Trip to Korea
9 September 1999
Our trip to Korea was part of the Korea Revisit Program sponsored by the Navy League of Korea. The league has been bringing Korean Veterans and their families to Korea for several years as a thank you for defending their county from North Korea in the early 1950's. Our host for the trip was Olympus Travel out of Los Angeles.
We departed Lake Bridgeport on the morning of 9 September and headed for DFW airport. We flew from DFW to Los Angeles on American Airlines. We arrived at the American Airline terminal at LAX and walked to the Bradley International Terminal and checked at the Korean Airlines desk. We proceeded to the waiting room reserved for Flight KE 018, which was scheduled to depart at 12:20 PM. We met several of the couples that were on the revisit program.
Our flight departed on schedule and we arrived at Kimpo International Airport on 10 September at 5:20 PM. Our host met us at the terminal and transferred us to the Toksan Novotel Hotel. We checked into the hotel, had dinner and retired for the night.
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On the morning of 11 September, we had breakfast in the hotel. We then met the rest of our party, which included seven other couples. There were folks from, Arizona, Florida, Nevada, California, Washington, Virginia, and Texas. Our tour guide was Ben Huh from Olympus Travel.
The entire day was spent touring Seoul, Korea. The morning started with the drive to center of Seoul to visit Insadong and Mamsan Mountain and the National Folklore Museum.
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At lunchtime we drove to a local restaurant. Our meal consisted of Ginseng Chicken Soup. A small whole chicken was stuffed with rice and cooked in a Ginseng broth. The soup was served in the pot in which it was cooked. We had a great time visiting while consumed the soup.
We loaded back on the bus and drove to the Kyong-Bok Palace. We toured the Palace, which consumed most of the afternoon. On the way back to the hotel we had a short stop in the Chong WA Dae Area. This area is where the President of Korea resides. We got a good look at the Blue House where the President lives. The guards were very lenient since we were Korean War Veterans. We returned to the hotel, had dinner and retired for the evening.
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This morning, 12 September, we were transferred to the Korean Folk Village. We spent most of the day on this tour. We had lunch at the Folk Village restaurant. We boarded the bus and drove to the Itaewon area for shopping. This is an area next to the 8th Army Headquarters that developed into a large street shopping area catering to military personnel. Peggy purchased several pieces of jewelry during our spree. Following this exhausting shopping spree, we returned to the hotel for dinner and retirement for the day.
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The morning of 13 September we drove to Inchon. We visited the Freedom Park and the Inchon Landing Memorial Hall, had lunch and drove back to Seoul. On the way we visited the Jeil Amethyst Factory and the Full Gospel Church. In the 1952 time period this area was the Seoul Airport (K-16) and was an island. Today the area is the Korean Financial District and the Nations Capital is located here. There is no sign of an airport. We returned to the hotel for dinner.
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This morning, 14 September, we boarded the bus and headed to the DMZ. We toured the DMZ, had lunch at the Imjinkak Restaurant and returned to the hotel.
We changed into our formal clothes, boarded the bus and drove to the 8th Army area. The U S Navy League entertained us with dinner and a medal ceremony.
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15 September. This morning we loaded our luggage on the bus and headed for Kimpo International Airport. Here we caught Flight KE 017 for our flight back to Los Angeles. From Los Angeles we flew American Airlines back to DFW arriving at 5:55Pm. From here we drove back to Beautiful Lake Bridgeport.
