Home of hangeul (or chosungul if you’re reading this North of Thirty-Eight). Land of Kims and Kimchi. The place where your faithful Fido can be eaten by fellow human beings beans. OK… I overdid the intro, but nonetheless, a five-day visit to Korea got me out of the PRC after it terrorized my body with three full days of 40°C-ish temps.
Picture coming soon
I was expecting a trip to be operated by Ga-Ga Cola (of Rescue Rangers fame), not Coca-Cola. Nope, thanks to some outright stunt maneuvering that landed me a “big-@$$ card” at the Minsheng Bank, they gave us a free — and downright trashy — trip to South Korea. Trashy because the guide was easily the worst guide ever, period. Trashy because we had some pretty shuvulent (David Feng English for “horrible”) people onboard. But these were the only two trashy things about the whole trip. Everything else was the most un-trashy: un-trashy scenery, un-trashy Internet (especially in Seoul), and un-trashy traffic (Beijing, you’re dead!). One last thing that was trashy: we didn’t go to Panmunjeom (where we could have easily defected to North Korea). Nope, that would have meant a quick trip to the DPRK embassy, and nobody wanted to do that. (Odd.)
Picture coming soon
First on our stop was Busan. We had a quick trip down Shopping Street, where I managed to navigate around the shopping area while bumping into complete replicas of the old Hsiushui of Lao Beijing. Busan was brilliant, but so was the name of the hanky paper. I mean, someone had way too much time on their hands naming the hankies!
Picture coming soon
Other than that, though, Busan remained quite a good start to the journey.
Picture coming soon
Next was a planned escapade into Jeju Island, where we went up mountains to capture drop-dead gorgeous scenery. Some people gave up halfway (or didn’t make it at all), but I was able to climb to the top, no complains, no buts.
Picture coming soon
Picture coming soon
Too bad we were pulled back into the coach. I would have loved to cruise down those highways in Jeju da solo!
Picture coming soon
Take a CLOSE LOOK — is this heading downhill or up? This is when Korea starts NOT making sense — this was, in fact, an incline heading up!
Picture coming soon
Next up was Seoul.
Picture coming soon
Dongdaemun. And free Internet next door (with tea — to the tune of KRW 5,000). I finally was able to catch up on my Mac, after Jeju left me with an ordinary PC in a Net cafe. Ärgh!
Picture coming soon
Central Seoul. We circumambulated this crossing like about four times in one day (demented guide be thanked, that’s what).
Picture coming soon
Defection ahead to North Korea. We didn’t actually defect, but we went to the Odusan Unification Observatory to capture a glimpse of Kimland.
Picture coming soon
In the distance: the land of the two Kims.
Picture coming soon
Do they love our leader more? Or do they want unification faster?
Picture coming soon
South Korea should be sued for ripping off shenwumen from us. Then again, our culture did kind of brainwash them, so we suppose we’ll let them get away this time.
Picture coming soon
Gyeongbukgeong. Drop-dead gorgeous views.
Picture coming soon
Picture coming soon
Internet got more and more prevalent as the trip wounded its way down — on the last day, I got online outside two restaurants, in the hotel room (then in Incheon), and at the airport, too!
Picture coming soon
Now back in Beijing…