Articles from this Category
21 June 2011
I headed out to the Jagalchi Fish Market early today, thinking that it may be like Tokyo’s where it is best caught early. The streets near the market were lined with live fish and other seafood, plus surprisingly frozen fish being thawed out! I then found the actual Jagalchi Fish Market which is an impressive […]
20 June 2011
Arriving in Busan It was a very quick intercity bus ride from Gyeongju to Busan taking only 50 minutes. The metro ride from Busan’s bus terminal to Indy House hostel, on the other hand, took about an hour. Busan is a big city of about 4 million spread over several valleys and it must take […]
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 […]
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 […]