Guri Tower, Lantern festival and "Return"

Yes this week I got out and about to work of that pot belly I had been nurturing over the past few weeks eating at all those fantastic places... Well I don't really have a pot belly to get rid of but anyway.

So after months of promising that I would go to Guri tower I was lucky enough to be taken there. At 100m tall its not huge but it still looks impressive and especially at night when it is all lit up.

So of course it has a revolving restaurant inside with wonderful comfortable seating and great views of the surrounding cities.

The mains this time consisted of a Carbonara and fish and potatoes and rice. It was lovely and with a free coffee and tea at the end of the meal who could complain. There were live performances throughout the meal so if you wanted a quiet dinner... well you would be better off going somewhere else.

16,000 per main was very good but you could choose the steaks and chicken and be looking at the 30,000 - 40,000 range.

Over all very entertaining and just a fantastic way to spend a weekday evening.

On to Saturday I met my friend and we had lunch at Techno Mart Gangbyeun station where i took these photos of the city.

We then headed off to Seoul to look at the International Lantern Festival that is currently being held there. Thousands of people were there to see lanterns from all over the world; even New Zealand was represented.

You can check out more of the lanterns in the photo dump linked at the end of this post.

From here we went on to see "Return". A theatrical B-Boy dance performance featuring the Gorilla Crew. The performance was not just restricted to the general B-Boy or Popping dance which you may expect. There were some truly masterful displays of highly choreographed dance that were really impressive and going well beyond expectations.

The 90 minute performance was breath taking in parts and some of the displays of physical conditioning to be able to slow motion classic B-Boy moves was impressive to say the least. So if you are into this kind of thing I would suggest heading along to Kaya Art Theatre Chungjeongo Station Exit 7 and have yourself a good night of entertainment.

Here is a photos (yes taking photos is permitted but video is not... as I found out) and a short video of the performance.

As promised here is the photo dump:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/54304440@N04/sets/72157625380698664/show

Well it seems that this is it for another week. I'm hoping this wee will bring some more fun and excitement and I am sure it will.

More Restaurants?!

Another week done and just about to start another one which will be a mystery as to what is going to happen...

This week was a nice quiet one with a few more restaurant trips to report on.

The first visit was to Restaurant Iami somewhere just outside of Deokso (I will have to get the details later as a quick internet search has turned up nothing).

Tuesday night pasta in a 2 storied restaurant overlooking the river. The place had a really unique feel to it as the levels were split in the middle of the building, so you entered on the top floor and walked down some stairs to the lower level and back up to the top level. We were seated on the lower level, each table had couches as seats, red on the top floor and beige on the lower level. The pasta was excellent, probably the best I have had and the largest quantity. The price was still up there being 27,000 won for tea and a pasta but overall it was a plesant experience.

Thursday night was a dinner at HoMyeonDang http://www.homyeondang.com/

A nice place very clean, modern and spacious. The food was good and at the 13,000 + range for a main. I had the pad thai and my friend the fried rice. A lot of these places seem to have valet parking and at 2,000 it is an affordable convenience.

I finally went to Itaewon to get a leather jacket (which I will post a picture of next week, if I remember). But first we had lunch at Between on the main street of Itaewon.

http://www.seoulgrid.com/blog/between-itaewon-tapas/

I had the soup of the day and a hamburger. The staff were friendly and of course could speak English. They were also very quick to refill your glass for you. The meal was very good. The décor was modern and tidy but some areas were a little dirty and not maintained which was a little let down to a great place.

These 2 meals came to 38,500 won so again around the mid to late "teens" 15,000 - 17,000 + for a standard meal.

So yes I need to do something more than eating :)

Anyway here is a clip to keep you entertained (notice the Korean subtitles in the video) :)

Happy Birthday!!!1

Wow! Another memorable week! Last week was excellent this week was fantastic ;)

So I will Start with Tuesday night and a visit to a lovely restaurant in the most expensive part of Seoul (Details in the link below).

http://hiexpat.com/seoul-restaurants/by-food-genres/french/il-mio-sogno

The place had a fantastic atmosphere with candles lighting the dinner and some soft mood music. The courses were impressive and delicious. I did dread the octopus? But even that was delicious. The meal was truly fantastic with the highlights being the carbonara pasta and the tenderloin steak which was cooked rare to perfection. The price was very reasonable at 45,000 won per person (plus tax) so it ended up being 99,000 won.

Again I had my hand phone so the quality of the pictures is not great:

Wednesday was my birthday! What a great day it turned out to be with my best friend :) making me a wonderful meal of battered chicken salad and carbonara pasta! She also brought me a lovely birthday cake and a surprise present!

So I was very happy as you can imagine!

On to Thursday and another meal out this time at PhoMein: http://phomein.com/

This is Vietnamese Cuisine and is a little less formal than some of the restaurants I have been to previously. It has a very stylish décor, clean and well presented. The food is fantastic and the prices are very good. For a standard dish you are looking to pay around 11,000/13,000 + won.

This is really good value for money.

Saturday I was lucky enough to be taken to the final performance of Rock of Ages. Which was fantastic. It was also a little strange to hear all those old 80's rock tunes sung in Korean...

But it was a great performance and in the end the lead came over put his arm on my shoulder and sang behind me as it seems I was the only foreigner in the whole place :)

After the show we went to another restaurant. We were planning to go to TGIF but in Korea there are lines of people waiting to get into these places! So we went to Sala Thai (Jamsil).

http://www.seoulrestaurantreviews.com/2010/07/sala-thai.html

We did however still had to wait 7 to 10 minutes for a seat but that was far shorter than 30 - 40 minutes at other restaurants. The food again was fantastic, the pad thai was spot on however probably not as much chicken as you would expect to see in a similar dish in New Zealand. The place didn't feel overly cramped but you definitely knew there were people seated around you but floor space and high turnover of customers would be a high priority in Lotte Castle (building).

I must mention my new shoes which I purchased in Dongdaemun last weekend at an exorbitant price of 120,000 won :)

I have been wearing them all weekend and they are the most comfortable shoes I have worn.

So here ends another week. Next week has already been drafted out so I will be looking forward to some more excitement!

So I might leave you with a favourite piano song of mine and of course a Kpop track!

Taekwondo & Lotte World Hotel Chinese Restaurant

So another spectacular week in Korea. One I will not forget!

So last week I forgot which park I went to. So it was Seoul Forest and here is the link if you are interested in going:

http://www.seoulforest.or.kr/index.php

I have been to so many nice restaurants lately I have decided to post a bit more information about where i am eating these days.

This week was a fine dining experience at Toh Lim Chinese Restaurant in the Lotte World Hotel.

This was a private dining experience meaning that we had our own dining room overlooking Lotte World and Jamsil skyline. It was a delicious 6 course meal with appetiser and desert.

The room was spacious and spotless with a dining table and a seated lounge area by the window for a moment of relaxation after a pleasant meal. The courses were served to precision by the staff and everything was perfectly delicious even the sea slug. Although the courses looked small by the end I was feeling pretty full and content. Lovely music was also present being played softly in the background. At the end of the meal there was no pressure for you to leave and there was plenty of time to enjoy the view.

The experience will set you back 74,000 won per person but if you appreciate a good night out (perhaps even "high rolling" a bit) then I highly recommend this as a place to spend a nice evening.

I took some pictures with my "hand phone" or cell phone so they are not the best quality:

The link of course to Lotte World Hotel:

http://www.agoda.com/asia/south_korea/seoul/lotte_hotel_world_hotel.html

If you are not too keen on the high rolling thing but would like to enjoy a good pasta or a pizza and are in the Hungdae or Hongik University area i would suggest Pavarotti. As best as I can recall (correct me if I am wrong although I am 98% positive) take the subway to Hong Ik University (just after Sinchon) and get out at exit 4 take an immediate right down the first street and look to your left and there it is.

A relatively cheap pasta and pizza await you starting from around 10,000 won for pasta and about 14,000 won for a pizza. The place has a nice atmosphere and the staff there do take pride in their service.

Saturday was all about Taekwondo... well the morning was anyway. One of the students (Nicole) from the Taekwondo class I attend was having her black belt test that day so we all turned up to support her. I was amazed at how quickly things were being actioned. First was the Poomsae (similar to a Karate Kata) and then sparring and its all over. Nothing like my Kempo black belt grading which spanned over 1 Friday and 2 Saturdays.

So here are the boys and girls of Dongin Takwondo:

I also have a small compilation of the later in the morning sparring which was a little more exciting than the early morning stuff:

I will have to get permission to show Nicole's sparring before I can post it so maybe next week...?

Well another update done. No photo slide show this week (yeah I was surprised too!). I have no idea what will be the next update so I am anticipating the excitement ahead this week as much as you may be :)

I will however leave you with this clip which has me excited and motivated as ever:

Jamsil Park and Kpop Dancing

This weekend was fairly relaxed with a trip to a park near Jamsil... yes I don't know the name of the park... But I will do my best to find out later on.

It was a very large park with kids playgrounds, cycling tracks, playing fields, a lake with fish and ducks and just a lovely place for a casual walk a sit and a talk.

I have also been fortunate enough to have the opportunity of visiting many fine restaurants and will probably have to begin evaluating them in the future. This one was just outside Deokso, a little Italian restaurant where at the time we were the only customers!

We ordered some delicious pasta at about 28,000 won a dish and had a quiet meal accompanied by some soft classical music. There was a cafe upstairs as part of the restaurant over looking the river. There was some construction outside as it appears that they are putting in a stone path and some features so that patrons can enjoy a walk near the river after a meal.

On my way home I stumbled upon this not far from where I live:

Quite fortunate really as I have wanted to see one of these events for some time. So check out a couple of the acts.

Here is this weeks photo dump:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/54304440@N04/sets/72157625180846090/show

Stay tuned next week for some Tae Kwon Do action!

Here is a bonus K pop vid for you all to enjoy :)