Episode 63: In Which DFM Stares In To The Eyes Of A Giraffe And Uncovers The Secret Of The Sloth

The zoo at Seoul Grand Park is 196 000 square meters, and I saved it until the end of my journey because it is one of the experiences in Seoul I had been most highly anticipating.

Everything about the zoo at Seoul Grand Park is huge.  Before you even enter the zoo you are greeted by an enormous statue of a tiger.  Compare the size of the tiger to the gardener working in front to see what I mean.

Once inside the zoo I found a map that showed four separate paths around the zoo which would take you to all the exhibits.  I walked the length of the zoo four times to see all the animals, and it took me over 6 hours.

My favourite animals at the zoo were the giraffes.  I have not seen a giraffe before, and I was not prepared for just how tall they really are.

To get this eye-to-eye shot I was standing on what I estimate estimate was a fifteen foot platform.  Staring straight at this giraffe made me feel all tingly with excitement.

The animals were tingling with excitement too.  It must be mating season, because all the males were puffing out their chests and trying to show off for the ladies.  Unfortunately for the males, I think someone forgot to tell the females what time of year it was.  These two peacocks just could not get any peahen to notice them and I saw a male wolf get bitten for his efforts to try and seduce a female.

I know what you're all thinking.  You're thinking, "wow, that looks just like the skull of a Pygmy Hippopotamus."  I have such smart readers.

How many times in your life do you get to see a Giant Galapagos Turtle?  The Galapagos Turtle is the largest living species of tortoise in the world.

I used to wonder how two-toed sloths could hang upside down all day long.  The secret is out.  It's not quite as impressive anymore though, if I say so myself.

At one point I saw a sign that read "Ant Park," but the park was closed.  Later I found this feller and I figured out why.

Canada's contribution.

Creepy-crawly things are always interesting.

How many human babies do you think this bear has eaten today?

If you got bored of looking at all the beautiful animals, you can always look at the beautiful trees in any number of fabulous rest locations around the zoo.  This pond was once part of a set for a major Korean movie a sign informed me.

I, however, did not do any sitting until the end of my day when I went to see the dolphin/seal show.  I was skeptical, but I purchased my $3.00 ticket anyways.  Instead of being disappointed though, I was blown away.  The seals could dance "the twist" and do comedy routines, and the dolphins were as smart as you'd expect them to be and could hit red balls dangling fifteen to twenty feet over the water (you can see them in the picture).  Just before I took this picture the dolphins dropped under the water and disappeared, but the woman in the water was actually surfing on the head of one of them at one point during the show.  Anyone in/near Seoul needs to check out the zoo at Seoul Grand Park even if it's only to see this show.

Episode 60: In Which DFM Finds An Outhouse With Its Own Temple And Eats So Much Seafood He Starts To Waddle

I woke up in a panic today.  The temperature inside my room was very hot (28 degrees was the reading on the thermostat) and I thought for sure I had slept in 'til the afternoon.

In actuality it was not the afternoon it was 6 in the morning.  After eating some breakfast I decided to pass the time until everyone else got up by going for a walk around the luxury golf resort at which we were staying.  It had rained the night before, so there was a cool mist in the air and everything looked especially green.

While on my walk I saw four ten year old boys playing basketball and a rather humorous situation broke out.  One of the boys began double-dribbling quite badly.  A second boy started yelling at him (in Korean), and I guessed that he was telling him to stop double-dribbling.  Shortly after this a boy on the other team started doubling dribbling and the boy who originally double-dribbled yelled at him to stop double-dribbling (again, in Korean).  The second boy came over and shoved him and started yelling at him, which I took to mean that he was telling him to stop being such a hypocrite.  The whole situation reminded me of when I was that age and I threw a basketball at a girl's head because she wasn't paying attention on the court.

After lunch at Jee-seon's home in Ulsan, we headed to the beach.  Ulsan is located very close to the East Sea - between Korea and Japan - and while it is not technically the Pacific Ocean, it was close enough for me (same water).

After visiting the beach we drove back towards Gyeongju, to the mountain Unjesan.

I know it looks nice, but that's not a temple in the foreground it's a really smelly outhouse.

After a shady hike up Mt. Unjesan we came to an unnamed temple.  Of all the temples I've seen this one had the nicest looking buildings.

Back near the outhouse we found another temple, Oeosa (pronounced "Oo-oh-sa").  Everything was still decorated for the Buddha's Birthday season, which meant hundreds of lanterns.  Each one had a candle inside and at night some poor soul probably has to walk along and light them all.

This is probably the best looking pagoda I've seen anywhere in Korea.  I love the blue roof.

The pagoda was not just notable for its blue roof though.  Inside it housed Korea's oldest bronze bell, Oeosadongjong.  Built in 1281, Oeosadongjong had been lost for many decades, perhaps centuries, before the severe draught of 1995 though dried up a nearby river where the bell was found lying at the bottom.

Baby Buddha's Belly! 귀엽다

After a long day of sightseeing, April, Sun Hee, Jee-seon and I went out to a seaside restaurant for some sashimi.  Sashimi is very fresh raw seafood.  The meal I had featured a crab platter, a shrimp platter, a sliced raw fish platter that was humongous, and a large serving of maeuntang ("may-oon-tang").  

Maeuntang features fish that is boiled with various vegetables and then doused in both chili pepper and Korean red chili pepper paste (because one hot condiment wasn't enough).

After eating the maeuntang, Sun Hee filled the pot with the remaining raw fish to turn them into half-cooked spicy fish.  I was over filled by this point, but the half-cooked spicy fish was delicious so I kept stuffing it down.

After dinner my leg had cramped/locked up quite badly from sitting cross-legged for four courses.  I must have looked quite silly as I waddled back to the car, but I didn't care.

Episode 59: In Which DFM Visits A Museum Without Walls And Plays With His Food At The Dinner Table

Day 3 of my trip called for another early morning rise and a train trip to Gyeongju.  Before I left I said my good-byes to Mr. and Mrs. Kim and Mr. Kim's parents.  I also try out my new Korean phrase, "I will miss you," which prompted Mr. Kim's mother to call me "sweet."

Today (Saturday, May 2) is Buddha's Birthday in Korea.  When I ordered the tickets last week there was only one spot left on the KTX train for this day and it was in First Class.  What a pity.

I was excited to see what a first class train ride would be like, but unfortunately it was a bit disappointing.  There was so much leg room that my feet could not reach the foot rests no matter how far I stretched, which was rather uncomfortable.  Furthermore, the seat in front of me was so far away that the fold down tray was out of my reach and so I had to bend over awkwardly to use it.  This was not the most comfortable position either.  

On the plus side, I could get out of the seat without putting the tray up and, with the combination of an a/c unit that actually worked and 25% less people in the car (only three seats per row instead of 4), I made it all the way to my destination without feeling like I had been sitting in a pool of sweat the whole way.

Part way through the trip, I had to switch from the KTX train to the much less glamorous, or speedy, Mugungwha train (astute readers will remember that Mugungwha is also the name of Korea's national flower).  

At least the scenery at the platform where I disembarked was nice.

Eventually April and I got to Gyeongju.  I originally took this picture because I thought it looked pretty, but upon reviewing my pictures later I realized that I had actually learned the meaning of the sign on the left during my trip (in an unrelated incident).  The writing in the red circles on the pillar reads "hwan-yong," which means "welcome!"

After trying to find a reliable form of transport (the buses we needed were not coming around at an acceptable interval for two impatient Seoulites), April and I took a cab to meet her friend, Sun-hee and her friend's daughter, Jee-seon.

The four of us went to a traditional Korean restaurant, at which to enter we had to squeeze through a door only five feet high.  We tried not to bump our heads ("try" being the operative term), and were rewarded for our troubles with a delicious meal of spicy barbecued chicken and ddeok in a some sort of hot sauce.  Actually, now that I think about it, I'm pretty sure that this is the same meal I ate with my boss on Thursday before I got paid and left for this trip.

After lunch we all drove over to Bulguksa.  Bulguksa is a Buddhist temple ("sa" means temple) built in the wooded foothills of beautiful Tohamsan ("san" means mountain in Korean, so Tohamsan translates to Toham Mountain).  Many invading countries liked to arrest Buddhist monks, so the monks often built their temples in the mountains to hide from enemy armies.

Bulguksa was built roughly 1480 years ago in AD 528, during the Shila dynasty.  Unfortunately, the Japanese appear to like burning down temples more than the monks like hiding them up in the mountains, and so Bulguksa also had to be rebuilt after the 1592 Invasion of Korea by Japan (the second temple this trip).

In 1995 UNESCO (a branch of the United Nations) declared Bulguksa a World Cultural Heritage site.  Bulguksa contains no less than seven National Treasures, and it is also located in the most beautiful place I've ever seen, and is reached by Korea's best driving road (that's the most important thing though, isn't it?)  Bulguksa is often referred to as "a museum without walls."

Before you can reach the temple, you must walk over this bridge (behind the trees).  The bridge is called Haetalgyo, and it represents the crossing from the sin filled world to the realm of bliss - Nirvana.

Every reader has seen the giant rock piles from my hiking trip with Perry, right?  Here we have hundreds of tiny rock piles built by visitors behind one of the temple buildings.  There must have been a lot of praying here.

Of the seven National Treasures, these were my two favourite.  The first is Seokgatap, a classic Korean pagoda of superior quality.  The second is Cheongungyo and Baegungyo, which combine to make a massive 33-step stone staircase that represents the 33 heavens and hells of Buddhism.

After a wonderful exploration of Bulguksa, we all went out for yet more spicy Korean food.  This time the meal was a spicy bowl of soup containing a number of vegetables and a whole fish, merely gutted, but not deboned or beheaded.  Lucky me, I got the fish head again.  It had received a debraining, but I was still able to play with its mouth.  In hindsight, I think perhaps playing with one's fish head at the dinner table is not something that Korean dining etiquette encourages.

Episode 58: In Which DFM Has Dinner For Breakfast And Beats A 10 Year Old At Parcheesi... Twice!

Day 2 of my journey called for an early rise.  Mr. Kim's parents were up and a traditional Korean breakfast had been prepared, so I thought it was polite to come join them.

Korean breakfasts look exactly like Korean lunches and Korean suppers.  There's rice, kimchi, and a large collection of side dishes.  In fact there was more food at this breakfast than there was for dinner last night.  I was served another bowl of samgyetang, and I had an opportunity to show off my new kimbab eating skills.  

Rather than using my hand to hold my kim (dried seaweed) and then filling it with a spoonful of rice, I would take a spoonful of rice and then place the bottom of my spoon on the top piece of kim.  The seaweed would stick to the spoon and I would shove the whole conglomeration in my mouth.  Mr. and Mrs. Kim were impressed, because apparently Mr. Kim's father is the only person they had seen eat kimbab that way.  For the record, I had learned the technique from Yoo Sung Bok's father when I had dinner with Sung Bok's family.

After breakfast, April and I left with her sister Julie, and brother-in-law Kenny.  We were planning to see a famous temple nearby, but first we stopped in at an incredible tea house.

The tea house was hand built by the owner and is located  on the side of a beautiful mountain.  I can't remember the name of the place, but I'll never forget the stunning front yard.

It was hard for me to believe, but the inside of the tea house was even more beautiful than the outside.  It felt like stepping back in time a few centuries, because the floor was made of dirt, and you removed your shoes and stepped up onto the raised wood platform to find your table. (Note:  I have no idea what Korea houses were like a few hundred years ago, so ignore my earlier statement about stepping back in time).

I had something called 5 Flavours Tea, served cold, and it was fantastic.  While we drank and talked I was stuffed full of delicious traditional Korean cookies made from fried rice , and some sort of candy-coated traditional Korean peanut treat.  After tea I was given yet more tea, this time a special plum flower tea with the plum flower in my cup.

After tea we travelled a bit further to see the 1 370 year old temple, Gwangduksa.  The temple once housed 9 Bell Houses and 8 Castles, but was burned down by the Japanese in 1592 and had to be rebuilt.  I didn't bother to count how many buildings there are today.

Incredibly, there was one historical item still left standing.  This walnut tree is over 400 years old and is the first and oldest walnut tree in Korea.  It was brought to Korea by a monk and subsequently the Cheonan region has become famous for its walnut cookies.  I found this out later, otherwise I would have asked to have some.

After seeing the temple, April had to visit a high school student she used to tutor.  The student now attends an advanced language learning institute for grade 10 and 11 students.  The students can learn any of four languages, including Spanish and English, and April's student told me in near perfect English that she was at the bottom of her class.  April even got me an interview with the head recruiter who told me to send my CV to him in case there were future openings for teaching positions. 

The school had some young ducks outside in a pen.  Kenny and Julie's kindergarten aged son, Jun, came along with April and I (his parents went home), and he kept trying to get the ducks to come near him so that he could pet them.  Of course every time he moved closer to the ducks they moved away from him, and he started to become quite upset.  A few times I had to come and prevent him from lashing out at the cage in frustration.  Jun was a favourite of all the high school girls on their class break, and they would come to look at the ducks, but most him.

The school is located right next to an expensive apartment complex, built by Samsung for housing its employees.  Kenny is a Electrochemical Engineer and works for Samsung, building laptop batteries.  He told me he dreams of one day becoming the head of his division and expanding the business.

As if the pond/fountain weren't pretty enough, the apartment complex also had this large Teletubbies style rubber hill for the children and numerous other playground areas (all coated in rubber matting).

April left to go visit even more former students and I stayed with her sister at their new place.  Kenny told me that I was the first guest in his new apartment, so I felt honoured.

Julie slaved for well over an hour on this feast, which made me feel kind of bad.  Not bad enough to not scarf it all down, though.

Kenny/Julie's other son, Matthew, has a friend named Whi-seol (sounds like "whistle").  Whi-seol is twelve and very clever.  After dinner we played an intense game of Parcheesi.  Matthew loves this game and I had beaten him twice earlier, so he was happy to finally get his revenge this time.  Jun is only five and he soon got bored and started trying to steal my pieces.  Matthew got upset and started stomping on him repeatedly.  It reminded me and my brother at that age.

When I got home, another former student of April's was over at Mr. and Mrs. Kim's house.  We talked for a bit and then Mr. Kim took us all out for dinner.  By this time I was pretty full, but I had a reputation to uphold, so I finished my portion and more.  Mr. Kim ordered me some makgeolli, but no one else had any.  I didn't know that there was another option, so after I finished my makgeolli I finished off two giant bowls of tea, one each from Mrs. Kim and the student in the white shirt who had both ordered but not finished theirs.  Mr. Kim said, "he eats good and he drinks good too!"

Finally 1 O'clock AM rolled around and we finally went back home.  Tomorrow I will rise at 7 AM to catch another train for Gyeongju.

Episode 53: In Which DFM Gets A Rose And Koreans Start Dancing In The Street

It's been a long time since I last posted.  I've been terribly busy, so I'm sorry about the spotty updating, but faithful readers will be rewarded with what I hope is a good post today.

It turns out I had learned the name of the "mystery woman" from Episode 50.  Her name is April, I had just forgotten.  Today (Sunday) she invited me to her church with her and her family.  Her father was a former member of the Korean Navy and worked for many years as an Engineer for the Korean Air Force.  He spoke very good English, and is still an avid table tennis player.  DFM loves to hear of people remaining active after they retire.

April's father is one of the church's elders and, like April, seems to know just about everyone.  We had a long chat with the pastor, in his office, before the start of church and almost made him late.  The pastor was very friendly and asked many questions about me.  He also gave me some mushroom juice (it comes in a bottle here), which tastes a lot better than it sounds.

After the sermon, the pastor had me introduce myself to the congregation.  April came up to translate my introduction, but I surprised everyone by introducing myself entirely in Korean instead.  I got a large ovation from the entire congregation who then gave me a rose and sang a song of welcome to me.  (The congregation has at least 125 members I'd reckon.)

After church I was a mini celebrity and it seemed like everyone wanted to come and shake my hand.  I got a lot of practice saying "nice to meet you" in Korean.

After church April and I went to meet "One Piece," Pyeong-hwa, at Gyeongbokgung - another palace in Seoul.  However, it was quite busy when we got there, so we decided to walk around the outside of the wall and see the Blue House (where the President lives).  (To see a picture of the Blue House, click here.)  You're only allowed to view the Blue House from that one angle, so every shot any tourist has ever taken looks exactly the same.

At the Blue House site we ran into an interesting family from France.  From left to right is Sophie Cremezi, PR and Events Manager for the French Korean Chamber of Commerce and Industry, her mother and father, and finally, her husband Guilhem Cremezi.  Guilhem works for a company that supplies parts to Hyundai/Kia.  He told me that he took the job so that he could travel.  Smart man.  Speaking of smart, the Cremezis know French, English, and a fair bit of Korean.

After the Cremezis departed to have lunch, April, Pyeong-hwa and I went to Insadong.

Budha's Birthday is not for another week or two, but since Budha's Birthday is on par with Christmas over in Korea, there were all sorts of opportunities to "catch the spirit."  Here we were taught how to properly drink tea, the Korean way.

I had to leave April and Pyeong-hwa for a while as I rushed over to Jamsil Stadium to watch a baseball game.  The Doosan Bears (Thom's favourite team) were hosting the Hanwa Eagles in their rather beautiful stadium.  Unfortunately, I showed up slightly late and so the tickets to the "good section" by the team's rabble rouser were all sold out.  Instead I found a seat in the equally packed right field bleachers for less than $4.  

Much like the soccer game I went to, if you want to cheer loudly you need to be sitting in the right spot.  There were pockets of cheering going on in my section, but it was nothing compared to where the "real fans," as I call them, were sitting.

I went to the game by myself, so I had no one to communicate with, but this boy in the Doosan hat and I would exchange smiles and fist pumps every time Doosan did something positive.

Sorry about the poor quality on the video.  The transfer from an .avi to .wmv file is less than perfect it must be said.

There were definitely a lot more people at this game than at my Woori Heroes game, but the cheering somehow  felt less passionate than when the Heroes fans and I screamed our lungs out for a rare base hit by our really bad team.  

To see real cheering though you have to witness Busan's Lotte Giants fans, who Yi Woojin assures me are the best fans in the league.  I'll let you judge for yourself though (click the earlier  link if you haven't already, and also try this one too).

After about two hours at the baseball game I left early and rushed back down town to catch the final hour and a half of the great Budha's Birthday Parade.  A parade is a parade is a parade, but this one lasted over four hours.  There's not much new I can really say since most people have seen a parade before, but never-the-less I have included a few of my favourite images for your viewing pleasure.

After the parade ended at 9:30 PM, a concert started.  It seemed to be a blend of Korean folk music and Korean pop music.  One of the singers was a big celebrity in Korea, and this seemed to get a great many cheers from the younger members of the audience.  

The concert carried on until at least 11 PM, and at one point a mass group dance broke out in the middle of the street.  Some rather drunk old men started getting a little too vigorous in their dancing, so I decided that it was best for my safety to head home at this time and go to bed.