Korea Dusk til Dawn

Mr. Happy made the decision to attend a conference in Seoul recently and I was lucky enough to chaperone him!

I polled friends on what we should do, see and eat while we were there so I had a to do list I wanted to attack.

The tricky thing about South Korea is that almost everything is in Korean which can make it difficult to get around. We were in for an adventure.

We flew through the night and landed in Seoul at around 7am. By the time we got to the hotel it was 9. They told us we couldn't check in until 4!! So we left our suitcase and dragged our weary legs out to go sightseeing.

Luckily I heard about a Hop-on, Hop-off tour. It ended up being a great way for us to get our barings.

This guy called us over and demonstrated how he made an interesting confection called a 'court cake'.

It's called Kkul Tarea (honey skein) and it begins with a hard cake of ripened honey and malt.

 The more he works it, the softer the disk becomes.

He continues to fold it over on itself until it forms 16,000 threads suggesting the prayer for longevity, health, good fortune and wish-fulfillment.

He then fills it with either crushed peanuts or almonds. 

We bought the almond one. He suggested we eat it with tea.

We also hit up the N Seoul Tower and bought tickets to go to the top.

It was nice to see the lights at night, but be prepared to stand in line.
after line.
after line.

Our tour bus dropped us off at the base of the tower and after we finished we took the cable car down into Meyong Dyong.


By the time we finished sightseeing and eating dinner, it was 10:30!

The next day we decided to hit the Changdeokgung Palace.

And the Secret Garden.

There was no eating inside the palace gates and were there all day which meant we missed lunch. So we were hungry! They did sell drinks. We bought a hot coffee and it came in a can!

We took a walk through nearby Insadong which is full of art galleries and antique shops. On Saturdays there were loads of street vendors out selling food - a separate post.

That is where we met these nice information men who suggested a restaurant.

We tucked into some delicious beebimbop.

Then we headed back to our hotel. And collapsed.

Mixology

The good people of Cambridge and Oxford have offered another illuminating KL class. And this was right up my alley....mixology.

How to mix the perfect drink.

Seeing that the class was on the US holiday of Thanksgiving, they decided to create a menu of American drinks.  While I expected this to be a fruity cosmopolitan or perhaps a green apple martini, we had some hard core drinks of the bourbon, scotch, rye variety.

One of these drinks makes for a pretty stiff cocktail. Five of them. Fuggetaboutit.

The class took place a club called Celsius in a mall called Fahrenheit 88 off Bukit Bintang.

What really knocked me for a loop was the fact that my fellow classmates (and husband!) ordered extra drinks BETWEEN the cocktails. Obviously they are more serious than I when it comes to drinking. I stuck to water.

Following our drinks we took a vigorous turn on the dance floor and then went out for a late night Malaysia staple - Roti Canai. This is a bread dish typically served with dhal. However, the place we found spiced up their roti with...wait for it...Milo!!! If you don't know, Milo is chocolate. And what makes chocolate even better??? Cheese! Wait, what? Well, that's how the thinking goes after 5 glasses of bourbon and the Macarena. Mr. Happy also included a third ingredient to his - egg. I know, I know but I told you he was ordering drinks in-between his bourbon.  These were served with a sweet condensed milk dipping sauce. Magic. These were consumed too quickly to photo.

One anomaly I did photograph, however, was this beaut in the ladies' restroom. I'm at a loss. Please tell me, how does something like this happen???

Elton John

That's right.

Elton.

John.

I knew he was preforming in Malaysia, but the concert was $$$ and being performed in the Genting Highlands which is an hour by car (which I don't have) and by bike (which I do have) - let's see - slightly longer than not in this lifetime!

So it was quite unexpected when a friend called the afternoon of the concert to say she had an extra discounted ticket to Elton and she would happily give me a ride.

Um. Let me think ab- Yes!

To get to Genting you take a twisty road that ascends for miles into the mountains. It's much cooler than down in KL. The most difficult part of the night was navigating our way out of this crazy confusing, scary, and wet parking garage.

(If you can't make it out, we are parked in B5a F8 -- Seriously?)

But we are smart girls and we made it.

Elton played HARD for 2.5 hours with no breaks.

It was hit.

After hit.

After hit.

Classic.

Birthday Shenanigans

My birthday rolled around much too quickly this year. This year the Baker is living in Leeds, so I'd resigned myself to no cake. However, after a surprise birthday breakfast prepared by the renowned Chef Happy...this was delivered to my door.

Chocolate. Fudge. Brownie.

Here I am wishing with my whole heart that time would slow down a bit!

This year we were invited to a prestigious IFF event (Islamic Fashion Festival) the night of my birthday. The theme was 'A Touch of the Orient' for the evening. They'd decorated the ballroom to look like cherry blossom season.

The food was - fantastic. 

Some of the designs were inspired some were...a bit over the top. Dato' Tom Abang Saufi's designs were the best!!

It's funny going to a fashion show where the motto of the event is - modesty.

In fact, I struggled to find a dress with sleeves to wear.

Couldn't do it. I had to wear a scarf over my scandalous shoulders.

The next day, the celebrating continued with my favorite food - sushi!

Duri-Anna and Duri-Andy treated us to dinner at Ozeki on Jalan P. Ramlee.

The drink for the night - soju. A distilled Korean liquor. We'll be visiting Korea next week so this was important preparation.

We had a feast!

 Here I am eating an order of cartilage for the first time.

Mmm. Tastes just like knee!

The final feeding frenzy for my birthday was a group Dim Sum brunch on Sunday at the Concorde Hotel.

I love me some dim sum!!!

And I was treated to a special birthday balloon as it turned out this was a restaurant with dim sum and clowns!!

My sculpture was pretty time consuming.

 A line of angry children formed giving me the evil eye.

This bouquet smelled great!

"Did you go home after dim sum MerBear?"you might ask. "No!" my dear reader, "I did not!" This was when the drinking pool party began.

And then the serious drinking house party.

Which finally ended with a slightly tipsy recovery trip to Carl's Junior. 

What a (birth) day...and many more...!!