Tuesday, 5 January 2010

Ingwansan Temple Walk

So a few Saturday's ago now (mid december time, i am on severe catch up here!) Jenny, Mary, Michelle and I decided to take the advice of Lonely Planet Korea and go for a nice winter walk. We ended up not really walking, but pretty much hiking, on ice and climbing up boulders in totally unsuitable shoes (bar Michelle). It ended up being a great morning followed by an amazing meal at a restaurant I will advertise at the end of the post!

I know nothing about Ingwansan Temple, apart form the fact you get off at Dongimmun station on the orange line and that its near Seoadaemun Prison!




























After the walk, which took us about 2-3 hours, we headed over to Noksapyeong station, on the edge of Itaewon to an INCREDIBLE Arabian Mediterranean restaurant called Petra, the food was just so nice, if you go you have to try the cinammon rice, and by god the hummus! It's in a rather random place, on a hill next to a rather major road... I would love to give you directions but I would probably fail miserably, but like I said it's called Petra the address in 552 Itaewon-Dong, Seoul and the email is petrarestaurant@hotmail.com. The guy who run's it, was also great crack, had Michelle up and dancing in the middle of the restaurant! It is also close to an amazing second hand bookshop (No, not What the Book) I have no idea what it's cold but if you stick on the same side as the restaurant and walk away from it, its about a 3 minute walk. It is also tiny, but crammed to the rafter with a pretty amazing selection, managed to pick up a copy of Jose Saramago's Blindness which has been loitering in my online amazon basket for months now! Woo hoo!


Brian is soooo cool.......



I always fancied getting a motorbike...

Christmas is coming???


....and here we have it the most popular christmas decoration in Korea, it comes in all sizes... Santa Claus playing the saxophone...





The Salvation Army out in force??!!??!!

Typical Korean Gentleman

Sunday, 13 December 2009

63 Building


The 63 building is one of the most recognizable features of the Seoul skyline, officially known as the Korea Life Insurance building it sits on Yeouido Island in the middle of the Han river. Its nickname 'The 63 building' comes from the fact that the building is 63 floors high... however this is kind of a lie as three of the floors are below ground so it is actually only 60 floors above ground. It is essentially like a mall... and contains a bunch of shops, an Aquarium, Wax museum, Imax cinema and Skyart Art gallery apparently the highest gallery in the world which contains some of the highlights of Pop art from the likes of Warhol et al. The Skyart gallery is on the 60th floor and the view of Seoul, despite it being a rather wintery foggy day was amazing... on a clear summers day it would be even better...



View from the top...





in the art gallery..... my favourite piece - apart from Warhol's Diamond dust shoes... in Korea you can only take photos of art if there is a person in the picture... hence the shadow of Shauna Teacher in hiding!!




Message wall on the top floor... people write things about the people they love... or things like 'The Irish were here!'... jokes...



Werid gnome garden....

Aquarium.... these sharks were fake




These penguins were are real! I LOVE PENGUINS! I was very over excited!



This penguin was soooooo cool and so close!!

This dude was touchable... however the sign said he might bite... wish i had just grabbed him and hidden him in bag


These fish were so cute! Love there lips....


Well it wouldn't be a proper aquarium if you couldn't find NEMO!!!!!


The wax museum of the 63 building is just weird.... they had Jesus and the entire 'cast' of The Last Supper.....

David Beckham...........



And ummm........ Gandhi!


Last but not least we went to see some freaky 3D film, this is me in my specs!!!


Random Korea...


You can watch television on your phones. Most koreans do. This dude was watching the news on the bus...





What not to do on the subway


emergency breathing apparatus on the subway... did the Koreans not see Titanic? Did not learn the valuable lesson about the lifeboats? I really hope I am not involved in a scenario on the subway that would involve the use o this apparatus. There are clearly not enough masks to go around




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