I took a week's vacation in Korea. As luck would have it, we were to leave KK at midnight on the night of 25 October. That day of infamy!
Without the runway lights, our plane from Seoul had diverted to Brunei, leaving all the passengers in KK to sleep on the benches in the departure lounge.
We finally left KK at 8am on the 26 October. After arrival at Incheon, our tour bus took the ferry on the way to Seoul. We were dive-bombed by all the sea-gulls ...
... as they had gotten used to being fed by all the tourists!!!
With some 20 million population in Seoul and the surrounding surburbs (spending some 60% of the country's GDP), there were many captive customers for activities not normally found within the business districts; such as the indoor theme park at Lotte World. It was a scaled up version of the setup at the theme park at Genting Resort.
Another such city-place was the 63Square ...
... it's like us in KK spending a Sunday at Suria or 1Borneo. They had a sea world (note that all these were inside the 63-storey office building). Very small exhibits and rather lame backdrops.
A spider crab (live) ...
... and x-rayed!
On the 63th floor was the so-called Art Gallery ...
... but we were more interested in the night view of Seoul.
In the basement floor was a wax museum, although all the "famous" people wax figures did not look much like them.
Here was Dracula with his coffin (nobody would know what he really looked like!) ...
... though even the visitor was waxed! Or had Dracula gave him a love-bite?
Under the dressing table in the hotel I noticed a small box ...
... natural curiosity revealed that it was a descending rope-reel that could be dropped outside the window in the event of an emergency.
Many of the breakfasts were arranged at restaurants that did their main business at night (or in this case, a banquet hall used mostly for wedding receptions!).
On the only rainy day of this trip, we visited the National Palace ...
... where only the official palace guide (mandarin speaking) was fully prepared ...
... for the weather. Very Professional Footwear.
One of the hotal suite had an extra "empty" room, which turned out to be ...
...
an Ondol. It has a Korean-style under-floor hot-water heating system. So you can sleep on a thin mattress on the floor. But it was too hot for us Malaysians; We want our air-con lah! All Koreans stop using their air-cons in October each year.
As usual, they gave us many "opportunities" to spend our money buying those expensive herbs and health supplements. They refused to allow me to take any further photos inside the store. What I observed was that they have very good "packaging" and they used the phrases "Government mandated, Government certified, etc..." a lot to convince the prospective customers. This was the "best" ginseng store apparently.
The late Autumn leaves changing hues made for very beautiful landscapes (Mt Seoraksan Park).
There weren't that many temples in Korea (it seemed) as we went to only one.
Here was a good business idea, get the visitor to pay 10,000 won (about RM30) to write any message on a roof tile. It will be used when repairing the existing roofs of the buildings in the park.
Jeju Island (the southern most part of Korea) is a volcanic island. The history of the island is very interesting ( I leave those interested to read up on the internet); In the past; conquered by the Mongolians, they brought their horses here, the islanders speak a different dialect, had different cultures (very male-oriented).
As usual, they had found a rock that looked like something; In this case, a dragon's head!
They have 2 gods; rubbing the stomach will bring wealth, while rubbing the nose will bring children!
In the interest of making business, they sell these "disney-fied" copies!
Another one of them China Lady Tourist who rather look nice than safe!!!
A convenient viewing platforms for the general tourists ...
... A better view but from a much more difficult to access location.
The "lower" but more easily achieved crater (hill) for the generally "less fit" tourists to walk up. Can't we find a location like this at Mt Kinabalu National Park? The middle of the island had the actual highest mountain crater (the trek up and down would take more than a day)
We made it; all the 500ft or so.
One of the preserved villages on the island; with Government mandated visits by tour groups, Government mandated herbal products (including special honey and horse bone powder!) at Government mandated prices!
To provide income to the islanders, the island was made into the preferred honeymoon location for all Korean married couples (even now it was said to be some 60%). Another trick to learn is to create many many many "museums". I think their definition of "museum" is very loose. This was the Teddy Bear Museum (new word created - A Teseum). I saw roadsigns for "Bike Museum", "Health & Sex Museum" and many others.
Having a "shrek-bear" seemed not to resonate with "old vintage stuff" usually found in museums.
Don't get me wrong, I did thoroughly enjoyed my Korean vacation (including the food; man, all the kim chi and stuff). The points made above basically is "when you want to make business, you don't really have to make sense".
The colourful hues of the leaves really strike the eyes of those of us from the tropical regions.
At the coast on Jeju Island was the church used in the TV drama "All In" (Allin as the Koreans called it!).
The Last Supper by the Wax Museum.
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