Sudden recall of Malaysian food, and reminds me of the unexplainable naming of some of the food. For example:
I wonder who came up with these misnomer...
It was a quick trip to 서울 (Seoul) on a Monday 25 Aug, because I need to get some document signed at the embassy. Since it was not my first time to Seoul, I did not prepare much on sightseeing, as I expected to return to Busan on the day. Took an early morning KTX to Seoul, which cost me a bomb. I headed straight to the embassy once I reached Seoul station by taking the subway. Two 아줌마 asked me on separate times how to get to their destination. I just simply answer, as if I'm very familiar with Seoul. Lucky my guesses are correct.
Going to the embassy was actually quite a hassle, as the nearest train station is Hannam (한남 漢南) on the Central Line (중앙선 中央線). The station has only a single exit, and the embassy was on a slope, and require walking 15-20 minutes from the station, depending on how busy is the Hannam junction. When I finally was there, the staff (nice Korean lady who can speak fluent Malay and English) by the counter told me the person-in-charge was not available and told me I should have made an appointment before I come. I was stunted for awhile, but she was kind enough to get my number and try to schedule it as soon as possible.
I met a friend of a friend in Soongsil University to get Singapore mooncake from him. There, I had lunch at the university canteen. I did some sightseeing on my own, since it's not that hard to navigate around Seoul, since I was there just a year ago. Too bad that Monday a lot of museum and palace were closed. My focus of sightseeing this time was historic building, especially those of Japanese colonial building which I have missed last year. Here are some of the random scenes I took.
After my short sightseeing, I was about to head back to Busan, the embassy called to inform that I can drop by the next day to get my document signed. I was lost for a moment since I did not want to do another trip up from Busan again, I need to get a place to spend a night. I was so lucky that Jimmy (a friend of a friend mentioned above) managed to find me a place to rest for a night at Dr. Andrew's place at Ramada hotel near to City Hall. Great place to stay. And for the first time I saw Korean drama (식객 食客) on HDTV, super clear. So clear until it lost the drama feel to it, as the images looks like those shot with a news camera.
I spent my birthday in Seoul, which the staff by the embassy noticed as well. Anyhow, here are some of the scene I took, especially around Gangnam (강남 江南).
There are so many maps available online from Korea. It is really amazing on the details of such map, and some of them can even roughly detect your current location. If the following map is not detail enough, always check out the city or county government website, where they have even more detail map available, such as the land contour and elevation. Here are some of the example, and take note that as with a lot of Korean website, they are IE only.
For Busan specific, I like to use the 부산시 시내버스 노선개편 안내 시스템 Busan Bus Line Information, which link the bus line to the map. Also, the Busan City Hall has a rather detail map of Busan in PDF for download, made available here.
A general idea of how Busan is administered: Busan has 15 districts (Gu 구 區) and 1 county (Gun 군 郡). Read this if you are not sure what is it all about. Here is the breakdown of each districts, extremely useful if you were to take a bus in Busan.
Another one of those hiking trip, this time was to Bongnaesan (봉래산 蓬萊山 395m), which is located to Yeongdo (영도 影島), an island on the southern side of Busan, which is famous for Taejongdae (태종대 太宗臺). Apparently the current showing Korean TV drama Beethoven Virus has scene shot at Taejongdae.
We were there just next day after the Korea won the Olympics gold medal, thus you can see this at the top.
This particular mountain is quite accessible, not too high, but the view is stunning. You can see various Busan ports and piers from here by the Busan bay. Also, Nampodong (남포동 南浦洞) area, Jagalchi (자갈치) with Busan tower can be clearly seen as well. Another of Busan symbol, the 5-6 Island Oryukdo (오륙도 五六島) is within clear visible range. View of Korea Maritime University (국립 한국해양대학교 國立 韓國海洋大學校) looks rather cute as well.
One of my many mountain hiking in the previous months. One of them is none other than Jangsan (장산 萇山 634m), my first trip with then newcomer Jiun Hau. If you are staying in Busan, probably you are familiar with the name Jangsan due to the terminus stop of subway line 2. If you were looking for the shortest path to the summit, do not attempt from terminus, it's really far away, which to me it is a misnomer.
It's now or never. That is what I have in mind. I decided to do short post instead of long, so that I can update on my progress here in Korea. Most likely be more picture and short caption, and order might not follow actual timeline of event.
First up, I was at Pusan International Film Festival. I have chose to watch World Premiere of Japanese film Happy Flight (ハッピーフライト) at Busan Yachting Centre on 6 Oct 2008. The director, leading actor and actress were there as well. Dual subtitles with English on the bottom horizontally, Korean on the right vertically. It was an entertaining film, much of our delight that it was showing way ahead of Japan. Ticket cost ₩5000.
Film was about an eventful flight from Japan to Hawaii. Director 矢口史靖 Yaguchi Shinobu (standing on the left on the following picture), is famous for films like Swing Girls and Waterboys. Also present was actor 田辺誠一 Tanabe Seiichi (in suit), and actress 綾瀬はるか Ayase Haruka (in 韓服).
