We meet at 9:00. The group decides that the Gees, Ngs and Lisa are going to Costco and the rest to the War Museum. 
Three of us load the K ride app to arrange for transport to the airport to go to Jeju Island tomorrow. Despite sleeping 8 hours I feel tired and have a scratchy cough. I don a mask. Martinez and the Louies have COVID tests so I’ll test myself at the end of the day. Our group go to Namdaemum market street.
The Louies have returned to buy ginseng for Leland. 
The young man they talked to last night gives them a lower price than the quote from last night, explaining “my boss isn’t here this morning, so I can be more generous “. 
After bubble wrapping the jarred ginseng, he places it in a fancy zippered bag.
He throws in a complimentary bag of snacks. He offers a ginseng squeeze stick to Franc. 
If you're a Kdrama fan like Teddy, you'll notice the stars sucking on little tubes. Now we know what they are, red ginseng extract to give you daily supplement for energy and health. "Teddy, you gotta to drink one and be like a Kstar" urges Janet. 
“What do you think?” Janet asks because the ginseng root she tried last night was not palatable. “Not bad, it’s like molasses” Teddy says. “It reminds me of the Chinese soup we had to drink when we were under the weather”.
Franc picks up a hat for the sunny day. 
The War Museum is an absolutely gorgeous memorial to honor the fallen Korean war heroes. It is the largest museum of its kind in the world. 
The grounds, water feature and the monuments are beautiful.
Two tall monuments are especially awesome in scope and height; the Korean War Monument and the Bell of Peace. 
Korean War Monument
A poignant monument of "The Divided Brothers of the Korean War" depicts brothers, one a South Korean soldier and the other a North Korean soldier reuniting in a heartrending embrace atop a split dome.
Divided Brothers of the Korean War
Inside the dome are artistic murals depicting the war and beautiful stained glass above the split entrance.
Flags representing UN countries that offered aid to South Korea fly in front of the museum. 
A shallow "lake" has stepping slabs which offers an alternate path to access the museum. 
To the side of the museum is a life-size replica of a vessel that fought off two North Korean patrol boats. I have never seen so many weapons, war vehicles, war vessels and planes as I did in the open air exhibit. There are at least 100 pieces. 
A right and left gallery features marble slabs with the names of the fallen soldiers from the Korean and Vietnam Wars as well as police officers who died while in duty.
The United Nations came to South Korea’s aid in its fight against North Korea. Inscribed on the walls leading into the building are the names of the fallen. US casualties numbered 36,000. Mike’s uncle Park served in the Korean War. After visiting the DMZ and the War Museum we are a little bit more knowledgeable about Korean history. Our tour guide from yesterday, Katie, spoke fervently of the hope for reunification. She said that in its 700,000 year history, Korea has only been divided for 70 years. There is such a stark contrast between the prosperous democratic South Korean country and the impoverished and starving North Korean populace. There is no admission charge for this fantastic museum. There are three upper floors of exhibits inside. You first walk into a dark plaza where there is an artificial waterfall. It leads to a large room where there is a replica of a "turtle boat" from the Joseon era.
There are seven halls and we only had time to go through a few of them.
Most of us didn't even have time to go to the second and third floor. There were plenty of area for visitors to sit and wait as well. 
There is a nearby Children’s Museum and National Museum which we didn’t make time to visit either. Lunch is at a tonkatsu restaurant across the street from the museum.
The complimentary cream corn soup is tasty and we help ourselves to seconds. My curry and tonkatsu dish is tasty. The Costco group are finished shopping and we are going to meet them at the Goto Mall. 
We hop on the train and head to Goto Mall. It’s the largest underground mall in Seoul. The mass of bargain shoppers crowd the aisles. If you don’t like crowds it’s best to stay away.
It was very difficult for our group to find each other. “We are at Gate 1” Norm says. Teddy and Franc go to G1 and wait 15 minutes. Mike and I run into them, just as confused as they were. We call Janet and she’s trying to figure it out too. We call Norman who tells us they are at the exit of the Shinsegae department store’s cosmetics section. Noticing our confusion a gentleman approached us and asked if he could help. He directed us to Shinsegae. The Louies ask a cleaning lady using Google translate. We finally meet up outside the store where there’s a fashion show getting set up.
We are figuring out how to catch the Banpo Bridge Moonlight Fountain Show. The show starts at 7:30 and it’s 5:00 now. We attempt to catch a bus to avoid the one mile walk but there is no crosswalk for the busy boulevard. We go into the train station entrance to walk across underground. Once back up on the other side we watch bus 401 turn at the corner where we are standing but there are no bus stops for us to catch it. Lisa worries that she won’t have time to go back to pick up her eyeglasses if she goes to the show. Franc has been on his feet all day and the prospect of a long walk is not appealing. The Gees, Wongs and Martinez head back towards the hotel leaving three couples to walk to the Banpo Hangang Park. We follow the line of people and reach the park in 15 to 20 minutes.
After leaving the War Museum the weather changed to cloudy and cool. We sat down on concrete steps of the observation deck near the edge of the Han River.
Mike and Eugene had on short pants. Janet put on a new top she had bought from the Goto mall and I pulled out a pair of sweatpants that I had just bought and pulled it on over my pants. I used a pair of new of socks as gloves. It was 6:00. The show started at 7:30 so I worked on this blog as we waited. Lisa WhatsApped that Davich closes at 8:30 so it was a good decision for her to miss the light show. There would not have been another chance after tonight for her to pick up her glasses. Music came on and the light show began. Rainbow colored jets of water form arches from the side of the bridge. But it was on the other side of the bridge! 
A throng of spectators walked across to the other side but we decided to stay put. The fountain of lights are synchronized to popular American songs, such as “Stay” by Justin Bieber. After 20 minutes the show ended. We decided to wait 10 minutes for the 8:00 show and hoped that it would be on our side. But again it was on the opposite side so we headed across to that side. 
It was even colder there because of the wind. 
After watching for a few minutes I moved next to a pillar to get some wind block. A couple of jet skiers cavorted underneath the colored fountains. 
The jets of water for the light show is pumped from the Han River from 38 pumps. Despite the cold I am glad we were able to watch the shows. We were fortunate to have a chance to watch it as it closes October 31st during the winter months. When we go to the train station at Goto Mall we decide to eat dinner at a family owned cafe.
Mike and Eugene ordered spicy ramen soup. Mike showed the grandmotherly woman ("eemo", aunt in Korean) the request for “not spicy” on Google translate. She nodded yes. Both soups came out together on a tray. The broth was red and indistinguishable from each other. Mike took a sip before Eugene could give him a chance to test the other bowl. The coughing fit that ensued was a giveaway that his soup had not been adjusted. Deanne offered Mike some of the broth from her udon soup but Mike declined, opting instead to dilute the spiciness using the broth soup that came with Janet and my rice set. 
With a hot meal in our tummies we headed home on the train. Mike grabbed a COVID test from the Louie’s. I test negative which is a relief. Before going to bed we packed our luggage in preparation to leave for the Gimpo airport at 7 am. We are headed to Jeju Island tomorrow.
This featured blog entry was written by Helen K. from the blog South Korea and Japan.
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