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Korea

korea trip – 04 – catching up

Post author By sikander
Post date August 11, 2006
2 Comments on korea trip – 04 – catching up

A bunch of random Anyang and Seoul pictures. I finally went for a haircut and was treated like a celebrity hehe. It’s not everyday that a foreigner goes to a hair saloon in Anyang. Watched Pirates of the Carribean:Dead Man’s Chest at the theatre. The movie ticket is actually assigned a specific seat number so before you even buy the ticket, you know how full the theatre is and you can choose the best available seat. You can buy the tickets online, or through your cellphone as well. Not a bad idea at all.. I hate getting bad seats at the theatre.

Lunato’s sister-in-law was going to the temple for an annual ceremony of some sort so I went along with her to see what it was like. The temple was quite big but she told me that it is actually pretty small compared to the bigger and more popular temples in Seoul. I couldn’t understand what the monks were chanting, nor what was actually going on in the place but it was a unique experience and I enjoyed the trip.

Met a bunch of lunato’s friends in Seoul. Good food + good people = good times. One of the restaurants was named Happy Together… how can one possibly have a bad time there? ;)

Did some shopping at the various malls in the numerous commercial areas. The subway is amazing.. very easy to get anywhere you need to. Spent some time at the library taking care of some work items that had to be taken care of.

And spent a lot of time with the different family members. 5 nephews and 1 adorable niece are a handful and when you put all of them together… sheesh. Lunato’s mom expects me to learn Korean in one year! Yikes. I better get started right away!

2006 Korea

korea trip – 03 – pyeongchang and herbnara

Post author By sikander
Post date August 5, 2006
3 Comments on korea trip – 03 – pyeongchang and herbnara

Lunato’s brother’s family invited me to accompany them on a short trip to Pyeongchang and Farm Herbnara. They have a 2005 Hyundai Santa-Fe and it can easily seat 6 people. Hello first excursion outside of Seoul.

It took almost three hours to reach PyeongChang and we were pretty tired by that time. We stopped for some food at a traditional Korean restaurant (yumm!) and then spent about an hour in the city. PyeongChange is located at exactly 700 meters above sea level, an ideal altitude for winter sports. The city’s nick name is “Happy 700” and because of its ideal location, the city is bidding for the 2014 Olympic Winter Games. Go Happy 700!!

Farm Herbnara is a famous herb farm located close to PyeongChang. A river runs through the farm area as well and lots of people were out and about; swimming, relaxing, hiking, cooking, etc. We spent a few hours at the farm relaxing in the excellent weather. It was quite peaceful. Sunyul and Kihun swam a lot and tried to get me to join them but I don’t know how to swim so I had to decline. I must learn!

PyeongChang is also the hometown of the famous Korean novelist Lee Hyo-Seok who used the city as a background for his masterpiece “When the Buckwheat flower blossom”. The Lee Hyo-Seok Memorial was on the way back to Anyang so we stopped there as well and took some pictures of the water mill house.

We had dinner at another restaurant and then took a smaller highway, instead of the main highway which was jam packed, all the way back to Anyang. It took almost 4 hours and it was pretty late at night by the time lunato’s brother dropped us at lunato’s parent’s house.

THe northern part of South Korea is quite beautiful. I would love to visit again. Oh and here is Sunyul playing with his baseball bat: MOV01904.MPG.

2006 Korea

korea trip – 02 – anyang, south korea

Post author By sikander
Post date August 4, 2006
3 Comments on korea trip – 02 – anyang, south korea

Having landed safely in Seoul on the 2nd of August I spent the next day attempting to stay awake as long as possible so as to shift my internal cycle to 13 hours ahead in time. It’s not easy and the summer heat wasn’t helping either. But after a day I was ok and back on track.

I spent a lot of time with Kihun and Sunyul, lunato’s nephews, during the mornings while lunato was at work. I took a picture of her running off to catch her bus to go to work in the morning. Talking to a foreigner continuously in English is a daunting challenge to anyone who is not fluent in the language. However, Kihun and Sunyul faced this challenge quite enthusiastically and I could tell their english was somewhat improving.. or maybe it was just the shyness and fear of speaking awkwardly that was dissipating day by day. In any case, I was really glad to have them around.

Here are some pictures of Anyang, Seoul’s suburb, and of Kihun and Sunyul as well.