Gary Does Korea (And Shanghai)

This all happened in September of 2010 i.e. a really long time ago.

A few months earlier (circa May-ish) I had been talking to my dad on Skype and he was complaining that he had vacation days he was going to lose because he didn’t have anywhere to go.  I squinted at him and slowly said, “You know you’re talking to your daughter… who lives in Asia, right?”  He paused a moment and then said, “Wait, like you mean I could come there?”  Yes, dad.  Good job keeping up, don’t hurt yourself.  We figured out a week when I had some vacation days and he bought tickets to Korea, then I bought tickets for us to travel to Shanghai during my time off work.

Cut to September, and the Chuseok vacation. 

Chuseok is kind of like Thanksgiving in America; a holiday during which people travel to spend time with their families and think about their ancestors.

He arrived on a Saturday afternoon, and we immediately went back to my apartment, dropped off his things, and headed to the air force base for Amanda’s birthday party.  When we got there everyone had already had a few (or more than a few) drinks, but dad just rolled with it, bought a few drinks for us and told a bunch of drinking stories.  It was fun and relaxed.

Monday I had work, and he came with me to meet my kids.  It was a normal day with my kindergarteners, who loved him.  The moment he came in they were crawling all over him, laughing at his jokes.  He stuck around for a while but then got a bit tired and bored, so he went off to read.  He came back to meet my older kids in the afternoon and got along well with them too.

On Tuesday we flew to Shanghai in the morning.  Dad had paid for the hotel room, so it wasn’t just a bunk with a “clean” sheet and pillow and a locker for my things.  It was a two-bedroom suite with an office space and artwork on the walls.  Artwork on the walls, guys.  And not like, Holiday Inn Express artwork.  Like, a step up from the Holiday Inn Express artwork.

We headed out to walk around the neighborhood right away.  There were a lot of restaurants and stores in the area.  We walked through the Shanghai French Concession and looked around for a while, then grabbed some lunch.

Over the next three days we adventured around the city, which doesn’t have as much traditional Chinese history as Beijing, but still has some interesting history.  We went to the Bundt, which is a span of the road along the edge of the Huangpu River.  The buildings were all built during the English occupation, with incredible architecture and art deco interiors.  


The view across the river was incredible, with the Shanghai skyline thrown into relief against the bright blue sky.  We could see the Oriental Pearl Tower across the way.  

We walked along the road looking at the skyline and the old British buildings across the street.  It was a great afternoon.

We went to some really good restaurants over the three days we were there, and ate some delicious food, which was great.

Honestly, this section on Shanghai is short and undetailed for two reasons.  One is that it was a long time ago and I’m having trouble remembering it.  And two is that it wasn’t very memorable because, in my opinion, Shanghai was one of the most skip-able places I’ve travelled.  Yes, there were some cool aspects, but none of it was so groundbreaking that it stuck out in my memory, or so unique that you couldn’t see something similar in another city.  If you have the money to travel to Shanghai, I’d recommend using it to travel somewhere else.

We went back to Korea on Thursday night because originally my company had said we had to work on Friday.  However they changed their minds and gave us Friday off, so my dad and I got to go on a few adventures before he had to leave on Sunday.  We went out to the air force base again with my friend Dawn and her boyfriend Adam who was also visiting.  We went to the 63 building, the tallest building on the opposite side of the Han, which had an amazing view of the Seoul skyline and great cocktails.  We went to a large temple in central Seoul, though I forget the name of it.  We saw a reenactment of the changing of the guards from ancient times, as well as a reenactment of an ancient ritual of some kind.  The temple itself was pretty cool and we saw the Blue House (Korea’s White House) at the back of the temple, across a street and toward the back of a guarded compound.  It was great having him visit.

Like I said before, this entry is short mostly because I can’t remember many details from a trip that happened so long ago and was, for the most part, uneventful.  I could ask my dad if he remembers anything else, but he’s downstairs and I’m lazy.  And also his memory is no better than mine.

Update: I just remembered that we went to the World's Fair while we were in Shanghai, which was why my dad wanted to go there in the first place.  It was pretty cool, and some of the pavilions were amazing.  For the most part, though, it was just a lot of long lines without a whole lot of payoff.  I'm glad we went, but it's not a must-do by any means (obviously, as I had forgotten that we'd even done it in the first place).