Tokyo (ii)

A famous Japanese warrior I reckon.

The East Palace Gardens.

Tourist filled temple.

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Lighting incense

I had to get one jump picture in :)

Tokyo

So it's been almost 3 weeks since my dad arrived in Seoul. My mum managed to make it out for a week too. This has been the best month since I arrived here at the end of February. I've had such an amazing time recently.


I loved the first few months of settling in, all the new challenges and the excitement of new social circle's, places and experiences. Teaching has it's challenges too but it has definitely become easier to plan and structure lessons, and I am able to recycle some of work and use it for other classes. That being said, I don't feel I have any more spare time, I have been out almost every night this month, doing touristy things with the folks, plenty of meals out on top of all the stuff I usually do like band practices!

I had Monday off this week; dad, David and myself were sitting in a coffee shop thinking about what to do. I thought about going hiking somewhere in Korea, we could leave Seoul on the Sunday and it would be quiet on the Monday. Dad being tied up with church commitments wouldn't be able to make it..so it would just be David and myself. Then David suggested Tokyo for the weekend! Sure, why not!

So we flew out early Saturday morning and spent 3 days in Tokyo. Below is a flavour of some of the things I got up to.

Shibuya crossing at it's quietest, really this is much busier usually!

Wedding procession.

The JR line in Tokyo station.

I was traking a picture of the bird here, but the statue is quite nice aswell.

Some prize winning Saki on display.

Reflections from the East Palace.

Chuseok

I celebrated my first Chuseok this month, it's a big Korean holiday once a year where everyone goes back to their hometown. The band were going to play a show in Daejeon, but we didn't book transport and  all the trains and buses were full as families made the mass exodus from Seoul. So we cancelled and I spent the 5 days in Seoul. I watched the start of the rugby world cup, had a couple of nights out, went hiking and went to a water park.

My first experience at a Korean water park was interesting. Nearly everyone was wearing life-jackets and we weren't allowed into the wave pool unless we were wearing one! Chuseok was a great time to visit as everyone is away. But we still found it very busy and we queued for over half an hour for every ride. We heard that usually the queues are around 2 hours so I guess we should count ourselves lucky. One ride the aqualoop was great it's a water slide where you get dropped into the tube from an avatar esque capsule before going round a loop de loop! Here's a cheesy promo video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Nw68VNOYb8&feature=related

The highlight was the hike I did with my mate Rory, the weather was great and it wasn't too busy. We climbed Dogbongsan which is around 700m so it was a fair hike and the views were pretty good. I took my camera and got some photos for the first time in ages, but the haze doesn't really do the views justice.

Rory having a rest.

My standard pose.

That's the very North of Seoul in the background.

Rory balancing precariously.

On the way down. That's the summit in the background.

Same photo as above just fiddled with some of the settings.

Philippines

First update in a long time: I spent 3 weeks in the Philippines which was fantastic, it was a really nice escape. The temperature in Seoul during August is too hot for me, it's incredibly humid so it was great to miss most of that! I went with some fellow English teachers and we crammed some amount of stuff into the trip. Lot's of island hopping, snorkling, hiking and chilling on beaches.
We went to Palawan first of all and we decided to hire motorbikes for a couple of days and drive down a 300km coastal route to the main town puerto princesa. The trip was an absolute disaster within 10 minutes of getting the bikes, we managed to lose James who was on a motorbike for the first time. He had taken a wrong turn and while we stopped to find him he overtook us and sped on ahead thinking he was behind us! We weren't too worried to start with but we only made it 60km before getting caught in a proper monsoon deluge. We had to take shelter at which point I realised that I had James's wallet and phone - he had nothing on him! We were delayed for over an hour and with no missed calls we were fearing the worst. We got to an internet cafe hoping he'd left a message but nothing. We had left a friend (Stephen) in El Nido where we had set off - we told him to get to the police station and find out what was going on if they had heard anything. Later around 10 o'clock James came online we were so relieved he was okay.

He had an epic trip, he'd had a minor crash and gone to the hospital in the first town (the same one we sat using the internet in and then stayed then night in), the nurse had given him some money when he told her his story (We tried to track her down and re-imburse her late that evening, we ended up leaving money with a friend of hers - I hope she managed to get it!!). The money got him some petrol, but around 200kms it was getting dark and he ran out of petrol! He ended up getting some petrol some how but he had another minor crash and with the light now really bad he convinced a local to drive his bike for him and take him to Sabang. Our original meeting point - of course we were miles behind and worried sick. So he arrived in Sabang and went round every guesthouse looking for us! He managed to blag some internet time at a very posh resort - I think the cuts from the two crashes probably helped his case. So we got in contact and arranged to meet him in Sabang early morning, we would leave at the crack of dawn and meet up with him - which we did.

We had great fun the next morning, absolutely flooring the bikes flat out we made great time. When we arrived James was in great spirits, He'd been given a room and breakfast for the night. The whole time we were in Palawan we found the hospitality of the Filipinos was amazing. The last week we stayed in Borocay a very touristy island - more of a resort type place, it was completely different. Way more commercial, I enjoyed Borocay but it was not as special as Palawan.

Manila, left to right: Rory, James, myself and Stephen.

Setting off from El Nido, note the nice weather.

The rain starting.

5 minutes later and the road is almost gone!

Coron: We took a boat out for the day and did some snorkling and visited some lagoons.

This is just before I zip-lined down the drop to the left.

Go-karting in Borocay.

Waaaay!

Nightscapes

I have been doing a lot of cycling recently, after a week without my bike. I love cycling at night with my iPod in, it's a really pleasant temperature cycling by the river and there are so many 7/11s, mini-stops and GS25s where you can stop grab a coffee/ice cream/beer or whatever.

I love running and cycling, and I get so much out of both, but I never run with a backpack, so when I'm cycling I love having the freedom to stop for photos. For me that's the main difference. Running is more intense, I have my fixed route, I time myself and I am always trying to beat my last time. Cycling is much more leisurely, rest stops and photo stops! 

It's hard to capture Seoul at night without a tripod, so resting my camera on bridges, posts or anything else I could find. Anyway here's some shots I took last night. 

Table People

Radio Star, Jeonju.

Radio Star, Jeonju.

Radio Star, Jeonju.

Radio Star, Jeonju.

Radio Star, Jeonju.

Strange Fruit, Seoul.

Strange Fruit, Seoul.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Table People:
Andy Mac - Drums
Caroline Mahon - Lead Guitar
Eric Davis - Guitar + vocals
Ethan Waddell - Keys + vocals
Jim Stickle- Bass

A brief break in the monsoon when the rains stopped.

So I thought I'd take a break from posting old stuff and get something up to date on here.  So this weekend it looked as if it was going to be another washout. The rain here during monsoon season is incredible. Went out for a couple of drinks on Friday night with my good friend Frank who is leaving in a week unfortunately! Saturday morning it rained into the afternoon and then bang, the sun comes out. So I did what any sun starved Scotsman would do and went to the nearest outdoor swimming pool!

Turned out to be a great idea, even if we (Frank, Jane, Alastair and myself) did look totally out of place. It was a very unusual setting a few swimming pools situated next to a huge motorway and the subway carts hurtling overhead. When we went into the water it was freezing (no doubt from all the rain we'd had) and also the lifeguards all started blowing whistles and pointing at their heads. We eventually got the message, you must wear a swimming cap to go in the water!

The evening sunset was grogeous, so we walked for a bit then grabbed a pizza and some beer. win win.

Alistair and Frank

Climber desperately trying to hang on.

Locals playing catch.

Ttukseom Resort

We tried so many jump photos, at least I got a train in this picture!

Got it!

Seoul - the locale, routines and commutes

Seoul is huge, it's a sprawling metropolis of the like I've only ever briefly visited. So living here has been really interesting and I'm enjoying the buzz of living in such a massive city.
Over 5.5 million use the Subway everyday more than Scotland's population!

I'm living in the Ttukseom (뚝섬) area of seoul, located right on the Han river to the east of the centre. It's a great spot to be. I am wedged between two University areas, so there are lots of good resteraunts and bars close-by. I'm right on line 2 (green) on the subway which is pretty convenient as pretty much everythings on the green line or not far away. Being close to the river is great for running and cycling too.

I usually run/cycle under this bridge a couple of times a week. Just incase your wondering the bridge lighting isn't actually green I fiddled about with the colours on this shot.

This is from Ttukseom subway station, I happened to have my camera with me to get some of the orangey hues. The tower in the background is Namsang.

Crossing the Han on the subway. An everyday occurence but this sunset was pretty special, once again glad I had my camera with me!

On the way to my 5-aside football.

This is Olympic Park - originally built for the olympics back in '88 it's a great place to chill out. It's a welcome break from the hustle and bustle of other parts of the city. Great for sunsets!

This is down on the Han River past Ttukseom resort, check out the air that kite surfer is getting!

Seoraksan National Park

One of the highlights of my time here so far was definitely my day trip to Seoraksan National Park, 2 hours East of Seoul. I was given the Friday off on the 1st of April because it was the anniversary of the building of my school. The hills are incredibly busy at the weekends as thousands of soulites don their dayglo hiking gear and literally march up some of the peaks.

So I got to experience a relatively quiet and peaceful (by Korean standards) outing, the weather was fantastic and I did get a little sun burnt. One of the highlights was having a meal with a Korean hiking group. We had loads of food, some Makgeolli and on the way down one of the guys bought me a tea towel with a map of the park on it as a gift.

The only foreigner I met hiking was a French girl who was on holiday from her job in Shanghai. She had only been in Korea for a couple of days but she couldn't believe how friendly Koreans are! I think it's especially true when you get out of Seoul. This was my first trip outside the city and I'm sure the weather, the scenery and not working on Friday all had something to do with it, but everyone was so friendly...it was a great first trip! Here are some of the photos.

Morning prayers.

Refreshments.

Great view if I was looking the right way.

Looking out towards the East Sea.

One of the many Korean temples.

Plenty of snow in the background.

Ulsan-Bawi.

A lonely tree.

Looking onto the cragged peaks from the temple complex.

The sunset and the last remaining light.