The weekend!

We had a great first weekend here. It was sunny and warm (for spring). Saturday we walked down Teheran Street to the COEX Mall. But instead of going into the mall we walked around behind it to an old Bhuddist temple complex called Bongeunsa. It dates from the 8th century AD (according to the guidebook), but the oldest building there now was built 150 years ago. Here are photos of some of the things we saw there: a huge drum and bell; a really tall statue of Bhudda, hundreds of paper lanterns and amazing ornate old buildings set in the middle of a very modern city.

Outdoor (fake ice) skating rink at COEX, with odd IPark Building in the background. There are many stunningly designed buildings here.

We finished the afternoon off with ice cream from Baskin and Robbins. For real! Lili had cherry and Jin had chocolate box. It was expensive ($3.80 for a small cup) but good.

Sunday we went to the Zoo at Seoul Grand Park. What an experience! We haven't seen many kids around during the week, but a trip to the park and zoo is definitely a family event in Seoul, especially on such a nice spring day. There seemed to be thousands of people streaming out of the subway up the long broad walkway to the park entrance. There were food vendors along the way selling BBQ'd tteok sticks (cylindrical rice dough cakes), gimbap (Korean for california roll sushi), stir-fried larvae(!), some sort of small shell thingy (sold by the cup), BBQ'd squid and donut twists (just like Tim Hortons, but much better). I'd like to say we tried it all, but we passed on the larvae, shelly things and squid...this time. For about $3.50 we bought a couple of tteok sticks, a package of 20 small gimbaps and 4 donuts. A pretty affordable and tasty lunch! Here are photos of the vendors and the girls chowing down on some tteok (pronounced tdawk). Oh ya, if the street food was't to your liking, there is always the Colonel....

The Zoo is spread out in a valley on the south side of Seoul with generally large enclosures for most of the animals. We saw elephants, lions (Alex has a family), monkeys of all types, white rhinoceras, zebras (Marty and his friends), hippos (Gloria just laid around), cranes, penguins, flamingoes and lots more. We thought the coolest thing there were the giraffes. (who knew Melman could be so cool?!) They were feeding a baby one when we walked by. Here are a few of the critters we saw. (the references are to the movie Madagascar which is a current favourite of the girls)

Deb's favourite thing was an orchid festival that was being held in the botanical garden there. Very spectacular. Check out the photos...

The first place winner.

The girls put up with the orchids with a promise to visit the zoo playground. Here's Jin sliding out of an elephant's trunk!

We ended the day with a Domino's pizza back at the guesthouse. We ordered half pepperoni and half bulgoki (traditional Korean beef dish). The pepperoni was passable and the bulgoki was...well... let's just say we would have rather eaten the traditional bulgoki any day. And it cost $20!

Before bed people we know from Ottawa arrived at the guesthouse. They are here to receive their second son (their first son is with them). Small world, eh! We are looking forward to seeing their new arrival in the days to come!

Well that's it for now. All the best and thanks for the comments.

Love,

Jin, Lili, Deb and Derek