Prison in Korea

No, not me, but Cullen Thomas, a young American lad who has just published a book about his experience titled Brother One Cell. While on holiday in the Philippines he made the stupid mistake of posting a block of hashish to a post office in Seoul. The police were there waiting for him when he turned up to collect it.

He was sentenced to prison where he met a wide range of colourful characters. As a native English speaker, he was in great demand from prisoners and guards alike who were keen to improve their English skills with him. Prison conditions sound harsh; in winter water freezes in the unheated cells but Thomas does not complain. Inspite of the boredom he remains calm and takes pleasure in the small things of his sparse life.

I must admit, I have not read the book yet, but I came across a review of the book in the International Herald Tribune. As the metropolitician and I have both noticed, the IHT seems to be printing an increasing number of stories on South Korea these days.

Meanwhile, for those needing the more normal style of guide book, you will be delighted to know that the latest edition of The Lonely Planet Korea was published last week.
I have seen copies of the book in Kyobo bookshop in town priced at just under 30,000 won. The new fully updated 7th edition replaces the previous edition published in April 2004.

Glancing through it briefly I noticed it mentions the new Incheon railway as expecting to be open by the end of March, but has no details. Since the book no doubt went to press several months ago it is excusable not to have the very latest details.

That excuse does not apply to the Incheon Airport website, which 10 days after the opening still does not mention the new railway link. Having no new pages ready to publish for such a large and important piece of transport infrastructure seems very poor indeed. My e-mail to the webmaster has elicited no response as yet.

Sandy Sunday

Guest posting from The Bat

Since I’m very careful with my health ( and that of my husband ), he has asked me to write a blog on a topic that is consuming all my energy currently : DUST.

For those of you outside Korea I’ll summarise : Every spring Korea experiences a phenomenon called “yellow dust” or “yellow sand” lasting anything up to 8 weeks. It hails from the deserts of China and as it travels across that country it picks up a cocktail of harmful pollutants, toxins, carcinogens. The dust carries effortlessly across the Yellow Sea and some falls to earth over the Korean Peninsula, the rest continues to Japan and even the USA. This is our first dust season in Korea. I’ve been dreading it since I first heard of it, and yet it seems to have crept up on us, and I’ve now joined the other confused foreigners here wondering if it’s fog or dust and if I’m going to die.

Here’s my story :

It all started last night when my keen senses told me all was not well; I’d noticed that Seoul was looking yellow the last few days, and this wasn’t just my jaundiced view. I’d taken my usual morning walk across Yeouido Park and the atmosphere was oppressive, I felt the sun weak behind a coat of cloud and dust and I felt I ought to be on the other side, the sunny side. Friday afternoon I walked with Jon to Seoul Tower, again the atmosphere was heavy and I thought about those “futuristic” films set in foggy twilight.

Soylent Green was such a film. Soylent portrays a dark world where humans are too many and resources too few. Looking down over Seoul from this elevated position I couldn’t help but wonder if the future was indeed now, as the advertising slogan goes. The surreal qualities of the scene were enhanced by the sight of two female pheasants ( Phasianus colchicus ) close to the hiking trail. We are keen birders yet these are the first pheasants we’ve seen in all of Korea, right here, in the heart of Seoul. Anyway...

By Saturday evening I felt the need to apply science to my recent observations; I needed to quantify and qualify this curious gift from the people of China. I laboured over a hot search engine for hours finding precious little in the way of metrics, until Zen Kimchi pointed the way. And so I found my way to the US military who ( bless them ) provide exactly the kind of data I was looking for here.

I couldn’t sleep for a long time, I could feel something at the back of my throat . Was it purely psychological or was the dust getting in ?

On waking I went straight to the home of the 18th Medical Command and was delighted ( Am I crazy ?) to see that the particulate count had been building overnight, peaking at 1233 micrograms / m3 at 12:00 hrs today at Yongsan Army Base. Since the little blue graphs peak at 1000 micrograms ( you wild optimists, you ), we were clearly off the scale. What to do ?

I phoned the mobile number given on the Medcom Information Card. YES, they confirmed we were off the graph. Since >1000 means “Hazardous” what does 2000 mean ? I asked myself. Medcom seemed to be suggesting that above 1000 it doesn’t matter. Is that like saying 15 inches from the point of impact of a Weapon of Mass Destruction is the same as 10 inches ?

Medcom’s data is available for different bases and CPs around S Korea; at several CPs the day’s peak was above 2000. In practical terms this meant that things looked very very hazy and dull.

Here's the view from our apartment at midday today. This is the National Assembly Building.



This graph shows the average from all observations made in S Korea - peaking at 2019 at 1600 hrs today.


In the midst of all this excitement I could make out through my binoculars the forms of tennis players beside the Han River ! Well, if you’d paid in advance and there was a no-refund policy, what would you do ? But then how did that explain the jogger ? Had he just bought his shoes ? Maybe a gift from his mum ? She’d be cross if he didn’t use them.

Today, 1st April 2007, and no April Fool, was only the fourth time that the “high level” yellow dust warning has been issued in Seoul. The first was in March 2002 and the last was April 2006. This according to Yonhap News. This is clearly wasted on the die-hard sport fanatics out there.

I tried to corellate my realtime observations ( from my window ) with the Medcom graphs and the “Asian dust” satellite images from the Korean Meteorological Administration ( KMA ). This was not helpful. What I supposed was “Asian dust” on the satellite pics seemed to have blown across the peninsula by the time the graphs were peaking. Any meteorologists out there who would be kind enough to explain ?

Some recent stories on air pollution in S Korea.
Korea Times :
Worst Yellow Dust Blankets Peninsula
Environment Diplomacy
Air Pollution Reaches Serious Levels
Reuters
The Hankyoreh
The Joongang Daily

The China Meteorological Agency (CMA) stress the natural and seasonal nature of yellow dust. Though readers should bear in mind its unnatural toxin-laden qualities.

Conclusion
The dust is held responsible for around 200 deaths annually in Korea, yet the toll on health generally and the psychological effect of living behind a yellow filter should not be under-estimated. The consequences for industry and agriculture are very significant and possibly easier to quantify than is the human cost. I find the experience of dust less irritating (from the safety of a sealed apartment) than depressing. It’s depressing because nobody here can avoid it, because this year's peaks are greater than last years, and because it’s symptomatic of a planet that is being pushed and pushed. Sandy Sunday's here to stay.

This week on the blogs

This week's top story in the 'I can't believe they are doing that' league is the news that our friends at KISCOM are going to ban access to foreign pornographic websites. This measure is to be introduced as a result of two videos of a less-than-family-orientated-nature being posted on two portal sites. How the proposed ban will prevent a repeat of the problem is not explained. I'll bet the number of job applications to the Ministry of Information and Communication has sky-rocketed as men flock to take on the job of hunting down those sites to add to the banned list. So far they've found 180 sites, well done lads, there's plenty more.

This was covered at Gusts of Popular Feeling , Lost Nomad and The Marmot, where one commenter subtly demonstrated how easy it might be to get round this.

Luckily these three blogs have not been banned in spite of: talking about hard-core; showing pictures of synchronised swimmers and having a picture of a very attractive little Korean bird.

Now spring has sprung, it's good to see that Feet Man Seoul has come out of hibernation to bring us some more female fashion photos, while Mike 'I even take my camera to the bathroom' Hurt has been bringing us the men's fashions.

Most bloggers were sad to hear that Jodi at The Asia Pages has stopped blogging and made her blog inaccessible. My English wife says: 'Bye Jodi'.

Mike in Busan and Matt in Balsan have both been photographing construction sites. Matt even videoed his nearest site for the full effect. Perhaps the three of us should form a Korean branch of the Construction Site Appreciation Society?

Just as I managed to get that song 'Maria, Ave Maria' out of my head, thanks to Sam at Seoul Seeking I now can't stop humming it again. But now at least I know why it was so popular: it was featured in the Korean movie 200 Pound Beauty and who did the original: Blondie.

ROK Drop has some very sensible suggestions as to what to do in the event of the North Koreans attacking Seoul and plans for the evacuation. I liked the line 'you may find difficulty acquiring a gas mask'. It reminds me of the British government www.preparingforemergencies.gov.uk website, which is so well spoofed at the very similar URL www.preparingforemergencies.co.uk

David is celebrating 2,000 posts, he has got a long way to go to match some of these prolific bloggers but I'm sure Bill would be interested to hear of your achievement Dave.

Several bloggers have been promoting Kevin's recently self published book 'Water from a skull'. I told my father Grumpy Old Bookman, who has a keen interest in self publishing, about Kevin's problems with cafepress, which led him to refer to Kevin on his blog as 'a slightly mad Korean blogger'. To which Kevin immediately responded in his inimitable style.

And finally, as a result of promoting Kevin's book on his site, Stafford has been granted his wish to get his own icon on the Big Hominid's blogroll.

Current Korean countdowns

What are we counting down the days until...

1 Day. The biggest news story of the moment is the Free Trade Agreement with the USA. Negotiations have been going on for ten months, but now it is getting down to the last minute the presidents of both countries have been on the phone to discuss it. The deadline has been created by the need to submit the bill before the US congress 90 days before the "fast track" authority agreement expires on July 1st. This would allow it to be agreed without changes. The major areas of contention are the protection demanded by Korea for it's rice and automobile markets. Farmers are protesting and, such is the level of opposition to the agreement, a politician is on hunger strike due the belief that an influx of cheaper U.S. imports will lead to job losses.

15 days Until the North Koreans have to dismantle their nuclear power facility. The sixty days given to North Korea in the six party talks are up on April 14th. Given the current lack of progress I am not expecting anything to have happened. If they ever do settle the matter of $25 million dollars, I am sure NK will come up with another delaying tactic.

3 months Until the International Olympic Committee decides on the venue for the 2014 winter Olympics. On July 4th PyeongChang will hear if it has beaten Sochi in Russia and Salzburg in Austria to hold the event.

9 months Until the South Korea Presidential elections. December 2007 will see President Moo-Hyun finish his term after four years in the position. Local politicians are very concerned that User Created Content will unduly affect their chances of election and want to ban it.

2 Years Until Subway line 9 opens. Connecting Gimpo with Gangnam this new line will open in 2009.

3 Years Until the AREX railway links Incheon with Seoul Station. Phase 2 of the AREX line will open 2010.

4 Years Until Daegu holds the world track and field games. Plucky little city Daegu has just won the contest to hold the World Championships in Athletics in 2011.

7 Years Until Incheon holds the Asian Games. Assuming Incheon wins the contest, the event will be held in 2014.

AREX. Taking the airport train

Yesterday the new railway linking Incheon International Airport with Gimpo International Airport opened to the public. Once again I travelled to Gimpo subway station on line 5 to check it out. The passageway leading to the new railway line was now open and led down a gentle incline to the transfer area.


I passed through the normal subway ticket gates and, ignoring the small ticket office, I approached the first of three ticket machines. I was given the option of selecting a future date and time or selecting 'ticket for next train' for Incheon. Choosing the latter, I tried to pay using my UK credit card, but that was rejected. I attempted to pay the 7,900 won fare with one of the old style 10,000 Won notes. At this point the customer assistant, who had been silently observing me, politely took it off me and used the nearby change machine. She came back with ten 1,000 won notes and helped me feed them into the ticket machine. She said 'level B4' a couple of times. She spoke no other English, but I believe that the machine only accepts the new style 10,000 won notes.



Armed with a ticket for the express train at 17:00 I tried to pass through the AREX gates at 16:20 but was denied access, "Please check departure time of train on ticket" I was instructed in a loud American voice from the ticket gate. Caught between the two ticket gatelines in the small transfer area I was marooned with no escape possible. After several more tries, I was finally allowed through into the AREX station at 16:45. I'm sure Centaman Entrance Control gates are much more friendly.

And wow, what a station. It is enormous. I hope yesterdays pictures give an idea of the impressive height and width of the underground station hall. Descending to Basement level 3, I admired the platform edge doors of the commuter train platform and watched one departure.


I descended again to level 4 for the express train platform. Here the other 7 passengers for the 17:00 waited patiently in the new train.

We departed for Incheon exactly on time. The ride was comfortable, but not quite as smooth as I might have expected from brand-new, recently laid track. There are two TV's at each end of the six carriages. They were playing a mixture of news and comedy clips at quite a high volume with the temperature of cities worldwide displayed on the left hand side of the screen.

Inside the express train the line diagrams show the AREX line with the extension into Seoul Station under construction, This is due to open 2010. The subway trains always have the Seoul Subway map with English stations names marked as well, but here it is in Korean only, which seems perverse.



During the trip I perused one of the 'AREX magazines' neatly stored in every seat-back. It contains foreign travel related articles and advertisements only. The only two pages with any English contained several spelling errors and provided no useful information such as timetables, airport layout maps, subway maps or even a diagram of the six stations on the line.

On exiting through the gates, the ticket must be inserted into the card reader slot in contrast to passing it over a panel on entering. The ticket was retained so all I have is the photo as a memento!

The AREX station building at Incheon is also of remarkable size and design. The two long corridors running the length of the building are like botanical garden greenhouses and have been planted with hundreds of specimens.



For the return journey I started from arrivals area E and followed the signs. I arrived at the station in less than 5 minutes and I used my normal U-pass card to pass through the gates this time (T-money also works). There was a commuter train leaving imminently and, less than 10 mins from the arrival gate, I was on my way again.

Note that : the machines for the express train tickets are identical to those issuing commuter train tickets, apart from the small label at the top, so don't get confused.

The commuter trains have longitudinal bench seats, so, if there is no one standing in front of you, the legroom is much better than the express train. The four intermediate stops give the commuter train a slightly longer journey time of 33 minutes compared with 28 minutes on the express train. The major benefit of the express is the seat reservation, but the express trains only run once an hour, so the extra five minutes saved and their low frequency makes it hard to justify the extra 4,800 won.

In summary, the new railway is a very impressive piece of Korean engineering. It provides a welcome additional option for those travelling to and from the two Seoul airports. In my opinion, the enormous added cost of providing the express trains and the separate tracks at Gimpo, will prove impossible to justify in revenue terms. However, I would be delighted to be proved wrong.

This is how the JoongAng Daily reported it. Here's the Korea Herald's version. Just a few lines from the Korea Times , KBS and Arirang. The story earlier in the week from Chosun Ilbo and korea.net. Railway Technology has the story. There is one line on Reuters. The Old Man of Seoul has a photo of the opening ceremony. Meanwhile Incheon Airport website has not been updated yet to reflect it.

Update: Two more news links from The Nation. (HT: ROK Drop), and International Railway Journal. Tour2Korea.
Update: Railway Gazette article.

AREX Incheon Gimpo Railway first day

I'd like to be one of the first to bring you some pictures of the new Incheon to Gimport Airport railroad. Here's a shot of the station hall at Incheon:



This is a view of the huge station hall at Gimpo



The set of photos is here.

The full story of my here.

Trip to Suwon

We took a day-trip recently to revisit Suwon. We arrived in front of the palace at 11am just in time to catch a memorable performance of Korean martial arts.



I recorded four of their demonstrations: the Jangchang (long spears), Woldo (moon blade sword with long stick), Kyojeon (swords) and Kwonbeob (unarmed combat). It's a 9min video.



Derek has some very impressive photos from a previous visit.

Walking round the palace there are numerous information posts describing scenes from the well known historical drama series Daejanggeum (Jewel in the Palace) that was filmed here. The show was a big hit in Taiwan as well and draws tourists to visit the sites where their favourite show was recorded. Scenes from The King and The Clown movie were filmed here too. I noticed this phenomenon in YongPyong where there were many signs about movie locations from Winter Sonata.

On the hillside above the palace grounds is a temple with an impressive golden Buddha statue.



Walking round the Hwaseong Fortress walls we came upon this scene:



No, they are not knocking it down, but rebuilding it, having rerouted traffic around the other side of the gate.

This is Buksumun, the nothern gate, built over the Suwoncheon (river) that runs through the middle of the fortress. It was completed on Jan 13th 1795 having been constructed in less than a year.



The fortress walls have been completely rebuilt and total over 5.7km. It was the most up to date fortress possible at the time it was built between 1794 and 1796. The king sent the designers all over the world to gather the best ideas for it's construction. It is now a UNESCO world heritage site.

To get there from Seoul, take subway line number 1 to Suwon station. It takes about an hour from downtown. Pick up a map at the tourist information office just outside the station and take a city bus number 11,13,36 or 39 into the centre of the town to Paldalmun, the South Gate. If you have a U-Pass card it works on the local buses, if you have a T-money card you'll have to pay cash.

Incheon Gimpo Airport railway prepares to open

As I mentioned before, the Airport railway (or railroad as it prefers to call itself) linking Incheon to Gimpo is expected to open next week, Friday March 23rd. I went along to Gimpo to see how preparations were progressing.

I took the subway from Yeouido, our nearest station, and 25 minutes later I was at Gimpo airport station. Here at the end of the platform, is the link to the new line.



This implies you will be able to interchange with the new service without having to go through another ticket gate, which is good news; but it will be interesting to find out how ticketing works with the possibility of Express or Standard trains. How will they charge you extra if you took the fast train?

Outside, there was still quite a lot of last minute work going on to finish tidying up the station entrances:



Excavation work continues at three different places for the second phase of construction of the line.



From the underground station at Gimpo the line rises to ground level and heads north to cross the Han river on a new bridge. Matt at Gusts of Popular feeling has some photos of the current state of construction there, and some other photos here.

Once across the river the new line turns east and descends into tunnel at Susaek bridge. The line runs parallel to the existing railway here. There will be a station at Digital Media City for Susaek with connection to Subway line 6 and the mainline railway station. Continuing east, following the route of the previously existing Yongsan railway line, the next station is Hongdae for Hongik University station for connection to Subway line 2.

The new line continues in cut and cover tunnel to Gongdeok for connection with Subway lines 5 and 6. From here the line sweeps north in bored tunnel under the hill to finally emerge on the west side of Seoul Station.



More photos of construction on flickr.

Based on a time of 33 minutes between Incheon and Gimpo and adding on 25 minutes for the Subway, plus up to 12 minutes connection time gives around 70 minutes at best, for the trip from Yeouido to Incheon for 4,100 Won. Compared with the non stop limousine bus on the same route, which takes 45 minutes, you get a seat, the bags go in the luggage rack or underneath, and there are no steps, I think I will be paying the extra 8,900 Won to take the bus.

I observed test trains running on the line from the bus on a recent journey to the airport, they can reach speeds of up to 110km/h on some sections of the line.

According to an old Korea Times leader the government is already expecting to pick up the bill of tens of billions of won when the privately owned railway operating company runs at a deficit. It seems planners were a bit over-enthusiastic forecasting demand for the airport, which is why taxpayers are already paying 100 billion won per year for the airport expressway, run by a private company.

Shaggy Blog Stories Published

Well done Mike at Troubled Diva. He worked day and night for seven days to publish this book of 100 funny stories from British bloggers for Comic Relief Day.



Go to Shaggy Blog Stories and order yourself a copy now. The cover price is £8.96, of which £3.63 will go to Comic Relief once external manufacturing costs have been deducted. Lulu is donating their share of the profits to Comic Relief too.

Several of my favourite bloggers have contributed including Diamond Geezer , The Girl With a One Track Mind and I Am Livid. The full list is here.

Happy Red Nose Day. For those not familiar with this annual tradition : In England, for the past 11 years, one night of the year on British Television is dedicated to raising money for charity. The charity Comic Relief has raised over £425 million in its mission to help end global poverty and social injustice.

Digg it.

Items on Korea

I've not blogged much since we got back from an excellent short break in Tokyo, so here are a few bits and pieces:

Thanks to a reminder from the Marmot I went to a lecture organised by the RASKB last night.
Tariq Hussain gave a very slick presentation based on a book he's just self-published in English titled 'Diamond Dilemma' or, as his lecture was titled, “Brilliance or Breakdown – The Future of Korea Inc.?” The book was published in Korean last year and got some good reviews apparently.

He sees a number of problems such as : excessive Government regulation, rigid social hierarchy, lack of initiative, serious issues with education, and too strong labour unions as some of the most important issues affecting the current state of the nation. I agree with his prognosis that things will only change for the better with very strong leadership. Economists might draw some parallels with Great Britain in the late 1970's and the leadership of Margaret Thatcher. Who will be Korea's Maggie?

Today was "White day" a marketing stunt, dreamt up by the Japanese orginally, to encourage men to buy chocolates for their beloved. Han has a great photo of one of the many stalls setup to cater for last minute purchases by late night Korean men on their way home.

This is one for Brian, the only London Pigeon with a blog. According to a recent item in the JoongAng Daily

In Korea, the word pigeon is often used as a verb. In fact, “pigeoning” refers to putting fabric softener in the laundry. The term was coined because Pigeon is a well-known fabric softener here.

Sure enough you can get some here I did have a great photo of Brian the pigeon when he came to visit, but I can't find it at the moment.

And finally, inspired by ROK-Drop's Where in Korea, No prizes, but who can tell me what this building is, because I don't know! I've seen it several times on the drive out of Seoul.

Shaggy Blog Stories: a collaborative blog-stunt for Comic Relief.

British blogger Troubled Diva is gathering stories from UK bloggers to publish a book via LuLu.com in aid of the charity Comic Relief in time for Red Nose day on Friday 16th March 2007.



read more | digg story

Independence Movement Day

Thanks to the Chosun Bimbo and The Daily Kimchi I knew that today was a national holiday celebrating the start of the Korean Independance movement in 1919, which explained why Yeouido was so quiet this morning and why there were so many flags out. So in honour of the day, here's a photo the Korean flag I took recently in Yeouido park.



You can just see the LG Twin towers in the distance.

We are off to Tokyo, so no blogging for a while.

Planes, Trains and Automobiles in Korea

Transport in Korea can be surprisingly easy but also frustratingly difficult. Here are a few tips I've picked up so far.

Planes.
Korean Air is the larger of the two Korean airlines. They have a good website where you can check their flight schedule and seat availability but when it comes to booking a seat and getting a ticket, unless you have a Korean credit card forget it.

The site does claim to handle certain North American credit cards, but for those of us with European credit cards you have to phone them, tell them all the details you've just worked out on their site and you get a booking reference. You have five days to go to their office or a travel agent to pay for the ticket in person. Quite why the website insists on reservation and booking in one step, rather than allowing online reservation and subsequent payment in person is beyond me.

For our Visa run we've chosen to fly to Tokyo for a few days. We will return next week on tourist visas. We had a reservation for Korean Air tickets for approx 500,000 each. However we subsequently found cheaper tickets through a travel agent GoNSee flying with NorthWestern Airlines for only 390,000 won. I recommend GoNSee for their friendly and efficient service.

The other airline is Asiana Airlines. I have no experience of them but others seem to rate them highly.

Trains.
Korail have what at first sight looks like a good website, but there are several shortcomings worth knowing about. You can check schedules and seat availability but to make a reservation you have to become a member. Nowhere on the site does it explain that you need to go to your local train station with your Alien registration card and pay them 8,000 Won for a year's membership.

Armed with your membership number you can make reservations on the website, but again, unless you have a Korean issued credit card you cannot pay for it online. At least with this site you can book your seats online and then pay at the local station giving them the reference number of the booking.

The website cannot handle return journeys, so you have to re-enter the details to check the return leg which is tedious. More significantly it requires that you know which station in Seoul the trains to your destination leave from. Try searching for a train from Seoul to Yeosu and you get no results, that's because the trains leave from Yongsan, a couple of miles down the line from Seoul Station. Similarly if you'd like a train to a destination on the line to Chuncheon you have to know that it starts from Cheongnyangni.

Automobiles.
We have rented a car once through Hertz with no problems. The most important stipulation is that you have an International Driving Licence.

Intercity Buses.
There are six intercity bus terminals in Seoul. The smallest is Sinchon Bus terminal, which is very easy to miss, especially if there are no buses there, as it is simply a converted container with a couple of ticket machines inside. The other five: Central City Terminal, Dong Seoul Bus Terminal, Seoul Nambu Terminal, Sangbong Bus Terminal are much larger and easier to find. They offer varying levels of services to all cities and large towns in the country.

On the few trips I have made I've been unable to pay by credit card and unable to buy return tickets, so be prepared with cash and don't be surprised if you have to buy your return ticket at the other end.

The Tour2Korea website has a useful feature to find out which bus terminal you need for your chosen destination, but this time the limiting factor is that you need to know which province it's in.

How ready are you to leave Korea?

You are 97% ready to get out of Korea

 

as long as you are exporting the maximum amount of hard currency back to your home bank account you are probably good for another 25 years.

The "Is It Time To Get Out of Korea?" Quiz
Create MySpace Quizzes

More details later, but yes, sad to say we will be leaving Korea.

Leeum the secret museum of seoul

Leeum, The Samsung Museum of Art is one of Seoul's best kept secrets. Tucked up on the Namsan hill below the Hyatt hotel close to Itaewon, this small museum has some outstanding works of art.



Exhibition hall 1, designed by Swiss architect Mario Botta, features a central white helical staircase reminding me of the Guggenheim in New York. It houses more than 120 works of Korean traditional art including Celadon porcelain from the 12th century and Buncheong pottery from the 15th century. One floor is dedicated to traditional painting and calligraphy while another shows a selection of Buddhist Art and metal work.

The second Exhibition hall is a complete contrast, displaying Korean and foreign modern and contemporary works of art from artists such as Cy Twombly, Antony Caro, Andy Warhol, Mark Rothko.

Outside these two sculptures by Louise Bourgeois dominate the plaza.



More photos on flickr.

Don't be put off by the requirement to register in advance by telephone or internet for your ticket. No reservations are required on Thursdays if you want to avoid the bother.

Tickets cost 10,000 Won, The nearest subway, 5 mins walk away, is Hangangjin station on Line 6.

There is a temporary exhibition of the work of Andy Warhol starting March 15th 2007, so you may want to hold off visiting until then.

Can you dig it?

Readers may be familiar with the site digg.com where website links are submitted by users, other users see the link and if they 'Digg' it enough it will get on to the front page.

The Koreans have noticed this and, since digg.com is English only, have created their own version kligg.com. It's only in beta at the moment, but it may catch on. For Korean readers it may be of interest to you.

I put it through google translate and most stories seem to be technology related, but it did have a link to the photos of Daegu in 1954 that have been referred to on The Marmot and other blogs.

Whenever I see 'Digg This' links I think of a song which includes the lyrics 'Can you dig it, oh yeah' however I cannot find who sings it. I have found various songs either titled or including the phrase, but none of them seem to be the song. It may be The Mock Turtles, but I've not found an online recording of it. Does anyone else know the song I mean?

Meanwhile I'll leave you with a photo of these Korean digestive biscuits :



Can you dig it?

Friday things

A few items of interest from the news.

Today was "Dear Leader's" Birthday. The North Koreans are celebrating the 65th birthday of their leader Kim Jong-Il. As a special treat they might get round-the-clock electricity supply during the holiday, instead of the usual limited periods, along with extra rations.

Today the exodus from Seoul starts for the Lunar new year celebrations. About 34 million people are expected to travel to their hometown during the three-day holiday for the Lunar New Year’s Day, or `Sollal’.

At Sollal children are treated to small packets of foreign currency. The Korea Exchange Bank has sold over 360,000 presentation sets of 'sebae’ or good luck money. One set includes a $2 bill, a 10-euro bill, a 10-Canadian dollar bill, 10-Australian dollar bill and 100-yuan bill and costs around 42,000 won. The price is subject to change according to exchange rates. What the youngsters are supposed to do with these small bills is a mystery to me. Perhaps the Western EFL teachers in these parts should start buying them up from the children at a discount.

Seoul City Subway and bus fares will rise by 100 Won from 800 to 900 for those using the smart cards starting from March or April. This is the first rise since 2004. For those paying in cash the rise is the from 900 to 1000. This a contrast to the situation in London where the cash fares are almost double the equivalent fare with an Oyster Smart Card.

However to make up for that Beef prices may fall 23% if American beef imports are allowed again.

Wearing traditional Korean clothing may get you into museums for free according to a new proposal designed to revitalize Korean style and traditions. I would be tempted to borrow some Hanbok and see if it works.

The JoongAng has some eco friendly fashion tips. "Cut out pieces from an old pair of jeans and use glue to attach them to an old pair of shoes." thus turning an old pair of shoes into something even more shabby than before! It sounds like one of the 'top tips' from the comic Viz.

Rail link between Seoul Airports Incheon and Gimpo to open next month

Travellers to South Korea will be interested to hear that the new rail link from the main International Airport of Seoul at Incheon will open next month March 23rd.

The new rail link to be known as AREX does not, as yet, take you right to Seoul city centre, but it does take you to the other airport in Seoul : Gimpo. From there you can travel on the Seoul Subway into downtown on Subway line 5.

However, judging by the timing and price quoted in the article I'm not sure how many customers it is going to attract. The journey between the two airports will take 33 minutes and cost 3,100 won on the slow train (every 12 mins). The express train (once an hour) will take 28 minutes for a price of 7,900 won. By comparison, a bus takes about 30 minutes and costs 4,500 won.

I guess the trains will be more frequent than the existing buses, but most visitors who are travelling to parts of Seoul beyond Gimpo will probably continue to take the limousine bus services. They go direct to a number of different parts of Seoul and beyond, which is easier than taking a train and then changing to the subway and possibly changing to another subway line as well, especially if you have luggage.

The second part of the line continuing on from Gimpo into Seoul Station is not due to open until 2010. Construction is well underway on the line mostly in tunnel. I'll be posting some photos of the work sites later.

North Korea's 007 and Hennessy XO

Never mind all that boring news about North Korea in the six party talks. North Korea is getting some fuel in exchange for agreeing to maybe let a few international inspectors come in and have a look round. Oh, and if you are lucky, they may break up a nuclear reactor, but they won't actually be dismantling the nukes that everyone is worried about.

This is much more amusing :



It's a spoof movie by some Chinese of the story of North Korea's special agent 007 trying to get a vital part of their country's imports : Hennessy XO for the Dear Leader.
It has been watched 2,839,288 times and received 2,119 comments on a single site alone (6rooms) as of 11:22 PM, February 2, 2007.


YouTube has it in four parts(two three four), the whole 30 minute movie is available here and here too.

Blogger Update and Blogging statistics

One item of feedback I received from my father Grumpy Old Bookman was that after I moved to the new version of blogger, he saw 25 posts he'd previously read, as "new" in his RSS reader, bloglines.com . So apologies to the people using bloglines.com, I did not see this problem with the RSS reader NewsNetWire that I use.

As mentioned before, I also had to fix the template so that clicking I'm A Seoul Man takes you to the home page as before. Since the ItemPage attribute no longer worked, I removed the four references to it and it now seems to work.

This ensures anyone reaching one of my posts from a post-item link can easily go to the home page without having to edit the URL in the address bar.

So, how do people reach the blog? The wild and wonderful stats of Google Analytics lists these search strings, amongst others:

seoul man
gerry bevers
ask enquired clothing
sk korea send sms to england
places to go in seoul
bosintang
prisoner of wonderland: an esl misadventure
christmas in korea
national arboretum seoul
yongpyong
polham clothing
yang yong-eun
korean pop bands
recycling in korea
korean blogs
noryangjin fish market
seoul blog
aussie in seoul

All of these I can understand, but some of the other 320 people who came here last month from Google were looking for something I cannot provide :

cameron diaz privat cell phone
mind charity shops dulwich village
photo of man walking in london fog
urban myths in wimborne
i'm a snow man
the man who cooked his girlfriend for dinner

I find it all quite fascinating, particulary the last one!

It also provides a list of the number of visitors that have been referred from other sites. A very large number come from Gdog's blog The Daily Kimchi. He puts a huge amount of effort into writing and promoting his blog. I hope one day he makes as much money as Darren Rowse who claims a six figure income from blogging. (and he's not talking South Korean won here either).

Another big source of referrals is The Korean Bloglist. I have not completely given up my idea of trying to visit all the blogs on the list, but I have certainly slowed down.

All these great blogs have provided me with visitors, so go check them out:
Between pee and kimchee
A Geek in Korea
LostNomad
SeoulLife
Kimchi For Breakfast
Soju and I
The Road Not Taken
DPRK studies
Chosun Bimbo
Expatriate Games
Looking @ Reflection
Seoul Hero
The Marmot's Hole
Joe Seoul Man
Guano Island
Yeolchae
eye4insanity
Geofftech
Student in Korea
IdiotsCollective

The other sites from which I've had a few referrals include flickr.com, Thorn Tree, expat-blog.com and eflblogs.com

So if you have a blog and not signed up for Google Analytics go for it. It's free and provides hours of entertainment!

Upgraded to New Blogger

Notice anything different? No neither do I. Which is good because I just logged into Blogger.com and I was presented with the option to upgrade to the new 'Out Of Beta' Blogger or whatever they are calling it.

It said 'you can skip this only once' so I crossed my fingers and clicked OK. The upgrade requires a Google login. I already had a Google account, which saved some time. After that it took a minute or two before it came up with the message 'All Done'.

Creating this post there is now a line below to add labels which are one of the new features of the upgrade. It will be interesting to see if you need to add something in the template to make the labels appear in the sidebar. I've not read the manual yet!

Another other good feature is that they have added RSS site feed as standard, which is something I have been persuading several fellow bloggers to add to their blogs. This will save you having to go to Feedburner.

The spelling checker is a lot more friendly. It highlights all the problem words in one go and provides a drop down list of suggestions when you click on them.

The only thing that seems to have changed is that the 'I'm A Seoul Man' in the box at the top of the blog is no longer a link to the front page of the blog. I'll fix that next.

Win a Free trip to Korea (from the UK)

The Korea Tourist Office in London is running a promotion with the first prize of a return ticket to Korea for two people. All you need to do is register at their site and complete a short survey.

For those of you in Korea who, like Joel, have run out of ideas for things to do and places to go at the weekend, do not despair. Starting Thursday (Feb 8th) the KTO is hosting the biggest domestic travel expo of the year at the COEX mall.

“You will be saying ‘I never knew there was such a place in Korea’ when you see them,” said Park Young-hee, one of the event’s organizers.

He has also selected the photos for a display at the show featuring the work of amateur photographers . Hours are 10 a.m to 6 p.m. Visit the Korea Travel Expo 2007 website to print out a free admission ticket before you go. Admission is 2,000 won at the door, and the Expo runs until Feb 11th. However, if it's anything like a similar show we stumbled upon the last time we were at the COEX mall, there will be no English in any of the leaflets, so don't get your hopes up!

Hyundai recruiting Foreigners

For anyone wanting to work in Korea and not teach English, get yourself over to Hyundai Automotive Group. They are looking for expats to work in CorporatePlanning/Strategy, Finance,Sales, Marketing,HR and Procurement. But hurry, applications close on Monday Feb 5th.
Thanks to JoongAng.

Windows Vista in Korea

As you may have heard, Microsoft has just launched Windows Vista in Korea and around the world. However most Koreans will be leaving it well alone for the moment due to the number of Korean websites that will not work with the new operating system.

“Vista has [re]vamped security functions, which caused certain Internet security programs or video-streaming programs running on Web sites and software to crash,”
said Seo Byeong-jo, of the Information Ministry.

Stafford and ZDNET have some more details as to why Vista will not work with a number of Internet banking sites. The banks affected are expecting to have updated their websites within the next few months to allow Vista users to be able to use them.

There were some complaints earlier in the week about the high cost of the software in Korea compared to other countries, but it was revealed that the higher cost was due to the Korean vendors adding a hefty markup. [The story is in the bottom left hand corner, I don't seem to be able to find the story on their site.]

I made a trip to the Yongsan electronics market area today to see what impact it has made on the plethora of computer shops there. This was the largest poster I could see :



Wandering around the hundreds of shops in three different malls, Vista was available on some new machines, maybe 2-5%, but by far the majority of computers were on sale with Windows XP. There was not a great deal of publicity for the new operating system and I had to look quite carefully to see which machines were running it. The new LG X-Note machines running Vista were the most prevalent, and Samsung had Vista based offerings too.

I could not find Vista as packaged software for upgrading existing computers and the two vendors I asked both said it won't be on sale until Feb 7th.

Mac users with Intel machines will be able to install Vista if they are really keen.

The joy of Google Translation and other comments

I have used Google Translation service many times and it usually gives enough information to give you a rough idea of what the Korean text is about. This time it came up with something quite unusual. It is a translation of a page from the Immigration web site
and the first paragraph comes back with :

The advance booking which leads the Internet of Immigration Bureau civil affairs administration sells in advance, aviation volume or the theater ticket hospital medical treatment reservation date and the time when it is convenient the civil affairs official does under visiting the man with underdeveloped genital organ together home page leads and it is a system which it has reserved.

Quite how an organ got in there I cannot figure. I don't know what the translation is like from English to Korean but here's a link to see what this blog looks like in Korean.

A letter from the spokesman of the Association of Korean Oriental medicine in the Joong Ang daily caught my eye. There has been a great deal of coverage about the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with the U.S.A. Inspite of the Koreans having their strategy leaked to the Americans they are gamely continuing the talks.

One sticking point is the issue of opening up the market for practitioners of Oriental Medicine from the US to come to Korea. Choi Jeong-Kuk is understandably worried about Americans, who have only studied for three years, coming here and "threatening public health". Korean doctors have to take a six year course to qualify.

But does he really need to worry? Take for example acupuncture. There are 22,671 licensed acupuncture practitioners in the US. How many do you think can speak Korean? Because lets face it, you could not work here in Oriental medicine speaking only English. Lets be optimistic and say 0.1% , about 20 people. How many of them do you think are keen to give up their comfortable life in the States and have suddenly decided "Korea is the place for me". Two people? Where do you think they are going to get jobs? In one of those 10,436 Oriental medical clinics? Well lets say one of these clinics gives them a chance and they get hired. Do you think any Koreans are actually going to go to an American for Oriental medicine anyway? I don't think so. Mr Jeong-Kuk: I really don't think the Americans are coming to get you. Open the market, set quotas so that you cannot be overwhelmed and see how many doctors actually come.

The leading article on Smoking Kills discusses the lawsuit filed against KT&G (Korea Tomorrow and Global, this is the public tobacco company previously known as Korea Tobacco and Ginseng) It talks about "KT&G increasing its revenue by selling cigarettes and thus damaging health" and "The government should not increase its tax revenue by causing deadly, painful diseases". But it was only a couple of weeks ago they announced record exports of cigarettes to over forty different countries. So it's OK to damage the health of those smokers in Iran, Lebanon, the United Arab Emirates, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan and Russia that they are exporting to but you don't want them to increase the price of cigarettes in Korea? It does not matter what the cost of a packet is, a nicotine addict will have to get their fix. Keep on increasing the price, it does not stop them smoking, but you raise more money to look after them when they get sick.

As for the comment about increasing the size of the health warning on cigarettes, how many smokers even notice the warning? The government health warning on cigarettes in he UK covers half the packet, it's only the non-smokers that notice it. Starting a campaign to stop teenagers smoking by saying 'smoking kills' does not work, it's been tried in the UK and failed miserably. Teenagers will always be rebels, if you tell them not to do something they will want to do it. My solution would be to force them all to smoke by government demand. Anyone under 16 caught not smoking 30 a day would be given free cigarettes. You would then be a rebel by not smoking. I can't see it happening, but it's just an idea!


In other news: a rare wildcat, Felis bengalensis manchurica

was spotted by an intrepid Hankyoreh reporter in Paju, Gyeonggi Province.

Meanwhile, it's official: Koreans really are one of the most intelligent races on earth.

A British professor has released a map which plots out his dubious claims that some races are naturally smarter than others. The so-called "IQ Map of the World" created by professor Richard Lynn of Ulster University shows the varying intelligence levels of races around the world according to his controversial research.

In his 2006 book "Race Differences in Intelligence: An Evolutionary Analysis", Lynn divided the world into 10 zones and analyzed their average IQs. His results found that East Asians (Chinese, Japanese and Koreans) have the highest mean IQ at 105.

Well done Korea, keep it up.

Trip to Gyeongju

Gyeongju, not to be confused with Gwangju, Jeonju or Jeju, is the ancient capital city of the Silla Dynasty that ruled parts of the peninsula for nearly a thousand years from 57 BC to 927 AD. It is a popular tourist destination due to the large number of historic sites in the area.

We caught a KTX train from Seoul station and, with a change at Dongdaegu to a local train, the total journey time was just over 3 hours. The tourist information office at the station provided us with an excellent map of the area and we soon found our way to the guest house Sa Rang Chae which we'd booked earlier in the week. On the way we could not help but notice the prevalence of Gyeongju 'Bread' shops. Intrigued, we stopped at Hwangnam where we could see them making the cakes behind the shop counter and so we bought a box. It's not bread at all but pastry filled with Korean red bean paste, it made a very tasty breakfast snack.

We took a 20 minute trip on the local bus (number 11) to Bulguksa. Statues like this are common at the temple gates. They guard against evil spirits.


Inside, the temple is dominated by two pagodas. This one, Dabotap, is a particularly unusual design


After lunch at one of the many nearby restaurants we took the bus to the Seokguram Grotto to see the statue of Buddha. This remarkable granite sculpture carved in 775 was an inspiring sight.

The number 11 bus takes a different route back to the city centre so we passed through the resort area around lake Bomun before alighting near Cheomseongdae an astronomical observatory.


The next day we visited the Daereungwon park which is packed with 23 tumuli of different sizes and shapes. They are the tombs of the kings of Silla. The tomb of Cheonmachong has excavated and is open to the public, we could see how the tomb was constructed inside and replicas of the crown and other items found were on display.


We were also lucky enough to watch a ceremony in front of one tomb. We didn't ask anyone what was happening, but just watched and enjoyed the short and colourful event.


The Gyeongju National Museum was a short walk away and we spent some time in the three large buildings which contain artifacts from the tombs and elsewhere in the area.
Our meal in the evening was in the Kuro folk restaurant. There was a set menu, for 8,000 won we were given 33 separate dishes! They all arrived at the same time and laid out very quickly by the waitress who literally run between the kitchen and tables.

On our last day we went to the Namsan area. The path up the mountain was busy with visitors keen to see the buddhas carved into the rocks. We walked along the base of the hill, which was much quieter, and saw two smaller temples and more tombs. We took a bus back to the station for the train back to Seoul after a very enjoyable weekend trip.

Magritte Exhibition in Seoul

I went to the Seoul Museum of Art last week to see the Rene Magritte exhibition that has opened recently. He is one of my favourite artists, so it was a treat to see his works here in Seoul.



The show includes not only a number of his paintings in a variety of styles (Impressionist, Surrealist and Vache) but also many photos of the artist and his family. These are reproduced in tiny prints, some no bigger than a postage stamp, which made them difficult to see. Also exhibited are examples of the posters he produced while working as a graphic artist.

In the fourth and final gallery, eight of his home movies are on show, most of them were shot on 8mm black and white film. For the exhibition they have been poorly digitised, and to make matters worse, these grainy images are greatly enlarged and projected onto screens on - er - the floor ! They are difficult to see and the perspective is distorted, so I watched very few of them. Still, I am sure there are serious artistic reasons for the unusual presentation. I am sure they will turn up on YouTube some day where they will be easier to watch!

Tickets cost 10,000 won (not 700 won as in the Joong Ang Daily ) and the exhibition is on until April 1st 2007. The museum is a few minutes walk from City Hall subway station.

Magritte is not the only western art on show here in Seoul. The Bat and I visited the Louvre exhibition at the National Museum of Korea last month. The Korean museum, which celebrates its first year anniversary, is exhibiting over one hundred paintings from the French national museum's collection. The exhibition marks the 120th anniversary of establishing diplomatic ties between the two countries.

The exhibition ends on March 18 2007. Tickets cost 10,000 won.

The Louvre has been in the news recently regarding the creation of a new museum in Abu Dhabi. It seems a number of the French are up in arms about sharing their art with the rest of the world. They would prefer to keep it in storage in France since they don't have enough space to display it, rather then lend it out to other museums. They setup a petition about it too. Let's hope they see some sense and do not prevent this type of lending. The tens of thousands of Koreans that have flooded to see the exhibition in Seoul would seem to indicate that they appreciate being able to see these artworks without having to travel to Europe.

Caught up with the Korea blogs

I've finally caught up with all the blogs I read after coming back from snowboarding. NewsNetWire tells me there are 61 feeds I'm currently subscribed to, 43 of them are Korean, and that does not include those that don't have RSS feeds.

Gdog at The Daily Kimchi had a great holiday in UAE, plenty of pictures of food as always. Daegueowl at Kimchi for Breakfast has taken down the Christmas decorations (unlike the rest of Korea where the Christmas lights are all still on) and is looking for a job over here. I don't have any leads at the moment. Fencerider 's diet is still going well, he has not eaten too much at Christmas. Mary at MaryEats has left Korea to go to Seattle and is training to be a Chef, she says she will continue to keep up the blog about Korean food.

The Marmot , Lost Nomad , ROK Drop and Richardson have been busy keeping up with the news as always. You can hear The Marmot talking about his blog on a podcast over at the Metropolitician. Michael was getting very excited about the new Apple iPhone, until someone pointed out that the prototype presented is GSM only and Korea uses a totally different system. By the time they get that launched in June a Korean version is most likely more than 12 to 18 months away, if ever.

Gerry Bevers at Occidentalism had a pretty lousy Christmas. His university has not renewed his contract after his blogging about 'The islands whose name we dare not mention for risk of offending the locals'. The number of comments on this subject at The Marmots hole has just surpassed 500.

Stafford at The Chosun Bimbo has just moved to Seoul from Nonsan. He's settling in to his new apartment and started a new job. Mark at KoreaPopWars has all the latest stats on the Korean Cinema. I discovered Erkin was one of the thousands watching the first sunrise of the New Year over Korea. Jeff is getting better and showed pictures of the damage his bike suffered. He showed some sympathy for Nathan's three stitches. Max went snowboarding at YongPyong too, but did not seem to enjoy it as much as I did. Jodi has had plenty of interesting things to say already this year.

Snowboarding at YongPyong

I have returned safely from my holiday with no broken bones or other damage, so it's time for some pictures and the details.

In spite of having lived in Switzerland for six years I have only ever been snowboarding twice and until now I had never skied. I had taken snowboarding lessons on both previous occasions so this time I felt I could do without.

It took me quite a long time to get used to being on a snowboard again, but by the fourth day I could 'board down the Rainbow Paradise run with a certain amount of skill, but not much style. It's a 5km slope, rated intermediate, which starts from the highest peak at the resort reached by the (Swiss-made) gondola and we managed it seven times during the last day with a stop at the top for a Starbucks coffee at lunchtime.

Father and Son Crowards, already good skiers, eschewed snowboarding lessons and having boned up on the 10 steps to Snowboarding were soon comfortable on the boards. Which was good because private lessons would have been 170,000 Won per person for two hours. No group lessons in English!

I tried skiing for a brief time one afternoon and I succeeded in going down the beginners slope a couple of times without too many problems, but my thighs were already starting to ache badly and queues for the lifts to the nursery slopes were very long. The advantage of going on the more advanced slopes was that there were almost no queues.

Ski and Snowboard hire were well managed by the staff and the equipment was good quality and in good condition. It might have saved some time to be able to hire the equipment once for the whole five days at the start, but this did not seem to be possible, so each morning after a huge breakfast, we would hire the kit and pay for the lift pass. I am sure if you stay in the town below the resort there are shops that will allow multi day hire. Season tickets are available for the lifts if you are skiing there every weekend. All the staff were friendly and could speak enough English to be able to do their job. These are the options for lift passes and rental:



The weather was kind to us all week. Even though there was very little real snow the snow machines were working all night every night and the pistes were well groomed each morning and afternoon. It was snowing quite heavily when we left on the Saturday and we were very glad we were not on the slopes that morning before we left.

In spite of the thousands of children having skiing lessons, the resort did not seem too crowded, however queues for the lifts and in the cheap canteen dining room were very long at certain times of the day. The quietest time was first thing in the morning after the lifts started at 08:30. Here's a general view of the resort :



and looking the other direction from the same place in the evening:



I discovered ski clothing was available to hire but at 60,000 Won for a jacket and trousers for three days, I was very glad I had bought a pair of Salopettes from a street vendor for 10,000 Won before getting there. Helmet hire is also available for 3,000 won per day.

There are other facilities at the resort including a very good swimming pool and sauna that I took advantage of and a Karaoke bar which provided us with great entertainment. The bar was deserted, but the barman led us to a private room where we stayed for several hours with a couple of drinks, belting out some old favourites. We enjoyed it so much we went back a second night.

The bus trip back was more straightforward than the outward journey, though the final stop by the roadside, with no subway or bus stops nearby, was slightly weird. Someone told us it was supposed to be going to Sadang, but when the bus driver indicated, in no uncertain terms, that we would be disembarking , we were nowhere near Sadang. Luckily it was not a long taxi ride back to Yeouido.

The region PyeongChang, has just put in a bid to host the 2014 Winter Olympics and if they win you will no doubt be hearing a great deal more about this area. Fingers crossed for decision day on July 4th this year when the International Olympic Committee chooses between Korea, Salzburg in Austria and Sochi in Russia.

New Years Day at YongPyong

The Bat and I celebrated New Year's Eve with a seven course meal with the Crowards. We greeted the New Year in on the top of our apartment building singing Auld Lang Syne! If there were any large scale fireworks in Seoul, sadly we could not see them, but we enjoyed the few small ones let off by enthusiastic locals.

Getting up for 7AM this morning was tough, but I made it. We met the travel agent rep at the appointed location, the metro station Euljiro-1 in Downtown Seoul. For reasons unknown this was not the actual start point for the coach to the resort, but a short walk away. We settled ourselves in the comfortable large coach, the five of us were almost the only passengers. There was a short stop at Jamsil where we paid for the bus 26,000 Won per adult return. For reasons unknown, this was taken out of the package on the day and we had to pay in cash. We reached the YongPyong resort at 11:30 after two and a half hours on the traffic free expressways, at least they were in our direction. In the opposite direction, traffic was very heavy and came to a standstill at several places. Later, after I spoke with The Bat, I realised this was due the huge number of Koreans who had been on the East coast at Ganjeolgot watching the sunrise on New Years day and welcoming in the Year of the Golden Pig.

Checking in, and also finding only four sets of bedding in our Korean style room in the Tower Condo, involved some complications, but these were soon amicably sorted out. Keen to get out on the slopes we examined the price list for the ski lifts and equipment hire. Mercifully there was English, but this masterpiece of complexity was not available on leaflets to take away! Eager to take full advantage of the slopes, they opted for the Evening session since the afternoon session had already begun.

After a wicked snowball fight, we spent the afternoon playing the board game "Life" which is new to me. Sadly, getting a degree and being an athlete, did not bring me the riches I so rightly deserved, but at least I was not last!

We had Bibimbap for supper and the Crowards purchased lift passes and rented their skis. I waved them off into the floodlight snowy slopes and returned to a hot chocolate and the internet Cafe! I look forward to their breathless return with tales of excitement. If you are have Windows and are happy to install an active X component you can checkout the webcam at the resort. I will be joining them on the slopes soon enough tomorrow morning after a hearty breakfast. Photos to follow next week, since I cannot upload photos at the internet cafe here.

I'd like to wish all my readers a Happy New Year and I wish you all the best for 2007!