Blogs from South Korea, Asia - page 377

Power Outage So I finally broke down and turned on the A/C (which the Koreans call "AirCon") on Thursday. It has been brutally hot and humid the past few days. Like my father before me, I am of the opinion that air conditioning should only be used in the extremest of conditions. Anyone in Seattle, for instance, who has air conditioning in their house, will not get it. We can all live together in this world in peace, but only if everyone agrees that I am right about air conditioning. Anyway, I am further convinced of the evil of AC by what happened. I left for work on Thursday with the air conditioner running (maybe I've become soft, but it's not comfortable to wake up drenched in sweat when the fan is on high and all ... read more

Finally got pictures up in this piece - I've taken 99 pictures in three days. I will spare you most of the horrible arty shots. I am the walrus... In the past couple of days, I have spent a lot of time walking and taking photos. I have gone from here to there and back again. My feet have grown hair on the tops, hobbit-like, and I have started to crave Lambas bread. And my new camera has become "my precious." She's an Olympus C-55 Zoom. She's a tough mistress, but fair. There are more functions than I will ever possibly need, but I've tried to use as many of them as I can in the past few days. For 500 bucks, I got a 5-megapixel, 5x zoom, point-and-shoot style camera with full manual operation, shutter ... read more

The THX train is Korea's poor rival to Japan's Shinkansen (bullet trains). Nonetheless I took it from Seoul to Busan for kicks, since it's also much cheaper than the Shinkansen. I sat next to a fellow Asian backpacker (origins unknown, but probably native Korean), but he slept the whole time so we did not speak. At this point I was weary of sightseeing and foreign cultures (for someone who loves traveling, I get culture shock and homesickness quite easily), so I skipped downtown Busan and the largely dismantled fortress (I am sure the Koreans can find a way to blame this on the Japanese as well) and headed straight to Haeundae, Busan's tourist beach/foreigner enclave. Right away I liked Busan for the traditional food market. Busan is known for its raw fish (Koreans claim sushi and ... read more

Suwon is where I live it is 50 miles south of Seoul. It is a fairly typical Korean town that has been in the last 10 years to accomadate the communters who work in Seoul. Although Suwon is new there is some history to the city, before the mass development Suwon was an empiral city with a proctective wall surrounding it. I had the opportunity to visit this wall and take part in Traditional sports. ... read more

After two years on and off of life in South Korea, interspersed with wanderings, I'm off again to do something i hope to be meaningful. During my time in the south of South Korea, i've been graced with good friends and abundant mountains to climb. For all considering Korea, i praise the mountains, the food, friends once you make them, and many incongruities. Beware of east versus west thinking conflicts, and materialism, and a rather high standard of living (though slight compared with Japan). Smog aside, Korea is where i have felt strongest and healthiest. The most beautiful place, for moi, is Geoje island, an island to the south of Busan. The most beautiful foods are any with "gochu" (hot pepper), "dooboo" (tofu), and many, many "banchan" (side-dishes, including Kimchi, the national sauerkraut). Today, June 14th, ... read more