We were quite frustrated at first, but he managed to sort everything out for us, and we're so glad we found him.
We've been to Korea before, so this time we wanted to experience something a little different. We love Korean BBQ, Seoul and Busan, of course, but we were hoping to discover more of the local food and culture that we wouldn't normally come across as tourists.
We initially tried putting together our own itinerary, but it wasn't quite working out the way we'd hoped. A friend of ours then recommended a guide she'd met during her trip to Korea and suggested we have a look at his website. She had nothing but good things to say about him, so we decided to get in touch and arrange a day tour. We weren't entirely sure what to expect, but it turned out to be one of the best decisions we made during our trip.
He was incredibly helpful, even though we weren't particularly clear about what we wanted to do. He took the time to understand what we were looking for and introduced us to places we would never have discovered on our own.
One of the highlights was a restaurant completely outside Seoul. He suggested getting there early, so we arrived at around 10 am, but there was already a long queue of locals waiting outside. There were families of all ages, and we were the only tourists there!
The restaurant served an all-you-can-eat selection of Korean vegetables, alongside pork and grilled fish. Everything was absolutely delicious. Even something as simple as aubergine or bean sprouts tasted incredible. I'm not quite sure how they prepared everything, but the sesame oil and all the different flavours made even the simplest dishes so enjoyable.
He also showed us how to make nurungji with the rice left in the pot and the order to eat, which was such a lovely little experience.
By the time we finished, the queue outside had grown even longer. It was exactly the sort of experience we'd been hoping for, and something we almost certainly wouldn't have found by ourselves.
We completely understand now why our friend spoke so highly of him. He really made our trip special, and we couldn't recommend him enough.