quick recap on seoul

I am now in Taiwan and have lots to write about, but let me recap Seoul quickly -

Seouls is like New York City, but a clean amazing metropolis.

This past Sunday I woke up at 7am so I could take a tour of the DMZ which was leaving @ 815am from my hotel. I did not really know what to expect. It is as the name suggests a demilitarized zone that has existed since the ceasefire of the Korean war. The war is not actually over. Its a sad situation where families have not seen each other in more than 50 years. South Korea has so much optimism about the reunification of their country. I saw the last train station on the South Korean side that would connect up to railways that would allow access to Europe, Russia and Siberia.


The DMZ tour got me back by 1:45pm to Seoul and dropped me off at some palaces. Beautiful architecture, Korean National Folk Museum, spent the rest of the afternoon there walking around. Subway back to my hotel. $1.20 US, super clean, efficient, smooth ride. Best subway I have been on around the world so far.

Ate some sushi in the hotel, interesting and weird. Hijoru - warm sake with dried fish tale of blowfish lit on fire. Fishy and sickly sweet, I got it down.

Monday was work in Yahoo! Korea office. Met all the ops folks, reviewed services and tools had a good day and then we went to some hotel because it was the 10th anniversary of Yahoo! Korea. This was a crazy party, Koreans love to party, no dancing or anything, but fun games, trivia, everyone pouring drinks for other people as is the custom, wave toasts, sort of like a wave at a concert, but with a toast. Sue Decker, president of Yahoo!, was in town for ths event, gave a great speech.

Thats it for Seoul. Had to be at airport for 5:30pm flight the next day, woke up late, missed buffet breakfast but had ala carte, checked out at noon, caught 12:35 shuttle to airport, checked in @ 2:30pm and worked from the Singapore Air lounge until 5pm, had some snacks and drinks and caught my flight thai air to Taipei... not as nice as Singapore air biz class, but still food and drinks and more space than economy. Into Taipei, no issues with customs, caught car from airport to hotel and settled in, missed dinner at all the restaurants but went to lounge and had wonton soup and a giant beer.

Up too late, got 6hours sleep. Sandy Pan met me in lobby @ 9am to take me to the office. I had 13 minutes before she picked me up to eat breakfast. Good day in the office, filled up a good 3 hours with knowledge transfer on lots of topics. I will get a good night sleep tonight and make my own way into the office at my convenience.

More on Shih-lin night market where I was at this evening to come.