Heading back to Seoul on the KTX to stay at Dormy inn Gangnam
Now I am back in Seoul and as the title suggests, that is the first of 2 loops or the second of 4 loops completed. Actually lets go with second of 4, but I am not changing the title. Loop 1 remains open, Melbourne to Hong Kong to Melbourne. Loop 2 also remains open, Hong Kong to Seoul to Hong Kong. Loop 3 is completed, Seoul to Daejeon to Seoul. Loop 4 will come soon, Hong Kong to Guangzhou to Hong Kong. Very complex, if you go to the news section of this website, there is a handy map. Geography, cool?
Before leaving Daejeon I had time to do another loop around the creeks / drains / sewers in the dawn sunlight, this is the loopiest update I ever typed. Very nice weather, good scenery. It was then time to check out of my hotel, and if you recall the check in, I did not have to pay, and despite insisting that I pay as I left, they told me there was no need. I presume they have the details from my booking via booking.com but they are yet to charge my card that I can see. Maybe they just like me a lot and want to give me the room for free?
The trip to the Daejeon station on the subway with my bag was very easy, and then it was time for a cake and coffee before boarding my bullet train to Seoul, this is all very procedural.
The train ride lasted all of an hour, and thankfully today, no one was losing a lung. There was no view though, all blinds down, just like Japan! Whatever you do, do not try to open a blind, a grandma will slap you.
My hotel in Seoul is far away from where I was staying last week, in fact it is in Gangnam, a stylish place apparently. It is also a Dormy Inn, and in all ways its identical to the Dormy Inns in Japn, which means it has a free laundry, so that is what I am doing right now, fascinating!
Here is one last view of the huge apartment suburbs in Daejeon, along with one of the many running tracks that runs along one of the many rivers to one of the many mountains.
If you have been to a Korean BBQ restaurant, you will know they fill up with smoke and have the exhaust fan things. here is what that looks like on the outside, such a terrible carbon footprint!
Look! A glasses bridge, just like Nagasaki in Japan!
And look! Its a bullet train! Also like Japan.
Oh wait, its a Dormy inn, like, yeah you know. My room has a very long entry with a wash basin and a bathroom running off the side.
Here is the bedroom area. It is quite roomy, not that this shot shows it well. There is a little couch running along the left wall not seen here. Well you can see my red suitcase on it.
My room even has a view, behold, the view! My window opens, but the gap was very tight to get my camera out, I contorted it 5 different ways to get it out the gap to take this shot, so you better appreciate it!
Exploring the busy streets of Gangnam for a hamburg steak
Somehow on my previous 2 trips I seem to have missed the main part of Gangnam. I am sure I have walked down the main roads before, but most of what there is to see is between those roads, on a giant slope. Very very steep in places, hard to walk up, a very strange place to build a very popular retail area.
I must also apologise that todays photos are all crap and uninteresting, that sometimes happens on travel days, even when travel was only an hour. But I guess I did combine travel with washing day, which takes a couple of hours. So today was probably the most boring day of my holiday. So now I will talk about penises. Lots of penises.
The washing machine in the Dormy Inn is in their spa / sauna / communal bath area, just like Japan. There is a big changeroom with stools to wash yourself and mirrors etc, and yeah theres normally a few fat old nude men hanging out there (literally).
Today there was what appeared to be an entire work group, on some kind of trip, all in there at once, making jokes about each others penises. There were so many penises swinging about with general penis frivolity, that some of the guys were sitting ON the washing machines that I was trying to use. Even as I was in there loading the machine or transferring the clothes from the washer to the dryer, they stayed in the washing machine room, telling stories about how big the fish they caught was.
The really strange thing about this was, it was a 38 minute wash cycle, and a 75 minute dryer cycle, I left the bath area each time, and when I came back, all these dudes were still hanging out in their with their scrotums swinging about.
Hopefully tomorrow I can step up my photo game, although rain is forecast, which is the great stifler! Is stifler a word? Internet says yes!
Here is one of the main streets through Gangnam, that I have walked down before. It looks just like an Australian city.
Just as I forecast, peak cherry blossom has now arrived in Seoul.
Also, just like in Australia, Chinese hot pot restaurants are the current hot thing in Korea. Lines down the street for all of them. Currently every single restaurant in central Melbourne is either hot pot or converting to hot pot, and they all have giant lines.
Is Psy dead?
Heres some nice buildings, and a bus.
A photo for my mother, here in Seoul, or in this part of Seoul, Dunkin donuts has gone up market. Note: I know you like mister donut, but this is the same damn thing, only the upmarket ones have nitro cold brew and donuts with ganache and creme fraiche.
The back streets through Gangnam are basically like the busy colorful back streets in the other parts of Seoul, but there is much more variety in the food on offer... despite my poor choice below.
It does not really look like it here, but this is one of the up hill streets.
And now my dinner. I saw a sign with this salad like arrangement with dumplings and some bulgogi, so I wanted that, it was a basement place so down the stairs I go, sit at the table, ring the doorbell thing. Unfortunately the meal I wanted was a lunch time special only, damnit! Oh well, curry hamburg steak it is!
Hiking over wonderful Gwanaksan from Sadang station
So, 7.5 years ago I came to Korea, and climbed over Gwanaksan. You can find that by looking at my old trip report from 2011, ALL MY CONTENT IS ALL ONLINE FOREVER. In fact I recently went back and re edited and re exported the pics from that trip in higher detail. Anyway, Gwanaksan is still great, today I climbed a much longer, much more technical route than last time, and was rewarded with the best views of Seoul yet.
I started out early, because I feared it would rain, my fears almost proved correct as I was returning to my hotel, but even right now its still not raining, but thats enough about the weather, yet again.
Also I mentioned yesterday that I have not taken enough photos, that situation is remedied today, with too many photos. I culled quite a few too.
Getting to the start of this hike could not be simpler, you exit a subway station, and there is the map. Ending the hike is the same but in reverse, you step off the trail, and theres the subway station. Korea, so convenient.
Just as I was pondering how convenient Korea is, when returning to my hotel I needed to find an ATM so I could go buy some water, and strangely, there was no ATM to be found. Normally theres 55 of them on every corner, every subway station has 20 of them, but today, in Gangnam no less, I had to walk about 2km to find one. Very weird. All so I could buy water, you cant drink the tap water, very inconvenient.
The only strange thing to report today was that on the subway I saw two people looking at their phone crying, not at the same time, and not with each other. Both times I repositioned myself so I see their phones and could therefore see what was making them cry, and both times, it was a close up of someone crying in super slow motion on a K-drama. The national past time is slow motion crying at slow motion crying.
The start of the hike today was at Sadang, a very vibrant area, I think it is quite near the Seoul National University, the second best University in all of Korea after the Kim Il-sung Galactic Juche Academy.
Todays hike has a temple at the start, called the something hermitage. It would not be the last hermitage today. What is a hermitage? Internet says, 'the dwelling of a hermit', well there you go!
I got off to a rocky start, very early, trying to beat the rain.
The first part of the hike was easy steps and purple flowers.
A great view developed very quickly, and stayed with me all day!
North Koreans are all over this mountain hiding in tunnels. Some of these tunnels are linked up into a big complex of tunnels, I am assuming they are blocked off just below the surface but I did not go in to check either!
A rocky view.
The impostor flag! There is a unified Korea flag that they use when they compete together at the olympics.
I took my big fat head shot early in case it started raining. It didnt.
Once up on a peak I realised there were more peaks to cross before getting to the main peak. As you can see sometimes theres a stair case up the peak so that you dont plummet to your death. There were still plenty of opportunities for plummeting if thats your thing.
I kept appreciating the view. Good times.
Probably one view shot too many, but theres a few better ones to come.
Walking over the rocky ridges was great fun, a bit windy at times, but nothing scary. Rain would have made it very slippery!
I still have to get to that tower, until then, heres some little trees and purple flowers. This path had next to no other people on it, of course the one time I decided that public urination was the order of the day, the one guy I did see came around a corner.
At times I had to get down on my hands and haul myself up. Great fun.
Mooooore view.
View of the summit through a cave. The wind through the cave hole was pretty intense.
Rain coming! I better get a move on.
Almost there.
I think this is the view from as close to the top as you can get, the actual top is blocked off due to military tv towers.
Behold, how to ruin the top of a mountain. This is only a small bit of the ruination, theres lots of other towers and razor wire in every direction.
A cool Nazi hermit house at Hermitage 2.
Just like the first hermitage, they have strung up a heap of plastic lanterns to scare the birds away.
The path down was really comparatively easy, as it was the main route to the temple. This was one of the only challenging bits. As you can see if you look carefully, they strung lanterns to show the way.
First glimpse of Gwacheon, the far side of Seoul.
It does not look that steep back to the top, but it is. It never looks steep. I want to invent a new camera that allows you to dial in how steep you want things to look.
Most of the path down looked more like this. Apart from the bits with Hessian carpet laid over the rocks.
Bonus upwards view.
After exiting the path, there was a crazy shop that had everything, including a gold statue.
Some blossoms meant every Korean schoolgirl was SELFYING, so I took a creep shot from afar (heavy crop).
Final shot of the day, GWACHEON, I think its a satellite city set up to house government buildings, largely under construction. The zoo is also around here somewhere, I went there in 2011. Nice clouds!
Escaping the rain at the Coex mall and Hyundai department store
Now it is raining, really raining. I got really wet, and went to the mall.
On the way there people looked at me like I was a special kind of idiot, walking along getting wet without an umbrella without even screaming a little bit.
Once I got to the mall, the security guy opening the door looked uncertain as to if he should even let me in. Seriously, I was only mildly saturated, no water running off me.
I had been to this mall before, maybe both times I have been to Korea previously, I think possibly when it was raining then also. I think its now contains a lot more shops and entertainment than on previous visits, and as you will see, theres a really really fancy Hyundai department store there now, as well as lots of hotels, a casino, aquarium, cinema, you get the idea.
When I went to walk home again, after an hour or so underground it was raining even harder, too hard even for this hardened rain fan to brave in the cold. So I took the subway most of the way leaving only a short dash to the hotel door. The hotel staff were not thrilled when I entered their lobby slightly drowned.
Behold, a photo of the rain! Everyone loves a random photo of the rain.
At each major intersection I crossed the street by going through the subway station. In this one I decided to take a mugshot, and WHAT A MUGSHOT IT IS!
This is quite an unusual mall. It is all underground, and very very spacious. You can really walk a long way in here.
I chose a noodle specialist place for dinner, they were making their own noodles. I chose spicy beef, and it was great! The game was find the beef, but that was ok, I enjoyed the noodles a lot.
The mall also has a large very flash free to use library. Too bad I cant read Korean.
How would you pronounce that?
As mentioned, I stumbled into the Hyundai department store. Yes, the same as the car company, in Korea they are everything, not just cars. This was probably the flashiest department store I have ever been in, fancier than anything I can think of in Japan, possibly because it is newer.
It had a truly epic supermarket. And lots of guards telling me no photo.
After exiting Hyundai world, I found a fancy food court area back in the mall. If its still raining tomorrow, I can come back here, hang out in the food court, go to the library, swim in the aquarium, drive a Hyundai around a supermarket.
There are currently 3 comments - click to add
David on 2019-04-10 said:
Strangely, the mug shots get a lot more clicks to view the full size version than any other photos I post.
Phil on 2019-04-10 said:
I suggest you keep the mug shots separately.
jenny on 2019-04-09 said:
The first rock on the trail would have to be called the mother cradling the baby rock. Need more department stores here and an underground mall would suit as well, but then I would have no reason to visit any of these countries.
Hiking Yongmasan in the rain from Yongmasan station
Well it is still raining. The scariest thing about the rain is not slipping off the mountain, it is umbrellas. And now I have a new reason to fear umbrellas which is nothing to do with losing an eye.
Nearly every subway station has an escalator up to the surface, with a little roof over it, you then step out into the rain. This is the most danger I have been in for some time.
You see whenever a Korean person gets to this step at the end of an escalator, they stop, and try and put up their umbrella, before they dare step out into the rain. When exiting a station, 200 people will all try and do this, one after the other, causing those at the back of the line on the escalator to have to walk backwards down a moving escalator. Truly terrifying, and repeated 3 times so far today!
Because of the continuing rain (forecast to end this afternoon) I selected a small mountain, one which I was assured was all a staircase. Well it was a staircase until I veered from the path. I chose the location specifically because I was worried I might slip off the granite face of a mountain, but I discovered that damp rocks and especially damp fine gravel, are far GRIPPIER than dry. So I explored numerous awesome paths, regaining my composure after nearly dying exiting the subway.
Also, this will be the last mountain in Korea, I am off to Hong Kong tomorrow, to have a look at the mountains there!
Oh yeah, I should probably have mentioned that todays 'mountain' was called Yongmasan, in the eastern part of Seoul, there is a subway station named the same so it is very easy to find.
The start of todays hike was an ancient quarry. How ancient? Signs tell me 700 BC, I am not sure I believe it. There is now a running track and a rock climbing wall. This photo does not do very well at demonstrating how high the quarry walls are.
Here is a bit more of the quarry, someone has planted millions of whatever hedge thing produce those yellow flowers. I ran a few laps in the rain.
Despite being a small mountain, the path was really great, excellent views, nice foliage, well marked trail, nothing slippery enough to be worried about.
Before too long a view opened up, as usual I have taken way too many shots of indistinguishable view.
More view.
Staircase with Lotte tower in the middle. After this staircase I took a detour for even more view.
RIP whoever this guy is. The grave had no plaque, but there was a sign saying there used to be a big city wall here. Not anymore.
The path then became really picturesque.
So picturesque that I declare this to be PICTURE OF THE DAY!
On slippery rain day I was not expecting to scale a cliff, but as I mentioned, it was surprisingly a lot less slippery than in the dry, so cliff scaling I went.
Time for a bit more view. I was not quite sure which way I was facing but whichever way it was I am sure I have climbed that mountain in the distance at some point.
The far side of this small mountain revealed a lot more paths to explore, but theres no subway down there, so I would not be going that way today.
Summit view, suitably rocky and yellow. A runner up for the much coveted photo of the day award.
A sore thumb of a tower, 123 floors, 5th tallest in the world. Next week I will see number 7 in Guangzhou, China.
Me and my many chins, in the rain.
Just below the summit the old guys have set up a weight training gym. The most impressive part is at some point they have carried all this equipment up the hill.
I found yet another great path back down, a path I had all to myself.
The view down this way was no less awesome.
Random pile of rocks.
Just when I thought I was down, another cliff to descend. You cant really see it here, but just after the rocks end in this photo was very steep, I had to descend backwards.
Having selected a quiet path to nowhere, I emerged from the forest in the middle of nowhere. There were many churches, wires strung everywhere, but no shops. Really steep streets, far slipperier than the actual rocks on the mountain.
I was back quite early and it was still raining, so I decided to sit in one of the trillions of bakeries and enjoy a sandwich and a cake. Look, a photo thats not a mountain!
The amazing modern architecture of Gangnam
The rain stopped, the clouds were still dark, the sun was under the clouds, great light, time to take some photos of shiny buildings. In these conditions everything looks closer than it really is, until you take a photo of it with a wide angle lense, then it seem too far away. Of course I am too cheap / lazy to travel with more than one lense, so its 28mm all the time. No one knows what I am going on about.
For my last night in Korea I stayed around the Gangnam area. Despite being here for 3 nights, I have barely scratched the surface. If I come here again I think I will stay over this side again, I have stayed over the other side 3 times now and have seen a lot more of 'Old Seoul' and not enough of the new side. Over on this side, everyone works in a bank or similar, and I think everyone has a secretary, and almost everyone, businessman or businessman's secretary, looks exactly the same. The Rush to leave actually seems to be 5pm too, shattering stereotypes of staying all night, perhaps once you have made it to a job in Gangnam you only need to work until 5? I feel bad for the secretaries, all of whom have had plastic surgery and walk in shoes they cant walk in, they surely have to borrow money to go to work, just to pay for their outfits and cosmetics? Unless their job comes with some kind of allowance for that?
I should add that the men all look the same as well, same suits, same glasses, same hair transplant.
Just how many more stereotypes of Korean business life can I fit into one single update?
Tonights first photo is tonights best photo. Great light here.
Nearby Gangnam is a big apartment development, and I was surprised to find this path running along a walled off highway. The map suggests it goes for miles. It was very very quiet despite having a major highway just the other side of that wall.
An overpass made for another photo of a random road.
Now its time for taking some photos of buildings. This one I found to be quite impressive.
Here are reflections of buildings of reflections of buildings. The buildings had no logos but judging by the tents out the front protesting Samsung and corruption involving the former dodgy president, I would guess they belong to Samsung.
The last street crossing photo was so successful I decided to do another. This one is not as good.
All the streets one street back from the main roads are where the action is as far as restaurants and people go.
One last shot of Korean neon, tomorrow, Hong Kong neon. I think in parts of Hong Kong they still have actual real neon signs too.
For dinner I got a meal box that required mashing buttons on a Korean language only machine until it asked for money and printed a ticket. I had no idea what I might have ordered! There were about 9 screens of options without pictures. I think its pork, possibly involving ear meat, along with some blood worms, which might be noodles, a salad that includes something fishy tasting, a giant rolled up cabbage leaf....and rice. It was quite nice. Only the rice was warm.
There are currently 6 comments - click to add
David on 2019-04-11 said:
I will go on to add
My camera takes .arw files which is sonys raw format
Canon takes .cr2 and fuji takes .raf
Now, the 3 main raw converters on the market are lightroom, capture one and aperture.
Each of them will make the same .arw file look completely different when you open them and the respective software applies its default raw conversion algorithm.
Even different versions of lightroom look different, as they recently changed their default colour profile from Adobe standard to Adobe colour.
David on 2019-04-11 said:
After all these years you still dont understand what a raw image is. It is not visible information.
It is 4 different matrixes of info, red, green, blue, grey scale, which lightroom demosiacs to create an image.
Hence its not possible to display an unedited raw image.
When you take a photo, your camera does a jpg conversion, which applies color, saturation, luminance, noise reduction etc, IN CAMERA. My camera has that disabled, no jpg is created. The in camera preview image I look at on the screen is an slog2 very low contrast image to highlight potential clipping with zebras turned on. It is not imported to my computer, I guess I could take a photo of my camera screen with my phone.... but then my phone would be doing a jpg conversion....
mother on 2019-04-11 said:
how about showing me a photo before light room has edited it. I would like to see how different they are. these are great again with lots of contrast and very sharp.
David on 2019-04-10 said:
Actually I have not been adjusting anything other than exposure on this whole trip, the preset I use in lighroom has auto settings, I apply that, then I reset contrast to zero and only adjust exposure. The 2 exceptions were the little plastic boy signs, I de saturated those to make it look like a creepy horror film.
On sunny days I did apply a gradient filter when shooting into the sun on a couple of shots, but only on the sky.
David on 2019-04-10 said:
I dont think I cranked the colors up, everything was just wet.
mother on 2019-04-10 said:
cranked the colours up a lot today - I like the photo before the photo of the day better.
There are currently 1 comments - click to add
adriana on 2019-04-08 said:
I like the face on the shinkansen. Also you need to test whether the donuts are less sweet like Japanese ones or are they sickly sweet like australian ones.