Night 1 (21 Nov): Grand Arrival!
By the time we landed and arrived into Seoul proper, it was about 10pm, not much to do really but find that bibimbap we were all badly craving and could only visualise in our heads the entire journey from Taipei city to Seoul. The hotel receptionist @ the Sofitel Grand Ambassador Hotel was not the most helpful guide when it came to our food recommendation. He actually informed us that most eating places close around 10pm. OK, maybe for family diners, but Hello, we are in Seoul!!! We just came from Taipei, not Australia or Sweden as indicated by our passports! AS IF any Asian city with a population greater than 10 million people shuts their doors at exactly 10pm!! We persisted to ask and were finally told that Itaewon has food for ‘foreigners’, like a 24 hour McDonalds. We were not happy with that answer, but OK, since none of us had actually done any research for this trip, we took the cab to Itaewon in search for that glorious bimbimbap we KNEW we were going to have, and HAD to have.
Once we arrived at Itaewon, it was quite clear to us that this was the place that ‘foreigners’ hung out. Instead of feeling like we were walking down the main street of modern Seoul as depicted by MTV Asia video clips or Korean Idol dramas, it felt like we were in downtown Chicago (as Tien pointed out, I’ve never been to Chicago so couldn’t come to that conclusion) or at least some part of the USA. People on the streets were speaking American English, the cars on the road were revelling the latest American hip-hop tunes, not Korean pop! It was quite a surreal experience, especially for hungry travellers like us. We walked up and down the main road, to the side streets only to find ‘foreign’ food everywhere. Mind you, there really was quite a selection of foreign cuisines besides KFC or Maccas – German, Czech, French...some very nice restaurants but not what we were looking for. About 15 or 20 minutes of searching later, we found a Korean joint at a basement!! At last, local Korean food! There was the initial fear that it may have shut for the evening, but no, they did let us in! Did the menu have bibimbap? Yes it did!! Saved for the evening!
