Well Summer started yesterday and is still going strong with temperatures and the humidity soaring... which is fantastic for me as I HATE winter and the winter that just passed seemed like an eternity!
Goguryeo Blacksmith Village:
This is where they filmed scenes from "Legend" but I don't know too much about that :)
Its quite a small little village... certainly not as big as Namyangju movie studio's (which can be found in a previous blog entry) but it does look authentic... unless you spy a tool that has "made in japan" stamped on the handle :)
So last week my zoo video was blocked due to the music being played at the fountain display I assume... I didn't think that would happen with all the water noise over the music so anyway here is some zoo stuff that was in the video:
I will upload the fountain again and see what happens and repost in my previous post... *phew* :)
Anyhow I received a spectacular gift from my special friend this week. She dropped off these Kobe Bryant Zoom Bruce Lee Special Edition Nike shoes to me on Tuesday and as yet I dare not wear them :) Maybe next week...
Well I think that is about it for this week... (?) Until next week have a fabulous time! :)
So a very busy weekend was had on Saturday and Sunday starting with a trip to Namyangju History Museum. You can get there by taking the Jungangseon Line to Paldang station and take a left as you exit and you cant miss it.
Its quite small but worth a trip if you are adventurous. Also there is a nice restaurant nearby and a military store if you need some BDU's... or something :)
And yes I did get a little carried away with taking pictures in the restaurant but you have to see it to believe it! the inside is a photographers heaven and the food was good too. I do have one question though... why is it when you go to a restaurant in Korea they insist on giving you a tiny water glass but don't give you a bottle or jug to refill it with. I know that its all about "service" but I would rather have the ability to refill my glass when I want to rather than beckoning the wait staff for something that is unnecessary... :/
Sunday I was off to see the animals at the Children's Grand Park. You can get there on Line 7 to the Children's Grand Park station. Just follow the signs and you wont get lost. Its free so well worth a trip. Here are some of the pictures I got with another slide show at the end as well as some video footage.
Lastly on Sunday night it was off to see the Gyeongbokgung Palace at night. It was only open for 5 days during the night and we went on the last night and had to wait in a parking line for about half an hour just to get a park. There were hundreds of people as you can imagine all jostling each other with cameras on tripods to get night shots. I am not so good at night shooting but I managed to get a handful of shots without a tripod:
There was also a traditional performance which I got a quick video clip of:
So as I got home after 10pm on Sunday and started my travels around Seoul at 6:40am I was a little tired on Sunday night to post. So there was my week... lets see what happens this week!
Big week this week so I will break things down like this:
1. Buddha's Birthday
2. Flowers in Spring
3. National Cemetery
4. Fantastic Restaurant
5. Taekwondo Supplies
1. Buddha's Birthday:
Tuesday was a national holiday so I took the opportunity to visit one of the temples right across the street form the COEX mall. It was a very wet day but still there were many many people visiting and offering prayers. I took a few minutes to walk around and document what was happening on film. There are more pictures in the slide show later on...
It wasn't the best of days to be hanging around all those umbrella's and sloshing around in the rain so I left soon after I arrived.
2. Saturday was a trip out to see the fields of yellow flowers near the Han river. There were quite a few people taking advantage of the good weather to get a picture or 2 of themselves amongst the blossoms.
3. A "on the way" stop in at the National Cemetery was a spontaneous stop. you can get there by taking the subway line 4 Dongjak station exit 8. It is a very big place and there were many children participating in some art contest painting the monuments there on their sketch pads:
Now this is a little out of the way in a trendy street.
스토브
88-1 Banpo-dong, Seocho-gu, Seoul
South Korea
02-518-7596
I was pleasantly surprised as the Brunch Buffet was what you would expect in any trendy western cafe. I subsequently went on to gorge myself on scrambled eggs, ham, bacon, real sausages!, juice, pasta, pancakes, jam, cream, toast, waffles and deserts. I have not eaten food like this for a year now so if you are craving some real western style breakfast I definitely recommend this place! Expect to pay for it though as it is about 25,000 won per person.
I did notice that the clientèle are all mid 30's or under, trendy and young and obviously more contemporary in their tastes than the older generation. The whole street is pretty much like this as well; all modern and young.
Here is the photo slide show for the rest of the pictures:
Well I have been searching for a physical place to buy something to do with martial arts for a while now and have been very puzzled that no one that I talked to could tell me where to go. However with a little help from my friend we went for a trip to a wholesaler that is located near Yeoksam station exit 5 line 2. Here is a map.
Its a little difficult to find you have to go up a slight rise which looks like a dead end. If you go in the weekend there is bound to be a lot of kids around there I assume testing for their black belt so follow the crowd then go past where everyone is and you will see a building with a big blue sign in English saying Taekwondo Supplies.
Here is their website too if you want to do it the easy way :)
I wanted to get some MMA style gloves and have been searching for some reasonably priced gloves to use for pad work in class. These Adidas ones were perfect for me and at 27,000 won from the shop; an excellent buy:
These one are fingerless and I have noticed the ones they have on the webside look like full finger gloves so you may have to contact them if you want to do purchase on the web to check their availability.
I also found this site www.isami-seoul.com and purchased some of these leg/foot... braces or protectors or what ever you call them. They are great and stop you slipping around on the floor in the summer due to all the sweat :) so you can execute those high kicks without landing on your butt :)
So there you have it for another week. For all you coin collectors out there I may have something fantastic coming up for you in the next few weeks but I will keep you posted on these developments.
I got a message from "net citizen" out there who noticed I had a few pictures of that downed aircraft last week and he was sharing with me some excellent pictures of the aircraft going down.
G Global Aviation 2011 Airshow in Ansan 5 - 10 May 2011.
If you are in the area the show will still be on Monday and Tuesday so if you can get down there and have a look.
I think the best way to get there is by going to Jungang station line 4 and simply take a taxi (around 5,000 won). If you say "airshow" to the driver I am sure they will know what you mean :)
So the day started of cloudy and it looked like it might rain but the clouds melted away around lunchtime just in time for the aerobatic displays.
There were a lot of different stands for toys and food and some interesting things.
The highlight for me was the Apache and Cobra helicopters. A little disappointed that there were no jets like the T-50 trainer or the F 15K but I guess you cant have it all :)
Amongst the planes there were my friends from the Seoul Motor Show again with a dozen or so cars:
The Korean military was there as well as the Americans with their Humvee's and the Apache:
The aerobatic displays started around 1pm and here is some footage of those and there was also a parachute drop of which you can see some pictures at the end of this post:
The best display of the afternoon was this guy who really turned it on for the crowd:
Every time you go to an airshow you think of all the times you have seen things on the tv of disasters and people being hit by falling aircraft and mid air crashes and the like... it's always in the back of your mind but you never really expect to see one..... until....
I have no idea how this happened. I had left that area about 10 minutes before and I was just around the corner having a cold drink when I saw people running so of course I followed them. It seems that only the pilot was hurt which to me was amazing because the crash occurred just on the very edge of the recreation and eating area. This is the little orange Aeromaster you saw flying in one of the clips above. No one was too overly excited about it in the end and after they put out the engine fire and took the pilot away in an ambulance they simply covered up the wreckage. Shortly after this I decided to go home and take the long subway trip back.
*Updated* Here is a link to a news article about the crash sent to me by Willminkorea <--- Thank you:
Thursday was a trip to a traditional Korean restaurant not too far from where I live... well not too far by car anyway.
The dishes were very Korean with cooked whole fish and various side dishes typical of the traditional meal. There were no large dishes and a lot of the dishes were cold. I have eaten traditional Korean food before and personally I do prefer the modern Korean restaurants as the dishes are slightly more appetising... well for me as a foreigner anyway.
Here are some pictures so you get the idea:
Saturday was the Sungha Jung concert. If you have never heard of this guy bare with me and I will fill you in a little later. The concert was phenomenal in terms of the guitar skill displayed. Sungha Jung is still quite young and It seems he is also getting used to a bit of fame as he awkwardly leaves and returnes to the stage for his 2 encores but that just adds to his character and the audience was more than pleased.
For one of his final numbers he played a rendition of waltzing Matilda and prior to that Mission Impossible. So in all it was a fun concert for all.
Well Summer started yesterday and is still going strong with temperatures and the humidity soaring... which is fantastic for me as I HATE winter and the winter that just passed seemed like an eternity!
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