korean chivalry

Since we have been here, I have spotted a somewhat curious (in my opinion) Korean way of life. I have mainly noticed it with the younger set, but I will keep my eyes open for anyone my age doing this.....mainly because I think I wouldn't mind Ken doing this for me sometimes. What am I talking about?

Men carrying women's purses for them.

You see alot of men carrying what I would call "manbags". But this is actually them carrying their girlfriend's/wife's/fiance's/friend's purse. While we were in Seoul last weekend, I was able to capture a few photos of this phenomenon. They were quickly taken on the sly and in a hurry, but I think you will be able to grasp what I am talking about. Click on the picture if you want a better view.


Pretty interesting with this cute little green number. And look, he has his manbag with him too.

Now we are talking! How about that silver bag?

This is my favorite. He is able to carry his and her purses on the same shoulder!

the amazing race seoul

We started Saturday morning by going to the Itaewon area of Seoul and visiting the War Memorial Museum. This truly is a great place to visit while in Seoul. It houses war memorbilia from all the wars and conflicts that Korea has been involved in. We ended up being there for 4 hours or so! There are tanks, helicopters, airplanes, etc. around the building that you can look at and even go into. Inside, there were 3 floors of all sorts of items to look at, along with several areas you could watch documentaries of events (especially the Korean War). Just a little tidbit of information - the island that we live on housed POW's from the Korean War. In fact, Gohyeon has a POW Museum that Ken and I have been meaning to go see. (We have actually toured the outside, but it was closed on the day we went.)

From there, we headed to the streets of Itaweon. This area has a large concentration of expatriates due to a nearby military base. We strolled the streets for a couple of hours exploring all the street vendors and antique shops. We actually saw a Norwegian lady that I knit with in one of the shops! What a small world. I could tell that Ken was winding down, but one of the main areas I wanted to visit was Insadong Street.
It is a pedestrian only street (at least it was on the weekend) and houses many tea shops,
art shops, antique shops
and Korean souvenir stores. I definitely didn't get enough time here - it will be my first stop when I return. There were also alot of trendy boutique shops.
After dinner (yes, we ate at TGI Fridays one night and Tony Romas the next night in case you were wondering if we ate at any wonderful restaurants. Remember that we gravitate to anything western when possible!), we returned to the hotel to collapse and watch one of the blackmarket DVDs we bought on the street.
We had already purchased return bus tickets for 9:30 the next morning. We thought that if we caught a cab around 8:15 we would safely be there in plenty of time. After all, it was Sunday morning and hopefully traffic would be light. What we didn't count on was foot traffic. The Seoul Marathon had begun that morning. We got into the cab and circled the block before we realized that we wouldn't be able to get through for the time being. So we ditched the cab and headed down into the subway. After riding a few stops, I realized that we had gone one stop too far and we had to get off and turn around. I think Ken had decided that there was no way we would make the bus. We had to get off at one point to transfer to another line. It was at this point that I decided we should try the cab again. I felt like some of the people probably feel on The Amazing Race when they are in the cab trying to get somewhere quickly. We made it to the bus in time - I think it left maybe 2 minutes later. It was such a nice trip - I will leave you with a picture of one of the beutiful floral arrangements in the hotel.

doing the dmz

As I mentioned in the previous post, Ken and I went to Seoul last weekend. The bus ride up there was uneventful. It took around 4 1/2 hours at the most and the bus was very nice - had seats that reclined and foot rests. We stopped around midway and we were able to go to the restroom and get something to drink and/or eat. The subway was right outside the bus station, so we hopped on and headed to the hotel. We stayed at the Lotte Hotel, which was downtown. It really is a beautiful place and was such a convenient location.



We got up early the next morning and boarded a bus bound for the De-Militarized Zone, or DMZ.
(I am not going to bore you with alot of history. But if you are interested, just click on the underlined words and they will take you to more detailed explanations of where we were.) The bus had 2 tour guides - one that translated into Japanese and the other spoke English. They both were very good and kept us entertained with little facts and stories on the 45 minute bus ride up there. After going through a checkpoint where we had to all present our passports, we arrived at the location of the 3rd Tunnel. There are 4 known tunnels that South Korea has found between the North and the South and this is the closest one to Seoul. It was discovered in 1978. A North Korean defector has said that there are 20 of them. North Korea denies it, but South Korea feels that these were built for possible invasion. We donned hard hats
and rode a monorail down into the tunnel. I had a wave come over me of "I shouldn't be doing this, it is claustrophobic for me" as we first started down the tunnel, but it quickly subsided, thank goodness. It was very narrow going down. Once we got to the bottom, we were able to walk in the actual tunnel until we got to 70 meters (I think that is right) of North Korea. We were not allowed to take pictures in the tunnel. Picture taking was limited - the guides were continually reminding us when and where we could take pictures. We then boarded the bus and headed for the Mt. Dora Observatory, where we could see North Korea.
It was interesting to note that most of the trees were cut down on the North Korean side. Our guide said that this was due to the fact that they needed the fuel and also so that spies are more easily spotted. There is also a flag on the North Korean side that supposedly is the tallest in the world.
It was difficult to take any pictures due to the fact that we were only allowed pictures from behind a certain yellow line. However, there was an abundance of binoculars to look through.
Our tour guide said that we were fortunate in that it was an extremely clear day.
We then stopped again at Dorasan Station . This is the last train station going north.
I made a couple of friends here. They don't smile much though.

Our last stop was at Imjingak Park, the site of the Freedom Bridge. This is the only bridge connecting North and South Korea. After a Korean lunch (we sat next to a man from Minnesota who was in Seoul to run a marathon), we boarded the bus back to Seoul.

Even though you really don't see a whole lot, this was quite an experience. Just to know that you are so close to a country that is so shut off from the world is something you don't do every day. It is sad that it has to be this way. Our tour guide said that there are 100 million Koreans separated between the two borders. Unbelievable.

going to gohyeon

Ken and I are headed to Seoul for a long weekend on Thursday. I can't believe we have been here for over a year and have only seen the Seoul airport. Well, more on Seoul later - after our trip! Yesterday morning I headed to one of the towns next to us - Gohyeon. It is larger than Okpo and I go there often to Tesco Home Plus for grocery shopping. It also has a shipyard - Samsung Heavy Industries. The downtown area has more shops than Okpo and I have prowled around the downtown in times past.

We have decided to take the bus to Seoul. There is an express bus (meaning no stops) to Seoul leaving several times a day from Gohyeon that takes around 4 1/2 hours. There is also a fast speed train leaving Busan for Seoul that only takes around 2 1/2 hours. However, we would have to take the ferry (45 minutes) from Okpo to Busan, get to the train station, and catch the train. Maybe some other time - I wanted to try the bus this time. I have also wanted to try to take the bus from Okpo to Gohyeon. I had asked around and it seemed easy enough. So I took the bus to Gohyeon to buy tickets for the bus to Seoul.

I got to the bus stop and found a young man waiting. I said, "Bus to Gohyeon?" and he nodded yes. I knew it was 1000 won and that they didn't make change, so I had my money in hand. Well, a bus came and the young man got up to get on the bus. Then he turned around and made a motion like don't get on this bus. So I didn't. Well, I didn't realize that there were different bus lines so I made a quick call to Ken to ask a secretary at the office. She said most all of the buses go to Gohyeon and to just ask the driver before you get on. I followed her instructions and hopped on the next bus. It took around 20 minutes to get there, which really wasn't too bad (maybe around 10 by car).

I decided to wander around the streets a bit before I went back to Okpo. The towns around here don't really come alive until 10-11:00 in the morning. (FYI- some of my pictures today seem abit blurry because I was trying to take them quickly on the sly. But if you want to ever see a larger image of any picture in my blog, just click on it and you will see a larger image. Then just press the back button and it will take you back to the blog.)

This place looked like it was getting ready for a grand opening.
Even the cotton candy didn't seem to have someone to manage it when I arrived.


However, things gradually became animated. The marketplace had the older women peddling their vegetables and fish.

The shops and stalls opened - selling anything
from shoes


to flowers.




Trucks were parked on the side of the street selling fruits and vegetables. By the way, the strawberries are good.
And if you need a new springtime blouse - no need to go into a store - they are arranged quite nicely on the sidewalk by the bus station! (Maybe a new outfit for our trip for Seoul?)

Also, as I returned to the bus station, I passed by the establishment that earlier was getting ready for their grand opening. Most business celebrate this with large arrangements and sprays of flowers, decorative banners and balloons.



This restaurant was also using "go-go girls".
You see alot of this here, not only for grand openings but for sales events. They alternate between dancing and talking about their product and/or establishment. There is always music, loud speakers and cute little outfits. Something, huh?

Well, the rest of my trip was uneventful. I purchased the tickets to Seoul and managed to get back on a bus that was headed for Okpo. There were fewer stops on the way home. It's funny how proud I can be of myself for the littlest things.....like riding a bus in Korea!

taking pictures at tesco

My husband headed out this morning with some friends to play golf. Since I am still coughing and sniffling, I had a leisurely morning drinking coffee and reading. However, I decided to head over to Tesco for a couple of items we needed. I have found that the best time to go is when it opens (at 10:00) on Saturday and Sunday. Parking is plentiful and you can mull over things a little bit without being pushed aside. I usually keep my camera in my purse for any opportune photo opportunities and today was no exception. It is expected that people will take pictures of tourist attractions, festivals, pretty scenery, etc. But whenever I take pictures of daily life, I worry that I am offending the Koreans in some way. So I try to be very discreet when taking pictures on the street and such. It was very slow when I arrived at Tesco, so I thought that I would take the opportunity to take a few pictures I have wanted to take for some time. I actually think the young lady saw me and thought I was stalking her, but I managed to take a little video of her greeting the cars as they arrived in the parking garage.
Everyone has their own little way of doing it and some are more elaborate than others. She was sort of middle of the road. There are the usual aisles of juice, paper goods, diapers, cereal, etc. Some aisles are more plentiful than others in their options. I guess you could equate a cereal aisle in the states with a ramen noodle aisle here - tons of different varieties. My favorite ones are these - they are quite spicy though. There are some items you might recognize. And there is the Spam of course...! But if you are in the mood for something different, you could purchase a can of this. Or this. There really isn't a frozen food section like we know it. You can't buy the usual frozen vegetables, juice and prepared meals. They do have a small area with ice cream though. I usually pick up a couple of peppers at this area. There is usually different items, such as shrimp (don't get that - I found that the heads are still on!!), calamari, things that look like corn dogs (??) and various vegetables. You use some tongs and pick what you want and the lady either serves you (there is a counter to eat at) or she packages it up for you to take home. We also have a meat area for take home, which I have on numerous times. Or if you wish, you can purchase some mixtures that you can take home and cook yourself, which I haven't. The produce area is pretty good. You can buy alot of the items we have in the U.S. I buy iceberg lettuce, tomatoes, mushrooms, oranges, apples, bananas, potatoes, etc. Some of the items are prepackaged and some you put into a bag yourself and take to a lady at a scale who weighs it and slaps a sticker on it. However, a few items puzzle me. You have to buy a bag of onions and a bunch of bananas. I can hopefully get through the onions before they spoil but I never get through the bananas. They do have alot of vegetables that I don't know what they are. However, I think this is a type of radish that I ate at a restaurant recently. It was pickled and quite good. I will leave you today with something I have wanted to show you for a long time.
I didn't care if anyone saw me, I was going to get this.