Ariyo in Korea

Someday We'll Know

2007-11-04T22:18:00.000-08:00

I hope its appropriate for me to post this.

Yesterday night, crystal recounted to me on an event that happened in the evening. She and her roommate were going out for dinner, when her roommate received a call from her mum in the Netherlands. She was informed that her father was in critical condition. I was told, she broke down crying and started packing her bags to return home but her mother insisted she stayed.

As we were walking back to the university, contemplating the frailties of life, it never occured to me that sometimes things strike closer to home.

I went back and sent an email home after a reminder from my dearest karen. Turns out, I have not been sending emails back for more than a month. Time sure flies here...

So I got the email sent in a routine procedure before going to study and sleep. This morning, I got an email back from my mum who told me my dad was hospitalised for internal bleeding a few weeks back. It totally broke my heart. First thing that shot into my mind was how incompetent I was as a son, to be so late to know, oblivious to such a catastrophy. Second thing that slowly ebbed into my consciousness...was how helpless I was in somewhere far away. Unable to hear reassurance of my father's health. Or how my family was coping.

Some things are just strange. 2 sons in Singapore and nothing ever happens for the longest time. 2 of them leave for overseas and something like that happens. Its just low on probability ya' know?

I ran out of coherent things to type. My mind is pretty scrambled right now. uh, enjoy your lives people. For my friends studying, enjoy your exams too.

To the stars and back

2007-11-04T22:06:00.000-08:00

Hello my dear readers. I am sure I have been conspicuous by my absence and I apologise for that. Seems like my blog has a little bit of a problem, sometimes I just can't access it. Well no matter... I do have alot of photos from my recent trips but I decided to change the style of my blog- no more emphasis on photos. Instead I have decided to put in a more introspective look at the events swirling around me.

For those who prefer the previous style... sorry? Lol. I got bored of it.

On a bit of good news. My brother who is currently working in the US has been interviewed on the Sunday times most recently. The interview was about tagxe.com, a company which i think he set up with his friends. If you would like to save on transportation time in singapore by finding people to share tagxe with, this is the website you SHOULD visit.

I am proud of my brother.

testing

2007-11-04T01:30:00.000-07:00

tesing

Pusan Train Ride Special

2007-10-17T06:49:00.000-07:00

Annyeong haseyo! This is Winston here. I know that there are many diehard Ariyo readers who faithfully refresh his blog every minute to check for his updates. I apologise if you are disappointed that this is a guest blog entry (Aww..) but I will try my best since its my first. I'll just be blogging the ending segment of our trip.

The group of us were waiting for our train at the rail station, getting ready to head home to Seoul after an eventful trip to Pusan and Gyeongju. The train that we were supposed to be traveling in, was not the clean and spacious KTX express train; instead it resembled more of an ordinary subway train. Reason being we were cheapskate tourists who opted for the KR youthpass, unaware of the 'surprises' that was in store for us.

The train doors were blocked by a mob of ajummas and ajeossis (aunties and uncles). So we had to push our way through this pile of humanity to get into the train because we didn’t want to stand on our wobbly legs throughout a 3 hr ride. We were seoul..seoul tired after days of walking and late nights. And being a 好公民 was the last thing on our minds.

Despite our valiant efforts, we were left with no seats. While placing my belongings on the floor, Ariyo exclaimed to us that that an ajumma just walked past and molested him.

The ajumma flashed a flirtatious smile at us as she friskily hopped back to her seat beside her hubby.

The ajumma was at least 50. We tried hard to get a good shot of her but she kept siamming.

Ariyo recounted between sobs of humiliation that the ajumma deliberately bumped into him, slid her hand and groped his butt. I suspect that there might have been an additional squeeze in that swift action sequence but Ariyo didn’t want to go into details. Poor Ariyo. He’s still awful traumatized right now. Holed up and shivering under his blanket in his dorm.

It seemed like this ajumma's skill with men was an innate faculty, nothing she had deliberately cultivated--that certain half-smile, a quirk of the brow, a careless, as if accidental, caress that drew men to her like a sexy queen bee, oozing oomph. The lascivious ajeossis in train started to flock to her, engaging in some incoherent banter, flirting, giggling, patting. Which soon transformed into hugs and lewd, indiscriminate acts like riding on their laps and slapping each others asses..it was so wicked that I was speechless.

The unbelievable part was that the ajumma played along with them, with her husband beside her! (in fact, the other couples behaved in the same manner, oblivious to their spouses’ reaction ) Harbouring some bizarre sort of tit-for-tat mentality, her husband went around the train, looking for prospective girls/women/anyone that he could lay his hands on by deliberately colliding into them. It was as if they were issued a guilt-free pass along with their train ticket. I forgot to mention that the folks were really drunk and high on soju, which probably explains their liberated and heightened state.

Thankfully, I’m a guy so I watched with amusement at the entire sexual pantomime unfolding in front of me. Hey I have seen lots of bizarre stuff but this definitely makes it into the top 5. It seemed kind of surreal. And it made me a little queasy, it was as if..I was watching some uncut scenes out of an awful, anachronistic ream of porn that was marked as “XXtremely Taboo” . All the ajeossis and ajummas are old enough to be grandmothers and grandfathers. I cant imagine if their children/ grandchildren were to see them.

If I am girl, this would undoubtedly be my most miserable ride in Korea. Lol.

The smell on the train was pretty bad…the dozen of ajummas besides me whipped out a bottle of soju and a container of kimchi, and began their own party. Needless to say, chaos ensued.

The drunk people on the carriage would get into drunken arguments, shoving each other, screaming and yelling. Ajummas would be cursing obscenities at their hubbies or random ajeossis who try to take advantage of them, women giggling incessantly as men piled on them, and some of them breaking out into impromptu karaoke performances.

Not to forget inane and wanton acts: There was this ajeossi who had a rip in his pants and he went around, exhibiting to the commuters his gaping hole and slapping his ass like some experienced, dirty pornstar who wanted to be punished.

My words can't do justice. The entire scene was so crazy. I think that the Crazy Horse act is nothing compared to this. This was so risqué, so bawdy and yet amidst all the debauchery and intoxication, there was a palpable sense of euphoria, which I secretly envied them for and wished that I were a part of.

The Busan Chronicles Part I

2007-10-16T07:48:00.000-07:00

Hello my dear reader, never did expect me to finally update did you? No no...its alright, there's no need to apologise for lacking faith in me. I thought I would never get to update either. So yes, no need to feel guilty. Just buy me some chocolates next time you see me ya?

Just to keep you guys informed, I went to Busan last weekend from Friday morning to Sunday 11pm. Shortly after, I had mid term exams for many of my subjects in the past week...so thats why I am updating only now. That, and my tendency to play DOTA.

Alright so enough of my excuses, ladies and gentlemen, I present to you: The Busan Chronicles Part I!

*Warning! Biggest ever number of pictures in a single entry! 39!*

Mandy, Linda, Winston, Crystal and Maggies after we alighted from the Subway "Seoul Station"

The view outside the Railway "Seoul Station". Nothing extraordinary. I thought this picture may add to the extra bandwidth, and cause untold suffering on my faithful readers with constricted bandwidth.

Still a view outside the station. BUT this picture actually has a point. If you would squint your eyes hard enough on the top of that beautiful building, you would notice it has a Yonsei Logo on it. Apparently Yonsei University is just part of a large corporation and this building is some sort of a company headquarters.

Artistic/ Slightly shaky photo of the day. Look at that.

The view inside Seoul Station. It looks like an airport, has some shops and fastfood chains. Very big and spacious, very modern. It must have cost alot to build this place...because they couldn't afford to hire someone to check the tickets. Anyone could have boarded the train. Anyone. Even that shifty looking terrorist strapped from top to bottom in dynamite. Oooh the horrors....
Couple clothings in Korea is very popular. Most of the time you get to see couples decked out in utterly obiang looking clothes so no one has the chance to resemble them. Its quite a good logic too. Imagine you and your partner are walking down crowded Seoul in a plain looking couple T-shirt. What happens if you lose sight of your partner and mistakenly grabs hold of another girl with the same shirt? What happens if you grab hold of ANOTHER GUY with the same shirt?

Think about it.

For couple clothes. The gaudier the better.

The KTX train. Quite a pleasant train, modern and clean. I had no other impression of it because I started eating my Macdonalds breakfast before it moved and fell asleep for 3hrs as soon as it left the station.

And when I woke up, we were are Busan Station. See the 6 grannies at the bottom right of the picture? They were protesting. Its a national past time here. Everyone wears some sort of sash and stand in a prominent place to protest. Age is no barrier. Apparently, neither is the amount of protesters.

Walked a bit, took the subway a bit. And lo and behold, our new home for the night.

The magnificent view from our new home. Its so beautiful, diamonds pale in comparison. Lol.

A slightly more eye appealing picture. The Girl's bedroom.

The living room. We were sort of living in a HDB apartment type of guesthouse and we had the whole house to ourselves except for this strange looking east european woman who we immediately ignored. I thought she looked like a witch.

Then we took the subway a bit more and was shocked to find out that in Busan, the subways and stations were almost empty most of the time. In parts of Busan, you couldn't even see people under the age of 40.

Anyway that cute little dog (all stray dogs in korea are cute) was resting it arse on a cabbage when we arrived at a town market. It looked like it was trying to hatch the cabbage and no one around me thought that was strange. I thought it was strange.

Judging by the look on the dog's face, he didn't agree with me.

The town market where no one under 40 years old roamed. We stuck out like sore thumbs.

Ironically in that old folk town, there was a huge advertisement plastered on the wall for plastic surgery. This kinda stretches it a little...plastic surgery is one thing. Reverse ageing is another.

My daily ice cream. And first in Busan. Its a vanilla ice cream sandwiched between soft bread shaped like a fish. Cost about 800won and taste great. I highly recommend it although most of you wun be able to eat it. Ice cream products here go by seasons, every few weeks they change the entire selection of ice creams so people like me will never get bored.

Busan International Film Festival. I have yet to see this movie but I heard its good. So here I am, shameless advertising a film out of nationalistic pride.

The Beach in Busan. The natural sand is soft but the weather was slightly autumny. It gave a slightly depressed mood to the atmosphere.

A bunch of girls making sand things. None of them looked hot but their sand pictures were pretty good. One group of them even sculpted a 3D frog statue that resembled a fat buddha. If thats not a useful life skill I dunno what is.

We boarded a ferry that took us on a 1.5hr boat trip to a nearby lighthouse for about 6k won? When the boat was moving, you could throw snacks off the back of it and seagulls would snap them up. There was a huge flock of them trailing in vessel in no time and you could even reach up to grab one if its near you.

Me. On a boat.
A lighthouse.
Our boat. Oh god. I feel so tired of blogging now. WHY DID I UPLOAD SO MANY PHOTOS. WHY!? I AM SO TIRED. NOOOO BUT I MUST PERSEVERE! I MUST PERSEVERE!

Next up! We ate Pig organ broth! It was an interesting experience! I loved the liver and the heart! But I hated its stomach! All of you should try it! It is expensive and not very filling! We ate Macdonalds after that!

Busan resembled Singapore....they were HDBs everywhere. Just look at this picture. It reminds me of Choa Chu Kang

More shots of pseudo Singapore. It was here that I sat down and felt a tinge of homesickness. Tears welled up in my dry eyes and I missed the hot humid place I call home.

I think the others were quite surprised with my sudden break down lol.

We tried to enter the Closing Ceremony of the Busan Film Festival but it was guarded by many professional looking body guards in black suits and wore sunglasses-at night. They also had this nifty looking ear piece and walking talkie concealed at the collars of their jackey. Woooooooow.

Unfortunately for one of them, I asked to use the toilet and he had to follow me to the Gents where I secretly laughed at his mundane job while I gave a woosh of pee.

Penguins with sunglasses. All flash and no substance.

Oh yah, the picture. Fireworks! This one is orange.

This one is green.

This is blue
This is red!

This is whitey, greeny with some sparkle. I would call this one shiny.

We have been to the Busan Film Festival! (Technically we haven actually went it. Who cares about technicalities anyway. They are so boring)

You would expect a crowd in the subway station. It was only 9pm. In Seoul, people would be charging you down for not moving and stampeding over your lifeless corpse.

We went to another beach with a great nightview. Bought some alcohol and proceeded to drink ourselves silly. Or rather, I couldn't drink alcohol so the others drank themselves silly.

A Jazz Band busking beside the beach. From what I could see, it was made up of young and old folks and their jamming was good. Very good in fact. They gathered a sizeable crowd who donated lots.

I believe Music should be free.

Beachview! At night!

Winston, Crystal and I bought some fireworks to play. More and better pictures were in Crystal's camera...but I will come to that soon...

We boarded the subway and sat down. At that time a young man was sitting beside the very drunk crystal who was happily slurring in her speech. She placed her camera beside her and that man took it, left at a stop, completely unnoticed by the 10 of us. This picture is of Liwei and Crystal happily unaware of her stolen camera.

I don't think Winston was sober.

So what happens when a camera gets stolen? WE WENT TO THE POLICE! YAY! How exciting can this get eh? Funny thing is, 10 young students walk into a police station. They can't speak Korean, and the policeman can't speak english. To even compound the extremely hilarious situation (to me, not to poor Crystal), half of them were very drunk. I dun think they took us seriously when we told them a camera got stolen.

Come on, imagine.

Imagine you were the policeman. A group of merrily drunk foreign students come to you trying to explain of a crime. Lol. Funny. Anyway he really did helped us and even sent crystal, liwei and gary to a police post who could document the crime.

We didn't recover the camera in the end. So I'm gonna end part 1 with this nicely concealed erotic picture hanged on the subway walls. For those of you who can't read whats in the white heart on the left, it says "Only love".

Korea is awesome.

The Busan Chronicles Part II

2007-10-16T07:25:00.000-07:00

Alright I just woke up after sleeping eight hours. It a nice and shiny Sunday morning that is not freezing like yesterday. So I am gonna BLOG! Woo! YEAH!

Our little story continues after the first night of our Busan trip. On the 2nd day at 1am, we reached home and the 10 of us waited ini line to use the single toilet till 3am... Charming stuff indeed. Next time I book a guest house, I would have to inquire on the toilet to occupants ratio.

*Warning! Only 14 pictures with some beautiful ones!*

The next morning, with most of us tired and grumpy, we booked out with all our luaguages and silently walked to a bus stop to hail a bus. As you can see, the weather wasn't any better. It certainly didn't help my mood one bit. Fortunately...the bus ride was one hour to the tip of Busan where there was some sort of an Island with a great sea view.

The place, of which I have no idea what its called. Lets call it Treasure Island.

We were carrying all our luagages and it seemed ridiculous to lug them around with us. So we ask ayoung guy for his help to look after our luagages. To our damm surprise, he spoke to us in halting Chinese. Turns out the kind soul was in the army, and his job was to look after a cone on the road leading from an army base to Treasure Island.

Utter waste of talent... A university student who can speak 3 languages, moving a single cone for cars to pass through a tiny road.

We also took a tram ride.

The sky view in Treasure Island. Its beautiful aint it? 2nd most beautiful picture in my blog. Also! I realised blogspot has this nifty function where, when you click on the picture, it enlarges to full size!

Come on, give it a click. Make it your screen saver or something.

The view of an island from a lighthouse in Treasure Island. We are looking at the Pacific Ocean here.... An entire horizon of water. Vaaaaaaaaast and Biiiiiiiiiig. Huge. Gigantic. Titanic etc.

After walking down a bit(15min of climbing down) from the lighthouse, we can see platforms near the base of the seacliffs. This is a photo from a position higher up. The ocean looks like a giant slab or bluish marble...

On the way down from the top of the cliff, they also have signboards with pictures to illustrate the kind of creatures that can be found nearby. About 3 kinds of ferocious sharks roam the shores here, silently waiting for the dumb caucasian blonde tourist to go dipping in...

Me. On a seacliff with huge wind messing up my hair. We were about 1 one metre from the edge but thats the furthest i would go because I'm afraid of dying. Wouldn't want to die for a nice, adventurous photograph.

It would be really sad for my gravestone to read:

" Here Lies Ariyo
Loving son
Saved a starving shark from imminent death"

A nice beach view. Notice the beach is black on areas wet with water? Thats actually a granite beach, granite worn down into fine sand through millions of years of erosion.

We left Treasure Island where almost everybody were in high spirits and no longer tired and went to a wet market in the city. It was pretty crowded.

Older folks in Korea are as romantic, although I noticed that wife beating is prevalent here. Give and take perhaps?

On a neutrally relevant note. If you would glance at the background, you would notice a white stray dog. In korea, if the stray dogs aren't small and proportionally cute, they are large and have fur of pure snow. There is something funny with eating dogs here, they look gorgeous.

I hate Chihuahuas. Giant eyes too big for the eye sockets, head too big for the bodies. Attitude too weird for their size. They are the embodiment of everything gone wrong with a dog, with the exception of the poor poodle.

I would kill and eat a chihuahua, then string their skulls around my neck like a necklace.

All the food talk made me hungry, so we decided to have lunch. This picture my dear readers, is our lunch. We still have no idea what it is, but its sort of tubular, has a sucker for a mouth and blind. It looks like a giant worm but is really a fish type of thing.

Cost about 10k won( $15) per person. They skin the fish live in front of us. Then butcher it into many pieces which individually, start to wriggle, lol. The wriggling bits are then wrapped up in front of us with sauce and heated on a BBQ plate. 3min later, they are unwrapped, and........the marinated bits are still wriggling.

The Hong Kong girls were grossed out and refused to pay. They then went to have lunch somewhere while we ate this nice fresh seafood. I think Crystal ate some too even though she was pretty affected. Brave girl.

I have the video of the entire cooking process, if you would like I can send to you. Takes 10min through skype ya?

And we left the wet market and crossed the street to reach.....Busan's version of Orchard road. The stuffs here were expensive and loaded with branded goods in branded stores. Some small stalls however, sell pretty nice things at a cheap price compared to seoul. Yet again, I have no idea where this place is but I bet you can easily check it up somewhere.

A store named Singapole. Obviously a pun. Ironically selling autumn and winter clothings.

We left for Qing Zhou (Geongju) in the evening on a train and reached there at night.

Then we had a very fun session of drinking and very much later, penalties for losing card games where I drank coffee in replacement of alcohol.

I didn't sleep that night.

The Busan Chronicles Part III

2007-10-16T04:22:00.000-07:00

Yesterday

2007-10-07T00:34:00.000-07:00

Finally updating 4 events in one go. Just had a great time at the finale of Yon- Ko Jon( Yonsei Korea uni Games) yesterday. Its one of the highlights of the fall semester. I dun think I'll introduce much more except: Korea is the best place for overseas exchange, and Yonsei uni is the most happening university in korea. Woo!

And just to rub in a bit more. My dear friends in Singapore, I am enjoying life very very much at the moment. I hope you guys are having a great time. AHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAH

*Warning! 28 pictures of crowds in dim environment*

After lunch initally with Mandy and Crystal, Winston and I were still hungry so we walked abt 2km to find a chinese restaurant on the other side of the school. At first we got lost, decided to abandon all hope and head towards the subway but we chanced upon our destination by chance.

Our reward: Zha Jiao Mian. There aren't many chinese restaurants in Korea and most dishes are pretty expensive. The signature chinese dish in korea is Zha Jiao Mian which is noodle in a gravy of meat. This one here is made up of minced pork and its absolutely divine. Cost abt 3.5k Won and I have yet to repay winston for paying for me first. That means I now owe him abt 3.5k and Crystal 1k won.

Maybe I shall repay them later.

Maybe they will forget.

I am a real easy going person, either option is ok with me. The latter is preferred.

2nd photo of him eating the noodles. Notice the shirt he is wearing? During YonKoJon, ALl yonsei students wear blue and the Korea uni students wear red. You'll see how we look in a while.

Red vs Blue at the soccer stadium. As usual the crowd has been cheering non stop for 4-5hrs...I would compare it to a mass at City harvest church. Non stop dancing and singing with absolutely no regard for the sports. Basically the games are just for students to get drunk, mass around and dance like nuts.

We sat opposite the blue and red contigent because we had a tiring day cheering yesterday and decided to really observe the atmosphere and game instead. Its a beautiful sight....plus when both sides start cheering, the chairs on our side start to sway because of the air compression.

Then they started playing advertisements by both universities on the big screen. For those of you unfamiliar with the Yon Ko Jon, its some sort of age old rivalry between the top 2 and 3 schools in Korea. Seoul is the undisputed number 1 school here. So yonsei and korea uni are vying for the 2nd spot. In Yonsei University, we call it the Yon- Ko Jon while in Korea uni, they call it the Ko-Yon Jon because the first name implies superiority. Have to be careful which name you use when talking to students of each school. My Classmates were absolutely shocked when i said Ko Yon Games initially.

Cheerleaders from both schools. Good stuff. Yon Kon Jon was bountiful in harvest for the guys.

Even more elite of korean girls in short skirts and ample assets (i meant talent).

Nothing better than giant girls 4 storeys tall.

Korea uni's advertisement that bad mouths yonsei. KUTV is Korean Uni Tv. They used sailormoon as a parody. I would say their advertisements were inferior...not many people laughed.

I actually have alot of videos on the advertisements but the photos can't do justice to them and I am not able to upload these videos. Maybe I'll share it with you guys when i get back to SG ya?

On a totally unrelated note.

I also lost about 7kg since i came to Korea.

The beautiful evening sky in Seoul.

We were sitting in the neutral area and this couple sat in front of us. Here, people, is the true spirit of Yon Ko Jon.

Interschool Love and KFC for dinner.

We went back to Sinchon where we had dinner at this cosy underground restaurant. At first we though we could get free food and drinks but we were supposed to cheer in korean on how much we loved the place then we could get food. Every other drunk korean student was roaming around in Sinchon (the equivalent of orchard road) shouting cheers for free beer and chicken wings.

Free sandwich and drinks by the restaurant owner even though we didn't cheer. I was so touched, tears flowed down freely.

Just kidding, I would rather die a wussy.

Decided to go back to our university which is located in Sinchon where they had a mini pop concert in the middle of our school. Those girls performing on stage are from Ewha Women's University. Its something like Getai, the girls dancing acrobatically to a pop song before chatting with the audiences like seasoned performers.

Koreans are generally more relaxed. People here know how to enjoy life and are very relaxed. Those ajumas over here were decked out in office clothes, probably working in the university as lecturers?

They were jiggling to rock music. I found that extremely amusing.

A word of caution....Korea is not for the uptight... I wouldn't advise people to come here if they couldn't learn to enjoy themselves ya?

One of the numerous tents around the school giving free beer and popcorn. Crystal remarked that she has never seen someone to enthusiastic in giving out free beer and food. In This photo, you would see a guy standing there with a beer in hand. He's waiting to give it out. In fact, every tent has a few men and women holding beer in both hands eagerly waiting for someone to approach them so they can give it out. Remarkable sight. Truly remarkable.

His 3rd cup. I think everyone had a few drinks except me but I was pretty high on the spirit of merry making.

Then we went out to Sinchon again to join up with the mentor's club. The place has by now been turned into a student mass rally where hordes, throngs, snakes, mass of students have gathered to wreak havoc. The smell of vomit and puke from binge drinking was everywhere.

Another photo to illustrate The Yearly Invasion of Sinchon. Everyone in that picture are students. To avoid separating from their groups, people would form human snakes and bash through the streets. Yet again, I have never seen such a peculiar sight of so many human snakes worming their way through the streets.

Then we went back to Yonsei University after the Cheerleaders rallied everyone from the streets. It was like a rock star following, people started to gather behind them and before we reached Yonsei, students were marching hand in hand behind the Cheerleaders on the main road where cars would stop for people.

Cheerleading concert in Yonsei. Damm fun. Damm bloody fun. Its like a cult rally without the sacrificial baby.

Look at those people. If you guys would scroll down and check out my photos of yonsei university last month. You would notice the main road in Yonsei. It was full during the concert.

The Yonsei Board of Directors going up the stage to dance. Bunch of elderly folks dancing energetically. Only in Korea.

Then again...I remember PAP had some of their ministers do the breakdance or something. Only in Singapore.

Me, Crystal and Winston at the end of the concert. We were very high and happy. Also because we just finished dancing to a song titled "Ariyo". Its the most popular cheer song in Yonsei. Very catchy and absolutely fun to do. It also spells exactly like my name.

We went back to sinchon again after the concert to get some ice cream. Thats Liwei the taiwanese with his ice cream.

Sinchon still swarmed at 2am...

Winston unconsolable over a token sum of his ice cream. He let out an anguished NOOOOOOOooooooo when it dropped.

I have resolved to take a photo everytime he drops his food and post it on this blog. Every other meal he would drop some food. No kidding.

And then we walked back to the dorm to sleep while laughing at those poor buggers in sinchon who had to sleep on streets.

2 Days Ago

2007-10-06T23:10:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago

2007-10-05T09:46:00.000-07:00

Many Weeks Ago

2007-10-05T08:06:00.000-07:00

Random Escapades

2007-09-21T07:38:00.000-07:00

Woah. Hey! I'm back!

The past week hasn't been very eventful so not much to blog about ya? First let me give you an update on my week.

1) Its raining in Korea. Not that cats and dogs variety, but more like those you would imagine if the Heavens were to piss.

2) I had no umbrella.

3) Point number 2 was the highlight of my week. I can't remember much except for being soaked from top down everyday.

Nevertheless its now Chu Sok (korean thanks giving) and I have the spare time to reward YOU, my little peons, with some photos when it was dry enough to take out my camera.

Last Week

*13 Pictures*

A stray dog in korea. It was sleeping peacefully under a car until i approached it for a shot. That little vermin scampered out from under the car and half heartedly stopped running halfway when it realised I wasn't dangerous. Then it did the strangest thing...it started blinking and dozed off standing, smack in the middle of my path.

At this juncture my dear readers would be thinking: "Wow! what a cute dog. Here lassie..here lassie!"

That lil' fucker had me fooled too. I took a step on MY path and it awoke from its fake slumber and started snarling at me (refer to pissed off dog picture above). Unwilling to give up, it was down to a battle of will between us.

Man vs Dog.

Talented photographer vs Fur coat.

I lost. After 5 min, I gave up and went around it. I decided I could learn to eat dog meat.

This, my friends, is one of the spiciest food you will find in Korea. Squid of some sorts with vegetables and an insane amount of chilli. Insane amount. I can't stress that anymore.

A half eaten pot gamely eaten by crystal's korean friend and I. I was so high from eating this toxic stew that i lost touch sensation in my hands and feet, and my tongue couldn't taste anything but sweetness. It is that devastating...and yet addictive. Kinda like drugs. Make sure you try it if you get to visit korea.

Those who ate. Crystal's korean friend who is a teacher, crystal, mandy, linda, winston and yours truly.

Shortly after we exited the eatery, we saw a little mongrel running wild around the streets. It was racing around the human crowd chased by this Ajuma (auntie). Poor doggie was fascinated by my camera as you can see it looking at me taking the picture. You will also notice that the kind Ajuma had one hand raised. That doggie got spanked in broad daylight.

We got lost at Ewha's women street at night where they had some grand opening for a new department store. In Singapore I am not sure what they do when they commemorate opening of shopping stalls, but in Korea, they have pop concerts complete with boybands and song artists.

Fireworks after a boyband performed with slick moves. I couldn't care less but the girls wouldn't budge.

If you squint your eyes hard enough, you can actually see the crowd.

A blurry photograph of a male and female MC on a smaller stage. Doesn't show much. Read down.

Large LCD screen 2 storeys high on the department exterior. The female MC is pretty...yum...

And so we decided to have highly suggestive looking desserts. Lots of descriptions come to my mind when I look at this yoghurt. It could be Horny, or it could be Perky. Its not mine by the way, winston and crystal decided to share and came up with that.

I wouldn't settle for anything other than a non-shared frozen yoghurt

Day 30

*21 Pictures*

The Mentor's Club had a Chu seok celebration and invited all the international students there to participate. It was something like an introduction to their culture, some performances and eating free food. Read more to find out!

Thats an Indian professor who is undoubtedly from the engineering faculty with his little son. The aim of this game is to throw 4 arrows into a dustbin. Its harder than it looks and i got zero out of 4 throws. Quite a fun game really. There was a dimunitive chinese girl who insisted on perfecting her skills. Obviously raised up in a perfectionistic environment, she went about 20 times retrying till she got an average of 3 out of 4. Admirable spirit, but truly scary to me.

Mandy(hk) and Li wei(Tw) posing. We were playing puzzles all night long. Taiwanese people do have the really lame games...he reminds me of XYZ!!!! But my dear OGL more shuai lah...

International students meeting new people. The downside of such events is that you have to start shaking hands with new people and trying hard to remember their names. And the next time you walk around in school and see them, there is about a split second to recall their names and greet them. Everyone should wear a nametag.

Winston the friendly neighbourhood crocodile in action.

Chu seok is like the Mid autumn festival back in Singapore. Except it is also like Chinese new year, Qing Ming jie and the Christian's Thanksgiving. Pretty confusing for a foreigner like me but my kind classmate Minhyung have summed it up nicely for my dear readers.

She says, its a Holiday where people can sleep and eat.

Large size American girl blocking my view of the performace. Everyone else have their buttocks firmly implanted on the ground. Maybe she thinks her buttocks are made of gold. Maybe its true. I'll have to verify it through a tried and tested method of biting it.

We got to try the traditional Korean costumes. I think its called the Han Bok, doesnt look that good but it does look very comfortable. Here, Winston is showing how obese koreans used to be. Ever since the Americans introduced Macdonalds in korea, the koreans slimmed down so much they had no need to wear Han boks and instead wore tight jeans and figure flaunting dresses.

I don't know that guy beside Winston. He doesn't know either. Its a total mystery how he is posing for my camera.

The girls. HK, SG, TW.

Crystal and his very handsome mentor. He also happens to be the only handsome guy in my class. Funny thing was, crystal told me her mentor was handsome and I told her my classmate was probably more handsome than her mentor. Turns out is the same handsome lad. Girls, feast your eyes on this photo....because HE'S GAY!

K. Kidding lah....not gay at all.....

A crab desperately climbing out of a fish tank. Prison break 4 anyone?

Oh I forgot to explain how I managed to take a picture of a crab. We actually finished the mentor thing and decided to go Ewha to find a money changer for Li wei but when we reached there it was closed. So we went to Sinchon's department store to buy some things. Li wei took us on a short cut through a very very sleazy neighbourhood.

And the crab belonged to a restaurant.

Motel Rio. 'nuff said
Koreans aren't exactly subtle. When a motel calls itself "Touch Touch", you can expect couples to visit not for a good night's sleep.

A phamplet on the windshield of a car. When I took this photo, I didn't realise there was a guy sitting inside the car staring at me take this photo.

Anyway the phamplet is talking about the location of a "bar" nearby with "hostesses" 20-30 years old, apparently with "large" assets. There's even a minimap on the phamplet to make finding easy. If that isn't good advertising, I don't know what is.

We went to the supermart and i bought 2 cartons of milk. The grapes dun look pretty but they taste good.

Oh yeah, so we came back and i started to update my blog. 10 minutes in, an ang mo knocked on my door and started talking to us. With a can of sprite and a charming smile, he leaned on the door frame and casually mentioned to us he's playing Nintendo Wii with 4 japanese ladies downstairs. And a party game is no good without a party.

As soon as he left, I messaged winston and we both went down immediately.

So there you go, Jonas the ang mo, 4 japanese girls whose names I can vaguely remember. Maiko, mommy, shizuka and showie. The girl on the far right is a american korean who goes by the name of Silver. Jonas was buayaing her.

Shizuka with the wii remote. We played for quite long till it was 1.30 and then decided to sleep. They were still playing when we left. So thats the entry for today! Or rather yesterday. Today I had a great time with the asia gang again but I'll update tomorrow when I come back from another trip to the N-Seoul Tower with my language buddy Ki Won.

Midweek Days

2007-09-12T05:23:00.000-07:00

Aiseh, I'm surprised people are still reading my blog. Thus, I have come to the conclusion that my readers: have no life, have no taste in blogs, or think I am an excellent blogger. I tend to agree with all 3 options.

For those of you who are fed up of all filler entries I crapped out, here is something better. Enjoy!

Ps. I haven't collate pictures for Busy Busy Bee part II. Maybe I'll upload it by December lol.

*21 Pictures*

Day 20 ( Monday)

You don't need me to describe this picture. But here is one of my hardworking korean classmate busy exercising her brain early in the morning. I suppose this is a phenomenon occuring elsewhere back in SBS......

I also slept after taking this picture.

After evening Korean Language lessons, Chris, our korean mentor took Nick and I to get our phone lines registered. In Korea, they don't have SIM cards. You buy your phone and you either get a line with monthly payment for your phone or you can top up your phone like an EZ link card. I was going to top up mine and get a number. By the way my number is 010-something something(i forgot) - 7378.

Chris and I. He's slightly melodramatic when helping me communicate with the sales guy.

GRAPES IN KOREA ARE FANTASTIC. THEY TASTE LIKE GRAPE JELLIES!!! ZOMG OMG OMGZ.

When you come to Korea, try them. Try them or I will shoot you.

Day 23 (Wednesday)

I managed to crash Winston's marketing class on the premise of scouting for business babes, so I can share the goodies with my Hum Sup readers. Unfortunately the harvest was pretty bad and I had to settle for an hour of real marketing lessons.

In the picture above, you will notice prim and proper business ladies paying attention in class.

In this picture, you can see their stinky feet clearly out of their shoes. Wriggling around and polluting the already stale, damp air. Obviously out of place in this business climate, I tried to fit into the business culture by airing my feet under the table.

After Korean classes we went for mass dinner again. 11 of us from the Asia pacific countries went to have dinner in the nearby Sinchon Area. But first....

We took the longer route through EWHA WOMANS UNIVERSITY.

This is what it looks like from EWHA looking towards the main gate. See the nearest hill behind? Thats where our hostels are...So close yet so far. Haiz. Its quite a pretty campus, plenty of girls and a few guys like us strolling around like tourists.

The view from the Ewha chapel. I must comment that, as a really lazy blogger, you guys have to thank me for sacrificing my pride. I bet no other blogger walks through a Womans School with a camera snapping shots away.

Winston on the stairs outside the Ewha Chapel. Clearly happy.

In the background, I managed to take an upskirt photo of an unsuspecting girl.

Please do not download this photo to enlarge, its rude and invading the poor girl's privacy. However, I would gladly send you the enlarged photo if you ask me.

Women's Street again.

My artistic photo of the day. Just look at how beautiful this picture is. I made it looked so cosmopolitan, yet so asian and dynamic.

We settled for a restaurant in Seoul. Where I ate my first meal outside the Guesthouse in Hapjeong. This is the window seat on the 2nd floor where we could peek down at the people walking past.

I dun have any photos of people walking past at this point, too preoccupied with the food.

In that table, Nick, Tracie, Adam and Justina

Nearby table, Mandy, Crystal and Linda

Gary, Winston and Me. Everyone has an English name except me.

Our food. Its a bit dark and my camera couldn't take a proper picture. I had to choose between a good picture of food, and a good picture of people. I chose the former.

Women in Ewha. The best shot I could get because they were walking pretty fast. The girl in pink had a pretty face. You guys can determine the rest...

I have no idea why I posted this picture. Crystal and Winston found the name of this cafeteria absolutely hysterical. I think its lame.

The only joke I can think of is: NTU has Canteen A, Ewha has School Food.

An Ice Cream a Day.

Unknown to my loyal viewers, I am actually really eating one ice cream a day. Marvel at my perseverance. Never knew I could be so hardworkingly commited eh?

Busy Busy Bee pt 1

2007-09-08T09:41:00.000-07:00

Hey Hey I have finally managed to do a proper blog entry after....lol 10 days? I haven been bringing my camera around as you can imagine as my bag is absolutely gigantic and superfluous for one camera. As such, half of the photos you see here are contributed by my fellow students Winston and Adam! A round of applause for them please, thank you. For part 2 of Busy Busy Bee, I will collate more photos from Crystal or Gary to fill in the gaps ya? For now, enjoy.

*24 Pictures*

Day 6- 16

This is the current state of my room. Pretty tidy eh? My bag is behind my laptop and my used clothes are dumped in the cubicle on the top.

Just to compare with how my room at home looks like.... I miss my room. It has a huge space for me to prance around. Too bad I am moving house soon..my new room is smaller than this dorm.

For my faithful readers who recognise the red cup, its the cup Nic, Esther, Winston and I stole from KFC. As you can see, I have progressed further up my criminal career by stealing 2 more cups. A regular size Macdonald's cup and a Large size one.

I tried stealing Burger King's cups but they are all paper. Pretty stingy for a king.

A normal meal at the canteen. They give cheap and healthy food just enough to fill your stomachs up. At first we though Korea was a healthy place and where we were bound to slim down. Sadly...it was not to be true...Singaporeans just keep eating.

Chicken katsu rice korean style. The chicken is boiled and mixed with red pepper spice and cooked onions. Its pretty healthy but cost 4000 won which is $6+.

Day: Somewhere last week...

We went to register as official Aliens in Korea lol and as the Chinese guys were waiting for an hour or so for their turn, Winston and I decided to have some donuts outside. Ladies and gentlement, we present to you, our first trip to Dunkin' Donuts.

A window seat view of Dunkin' Donut with my takeaway order.

Winston with his dining-in Stick, and my chocolate balls. We are young at heart :)

Day: The next day after someday last week

The Mentor Club decided to bring us somewhere similar to Sim Lim Square to get us used handphones. They decided on the Yonsei Main Gate as an appropriate meeting place.

Nowhere is more appropriate than an unsheltered land in a thunderstorm.

The protagonist of this blog shows his displeasure at the incompetent underlings of Mentors Club.

The information counter at the hardware building. Adam, the photographer, couldn't bend any lower to bring you guys a better view. Good effort though.

And after the phone trip we went to have Bulgolgi, or bbq beef with lots of other herbs and onions on a plate.

For all your country bumpkins out there, the Koreans like to mix everything in the same plate, whatever you see on a dish, they should all be combined with the biggest dish on the table.

Then there's the exception to the All-in-One rule. Those you see here are the Side Dishes. Most of the time they are Kimchi or Radishes. DO NOT MIX THEM INTO THE MAIN DISHES.

3 Chinese, 3 Hong Kongers, 2 Koreans and 2 Singaporeans.

The food is so delicious we are picking scraps off the bbq plate.

Day 12

The Genetics class. Look at all the bored souls at 9am early in the morning. Most classes here have a maximum of 100 students. I think there are about 50 students in a 200 seater lecture room

Yet more bored souls, unaware of my sneak shots. The classes here that are in english are rather simple. It seems to me I am revising things I learned 2 years ago. But the genetics class taught me pretty fundamental things that Peter Droge was negligent in. Basics people, Basics.

Thats me, beside a lift. Whats so fascinating about a life?

1) They have it on overheadbridges. How cool is that? HOW COOL IS THAT!?

2) You can climb 5 floors in the same time it moves 1 floor. HOW COOL IS THAT?!?!!?

Day: Somewhere last week...continued

Yuan yuan, me and Adam outside Ewha Women's University. For those living on a mountain high in the clouds, this is the elite university catering solely for women. Its alumni includes, models, actresses and feminists(its a career). The place is so unique it has a subway named after it, and the surrounding streets selling only female accessories and other char bo stuffs. Truly a paradise for the XX chromosomes.

We came for the girls.

Its another beethoven btw, the photo is just to illustrate to you how deceiving looks can be from the behind in Korea. Nevertheless, for those ser pei peis~ clamouring for me to post chio bus, I am dedicating this fabulous behind-shot to you all.

Day 17.

A $50 leather bag i just bought. We went around a shopping floor in Dongdaemum 3 times searching for the appropriate bag. Then as Winston was waylaid by an enthusiastic sales auntie, this gem caught my eye. I think Winston was slightly disappointed that I got it first so I'm pretty guilty......not.

I am posting this to rub it in. HWAHAHHAHAHAHAHHAHAHA.

The Wayward Cloud

2007-08-29T04:55:00.000-07:00

Hola people! I'm in the mood for blogging again after gathering a small number of photographs. Nothing mind-blowing like my previous few adventures but I'll feature my room, my campus compound and some things I did ya?

*33 Pictures*

Day 5

This is the living room of my guesthouse for the first 5 days in korea. A guest house is like a cheap motel but in a small cosy house. I booked a single room to live in because of privacy but most people living in double rooms or 6 bed dormitories. The guys and girls share the same room. Wireless internet, cable TV and washing machine is provided.

This is the kitchen with its very humble bread toaster, which I used everyday to toast my morning breakfast. Ahh...those were the days.

And this was the room I stayed in, notice there are 2 beds but only 1 person (me) living in it. They couldn't give me a single room so they gave me a room with 2 beds instead.

This is my new room! As of now I've slept 2 nights on this bed. Its as stiff as a slab of stone but the blankets are comforting and can last me throughout the night. When I go back to singapore, I am gonna buy some winter blankets. This stuff is fantastic, its like wrapping yourselve up in heated sheets.

My window view, a decent forest with plenty of trees. I expect them to change colour during autumn and subsequently during winter. It is gonna be a pretty sight for ME. MWAHAHHA.

The laundry room with washing machines and dryers. Cost nothing to use them so I am bringing one set of clothings down to wash and dry everyday. Waste of electricity? Korea doesn't mind...it literally farts natural resources at will.

Li pan reading the newspaper at The Kitchen, the cafeteria for our dorm. Its like the Quad, more expensive just for the ambience.

A simple egg and bacon sandwich breakfast costing 4500won. Thats abt $7.

I hope they rot in hell for daylight robbery.

The road to our dorm. Notice the lush greenery.

A less awesome view of my current home. Certainly looks very crappy from this angle.

The road outside my road lined with Maple trees. This is going to be a fascinating sight once again. The weather suddenly turned cold over the past 2 days and clouds are covering the sky which means its gonna be autumn soon. I'll give you guys a picture of the same road when the maples turn golden ya?

S- Road. In every post, I have an artistic shot.

This is it.

A park near my school and down the road. Its supposedly pitch dark here at night. Couples congregate here to do unspoken things. Unfortunately its a hell hole for me. Mosquitoes practically lord over this place. Its terrible. I can't imagine dating someone here. Quarreling yes. Its alot easier to find excuses to smack someone in the face. Dating, no.

Another view of the park. It reminds me of the Hippo enclosure in the Zoo.

This picture says: If you light up in the park, we will have free toasted bunnies and squirrels for breakfast tomorrow.

The almight glorious amphi-theatre located on top of a hill. Once a year, Yonsei supposedly invites popular korean singers and stars to perform here. On other days, groups gather here to practise things. Just today I saw 5 guys dancing on the stage in a very gay manner, its something like waterboys, but on the stage.

We had a good time laughing at them.

The seoul skyline behind the amphitheatre. See the clouds? They are all being blown towards seoul.

One of the school buildings in Yonsei. Pretty isn't it? Its 120 years old.

A picture taken from the doorway of that grand old building. Lo and behold. A manicured garden.

And after the garden you get....a pretty damm long road.

Yonsei is actually a one road campus. All the schools are beside that one main road. This is one of the school... It reminds me of SAFTI MI

Realise that all the buildings are shaped like castles? The koreans have warfare ingrained into them. I bet in a situation where war breaks out, this place is gonna be fortified by the army.

God knows what school is this. But it looks good.

The library. Its 6 floors, huge, and very old (100years)

A typical line of bookshelves. 30 rows?

This is one of the amazingg study rooms. Compare it to our resource room lol. Guess how many seats and tables there are?

You can't see it, but it says 488. Fucking amazing. 488. What if someone farts. I can't help but think how many people would suck in the noxious poison before it gets ventilates out.

After walking to the end of the road, and past the main entrance of Yonsei you see....busy busy Sinchon.

Winston and Adam (my roommate) discussing what to eat in a Chinese Restaurant.

Adam with his fried rice. He's a Shanghainese who studies in Hong kong and exchanged to Korea.

And to end this little blog, me and my Zha Jiang Mian

Ice cream. I eat 1 everyday here because they don't melt.

New Room

2007-08-27T20:31:00.000-07:00

Hello people, been slacking around the past few days so there wasn't any significant events to blog about. I'll update photos for you guys probably once a week since there will be new things once school starts.

On a wordy update, I have checked into my new international dorm in Yonsei. There are a wide range of people here. Half of them are Americans, of which most are american koreans with american slang. You know that type of slang where they go like, you know, like, you know. Many of the people here are very friendly and its only the 2nd day here, hardly enough time to know everyone. Mostly we just shake hands and try very very hard to remember their names. The university assigned us rooms,and my floor, the 5th floor is the highest. it is resided mostly by asians and american koreans so there are less ang mos here.

Opened my bank account and had cheap lunch in the university. Thats about it. Stay healthy!

Weekend Korea! (warrior) Get it?

2007-08-25T06:43:00.000-07:00

Yay! Its the end of the day again. Korea is one tiring place... Everyday seems like a long trek under the burning sun just for you voyeurs to enjoy the fruits of my labour.

SELFISH! Pay me!

Kk...kidding actually. I woke up at 11am today morning to discuss online with nic and esther on where to go. I invited Winston along (who is the other NTU exchange student in Yonsei) and we had quite a fun time exploring central Seoul from the afternoon till the evening.

So without further a due...let me present to you.....WEEKEND KOREA!

*33 Pictures in this Post*

Day 4

When you got balls the size of Planet Earth, you can climb any ladder you want.

Our first order of the day was to find food. Granted many of us didn't have breakfast, this was essential. 3 of us ordered barley rice with a mix of vegetables while nic ordered ramen. Halfway through the waiter told us in chinese that we weren't supposed to eat this way. We were supposed to mix the barley rice with the vegetables. It was alot more edible after that lol but winston and esther hated their food ( I thought was good).

This bowl of Ramen ordered by nicholas was eaten by esther instead. Ah...the sacrifice of a devoted boyfriend....

I know what you are thinking. Its long, its cylindrical and esther looks happy. Everyone loves a phallic looking ice cream that cost only $1.30

This is winston, my fellow NTU exchange student to Yonsei. He wanted me to take this picture, for some reason I have yet to comprehend. Ironically, the phrase: "a boot up his arse" keeps flashing in my head.

Welcome to Myungdong, their equivalent of Orchard road, with throngs and throngs of people walking aimless around. None of them has any purpose walking there....I bet window shopping is a national sport here.

Lots of high heels. Korea is full of them. One in 4 shops is a high heel shop stocked high with classy footwear.

This picture is just to agitate my non korean female friends. HA HA.

More pictures of shops in Korea. Normally their department stores have floors of little stores like this. 4-5 storeys of them are women's apparels. Each floor has about 30 shops?

More shops, most of them different.

And yet more shops. I like those mannequins though....if only girls in Singapore wear clothes like those.

Koreans are a tough bunch. When little girls are one year of age, their mums throw them in fashion stores where they have to fight for survival. This little girl has been surviving on nothing but pretty clothes for 3 days already

Out in the open streets of myedong again. Look at that, crowds are far as the eye can see. I would love to spawn as a contagious virus here.

Viva la Influenza!

I am not really taking a picture of nic and esther. Could she be a Beethoven( bei tuo fen)?

Guess not. Its finally a pretty lady in Korea. Most girls here are Beethovens...they get 10/10 when viewed from the back and as soon as they turn, we give them -10. If I were the President of Korea, I would make girls wear a disclaimer on their backs.

This was supposed to be a 110 year old Cathedral but its exterior was under restoration so a drawing of its splendor was draped over it. Marvel at its beauty. Lol

Someone was getting married!

We managed to gatecrash intothe wedding ceremony Lol. Thats me.

The bride and groom exchanging vows and that sorts.

I got really bored there after 30min. We were standing up and sitting down every few minutes. The priest would say "so..so..", and the assistant priest would say "Ahhh men..", and we would stand up for 5min and sit down for 5min. The cycled continued many times.

Oh the picture. Look at those colour lights refracted off the stained glass! The lcd screen and pillars were lighted up with the colours of the rainbow!

Their Trial Run of a proper wedding. ^_^

Winston shielding himself from the sun. Would you look at that? Its absolutely blazing in Seoul.

Some guy was trying to sell bunnies, which he let loose on the pavement. The little bunnies were the cutest bunnies I have ever seen. Much cuter than those in Singapore. The lump of black and white on the side of the pavement is a bunch of terrified bunnies digging under each other. Lol....stewwpeeed bwarnies...

More amazing things from Seoul. A building reflected off another building! You wun see that in Singapore. Most of the time someone farts in the office and an irate coworker opens the window thus SPOILING THE ARCHITECT'S PURPOSE. The entire image screws up and the farting culprit remains unapprehended.

This is a famous stream restored recently in Seoul...its more beautiful at night but my camera took lousy pictures of it at night. Head on to esther or nic's blogs for more astounding scenes in Seoul. (Seoul looks good at night and crappy when there's daylight)

An artistic shot. If you think its good, the photographer is UNDOUBTEDLY talented. If you think its bad, I deny taking this picture.

Seoul Honeymoon for the Lovebirds.

Our glorious meaty dinner. Cost abt $8 for each of us but it was very filling. The chicken and meat patties are alot less oily while the coleslaw tasted like boiled cabbage. Its quite worthed it considering the prices in Seoul.

For dining in, KFC lends us a hard plastic red cup to hold our drinks. How wonderful is that? After that, we are supposed to return it to a tray for them to reuse.

We promptly stole the cups, thus embarking on our fledging career of crime.

A happy looking Ariyo with one free cup (in the bag). The stream stretched for many kilometers, cutting straight through the centre of Seoul. Its like a giant picnic here at night. People are walking constantly on both sides of the stream and couples would engage in..uh ...couplely acts within arm distance of other couples while a crowd stampedes behind them. Other people would be standing in the water or washing their feet throughout the river.

Viva la Polio myelitis.

40 pictures later, all of which turned out bad for me so I am not uploading, we exited the stream and saw a 3 storey Coffee bean with window seats. Those Koreans really know how to chill out. Sitting there drinking coffee, looking at the world go by must be one of the best things one can do in Seoul. Even better, if a girl would to wear a mini skirt and sit there, many guys on the streets would be reciprocally entertained.

KOPITIAM! KAYA TOAST! FROM SINGAPORE!

One Kaya Toast cost $5. You could all be very rich kaya toast merchants if you could migrate here and set up shops.

Somewhere, full of pubs, eateries and slightly mature crowds of 20+. It is also full of lights.

On our way to the subway we saw those Giant phone stuck in a carlike it crashed down from somewhere. To add to the effect, there was even a tow truck in front of it. The entire thing was parked at the side of the road. Locals and Tourists were crowding around taking photos...it seems no one was sure whether it was a plublicity stunt, an advertisement or a work of Art.

And that was it! Winston and I took Line 2 Subway back while Nic and Esther headed the other way.

PICTURES

2007-08-24T06:32:00.001-07:00

*Warning* This Post has alot of pictures.

I'll cut the crap and get down to business. I'm gonna post pictures from the last few days with a with descriptions ya? Enjoy!

Day 1.

Why did I post this picture you ask? I have no idea, I like how Hong Kong's Airport looks from the inside. So there you go, an artistic picture of Hong Kong from its airport.

Day 2
I ate a 6000won dinner at this cosy restaurant off Sinchon Subway, at University Street. Is pretty cheap for the ambience and the food.

This is the food I ate. It has 3 fried balls with cheese. Each ball contained a difference kind of meat. There's a ball of rice to the left and a salad in 2 colours in a small bowl....although they taste the same. Western corn soup as well as miso soup was also provided. In Korea, they serve you miso soup and kimchi as a side dish every meal nomatter where you go.

What Sinchon looks like. Its bustling with people, sorta like ants on shopping rampage.

More pictures of Sinchon....Korea has no lack of light..where on earth do they get the power from? And I wonder if global warming is a myth...
The moon is always visible at night as Korea has no clouds. I think long ago someone placed a curse on korea not to have any clouds.
I think this is Yonsei Cathedral or something.

I wanted to eat this but it had no visible price tag and I was pissing scared to ask in English.

Day 3

A palace starting with "C". On a scale of 1-10, comparing it with Forbidden City of China, it would rate as 1. Its like Merlion vs The Effiel Tower.

Nic and Esther looking happy before the weather got really really hot.

Pretending to look happy when the weather was DAMM FUCKING HOT! NO ONE TOLD US KOREA WAS HOTTER THAN SINGAPORE. IT HAS NO CLOUDS. IT HAS NO WIND. IT HAS NO TREES FOR SHADE. SOMEONE SHOOT THE FUCKING SUN DOWN!!

Dongdaemun market where they are 4 buildings, each floor stocked with endless amount and varietyof clothing, accessories, bags and any other thing u can put on your body. A girl's paradise. The picture? Japanese Girl group dancing. Everyone loves them (^_^).

A better view of the slim, white gyrating girls hopping energetically on stage. They dance really well...
Another view of the stage, from the food court above. Their shopping malls are completely different from Singapore, its rather small in land area. So they build up vertically and have alot more floors than space.

Another good photo of Nic and Esther in front of a mall. Notice how well rendered the photo was. The photographer must be talented.

Seoul's skyline. Its notvery pretty looking. Not at all. At best I'll call it messy but i really think its ugly. If they would only plant more trees and cut down on pollution...

Frozen Yogurt. Its good. Its so good.

Me taking a picture of esther taking a picture of nicholas who suggested taking an artistic picture of himself by the window.

Our dinner. It tasted above average, but we didn't ask for the price when we were buying and got slapped with a $45 bill at the end of it. WE GOT CHEATED! Lesson of the day? Ask before you buy...vendors are always out to chop tourists off their money

Photo Test

2007-08-23T09:30:00.000-07:00

OK! Gonna test my photo uploading before I get more photos. Most of my current photos are no blogworthy lol so give me some time ya? I have only been here for 24 hours and I slept 14 hours of it.

This is Dale, I bought it for my girlfriend when I was in taiwan '05 and gave it to her only recently. That's his Wrestling Championship Belt wrapped around him. He's a real champion.

Plane To Many Places

2007-08-22T22:45:00.000-07:00

Alright I AM IN KOREA! WOOO! I had about 10 hours of sleep and currently slacking in the guesthouse. My shoulder is ine extreme pain now but I'll recap on my faithful trip.

I took the early morning flight yesterday which had my family + karen + me at the airport at 6.10. Checked in without a problem and ate Burger King for breakfast. Next we had a non emotional farewell and I made my way to my departure gate. Up till then everything was normal...until i reached the departure hall where to my horror, I was the only chinese there. Half of the passengers were indians with crying babies and the other half were Thais with babies. Not surprisingly, when i sat down on my seat, I found a pint sized Thai with a penchant for occupying his surrounding armrest and had no respect for space. I kicked him back into his own half ^_^. Surrounding me where Thai kids who were pretty well behaved- cute and not crying.

On arrival at Bangkok, the Airport wasn't very impressive. It was industrial in design and lacking in atmosphere. To cultivate a homely feeling, i decided to take a dump at its toilet. Not good. There was no place to hang anything when i was shitting except for a small rod jutting out of the door. I hanged my bag there and it dropped with my laptop with a loud thud... I got back to my plane without exploring. Its at this time that my fellow passengers changed from thais and indians to Caucasians and Koreans.

To hell with Thailand I mumbled to myself, got on my transit plane and flew to Hong Kong. The skies over Hong Kong were much more prettier. You know where you flew above clouds, it looks like the clouds form a sea? Yeah thats what i saw, and aove that sea, were pillars of other clouds. It was magnificent...almost like flying in a house with floors of clouds and pillars of clouds. And to top it all, there was a HUGE swirling column of dark cloud that looks like a typhoon and the plane had to go round it to reach Hong Kong. Upon descending, I could make out the Mountains of Hongkong that could actually reach the clouds as well as the buildings nearby. I'm not sure whether it was misty or just pollution but HK had a very foggy feel to it. Once again i got down and waited for another transit. More Koreans boarded the aircraft and it soon resembled a large Korean tour bus inside the plane. Kids returning from their school holidays as well as families touring all packed into the plane and all I could hear was korean. Slept more, ate more, and reached Incheon Airport in Korea.

I basically got down the plane, got my luggage and bought a bus ticket to my destination. On my 40min trip from the airport to Seoul, I realised that Korea has got to be the brightest city at night in the world. They have giant spotlights and lamps EVERYWHERE. You know electricity is next to free here when you see 30+ Kallang Spotlights lighting a 18 hole golf course at night. Even the bridges here (and there are alot) have spotlights illuminating them just for the sake of looking good. Hell...even their parks have lights brighter than day. At 10pm, the parks were still crowded with people. I got down on my bus stop and had a hard time carrying 2 heavy luggages to the guesthouse. Sweating heavily in the dry weather.But I got there, slept 10 hrs. And Ta dah. End of Entry, I shall update tonight when I actually did something lol