Gyeongju/Busan

My latest adventure was a two-part trip to Gyeongju (the historical capital of South Korea) as well as a really nice seaside side city called Busan.  I've really got too many stories from this trip to write about and am really behind on this thing, so I'm just going to choose my favorite story and then show some pictures from the rest of the trip.  Gyeongju consisted of a lot of tombs, temples, waterways, and ancient structures.  Busan had a really fun night life with beaches, towers, and tons of seafood (mostly inedible).

On my third day, I got up early after watching an exciting Netherlands vs. Brazil game with two Brits. and a French guy I met in my hostel, and set off to do my last few sites in Gyeongju.  Then I got on the bus to Busan and saw little of the city.  It was getting a bit late and I was feeing pretty worn out, but there was one more  attraction on my list of things to do.  Unfortunately, the site was a very obscure little temple located way up in the mountains of Busan.  It is a temple off the tourist map since there are no bus stops nearby and there is a bit of a hike up the mountains to get to it.  I decided that I would probably kick myself if I didn't go for it, so I grabbed my bag and began my journey to Seokbulsa (Stone Buddha Temple).  They weren't kidding when they meant it was hard to get to...I continually got lost all the way up.  When I thought I might be getting close, an oldish man called to me from nearby.  I walked over to him while trying to understand what he was saying.  Eventually I figured out that he was asking where I was going (I guess I didn't really fit in around there).  In my best Korean (probably about as foreign sounding as if I had just spoken English to him), I told him that I was looking for Seokbulsa and asked if I was going the right way.  He nodded, but said that I could continue on the roundabout little roadway I was on, or I could go straight up.  He pointed to the woods in front of him.  Seemed like it could be interesting, so I nodded and took a step towards the woods.  He stood up and told me he would lead me there.  So, I set off with my new hiking buddy.  He was rather chatty, but most of the conversation was lost due to the to language barrier.  Most of the time, I just sort of grunted or said "ahh" and he would laugh.  I was able to comprehend that his son either works for Mitsubishi in Australia, or some boat building company on an island off South Korea...can't really distinguish which.  He also mentioned a few times that he really likes Makgeolli, a flavorful rice wine unique to Korea.  It was swelteringly hot and extremely humid, which actually worked out to my benefit since I knew how to comment on the weather.  Well, ok, I actually only knew how to say one thing..."It's hot out (deo-wo-yo)".  Eventually we came to the most beautiful little network of temples I've seen in all my travels though Korea.  They were all built into some spectacular cliffs near the peak of the mountain.  The Buddhas were all raised reliefs carved into cliffs, caves, and outcroppings.   Nobody was around except for one overseer plus the two of us, so it was beautifully peaceful as I explored the place.

My hiking buddy told me that he would show me a secret way back to the train station that would reduce my walking time in half.  So, I set off again with him back down the opposite side of the mountain.  When we reached the city, we passed by a dingy little market area.  He invited me to sit down with him and share a bottle of Makgeolli and some dried squid (basically squid jerky) with him.  While sipping our Makgeolli from little bowls, I could see that he was thinking really had about something.  After a minute or so, he turned to me and said "My English name is Peter".  I was like "No way!  I'm Peter!".  We laughed and finished up the bottle.

Pics

Some of the royal tombs from the park in Gyeongju.  I felt like I was walking around Teletubby land.

(Too lazy to write this up...thanks Wikipedia)

Cheomseongdae is an astronomical observatory in Gyeongju, South Korea. Cheomseongdae means star-gazing tower in Korean. Cheomseongdae is the oldest surviving observatory in East Asia, and one of the oldest scientific installations on Earth.

Some cool frogs I saw on a hike up to Seokguram Seokgul.

An ancient ice house

Statues at Beomeosa temple in Busan

Haeundae Beach (Busan) in the evening.

Indoor section of Jagalchi Fish Market in Busan.  This place was crazy.  The ocean is just outside and all the fish come strait off the boats and right into all these tanks.  Then you just pick what you want and they pull it out of the tank and slaughter it/pack it up right there in front of you.  You can buy stuff here that I didn't even know existed.

(You may want to skip this one.)  If you ever want some really fresh eel, here is the place to go.  You can see the eels in the tank on the left of the picture.  The woman on the right takes an eel from the tank and drives a prong (blue thing on the back of the cutting board) through its head to pin in to the cutting board.  From there, she slices a fold of skin from around the eel's neck and while still wrestling with it, she digs her fingers under the skin and strips it right off the whole eels.  She then tosses the skinless eel in that bowl where the already skinned bloody eels are still wriggling around and fighting to get out.  Yum Yum.  Dinna time!

View of Busan harbor from Busan Tower.

-OAO

Seoul Trip

The past week has flown by.  I went up to Seoul to watch the South Korea vs. Argentina game with my buddy Luke Lee from Dartmouth.  We hung out with his brother and a few of his English-speaking Korean friends (all of us decked out in red South Korean apparel).  As the excitement of the game built up and our pints emptied, I found myself a bit lost in the mixture of Korean cheering swearing that began to take place.  Luckily for me, "going nuts" when South Korean scored right before halftime is a universal language, and I had no problem contributing to the celebration.



The rest of my trip to Seoul consisted of a lot of temples, shrines, palaces, museums, markets and other touristy attractions.  Rather than talk about everything I did, I'm just going to put up a bunch of pictures with a little blurb about each.  I would recommend clicking on each picture to see the full-size versions rather than just the thumbnails.  Enjoy.






I stayed at some nice little hostels while I was in Seoul.  They were some of the most fun places I've ever stayed.  I met some really interesting people at them.  One of the hostels actually offered me a  BBQ dinner and night of clubbing for free.  This one (see right) had a really interesting bathroom where the shower head was just on the wall right between the sink and toilet.  There is nothing separating the shower from the rest of the bathroom, so everything just got soaked when I used it.







Seoul is famous for its palaces.  The picture below is at Gyeongbokgung palace, the largest palace.  The second is Gyeongbokgung's sister palace, Changdokgung.  As you can see, they're not much different.

More palace Scenery

                     

I walked around a traditional village called Bukchon Hanok village.  I felt a little uncomfortable taking pictures of the people and village, so I stopped where some men were lifting heavy bags of cement, grabbed a bag, and carried to where they were stacking them (see pic).  They got a real kick out of this and started rooting me on.  It made me feel a little better about being such a tourist.

Changing of the Guards at Gyeongbokgung Palace

Myeong-dong market (right)

This was a really fun place where tons and tons of street vendors sell all sorts of stuff.  It's usually really crowded, but there's music playing, and it's a really fun scene.

On our way into a Buddhist temple, we happened to come across this little festival just outside.  The whole place was filled with those colorful lanterns.  The next two are shots from inside the temple.

On my last day in Seoul, I went up to the DMZ (demilitarized zone).  It's a buffer region spanning 2 km on either side of the border with North Korea.  You have to go up as part of a tour since it's heavily monitored and there are tons of restrictions on what goes on up there.  We had to suit up in helmets and bullet proof vests for the trip.  We also had to practice to drop and cover on command.  jk, we didn't have to do any of that.  I was surprised however, at how much military patrolling and blockage/invasion defense equipment was active in the area.  They're not taking any chances.  As part of the tour, we got to go into one of the tunnels that North Korea had tried to dig to invade the South.  There are currently four of these tunnels that have been discovered before the North could make use of them.  There is constant surveillance of ground vibrations because the South believes that the North is still building these tunnels.  I wasn't allowed to take pictures of much, but I did manage to get a few.


The tunnel we went into was actually right under a mine field...not kidding this time.  Here (right) is a picture of the barbed wire with "Mine" signs on it.  The entrance to the tunnel was directly below.  In the tunnel, we were allowed to go 150 from the actual border.  At that point, there is a huge blockade in the tunnel with constant video surveillance.  We were told that there was an underground mine field just on the other side of the wall we were facing.

COEX Aquarium

They had some really weird tanks at this place.  Yes, that fish is in a toilet.

Piranha

Rare Two-Headed Turtle

Everland

Beth and I went to Korea's largest amusement park (Everland) for a day.  We wanted to get a full day in, so we planned to arrive at 9:30 in the morning when the park opened.  It was forcasted to rain, so we agreed that rather than worry about getting wet, we would just plan to get drenched and just suck it up for the day.  That part went as planned, and we got pretty wet.  Unfortunately we didn't realize that the park is practically closed in the rain.  There were about two rides open, and they were all the little indoor rides that are designed for 5-year olds.  It was a pretty sad scene...we ended up playing in a little kids arena with foam balls.  It was soo upsetting.  We finally found a decent river tube ride that we went on a few times.  We couldn't stop making fun of the waterproof blankets they offered to wrap us in during the ride.  They also had space heaters and fans for drying off after the afterward...needless to say, we avoided all of these.  As we wandered around the deserted park, we began to realize that there was quite a bit more to do than we originally expected.  They had some really cool zoo-like buildings, 4D moives, and an amazing safari tour bus ride that took us through an area with all sorts of wild animals.  Finally around 2:30, the sun began to come out.  Rides suddenly started going.  We got so excited that we began sprinting around the park from one ride to the next.  The greatest part was that there were no lines, since everyone had been smarter than us and had avoided the park on a rainy day .  We got to ride everything in the park as many times as we wanted.  We ended up being at Everland for 11.5  hours and probably got to see and do way more than we would have if it was a clear day and the park was crowded.

Our favorite ride was the the T-Express (right background).  Amazing wooden roller coaster.  Its first drop is 77 degrees and pulls 4.5 g's.  It's ranked #1 most thrilling roller coaster in the world.  All in all, it was a really impressive ride.  We rode it 8 times.

Tiger from the Safari Tour

Hey There Teddy. (Coming over to check out our bus)

-OAO

Food Update

Just a short update on some of the "delicious" things I've eaten over the last week.


Koreans put these awful things called sweet beans in many of their desserts (particularly ice cream). It looks just like a brown bean and tastes like one too. It's probably the last possible thing I want to find when I bite into what I think is a sweet desert. They also have a habit of crushing these "sweet" beans into a paste and making it the filling of things like ice cream sandwiches and warm rolls. For some reason, I always manage to make a poor choice in the cafeteria or supermarket and have to choke down some beans for desert, or first thing in the morning when I go for a warm roll.

Dr. Oh (the head of our lab) took the American exchange students out for dinner the other night with another professor from the school. Let's just say it was one of the most interesting dinners I have ever been to.  The other professor we were with said "want to know how to make the beer taste better?" I wasn't about to pass this opportunity up, so I followed his instructions to drink half of my beer. Then, he began to fill it back up with Soju. I case you don't know, Soju is a common alcohol over here which tastes like vodka to me, but is half the strength. Then, the professor continued to tell us that it is customary to go "bottoms up" on the first drink of the night. I couldn't believe my ears...this guy must have gone to Dartmouth.  It did add a nice flavor I might add.  By then, the food began to arrive and I stared at what was the most impressive sight of sashimi I'd ever seen.  The sashimi I am used to, like the smoked salmon etc., was child's play.  Let me go through a few of the highlights.





A plate arrived in front of me with literally a whole fish on it (head, tail, skin, and all). It looked like they cooked it straight out of the river. It was only about 3 or 4 inches long and an inch or so thick, but you eat it by popping it straight down the hatch, headfirst. Ok, so that was a little weird, but not actually that bad tasting.







Next, I tried probably my least favorite thing I've eaten in Korea to this day. If you ever get a chance to eat sea squirt, I would highly recommend thinking twice about it. I've got two pictures of sea squirt. One is what it looks like in its natural habitat, and the other is on my plate. They don't really do much to hide its appearance. But, with some alcohol on my side, one of those suckers went right down after the fish. Possibly the weirdest consistency I've ever eaten...nasty.






















When I thought it couldn't get much worse, the waitresses brought in something I have wanted to try since I heard about it over here. Live Octopus. Yes literally wiggling tentacles with suction cups on them (very
different from the kind you get when you order octopus sashimi. I asked Dr. Oh about what he thought of the live octopus, and his response was "it's not baby food". Grand. You have to pry a wiggling tentacle off of the plate, which immediately suctions onto your finger with surprising force. Then, the idea is the chew it rather fast to prevent it from latching onto the inside of your mouth/throat. I had heard some horror stories about people dying because the octopus suctioned on in their throats and suffocated them. I wasn't taking my chances...I chewed that thing to a pulp before swallowing.

The rest was a little anti-climactic, but we still got to try some bubblefish, sea urchin, a rather large piece of fish stomach,  and puffer (the kind that is poisonous if prepared the wrong way. Simsons episode anyone?). After dinner, we all went out to a Korean favorite. Nodebong (karaoke). It's very different from what we do in the states, but it's actually really fun.

Yesterday, a few of the guys from the lab took three of us out for another unique food not uncommon in Korea. Woof woof.  Dog meat.  It was dog soup actually. Korean's don't eat it very often, and it was described to us as meat that would be prepared for a holiday meal (a bit like our turkey). The meat actually has a very unique flavor. The soup had both chunks of dog meat as well as little slippery bits. After eating one of these pieces, I held up another and asked one of the lab guys what exactly it was.  The response I received was "Oh yea. That's the uh, hmm what do you call it..(thinking)..Ahh! Skin". Meals never come without surprises over here.

A lovely view of what you might find in the markets

Enjoy your dinner!!


-OAO

First Week Down...

and I'm already struggling to keep this blog up.

Based on the rumors I've heard about Korea boasting some of the fastest internet speeds, I have to say that I've been a bit disappointed with the internet thus far.  The connections are shoddy and blitzing is sooo slow.  Although I have to say, Korea has its head on straight when it comes to computers...Macs don't even exist over here. You can't buy Mac accessories in any of the electronics stores.  It's very refreshing.

Household utilities are proving to be a problem over here for me. Trying to get 3:30 on the microwave took me almost three minutes of pressing buttons with random symbols on them.  Finally, I managed to get the clock up to 5:00... good enough.  I'm extremely low on clean clothes at the moment and still haven't figured out how to use the washing machines.

My third day in the lab, the president of Israel (see right) came to Kaist to meet Hubo (our humanoid robot).  It was pretty impressive seeing him.  I got a few shots of him, but it was difficult since he was constantly surrounded by important people and security. (Some of the pictures are small since I have to squeeze them into the blog, so you can click near the bottom on any of them to get the full-sized image).

A Brazilian guy who works on a different project in my lab invited me to join him for some soccer one night. As it turns out, he is part of the Kaist international soccer team that and plays games against other universities on the weekends.  Good bunch of guys from all over the world (Ghana, Brazil, Germany, etc).  They're really nice and have asked me to come play for them.  I'm just the pale American work horse, wearing tennis shoes and playing sweeper (don't even know what I'm doing back there)...it's a great time.  Our practices usually begin sometime after 10PM and sometimes we play until sometime around 2 in the morning.

Being in a foreign country during the World Cup is a completely different experience from the States. Daejeon isn't exactly a bustling city, and yet the roar form a goal can be heard from the streets at all hours of the night/morning. I've been going out to the local bars to watch the games which usually take place at 8:30PM, 11PM, and 3:30AM (Korean time).  Last weekend was quite an experience...three days in a row, I went out with my new Brazilian buddies to some bar around 8PM and came out when the sun was shinning at 5:30 in the morning. Who needs sleep anyways...that's what 3-hour Korean class is for.


On Sunday, I climbed Mt. Sikjangsan with another girl from the lab.  Daejeon is a very mountainous region around the outskirts of the city, but the experience was a little different from what I'm used to in the NH White's.  The mountain had tons of people on it, and the trail runs at a very shallow grade all the way up.  Every so often, there would be stopping points with some sort of picnic area.  I stopped at my favorite one and took a few pictures.  They have tiny little chairs and tables everywhere with little containers of food on them.  It's funny seeing a bunch of adults sitting around on little kids playground equipment munching on little morsels.  I ate some interesting little fishes just for the novelty of it (See pic).  I'm going to try to keep a list of all the interesting things I've eaten and share them in a later post.

As for what I am actually supposed to be doing while I'm over here, I have begun a project to try to teach the robot how to play Simon Says.  I run tests on a computer simulator of HUBO rather than the actual robot...probably a good choice given the way my tests are shaping up at the moment (See video below in full-screen.  I had a little fun with the sound effects).  I think we'd better put some pillows down before the poor thing acutally has to run my code.

Couple of other interesting pictures:

Common scene in supermarkets

Daejeon Street View (just as you imagined):

My new favorite drink (Tropic Thunder anyone?)

Looking forward to visiting a buddy from Dartmouth in Seoul this weekend and hoping to check out the DMZ at the North Korean border (wish me luck).  Go USA.

-OAO