Summer 2017 - Hawaii to Korea Trip

June 27, 2017 The three of us slept in and checked out of the hotel at 10am. We headed to Busan Station to reunite with the rest of the family who was due to arrive at 11:15am.  The purpose of visiting Busan was for Ben who grew up here in Chinatown and was  conveniently located  across the street from the train station. We made our way on foot and Ben quickly found his old elementary school. Back then, it was a Chinese school and the Chinese were segregated from the Koreans. He has memories of his classrooms and playing basketball on the playground. The school looked rundown but is still operating.  Up the hill, Ben showed us where his house used to be. Unfortunately it's been torn down. All that is left is a big hole and is blocked by tall walls. Looks like something new is going to replace it.  Once Ben was done reminiscing of his childhood, we walked back to the train station to catch the City Bus Tour. It's a hop on hop off bus that...

June 26, 2017 Russell, Matty, and I broke off from the group and headed to Busan a day earlier. We heard many great things about Busan and was advised that one day wasn't enough. We purchased ticket on the KTX at the Seoul Station and boarded the 11am train. It took 2 hrs, 40 minutes to arrive there.  Korea's public transportation is quite efficient and Russell commented on how smooth the ride was. Russell had booked a room at Busan Business Hotel in the Seomyeon area, known for great restaurants and nightlife.  It's a nice hotel but the amenities were lacking compared to the Pacific Hotel. After dropping off our overnight bags and planned our itinerary for the day, we headed to the subway station. Seomyeon Station is a major Station and centrally located to most attractions. With Jalgachi Fish Market as the destination, we proceeded to buy our tickets (one day passes) but was confused on where to catch it. We ended up helping another man from Kenya and had a great tim...

June 25, 2017 Another free day.  Russell and I called home to check on the boys and realized how much we miss them.  We found out that the family had all come down with the cold/flu. Mikey was better and went to spend the weekend with Uncle Moses. While Joey was at  Ong Ba's house,  in bed and feeling horrible.  On the bright side, they are all too sick to cause trouble for their grandparents.  Nicole loved Yoogane so much that she wanted to go back for lunch.  We ordered the kim chee fried rice as well. We were seated at the window where the gawkers including our own family watch us eat.  I don't think Nicole can get tired of shopping!  I accompanied her on another shopping spree before she left at 2pm to meet up with a girlfriend.  That girl has friends all our the world!  There was downtime so I thought it was an appropriate time for afternoon tea. We had picked up a couple slices of 20 layers crepe cake fr...

June 24, 2017 We said goodbye to Greg and his lady friend this morning. He is moving on to business in Germany while Wendy goes home.  Russell, Steven and I sat down for breakfast with them for one last time.  We congregated in Hollys Coffee next to the hotel's lobby. Today's a free day so that we can take it easy. Russell went with the gang to check out train tickets to Busan while I stayed back to do laundry. Laundry service inside and outside the hotel was outrageous so a bottle of detergent from 7 Eleven, the bathroom sink, and good old manual labor had to suffice.  Russell returned a few hours later with no luck in ticket purchases. He mumbled something about needing to do it on the computer first...yada yada yada.  It was lunchtime and I wanted to try something new. We went to Myeongdong shopping area and tried Yoogane. They specialize in dak-galbi (marinated chicken) and cooked at table side. Since there was four of us (Russell, Matty, Ni...