Start Up

06-May 2007

We arrived in Seoul yesterday at 6pm local time. We were over-loaded by 60kg but fortunately, the Filipinos manning the Korean Airlines desk took pity on us and gave us a fifty percent discount. The plane was delayed by around 30 minutes so we were all so tired. So it was a relief that the it didn't take long in the Korean immigration and that our driver who took us to the hotel was able to avoid the traffic (although it took more than an hour).

The full service apartment we are staying in, Fraser Suites, looks better on it's website than it actually is. The road going into the facility is narrow and the entrance looks more three star than five star, which the rates they charge implies. Our apartment itself is not that luxurious. It has two bedrooms, one bathroom, living room/dinnette, and a kitchen. Our bedroom has a king sized bed but the other bedroom is more like a study as there is just a sofa and a desk. It reminds me of our previous townhouse but at least we had two bathrooms and it did felt more spacious.

Our location, however, is excellent. The building is right beside Insadong Street, which has a lot of art and souvenir shops. On weekends, it is closed to vehicular traffic and throngs of people visit the place. There are also a lot of family owned restaurants which are reasonably priced. The place we had dinner last night mainly served pork cutlets (although Irma had a fish cutlet), ala Tonkatsu, the Japanese dish. They were quite delicious and we spent 15,000 Korean Won (KW), which is about PhP 750. Most of the other restaurants are similar, such that they specialize in a particular dish and they just offer different varieties in cooking.

We tried to do our groceries this morning. I say tried because the food and non food items we normally buy at supermarkets are sold separately and you may find them at giant department stores. The first one we went to, Shinsegae Department Store, is located in the Namdaemun shopping area and is very much like our Rustans in Manila. It, however, has a dozen floors. Food items are sold at the basement while non food items are sold at one of the upper floors. We were not able to go up because Paige felt weak and we had to rush back to the apartment. The fresh food are very expensive, with the beef and pork costing four times the cost in Manila. Surprisingly, they also offer a lot of semi-cooked food and these are similar in price to the fresh items. From what I read, Seoulites do not like to bother about preparing for meals so they would rather eat out (hence, the numerous restaurants) or if they eat in, they would buy semi-cooked food or take-out. We did the same thing by buying roasted chicken for lunch and bulgogi for dinner. Rice is also expensive; costing around three times compared to our best rice.

Our lesson, based on our first two days, is to stop comparing prices to Manila because these will always come out to be more expensive. I just hope we can fit into my living allowance!