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Bboya
Blog: Seoul Survival - 21 July 2009
Wandering around Incheon’s Jung-gu area, where you’ll find South Korea’s most vibrant and long-running Chinatown, I came across this amazing bar, Bboya (뽀야; 032-762 8800; daily 4pm-1am) – entirely covered both inside and out by mosaics created from bottle caps. The waitress told me that the place had been around for about 20 years but [...]
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Caffe Ora
Blog: Seoul Survival - 21 July 2009
Motoring around Yeongjong-do today – the island with Incheon International Airport (voted top airport in the world!) on it – my eye was caught by a building overlooking both Eulwangri and Wangsan beaches that could easily have been the headquarters of the chief villain in a James Bond movie. Inside Caffe Ora (032-752 0888; daily 10am-11pm) [...]
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Pine Bud Juice
Blog: Seoul Survival - 18 July 2009
Soft drink discovery of the day: some might think it too reminiscent of bathroom cleaning supplies or freshener, but I was quite taken with the sweetened walk-in-a-pine forest taste of Solhinun – a pine bud drink. My guide bought it for me try and translated the marketing slogan on the can as “feel fresh from [...]
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An Oasis in the City
Blog: Seoul Survival - 17 July 2009
My eagle-eyed colleague Yu-Mei is a great source of info on what’s going on in Korea. She passed on this interesting piece about the restoration of Seoul’s Cheonggye Stream. This revived waterway is indeed a boon to the city and I’ve made a point of diverting to meander along it as I cross town – it’s [...]
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A Seafood Feast
Blog: Seoul Survival - 15 July 2009
One of things I’m most loving about this trip is the chance I’m having to get better acquainted with the rich variety of Korean cuisine. Oepo Hweojjib meaning “Oepo first restaurant” is indeed the first restaurant you’ll see, if you’re arriving in the sleepy fishing village of Oepo-ri on the ferry from the neighboring island [...]
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Mud, glorious mud
Blog: Seoul Survival - 12 July 2009
Growing up in Blackpool, UK, I’m no stranger to grim, rainy days at the beach. But I have to admit, the sheets of rain and stormy weather made me apprehensive about my day trip to the Boryeong Mud Festival at Daecheon Beach, 2.5 hours by train south of Seoul. The bad weather was something of [...]
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081109 – The 8th Annual Manhwa Day @ N Seoul Tower
Blog: Andy's Rotten Ideas - 11 July 2009
From Namsangol Hanok Village, I walked to the bus stop in front of the Chungmuro subway station and took a yellow bus No 2 to N Seoul Tower. Since I been there previously, I went there to take a good picture in the N Seoul Tower vicinity without buying a ticket going up to observatory deck.
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081109 – Namsangol Winter Retreat Festival Event
Blog: Andy's Rotten Ideas - 5 July 2009
The 2008 Namsangol Winter Retreat Festival will be held for two days, from November 8 to November 9, at the Namsangol Hanok Village, a popular tourist attraction in Seoul displaying traditional Korean houses. There will be a variety of performances and events to celebrate the Korean tradition of “Woldong (wintering)”, where Korean ancestors would specially prepare and store away Kimchi, and would carry out other winter preparations, before the weather became too cold.
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081102 – Samcheongdong Walkway
Blog: Andy's Rotten Ideas - 5 July 2009
If you have free time, this should be the highlight of your visit when you are in Seoul. During autumn season, the weather was cooling, breezy and calming. I took a slow walk to Samcheongdong to capture some moments with my new DSLR Nikon D90. On the weekend, lots of people will stroll along the famous walkway in Samcheongdong stretches from Gyeongbokgung to Samcheong Tunnel. It’s located in the middle of city of Seoul; this area surprisingly was quite peaceful.
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081102 - Insadong
Blog: Andy's Rotten Ideas - 4 July 2009
Insadong has been at the heart of the nation’s capital for 600 years and it has been the center of culture since the time of the Joseon Dynasty (1392-1910). Over forty percent of the nation’s antique stores are in Insadong. The antiques sold tend to be more valuable than those sold on other art streets in Korea. Most of the stores sell old books, pictures and calligraphy. Among the antiques are old pictures, pottery, wooden containers and jewelries. Besides that, there are many art galleries where local artists displayed their masterpieces.
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080906 – Panmunjeon (Joint Security Area)
Blog: Andy's Rotten Ideas - 27 June 2009
This simplified winning article was selected in the local newspaper.
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080903 – Dongdaemun Market and Misc Foods Adventures
Blog: Andy's Rotten Ideas - 27 June 2009
I had a mission to discover more of Seoul, so I took a 20 minutes walk to Dongdaemun market. It is the largest wholesale and retail shopping center in South Korea. That whole area in Dongdaemun is basically filled with shopping malls, specialty stores and wholesale stores. They sell everything and anything you want. It’s cheaper if you buy in bulks at the wholesale prices. The area here is always alive as there are some stores still open until wee hours.
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080830 – Buseoksa Temple and Geusam Ginseng Festival
Blog: Andy's Rotten Ideas - 27 June 2009
After referring to the USO monthly tour itinerary, I saw a ginseng tour at Geusam. Geusam is the center of Korean ginseng distribution and held the world ginseng expo from Aug 29th – Sept 7th. Korean ginseng is well known for its medical health effects and ginseng from Geusam is regarded as the best in Korea. Therefore I took this great opportunity to participate this ginseng tour.
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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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080101 – Romantic Retreat in Nami Island
Blog: Andy's Rotten Ideas - 8 June 2009
My Korean colleague, KS Choi promised to bring me and my wife to Nami Island in Chuncheon, Gangwon Province. So we decided to go on the New Year Day before I’m leaving Seoul in three days time. Choi brought along his wife, Marie. The weather that day was extremely cold, if I’m not mistaken it was below 5 Celsius. It took 2-hours drive from Seoul to Chuncheon. Since all of us are first timer to Nami Island, we followed the GPS to Gapyeong parking lot where we need to take a ferry to Nami Island. The admission and round-trip ferry ride is 6000won per person.
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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.
