Travel to Seoul Part-1: Korean dishes, ordered japanese way!

I am off blogging away. This blog is actually about my trip to Seoul in 2006 – from November to early December.
I remember many things about Seoul some of them made a fleeting impression on my mind while others made more lasting impressions.
Whenever I travel, the new place starts making impression on me right from the moment I land there and take in the sight of the Airport.
Seoul Airport appeared distant,dry and despondent(come to think of it, can places actually appear despondent or cheerful for that matter? For me, the places never fail to make an impression). Maybe it was the fact that Fall made everything look gloomy but that thought did not help me cheer up.To be frank, even the people were aloof – but more about people later.Well, after due immigration checks and travel-to-hotel, I had a hot shower and then set out to explore the hotel’s neighborhood looking for nice, hot dinner.
It was about 9:30 in the night and was decidedly chilly. The fact that I was on the road in an area where tall, densely spaced skyscrapers were present helped only little to take out the bitting cold out of the wind.
I did not have to go very far and soon I came upon a decent looking Korean restaurant. Of course, I can not read Hangul i.e. the Korean script but it was a well lit with proprietress fleeting about serving customers (though there were only couple of other groups – owing to lateness of the dinner time) and had a neat look about it.
So I went in. The warmth was very welcoming.
The waitress came to take my order and I was getting slightly worried about how should I ask and talk with her.
I don’t know what made me try and ask the question about menu in Japanese but to my pleasant surprise she replied in affirmative !
I ordered Bimipa (that’s large serving of cooked rice, soft boiled vegetables, fried fish eggs – all mixed and served in hot stone pot) and Beer. With it came assortment of Kimchees and salads.
The dinner was very fulfilling and I soon polished off the whole pot full of rice as well as most of the kimchee. Though I found the beer,( which was a local brew ) disappointing, with stomach full with good food, I let it pass.
I strolled back to the hotel, stopping on way to pick up a coke from convenience store (emboldened by my luck and firm in my belief that all Koreans speak Japanese – I tried to chat with this store-owner in Japanese but he seemed to be one of those Koreans who couldn’t speak Japanese :D. As I was to find out later, it was only that waitress who could speak Japanese)
The soft and warm bed in the hotel room was inviting and before long I was asleep – tired from the long journey.
The next day, I was supposed to wake up and catch a bus to travel out of Seoul. But More about that in the next installment