Sunday, December 11, 2005

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.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Great pictures!
What on earth are these people eating?
King Galbi's dung.

When are you going back to work?

Hammy said...

Afraid to report that I am already back at work.

Anonymous said...

What's a confusion temple for?
You go there when you are confused or you go there to get confused.

Joe said...

I have the same question as Ben. It sounds so...zen.

Did you know that the Nolboo Restaurant used to use the Col. Sanders logo, too? Then they got sued by the Penguin Bakery and had to find a new one.

Hammy said...

I would say that it is clever advertising. If you had no intention of visiting the temple your curiosity about it now would be raised, along with your confusion level, and you are more likely to visit.

Very sneaky.

As for the galbi - it's pork.

Nolboo's logo looks like a Korean version of Colonel Sanders. There could be further lawsuits.