A long layover

Well, we've finally made it to Thailand after our unexpectedly extended prequel trip(s). It turns out that Fiji is only a good connection if you're going to Australia or New Zealand, so we ended up spending 18 hours in the air with an overnight layover in Seoul before arriving here in Chiang Mai. However, our brief stay in South Korea made the convoluted itinerary worthwhile. Brooke had dealt with the logistics of getting into the city and had rented a room at a small hotel within walking distance of the train station. Coming out of our relative isolation in Fiji, the newsclips of various misilles leaving silos quickly brougt us back to reality. While the launch video's meaning seemed pretty apparent, footage of an angry Trump would have required some Korean to actually understand. The presentation implied that both clips were meant to play on similar emotions. Definitely a change from Fiji :)

Brooke had gotten us a room at the K Seoul Guesthouse. We got off on the right foot immediatley. The room was small, but well put together, with a private bathroom and enough blankets to not need the heater despite the 35 degree temperature. The owners son, named Yale, walked us a few blocks away to a Korean BBQ place, where he ordered for us and put in a special request for the waitress to help us out. As soon as he left, amateur hour opened up. The staff brought out a broad cast iron pan, with an attractive display of raw pork, beef, mushrooms, and garlic. I tried to cut the meat before putting it on the grill - apparently the incorrect order or operations - so the waitress smoothly took over the most basic task of putting the meat on the grill. Brooke and I sat back to watch the food cook, and just kept sitting. Meat doesn't cook any slower in Korea than it does in the US, and we knew that some type of utensil would be needed. Fortunately, Brooke found the chopsticks tucked neatly in a drawer under the table in time, and then promptly doled out a single chopstick to each of us. The rest of dinner went smoothly enough after picking up a second set of chopsticks, with kimchi and various flavorful leaves and sauces rouding out the meal. All this ended up costing a little less than 40,000 Korean won, or about 35 dollars. While more than we'll hopefully be spending in Thailand, we both thought it was a great way get a feel for South Korea in a short amount of time. We took the long route home, using a large pedestrian walkway to check out some of Seoul's 700 year old city wall, where we saw a couple great bonsai tree displays, and wondered why all the security guards were dressed like cowboys.

The next day's early start was made easier by the fact that we were still two hours ahead on Fiji time, we exhausted the remaining supply of Korea Air's movies (Starwars and Braveheart), continued our slide towards budget accomodations by checking in at our clean but shared bath guesthouse in Chiang Mai, and hit the sack.