The Lion city (Vacation part 2)

After 12 hours of travel and stopovers in Hong Kong and Bangkok, we finally arrived in Singapore. Even from the taxi ride from the airport, you could tell Singapore was a city of World class. The 4 lane highway leading to the city was shielded with rows of majestic 50 foot tall trees. Past deforestation on the island state today means that each tree in Singapore has been transplated from elsewhere; an amazing thought when you see the degree of “greening” present in Singapore. It truly does make a difference in reducing the perceived temperature (Singapore is 1° north of the equator but feels considerably cooler than South Korea in summer).

We arrived at my friend Theresa’s late Tuesday night with the gracious invite to squat at her place until Saturday. “Tree” and I have been friends since our second year of university and have copied an assignment or two off of each other (at least I’ve copied from her!). We were amazed when we walked in, to see that Tree’s apartment complex has a beautiful outdoor pool, which we would use at every opportunity throughout our stay. She has done pretty damn well for herself!

Singapore is a phenomenal city. Founded and planned out by the now beloved Sir Stamford Raffles in 1819, it has transformed itself from a rugged port of trade into a financial powerhouse. Over the next 3 days we found ourselves traipsing through little India (and paying $5 for a meal for 4, and $2 for a pair of “Oakley’s”), Arab town, Chinatown, engaging in Singapore’s national pastime (shopping) and generally getting lost in the city. At night, Theresa took us to a catered, roof-top party, to a club on the 70th floor of the Swiss hotel, walking along the harbour edge near the downtown and pubbing at the high-end Clarke Quay (people watching the entire time).
On Friday we spent the day on Sentosa Island after a cable car ride from Mt Faber. Sentosa Island is Singapore’s version of the Toronto Islands, except that it has been developed as a getaway from the city, rather than Toronto’s airport/residential community/public space hodgepodge. The aquarium and Pink dolphin exhibits were fantastic (even though I thought the KL aquarium was better for a fifth the price!). Virginia screamed and hollered so much when the dolphin trainers asked for a volounteer, that they picked her only to stop her disgraceful behaviour. I think she even pushed a kid out of her way as she ran to the front! How embarrassing! We swam at Sentosa’s beach, unconscious of the half a dozen freighters in the background and obvious quality of the water… it was a beach and we were on vacation! The night ended with a trip to the night safari where we were treated to fire eating, a performance of otters showing the children how to recycle and a ride through the safari. The safari’s animals were “secured” in fence-less zones that used rocks and moats to contain them… I still think there must have been some sort of “zapping” device that helped reinforce the perimeter… especially after the Bull Elephant charged our tour bus, which we narrowly escaped!

Surprisingly, despite Singapore’s beautiful buildings and landscape, the diverse and warm people, the cheap public transit ($15 to get across the city and $1.20 to ride the fully automated subway system to anywhere in the state), and the great shopping, the thing Steph and I appreciated most was the food. Korean food is great, but lack of variety is something that is killing us. I also noticed that after being in Singapore for 2 days, my 8 week old Korean cough had vanished. Hmm!

The next morning we were bound for Malaysia and the small island of Rawa. What a blast!Follow Virginia's account of the trip.
Also check out Theresa's amazing pictures!!!

And it starts (Vacation Part 1)

Even though our flight to Singapore wasn't until the 8th, we had decided to head to Seoul 3 days early to vacation before the vacation.

The 8:30 train to Seoul came SO early, but we were both excited to get going. In her incredible wisdom, Steph had pre-booked a Motel (The Jeon Poong Hotel - sweet name 37°33'36.68"N 127° 2'1.85"E) that sat right on two subway lines and kitty-corner to an Outback steakhouse and a Fat-Donalds!

The three days in Seoul were jammed with tons of subwaying and walking. We walked Itaewon, the "foreigner" section of Seoul, where you can find all the international amennities as well as clothing sizes thanks to the 24,000 member American army base located close by. There definitely was "dark" feel to the place, highlighted by the multitude of unfriendly faces and a gloomy walk up "Hooker hill". I don't think "seedy" is too strong a word. Shortly after arriving, we left Itaewon for Dongdaemun; the shopping district.

To our suprise, we found an amazing "urban river" path that ran from Dongdaemun back to our hotel (although it did take a couple of hours). Cheonggyecheon, in 1968, was completely covered by an elevated highway into the city. In 2003, the highway was removed in a uniquely responsible moveby the city of Seoul, and the river was rehabilitated into a social asset. It was extremely nice, with tons of people using it, not to mention the countless condo projects being built along its sides.

Day 2 found us at the biggest mall in Seoul; the COEX. I've never seen so many people... and such an example of consumerism. Go economy, Go! Close by, the Trade Tower and the Buddist temple - Bongeunsa took up most of the afternoon. It was an interesting sight to see the city's center of commerse and business sitting across the road from the most peaceful of temples. We finished the evening off with a picnic at Ttukseam resort on the Han river. Thousands of people were using the parkland on this, and most nights this summer. Since most people don't have air conditioning and the temperature was 30C with 85% humidity, many people come out at dusk to sit by the river. Some camped out all night, with or without a tent (Korea is still great for camping absolutely anywhere).

Day 3 proved to us that even though the subway system is great in Seoul, the urban sprawl makes everything tough to get to. We checked out the World cup stadium and adjacent parks, which were really nice, but super under-utilized probably because they were so remote, and because Koreans don't really care for the sun. We swung back to the Korean War museum as an after-thought, which turned out to be a great move!
On the monument seen below was this passage:


Monument in Remembrance of the Korean War
The tragedy of the Korean War, which began early in the morning of June 25, 1950 with North Korea's illegal invasion of the South, resulted in over 4 million casulties, 10 million dispersed family members, and US$23 billion in property damage across the nation.
The Republic of Korea, along with the UN forces from 21 different nations, fought at the risk of their lives in order to protect democracy and national peace. The war lasted 3 years, 1 month and 2 days, and the Armistice Agreement was signed on July 27, 1953. [...]
In this spirit, as we commemorate the tragedy of the war, we erect this war monument in order to pay tribute to those sacrificed their lives and to leave the eternal peace to our sons and daughters with the hope and promise of the unification of the nation.
The monuments were breathtaking. Around the War museum, was a slew of military equipment used in the war... perfect for two oversized children (us) to play in. We finished the night with dinner at the Yongsan station, knowing that in 8 hours we would be back there, catching a bus to Incheon airport, and our plane out of Korea.

We're Home!!!

Updates of our awesome trip are still coming, but until then, we've posted pictures in the normal spot! Stay tuned!

Vacation pictures
Movie of Steph and Virginia petting Koi in Singapore
Movie of our resort in Rawa
Movie of the Singapore aquarium

Gone!!!

We are gone!
August 5th we leave for Seoul for 3 days. On August 8th we catch a red eye to Singapore where we will be staying with my long time friend from home - Theresa! She's been working there for 3 years for Deloitte. We will be returning to Busan on the 22nd and back in Mokpo on the 25th.

Don't expect any updates until we get back!!

Jeju-do: Korea's Hawaii

So there we were last Thursday, at 8am in the morning, standing in front of Mokpo's International Ferry terminal ( 34°46'48.36"N 126°22'55.39"E) with 30 of my teachers around us. The teachers had been gracious enough to envite Steph and I on their yearly outing... and this year it was all the way on Jeju Island, South Korea's "Honeymoon Island".


The ferry carried over 50 cars and nearly a thousand people, took 4 1/2 hours to get us to Jeju and left the two of us with some nice sunburns that really freaked out our Korean travel-mates. I don't tan... I just burn.

We arrived in Jeju (33°31'10.41"N 126°32'6.16"E) around 1:30 and were immediately ushered onto our tour bus, where we would spend the majority of our trip, in classic Korean style.

On the first day, a stop for lunch was followed by:

Ilchulland - an amazing garden created and donated to the island by one super wealthy man

Micheon Ilchulland Cave - a brilliantly chilly cave in the Ilchulland garden

A native Jeju village - They tried to sell us all some "berry medicine" - meh

An awesome Forest park where we got to walk and relax for way too little time.

Each stop we were only given the shortest amount of time to get out, wander around and take pictures... Steph and I were always the last ones back to the bus.

At a late dinner at the Hotel Hawaii and the revelation was made that our fellow teachers were told we were going home to Canada for our vacation, and not to Signapore. Trouble? I'm not sure. The group of us then headed to a really nice night club with a live band and singers. We had a great time drinking (Beer!) and dancing in the empty bar until a traditional dancer came out and we were all shooed back to our table. As the lady danced I joked to Steph that she was going to strip for us. Steph and I laugh aloud right up until the point that she stood practically naked in front of us... us and the 15 female and 15 male teachers from my school! The ladies didn't seem phased at all. Wow...you would probably never see this in Canada.

Although many in the group were hoping our next stop was the hotel, we made our way to the infamous Karaoke room where everyone pounded out famous Korean tunes into the wee hours of the night. It wasn't until Steph and I got up and belted out tunes of our own that the group headed home, tired but happy.

Day #2 started at 7:30 am after a mere 5 hours sleeping on the floor in our hotel rooms (There are no beds in normal Korean hotel rooms). Everyone was surprisingly chipper at breakfast before we headed out for round 2 of our whirlwind tour:

A "lava pottery" place (no other way to explain it) where one of our teacher took a donkey ride

An amazing show at the Jeju Magic World" which, for $15, was pretty comparable to a Cirque du Soleil show

A drive past the Convention center and World cup stadium

An amazing trek to the tallest and widest waterfall (33°14'48.68"N 126°33'16.67"E) in Korea

A trip to the lava tubes - seen in a movie on the "My Pictures" sidebar

Lunch followed by a trip to the famous "Dragon's Head lava formation"

More food and Soju

A trip to the tour gift shop before headed to the ferry

The trip home was pretty eventless, minus the onslaught of Soju and Skate once again. But an awesome sunset welcomed us back to Mokpo. It's so nice to be home!


Check all our pictures from Jeju on the sidebar dropdown menu!