More of the same of Korea - March and April 2024 - Page 2

The final stop on the line exits right by the main gate to Chinatown. This area does not really kick off until the afternoon, I was here at 10am.

A lack of people meant I could get a lot of shots of clear streets.

There are a number of dim sum (dian xin) places to choose from if you feel like deep fried breakfast.

I love my camera. Look how 3d this photo appears to be! I believe it is called micro contrast, and probably does not exist.

There is a park at the top of the hill, with the characters representing the Chinese zodiac. I was having flashbacks to my two previous visits.

This is a monument to the American / Korean centenary of cooperation. There is no angle to take a photo of the whole thing properly.

This is a weird photo. In person, the pollution today was horrific, and yet the photo shows a far clearer scene than my eyes perceived at the time. Perhaps I have developed mentally generated pollution goggles?

Here is General MacArthur, or GenMac as he prefers to be called these days. Famous for riding a horse head long into battle across 5 different wars while smoking a pipe, and never once getting a scratch on him. Ordinarily I would have stood in the middle of the path and tried to line up the statue for the photo, but the statue is weirdly off centre which annoys me. Move it.

Nearby is the Korea Telecom monument. Actually it is on top of a somewhat historic telegraph station building.

I tried to push this over.

Gay pandas. The local mega churches protest their right to exist.

Here are a few more bonus red lanterns.

At this point, I headed in a random direction to explore an area I had not been to on previous visits. There were many historic buildings and little garden areas such as this one. And of course many fancy cafes.

This for example, is the 1st National Bank of Japan. Built during occupation in the late 1800's.

Eventually I found my way into the shopping area of Sinpo, which was somewhat busier than Chinatown.

I considered stopping at Goat / Koala cafe for a third coffee, but unfortunately it was a bit late in the day for me to intake any more caffeine.

Shotengi (Japanese covered shopping street) Korean style, in the Chinese part of Korea.

And finally, a huge underground mall back to DongIncheon station. I decided to walk along it to avoid any more sun as today I was not wearing sunscreen.

I love to point my camera directly at the sun and see what happens.

Even facing away from the sun this evening was quite nice. Note the glowing train going across the bridge.

Both sides of the river are a linear park very popular with cyclists. Getting under the highway that also runs along the river can be a logistical challenge, there are tunnels periodically.

I have wondered previously why there are no ferry's on the river here. Now I know why, the bridges are actually locks.

There is the Lotte tower. From this angle it does not look too tall due to the way it slopes back. It is has 123 story's and is the 6th tallest building in the world, at least for now. There are many rumours about its poor construction with cracking glass and water leaks leading to parts of the mall underneath being closed for extended repairs.

The whole area is Lotte themed buildings, hotels, malls, theme parks.

I decided to brave the cracking glass and water leaks and head down to the lowest level of the mall for some ramen. Ramen was not my first choice but finding a seat was difficult due to the blossoming blossom crowd.

Now for some blossom pics. As you can see, we all march in one direction, or else!

The blossoms continue all the way around both halves of the lake.

I have been here before and photographed the theme park in the lake during the day time. Here it is in the dark.

Last blossom shot. I am over blossomed.

OK, one more shot of the Lotte tower, a Lotte shot.

And there he is, the mascot for Lotteworld adventure. Furry mascots always have a walking stick, it seems they must get involved in horrible work place accidents, perhaps while constructing the Lotte tower?
Tomorrow is a hiking day! I will put on sunscreen.

The Hoeryong station area is surrounded by shop filled streets, and more blossoms.

The actual station is very large, the monorail joins onto it here too.

I got to inspect the monorail track on my walk from the subway station to the actual start of the trail, It is probably about 1km away. I guess you could get closer on the monorail.

There are my mountains for today. They look strangely far away in this photo, despite the trail starting just under those freeway overpasses in the centre of this shot.

Soon after the trail started, it was time for rocks and purple flowers.

It did not take too long to start getting some altitude, allowing a good view of the hundreds of identical apartment buildings below.

There were quite a few people around near the bottom, many come just up to this view then go back. I had to wait my turn.

Some view.

More view. The rocky mountain across the valley is Dobongsan, which I climbed last time I was here, and once before before that too! It is one of the more dangerous climbs you can do in Seoul.

Last one of the view for now. The haze is kind of nice.

There are many fortifications in the hills.

I still had a way to go, but those ridges here are the way I would come down.

Another fortification signalled the first peak of sorts. There is barbed wire in the entry but it would not take much to pull it out and go in. I think they mainly want to stop people from illegally camping in them.

Lots of going up and down over steep rocks today.

View from the next peak, which I assume is Dojeongbong, looking further away from Seoul.

My big fat head. Not too sweaty today due to the lack of sun.

Redundant view.

My next target, Suraksan.

You can go down that way too. There are a lot of trails and I had to keep checking my map to make sure I was on the trail I needed to get me to my desired destination.

It was basically rocky the whole way today, a great workout for your metatarsals.

These people decided to see if a photo is worth dying for.

Hmm, I guess I will not be going that way. This was not really a problem as the way around it meets up again soon after.

By avoiding the roped off cliff climb I instead got to enjoy, a staircase.

Today's helicopter landing pad. These are strategically placed so that North Korea can easily land troops on every mountain surrounding Seoul and take up sniper positions.

And then I arrived at the summit of Suraksan, where an intrepid soul had lugged up an esky full of ice creams for sale.

The view. Rocks, clouds, white apartment buildings.

The view the other way, and the assembled junk of the ice cream salesman.

To start my descent, another staircase.

But still, many more rocks to clamber over or around.

Nice clouds.

Around this point I got a bit lost, I thought the trail would surely include this cave, but this was not the trail.

I abseiled down using the provided rope, but there was no trail to be seen.

I pondered the view while getting my bearings, then went back up the rope.

After I walked around a bit, I found the trail again. Complete with a rope fence and a view sign.

Eventually I started on a long man made trail down of... more rocks.

So many rocks.

A lot of people would like to take a photo of this huge rock, so the park authorities stuck a huge yellow sign in front of it.

I realised I was getting nearer the bottom when a bird trap appeared.

But fear not, still more rocks! A glacial flow of rocks from pre-history!

Then to join the rocks were some puddles of spring water.

Finally I arrived back at civilisation, I was greeted by a pole full of optic fibre termination boxes.

And of course, the OBLIGATORY temple, the first one of this trip? That is all for now.

Like I said above, I passed many protests, with Korean only banners, but this is the protest outside of the Google building, which they have used Google Translate to kindly translate into English.

The streets here look very much like a western city.

Fine dust free zone. I do not know what that is or how it is achieved.

Here is the flash library in the COEX mall. I think they actively encourage photos, taking books off the shelves to read them, and browsing with a drink in your hand.

My dinner was something a bit different. Korean dumplings (mandoo/mandu) filled with eggplant and kimchi. There are 5 of them on the big plate, deep fried. Very nice.

Here is the running track! A strange idea because kids do run on it, as fast as they can, which must frequently end badly.

And then after catching the subway back from an underground mall, I came up to the surface and into complete darkness.

Tonight's neon on a hill.

I decided to walk up the middle of the road and inspect the buses.

And tonight's final pic, the red carpet launch of a new Netflix show that features a girl with a tree root growing out of her head. These days there are more Korean shows than English shows on Netflix.
Tomorrow is not a hiking day. And neither is the next day as on Friday I am going to Daegu. I have planned this badly!

On my way to the station, I passed many piles of the whore flyers distributed by scooter riders every night around the Gangnam area. This is all great for the environment.

This statue is out the front of the Sony store, which has big signs all over it advising people they no longer sell playstations. Did Sony cancel the playstation? I doubt it.

I wonder what specific incident caused the banning of carrying pants on the subway? Luckily I chose to wear my pants today.

Behold, the concrete lined streets of Bupyeong. I got off at a station north of the main area and started my walk south.

Here is the sad old mall, culture street. Later I tried to get my salad from a place along here, but their card reader rejected both my cards, first time that has happened, so I went elsewhere. It was a machine of course, you never order from a human.

I get all my jewellery from Bling Bling.

There are numerous underground shopping areas. The most confusing one is 8 lanes of concentric octagons. You read that right.

This whole area including the market really only opens at lunch time. There is actually a different night market that opens at 8pm as well, which is pretty close to my bed time.

The nearby Lotte department store is also a train station. Looks a bit dated.

A very busy area, full of Adult shops, I just read the signs in this photo.

Here is the inside of the comprehensive market. I do not really know what those little old ladies are doing. The whole time I was there I could not stop thinking about how comprehensive it was.

Yes.

And then here is my salad. A strange combo of an entire avocado, cranberries, olives, muesli as well as a few more standard salad ingredients. The machine was happy to take my card so I was happy to eat their salad.
Not too many pics today, maybe I will try harder tonight.

Near my hotel, and food trucks are setting up early. Similar to Taiwan, but not quite as bad, you stand in the traffic a lot of the time when you want to go to a food truck. I do not enjoy this, so I did not partake.

Instead I headed under a bridge into a fenced off area and examined the rubbish collection carts. Really! That is why I am here.

There are a few real boats that go for little cruises around in a circle in this area. They cannot go under any of the bridges to my knowledge. However what looks like boats here are barges made to look like boats filled with convenience stores and cafes.

Here are some real boats. I do not think you can go on these.

This is also a boat, in the grass.

This is a dinosaur. Note the tents starting to appear.

And then I started to hit the picnic on dead grass area and a sea of people.

A huge number of people. Note they are all sitting on a colourful piece of freshly purchased plastic coated cardboard. Most of these will float down the river at the end of the evening.

There is a small city set up to service this whole shindig.

And here is one of many, many sheets of cardboard stores. Boxes and boxes of plastic coated cardboard. It is a good thing I can no longer get a disposable coffee cup.

A mini city and all the associated services. On a Thursday.

Last photo of the picnic area.

Just up the road are all the flash buildings. A lot of really nice looking architecture.

That is 'The Hyundai', the fanciest of all the fancy Hyundai department stores. I think the basement there is where I had dinner last time I came to this area.

However this time I ate in basement 3 of the nearby IFC mall. My dinner is spicy tofu stew, with mystery meat, and all the side dishes. There is rice under the wooden lid. I mix everything together.
Tomorrow I take a bullet train to Daegu. Hopefully they do not cancel my hotel booking?