Gyeongju, Sex Museum Love Castle, Miso II, Shilla Millennium Park, G Star 2011 Bexco Busan

wow this weekend was HUGE! Friday was a day off from my work so at about 12pm we got on the KTX and went to Gyeongju.

Once we got there we took a taxi to the hotel. Gyeongju is a little different from most cities as there are not many tall buildings around. We arrived at the hotel an I saw that it was right on the lake which was a lovely sight.

First stop was the Sex Museum... now if you ask about Gyeongju to any Korean they will tell you all about the historic places but I have yet to hear anyone talk of this place. Its not far from Shilla Millennium Park.

So the following is a R19 (Korean Rating :) slideshow of what can be seen there... look if you dare.

.....But first a picture that I can show here :)

Sex Museum Slide Show:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/69725834@N02/sets/72157628115913748/show/

Later that night we went to a fantastic performance... well worth seeing of you get the chance!

Miso II. An epic korean musical. A prince fighting for his princess. Perhaps too large for the small stage that it was on but it was a spectacle.

Here is the cast:

The next day we had a walk around a few places locally so here is a slideshow of some of the scenery:

Gyeongju Slideshow:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/69725834@N02/sets/72157628115909674/show/

Shilla Millennium Park.

One of the famous places to go and visit it has some of the buildings and locations of where some of Korea's soap operas and I assume movies have been shot. Also there are some performances that can be seen there as well.

Shilla Millennium Park Slideshow:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/69725834@N02/sets/72157628115908386/show/

We got a little adventurous in the afternoon and spontaneously decided to go to Busan which is only half an hour away by KTX. There was a special event being held in Busan this year called G Star a gaming expo.

But before we get to that here are a couple of shots of fabulous Busan architecture:

G Star:

There were a few thousand people still there around 4pm when we arrived on Saturday afternoon. Most of the crowd had started to disappear as the show finished for the day at 6pm but my guess there were a few 10's of thousands left milling around at the event.

There were many game manufacturers there exhibiting their wares and plenty of opportunities to play games if you wanted to line up. A tank game appeared to be the main attraction as there were a couple of real tanks there to promote it. Anyway here are some pictures and a slideshow to give you an idea about it:

G Star slide show

http://www.flickr.com/photos/66276856@N07/sets/72157627990748861/show/

And if you were wondering....

Yes there were computer gaming girls :)

Check them out....

Phew! Ok so that was all for last weekend....

This week I managed to buy another battery for my DLSR camera so more videos? on the way perhaps.

This week also promises to be a fairly big one too so stay tuned for more of the same :)

Until next week have a fantastic time! :)

Coex Aquarium, Education New Zealand

So this week I saw something interesting on the subway... www.nzeducated.com/uhak

A New Zealand Education expo that was held at the Intercontinental Hotel near Coex in Samseong Station Line 2.

Lots of Universities, and schools from New Zealand were there to promote education in New Zealand and I ran into Sun one of my teachers from NZIE that I trained with before coming to Korea so that was a surprise!

So if you are interested in studying in New Zealand check out the link above.

Straight after that me and my friend went to the COEX Aquarium which was right next door. The cost was 17,500 Won per adult so a little expensive I thought. So it was quite similar to the building 63 aquarium but it did have a hammer head shark. I of course took some pictures so here are some and at the end more in a slide show :)

http://www.flickr.com/photos/66276856@N07/sets/72157628078009548/show/

I also took a video of the finger fish eating fingers....

And if you were interested take a walk with me around COEX and see SOME of the mall... the place is huge! So I could only show you a small portion so here it is:

So I get to have a small holiday this week beginning Friday so I am sure to have some exciting adventures to share with you next week!

Until then have a great week! :)

Halloween, Performance, 2nd birthday

So this week was pretty relaxing...

I had 2 birthday meals, one on Sunday night at a special place overlooking the Han river at night and another lunch at a hotel near Gimpo Airport.

I also got a lovely cake and a new wallet as apparently my other one made me look poor.... :/

Friday we visited a bar in the Marriot Hotel (Express Bus Terminal Line 3) for a Halloween party and spent an hour or so there before going home because we were both tired from a busy week...

Saturday I went to see my friend perform at a concert held at close to Dachi station. Here is the piece she played on the piano:

So that was it for this week very casual... next week may have a little New Zealand taste to it :)

Until then have a great week!

Seoul Racecourse Park

Off to the races!

Saturday we took a trip to Seoul Racecourse Park which can be found on subway line 4 (just follow the punters to the right exit and main gate).

This seems to be a popular pass time for Koreans based on the number of people at the races on Saturday. The racecourse is pretty impressive too. You can stay on the grandstand side or cross to the middle of the track where there is betting booths and a cafe and activities for the kids.

There are several betting books available and to me they looked pretty confusing....

I gave my friend 10,000 won to place a bet just for fun... she chose #1 and #7 for the 2pm race and guess what.... she won.... 167,500 won! 2 races later we repeated the same formula and... she won again! not as much this time but still that is impressive for the first time at the track... maybe next time I will give her all my money :)

So here is a little footage of the races:

There is also a museum and a small art gallery to look at while you are waiting for the next race to start...

There was also an appearance from the aerobatic team (I later found out that there was another air show on that weekend...)

We also took a trip to Seoul Grand Park... but I will keep that for another day :) (when its cold and horrible) :)

Here is a short video though:

Well until next week have a fantastic time :)

F1 Formula One Korea 2011 Saturday 15 October

Yeongnam was the destination of choice for this weekends F1 showcase.

Starting early we headed off to Mokpo on the KTX and then took a free shuttle bus to the event.

The KTX is quite a fantastic mode of transport. If you get the more spacious seats you can have a very comfortable ride with some service (free water and snacks) included. The train does not seem to be travelling all that fast but looking up at the screen we were pushing 270km/hr which is quite a good pace. We reached Mokpo in 3 hours.

So we arrived and lined up for another bus that took people around the event and dropped them off at the different seating areas. The day started with a mixed class race with I assume 1600 - 2L cars and V8's.

Then the qualifiers began with the F1 cars. I was surprised at how much the cars have changed in design (since I am not a huge F1 fan) since I had seen them last... which was a long time ago...

So it was quite exciting and very loud and a once in a lifetime experience.

I also have a bit of video I shot as well:

And what Korean event would be complete without a K-Pop concert!?.... Yes after the qualifiers there was a huge K-Pop show with a dozen or so acts including Brown Eyed Girls, 4 Minute and many others. I took a short clip of some of the acts but it took a long time to walk to the stage area so I didn't get all the acts :(

So after the event we had some delicious food and took the 3 hour KTX back to Seoul.

That's all for this week! See you again next week and have a good one yourself! :)