Golf Korea

Look, its been a long week at work, but then again it did start on Monday with a great game of golf! I am going to go into detail, but I have to let you feel this amazing experience.

After being in Korea for almost a year, I was finally invited to play a game of golf. I'm sounding like a snob, saying I am finally invited, but that's not what I meant .. I promise. Anyway I was picked up by my host at 5.45am, passed by the hotel to pick up one of my guys and we headed to the golf course.

Now let me explain something to all those who do not know much about golf or about playing golf in a country like Korea. The first and most important thing is you either have to be rich, or second, work for a company that uses golf in business, or third, have a job where potentially people need to invite you to play golf. Well I do not fall into the first category, so in this case it is the third, where I am invited to play.

Golf in Korea is all about business, so when you prepare for a game, you need to look the part as well as act the part, or if you're really good, play the part. Unfortunately my golf skills are limited to the occasional lucky shot! So of course I act the part! Sorry, I keep moving off on a different tangent!

So after a nice drive for about an hour into the mountainous countryside we arrived at the Jung Bu Country Club. Met on the driveway by a valet, who pulled our clubs out of the car, and drove the car away. We then headed into the splendid club house, where we are greeted by a hostess who signs us in, assigns us lockers and we head into the locker room / sauna / shower room! I change into the outfit, put on a heap of sunscreen that is there complimentary, and meet up with the others in the clubs large restaurant. I have the American breakfast, the others all Korean breakfast, and we all sit around for 20 minutes admiring the beautiful mountain view.

Right on time we head out of the club house to the 1st hole where our clubs are already attached to a buggy that I have never seen before. We are greeted by a lovely caddy, who lines us up and introduces herself. Of course I have no idea what she is saying, but enjoy the formality! She didn't have to ask but already knew who's clubs belong to who, had all the clubs placed perfectly for easy access, including a separate section on the cart where all of our putters were kept. On the cart she gave us each a section to put our mobile phones, keys etc. Also on the cart was a bucket of water for what I later found out was used to clean every club after you hit. (Yes she cleaned every club with water, brush, and a towel before returning it to the bag) Around the caddy's neck was a control box which she used to control the buggy. Yes, the buggy was run by remote control!!

So we jump up on the 1st tee, she hands everyone their driving clubs which she knew without asking, and off we went. I will move along fast here now, but just need to say that the course was amazing. It was one of the best kept courses I have ever been on. The greens were perfect, ready for any professional championship, and the view around the course was what every golfer dreams about; no noise except the whistling of the wind between the trees, the sounds of birds singing in the sky, and the occasional water fall from the natural springs around the course. We had nobody in front of us, and no-one behind us. A golfer's perfect day. And to top it off it was about 22 degrees, and not a single cloud in the sky.

Highlights -
Never having to take a single golf club out of my bag as the caddy always did.
Caddy ,after two holes, had already worked out my club distances so chose my clubs and always brought them to me even if I was 100 metres away.
I never stopped enjoying watching the golf buggy just move automatically along the cart path (the way it worked was that under the cart path there were sensors, so it stayed on track and either stopped if the caddy manually stopped it or it would stop at sensors placed where the cart should stop)
On two occasions on the course we used electric walk ways like you find at airports. Both occasions were up steep hills. You jump on and up you go! Unbelievable!
The last highlight was not having to pay the US$1000 bill for the four of us!

Now you understand why golf in Korea is so unique! And the latest news to report is I was invited today to play a game of golf in the coming weeks with another client! Got to love Korea!! and no, I'm not telling you my score!!!

Fight Day

So today we decided to get up early and dig into the hotel breakfast buffet which suprisingly we have never done together. By 9.30am when we arrived it was a little busy, but who cared about the crowds when you have such an awesome buffet in front of you. The problem is when you have a great buffet in front of you what do you eat? The body is not used to a lot of food in the morning. Anyway we ate our share and enjoyed it very much.

Next we jumped on the subway and headed for Itaewon. Our objective was to pick up a pair of golf shoes as mine were in Australia and I needed a pair anyway as I was playing golf on Monday. (Finally my first time to play in Korea) As some people would know, when you play golf in Korea you have to look the part as much as play the part! So once in Itaewon we checked out a few stores and finally found one that had my size. 150,000 Won later I had a lovely Italian pair of golf shoes! What to do!!!

We then decided to walk around a bit more and try to pick up a phone card. This is where the fun begins... so we walk into this store and these two ladies are talking away, looked like sisters, and suddenly the one on our side of the counter walks across the lane to a LG phone shop and starts arguing with the lady in that shop. Now if you can picture this the shop entrances are only 5 metres apart across this single lane so we could hear everything. All in Korean of course and lots of shouting. The lady in the shop we were in just ignored us and watched her sister argue with this lady. After a minute the sister walked out of the other shop but just as she was about to cross the lane the lady in the LG shop shouted something at here like f..k y**! I am sure. So the sister went back in and started screaming again, then the LG lady picked up some papers and threw them at the sister, then it was on!!! Wow I was loving it! Then sister in the shop we were in jumped from behind the counter, ran past us straight into the LG shop, around the counter and started swinging! Yes .. Throwing punches! It was on two sisters vs. LG lady! Clariza was a bit freaked out, but I was loving it. I even had time to flag an American guy on the side who didn't see what was going on to check out the fight! He was very thankful. After a few minutes the three each had each others' hair in their hands, a stalemate, two Korean guys jumped in, and finally it was broken up. We then left! Now that was interesting! Sorry for the long story, but I was just amazed to see it!

Anyway we headed back to Samseong, and decided by some miracle we could just walk up and buy a ticket to a movie. Sure enough Mission Impossible was available and we watched it. I won't say much, but it was pretty good. Not the best. I have history with Mission Impossible as the cast and directors lived in the hotel I worked at in Sydney back in 1999, and I got to meet them all and actually talked several times with Tom Cruise. I even got to drive Ving Rhames around Sydney! And Dougray Scott had a little too much fun in Sydney!!

So we headed home after quiet an adventurous day. Fights on the streets and fights in the movie!

Seoul Korea

Often people ask me what I think of Korea. What are the good things and what are the bad? Why do people always want to know the negatives? When a person visits Australia I never ask them what are the bad things? But it happens a lot here. Are people here just enthusiastic to find out what is wrong so they can fix it, or are they just baiting me?? In any case there is good and bad, but now is not the time to point them out.

What I can say is there are a lot of people in the business world trying to make Korea an easier place to do business, and make it easier for foreigners to be here. I participate in a group called CICI who are trying to bridge the cultural differences. Lets see how it goes.

Well, got to sleep as have to finish a presentation in the morning. Also not really sure why I am doing a post, maybe because I know I am neglecting my blog!

Incheon Day Trip

A few weeks ago Clariza and I joined a good friend of mine ,Francis, and his fiance on a day trip around Incheon. We all know Incheon as the place with the airport, but actually it is a large city on the coast, and also has a very significant port terminal.

So below are a few photos of the trip. As you can see it was a beautiful day and we really had a wonderful time. We walked across some beaches, took a ferry trip across to Incheon city, had a seafood lunch, and a nice walk around Incheon Chinatown.

Bloggers Blank

have not been writing much these days, which does not mean we're doing nothing, rather we are just living day to day and also going through several issues. Together we are stronger, so we will get through them.

Other than the stresses we both have, the weather has really warmed up, and can wear short sleeved shirts outside now. Its about time. A few more weeks and we have been here a year! One more year to go! We're not on a countdown, but are very happy we have almost completed the first year.

Last night we went to the large Buddha Temple behind the COEX for the Buddha's Birthday festival. It was extremely nice with all the hundreds of lanterns. Not long after we got there it started to rain, and has not stopped for a good 12 hours.

Ok, will try to post more soon, but no promises.

Farting in Public

I know I haven't posted for quite some time and lets just put it down to no time and not much to say. Actually last weekend was very eventful and I will do a detailed post with photos over the next few days as it is a long weekend.

So as the title says - Farting in Public! Several days ago at about 11am, I walk over to the elevators, and stand there as you do until the elevator arrives. Then out of nowhere this guy to my right just rips out this huge loud fart in front of about 4 people. I could not believe it. He just stood there as if nothing had happened. In any case the elevator came and that was the end of that. Late in the afternoon on the same day, believe it or not the exact thing happened again, just different elevators, and a different man.

I just let it go as a weird thing, then two nights ago my boss and I went out for a dinner, we walked into the lobby of another big 5 star hotel and suddenly as we were walking this guy on the side just lets out the largest fart I think I have ever heard! It echoed through the entire lobby! We just burst out laughing, with this guy just still standing there as if nothing had just happened! Amazing! Only in Korea!

Welcome Spring!

The weekend was amazing, not just because it was an enjoyable weekend, rather winter is gone and Spring has taken over. It was a beautiful sunny weekend, and finally did not have to wear a winter jacket. I sure hope this is not a tease!

Was not able to leave work on Friday until almost 8pm as we were so busy, therefore our evening was very relaxed at home on the couch watching a DVD of the first series of "24". What a great series. Clariza and I could watch it for hours, but we opt for a couple of episodes.

Anyway Saturday began as most Saturdays do for us with a fantastic sleep in followed by a great bacon and egg breakfast! Sensational! We then cleaned up around the house and around 1pm our friends came over for an hour whom we are cat sitting for. Did I ever mention this? We have had now for almost 4 weeks to lovely Siamese (spelling??) cats, named Miya, and Masai. We are not cat lovers by a long shot, but they are cool cats. Once our friends get a place to live then the cats are out.

In any case we all headed out down to the COEX Mall where we watched Brokeback Mountain at the Mega Plex.

Here are the boys! Heath Ledger (aussie aussie aussie) acts very well, but I got to say that the movie is just okay. The scenery in Wyoming & Texas is amazing, and the overall acting is good. Even the story line is somewhat interesting but it is toooooooooooo loooooong! Damm my ass was sore after sitting that long!? (No pun intended!) I just got irritated after a while and after finishing the movie realized that so many scenes just did not need to be in the film. (my expert opinion!!) But it really was a full on movie, and watching it in a cinema in Korea was kind of interesting. This country is very closed door to gays & lesbians, and suprised how many people were watching the movie. Good to see. This country has to open their eyes to the real world.

After the movie we walked around a little, had a coffee, then took a taxi to a Korean Restaurant called Samwon Garden. I have eaten at one of their locations last year with a guest in the hotel, and this time we all wanted to go and have a nice Korean meal.

It was quiet fun, but expensive and not enough! We are all not really into Korean food (besides BBQ) which is a shame as there is so much interesting food here. Our problem is we do not eat spicy food, so many of the small dishes that come with the meat we do not eat. Anyway our loss. So in any case we ordered beef kalbi, and beef bulgogi. It was extremely delicious, but not enough. Oh well, it was fun, and we drank a few beers. We left just as the rain started and headed back to the hotel.

At the hotel we decided on some wine and desserts! Great idea. We shared a couple of sampler desserts which were amazing, and I had a lovely dessert spumanti wine.

Finally home by 11pm after a great afternoon and evening.

Sunday was a lazy morning, nice lunch at home, followed by our regular subway ride to Hyewha. ( I spell it differant everytime) We went to the church for a while, then attended our Batangas Association Meeting afterwards at a Beer House. Great place to have a meeting! After the meeting we got stuck into a very large amount of fried chicken, and even more beer.

After too much beer and enough fried chicken to clog my arteries for a year, we got a taxi and headed home. 1030pm in bed after another fun weekend in Seoul!

Korea today, Thailand tommorow!

I hate to rub it in, but tommorow I head off to Thailand with around 24 of my staff for several days of relaxing. Already lined up is a full day yacht trip with fishing, banana boats, and jet skis. Also have a day of golf on the cards, and of course lots of drinking and eating. And before you start to get funny ideas, a nice "legitimate"Thai Massage!

So I hope to return by the weekend with lots of photos.

Politicians!

I wonder what all these guys are thinking!

3000 hits & still in Seoul

Well as the title says, this blog has now 3000 hits. As I have always said I started it to keep the family and friends more updated with our lives as I am not good at sending emails and letters. In any case it has become something more, but really I am enjoying it, as well as our time here in Korea.

A year ago we had no idea that we were going to be in Korea, let alone leave Australia, but as with my indutry, you could end up anywhere. Heck two years ago we were in Dubai! I really wish I knew about this blog thing back then as we had so many adventures and stories to tell.

Aside from the holiday on Wednesday, it has really been a busy week at work. But the good news is the renovation I have been dealing with for the past nine months is almost over. From April 1st (no joke), the hotels rooms will be full renovated and we will have a fantastic product! Two more weeks, and I am off to Thailand for 5 days will 25 of my staff. It is going to be a blast!

So it's now Saturday, and tonight a group of us are heading out to our favourite DimSum restuarant. I can't wait!

Only in Korea - President sick of his job.

When I first read this in the Korea Herald, I could not believe it was true. So I asked my co-workers is it true that President Roh thinks his 5 year Presidential term is too long?? Yes they said with a laugh, and moved on to the next subject. WTF! Here is a part of the article -

President Roh Moo hyun yesterday expressed his discontent with the current five year presidential term in a move likely to reignite a political dispute over a possible constitutional amendment.
"The five year presidential term feels too long," he told reporters during a mountain climb to mark his three years in office.

I just don't believe it! Can you imagine the President of a country who is 3 years into a 5 year term says he thinks his contract is too long? Now if someone mentioned that to their boss in the business world, they would be fired, or maybe transfered to butt-hell nowhere!

What suprises me the most is it really has not recieved much more attention. Hell, if my Prime Minister, Johnny Howard said something like this in Australia, heads would roll, and a new election date would be set. Can you imagine if President Bush said this to a bunch of reporters! Whatever context it was made in, I wouldn't want him running my country with comments like this!

Caught a Cold!

Damm! I thought I could get through the second half of the winter without catching a cold, but sure enough it came over the weekend. Made two mistakes once I caught it. First was go out Sunday evening for several hours, when I should have stayed indoors. Monday feeling like crap, still went to work, had a huge day, and should have gone home right after work, but attended a work dinner function, where I ended up leaving half way through it after throwing up, and a headache turned into a migraine! So Monday night 9.30pm, I crawled into bed, with Clariza freaking out as I looked like I was about to die, and I struggled to get rid of the migraine. And of top of that of course I had the cold with a sore throat, and a blocked nose.

I had half a brain to sleep for 12 hours and woke up about 1030am, with the migraine gone, but the cold in full force. I stayed at home for 3 more hours then my stubborn personality hit, and decided to go to work for a few hours! (idiot) I walked into work, did a few hours, and decided I better go home! Had an early night, and today I was at work at 730am feeling the recovery was on! Its now evening and the drugs are working, and I am feeling a lot better, but am sure it will still be a few more days until its gone!

What I didnt mention and just thought about it was that also on Monday morning I did go to the hospital. I went to Asan Hospital, to the International Clinic. The Doctor I saw there was Dr. Kwok and he was fantastic. He really took the time to pinpoint the problem, discuss all the symptoms, and prescribed only one medication, and not a dozen. The clinic there is excellent, and extremely helpful. My bill for the consult was only 18,000 won plus 10,300 for medication for 10 days! Not bad. I do have the government medical card, but the discount was minimal. Anyway, I do recommend the clinic and Dr. Kwok .... who is not a kwak!

Korea Information

After now living in Korea for over 8 months, I have to say that the bulk of the information to assist us in our stay has come from some outstanding websites. I am going to detail below most of these websites and hope that if anyone is ever going to travel here, or lives here, it may assist. Of course some are better than others, but overall the quality of these sites regarding information is fantastic.

I am using the logos for these websites and I hope no one gets offended. Actually maybe I should be paid to promote their websites! Haha I dont have that many people looking at my site. In any case, enjoy, and hope that it helps.

If you want to know so much more about Seoul and Korea, and I mean really getting out there and exploring, well this site is for you. Join an international group who travel practically every weekend to differant parts of Korea for what I feel is very attractive rates.

Wonderful website with extensinve information about Korea, on what to do, where to go, where to eat, and just so much more. Will take time to fully explore this website, but well worth the tour!

Is a monthly English written magazine in Seoul. The website, gives a lot of up to date information on what is happening in Seoul, and then some. I read the magazine always, and have it in our hotel rooms. I also use the website for a quick find.

A great website with a lot of community information a job line, but overall is a good website for those new to Korea with help targeted for foreigners.

A think a hidden secret. Seoul Metropolitan Government has got this most amazing map website. You will need to do a small download for it to work, but please do so. Once you got it, then play with the navigation and you will be able to see any street, church, hospital, hotel, school in Seoul. It is a great site.

Really cool site, written by expats living in Seoul. Lots of updated information on the places to eat, the places to shop, and so much more. A great website to put under favourites. I have found some good information over the past months.

Another very detailed website on Korea, that has so many links to great information. Another one I am sure used by a lot of people.

Since I seem to be fixated on the cold weather of Seoul as I can never work out really how cold it is, I always go to this weather site. It seems to be pretty accurate, and is the only weather site I use in Korea.

Community forum Board on Korea. For me, is pretty good, but not as many users as Dave's ESL. In any case it focuses less on jobs and more on the overall questins and answers about Korea. Keep it in favourites.

Dave's ESL Cafe, the undisputed champion Korea forum website, with hundreds of expats in Seoul using in on a regular basis to ask the questions and give the answers we really want to know. For those in the teaching world, then it is a must to check this one out on a regular basis. But even me, who is not a teacher, reads this site at least three times a week.

A very good website if you want to know what is really happening in the news. It focuses on the main articles in the various newspapers, including Korean, and gives it to you in English. A must read for me a few times a week.

So if you are a Aussie / Kiwi, this is the group for you. I am guilty of the fact that we have not joined but will do so this year. They seem to have a lot going on, and seem to provide heaps of activities for the ladies.

Now, I am sure I have missed a few other key websites, and would appreciate any feedback if I should add some. Have a great weekend!

Korea's Robot Future

Article from the Korean Times. I have to say, this is the future of Korea. Love the picture.

Police, Army Robots to Debut in 5 Years
By Kim Tae-gyuStaff Reporter

By the 2010s, Korea is expecting to see robots assisting police and the military, patrolling the neighborhoods and going on recon missions on the battlefield.

The Center for Intelligent Robots on Monday said the state-backed agency plans to check the feasibility of security robots by convening a 40-member planning committee late this week.
``If the robots prove to be viable technically and commercially, we will be able to begin developing them late next year,'' said Lee Ho-gil, head of the center.

When completed, the outdoor security robots will be able to make their night watch rounds and even chase criminals, according to Lee. The government also seeks to build combat robots. They will take the shape of a dog or a horse, with six or eight legs or wheels.

Toward that end, the Ministry of Information and Communication (MIC) and the Defense Ministry will combine to channel a total of 33.4 billion won ($33.9 million) through 2011.
``The robots will be directed by a remote control system or move autonomously via their own artificial intelligence systems,'' MIC project manager Oh Sang-rok said.
``The two sophisticated robots will be empowered by the country's state-of-the-art mobile network, thus enabling mass production at an affordable price,'' Oh noted.

Smart robots need three basic functions of sensing, processing and action. Thus far, robotics researchers have tried to cram the three into a single dummy, causing expenses to soar.
Instead, the planned robots will be receiving most sensing and processing capabilities via a Web connection. Only the ability of movement will be located in the robot.
``In a nutshell, the mobile robot offers a hardware platform for the smart functions provided by the country's advanced network connected to the super computers,'' Oh said.
Korea boasts the world's highest penetration of high-speed Internet with roughly 12 million out of total 15.5 million households hooked up to the always-on connection.

On top of their use in national defense and social security, the MIC hopes to use the network robots for the private sector late this year.
``Three kinds of households machines will commercially debut this October. They will sell for 1-2 million won, a price that will not scare off customers. The low price is possible since they are empowered by outside networks instead of incorporated software,'' Oh said.

The three sorts of wheeled robots will be used for various applications: cleaning rooms, health-care programs, Internet connection, home monitoring or reading books to kids.
The mechanical servants, some of which have the ability to re-charge automatically, can also order Chinese food and pizza by connecting to the local network.

The MIC already finished a test run of the household robots late last year by installing them in 64 households and two post offices in Seoul and its vicinity.
Hyung Tae-gun, director general at the MIC, expected the robots will sell up to 3,000 units for this year alone and the sales will surge in the near future.

``Recently Japan unveiled household service robots priced at up to 10 million won, almost 10 times as expensive as ours. So you can guess the competitiveness of our network robots,'' Hyung said.

Why do I keep thinking about that RoboCop Movie!

Chinese eyes

If you cannot decipher anything, then try pulling the corner of your eyes outwards as if you were Chinese. And no I am not trying to be racist, just a way to explain it ok! Not looking for hate mail...

Anyway, the weather has taken a U-Turn in Seoul and it fell below the zero mark after a week or so of weather hovering around 2 0r 3 degrees. It was -7 this morning, and should hit -11 tonight! No snow in the city, but they say the mountains are covered in snow in the North. Would be nice to see.

One of my work mates was telling me yesterday that what would normally take him 3 hours to drive back to Seoul from his parents house in the South, took him 9 hours on Monday evening! Amazing, and you here this story all the time. You know, this is the only problem in Korea, the traffic. Or should I say too many cars, or should I say the infrastructure in regards to roads. You know the subway system around Seoul is fantastic, and cheap. The Country railway system seems to be very good, and sometimes I see more buses on the roads than cars! But traffic is unreal. I have no real solution, so will not bitch too much, but heck if the economy is doing so well, why wouldn't you spend a bit more on fixing this never ending problem! Work mates say they are just used to it, and plan accordingly. And the final thing on this .... There is no road rage!
It works!

Night out with the Front Office Team

I used to consider myself a bit of the party type, but I tell you the Koreans love to party, no how to party, and always have the greatest time. Nobody gets punchy, just happy, and really enjoys themselves. This is some shots early in the evening at a Korean BBQ house. I cant show the photos from later in the night, cause boy, did those faces change. Enjoy.

December is here

It has been far too long between posts, and I cant tell you how many times over the last few weeks that I have said to myself I need to update the blog! Maybe it is the cold, maybe it is work, maybe I just havent felt there was anything significant to mention! Heck, I dont know.

So let me see.. the last few weeks has seen the temperature significantly drop. I am wearing ski gloves to work every morning as this past week every morning is below zero. I seem to be the only guy wearing gloves, but I dont give a sh..t, at least I feel warmer. Last night I came home around 7.30pm from work an it was so damm cold. When I check the computer it said it was -4! Felt colder! Still waiting for snow in Seoul, but I hear there is a lot of snow in the mountains already.

Work is going great, This past week our Florist Team have been busy putting up all the Christmas decorations, and it is hard to believe but as this is my department also, I am involved in saying what looks good or not! Me and decorations??? Mmmm... is this a new creative side I have not seen before?? In any case the decorations are up around the hotel and they look fantastic. The front of the hotel in the evening looks awesome.

Sadly on Tuesday, one of my staff's mother passed away, and I attended the funeral with a dozen other staff. It was the first time I attended a Korean funeral, and it is very differant from anywhere else. Firstly his mother had passed away in the morning and from the afternoon they rent a room in the hospital where people can come and pay respect to the family. You also give some money to the family. When we arrived we entered a area which is set up as a shrine in respect to the person who has passed away, there is a small prayer, then personal condolence to the fmaily members, then you sit down on the floor in another room and eat and drink. We stayed for about 1 hour. This happens for 3 days, as the family mourns and greets family and friends who come to pay respect.

On Wednesday I ended up havinga very big night. I attend the 3rd Annual Meeting of the Le Clef's Dors Concierge Society of Korea at the Westin Chosun. It was an interesting event with several VIP's, including myself (Dont know why), and we sat and enjoyed speeches, an awards ceremony which included two of my staff receiving full induction into the Le Clef's Dor Society. I was given the honour of pinning their golden keys on their jackets. After the ceremony we had a lovely buffet dinner, then headed out with about 40 attendees including several from our hotel that forced me to go out, and we ended up at a large Kareoke bar where we all sang until almost midnight. Of course up at 630am the next morning I was not feeling that great!

Other than this, we are preparing for our trip to Philippines & Australia. Clariza leaves on Monday for Philippines, and I will leave on the Friday 16th. We will stay in Philippines until the 23rd, then have Christmas and New Year in Sydney with friends and family. We are both so excited, but maybe more excited because we will be going to warmenr places!

So thats all for now.. Will try to get some more updates on including photos. Thanks for watching...

Weekend Trip

So actually two weekends ago I went to an area called Seoraksan National Park with a friend form work and his wife. Clariza was supposed to come but unfortunantly at the 730am start she was just not feeling well at all, so I headed out for what was going to be a very long, but vey nice day.
I figure I will not do much writing in this post as the photos kind of tell a better picture than I could ever describe. But to give a summary I will hit the highlights. It was about a 4 hour drive to get there, and heading through the mountains was extremely beautiful and again I am reminded that Seoul is such a contrast to the real beauty of Korea, which lie's waiting outside the concrete jungle fo the city. I am certain so many people that visit Korea very rarely venture out of Seoul, so I hope these photos give a glimpse as to what is really out there.
When we arrived at the National Park finally we were met by thousands of others who were also taking advantage of the beautiful weather and changing of season. It was nice to have a walk around and capture a look at only a fraction of the park. I have to say if I had more time it would be wonderful to do one of the many hiking trails through the park.
After a wonderful lunch, we walked around a little more, enjoying the beauty of the surroundings, and finally got back in the car for the journey home.




Now if some of you are familiar with the traffic of Korea, then you will undestand how a 4 hour drive one way can be a 7 hour drive on the way back! Yes it took us 7 hours to get home in the worst traffic I have ever been in. At one stage we covered 2 km in 50 minutes! I was going crazy, but it was not so bad. We did stop and have a nice Korean BBQ dinner in a small town on the way back.


We finally got back to Seoul at 11pm in the evening. All I can say is that it was great to get out into the mountains, but the traffic is a killer!

Yes I know... too long between posts

It has been so busy of late. The weather is getting colder and I must be moving into that hibernation mood! I have a new boss at work this week, so the entire work place is a little on edge. Also my mother-in-law arrived in Seoul on Sunday evening so we went out to the airport to meet her. All of last week Clariza and I struggled with the first colds of the season, and at the same time were preparing for Inay.
So that's my excuse ok! Other than this life has just been work, and a few dinners with clients and work college's. We were supposed to have dinner at the hotel last night, but I begged Clariza for a home cooked meal after eating the last 4 dinners at the hotel. Yes, its great to eat in the hotel restaurants, but after a while it is just so nice to relax at home with a lovely meal, and watch some TV. Speaking of TV, we have Sky Life. It is a Cable company with 200 Korean channels and about 10 English channels. It gives us most of the stations and programs we want, but at the moment we cant get one of the local channels which is the AFN station (American Armed Forces Network) So you are asking why do you want that station. Well it gets some of the good American shows we like which includes LOST, and Amazing Race. Yes, I admit Clariza and I are addicted to these shows, so now we have engineers from the hotel coming to our apartment to try help us to get the AFN channel. Oh the pleasures of living in Seoul.
Well got to go, and promise some more photos on the next blog. They will be a little old, but I promised I would post them.

Spring Picnic

As promised in the last entry, I went on the annual Front Office Spring Picnic with half of the Front Office Teams from our two hotels. Because there are almost 150 staff between the two hotels in the Front Office, we split up in to two teams. Team One had their picnic from Monday afternoon until Tuesday afternoon, and second team in this Thursday afternoon until Friday afternoon.

So, as planned I was on team one, and at around 1230pm we left the hotel with 70 other staff in two big buses for our 3 hour journey to the west coast of South Korea called Daechun Beach. In traditional Korean style the beers and soju were cracked open the moment the bus left the hotel, all the way to Daechun. I was a great drive, and so nice to be out of Seoul. It is just such a contrast once you get out of the city. We had a few stops on the way for toilet breaks and finally reached the beach around 330pm.

We then checked into a resort hotel complex, with 10 rooms and about 7 to a room. They were apartment style with two bedrooms in each so it was comfortable.

By 4pm we met in the lobby and headed directly to the beach which was a 5 minute walk from the resort. As you can see by the photos it was a vast beach, and as summer is over was not crowded. We then spent the next two hours at the beach playing games, taking photos, and just relaxing. Of course there was a cooler of beer and soju on the side, so spirits were high and everyone was having a great time.

This is a picture of me with two of the doorman from the hotel. Great guys.Me on the beach! Jeans and a Rugby jersey on the beach? Well it was actually cold and the water was about 12 degrees. Nobody swam, though one of the girls was dumped in the water. I think it was payback for something?
Horse & Cart ride along the beach just before sunset. You can see in the background on all the beach shots that the weather on the day was perfect. Even got some colour on my bald head!

Below photo is game that translated into english is something like head in the ass! I just watched, and had a few laughs!

So after the beach at around 6pm we went to a Japanese Restaurant where we had booked the entire top floor. We stayed at the restaurant about two hours and drank a hell of a lot of alcohol, and ate so much food. There was hot dishes and cold dishes, tons of sashimi, and if I didn't mention lots of alcohol. There were speeches, there was singing, there were attempts at dancing, and overall a lot of laughs. The moment we finished dinner we then left the restaurant and headed to a disco which we had reserved exclusively for the staff from 830pm to 11pm. As I am sure you can imagine everyone was already pretty drunk, so the disco was so so much fun. There were beers on every table and the DJ played enough good music to keep the dance floor full for the whole time we were there. Everytime I tried to sit down, I either had to do a drinking game, or was pulled back up to the dance floor. I escaped a few times, but by the time we left I was exhausted. Anyway 11pm, no time to rest, so we spent the next hour walking back to the resort which normally takes 5 minutes, and then we went to a small outdoor restaurant near the hotel where we drank some more and talked until about 1am. I finally dragged myself into bed sometime after that.

This photo below is a few of us the next morning at 9am drinking beers outside a Family Mart. I woke at around 7am to a glorious day and took a walk around the beach. Thank god, no hangover.

This photo was around 10am just before we got back on the bus to leave the resort.

Below is a group shot of everyone on Team One. I know it is not so clear, but hey at least you get a sense of the size of the group. 69 Koreans, One Australian! Outnumbered huh!We then got on the buses and drove about 90 minutes to the Suduck Temple. It is very famous in Korean as it was originally one of the only all female monk temples. It was a very nice walk up the mountain to the temple as you can see from the photos above and below.

After descending from the temple we had lunch together at a traditional Korean Restaurant, had some ice cream, and then got back on the bus for our final trip back to Seoul. Eventually around 5pm we arrived back at the hotel, we all said goodbye, and parted ways until work tomorrow.

It was a really great trip and so nice to spend more time with the teams out of the hotel. This is also partly funded by the hotel, and a very good idea. Now... must get sleep!!!