Tag: misc

Seoul: fun with language

Unlike other Asian languages that use complicated (to us westerners) pictograms or scripts and are tonal (e.g. “ma” can be pronounced 5-7 different ways in Mandarin and Thai), Hangul (the Korean language introduced in the 15th century) is actually composed of letters that roughly translate to many English letters, with a specific syllabic pattern, and pronounced fairly flatly. Of course pronunciation rules aren’t always straightforward, but you can get reasonably close. The first few sections of Korean Writing System give a good overview.

I can read most of the letters now, which helps for place names and some key words, but obviously if you don’t know the Korean word for something, then you won’t understand the word you are reading/pronouncing.

For example, 신촌 is Sinchon (pronounced Shinchon), the metro station closest to my hostel (and yes, in the metro, maps and signs also list the stop name in English everywhere). I can read the 3 letters inside each of those 2 syllables. My turning point came one day at lunch when I was even able to recognize the Hangul for beer (maekchu), a local drink (soju) similar to vodka, and rice wine (makkolli) on the no-English menu posted on the wall (for food, I pointed at a picture of the dish I wanted).

I may not be able to read much Korean, but I’m pretty sure the sign, locked gate and barbed wire are all saying: “Keep out!”

No entry sign on part of Inwangsan (mountain)

Seoul/Guam: an extra 20 minutes in NRT. And lock trouble

Really? After a 6 hour layover, the incoming flight is late so now we’ll be leaving 20 minutes late. Oh well, I guess that’s 20 minutes less sleeping-in-the-airport time in GUM (or 20 minutes less until the business lounge opens there :-)

The seat map looks like I might score one extra seat next to me by the window (it’s a 2-5-2 seating on a Boeing 777). Out of only 2 empty seats in economy/plus! Some deity is smirking at me, if not smiling, today.

The lounge here is down to maybe a dozen people. Which is surprising, given how full this big plane is.

Side note: I had a problem with one of my luggage locks, which I keep on my carry-on knapsack. It’s a 3-digit TSA-approved combo lock.
Well, it wouldn’t open. And the compartment it locked had my passport.
The agents called for maintenance, but they didn’t bring the right tool. Wihle one maintenance guy went to get a bolt cutter (hopefully), the other one fiddled with the lock and suddenly opened it. One digit had shifted by one position magically. i.e. if my combo was 1-3-5 it was now 1-4-5 somehow! Very weird.
But at least I have my passport to get on the flight!

Update: I spoke too soon. The flight will be full (in economy/plus). I reluctantly agreed to move so 2 people could sit together. I asked if they’d move me to the rather empty business class, and she said no. Sigh.) Good karma perhaps?

Seoul: Flying back, through Tokyo NRT airport

50 hour door-to-door trip with 6 legs: ICN-NRT-GUM-HNL-SFO-ORD-YYZ
Major ouch!
(And yes, there is a non-stop flight from Seoul to Toronto on Air Canada, but that’s besides the point)

Currently I’m sitting in Tokyo’s Narita airport (NRT) in the United Club lounge for this 6 hour layover.
Which isn’t nearly as fancy as the Asian lounge I used in NRT on the way to Seoul last week. In fact it is similar to the ones in the US, but with a much smaller (self-serve) bar. Slightly newer feel to it Noticeably missing is Bailey’s (for my coffee).

When I first arrived in the lounge, it was very full. It’s quite large, but that’s a lot of people. Now (at 18:30 local time) it’s almost deserted – I can see maybe 20 people. Strange. At least the wi-fi is running at a reasonable speed again.

Also while I was sitting here, the guy next to me (we had been chatting about flights) suddenly says “enjoy your flight” – it turns out there was another (Continental-operated) flight to Guam 3.5 hours before my flight to Guam. Perhaps I could have gone stand-by (since my bags are checked through to San Francisco anyways) and gotten some sleep in a hotel there; I checked the flight status seating map on my phone and there were no seats left; in fact, there was one person still on the standby list). Besides, then I wouldn’t have been in a nice Economy Plus seat for the 3.5 hour flight.

Side note: for international connections at NRT, you pass through a security check after deplaning, and there were actually 3 x-ray machines for Star Alliance Gold passengers, and only one for regular passengers. Yeah (since I’m in the former category)!

Seoul: unreadable Starbucks name

Supposedly this is the only Starbucks in the world that has its name written in other than English (I don’t mean all of the stores here, just this one location by Anguk metro station)

I can recognize a fair number of Hangul letters but this is in a funky script that is mostly unreadable (to me).

It does in fact say Starbucks Kopi (since Kopi = Coffee)
And yes, it really was that cold outside (I had gloves on too, just not in the photo).

Though it does seem wrong to pay almost as much (W 4600/$4.05) for my grande soy latte as for my filling lunch (W 5000/$4.40 – tax included and no tip here as that would be insulting in this culture)

Starbucks Coffee in Hangul (Korean language)

Guam: 1/2 day

(on my way to Korea last week, I had a one-night layover in Guam)

My hotel was up the hill near the north end of Tumon Bay, a west-facing horseshoe bay with a narrow beach and lined with hotels (about 10 minutes from the airport). I had a view of the water, and fast Ethernet internet access. No wi-fi in the room, which meant I couldn’t use the internet on my smart phone, only on my laptop computer – and here I was beginning to think the smart phone almost made the computer useless!

The road, on the inland side of the hotels with no view and no real breakfast options, was full of high end shopping malls and low end strip malls, bars, massage parlours and strip clubs. And lots of typical American chain stores and restaurants (ABC Stores, Subway, Burger King, Circle K, Outback Steak House, etc.) In other words, not very pretty or exciting once away from the beach. Not surprising, given that Guam is a US territory (and uses US$).

Apparently they get a ton of Japanese visitors, with an increasing number of Chinese visitors. To wit: I recognized the cold Mr Brown’s Coffee cans from Taiwan (recall, that’s the one whose logo reminded me of a Simpsons’ style Mexican caricature).

There were a few public beach access points, and I meandered up and down the beach (only 15-20 minutes to walk most of the length of it, in one direction). The beach wasn’t terribly wide, but adequate. The water was warm, shallow and calm due to the protecting reef. There is some algae, and some rocks. Parts of the beach are better than others.

The native culture is called Chamorro, whose language has a Spanish influence due to 300 years of Spanish colonial rule. You see Hafa Adai (“hello”) everywhere (e.g. at airport and on restaurant menus).

Well, it was a nice break to my long flights. Unfortunately on the way back my layover is 4.5 hours in the middle of the night!

Tumon Bay, Guam

Seoul: First impressions

Subway: super convenient, efficient, easy (English on signs), cheap (less than a $1 per ride), clean and goes everywhere! Impressive!
Food: tasty and cheap (both street vendors and small restos)
People: lots of them. Mostly looking at their smart phones. But friendly.
Weather: cool. High of 12 C / 54 F. And going to get colder.
DMZ Tour: very interesting (and I got to step into North Korea, inside a little building).
See map in progress

More on everything tomorrow.

Seoul: Checked in an hour ago, but it’s 1am and not tired

After enjoying the better than average business lounge at NRT, and then sleeping most of the almost 3hr flight from Tokyo to Seoul (the flight was pretty empty so I had 3 seats to myself, which is how many seats I need to lie down comfortably), and an easy train+subway ride into town to my hostel in the Sinchon university district, now I’m feeling pretty awake.

Earlier today I booked my DMZ tour for Friday, and just now I booked a ticket for tomorrow night’s performance of JUMP, a slapstick martial arts show highly recommended in my guidebook.

S. Korea: overnight hotel in Guam on way

Got a good night’s sleep, though I was awake before daylight. Now I can see the ocean from my room – will be walking down the hill for breakfast and a swim soon. Not surprisingly, it’s warm and humid here in tropical Guam.

Then I should book a room in Seoul, as well as a DMZ trip which seems to be selling out fast (it doesn’t run daily), before I head to the airport. The internet connection is quite fast at the hotel, so I can easily make some skype calls.

As an unexpected bonus, I’m on the upgrade list (currently #2 of 8 with 5 business seats available) for the 4hr Continental flight to NRT today – unexpected because I didn’t think flights in/out of Guam on CO were eligible for upgrades.

Equally surprising was the lack of free alcoholic drinks in economy on the UA flight to Guam from Honolulu, and this CO flight out of Guam. I thought all international flights provided drinks in economy.

Guam view of ocean from my hotel room (there is a beach hidden by the hill and those buildings)