The Travel Bug Bites Again!

Following a short trip with a friend on business to Taiwan and Hong Kong, I visited Korea for the first time with my family. My mom has been nagging us to bring her to Seoul to pick strawberries for a long time, and as I told myself not to have unnecessary regrets in life, I decided to book with a tour agency for our very first trip there. I shan't bore you with details of the trip, but generally, it was quite a fun one, except for some disappointments, like the short time provided for shopping (we are talking about Seoul here!), and the missing of the final stop at their Supermart because a family was late for an hour resulting in us having to reach the airport directly in the end. The weather in May to Seoul is great, with slight winds, and cool temperature. The people in Korea hardly speaks English, not even the younger generation, which to me, was a little frustrating at first but somehow we got used to using sign languages and my brother's little translation machine on his iPhone. After all, the sign language used in shopping has always been international - with the help of calculator and a little nodding or shaking of the head! I'd love to visit Seoul again, this time a girls' trip to really shop, and not to the Everlands or the Lotte World. And certainty not Five Star Tours please, because their service really suck. To think a simple service like the provision of drinking water throughout the trip was not a standard feature (their reply was they are "looking into it"!). Boycott Five Stars!