Paju (Odusanseong, English Village...) Doosan Bears Baseball Game

This weekend was a trip up to Paju.

We visited Odusanseong unification observation point where you can see North Korea just across the river. There is also an interesting gallery downstairs there where you can see daily items of food, clothing, reading materials etc.

Here are the official details :)

http://www.visitkorea.or.kr/enu/SI/SI_EN_3_1_1_1.jsp?cid=823020

Looks like marmite back there doesn't it :)... if you dont know what marmite is....

From there we took a quick trip to the various Paju village areas starting with the English Village which appears to be an almost totally self contained English teaching village with streets and building of various European design. Ironically we didn't see to many native English speakers and I was enough of a celebrity there to be asked for a photograph with some Korean students :)

An interesting place none the less and worth a trip out just for an adventure.

http://www.visitkorea.or.kr/enu/SI/SI_EN_3_1_1_1.jsp?cid=495607

Across the street is an art village which is a series of streets not unlike any modern urban area in the United States, Australia or New Zealand (I can't speak for England or Canada as I have not visited there...) with large modern designed buildings that house art such as pottery, cakes, museum's or wall art and so on, next to this village is another of a similar look with a cinema museum, toy museum, currency museum, pottery museum... and lots of others. I took a few photo's so you can see what the place looked like. It was a little confusing as it appeared to be like a developing residential area but with museums inside the buildings....(?) strange but good.

From there I got a text from one of my taekwondo friends who invited us to the Doosan Bears v SK Wyverns game. My first Baseball game ever. Its was nice and cool up in the stands. There was a noticeable difference between Korean fans and "foreign" fans. The Koreans are very polite and cheer their favorites but you never hear and jeers or bad language used toward the opposing team which makes a nice atmosphere to just relax and enjoy an evening with good company.

So here is a photo slideshow and a quick video of the baseball:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/63270044@N06/sets/72157626816695271/show/

Until next time have a great week! :)

Seodaemun Prison History Hall

Ok late posting due to it being a holiday here in Korea yesterday and a trip to prison was on the cards!

What a fantastic place Seodaemun Prison is! Of course if you like that kind of thing :)

The tourism link:

http://www.visitkorea.or.kr/enu/SI/SI_EN_3_1_1_1.jsp?cid=268143

Dongnimmun Station Line 3 exit 5 1,500 won for admission.

Taking a walk around the yard you definitely feel like you are in a prison. There are large open spaces surrounded by large intimidating building that look down upon you in a menacing way. This prison was used by the Japanese at one stage and it shows the different methods of torture that was used there at the time. There are a few pictures of torture and testimonies from people who were in the prison.

There is an execution building with a hanging room but no photos were allowed to be taken there. You can go into some cells however and put yourself in a closet if you feel the need :)

Quite a few places to take good photos as well. So check it out and here are a few snaps as well as a slideshow:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/63270044@N06/sets/72157626781873687/show/

Also this week it was a quick night trip out to The Deokso Boulevard Car Theatre to see Pirates of the Caribbean. It was a small car park with about 30 - 50 or so cars but really different and exciting!

Also on another unrelated note I got a Kindle from Craigslist Seoul:

In fact craigslist Seoul is a great place to get a lot of thing here second hand for good prices from other foreigners who are just downsizing or leaving Korea. Also Dave's Cafe is good for this also. Here are the links:

http://seoul.craigslist.co.kr/

http://forums.eslcafe.com/korea/viewforum.php?f=6&sid=a0e95ee03641aea13be8b4e52ddf9b12

*Also a coin update* If you are looking for coins online or physical stores here are some links. One of these stores is close to Myeong Dong:

http://www.sujipbank.com/shop/main/html.php?htmid=service/map.htm

http://www.hwadong.com/

Here is the Taekwondo team!

And finally I got the Children's Grand Park Fountain video uploaded with an audio swap so you can see the water but can't hear it... oh well

Until next week have a great time!

Goguryeo Blacksmith Village

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 :)

Here is the official information:

http://www.visitkorea.or.kr/enu/SI/SI_EN_3_1_1_1.jsp?cid=495603&nearBy=accom&

Here are a couple of pictures:

And a slide show:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/63270044@N06/sets/72157626830872310/show/

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! :)

Namyangju History Museum, Children's Grand Park (Zoo) & Gyengbokgung at night

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... :/

Here are some more photos:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/63270044@N06/sets/72157626670056269/show/

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.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/63270044@N06/sets/72157626794757394/show/

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:

Here is a few more:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/63270044@N06/sets/72157626794752542/show/

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!

Buddha's Birthday, National Cemetery, Taekwondo Supplies

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:

4. Fantastic Restaurant.

Stove: http://www.thestove.co.kr/

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:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/61339301@N03/sets/72157626597926765/show/

5. Taekwondo Supplies.

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 :)

http://www.ksdkorea.com/shop/shopbrand.html?xcode=004&type=X

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 :)

http://www.isami-seoul.com/goods_detail.php?goodsIdx=357

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.

So have a look at this from zeegs:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/zeegs/5697957389/lightbox/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/zeegs/5698531784/lightbox/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/zeegs/5698533182/lightbox/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/zeegs/5697960549/lightbox/

I have not done one of these for a while so here is a "at the moment" youtube clip or 2 :)