Final Week, The Movies and The Zoo and The Trip Home

12 October 2009 – 18 October 2009

I have to say that I did not expect the weeks to pass by so quickly, but they have and I am at the end of my third week in Korea already. Monday and Tuesday we spent couped up in bed as I was feeling pretty lousy again, I tell you I have not had the best of luck when it comes to health over here.

Wednesday evening after Ben finished at work we decided to take a trip down to the local cinema to catch a movie. We decided to watch Surrogates. It was the first time that I actually felt at home in Korea, as the movie was in English me and Ben were the only people in the cinema to actually understand the whole movie and not have to read the subtitles. For any of you who enjoyed i-robot and the Matrix I recommend that you go and see it.

Thursday afternoon I decided to go back to the Village to try and take some more photographs for my project, I was walking down to the station and got 3/4 of the way there and remembered that I hadnt packed my film in my back pack, which was very stupid so I had to turn around and walk all the way back to the flat. The bus for the village left at 2pm and by the time I got back to the flat it was 1.45pm so I was a little upset that I was going to miss out on going to the village. I was sat in Ben’s room when he came back from work, I told him what had happened, luckily with Ben knowing the place he told me that I was able to get there via another bus, he checked on the internet and the took me to the local bus stop to go to the station in order to get the bus from the station.

He advised me to go into the information desk at the station to find out if it was the right bus I needed. Luckily for me, the Shuttle bus from the depot for the village hadnt yet arrived so I sat in line with the rest of the people waiting to get to the village. The bus arrived around 3pm. It took abut 20 minutes traveling by bus to get to the village. I paid 12,000 won to get into the village which is about £6.

At the gates you are greeted by Koreans in traditional Hambok clothes, you walk through a huge grand archway into the village and you immediately see market stalls and pottery that has been made. You are free to walk around the village anyway you please, at the entrance you are given a map in your language so that you can navigate yourself around the village.

What I saw in the village I cannot really describe as unless you are there you cannot really imagine the vest amount of things there are to see. I was walking through the middle of houses where people are working on the farms and in their little craft spaces. Dotted all around the village were huge pots that had been made, there were vegetables drying out in the sun on baskets. There were animals in the village each having their own little shelter or huts.

Also in the village was various people working and people settling things. I was taken by suprise by the amount of different things i saw in the village. There was a river that ran through the village and to get to the other side you have the option to walk across the bridges or even stepping stones across the water, when I got to the water of the village it was nearly sunset and the light was just perfect for taking the shots up and down the river. The sites and things that I saw throughout the village was amazing, all the tradition clothes and tools were amazing.

I left the village around 5.30pm and caught the bus back into Suwon.

On Friday I just took a walk into the town again and over to the park, I really found the park to be a nice place to sit and relax.  On the evening me and Ben made some dinner and then went for some ice cream and then watched a movie.

Saturday we took a trip to the Zoo.  Its the 10th largest Zoo in the world and was so cheap to get into, it cost about 6,000 won to get the both of us in the Zoo, which is about £3. Yes thats right £3 to get us both into the 10th Largest Zoo in the world. The train ride to the Zoo took about an hour.

Once there we took a little road train to the entrance of the zoo, I was really exited about seeing all the animals that they had in the zoo. When we first got through the gates we walked round and the first animals that we came to were flamingos. I have seen flamingos before as a young girl, but these were amazing, the colours were fantastic, there were some Bright pinks ones.

It was feeding time at the zoo by the time that we got there so all of the animals were being fed, the weather was dry, but temperatures werent as warm as they should be for the animals so some of them if not most of them were indoors.

After the flamingos we saw the Zebra’s and Girraffes, walking round the zoo we saw many amazing things, we then saw rhinos, and then we walked over a bridge and came to a big area that wa full of kangeroos.

To be honest I was very much looking forward to seeing the kangeroos hopping about all over the place, but was rather dissapointed to find that they were just resting pretty boring really. I managed to  take some pictures of them, and after we walked around the big enclosure we went into a bug house. I thought there would be many things in the house, but the only things they had really in there were many different types of bettles.

The many other things that we came accross we animals such as ant eaters, monkeys, bears, sea otters, dolphins, seals, turtles, crocodiles, aligators, pelicans, racoons, tigers & baboons

On the way home we decided to get a KFC as we were rather hungry and seeing the one on the way to the Zoo we decided to stop for some food.

Sunday arrived and Ben had a foodball game, so me, Angeline, Charlie and Kevin went to watch his match, by the time the guys were ready and we got to where the match was there was only about 20 minutes left in the game.  We stuck around to see the first half of the match that was playing after. And then we went to get some lunch, Kevin had already eaten so he just went back home.

We all went to the Indian restaurant that me and ben had gone to the week before, this time instead of curry I has some wrap type kibabs. After we had lunch we all went to the shopping centre to have a look around. By the time the shopping and everything was over it was about 5pm.

Instead of grabbing anymore food, we decided to cook some food when we were hungry.  That evening we just decided to sit and watch movies and relax.

Monday came and it was the day I was leaving, so I spent the afternoon going to Bens classes and experiencing what it was like teaching the Korean children. I found the kindergarden a fun lesson, the children played games and then danced and did some work in their work books. The other classes were of children about 10 years old. The classes had no more than 7 children which I think was a pretty sizable class.

Ben’s classes finished at 6pm in the evening, and my coach back to the airport was at 7pm. We walked down to the station by the time we got there it was 6.30pm and the bus was early and showed up at 6.40pm. Me and Ben said a quick goodbye and it was time to get on the bus.

When I got to the airport I and got through check in and security I made my way to the terminal, once I got there I tried to find some food, but everywhere I went was closed. My first flight was pretty much on time, When I got to Istanbul I had a 2 hour wait for my next flight. I got back to London one time. Although I enjoyed my time in Korea I was very very exited to be back home. It was amazing to be able to hear and understand what everyone was saying. I headed straight to the train station from coming off the plane. My train was at 12.30 and was on time.

More Wall and Panoramics…

12 October 2009.

After such a long day yest I had a lie in whilst Ben went to play football.  He got back around 2.30pm, we then decided to have an easy day because his muscles were aching really badly from playing as he got hit twice.  We decided to take a walk to the Wall to walk up to the highest point and take a look at the views from the top.

It took us about 45mins of so to climb all the steps to the higest point, on the way round you could see the spectacular views of Suwon, even though we have nicknamed the place the Contrete Jungle the views were great….you could see the mountains in the background.

Half way up the hill to the top there was like a viewing post..you have to take your shoes off to go up to the top of it..once I was up there and got to see the view without the wall in the way..it was great. This is where I tried to do panoramic images for the first time.  And I think i did a great job for the first time.

After taking the panoramic and getting all exited that it worked we decided to take on the rest of the steps to get to the top of the hill (the Koreans call it a mountain but to us its just a hill). The steepest part of the hill was 80 steps high, they were pretty steep steps but we managed to make it to the top with minimal huffing and puffing.

The view prim the top was amazing. You could see the fortress from the top.. this week is the celebration of the fortress so they had many people down at the fortress with little shows and a little fair type thing going on. You could see it all the way from the top of the hill and you could hear the music also.

I attempted another panoramic at the top of the hill and I think it turned out pretty well.

The walk to the bottom of the hill took far less time than it did to climb up naturally. We decided that we were goin to make something for dinner this evening so we decided to go to Home Plus Express (basically tesco express) we bought some pork and potatoes and had a yummy English meal.

Tomorrow I plan to go to the village to try my luck and getting the people to let me take their photographs..I have done a little research with a girl that works with Ben, I have learned that many of them will not like having their picture taken, but I will try my luck in the hope that they will allow me to take their picture.

Being ill…Saying Farewell….and Birthday Celebrations

5 October 2009 – 11 October 2009

Well this week wasnt a good week for me at all..when I woke on Monday my head felt like it was goin to explode…so I stayed in bed all day and slept it off…. I skipped dinner with the guys as I was that bad….Tuesday I was the same…Wednesday I was still very ill but got a shower and dressed and went for dinner with the guys to craze burger…I attempted to eat burger and shared some chips with Ben. Later that evening we got a called from Linda asking if we wanted to go and have some goodbye drinks with them.  We went and said goodbye to Linda and Ben Charlies parents were already at the hotel catching an early night for the flight on Thursday morning. On Thursday night we Bugogi – which was like beef egg and rice… it sat too heavy on my stomac but unlike most things this week I kept it down.

Friday soon came round fast and before you know it, it was dinner time.. charlie had gone to the station to meet a new friend that had only been in Korea 5 weeks…. her name was Angeline.. shes from North Carolina…she was lovely… Bens Boss Hagi also came to dinner with us.. we went to a place round the corner and had Galbi this time we didnt have beef we had pork..the first lot we had the house pork which had spices on it..and then we had just plain pork to mix it up…we were all  sat chatting until about 11pm then Hagi picked up the bill and paid which I thought was very nice.

Charlie Kevin & Angeline we all heading to the usual place they go on a Friday night its a place called the Now Bar… iv not been there yet but heard its the place to be if you want to see the other foreigners that visit South Korea. I still was feeling rather lousey so Ben and I went back to the flat and watched a movie.

Saturday morning arrived and we had a busy day ahead of us..we decided to hit the capital city Seoul again..this time out desitination was the 63 Building..Having read about the 63 Building and all its attractions inside we decided that we would spend the day there.

We took the subway towards Seoul and stopped off at Yeongdungpo which is on the way to where the 63 Building is located. We had to change trains at that station so we decided to pick up some lunch there. After travelling through an underground shopping centre and up nine floors in a depertement store the only option we had for food was to go to Lotteria..Ben had had a bad experience eating a burger at a Lotteria so he wasnt over keen…when we got to the counter I suggested us just sticking to having chicken strips… they were very tasty. After lunch we hopped on a different train to Yeongou which is the closest station to the 63 Building…once we got out of the station we took a look around and was both suprised by the sites we saw… it was this amazing river walk.. from the peir you would see all the sites of Seoul… We walked down the walkway of the river and saw some cool things… there was some peddle boats that you can ride.. there was also people doing water skiing.

When we arrived at the building we walked around the bottom floor to discover there was quite allot of things to do. The 63 Building is Korea’s first and only skyscraper and although most of it’s 60 floors are used for conferences and used as meeting rooms the bottom floors are dedicated to tourist attractions. We brought a ticket which allowed us to spend the whole afternoon there and for 38,000 won (£19) it wasn’t bad at all.

The first of four things we spent the afternoon doing was in the Sea World Aquarium which was on the bottom floor. The aquarium isn’t that large but it had quite a lot of things to look at and see which you don’t see in other aquariums. The first things that we saw was penguins…Ben wanted to pick them up and put them in his pocket to take home…There was 2 women in the tank with the penguins feeding them. They we so cool. The next really cool things we saw was otters…they we very lively little things. I wanted to take one home in my pocket.. lol  so between the both of us we wanted a penguin and an otter.

After we came out of the Aquarium we got in line to go to the Sky Gallery I wasnt looking forward to goin up so many floors in an elevator because they are 2 of my greatest fears….heights and elevators… I was even more horrified when the lift opened and I found out that it was not only on the outside of the building but the elevator was glass.. my heart suddenly hit my throat and the blood rushing to my face… it didnt take too long to get to the top.. but when I got off my knees were shaking.. at the top you lookede around and you could walk around the gallery but you also got a 360 view of the entire city.. it was amazing.

By the time we got down from the Gallery it was time to go to the IMAX movie that we had booked to go and see….we got some english headphones so that we could watch it properlythe movie was called ‘Animalopolis’. The movie wasnt like normal IMAX movies there was no movement or anything like that in it… it was basically an animal documentary it was pretty funny really..the movie lasted about half and hour where we headed to the fourth and final part of our trip to the 63 Building.

We walked down some steps to the Wax Works Museum  at the bottom of the stairs there was models of Elvis and Tiger Woods.  The wax works although very small  and not like a normal Madame Tousauds they had some pretty cool models. There was one of Che Guevara, the communist leader and also Chairman Mao who was the man responsible for making China communist back in the 1700′s. As we walked around there were statues of the usual famous people you might expect including David Beckham, Tiger Woods and Maralyn Monroe but they also had statues of Batman, Spiderman and also something i had never seen before there was a model of the Last Supper. There was pictures on the wall that looked exactly like the last super painting.

Once we were done at the museum it was time to leave as by now it was 7pm and we were pretty tired and hungry…When we got back to Hwaseo Station we had about a 10 minute walk back up to the flat.. on the way we were that hungry we stopped off and got a pizza.. we were that hungry we didnt wait until we got home to eat it…we ate some of it on the way.

When we got back we were talking about the plans we had made plans to go to the Zoo tomorrow, we then found out that Ben had got an email about playing football, so we decided to do the Zoo after.

After a very long night we were ready for bed and decided to call it a night…

DMZ….World Cup Park and Namsan Hanok Village

4 October 2009

Today we had an incredibly early start..getting up at 7am..travelling to the Ibis Hotel to meet Charlies parents at 7.45am.  We were set for a very and entertaining day…We were goin on a tour….for £77,000won (about (£40)

We met our tour guide at the hotel where we got on a mini bus…it was a cool lil yellow bus with nice comfy seats…on the way to our first stop our tour guide told us quite allot of interesting things about the DMZ. She also told us that people in the South of Korea are extremely positive and are really wanting the country to re-unite as one country again. The fear the threat of war and have done despite the civil war finishing more than fifty years ago. She told us that in preperation South Korea had actually started to build roads linking the two countries together and although the North had allowed it to be built, they are yet to be allow them to be used. We was told that the road goes all the way through their northern neighbours land all the way to China the country has plans to link itself to Europe, and only North Korea stands in their way.

She also gave us what little information the South Korean’s have on the North’s feelings towards reunification. Kim Jong-Il as it it widely known has been sick for a long time and it has already been decided that one of his sons will take charge of the country when he passes away.  Our guide said that there is a good enough relationship between the two countries at the current moment to build a link and she said that is Kim Jong Il stays in charge for the next five years then a change may happen.

Our first stop was Imjingak st… which was an hour and half  away from the hotel.  Imjingak is the last stop on the commuter railway line and the nothern most point which people who aren’t going to the DMZ are allowed to travel to. As we got closer to the DMZ the landscape and our surroundings changed. There weren’t lots of concrete tower block flats anywhere in sight and although there were houses and mountains to the right, on our left hand side there was as massive lake surrounded by barbed wire fence and a large number of guard towers.

When we got to Imjingak St,  we had to join a company bus to go to the DMZ as we had less than 30 people on our own bus…whilst waiting for our tour guide to get our tickets with our passports we got to look around the station and we were able to see a brief sighting of N Korea for the first time and there was also a rather interesting railway line which is beginning to be built heading north. As well as this there was some war memorobelia and a picturesque park which the South hopes will be known as the ‘peace park’ if the borders between the countries ever opens. In the park there was also an old train with about 1,200 bullet holes in from the war…there was also many ribbons on the fence that people had written to their loved ones… After about 45mins of looking around we got on the tour bus at 10.40am…

On the bus with us was a couple of other groups,about 5mins into our journe we came to a road.. and the bus pulled over, at this we were told to get ourpassportsut at the picture page…afterabout 5 miutes an armed guard came on board our bus to check our passports and clear us to go on to the next place.

As we were driving it was weid be driving on an empty road which seemed to be heading towards nothing. We drove up a windy path and on the side of the road there were signs which said ‘Danger mines’ as before the road we were driving on had been constructed it had been used as a point at which the North Korean’s had attacked so to protect themselves the South had lined the road with mines should it be necessary to block the road.

A little further down we also saw two towers which looked like the were guard lookout posts. We were told that they were filled with dynamite so that they could be detenated of there are any attempts by North Koreans to storm the country as this would also prevent access to the only road into South Korea

Our next stop was the observation deck we were greeted with the sight of armed guards and a row of  binoculars. For 500 won (50p) you can look through the binoculars and see the closest city to the border over the other side when I looked through the binoculars I didnt see any form of transort or people…but when ben looked through he saw someone on a bicycle and someone working in a field.  Which I have to admit I was incredibly jealous.

Ben also told me that North Koreans have been brainwashed into thinking that South Korea is a poorer country than themselves…..and that the whole Western world eat their young.

Once back on the bus  we were given an ice cream by 0ur tour guide that she had bought for us….i got a coolate fudge one…it was incredibly yumy she said we needed out strength to do what we were about to do next.  We headed for the 3rd Tunnel and to the DMZ Exhibition…from this we learned that the North Koreans had built 4 secret tunnels to South Korea for an suprise attack….it wasnt until someone was testing water in the soil in one of the fields that the tunnel was discovered…what happened was they poured water on the field and when it didnt return they got suspicious and dug…a year later a second tunnel was found….the third tunnel was found in the 1970′s and the fourth one was found in the 1990′s.

When we arrived at the third tunnel, we got ot go inside and go down the actual tunnel…we had to que up and get yellow hard hats to go down into the tunnel….it was very steap and 300m long… when we got to the bottom of the slope we followed the tunnel and at the end of it was allot of barbed wire and a whole in the wall with a door which South Korea built to keep the North Koreans getting any closer…..through the hole you can see and other door….from this part of the tunnel we were 170m away from North Korea… it was facinating to know that we were so close.

The only downside of goin down to the tunnel was that you had to go the way you went down….climbing up the steap slope back to civilisation….after the tunnel we went accross to the exhibition where we were told about the history of the tunnels that I mentioned before.

After we got back on the bus it, it took us back to the first station so that we could get back on our lil yellow bus to go to our next destintion…our nxt destination was the World Cup Stadium where we had lunch…I didnt know what half of he stuff was goin to taste like so I went for the safe option an had rice….it was a spicykinda of rice with grated cheese on the top…basically it was a risotto… ws pretty hungry with not having breakfast but the size of the portion was MASSIVE….I only managed a quarter of what I hadbeen given to me it was about a 4 person portion.

After we had lunch we went just over the road from the stadium to World Cup Park, it was gorgeous…to get to the park we had to walk down some steps and step accross some stepping stones accross a lil stream. Once over in the park we walk accross a bridge which took us to the bottom of a hill…goin up this hill was 292 steps…. this was our next port of call on our tour day, it was to climb to the top and see the fantastic view of the staduim, park and its surroundings….I have to admit it was pretty awesome…it was a gorgeous day and with there being so many people it didnt feel like we were climbing that many steps…..of course I took photographs of both goin up and coming down on my film camera….I was silly and forgot to bring my battery charger with me for my digital camera….god knows what I was thinking when I packed mu gear…Once we hit the top we had some photographs taken.. it was sooo much fun… I had my picture taken with Ben and then also with Ben and Kevin  and then Charlie got in on the posing and all 4 of us had our picture taken together….

On the way down our tour guide wanted us all to stop and stand in a line and have our picture taken as a group…..so on the way down we stopped a couple of times so she could take some pictures….instead of all of us saying cheese she had us saying Kim-chi….it was really fun we all had a laugh….

Once we had climbed down the steps and gone back through the park back down the steps, over the stepping stones and up the other steps we got back to the bus….I thought that this was the end of our day…but I was mistaken…We got on the bus and our tour guide told us that we were now going to the Namsan Hanok Village back in Seoul…. The village was tucked away behind some tall buildings and you wouldnt know it was there unless you went looking for it….. I have to say that it was nothing like I was expecting…they had many traditional games going on…they had this seesaw type game where one person stood one either end and you had to jump up and down….the aim of the game was to knock the other person off their end…they also had the games that they had back at the Palace they had the other day….they also had a game that I can’t quite remember what the name was but there was metal type hoops that you make spin with a metal stick… there was also a wall of memories that you can right messages and sign your name… which both Ben and I did….We both signed it and then wrote our names underneath it.

After signing our names we had a walk around the village….there was people there in traditional dress…there were things like paper making and dressing up which cost 1,000won to dress in a traditional Hambok clothes…..I didnt have a go at this but Charlie, Ben (charlies brother), Lyn,  and his dad all dressed up in the traditional clothes and we took pictures…. it was really funny to see them dressed up…but it strangely suited them all as well….

After having many pictures taken and looking around the village thoroughly we headed back to our lil mini bus and headed back to the Hotel….by the time we got back it was 6pm…me, Ben and Kevin all got a cab back to the flats as we were pretty tired….Charlie and his brother Ben went into the hotel for drinks… and lyn and charlies parents all went to family mart to look for some souviners to take back to the U.S.

After dinner we all retired for some much needed rest after our fun filled day of touring South Korea…

Sorry for the very long blog….but its been a very very long day…

Long Train ride, mysterious theme park….and the bus….

3 October 2009

Friday and saturday was Chuseok which is one of the biggest festivals in Korea (it’s apparentlybigger than Christmas, but I’m not sure of it’s origins or why it exists.) I was told that it’s a lunar festival in the Korean calendar.  Its a bit like Thanks Giving, where people give eachother gifts etc….On Thursday night Ben was given a blanket off his boss and so was Kevin….Charlie got a bottle of alcohol.  I forgot to mention that when we went out for Galbi on Thursdaynight with Charlies parents the owners of the restaurant gave us all a packet of dry seaweed….yummy I know lol but they seem to have seaweed allot.

Anyway with it being a holiday, we didnt think that anything would be open this weekend so we decided that we were goin to Incheon….We was looking through Ben’s guide book on the way back from Seoul lastnight and found that the is a cheap beach type resort/theme park just south of the city, so Ben got some directions off the internet and we rode the subway for about 2 hours and then we were supposed to get the bus from the subway station to a place called Song-do to the amusement park.

First of all we couldnt actually get the bus from right outside the subway station…so we carried on walking down the street until we eventually came to the bus stop where the bus stopped… which was about 15 mins down the road. We got on the number 6 bus and found that it dropped us off down near a festival…we suddenly realised that we had been traveling in the wrong direction…so after getting off the first bus we hopped back onto another bus…we looked at the directional map and we had to go right round the whole route and Song-do was about 4 stops from the end of the route….the directions that Ben had got off the net said that the ride was about 15 mins away from the subway station….boy were they wrong…after an hour n half we had only got about 7-8 stops down the route by this time it was about 5 pm. The theme park closed at 6pm and we figured that they speed the bus was goin it would take at least another 2 hours or so to reach Song-do so we got off at the next subway station to set off on our 2 hour journey back to Hwaseo….

Whilst on the bus Ben got a call off Charlie and we had organised to meet them at Suwon Station for dinner with his parents and brother…Linda stayed back at the hotel to catch up on some sleep.  We went to a place called Craze Burger. I had an onion burger… which was a burger with salad and a huge onion ring in it.. was massive…and incredibly yummy.  they had other types of burgers…one of them had eggs in it…but it looked way too big for me.

After a very long day of bus rides and trains it was time to retire to the flat… we are all goin to the demiliterized zone tomorrow and are up extrememly early because the day starts at 8am at the Ibis Hotel where charlies parents are staying.

Exploring Seoul

2nd October 2009

Today we had yet another lie in…we were supposed to get up and go with Charlie to the hotel that his parents are staying at so that we could go to the War Museum but I was still sleeping so we didnt go.

Once up and dressed we got on the train to go to Seoul to meet up with them all.. it was after lunch that we set off to the station for the first train. The first ride was about an hour long and that took us to Gungno 3……we then took a walk to the Chang Gyeong Gung Palace… it cost 1,000won to get in.  It was beautiful old buildings. I took lots of pictures and will load them onto my pictures site as soon as I get it up and running.  At the palace we had a go at a game that they had in one of the yards…its where you throw arrow type sticks (blunt of course) into a pot.  I didnt get any in, but Ben had a couple of goes and he managed to get one in… I have a video clip of it and will be loading it shortly….

After we were done at the palace we wondered round for a while trying to find somewhere to eat…I think we wondered around for about an hour or so… we eventually found a place that was open… it was KFC yes thats right KFC no korean food tonight we had good only chicken burget and fries….yummy…. I was soooo looking forward to eating as I was super hungry and so was ben…after eating we were filled to the brim.

After our KFC we took a walk to the Seoul Tower, we was goin to head for the cable car to take us to the top…but when we got to the cable car the que was very very long so we decided that we would walk up to the top…..120km to the top… I have to admit when I first started it I was very up for it, but we got a quater way up the climb and I wanted to die….llol talk about being completely unfit… when we got half way up the climb, there was a viewing platform….The view was amaxzing.. with me being scared of heights I didnt really want to go close to the edge… but I braved it and went to the edge… I havent mentioned it before now..but this was another time that I experienced Korean Rudeness….some people are soo rude its shocking… I tell you when they handed out mannors Koreans must have forgotten to stand in line…as the have absolutely ZERO mannors.  I got budged out of the way a couple of times which I found very rude… I was starting to rant but Ben rightly told me that I was expecting too much..I was ranting sayin that it does not cost anything to use mannors but here I think it does. Grrr  sorry rant over.. lol

On the next half of the climb the steps seemed to be getting steeper… and I was getting weaker….(seriously need to hit the gymn hard when  I get back as from this I learned that i am SUPER unfit) We had just about reached the top when people were coming down, I think in the midst of realisting how unfit I was, climbing, getting hot and getting rushes of people coming at me I started to  get a panic on…..my heart was beating faster…my temp was getting higher and my breathing was getting out of control….I was havin a mini panic attack half way up this massive massive hill…GREAT… Ben was good he calmed me down and had me sipping water etc.. and I was ready to clim the last 30 steps to the top.

When we hit the top I can’t describe to you what I saw….It was amazing… It was like this platform, it had like a seating area, also a water fountain, ticket sales where you can buy tickets to go to the top of the viewing tower…and view the sites….there is also a teddy bear museum at the tower. which you had to pay extra to get into…There is also a food court where you can relax and enjoy the European Cafe that sells coffee and cakes….they have a sky cafe,a Korean restaurant, Digital Observary and a Sky restroom. (this is a private view point) there are many gift shops goin up the tower where you can by Seoul Tower keyrings and cups etc..There is also a locks fense….if you go to the observing platform all the fences are filled with ‘love locks’ the love locks are for lovers who buy locks and lock them together round the fence as a sign of ever lasting love.  They then throw away the keys so that the locks cannot be opened and their love not broken…In recent years they are becoming a problem because the locks are getting in the way of children seeing the views so it is suggested that the keys be put in a key bin so that locks can be moved if they are in an inappropriate place….interesting or what. lol 

We bought our ticket to go up to the tower to see the viewing area which was 7.000won and a 40 minute wait….to fill this time we just went to the gift shop inside and had a look around the shop to see the kind of things that they sell. we wondered round which took about 20 minutes we then just sat down near a window and took in the views… both of us was pretty tired from our long day of travelling by train and walking…by the time our numbers were called to go in the lift…we were ready to get going… once our tickets was scan it took about 5-10mins of quiing to get in the lift to go to the top.  Im really not one for lifts at the best of times and this one was no different to any other lift… it had about 20 people in at once and I was feeling rather uncomfortable but just kept thinking we’ll be out soon… lol  sad I know but anyone who shares the same lift fear will understand.

When we got out of the lift the views were fantastic…. its the huge circle viewing point (indoors of course) on the windows had places in the world and how far they are from us in km… it was so fascinating.. had everything from North Korea to the North and South Pole I was very impressed….The views were fantastic…I cannot describe it in pictures or in words and its one of those things you have to see, but I tell you seeing the entire city lit up at night was AMAZING and a great experience….it was worth the scary lift ride and climbing up all those steps just to see the sites.

When we were done at the tower there was a huge que for the cable cars again so we decided to walk back down the steps knowing that they would be much easier goin down than they were getting up… we were at the bottom in no time…I do recomend to anyone wanting to visit to go up in the cable car..save your legs.. and walk down the steps to get back down to the bottom… was very good.

By the time we got both trains and got home the clocks read 1am and it was defo time for bed for me… I was wiped out.. I think we must have walked about 4miles or so… it defo felt much much further… but what do I know…was a very long but very enjoyable day…

Tomorrow we plan to go to Incheon to visit a theme park and also go to the zoo in Seoul….soooo exited…hope i get up in time.

Back to Soho Park

1 October 2009

I have to be honest with you most of my days so far seem like they are rolling into one.. and my memory is getting more terrible by the day..I woke up today not knowing what day it was, only that it was sunny outside and not so sunny inside.

I decided that after lunch I was goin to the park to have a better look around and explore as yesterday I was feeling pretty horrid… I took the same route down to the park as I did yesterday so that I wouldnt get lost… once I was at the park I walked down the other set of steps into the other bit of the park…. as I was walking down I saw some lovely trees and you could see one of the mountains (but to you and me, its just a huge hill covered in trees) goin to the bottom of the steps you arrived at the opposite side of the play ground…near some toilets, which looked rather cool and nothing like toilets I have ever seen.  They were in this hut that was hugely decorated. I thought that they were a set of shops or something but no…they were just the loo.

As I was walking round the park I took in the sites of the lake…I got many looks off the different people out there… the usual being looked at like an alian, its something that I have got used to this week…and it doesnt bother me anymore… It took me about an hour to walk around the lake completely I took many photographs and enjoyed the sites…. as I got half way round there was a field with workers working in it… I think it was a rice field. It was quite interesting to watch the people working in the field… I was very very hot and I was wearing a dress and I was melting like an ice cream these people had water proof clothes hats and jackets and things on.. I really dont know how these people cope..

By the time I got the the house it was time to go out to dinner…. Charlies parents,brother and cousin  had arrived from the U.S, I got to meet them and we all went out for dinner… we went to somewhere close by and had…..Galbi.. no its not the same meal as I had on my first night…. tonight the meat was korean beef  bbqed in front of you, you get a piece of lettuce  dip your beef in some bean sauce, put it in the lettuce wrap it up and eat it.. there are many side dishes that you have with the meal, there is egg soup…which is just scrabbled egg, there are onions, pumpkin, cabbage, and some sort of sea food that even the owner didnt know what it was…so therefore I didnt touch it. Also Anna joined us, she is a teacher at the school where the guys work, she is Korean but speaks good english.

After dinner we went to a bar called Lao bar, Charlies parents went back to the hotel after dinner but his brother Ben and cousin Linda came with us to the bar.. the guys had a game of darts which seemed to go on for a while… me and Linda were sat talking at the table with our drinks… Anna joined us at the bar about 10 minutes after we got there. After the first round of darts Anna joined in and Charlies brother Ben sat out….Linda went tot he bar from drinks and got talking to a guy…he joined our table…his name was chris and was in the military… he has been out in Korea for 5 months and has another 10 months to go… he himself was from the U.S.

After they finished the second round of darts…Ben asked me if I fancied a game of pool… so I had a game with him…he beat me of course…we had a second game and he beat me again…and then a third time… but I was getting better the more games we played… he beat me by one ball on the last game. was all good fun though.

I think I have written another marathon email tonight so I think I will call it a night tonight…. speak soon

Day 3 – Venturing Out

30 September 2009

Today I had yet another lye in, I dont know what has come over me but I slept until about 11. When I woke up, I felt really dizy and sick I thought that it would pass but it didnt.  I started being sick around 11 and didnt stop until about 12.30.   I had my shower and got myself sorted.  But I still didnt feel any better.

Ben came back from Work around 1 and he took me for a walk for some lunch to see if that made me feel better, we sat outside the house/flat for a while eating lunch and sipping fresh orange juice… We got lunch from this place called Paris Baggette…I got a ham salad sandwich.. was very nice.

After Ben went to back into the school I had another lie down on the bed and drifted off bak to sleep… the room was spinning and everything it wasnt nice at all… When I woke, I decided to bite the bullet and go for a walk just close by to see what I could find.

I walked down the road from the flat and came to a diagnal Zebra crossing… it was so weird as in the U.K we dont have crossings that go diagnally but here, they have everything it was cool. At the crossroads I took a turn left and walked to the end of the road…and the end of the road I turned left and saw a bridge…I climbed the bridge and walked half way accross to see the flow of the traffic…. I took some photographs of the traffic going both ways…. it facinated me…. an nice Korean Lady stopped and spoke to me she asked if I had been in Korea long and asked if I had any friends here etc…. she then picked up that I was British and told me that she had been over to England before… after a short conversation we were both on our separate ways.

I was goin to turn around and go bak the way I came onto the bridge but as I walked further onto it I notice that there was some sort of park… So I continuted to walk accross the bridge to see if my assumptions was correct.  It was. As I climbed down the stairs and stepped into this amazing park…to the left of me was a Croquet course, to the right of me there was a hut type of seat. had a roof with some shade.. and right in front of me was a playground with basketball nets.  There is also a huge Lake just off the playground. It was beautiful..

I was taken a back by the sites I saw in the park…I got past the part where people look at you like you are from another planet, and just listened to my tunes clicking away with my camera.  Also in the park was gymn equipment… yes you got it gymn equipment….you can go down to the park and work out… I found this incredibly facinating as im sure that most of you reading this will.. I only took a walk half way round the park as I was still feeling pretty lousey… so I headed bak to the flat to put my images on the computer.

When Ben got done at work we went to E-mart… We took the bus which was 1,000won which is about 50p.  The trip down there was about 20 mins…. the great thing I have learned about the busses is that it costs you 1,000won no matter how far you travel on the bus, could be the first stop or the last stop…. its amazing. I defo think we should have that in England. I know they have it in London but I think it should be everywhere you go…Dont you all agree?

Anyway we got to E-mart and we did our shoppin in the food part… we then went up the escalators to the second floor where the stationary and cleaning things were…also your body products like moisturisers and things are…all you lotions and potions that you need, i was impressed.  After we wondered round there and got moisturiser and things we headed to the third floor which I think was by far the coolest floor.  On this floor was perfume, electronics and more importantly pets.

They mainly sold fish, many different types. from salt water fish to fresh water fish..I defo think that there was some weird fish there… as well as the fish they also sold..lizards, dwarf hamsters, rabbits.  and something I didnt even know people could keep as pets.  its the most strangest of all…..they sold Heghogs.  I was both amazed and shocked.

After E-mart we went for dinner to a place close by that was called Don-Kas… we had cheese don-kas which the best way to describe it is its like a parmo… only this was with pork and cheese and had like a sweet sauce over it….and instead of having it with chips like back home, you have it with a portion of rice and salad. Was lovely… but way to big for my tiny belly.

After dinner we went for a walk to the Hwaseong Fortress… Its the wall that goes around old Suwon it is said to take 2 and half hours to walk round the entire wall…. its a bit like the historic bar walls back in York but these are far more intersting… they have amazing gates posted around the walls….they are just amazing….. I made the mistake of not taking my camera out with me to dinner… but we only walked a quarter of the way round and thought we would leave the rest until I had my camera at the ready to photograph the fantastic sites that you can see from the highest gate of the fortress.

By the time we got bak to the flat I was about ready to collapse and sleep for days….. so I went to bed and slept.  Tomorrow I plan to go back to the park and give it my full attention for the afternoon.

speak soon xxx

Day 2 – Jet-Lag

29 September 2009

Today I had a very long lie in… Jet lag hit me very hard and took its toll on me.. I woke up every hour or so but I didnt actually climb out of bed until gone 2 in the afternoon… and all of you who know me well know that I never normally sleep past 9 so thing was an incredibly large lie in for me.

With me suffering bad from jet lag I didnt venture out anywhere. I just stayed in and sent emails to the people i needed to to let them know i had arrived safely.

When the Guys got dont at work we went out for dinner to a place just down the road from us to have some Pu-deh-ji-geh. this was a very strange meal and one i wasnt too keen on if I am being totally honest with you.  It was like this soup with hot dog sausages in and noodles and veg. a ate the noodles with my rice and the sauce but I dont like hot dogs so I stayed clear of them or just scooped them into Ben’s bowl.  I also tried a Korean drink called Soju- me not being a big drinker I foiund it was absolutely discusting….for all you vodka drinkers out there, I think you would like it.

Tomorrow im goin to take a wonder round Suwon with my digital camera to see what I can find. Il keep you all posted. much love. xx

Travelling to The Land Of the Morning Calm.

28th September 2009

Well I have arrived safely in Korea and have to say that my travelling to this country was very interesting.. and incredibly long.  I got my train from Ascot (camberly) to Vauxhaul (London) at 9.49am, luckily it arrived perfectly on time.  I then got off the train at Vauxhaul to go down to the tube to get the Victoria line to go to TottenhamHale… only when I got off the train and went to go down to the underground, I found that the victoria line from vauxhaul was not running.. so I then had to jump on the Northern Line to Leicester Square and then switch to the Picadilly Line to Finsbury Park, then hop onto the Victoria Line to Tottenham Hale.  Only when I got on the Piccadilly Line there was an announcement that the Victoria Line was now closed completely… but there was a replacement bus service if you get of at Manor House….This is what I did, the got my last train from Tottenham Hale to Standsted.

When I got to the airport I checked in straight away and went through security just fine..I boarded my first flight on time, but we did not set off for about 45 minutes after the time we were supposed to..  This delayed our flight by an hour…On the first flight there was a lil tiny baby, which cried the whole way. This did not help my head but it definately made the first flight rather interesting. This flight was 4 and half hours long.

After landing in Istanbul and hour late, I managed to get to the transfer gate and go through security straight away… I took 3 or 4 images sat in the airport on my film camera, but I didnt want to push it by taking more. Whilst sat waiting for my flight to Seoul I got talking to a girl from South Africa, she was flying to Seoul to see her sister.  After talking for about our previous flights we realised that we were on the same flight.

When we had finished our conversation about our previous flight we got into talking about something we have in common….tiny feet.  She was telling me that out here in Korea you can find shoes that actually fit you.  As it is well known Koreans are very small people and have tiny feet also… so finding shoes in adult form in our size is a huge bonus.

We were chatting for some time and then found that it had gone past the time of us boarding our aircraft…with us setting of late on our first flight we were hoping that this one was goin to run allot smoother… but boy was we wrong… we were kept waiting for another hour before we were able board our flight.

When we eventually boarded the flight it didnt take long before we was in the air… This flight took 10hours to reach Seoul. Even though we set of an hour late the flight was better than the previous. Iwatched a couple of old movies as well as trying the meals that were provided… i have to say they were better than expected…but breakfast was discusting.  I recomend never eating breakfast on a plane! EVER!

When we landed in Seoul it took about 20 mins for the baggage to arrive and then I went for the bus…from what information I had on the bus, I thought that it would take about half hour to get to Suwon but with the traffic here being worse than that in the UK (if you can believe that) it took an hour and half.

By the time I reached Suwon it was dark, but the sights were amazing, I was mesmorised by all the lights…every building must have had at least 5 different neon lights on it.  The whole city reminded me of something I would expect in Japan not Korea…I dont quite know what  I was expecting but brights lights filling the city was not what I had imagined at all.

When me and Ben was walking back towards the school he was showing me all the places and things around.  He had told me about the red light district before but I didnt quite beleive it until I actually walked past it. It is an entire street with red lights and is dedicated to prositutes… I was told that there is actually a sign down that street saying that prostitution is illegal and people will be prosecuted if they are caught. I find it hard to beleive as all Koreans know what this place is.. I also learned that it does occasionally get raided and closed down for short lengths of time..but it opens again.  Iam determinded to take a walk down the red light district one night to take some images of the street and to see this famous sign.  Whilst learning about the street I also found out that the Korean prosititutes do not ‘service’ forgeiners.  So if any of you think this is fab and are thinkin about making a trip it would be worthless.  hahaha

After getting to the flat, I was in desperate need of a shower and sleep…oh and not forgetting food.  I had my shower and then met Ben’s friends Kevin and Charlie, they are both american and work at the school also.  They are both lovely guys and was very welcoming. We went back down towards the station on the bus and found a restaurant that they go to quite often for Dak Galbi.  I thought that busses in England were bad for their carelessness but boy oh boy, these drivers are mental. you get flung around all over the place.  like being on a rollercoaster.  My first Korean meal, and I have to say it was very very tasty indeed.  The only way to describe it is like a kind of stew, with chicken, potatos, rice cake tubes (which just tasted like v v thick pasta tubes) and it had some vegetables in also, mainly cabbage.  they love cabbage here. The sauce that everything is like a spicey sacue.  they bring the Galbi in a huge pot and place it on the burner on the table, to keep it hot. and they bring you a bowl and a bowl of rice.  I was told that I have to learn to eat with chop sticks as its a traditional way to eat food in Korea so thats my homework for the next week or so.  By the time I leave i plan to be able to eat a whole meal with chop sticks.

After dinner we went for a walk down the road to a place where you pay to have a go at baseball, you get in a cage and a machine spits baseballs at you and you obviously have to hit them… I was too tired and my arms were aching from carring all my bags to have a go but all 3 guys had a go… looked really fun.. was great watching them.

On the way back to the bus stop I saw many stalls on the streets that people sell things.  This one stall took me by suprise it was selling baby rabbits. and not only were they tiny and cute…but they had jumpers on.  Yes you read right JUMPERS, I was trying to convince Ben and the boys that they had to have one, but we are not sure if they are allowed pets or not. Also on the way to the bus stop I was facinated by the face that there were lil tables set up (like market stalls) with chairs and benches all around them, that people were eating at.  people actually stand on the side of the street cooking food and people just pull up a chair and have their meals on the side walk….its soooo amazing.

Well I have written a marathon for my first blog and im sure your eyes are very sore now… so I apologise very very much. Chow for now.xx