Samcheong-dong

To our surprise, we are still finding neighborhoods of Seoul we have yet to explore. The area we explored this past weekend is called Samcheong-dong. Without a doubt this is by far my favorite area of Seoul. It doesn't resemble the rest of Seoul in the slightest. The streets are smaller, full of independent coffee shops, restaurants, and clothing stores. It is considered the luxury area of Seoul, which is easy to see why with all of the Mercedes, BMWs, Lexus, and Volkswagen cars driving around. We've been told that getting a foreign car into Korea is extremely expensive, hence the reason 99% of cars on the road are Hongdae or Kia.



Even though we didn't shop, walking around, enjoying the flowers and people watching was enjoyable enough. We ate lunch at a restaurant that served Singaporean food, which consisted of fried noodles (somewhat similar to Phad Thai) and spring rolls. It was tasty and relatively cheap compared to the other restaurants in the area. After eating lunch we got a coffee at a place called "The Coffee Factory." Ian enjoyed an iced milk tea latte, whereas I got an iced green tea latte. For some reason regular coffee lattes in Korea are rather strong, so we often order different drink options. The coffee shop was in a great area of people watching, so we sat and enjoyed our drinks while watching the young Seoulites.



We ended the day with making our way to the Yongsan Electronics Market. We bought the 3rd season of Sopranos and the 1st season of Entourage for a cheap 12,000 Won, which is around $10! Those purchases would have easily cost us $40 in the states.



I hope everyone is getting as good of weather as we are in Seoul!

Boracay

We finally took our week vacation and might I say it was wonderful! Since we only had a week we decided it would be best to choose one area and to stay there the entire time. After weeks of contemplation, we decided to take a beach vacation to Boracay, Philippines.


Getting to Boracay was no easy task. Our first flight was from Seoul to Beijing. We then had to stay in the Beijing airport for about 6 hours waiting for our flight to Manila. We eventually made it to Manila around 1 am. Unfortunately, our flight to Boracay didn't leave until 6:30 am. Not sure if the airport would let us check in that early, we decided it was worth the attempt. To our surprise, the Manila Domestic airport was packed with people. Literally, we have never seen so many people at an airport so early in the morning. For some reason Filipinos choose 3 am as the average departing time when traveling. The airport also had several eateries and convenience stores, so we were definitely able to keep ourselves occupied for the four hour wait.



In order to actually get to the island of Boracay, you first fly to the city of Cataclan and then take a boat to Boracay. Fortunately, our hotel had set up a pick up service for us. So getting from the airport to the boat and then finally to our hotel was very easy. Once we arrived to our hotel we collapsed with exhaustion!


After a short afternoon nap we decided to check out the main beach, called White Beach. White Beach is about a mile and a half long of unbelievably soft sand. The water is the clearest I've ever seen and is the color of breathtaking turquoise. So, after a quick lunch we immediately jumped into the warm waters of Boracay! Very few things get better than swimming in some of the clearest and warmest water in the world.


Within that week we enjoyed a few different beaches on the island, took a snorkeling and boat tour around the island, and enjoyed the cable t.v. in the hotel!


Towards the end of the trip Ian and I got a stomach bug either from something we ate or water, which caused us to spend a little more time in the hotel then expected, but we were just happy to be taking a break from CDI. Fortunately, our trip to Boracay gave us the rest we needed to finish our last 10 weeks at CDI and in Seoul.