Korea twice in one year - November 2022 - Page 4

Oh look, the worlds most valuable company who sold every western government a vaccine that is not a vaccine and the promise of stop the spread that did nothing of the sort, and yet did not refund anyone any of the money they took. Remember when we were told that taking the Pfizer vaccine would stop us from getting COVID? Remember the government telling us the sooner we get the shot the sooner it would all be over? Pfizer knew none of that was true and charged the world trillions of dollars and no one lost their job over the lies. Why didn't they just say from the start, it is not a vaccine, but it will stop you from dying even though you will still get covid. I have had 4 Pfizer shots so far but I did not get what I paid for. I still got COVID. And before anyone tells me they are free, no they cost me more than they cost most people because I pay all my taxes. The value of the Pfizer company doubled during COVID, that's my money! Japan just started their 8th wave, Korea is on wave 5, Australia is on wave 4. The Pfizer tactic was to lie and defend the lie to the point where people forgot what they paid for. It has worked great for them.
And to reiterate before anyone chimes in and accuses me of being an anti vaxxer, I have had 4 shots, I will have more, I want there to be an actual vaccine, I will line up for it, I get a flu vaccine and I would pay for a common cold vaccine. A vaccine is defined as "a substance used to stimulate the production of antibodies and provide immunity against one or several diseases", it is not a substance to reduce the severity of a disease.
But Pfizer, they ripped off the entire world and got away with it.

After a coffee to get going, I found some leaves and decided to investigate, still not knowing where I was going.

I honestly could not make this up. Of course, it is comfort girl related.

Like I said, if you like red leaves you will like today's photos.

There is the tower. The signs show all the different woodpeckers you might see. I have seen and heard lots on my hikes.

I left the trail briefly to go look at the national 1000 year time capsule. I guess time capsules have fallen out of favour with the internet now being an archive of everything including what I had for lunch today.

The actual time capsule.

The light changed to a weird twilight while I was in the local cultural park feeding the ducks.

It was really great light for a while.

But also still smoky.

Back on the low lap trail now and it is time for more leaves and a stream a baby might drown in.

You might get an arrow to the knee.

Around the back of the tower there are bits of wall, who knew.

Sometimes you have the option of leaving the road thing (which is closed to cars) and going on a trail. The problem with the trail is too many slow walkers on the weekend.

The developed bits of the park are however very nice.

Korea relies on Russia for oil and are worried the USA will stop them from buying it, so they are investing heavily in alternate sources of power.

Yes more leaves.

Miles and miles of red leaves.

I am basically finished at this point. There is one last shot of the tower. Under the shed are some ancient ruins, better go investigate more closely.

Yes, quite ancient.

Even though this is only a couple of hundred metres from the normal entrance to the steps up to the tower that I have been up and down 10 times, I had no idea this wall and alternate way up were even here.

OK, it is protest time. These are weather balloons. They tie banners between two of them and attach them to trucks to float the big banners in the sky.

Down the main avenue between the palace and city hall it is all people dressed in red, but I think they are anti government despite the red side being in government. I could be wrong about this! But there were lots more red protesters than blue, they appear to be organised by the union they belong to? You can see big speakers hanging from the crane, this went for kilometres.

A smaller section of blue protesters closer to the palace. The police kept telling me to get lost, which was fine when it was the traffic cop looking guys, but once the all black uniform guys with guns started telling me I decided to leave.

But everywhere I went there was another protest! For all I know these smaller ones, which are still blocking an entire street with their stage setup, might be protesting fishing rights, or better access to kim chi.

I was sent around in a circle a couple of times looking for a path to my hotel, so I stopped for lunch. It is rare that I have an actual lunch that is not muesli bars while hiking. I still have some of that muffin on my face.

As I got further away from the main avenue the protests became less organised. But still disruptive, with temporary fences and cops blocking ways across the road.

I found the best way was to go down to the sewer walk, which is on the left of this pic. Here is a weaker protest group, sitting on the ground like school kids. That is enough photos for now! Maybe later I will get water canon'd.

Yes, definitely raining.

The inside of the Seoul main station was quite busy. I went here because there an extensive underground shopping and restaurant network attached.

There are not many trains in the station. My train tomorrow does not leave from here, it leaves from the very nearby Yongsan station. I think the departure station depends on if you are heading South East or South West. It is probably a trap for young players if you are not aware.

Apt. Translation app gets it more correct than reality. Yes, MORE CORRECT.

I had the roof garden on the station to myself. Hmm, not really raining now.

I set off down a random road. It was quiet, on the wrong side of the station. It did not rain on me too much.. I have a high tolerance for getting wet.

It was time to find my dinner. This would not be it.

Instead I went to a Poke bowl place, of which there are many here. Rather than salmon or tuna, BEEF. There are a lot more things under the lettuce. The baked beans were an interesting addition. Now to dry out and then go in the shower and get wet again.

I had hours before I checked out of my room in Seoul to go to the train, so first I checked on the sewer walk from above. So grey today.

Apparently it is Gundam week in Korea, but I suspect this may be every week.

I did find a new overpass thing I had not noticed before that goes a really long way above the streets.

Eventually it was time to go to Yongsan station, just 3 stops on the subway from my hotel, and more Gundam. The giant robot killing machine with the heart of gold.

A general view of the station area, this station is most like a mega Japanese station, there are numerous stores and entire eating floors. That is what they call them, the sign says eating floor.

The Yongsan area is going through a big renewal. I remember from my first trip to Korea, in 2012, that this area was full of old discarded trains, and across the way there were no tall buildings. It was the computer market area. I think all that is gone now, and a department store is going to be built in that empty area in the foreground.

The roof of the Yongsan station has many different roof gardens. It was cold today in the grey. Under 10c I reckon.

First photo from Gwangju, across the road from my hotel, another sewer stream to explore!

And finally, my room. Standard type of business hotel room, with their branding on everything including the walls and ceiling. Also theres a full size ancient PC that you can see the mouse for on the left, these are quite common in Korean hotel rooms, they run very old windows so that very old internet explorer still works to log into very old starcraft servers or something like that. Now to think about dinner, I am hungry as I dare not remove my mask on the train to eat.

OK, before going to the observatory, I had to go to the martyr monument. At the bottom of this hill a religious group were doing a candlelight vigil praying for the conversion of all homosexuals or some such thing.

On my way up to the observatory I heard lots of noises in the bushes. I was being stalked. Not by a bear this time, but by lots of cats. Someone is feeding these ones. On the way down a few chased me.

Behold the observatory. It was hard to get a clear shot to show its size. The stairs around the outside might help. I went up and down the stairs much to the annoyance of the security people, I did not realise the stairs were for emergency use only. They are safer than a lift full of old men that hang out in the park chortling phlegm all day.

Handheld view number one from the top. That is the area of town I am staying in.

Handheld view number two, many more modern apartment buildings and mountains. I think my area of town has a lot of older buildings, and a university.

Other people. They were complaining it was cold. It was not that cold.

Down one level from the top is an art gallery and cafe. Unfortunately they only serve thimble sized drinks, for exorbitant prices, so that counts me out.

OK, after walking back down and fighting off over friendly cats, here is the giant hole in the ground at the Asian Cultural Center. It is kind of like federation square in Melbourne but much bigger.

A bit more of the hole. Maybe those gazebo umbrella things help convey how big it is.

It was very quiet tonight with lots of things closed. I suspect this is a Sunday thing. Here is the underground shopping strip between the two busiest stations and most shops were already shutting. Also back above ground a lot of eating places and pubs even seemed to be closed, not closed down just closed.

Of course this being Korea, it was not completely dead, there were still lots of places to buy snail cream.

But also lots of rubbish. Maybe there's no street cleaning on Sunday.

Well, it was cheap. And the sauce on the 'hamburg steak' was actually spicy. I chose the spicy option and for once that was a true story. And I made this look worse than it is as there is a self sever rice, soup, and pickled vegetable station, some of which looked a bit too sneezed on for me to indulge in. That is all for now, tomorrow is a hiking day again, finally.

The ride around the back of the mountain on the bus was death defying. There were speed humps on the road, the bus driver saw this as a challenge to get as much hang time as possible. I am glad we were going uphill rather than downhill.

Even the bus car park area has some nice leaf colour today.

This is the furthest entry point to the national park from the city, but there are still a few shops and restaurants around. They looked closed as I went past. Also I would walk across all those mountains in the background, after walking around them to the left first.

The start of the trail. If the boom gate was down, would I have paid any attention to it? I really doubt it.

The path initially was easy going, and it was well defined the whole way. However at times there are military roads, and a few dead end paths that you probably do not want to get tricked by.

There was even a cedar plantation, more like Japan than Korea. I guess since this was declared a national park in 2008 or there abouts those trees on the left will never be cut down?

Helpful sign in the middle of the forest.

The path became harder work at times. The rocks however were not slippery, despite recent rain.

First view of the day was hours into the hike. It would be an excellent view on a clear day with the yellow crops and the little mountains sticking up. There is a river down there somewhere too.

Here is the hermitage. It appeared as though no monks were there, but I think they had retreated somewhere further away as I could hear throat singing over a bad PA system coming from somewhere.

A bit more of the hermitage. The windows on the right are mirror glass presumably to reflect the sun. I adjusted my eyeliner.

Behind the hermitage are the first of the colonnades. These were formed by volcanic activity sometime before I was born.

A bit more view. Nice part of the path in shot.

And then all of a sudden, you pop out into the military zone, first up there is antenna world. Cars can get up here on a dirt track too.

Some more nearby colonnades. I had to google how to spell it.

Here is today's mention of the Goral. If bell does not ring I will eat you. Good message to always remember.

Last bit up to the faux summit.

Nice view back down to antenna world from faux summit.

Nucular missile base. With fog.

Wow, one of my best.

I would go down that way soon, past some different antennas. Gwangju in the background. Refer to my shots from my last visit here for a clear view of Gwangju.

Faux summit marker.

Time for the stance, with the nucular wissles behind me.

Colonnades. So many colonnades. Good photo.

I suspect I took this exact photo last time. Later I will do a detailed comparison.

Time to head down.

I came down from up there, but I am not really near the bottom yet at this point.

The bottom is along that sort of green ridge in the mist.

A bit further down, and another view back up again. Really these comments are becoming redundant.

It never rained, but it did look rainy at times.

Last one of these shots for today.

Back in the trees, and it was a very long, longer than I remember, rocky path down. Near here is where the old guy collapsed.

A particularly colourful bit. There were a few, this was the best.

And finally, back at the lower temple. It had toilets.

Even the road down to the bus stop / shopping street was nice and colourful.

There was also a little stream with many points to take photos.

Once back near the bus, there are 50 or so shops selling hiking gear, as well as cafes, restaurants, and a high end hi-fi gear shop.

More hiking shops.

I remember this giant angel-in-us from last time. Sounds painful.

That just left working out if a bus would ever come. Oh wait there's a million of them. They basically all go back to where I want to go, or failing that, a subway station. I just got on the first one and it went almost to my hotel door.

The local Lotte is quite small. I do not know if it is the only department store in town, I suspect there is one on the other side of the city in the business district. Still it has a cinema and a decent food basement.

Since there will not be a lot of photos this evening, behold the seating area of the basement food places. I prefer to sit at the bench and watch mine being made.

Apparently, Jeju style noodles. Looks a lot like Japanese style ramen. Except that it a lot more pork! Broth was also fishier tasting, which I think is the Jeju seaweed.

The guitar makes this shot perfect.

Gwangju has a xmas decorations street. I wonder if it exists all year or if they re-brand for each season that requires buying plastic lighting of some kind.

Well, I have seen worse, somewhere I once saw a sign that just said 'The Head'.

Hello.

I did notice that a lot more things are open tonight, Monday, compared to last night, Sunday.

Near my hotel all these places were closed last night. Now everything is open, but still quiet. That is enough pics of quiet streets.