summer vacation korea 2014

korean music playing in the backgroundwe're in insadong today. it's the cultural hub of seoul and we've come here to buy somesouvenirs to take back home. since it's our last weekend in korea!background music more background musicchildren laughing i'm ready for my free hug. you go claim yourfree hug. hahahahaaudrey's ready for her free hug hahaha...thank youif you're looking to try korean street food insadong is one of your best bets in the entirecountry, let alone seoul. korean men chanting and speakingbackground music playing

more music playingso we have some really cute korean socks. i think i'm going to get the couples pair.we could get once of these. background musicmore background music so what are we waiting for? we are waitingto get our couple caricature drawn and hopefully we'll be wearing traditional korean dresses.it's caricature unveiling time. the big reveal. ta-dah! that's us. awesome huh? hahaha...yes hey, sexy lady. opp opp opp. we're at the korean folk village today andwe're here to experience traditional korean culture. this is located in between suwonand yongin, which is in the gyeongi-do province

and behind me is something that looks likea smoking penis. we've been wanting to come here to the folkvillage for a few months now but we waited until the very end of fall. it is now thefirst week of november and as you can see the colors are now perfect. i have a clump of candy in my cheek. nice!we just bought some sticky rice taffy and it is all natural. it is very sweet. it iskind of like a chewy candy. the tightrope walker audrey. the magnificentaudrey. nice. we are now going to a scholars home - comesee. here in the scholars house we can see thedifferent kinds of hand weaving and the different

baskets on display along the wall. we've got some giant traditional pots usedfor drying red peppers and other things. other things? maybe kimchi. it is used for storingkimchi. what is this? that is a korean traditionaltoilet and it is a small hole in the ground. you better have good aim i'm telling you. what are you doing? it is dry corn it is notvery tasty. who is the workhorse in the relationship?clearly, i am. carry the load. carry the heavy load. fetch the water. i'm just going to walkaround. it is actually kind of heavy. we've been walking around for a few hoursnow and we've watched several performances

and visited the little shops. they sell lotsof souvenirs. you can buy local treats. it has been fun. behind me are korean totem poles. they aresomewhat similar to the ones that you can find in canada in north american and alsoin the us. the big difference here is that these area lot slimmer and the facial expressions are quite something. you can look. they look happy. that was our day at the korean folk village.we are done. is this how carpenters do it? okay, behind me is.

i am standing on a bridge and it says pleasedo not enter because this place is very slidy. look at the man sliding all over. it is eating you. owe. today we're going to visit one of our favoriteplaces, the cat cafe. meow! this one is in hongdae. yes it is. it's agreat place too. cats making noises.well someone is sure popular. i am. what are you feeding them? i'm giving them some chickenbreast. owe! feed me now! it's got sharp teeth. owethey're like hurry up, i'll take it from you.

so today we're at one of our favorite placesin seoul, it's called the cat cafe. it's located in hongdae which is a popular university area.and what the deal is about this place is you come here, you pay for your drinks and thenyou get the opportunity to roam around and pet with a whole bunch of different cats.as you can see there is one sleeping right against my jacket. oh, that's cute. cute kitty!and this little one was sleeping a second ago. prrrr!and here is a cute little kitty in a box. it's wearing a little taekwondo outfit.music playing he who has the chicken bits is the popularone. this is sam in his element playing with all of the cats. so popular!hello beautiful.

one of the reasons i really like this placeis because of the cat to person ratio. there is a lot of cats and just a few people.i like this place because it is really easy to find cats affection. even if you just goto the counter and get some chicken or beef jerky. and in an instant voila best friend.you're surrounded by like 10 cats, so it's great.and here is a wall of the different kitties you can meet. they all have names and backgroundinformation. your face is hilarious! i'm feeding a lionhere! and there is some kitties hanging out up tophere. hello! we're going to go try to feed the kitty thatis up top.

let's see if it wakes him up. there we go.hungry fella! kicking and rolling sound of the ball.this one is pre-occupied with my bag. what are you looking for?this one looks like my cat tommy back home. let's get a close up. tommy? hey tommy!this one has been here the whole time and now it is curled up and sleeping.today we're back at the cat cafe and as you can see. oh no!hahahahaha! there is a fight.oh my gosh! and what are we doing at the cat cafe?feeding them when they are not fighting. hahahaha!that's awesome.

meow. behave! behave little kitties.that's so mean. the other one was nice. i'm going to go feed him.we were just given some cat food on our hands and now my job is to get this off.how does my hair look? marvelous! we are at namdaemun market today. it is thelargest and oldest open air market in all of korea. we are going to show you the different kindsof foods you can buy in this alley. that looks pretty appetizing - what do youhave there? it sure does. well, we found some food on a stick here. they are different kindof battered food objects. if you want to take a look. we've got what appears to be a ricecake, kind of a lobster roll and as we go

down a bit we've got sort of like a hot dogor sausage thingamajig. this is our first snack of the day. it looks tasty - let's tryit! okay, i'm going to have the rice one. veryclassy! nice! alright, you're up. what are you going tohave? i'm going to take a bite out of the hot dog, so let's see. scarf it! that is nice and spicy. is it? this is reallygood. yeah. you'll have to try this one too. sexy undies. sexy undies. it is almost halloweenand as you can see we have a little pumpkins. look at what we've got up here. it's a spider! when i first met sam he agreed to wear oneof these for halloween. of course i did. oh,

yeah. how about right there. nice and pinkwhich is just my style. hotteok. alma-eh-oh. cheon won ee eh yo. so we have got a delicious treat called hotteok.it is a fried kind of sweet treat. inside it is filled with cinnamon, honey and sugarykind of goodness. you bite into it and it is really warm. it is perfect for the fallor winter. i will take the first bite here. oh yeah, that is good. we found ourselves a nice little back-alleyto enjoy. to feast on the hotteok. it is delicious. show us how it is done. it is hot. owe. oh,nice the gooey-ness. it is made of honey. it is called malt. ma l t. actually honey is liquid, right? with

boil this for one week and make it solid becausei have to show you my performance. that is corn flour. you make a hole like this. youstretch, stretch little by little. this is a scuba diver. this store right behind us sells some medicinalherbs including ginseng. in a bottle. in here we have some interesting korean stylemasks. they have various different exaggerated faces. one of them is happy. this one notso much. for those visiting seoul, the cheonggyecheon,this gorgeous little steam right in the heart of seoul. it is one of the nicest places togo walking. this stream did not exist a few years ago.it was made quite recently.

this is obviously a much nicer place in thesummer time. it is a lot greener and they have some festivals and art installationshappening. there are a lot more people as well. especially on a weekend on a hot summerday. it is packed! one of the nice things now is that we kind of have it to ourselves.look, there is just a few people walking by and that is it. and you are shaking it. off on the other side of the river we canhear some traditional korean music as well as the sound of stomping horses, which kindof helps us tell the story that they are showing on the ceramics. interrupting my pan. hello, handsome.

over here we've found an artificial ice sculptureand i'm guessing with the lights that are set-up around it must look really spectacularat night. here we have another ice sculpture - a frozenchristmas tree. today we are visiting the shin old tea housewhere we will be enjoying a cup of traditional tea. right now we find ourselves in a very cozylittle tea house. it is very cute. they have low dim lighting and tapestries and pillowson the ground, so we've ordered ourselves some nice fruity teas. this tea house is located just off of insadong,which is known as sort of the cultural hub

street of seoul. we've found this quaint littleplace. as we've placed our orders we have some delicious looking snacks. this lookslike rice cake and maybe another rice cake covered in honey with little cereal chunkson top maybe. let's try this. crunchy huh? okay. it is likepuffed rice - like rice popcorn maybe. it has like honey on the outside and it is verysweet and airy. here is the ginger tea and the masilcha is the plumtea. how is the plum tea? it is delicious. mine is so sweet it is almost like liquidhoney but it is not too overwhelming. it is really nice. there is plenty of flavor asidefrom it being sweet. what kind of tea did you get over there? igot ginger tea. the same thing - it is a nice

sweet tea with a really strong ginger flavor.it is just a perfect way to warm-up on a winter day. oh, yeah. i'm going to try one of these now. it is arice cake with a green swirl in it. i'm not sure what the green swirl is because i can'ttaste any difference. is it kind of plain tasting? it is just a regular rice cake. we're receiving heat from two different sources- an electric fan up above us and then we also have the ondul system on the floor. theheated floors by the heated pipes underneath. we're as toasty as you can get. i feel likei could take a nap in here. i probably could too.

getting off of insadong's main strip is areally good idea because it is usually in the back alleys where you can find traditionalrestaurants, traditional tea houses and just quieter places. it is much better value andalso has traditional homes as well which is the same as here. we are finished sadly our tea is gone. itis time to wrap things up and head back into insadong for a little shopping and maybe somecake. now we are at bauh house cafe near hapjeongstation where you can come and play with all kinds of dogs. how many friends do you have now? two so far.

the dog cafe is very similar to the cat cafe.you come in and order a drink basically and that allows you to stay as long as you want.drinks are a little bit more than normal but 'hey' you get to play with dogs. this one has beautiful eyelashes. look atyou. that one is so tiny. bring him here. this is my local kimbap restaurant. we areat my local kimbap restaurant. this is a place where i eat several times a week. sometimesseveral times a day. it is a very small space, a very quaint room and they have excellentfood. here is the menu here at the kimbap restaurant.as you can see a lot of things are between

2000 and 4000 won. this here is our banchan. we've got kimchi,some egg rolls (kyeran) and i'm entirely sure what this is. i can see my rice being prepared here froma distance. this is awesome. here comes my kimchi fried rice and soup. alright. here we are. we've got the chamchaejjigae, the spicy korean soup with tuna. over here is the kimchi fried rice which is typicallytopped with an fried egg on top. they brought us - they got it mixed up here. i'm havingthe rice and audrey is having the soup. is this what you order most of the time? oh,yeah.

this is my favorite meal - it is called chamchaejjigae. it is kind of like a tuna stew and it is very spicy. it has onions and a littlebit of tofu and some veggies. it also comes with a side of rice. it is quite healthy.it is a very filling meal and it is only a little bit over $4 usd, so i'm happy withthe price. the nice thing about restaurants in koreais that when you finish your side dishes you can always ask for more and it is all free.we've got two here to replenish. one of the reasons we like to come to thekimbap restaurant especially for me is that we do live a sort of a backpacking lifestyle.we like to save up for travel and by coming here we get to have delicious korean foodat a real cheap price.

what are you having today? i'm having kimchibokumbap, which is kimchi fried rice. it is also a spicy dish and it is my favorite wayto eat kimchi. i really like it when it is fried. i already know it is going to be good. today we are in the city of damyang and weare going to be visiting a bamboo park. you've made some new friends i see! i surehave. they have lots of very friendly pandas here at the bamboo forest. they look quitesnuggle-y. it looks like you've made some friends aswell? i just love hanging out with the ox. nice! so aside from cheesy inanimate objects, thereason we're here is actually for the bamboo

forest and the trees as you can see. korean couples have put their names on thebamboo tree with a cute little love heart. we've found our own peaceful little spot,so we're just going to relax for a little bit now. as you can see the koreans professing theirlove on the bamboo trees. come down! so did we! s loves a. it is 360 time. we're going to give you atour of the bamboo forest. bamboo forest 360! muah! look happy! tea, we're going to drink tea.

after a long journey we have finally arrivedat the boseong tea plantations and now we have to climb these steps in order to reachthe top. this is the steepest part of the climb andwe're almost near the top and they actually have ropes for you to climb up. we climbed all the way to the top. that iswhere we started. from the highway all of the way here. yes. we finished our hike so now it is time fora little treat. here in this little cafe you can get all things made with green tea, sowe are going for the green tea ice cream. of course we are! let's go get it.

no spoon! you're devouring it. i am. this stuff is delicious. you can really tastethe green tea flavor can't you? sometimes you get the green tea ice cream and you canbarely taste it but this is a nice strong flavor. the real stuff! let's get a closeup. shake your booty. cone? and there is going to be a performance here.i have no idea what it is but it should be awesome. they said please don't try this at home. today we are at gyeongbokgung palace in centralseoul and this is the best known of the five

grand palaces in the city. admission is only3000 won, which is less than $3 usd. as you can see you can also pose with theguards. now we are going to go check out the changingof the guard ceremony, which takes place at the front gate. the guards are dressed intraditional costumes. here were are in myeongdong probably the mostpopular shopping district in all of seoul. it is more of an upscale place. it is sortof a market type environment where everything is stores and upscale boutiques, clothingshops and expensive restaurants. swanky this and swanky that. come join me for a walk in myeong dong.

look at what we got here. nice! is it bigenough? take a bit of that. take a look at this. i think it is big enough to share. isthat the biggest ice cream you've ever had? yeah, that is really good. and here in myeongdong a little girl havingher caricature drawn. we have louis vitton and of course that isa store i can afford. one of my favorite stores in the world ismassive here in seoul - forever 21 and we are looking here for boots. insanity! one of the most popular areas in korea forstudents to come is a place called hongdae,

which is near a university called hongik universityand several other prominent universities in korea. what i'm going to show you now area series of time-lapses from different places in hongdae and you're going to get a senseof just how busy it is - how much hustle and bustle, how much shopping. enjoy! hey buddy! come here. we are exploring songtan today. it is an areaknown for lots of foreigners. there is an american military base over here. they havelots of foreign restaurants. we are checking out this area and if you wantto hook up you came to the right spot. should we go to the hook up club later on baby? perhaps.

songtan is full of restaurants that caterto foreigners so we are going to show you some of those. mexican.turkish. thai.japanese. brazilian.korean barbecue. english.chinese. indian and pakistani. we just found some very colorful wigs overhere. i am debating going for a blue bob cut. what do you think? would that look good? youshould get it. yeah. i'll buy it for you.

yeah, so i am on a quest for deodorant. howare you smelling right now? i'm okay but i could use some soon. and look at what we found - some deodorant.some we're not going to stink up the whole country now huh? we were a little ripped off i think. we paideight dollars for each of these. yeah, we were definitely ripped off. it just seemslike a bit much. it's the price to pay to smell good in korea. i guess. what do you got there? bracelet made in india.let's see it. we are visiting seoul tower and we will beclimbing namsan, which is south mountain in

the city of seoul. we've got quite the climb to get there. it is a beautiful fall day. the colors arelooking very bright and we are just getting ready to climb up namsan. the easiest way to get up the mountain isof course by cable car. we're going to hike it because we need the exercise. we're getting close to the tower and hereare some impressive views of the city of seoul down below us. after a long climb this is the object of ouraffection right behind us - seoul tower.

and if climbing the mountain wasn't enoughyou can even do more exercise. work it baby! where are we? we're here at namsan tower - seoultower! today we're visiting namsan tower now knowas seoul tower. it is still rolling. oh, car coming. bloopers. namsan cable car. ok, let's do thisfor real. am i on? yeah, of course i'm still filming.