Dolseok and me in Korea: 2010

5/26/2010

Lotus Lantern Festival at Cheonggye-cheon

May 21st was the Buddha's Birthday. It is a national holiday along with Christmas. The Buddhists celebrate it by hanging colorful lanterns along the streets or around the temples. Dolseok and I remembered that Cheonggye-cheon hosts a nice lantern festival so we strolled along from Dongdaemun to City center.
The lanterns look like a scene from the movie Forbidden Quest.

Woopo Wetland - the largest wetland in Korea

This is the image that haunted me for months. I have never been to a wetland and this image of a fisherman and a birdy in the foggy wetland in the start of a day was just a picturesque scene.

I finally made a trip down south to Changnyeong to visit this Woopo wetland just near Daegu.

This was what was waiting for me.

I did see two birds. But it was raining hard the whole time and the fog and the fishermen were no where to be spotted.

THIS IS IT for me and my adventures.... well, at least until my summer vacation trip Shanghai in August.
If this common scenic place can be famous in Korea, perhaps Korea does not have any tourism material after all. Maybe I should give up my mission of luring tourists to Korea.

Lockers in Seoul

I always carry heavy bags whenever I go to Seoul to meet Dolseok so we are royal customers for these high-tech lockers inside subway stations. Not only can you keep things inside, but also can send parcels to other places, though it costs more than using the convenience store service.

These lockers do not have any English menu or instructions. It is damn hard until you get used to it. Moreover you can only pay with a credit card with transportation chip, T-money(transportation chip used in the metropolitan Seoul area), or a local cell phone. It is very unlikely for an international tourist to posess any of these special items, you have to carry them on your back all the time. Trying to be high-tech, but never very thoughtful.

4/23/2010

Seoul Fortress Stroll

3/02/2010

Jeju Trip (1) - Submarine from Seogwipo

The first thing we did on Jeju Island - Explore the underwater in a submarine.

There are three companies operating submarines in Jeju.
Each depart from different destinations such as Woodo, Seogwipo, or Chagwido.
Mine was from Seogwipo and the course is to visit Moon Island.(the one on the right in the picture below)
It explores the underwater cliff of the Moon Island.
It's the most popular one but since I haven't been on the other ones, I cannot assure you.

It was raining and windy so I got sick on the boat.

Also, wearing a dress and thong is not a good idea.

I had to climb down the ladder to get into the submarine.

I got a special discount ticket from my travel agency, where I paid 38,000 won instead of 45,000.
The whole tour was rather short and uncomfortable with seasickness
but certainly was SPECIAL.