We only stayed there for a little bit and then went to another bar that we could actually sit down at. We were only out until 1 or 2 and called it a night. The next day we had brunch and then I went to the airport for my flight. All in all it was a lot of fun and the weather was great. There was supposed to be a typhoon coming through pretty much exactly when I was there and they were saying it was going to be the worst one in 50 years, but between Wed-Fri it slowed down and it was sunny and 80 degrees the whole time I was there. I am sure that I will go back there sometime again during the winter to escape the cold here in Korea.
Thursday, October 28, 2010
Hong Kong...
So last weekend I made my first trip outside of Korea and it was a great time. Went to Hong Kong and met up with a friend from college that I haven't seen in 4 or 5 years (Barry Timmons). He has been in Hong Kong for almost 4 years so new the lay of the land which was great. I didn't get into Hong Kong until around 11:30PM so we hung out for a bit on the roof of his building, which provided a great view of the city at night) and then decided to go out. We went to a bar that had a membership fee to get in (something like $5000 a year) but met up with one of his friends who knew the bouncers so we were able to get in. We ended up staying there until about 5AM and then went to some noodle house with some people we had met. This place was really crowded at 5AM, there are so many people in Hong Kong from all over the world it is amazing. So we got home around 6 and went straight to bed. I actually woke up at 9:30 and took a shower and wandered around the city for a couple of hours and headed back to Barry's apartment and we then went and grabbed some Chinese for lunch. We went all around the city, most notably Stanley, and checked out a lot of shopping areas and saw a lot of other things in the city. The next time that I am there I would like to go to The Peak and also Macau if possible. I wasn't able to get any pictures on Saturday as I broke my camera the night before which kind of sucked but I was able to take it to a Nikon store in Incheon and they should be able to fix it. Saturday night we met up with some more of their friends and went to a tapas style restaurant. It was nice to get a chance to get another cuisines as Incheon is very limited on the selection and I don't make into to Seoul to often to eat. After dinner we went by Soho and it was packed and kind of looked like this picture
We only stayed there for a little bit and then went to another bar that we could actually sit down at. We were only out until 1 or 2 and called it a night. The next day we had brunch and then I went to the airport for my flight. All in all it was a lot of fun and the weather was great. There was supposed to be a typhoon coming through pretty much exactly when I was there and they were saying it was going to be the worst one in 50 years, but between Wed-Fri it slowed down and it was sunny and 80 degrees the whole time I was there. I am sure that I will go back there sometime again during the winter to escape the cold here in Korea.
We only stayed there for a little bit and then went to another bar that we could actually sit down at. We were only out until 1 or 2 and called it a night. The next day we had brunch and then I went to the airport for my flight. All in all it was a lot of fun and the weather was great. There was supposed to be a typhoon coming through pretty much exactly when I was there and they were saying it was going to be the worst one in 50 years, but between Wed-Fri it slowed down and it was sunny and 80 degrees the whole time I was there. I am sure that I will go back there sometime again during the winter to escape the cold here in Korea.
Monday, October 25, 2010
Field Trip to Wolmido...
Well last Friday I went on a field trip with the 2nd grade middle school kids to a place on the edge of Incheon called Wolmido. I feel like it is close to a Coney Island type feel even though I haven't been there as there are some rides, a lot of little shops and restaurants and it is on the water. The field trip was way different than anything that we I have ever been to in the US. We all met at the location opposed to taking a bus there and all the students checked in and were pretty much free to do what they want the rest of the day. The teachers just went to a restaurant and hung out and ate food which was prepared by the parents and sent with the students. We were there for about 3 hours and then we walked a little bit around the area and then back to the main entrance where they took roll again. After that everyone was sent home. I have a few pictures on my camera but broke it while in Hong Kong and will hopefully be able to get it fixed this week. I will put up another post on Hong Kong later this week.
Wednesday, October 13, 2010
Jinju...
So I meant to put up this post earlier but kind of forgot about it. Last weekend a group of us went to the southern part of Korea to Jinju for the Lantern Festival mentioned in my last post. It was a really good time and here are some details. We left Seoul Express Bus Terminal around 9:15 and arrived in Jinju around 1:30 in the morning. Not the most fun sitting on a bus for 4 hours but the seats were actually pretty big and I was able to get a couple hours of sleep on the trip.
We then walked from the out of town bus terminal to the main area where the Lanterns were on the river. We got there about 10 minutes before they shut off at 2AM so we were able to get some pictures taken before it went dark (all the pictures are on facebook). We then proceeded to try and find a place for our group to sleep, only one of the hotels/motels that we went to had anyone awake at the front desk and Leona was able to decipher the notes on most of their doors saying that there were no rooms. We did find a place called Dong Bang that was a bit nicer and actually had a lobby closer to what we are used to in the US with someone at the desk all day. He was able to send us to a Jimjilbang that was fairly close (however went through the Jinju version of the red light district) and we were able to rest for a few hours.
If you don't know what they are go to the link attached to the word, but basically it is a bath house where you get orange outfits and there are separate floors for men and women and one mixed floor that is a sauna. You sleep on a blanket for the most part and people are scattered all over the place. I was smart enough to bring some ear plugs and was tired enough to sleep for 4 or 5 hours. Once we got Jinjuseong Fortress and walked around there for a bit.
A side note from the jimjilbang experience, there were some girls staring at the people that I was with as they probably don't see many foreigners and were giggling as we were waking people up. I thought that one of them was cute and figured, hey why not give them our number and see if they want to hang out later and maybe they can help us figure stuff out. So I leave my number for them on their blanket and they call but do not know much English, we text back in forth for a bit and yep they were down there for an interview for dental schools because they were seniors in high school. Yeah you gotta watch out for the ages here they could be 16 or 30.
Anyways back to the tourist stuff, so we walked around the Fortress and were stopped by a lady from the tourism department and they were asking people to take surveys on foreigners impressions of the city. She spoke English so we were talking to her as we filled out the survey and then she offered to help us find a place to stay. She said that she would call us back before noon and sure enough at 11:30 she called and had 2 rooms for us to stay in at the Lotte Motel right on the river. It was nice to have a place that we could put our bags, shower and know that we could go back and sleep.
Before going to the motel we stopped for lunch and got some traditional Jinju Bibimbap which they are known for in the area. It tasted like the regular bibimbap that I have had before but I guess there was something different. After eating we dropped off our stuff showered and rested a bit and then went and checked out a tent area with carnival type games and a few flea market type shops and finally grabbed dinner, which was some great samgyeopsal or Korean BBQ. Unfortunately it rained while we were at dinner and made things very muddy for the remainder of the evening. On the plus side it only rained for a little bit so we were able to walk around at night just had to watch our step.
For the night we wondered around the river and checked out all the festivities in the area and took lots of pictures and shot off a number of roman candles. There was an area where you could add to lanterns that they would be putting out on the river as well as an area that you could create your own lanterns. We went ahead and added to the existing lanterns to get our "culture" fix. After going up and down the river we decided to figure out if there was somewhere to go so we checked out a place by us and they sent us on the other side of the castle where there was more stuff to do. We went into a number of places looking for darts but apparently there were no bars/restaurants that had them in all of Jinju. We went to a few bars and then headed home as we were going to get the 11AM bus back into Incheon.
We then walked from the out of town bus terminal to the main area where the Lanterns were on the river. We got there about 10 minutes before they shut off at 2AM so we were able to get some pictures taken before it went dark (all the pictures are on facebook). We then proceeded to try and find a place for our group to sleep, only one of the hotels/motels that we went to had anyone awake at the front desk and Leona was able to decipher the notes on most of their doors saying that there were no rooms. We did find a place called Dong Bang that was a bit nicer and actually had a lobby closer to what we are used to in the US with someone at the desk all day. He was able to send us to a Jimjilbang that was fairly close (however went through the Jinju version of the red light district) and we were able to rest for a few hours.
If you don't know what they are go to the link attached to the word, but basically it is a bath house where you get orange outfits and there are separate floors for men and women and one mixed floor that is a sauna. You sleep on a blanket for the most part and people are scattered all over the place. I was smart enough to bring some ear plugs and was tired enough to sleep for 4 or 5 hours. Once we got Jinjuseong Fortress and walked around there for a bit.
A side note from the jimjilbang experience, there were some girls staring at the people that I was with as they probably don't see many foreigners and were giggling as we were waking people up. I thought that one of them was cute and figured, hey why not give them our number and see if they want to hang out later and maybe they can help us figure stuff out. So I leave my number for them on their blanket and they call but do not know much English, we text back in forth for a bit and yep they were down there for an interview for dental schools because they were seniors in high school. Yeah you gotta watch out for the ages here they could be 16 or 30.
Anyways back to the tourist stuff, so we walked around the Fortress and were stopped by a lady from the tourism department and they were asking people to take surveys on foreigners impressions of the city. She spoke English so we were talking to her as we filled out the survey and then she offered to help us find a place to stay. She said that she would call us back before noon and sure enough at 11:30 she called and had 2 rooms for us to stay in at the Lotte Motel right on the river. It was nice to have a place that we could put our bags, shower and know that we could go back and sleep.
Before going to the motel we stopped for lunch and got some traditional Jinju Bibimbap which they are known for in the area. It tasted like the regular bibimbap that I have had before but I guess there was something different. After eating we dropped off our stuff showered and rested a bit and then went and checked out a tent area with carnival type games and a few flea market type shops and finally grabbed dinner, which was some great samgyeopsal or Korean BBQ. Unfortunately it rained while we were at dinner and made things very muddy for the remainder of the evening. On the plus side it only rained for a little bit so we were able to walk around at night just had to watch our step.
For the night we wondered around the river and checked out all the festivities in the area and took lots of pictures and shot off a number of roman candles. There was an area where you could add to lanterns that they would be putting out on the river as well as an area that you could create your own lanterns. We went ahead and added to the existing lanterns to get our "culture" fix. After going up and down the river we decided to figure out if there was somewhere to go so we checked out a place by us and they sent us on the other side of the castle where there was more stuff to do. We went into a number of places looking for darts but apparently there were no bars/restaurants that had them in all of Jinju. We went to a few bars and then headed home as we were going to get the 11AM bus back into Incheon.
Thursday, October 7, 2010
First mini trip...
So not a whole lot to report from the last week or so but I am going to southern Korea this weekend for the Jinju Namgang Yudeung Festival I don't really know what to expect but I am sure it will be a good time and it will be nice to get out of the city for a while and see some of the other areas of Korea. I am also hoping to get to Hong Kong in the coming weeks but need to straighten something out with American Express as the fraud protection won't let me buy my plane tickets. This week has been really boring as my school had midterms on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. That means no classes and me sitting at my desk for 8 hours trying to figure out what to do. Also two of my classes were canceled yesterday as well as one today. So for the week I had a total of 6 classes. Needless to say it makes the time go by much much much slower. We tried to play some screen golf on Wednesday but the place that we went to was full, I am looking forward to swinging some sticks even though it won't be the same. I will also be getting a language exchange partner at this place called CulCom (Culture Complex). Basically it is a place that Koreans join to talk to native speakers. It cost money for them but it is free for us which is nice and you get to learn a little Korean in the process, hopefully I can pick some up as it has been slow going for the 7 weeks I have been here. I will have more to report after my trip. I hope everyone has a nice weekend!
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