Metallica in Korea

Ok, I will say it from the start. I was not a huge fan of Metallica, and never have been. After meeting them, watching them, and learning about them a bit more .... has it changed? Yes! Now I have a greater respect for the group, their professionalism, and some of their music which I actually always liked, but really never knew it was Metallica.

So let me start from the beginning, and hope I do not get in trouble for metioning what I say!! Two weeks before their arrival in Korea I got an email saying they were going to stay with us. Cool, this should be fun. As a hotelier I of course start thinking of all the logistics, potential problems, etc.. To cut a long long story short a few days before their arrival I met with the tour manager, and band manager who went through all the requirements, and that was that. Very easy, and really really nice people.

Day of arrival for the group, all went very well. The group arrived from Japan throughout the day and the main band members arrived early evening. I was there to meet them and take care of them. All went well. (Lots happened in between, but best keep that out of the blog. All I can say is that over the next two days I got to talk to the band and they were a really fantastic bunch of guys, so humble, and nice to work with. I really wish I could tell you more!!)

Concert day the tour manager called me and said all is great and if I need tickets for myself and friends just let him know how many. So I rounded up a few of the boys plus a couple of others and had tickets waiting at the door. He also told me he would take extra special care of me!! I wonder what he meant??

We took a taxi to the stadium and found the ticket area. Gave our names and got our tickets. There was an envelope for me also, and to my joy inside were three backstage all access passes! Fantastic!! So we joined the thousands trying to get in, flashed the All Access passes and we were escorted right through.

From then on we enjoyed the concert, the crowd, the heat!!! and of course most of all getting right next to the stage. I have put some photos into the blog, but they really really suck. I have a cheap rubbish camera that let me down on the night. Actually in the spirit of Metallica the shots kind of represent their music. We were so close to the band that at time James Hatfield was standing right above us. For a while we stood between the crowd barrier and the stage. I am sure if this concert was in Europe, US, or even Aussie we could never have gotten this close.

So concert all done, we went home very exhausted, but very happy. Next day I caught up with the group on their departure, thanked them, and in turn they actually thanked me and the staff for a really good stay.

See, there are some benefits for working in this hotel industry!!!

World Basketball Challenge Korea

We are trying to keep ourselves busy this summer and last week was not exception. After a few days of great dinners with friends we went to watch Team USA vs Lithuania. The teams were staying in our hotels so we were given some tickets to go and watch.

I am no basketball player, but grew to really enjoy the game after my 8 years in Hawaii. Me and the fraternity bros were regular at the UH games and got to watch some sensational games over the years including Hawaii's wins over Indiana and Duke. Good times.

Anyway back to Korea. So we had designated seats but as usual nobody was sitting in their assigned seats so we found the best seats we could which were excellent, and watched the game. It was an easy win for the USA, but most enjoyable was watching these NBA players really turning it on and playing some amazing basketball with of course heaps of slam dunks. Sadly though I am not up on this new generation of NBA players so their names did not mean much to me.

Have attached a few photos of the game. Enjoy.
We stayed on and watched the first half of the Korea and Italy game, but that was also heading for an easy win to Italy. We had to head to Iteawon for a Greek dinner at a place called Santorini. It was excellent by the way.

Football Game FC Seoul vs FC Tokyo

Yesterday we decided to go to the FC Seoul vs FC Tokyo Football (soccer) Game at the World Cup Stadium. We went with some colleagues from work, family, and some colleagues who are working for our company in China.

Thankfully, I was able to convince our hotel to give us a bus and driver for all of us to get there, so at 5pm we left the hotel in the convenience of an Air Conditioned bus which is much needed with the 34degrees weather and high humidity at the moment.

After the regular Seoul traffic we got there in 1 hour and to our complete surprise the banquet staff from the hotel had organized a private box for us!! (Our hotel also caters for all the VIP boxes at the FC Seoul Games at World Cup Stadium) So we went through the VIP section, up the elevators and placed in our own Air Conditioned suite with a lovely table, bathroom, and enough food and drinks for about 30 people. To top it off you can sit outside the room in about 20 chairs to watch the game even better.

As you can imagine we had a wonderful time enjoying the game, the private box, and the food! Before I forget FC Seoul Won 3-0!

We got back about 945pm after a very enjoyable evening.

Have attached some photos of the night. One thing to note is the wild Korean fans! They are fantastic. I promise for the full 90 minutes the main FC Seoul fan section never stopped with singing, dancing, and celebrating. A lot of fun.

Read this

Found on the web:

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Amzanig huh?The wierd thing is that I actually scanned the paragraph before I realized that every word was misspelled.