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Today we are fetching our Chinese visas and then heading to the Korean East coast. Weather is getting less humid and we hope to do so hiking and swim in the beach.

Korean technology at the service of the tourist - part II

This post has three pictures... One of them is not so related to tourists but in any case is related to technology.

Yes, Korea more or less means technology and big technology. All the time we see people watching television on their mobile phones while in the metro or in the bus. Kitchen fridges are like the american but maybe bigger. Our couchsurfing hosts here in Seoul had a 730 liters one! The washing machines are enormous, in Europe we would see them only in laundries. We pass by a shop the other day and the smallest one was meant for up to 9kg. They go mostly around 12, and the biggest was to fit it 17kg (they don't use bed sheets but rather synthetic blankets which they wash in the machine often).

But lets talk about the pictures:
This is my mobile phone, which does not work in Korea as they use a different technology, but I keep it to put notes on it along the day. The thing hanging from it is... the "key-card" of the house of our couchsurfing hosts. Already in 2003 I was amazed that was possible to open the apartment of my friend Suzy here with a code or remote control. Now they can also use touchfree cards which at the same time can work as portable wallet and used to pay the public transport and small things in the convenience store.

This machine, which sell instruments for less than 6euros, was in the corridor of our motel in Gongju. The "instruments" we could not decipher so well what they were besides that they were sex toys and one of them was sold with batteries...

This picture shows the computer I'm using right now. It is our hotel room, which cost 50kW, around 28euros, a slightly higher than the budget price of 30-40kW they usually cost. But we are in the capital. The backpackers hostels are the same price and are full (but have kitchen and laundry).
Ok, what we have here... From the left to the right, we can see a couple of bottles which includes hair gel, body cream, after-shave and balsam, hair brush, mosquito killer; hair-dryer; then the computer with a 19 or 21inch flat screen; then the remote control which controls both the lights, the television, the DVD player and the air-con; there is air-con; there is DVD player (and dozens of titles near to reception which one can take for free and mostly they are not porn!); TV of 1meter diagonal with home cinema (there are 4 speakers and subwoofer in the room!), fridge (with 3 free soft drinks), water (hot and cold) dispenser which we will use to make our morning coffees. There is also phone and the toilet has a shower with kind-of massage function. The bed is big one with typical Korean hard mattress (they are used to sleep on the floor).

For safety, and after checking with four guest-houses that were full and 4 others that were more expensive than here, we decided to follow the LP suggestion, which I link from GoogleBooks, and this is why we end up here.

Korean technology at the service of the tourist - part I

This post has just one bad picture of me, today, in an excellent museum in Seoul called Leeum Samsung Museum of Art. The entry price was expensive for Korean standards, 10kW (10'000Won) meaning a bit less than 6euros plus 2kW for audio guide.

This museum has two buildings done by known architects and it is two museums into one. A Traditional Korean Art and a Modern&Comtemporary Art Museum. With the best of the bests in the Traditional Korean Art part, showing very important archeological pieces found in Korean territory.

After entering into the building which is surrounded by contemporary art sculptures, after getting the ticket, leaving the backpack for free in wardrobe we go up to the 4th floor to visit it.

Here (and all around the museum), besides of all the labels in Korean, English and Japanese, with excellent light, we are using a PDA around the neck with a small phone on the ear and, as soon as we get close to an object it starts to tell about it, no need to touch anything. In the screen appears more pictures of details of the object, the same explanation and a bit more. We can also 'save' as favourites a selected number of objects.
(me with a PDA/audioguide on the neck next metal miniature pagoda from the 11th century representing the existing Goryeo architecture of that time - which was in wood. It is the Korean National treasure 213)

This was the second time we had an audio-guide. In Gongju, when visiting the tombs, we also got one for free with the ticket (which was merely 2kW, 1,3euros) which even had videos explaining more history about the tombs and the kings that were inside and so on. Just wonderful.

South Korea - Gonju

We chose Gonju because it's a small town, and there seemed to be enough things to do for a few days. We felt the need to stay longer at the same place and also relax a bit.
This time we decided to choose a motel from our guidebook, and it was a good choice. Friendly landlady, clean room, air-conditioning (it's a bit noisy but ok), computer with internet in each room.
On the first day we checked out the tourist information, where we got the usual tourist map of the city, which is absolutely not up to scale but shows the major sights. We then went to see the fortress, but the heat kept our motivation in certain limits. There were quite a lot of local elderly people sitting and lying around, chatting and sleeping, and a woman offered us pieces of watermelon. And there were some beautiful details in the temples:
We then went to visit the royal tombs, which are incredibly old and whose discovery have been very important to Korean historians. You can't actually visit the tombs (they're closed for protection) but a well done museum has exact replicas and shows what was found inside them. We got an audioguide - usually I'm a bit suspicious of audioguides, but this one was good, if you didn't mind the infantile way it was presented (a comic figure - a dog? - talking with a very american accent). There was a lot of interesting information about history.
Of the original tombs, all you can see are the typical mounds of earth, that one can see all over Korea.
The day after we visited again a temple - we actually went there because there was supposed to be a swimming pool, which turned out to be very small and shallow and very expensive, so we went to visit Magoksa temple, very beautiful and not as extensively renovated as most others. I especially liked some of the paintings.
From there we went on a hike - only 2 hours but very steep and tiring, even more so because of the everlasting heat and humidity. We made it to the top anyway.
The hike was followed by a nice bath in a cool river!

During the rest of the time, we relaxed, enjoyed the small-town Korea, and yes, spent some time in front of "our" computer.... ;-)

A few impressions:
A small street in which every house is a shop (although it might not be obvious from outside what they're actually selling):Managing the difficult task to eat dumplings with chopsticks:Enjoying the colours and unusual smells and sights at the local market:
Eating some bibimbap with about a dozen side dishes (mostly spicy):

So, this is my impression of Korea after one week: temples, a lot of history and kings, heat and humidity, nice but spicy food, people wanting to help in restaurants and bus stations, great opportunities for hiking, many new smells and tastes, a good place to relax and take things easy.

Tomorrow we're off to another big city - Seoul. Let's see what it holds for us.

South Korea - Busan and Jinju

We left Japan on the 7th of August, by ferry. Buying tickets at the Fukuoka ferry terminal was quite straightforward, except that we didn't have enough cash anymore to pay the fuel surcharge which could not be paid by credit card, so we had to walk to the next Post Office to get some cash.
The ferry was nice, economy class was separated into several tatami rooms (actually, not really tatami but carpet). We shared our compartment with a mother with her little girl who kept wrapping up her Snoopy into pieces of cloth, a buddhist woman, a young korean woman, and an elderly man (japanese I believe) who first commented on our Japanese boxed lunches, then kept on talking to himself before falling asleep and snoring basically all the way to Busan. When he woke up he went on talking to himself a bit, got up, farted with a lot of noise and smell, and went to smoke.
Miguel has already written about the events at arrival which kept us there for about an hour. It was already dark when we made it into the center, but finding a motel room is never a problem here.
The next day was very hot so we thought it would be nice to go to one of the beaches. Our guidebook said that Haeundae Beach was crowded but we had to see it by ourselves. Well, it was crowded. Almost no space between the umbrellas, and hundreds of people in the water, mostly using these yellow inflatable rings. Forget about swimming, but the water was too shallow anyway and the coastguards wouldn't let anyone go very far anyway (my theory for the moment is that a lot of people here don't know how to swim, but I might be wrong...).
So, no swimming this time.

The next day we went to visit a temple and hiked along a fortress (basically a long wall on a few hills that long ago served to hold back the invading Japanese). After a steep climb we arrived on top, and from there it was a nice walk, although there was a lot of wind and fog, but this also made for a special atmosphere with all the green foliage.
Being a bit tired of big cities we went on to Jinju where we visited the fortress, one of the more important ones in Korea. It contains several temples and buildings and a museum (that was closed), all surrounded by a wall. We enjoyed the colourful temples but it was very hot and sticky, so we also spent a certain amount of time in shops (air-conditioned, of course).



We also had incredibly spicy chicken which made us sweat and cry (and have you ever had to eat bony chicken pieces like wings with chopsticks? You're not supposed to use your hands to touch food in Korea....). Our stomachs started to fell the always spicy food....

Toilet paper machine

We did not take pictures of the noodles machine, or french fries or books or vibrators (in the motel), but here a picture of a toilet paper machine, found in many subway stations toilets in Busan, South Korea.

Korea, first toughts

Well, Korea is definitely a easy country to travel, quite recommended. Come soon as the roads and over-density is taking care of making it less appealing. While Korea has a different alphabet (not signs), many things are written in english. Hotels - or better, love motels - are easy to find, they use the same sign that in Japan is used for hot springs. The mattresses are very hard but the rooms are clean and adventurous (like our last with a round bed, this one with a half naked women in the door key). Transportation is mostly bus, very frequent, meaning about every 10/15 minutes between any two cities (yes, that often). It is quite cheap for europeans, room less than 25euros (for 2), meals less than 10euros plus drinks (beer is 2euros).

Particularities of Korea is that all their food is spicy (ok, 90%), but since my first visit in 2003, I see that now is much easier to find western food and bakeries (and chocolate instead of beans in the croissants); there are many, many shops. They are crazy about hiking and there are dozens of shops specialized in hiking (what we dreamed of it in Russia), many marked trails (but distances and maps still to improve).

On our first days here young people (<30) always start to talk with us, couple of times in the restaurant to recommend what to eat, translate the menu, help with the traditional way of eating something. This completely spontaneously. Their english is reasonable and their will to talk is great.

Day when they discovered the wrong birthdate in my old passport

Result was more than one hour in the customs office (was only 2 minutes before I was sent there, to the 'interview' room).

Well, the story goes that, back in 1997, I was 17 by then, as Portuguese I needed a visa to go to the United States. My parents and friends decided to go to Hawaii to run the marathon (my family often has this excuse for traveling) so I needed a passport (old was expired) and there was not much time and we requested a urgent one. It come after 3 days with the birth year of 1972, which is 7 years before than the correct year. At US embassy, because I was "25" years old they gave me a 10-years visa, which was great (compared to 3 months one if I would have 17 years old).

No problems traveling back and forth all around the world during 10-years always being much older in the passport than in reality. This beloved passport I had to give back two years ago when it was about to expired and I needed a new one. Here when I cried about it.

I even came in 2003 to South Korea and I was here when there was the London bombing, flying next day to Sydney. In the airport, that day, they asked me a second identification and I gave my "Swiss card" but fortunately the australian officer did not spot the mismatch of the dates.

But today, here comes finally the story you are waiting for, the officer in the immigration at Busan port found strange that I did not wrote in the "Adress in Korea" field of the immigration card (lesson learned - always fill, even if with bullshit, as Eva did afterwards). I told him I did not know where I was going to stay. He asks if it was the first time in Korea and I think if to stay yes or no. In Russia I said "yes, first time in Russia" (I was there with the old passport also) and was fine. Here I said "No". "When?", "Around 2002/3". He searches on the computer for my name and the year and there it is BUT... the birthdate does not match. "Why?", "Don't know", I say. "Boss!". And here I go to the "interview" labeled room.

On an old sofa I try to keep calm. On my way there I told quickly Eva what the problem was, she goes to the immigration office and "enters" Korea and then waits. First boss is some guy waiting for getting retired and took some minutes before he decided to close internet explorer and reading the news to take care of me. Try to use the computer to find the same information about my previous stay but he is not skilled enough to do so. He goes to ask the immigration officer that spot me and then comes with another boss. This one grasps some more english and has more computers skills. I kept saying I did not know the reason for it until they showed me the scan of the 2003 immigration card, signed by me, where I stated with my horrible hand writing that I was born in 1972. Glup. "Why?" he asks... Silence from me... Seeing things not going further and more people looking through my passport against light to see any sign of falsification (fortunately it is the electronic one, very new, difficult to falsify, but they did not have even machine of ultra-violet to see the contrasts), I decided to tell the true - "I remember now...". Meanwhile I showed my Half-tarif card from the Swiss trains, which had my birth date.
He goes back to another computer, checks, re-checks. Comes with an officer speaking more english. I explain all the story, "I was 18 at the time... is world of a mess re-doing a passport... it is expired anyway... I can show a scan of my portuguese id on the internet". I found I had my driving license in the backpack and also gave and showed. I think this helped. "The girl outside is your girlfriend? Are you travelling together?". They also asked Eva's passport then. The english speaking officer translates all I say. The boss says "I don't know what to do with you, you see, dates do not match...", "but the other passport is expired", I reply.

At this point I had understood that they only had the information about my stay in Korea, my old passport information but not its expiring date. No information about any other country traveled with any of the passports. If it there was no scan of my previous immigration card filled and signed by me I could say that its a coincidence of someone else with my name, but even...

He goes back to the computer outside the room and the "waiting-to-be-retired guy" says "Go. You enter Korea. Take baggage and leave.".

I go out to the smarter boss on his computer and he writes, writes, asks again my driving license, my swiss trains card, asks another guy to make photocopy of everything. Now Eva was also with me and we kept talking an laughing in French. He asks "where you staying?", "I don't..." but Eva interrupts and says "Blue backpackers hostel" and picks the paper from him and writes down on my immigration card. Then takes out the guidebook and shows him the name and description. It was the only name she remembered. The boss writes more and more on his computer, I believe on my file and also on Eva's file.

Meanwhile another boat has arrived, all people went trough and officers leave to home. The "interview" room is already closed as well. This boss also wants to go home. Stamp on the passport and "please go".

Still to make customs check. "Why you took so long?" he asks Eva. "Problem with passport?" asks me. "With old passport", I said. But is mind was already driving home and just did not care and let us go.

Tourist information was already closed, taxi driver tries to take us but we refuse and we go to find the metro. We decided to give a chance to the Blue backpackers hostel but only dormitory was available so we end up in a motel with round bed, dim light option, free condom and kitch furniture for a want-to-be princess kind of person. Welcome to Korea.