Beijing jing jing

Hello,

The original intention was to have one post-Beijing blog, but as will become clear in my next post, there is the need for two. This one will detail the Beijing trip only.

So, in what seems like an age ago, Greg and I headed out EARLY on Sat 2nd May to board our China Southern flight to Beijing. I was a bit apprehensive about CS but they turned out to be good, not excellent, but perfectly OK for a two hour flight. Upon arrival at Beijing airport we caught the airport express train into town and then rode the subway a few stops to get near our hostel. The hostel was called the Sleepy Inn, and rightly so. It was located in a 'hutong' which is a traditional area of Beijing. There used to be hundreds of 'hutongs' and they constituted the majority of housing in the inner city, but due to population increase and China's insatiable appetite for growth many have been bulldozed and replaced with faceless apartment blocks. Thankfully this is yet to happen to the one Sleepy Inn is located in, so we were greeted by meandering lanes filled with bicycles, a lake with old men fishing and playing mah-jong, and people generally taking it easy. Here's a couple of photos of the hostel entrance and the lake nearby.

After checking in and unpacking, we headed down to a clothes market to get suits fitted. I didn't have a suit before this trip, but after some hard bargaining we managed to get a deal. Mine cost around 120 pounds, which I think is a pretty good deal for a tailor-made suit! After all our bargaining we were pretty tired out so went went for dinner back near our hostel, and then headed out for a few beers.

The next day, it was up bright and early for a day of sightseeing in Beijing. First stop was Tiannamen square. it's the largest public square in the world, and we were glad it was so big, as there were thousands of people there. We had a stroll around, took lots of photos and drank lots of water (it was very hot!). At this point it's probably a good time to roll out the Facebook album link, here it is for our Beijing trip.

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=252141&id=777495416&l=59c21b3dbf

We made our way over to the Gate of Heavenly Peace (the one in the above photo with the huge portrait of Chairman Mao on it) and passed underneath the Chairman's giant picture, all the time being watched by lots of Chinese guards. We continued on along with the crowds of other people and bought our tickets to the Forbidden City. Back in the day, only the emperor, his assistants, lady friends and other approved people had access to the place, these days, anyone with 60 Yuan can get in! It really is a massive place, lots of different buildings each with its own function, and miles of walls, paths and a huge moat encircling the whole thing. My photos don't really do it justice, I think it's one of those places you really have to see to believe. We made our way slowly through the complex and exited out the other end, slightly overwhelmed by it all.

After our morning exploring the history of the Forbidden City, it was time to see some more up-to-date structures, in the form of the main Olympic venues. A lengthy taxi ride eventually dropped us off at the 'Birds Nest' the nickname of the main Olympic stadium. It is an incredible piece of engineering, with all the girders intersecting and giving the birds-nest-like appearance.

Inside is equally impressive, it is huge. They have covered the running track and infield, so although you can't see where the athletes were treading it does mean you can walk around almost anywhere inside. Greg and I even did a bit of sunbathing in the middle! After some time soaking up the arena we exited and took a short walk over to the main aquatics centre, the 'Water Cube'. Another amazing structure, it has this translucent double skin in a honeycomb like structure, really cool. Unfortunately, some genius at the Cube decided to locate the ticket office on the other side of the entrance, so we had a long walk there and back before we could head inside. It was weird sitting in the grandstand staring down at a perfectly still swimming pool and watching the cleaning ladies at work. It made me want to go for a dip!

After seeing the Cube we headed back to the hostel, freshened up and headed out to our pre-booked table at a recommended Peking Duck restaurant. The duck was delicious, it comes already sliced and you make little parcels with onion, sauce and these thin pancakes, very tasty. We also had some deep-fried scorpions, which are my least favorite animal! I had to build myself up to do the first one, but they were definitely dead and didn't really taste of much, so it wasn't too bad really!

The next day, we caught a bus out to Badaling, the site of a restored section of the Great Wall Of China. There are various different bits of the Wall you can visit from Beijing, but Badaling is one of the most popular. There are those who say that it is perhaps not a good experience, being stuck on a restored section with hundreds of other people, but I really just wanted to see the Wall you see in books and postcards, and Badaling offers that. There were a lot of people, but for me it didn't detract from the experience. We hiked right up to the 'top' of our section of Wall, negotiating the crowds and steep gradients, but were rewarded with great views and the accomplishment of having climbed one of the new 7 wonders of the world. It's something I won't forget in a hurry.

Greg near the top of the Wall

Having hiked our way up, we thought we deserved a break so we hopped on the cable car for the journey down. Then it was back on the bus to Beijing, sweaty, but satisfied! That night we went to pick up our suits and do some more hard haggling to buy a few other bits and pieces (polo shirts and shorts for me)

Us with the tailors!

Our final day in Beijing was a bit more relaxed. We got up later, enjoyed bacon and eggs at the hostel, and then headed to the nearby lake where we hired a battery boat (basically a pedalo but you don't have to pedal) and headed out onto the lake for some initial boating and then latterly, sunbathing.

A hairy encounter on the lake. As you can see, the sea conditions were pretty nasty, I had to work really hard to keep the boat pointing in the right direction!

Sadly, we couldn't stay on the water forever so it was back to the hostel to pick up our bags, and then a taxi back to the airport for the flight back to Korea. When we got back to Incheon we met Lisa who was returning from her trip to Hong Kong, so we all shared a taxi back to Yeonsu-Dong together.

Overall, I was very impressed with Beijing. There is so much to see there, much more so than Seoul. Korea work hard to promote tourism but it is easy to see how they struggle to attract people given what Beijing, Tokyo and Hong Kong have compared to Seoul. I don't think I would like to live in Beijing, but for a visit, it was incredible.

To be continued........with Greg's birthday, the DJ festival, and a trip to Taiwan!

Before-Beijing-Blog

Hi,

A class has been cancelled at my school today as some of the older kids are doing their mid-term exams so I thought I would seize the opportunity to do something constructive and post a blog, as promised, before we head to Beijing on Saturday.

Greg and I are both ready for the trip, we have our visas and accommodation booked, and I managed to borrow a Lonely Planet guide from one of Lisa's friends so that should help a bit. We are going to exchange money tomorrow at KEB and then that's us. We will have to catch a bus at 05:10 out to the airport (groan) but I don't care really, I'm so looking forward to getting away for a while, and seeing the sights of China's capital.

Since I last blogged, (if you discount the "all the jobs I've ever had" post) things have been a bit quieter as I have been trying to save the pennies for going away. A few Saturdays back I had a great day, Neil, Greg and I headed over to Ilsan (a suburb of Seoul, about 90mins from us) which is where Connor and Steph are now living. There is a big park there with a lake in the middle, so we took a ball and had a kick-about on the grass. It was also the first day I was allowed beer after my self-imposed Lent-style ban, so it was nice to have a few cold bottles as well!

After a few hours of mucking about there I quickly changed into a shirt and tie (behind a bush) and headed on the subway to the other side of Seoul to meet Lisa. We went to Seoul Arts Centre to watch a performance by the Gyeonggi Philharmonic Orchestra. It was my first experience of anything like that, and I have to say it was an enjoyable one. The way they all play in harmony is amazing, and some of the pieces were beautiful. The conductor was called Jesus Amigo (appropriate given it was Easter Saturday) and we had great seats, on the 2nd tier right at the front. And all that for only 30,000 Won (15 pounds)! After some post-orchestra dinner we headed back to Incheon, tired but happy.

An afternoon in the park!

The orchestra getting ready to start.

The day after (Easter Sunday) we were going to venture down to watch/participate in the world's largest tug-of-war contest, but I awoke on Sunday feeling very strange, sort of flu-like and dizzy, so I was floored all day. I think it might even have been sunstroke or maybe an adverse reaction to the beer after being off it for so long! who knows.......

Marco, a Finnish guy who is an engineer here, is leaving soon after being in Korea for almost 3 years, so last weekend we headed to Seoul for a final night-out with him, although it ended up we didn't see him for too long. He is a really cool guy, and I will be sorry to see him go. He is being relocated to Germany, but it sounds like he will basically commute to work from Finland! Quite a long one!

The weather here is improving, we had the very brief cherry-blossom a week or two ago, and although it has gone there are now lots of other pretty flowers starting to appear, and everything is starting to become a bit greener. I have been going for occasional runs down by the Incheon 'river' and also playing a bit of badminton with the boys, which I really enjoy.

The teaching is going well, although honestly right now I am a bit preoccupied with going away so that is dominating most of my thoughts!

Lisa and I see each other at least one night during the week and at weekends, we went for some DELICIOUS ribs last Friday, she is off to Hong Kong for the holiday period so I hope she will enjoy that as much as I did.

And that's about it, I've run out of thoughts and time, my final class of the day awaits!

I'll blog when I'm back from China and Greg's birthday weekend/the DJ festival is over.

All the 'jobs' I've ever had!

Just posted this as a Note on Facebook, but thought I'd fire it on here too.  A list of all the jobs I've ever done.

Greg and I were talking about this at work the other day, so I decided to make a list and see how many I've actually had. They are in rough order. Some of them were not undertaken for very long, but all have earned me money at some point in my life.

1: Empty bottle collecter/sorter, Argyll Hotel, Iona. It should have never been a job that somebody was specifically employed to do, but the person who employed me was trying to win me over so i got it. Much needed pocket money when I was young.

2: Hall cleaner, Village Hall, Iona: I cleaned the hall after discos and other events. 3 pound 50 an hour. and I got to play my own music while I worked. And got free booze if it was left over.  

3: Relief Deckhand, Iolaire, Iona. My favourite job ever. Spend all day on the water, drive a boat, get paid well, and have good banter with whoever you are working with. Brilliant.

4: Vending Assistant, Sodexho, Edinburgh. My 1st job not on Iona. I worked in the Standard Life offices on George St, and had to go around and refill and clean all the coffee vending machines. At lunch time I went and helped with the washing up, and sometimes I worked late in the staff shop which was good because I got free sandwiches. During this time I also worked for 2 days as a Kitchen Porter at some restaurant/bar near Ryan's bar in the West End but it was too hard work and I quit after two days and never got paid.  

5: Deckhand, R.Tucker Thompson, New Zealand. I never got paid for this, but got my accommodation and food paid for and an allowance so it counts I think. Also a great job, although I was shit at most of it. Worst bit was going up the rigging untethered to furl sails in a big swell, best bit was ferrying passengers to shore in the RIB. I will never forget this one.

6: Bakery assistant, Paihia, New Zealand. I got this job because the woman who helped me get job number 5's husband owned the bakery and so she was obligated to find me work after the ship buggered off to Fiji. The pies were delicious, and I piled on the pounds as a result.

7: Fruit Picker, Gisborne, New Zealand. I didn't do this for very long. Oranges were OK, but we did one day of Lemons and they were horrendous. You had to use a stepladder to reach most of them, you had to cut each lemon off the tree because if you pulled them it damaged the fruit, and the lemon trees had thorns so my arms at the end of one day looked like I was a self-harmer. On top of this, we worked out we earned 1.50 a day. Candidate for worst job ever.

8: Vine Pruner, Gisborne, New Zealand. You had to trim off all the old dead branches from the vines and then keep 5 or 6 and tie them to the adjacent fences. I was slow at first but I sped up. I remember working with a cool French guy who taught me lots of French swear words, most of which I have now forgotten. Most people didn't work when it rained, but I did. trooper.

9: General Assistant, Argyll Hotel, Iona. The job I did before and for the first couple of university summers, before graduating to the kitchen. Consisted of scullery (washing dishes), pots (washing pots), chambermaiding in the morning and laundry. For at least one summer I also painted the annex (listening to Stevie Wonder non-stop) and did gardening. A job with a lot of good memories, and different people.

10: Bakery Assistant, Sainsburys, Stirling. I did this for a while in 1st year of uni. In the winter when I was staying in Dunblane I commuted on the bike. I hated the uniform, and disliked the job. I was shit at slicing bread, and the meringue towers were always difficult to pack.

11: Betterware Salesman, Stirling. I delivered Betterware catalogues in Riverside, Stirling, and then a few days later went back and picked them up along with any orders. If someone ordered something the area rep came round a week or so later and then I delivered it, all on my bike. I did it more to aleviate boredom during the winter holiday rather than make money.

12: Cash and Carry assistant, Booker, Stirling. I loved this job. I mainly stacked shelves and served customers, towards the end I was supervising tills a bit too. Because it was a C&C they didn't care too much about tidyness, so you could leave packaging around and it was OK. We used to have pallet truck races, crisp box stacking competitions etc. A good laugh.

13: Commis chef, Argyll Hotel, Iona. It was hard work, but good. I liked breakfasts the most, I was my own boss and liked making the fry-ups look good. It also taught me how to cook a lot of food too.

14: Mackerel Merchant, Iona. We caught mackerel, and sold them to the hotels. 1.50 a fish, gutted. Beer money mainly.

15: Customer Service, Scottish Widows, Edinburgh. An inbound call centre, I was trained to deal with pensions calls. Mostly old people who didn't understand their pension or financial advisers unhappy about something. Sitting down all day, depressing, unhealthy, no prospect of career advancement, I think this beats the Lemon picking to the worst job I have done. NEVER AGAIN.

16: Whelker, Iona. Lucrative, but back-breaking, literally. If you found a good patch and the weather was nice it was easy money, but if not.....its tough. The summer of 2007 with Nat and Stewart was brilliant.

17: English Teacher, GnB Academy, South Korea. My current job. I love being in the classroom, but don't enjoy the other aspects of the job, the phone teaching and pointless paperwork, and the fact I am inside all day. But I've been doing it for over a year and will do it for another year or so, so it can't be that bad!

A wee update

As the title says, this is just a wee update on what I've been up to in the last few weeks. I will blog again before the start of May, and then again shortly after that. The reasons for this blogging 'timetable' will hopefully become clear below.

The last few weeks have been pretty full on socially, a good few nights out in Seoul, spending time with Lisa and quite a bit of gym/badminton and even a little football too. At the end of my last blog I mentioned I would be playing 5-aside at Munhak where I hurt my ankle in December. It turned out to be a a busier weekend than I had planned!

We went out in Seoul on the Saturday, and I, having not taken the subway home in a while, decided I would give it a go. Big mistake. Of course, the nice heated seats and a good dose of alcohol made sure I drifted off to sleep almost immediately. I woke up 3 hours later about 6 stops from the OTHER end of the line I was supposed to be at (the other side of Seoul). Another 3 hours on the subway and I finally got home at around 11am, but got a text from someone asking if I fancied playing 11-aside as they were a man down. "Why not" says I, so it was off to play for Seoul St. Pats against Incheon Shooters (cue a few dirty looks and shouts of "what are you playing for them for?") Thankfully the guy who was supposed to play eventually turned up so I only had about 60 mins on the field. Straight after it was in a taxi and over to Munhak for 3 hours of 6-aside! Safe to say my feet were a bit tired at the end of the day. Pretty full on, but good fun.

Two weekends ago, Lisa and I spent the day in Wolmido, a seaside area of Incheon, that I have visited a couple of times before. Previously, I didn't really like it that much, but on this occasion we had a really good time. We climbed up the hill (Wolmi san) which afforded brilliant views over Incheon port, down to New Songdo and even out to the new Incheon bridge. Here's the Facebook photo link and a panorama from the top.

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=215565&id=777495416&l=5fa0a1e889

Hmmmm I just uploaded it and it's pretty crap. Right, I'll try a non-panorama shot and see if that's any better.

That's a bit better! In the foreground you can see a ship in the lock about to enter the main port basin, and some car carriers loading up. In the distance is the new Incheon bridge. The main span is complete, they are aiming to have it open in October and work seems to be rattling on, I would imagine it'll be on schedule.

After coming back down the 'mountain' (190m high) we went and had a look at the small amusement park at Wolmido, had a surprisingly terrifying ride on a Viking and enjoyed my favourite, the dodgems/bumper cars. Maybe it's because I can't drive in real life, but I love them! We then headed into Chinatown for dinner and caught a taxi home. A good day.

A week ago today (Wednesday) Greg and I finally got our chance to see Oasis in concert in Seoul. We got the bus in and met Scott and (James) Tucker, got our tickets, had a quick beverage of Soju and Powerade (still off the beer......so you have to diversify!) and headed in. There was a good crowd, we had standing tickets but weren't allowed too close to the stage, but what with the big screens and our taller stature compared to most Koreans, we got a pretty good view. They didn't disappoint, played most of the classics, Liam was his usual wide-boy self, and the rest of the crowd loved it too. As is often the case with dark venues where everyone is going mental, my photos were mostly blurry, but there were a few good ones. Here's a couple:

The second one courtesy of Greg. Thanks.

What else has been going on? Last weekend saw the start of the Korean baseball season, so on Saturday we went and saw SK Wyverens (Incheon's team, and 2007/2008 Champions) lose 8-2 to Hanwha Eagles. On Sunday there was an Incheon FC game, which myself and Greg went to, they got a great 2-0 win against high-flying new team Gangwon FC. We also caught the tail end of the baseball, this time SK beat Hanwha 5-2, so the series was 1-1.

On Saturday night, it was one of Lisa's friends birthdays so we headed into Seoul. The venue was the Ice Bar, the only one in Korea. You pay 15,000 won (around 7 pounds 50) to get in, this gets you the loan of a silver poncho-style jacket, some gloves and one free drink. The whole place is made of ice, even the glasses. The walls, seats, lots of sculptures, it's all ice! And obviously, to stop it all from melting, the bar is kept at a cool -5C. Here are some piccies:

Lisa in her jacket

The barman serving up the drinks. It's a cool (literally!) place to go for a drink or two, but I wouldn't want it to be my local! We stayed for a short while, then went to a Norie Bang (Karaoke room) and then Lisa and I took a late-night, high-speed taxi back to Incheon.

And so, from past activities, to future plans. The biggest news is that Greg and I have booked our flights to Beijing, we fly with China Southern (hmmmmmmmmmm) on May 2nd and return on May 5th. We are in the process of getting visa's and then it will be time to sort accommodation and what we want to see/do. Must's for me are Tiannamen Square, the Great Wall and the Olympic venues (Bird's Nest, Water Cube especially). We will have almost 4 full days though so we should be able to fit in a bit. When we return it is Greg's birthday and the Seoul World DJ festival the weekend after, the line-up is not as good as last year but it is a nice park and if the weather stays fine it'll be a good weekend I'm sure.

Before that, on Saturday Lisa and I are going to see the Gyeonggi Philharmonic Orchestra in Seoul. I've never been to anything like it before, so I'm quite excited, and it is making me feel very cultured already! The day after we're thinking about taking a bus down to a small village south of Incheon to witness the largest tug-of-war in the world. The rope is over 200m long and over 1m in diameter. Hopefully they'll let us have a go too!

I will post again before we head to Beijing and then again after the DJ festival. Until then, lots of love and goodnight.

Oh, here is another link to my most recent Facebook album. Right now it only has some other photos of the Ice Bar trip but I'll fill it up gradually.

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=238531&id=777495416&l=d95cc70694

March-ing On

Hello,

Just returned from dinner downstairs at the gimbap house in our building, where I had Budae Jiggae. Budae Jiggae is one of my favourites, it's basically a spicy stew with lots of bits and bobs in it, translated it literally means 'ham and scraps stew' and it is just that. Lots of bits of ham, spam and sausage, some instant noodles, some beans, kimchi and ddeok (rice cake) served with a portion of rice and some side dishes. It's pretty spicy, and gives you some pretty lethal farts, but it tastes great. I think during the Korean War a lot of the soldiers ate it because it was a good way of using up leftovers. That is still true today I suppose.

So, over half way through March and approaching the 6 month mark of my 2nd year. If I've said it once I've said it a million times, but time really does fly out here. It seems not so long ago I was stepping off the plane at Incheon thinking "well, here goes another year" and already it's half way through!

I made my semi-regular post-payday shopping trip to Seoul at the start of the month, bought some new trainers and also managed to source some UK-style meat products! Big Euan, who is now back in Scotland, gave me some details of a Scottish guy called Gavin who produces UK sausages, bacon and pies in Seoul, so I set about tracking him down. After a look on his website (http://www.gavin.co.kr/) and an email, I found out he has a stall in one of the big department stores in Central Seoul. And so, at a rather steep cost, I bought a few packs of sausages, bacon and steak mince pies. The sausages and bacon were excellent, and the pies were nice too, but a bit dry for my taste. As Korean apartments do not generally have ovens as standard, we had to borrow a couple of small toaster ovens to do the job instead. Here are the pies baking away.

Gavin seems to be a bit of celebrity in Korea, there's pictures of him meeting Lee Myung Bak and Princess Diana! He also apparently does the catering for the British Embassy and British Council as well as many international schools and companies. A good niche in the market there.

The weekend before last it was the return of the K-League for another season. The mighty Incheon FC were playing Busan I-Park at Incheon's Munhak Stadium (only a 5000 Won taxi ride for us) so we headed up and watched the game. As usual, the standard of football was shocking but Incheon got the win, and their new foreign signing (Jade North, an Australian) had a good game and acknowledged us at the end when we went down to shout his name. He looked pretty shocked that there were people there who actually knew who he was!

The above photo was taken just after kick-off. Incheon had the biggest attendance of any K-League match on the opening weekend, I would say the stadium was maybe 1/3 full at best. Still, a reasonable atmosphere.

Last weekend, Lisa and I headed off on a wee trip away. We went to Chungcheongbuk-Do, a region in the centre of South Korea. First stop was the city of Chungju, where we changed buses and headed to the nearby Chungju lake. I had hoped we could take a boat along the lake to the resort town of Danyang, but unfortunately it wasn't running, so we went for a shorter cruise instead. It was very cold, but nice to be out on the water, and we saw some of the lake and the nearby Woraksan national park in the distance. Here is a link to the photos on Facebook and a couple of the best ones.

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=230800&id=777495416&l=3b33f9434c


The ferry pier on Chungju Lake. Ours was the small one on the right.

Lisa and I on board

Looking over to Woraksan.

After our cruise we caught the bus back to Chungju, changed buses again and headed on a very windy road over to Danyang, at the other end of the lake. Danyang is small by Korean standards, LP gives its population as 44,000, and it certainly wasn't that busy when we arrived. We checked into a 'luxury' hotel and explored a bit that evening and had some Dakgalbi (spicy chicken, rice cake and veggies cooked on a big hot plate).

The next day we were up earlyish, got a bakery breakfast and caught yet another bus to Gu-In-Sa. Guinsa is a Buddhist temple complex located in the mountains near Danyang, and it was pretty impressive. The whole place is situated in one valley, so you start off at the bottom and work your way up. There were lots of different buildings, dining halls, dormitories, shrines and of course a toilet or two. All were decorated with the incredibly intricate paintings and drawings you see on buildings of that type. At the top there was a very new looking building which was still to be painted.....some job that will be. It was nice to walk about and peer into the different buildings, and soak up the peaceful atmosphere.

The temple at the top of the valley

Looking down the valley

After exploring a bit more we headed back to Danyang and caught a train back to Seoul, where Lisa introduced me to some Vietnamese food (tasty) before we came back to Incheon. It was a great weekend, great to get away from Incheon for a while, and spend some time with Lisa. There was a lot of time on public transport, but it was worth it.

As of Monday, it was back to reality and teaching again. I have bought a new game for the PS3 so that has been keeping me and the boys busy most nights, and I have rejoined my old gym after the new one closed down, pretty much overnight. It remains to be seen if we will ever get a refund, I am owed two months worth. We are also managing to play badminton once a week, at the Somang building where we played a few times last year. It's a bit closer this year which is nice, and also seems to be a lot quieter, we haven't had to wait for a court as of yet.

It's become a lot milder in the last few days, but unfortunately there has also been an onslaught of the 'yellow dust' which blows over from China/Mongolia at this time every year. I might have to dig out the face mask if it gets any worse! This weekend, I am playing football at the venue where I hurt my ankle back in December, so hopefully there won't be a repeat. Greg and I are still eagerly anticipating the arrival of Oasis on April Fools Day, and the idea of Beijing is still bubbling away too. It depends a bit on when/if a certain close relative of mine plans to visit! Hopefully it will all work out.

Right, I'm off to play some Pro Evolution Soccer. I am still rubbish, and am suffering defeats almost every game against Greg and Neil. I'm going to put in some hard training though, so watch out boys!

Oh aye, in my previous blog I said Greg and I were giving up beer for Lent. Well, I think I'm over half way now and not a drop has been touched. And I don't really miss it. I'm just drinking a lot of Coke Zero instead! We all have our weaknesses........well I certainly do anyway.

Bye

Spring is in the air.....

It is a lovely sunny afternoon here in Incheon, and I have just returned from a walk up to the Bus Terminal along the Seunggicheon stream. I am at pains even to call it a stream, it is more an assortment of stinky pools bordered by a cycle path and assorted ongoing earthworks. To give the Incheon city council some credit, it does look like they are trying to improve it somewhat, by installing boardwalks and water features, but they will need to improve the water quality drastically if they are to prove useful.

Here a couple of photos from this afternoon. Despite what I have said above, I do like to get out for a walk, and it is a pleasant enough stroll.

The bridges up ahead in the above picture are part of the Suin railway line, currently under reconstruction. When finished it will link Incheon with Suwon.

Looking across some rice fields to the Munhak stadiums.

The new football (soccer) season starts next weekend, which I am thoroughly looking forward to, and then baseball kicks off (?) next month. Incheon FC have thankfully got rid of the popular, but awful, No.31. he has gone to league winners Seongnam, and we (I like to think of myself as part of Incheon FC these days!) have brought in an Australian and ANOTHER player called Dragan, as well as appointing the former Serbian national team coach as manager. Maybe Incheon will fare better this season with him at the helm.

Since our return from Japan, life has hurtled along at the usual frenetic Korean pace. Earlier this month Greg and I and some other Western boys went for a kickabout on a blaze (sand/earth) pitch in Yeonsu-Dong. We ended up playing against and with a whole load of middle-school boys whose coach seemed keen for them to play with 'real' footballers. None of us were particularly good, mainly due to hungoverness and lack of practice, but I did a lot of aimless running about as usual and swung a few decent crosses in which I was happy about.

Team Photo

Last weekend we pulled an all-nighter (the first since university for me I think) before heading into Seoul early on Saturday morning to join the USO (the US army's entertainment organisation) tour to the DMZ. It was Greg's 1st time, Neil's 3rd, and my 4th! If you read the news reports, you would be forgiven for thinking North Korea is about to launch a massive attack on.......well on the rest of the world, but despite this you are still allowed to tour within a few metres of the North and at one point actually step into the country itself (albeit inside a guarded building). If you want to see lots of pictures of the DMZ, have a look at my previous blog posts, as I don't want to look like a broken record on this blog.

Even though this was my 4th trip, the good thing is that they've all been different. This time we were allowed to take a lot more photos, and we spent a good bit of time standing looking over to North Korea inside the JSA, just outside the South Korean meeting hall, something we had not been allowed to do on previous trips. There was only one North Korean guard visible, you can just about make him out in the photo below.

For more photos and video, here are some Facebook links.

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=221333&id=777495416&l=06765

I have to say I still found it fascinating, even though a lot of the sights were familiar to me. I don't think there is anywhere else in the world where the atmosphere is so tense, yet it is also so calm. There is something crazy about thinking.... 'if I run 50m in that direction then I will die'. The guards don't mess around up there. Hopefully they won't be around for ever and one day the DMZ may be dismantled, but its certainly not going to be during my time in Korea. Relations between North and South are frostier than they have been for some time.

On a less serious note, Tuesday was Pancake Day so Lisa and I attempted to make our own. Following good old Delia Smith's recipe, we did OK, although the amount of batter was a bit small so we ended up making another batch. Greg and I are giving up beer for Lent, which is so far going O.K. I am also forgoing sweets, which may prove more problematic.

My tossing skills are not great!

And that about brings us up to speed I think. March is looking good, the football next weekend, then Lisa and I are heading to Chungju (in the middle of Korea, a big lake) for the weekend on the 14th/15th, and then Oasis are playing in Seoul on the 1st of April, which Greg and I are going to. The teaching is still going well, the kids are all back to school now so the schedule is back to normal. The new school year begins this week (unlike August/September back home) so a lot of the 6th grade kids are going into middle school, and there will be a new intake of very little people to look forward to as well. Very cute, but no English at all. Hmmmmmm.......

Well, as I look out the window, the sun is setting over the new Incheon bridge, which is now joined in the middle (due to open October this year), there are a steady stream of planes coming in to land at Incheon airport, and the skyscrapers over on New Songdo are inching their way upwards. It's not the same as the view from Lovedale that's for sure, but I still enjoy it.

Return to Japan

Hello,

After the craziness of meeting Tom Cruise last month it was back to reality for a few days, but before long it was time for Greg and I to experience craziness of a different kind, as we headed to Japan for a hectic 4 days of sightseeing.

We flew out on Friday the 23rd, my first and so far only experience of flying with Korean Air. A pleasant flight, and at around an hour and a half to Osaka not too long either. After landing in Osaka we picked up our Japan rail passes (which allow unlimited travel on almost all the JR network, very handy) and boarded the airport train. We decided we would head straight to Kyoto, even though we were going to be staying in Osaka (the two are about an hour apart). upon arriving at the very futuristic Kyoto station, we lockered our bags and hopped on a bus to the Golden Pavillion, Kyoto's most famous tourist attraction. It was impressive, a big gold-leaf coated temple sitting beside a small lake. Very peaceful.



At this point I'll also give the link to the rest of the photos on Facebook. Here's the ones I took.

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=210280&l=e8359&id=777495416

Unfortunately my camera was playing up a bit so I couldn't take any pictures on the first and last days. Greg's camera filled in the gaps so i will try and post a few of his snaps on this blog too.

After the pavilion visit we wandered around Kyoto for a bit and then caught the Shinkansen (bullet train) back to Osaka. We went to the capsule hotel that Neil Munro and I stayed in last year and then headed out to acquaint ourselves with the Osaka nightlife.

The next day, we explored Osaka a bit more, and went to the aquarium/IMAX cinema (also where Neil and I went) They had a 'penguin parade' which was quite fun (similar to the one at Edinburgh zoo if anyone's been) and we were also gifted 6000 Yen (about 45 pounds) by a malfunctioning ticket machine, so that paid for our day!

That evening we met Gordie, who used to work in Korea but moved to Japan last year. It was great to see him and we had some good banter about old times, both in Korea and at Uni (he went to Stirling too, and was one of the initial reasons I came to Korea).



Me and Gordie. My favorite H&M shirt still gets a wear now and again!

The next day we managed to get up reasonably early and boarded the Shinkansen to Tokyo.

The Japanese rail network really is world-class. Trains are on-time to the second, clean, quiet and the Shinkansen was not too busy. There are trains every 10 mins or so between Osaka and Tokyo, and they cover the distance in around 3 hours. On the way up we had a great view of Mt.Fuji. It was just like you see in the pictures, snow-capped and beautiful.

Upon arrival in Tokyo we checked into our hotel and then set about exploring some of this huge city. First stop was an area called Harajuku, home of the Meiji shrine and, on a Sunday, an area where eccentric Japanese (and western) people gather to hang around and be photographed. There were a few goth-types, a Japanese cowboy and many other odd folk. The shrine was nice, located in a leafy park, and there was a Japanese wedding going on too, so plenty to see.
We left Harajuku and walked down busy shopping streets (paying a vist to 'Condomania'...no prizes for guessing what they sold) to the area of Shibuya....apparently Tokyo's coolest area. It also home of the busiest pedestrian crossing in the world, made famous in the film 'Lost In Translation' and The Killers video 'Read my Mind'. It really was a sight to behold. I took a video of one cycle of the crossing, bear in mind that during the day, that is happening every few mins or so. Crazy!

We headed out that night in the popular area of Roppongi, but being a Sunday it was pretty quiet. The next morning, it was up bright and early (5am) to head to the Tsjukii fish market. Why go to a fish market at 5am you may ask? Well, it is Japan's largest, and it is also famous as being the place where tuna are auctioned. It is a crazy place, lots of carts flying about and every sort of seafood/fish imaginable. I'd been to a big market down in Busan, but there was no tuna there. In Tsjukii, whole tuna were laid out in rows (all snap-frozen and numbered), some of them were HUGE! We briefly saw one of the auctions taking place

After a few more hours of sleep back at the hotel, we went to the nearby government offices (basically a big city hall) and went up to the free observation deck on the 45th floor. It was a bit hazy but we still got a good view of Tokyo. The Tokyo urban area has the largest population in the world (around 30 million) and being up that high it was possible to see how....the city stretched as far as the haze allowed us to see.

In the afternoon we paid a visit to the Ginza district, home of the 'posh' shops, and the Sony building. The Sony building is basically Sony saying "Look at all the cool stuff we make", and I have to say, it was pretty cool. I was only browsing, but Greg bought a nice wee MP3 player. After a nearby stop at a Nissan showroom

we headed back down to Osaka on the train for fish and chips at the British pub near the capsule hotel (very Japanese eh?) and had a reasonably early night for our morning flight back to Korea.

So that was Japan. Hectic and expensive, but incredible. It was tough going back to work but I settled back into the swing of things quite easily after a couple of days. Future plans include a ski/snowboard weekend at some point this month, DMZ again in March (providing North Korea don't start getting itchy trigger fingers) and possibly Beijing in April/May, depending on finances/holiday. I have been spending a bit of time with a Canadian-Chinese girl called Lisa recently, so we are going to try and go somewhere in Korea soon too. It is early days, but she is really nice, so we'll see what happens.

And on that note, I will sign off for now. Speak soon..........