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080824 – Jump Theater and Tapgol Park
Blog: Andy's Rotten Ideas - 21 June 2009
Not much of a plan on my lazy Sunday, so I decided to watch Jump performance at Cinecore Theater, which was 5 minutes walk from my hotel in Insadong. Jump is a 90 minutes non-verbal comedy performance that is based on taekwondo martial arts.I bought 50,000won seat at 3pm show.
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080823 – HOT Festival
Blog: Andy's Rotten Ideas - 21 June 2009
HOT Festival is to promote the awareness of Korean famous red chili pepper. Acronym for HOT is Health, Origin and Taste. Sorry to disappoint you, it's not the hot sassy female dancers’ festival.
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080823 – DMZ Tour
Blog: Andy's Rotten Ideas - 20 June 2009
I’m so lucky I managed to secure a guided tour few days before the tour day, as I heard the DMZ tour got filled up weeks in advance. The half-day tour cost me 46000won, including pick-up from hotel at 7.30am. The tour guide, an elderly lady greeted me and she able to speak quite good English. I’m required to bring along my passport for security check during this tour.
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080817 – History Museum, Gyeonghuigung Palace, Art Museum and Nanta Theater
Blog: Andy's Rotten Ideas - 20 June 2009
After my late Sunday brunch, I took a subway to City Hall and walked for about 20 minutes to Chungmuno for Nanta Theather show. Nanta is a 90 minutes non-verbal comedy performance set in a kitchen as its background that is using pans, knives, pots and any cooking utensils that can be found in a kitchen as its music instruments. Therefore there is no language barrier and this show can be enjoyed by people from all around the world. Nanta combines rhythms from Korean folk music with modern musical forms. Nanta means cooking in English.
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080815 – Independence Day of South Korea
Blog: Andy's Rotten Ideas - 19 June 2009
South Korea declared Independence Day on the 15th August 1948 from the Japanese occupation. This year, they celebrated their 60th anniversary. From the hotel I took an early walk (around 7.30am) toward the Gyeonbokgung Palace for the main celebration. When I was there, everyone was setting up the all the preparation. Guess I was early that day.
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080102 – Lights Display at Lotte Hotel
Blog: Andy's Rotten Ideas - 10 June 2009
My wife and I took a quick to Myeongdong for dinner and hopefully some last minute shopping. My wife bumped into this cute pelican and went into it mouth. She was having a hard time positioned herself for me to take her photo. In fact, it’s for the small kids…
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071201 – Korean Barbeque Dinner and Booze
Blog: Andy's Rotten Ideas - 10 June 2009
My Korean colleague, KS Choi brought me to a Korean restaurant for barbeque dinner. According to him, Korean likes to bring their first time visitors for this type of dinner as many of them liked it. Korean barbeque is a Korean way of grilling meat such as beef, pork, chicken and other types of meat. The setup was very special, there’s a charcoal grills in the middle of the table and a funnel to suck all the smoke while you are grilling. So no worries about the barbeque smell on your shirt or hair. It’s more on the DIY dinner where you are doing your own grilling at the table.
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071126 – Jeju Mandarin Orange Festival in Seoul
Blog: Andy's Rotten Ideas - 9 June 2009
The moment I stepped out from my office building, I heard loud music from the Cheonggye area. Being out of curiosity, I took a sneak to see what is happening. To my surprise, I saw a stage being setup as if there was a live performance. It was the Jeju Mandarin Orange festival, which aims to promote the local specialty of Jeju Island. A variety of performances and events been organized during this festival.
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071231 – Fireworks in Seoul New Years Eve
Blog: Andy's Rotten Ideas - 6 June 2009
This year, my wife and I were celebrating our New Year Eve’s in Seoul. The main event was held at the Bosingak Belfry in Jongno, which was 15 minutes walk from our hotel. That will save us a lot of time from taking any public transports that was going to be freaking crowded. We left our hotel at 11.20pm and took our slow walk to the main event location. All the mains street heading to Bosingak Belfry closed to traffics.
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071230 – Skiing at Yongpyong Ski Resort
Blog: Andy's Rotten Ideas - 31 May 2009
One of the best things to do in Seoul during winter is skiing and snowboarding. Yongpyong is considered one of the Asia’s best ski resorts and also most popular ski resorts in Korea. Yongpyong has a total of 31 different ski slopes and it has different level of difficulty from beginner to expert. The resort also equipped with 15 ski-lifts and cable car ride for advanced skiers or snowboarders. Ski and snowboard lessons are also offered to different skill levels, even for kids.
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071229 – Food and Shopping Mission in Myeongdong
Blog: Andy's Rotten Ideas - 31 May 2009
After a light breakfast at the hotel and already prepared the shopping list yesterday, we walked for 15 minutes with a lovely weather to Myeongdong with full enthusiasm and hope. Brought along my backpack prepared to store all the goodies bought there. Myeongdong is one of the main shopping areas selling mid to high priced items and featuring some international brand outlets. This area was packed with mainly young people especially weekend, coming here for its latest fashion, coffee bar, foods, cosmetic products and nightlife.
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071224 – Christmas Eve’s celebration in Seoul
Blog: Andy's Rotten Ideas - 30 May 2009
There’s no early dismiss on Christmas Eve for working in Korea as compared to US. So I tried to leave at 6pm sharp and prepared to have a good Christmas Eve celebration and countdown with my wife. In Seoul, Christmas celebration is mainly for young couples. On the streets, you will see many couples buying Christmas cake from the bakeries shop e.g. Baskin Robbin, Starbucks and etc, either to share with their parent or loves one. The Christmas cake has become a good business where any shops that have anything to do with bakeries will sell their own Christmas cakes design.
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071219 – Myeongdong Catholic Church, Namsangol Hanok Village, N Seoul Tower
Blog: Andy's Rotten Ideas - 17 May 2009
After my wife arrived in Seoul 2 days back, I decided to be her unprofessional tour guide. We started with a lunch at Insadong restaurant, tried the bibimbap which is a popular Korean dish. Bibim-bap means mixed-rice. Bibimbap is served with a hot stone bowl of rice with seasoned vegetables and red chili pepper paste. To add more varieties, a raw egg and meats are added into it. With all these ingredients in a bowl, we stirred together thoroughly before eating. Nowadays, there are many variations of bibimbap in Korea.
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071215 – Bukchon Hanok Village, Daehangno, Jogyesa Temple
Blog: Andy's Rotten Ideas - 17 May 2009
I’m so determined that I should see more of Seoul, I took a walk from Insadong to Bukchon Hanok Village. Hanok is traditional Korean house. Bukchon Hanok Village was once a village of aristocrats long ago, and its luxury tile-roofed houses called Giwas have been preserved since the Joseon Dynasty. Located in the middle of Gyeongbokgung Palace, Changdeokgung Palace, and Jongmyo, Bukchon Hanok Village boasts 600 years of history in the region.
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071209 – Coex Mall, Bongeunsa, Apgujeong Rodeo Street
Blog: Andy's Rotten Ideas - 16 May 2009
This time, I headed to Gangnam district located at the Southeast of Seoul, which is famous for its entertainment, shopping and major business. It’s more like a upper-class area for locals and expatriates. COEX Mall is considered the best entertainment complex in Seoul. I took a Line 2 subway to Samseong Subway Station and it’s connected to the COEX Mall directly, just like in Singapore and Malaysia (only KLCC that I can think of, what a pathetic).
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071202 - Olympic Park, Lotte World
Blog: Andy's Rotten Ideas - 16 May 2009
Since it’s Sunday and I had a heavy drinking session with my Korean colleagues, I tend not to have a tight schedule of my itinerary, so I explored the East side of Seoul. I took a Line 5 subway to Olympic Park station (1100won) from Jongno 3-ga subway station. As I walking toward to one of the Olympic Park entrance, I saw many high-rise apartments, which I believe to cater the accommodation for the Olympic athletes and delegates.
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071125 - Myeongdong
Blog: Andy's Rotten Ideas - 10 May 2009
Myeongdong is one of the main shopping areas selling mid to high priced items and featuring some international brand outlets. This area was packed with mainly young people especially weekend, coming here for its latest fashion, coffee bar, foods, cosmetic products and nightlife. You will also see stalls selling fake designer goods at the roadside. I always come here at least once a week, either for the food or shopping, and also people watching (in Malay means cuci mata). Besides that, there are few department stores, banks and cinemas. AIG Korea Insurance also located here, phew.
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071125 - Namsangol Hanok Village
Blog: Andy's Rotten Ideas - 10 May 2009
Hanok means Korean traditional house. This village has managed to restore few traditional Korean houses from the past of common citizen to kings during Joseon Dynasty. The admission fee is free.When I entered the front gate, I saw a calming pond on my left and next to it is a building and stage where performances are held.
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071125 - Itaewon
Blog: Andy's Rotten Ideas - 10 May 2009
When you see the arch, you already arrived at Itaewon.
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071125 - Yongsan, Korea Memorial War
Blog: Andy's Rotten Ideas - 10 May 2009
This time, I covered the South of Seoul, across the Han River. I took an early Subway to Yongsan which is famous for its enormous wholesale electronics market, selling everything from computers, computer parts, DVDs, CDs, cellphones, GPS (more advance than Garmin, its like GPS + TV) and many other types of electronic goods. You named it, they have it. The whole city is like an electronic district with more than 3000 stores. Few large electronic malls are located in this area. I reached here around 9am++ and most of the stalls are preparing to start their business.
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071124 - Jongno, City Hall, Cheonggyecheon, Royal Guard parade
Blog: Andy's Rotten Ideas - 9 May 2009
I got to work today together with my Korean colleague and reached office around 9am. However he was late for 2-3 hours due to unforeseen circumstances. Since there was nobody in the office, I took out my camera and snapped my working cubicle and surrounding.
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071118 - Hangang Ferry Cruise
Blog: Andy's Rotten Ideas - 9 May 2009
From Yeouiaru Subway Station, I walked to the nearby park in Yeouido called Hangang Park. Gang means River and should be called Han River or just Hangang. This park was built along the Hangang River through the 12 districts in Seoul, one of them is Yeouido. As I was walking along the trail path to find the Ferry Cruise ticket booth; I could hear the sound of the river waves, view the river area and scenery in the pleasant river breeze.
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071118 - Noryangjin Fish Market
Blog: Andy's Rotten Ideas - 9 May 2009
When I got off at the Noryangjin Subway Station, I’m sort of totally lost on where to go, there’s no English signboard and nobody seems able to speak simple English. I was wandering around for almost 20 minutes looking for the fish market though I could smell the flavour of the fish. So I decided to walk along the overhead bridge across the railway tracks, I tried to ask an old lady selling some household items accompanied by her grand-daughter. I was lucky that the young girl able to speak simple English and guide me to the fish market.
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071118 - Jongmyo Royal Shrine
Blog: Andy's Rotten Ideas - 9 May 2009
Since I woke up early, I made a sudden change of my travel itinerary and visited a nearby attraction, Jongmyo Royal Shrine. It’s a 20 minutes stroll from Insadong. Upon arriving at the destination, I saw a group of elderly folks waiting for the ticket booth to open at 9am. The admission fee is 1000won.
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071117 - Gyeongbokgung Palace, National Folk Museum
Blog: Andy's Rotten Ideas - 8 May 2009
Gyeongbokgung Palace is Seoul’s most prominent and grandest of all palaces. It was constructed in 1395 under the reign of King Taejo and it served as the main palace of the Joseon Dynanty. However, it was destroyed by fire during the Japanese invasion in 1592 and reconstructed back in 1868. During the Japanese colonial period, most of the palace structure was dismantled with only a few important structures left now.
