Jesus!

Jesus! "Shine Jesus shine!" Lyrics in a song currently playing in a pork cutlet diner I'm having dinner in. Korea's so weird sometimes ^^

For sale

For sale
Originally uploaded by anninator

For salefrom the back of a truck - computers, TVs, is that a milk fridge too??

Gangwando + Andong Fall 2007

After visiting misty Seorak Park (near number 1 on the map), I headed to Gangneung (number 2), a beautiful coastal city a little south of Sokcho (which is an eyesore by the way). I wandered around town for a while before taking a quiet and inexpensive room. Later I met Ben, a Gangneung native I knew from Busan where he'd previously owned a bar. We went out for some scrumptious grilled duck. Grilling various meatsat the table is very common in Korea, but there is a lot of variation in the apparatus - sometimes coals, sometimes cast-iron grills, this time it was rotisserie in the table. Delish!

After dinner I managed to avoid death by alcohol (Ben loves doing shots) and woke up at a reasonable hour the next day. Decided to wander in the direction of the coast, had a fantastic mushroom stew for lunch and eventually made it to Gyeongpo Beach which was spectacular. Busanites like to boast about Haeundae beach, which is by far the most popular one in Korea, but most Westerners don't think much of it as it's very built up, lined with hotels, sushi restaurants and so on. Gyeongpo beach is just sand and ocean with a few restaurants and lots of tranquil pine trees. And what blue water! Almost next to the beach is Gyeongpo Lake - also beautiful. There's a path that runs all the way around it, and there's also bikes available for rental. I thought I'd walk around the lake, but soon realized it was in fact quite a big lake. So I had to hop off the path to get to the train station in time to catch my train. I was having trouble catching a taxi, and when one finally picked me up, the driver was at the end of his shift but he drove me to a busier area and flagged down another taxi for me at no charge. Gangneung photos start from here.

Onto the train bound for Andong (number 3 and I just noticed on their website 'The capital of mental culture of Korea') which was a spectacular four hour trip first along the coast and then weaving through some BIG mountains. It was actually the time of the Andong Mask Dance Festival and the hotel I stayed at was teeming with perfomers from India and other far away lands. For anyone in Korea at the time of this festival, I highly recommend it, there's some wonderful performances to be seen.

About 40 minutes outside of Andong is the Folk Village. It's still got traditional style houses and is an actual village in that actual people actually still live there. It is also a venue for the Mask Dance Festival, and seeing a traditional style Korean perfomance amidst the lofty pines on a warm autumn day is really grand. I really liked the Folk Village, so be forwarned there's a LOT of photos from there! Andong photos start from here.

Ocular Issues and Space Kimchi

I've been reasonably disoriented since returning from Vietnam. I had such a good time there and since coming back to Busan only to be faced with loads of impending work as well as an assortment of random tasks that I've been having trouble staying on target. This was exacerbated when around 6:15 today I took a walk to the main office to pick up a parcel containing a package of ravioli, 5 avocados, 4 pounds of bacon and 6 kilos of Tide detergent (welcome to expat land) and the suddenly strong wind blew a particle presumably from the recently opened construction site in front of the library into my unsuspecting eye. The particle refused to dislodge itself even after repeated blinking and me pouring half a litre or so of mildly salty water into my afflicted eye. The situation was distressing enough that I had to cancel dinner plans with James so that I might (it turns out in vain) seek medical attention. All eye clinics/hospitals in the region were closed so I was forced to make do with some eye drops. These, along with a hearty dinner of Indian food and a few drinks with friends have put a temporary hold on things. I'm hoping a night of fitful rest will dislodge the offending particle, otherwise I'm off to the doctor first thing in the a.m.

Personal ocular issues aside, I did find this article quite amusing. A Korean cosmonaut will be ascending to the stars shortly and what does he require? Kimchi of course!

Gangwando Fall 2007

Back in time again to last fall when I took a four day trip to Korea's northeast province of Gangwando. Gangwando is famed for it's tall mountains and abundant snow in winter. I took the express bus to Sokcho, a coastal town only hop skip and a jump from the North Korean border. In fact, there was a ferry terminal in town with departures to Mount Baekdu, a resort in North Korea mainly for South Koreans. The bus ride was six and a half hours, pretty much as far as one can go in Korea. From Sokcho my plan was to visit the famed Seorak Mountain National Park which is famed for its colourful maple foliage in the autumn. I was too early in the season for the leaves to have changed and much to my delight it was rainy and grey the morning I headed to the park. Though no amazing views were to be had, the low clouds gave a mysterious mood to the park.


See more Seorak photos starting from here.

Fantastic new additions

My two loyal readers may have noticed some slightly different activity here on zee olde blogge of late. This is because I recently discovered I could post directly to my blog from my cell phone by text message. Even more recently I figured out a way to post photos directly from my phone (which are marked as having been uploaded by anninator). This I was able to do using Flickr, which I've decided to start using. Having just taken a quick spin with a group of photos I am quite pleased with the way the site handles things, even if I'm not super fond of the layout that a human browser must navigate (I find it a little disorganized). I think overall it will help me get my photos online a heck of a lot faster than before.

Dinner!

Dinner!
Originally uploaded by anninator2003

Dinner!Big meaty dinner with some associates to celebrate my five (!) year anniversasy in South Korea. OMG!!

No sleep..

No sleep... ... till Busan. My flight from Saigon departed at 1:20am. What a convenient time. The flight was just over 4 hours which didn't permit much sleep. Now I'm at Gimpo Airport waiting for my 11am flight to Busan. T.I.R.E.D. Somewhat unrelated, I tried to buy perfume inflight on my way to Korea to unload my remaining VND. It was a Vietnam Air flight but they wouldn't accept Vietnamese currency. What's up with that??

Ugh

Ugh There are like a dramillion infants on my flight. All undoubtedly armed with powerful lungs. -_-

Waiting

Waiting I really really really hate waiting. And I'm doing just that at Incheon Airport right now. The queue for Vietnam Air is so long it doesn't even fit in the little curly-cue system. Perhaps the slowness is in part due to two of every three carts towering with bags and boxes, many of which are rather tenuously held together with a colourful variety of tapes and other binding materials. Ah! Finally made it into the comforts of the passenger maze!

선날 2008 - 바다와 해운대

Today is Lunar New Year, or Seollal (설날). After sleeping most of the day yesterday, today I awoke bright and early, did some work and then headed out to Igidae Park. Here's the view of the sea and Haeundae off in the distance:
Saturday morning I fly off to Ho Chi Min City (Saigon for those of you caught in a time warp) to chill and tour with my mate Jon. Will have a new camera in tow so expect to see some fab shots in maybe a year or so (that seems to be a generous estimation based on how long it generally takes me to organize and process my images ^^).
새해 복 많이 받으세요~~

SPAM

Tomorrow is the first day of Seollal, the three day Lunar New Year holiday. It's the biggest family holiday in Korea and results in roughly a quarter or more of the population in Seoul relocating to their hometowns in the provinces. It's a super busy time of year and I daren't go to the local marts. Even venturing to the bank and a popular shopping district resulted in massive crown and traffic side effects. On the subway home many passengers were toting holiday gift packs, this guy perhaps received the short end of the gift set deal: