Back to Seoul; along the Han river...and night lights in Myong-dong

...approaching Seoul from its eastern suburbs along the Han River--weird to see the middle of a bridge completed before the connections to either shore are built:

...closer in to the center of the city, the Olympic Bridge; built for the '88 Olympics, it wasn't actually completed until 1990:

...stuck in weekend traffic, I had time to take three photos from the same spot and stitch them together:

 Namsan and Seoul ('N')-Tower are on the horizon...

The banks of the Han River have been turned into parks--even with outdoor gyms! Check out the equipment available:

 ...the bikers on the path were probably going faster, on average, than the traffic on the riverside roads...

We got into the Express Bus Terminal over an hour later than 'scheduled.' Upon entering the building from the bus-drop-off zone, this tote-bag for sale grabbed my attention; I had to stop in my tracks and take a picture of this spectacular specimen of Engrish:

I know it's hard to make out in the photo (although you can double-click it), so I will re-type it here in all its fractured glory:

     "Yaho, we got this town Bang Bang. We got this town Bang Bang. All are escaped from us Bang   Bang. All are escaped from us Bang Bang. The brave show up to us. The big mouth show up to us.Bang Bang Hey,  Big Boss, No hungry? we so very hungry. We so hungry Bang Bang. So hungry comes like tsunami. so, hungry comes like. Big boss, get food for us, get food for us Bang Bang."

        Spectacular, yes? And here's the bottom of the tote bag, under the "Especially for Driving:"

    "We all have to go through it and we take it only once. One never needs to be afraid of catching it a second time. No, we never sicken with love twice. Cupid spends no second arrow on the same heart."

Huh?!?!?!?!?!?!?

So, is Bang Bang one of the dogs?

And why the mention of Cupid?

And how is this 'Guytrio' bag 'especially for driving?

Oh, Mystery

wrapped in a riddle

inside an enigma, 

stuffed inside...

...a tote bag.

After a crowded subway ride from the Express Bus Terminal, I check into the hotel on the slopes of Namsan on a narrow street above Namdaemun Market, then check my e-mail (still no up-date about S's flight situation), and then head out--a short walk down the hill to Myongdong. (Also spelled Myung-dong, Myeong-dong, with- and without dashes--this area is often compared to its better-known Japanese counterparts, the Shinjuku and Ginza areas of Tokyo.) It's one of the shopping and financial headquarters of the country...

Lights, action...coffee!!

A multi-story Starbucks! Myongdong used to be home to the world's largest Starbucks, but since the district has some of the highest commercial rental rates in the world, that location is gone...but still--pretty impressive...I saw at least three other Starbucks on my stroll, plus a half-dozen other local chains and a few 'unique' ones as well--this is one caffeinated city...although, (random trivia here, gleaned from a newspaper article), over 85% of the coffee consumed in this country is still (alas) instant. (Blech)

Super-chic boutiques, youth-culture chain stores, restaurants, fake-Rolex hawkers in the streets...and, of course, street food:

Serene purveyor of roasted chestnuts, still in the midst of the commercial chaos...

...had my solo-dinner at a restaurant famous for its 'Cheonju bibimbap'--check out all the banchan side-dishes that come with the hot brass bowl of rice topped with meat, seasoned vegetables, a sweet/hot paste and an egg that you have to stir in so that it'll cook

An incongruous fixture next to all of the commercial frenzy--the Myongdong Cathedral sits on the highest hill in the neighborhood...Built in the 1890's, designed by French missionaries--this neo-Gothic structure was among the first Western-style buildings built in Seoul...There was some controversy at the time--would it be appropriate for foreigners to build such a large structure on land higher than the Royal Palaces?

Throughout the 20th century, student and political demonstrations have often started in the plaza in front of the Cathedral--it's truly at the heart of modern Seoul history...

(Incidentally, a cousin of mine--one I don't know, way older than me--got married here years ago...)

It's a bit hard to make out--but in the background, behind this snack-stall, can you see it: Yep--'Krispy Kremes!' doughnuts from "the South" in South Korea...The snack-stall in the foreground is selling 'oh-deng' (Japanese fish-'sausage'-batter, for lack of a better word) on a stick--I got the version wrapped in 'geh-nip'--a perilla ('wild sesame') leaf that has an intense herbal flavor...

...and finally--another, non-churchy, French connection in this neighborhood: although Koreans are not big bread-eaters, Seoulites do like their French bakeries, right across from the street each other, in fact:

...insomnia, anyone?



Wife's flight delayed...everyday scenes around Sokcho...can your remote do all this?

(Scroll down for 'photo-essay' directly, if you want to skip my airline rant in the first few paragraphs.)

Customer "service"--due to weather, my wife missed her connecting flight in San Francisco--so she won't be arriving in Seoul today. The ticket counters were understaffed, and when my wife asked one of the agents if she could help, the agent told her "just call United; I can't help you; be more pro-active." Wow. That's customer-service--the person at the counter--there, alive, in the flesh--says to make a phone-call to the 1-800-number?! Are you kidding? And then has the nerve to say that the passenger needs to be more pro-active!!

And of course--since the missed connection was due, not to mechanical issues, but to meteorological conditions, the airline will not pay for my wife's hotel--she has to spend the night in San Francisco, and wait as a stand-by passenger tomorrow...Otherwise, she will 'definitely' be on the United flight THE DAY AFTER...(so, two nights at the airport hotel?) Hmm...could we not re-route with another airline? There are many flights from San Francisco to Asia...The hotel I'd booked for us in Seoul can't be canceled, so later today, I'm going to head from Sokcho to Seoul anyway--at least I'll be closer to the airport in case some miraculous flight comes through and my wife gets here only one day late instead of two...

So I'm still in Sokcho, instead of on the early bus to the west coast...

A few everyday scenes from around town:

"Hahng-ahh-ree"--the huge barrel-shaped jars that are de rigueur in any Korean yard/patio/garden...In the past, they were used, among other things, to store food outdoors in the winter--nature's refrigerator for various kinds of kimchee, fermented sauces, miso ('dwehn-jahng' in Korean), etc...Nowadays they're still used for food-storage, but also for decoration, rainwater, etc....

The hahng-ah-ree above were actually outside of a restaurant--here's an interior view of that "sheek-dahng:"

(locally famous for it's cold buckwheat noodle dish)

...one of the old homes in the "Ah-bah-ree ma-eul" neighborhood--originally a temporary home for refugees from North Korea...this is the part of Sokcho that feels like stepping back in time:

...at the central seafood market downtown; mackerel--mmm mmm mmm; it's underappreciated in America, I must say...fresh-caught and freshly pan-seared; ain't nothin' better:

"Goh-doong-uh" = mackerel..."Shee-jahng" = market

...still at the seafood market--making 'oh-jing-eo soon-deh,' the 'sausage' that uses the squid itself as a casing, stuffed with rice and vegetables:

...crabs in colorful alleyways...

...even with a super-sleek super-modern supermarket around the corner, many people still buy produce from these little pick-ups that drive around the neighborhoods--with sing-song 'advertisements' broadcast from loudspeakers...on this truck, garlic for sale--"mah-neul:"

You'll never see this in the U.S. or Western Europe, eh?--a cutesy squid-mascot on a storefront:

...the beach:

(song-reference, here, for the next two pics--

a fox-trot from the 1920's)

...in the morning...

...in the evening...

...ain't we got kelp?

...parts of Sokcho are overbuilt with high-rise hotels & vacation-rental-condos,

but there are still pockets of vegetable-farming;

(these views are right behind my Uncle's place)

============================================

Now...from low-tech to hi-tech...

Last week, for my mother's arrival, I booked a hotel near the Incheon airport; we couldn't get anything to work in the room until we figured out this:

Can your remote do all that?

Signing off, still in Sokcho...

I'll be in Seoul from this evening until next Thursday,

meeting my wife hopefully tomorrow if not Monday...

...in a scroll-painting landscape, with 'natural soda'

...overcast today, but no less lovely to go for a drive in the mountains behind Sokcho...driving and hiking in this landscape is truly like being inside one of those silk-scroll-landscape-paintings...

These paddies produce the rice for some of the most famous 'tteok' (rice-'cakes;' somewhere between pasta al dente and taffy in texture) in Korea; the women from this village used to trek, individually, over the mountains and down to the coast to sell their tteok...but as the reputation of their product (along with competition) grew, they decided to band together into a cooperative so that they could all share the fruits of their labor...

...in the land of ubiquitous WIFI and HDTV, this is timeless:

The rest of today's photos

are from the Osaek Valley,

 beneath Han-gye-ryong pass

 in Seoraksan Nat'l Park...

...some Buddhist lanterns; the mountains of Korea are dotted with Buddhist temples, and in this part of the country, many date back to the ancient Silla Kingdom period... 

This is Yongso Waterfall; one of many... 

so, so green for my eyes now accustomed to Tucson...

...mountain springs everywhere--there are always brightly colored plastic scoops nearby; I like how this dragon-fountain is wearing them as hats...

See how the water here is sort of a rusty color before it flows into the turquoise-colored stream?

(Pronounce: Oh-sehk-yahk-soo)

The color is due to its high iron content...also has carbonic acid--this medicinal water is locally famous for aiding anemia and digestive problems--and of course, I had to taste it--it was actually kind of 'bubbly' and pleasantly metallic-tasting...

I bottled some so that my wife (who flies in to Seoul tomorrow!) can taste some next week when she arrives here on the East Coast of the country...

Ten days, I've been in the country now...flying by...

My uncle, aunt and my mother were linguistically encouraging today--they said that they could tell that I've made progress in the last few days--whew...I needed to hear that; I feel as if my brain cells are fried...fried food: tasty; fried brain: depressing.

Signing off, then; got an early bus to catch tomorrow...will welcome S. at the airport.

From the sea to the mountains and back...(with a semi-gratuitous puppy-shot thrown in)

It rained last night--cleared out the summer haze, so I awoke to this view this morning:

Here's the view towards 'Ul-san-ba-wi' mountain, in Seorak National Park, from my Uncle's rooftop.

A morning run, then, around the waterfront--BIRDS!

 ...and then lunch--an action shot...what is being stir-fried? Look closely...

 ...among other things, a side-dish of thin green chilies with--yep--tiny 'caramelized' dried anchovies!
     (This is not what is served to most Americans in Korean restaurants State-side, eh?)

I know it's hard to believe, but it's extremely tasty--and nutritious!

Korean cuisine, traditionally, was light on meat with practically no dairy...

However, this combination gives you tons of vitamin C and lots of calcium.

Got peppers-and-fishies?

After lunch, it was almost completely clear, so we drove fifteen minutes (only!) into the park's main valley, and took the cable car up to one of the peaks...

...from the cable-car,

this is the view 'behind' Ulsanbawi,

looking down on the main Buddha

of Shin-heung-sa Temple,

which dates back to the 630's A.D.;

it's the oldest "Seon" (that's 'Zen' in Korean)

temple in the world.

From the top, the view back towards Sokcho

and the East Sea (remember--that's the politically-correct

way, in Korea, to refer to 'The Sea of Japan.')

 ...and zooming in--you can see the lake/lagoon in central Sokcho; see the little island toward the right?
That's 'Jodo' island, and just beneath it, on the peninsula--that's where I am sitting as I type this:

 (I must say, I love the zoom on my camera)

 More mountain views:

 (I've been playing with the 'mini' feature on the camera;

fun to make huge landscapes look

like 'toy-world' scenes.)

We took a scenic detour back to town--

in one of the valleys parallel to the national park,

we met this dignified (and friendly) watchdog,

guarding Jinjeonsa temple,

(built during the Silla period: 57 BC - 935 AD)

...and who can resist a puppy?

So, papa...and son...

friendly mountain temple dogs.

Driving back down to the coast--villages that have kept the traditional architecture, including this splendidly restored home:

...the freshness of early summer--young rice paddies, or 'baby rice' as my aunt said, using her colorful but limited English vocabulary. (We joke that my Korean is like her English!)

...and evening--after dinner, I 'raced' the sunset

to get to this hilltop in time, about a kilometer or so

from where we're staying:

...and the waterfront, closer in to town; dusk is very forgiving to mediocre architecture, eh?

Summer twilight in Sokcho...

The day after tomorrow I return to the opposite coast;

my wife is flying in from the States; after several days in Seoul,

we'll return here.