20 March 2015
Tourists everywhere
The N Seoul tower at dusk
I found the tourists. And yes I realise I am one.
Before coming to Seoul I think I saw only 5 people who were clearly foreigners. There might have been a few Japanese or Chinese I assumed were Korean with my racist eyes.
However all that changed tonight, as tourists in Seoul are everywhere.
Of the white people I heard talking, most were French, although there was an English guy trying to chat up a Spanish girl by telling here how much he appreciated her accent.
In addition to us white people, there were also lots of arabs with women in the full mesh covered eyes burkahs, some Indians, and quite a lot of what appeared to be Phillipino girls trailing Korean families. Do they have servants in Korea like Hong Kong?
I did go up the hill in the middle of town with the tower on it, so naturally that is where tourists would be, but I also saw a lot of backpacker type places, and people wandering around the enormous shopping area.
On top of the tourist hill, I was nearly killed by a number of selfie sticks, and amusingly, one persons phone fell off the end of it, over a railing. Although I think they were able to retrieve it.
The tower on the hill may be the number one tourist area in Seoul, but its a nice place to go, and much like the airport shops, I think the stores and restaurants up there are government run or regulated, because they were very reasonably priced. You can of course take a cable car up here if you want to, I ran up because I was feeling guilty from the crap I had eaten all day.
Right now I am drinking a horrible hot drink called 'Daily nut tea'. I expected it to be sweet, but I think its all the salt washed off nuts into a sachet, with a few chunks of nuts they swept off the factory floor.
When I returned to the hotel just now, at 9pm on a Friday night carrying nut tea and coke zero, the hotel concierge asked if everything is ok, and do I need a doctor? I was puzzled, and asked why I would need a doctor. And he basically told me because its Friday night, and I appear to be home for the night at 9pm, rather than out on the town enjoying beer, therefore I must be ill.
I told him I like to go to bed early for good health and dont drink for religious reasons.
I went for a brief walk in the late afternoon in search of water and fruit.
My hotel is very well positioned in the main Myeongdong area. This is the pop up clothing market, just setting up at this time but already very busy.
No mountain today, just a hill. So I ran up it.
View at dusk. Be aware, the Seoul metropolitan area stretches further in the other directions, it is constrained here due to the mountains in the background, mountains I plan to be up soon.
According to Wikipedia, Seoul is the most populated metro area in the world after Tokyo. The numerous ways to measure these things is quite confusing though.
Panorama time! Mountains behind mountains! Time to study.
Tower. I took the same picture in 2011 I believe, however that time I was there in the morning, this time, night.
The view the other way. I believe thats Gangnam where the tall buildings are nearer the right edge. Gangnam is quite far from the original centre of Seoul.
The skypark area provides plenty of free spots to sit and enjoy the view. Paying to go up the tower seems a silly idea to me.
Night view from the top. I think night view from half way down is better, stay tuned.
Night view from halfway down.
Now I didnt think this would work, but it appears to have come out ok. Night time panorama! ISO3200.
All my night shots are handheld no flash, but as I have discussed before my camera does something called frame stacking, where it takes a heap of pitch black 1/60 ISO100 exposures and stacks them on top of each other, aligning them as it does it, to produce a single properly exposed picture.
When I explain this to people, even camera afficionados, they dont understand, and think its HDR. It is not, ALL the frames that are stacked are grossly underexposed, and all are high shutter speed, sometimes its 3, other times its 6, the camera works out how many pitch black exposures to take.
..........however, that doesnt work in panorama mode, hence ISO3200.
Myeongdong is the centre of the global neon industry.
This is the lucky dip shop for grown ups, or Korean girls anyway. $10.
Now ladies, you might have applied face masks before, but you are doing this half assed, theres a mask for everywhere! I have one on my stomach now, I dont think its working.
At first glance you might find that to be a pizza. But its a kimchi pancake. Very good!
I added lots of chilli flakes and pepper.
Also this place prided themselves on the self serve side dishes, which were HUGE thick bits of kimchi, and even HUGER bits of daikon. The scissors sticking up are for you to cut them into manageable pieces with.
The daikon in particular was very crisp and spicy.
Last photo, thats a police line do not cross, and there were police there. But I am not sure if it was a peaceful protest or a radio competition, because there seemed to be a super star radio DJ there trying to get everyone excited.
Also theres banners with LG and South Korean Telecom as sponsors. So I have no idea.