bunnyinkorea

09:10 pm: Point your friends adding tool over to BunnyinJapan or forever miss out on bad photos and unwitty stories about the Bunny.

12:13 am: Gyeongju
Today I went to Gyeongju and saw some more old Korean stuff, obviously very little of it is authentic as everything has been knocked down by the Japanese, but the artisans in the 1970s did a steling job of rebuilding things. I also went and saw what at first glance looked like the Tele-tubby valley but in fact was the final resting place of several of the patriarchs of Silla dynasty which ruled Korea around the time of Christ.

07:44 pm: Haeundae Beach
I'm currently down in Busan, it's been gloriously sunny and hot. Today I spent most of the day at a temple and then went to the beach where I read my book and probably got sunburnt. I've never really been into beaches but it's growing on me...

Take care y'all

P

02:42 pm: In which our protagonist sees some prostitutes, gets wet and reaches an impressive peak....
As most of you may have realised I never post with much regularity so frankly the fact that I've posted twice this month should come as a bit of a shock.

When I left off, I was due to go to see the tea fields, which I did but frankly the day was far too hot, and so I decided to stay on the bus as that would take me to the beach. The sea breeze helped to keep the temperature at a vaguely sensible level. There was a shortage of hot girls in bikinis though which was a disappointment, though some people were obviously sickeningly in love.... I also decided to donate my sunglasses to the locals, which frankly I think was most generous of me, so expect a lengthy post on the merits of different styles pretty soon.

That evening I decide that I was going to go and visit a friend who lives in a nearby town and so headed home for a reasonably early night, on my way home I walked into an area with lots of faintly attractive ladies loitering near a bus stop, I was curious as if they were going somewhere fun then maybe I ought to go too, however it would appear that the fare to ride this particular bus was more than the 800 won that I was prepared top pay.... The korean style of propositioning seems to revolve around grabbing hold of drunken men and refusing to let them go while they protest vehemently until they decide that they in fact are not quite so against the idea and then off the two go.

Next I headed south to visit my friend Jason, who live in a nice town called Mokpo, I didn't really do anything exciting whilst there as Mokpo whilst nice doesn't really have all that much to recommend it aside from an excellent Galbi (barbequed meat) buffet which for 10,000 won ($10) was a steal for one as carnivorous as me. I also didn't get to meet Jason as he was sick so all in all it was a failed trip really.

After a brief return to Seoul I went over to the east coast to visit a town called Sokcho, and a national park called Soraksan, between being sick (eary,throaty infectiony thing) and the weather being a little less than ideal I spent most of my time holed up in my hotel room watching the A-Team or wandering around the harbour taking pictures of birds. I did get one reasonable day of shooting in Soraksan though it was far too hot for any really good walking I made it up one of the smaller peaks which was pretty impressive. I've already climbed most of the big summits in Soraksan so I didn't really feel like I missed out that badly, but it would have been nicer than feeling terrible.

Now I'm back in Seoul, I had errands to run yesterday and then went to see the national war memorial. Despite having plans to see a liquor museum and a muddy spa I felt totally unmotivated to leave togo anywhere today. I think I might go and try to see one of the palaces later and then go and cheer on Togo against Korea, if only to see hundreds of thousands of people realise that no matter how loudly you shout "Taehan Minguk" If your football team is shit you still are going to lose....

11:14 pm: It's been a while
Right sorry about the last post making a mess of your friends pages.

Anyhow, for those of you not aware I've finished working for a while and so being a boy of leisure I've decided to see what delights I can find in Korea to entertain me for the next month or so. After finally moving out of my apartment on Saturday I spent the weekend in Seoul just aimlessly chilling out which was really nice. I did absolutely nothing of note (well not of note HERE, as I am a gentleman) though Laura and I spent quite a lot of time in motel rooms.....

( Food Porn 1 )

On Monday I caught a bus down to Gwangju, Gwangju is in the extreme south of Seoul and is approximatly 300km from Seoul. The ticket cost me a grand total of $20.80 which I thought was very reasonable (I could have done it even cheaper, but the luxuary coaches have AC and it was hot). After a brief problem actually finding the correct departure terminal, I got on the move and a mere 3.5 hours later I was in Gwangju. Or at least I thought I was....

It turns out Gwangju bus terminal is in the middle of nowhere, this led to a lengthy period in which I tried to work out how to get into the town itself. I finally found a PC room and by means of the interweb discovered I needed a number 17 bus, however catching a number 17 bus in the direction of city hall was not a good plan.The city hall was one of these new complexy things outside the town and soon I ended up at the bus depot ( cue looks of silly foreigner...). The bus driver took it in good spirits and bunged me on the return bus and eventually I ended up at Gwangju station.

I found a cheap hotel and set off to hit the town. Gwangju is a pretty nice place though it is pretty provincial and white faces are at a premium down here to say the least. This means the staring and random wow it's a foreigner style comments are a touch higher, which is fine, though I have started correcting kids who call me american...

( Food Porn 2 )

I then wandered round the town and found a large bell to comemorate the massacre which took place here in 1980 when people protested about their school being closed (now I'd be glad to have gotten some days off but heh, those craaaazy students...).Seriously though the bell was pretty nice. After taking some more photographs I get randiomly asked what I'm doing by some woman "I'm taking photographs, is that ok?" I ask thinking there must be some big thing about not photographing the monument, "no it's fine I was just curious" comes the reply, a definite winner of the 'question you are most likely to already know the answer to award' for the week....

Today I went to a place called 담양 (Damyang) which has a LOT of bamboo forests near it. Balthor came along and got his picture taken and made some new friends....

On the way back home I got a bit lost, got a bit less lost, ate some mediocre food (cheesy pork cutlets) and am now planning my trip to the tea fields tomorrow, so expect some pictures of tea plants, what joy.....

Right everyone be good to each other, I'm going to see what happens when you insert a power drill into a set of speakers.....

04:27 pm: Right, I'm about to pack up the computer before I go off for a bit of travelage. I'll be online pretty much daily but nowhere near as much as now. If anyone wants me e-mail is the way forward. Talk to you all on the other side...

P

01:07 am: Dragon Lantern
Went to see the Lantern Parade for Buddha's Birthday (next Friday). The floats were great as per usual. I'll write more soon, promise...

P

05:21 pm: The Prodigy
So here is me meeting BJ Penn, he was in Korea with some of his students who are fighting today. They came in and took over the gym for a bit. BJ was super nice, and we randomly chatted for a bit about stuff. Actually he's taller than I'd imagined...

12:28 am: OMG just met BJ Penn, he was super nice, pictures and explainations to follow, but I need to eat and shower and stuff

01:19 am: Went to watch some football tonight with my colleague Mark, during which I saw no goals, got very very cold and broke my tripod, not the idea evening out. Pictures are up in the usual place. Otherwise all is well, though obviously work involves excess idiots, all of whom mean well but honestly have no clue what they are doing, let alone trying to organise what anyone else should be doing...

Be excellent to one another.

Paul