Chocolate Buffet at Grand InterContinental Seoul

Forgot to add last weekend after a great Vietnamese lunch with the chef and his wife, we all ventured back to the hotel to enjoy the last day of the chocolate buffet! I guess I don't need to say more right. Let the pictures tell a thousand words ... And yes, damm it was good!

The freshest Strawberries and chocolate fountain!

Instead of explaining all three, the middle one is a chocolate moose inside a real egg shell with the yellow is passionfruit sauce! WOW!!!

Chocolate brownies covered in a rich dark chocolate sauce with gold shavings on the top! Mmm

Ohh, just a few more chocolates on the buffet.

Sunday Afternoon in Seoul

It has been a relaxing weekend, with Saturday spent either sleeping or relaxing at home. Had a big night out on Friday, so needed to catch up with rest on Saturday.

Today, Sunday, we went to the hotel for breakfast at Grand Cafe. Always a sensational breakfast. We bumped into some friends and mentioned we were going to shop in the afternoon around Dongdaemun. They also wanted to shop, so we met around 2pm and headed to Dongdaemun. It was super busy, of course we did a heap of walking, and a little bit of shopping!!!
Finished up with a lovely dinner in our favourite dim sum restaurant Din Tai Fung in Myeong-Dong.

anyway below are some photos of the day with our great new camera.

Shot of the Cheonggyecheon Stream which only re-opened earlier this year.

Another shot of the stream. If you have the time, a great place to walk.

Chef and the ladies posing for the camera. See the camera in chefs hand ... Its the same as mine. We bought it within days of eachother.

Shot above is the East Gate of Seoul in Dongdaemun.

Here we are walking through the streets of Myeong-Dong. Fantastic area for shopping, and eating. In the centre of Myeongdong there is a new Krispe Kreme! You know where we had our dessert tonight!

We did not have our dessert here, but this ice cream shop was awesome. Check out the cone display! Next time!

Fight Day

So today we decided to get up early and dig into the hotel breakfast buffet which suprisingly we have never done together. By 9.30am when we arrived it was a little busy, but who cared about the crowds when you have such an awesome buffet in front of you. The problem is when you have a great buffet in front of you what do you eat? The body is not used to a lot of food in the morning. Anyway we ate our share and enjoyed it very much.

Next we jumped on the subway and headed for Itaewon. Our objective was to pick up a pair of golf shoes as mine were in Australia and I needed a pair anyway as I was playing golf on Monday. (Finally my first time to play in Korea) As some people would know, when you play golf in Korea you have to look the part as much as play the part! So once in Itaewon we checked out a few stores and finally found one that had my size. 150,000 Won later I had a lovely Italian pair of golf shoes! What to do!!!

We then decided to walk around a bit more and try to pick up a phone card. This is where the fun begins... so we walk into this store and these two ladies are talking away, looked like sisters, and suddenly the one on our side of the counter walks across the lane to a LG phone shop and starts arguing with the lady in that shop. Now if you can picture this the shop entrances are only 5 metres apart across this single lane so we could hear everything. All in Korean of course and lots of shouting. The lady in the shop we were in just ignored us and watched her sister argue with this lady. After a minute the sister walked out of the other shop but just as she was about to cross the lane the lady in the LG shop shouted something at here like f..k y**! I am sure. So the sister went back in and started screaming again, then the LG lady picked up some papers and threw them at the sister, then it was on!!! Wow I was loving it! Then sister in the shop we were in jumped from behind the counter, ran past us straight into the LG shop, around the counter and started swinging! Yes .. Throwing punches! It was on two sisters vs. LG lady! Clariza was a bit freaked out, but I was loving it. I even had time to flag an American guy on the side who didn't see what was going on to check out the fight! He was very thankful. After a few minutes the three each had each others' hair in their hands, a stalemate, two Korean guys jumped in, and finally it was broken up. We then left! Now that was interesting! Sorry for the long story, but I was just amazed to see it!

Anyway we headed back to Samseong, and decided by some miracle we could just walk up and buy a ticket to a movie. Sure enough Mission Impossible was available and we watched it. I won't say much, but it was pretty good. Not the best. I have history with Mission Impossible as the cast and directors lived in the hotel I worked at in Sydney back in 1999, and I got to meet them all and actually talked several times with Tom Cruise. I even got to drive Ving Rhames around Sydney! And Dougray Scott had a little too much fun in Sydney!!

So we headed home after quiet an adventurous day. Fights on the streets and fights in the movie!

BBQ Etiquette

It is important to refresh your memory on BBQ etiquette as it's the only type of cooking a real man will do, probably because there is an element of danger involved.
When a man volunteers to do the BBQ the following chain of events are put into motion:

Routine...

1) The woman buys the food.

2) The woman makes the salad, prepares the vegetables, & makes dessert.

3) The woman prepares the meat for cooking, places it on a tray along with the necessary cooking utensils & sauces, & takes it to the man who is lounging beside the grill - beer in hand.
Here comes the important part:

4) THE MAN PLACES THE MEAT ON THE GRILL.

5) The woman goes inside to organize the plates & cutlery.

6) The woman comes out to tell the man that the meat is burning. He thanks her & asks if she will bring another beer while he deals with the situation.

Important again:

7) THE MAN TAKES THE MEAT OFF THE GRILL & HANDS IT TO THE WOMAN.

8) The woman prepares the plates, salad, bread, utensils, napkins, sauces & brings them to the table.

9) After eating, the woman clears the table & does the dishes.

And most important of all:

10) Everyone PRAISES the MAN & THANKS HIM for his cooking efforts.

11) The man asks the woman how she enjoyed "her night off."

And, upon seeing her annoyed reaction, concludes that there's just no pleasing some women....

LOL everyone .. it's just a joke!

Thailand Trip

The Thailand Trip! I am sorry it has taken so long to get this on the site, but after coming back from Thailand work has been extremely busy. I have decided that instead of offering a long winded novel of the trip, I will allow the photos to tell the story. I can't take credit for all the photos as most were taken from different people on the team. In any case to summarize, it was a fantastic trip. We called it a team building trip and it really was that. We had so much fun together, and I really got to know some of my team that much better.

Anyway, enjoy the photos, and of course there will be a few comments here and there.



Let the fun begin. Here we are on the bus at Bangkok airport on our way to Pattaya. It was a long flight, but already the excitement was building. We had this bus for the whole trip.


This is a photo of the lobby in our hotel. We were staying at the Jomtien Palm Beach Resort Hotel. Old hotel, but did the job, with a bed and A/C! We got to the hotel around 8pm after dinner on the way from the airport, and had 1 hour before going out.


By 10.00pm we were at a huge nightclub. This is not your normal nightclub. It has no dance floor, just rows of tables to drink, and a large stage where we sat through a 90 minute show, with the performers singing Korean, Japanese, and Chinese songs to the all Asian crowd, ..and me! Oh well, what to do!


Of course curiosity got to the group, so around midnight we all got into two jeepneys and headed to 'walking street'. For those who do not know 'walking street' it is where all the hundreds of bars are!

We were home by 2.30am, and awake for breakfast at 7.30am. This is a nice shot from the hotel overlooking Jomtiem Bay. Today was our full day yacht day, the highlight of the trip!

Here I am about to get on the yacht! We hired two yachts for the day.

Here are a couple of really nice shots of the yachts that we were on. As you can also see it is a fantastic day with no clouds, and no wind!



Above are a few shots of myself and some of the team on the yacht. It really was such a nice morning on the yachts. First chance to unwind and take a deep breath of really fresh air.
What we are eating there is the freshest of sashimi (raw fish). About an hour or so in the trip we put down anchor and we all did some fishing. Over an hour we caught about 25 fish, of which about 10 of them the captain cut them up as we caught them and we feasted on sashimi that we had just caught! Fantastico!
We then went onto a lovely bay that had a small reef, and we snorkelled for an hour or so. It was so warm in the water and refreshing after being on the boat for several hours. As you can see I was wearing my tshirt in the water also as it was so hot! White boy like me is going to fry if I don't cover up!



We then headed over to a small island where we had Korean BBQ on the beach. As you can see there was no shade, so we were all covered up with clothes and even towels. On the island we had jet skis and a banana boat which I played around on for a while.
We then went to a place called 'Monkey island'. The group fed them a little, and then we all got back on the yachts and headed back to the mainland after a most amazing day.

This is the group team shot after we got off the yachts.

We got back to the hotel around 7pm, and all met at 8pm in the seafood buffet restaurant in the hotel. Lots of food, had a few beers, and though I was ready for bed, the playing must continue.
Though there are no photos, we then all had a two hour Thai massage. Now don't get any ideas ok! All the men were in one big room, and all the ladies in another big room. It was a great massage, and actually quite funny listening to the guys getting torn apart by 40kg Thai ladies!


The next morning four of us were up at 6am to leave for a morning game of golf! Unfortunately I do not have any shots, but it was a nice game of golf. The best thing about playing in Thailand is you have a caddy who helps with everything from finding your balls when you hit in the bushes (As I do!) to making sure you putt on the greens with local know how! The shot above is of the spa massage room in the hotel. About 10 of us decided to spend the afternoon having a full spa treatment for almost three hours. This was everything from massage, to facial, to foot massage, to spa baths. I left feeling out of this world.

The evening was spent going to a touristy Thai restaurant where we did have a nice dinner, and treated to a Thai show. Of course lots of beer was drunk. I sadly ended up having a quiet evening as came down with a migraine. I think the last two days of sun caught up with me. In any case the only thing I missed out on was three hours of Karaoke!

Oh, and this is a shot of a few of us outside the Thai Restaurant when we arrived.

And this is some of the food we ate in the Thai Restaurant for dinner.

Here are a couple of shots taken sadly on Saturday,the day we were leaving, at Jomtien Beach and Pattaya Beach! We had no time at the beach as we left the hotel at 11am on Saturday. I just had time to use the internet and a quick pedicure! LOL!

Not many shots of Saturday as we did a long bus trip back to Bangkok. We stopped at several tourist stops but landed ourselves at this unreal buffet house for our final dinner. It had so many choices, and really the food was excellent. Above are a few shots of the dinner.

After dinner we went to a department store for a 90 minute shopping spree, then headed to the airport. At the airport we had a few hours to duty free shop, so I stocked up on several bottles of alcohol for self and several others at work. Finally left Thailand at 12.30am for a long flight back to Seoul!

So there you have it. The trip. Nice shots yes! But of course too quick, and just not enough time to do so many other things we wanted to do. In any case I will not forget the trip for a long time.

Welcome Spring!

The weekend was amazing, not just because it was an enjoyable weekend, rather winter is gone and Spring has taken over. It was a beautiful sunny weekend, and finally did not have to wear a winter jacket. I sure hope this is not a tease!

Was not able to leave work on Friday until almost 8pm as we were so busy, therefore our evening was very relaxed at home on the couch watching a DVD of the first series of "24". What a great series. Clariza and I could watch it for hours, but we opt for a couple of episodes.

Anyway Saturday began as most Saturdays do for us with a fantastic sleep in followed by a great bacon and egg breakfast! Sensational! We then cleaned up around the house and around 1pm our friends came over for an hour whom we are cat sitting for. Did I ever mention this? We have had now for almost 4 weeks to lovely Siamese (spelling??) cats, named Miya, and Masai. We are not cat lovers by a long shot, but they are cool cats. Once our friends get a place to live then the cats are out.

In any case we all headed out down to the COEX Mall where we watched Brokeback Mountain at the Mega Plex.

Here are the boys! Heath Ledger (aussie aussie aussie) acts very well, but I got to say that the movie is just okay. The scenery in Wyoming & Texas is amazing, and the overall acting is good. Even the story line is somewhat interesting but it is toooooooooooo loooooong! Damm my ass was sore after sitting that long!? (No pun intended!) I just got irritated after a while and after finishing the movie realized that so many scenes just did not need to be in the film. (my expert opinion!!) But it really was a full on movie, and watching it in a cinema in Korea was kind of interesting. This country is very closed door to gays & lesbians, and suprised how many people were watching the movie. Good to see. This country has to open their eyes to the real world.

After the movie we walked around a little, had a coffee, then took a taxi to a Korean Restaurant called Samwon Garden. I have eaten at one of their locations last year with a guest in the hotel, and this time we all wanted to go and have a nice Korean meal.

It was quiet fun, but expensive and not enough! We are all not really into Korean food (besides BBQ) which is a shame as there is so much interesting food here. Our problem is we do not eat spicy food, so many of the small dishes that come with the meat we do not eat. Anyway our loss. So in any case we ordered beef kalbi, and beef bulgogi. It was extremely delicious, but not enough. Oh well, it was fun, and we drank a few beers. We left just as the rain started and headed back to the hotel.

At the hotel we decided on some wine and desserts! Great idea. We shared a couple of sampler desserts which were amazing, and I had a lovely dessert spumanti wine.

Finally home by 11pm after a great afternoon and evening.

Sunday was a lazy morning, nice lunch at home, followed by our regular subway ride to Hyewha. ( I spell it differant everytime) We went to the church for a while, then attended our Batangas Association Meeting afterwards at a Beer House. Great place to have a meeting! After the meeting we got stuck into a very large amount of fried chicken, and even more beer.

After too much beer and enough fried chicken to clog my arteries for a year, we got a taxi and headed home. 1030pm in bed after another fun weekend in Seoul!

Weekend is Over

This really was a weekend that I did not want to end. Wasnt like it was an amazing weekend or anything, it was just relaxing, and enjoyable.

Had a nice dinner Friday evening in Hakone Japanese Restaurant in the Hotel. Then headed back to our place with a few friends and drank a few beers!
Saturday morning was the usual sleep in until 1030am, and then I devoured my two eggs on toast with 4 pieces of bacon, and a cup of tea! Damm what a perfect way to start the weekend. We just lazed around the house all day, then had a fantastic dinner at Table 34 on top of the hotel. Table 34 is as close as you can get to fine dining, and the food is great. The prices .... well lets put it this way.. "it aint cheap"!! We ended up back at one of friends rooms, drank maybe a bit too much wine, and we walked home around 2am.

This morning I dragged myself out of bed around 1000am, with no headache. The same could not be said for Clariza who was suffering a lot more than me. Its ok, I made her a lovely breakfast! We left the house around 1pm for Hyewha where we went to church, did a little shopping, and of course hung out with our friends. We got back just in time for the first Grand Prix of the year which just finished. Alonso 1st, M Shuemaker 2nd, and Raikkonen 3rd. Our aussie man Webber had a very respectable race coming in 6th.

So thats the story of the weekend. No complaints, though it has got well below zero again today! Would winter please leave! 3 more days until Thailand!

Coffee Time

I know it has been a few days since I have blogged but work has been very busy, as well as we are currently cat sitting two of our friends cats until they get an apartment. Also I just dont have that much to say. Do have 6 days left until I head to Thailand for a work / relax trip with a few rounds of golf!

Anyway below is good story to read. (Thanks Chef!)

A group of alumni, highly established in their careers, got together to visit their old university lecturer. Conversation soon turned into complaints about stress in work and life.Offering his guests coffee, the lecturer went to the kitchen and returned with a large pot of coffee and an assortment of cups: porcelain, plastic, glass, some plain looking and some expensive and exquisite, telling them to help themselves to hot coffee.

When all the students had a cup of coffee in hand, the lecturer said: "If you noticed, all the nice looking, expensive cups were taken up, leaving behind the plain and cheap ones. While it is but normal for you to want only the best for yourselves, that is the source of your problems and stress.

What all of you really wanted was coffee, not the cup, but you consciously went for the better cups and are eyeing each other's cups.""Now, if Life is coffee, then the jobs, money and position in society are the cups. They are just tools to hold and contain Life, but the quality of Life doesn't change." "Sometimes, by concentrating only on the cup, we fail to enjoy the coffee in it."

So folks, don't let the cups drive you...enjoy the coffee instead.

Pasta & Beer Night

Well, Saturday's are always a great day to unwind, and yesterday was no exception. The day was extremely uneventful, hanging around the house, watching movies, eating, and playing on the Net.

We met up at 7.00pm at the hotel (InterCon), and had a great Italian Dinner at Cafe Esperesso. We were going to eat in Hakone, but it was full thanks to a 1000+ wedding that had overflow guests. Pasta as always was very good, the wine of the month was some South Australian wines, and the cheescake desert was to die for.

We then headed over to O'Kim's Brauhaus which is in the COEX Convention Centre. It is run by the Westin, and is always full in the evenings. Besides regular mixed drinks, though they didnt have Bacardi last night, their specialty is some awesome Home Brew! Three variaties of beers. Very nice beers. I tried all three. We were joined by two other friends and all of us enjoyed the eveninig downing drinks, and being entertained the Bulgarian six piece band. Sadly they emptied the place at 1130pm, and we headed back to the InterCon. Great night, and I dont even have a headache this morning. Got to go, where off to Hyewha.

The entrance to O'Kim's. Get there early as sometimes you have to wait for a table. We waited 10 minutes!

Love Long Weekends in Seoul

Well the long weekend has hit us and we are having a wonderful relaxing time. The weather is a little warmer, hovering above zero, but that made little differance through the day yesterday as we just lazed around the house watching the last 4 episodes of LOST, on the box set for the first season. We are loving it, and now we would do almost anything to be able to start watching Season 2. Where not holding our breath though, as it seems it is not showing in Korea.

Anyway, last night with met up with some friends, and hoaxed them into coming to one of our favourite downtown restaurants that we had mentioned before i think in September post. Dintaifung is an awesome modern Chinese dumpling restaurant with open kitchen, modern design, and pretty good service. We had a fantastic meal as expected, only 75,000 won for four big eaters, and our friends were very impressed. And he is the Executive Chef at the hotel! So glad that he and his lovely wife enjoyed it.
http://www.dintaifung.co.kr/

We then decided to chance a 15 minute walk to the Downtown Lotte Department store, where hiding in the basement is a huge Krispy Kreme. http://www.krispykreme.com/
The reason we were not sure if it would be open is it is the largest holidays in Korea, but thankfully as we peered around the last corner, lights were still on, and as always with a KrispyKreme, it was busy! So we devoured a few donuts, had a coffee, then decided to walk around the streets in this area where there were hundreds of the night street vendors selling everything from fake DVD's, fake Gucci watches, to little puppies for sale (they were real!) I think this particular area is called Myondong. (Sorry for the spelling) We then caught a taxi home and had a humurous 20 minutes with out taxi driving, trying to practice our Korean on directions. He was having a great time, I think, but then again, when you have a 6foot 10 inch chef sitting next to you, you should laugh at anything he says!

Well its Sunday, time to go to the Gym, have lunch at the hotel, then heading to a function in the afternoon. Speak soon!

Really Funny Movie on Sushi

Hi there,

The attached movies is via a blog I read sometimes, http://laowai.blogspot.com/, who actually got it from another blog - http://chaxiubao.typepad.com/chaxiubao/

Anyway it is quiet long, but very funny, and one guys to me is the Japanese version of Mr. Bean!
http://blogfiles.wfmu.org/BK/05/1211/japanese_tradition_sushi.mov


Its a long weekend, and Clariza and I are trying to watch the entire First Season of Lost, on a box set given by Dad for Christmas! Thanks! We are so far loving it, and forced ourselves to stop tonight or we would watch till the sun rises!

Night out with the Front Office Team

I used to consider myself a bit of the party type, but I tell you the Koreans love to party, no how to party, and always have the greatest time. Nobody gets punchy, just happy, and really enjoys themselves. This is some shots early in the evening at a Korean BBQ house. I cant show the photos from later in the night, cause boy, did those faces change. Enjoy.