Tag: photos

Maui: funky Holy Ghost Portuguese church in Kula

Trippy little details at this Holy Ghost Portuguese church, including the Last Supper (with a woman next to JC, as per Dan Brown’s Da Vinci Code), statue of Mary on a snake, and the dedication plaque referring to the creation of the world 6681 years ago (really?)…

Maui: Sun Yat-Sen park (father of Taiwan)

Apparently Sun Yat-Sen went to school in Hawaii, and his relatives lived in upcountry Maui (near Kula). He even planned some of the Chinese revolution from here.
There is a park with a new statue of him, with a great view of the ocean.

Seoul: final misc notes (inc. laundry)

  • Laundry is generally free at hostels in Seoul.
    However, it is cold water and hung dry.
    Which means it could take a long time to dry (and as eco-friendly as hung-dry is, even in the tropical sun, laundry comes out feeling much less soft).
  • No hard sell, even in markets (in stark contrast to Istanbul)

Also, I recently added photos to previous blog entries: metro (subway) notes and DMZ

Seoul: food items and photos

Some typical food items:

  • kimchi: pickled spicy cabbage (served with every meal)
  • banchan: side dishes that accompany meals (inc. in price; excludes the soup, kimchi and sauces)
  • bibimbap: rice (bap) bowl with colourful veggies, meat (or seafood) and egg on top (can be ordered without meat/seafood)
  • dolsot bibimbap: bibimbap served in a stone hotpot (keeps the food warm longer, and you get some crispy rice at the bottom)
  • gochujang: spicy red pepper paste
  • galbi: beef ribs (I didn’t eat any, but including for semi-completeness)
  • bulgogi: thin slices of beef (or pork)
  • samgyeopsal: streaky pork belly
  • jjigae: like a stew, usually orange-coloured and served in a stone hotpot
  • jeon: savoury wheat pancakes
  • bindaetteok: savoury mung bean pancakes (heavier than jeon)

Notes:

  • Meals usually include kimchi, soup and several banchan (how many of the latter depends on how fancy the resto is)
  • Taxes are included in the prices (or there are no taxes?)
  • Tipping is not expected (and would be insulting), though apparently some high end restos add a service charge
  • Water is served free (it was always safe in Seoul) or is available self-serve from a water filter machine; sometimes tea is served
  • Chopsticks are usually stainless steel (and rectangular at the narrow end, instead of round, which also helps grip food a little)
  • It’s hard to get truly vegetarian meals (except at Buddhist temples/restos) as most meals include some kind of meat, and even kimchi is often made with fish sauce

Here are a few photos of food and meals I had around Seoul (I pretty much enjoyed all of them!):

Seoul: Metro (subway) notes

The Metro (subway) reminded me of the one in Taipei, i.e. efficient and easy to use:

  • Impressive network of 9 subway lines and 3 commuter rail lines, including one from both airports to downtown Seoul.
  • English language in addition to Hangul everywhere
  • Smart transit stored-value cards called T-Money (non-refundable W2000/$1.75 to purchase the card, then reloadable)
  • Short distance fares (to most tourist places) are the minimum W1000/$0.90 cash or W900/$0.80 with card
  • Card gives you a 10% discount over cash – simply tap the card to the reader on entrance (minimum fare is deducted, and balance shown), and again on exit (if fare is higher, additional amount is deducted; balance is shown again)
  • Station announcements made in Korean, English and Mandarin (sometimes also in Japanese)
  • The turnstile for station entrance/exit is designed for maximum efficiency: there is no blocking gate or physical turnstile, just tap the reader and walk through (I discovered what happens if you don’t pay: as I left for the airport, I pushed my luggage in first before I tapped the reader, and the gate closed and honked at me)
  • There are often monitors showing the time of the next train, sometimes with graphical indicators of where the train physically is, in relation to the previous 2 metro stations on the line.
  • Metro stations also all have numbers identifying them: a 3 digit sequential number within each line, where the first digit is the line number.
  • Some stations have platforms in the middle, some are split; either way, make sure you head to the correct platform by knowing either the end station or at least the next station in the direction you want to go
  • Sometimes the direction sign will list multiple key stations in that direction (not just the next/last station)
  • In the train, there is an indicator of whether the doors will open on the left or right for each station on the line map above the door, in the multi-lingual announcements and on the monitors (for trains that have that).
  • Lines 5678 are newer than 1234 – you see the 5678 “new metro” logo a lot
  • Both in trains and on platforms, a little musical ditty plays before the announcement of an arriving train or station; the music varies by line/direction and is a cute addition to the announcement.
  • Washrooms are clean; sometimes they are inside the station, sometimes they are outside of the paid area.
  • There is at least one cool Android app called “Seoul Subway” by Sungpil Jang (likely for IPhone too) with Seoul metro info that, even offline, will calculate a route between 2 stations including times of the next train(s), and tell you the car and door number for quickest transfer between lines (i.e. where the stairs/hallway to the next metro line is exactly). Wow.
  • There is also a cool online map with station search functionality.
  • Generally the metro is quite crowded; if I’m standing on a platform and there aren’t a lot of people, I probably just missed a train and the platform will get crowded before the next train arrives.
  • There is cell phone coverage and wi-fi in the trains, even underground.
  • I’d say 80% of people under 30 are using their phone (usually playing games or watching TV as they have fast connections) on the train.

Small negatives:

  • The metro doesn’t run very late, though the last train times are posted by the station entrance (in Hangul and English)
  • Transfers between lines can involve a lot of walking, as stations are rarely stacked on top of each other.
  • There are many stairs, not always with escalators (though there is usually an elevator somewhere). At one station I counted 60 stairs to get up to street level, though some are deeper than that.

Seoul: DMZ Tour details

There are many tour operators who do DMZ tours; I chose the one affiliated with the local USO office: Koridoor.

Rating: definitely worth it! Very interesting, and you can’t do it without a tour.
Cost: $77 inc. tax (about $5 more if paying by credit card; less for military personnel)
Duration: Typically 7:30 to 15:30. Sometimes a later departure is available
Sights: JSA briefing and tour (step into North Korea briefly), 3rd Infiltration Tunnel, Dora observatory, Dorasan Station

Acronyms (see also this Wikipedia article):

  • MDL: Military Demarcation Line: the actual border line cutting across the peninsula
  • DMZ: De-Militarized Zone: roughly 2km area on both north and south sides of the MDL, across the entire peninsula
  • JSA: Joint Security Area within the DMZ where UN buildings are situated for negotiations

Details:

  • It’s about an hour bus ride each way to the DMZ (approx 55km north of Seoul)
  • First stop is Camp Bonifas just outisde the DMZ: you get a short interesting video on the history of the Korean War and DMZ (also showing maps), and then a briefing by US soldiers
  • A drive around the JSA in the military’s tour bus, which includes a few viewpoints such as the Bridge of No Return and the site of the infamous Ax Murder incident over the cutting down of a poplar tree, but most importantly the UN buildings right on the MDL, especially the set of blue one-story buildings that literally straddle the MDL, where negotations are held.
  • This is where you can see North Korean soldiers across the line, and enter one of the buildings where you can walk on North Korean soil (within the building).
  • The Third Infiltration Tunnel is a tunnel running under the DMZ that was built by the North Koreans (4 have been discovered so far). It is accessed via a long sloped access tunnel (built for tourists), after which you can walk (with requisite hard hat) a few hundred meters to the first of 3 walls built by South Koreans to block the tunnel. Along the way, you see the dynamite bore holes and coal painted on the walls by North Koreans as a misdirection (despite the fact there is no coal in the area).
    Oddly, there is also a natural spring fountain in the tunnel.
    Tip: For taller people, the actual tunnel requires hunching over which can make your lower back sore: even though it is roughly 2m in diameter, there is scaffolding which lowers the effective height.
  • The Dora observatory is on top of a little hill and lets you see the area surrounding the JSA, including the fake North Korean town Kijong-dong with a huge flagpole
  • Dorasan Station is a train station and highway checkpoint before North Korea. Some South Koreans do work across the border at factories owned by Samsung (mostly staffed by lower paid North Korean) and at this checkpoint they are required to store things (such as phones, cameras and mp3 players) in lockers.
    The train station is large and modern, with airport-style security for access to the tracks; however, this is virtually unused until reunification happens.
    The slogan here is: Not the last station from the South, but the first station toward the north.
  • Fun fact: there is a South Korean rice farming village inside the DMZ which is subsidized by the government: no taxes, guaranteed income (US$80,0000/yr per family), protected 24/7 by military (of course they also have to be in village by sundown and locked in their houses by midnight).
  • Fun fact: the DMZ is now quite an unofficial bio-diverse nature preserve
  • Fun fact: there is a one hole golf course – just don’t go searching for a stray ball in the rough as it is surrounded by mine fields

Misc:

Dress code: required by military, no tank tops, slogans etc. And wear comfortable walking shoes.
Food: optional Korean lunch at cafeteria at Dorasan Station (quite tasty and filling actually; either vegetarian bibimbap for W6,000/$5 or bulgogi for W10,000/$9) or brown bag it
Tip: Yes you can take photos, just not everywhere. Listen to the guide/soldiers.
Tip: In the JSA, you can’t bring any bags or purses or camera bags (must be left on your bus).
Tip: Remember to bring your passport on the trip.
Tip: Book in advance as tours fill up and don’t run daily. On their website, just because a tour is listed in the calendar, does not mean that the tour has space! For my one week trip, there was only one tour that had space.
Tip: Bring a snack and water bottle as lunch isn’t until almost 14:00. There are drink vending machines and gift shops at multiple stops.

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)