Visitors part cuatro

OK, after much sorting of photos, I've finally whittled it down to a few (well, quite a few to be honest) from our final weekend in Seoul that I want to put online. This is a pretty photo heavy post, so I'll reserve my scribblings for the odd amusing or informative caption. If you're confused as to why you're already on part four, have a look back at parts 1 to 3 first.

Dongdaemun

We stayed in Dongdaemun whilst in Seoul. It's a curious mix of highly fashionable and not fashionable at all. The huge clothing markets are definitely worth a look around. This was taken by a stream that runs through Seoul below street level. It's nice to be able to dip your feet in the water to cool off and escape from the mania above.

"Fly Uzbekistan Airways. We'll probably crash but at least you'll have the reassuring eyes of this beauty to stare into as you plummet to your death."

Changdeok Palace

This is one of Seoul's many historic palaces. Personally I'm not a huge fan. The buildings are undoubtedly impressive, but sparsely furnished and anyway you're not allowed into any of the rooms to look around. Rather like temples, I suspect once you've seen one you've pretty much seen them all. This is why I'm clearly not so keen to look around.

Changdeok Palace Gardens

Much more interesting were the palace gardens, apparently some of the largest and best preserved in Korea. A beautiful sprawl of ponds and pavilions throughout a forest, it's quite the place for an ancient king to chill, or take a stroll with his lady.

Philoserfizing.

Phew. It was fricking humid here, and we'd walked several kilometers through this garden already.

This waterfall is one of the most beautiful parts of the garden. Apparently one of the ancient kings used to gather with the wits of his court here to float cups of wine and compose poetry. Bunch of gays.

Namsan Tower

It's a funny thing about Seoul. Whilst it's one of the largest urban conurbations in the world, it's also sprinkled with a good few mountains. Namsan is one of those, and I principally wanted to go there to emulate Jinho from the 5th grade elementary textbook, and stand at the bottom shouting "What a tall tower!"

This was one of the historic locations of beacons in Korea, to warn of attacks from China in the North. A bit like the South Downs then, eh?

A strange tradition around the base of the tower is to leave a padlock inscribed with a lovey message as a token of your love. Sadly we were lacking in a pen, so didn't leave Linda's padlock. Maybe we'll make it back here someday to leave one.

"Wow! What a tall tower!"

After the tower we had dinner on top of the cable car station. Recommended to us by the Rough Guide, this turned out to be a really excellent decision. Watching the Seoul nightscape slowly coming to light whilst munching a pizza and a couple of beers turned out to be pretty romantic, at least on my scale of romantic things.

And that's it! The following morning Linda got on a plane to Chicago, and I went back to Jinbu. Sad times indeed, but I suspect that she might be back sometime. The good news for you is that this blog will once again be dispensing with the amorous content and going back to the cold, hard reporting of the facts, just the way you like it.

A

Visitors 3

If you haven't already, you might want to read part 1 and part 2 before you read this.

Sheep Farm Visit

To the British readers of this blog, the chance to visit a sheep farm may not seem all that exciting. Sheep are pretty common round our way. In fact, I've spent a fair proportion of my life living in a house with a field full of sheep adjoining the garden. However, in Korea they are something of a rare breed and a novelty, at least enough that you can charge a few quid to come and look around the farm.

The farm itself is perched on the side of a hill between here and the coast. In fact, from the top you can see all the way to Gangneung and the sea. I'd say it was one of the most spectacular views in Gangwon-do when the sun is out. It's enhanced by the wind turbines towering over you. I really like wind turbines. Aside from the obvious environmental benefits they provide, the design is a little bit mysterious and otherworldly, and I think makes a landscape look more interesting, rather than detracting from it's beauty. What really does detract though, is the awful muzak that is piped in from speakers on every couple of fenceposts as you walk around the farm.

There weren't actually that many sheep out in the fields when we visited. Rightly so, as shearing had just started - a blessed relief for a sheep that needs to be hirsute enough to survive a Gangwon winter (-20C or so). While they were waiting for a haircut, we had the chance to feed them. Here's how we did it.

All the walking and looking at sheep whetted my appetite for some lamb. We were told that the farm we were at didn't sell it's animals for meat, but that there was one on the other side of the valley that did. We drove over there to enquire, to be told that lamb sells for around about $100 per kilo. That means for a reasonable sized leg you're going to be paying about $200 by by reckoning. Lamb's tasty, but not that tasty I'm afraid. Is there anyone back in England who can post me a sheep?

That dress

Just occasionally you see something so amazing that you almost have no choice but to buy it. This happened to us wandering through Jinbu market. Linda's magpie eye was caught by something shiny on a clothes stall, which turned out to be a dress, on which the entire front was a rendering of Barack Obama's face in sequins. It truly is an amazing sight. I don't know when Linda will ever be able to wear it, but it's enough just to own so amazing a garment I think. I'm also wondering about commissioning a similar dress of my face for Michelle Obama.

Hiking

We also used the evening to hike up the small hill behind Jinbu to look down over the town. I've written about this little hike before, so I'm just going to post some of the pictures.

Linda over Jinbu.

In the pagoda thingy half way up.

This clock sits near the top of the hill, and keeps perfect time. I wonder who put it here, and who changes the batteries.

Almost there!

Made it!

OK. Enough again for this morning's posting. That might be it for a little while as I plan to cycle to a national park tomorrow, but I have a-whole-nother holiday to write about after this one, so more blogging will be forthcoming very soon.

A

Shark Diving Video

As a bit of a break from the slushy pictures, here's something a bit more wild and bestial. Sharks, actually. Our dive instructor let Shannon test out his fancy new underwater video camera (not a euphemism) and here are the results:

Shark Diving Part 1 from Alexander Grevett on Vimeo.

Shark Diving 2 from Alexander Grevett on Vimeo.

Visitors Part Deux

The continuing adventures of Alex and Linda in Korea (see here for the first instalment).

Hassla Art Park & Hotel

Down the coast from Gangneung lies Jeongdongjin, home of Tongil Park and the Sun Cruise Hotel. It's a pretty mad place all in all, so your hotel has to be at least a little distinctive to compete with the Sun Cruise. One that tries (but really gets nowhere near the concept of plonking a bloody massive cruise ship on a cliff) is the Hassla Art Park and Hotel. It's an impressive building constructed of steel and coloured glass, and looks rather like where Paul Klee might stay were he to come here.

The Art Park in the grounds is actually a little disappointing, with the artwork being somewhat sparse, but it does afford some great views of the east coast of Korea, and there are at least some fun pieces of art there. Here's what we managed to see:

The hotel itself.

"Ooooooh puppy puppy puppy!"

"Art"

Actually not the gayest photo ever taken of me, but close.

Tree seemingly constructed of decommissioned tinsel.

I was really struggling to hold this up...

...but this guy did it with the power of his mind.

"This artwork is sh*t."

Tunnels

Tree

This was pretty cool, though I think it would have been better with matching bikes.

I honestly tried so hard not to.

A weird, handlebar-less, painted bicycle, just leaning up on a bench (and Linda).

Giant headless chicken.

Smaller chicken (with head).

After the park we went for lunch at the hotel restaurant. This was a slightly disappointing affair, for me at least, when my steak appeared to be pieces of reconstituted beef tied together with a piece of bacon. The fact that it was all covered in a fairly nasty brown sauce didn't help either. So, poor marks for the food, but top marks for the service, as having failed to find us a taxi, the guy at the hotel desk took it upon himself to drive us down to Jeongdongjin in his own car. Top stuff. The hotel also scores bonus points for having the coolest toilet I have ever used. The outside looked like a giant silver rocket ship, and the inside looked somewhat like I imagine the VIP area of the viper rooms might look like. Here are a couple of photos:

I could have spent a lot of time in here.

Jeondongjin Beach and Hourglass Park

After the hotel we popped down for a bit of beach time. It was a beautiful day but the sea was still foot-numbingly cold. We settled for just paddling (or wading if you're weird). There's not much to write about here, so I'll just leave you with some cutesy photos.

Hi there.

Ew.

Eugh.

Oh goodness.

Then we wandered down the beach to what is supposedly one of the most romantic locations in Korea. The (somewhat inevitably named) Samsung Hourglass Park is exactly what it says - a giant hourglass through which the sand takes exactly a year to pour. It's always popular due to being used in one of the Korean dramas popular both here and in Japan. New Year's Eve here is supposed to be amazing. I might even go this year.

We probably should have got someone to take one of us together. Ho hum.

In the interests of keeping everything manageable I'm going to have another break here. I hope you're enjoying it so far. Part 3 will feature sheep-feeding and the most amazing dress I have ever seen.

A