No news, Good news! in South Korea & Hong Kong - thetourist

Signs everywhere....

thetourist — Sat, 04 Sep 2010 00:00:00 GMT

Another thing that strikes me, probably because I was just coming back from South Korea where everything is spotless clean and people are naturally respecting everything without beeing forced to, is the quantity of prohibition signs.
They are everywhere and for everything. Sometimes I found up to 6 or 7 signs on a rubbish bin saying:
do not throw outside bin
do not smoke (fine 5000 HK$)
please put the cigarettes ends in ashtray
do not throw lit cigarettes ends in bin (fine 1500 HK$)
do not sit on bin
please put waste newspaper in litter bin
and the best one
for complaints or suggestions please phone xxxx or hotline xxxx

Some examples of signs I found

I was not really expecting finding a sign here, but, here it is.

Please don't climb up

Last one in the bus. At the end, it is difficult to make the difference between what is forbidden and what is recomended to do. The "mind your head" sign should placed in a different place or be more explicit... maybe I'll phone the hotline for my suggestion. Why am I saying this? because I hit my head while taking the picture :-)
I suggest a sign saying "mind your head while taking pictures" or "Do not take picture (we decline any responsabilty in case you hit your head doing this!)"

To recover from this, I tried some Dim Sum. These are kinds of dumplings filled with different things. They are cooked on a steaming basket.

Dim Sum

Aberdeen fish market

thetourist — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 00:00:00 GMT

South of the island, in aberdeen, there is a fish market where probably all the fishes sold in any restaurant in Hong Kong are coming from. Clearly not a place for tourists but that's not the kind of things that stops me. If you decide to go, be prepared. Best thing is to have plastic boots. They didn't like me to take pictures but here are some

This area looks really poor/real compared to the expensive/fake Hong Kong picture I had on the island. This alignment of boats attached one to the other reminds me some James Bond pursuits in a floating fish market

Hong Kong

thetourist — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 00:00:00 GMT

The first thing that strikes you when you arrive in Hong Kong is the humidity. I compare this climat to the one of Rio de Janeiro with the difference that, here, you have a very heavy city smog. Saying this explains already why this city is not for me. The fact that 7 millions people are living on 1100 km2 does not help. This is one of the most densely populated area in the world. That will be difficult to take some pictures without humans on it :-)
Hong Kong island view from the top (The peak)

This city is full of lights and it looks like it never sleeps

The island viewed from the mainland

Last lunch in Korea

thetourist — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 00:00:00 GMT

Close to the Incheon airport (the airport is on a island) and on the seaside, it was time to try another barbecue. This time with sea shells, clams. To be honest, I don't know almost any of them. As always, you can choose what you want from the tank.

And the lady is preparing everything for you. She gives you a glove to hold the "burning" shell with your left hand. The right hand concentrates on fighting with the sticks as usual.

Very tasty and fun again.
That concludes the trip to South Korea. It was an interesting experience. One thing I'd like to mention. Everybody we met there was very friendly and there was always someone to help (without asking for it) in case.

Bulguksa temple & Royal Tomb (Chunmacheong)

thetourist — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 00:00:00 GMT

The Bulguksa temple is said to be the nicest temple of Korea. It really is. Specially when you think that it has been built in 751 and destroyed 2 times during japanese invasions.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bulguksa_Temple

Some prayers are attached to those red globes on the ceiling of the temples.

Here, some "details" I liked during my visit.

Then a small visit to the royal tombs (Chunmacheong). The small hill you see here is where the tomb is. One has been opened to show to the public. This is the one of an unknown king from the Silla Kingdom. You can see replicas of golden jewels, weapons found there with the king.
I was told that servants and the whole family were buried alive with the king to assist him during his journey. That has changed afterwards.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cheonmachong

Chunmacheong (Royal tombs)

Before going back to Daegu and before the next storm, I enjoyed the view of this beautiful Field of lotus flowers.

Fish

thetourist — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 00:00:00 GMT

On the way south east of Daegu, before visiting Gyeongju, the former capital of Korea, a stop in Gampo on the seaside for some raw fish restaurant.
It' s very easy, ..., just choose from the menu here

The procedure is the same I explained before for other dishes. You will put the fish in a leave, adding some spicy korean red sauce. No need to explain that everything is fresh (you can chose the fish you want from a tank outside) and excellent

Ahoe village

thetourist — Sun, 29 Aug 2010 00:00:00 GMT

The visit to Hahoe Village (translating to “Village Enveloped by Water”) was promising. The fact that it was added to the UNESCO World Heritage List under the category of “Historic Villages in Korea” recently (July 31, 2010) is maybe a sign. In fact you have there the opportunity to see a traditional village and also the Hahoe Byeolsingut Tallori (Korean traditional masked-dance Drama)

Unfortunately, someone opened the water and it started raining non-stop like in the Forrest Gump movie, so the masked dance was cancelled. That's a good reason to come back!

Korean barbecue

thetourist — Sun, 29 Aug 2010 00:00:00 GMT

Time to eat... again. This time trying the local version of barbecue. Like the shabu shabu, it is a fun way to do it. The fire is in the middle of the LOW table (the copper tube you are seeing is a heat extractor) and you cook everything yourself. You may wonder how you cut the meat? No, not with the sticks. A very friendly and helpful woman is taking care of that for you with ... scissors.
Then you put a leave (can be sesame or lettuce) in your left hand, catch the meat using the sticks with your right hand, dip it in a salt crystals, put it on the leave, add a slice of garlic, spicy korean red sauce, roll the leave and eat it. Doing this without spilling anything on your clothes get you 10 extra points...

Out of the city

thetourist — Sun, 29 Aug 2010 00:00:00 GMT

After having taken the fast train at 300 km/h from Seoul to Daegu, I'm ready to enjoy another 2,5 days more in the south. That will allow me to see more traditional side of Korea.
The visit of the Byeongsan seowon (seowon means private school) was a first stept to understand Korean traditions. This confucian school is the leading one for the memorial of masters and education (respect of the older, respect of the parents, ...). Students were coming here since 1572.

Alcohol was not allowed in (not good for concentration). Women were not allowed for the same reason.

Market...

thetourist — Sat, 28 Aug 2010 00:00:00 GMT

Before leaving Seoul for Daegu in the south east, a small visit to one market. You'll find anything you might think about and what you will not think about also. According to the locals, everything is always good for your health.... from Ginseng ...

Ginseng....

to any kind of fish

Any swimming thing you like

After that, I tried some shabu shabu. It is basically some thin slices of beef that you will cook in some steaming broth (soup). Everything you see on the right plate are herbs (there are some noodles, mushrooms, soja, ... below)
It looks like the name of the dish comes from the noise it makes when the meat cooks in the broth. This way of eating is very fun (and I'm not talking about the difficulties you might experience catching the food with the sticks)

Shabu shabu

Error! Try again....

thetourist — Sat, 28 Aug 2010 00:00:00 GMT

Small problem....

As you can see, I encountered a "small" problem in the hotel. I could not resist taking a picture of it. The young generation of koreans is not small as one could think they are. In fact they told me the japanese are smaller than them. In the Seoul underground I could see one or two young korean almost as tall as me. The rest still look at me like if I was E.T.

Electronics

thetourist — Fri, 27 Aug 2010 00:00:00 GMT

12 floors of electronics......

Visiting South Korea without checking the last products available in electronics seems to me to be a nonsense. Here is one of those "markets" full of it. 2 floors only for cellphones, 2 for computers, 2 for cameras, ..., total = 12 floors of paradise for electronic fashion victims and/or for geeks.

To recover from so much emotions, I tried some Bi Bim Bap. Simple traditional Korean food and ... excellent!

Bi Bim Bap

Then back to some animated streets in Seoul, after the rain, where , again, excellent food was served at every corner of the streets.

First thing first....

thetourist — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 00:00:00 GMT

After a loooong travel, the first thing was to get some strength by going to a local restaurant. It was a succession of small dishes one better than the other. This is just a small example.

First Korean dinner

First visit in Seoul

thetourist — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 00:00:00 GMT

The next day we started to visit Seoul a bit and visited in the afternoon the Gyeongbok palace.

Gyeongbokgung Palace entrance

The guards luckily let us in,

so we could see how beautifull the place is...

On the way back to the hotel, this petrol station caught my eyes.

Korean Petrol Station