Let the adventures begin...

My journey to Southeast Asia began with a 14 hour non stop flight to South Korea's Incheon airport which I somehow managed to stay awake by watching non stop movies.  It's my trick for avoiding jet lag and actually works!  After arriving in Incheon, my mom and I took a 45 minute bus ride to my family's house in Seongnam. 


According to Wikipedia, Seongnam is the second largest city in South Korea's Gyeonggi Province after Suwon and the 10th largest city in the country. Its population is approximately one million. Seongnam is a satellite city of Seoul. It is largely a residential city located immediately southeast of Seoul and belongs to the Seoul National Capital Area.
Despite the language and cultural differences (my native language is English) Seongnam and Seoul always whispers to me, "welcome back".   My family is always a pleasure to see and manages to fill every minute of my day with activities.  During this visit, eating is a big part of my trip.  Feeding my inner fat girl is always a top priority and apparently a priority for my family as well.  Every morning consisted of a typical Korean breakfast (rice, assorted veggies, kimchi, fish and/or a dish with meat (in this case both)). 

Breakfast

I'm such a lucky girl that my cousin owns a sushi restaurant that serves a fusion of Japanese sushi with Korean flare.  The amount of food consumed is unbelievable.   Nothing goes to waste, all the left over sushi is put in to a stew for us to take home.  Of course, let me not forget, Soju, the ever accompanying drink of choice for evening meals.

 Front of the restaurant.

The spread. 

The drink.

I even managed to try a few new dishes.  I must say chicken feet, blood sausage stuff with noodles and toad fish stew is a first for me.  

We went camping for three days.  My mom is hilarious. She is not a camper for sure. 90% of the time she was sitting with her feet in the water trying to stay cool. She hates the heat and complained about it non stop! Why this is all so very hilarious is because we weren't roughing it at all, we even had electricity at the camp site.  

Campsite.

The rest of my visit included a trip to Hwaseong Fotress in Suwon and tons of laughs with my young cousins. 

My younger cousins had a blast and even talked me into trying my hand at archery. I actually managed to get 2 of the arrows on the target!  Yay, me! 

Archery Field

Cousins enjoying ice cream!

My visit with family was a great start to my new adventures in Southeast Asia.  On to the next leg...