Japanory

Seoul Survivor

Friday 29^th August 2008

Tim's only in work for the morning so I took Rhiannon swimming, then headed back into the tunnel nearest the hotel to buy her a souvenir costume doll. I wasn't going to venture far today after yesterday's panic. Then we came up for air and went to Starbucks where we were to meet Tim at lunchtime.

Rhiannon's tooth fell out. Oh the drama! It wasn't quite ready but she bit down on it while eating a bun and there was blood everywhere. Flimsy paper napkins were pulled out en masse to plug the hole and stem the bleeding. Once that was over she was pleased as punch.

Tim took us to another shopping area. Namdaemun market. It was full of crappy stuff really and I wasn't interested.

So then we went to another place which boasted numerous jewellery shops – much nicer for me, but sadly we're not there to purchase jewellery. I need a new suitcase and the other side of the street is lined with bag shops. We choose a big red, semi-hard sided case and then have to wheel it around for a while until we can get a cab back to the hotel.

In the evening we went out with a load of people. I've been feeling a bit queasy ever since the rocky flight over, made worse by a possibly out of date prawn at dinner last night. I managed to survive the evening by drinking a little too much alcohol. But back at the hotel I spent the night with my head down the toilet. Tim gleefully explained to Rhiannon that this was the effect of me drinking too much but it wasn't. Honestly!

Back home tomorrow and I'm not looking forward to the flight. But I am looking forward to school starting next week. Two months is a very long time for a school holiday.

But boy, have we managed to have some fabulous times this year!

Lost Seoul

28^th August 2008

Rhiannon and I are on our own in a confusing new city. If I was travelling solo, I would be so nervous about it, but with the distraction of having a child in tow I fear getting completely lost. So we don't venture very far at all as it's a complicated city to navigate. I have maps and suggestions on where to go.

Tim told us about the "tunnel shops" that radiate under the streets and are close to the hotel. So we head there first. All the shops were closed but the windows were full of interesting little knick-knacks and jade. Also, many ginseng shops displaying intriguing concoctions of the root – and often the whole roots too. It seems that Asian countries open their stores late and then remain open late into the evening. There's little point heading out to shop before 11am.

These tunnels opened out into a shopping mall which contained lots of closed shops – we had set out too early in the day, so to stop Rhiannon Shopaholic whinging we went for a drink in a little café to kill some time before exploring further.

Later we found a massive department store called Lotte DFS (Duty Free Shopping). Most of it is a normal store, but the DFS bit has, of course, cheaper prices. Having shopped in a DFS before in Hawaii I thought it would just be a case of showing my passport and tootling off with my goodies. Not here though. I bought a Swatch for Rhiannon and a bag and wallet from Chanel but to my immense disappointment was told I had to collect my items from the airport when we left the country! So we went a little crazy in the rest of the non-duty free part of the shop so we could at least go back to the hotel with some presents to ourselves.

(I duly collected everything from the airport but didn't get chance to look at the things until we got home. Most unimpressed. Rhiannon's watch didn't work, and I'm damn sure my wallet was not the one I had chosen but couldn't prove it. My bag had a slightly dodgy twisted chain too. We sent Rhiannon's watch back and got a replacement some months later, but I was unable to get satisfaction from Chanel – I didn't want to send such an expensive bag by mail so learned to live with it. A warning to others buying from Lotte DFS in Seoul – caveat emptor – you have no way of knowing what they've given you until you are well away from the country.)

Time to return to the hotel to meet Tim. So it's back into the tunnels again, but I went in the wrong entrance and got lost. Rhiannon panics like hell over this kind of thing so I had to pretend I knew where I was going. After many random turns I finally found a tunnel I recognised from the shops we'd seen in the morning. Everything looked different as they were all now open with displays on the path outside.

To my great relief we found the hotel again.