Blogs from South Korea, Asia - page 24

We travelled south overnight and arrived in Jinju in the early hours of the morning. We headed to Jinhangho Lake first. It was really quiet and we were the only people about. I head down to the lake and was pretty underwhelmed by it. I took a few photos of the misty lake, more to just say that I had been as it wasn't too pretty. I sat and ate some breakfast while reading my book for a bit. Then went for a bit of a wander around. There was a kid's amusement park, which seemed a bit eerie as there was no one around. I did get to see the sun rising over Jinju, which was pretty. We were by Jinhangho Lake for a couple of hours and for me, it wasn't really worthy of ... read more

Tuesday 6th October 2015 Today we sadly wave goodbye to Japan having spent a wonderful 3 weeks here. In order to leave Japan though we had to take the train to Fukuoka and then a local bus to the ferry terminal. The journey was fine on the Shinkansen, but on getting to the bus stop and realising we had just missed the bus and the next one wasn't for 20 mins, we soon began to realise, with the crowd of local people in the queue behind us that we were going to have to fight to get a spot on the next bus with our massive backpacks. We did fight our way on and squished ourselves on the back seat with luggage all around us and arrived at the ferry terminal 30 mins later. We checked ... read more

The trip up from Busan was pleasantly short. It was only a four-hour hop from Busan's Central Station up to Seoul's Express Bus Terminal from where I jumped onto the excellent Metro system and made my way up to Hongik University station and from there it was just a short walk to my hostel - Seoulwise Guesthouse, which was to be my home for the following 9, yes 9, days staying from 14th of September until the 23rd. I had a total of two weeks in South Korea spending 5 days in Busan and 9 in Seoul. Some people might say that it's too much but throughout my travels I've always favoured quality over quantity. In other words, getting to know fewer places well rather than breezing through more and not experiencing anything! It turned out ... read more

It was interesting to see Zaha Hadid masterpiece from my hotel's window the first day in Seoul. More interestingly, I did not realize it was Hadid's design. It is a Blob Architecture, as I coined it, with predominantly using Aluminium Cladding panels facade. Its not a conventional approach in design but still using conventional Cast-In Situ reinforced concrete structure. At night the building really showing off with its lighting effects, as if like a blob objects that illuminates from inside its body. Brilliantly composed with the surrounding landscapes, and colourful high rise buildings. The ground green grass surfaces overshadowed by thousands of white artificial roses, lit using LED bulbs. It mesmerizes the spaces against the historical walls and street furniture. The Complex called Dongdaemun Design Plaza, often referred to the DDP. It has been designed as ... read more

The trip over couldn’t have been more than an hour, but stepping out of Busan International Airport I felt like I’d travelled to a different continent! The grey, drizzly sky of Osaka was replaced with crystal clear blue, the confusing signs pointing here there and everywhere were gone and it only cost me 1300 Won (1 EURO!) for the one hour bus ride to Haeundae Beach where I would be staying the next few days. It’s probably fair to say I liked South Korea almost immediately! I asked the driver to drop me off at the beach and although his English wasn’t top-notch he seemed to understand what I wanted. I had directions to my hostel printed but they were directions from the subway stop. I had no idea where I was when I got off ... read more