WanderLust

South Korea, Autumn 2005

2008-08-29T14:11:00.007+08:00

Pretty in Seoul

I'm never been to a lot of places. And of these places in Asia, Seoul ranks pretty high up. Perhaps only lower than Japan. It'll be nice to visit a country where its dramas are all the rage in Asia and its celebrities occupying a large portion of the entertainment section in the newspapers (at least in Singapore).

Anyway, it just happened that a meeting was scheduled to be held in Seoul in late October. I jumped on the chance and was on my way to the land of kimchi in no time (in 6 hours really, from Singapore to Seoul).

I landed in a gloomy and raining Incheon and made my way to the bus stop where I was supposed to take the shuttle to my hotel in Seoul. For the first time, I know that the rest of the journey is going to be difficult. Seoul, for all its modernization and hosting of the 1988 Olympics, has almost no English signages. Perhaps its in the spirit of nationalism, or perhaps foreigners are not really welcome, but Koreans very much use only their language in all the signages, and Korean, with its crosses and circles, hold no clue as to what they are trying to say.

I managed to make it on to the correct bus and was soon on my way to my hotel. With the overcast sky, the Han River looks grey and darkness soon envelopes everything. The gleaming lights of Seoul lite up the night sky, but the skyline is not impressive, looking like any other city.

Soon after arriving at the hotel, the rain stopped and I popped out hoping to find a quick dinner. That, unfortunately, was not meant to be. The hotel was pretty conveniently located with shops and eateries littered around. As I passed by the shops, bemusement, followed by slight annoyance at the lack of understandable menus ! Attempts to talk to people, more often then not, ended with shaking of heads. In the end, I just walked into a shop with pictures in the menu and pointed to a noodle dish which looks more tempting than the rest.

Before the dish was served, the owner laid out before me four (!) different kimchi dishes. And I thought there's only one type of kimchi. Not a fan of kimchi, so I only took a tiny bit of each. The noodles was kind of disappointing, with only bits of meat. Sorry I didn't have pictures of it, but me, not a food nut, usually do not have much objections to food. Anyway, that was how the first day of my Korean trip went, not on the right foot.

Throughout the trip, the meals got better, as I explored other options, including sandwiches. But the breakthrough was getting a translator. Apparently, many Chinese study in Seoul and a good number of them work in restarants. If you insist on someone speaking Mandarin to take your order, there's a pretty high chance that they go to the back and get their dishwasher to speak to you !

Food aside, October was a great time to visit Korea. Most of the city's trees were decked out in yellow. The area which I was staying, Namsan (literary meaning southern mountain) was particularly beautiful. Seoul tower, which is pretty visible from my place stands out in the sea of yellow.

Shopping

A stone's throw away, is Myeong Dong (which in Chinese meant bright cave). Its a trendy shopping district with all your major labels, plus some. A popular hangout with the Korean youths, the place is bursting with energy. Its pretty crowded even during the weekdays, so be prepared.

I had also the opportunity to make a trip to the Namdaemun market during one of the nights. Close to the market, they also have a labyrith of underground shops which sells anything from old records (yes, those from our fathers' days) to ginseng. Apparently, you can find ginseng shops all over Seoul, most probably, some of those are selling those people plant in their back garden. :) I also managed to get a glimpse of the Namdaemun (literary meaning Great Southern Gate), which looks pretty much like an ordinary gate to me (I'm probably gonna get some flak from Koreans). Unfortunately, this revered artefact was burnt down in 2008 by some nut, but the government in the process of restoring it.

Changdeokgung

The Koreans are also very proud of their imperial palaces. I manage to squeeze in some time to visit one, Changdeokgung. Changdeokgung is one of the smaller palaces among the five grand palaces in Seoul. However, it is incredibly well preserved, probably through constant refurbishment. The entrance was not exactly impressive and is reminince of a Chinese palace or temple. The entrance leads to a courtyard with some ornamental bridges which brings you to another entrance leading to the inner courts of the palace.

The whole palace has an architecture which is heavily influenced by the Chinese. Considering that the Koreans and the Chinese had political and trade links dating back to the Tang dynasty, that is hardly surprising. One thing which seems to be distinctively Korean though, was their brightly painted beams, bringing a breadth of fresh air into the ancient palace.

Another thing which I noticed when I wandered through the palace grounds was that they Koreans seem to have the same kind of gradings of officials as ancient China. In China, the court officials were divided into nine grades, or ranks. Here, in the palace, you can see the stone markings which designates the area where the different ranking officials are supposed to stand or kneel. The courtyard is not very big, so the king must have had quite a small court, or they all must be pretty good in squeezing in tight spaces !

The feature of the palace is a place called Biwon (Secret Garden). Its accessible by a pave way from the side of the inner courts. Its a pleasant slightly uphill walk with trees lining the sides. The pave way leads to a pond with a pavilion perching on its side. In the days of the king, this is probably a very nice and quiet place to mediate or just enjoy the nature. With tourists swarming all over the place then, I could only imagine.

Further in, there is another pond with a smaller pavilion also perched by its side. This ones is nicer by the virtue of having less tourists around. That fact alone allows it to exude calmness and allows one to appreciate the quiet surroundings.

On that note, I left the bustling city of Seoul. Hoping to return one day with better appreciation of kimchi and ginseng.

United Kingdom, Spring 2005

2008-08-25T15:15:00.004+08:00

I travel to UK an awful lot, probably because I attended school there and somehow it feels like a home away from home. :)

This was a short trip in London, spending only around 3 days in the capital. As usual, I spent some time around Hyde Park, one of my favorite places in London.

One of the most imposing structures in Hyde Park is no doubt the Prince Albert memorial. Built by Queen Victoria in memory of her beloved husband, the Prince Consort Albert. Unknown to probably most people, Prince Albert is German, Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, to be exact. His son, Edward VII, was the first monarch of the house of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. The house lasted till George V's (Edward VII's son) reign when he renamed the house to Windsor (the reigning Royal house) in protest of Germany's participation in World War 1. In fact, starting from reign of the house of Hanover, the monarchs of Britain has been German. Even the Duke of Edinburgh, Queen Elizabeth II's consort, is German (He was a Greek prince, but the (former) Greek monarchy was German too !) So what do you know, United Kingdom, has been ruled by the Germans for the past 300 years !!

Directly opposite the Prince Albert memorial is the Royal Albert Hall, another distinctive structure named after dear Albert. Queen Victoria really loved Albert a lot. :) The acoustics inside is fantastic, and IMHO better than Royal Festival Hall and the Barbican. I used to frequent RFH quite a bit, capitalizing on their student 1 pound offers for LPO's concerts. Those were the days. :)

One cool thing to do while in London is to take a "flight" on the London Eye. One of the newest additions of the London tourist attractions, it should be worth every quid. Provided they didn't increase the price. A trip up cost me 12.50 quid in 2005.

If you are a sucker for fishes, the London Aquarium is just beside the London Eye. I've never visited it. I only like fishes for dinner. :)

Another place which is a must go for everyone in London is no doubt the magnificent British Museum.

The only other museum which can rival BM is the Lourve. If you have seen the Lourve and the British Museum, then there isn't a third museum which you must see. The British Museum by size is much smaller than the Lourve. When I first visited the Lourve back in 1998, the tour guide boasted that you need to walk 8km to see all the Lourve's exhibits. After visiting the Lourve, there is little doubt that the guide is right.

The British Museum has a much more compact exhibition space. However, the quality of the exhibits are dazzling. From the mummies of Egypt ("donated by the Egyptians"), three floor high stone statue from China ("donated by the Chinese"), to the impressive stone sculptures from Mesopotamia, each are priceless in their own right. However, the singular most important exhibit in BM, has got to be.... the Rosetta Stone. Before the Stone was discovered, no one was able to decipher the ancient hieroglyphs (those pictures of birds, man and cats) of Egypt. The Stone carried inscriptions written in hieroglyphs, Egytian, and Greek, enabling Young and Champollion to successfully decipher the hieroglyphs. IMHO, the Stone will make a great coffee table. :)

Iceland, Summer 2003

2008-08-20T11:00:00.014+08:00

In the summer of 2003, I paid a visit to my pal, Jon, or Nonni as he is affectionately known to family. In his words, I'm a lucky person to have know him, an Icelander, as there are only around 300,000 of them around.

Determined to verify the rumours about the beauty of that tiny (I really shouldn't be saying this, me coming from Singapore, of all places) piece of land in between Americas and Europe, I finally took the plunge in 2003.

The air tickets to Iceland was really a rip-off. They were asking for like 300 quid. Geez... 300 quid can get me to Singapore !! Luckily, Icelandic Air wasn't the only airline flying to Iceland. It happens that there was this tiny budget airline, called Iceland Express that flies daily to Iceland from London Stansted. Of course, the cheap tickets came at a price. I was pretty surprised, not to mention a little scared, when I realized that the plane I'm boarding only arrived 15 minutes before boarding and is taking off again with barely 30 minutes on the ground ! Throughout the flight, I was praying that the wing won't come off or something. Luckily, they didn't.

I landed safely at Keflavík International Airport, which was Iceland's only International Airport. Going by the crowds (or the lack of) there, my guess is that Icelanders probably don't travel very much. The airport is in the middle of what appears to me to be a strange landscape, which extends almost all the way to Reykjavík (that's the capital). I was later told that that strange landscape is actually solidified lava...

We set off on the cross country trip the next day, fully armed with tents, food and really warm looking sleeping bags. The first stop, Þingvellir (or Thingvellir).

Þingvellir is one place you wouldn't want to miss if you ever go to Iceland. Its a huge plain with views worthy of fairytales. It is also a great geographical classroom. The park consist of numerous geological features that I've only studied in textbooks. Excuse me, but I come from a country where there's almost ZERO geological features.

There are several pools with extremely clear water and you can see the bottom of the pools without any difficulty. Apparently, when the tectonic plates came together, the uneven crevices between the plates formed these pools. Yes, you did not hear wrongly, its the tectonic plates.

If you look at the picture on the right, you can see a ridge clearly. That, my friend is the meeting of the American and European plates. Weird, isn't it, to actually see tectonic plates, things which you probably thought geography professors thought up in their dreams.

Anyway, Iceland is on TWO plates, the American and the European plates. The area by the ridge is in the middle of the two plates, and what Icelanders call, "pure Iceland". :) I was told that that area grows by a few centimeters every year. Ha, that means that Iceland will be the size of Great Britain in a few million years !

Apart from its natural beauty, Þingvellir is also a place of historical significance. It is the location where the oldest surviving Parliament was first held ! That was held close to where I took the photo on the left. From the magnificent view you get, its little wonder they chose the place for an office. The rocks are a little hard to sleep on though...

The next stop was also part of what they called the Golden Circle. We visited the mother of all natural fountains. A geyser called Geysir. Yes, you would've guessed it. The word geyser is from this geyser called Geysir ! Its the first time I've seen one and its brilliant ! It was a cluster of geysers and every 10-15 minutes there'll be one that's really to blast. They are basically holes in rocks filled with water. The water gets heated up and pressure starts build to a point when the water just blasts up into the air. The one the splirts the highest is in New Zealand and the most famous one is Old Faithful in Yellow Stone. But this, my friend is the first discovered of them all. :)

Along the way, we visited Gullfoss which was further up north. Gullfoss was a sight to behold; it is a huge waterfall with several cascades. The water was different from normal streams and rivers as they appear rather white. This, my friend told me, was due to the source of the river being glaciers. Till now, I'm still not sure why water from ice is whiter. Queer.

Throughout this trip, we passed through many curious landscapes. Especially intriguing are the moss covered fields which spots bright green coats. This brings about a feel of youthfulness which is perhaps rightly so as this land is continuously changing and expanding.

One thing I learn on the trip is that Icelanders are nuts about swimming. We can find swimming pools in almost all the tiny little towns we passed through. Seems to me that they don't bathe, they just go swimming. However, they are extremely particular about the hygiene in the pool, and everyone goes for a good scrub down before entering the pool. I have no doubt that they have some of the cleanest pools around (unlike some of the pools where I've seen feces floating about). The swimming/bathing experience was when we visited a hot spring (yup that one in the picture). First time I swam in an open area and the feeling is indescribable. The only problem with it is that nature doesn't have temperature control. The water was not uniformly mixed and sometimes you feel a gush of almost scalding hot flow and then follow by an icy gush... Maybe swimming pools are better for me...

Another sight which should NOT be missed is the mighty Jökulsárlón. This glacier lake is situated in the southeastern corner of the island. It is almost surreal to see the huge blocks of ice floating around in the lake. As if we are in some kind of icy wonderland. Even in the middle of summer the lake looks wayyyy too cold to take a dip in. I wouldn't mind going for a boat trip though.

This glacier lake is also a filming location for one the James Bond film, "Die another day". It has also appeared in several other films.

The last place I went to before I boarded my plane back was really famous tourist attraction. The Blue Lagoon.

A little history about the lagoon. It was originally a geothermal power plant (it still is, you can see the power plant at the far end). They pumped up the hot water from the Earth's core to generate electricity. In the process, lots of water was pumped up and started to form pools of mineral rich water. So, one fine day, some smart alec came up with the idea to turn these pools of water into a tourist attraction, and we have the Blue Lagoon. :)

Anyway, I took a look and the white mud which was supposedly really good for the skin looks really yucky. :P Jon strongly advised against swimming in it, as its dirty by Icelandic standards, with the tourist having no qalms about peeing and shitting in it. :P

If you need one word to describe Iceland, then its got to be Surreal.

Greece, Summer 2001

2008-08-13T16:17:00.021+08:00

The first time I visited the cradle of Western Civilization was in 2001. I visited my good friend Avgustinos whom I had shared a house with in London. The jolly chump hosted me in his house in Athens for a week and we also visited the enchanting island of Santorini. Trust me, it was worth every single minute.

Athens

The very first place you visit when you go to Athens is no doubt the Acropolis. This is pride of every Greek. This structure symbolizes the Greek spirit and the excellent location of it, towering over Athens adds to the magnificence of it all. On the ascent to the top, you can see that the present structure is built on top of older structures which dates back to 5 B.C. That's probably when recycling started. :)

The acropolis is a group of buildings which includes the famous Parthenon, which was a temple of Athena, the Greek goddess of Wisdom and WAR.... I wonder if its ever wise to put wisdom and war on the same line. Probably the Greeks have different definition of wisdom back then. ;)

The view from the Acropolis was great. Its the second highest point in Athens after Lykavittos (they have several different spelling for this), which we'll come to later. You can get a stunning view of Athens, with the Roman agora, plaka, all close to the bottom of the hill. By constrast to other capitals in Europe, Athens is really flat, with most building not more than 6 stories. Apparently, (I'm not sure if my friend is shitting me) they have this regulation that buildings cannot be taller than the Acropolis ! Well, no one should be taller than the pride of Athens. ;)

The second place I went in Athens was Plaka, where they had all these shops selling all kinds of things. Plaka, Roman Agora, Agora were all pretty close to each other and you can see all of them in one shot. The Tower of Winds in the Agora was nice, although I still don't understand why it was so famous. The octogonal structure had eight sculptures on each side depicting the eight gods of winds of the different direction.

The next must-see of Athens have got to be Lykavittos Hill. The top of the hill is a magnificent spot for sunsets. They even have a restaurant (which is really expensive by my standards) there for you to take a break from the chilly winds (bring a sweater !). You get a great view of Athens and Piraeus port. There's also a cute little church perched on top which makes it so perfect. :)

Santorini (Thira)

If you have ever been to Santorini, then you know that this place really should rank pretty high up on the list of the 10 most beautiful places on Earth or places to see before you die ! Santorini is a freak work of Nature that is absolutely UNIQUE.

There are two ways to get to Santorini. Either by boat or by plane. The hydrofoil takes about 3-4 hours while the slow ferry take around 8 hours. My suggestion ? Take hydrofoil or plane. I took the slow ferry and the eight hours of Greek TV nearly killed me. Fortunately, an amazing sight awaits after the eight gruelling hours. A splash of creamy white across the steep cliffs of Santorini is really stunning.

Santorini is a crescent shaped island (Well, its the part of the caldera of a LIVE volcano) whose capital is Fira. The signature of this island is its creamy white buildings and blue domes. You'll see plenty of these all over the island. Most of the buildings are built on steep cliffs, and if you just go on to one of the higher points of the town, you can get a superb view of the town.

Apart from Fira, the island has a few other towns and smaller villages. The one to go for the sunset is Oia (pronounced E-ya). Oia is considerably quieter and less crowded than Fira and is located on the northern tip of the island. You can see several converted Windmills here. But if you are looking for Windmills, Mykonos is the place to go. :)

I spent about 2 days in Santorini, vowing to return again. And I did. In 2008. :)

If you have just two days to see the Greek islands, Santorini is your best bet.

Posts from the nether years

2008-08-08T18:00:00.001+08:00

After so many years, finally had some time to arrange my photos. Will post them batch by batch. :)