Blogs from South Korea, Asia - page 349

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Asia » South Korea » Seoul September 8th 2006

Left Brussels at noon by train to Amsterdam Schiphol airport for my evening flight to Saigon, vietnam via Seoul. Check-in was early and I got my supermarket chicken rossitte bought from supermarket for lunch. Lingered at the Schiphol airport and purchsed a 1-git memory card for my digital carmera. My ATM worked wonder at Schiphol. The flight was long to South Korea. The plane from Europe to Korea does not equip with personal screen monitor at the headrest in the front of your seat. This made the long flight was not an enjoyable one. Yet, I had good airline food (believe or not, surprise, even myself) and we landed safely in Seoul. Breakfast was served with Rice porridge with green tea with seasonings. Dinner was Seaweed soup and traditional korean food of bibimbab (rice, chilli paste, ... read more
yummy airline food
Korea decor
Korean traditional architecture

Asia » South Korea » Seoul September 8th 2006

The Korean open is an international event, which any country can enter, as well as local clubs. The standard is very wide - from the developing nations to the more advance nations. Alot of the countries use this tournement as a practice event for other bigger events. Alot of the countries represented will be competing at the World Cup in Thailand next week. This year, the open is being held at the Olympic Park/Stadiums, where alot of the Korean Olympics was held years ago. Korea has bought there A team to fight in this tournement, so it is no surprised that they have dominated proceedings so far. (Not by pure skill, as some of the final matches between korea and other countries have some dubious scoring). I managed to catch up with the Australian team, and ... read more
South Africa TKD Team
Duncan & Me
A familiar face

Asia » South Korea » Seoul September 8th 2006

One thing that I have to give to the Korean people is the fact that they will never go hungry here. Ever corner, subway, street has at least 10 restuarants on them, and if there is no restuarant, there is a vending machine serving food. I have done my "get to know you area" walks over the recent days, and have seen some interesting things Much of the sity scenary is like Hong Kong - bright neon signs everywhere - except all the streets are for food places. Sungnam main street does have what is called "Ubiquotis Mart" which is a multi storey shopping centre for clothes. Buying clothes is not the cheapest however, but food is - with a big meal costing 4000 won (or 7 AUD). Tonite I decided to walk to the meat ... read more
Yes these stairs
Staples
What to do to lose weight in Korea.

Asia » South Korea » Seoul September 7th 2006

Ok, so I figured I might as well tell/show you guys a little bit about where I living. I'm in a city called Bundang. Apparently it translates to something along the lines of "Second to Heaven". I'm not sure its exact population, but I've heard ranges from 1-2 million. The local gathering spot of people and mall is at an area called Samsung Plaza. This is a combination of a mall, a plaza (who would have known) filled with tons of different restaurants, stores, bars and offices, and finally a connection point for the subway and buses. Our actual apartment building is in an area known as Janang Town (not too sure about spelling on this one...). Bundang is a very ritzy area and from what I've been told we are quite privileged to be living ... read more
Smile!
Bird's Eye View
Golf Anyone?

Asia » South Korea » Gyeongsangbuk-do » Gimcheon » Jikji sa September 6th 2006

Jikji-sa (Jikji Temple) is by far one of my favorite places in South Korea. It is a temple located 20 min outside of Gimcheon, and it provides a few hours of rest, tranquility, a great walk, beautiful scenary, and of course a marvelous tea house. It is not as big as various other temples in South Korea; however it is one of the best to visit. The best way to get there is to take the bus, only 900 won, from the center of town. Once there, one can get lost in the 2 square blocks of shops and restaurants that are around the area. The shops provide cheap souvenirs, but surprisingly you can find some of the things inside the temple for a bit cheaper. The restaurants are great, and any one you choose, you ... read more
Jikji-sa
Jikji-sa
Jikji-sa

Asia » South Korea » Seoul September 5th 2006

7:00am wake up this morning for training. We were told to run about 20 mins around the hall, progressively getting faster and faster as we went. Needless to say, i died in the arse about half way...and that was only warm up. After the warm up, we continued and did sprints around the make shift track in the hall...4 laps of sprinting, then rest. This continued for 5 times, before we were able to get a drink. We then did sprints again, this time for 20 meters, for 10 times. Then 10 meters for 5 times. This was proceeded straight after by shuttle runs/suicides - which means you run back and forth 3 times, from one end of the hall to the other, and back again. (To give you an idea of the size of the ... read more

Asia » South Korea » Gwangju September 5th 2006

Hello, goodbye, thank you and stop here! are the only Korean words I have learned in two months. I came here in June ready to master the alphabet in a week and move on to full sentences. Of course my arrogance bit me in the ass as I still only know four words/phrases. In fact, the lady at Paris Baugette, the best bread place I've found, enjoys laughing at me everytime I try new words. We have a love/hate relationship. So this blog is an array of topics and pictures, none of which relate, except that they are about South Korea. It's been a little over two months since I've been here. I remember arriving at the airport and feeling like my heart was going to explode because I finally followed through with traveling abroad. Immediatley ... read more
Steadily Getting Sloshed
Phiphi & ??
Liam & Me

Asia » South Korea » Gyeongsangbuk-do » Gyeongju September 5th 2006

I've just finished wandering around today's New York Times, peaking in here and there, mostly looking for people-pieces...an article about the editor-in-chief of Men's Health -- described as "handsome middle son," or something of that sort. And then I found Modern Love on the Style page. The woman talked about her divorce from a white man, as a black woman, due to her impassioned views on race and his dismissal, or inability to firmly grasp the still prevalent racism in America. Although the actual piece was about her attempt to date a new white guy - "No one in American can clam to be free of racist indoctrination and doing so only perpetuates the crime.." she paraphrased someone else. Tim Wise. And I try to look at my situation here, tossing it around in my head. ... read more

Asia » South Korea » Suwon September 4th 2006

Welcome again to the dribble I leave upon this webspace. I hope my absence has not left you all bereft of the sour juice that makes this life so disturbingly fruitful. Anyhow, welcome back to my onslaught upon the common mind. Wishing you well as we dive back into the abyss below the surface of popular concience... Since my last update things have changed a little. I'm a little weaker in heart than I have been, but life goes on, the world keeps turning and the spread of this filth known as the human race continues. At which, I will begin my tale. Week days have consisted mainly of photo shoots... I've been delving into portraiture and heavy post processing... you'll see all this on my website tomorrow. Semi-teacher quit today because wonderland is a little ... read more
Emily
Happy
All there

Asia » South Korea » Seoul September 3rd 2006

Had breakfast/lunch with Duncan this morning. He told me a little more about him self over the morning bulgogi (which was very, very nice and different, not like the stuff you get at home) - for those not in tune with Korean Cuisine, it is bbq beef in AUS, but here is is bbq beef stew you have with rice). He told me he was in Athen's and the first TKD athelete to represent South Africa at the Olympics. He was beaten first round by the Gutalamia guy, who also bet the AUS guy. Needless to say, I was a bit shocked/surprised at this, as he is such a humble guy. He also introduced me to some of the Thai team today, most of the overseas teams who are training at the school eat at the ... read more
Duncan
The Hill




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