Up, up and away

Well we are off..... Well not quite, actually sitting here in the departure lounge. I stuffed up a it by listening to my mother. Yes I know, what child ever listens to their mother beyond 3 years old?

On her trip, there were crowds around passport control and it took an age to get through security checks and passport checks. Well that was a Saturday afternoon, we arrived on Friday evening and were so early that we breezed through security etc and then had nearly 4 hours to stare at the shutters of closed duty free shops. Even the bars have refused to sell us a beer saying they can't serve beyond 9 pm, but it was 8:45. I was confused.

Luckily once we ventured over to our departure lounge, we have discovered free wireless that actually works! Even amelie can't YouTube for an hour and a half, so we will simply have to wait.

Our day involved the usual final frenzy of shopping. Amelie and Liz wanted to get some cute little kimchi pots and soju cups/ bottles and teapots. Liz wanted to make a cute display. Amelie made up a cute little tea set.

Liz finally visited the Namsang Music building. She found it as overwhelming as I did at first. It definately is if you are not looking to purchase anything. As I had obtained my beautiful Córdoba Uke at the UKEFAFE festival, big ticket items were out of the question. Attention switched to kazoos. Amelie has spirited away my other kazoo, so I sought to obtain a new one for WUG or Warrnambool Ukulele Club. Amelie spied a recorder, so we purchased one as it was only $15 for a good quality German brand, the good old basic Yamaha was under $10.

Next task of the day was to return to a restaurant we found before the Bibap performances. It served the most wonderful pork spare ribs. Not what some may think of in the American bbq sense, more the traditional korean version where the strip of meat extends from the bone in a curtain of carnivorous delight. Let us say the return did not disappoint.

Our last taste of Seoul was to wander home along cheongyecheong stream experiencing some of the acts and atmosphere of the Hi Seoul Festival. Late September into October has proved to be a great time to visit Korea. There seems to have been a festival of some sort ever day of our visit. There have been sights, shows and excitement to entertain.

The only disappointment has been the weather. Apart from a couple of days of rain it has been ideal balmy autumn weather. We had been expecting it to become colder with the impending winter snows. However autumn is later than ever. Weather tended to like home into May. Fine sunny, calm days with temps in mid 20's. We've had to wander everywhere in short sleeves. Not once did we need jumpers, let alone the down vests packed in anticipation of enjoying watching the leaves change... It didn't happen. There were a few leaves trying to turn, only a few.

Next post will be back in Aus and will include a few last minute photos. After that we begin to plan our next visit to Korea.

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Last Orders Please!

Isn't it always the way. There weeks in a country and still the last full day is spent at a frenetic pace trying to fit in last minute shopping and activities you Lways thought there was plenty of time for.

The big difference this time we have done this twice over. Once for mother before she left last week and now for,us.

Today was basically shopping. pretty wise really as it was raining on and off all day. We also have finally convinced ourselves that with three of us many of the short hauls trips by underground railcost as much as taxis, so we took a few luxurious taxi trips which save so much aggravation.

First visit was to an auto teller to fuel up. then by KNTO to thank the Staff at the 'half Tix' booth. They have become our surrogate family in Seoul as we have seen so many shows.

Next to Namdamun Market to buy all those last minute gifts we thought we had covered but had really been indulging ourselves instead. The market is celebrating 600 years, so it has both a commercial and festive feel.

Whilst there we bumped into Han Ho people yet again. this time It was the Salloum clan. It was fun to chat. But I am getting tired of being watched so closely..... Guys we won't. Do that much to embarrass you.... I think.

Next we flew over to Insadong for Liz to buy a special tea set. It was not that she had one particular in mind, but options around insadong and towards the Buddhist shrine nearby held the best chance for something special. Yep she found something special and more. the same store offered up a tray and a few more family gifts. Amelie even managed to find some miniatures to get her own tea set.

however don't think we shopped till we dropped. No soirée. yet another festival has started. this one is called Hello Seoul. We've heard all kind of horror stories about the weekend activities are so popular that the crowds are epic, bordering on dangerous. This is but the second day and a weeknight, so crowds are much less numerative and overwhelming.

We took in fire shows in Gwanamun Square in the grand avenue leading to Gyeonbokgung Palace, Jazz in Cheonggyecheon Stream and a very weird French painting/music show. All the dialogue up was in French and any displayed subtitling was in Korean (where's SBS subtitling service when we need it.... Mr Abbott) so there was ver little hope I understanding everything. still the whole performance piece did have a certain " Je Ne Sais Qlis" ,,,, sorry couldn't resist.

 

 

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The Beginning of the end

Wednesday was supposedly relatively quiet day before the grand rush to the Finnish line of boarding the flight home.

What's odd about this picture of Gyeonbokung Palace? No cars or Tourists.

We began by easing into the day for some, that is Amelie and me. Liz ducked out early to catch the. Owning light and take some pictures. Probably a good idea s two big babies do get a little frustrated with constant pauses in our daily travel (of course our stops are important and necessary).

Actually Amelie needed a sleep in following the excitement of Everland. I needed a little too as writing blogs and transferring photos to backups to transport home took some time into the wee hours of night.

Feeding Der, Seoul Forest

After a leisurely breakfast, we headed over to Seoul Forest. This is an era touted as a forest, an ecological haven within the city. To us 'forest' cunjoured up images of dense trees, multiple species and a haven for wildlife. In reality it was more like our botanical gardens in victoria, covering an area similar to Royal Park.

the layout is similar to A combined Royal Park and Botannical Gardens with areas of picnic grounds, playgrounds, sport grounds, specialist plant zones, water/wetland recreations and displays for animals/insects and plants. .ike our gardens it is an area for learning and recreating.

Athleticism of KUNG hip hop show.

It was worth a visit as some of the public art within in the form of sculptures was quite interesting. The butterfly house and Insect house managed distractions for a while. as did viewing the water treatment plant for the Cheonggyecheon Stream. of note was the bank of Solar panels that purportedly is almost self sustaining.

Dont sit in the Front row Trixie, you never know what may happen.

We did not feel compelled to visit the water works and museum of the Seoul Forest, being happy to take in the grass and trees. It was fun to watch the myriads of kindergarten aged school groups enjoying the opportunity to play and explore nature. We remain fascinated how children so young seem to cope. They walk considerable distances, yet remain largely well behaved and cheerful.

Photos with the cast of KUNG

Child to adult ratios seem much higher that we experience in Australia, maybe 3 adults for groups up to 25 children. Identiy of kids in case of losing one is key. children are all in uniforms, some of which seem especially used for excursions. Names and emergency contact details are usually work on lanyards around the neck, or pinned to shirts and blouses. the most inventive use of emergency contact was one school that had gone to the extent of using special clear transfers stuck on the backs of shirts/blouses. Once home these could be easily removed to wash the clothing.

Ameli began to lag, so we headed for home. Liz gave me the opportunity for a little solos shopping time while they headed home for an arvo siesta. as it turned out this was vital for Amelie into the evening.

We attended our final performance of the trip organised by Charlie, from Han-ho and INKAS. This performance was called KUNG. It was largely hip hop dancing around which a story of high school bully becomes good bloke attempts to ties it all together.

a little cocktail after the Show.. actually a Strawberry-ade

Of course the kids loved the spectacle and athleticism of the performers. All that writhing on the floor, jumps, head spins and handstands had one word coming to my mind..... Neck brace. Certainly there should be a warning to not try this at home! Well not till you have had a lot of training. The kids came out suitable hyped and ready to party.

We finished the evening exploring the streets of Hongik. This area has largely grown around the university of the same name. It has all the energy and vibrancy of youth. Many streets surrounding the university support the client base. Bars, eateries, school supplies and, of course, fashion shops. don't come to this area expecting to buy tweed jackets or golf attire. It is all sportwear and funky fashion.

By repute this area doesn't hit its straps till about 1am, so our foray to just after midnight only proved to be a taster. What was most disturbing was the total lack of Korean food. there were hamburger joints, pizza bars, Italian and of course coffee shops. It seemed the closer you get to the Uni, the less Korean food there is. Mind you the so called Italian we had for supper required quite a bit of imagination to fathom. Curry noodles (udon) is Italian?

Poor Amelie was in party mood until..... THE WALL. she crashed big time, so the only option, gladly for us too was to head home. gotta love Korea, all this night life, wandering the streets with a high confidence of safety. It one aspect of their culture I wish we could duplicate back home.

Mum... I can climb all the way to his Bottom. Seoul Forest

 

 

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Never ending Everland

I had thought simply to cut and past my entry from our last visit to Korea (www.koreathereturm.blogspot.com) especially the Post regarding the never ending cute. Koreans certainly have perfected kitsch raising the bar to unreadable levels for any Australian Resort.

however the big difference with the experience of Everland this time is a 7 year old girl! the focus is clearly away from the animals, performances and any activity at ground level. I'm afraid we have now the female version of Top Gears Jeremy Clarkson.........POWER!!!!!

Everland Sojourn

If a ride does not have an element of risk involved. If a ride does not involve possible death, cessation of heart beat, removal of lungs. if the ride operator rePlies to the question, "How many G's?" With "What's a G?" If the ride takes place less than a thousand metres above the ground, then I'm not interested.

I want rides. More, not less. Don't bother about lunch, I'm defying gravity here. no I do not want to see the seals unless they are strapped into the roller coaster.

Yep our little girl has become a ride junky! She simply could not get enough. It was lucky that there are still rides that have height restrictions, at least from her parents perspective. roller Coastes aren't bad, but those ones that simply treat the humN body as clothes in a washing machine..... A front loader at that, then we draw the line.

We managed to keep up with the Rides queen and we're lucky enough to have some of the parents of fellow Han Ho children look after whilst Liz and I deserted Amelie for what is claimed to be the biggest Wooden roller coaster I. The world. We learned all about this ride whilst I. The 60 minute queue. We somehow np managed to swap our very chatty child with an older version.

Kim, dong Ha a high school student on a two excursion to theme parks of Seoul and general chatterbox, regaled us with all the facts about the T-Express. Apparently it is the fastest, steepest and biggest wooden roller coaster in the world...... Brendan you should have been there.... Seriously you should.

Somehow 6 different families managed to make their own way from Seoul to Everland and locate each other in the crowd. we felt a .ittle guilty as we probably had the best service. Liz had checked up on advice from INKAS and KIA Consulting, but the best option seemed to involve incredibly long travel times. so she went tot the Everland website, clicked on transport and found an express bus service that ran from AnGuk station in the morning, for us 12:10pm and returned to Dongdamun in the evening leaving Everland at 9pm. the trip there took just over an hour and return about 50 mins. not only that it only cost 10000won per person and came with discounted entry to Everland.

The guilty part for us came on leaving. We managed to be home slurping on a Soju nightcap just after 10pm whilst our colleagues still probably return close to. Id ight at best. I tried to phone to get the others on our bus only to be told they needed a booking. Out of remorse, I have poured a second glass for their benefit.

Hurtling along at some 200 klms on what appears to be rickety wooden structure... Are we mad?

Sorry there are not many pictures today. We didn't take many. We only,took little pocket digital cameras and the. Allowed Rose "Merakis to be the official photographer for the day as she did take her hefty SLR Long. this meandps our photos,are scarce so far. But here are a few.

 

so guilty about our fast trip home... We resorted to drink.

 

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Indulging our Princess

Today was meant to be another "quiet" day as Tuesday is the biggy to Everland.

I've .skating, Lotte Workd, Seoul Korea

 

Amelie has been bugging us ever since the trip to Lotte World for us to take her ice skating. Today we relented. I took Amelie ice skating while Liz went to do did a little shopping in the department store and arcades attached to The conglomerate known as Lotte.

Pooh the concentration

 

Lotte claims to be one of the biggest, or is it the best of the indoor/in shopping centre ice rinks. Yes it looms impressive as the ground level of a void, making it possible to view who is on the ice from 6 stories up, hanging from the roof in a hot air ballon fairground ride. Yes the ice is very nice because a Zambone groom it carefull every 3 hours. Yes there is plenty of room for all despite being in the middle of a bustling department store at sales time. however one fact still remains true and constant t with any ice rink...... THE RENTAL SKATES ARE CRAP!!!!!!!

 

Yep they were blunt, that goes without saying. Mine were so cracked that ther was absolutely no ankle support and Amelie's had such a burr inside that they gave her a most terrible blister. we managed to cover it with several layers of band-aids, but that only lasted so loud as sweaty socks and feet allowed the plasters to slip and became ineffective. still that was after nearly 2 hours so we cannot complain too much.

 

Actually I pretty impressed with how the rink was managed. at all times there was at least one supervisor on the ice ensuring good behaviour from patrons and quickly attending to fallen skates trying to recover and stand up. They were attentive, but not intrusive. Well done Lottee.

 

Liz managed to get in a brief lone time and some personal shopping. We will try to rectify this before leaving Seoul.

 

Following skating, we headed over to Gangnam, not just to be able to say "been there, done that!". although now we can so there. Gangnam is the rah ran/South Yarra of Melbourne, the up and coming Tracy shopping spot south of the river. Having been shopped out ist Lottee, our focus switch to an interest of a more violent kind.

 

Hidden behind the facade of commercialism is the headquarters of international Taekwondo at the centre we know as Kukiwon. Since Amelie has been learning all this year, we thought she might enjoy a visits to Taekwondo Central Sed Did. At the Kukiwon stadium, a tournament facility that rivals that of the more recent "Jackie Chan" Karate kid movie, Amelie delighted in watching a lesson to a class of international black belted students.

 

However a Han ho Friend Paul Turpie and Amelie's teacher Mrs Trainor, had told us where to find Taekwondo shops close to Kukiwon. At the very first shop we tried, the owner confirmed his identity of Mr Soo and smiled broadly when we said Mr Trainor says helo and Amelie is a pupil of his Academy.

 

Kukiwon, Taekwondo Worl Headquarters, Korea

prepared for next terms Taekwondo lessons with Mrs Trainor

Amelie did well from The visit, with a new Taekwondo uniform sporting her name o pn the front hem and Taekwondo emblazoned on the back. We bought a set of shin, arm and chest protectors for future levels as well as a couple of extra pads to,practice kicks and punches. to store and transport all this booty we purchased a bag proudly denoting the Taekwondo sport and having special pockets to transport pads in too. All I can say I'd girl. You'd better stay at ift now. I think she will as Mia Christos earned her black belt just before coming to Korea and Amelie is well impressed..... and inspired. How lucky to have such a great role model.

end of a Taekwondo class, Kukiwon

 

The evening ended with a return to Dongdaemun Market and the History and Culture Park.it was great to see the building I. The last moments of day.ight and a.so gave us time to better explore the design centre. I can thouraghly recommend this area if you are looking for something a bit special other that av good at the. Arrest and upmarket over hyped fashion from the department stores. There is a refreshing level of shopping at the centre and amazingly much is accessible for tourists.

 

If you want to sense architecture every bit as confronting and exciting as Federation Square in Melbourne, but totally out does it for innovation, fluidity and dare I say style, then the Culture park is it. I thoroughly recommend any tourist factoring in a visit.

InKAS - International Korean Adoptee Service Inc

contact@inkas.org | Phone: +82-2-3148-0258 | Fax: +82-2-3148-0259

(100-070) Bok-Chang building #703 80, Sogongdong, JungKu, Seoul

 

 

 

 

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Untitled

Now Grumpma is gone, a traditional Korean breakfast, Kimchi, rice and cornflakes...,oh yeah and purple grape juice

Today was intended to be a quiet day after two long and very late nights, particularly for Amelie. This means instead of walking 15 kilometres, we only manages a mere 10.

along the avenue towards Gyeongbokgung Palace each Sunday a Farmers market is run. It was fun to wander the stalls, sampling the fare. The variety of food available is from fresh fruit, to honey, to Kim chi, to dried fish, to rice cakes. Certainly vastly different to the produce found inFarmers markets back home.

Today another Market accompanied the farmers market. I would tend to describe is as a trash and treasure I n Australia or a car boot sale in the UK. Basically it appeared anyone wanting to sell off old clothes, books and bric'n'brac could hire a stall to sell.... Stuf.

After a brief sojourn amongst the stalls, we ventured back to the farmers market to buy a little produce. We thought it may be nice instead of wafting chips before dinner, to have some kimchi instead. Well something must've been lost in the translation as we intended to oeprder a little of two types of ki chi and somehow ended up with 2.5kgs of the stuff.

Taekwondo demonstration, Namsagool, Seoul

At this rate we'll have to consume it morning, noon and night, plus roll it up to smoke just to have some chance of finishing it before we fly out Friday. I'm pretty sure Australian customs won't let us in with a half eaten bag of pickled veg.

"What's that suspicious half rotten vegetable matter you have in that bag swimming in a toxic red liquid?"

"Um, officer would you believe it's lunch?"

"Kindly step this way sir while we slip on the rubber gloves."

Taekwondo :eom stratify Namsagool, Seoul

Quickly ducking back to the apartment to attempt to make some dent in the Mountain of preserved plant material, accompanied by rice and seaweed sheets, new plans were formulated for the afternoon.

We decided to head over to Namsongol Traditional folk village below the towering heights of ?Seoul Tower. Here, there are to add to the festive air of the traditional buildings, public performances demonstrate aspects of Korean .culture. this week the performance is Taekwondo. It was billed as a dymanic demonstration of Koreas traditional martial art. Well it certainly was that, but was the greater surprise was the age of the troop. I'd say the oldest may have been 15, but all would have to have been black belts to make a demonstration squad of this quality. Certainly to be breaking boards etc. they would have to be highly ranked. It was difficult to tell because their uniform had a red and black collar and the belt was a red and black stripe running the length of the belt.

YyDespite their age the demonstration certainly lived up to the descriptor dynamic. High kicks, split boards and giant leaps displayed a high degree of skill and athleticism. It certainly impressed Amelie who quickly snaffled a couple of broken boards as souvenirs and climbed on stage to have her photo taken beside the performers.

It did say it was dynamic!

Amongst our travels today we managed to bump into two groups of Victorian .han Ho families separately. We never bump into them during trips to Melbourne, so what does Seoul have that Melbourne doesn't, apart from about 5 million people. What are the odds?

well alright, narrow it down because we are all North of the river. Further narrow it down that we are all tourists doing touristy things, then bumping in to someone we know to be In Seoul at the same time as us greatly reduces the odds to a point where a casual meeting is practically certain. still it was nice to see a dozen or so friendly defaces amongst the 10 million or so other friendly faces.

Since we haven't really done much this rptrip, we headed over to Myeondong for a little retail therapy. The focus was primarily on foot ware as amongst all the fashion shops is a healthy representation of.most sporting goods manufacturers. Being a Sunday, the joint was jumpin packed to the hilt with shoppers and to add to the atmosphere a great number of street vendors. We all came away with something formourmefforts, all be it with very little imagination.... I mean all we got were crocs. Not the sandal variety, sandals and shoes, but Crocs just the same.

Posing with the Taekwondo Troop

at least I had some nerve purchasing a pair of Nike runners I could never lose in a fit. It is my belief that to earn a "blue shirt" at the Ballarat aquTic centre one must sport a pair of brightly coloured forward. My fear is these may just put me in line for promotion....they are practically illuminois, not that I could have bought a pair of luminous runners in bright orange and yellow, but even I draw the line at glow in the dark footware

On the way home one aspect really highlighted the major difference of Seoul to Melbourne;

Melbourne is predominantly a 2 dimensional city. sure it has great tall buildings, but if you know the city at ground level, the you can basically know the city. apart from the underground and a underground tunnel here and there, one has to return to ground level to go up or down another building.

Seoul on the other hand not only has a far more extensive underground rail network, it also supports a great nUmber of underground shopping malls and interlinked tunnels meaning one can navigate vast areas of the city without ever seeing day light. Often these underground warrens do not reflect the street alignment above so one must really have a three dimensional internal map of the city to function effectively.

honestly I do not see Melbourne ever matching this diverse array of three dimensional communication and commuter networks within the city. I honestly think we can never call ourselves a Metropolis until we do..... Perhaps I may begin to believe when a raillink is finally established between the CBD and the airport.

 

 

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UKEFAFE Ukulele Festival

Hawaiian dress ups at UKEFAFE

what a great day we've had attending UKEFAFE, Ukulele Fair and Festival on the outskirts of Seoul in Korea.

That interminable selfie pole again

I knew there was some kind of ukulele festival held in korea at this time of year as I had found references on the Internet. however it seemed up that 2014 may not go ahead. luckily calling on the resources of Maria Camaretto at KIA Consulting and INKAS here in Seoul, especially Ahyoung Kim, we managed to locate this festival during our stay in Korea.

With my new Toy. the festival shirts have some kind of theme... Don't know what though

We took our ukes along, although the opportunities to play were limited mainly 'cos we could. It register into workshops online. There were a couple of brief stints group playing,.

 

most of the festival involved watching a great variety of acts both amateur and professional. Many simply blew us away at the quality of the music. On the smaller stage, acts were largely amateur from kids/ schools groups through to some very talented youths... I hate them ... Yes jealous.

The main stage had a great line up of local and international performers. Some of the international performers really impressed such as Apirak Sirinanthakul from Thailand, Kyas Ryo from Japan and Bruce Shimabukoro from Hawaii. Yes I believe he is a brother to Jake, but it pretty damned good on Uke too.

Of course there would be no festival without stalls and great Uke Porn. We took the opportunity to avail ourselves of various accessories quite rare in Australia. this included Festival T-shirts, leather key fobs, straps, a small battery amplifier that plugs straight into the plug on any uke with a pick-up, a very cute 'bunny' uke tuner for Liz......and oh did I mention my new uke?

amelie was very patient to indulge us today, but I think she had a good day too. She came away with her own trinkets and there were a few craft actives she keenly participated in.

We finally made our way home and following practically every Train trip so far requiring me to stand. It was good finally to have a seat from boarding. I thought finally the rail Gods were smiling upon me.... Yep too soon. Seven stops later the train was pulled out of service and we were booted to the platform. don't know what happened to my seat as the next train was packed to the rafters before arrival at our station. It was a nice seat too, padded and everything. sigh.

We took the opportunity to duck over to Gyeonbokung Palace cos till Sunday evening there is a laser light show projected on the main gate and surrounding walls. Anything like this at night due to the contrast of light and night darkness. this proved to be no exception. the on.y frustration was the number of busses that just happened to catch the lights and block our view. homer usually says Doh... I think after the 10th time Liz said it too!

Finally to dinner. we went to that little pancake place that you may remember mother. It looked a dingy little place, almost unkempt in every way. seats were mere pedestals and tables long trestles. I you remember our guide on the day one tour said often the dingiest places have the best food and this place lived up or is that downto expectations.

On arrival it was packed with locals. good Sign. the owners clearly did not speak English and had no Englidpsh menu, good sigh two, luckily two .ocal helped us order. We were not disappointed. Lovely fresh meat and seafood pancakes cooked on very hot hot plates making the outside very crispy.

It was loud and noisy inside, the food delicious and perfect under the circumstances, and the soju topped off the meal perfectly. We ate our fill for two adults and one child for under $25 including drinks. We will definately be back before we leave. this form of fast food beats anything at Maccas, Amy pie and any fish and chips.

 

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