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19 June 2011
Sights in and around Gyeongju Gyeongju is referred to as a museum without walls because it is home to more temples, pagodas, Buddhas and other historical artefacts, compared to anywhere else in Korea. I started by visiting two that are out of town … firstly it was Bulguksa, a temple originating from the 700s which […]
18 June 2011
Above: Tumuli Park (burial mounds) by night at Gyeongju. I flew to Daegu today at 1530, flying with Asiana Airlines again. Upon arrival an hour later, I took a taxi to its city centre for an hour-long bus ride to neighbouring Gyeongju. Gyeongju is referred to as a museum without walls because it is home […]
17 June 2011
In the high level plan made many months ago, I allowed a day in Jeju for swimming at the beach and/or diving. The weather is hardly conducive … it is cool and drizzly. I didn’t feel the urge to go to the city centre (it will be like any other Korean town) or to the […]
16 June 2011
Lava Tube Cave It was drizzly in Jeju city. I was unfazed and took the bus (and walked 2.5km) to Manjanggul, a lava-tube cave … that’s a caved formed through hot molten lava flowing through the rock. BTW, Jeju island is very volcanic … there’s lots of black rock everywhere. Back to the lava tube […]
15 June 2011
Changdeokgung Palace My hostel was across the road to one of Seoul’s palaces … Changdeokgung … it was the most recommended one. While the palace was first built in the 1400s, what we see today was rebuilt in the 1600s (due to fire) and some bits were added in the 1800s. It was interesting to […]
14 June 2011
My flight from Kuala Lumpur to Seoul’s Incheon airport departed at 1355. It seemed like the perfect flight with three seats for myself for most of the journey, despite the flight being quite full. To my surprise a lot of the passengers were veiled Malay women who have become addicted to Korean soap operas. Upon […]
13 June 2011
I fly to Seoul tomorrow on AirAsia X. As they do not sell connections from Kuching, I could do a self-connect by flying from Kuching to Kuala Lumpur to connect to the afternoon service to Seoul. To ensure a safe self-connection, I’d have to leave Kuching rather early tomorrow. But fares from Kuching to KL […]
8 June 2011
Today Kim and I parted company. He went home to Auckland while I flew Tiger Airways, instead of AirAsia for a change, to my hometown Kuching for some family time. With a departure time at 1445, the short flight (including check-in, transport at either end), took up more or less the whole day.
7 June 2011
Impressive Marina Sands We had a reasonably early start in Ho Chi Minh to make the 0910 Tiger Airways flight to Singapore. With an hour time difference, we landed just after midday and taxied to the Geylang red light district to check into our budget hotel, Hotel 81. Without much ado, we made our way […]
5 June 2011
Sightseeing with friends Today we caught up with Rodger and Liisa, our good friends from Auckland. We went to the Reunification Palace (which was the seat of the former South Vietnamese government) and the War Remnants Museum (which documents the atrocities of the American War). The latter proved rather grimmer than we remember from our […]