cooking at home with Neil

Tough times call for tough measures, and as I am towards the end of my month here, and have very little money to spend until Friday, tonight I decided to do some home cooking, Korean style. I will now introduce you to one of my favourite dishes that I have invented out here. I call it "Chamchi Kerbap" ( chamchi is Korean for Tuna, Ker is egg and Bap is rice).

Ingredients:

1 egg

1 tub microwaveable rice

1 can plain tuna

black pepper

tomato sauce/red pepper paste

1 slice processed cheese (optional)

Method:

Gently fry egg in a frying pan until cooked, but make sure yolk is still runny. Meanwhile, microwave rice for 3 minutes at high power, or according to manufacturers directions. Drain tuna and put in the bottom of a large plastic bowl. Add rice and egg, and mix thoroughly.

Sprinkle with pepper and tomato sauce to taste. If used, break up cheese slice into several pieces and use as garnish.

Eat immediately. I recommend using Pepsi Max or just water as an accompanying drink.

And in true Blue Peter style.....here's one I made earlier (tonight). Mmmmmmmmmmm!

I would just like to point out to anyone (mum) that may be worried that this is all I eat here, this is not true. I eat a varied diet, maybe I don't always get my 5 a day but I do alright!

If anyone would like any more information on exactly how to make this scrumptious dish, or has any tips/ideas on how to improve it, please leave a comment or e-mail me. Love, Neil

Christmas?

Time for a blog update I think:

So we are now in the run in to Christmas here, we have one full week of teaching left after this one and then the "holiday" season begins. I have put holiday in inverted commas because Christmas over here is not really as much of a big deal as it is back home. The big department stores and some of the smaller shops have got Xmas decorations, and the centre of Seoul is looking very festive (see below) but overall it's quite refreshing......I sometimes find the constant ads back home a bit too much!

Last weekend I went into Seoul on Saturday to an area called Insadong, which has many antique shops and art galleries, but also plenty of souvenirs as well. I picked up a few bits and pieces, but it was also nice just to wander around and see another bit of Seoul.

After being in Insadong for an hour or so, I caught the subway to Dongdaemeun, another area of Seoul that has one of the biggest markets in the city. I really didn't estimate how big either. It's not like a standard market, like a farmers market with a few stalls or anything, it is literally a massive complex of hundreds of different buildings, with different areas selling different articles. I wandered about for a while, and ended up in one big building whose ground floor sold two things exclusively;

Buttons, and Ties. It was the most amount of buttons and ties i have ever seen, and if I ever need a button, or a tie, I now know where to go.

Here is a picture, but it doesn't really show you the scale of it all.

I also went to a big department store in Dongdaemeun called Dooti where I bought some deodorant (very difficuilt to find in Korea) and a hat, as it's starting to get awful chilly out here!

Then it was back to Incheon, but not before a lovely dusk walk back up to City Hall (the centre of Seoul I suppose) from Dongdaemeun up the Chungguchun (the stream that flows through central of the city, a classic example of good urban regeneration in my opinion).

This is a view looking up towards City Hall. It's easy to forget you are in the middle of one of the biggest cities in the world with scenes like this. The stream is really clean, I saw a few fish and there is no litter whatsoever.

Seoul's government is in the process of erecting the Xmas lights around the main square at City Hall, it looks like once they're up and on it will be a pretty impressive sight. There is also a big outdoor ice rink and a giant (fake) tree. And here are some decorations that are already up and running, on the front of the Seoul Plaza hotel.

I really enjoyed having a good walk around some different bits of Seoul, and do a wee bit of shopping at the same time!

The main purpose of this post however, is to give you a bit of an update on plans for the next few months. Starting with Christmas, myself, Neil and a couple of others are planning on heading into Seoul, getting a couple of nice hotel rooms, and putting our feet up, enjoying a good xmas dinner, maybe sipping a few whiskeys and generally having a relaxing time. Unfortunatley, I only have Xmas day off but we'll probably head in on Christmas Eve and come back on Boxing Day morning.

I think we're also going to go to Seoul for New Year. I have managed to get Hogmanay off so I think I will don the kilt, and get to City Hall where the crowds gather and the atmosphere is supposed to be amazing.

Then, I have managed to get a couple of days holiday at the end of January so I think i'm going to book a trip with Adventure Korea ( a company that specialises in taking western groups on trips in Korea) to one of the ski/snowboard parks near Seoul. I think I will give snowboarding a go but I am a complete beginner so will no doubt spend most of the time on my bum!

And then, the week after, which is Lunar New Year (3 day holiday), Neil and I plan to go to Osaka in Japan for a few days. We are going to book the flights in the New Year and will probably stay in a "capsule" hotel (cosy!). We have spoken to a few people who have been to Japan and they all raved about Osaka, but said that Tokyo was "so-so". Given that, and the fact it is cheaper to go to Osaka, that's where we're headed.

So, that's the plan for the next wee while. Right now, I'm just looking forward to a wee bit of time off over Christmas and tucking into some roast potatoes!

I will aim to update between Xmas and New Year, so, until then, much love and:

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!!!!!!!!!

Two photos

I'm just back from a good night out in Seoul with the boys, and on my way home I took several photos, but these two are my favourite.

A Macdonalds Home Delivery scooter. I know many of you back home are not fans of the golden arches, but they are everywhere in Korea and sometimes.....just sometimes you need to indulge! This is a first though, I have never seen them actually delivering to your house before.

Today is also World AIDS day, and there were people in Bupyeong subway station handing out free condoms and such. I am developing a keen eye for a photo opportunity, so when these two characters appeared I had to do it!

They are so happy. And so am I.

elfs

Hello,

Seeing as its getting towards Christmas, I thought I would get the blog in festive mode by sharing this link with you.
L-R: Me, Neil Munro, Gordon Roberts.

http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=9621755900

thanks to Liz for doing it.

Hite, Heartache and Harry.

Hite:

One of South Korea's national lagers, it is bearable but full of chemicals. The other two main ones are Cass and OB Blue. If I am faced with a choice, I will go for OB Blue, but unfortunatley most of the bars only serve Cass or Hite on draught so I have to make do with those "make-jew" (maekju). The national drink is Soju, which is basically a vodka-like drink which I can only describe as pure evil. Koreans generally drink soju when they go out for a meal, which is very often. It is only around 20% vol, but it likes nothing more than to erase your memory and serve you up a big headache should you over-indulge. Koreans seem to be able to get through several bottles EACH in one sitting, which I will never be able to acheive, nor want to.

Heartache:

Those of you who are in Scotland or have an interest in football will know that Scotland played Italy at the weekend, with a win gauranteeing us a place at Euro 2008. I embraced the fact I was Scottish, and headed into Seoul in my kilt. Cue MANY staring and laughing people on the subway, but once we arrived in Itaweon (a heavily westernised area) I felt more comfortable. It was one of our group's birthday, so we went for an Indian (slightly bizarre, but very tasty) and then went to an Irish bar who were apparantly going to show the game. Kick off was at 2am here, but at around 1:45 word came that they were not going to show it, so we rushed across to another place. No-one had satellite feeds, so they were trying to stream it over the internet. Because of this, by the time the bar sorted it out we missed the 1st 20 mins, and Italy going ahead. However, after I poured some half time shots of Irn-Bru for all us Scots, we were rewarded when Scotland equalised thanks to Bazza boy! The place went mental!

But, it was not to be, as a DODGY referee decision handed Italy victory in the dying seconds. We were all so down after the game that none of us were really up for partying, so we headed back on the subway pretty soon after. Still, on the positive side, at least we will be in a good group for the world cup in 2010.

Harry:

After Bubba passed away a few weeks ago, Harry seemed to relish being king of the fishtank. However, in the last few days,he too has been looking a bit dodgy. He has been spending a lot of time upside down, which I can't help but think is not a good sign. I thought it might be that the water was too cold, but the temp has gone up and he is still out of sorts. If he does die, I think I will give some fish a try. I have the tank, so I may as well!

***************************

So apart from the above, what other tales from South Korea?

Well, it has got pretty cold here. I'm not exactly sure, but I think its now hitting below 0 every night, and we got our first flurries of snow yesterday, although it didn't lie, and was followed by a massive thunder and lightning storm. I invested in a pair of gloves today, and when I get paid on Friday I think i'm going to buy some more winter-style clothes.

I took some photos on the way to work last week to show you what my neighbourhood is like with an autumn feel to it. Even since I took these, a lot of the trees have lost all their leaves.

Here you go:

The walk to school. The leaves are all coming off the trees now, even since I took this photo there have been a lot more detatched.

An intersection near my flat. The building on the right was not there two months ago, yet now is nearly finished. The pace of work has been astonishing. I am still not sure what it will be yet....but I think it might be a wedding functions hall.

The view South-East from outside my school. Those apartment blocks on the right are part of a HUGE complex which is still under construction. Unlike the UK, the high-rise flats you can see here are quite expensive, and if you live in one you are relatively well-off. When I go to my other school on a Tuesday and Thursday I get a bus which goes away down past the red light. You can also see in this picture that the haze/pollution that day was pretty bad. It seems to vary from day to day, so not every day is all smoggy like this one.

My classroom at Nam-Dong Gu. I've got a whiteboard, and a projector which I can use with my laptop (when it works!). I also have an internet connection so I can show the kids things like Google Earth and Youtube. The kids desks are quite close together, which can make for some challenging lessons as they like to turn around and talk to/swap things/hit each other.

A dodgy group photo in the subway after the Scotland game. We all don't look so happy!

Right, my laptop is playing up and I fear I may lose everything I have just written if I don't finish now so I will say bye.

Love to all, Neil.

DMZ visit 2

Hi,

A Sunday night is rapidly becoming the time for me to blog. The weekend is almost finished, and I can recount my adventures from the previous days.

We (Neil M and I) returned to the DMZ on Saturday, along with Gordon Roberts and Matt Gilbert, an Australian guy who has only been here for a month or so and works near Gordie.

It was the same story as last time, up early and into Seoul. This time we went to the Lotte Hotel (one of Seoul's biggest and best) and registered at the tour desk. Because this time we would be venturing into the DMZ proper, we were all dressed reasonably smartly, I opted for a dress trousers - shirt combo. Then it was onto the bus and we headed north. Our tour guide this time round was very good, and provided much useful background to the DMZ and the Korean War.

Most of the morning followed the same route as DMZ visit 1, we went to the 3rd tunnel first, although this time we did not have to walk down to the tunnel, we rode a little monorail. It went down a very steep and small shaft, I was glad of my hard-hat as my head hit the tunnel wall on many occasions!

We then went to Dora Observatory, Dorasan Station and then broke for lunch which consisted of Bulgogi (best described as a sort of meat stew with noodles) and strong coffee, which were both very tasty.

Then it was on to the Freedom Bridge where we changed buses, and crossed back over the Unification bridge and headed for the DMZ proper. This time, our passports were checked twice, once on the Unification bridge by a ROK (Republic Of Korea) soldier with a big gun, and then again at the entrance to Camp Bonifas (the main US camp) by an American soldier with a smaller gun.

Once we were inside Camp Bonifas we were led into a briefing room and shown a series of slides by someone who A: could not work the projector and B: had awful English. Slightly disapointing, given that everything else on the trip was very professionally undertaken. We also had to sign a disclaimer at this point absolving the UNC (United Nations Command, the group of 16 nations who run Panmunjom/JSA) of any blame should the North Koreans decide to attack us. It was quite exciting!

We then boarded ANOTHER bus and headed back out of Camp Bonifas and through the Southern boundary line of the DMZ (ahhhhhh!) this consisted of tank blockades, 2 fence lines with rows of white stones on them (if the fence is tampered with the stones fall off and this makes it easy to spot) and a live minefield. We passed the only SK village in the DMZ, complete with massive flagpole and SK flag. The residents (about 250 I think) are all farmers and are exempt from taxation and military service, but have to observe a curfew and having to pass through numerous checkpoints every time they need a pint of milk. I imagine a stroll in the countryside is frowned upon also.

After passing through a final checkpoint, we arrived at the JSA (Joint Security Area) proper. We disembarked, formed two orderly lines and were led into a spotless, new building that was built to host reunited families but has never been used. At this point our guide warned us we should not, under any circumstances, point, wave or gesture towards North Korea at any time. The reason being, they could take photos of us doing so and alter them to make it look like we were giving them the finger, which would reflect badly on the UNC.

So, as were are being led out to the meeting house, what does Neil Jardine do? He points and says "Wow, it's North Korea!". I am such an idiot. Luckily no-one saw, but if the North Korean Times publishes a photo of me giving the V's to them......i didn't mean it!

We were led inside the meeting house, one of 3 buildings that straddles the actual border between North and South. It was eerily quite. There were 3 South Korean guards standing motionless, one guarding the door to NK, one standing in the middle and one at the SK door. We were allowed to move freely around the room, so that meant we were allowed to cross into North Korea! I will let the pictures do the talking:

The view out the window from the meeting house, looking back into SK. The guard stands at the corner of the building so that he is not fully visible to the North, making a potential potshot harder to achieve.

This line of concrete marks the actual border, or Military Demarcation Line (MDL). The gravel side is SK, the sand is NK.

Me standing with the SK soldier who is guarding the door to NK. So in this photo I am standing in North Korea! He stood absolutely still the whole time, I think he looks quite cool in his aviators. After we left I saw another soldier making sure this guy was OK, dusting down his sleeves.

We were allowed about 5 mins inside the meeting room, and were then led back into the big building and out onto a viewing platform. From here we got a good view of the NK side of the JSA area.

The view to NK. The small buildings in the foreground are the meeting buildings, and the big one behing is the main NK building in the JSA. It was originally only 2 stories high but they added another one on to make it seem more impressive. We only saw 2 NK soldiers the entire time, one stood out in front of the big building and scanned the south with binoculars, whilst another one was peering out an open window in a guard tower watching us. You can see the guard tower in the video below.

Here's another one of us driving past the meeting houses on the way out of the JSA. Notice the ROK soldiers standing at the buildings and our guide saying "don't stand up!"

We drove to a checkpoint where there is a good view over the DMZ to North Korea, and had this group photo taken. L-R: Me, Neil M, Matt, Gordie. All the land in the background is NK.

Our last stop inside the JSA was at the "Bridge Of No Return". This used to be the only bridge between North and South Korea, the MDL runs right through the middle of it. The bridge was also portrayed in the Bond film "Die Another Day" when 007 walks into SK from NK. In reality, the bridge is not surrounded by guard towers and barbed wire, but it is still a tense enough place that we were not allowed to get off the bus. We also saw the scene of the "axe murder incident" (go on Wikipedia for details). Here is a photo of the bridge and a video. You can hear our guide telling us that we have to stop taking pictures as we depart the JSA.

My main observation about the JSA was that it was very quiet. Not in a peacful, calm quiet way, but an eerie, scary kind of quiet. Relations between North and South may be thawing, but you wouldn't know it if you visit Panmunjom/JSA. I am so glad we went though, I feel lucky to have seen what really amounts to the last remenants of the Cold War era, and a symbol which can hopefully be removed one day.

After leaving the JSA we changed back to our original bus at Camp Bonifas, watched some soldiers play baseball and then headed back to Seoul. We stayed in to watch the Man U v Arsenal and then had a wee night out. Today has been spent recovering, and I am just back from Bupyeong where Neil, Gordie and I had some pizza and watched a DVD in a "bang".

Some other news of note, Bubba has died. He passed away on Wednesday, after being attacked by Harry. So Harry now has the run of the tank, and is making full use of it. He is very active, and although it was sad to see Bubba go so quickly, I think it is maybe for the best.

Well, I'm going to watch "Back To The Future II" and go to bed. School tomorrow.............

New flatmates

Evening,

I got paid last week, so after taking care of the important things like buying more cornflakes, topping up my subway card and clearing a bit off my credit card bill, I decided it was time for a "Neil Jardine silly purchase". There have been many (Skip Dr, a surround sound amp and speakers which I then wrecked, and probably best of all, a body board and bag in Newquay last year that has not been used for its intended purpose since) but I would say this is up there with the best of them.

If there's one place in Korea I have found so far where there are a multitude of silly purchases available under one roof, then it's E-Mart. Think Tesco, Pets At Home, Dobbies and BHS rolled into one. So it was here that I trundled on Saturday (slightly hungover) to spend my hard-earned cash. First purchase - a fish tank and assorted extras. Cost - W100,000 (about £50).

As the tap water here is dodgy, I was not sure if it was O.K to use it to fill the tank so I then went to my local corner shop and bought nearly all his bottled water. It took around 20L to fill it, but at least it was now ready to be occupied.

And so, yesterday (Sunday) I went back to E-Mart and bought my new flatmates, two Crayfish. I originally thought they were shrimp but the poor pet-section attendant (who spent a good chunk of her weekend trying to help/talk to me) said they were Lobster and so after some browsing the net I have worked out they are actually little Crayfish. Nevertheless, I have named one "Bubba" (after Bubba Gump from the film Forrest Gump - he liked shrimp) and the other "Harry" after legendary Chicago Cubs brodcaster Harry Carry (it's a long story).

Here is a picture of their new home.

You can just about make out Harry on the right hand side languishing in the little pot. Bubba was away round the back at this point, skulking. They seem to get on pretty well, they stay out of each others way but they both have decent size claws so I am a little worried they will finally lose it with each other and I will get back from work to find a mess. I fed them tonight but so far neither of them have touched it, maybe they know the jar of food says "hermit crab food" and are turning their.....antenna up in disgust .

I am of the opinion that they make the flat look nicer, and I am quite nejoying looking after them so far. And, if it all goes wrong, or they last the full 10 months I have left here.......they'll make a good dinner.

So apart from that not a huge amount else to report, it's getting a bit colder now, I think I will invest in some gloves soon. I am now teaching 3 middle school classes each week as well which I am enjoying, it is giving me the chance to put my own ideas into the lessons and have some more conversation, as the kids in the middle school classes have a more advanced level of spoken english.

Next weekend we return to the DMZ so IF I get back from that then I shall blog further.

Until then, much love.

Neil

Oh, for any Rangers/Celtic fans reading....here is "diehard" Rangers fan Neil Munro's recent reaction to the Old Firm game (I wonder what the score was?). We had it on the PC and EPL on the TV. It's a wired nation...........

Also notice the can of "Raid" strategically placed on top of the T.V. Mosquito "dowsing" is becoming a new hobby of mine.

DMZ visit 1

I've called this post 'DMZ visit 1' because I'm hoping that I will be returning in a few weeks to see the village of Panmunjom, and the Joint Security Area. However, on this trip we didn't go. There are many tours to the DMZ (Demilitarized Zone), and many different companies vying for your business. I went on the half-day tour with Neil Munro, and his friend Liz who is visiting from America. Liz is only here for a week, so we had to book on one of the tours that doesnt go to Panmunjom as the ones that did were all full. I won't go into detail about exactly what the DMZ is, instead I would suggest going to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Korean_Demilitarized_Zone for a description.

So, after a pretty early start (up at 5am!) and a subway ride into Seoul, we went and met Liz at her hotel and boarded our bus. We had an english speaking Korean guide called Laura, who was very good throughout. After a mini-tour of Seoul while we picked up more people at different hotels, we headed along down beside the Han river on our way up to the DMZ area. At this point I've got a wee map so you can an idea of where we went. We headed up to the area near the 3rd tunnel (I'll talk about that later). Seoul is about 50km from there.

Pretty much as soon as we had cleared the suburbs of Seoul I started noticing a big barb-wire fence and watch-towers along the side of the river. Laura explained that these were here because North Koreans sometimes try and swim down the river into South Korea (or walk in winter when the river is frozen over). here is a photo of the fence and guard tower on the way up to the DMZ.

Our first stop was the Imjingak park, where the "Freedom Bridge" is. This is a bridge that many prisoners of war used to return to the South when the Korean war "ended". It is estimated however that there are still around 10million people seperated from each other beacuse of the DMZ, and so North Koreans who live in the South come to this bridge to pray for their families in the north, as it is about as close as they can get to them. The military installations were visible on both sides of the river, and I took a photo of a watchtower that actually had two soldiers in it. The bridge in the background is a rail bridge for the railway that it is hoped will eventually link the North and South. Neil and I joked that we would tell everyone that that is North Korea on the other side of the bridge, but hey, I can't lie, it's not!

Now you will see from that photo that I wasn't supposed to take a photo there. In fact, our guide was very quick to tell us where we could and could not use our cameras. You knew it was OK if you heard her say "Enjoy taking pictures". I was a bad boy. Because I had a camera phone, I basically tried to take photos whenever I could, with varying results (please don't arrest me).

After leaving the park, we went through our first checkpoint where we were told our passports would be checked (but weren't....slightly disapointing) and acroos the "unification bridge" funded by the CEO of Hyundai, who has family in North Korea. He's a big fish in South Korea. We then piad a visit to Dorosan station, opened in 2002 by the legend that is George W Bush. It is a bizarre place, there is this brand new statin which is ready to be a hub for cross-border rail travel if it ever happens, but right now it is pretty much deserted, apart from tour groups. Right next to it was a motorway that goes through the DMZ to North Korea, but is only used by some South Koreans who 'commute' to North Korea to work in a factory there. Here a couple of photos of the station.

Maybe one day!

Nelly and a soldier.

Dubya at the station. A shame the train is not moving.

We then got back on the bus and headed up a steep hill (with minefields on either side of the road) to the Mt.Dora observatory, the closest point of in South Korea to North Korea. It was the highlight of my day. Although it was a bit hazy, there was a good view across the DMZ (we never actually went into the DMZ, the observatory was just outside the southern limit) to North Korea. I could see the massive North Korean flagpost and flag (biggest in the world) and the smaller South Korean one, the deserted motorway and railway line crossing the DMZ and numerous fences, watchtowers and soldiers patrolling. There were lots of soldiers at the observatory itself, mainly stopping people from taking pictures. I managed to take a couple, though they didn't come out very well.

The orange stripe in the foreground is the southern boundary of the DMZ, and was lined with watchtowers and fences. The land in the distance is North Korea. I found that pretty exciting.

The next stop on the tour was the "3rd tunnel of aggression". This was a tunnel that the North dug into the South in the hope that they could move troops through it, but it was discovered before they could put it into use. We watched a video on the DMZ that ended with some babble about the DMZ being a symbol of peace (what? it has the highest concentration of military hardware anywhere in the world) and then donned our hard hats and went underground. We had to walk down a 768m long access tunnel to get to the actual NK tunnel, here is a dodgy photo I shouldn't have taken.

The actual NK tunnel was very small (Nelly had a nightmare!) and we were able to walk about 250m up it to the boundary with the DMZ(the full tunnel is 1.7km long). The North Koreans had painted bits of the walls black in an attempt to make out that they were mining coal, but it didn't really work! The boundary of the tunnel at the DMZ was sealed off with a big concrete barrier and lots of barbed wire. Here is dodgiest photo I took on the whole trip, there were cameras everywhere! ahhh!

And here is Nelly in the actual tunnel.

After resurfacing we got back on the bus and headed back into Seoul, stopping off at an amethyst centre (apparantly Korean amethyst is very good) which was basically a hard-sell opportunity. So overall the tour was excellent, but I am keen to get into the DMZ and see the meeting area in Panmunjon. I don't think I'll be taking any photos there.

We went back to Liz's hotel and had a nap, and then took at taxi in the evening to Cheonggyecheon, a stream that flows right through the centre of Seoul. It's course used to be covered over and was a road I think, but the city government decided to get rid of the road and bring the stream back. A stroke of genuis in my opinion. It is lit up by great lighting and the water looked really clean. We bought a couple of beers and just sat on the side and played "I'm thinking of........" for ages. Here is a photo of the beginning of the stream, and a video.

After some dinner we went to a PC Bang and watched the Scotland game and then went out on the town to celebrate. I have spent today recovering, I think I'm going to have an early night, it's a school day tomorrow you know! I will hopefully be returning to the DMZ in a few weeks so I will update further when/if I return, haha.

Until then, much love as always, Neil.

6 weeks.......

I'll set the scene first.

It's 11:37pm on friday, I'm sitting in my apartment, I got back from the gym (yeah I joined a gym) about an hour ago, had some gimbap and a ramyeon (pot noodle but a bit better), i've got Discovery channel on in the background (something about robots....not really watching) and I'm feeling very relaxed. Happy days.

Since Chuseok, things have settled back into the rhythm of teaching that I was getting used to. However, me and Neil got a shock a week ago today. I was not sure about putting this in my blog but I think it is important for everyone to get an idea of what it is like out here so I'm going to.

I went down to Neil's last week and we went for some dinner in his area, then decided we would get a taxi to Bupyeong, an area with a lots of bars and a good aptmosphere. The taxi rank is at the subway station but we had to cross the road (an 8-lane highway) so we went down the subway entrance on one side, under the road and started to climb the stairs on the other side.

We were about three steps from the top, when we heard a long screech and then a bang. Being a naive island boy, my first instinct was to go up and see what was happening but Neil held me back a bit in case there was a chance we were going to get hit by something. After the noises stopped we went up and looked at the road. On a first scan there was no mass pile-up, there were two cars stopped mid-road, a taxi and another car. However, after closer inspection we realised what had happened. A young guy, god knows what he was doing, had wandered out into the road and been hit by the taxi. He was lying face down, flat out on the road, motionless. In the UK, I'm sure I would have done something, even if it was just to call 999 and report it, or direct traffic or something. But me and Neil both looked at the situation and realised there was nothing we could really do, so we just stood, along with lots of other Koreans.

After about 10 minutes a police car (1) and an ambulance arrived, and this is where it got a bit weird. The paramedics got out, felt his pulse on his wrist, got back in the ambulance and drove off.

So he was dead.

I don't know much about what happens with things like that in the UK, but i'm sure they might have maybe done a couple of more tests or something. It just seemed a bit minimal. Meanwhile, some recovery van drivers had sprayed a couple of marks on the road but the taxi that hit him had already driven to the taxi rank and parked up so the scene had already been well altered. The taxi driver disappeared. The one policeman on the scene did seem to be directing things, but no other policemen arrived for about 25 minutes.

Another ambulance arrived after a while and they put a sheet over the guy and put him in the back of their ambulance. I found out afterwards that if someone has died at the scene then the 1st ambulance was not allowed to take the guy away, another ambulance has to do that. As all this is happening, traffic is still flying past on both sides of the accident, and, on the other side of the road, cars are crashing into each other as they take their eyes off the road to look. It was an entirely surreal experience, and one which I hope I never have to witness again, either in Korea or anywhere else. I suppose the one blessing for Neil and myself was that we missed seeing the guy being hit, though only just. 5 seconds earlier and we would have witnessed it all.

So, we made our way up to Bupyeong tightly strapped into the taxi and had a few strong drinks. I'm ok about it now and I think Neil is too, but at the time it was quite shocking.

Onto happier matters. We had a(nother) holiday this wednesday so I decided I would go and explore Incheon's "centre" itself. I got the subway to Incheon terminal and then took a taxi to Wolmido, a promenade area with an amusement park that I had high hopes for. Wolmido itself had a bit of a end-of-season feel to it. I think it didn't help that it was a bit of a hazy day, but the place was a bit run down. The promenade itself was ok, but some of the buildings looked like they'd seen better days. Here is a photo of the promenade.

I decided I would take the ferry to the airport island, Yeongjongoo. Although it has the main airport it is a big island so there are lots of other villages on it as well. I bought a return ticket and headed onto the ferry. The boarding arrangements are slightly different to the "Loch Buie's". Vehicles and people go on at the same time, though to be fair it was pretty safe. Here we are........

Although it looks like quite a fast boat, it only did about 8 knots and the trip over took about 20 minutes. It was a very hazy day and so unfortunately the views weren't great, I could just make out the massive bridge they are building between Songdo and the airport, but I was just happy to be on the water! Koreans LOVE to feed seagulls, and so we were followed by hundreds, which were very skillful at plucking the crisps and other thrown food out of the air. I decided not to get off at the other side, as the terminal didnt look like there was much to see, and so we chugged back again. The sea was very busy with lots of little boats and some bigger ones too, all sporting big Korean flags as it was an anniversary day in Korea I think.

I caught a taxi back to the station and then headed into Chinatown, which is Korea's only official Chinatown. Here is the main gate.

There were lots of restraunts and a few shops selling toy tigers and trinkets, and I had a good look around, but didnt spend any pennies. I then climbed up the hill into Jayu (Freedom) park, and saw a statue of General Macarthur (American), who is a bit of legend in Korea, because he landed in Incheon during the Korean war and fought off the North Koreans, but then the Chinese arrived and kind of took over everything again (Neil's Korean history guide.....in shops now). On a non-hazy/drizzley day there would have been great views over the port area, but I couldnt see much. Still I got an idea of the scale of the port itself, it is massive.

Here is a photo from the top of the hill.

I headed back down, got stared at a LOT in Incheon station by old people (im getting used to it) and then headed back to the flat. And now its the weekend again! Going to head into Seoul again on Saturday, so that will be good. I'm now waiting for my next pay cheque and I am hopefully going to purchase two things: one; a decent camera, because I am fed up of taking grainy ones on my phone. And two; some pet shrimp/crayfish. They are on sale in Emart for £2.50 and I can get a tank and all the rest for about £50, so I think they will make great companions in my apartment. Just imagine the line "Hey, do you want to come back to mine and help feed my shrimp?" Irresistable. I'm going to call them Bubba and Lt. Dannnnnnn. (film reference anyone?)

So that's all for now, I'll leave you with two videos shot on Wolmido promenade. Both slightly odd. One is of a guy catching a fish whilst a lone saxophonist plays on a MASSIVE stage out of shot, the other is of an old woman dancing around with some oddly dressed people play music. I love this country.

Chuseok part 2

So, I think I had just finished talking about dodgy Russians in "Texas St". Having made it through the night, we decided that we would continue on the tourist trail and visit a Buddhist temple. We chose Beomosa as it was quite close to where we were staying and is described by Lonely Planet (cheers Stewartie) as being "magnificent". So, we took a taxi up a long and winding road (overtaking EVERYTHING) and arrived at said temple. It was certainly impressive, but maybe the LP writers had had a few too many iced coffees when they visited. We walked around, took lots of photos whilst at the same time wondering if we should be, and absorbed the peace of our surroundings. I think that was the thing that I noticed more than the buildings, was a feeling of peace and calm. It was amazing, so quiet and peaceful. We saw a monk praying, and also went for a walk into the nearby forest and played about at a stream, as all 23 year olds should do. Here are some piccies:

One of the main temple buildings (there were lots) and a stone statue. Very aptmospheric I think.

One of the "guards" at the main temple entrance.

Some of the designs painted onto one of the buildings. It is so intricate. There were some guys re-painting a part of one the buildings when we were there. It makes our idea of decorating seem pretty easy!

Boys on a bridge!

After exploring the temple we headed back down the hill and caught the subway back into town to visit Asia's largest jjimjilbang (bath house) called "Hurshimchung". Now, I had been told about bath houses in Korea by Gordie who is a regular up in Incheon, but I dont think any of us were really prepared for this one. It was Chuseok, so the place was mobbed. We paid, put our shoes in wee lockers and headed in (it was segregated I should point out at this point). You are immediately confronted by lots of naked men in the changing rooms. Fine, you see that a bit in swimming pools in the UK and getting changed for football etc. Only difference here was that you stay naked. Clothes off, and out into a massive domed area ( when you looked up it looked like the main staircase area from "Titanic".) And everyone is naked. And you are the only Westerners in the whole place. You can picture the scene....maybe.

We tried out a few of the different pools (hot ones, cold ones, red ones (cherry), green ones (citrus) and an outdoor one.) but because we were all suffering from sunburn due to over-exposure on the beach 2 days previously we were really confined to the warm/tepid pools only. We also went for a sauna which was good, I jumped into a cold pool right after I came out.....ahhhhh!

All in all it was a surreal, but enjoyable experience. Obviously I didnt take any photos inside but here is one of the sign that greets you when you go in.

In case you can't make it out, it says: "Welcome to Hurshimchung - the best spa in the world" Enough said.

That night we planned to go out again but ended up falling asleep in our room. We woke at about 2am, went out for dinner then went back to sleep. Classic Korea.

The train back up to Seoul was at 10am, it followed the same route and was very similar to the journey down, only we were all feeling much better and, funnily enough, we were going in the opposite direction.

Upon our arrival in Seoul we spent some time looking for somewhere to stay. We tried lots of nice hotels, but a combination of very casual dress and not phoning ahead meant we were not being offered good deals. So, we checked into a love motel. Now, horrendous as it may sound, for £15 each we got two rooms with double beds, massive TV's and the usual hotel stuff, plus some other things I won't go into. If you block out their main purpose they are actually ok to stay in.

We then headed over the river to the "63 Building", the 3rd highest building in Seoul, which unbeliveably has 63 floors. it houses a Imax cinema, aquariam and a observation deck on the 60th floor. We bought tickets for that and the aquariam, which was Ok, they had a turtle, some penguins, seals, otters, snakes and lots of fish but we all agreed that we had enjoyed the fish in the markets more than the ones in the 63 building. Maybe we were just fished out, I don't know. Here is a photo of me with a plastic polar bear (?) and a video of some penguins. (for you mum)

Some of the penguins had been confined to little cages. I think they were the naughty ones. Maybe they had been out drinking too late the night before and were caught, or I think they were maybe taunting the turtle in the tank opposite.

After the aquarium we headed up in the lift (I was all up for the stairs....... :) to the 60th floor. The views were amazing. You could see the Han river (the big river that flows through Seoul) and a good amount of Seoul itself too. Over towards Incheon was a bit hazy but I most enjoyed getting an idea of the sheer scale of Seoul itself. It really is huge. Here are a couple of photos though it is difficuilt to gauge from them just how big it really is.

The view down......not great for someone like me who doesnt like heights!

Looking up the Han river.

We had a beer, then headed down and back to the motel. It was at this point that my camera died, so I have no more photos, though to be honest that was the sightseeing over anyway. We headed out that night in Seoul, and then back to Incheon the next day.

I am now back teaching, although tomorrow is Friday, and then it's the weekend! We have another day off next week (wednesday) so I think I will head into Incheon proper and have a look around. For now though, I hope you have enjoyed seeing what I've been up to over Chuseok and i'll keep blogging in future. Let me know if you think there's too much writing or photos or whatever, i've never done this before so I need to know how i'm doing!

Neilx

Chuseok part 1

Hi,

We are nearly finished a three day holiday here in Korea called Chuseok, a time which Koreans traditionally use to go back to their home town and get together with all the family. We used it to head down to Busan, Korea's second largest city which is down on the South-East coast.

The adventure began on Friday night after work when myself, Neil and Gordie (a boy from Stirling uni who has been out here for 9 months now) met up and headed into Seoul for a night out. Our train was at 7am so we packed light and just stayed out on the town until then. It made for a rather hungover train ride down, but saved us getting a room for the night!

The train that we caught to Busan is called the KTX, and is the Korean equivelant of the TGV in France. It puts Virgin and GNER to shame. Punctual to the second, quiet, clean and very fast (300+km/hr at some points) it got us down to Busan in around 3 hours. I managed to stay awake almost the whole way and watched the countryside whizz by. Koreans seem to enjoy erecting massive apartment blocks pretty much anywhere, and to be honest a lot of the scenery on the way down was a repetetive procession of roads, apartment blocks, rice fields and densely forested hills. Interesting, but very similar. Here's a few pictures of the journey.

Off we go!

<- A typical sight on the train...lots of apartments

Gordie on the KTX! ->

We also knew a few other folk who were going to be in Busan that night so we got a taxi to where they were staying and managed to get a room there as well. It was called the Arpina Youth Hostel, but it may as well have been called the Arpina Hotel. For £15 a night we got a 3 bed room with balcony, Sky TV, en-suite bathroom, mini fridge and all the other usual hotel like stuff. The "hostel" itself had a swimming pool, golf driving range, sauna and gym. Ridiculous!

After we unpacked and had a wee sleep we headed down to the nearby Hae-Undae beach, which is reckoned to be Busan's best (there are 7 others I think). It was pretty quiet, but apparantly in July it is wall-to-wall parasols. We had a swim in the warmish water and got very burnt. With a bit of a breeze blowing it creeps up on you!

Thought I'd give you all a laugh. I think that was pre-burning.

That night we sampled the Busan nightlife (very good) and had a steak dinner at Vips (Vips anyone?) which was actually pretty good. The Koreans aren't the best at steaks but mine was very tasty.

On Sunday we took a boat ride from near Hae-Undae beach under the Gwangandaegyo bridge, a big bridge (really?) that connects different bits of Busan. It was rather surreal, the tour was interspersed by bits of Korean pop music and also a smooth talking captain presumably pointing out the sights (all in Korean). We also had the pleasure of being accompanied by a suit and sunglasses-wearing Korean man who basically abandoned his own family to come and stand (very close) to us. Gordie has some photos of him which I will steal from Bebo and post here when he puts them up. Here are some of my photos and a video (thanks to Neil Munro for the Die Hard 4 commentary) of us going under the bridge.

Hae-Undae beach from the sea.

the bridge.

I also saw what I think is the Korean equivalent of Tobermory.

After the boat ride we caught a taxi to the Jagalachi fish market (Korea's largest). It was amazing. Thousands of stalls selling live fish of all kinds, dead fish, dried fish, squid and octopus, shellfish, massive crabs, and lots of other things. Combine this with the smell, lots of people shouting and trying to get you to buy from them, and it was almost too much. We wandered around, I took hundreds of photos, here are a couple plus a video of something horrible......we now think it might have been an eel that had been skinned alive (yeah i know).

We then proceeded to try some of things we had just seen. First up was what we think was a sea worm. It was cut up into chunks and served in a spicy sauce, it was very rubbery. I had a few bits but couldnt really handle the texture, and we didnt come close to finishing the plate. The second dish, a whole grilled fish (something a bit like a snapper I think) was much better. We had it with the usual assortment of side dishes and it was a very tasty meal, the fish tasted very fresh and was full of flavour. In the picture below the fish is furthest plate away, the closest is a bowl of soup with tofu in it. The red stuff is Kimchi (which I am becoming addicted to).

After dinner we headed back to the hostel for a rest and then tried to go out and watch the Man U vs Chelsea game, but got a bit lost and couldnt find anywhere. We ended up in an area called "Texas St" which was full of Russian sailors and prostitutes. It was the most uncomfortable I have felt since arriving in Korea, but we made a swift exit and moved elsewhere. And on that happy note........... :) I will finish this installment. The rest of our time in Busan and our day in Seoul will follow shortly, until then, I hope everyone back home is well.

Lots of love, Neil