Hammy's 2005 Trip To Korea And Japan - Nov 17th

Played golf at Collier Park with Mick, an 80 year old army veteran. He fought in New Guinea, Korea, Vietnam and served in Japan. Had schrapnel removed from his knee two years ago that he got in '44. Been an army man all his life. I shot a 44 and a 43 on the par 71 Island/Lakes layout - my best score ever on a fully rated course (87 on a 71 ACR - 16 over). Home in time to wash the dishes, clean the house, bring the washing in, have a shower, have lunch and watch the West Indies collapse in the cricket against Australia.

Travel frugally.

My bags and the taxi.

Bashir was my taxi driver for the trip to the airport. He's from Afghanistan and was sponsored by the United Nations to come to Australia. His previous job was that of a journalist. Last year he bought his taxi and has done 120000 km already. I did that in 11 years with my Corolla! Taxi set me back $24.40.

Less than two minutes wait to get served at check-in. Had to wait 10 mins to get checked-in as there was some problem with entering my passport details. Fortunately I wasn't carrying any of those deadly weapons known as nail files in my carry-on lugguage. Hope the flies don't have tickets coz they can bloody well stay in Perth!

My plane to Malaysia.

Flight MH124 had 17 staff plus pilot and co-pilot. You are greeted by the lovely hostesses upon boarding. As you move further down the plane's fuselage to your seat in cattle-class, the hosties become less attractive. Bit like getting drunk in reverse.

Canning Vale area of Perth.

Mt Henry Bridge.

Fremantle.

Air sickness bag insciption - BEG MABUK UDARA
- SPECIALLY PRODUCED FOR MALAYSIA AIRLINES
Why is it specially produced? Do travellers on Malaysia Airlines required a specialised sick bag?

Strange to see beer, Fosters, served in plastic cups. There is something not right about that. Interesting that tampons, nappies, cups, paper towels and razors (thought these were prohibited in carry-on luggage?!) are encouraged to be dispose of in the toilet bin.

Message from the pilot just prior to landing - "Please be aware that the importation of drugs is a very serious offence that carries a manadatory death penalty." The warning is a bit late if you already have them in your luggage, mate.

Can anyone tell me why it is important to have the windows up when coming in to land?

If the plane comes to rest in the sea is it called a "seaing"? Can't be a landing.

It always amuses me how passengers attempt to desert a landed plane like rats from a sinking ship. One of the low points of civilisation. What is the hurry?

Nice tactic so that people don't try to sleep in Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) as they constantly repeat "Nothing's gonna change my love for you" by Glen Medeiros - our wedding song.

Muslim toilet paper - KLIA.

Just before midnight I realised that the bank at the airport in Korea wouldn't be open until probably 9/9:30. Needing to depart as soon as possible I looked for an exchange service at KLIA, which I had done earlier, and ended up having to ask for assistance. The layout of the terminal is a bit confusing. Lots of people were waiting and it took a while to get served. Interestingly the guy tied to talk me out of the exchange as I would need to change to Ringgits before changing to Won and he wanted to save me the extra exchange fee. Touching. Had no choice really.

On the tarmac at KLIA we were parked next to the new Airbus A380! What a huge beast.

Hammy's 2005 Trip To Korea And Japan - Nov 18th

On the flight from Kuala Lumpur to Incheon (Seoul) I went to the toilet as breakfast was being was being doled out and almost missed out. Quite difficult to get the atention of any hostess at that stage. Wasn't really worth the effort as the teriyaki fish was not too tasty. Overall, service on this flight was much better than the one to Kuala Lumpur. Perhaps it had something to do with the cute Korean hostesses.

I have noticed that Koreans rush to the gate in the departure lounge whenever an announcement is made is English. I'm sure that their excuse is that they don't understand but it is more like they don't listen. Same thing happens in Korea but the message is in Korean then. Not that they would've been able to understand the Malaysian guy anyway as I had great difficulty.

During the landing I noticed lots of people playing golf at Incheon Golf Club - it's only 3 degrees C. Immigration don't muck around but were more than a little surprised that I could write in hangul (Korean script). My favourite hostie, Nam Ji-na, had asked me if I lived in Korea. Obviously impressed with my grasp of Korean. [Editor's note - Stop fooling yourself boy. She was just being polite.]

Golf courses everywhere. Taxi driver waiting at the airport covered one nostril and blew heaps out of the other. It is time to introduce the "snot rag" to Koreans.

Incheon Airport Tollway. Busy place.

They have seatbelts in the bus now. Don't want any bad publicity to keep the tourists away I suppose. Korean bus drivers are notoriously bad. Took a Limousine bus ride to Central City Station which wasn't without incident. We nearly hit some bloke who cut in and the horn was sounded a few times to tell him so. Everybody on the bus, who were trying to sleep, sat bolt upright to see what the fuss was about. Helpful security guy in the Central City Market helped me with directions and another guy coming down the stairs asked where I was going and showed me to the ticket office in the subway station.

Build 'em big and beautiful here in Korea.

The zipper broke on the handle cover of the suitcase. Typical. Koreans need to install elevators for those of us who have to carry 21.1 kgs of luggage up all of the stairs, not including my carry-on luggage. I found the Nambu Bus Terminal ok. Bought some fish cakes and water without too much hassle. Only fifteen minutes to eat before my bus departed - just enough time. Delicious.

Nambu Bus Terminal.

Lunch - o deng.

Bought the wrong ticket as I tried to explain to the ticket girl, I think she was talking about fast bus or not, and I said "five hours" so she gave me a ticket for 16:30 - obviously thought that five hours translated to five o'clock. Got another ticket for the 12:30 bus. Rang Miky - still the wrong ticket. An express limousine bus left at 11:00. Got the correct ticket ok.

Apartments as far as the eye can see.

Korean rest stop. Big, isn't it?

First stop for a rest and the bus driver came back to me, grabbed my watch, and said "Sam ship o bun" - 45 minutes. Meaning at 12:45 the bus would be leaving if I wanted to stretch my legs or go to the toilet. I hadn't planned to but it was a good idea.

Construction is full steam ahead in this country.

The phenomenal amount of apartments being built make me think that if China is pushing world growth then it must be an incredible sight over there.

Speedy Gonzales the bus driver.

My driver sits on 115-120 km/h on the Expressway although the speed limit is 100 km/h for cars under 1.5 tonnes and 80 km/h for vehicles heavier than 1.5 tonnes. Every kilometre or so there is a police radar and he slows down to 110 km/h. The number of vehicles that fly past at 140-160 km/h is quite surprising. They slam on the brakes when the police enforcement area appears only to zoom past again. Pretty damn pointless I say.

Watch out for that hole in the mountain ahead Mr Bus Driver.

Bus driver was a bit casual in my opinion. He didn't wear gloves, was speeding the whole way, spent a bit of time of his mobile phone and saluted other bus drivers in passing - even if his other hand was occupied with the mobile phone!

Fuel is 1479 Won - approximately A$1.90/L. There is a huge amount of roadworks going on. One tunnel that we travelled through was 3.5 km long. I already feel more relaxed in this country and can leave my bag on the bus while I stretch my legs and not worry about it getting pinched.

Welcoming party.

Great to be greeted by Miky and Yu-Jin after my five and a quarter hour bus ride. Miky looked great and Yu-Jin has grown taller. Straight outside of the bus station I spotted two foreign women - thought that I would be the only foreigner in these parts.

We went to the yeogwan (cheap establishment that passes as a hotel) so that Yu-Jin could get changed into his taekwondo gear and caught a taxi to the taekwondo class. Some of the kids are very disciplined although there was a kid with a red belt who looked as though he had no idea. I was a little disappointed that Yu-Jin couldn't do all of the exercses like the other kids but he is one of the youngest. He did some quite well though. Videoed a lot and my battery went flat. Just before I could get a photo of Yu-Jin with his sang sam nim (teacher). Dammit.

Yu-Jin's taekwondo class.

Caught a taxi back into the city and shared it. The taxi driver didn't appear to know where he was going and didn't give the right change - bastard. Had BBQ pork for tea which was delicious. Damn cold at night time when just walking around. The bath at the yeogwan was too small for myself and I had to share it with Yu-Jin. Damn these Koreans for being such short people.

Hammy's 2005 Trip To Korea And Japan - Nov 19th

Up early for a walk in Shinhyeon, Geojedo (Geoje Island). Spotted on the map opposite the ferry terminal - "Confusion Temple". Couple of funny shops - "Buy The Way" and "왼자Cafe" (translates as "Whinger" but they named it "Windsor").

Whinger Cafe, er, Windsor Cafe.

The shops don't open until at least 9:30 to 10:30. No-one seems to have an adapter for my battery charger. My early morning walk took me to the bus terminal and along the harbour side. Quite a chilly morning. We had breakfast at a 24 hr place. Mandoo soup and kim chee chigae (soup). Lots of lovely side dishes - egg, kimchee, maelchee (dried fish), squash, 감자(potato), etc. Wandered around the markets afterwards looking for an adapter.

Our favourite breakfast place.

Yu-Jin is sick. Bloody kid.

Another funny shop - "Hyman Wedding"

Hyman Wedding - for virgins only?

Yu-Jin and I went to the POW Museum today [Editor's Note - sorry, no pics available currently as I had to use a non-digital camera and nothing has been developed yet]. On the bus on the way there I saw one of his friends from taekwondo - it's a small world. Short walk up the hill and then we found the museum. Yu-Jin knew all about the exhibition as he has been there before. The guy in the ticketing office spoke to me in English - "How many people?". Entry was 3000 Won (A$4). Quite impressive to see all the video footage and artifacts. I learnt so much about the Korean War. Up to 173000 PoW's were on Geojedo at one time. Only 340 soldiers from Australia were killed during the war. Two of the 89 soldiers from Luxembourg that fought were killed. Colombia even sent soldiers. Spent a couple of hours at the museum.

Welcome. You may enter as a Commie but you won't leave as one.

Looks more like a statue in a Middle Eastern country.

The actual bridge that the PoWs crossed.

Here's a likely suspect who should be locked up and have the key thrown away.

Take that you Commies.

Great display.

Yu-Jin was scared by the reality of this display.

Civilisation is encroaching on the PoW Camp on Geoje Island.

Afterwards we waited for ages for a taxi, almost none available or had passengers already. Two young men spoke to us in Korean and said to walk 500m to City Hall. I carried Yu-Jin. Still no taxis, even on the other side of the road. Carried Yu-Jin again until he flagged down a taxi for us. Got dropped off at Popeyes where Yu-Jin had a bulgogi burger combo set.

Miky, now joined by her sister, wondered why we were so late. I rang an Aussie acquaintence, Ralph, again after ringing him at lunchtime and having the phone drop out and got connected this time. We agreed to meet at Daewoo Shipyards - 대우조선. I walked straight onto the right bus as it was about to leave and asked the driver if he was going there, thinking that he would let me know where to get off. He didn't. I went much further than I needed to. There were a lot of workers from a company called DMSE, which happened to be Daewoo Shipyards as it turned out, and they let me know that we had already passed it.

I got off at the next stop and tried to call Ralph to tell him that I would be a bit late but the Miky's sister's mobile phone battery was flat. And so was the spare battery. Jumped on the next bus heading in the return direction. Alighted at the East Gate of DMSE as there was a shop opposite - easy to park and easy to find a phone. Or so I thought. Had to convince the kid in the shop that I would pay to use his phone when I discovered that there wasn't a public telephone. Luckily I had Ralph's phone number in my passport or I would have really been stuffed. Ralph picked me up soon afterwards and we went back to his A$2500/mth Woodside-sponsored apartment. Got talking about some personal stuff. We then went for a drive around Okpo before he drove me home. After 10 mins of driving around the only parking spot we could find was a paid one. He asked "How muchie?" and the woman was very puzzled at this until I asked "을마이아에요?" Only 1000 Won to park the car.

We went out for a snack and a drink, after I had surprised my wife in the shower with my return with a visitor, at a chicken place across the road from where we had breakfast this morning. I ordered some rice cakes with chili as I'd had them before and some chicken with chili and mustard. Geoje people eat very spicy food and the waitress warned us that even Geoje people find that food to be spicy. Undaunted, I still ordered it. Needless to say the food was extremely spicy and I had so much wate to drink because my mouth was on fire. I thought that it must be called the "Fire House" and Miky looked at the name and it was something like "Spicy House". Big mistake. Ralph was ok and he paid. He even gave me an Australian 3-pin female plug for my battery charger. What a lifesaver.

The Spicy House.

Hammy's 2005 Trip To Korea And Japan - Nov 20th

This morning we wandered about early on trying to find a nice place to eat. Finally settled on the same place we had breakfast yesteday. Miky left early as Yu-Jin was being a pain. We ate mandoo soup and 오뎅 (odeng - fish cake) soup.

After breakfast I located a hardware store but it wasn't open. Sunday is the busiest day, almost, for hardware stores in Australia but this is apparently not the case in Korea. Found an extension board for 3000 Won.

Caught a bus up to the in-law's place and I made an extension lead to charge my camera battery. We went to "Korean Restaurant" for lunch and had meat soup (갈비 당 - galbi dang), seafood pancake, sashimi and heaps of side dishes. Lunch came to 60000 Won (A$80).

Miky packed lots of things to ship back to Oz. Caught a taxi back to our 역완 (yeogwan). Rang Ralph to join us for tea. He came at 7pm and we found a nice place to have pork. See if I can find the name tomorrow. We talked about bringing up kids, the differences in the two societies, work and life. He's a nice bloke but was feeling a bit worse for wear having been un until 4 am drinking and he had to get up at 7 for work, on a Sunday. The third weekend in a row that he's worked.

The leftovers from our meal with Ralph. Not too much to speak of. Glad I don't have a job cleaning dishes in Korea.

The fine eatery that we noshed at.

Hammy's 2005 Trip To Korea And Japan - Nov 21st

I wandered about this morning taking funny photos. King Dung Kalbi, Korean land reclamaition, Confusion Temple, Beautiful Dental Clinic etc. Penguin Bakery has a picture of Colonel Sanders on it.

What on earth are these people eating?

Penguin Bakery. I don't think that the Koreans care too much about copyright and trademarks.

I'm confused.

Bang Bang. It's not a knock shop but a clothing shop.

Somebody needs to teach these Koreans some English.

What the hell is a rescafe? Konglish, I think.

Touch "Crane" - English has a long way to go on Geoje Island.

Park Ho Jun - Hairdresser (just in case you thought it had something to do with martial arts).

Bloody cold walking about. Miky packed up everything to be sent to Australia that we didn't wish to carry around and we (I) had to make two trips to the Post Office. Yu-Jin stayed in the yeogwan and watched cartoons in a mixture of English and Korean.

Genghis Khan - I'm not sure what they sell here but it does say "Chicago Game Rent".

Had another nice lunch, this time at Nolboo Restaurant. It was a hot pot mixture and was delicious. Yu-Jin got to play in the play room after his lunch. I don't know why he is so much trouble when it comes to feeding and it upsets both of us having to help him and yell at him. Does my head in.

Korean hot pot. Love this food that steams and crackles in front of you.

Nolboo Restaurant - if you are ever in Shinhyeon on Geoje Island.

Beautiful Dental Clinic - Who are they trying to fool? Poetic licence employed here methinks.

One thing you will see, quite prominently, are new shops. The display put on when opening a business premises in Korea puts the old ribbon and scissors to shame in Western countries.

Korean new business welcoming wreaths.

Decorations on a new shop.

New shop welcoming wreaths. This is very common in Korea.

Pizza delivery - Korean style.

Is this how they deliver mini pizzas?

Parking - Korean style, i.e. park anywhere your car will fit.

Saw an argument on the street between a very irate construction worker and a taxi driver. Not something you see everyday. We left Yu-Jin's bag at the restaurant and I went back to retrieve it. Dragged our luggage all the way to the Gohyeon - Busan ferry terminal. Fairly uneventful trip to Busan. I may have spotted the ship that Ralph works on. We rushed to get a taxi after landing even thought I was busy taking a photo of half a ship's hull being lifted by a crane.

Land reclamation. Koreans have long been invaded by the Chinese and Japanese and it appears that they are expanding their territory in a peaceful manner.

New shopping centre being built near the harbour.

Crane in Busan harbour with half a ship's hull.

One of Miky's friends, Eun-jeong and her husband John, put us up during our stay in Busan. Their apartment is right on the edge of the city and across the road from the 국제 (Gukje) Market. Eun-jeong was home and we got to play with 6 ½ months old James. When Eun-jeong had to leave for her class Miky, Yu-Jin and I walked around the markets, had tea at a pizza place (17000 Won for seafood - about A$23) - not Pizza Hut, and they give you a buffet whereby your plate is weighed and you pay by the gram. About 400 Won per 100g. Very interesting and I can see this catching on in Australia. Aussies, your buffet is under threat.

Went walkabout looking for shoes, jeans and caps. Bought a cap for myself and Yu-Jin. Whilst walking around three schoolgirls found Yu-Jin to be very cute and gave him a biscuit and a lolly. I wanted to give them a koala but didn't have any of them in my bag.

John wasn't home when we returned so we had a hot chocolate whilst waiting. We talked until very late, about 12:30, before I managed to go to bed. Topics included health care in the US, taxes, politicians, voting, countries to live in, alcohol - no religion was mentioned. Strange what you talk about when first meeting someone.

Hammy's 2005 Trip To Korea And Japan - Nov 22nd

I have found that Koreans in Busan sound more like Japanese than Koreans in Geoje. Eun-jeong and Miky agree with me, quite to my surprise. The consonants are a much harder sound.

This morning, following breakfast, Yu-Jin and I caught the subway to Beomeosa, walked up to the bus station and caught a number 90 bus to the temple. Lots of photos then we decided to have a look at 원효암 - Wonhyoam. At the temple itself an old lady offered us some rice cake but I thought that it had nuts and said no thanks. An old gentleman, 60-65, said that it didn't have nuts and was I from America? Aaaagh. Another lady offered us some rice cake later.

Turtles with inscriptions at the entrance.

Entrance gate to Beomeosa.

Detail of eaves on the entrance gate.

Seven tiered pagoda. Koreans, Buddhists especially, are big on these things.

Big turtle and me. Who has the biggest smile?

Eaves detail. I love this sort of architecture.

Another gate with statues to stop the entry of evil spirits.

Statue guarding the temple from evil spirits - holding a sword.

Statue guarding the temple from evil spirits - holding a dragon.

Statue guarding the temple from evil spirits - holding a ukelele - now I am shaking in my boots.

Monks. Lots of monks. Hairdressers have plenty of work up this way.

Stone lantern probably from the 9th Century. It is reputed to be as old as the temple, i.e. from 678, but it is a Shilla design so was most likely built at the same time as the stone pagoda.

Stone pagoda from the 9th Century.

Dinner time bell and drum. Underneath they have conveniently placed a souvenir shop.

Building which housed Buddha statues and lots of buddhist happily praying away.

People balance rocks for good luck, I believe. If you look closely you can see a tolharubang (grandfather stone - looks like it belongs on Easter Island) that somebody must have brought all the way from Cheju Island.

Rooftop pic. Notice most of the trees have lost their leaves already. Might give you some idea how cold it is.

Large, inscribed boulder. If you thought my Korean was poor then spare a thought for my Chinese character recognition level - it's pitiful. So, I don't know what this says.

Lovely old steps and walls surrounded by bamboo. Quite picturesque.

We decided to climb the mountain to visit Wonhyoam. Other people were coming down from the walk and it did have a signpost so it seemed like a good idea. Yu-Jin and I reached about halfway up Wonhyoam when we stopped for a breather, biscuit and a drink, and I asked one guy, in Korean, how far to go. He said another 500 metres. Yu-Jin wanted to continue but I didn't as he was sick and Miky would kill me if I wore him out, but he was insistent on continuing. There were some nice views of Busan to be had.

Eerie roots and boulders lined our way to Wonhyoam.

This picture is especially for Megha as I know how much she enjoys wicked tree roots.

Here's an old man with his perfectly-sized walking stick.

Korean- old style path. Not very refined in their techniques of roadbuilding at that stage.

Busan, at least the northernmost part, below. The city is surrounded by mountains and we are a long way from the city centre.

Asian-style toilet. No sitting on other people's germs. Wind can whistle through under the door however.

Western-style toilet.

Dad and boy pictured in a little garden walk at the base of Beomeosa Temple.

When we got back to the bus stop at the base of the temple we sat next to an old gentleman and he wanted to give Yu-Jin some (persimmon). Yu-Jin asked him "이고모이어?" (what is it?).

We bought some odeng and (mul, water) for lunch. Rang Miky and she wanted us to meet her and her friend Mi-ja in Lotte Department Store. Yu-Jin wanted some junk food so we went to Lotteria and I had a Hot Squid Burger Set. The waitress warned me that it was hot. What is the difference between a combo and a set anyway? Both are on the menu.

Girls in the department store went crazy over Yu-Jin and he doesn't like too much attention like that. We took the elevator down to B1F and got split up as there wasn't enough room in the elevator. Yu-Jin and I waited for 50 minutes for Miky to show up but she didn't. We were just about to go home when an announcement came over the PA - "Could I have your attention please? Could Mr Marke Ham from Australia please come to the information desk?" I didn't quite catch where to go and I didn't know where the information desk was anyway. I asked at the pram hire the the girl and guy didn't speak any English. The girl at the Lotte Card Center didn't speak English either. She made several phone calls but the guy she got couldn't understand a word of what I said. I was able to understand him ok though. Several phone calls later and I was then able to speak with someone who's English was very good and she told me what to do. Still didn't know where the info desk was and the new girl at the pram hire didn't speak English. She at least phoned someone and Miky came soon after. Must learn a bit more Korean.

Lots more shopping on the way home at the "동가방 " - Moneybag. Nice 돌솠비빔밥 - stone pot mixed rice. Hot and lovely. My kind of food.

Back at Eun-jeong's place they prepared pigs' trotters and that started jokes about three-legged pigs and chickens.

Jon and I mucked around putting my photos on CD - something that Jon has never done before. It happened to be all the more difficult as it was on a Korean computer and I had to use my memory a lot as to which buttons to press and what procedure to follow. Succeeded on the second attempt.

Still can't believe that Yu-Jin and I climbed that mountain today.

Hammy's 2005 Trip To Korea And Japan - Nov 23rd

It is exam day in Korea today. Students sit four exams, each of 2 hrs duration, on Korean, English, Maths and one subject of their choosing. Poor bastards. In Australia we have 1.5 to 3 hr exams spread over a one to two week period. Apparently they don't have "Schoolies" afterwards. Students still attend school until graduation and the good ones take English or computer lessons etc to ready themselves for uni. The naughty ones go to 노래방 (no rae bang - Korean karaoke) or night clubs and so don't study much.

I have noticed that neary every cement mixer has a glove fitted. In fact, it was one of the the first things that I noticed upon my arrival in this country. The best explanation so far is that it keeps moisture off the drum and prolongs the drum's lifetime due to rusting.

Notice in a taxi - "In case of inconvenience please call" 전화 -851-5000

There is an "Outback Steakhouse" in Busan where they serve Aussie food. Apparently very expensive.

Headed off to get a ferry to travel over to Japan for four or five days. Public Internet is available at the International Ferry Terminal for 100 Won/5 minutes. I was typing an email to a friend when the computer just turned off - I had nine minutes left. Imagine my frustration. A short investigation revealed that Miky had accidentally kicked the off switch. Checked our email and let Yu-Jin play ABC Kids and Yahoo! Games.

On the sign describing Internet usage - "100 won will be use for 5 miniutes".

Had some difficulty getting a ferry as the one we had planned to take was fully booked and we had to waitlist. Luckily the Kobee (Mirejet) had some seats for us. The trip of 213km from Busan to Fukuoka only takes 2 hrs 55 minutes. We didn't pick the best day to go because it was a public holiday in Japan and plenty of Japanese were travelling. Lunch was 2x kimbap (sushi, for those of you who don't know that the Japanese stole this dish from the Koreans), soup and Pringles - a mind-boggling 10000 Won!

Immigration took less than two minutes. Nice 'n easy. Duty-free shop was interesting. Infants Nike shoes were US$49 but Couvoisier Cognac 700 mL was US$31 - quite cheap. Might have to get some for my Business Manager. So much cheaper than in Oz.

Let your position identify whistling.

Light is on automatically when you in to the seawater. Gotta love the translations.

On the Kobee Ferry - Abandon Ship Procedure - "In an emergency case, take derect in point, please quietly follow our crew clerk's instructions."

Interesting to hear safety instructions in Korean, English and Japanese. Mind you, the girl making the announcement had exactly the same dialect for Korean and Japanese so she really didn't sound Japanese at all. English wasn't really up to scratch either. There was a safety video as well and some of the grammar and spelling was terrible.

Perhaps they should build a tunnel although I think the Koreans would resent the ease at which the Japanese could invade them, albeit in the form of tourists. A friendly invasion in this case.

Same hydrofoil as ours heading back to Korea. These things sit on 80 km/h out on the open water and they certainly don't feel like it.

Koreans love to talk, either face-to-face or on the phone. It's not unusual to see people talking on their mobile for an entire subway journey. Almost everyone has a mobile - even 할모니 (halmonis - grandmas). On the bus, in the car, and even driving the bus (not necessarily by grandmas). They must be fairly cheap calls as I rarely see anyone texting.

At the ferry terminal, whilst finishing our expensive kimbap, an older gentleman, by the name of Her Ki-do, came to talk to Yu-Jin and me. He was a professor of civil engineering at one of the local universities and is now retired. He had been to Sydney and Brisbane and played golf. His English was ok.

Can't believe that I haven't seen a cloud on my holiday yet and as soon as we jump on the ferry it becomes overcast.

드보르작 - Dvorak
슈베르트 - Schubert
브람스 - Brahms
모짜르트 - Mozart

You probably can't appreciate the difficulty Koreans have of translating into their language unless you can read hangeul.

Japan - the land where cars stop for red lights, people can cross the road safely at pedestrian crossings, the Christmas decorations and done tastefully and on a grand scale and everything is unaffordable.

Keiko, a former flatmate of ours, was waiting for us at the ferry terminal and drove us to Fukuoka Tower which had Christmas Tree Lights along the sides. We walked along the beach and up to JAL Hotel, the one shaped like a knife - but it is actually huge inside - and we took the extremely fast lifts from the 4th to 17th floors and 17th to the Observation Deck on the 35th. You do NOT notice the lift going up. We then took the lift with views of outside down to the 4th floor. The escalators in Japan are much quicker than those in Korea.

Yu-Jin's Japanese girlfriend. Some poor girl getting her photo taken inside the JAL Hotel and she obliged for a photo.

Saw a woman smoking in public. You don't see heathens such as this in Korea. Not too many cars park illegally - unlike Korea. Lots of cars have GPS including Keiko's mother's car.

GPS - Every car must have one. Lots of the Japanese have them.

We had some really strange backstreets to drive down to get to Keiko's mum's house. Her mum, Kiyoko, made a lovely meal with fried chicken, tomato avocado, salad with mayo, eggs, cucumber etc, Japanese soup, rice, and kimchee amongst others. Absolutely delicious. Kiyoko is a maths teacher, Keiko is an English teacher and her sister Mariko is a violin teacher.

Kiyoko has been to Sydney, Adelaide and Canberra before. Her English isn't too bad. Mariko doesn't speak more than a few words [Editor's note - this was found to be not true as time wore on]. My Japanese started to come back to me.

Keiko's dog, Robby (11), is a Welsh corgi and doesn't act his age. He had a good time with Yu-Jin and got a bit too excited, if you know what I mean.

I found out that the two sides of Japan have different voltages for power. Huh? Keiko leant me her battery charger cable so that I could charge my camera battery. Luckily my charger automatically ranges from 100-250 V, 50/60 Hz.

One of the strangest things was the toilet where the lid tried to open as you entered the room (it doesn't work properly now), the seat was very warm and the toilet flushed by itself once you had finished your business. Bit of a culture shock that. With the toilet seat not opening properly it was going up and down and looked like it was trying to talk to you.

The Japanese have gadgets for everything including an o-cha (green tea) maker [Editor's note - it is just a hot water maker (wife told me off)]. You never know what is going to go off next as you walk around the apartment.

Hammy's 2005 Trip To Korea And Japan - Nov 24th

Japanese apartment carpark. I love the way that they save space with these things and the fact that your car can be parked underground. Should be more of this in the world.

One rather small car park.

People smoke inside restaurants - how disgusting. Nobody talks on the bus - quite the opposite from Korea. On the bus you pay for exactly the distance that you travel - the ultimate user-pays society.

Yusentei Koen (park) was magnificent. It was a short walk from Keiko's house and surprisingly she has never visited. There was a lot of confusion at the ticket office as the lady didn't speak English, had given us a discount anyway, and didn't have the right change. She had to call someone else to run down with some change. We were only charge 160 Yen (A$2) each for entry. They had so many koi (carp) and some were huge. Spent close to an hour walking around the private garden. Absolutely delightful.

Yusentei Koen is magnificent.

















Koi - and there were lots of them. When the local river was poisoned and the koi died Yusentei Koen offered them some of their own koi.

















Silent contemplation - alright, it's posing.

Office space you can rent.

The bus was a bit confusing but not too much. We stopped near Canal City and had a lok at a shopping mall across the road. There we found the fabulous 100 Yen Shop and another shop carrying lovely crockery. In Canal City we had lunch in Chanto restaurant - karaage (780 Yen) and katsudon (880 Yen). Quite reasonably priced and peppermint tea was good. Water features at Canal City are spectacular.

Careful how you park your Beemer.

Japanese-style eatery.

Stupid name for a shop - DOPE.

The 100 Yen Shop - my kind of place. Now that Japan has a consumption tax of 5% they need to rename it The 105 Yen Shop. False advertising really.

Vending machine for lunch. Well, the lunch ticket at least. Obviously no need for waitstaff in this joint. Takes the personal touch of out it a bit, don't you think?

Lunch - bit plasticky.

Toilet sign.

Christmas Tree at Canal City.

Somebody having their wedding photos taken with a fantastic water fountain in the backgound. This happens every day at Canal City.

Sexy Play Zone. Hmmm.

What a strange country. Smoking is permitted inside of restaurants but there was one restaurant where smoking was NOT permitted OUTSIDE!

We wandered down towards Fukuoka Station but stopped one street short. Miky got upset with me and we caught a bus. Of course we went straight past the train station, didn't we? I had to ask the driver if we had passed the station - bit of a waste of 200 Yen. I did know where I was. Caught the train, after getting some help from the station office (very helpful and friendly), and it was an express. Our plan was to change at Fukutsukaichi and board a train for Dazaifu, an old capital and our intended destination. I accidently got us to jump on the train to Daizenji instead of Dazaifu (they start with the same letters, don't they) and wondered why the other train at the station, also a local train, was heading to Dazaifu as well. After the two stops we needed to go, which should have placed us at the terminus, I soon realised that we were on the wrong train.

Did I get the lecture about how a particular person's life was ruined and how the holiday was being wrecked and what a waste of a day, etc, etc. No names mentioned. Managed to right the wrong fairly quickly and we arrived about 30 minutes later than planned. Grabbed a tourist map and off we went to experience all that Dazaifu had to offer.

Torii galore in Dazaifu

Cemetary

First stop was the very special garden at Komyozenji and boy was it crowded. Even I made a donation. I visited this place in '96 and I was glad to return with a digital camera so that I could take as many photos as I wanted. Miky even took the camera and got a bit snap-happy. One photo shows the people lined up to take photos of the garden. It is a special place.

Komyozenji

Komyozenji

Komyozenji

Photo of people taking photos at Komyozenji

Komyozenji

The front of Komyozenji

Then we walked over to Dazaifu Tenmangu which is the main temple. There was a ceremony going on and I took a few pics of a little girl all dressed up including footwear that made it almost impossible for her to walk. We bought a few things as gifts and the gold finish on the buddhas was wonderful.

Entrance to Dazaifu Tenmangu

Nice gate

Free drinks

Poser drinking

Christmas wishlisht or prayers?

Messages. Not quite sure what for. If you do please feel free to fill me in.

The shrine at Dazaifu Tenmangu

Gold everywhere

Cute kid all dressed up for the ceremony that took place.

Shops and autumn leaves

Another toilet sign.

Asian toilet without seat. No rest for the wicked. Yu-Jin hates using these.

Having a National Museum coupon we decided to visit. The poor lady at the ticket office checked all of her coupons and needed her glasses before realising that we were in the wrong place. We had actually visited the World of National Treasures by mistake. She still gave us a discount! Some fabulous calligraphy, swords, armoured suits and perhaps an emporer's caboose.

Lots of shopping followed as it is quite a tourist area. Caught the correct trains back to Fukuoka Tenjin. Tried to ring Keiko but kept getting a message. I asked the info desk girl for some help as we didn't know if the phone was working properly or not. It was certainly taking our money! She telephoned to see if she could help us but they wouldn't let her leave the booth. By the time I returned to Miky she had finally contacted Keiko and she came 25 minutes later.

How do you make sense of this? It's the type of thing that we were faced with all the time. Luckily it would change to Romaji soon enough.

Japanese-style shopping trolley. They're big on miniature in this country.

We caught the bus to Daiei - a shopping centre/department store. Bought lots of food for tea. Mariko met us in the shop and drove us home and had tea with us. Yu-Jin, being only five, rides on public transport for free. Downloaded photos onto the computer. Watched a show about Seiko Matsuda. You may remember her as a teenage pop singer who went by the name of Seiko.

Miky finds the trains and telephones to be very frustrating as there is no English and she doesn't know any Japanese. I like her style in this case as she just speaks English and it appears to get the job done more easily as the Japanese are put on the backfoot and have to speak English.

There was a bit of rain in the morning. First thing we took Robby the dog for a walk - Kiyoko, Yu-Jin and myself. Robby goes nuts at motorbikes and even scooters. Dumb dog can't tell the difference. Yu-Jin lost him a couple of times when he went nuts. Our walk took an hour and was very refreshing.

Yu-Jin taking Robby for a walk.

Nice garden. I quite like the way the Japanese look after their gardens so why don't we have a few photos dedicated to them.

Nice garden.

Nice garden.

Nice garden.

Nice garden.

Nice garden.

Nice garden from above but perhaps it's a bit overgrown.

Hammy's 2005 Trip To Korea And Japan - Nov 25th

Went for our morning walk with the dog. Did I mention that he was so well toilet trained that he doesn't poo in the house and waits for his walk? Robby then poos on tissue paper and there is no mess at all. I've got it on video if you are interested.

Dog with a surprise for you.

Another nice garden.

Guchan the friendly pig.

Safety house sign.

Pianist in the making?

Daiei store is extremely interesting. Downstairs in B1 they have the electronics store and heaps of arcade games for kids - you have to pay, of course. For the adults there are some gambling machines. The flash memory for cameras is a little more expensive then BIC Central (Big Camera House). Upstairs on 1 Floor they have the Nishi Nippon City Bank.

Arcade games in the department store. Keeps the kids busy I guess and keeps the money ticking over for the store.

Obviously the government sanctions gambling in this country wherever it takes place. This was downstairs in a department store. I only found out later that no photos were allowed to be taken inside the entire building.

Do-it-yourself bus fares.

Electricians aren't too tidy in Japan.

Vending machine for kids' toys. We bought one of these.

Funny shop names - BOOK OFF and CIAOPANIC.

Sale sign at Suzutan - Members thanks sale.

Japanese use little machines, i.e. diggers etc, for their works as the city is quite developed whereas the Koreans use heavy earthmoving equipment as they have massive projects. I've taken over 600 photos so far [Editor's Note - we've noticed!]. Mini skirts and knee-high boots are definitely the fashion in Japan. Japanese girls with too high high heels walk around like The Thunderbirds.

We spent the day shopping in Canal City. Miky went her way and Yu-Jin and I went to the Sega shop. Found some cheap shoes on sale at another store. After lunch at a sushi restaurant, felt like being back at Jaws Sushi in Perth, we did a little more window shopping before catching a bus to Hakata Station. Bought some cheap, open-ended return tickets to Nagasaki. Mariko told us that the normal tickets were just over 9000 Yen but we could get two adult return tickets for 10000 Yen. What a bargain. It's good to have friends. Uneventful but comfortable train ride. Rang our friends in Nagasaki, Sachie and Ryuji, once we arrived. Before Ryuji collected us we bought some biscuits and castella cake, this region is famous for it, as omiyage, to go along with the present I had brought from Australia.

Another couple taking wedding photos in Canal City Fukuoka.

Kay-Eppu-See.

Toilet sign. These things were neverending.

Our train to Nagasaki.

Ryuji picked us up in his BMW. Nice. Sachie prepared a lovely tea and we had so much to talk about. Yu-Jin just wanted to talk about the arcade games at the Sega shop. Sachie put on a "Beauty and the Beast" video to shut him up for a couple of hour and allowed the adults to talk. Brilliant move.

Book the cat. Yu-Jin's favourite thing from Nagasaki.

Miky and Yu-Jin went to bed around 10 pm and Ryuji, Sachie and I talked until after 12 and watched the pictures I had taken so far as a slideshow. We made a few backups of the pictures just to be sure. I did some blogging and checked emails until 1 am.

I kept bumping into the light in the bedroom. Really, I'm not that tall. The upstairs toilet is cool as it has a wash basin which fills the toilet after being flushed.

Very cool and sensible toilet. Why don't we have these in our country?

Hammy's 2005 Trip To Korea And Japan - Nov 27th

Gosh, we were up talking until a quarter past one this morning. Miky woke me up at 8am. Ryuji and I were due to go for a walk in the morning but it had been raining severely overnight and looked like it may continue to rain. Ryuji drove us to the top of Inasayama and then into the city to Nagaskai Museum of History and Culture. We paid for the entrance fee. Unfortunately only the titles of the exhibits were in English and there wasn't much to digest. It's the only museum that I've had to take my shoes off and carry around with me along with having to stand up to watch a movie in 3D. There was a short play and we were able to have our photo taken with the actors afterwards. The lady at the entrance said that she would give Miky a poster when she had asked where she could get one from.

We paid a quick visit to the art display to see Sachie's painting and Ryuji parked in a no parking zone for the duration. Next stop was Glover Garden where the first European house was built in Japan by Thomas Glover, a Scottish merchant. The buildings were well preserved, including Walter House, and the views were fantastic. Pity that the Diamond Princess was in the harbour, on route from Beijing to Singapore as that meant heaps of overweight and nasally-sounding Americans in the vicinity [Editor's note - you're gonna have to go easy on the Yankee-bashing or you'll upset some people].

Ryuji felt compelled to buy lunch at the ANA Hotel as he had used their carpark. Talk about a problem getting parking in the area. I ordered Jou Jou Steak. Unknowingly, I ordered a medium rare steak. Still tasted alright. Service was excellent too. After lunch we were dropped off at Nagasaki Station and window shopped for 45 minutes. Pity we didn't get to say goodbye to Sachie. Caught our train to Fukuoka.

Yu-Jin kept calling Peace Park as "Quiet Park". Sachie gave Yu-Jin a video and lots of little toys. She gave Miky a lovely necklace. Me, I think I just got fed very well. They are wonderful people.

Yu-Jin slept all the way back to Hakata Station. I got an hours sleep. We had to move him a couple of time as people came to claim their seats.

Hakata Station, at 6pm on a Sunday, was very busy. Quite understandable really. Everybody is heading home after a weekend away. No bank was open to exchange money though. Miky rang Keiko to ask about taking them out to tea. Her mum was walking the dog so we had to call later.

Went out to look for a bus but exited the wrong side of the station. Asked a parking guy for instructions and we found the bus stop ok. Alighted at Tenjin Station and rang Keiko. Too late, they had had tea. We searched for a real Japanese restaurant but I suggested going downstairs at the train station as there is usually a food hall. Miky was having none of that and walked the streets searching, getting frustrated, getting angry with me for staying so long in Nagasaki, etc. You know, women stuff. If she had called from Nagasaki all of the trouble would've been averted. Finally found a restaurant where someone spoke English - guess where - in the food hall below the train station. Genius.

I told Miky where to get off from the bus stop on the way home but she insisted on going to the next stop. I was right about the bus stop too. Keiko's grandma, aged 92, was at home. We had cake and chocolates with green tea. Keiko and Miky talked until after 12am even though Keiko had to leave by 7am for an extra class. Robby was quite pleased to play with Yu-Jin and try to dry hump him. Formatted my memory stick to regain memory space as it had been reduced to 33MB from 512MB.

Hammy's 2005 Trip To Korea And Japan - Nov 26th

Busy day. Sachie cooked rissoles amongst other things for breakfast. Minimalist but very tasty - diet material. Sachie booked and paid for a taxi to take us to Dejima - the former Dutch factory. The driver wouldn't accept any payment and intimated that it had been paid for. We were forced to take the taxi and the bus came quite irregularly and I think they felt bad about that. No end to the feeling of shame or saving face. Amazing actually.

First Ship Captain's Room at Dejima village reconstruction.

Old Dutch cannon. I think it was a present from the Dutch Government celebrating the 400th anniversary of the Dutch in Japan.

Dejima in miniature.

Can't remember what the bridge is about. Nice spot for a pic though.

The Dutch were made to live on an island so that Christianity wouldn't be spread in Japan. Didn't work. Lovely miniature village. Miky bought some lovely glasses - one for herself, one for Kiyoko and one for Sachie. I'm afraid that Sachie has started something by showing all of her fine china.

Caught a tram to Glover Garden, but it was heading to Spectacles Bridge, but it really headed to Sofukuji. That was on our list of places to visit and it didn't really matter which ordered we visited them in. Miky was unhappy about the 300 Yen entrance fee as it was a Chinese temple in Japan and not high on her list of sights. We like Nagasaki better than Fukuoka as a foreigner-friendly city as there are many signs in English and it isn't too difficult to get around. Just need to pay more attention to the destination of the tram that you are catching.

Sofukuji entrance - Chinese temple in Nagasaki.

The backside of the entrance.

Sofukuji Inner Gate - at national treasure. Built in 1696 it is the only example in Japan of southern Chinese architectural style of complex jointing under the eaves. Pretty good reason to be a national treasure, don't you think?

The temple at Sofukuji.

The shrine - at least part of it in one of the buildings.

Great Cauldron at Sofukuji. It was used to feed 3000-5000 people per day in 1681 after the rice crops failed in 1680. Only reached the status of Municipal Treasure.

Couple of tourists in the background.

An older and anrefurbished part of Sofukuji.

Cemetary. Just a small part of it.

The main shrine. Gorgeous.

There was another shrine, free entry this time, before we went to the Spectacles Bridge. Unfortunately the water was too low for a decent reflection.

Another picturesque gate but I don't recall seeing a sign in English telling me what it was for. There was nothing much behind it.

Free temple entrance.

Somebody important, at least in their own mind, is buried here.

Beaut temple.

Statues out the front looking a little bit weathered. Perhaps the a-bomb 60 years ago has something to do with that.

More statues guarding the entrance to the temple.

These statues are not as colourful as the Korean ones.

Buddha all dressed up for a party. Maybe not.

Huge cemetary. It's so popular that people are just dying to get it.

Huge Buddha and lotus flower inside the shrine.

Spectacles Bridge. Not looking too spectacular.

Sachie had told Miky about a shop that sold Koga dolls and she found it. Everything else in the shop had a price tag but the doll, they are quite famous, only had something written which we expected translated to "You can't afford this so don't pretend you can and don't ask how much!". We stopped for lunch and inside the shopping centre there was a cultural experience with carving, pottery, wall making etc, and Yu-Jin made a dinosaur and used a robot to shoot shuttlecocks.

Yu-Jin's dinosaur.

Ice sculpture - someone has some talent.

Kimono on display.

Pottery at the craft display.

Macdonaldu.

Woodcarving at the craft display.

The finished product. Pretty naff.

Nagasaki tram.

Jumped on the tram to Hotarujaya to visit Ryuji's clinic. He's a neurologist. His plan for the afternoon was to drive us around the sights in the northern part of Nagasaki as they were numerous and not necessarily easy to get to via public transport. Private transport was the go. We picked up Sachie from home and ventured to Urukami Cathedral, the Second Torii Arch at Sanno Shinto Shrine, Peace Park and the Atomic Bomb Museum. Yu-Jin was suitably impressed but felt a little pained by the photos of people with injuries. Worthwhile taking him there. He couldn't understand that the devastation that he could see had taken place in Nagasaki and wanted to see it. How could they have cleaned it up? Well, it took place 60 years ago.

Houses going all the way up the hillside.

View from near Ryuji and Sachie's house.

Remains of statues at Urakami Cathedral.

Not much detail left on the statues.

The one-legged torii plaque.

One-legged torii - Second Torii Arch at Sanno Shinto Shrine. This is 800m from the hypocentre.

The Peace Statue in Peace Park. This was erected in 1955 and is made from bronze. The elevated right hand points to the threat of nuclear weapons, while the outstretched left hand symbolises tranquility and world peace. Divine omnipotence and love are embodied in the sturdy physique and gentle countenance of the statue, and a prayer and repose of the souls of all war victims is expressed in the closed eyes. Also, the folded leg symbolises quiet meditation, while the left leg is poised for action in assisting humanity. Right, so that's what the artist was thinking.

Paper cranes for peace.

Ryuji, Yu-Jin, Miky and me.

Ashes of unknown persons numbering about 7000 from the day of the blast. In 1975 the number of persons had reached 8927.

Peace Statue from a different angle.

Maiden Statue.

The remains of Nagasaki Prison Urakami Branch Prison. Needless to say, there were no survivors from the 134 staff and prisoners.

I think this statue is from Nagasaki City itself.

Ryuji and Peace Statue - Bros.

Then it was off to Natsume Restaurant for a true Japanese meal experience which took place in a tea drinking room. A small door slides open so that the waitpersons can enter and as they have to duck to enter they are in fact bowing to you. The meal consisted of tea, karasumi (Mullet eggs and radish), kai (shellfish), sazae (a shell - nice), ginko nuts, deep fried shrimp paste with bread crumbs, tamagoyaki egg roll, sashimi and squid, miso soup, sharkfin and Japanese zucchini, steamed rice and mushrooms. What an excellent meal. I dare not ask how much it cost. There was a storm and lightning during the meal.

Natsume Restaurant - notice the small door for entry. Ryuji, me and Sachie.

Ginko nuts, shell (nice), something, the radish and salmon.

Deep fried shrimp paste with bread crumbs.

Sashimi - little bit hard to get down without the sauce.

Shark fin soup.

Hammy's 2005 Trip To Korea And Japan - Nov 28th

I got up before 7am to say goodbye to Keiko. I missed out on Robby's morning walk. When Yu-Jin woke up and found out that he had missed the walk he was very disappointed. Once Miky got up we, Kiyoko, Yu-Jin, Miky and I, went for another walk. This time we went around Saosaka. On the way home we wanted to say goodbye to Guchan, the pet pig, and the owner was there. We had said "Good evening," in passing last night. The pig's owner grabbed some sweet potatoes for us to feed her with. Guchan can sit and shake hands upon command.

Obviously a Japanese sign for Give Way or Yield.

Sasaoka Park sign. I wonder why it is so important to mention the area of the park? Is it for bragging rights? "My park is bigger than your park. We can afford it." Must be worth a heck a lot in rates.

Another well-tended garden. Must be too many pensioners with time on their hands in Japan.

Guchan the pet pig. Very friendly and obedient.

Some Japanese picked up during our stay:

Oidet - come here
Osuwari - sit
Ote - shake
Dame - bad
Opuro - bathroom
Owasuke - drop it

Mariko drove us to Daiei department store and even paid for Yu-Jin to play some games in the arcade section. You get a card either to play the game or afterwards. What a great way to get kids hooked on games. The Japanese are pretty smart when it comes to installing addictions in people.

Mariko then drove us to the mall next to Canal City so that Miky could collect her china and buy some more. She then dropped us off near BIC Central/Mitsukoshi (another large department store) where we headed off to Daimaru for lunch. Miky got instructions to the restaurant area and we had spaghetti dishes. Most excellent. Unfortunately we had very limited time and just caught the bus that we needed to get to Hakata Port International Terminal. We were even more lucky to have enough change to pay for the departure tax of 400 Yen/adult. Pretty much perfect timing actually.

Can't believe the onigiri (sticky rice, filling and seaweed) costs more in the supermarket than in the railway station - but they do. Delicious by the way.

Our movie on the ferry back to Korea was called "Arahan" and was a Korean fighting movie in the same vein as Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. Not too bad. Dialogue in Korean and subtitles in Korean. Going to Japan previously and the movie was in Japanese. I declared my seashells at customs and there weren't any problems.

We caught a ride with a crazy taxi driver [Editor's note - aren't they all?]. I don't believe that he signalled once and didn't mind pushing in or cutting corners. If somebody else tried to push in, even whilst signalling, he tailgated and tooted his horn. Arrived in one piece, dropped our bags off as Jon was home, and went out for tea. I had bibimbap. Looked through a souvenir shop and bought an award-winning doll for Sachie and Ryuji. After tea we had donuts and coffee/hot chocolate at Holly's Coffee. One of the coffees alone sells for 12000 Won (A$16!!!!!!!)

James the baby was there when we arrived. Bed at about 11pm. Miky and I made plans for the rest of the trip. Tomorrow Yu-Jin and I will go to Gyeonju and Miky wants to go to a hot bath.

Hammy's 2005 Trip To Korea And Japan - Nov 29th

My alarm went off this morning and I got up. A little while later I realised that it was my 5:50am alarm from home and not the 6:30 alarm that I had set. It's the first time in nearly two weeks that I have heard that particular alarm. Went back to sleep and consequently missed the 6:30 alarm.

Had breakfast with Jon and said, "Anytime you are in New Zealand we are only a 7 hr flight away." He thanked me for the invite. [Editor's note - His plan is to retire to NZ.]

Following breakfast Yu-Jin and I jumped on the subway to Myeongnyeong-dong. A halmoni (grandma) beckoned Yu-Jin sit next to her, insisted in fact, and proceeded to hug him. She was a Buddhist and was dressed in hanbok. She kept talking to Yu-Jin and gave two prayer books, Buddhist in nature. I handed a koala for Yu-Jin to give to her. Then she handed over a folded up 1000 Won note. I thought that I'm not going to up the ante here. Later on I pointed to her buddhist beads to show Yu-Jin that is what they wear and she wanted to hand them over. Thanks, but no thanks.

Alighted the subway at the East Busan Bus Terminal. Or, at least, what used to be the East Busan Bus Terminal. The girl at the information desk wasn't in a hurry to provide any information so I asked a fellow subway traveller and we worked it all out in Korean. At the end of the conversation he said to me, "You understand?". So, I wasted another 900 Won. At least the subway is quite cheap.

Korean girls are noticeably larger (fatter) than Japanese girls. People are much louder in Korea also. The drivers don't have the patience shown by the Japanese. People are more refined, or have more class, in Japan. Business is conducted in a much more structured manner, not find an uninhabited street corner and set up shop. Japan had no real markets to speak of although we did see a secondhand market outside the craft display in Nagasaki.

The bus ticket for me to Gyeonju cost 4000 Won and Yu-Jin's ticket was 2000 Won. Only 14 adults on the 1 hr 10 mins ride and I can't believe that they are making money [Editor's note - I can't believe that I can read your handwriting from the bus trip]. The bus still has to pay for the Expressway toll, fuel, a ticket collector, bus driver, maintenance etc. The ticket collector made me sit next to Yu-Jin and her reasoning was "Dangerous!". Why? We both had seatbelts on. How much safer can he possibly get by me sitting next to him? The Expressway was quite busy for a weekday morning, I thought. Bus ride was less than 50 mins.

Tourist info ladies were very helpful for English maps, bus numbers and accommodation. Mr Park was very accommodating and offered us a room for 15000 Won [Editor's note - I'm sure that Miky and I stayed in the same yeogwan in 1998!]. Yu-Jin and I jumped on a bus to Bulguksa - the largest Buddhist temple in Korea.

Entry was 4000 Won for me. There were quite a few students there and the scenery was lovely. Some girls wanted to have their photo taken with Yu-Jin and then he took their photo and that of the Korean Jim Carrey. Yu-Jin built his own stone balancing temple to go with hundreds of others and then swept some leaves up. Must be some Buddhist-values rubbing off on him.

Even the bus stops in Gyeongju have the tiled roof. I believe that there is a law that buildings in the district must have tiled rooves as it is a sort of living museum and the historical look is to be preserved.

I love the information signs in Korea - so classy.

Near the entrance of Bulguksa. Lovely leaves still on show.

Yu-Jin at the entrance to the temple. Bulguksa dates back to the year 751!

Lovely pond with bridge.

Close-up of the bridge.

Keep those evil spirits away. That ukelele really is scary.

Bit of scenery.

Picture postcard stuff, this.

There's going to be a few pictures of this taken along the way.

More leaves and stuff.

Not too many people take the time and make the effort to get a photo from this angle. Not really surprising though, eh? She is a majestic building, eh what?

Inside the complex.

Another angle of the front section. They even gave names to the bridges leading up to the temple and both of them are national treasures.

Korean Jim Carrey. At least that is who he proclaimed to be. I'll give him his five seconds of fame.

Some girls who insisted on Yu-Jin having his photo with them. He then proceeded to take their photo.

Seokgatap - National Treasure No. 21.

Big drum. Rather ornate.

Eaves detail.

Dabotap - National Treasure No. 20. Built in 751.

Dae Ung Jon - Great Enlightenment Hall which was originally constructed in 681.

Rather a lot of woodwork has been utilised for this building.

Moo Sol Jeon - No Word Hall. "Impossible to express and reach the essence of the Buddha's teachings as the depth of Truth throughout means of language."

No, they're not bodyguards. They appear to be a couple of businessmen enjoying a day out of the office.

Nice little gate.

What danger do the stairs present exactly?

Eaves and autumn leaves.

Sarira Pagoda. Treasure No. 61 (what, not a National Treasure?). Looks like a lantern. This was taken by the Japanese but retrieved in 1933.

Yu-Jin's rocks - dol tap (stone tower).

Dol tap everywhere. Must be a scarcity of rocks in the vicinity.

Doorway dol tap.

Wall dol tap.

Nice walls around this place. Could do with some of these around my garden at home.

Yu-Jin just couldn't resist doing some sweeping. Wish he was like this at home.

More autumn leaves.

Toilet sign.

More autumn leaves. Love them, me.

One large donger.

Everybody has this photo but how many have no people in the shot?

Flagpole pillars. Must have been some flagpole.

Looks a little bit like a cold war outpost.

After Bulguksa we had a quick lunch followed by a bus trip (1300 Won) to Seokkoram Grotto - 석굴암(entry fee 4000 Won) where it was only 5 degrees C. Three busloads of students rocked up at the same time as we did so we decided to beat them as they would take ages. I just had to take photos of them filing through before we went for another look. They, the students, don't have any time to experience anything. Just the [limited] experience of been there, seen that. Took the bus back to Bulguksa but got off at the top instead of the bottom entrance and so missed the next bus into town. Didn't matter too much but I would have preferred that bus as it took a different route.

Students going to Seokguram Grotto. Bloody lot of them.

Here the students are filing through and only get a couple of seconds to see this major tourist attraction.

This is the building housing the stone Buddha. Not allowed to take photos inside unfortunately so I had to buy the postcards instead. It's the only statue of Buddha overlooking the East Asia Sea, or something.

Groovy Tree. (Don't faint Megha)

How to save 1300 Won on a bus fare.

Got off near the train station and walked through some back streets to Tumuli Park. Came across a white dog called Minky and it's owner thought it was very funny when Yu-Jin told it to be quiet in Korean. The entrance to Tumuli Park was some distance away. I decided that we should look at Cheomseongdae before Tumuli Park as we could do that on the walk home. Sounded like a good idea. Probably wasn't a bad idea as my camera battery went flat just as I was about to take my first photo of Cheomseongdae. And I had paid to enter the grounds as well! At least it would be open until 10pm so we could return once my battery was charged. We walked all the way home as I didn't know which bus to catch.

One of the mounds in Tumuli Park. There are some 40 kings and queens buried in this area. Pity I didn't get more photos during the day.

Tractor travel. The guy gave me a wave once he realised that I was taking his photo. Although Korea is very densely populated you still see farmers getting around by whatever means.

Men's toilet - very classy sign.

Women's toilet sign - also very classy.

Smokers get looked after too much in Korea.

Cheomseongdae - 첨성대- closed. Oldest observatory in East Asia. Built some time between 632 and 647.

Cheomseongdae - using the zoom at night.

Set the charger going and we went out to find somewhere to eat. That was a mission in itself as a lot of places didn't advertise or sell bibimbap which is what I wanted. Finally found a place and we had chamchi kimbap (tuna sushi), odeng (fishcake) and bibimbap. All that for 7000 Won (less than 10 bucks). Took some back streets to get home. Once back at our yeoinseok we met Wendy and Alice from the Gold Coast. Alice was adopted about 17 years ago from Korea and it is the first time that she has been back. She is searching for her mum but has only found an old address at this stage. They had some good stories to share. Wendy sells motor homes.

Wendy told me that they had hired a taxi for six hours and seen all the sights. It cost them 100000 Won (A$130) after the taxi driver had offered his services for 120000 Won initially. I had had two drivers ask me if I needed a taxi to sightsee when I arrived. We talked until midnight. Wendy is quite an artist and had started a great picture of Bulguksa that she planned to paint. Yu-Jin was very interested in the picture. She plans to come to Perth in March for a bike ride from Albany.

A very busy day with lots of walking, let me tell you.

Hammy's 2005 Trip To Korea And Japan - Nov 30th

Early start to the day as we had an 8 o'clock bus to catch. Wendy got up before we left but Alice was still asleep. I had bought breakfast just after 7am and we managed to get to the bus station with minutes to spare. Then I couldn't find any tickets! The ones that I bought yesterday upon arrival so that there would be no trouble getting back to Busan and everything would be organised nicely for smooth sailing. You know, those tickets. Panic set in and I got to the stage where I decided to buy the tickets again and as I made my way to the ticket office I saw the ticket lady waving a ticket to somebody else and I remembered that I had left the tickets in my diary. Crisis averted.

Just over the 50 minute mark for the trip to Busan. The bus driver wanted to shake Yu-Jin's hand as he got off. I couldn't believe that there were only three adults and one child on the bus - total fares of 14000 Won - that's as much as the bus pays to use the Expressway alone. Yu-Jin counted 67 trucks that we passed, on our side of the Expressway, but there were quite a few that he missed. He's suddenly picked up this thing about counting. The other day he asked me how many people in the world and when I replied, "six billion" he wanted to count up to six billion.

That's what I call a bus terminal.

It was relaxing to catch the subway at Nopodong as it is the terminus and no-one was on the train. No need to try to find a seat or have to stand. Nobody trying to sell us anything either, at the moment. Saw an add for a bank inside the train and it was in Korean, Chinese, English and Russian.

Out of the subway station in Busan we took the wrong exit, had walked down to one end of the station, and I was beginning to think that maybe we had alighted at the wrong station. Kept walking until I noticed Eun-jeong's apartment. Eun-jeong bought tickets online, to get herself some reward points, for the slow train to Seoul which was to take a tick under five and a half hours. She then gave us a ride to the station to see us off and help us with our mountain of luggage.

Busan station was very busy. So busy in fact that you could only enter the platform within 15 minutes of your train departing. That's fairly well organised but I guess these Koreans know how to deal with large numbers of people. The station wasn't too friendly for foreigners-with-too-much-baggage, I must say.

Nearly five and a half hours of nothing to do. Played knuckles with Yu-Jin after his two and a half hours sleep. He loves the game, a little bit too much. Saw a few burial mounds near the railway line and a few KTX trains fly past. We stopped at Seoul Station to change trains and for a toilet break. Yu-Jin went to the toilet first so that I could hold his jacket and then I went but while he was waiting for me some guy wanted to put his jumper on and gave his jacket to Yu-Jin to hold. When we walked out of the toilet the man gave Yu-Jin 1000 Won and I didn't have a clue what was going on as I hadn't seen any of it. Just a tad worrying at the time until Yu-Jin explained the situation.

With great difficulty, and the kind help of a fellow commuter, we managed to get our luggage down the stairs at Doksan Station. Then the first taxi driver refused to take us but the next guy did. Finding Miky's friend's apartment wasn't easy as it was dark and all the apartments look the same. Got the driver to drop us off. Wandered around and asked a few people without much success. Apartment no. 1017 was not near 1015 or 1016 but near 1103. Don't ask me why.

Nice to see Young-in, Jeong-yoon and Seong-hoon again. Went out for tea and the restaurant was so beautifully decorated with artwork it was amazing. The owner was an artist and he had many collected works - masks, figurines, clocks (Victoria Station), paintings, statues, etc. Ventured to Outlet2001 to get some snacks for the kids and then bakery products. Young-in is looking much healthier than last time we saw her (had a newborn back then) and she doesn't have a Seoul accent but her son, Seong-hoon, sure does. Not sure about Jeong-yoon's accent. We plan to take the kids to Seoul Land on Saturday. Bit of a late night with much talking after Young-in's husband, Gi-young, came home.


Young-in, Gi-young (back row), Yu-Jin, Seong-hoon, Jeong-yoon, Miky (front row)

The Men.

Real kim chee.

View from apartment, sans snow.

View from apartment, sans snow.

View from apartment, sans snow.

Hammy's 2005 Trip To Korea And Japan - Dec 1st

Young-in made a nice breakfast. She paid for tea last night when we tried really hard to not let her. Honestly. About 10am we caught the subway to Cheonan. Only 2200 Won each and it is way out in the country - well, it's the terminus. Didn't arrive until after 12pm.

A union protesting for casual workers' rights in Cheonan.

Had lunch and then caught a bus to the Korea Independence Hall. What a place. Admission was only 2000 Won and it was almost deserted. Everything was done on a huge scale. The Entrance Gate is absolutely massive.

The huge gate at the Independence Hall of Korea, Cheonan.

Puts the size of the gate into perspective.

Big statue inside the gate.

At the entrance I asked for an English guide map. As I was photographing the statue at the front I heard some clip-clop, clip-clopping. It was the info girl running towards me. She must have some important info for me I thought. She had some writings that she was translating into English and needed some help with the English bit. So, I've done my bit for Korean independence.

Hall No. 1 - The Hall of the National Hermitage. Heaps of info concerning 5000 years of invasions, civil wars, pottery, repelling of Japanese by Admiral Yi Sun-Shin. I asked a guard if I could take photos and he said ok.

Model of 80m high wooden pagoda that was built in the 6th to 7th century. Can't imagine how magnificent an achievement that was.

Yi-Sun-shin's invention, the Keobuksan - 거북산 - Turtle boat. You can see cannons, holes for archers to shoot through, and the plated roof with spikes to prevent boarding. There was also a dragon's head that breathed fire and plenty of oars for quick manoeuvreing.

Yi Sun-shin's 197.5cm sword. The pen is not mightier than this sword.

Hall No. 2 - The Hall of the Nationalist Movement. It details the forfeiture of national sovereignty to the Japanese and how they went about it from the unfair treaty that was signed in 1876 up to the annexation in 1910. I had no idea that Korea was occupied for such a long time.

Hall No. 3 - The Hall of the Japanese Aggression. Skip to Hall No. 4 if you are squeamish. This included torture conducted upon Koreans including; being walled up in a police station until they informed on others, leg-screwing, being placed inside a box of nails, being suspended with arms tied behind back with a rifle in between to suspend you from the ceiling and getting beaten, some water torture whereby they had to drink and drink, etc. Quite horrible really. Miky didn't want to see and Yu-Jin wasn't allowed to. Can't argue with fact - shame on the Japanese.

Hall No. 4 - The Hall of the March First Independence Movement. Even though the Korean identity was suppressed with the people changing their names to Japanese, the Korean language was outlawed, and the land was taken away from the Koreans who became virtual slaves, they were/are a resilient people. I'm amazed that the Korean resistance was strong enough to organise a nationwide march for independence which went from 1/3-30/4/1919 and went worldwide. It came about because the Japanese secreted away much rice due to crop failure in Japan which made the price skyrocket in Korea so that people couldn't afford it.

Hall No. 5 - The Hall of the Independence War. It outlines the formation of the Independence Army which mainly fought the Japanese in Siberia and Manchuria and the heroes who took part in guerilla warfare with the most famous being Ahn Jeung-gwon who cut off a knuckle from two fingers to write a declaration in his own blood and leave an imprint of his hand as well. Stirring stuff. Ahn assassinated the Japanese General in charge of Korea at the time.

Hall No. 6 - The Hall of the Social and Cultural Movement. We skipped through this and had lemon tea to drink.

Hall No. 7 - The Hall of the Korean Provisional Government. We missed this completely.

The Circle Vision Theater - 360 degrees theatre which played a movie about Korea. Not truly inspiring.

The trees get looked after here. Somebody needs to explain to me why this is necessary.

One of the best places that we have visited, without doubt. Caught a bus back to Cheonan and then another to Asan. I was surprised that the cost for the bus was only 950 Won as it didn't appear to be a local bus. And there appeared to be no break between the towns of Cheonan, Onyang and Asan although the map clearly shows them to be seperate towns. Miky wanted to go to a hot spring (oncheon) hotel and a lady on the bus asked the bus driver where a good place to go was.

Got a bus to Asan Spa. We chose the White House for 45000 Won, dropped our bags off and then looked for another place as Miky wasn't happy with the room. Found another place for 30000 Won, with Internet for free and not another 5000 Won in another room, and decided to change hotels. The ajumma at the White House wasn't happy and wanted to charge us 15000 Won for doing so. We thought that 5000 Won was enough. A big argument ensued and the price negotiated was 8000 Won. What a bitch. Never go there. Whilst Miky was arguing a couple came in for "a rest" and paid 20000 Won for the privelege. Obviously married but not to each other.

Our new hotel had a spa, Internet in the room, and a round bed. So much better. We were given a special room with a love machine but changed rooms [Editor's note - I didn't manage to get a photo of that very interesting machinery, dammit]. The vending machine at the end of the hall was interesting. The entrance to the car park is covered so that you can't see the number plates of vehicles inside.

Had beef for tea and went back for a very relaxing spa. Spotted an unusual shop name on the way - "US Junk".

On the bus to the spa area something strange happened - a short, chubby, talkative man was sitting behind Yu-Jin and he just slapped Yu-Jin before getting off. I saw him move his arm but couldn't be sure that he had struck him. Yu-Jin was quite shocked and wanted to know "Why did that man hit me?"

Hammy's 2005 Trip To Korea And Japan - Dec 2nd

Checked out of the Hercules Motel and walked down to the restaurant at the bus stop. I had dwen jang jji gae for breakfast and that stuff really warms you up. Miky called for a taxi to get to Hyeonchungsa - the shrine of Admiral Yi Sun-shin. The bus came straight away so we jumped on it. Sorry Mr taxi driver. Not far down the road the guy who hit Yu-Jin last night jumped on. Miky asked him if he hit Yu-Jin and he replied that he didn't take this bus last night. Bloody liar. Miky hit him with her bag and me too before calling him a jashik (bastard) in front of everybody. He was a bit stunned by this. We could tell from his body language after Miky had spoken to him that he was uncomfortable and so he was lying. Classic. Revenge is sweet.

Naughty vending machine inside the Hercules Motel.

Private parking for those monkeying around.

Petrol and diesel prices at Hyundai Oilbank.

Caught the bus from Asan to Hyeonchungsa and it was about two-thirds of the way to where we stayed. Bugger. Taxi would have been quicker and possibly cheaper. Wouldn't have been able to get the "Slapper" back though.

How many Korean men does it take to repair some paving?

Feelhaus - it's just the apartment block name, not some diry, sordid place.

The shrine itself is befitting of a national hero. My toothbrush started working while we were looking at Yi Sun-shin's house and maybe the guard thought that it was a bomb - or was that just my rampant imagination? Saw the archery field and the burial tomb of his son, Yu-myeon. The respect that should be paid at such a shrine was not forthcoming from a group of elderly tourists as they were quite noisy. There is a reception area at the shrine and the girl answered her mobile phone and sounded so bored. This area of Korea is not particularly stimulating to the locals it seems.

Why is it necessary that the sign is so accurate with the measurements?

Admiral Yi Sun-shin's home at Hyeonchungsa.

Nice house for back in those times.

Rice paper decorations were obviously the flavour of the day.

No shortage of kim chee.

They built the old houses well. Either that or they do them up well during restoration.

Graves of 3rd, 4th and 10th generation descendants and tacky tourist-aimed vending machines.

Portrait of the great man - Yi Sun-shin.

Decoration on the ceiling in the main shrine.

Hyeonchungsa.

Yu-Jin paid his respects to one of his heroes.

Gate to the main shrine.

The museum inside the grounds. The sword is on display inside.

Original shrine to Yi Sun-Shin built in 1706.

The museum has some great relics - official documents, his swords, a scaled model of the geobuksan and a guard using some hand expander tool. I was looking at some inscriptions in Chinese and an older guy said to me "Han mul" - something about it being in Chinese, and motioned to me to read something in English. Hmm, did I look stupide enough not to realise that it was written in Chinese? Just outside the museum was the original shrine - rather modest in nature. Cold day.

Bus driver, who went directly to Cheonan, was a bit rude. Once in Cheonan we looked for a place to stay. One place, Say Motel, wanted 35000 Won but we couldn't look at the room. Miky walked off in disgust at how rude they were. Another place said no and a third joint said they had no room. At 3 o'clock on a Friday afternoon you have no room, in December? What rubbish. Probably still had some possibility for "resting couples" for a few hours. Miky can't believe how rude the people are. We hardly saw any young people. Only old, rude people. No wonder Lonely Planet says that the only reason to come to Cheonan is to see the Independence Hall. I concur.

Miky found a place stay after we had lunch at Lotteria.

Danger sign in Lotteria.

No bath, just a shower. And it still cost 35000 Won. Not that we cared much by that stage. Miky rang the Gakwonsa (Gakwon Temple) to see which bus we had to catch and then walked us to the bus stop. She wanted to stay behind and rest. Talk about gridlock in this little backwater known as Cheonan. Very surprising, especially as it was 4pm. Glad I didn't take a taxi. It is Friday though.

The statue of the Buddha was huge and we had to climb 214 steps to reach it. The main building in the temple was enormous as was the two storey pavilion that housed a very large bell. Luckily for us they were ringing the bell just as we were about to leave.

Some of the 214 steps to the Buddha statue.

Gakwonsa - bell pavilion in the foreground.

Giant statue.

Really big.

Wanna be immortalised?

On the way home we waited 42 minutes for the bus. I asked the lady at Ddrak Restaurant about the bus and she said it would be 10 minutes and that we should come inside to get warm. I asked about cha (tea) and she said it would be 1000 Won because she thought I meant (ja dong) cha - car. I waited until she had finished serving her customers before asking again for cha and after clearing up the misunderstanding she told me that she only had coffee. She found a tea bag and made me some tea and gave Yu-Jin a mandarine. Not all people here are rude. However, what sort of country doesn't serve tea to drink? Barbarians.

Bus finally arrived and there was still a very large traffic jam. Journey home took one hour. The temple is only 4 kms from the city centre. Could have walked quicker.

Went to a kimbap house for tea and ordered kimbap, tuna kimbap and two mandoo soups as take out. This took a bit of explanation. As I crossed the road to go to Dunkin' Donuts a woman going the other way was running across the pedestrian crossing, fell over, and hit her head. She actually had no need to run and nobody helped her, even though she sat there for several minutes.

At Dunkin' Donuts the girls had name tags that proclaimed them to be "Part Timer"s. In Australia we call someone that doesn't work very hard a part timer.

Hammy's 2005 Trip To Korea And Japan - Dec 3rd

Walked around this morning in about -3 degrees C. Canberra Champions Trophy 2005 on the TV showed highlights from the Athens Olympics and I swear I saw Nick's sister Carmel! Not too much is open at 7:30-8:00. Entered a shop like a newsagency and the owner said neither hello or goodbye. How rude. At the train station I saw a kid eating an icecream this morning. Little bit cold for my liking.

The markets aren't too busy at this time of the morning.

How much fuel does this tanker hold? Get a real tanker.

Shop that stocks everything. Can't move around inside, but.

Ditto.

One hour and forty minutes to get from Cheonan to Doksan by subway. Not bad for 2200 Won. Almost nobody on the train when we started off.

An example of an empty subway train - Cheonan terminus.

Quite busy by the time we reached Doksan. Miky rang Mi-young, So-eun's mum, and made a time to meet at the National Museum of Korea. We wanted 2pm but she insisted on 1:30 due to the size of the place. We had to change to an unpopular train line and were late. It was about 2:10pm when we got inside. Mi-young was in a taxi collecting a friend and her kids and arrived about half an hour later. Talk about difficult to coordinate if you don't have a mobile phone.

The museum is massive and has some 22000 artifacts on display. And that was only in the Exhibition Hall. I took heaps of photos and two of the assistants told me not to use my flash - one in Korean and the other tried very hard in English to which I replied, "Mun jae obsoyo" - no problem. Many of the relics are from th e1st, 5th and 6th Centuries. Amazing what they have on display and we couldn't see anywhere near everything.

Bell in the National Museum of Korea.

Artwork - plenty of this on display. Most of my photos were blurred due to not being able to use a flash or a tripod. Not that I carried a tripod with me around the country. Don't want to look like a tourist or anything.

12th Century Celadon pitcher.

Pic of the 3rd levels, each of 2 sections - big place indeed.

Gilt-bronze crown.

Laquer dishes from 1st Century, Pyeongyang.

Wooden horse from a tomb from 1st Century, Pyeongyang.

Mr Jo, So-eun's dad, ws going to pick us up but got stuck in traffic. We took the wrong subway and had to go a few stations further. Well, I guess that it is easy to confuse 용산 with 신용산, even if you are Korean [Editor's note - no names mentioned, Miky]. A woman with one hand was very helpful with directions.

Pic of the subway train not quite full - evidenced by the fact that a girl still has room to read.

Gi-young had prepared meat for tea. It was delicious. Yu-Jin and Seong-hoon did a lot of play-fighting and used their taekwondo skills to great effect. Couldn't get them to bed until 11:30pm. It started snowing tonight.

Hammy's 2005 Trip To Korea And Japan - Dec 4th

Yu-Jin got up at 7:30 this morning to see the snow. We checked on the Internet and it was -4 degrees C. Fair bit of snow on the ground too. After breakfast we cleaned the snow from Gi-young's car which took a good 10 minutes. The stuff was caked on. Seong-hoon and Yu-Jin played on the other side of the building and made a snowman. Gi-young and I joined them after finishing the car. The finished product wasn't too bad.

View from apartment, complete with snow - compare with Nov 30th.

View from apartment, complete with snow - compare with Nov 30th.

View from apartment, complete with snow - compare with Nov 30th.

Caked on.

Gotcha.

Building a snowman.

The finished snowman.

Gi-young drove us to Mi-youngs' friend's house, Seun-hyeon, and didn't wish to accept any money for petrol. I put some money in his glovebox and when I wasn't looking he gave Yu-Jin 10000 Won.

Born To Be Chicken - what a strange name for a shop. They've been around for a while though.

Dongnimmun - Independence Gate.

All the apartments surrounding Dongnimmun.

Seun-hyeon's husband, Mr Kim, gave us a ride to the Seoul City Bus Tour depot. His daughters, Heun-soo and Yun-soo, came also. We were joined by So-eun and her mum. Adult tickets cost 10000 Won and children five and over were 8000 Won. Our first stop was Namsangol Traditional Korean Village and it so happened that a traditional Korean wedding was taking place. So we got to see much of that. Silly time of the year to be getting married outside, methinks.

Namsangol - Traditional Korean Village. Bloody cold.

Tourist info at Namsangol.

Nice pond.

Lucky well. Blew my 40 Won.

Cold tourists. Fairly freezing this place.

Preparing for a traditional Korean wedding.

Music please.

Groom in maroon.

Nice hanbok - traditional Korean clothing.

Bride refusing to show her face. Not until she agrees to get married that is.

We were unable to visit Namsan Seoul Tower as the road was closed due to icy conditions. We jumped off at Changedeokgung to visit the Ttok Kitchen Utensils Museum, a private museum. They showed how rice cakes and kim chee were made. Yippee, I have been to a museum about kim chee. Once on the bus Seun-hyeon told the guide that Yu-Jin was only four and they refunded his money.

Ttok Museum.

The kids just wanted to play in the snow and Miky and I wanted to see Changdeokgung. We had 30 minutes and that was certainly enough time in -3 degrees C. Our plan was to catch the next bus. It's amazing how quickly you can sightsee when it is freezing cold. Finished our little tour on the dot and our group of friends were nowhere to be seen. They were in the nice, warm cafe. It allowed the kids to play for another half hour.

Entrance to Changdeokgung. The 600th anniversary - 1405-2005.

Main hall at Changdeokgung.

Frozen pond in the garden out the back.

Buildings in the garden. Not the sort of place to be hanging out in winter, one would have thought.

How the kids spent the time while we had a look at the palace.

Our last stop was Cheongwadae (The Blue House) where the President resides. A security bloke popped his head on the bus before we were allowed to enter the grounds. The mountain backdrop was awesome. Whilst waiting for Mr Jo to pick us up to go out for tea Yu-Jin and I went to the toilet. By the time we finished a group of 30 to 40 protesters, farmers upset by the importation of rice, had gathered and were singing what sounded like a very nice song. The police mobilised very quickly. I was happy to see democracy alive and well and no force being used upon them.

Out the front of the Blue House - the President's residence. Looks more like green to me. Or maybe turquoise. Perhaps they don't have turquoise in Korean.

Protesting rice farmers appeared out of nowhere. And so did the police/security to keep them in check.

Mr Jo and Mr Kim hadn't met before and to be friends they had to drink together. I was poured a drink and it sat there the whole night. The proceeded to get sloshed and I even had my drink by the end of the night. Big meal of mince and kimchee with side dishes was had. Mr Jo wished to go to a no rae bang (karaoke lounge) after tea. I said that he'd managed to get me to have a drink but no way would I be singing.

The no rae bang was next door and whilst Mr Jo can hold a tune, Mr Kim can really belt out a decent song. Mr first song was "You are my sunshine", followed with "Love me tender" and finally "Layla" - not the acoustic version. Miky even sang a song and she was really good. Yu-Jin sang a couple of songs even though he didn't know the words and certainly couldn't read them from the screen.

We spent over an hour there before Mr Jo called for a skipper to drive us to Mr Kim's apartment. They provide a very popular service as Korean's love to drink and probably would prefer not to drive. It was -5 degrees C.

Mr Kim and Mr Jo polished off a bottle of red and Mr Jo had scoffed some 50% proof cognac, which he very soon regretted. We also had pizza, garlic sticks, dried fish, walnuts, kim, pine nuts, strawberries, apple, nashi pear and mandarines. Didn't hit the sack until 11:30. What a huge day.

Hammy's 2005 Trip To Korea And Japan - Dec 5th

I got up at 7am to write my diary. Mr Kim got up to have some milk for a hangover, got dressed and then tried to leave for work in his slippers. Still a bit drunk I think.

After breakfast we took the subway to Chamshil to meet Young-in at Lotte World. It's like Disneyland in Korea. Jeong-yoon and Seong-hoon were to stay with us for the day. Met them at 10:30. Jeong-yoon had to take the day off school to be there. Last night was supposed to be -9 and today we are expecting a top of -1 degrees C. We went on lots of rides after getting a 15% discount from the entry fee. Once inside Miky told them that Seong-hoon was born in 2002 to get free entry and got his money refunded. We saved 19000 Won and he couldn't go on the big kids' rides anyway, and he never complained about it. When Yu-Jin was unable to go on a ride he was really upset.

Lotte World from aboard the monorail.

Lotte World from aboard the monorail.

Had a burger set for lunch and they were so full of mayonnaise that they were disgusting. Probably the worst burgers I've had - don't eat at Speedy Gonzales when you visit Lotte World. Just after lunch there was a Christmas parade with nearly all of the performers being foreigners. Russian, so I'm told.

Christmas parade.

Christmas parade.

Christmas parade.

Christmas parade.

For the Flume Ride (or Rice - depends which sign you believe) we had to wait in line for 35 mins and Yu-Jin was just tall enough. A group of 8-10 girls were in front of us and they almost spent the entire time doing their hair and makeup and taking photos of each other. Why they weren't in school I don't know.

The Conquistador, what the Koreans called "Viking Ship", was another 30 minute wait and something that Jeong-yoon and Yu-Jin wanted to go on. I wasn't so sure about it as I've been on it before and it made me feel a bit sick, but, if the kids were going on it so was I. Great ride and the kids were really disappointed when it finished.

Couldn't get over how many people were there. We went in December and on a school day but the number of teenagers, mainly girls, was astounding. Definitely the place to pick up chicks.

After the Conquistador Miky decided that we should go outside to Magic Island and there were more things to do for little kids. I just had to go on the Gyro Drop and it raise you 70m above the ground whilst spinning around and then you freefall in five seconds. Wow! I did it with no hands as well because the guy next to me did. Frightening stuff.

Outside at Magic Island - cold.

Lotte World has a nice Christmas feel to it. Looks very similar to Disneyland. Notice the skirt? It's -3 degrees C.

Gyro Drop. Must do at Lotte World - whatever the temperature.

Jeong-yoon went on a swing ride and then we all went on a kiddie ferris wheel. Following that we went to the Haunted House and the kids were very excited about the prospect of going inside. It was for 6 years and over but we got them all inside after about a 40 minute wait. Jeong-yoon and Seong-hoon were really freaked out and Yu-Jin asked me when we were listening to audio through headsets, "어빠 (Daddy), is someone behind me?" He was quite scared too. The audio made it appear that some demonic being was standing behind you and talking in your ear. Great, first we freeze the kids to death and then we scare them to death. Time to go home.

Miky wanted something to warm us up so we stopped at Lotteria after exiting. The kids all wanted a cold drink and Seong-hoon wanted a burger. My hot chocolate went down a treat. Following a toilet break I took Young-in's kids home and Miky did some shopping with Yu-Jin before heading back to Seung-hyeon's place. Jeong-yoon checked every station name on the subway on the way home while Seong-hoon slept. Had two transfers to make and I had to carry Seong-hoon up the stairs. Heavy little bugger. When we got to Gasan Digital Complex, one stop from home, Jeong-yoon started crying. I didn't know why and thought that she may have been missing her mum. She wasn't happy that the name of the station was different on her 2002 map and I did notice that. Due to the crush of people in the subway I couldn't see Seong-hoon but I knew he was there as he was still holding my hand. A sign showed that it was -3.3 degrees C.

Once we had arived safely I caught a taxi home. Quite a bit of traffic out there. Kids were fine at home. They were so well behaved all day. I found out that Jeong-yoon thought we were lost and that is why she cried. Gasan Digital Complex went by a different name in 2002, but only slightly, however it was enough to have her worried.

Young-in gave me a subway map, in Korean only, and was surprised that I could read it. Bit insulting that.

Walking back to the station with all of our leftover baggage and getting back to Dongnimmun took only one and a quarter hours. At the station some guy insisted on talking to me even though I couldn't understand a word of what he was saying.

After dropping the gear off I went to Mi Ga Kim Bap restaurant. It was a 24 hr joint and was fairly busy still at 9:30pm. Had to wait for a seat. What was most interestng was that the clientele at the time was almost exclusively deaf and there were amazing to watch communicating. It was one of the quietest eateries that I have ever been to that was almost full. Mind you, they did laugh a lot. My tea was kim chee kim bap (1500 Won) and kal kook soo - noodles (2500 Won). Very delicious and enjoyable.

By the time I got back to the apartment at 10 the girl's English teacher was there and she was shocked to see me. She didn't say a word to me either. Rather surprising that. Yu-Jin and Yun-soo had a bath together which lasted until nearly 11pm. Another big day and late night.

Hammy's 2005 Trip To Korea And Japan - Dec 6th

Temp today is -7 to 0 degrees C. Looks like a beaut day. Mr Kim wasn't home when I went to bed last night and he was up and gone before I arose at 7am. After brekkie Heon-soo went to school, which is literally only a stone's throw away. Yun-soo and Yu-Jin went to kindy which is just around the corner from the apartment. I wandered down to Seodaemun Independence Park and took many pictures and enjoyed the peace of a snow-filled park. I spotted a mother who was doing laps in the park whilst her baby slept in a stroller. There was an awful lot of work going on up the mountain.

Dongnimmun - 독립문 (spelt Dokribmun) built in 1898 to reaffirm the country's determination to be free and self-reliant. Made from granite. Designed by a Swiss engineer who worked for the German minister in Korea. Historic Site No 32.

Statue of Suhr Jae-phil - an activist for national enlightnement and independence. He published Korea's first private newspaper "The Independence" in 1896.

Monument of March First Movement's Independence Declaration. On the 1st of March 1919 national leaders got together in Taehwagwan to open an independence declaration ceremony as a starting point of igniting a nationwide independence movement. Built in 1963 in Pagoda Park but removed in 1979. Rebuilt in Seodaemun Independence Park in 1992. Couple of deros in front of the statue.

Top statue on the monument.

Some detail of the wall art at the monument.

Seoul is surrounded by craggy peaks.

Seoul is surrounded by snow-filled parks.

Memorial Monument to Patriotic Martyrs. It pays tribute to the memory of anti-Japanese activists.

Some detail of the Memorial Monument to Patriotic Martyrs.

Detail showing Ahn Jeung-gwan assassinating the Japanese General on the Memorial Monument to Patriotic Martyrs.

Seodaemun Prison front gate. Many patriotic fighters from the Anti-Japanese Independence Movement were imprisoned, tortured, executed or died here. It was related so Seodaemun Independence Park in 1992.

Kids getting an education about their history.

Koreans don't muck about much when constructing something. Large apartment blocks definitely going up soon.

Booked a DMZ (Demilitarised Zone) tour for myself and Mr Jo with Mercury Tour as recommended by Wendy when we met in Kyeongju. I gave the phone to Seun-hyeon to tell them the phone number of where I was staying and she talked the price down from 46000 Won to 41000.

Miky and I went to Namdaemun and bought some winter track pants. Quite cheap. Went to Shinsegae and bought some pillows, special contoured firm ones that cost around $50 each (on sale!) and a pair of sneakers for me. Lunch was 돌솠비빔밥 (dol sot bi bim bap - hot stone rice mix) and 낙디 (nakdi) in Myeongdong. Caught a taxi to Insadong to look for Admiral Yi Sun-shin's statue for Yu-Jin. Every shop in Insadong told us that it would be very difficult to find. They weren't wrong. If you wanted to pay a small fortune you could buy a turtle boat in a glass box. Discovered a couple of statues for 24000 and 25000 Won but they weren't anything that Yu-Jin could play with.

Namdaemun - South Gate. Forgive my indulgence in posting lots of pics as I love this gate. It was first constructed in 1398 and is designated as National Treasure No 1.

Namdaemun.

Namdaemun.

Namdaemun.

Namdaemun.

Namdaemun.

Impressive building decorations for Christmas - Shinsaegae Department Store.

Even the trees were well decorated. Fair bit of light pollution eminating from Seoul at Christmas time no doubt.

More shopping at Lotte before I went to pick Miky's sister Ju-min up at Shinsegae. Trudged all the way back to Lotte. I was surprised when Miky had asked the Lotte Dept store info girl where Shinsegae Dept store was but this is Korea and they do believe in servicing their customers.

Miky and I decided to buy some turkish pizza and bread pizza (baguette) so that I could take it back to the Kim apartment to help with tea. Mr Kim, who wished to have tea together, was about an hour and a quarter late. We ate from 9 'til 10pm. Yu-Jin had to finish everything on his plate before getting icecream and then it was too cold for him. Shower and bed by 11.

The plan was for Mr Jo to join us about 1-2:30am so that we could go to the DMZ tomorrow. He had some heavy drinking to do beforehand. Said goodbye to Mr Kim before I fell asleep as I wouldn't see him in the morning. Asked Seun-hyeon to wake me by 7 o'clock if I wasn't up. Miky and Ju-min stayed in a hotel after spending one and a half hours looking for a place. She didn't sound at all happy on the phone either.

Random picture from inside the subway.

Hammy's 2005 Trip To Korea And Japan - Dec 7th

Up at 6:40am. Shave, ablutions and had a look at the paper [Editor's note - the paper reading didn't take long]. Woke Yu-Jin at 7:30 to get dressed and tell him to be a good boy. Ready to leave at 7:45 to meet the tour guide and just about to walk out the door when Seun-hyeun and Mr Kim appeared, quite shocked at the fact that they had slept in so much. She had wanted to make my breakfast but that wasn't a problem as I wasn't hungry anyway and was going to buy some snacks on the way to the meeting place. Mr Kim rang Mr Jo who hadn't arrived during the night and Mr Jo said that he had to have a coffee before coming. We had to meet the tour bus at 8:10 at Dongnimmun.

I bought some chocolate cakes and kimbap snacks with flavoured milk for the day. Arrived five minutes early and was met by Mr Hong Yoon-shik. There were two Japanese tourist from Fukuoka that were already waiting in the bus. Mr Jo was late and Mr Hong wanted to call him. I only had Mr Jo's wife's number so he called her and got his mobile number. He said that he was two minutes away. And so he was. Mr Hong spoke Korean, Japanese and English.

The following are notes for the DMZ tour as it was being taken.

Passed the World Cup Stadium and a rubbish dump that had been turned into a park. There was a shopping centre, gas and electricity generation - all built on 20 years of garbage. Passed by Yonsei and Ehwa Universities.

Main road north is called Freedom Rd and it travels along the Han River. Five lanes wide each way whilst still in the city. There are big lumps of concrete, some 10 tonnes, suspended above the highway called Dragon Teeth. If North Korea attacks then dynamite inside the structure will be detonated so that the concrete blocks the road and buys the South Koreans more time to mount a defence.

Naming convention isn't too great up this way. Il San Shin Do Shi - New City Town.

Barbed wire runs for 155 miles along the river and army patrols are used to detect North Korean (NK) spies. NK spies used amphibious vehicles to land and were killed not too long ago. I expected to see more army vehicles along Freedom Rd.

Interesting that the Korean National Soccer Team's training centre is opposite an observatory not too distant from the North. There are hopes to have both squads unified and training there.

The first view of NK over Imjin Gang (river) is of a fake city. There's a Christmas tree wth a Buddhist symbol shown to the NK's to demonstrate freedom of religion in the South. NK mountains have no trees as they were cut down for fuel. Not for Christmas trees as I thought.

You don't see too many restaurants north of Seoul whereas they are all over the rest of the country.

No photos were allowed to be taken on the bus in the DMZ. If you take a photo you will be removed to a "Learning Centre". And your film/memory card will be destroyed. Everybody on the bus will have to wait for you to get "learned". Only 60 US soldiers are in the DMZ as the rest are in Iraq, etc. Usually a lot more on duty. Also known as the JSA - Joint Security Area.

Civil Limit Zone - starts at Imjingang. There are 13 bridges between South and NK. There is the story of the founder of Hyundai who stole a cow from his father and fled to the South. He became mega-rich based on the stolen goods and once he had the power to do so he returned to the North bearing 1000 cows as payment for his debt of 60 years. Obviously his father wasn't still around to receive it.

Imjingak, where the tours start from, has a Bell of Peace and sees a lot of tourists.

Bell of Peace. You can book to ring it three times for 10000 Won.

Buses for Japanese tourists, schoolkids, at Imjingak.

Unification Village - free land use. No chemicals allowed (must be a distinct lack of terrorists operating in the area), everything is totally organic and the price of ginseng is very expensive.

Freedom Village - inside the DMZ, no tax, no military service, no land fees. Current population of about 200.

Only soldiers are allowed to build in the DMZ. It is a heavily mined area therefore the trees are untouched and it is a paradise for wildlife. Those that enjoy tiptoeing around unexploded ordnance, that is. Estimates are roughly 70000 mines left in the DMZ.

DMZ Theater - seven minute video to get you started. Rush into the next section before having a look at the monorail into the 3rd Tunnel of Aggression.

There appeared to be some American soldiers on the tour and about half a dozen Japanese as well with their own interpretor. The Japanese, not the Americans.

Monorail for 3rd Tunnel of Aggression inside DMZ.

A reunification statue.

NK on the top.
SK on the bottom.

DMZ Tourist Info - tourists are well catered for. Postcards are hideously expensive.

Inside the 3rd Tunnel you are not permitted to take photos. There is a camera to watch you at the end of the 265m of what is left of the tunnel on the south side after your 358m, 11 degree decline to reach the actual tunnel. Quite wet down below. Three lots of concrete 10m thick have been used to block the tunnel part that has been collapsed by the South. Not quite tall enough for me to walk through. Coated in coal to disguise usage. NK pretended it was a coal mine tunnel. Only once it was pointed out to them that the rock was granite and no coal existed, the drilling marks emanated from the North and the measurements knotched on the walls were from the North side did they accept responsibility for creating it.

Following the 3rd Tunnel Mr Jo wanted to have noodles. We had about 4 mins to devour them as the tour schedule was very tight. Mr Jo was not impressed.

Having completed the 3rd Tunnel of Aggression tour it took a bit of convincing to get a photo of me with my helmet and Mr Jo. It's not as if I was going to pinch it.

Dorasan Observatory allows you a look at the North. Photos can only be taken about five metres back from the binoculars. Bugger. We were given a briefing by a Korean soldier with an unmistakably American accent. You can see NK's 165m tall flagpole which is a world record. The South gave up on outdoing them height-wise a while back. Unfortunately I couldn't get a photo of it. I saw the glint of a looking device from the North therefore there is a bit of life over there. Someone watching us watching them. Quite a few trucks in the Industrial Complex (IC) that 15 SK companies have set up in the North to take advantage of the cheap labour, er, build relations with the North. Employees are paid about US$200/mth. Next year another 90 companies will join the IC. Plenty of opportunities for NK workers who would be happy to get that sort of money. Quite a bit for them.

Daeseongdong - Freedom Village.
Gijeongdong - Propaganda Village.

Didn't see any NI except for the reflection. Could see Kaesong fairly clearly with the binoculars and by eyesight. It is the 3rd largest city in NK with 380000 inhabitants. Appeared to be smoggy. Must be using the last of the wood. NK's flagpole was considerably taller than SK's flagpole. Binoculars cost 500 Won for two minutes and one American girl let me finish off her time.

Mr Jo could understand all of the Korean tour guide's English, which wasn't flash, but only about half of mine. Hmmm.

Dorasan Observatory.

Army vehicle. Taken clandestinely of course.

Desolate countryside towards Kaesong in NK.

Propaganda Village. No windows as the buildings are uninhabited concrete shells.

Unification Village has 60 telephone lines to connect the South with the North. There is a three hour time limit inside the Civil Limit Zone.

Dorasan Station goes over Freedom Bridge and must be a very lonely post for the station master, apart from the tourists wanting stamps in their passports. Yes, I did get one.

Painting. Sorry.

Yours truly with a South Korean soldier inside Dorasan Station.

My guide, Mr Hong.

Another photo with a soldier. He doesn't look very intimidating.

Not allowed to take photos from the bus so here is one of the bus.

No photos are even allowed inside the barbed wire area but Mr Hong said that I could photograph from inside the vehicle. I had wanted to stop and take a photo of an army outpost. Normally there are signs disallowing photos but they had been removed for construction work.

Lookout post.

Razor wire. As far as the eye can see.

Long day for Mr Jo.

Last stop on the tour was an Amethyst shop. Mr Jo was mistaken for a Chinese tourist and they were quite happy to offer us a 30% discount. Shows how overpriced things normally are for tourists.

Following the early finish to the tour Mr Jo picked up the two Mrs Lees from the Kyobo Building (famous bookstore) and we had lunch near Gwanghwamun. Back to Seun-hyeon's place where Miky joined us. Mr Jo took us to So-eun's school to say goodbye before spending some 20 mins just trying to find the hotel we would be staying in before heading off in the morning. He even asked a taxi driver whilst stopped in traffic for directions.

We repacked our bags and set off to Shinsegae for tea and shopping. I had seafood and green onion pancakes. Miky had hot pot bibimbap. Great view from the restaurant.

View from the restaurant.

Department store decorations on a landing outside were lovely.

Had a strawbery smoothie (5000 Won) for dessert. Quite surprised that it was the cheapest thing on the menu as strawberries aren't cheap. Bananas are 198 Won/100g. Quite reasonable.

Took Yu-Jin for a haircut at Hair Bank. Got to use the Internet whilst waiting. Yu-Jin fell asleep during his haircut. Found out that Perth Glory's coach has departed. Wow - bit of a bombshell.

Yu-Jin being pampered and preened. All whilst asleep.

Miky asked us to "Wait here" and so we did for about 30 mins after the haircut, shampoo and blowdry. I got fed up with waiting, wrote a note for her and departed for the hotel. Arrived at Junggak station ok (next to our hotel) and took one of the exits. There was a guy begging and not showing his face. You beauty I thought as I had seen him as we entered the subway so felt comfortable that it was the right exit. Hotel should be just around the corner.

Walked for quite some way and realised that we weren't in the right place. Bit hard to see landmarks at night time. Asked a street vendor about the hotel, as I had the address on a business card, and she told me quite emphatically in Korean that I had a long way to go. Walked a bit farther and then asked another vendore. The bloke told me in Korean and with sign language that I had one more street to go and turn right. Walked past the right street and turned backwards a bit before noticing Mr Henry's Sausage Shop on the far corner and I recognised it from when we were looking for the hotel with Mr Jo. Found the hotel. All this time I had been carrying all of our shopping and had Yu-Jin in tow. I wasn't lost. I just didn't know where I was.

Miky had arrived only 10 minutes before and called hairdresser's shop and had spoken with the cleaner who said that there was a note but that she couldn't read it. Miky had seen the begger as well and made the same mistake as me. The bugger had switched exits. Then she turned around and told me she had said "Come home".

Lots of packing and repacking took place before going to bed at 12pm. Asked for a 7 o'clock wake up call.

Hammy's 2005 Trip To Korea And Japan - Dec 8th

Our 7 o'clock wake up call came at 7:22. Finalised packing and walked to the airport shuttle bus top which was just around the corner. The hotelkeeper walked Yu-Jin to the bus stop and came running back soon afterwards with a glove that we had left behind. Didn't have the heart to tell her that we didn't want it. I left my trusty old sneakers for someone else to get some good use out of them.

On the bus to the airport we passed a part of town where nearly every shop was a bridal/wedding shop. Miky said that it was next to the top women's university. What exactly are they encouraging their top female students to do immediately following completion of their degrees?

One street has three crossing signs - a timer, a bunch of descending arrows and the little green man. How many ways do people need to be told how much time they have?

Huge land reclamation going on along the foreshore of Hangang. I hate Korean distance bus drivers - accelerate, coast, accelerate, coast. Don't these guys know how to drive at a set speed? Surely you use more fuel driving in that manner too. Airport shuttle bus was only 8000 Won/adult and they didn't charge for Yu-Jin. At the last stop before the expressway they warned us to put our seatbelts on. Don't these guys realise that bus drivers are at their most dangerous in the city?

At the airport Miky wasn't happy with a 3000 Won fee for a small postage box and 9000 Won for postage. It was just a shirt or something. Daylight robbery actually. Could have sent about 6kg of stuff back to Australia for that price. She wandered off to get a coffee and was gone for the next 20 minutes.

I didn't that we would get our carry-on luggage aboard as it was quite bulky but I was proved wrong. Miky had her bag screened and they confiscated a knife. They screened the bag again but left her scissors inside. So much for airport security. After reaching the gate we only had 45 minutes before departure. Not enough time to find the cheap booze for my workmate as in an earlier duty-free shop I had visited.

Bit of an annoying flight as we had a very loud Korean family with two boys behind us kicking the seats and dropping and closing the table continuously. Yelling and carrying on was a bonus. Didn't get a lot of sleep before arriving in Kuala Lumpur for a nearly three hour stopover.

I wonder who gets paid to wind the headphone wires nicely, and how much. Would've preferred a window seat to get a few last pics of Korea.

Miky bought some rings and cosmetics duty-free. I told her where we would be when she had bought her cosmetics but she didn't show up. Looked for her for five minutes before finding her and she was a bit peeved as she had spent quite a bit of time looking for us and couldn't understand why I was upset. Typical woman. I told and showed her where we would be but it had failed to register with her. No harm done. Entered the draw to win a Mercedes Benz.

Three travellers on the plane.

The boy needs to grow a bit to fit into the headphones.

Next to me on the flight to Perth is Jerzy from Poland. He has a 33 hour journey from Warsaw to Perth via Amsterdam and Kuala Lumpur. He noticed some gas coming inside the plane at the ventilation near the exit sign in the middle of the plane prior to takeoff.

Post-landing at Kuching at 11pm and I am really struggling due to lack of sleep retty much for the last two and a half weeks. Miky has had enough. Yu-Jin is being irritable. Not due to lack of sleep - he's bored.

It's nice to hear a few more Aussie accents. When travelling in Asia I have really avoided contact with non-Asians. I guess when in Asia I only want to see Asians and think that foreigners shouldn't be there. It is only then that I think about myself.

Jerzy thinks that we made an emergency landing in Kuching - his 2nd in four months. I can't convince him that this was a planned stop. He managed to get a three month visa for his 40 minutes on land and only just happened to get back on the plane in time.

Hammy's 2005 Trip To Korea And Japan - Dec 9th

After a few hours shuteye we are greeted by a very different dawn with deep red colours. Definitely back in Australian airspace. The pilot has just welcomed us and told us that we will be landing at 5 to 5 in the evening. Maybe he was served alcohol instead of orange juice. I certainly plan to land in the morning. Didn't receive enough arrival cards for Australia - bit poor really. Miky did have them but travelling had frazzled her brain to such a point that she didn't realise or forgot.

Immigration/Quarantine took 1 hr 15 mins and they are very thorough these days. Had to hire a maxi taxi as we had so much gear. The cabbie was an Indian and he wanted to know about Korean food. Nice to be able to talk with a cabbie again. Didn't get the chance in Korea. Got home a 20 to 7 [Editor's note - regret not taking a photo of all the luggage to compare with when I left].

Three sales calls within the first 11 hours of returning. I should just leave the phone turned off I think. Went shopping at Woolies and appreciated how cheap their expensive bread is in comparison with Korea. The streets are much wider. Fuel is only just over half price in Australia. Asians don't dress very well in Australia but are very fashion conscious in Korea. Drivers aren't as crazy. I wish people would give me the prices in Korean.

There was a channel on the plane devoted to Quranic Verses. Odd. At KLIA Yu-Jin had asked me, "Why are there so many brown people?"