Posts from the “Korea” Category

The Wanderer Returns

Posted on February 22nd, 2008

Jogyesa Temple (Seoul) – photo by xoxoryan. When Arnie uttered the immortal words “I’ll be back” he meant it, as did I, so at rather short notice I’m taking a trip east again – I’ll be in Seoul the first week of March and Beijing the second which is all rather exciting but as usual quite a lot to plan in the few remaining days! This time I’ve managed to find some much more reasonable flights, meaning it will only take 14 hours to get to Seoul instead of 24 last time which just about killed me. Luckily I’m almost a seasoned pro at this malarkey so am a little more prepared for what to expect. I’m especially looking forward to returning to Chinese…

Namdaemun Destroyed

Posted on February 11th, 2008

On Sunday night a devastating fire destroyed the 610 year-old Namdaemun “Great South Gate” in Seoul, South Korea [video]. Luckily no one was hurt but it’s sad to hear that the blaze may be have been started on purpose. The loss is even more painful as gate was the countries no. 1 national treasure and one of the few to survive foreign invasions. The Cultural Heritage Administration has said that it will take at least three years to restore at an estimated cost of $21 million. I feel somewhat lucky to have visited Namdaemun last September when I was in South Korea and took a number of photos of the magnificent structure with its colourful paintings on the underside. What struck me was its…

Food vs Fashion

Posted on January 10th, 2008

Cosmetic surgery clinics are pervasive in Korea with advertisements cheerfully proclaiming the many benefits you will reap if you have this or that done to your body, mainly targeted towards young women. Whilst I personally put this firmly in the category of self-mutilation there is no doubt that the prevalence of such services can only be a reflection on Korean society and its seeming obsession with self image and appearance. Walking around the streets of Myeong-dong and Dongdaemun in central Seoul you see many trendy young people spending copious amounts of (their parents?) money in expensive looking boutiques; it seems fairly clear that fashion is in the lifeblood of this county’s youth (see FeetManSeoul for an idea of what I mean). An article in…

Downgraded

Posted on November 20th, 2007

Last week was pretty busy with work and it looks set to be fairly hectic till the end of the year, which for me ends December 14th due to all the vacation days I have left! In the week directly before Christmas I’ve planned a short trip to Amsterdam for a couple of days – I last went their when I was 14 (9 years ago) so it will be nice to see it again and hopefully take the camera through its paces. Recently I was helping giving my uncle some advice about buying a new computer – he showed one particular model he was looking at and I couldn’t help but laugh when I saw the operating system options: Yep, that’s right you…

Back to School

Posted on October 21st, 2007

It’s been a long time since I posted anything under the “University” category since I graduated over two years ago and whilst I may be a little older and wiser the learning never ends! Since visiting Korea twice this year I felt it was about time I learned a bit of the language so signed up for the Beginners Korean course at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London. Three lessons later and it’s not going to badly but I think I’m going to have to put a fair bit of effort in to be able to keep up with the work – somewhat reminiscent of when I studied Japanese! Korean is significantly easier to learn than Chinese or Japanese…

O2 SMS Woes

Posted on October 12th, 2007

If you have international roaming on your phone enabled (most people do) you should be able to send SMS text messages to people abroad, right? Not if you’re with O2 it turns out. Having switched to O2 at the beginning of the month, because they’ll be the sole iPhone carrier in the UK, I found out to my great annoyance this week that you can’t SMS people in South Korea and visa versa… if you’re on O2 anyway (Orange works fine). Several missed text messages later, which mysteriously vanished into a black hole somewhere, I called and emailed customer services who eventually came back with this: “Thanks for emailing us about not being able to send text messages to a South Korean mobile number.…

Namdaemun

Posted on October 1st, 2007

Namedaemun, or “Great South Gate”, was sadly my final destination on my travels in South Korea. The gate itself is apparently the oldest remaining wooden structure in Seoul and was originally built to keep Korean tigers out! Very nearby is Namedaemun Market, the oldest and largest retail centre in Seoul. It was a bit of a rabbit warren and I quickly got lost in the hustle and bustle of the tightly packed streets amid a myriad of curious sights and smells. For someone who likes chillies this was on another level – there’s enough fire in this lot to cause some serious damage! Talking of fire, if the health & safety bureaucrats in the UK ever inspected this place they’d have a field day,…

Dongdaemun

Posted on September 30th, 2007

As my plane back to the UK wasn’t until midnight on Monday I decided to have a final explore of some of the things I hadn’t yet seen which included both Dongdaemun and Namdaemun markets, centred around the historic city walls. Dongdaemun means “Great East Gate” and was the major eastern gate in the wall that surrounded Seoul during the Joseon Dynasty. Today it’s marooned in the middle of a busy roundabout looking somewhat forlorn, no longer gatekeeper to a city which is grown way beyond its original boundaries. Surrounding the gate is Dongdaemun Market, consisting of over 26 shopping malls, mainly specialising in retail and wholesale fashion items. With over 30,000 shops you’re pretty spoilt for choice if you like that sort of…

Escape from Busan

Posted on September 28th, 2007

After a leisurely afternoon in Busan it was time to catch the KTX back to Seoul. Unfortunately I had rather underestimated the amount of time it would take to get back to the accommodation to collect my things and then get back to the train station. This turned into a mad dash to make the 8.55pm train which I made with barely 5 minutes to spare. Funnily enough the KTX train journey was faster than this little detour! Having made it back to Seoul it was back to the guest house for a final few winks sleep before my last day. Unfortunately I woke Monday morning to find a huge cockroach on the wall above my bed. For someone who is only used to…

Chungnyeol Shrine

Posted on September 26th, 2007

Having been running around Korea like a crazed manic the previous week I decided to take Sunday a little slower (at least that was the original plan). Late morning I headed to Chungnyeol Shrine, “where the spirits of the patriotic martyrs in Busan region, who have bravely fought against the Japanese troops in the battles under the Japanese Invasion of Korea in 1592 and died heroic deaths, are enshrined.” You probably get the picture, just a hint of anti-Japanese fervour here! …along with some massive fish but surprisingly few people. One of the benefits of travelling in Korea is that you generally don’t seem to find massive hordes of foreign tourists at the big sites (even less at the small ones) which can make…

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