23 May 2022
Small mountain stroll
Late afternoon walk up Namsan
Every time I come to Seoul I take a walk up Namsan, shake my head at the lazy people who take the cable car, and then take too many photos of the view. This trip is no exception. Although this time there is a lot more pollution, and it gets dark later so its lighter than the other times I went up because I like to go to bed early.
There were tourists. A lot of them were paired up, one young American, one young Korean, weird, then I saw them in a prayer group, so that answered that, Jesus exchange.
I did overhear a Korean explaining in English in response to a girl complaining it was cold now, that Seoul has the highest average difference between day and night temperature of 'any major city in the world'. I have no cut off for what major means so I will have to take his word for it, but I can attest that each morning when I go out it has been cold, and by 5pm its already getting cold again despite staying light until after 8pm. In fact some nights it has gone down to 9 degrees.
Weather discussion was requested, there was some. I have no other amusing stories for this evening, so here are some pollution photos.
Brace for incoming view. Here is the view from the start of the cable car. I stood nearby and told people they were lazy.
The cable car does not seem to run often due to lack of customers. Instead they wait until it is absolutely full and start up the line. Good plan to maximise covid.
A bit of the way out looking towards Gangnam or Gimpo or something, away from the old part of the city across the river.
It doesn't even take 20 minutes to walk up.
View from part the way up looking towards where I am staying in the older part of the city. I like to convince myself the pollution is adding to the spectacle.
Seoul is a very big city.
This little girl did not enjoy having her photo taken, also there is the tower.
I have taken the same photo in this spot previously. I will do a comparison soon. I will probably not enjoy that. I have purchased new masks, so now I also look like a duck, more so than usual.
So phallic.
I don't even know what direction this was. Lots of green, lots of mountains.
Last time I was here, I think there was a lot of construction going on, and this entire part of the tower complex was inaccessible. There are a lot more shops and cafes than I remember. There is almost no one here, which was great.
Now a couple of shots of the main view, I left the people in the shot to make it slightly more interesting, including a couple of tourists you can see there.
Last view shot. Total lack of crowds on a Monday night. I guess it was a bit early, most people come for the sunset.
My very unappealing looking dinner was delicious, but huge. I is a tonkatsu style pork cutlet thing covered in curry. Koreans love all parts of the pig, and there are tonkatsu places ranging in price from extreme high end with tiny serves of special royal pigs all the way down to less than $10 for where I got this huge meal that was probably road kill. Actually the photo does not convey size well, it was a much bigger plate than normal, more like one of those joke schnitzels they serve to truck drivers in Australian pubs so you get your photo on the wall and die of a heart attack soon after while behind the wheel of a road train.