Korean Holiday 2013 - Day Fifteen

Breakfast as usual. One woman went to put the metal tongs in the toaster to withdraw the toast whilst it was still on. There was, I assume, a French Canadian family, including a Korean wife, who were very loud. And a skinny Russian lad who pulled his chair out way too far to be considerate to others. I moved it uncomfortably out of my way, for him that is, when I had to pass and he was choosing more to eat.

I headed off to the Kukkiwon at five to nine and arrived by quarter past. It was one of the better signposted attractions but still not obvious so a bit of guesswork was required to locate it. The guy at the information desk spoke almost no English but I was allowed to view the gymnasium. There were some 200 black belts in attendance and only five of them were women. They were doing a referee training course. Not much happening so I went to the Kukkiwon museum, as the information guy had suggested, and poked around. Quite a few trophies and Olympic memorabilia on display. Back inside the gymnasium the black belts were about to receive a speech from an honoured guest so they were quite attentive. All done in Korean. After spending an hour at the world taekwondo headquarters the trainees broke up so I returned to the apartment. Would loved to have seen some training or a demonstration but it was not to be.

Road entrance to Kukkiwon

It is nicely decorated

Bigwigs' viewing lounge

Pay attention kiddies

Inside the museum

Looks like someone has been practicing their taekwondo on Australia

Looks like the Korean team from the 2000 Olympics autographed this hogu

Finished off most of the food we had and at 11:30 the reception called us to remind us that checkout was at 12. I thought it would be a good idea for us to leave a bit earlier as we didn't know how long the journey to the airport by subway would be.

Good thing I did. There was a good bit of luggage lugging to do and I had taken us towards Incheon instead of Incheon Airport. The missus noticed just before it was too late. Probably lost 30~45 minutes because we travelled further than necessary. Arrived 2 hrs 15 mins before our flight but had to return our rental phones, obtain credit from our subway cards, check-in (800g over for stowed baggage and 2kg over for hand luggage), go through security and immigration before the missus could do her duty free shopping which only left her with one hour before final boarding call and there was a transit train to take to get to our gate. Do I know how to save money or what?

We waited for her, after baulking at the expensive souvenirs, and forgot to buy lunch. When I spotted her in line for boarding she thought that we'd already boarded. Not much to say about the trip on the way back except at KLIA it still wasn't signposted properly where we were supposed to change flights and they didn't have enough people at the check-in. Very busy late at night.

The Boy will read at any opportunity

No parking rules in Korea

I rest my case