Blogs from South Korea, Asia - page 5

Trip 2019 has gotten off to a great start. Bill and I arrived to Seoul on a warm, humid evening. After a swift immigration and baggage collection we boarded a KAL Limousine bus to our hotel in downtowan Seoul (Jung-gu). We wandered around neigbouring Myeongdong distrct to familiarise ourselves and search for something to eat. Myeongdong was everything I expected – dazzling lights, a plethora of shops (in particular K-beauty cosmetic shops) and a bustling street food scene. We finally settled for authentic Korean crispy chicken and beer, the air conditioned restaurant a respite from the opressive humidity. An early start for our tour of the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) and Joint Security Area (JSA) in Panmunjom the next day. Earlier in the week, I had received an email from the original tour I had booked a ... read more

July 8th Get excited D-4 for a swimming championship in Gwangju I'm actually living in a place, Gwangju, South Korea. However, I still feel as if I keep traveling around the city with living, so I decided to start to write my long Journey. These days, since the most heated Swimming championship. FINA 2019 is coming, whole around Gwangju city and citizens get excited about the big worldwide water festival. Around the city, the various festival has been held to welcome FINA. Last time, My friends took me Kpop music concert where BTS or Twice (KPOP idols) were coming and we were screaming at each moment even though I was not a big fan of K-pop idols. Gwangju is the first city which hosts FINA swimming championship in South Korea. This city is one of the ... read more

Our first stop on this island was at a museum which demonstrated all the cultural things of Korea. Nicely done and mercifully not too long. Loved the grandfather god carved out of volcanic rock for protection. Got one for the bottom of our garden! Not as big as the one in the photo I hasten to add! Later on at the coast we had to use our imagination yet again to see a dragon in a rock. We saw the dragon , a crocodile and a koala! Don't think we were supposed to see all these! Finally a trip to the local market. These are always good as the fresh live fish on show are fascinating as well as the bizarre meats. Back on board we are celebrating Easter with Easter egg display. We missed the ... read more

Hey everyone! l hope you all had a wonderful holiday season! As many of you probably know already, l was able to travel home for the holidays to visit the family. l have signed on to teach for another year here in Korea, and during the negotiation of my new contract, I was able to get a little over a week off to go home and visit my family for Christmas. Just for fun, I wanted to keep my visit a secret from Sarah, although at times it felt like she was basically the only person who didn't know I would be home for the week of Christmas. There were a few occasions when the secret was almost revealed. She kept asking when I would be home next, and finally I told her I would probably ... read more

We went in search of an animal cafe. These cafes are scattered around Seoul and each has an animal speciality: dogs, cats, raccoons, meerkats, goats and so on. Where these animals come from I am not sure. We decided to go check out the meerkat cafe mainly because neither of us knew what exactly a meerkat was. For once, we found the spot without getting lost first. But I was not prepared for what we walked into. Shoes are left at the door and everyone is given slippers to wear to protect the animals. The cafe doesn’t serve food or coffee (so I decided cafe is false advertising). You can purchase bottled beverages which maintain appropriate sanitation for both the animals and humans. The first shock was the cafe had more than just meerkats; there was ... read more