Trip to Hong Kong, Macau and South Korea - Jan 29th 2010

The news this morning said that it was -6.6°C outside at 7:15. Went downstairs for breakfast as it is included in the stay at the hotel. Beats rushing around looking for somewhere decent to eat. Had a big breakfast. About 8:30 we made our way to a bus stop on Jong-no which wasn't far away. Bus 5500-1 took us to Suwon and about 1km from the traditional Folk Village.

"Welcome to Hell ladies and gentlemen" - shop sign captured from the bus.

Advertising for a marathon from 4 months ago. What's up with that?

Why not watch TV whilst stuck in traffic?

Huge noise barriers alongside the Expressway.

Fuel prices. I always like to take a photo of them when I travel.

Bang Bang - clothing not weapons store.

Frugal Bastard rugged up against the cold.

Yep, it's winter alright. The landscape is quite bereft of leaves.

Here we went sledding for a couple of hours. It's great fun but gloves are definitely recommended. I didn't have any and made sure that I bought the first decent pair I came across afterwards. The Boy beat me 8-7 in races down the hill. Hundreds of kindergarten age kids were there also. At lunch time there was an announcement and the place was nearly deserted afterwards. There were a few kids that wanted to talk to me and one of them was pretty difficult to shake off.

Frozen lake (or river). Pretty impressive sight.

Kiddies day out at the Folk Village in Suwon.

Ready for the first sled run.

The big sled run at the Korean Folk Village in Suwon.

Here comes the leader.

Miky enjoyed the sledding.

The Boy had more fun with snowballs than sledding.


So long sucker!


Frugal Bastard finishing the sled run first with The Boy a very distant second.

At one stage the snow came up through a couple of holes in the bottom of my sled and sprayed my face for about half of the run. I felt like, and resembled, the abominable snowman. Pretty cool pic, eh?

Frugal Bastard's impersonation of the Abominable Snowman.

Trying to get lunch at all of the nearby restaurants were catering for the kindy kids and so were out of bounds to us. Had to go deep inside the village for lunch - dumpling soup, seafood pancake and mung bean pancakes - absolutely delicious.

Best seafood pancakes I've ever had.

Kimchi anyone?

Korean-style village houses.

Old fashioned toilet - Korean-style.

I think that a better translation would be "Put rubbish here".

I don%'t know why the tree has been decorated this way but it does look nice.

Horse riding show.

Great trick horse riding.


Archery on horseback at the Korean Folk Village in Suwon.


Great horseriding skills on display at the Korean Folk Village in Suwon.

There was a fabulous horse riding display put on in the village. They did all sorts of tricks, rode on top of the rider's shoulders, performed an archery show and were very entertaining.

Took a ride on the amusement park pirate ship which was great fun although I was covered in snow afterwards. There was a museum within the village which was good although the Korean children that visited don't understand the signs asking them to be quiet. Also wandered about more of the buildings and there was a frozen lake where you could do a primitive form of skating. Not bad fun though.

The Pirate Ship was great fun in the falling snow.

Snow to greet the afternoon.

I love the old style.

Ice-covered lake.

Anyone for skating on ice?

We were worried about money as the cash had nearly run out and surprisingly Miky discovered that the banks weren't open anymore on Saturdays. Had to leave the folk village about 3pm and we had until only 4~4:30 before they closed. I spotted a KEB, Korean Economic Bank, and we alighted the bus. Luckily this bank had an ATM that would accept my card and allow me to withdraw money from my own account. Pity that the account it accesses didn't have enough money but I did manage to find out how much was accessable. Withdrew some money to get us by. Success and a lot of worry put to rest. As I said previously I didn't bring an awful lot of cash on this holiday.

Caught another bus to Suwon Station and took a train to Seoul Station. Went to Myeondong so that Miky could cut her hair and The Boy and I could have dinner in Shinsaegae department store. We ate a spicy bibimbap (mixed rice and vegetables) with octopus. The Boy had to mix it with macaroni and mayonnaise to be able to eat. The four cups of water that he drank also helped. We had a chocolate ice cream and went to the arranged, or so I thought, rendezvous point one minute later than agreed. When someone says that they'll meet you at a subway entrance to Shinsegae I expect to wait at the building entrance and not outside the subway when the temperature is -8°C. We played cards for the 50 minutes that we waited. When the store closed we decided to go home.

I thought that it would take only 20 minutes so a walk wasn't too stupid an idea. It wasn't long before I realised that we weren't heading in the right direction. And I didn't have a map with me. I was just about to grab a taxi, on account of the lack of a map, when I spotted a foreigner standing outside the Sejong Hotel with a map in hand. I asked if I could borrow it to get my bearings and the guy was most agreeable. On the walk back to our hotel I did pick up a map from an information kiosk. Forty minutes after we started we arrived at the hotel. Miky gave me quite an ear bashing for having The Boy out in -8°C for 40 minutes after having been sledding and walking around the folk village for most of the day.

Luckily, for me, our friend Keiko from Fukuoka arrived. She wanted to catch up with Miky and booked into the same hotel. We talked for an hour before hitting the sack.

Bulgogi Recipe - Sunday Night Is Bulgogi Night

Pretty much every Sunday night we have bulgogi. It's a Korean beef dish and, surprisingly enough, it isn't too difficult to make. So I'm going to give you a step by step recipe tutorial. Aren't I such a nice bloke? This recipe was provided by Miky, my wife. I am but a humble servant [who has taken three days to put this post together].

Bulgogi Ingredients for Three People
½ kilo of meat
1 Onion
3-4 Tb spoons soy sauce
2½ Tb spoons sugar
1 Carrot
Dang myeon noodles (당 면)
1 Spring onion
4-5 Mushrooms
Salt
Pepper
2 Tb spoons Sesame oil
3-4 Cloves of garlic
1½ Cups of rice

Salad Ingredients
Salad mix
2 Tomatoes
½ Cucumber
Dollop Salad dressing

Don't forget the onion!!

Bulgogi meat.

Grab your thinly sliced beef from your local friendly Korean butcher. Usually comes frozen in a one kilogram pack. Allow to thaw for a short time. Don't buy the meat with sauce.

Wash rice.

Wash your rice thoroughly to remove all the gluggy excess. It will take about three or four washes until it is clean enough to cook.

Soak the rice.

Soak the rice in one and a half cups of water for an hour or two. Usually your rice cooker will provide you with a water level measurement but, if not, add one cup of water per cup of rice.

Slice your carrots and mushrooms.

If you slice then thinly they will cook much more quickly.

Crush the garlic.

Make it nice and fine as this is part of the marinate for the meat.

Add soy sauce.

Five tablespoons of soy sauce should be just about enough for the marinate.

Add sugar.

Two and a half tablespoons of sugar for the marinate is oodles.

Add pepper.

About half a teaspoon of pepper will be plenty.

Add sesame oil and spring onion.

About a tablespoon of sesame oil and one finely chopped spring onion is all that's required for the marinate.

Mix marinate.

Mix the marinate well or won't work effectively with the meat. Ensure that it is liquid enough to soak into the meat.

Add marinate to meat.

You'll need to mix the meat with the marinate well making sure that the meat isn't frozen anymore. Every 10-15 minutes you need to stir the meat mixture to allow the marinate to do its job well.

Grab some dang myeon noodles (당 면).

You can pick up dang myeon noodles (당 면) from your local, friendly Korean shop. Or you can go to Korea to buy them. Either way it's not too difficult.

Soak the dang myeon noodles (당 면).

The 당 면 need to be soaked for about an hour, if you have the time. The more water they soak up the more flexible they become.

Soak the salad mix.

Soaking the salad cleans the greeblies that you'll get from food stored in the open air in the market. You don't know whose hands have touched it or whether it dropped on the ground. Remember to cook hygienically people.

Slice tomatoes.

Whilst salad is soaking you can slice your tomatoes for the salad.>BR>

Spin the salad mix.

Spin your salad mix to remove excess water.

Spinning the salad mix.

And here we have the act of spinning the salad mix.

Spun salad mix.

Voila! Spun salad mix. Much less expensive than using the washing machine on the spin cycle. Easily powered by one small child.

Slice the cucumber.

Don't forget to slice the cucumber for the salad.

Mix the salad.

Mix the salad but don't add the dressing until the meal is ready to serve. Nothing worse than a flat dressing with a limp salad.

Heat the fry pan.

Heat the fry pan and use a little bit of olive oil.

Fry carrots and meat.

This is the point where you fry the onion first, unless you, like me, have forgotten to include it, until it is lightly brown. Then add the carrots (harder, takes more time to cook) and meat. Stir regularly.

Fry mushrooms.

Add the mushrooms to the pan. They will add lots of flavour [Gee, I'm even starting to think I know what I'm talking about now - getting dangerous].

Fry 당 면.

당 면 can be added to the fry pan early in the peace. It is possible that some extra soy sauce is added to them prior to popping them in the pan - up to your taste.

Serve bulgogi and salad.

Serve your bulgogi, after 10-15 minutes of cooking, and salad (no cooking time required) nicely on the plate. Presentation is everything people, remember that. Then start chomping away.

Clean your plate.

Eat everything on your plate and leave it clean. It is, after all, rather rude to leave food on your plate. And you don't wish to upset the cook.