Day 1 Suwon 수원 水原 (1 Sep 2007)

After approx 1 and a half hour ride of bus from airport, we finally arrived at Suwon. Unfortunately it was still raining, and the airport bus stopped at a place next to Hotel Castle, east of the Hwaseong (화성 華城). We had one and only umbrella but the rain was still going on and on. So I asked a guy was there anywhere I can get an umbrella nearby. He looked around and told me there wasn't any, so he let us has his (As shown on the photograph above). Is very kind of him, unfortunately, we didn't get his name or his contact as his ride had arrived. If this kind person is reading this, please drop me a mail.

Despite the rain, we were hoping to go to our first destination, eating Suwon famous Galbi. Before arrival, 화춘옥 seems to be a perfect choice judging from the location to where our bus stopped. But after walking for so long in the rain, our luggage handle finally decided not to cooperate with us and broke off while we were still searching for the restaurant.

Failed to locate the restaurant, we decided to go straight to Hwaseong tourist information centre to seek for help. We took a taxi to Paldalmun (팔달문 八達門), as shown on the picture above. Lucky for us, the tourist information centre was really helpful, special thanks to Ms. Choi, who had provided us with great assistance on both keeping our luggage while we walked around the fortress and told us where to eat instead.

She recommended a restaurant near Hwahongmun (화홍문 華虹門), called Yeonpo Galbi (연포갈비 淵瀑갈비). There are so many write up in Internet about this restaurant, like this, this and this. Although we were expecting to have Korean beef, but the menu clearly stated it is Australian beef. More importantly, how much did it cost? You can see it from our receipt.

After our meal, we proceeded to our sightseeing, which is conveniently situated right outside the restaurant, the Hwaseong itself. If you wish to explore the whole fortress, make sure you have sufficient time on hand. We just picked a few to view as we had a bus to catch later. More on Hwaseong in the next post.

Incheon International Airport 인천국제공항 仁川國際空港

Yeah! Finally arrived in Incheon International Airport at 8:40am from KLIA. Midnight flight is totally not my thing, hardly had any sleep at all. Looking out the aeroplane window, OMG, raining! It was a long wait at the baggage carousel, probably the LIFO theory of baggage check in. We did ours rather early on the previous day, as we took the ERL to the airport. Luggage appeared almost at the end, where we can witness the carousel belt stop after collecting our luggage. Passport control and custom clearance were a real smooth and fast experience. Custom only require one form to be filled per family.

First thing after all the clearance, we headed straight to SK Telecom (the only option for Celcom subscriber) counter at the arrival hall for mobile phone renting service for my sister. I made the reservation a few days before arriving in Korea, via the Korean Tourism Website. For GSM phone like what we use here, you can opt for renting a phone if you do not have any 3G phone (₩1,300 per day). Take note that SIM compatible phone is not as user friendly as you might have with your regular GSM phone. If you are into the feature-packed Korean CDMA phone, you can rent a phone with a local number, not too expensive I should add.

What is so bad about that SIM compatible phone? Firstly, when you make a call, your phone number displayed on the receiver end is not your number, but the phone number of the phone that you just rented. The receiver might not recognise you directly, and when the receiver try to call you with that local number, it never works. Secondly, + sign that we use it so frequently on GSM phone never work with Korean network. Except for local Korean number, you would always need to use the super long prefix 00700 to dial any non Korean number. That is the prefix for IDD calls. Thirdly, and the most annoying disadvantage, sending SMS NEVER works, even the manual that they provided never show any instruction on that. Probably they know it never works, so why bother printing it. Receiving SMS seemed to be ok, but there will be some random code at the end of message.

Since I do not need a phone to use in Korea, we went straight to the ticket counter to purchase bus ticket heading for Suwon (수원 水原), our first stop in Korea. Ticket costed ₩12,000 and boarded the bus at bus stop 7A. All information about buses can be viewed at Incheon Airport website.

Chinese New Year at Abu Dhabi

I spent the first five days of Chinese New Year of 2007 in Abu Dhabi, something completely. The weather was nice and pleasant, only it was rather dry compared to the humid weather in Malaysia.

Also, when surfing the Internet, something that was shown on my screen when I was searching for information on Abu Dhabi places of interest. I can't remember specifically which website, but if I'm not wrong, it is one of those photo sharing website. Well, when in Rome, do as the Romans do. Or is when in Abu Dhabi?

Visitors from Korea

(L-R) Shin Kwang-Sig, Vinay Kumar Singh, Yang Chi Shian, Erin Lau, Prof. Chung Wan-Young, Prof. Lim Hyotaek, Ryan Yong Sau Heung, Me, Nelson

Visitors from Dongseo University, Busan, South Korea came to Kuala Lumpur for the 6th Asia Pacific International Symposium on Information Technology held in University of Malaya. They were here from 19-22 January 2007.

It was a rather eventful and "adventurous" tour, while they were here. More details may be supplied in future post. For now, enjoy the photograph taken on the Skybridge of Petronas Twin Towers at Level 41 on 21 January 2007 (Sunday). Special thanks to Nelson for getting up early for the tickets.

Peculiar Tea

Here's the text if you cannot see it from the picture.

고려인삼차
KOREAN GINSENG TEA

식약청제04-0118-011호

건강기능식품

본 인삼차1~2포를 한잔의 온수 또는 냉수에 넣은 후 잘 저어서 음용하십시오.
봉밀 또는 감미료를 첨가하시면 인삼의 풍미를 더욱 즐길 수 있습니다.

DIRECTIONS
Put one pack or two packs of ginseng tea in a cup of cool or hot water, and drink it after beating.
Add honey or sweetner, and you can feel more peculiar taste of ginseng.

飮用法
本人蔘茶１～２包をコップー杯のお湯、または水た入れよく混ぜて飮んでください。
蜂蜜あるいは甘味料を添加すると人蔘の風味をもっと樂しめます。

飲用法
把人參茶1~2袋到入一杯溫水或凉水中，充分搖勻后飲用。加入一些蜂蜜或甛味劑，會使人參味道更加，口感更好。

I'm not very sure of the Japanese portion, but the rest of it, there are way too many mistakes!

With my limited Korean, I can roughly tell what does the Korean portion trying to convey. Keeping it close to the original, it means : After you have put 1-2 packet of the ginseng tea into a cup of warm or cool water, stir well before drinking. If you were to add honey or sweetener, you will enjoy better taste to it.

The English portion is the most hilarious of all. Why does anyone want to beat a tea? This is not an egg, right? Sweetner is not even a word, and I would definitely not want to drink a tea with peculiar taste!!

This is how I would put it : Put one or two packs of ginseng tea into a cup of cold or hot water, and stir well before drinking. Adding honey or sweetener into the tea can enhance the flavour of the ginseng tea.

The Chinese portion, sounds ok in general, but I guess they didn't bother to proofread it again. They use a mixture of simplified and traditional Chinese, and one word in particular, 甛, is one of those variant we hardly use. I guess no one will shake the tea (搖勻), especially not for ginseng tea.

My version of the Chinese portion would be
飲用法： 將1~2袋人參茶倒入一杯溫水或冷水中，充分攪勻后才飲用。加入一些蜂蜜或甜味劑，會使人參味道更佳，口感更好。
If it is in simplified Chinese:
饮用法： 将1~2袋人参茶倒入一杯温水或冷水中，充分搅匀后才饮用。加入一些蜂蜜或甜味剂，会使人参味道更佳，口感更好。