. We took the 2nd level tickets which were 50,000 won. It was a 90 minute show and was a lot of fun. It was, loud, funny, lots of dancing, performing, heaps of food thrown around, great drum work with all the cutlery etc.. We walked out and all said how much we enjoyed it.

We then walked down to the Seoul City Hall, and onto our most favourite Dim Sum restaurant called Dintaifung. It is only about 6 weeks old and we have eaten there twice. It is a modern Dim Sum concept, dont take reservations, and is a quick meal, but excellent. Again I highly recommend. www.dintaifung.co.kr
Seoul City Hall .. sorry small photoThis is the Dintaifung Restaurant interior. Very modern and open windows to kitchen!

After dinner we took a stroll to the underground shops nearby, and finally took a taxi home.

Sadly we bid mum farewell at 6am this morning as she had a flight to Japan at 9am! We look forward to her coming back so that we can have as much fun again.