Results tagged “Korea” from East Asia 2017

Had a bit of a broken night's sleep on account of not being able to breathe.

At 6:20 the alarm went off to wake up.

Arrival in Incheon was pretty boring. I missed coming under the bridge, but then we docked at a new terminal area in the middle of nowhere (they haven't even built the terminal yet). Downloaded the GPS log since Busan.

Had some breakfast at Kings Court around 8:00.

At 8:45 we went into the Royal Court Theatre to check in to our tour. Where we then had to wait and wait and wait. This time the Korean immigrations had setup laptops in the Queens Room to process everyone. So we had to collect our passports, walk past the temperature sensor, then get our passports stamped. Then we dropped off our passports and got a shore card. They had a truck setup outside with a portable gangway, but it was *very* steep getting up it. We could have really just gone straight off the ship onto the wharf, rather than up and over, but apparently the tides change quite a lot and they were going to have to rearrange things during the day. It was after 10:00 before our coach left the wharf.

So then it was the really long drive into Seoul.

Our first stop was the National Museum. We lasted about five minutes with the crowds and our tour guide before we went off and wandered the place on our own. Sure we probably missed out on hearing about some things in more detail, but we did get a nice long look at all the celadon (a green glazed ceramic), and an amazing exhibition of items recovered in 1975 from a shipwreck.

Entrance of the National Museum of Korea

Gold Crown and Girdle, National Treasure #191 and #192

Gold Crown Ornament, National Treasure #630

Ten Story Pagoda, National Treasure #86

Dragon shaped ewer celadon, National Treasure #61

Ewer celadon

Celadon plate

Objects from the Sinan shipwreck

Objects from the Sinan shipwreck

Coins from the Sinan shipwreck

Then it was off to lunch at a place in the city. There was about fifteen different courses!! It was pretty insane. And I was having fun until I was eating all the green vegetables in a cold "porridge" when I got a huge slice of raw green chili. My mouth exploded. I should have spat it out, but I was on a table full of strangers. So that was super painful (I was in tears) and kinda ruined the rest of the meal. And our tour guide didn't seem to understand that people need to use the bathroom, and so we had to try and find it ourselves when we should have been going out to get back on the coach.

Han Jeongsik traditional lunch at Jinjinbara

Han Jeongsik traditional lunch at Jinjinbara.  That green chili sunk in with the rest of the vegetables and my mouth exploded when I ate it :(

Han Jeongsik traditional lunch at Jinjinbara

After lunch it started raining. Yay. We went to Bukchon village next, a line of houses built in the 1930s by a dude who wanted to preserve houses built in traditional Korean style. But it's a residential street and I think the people that live there hate the fact that it's a huge tourist destination.

Sungnyemun Gate

Bukchon Hanok Village

Bukchon Hanok Village

Bukchon Hanok Village

Bukchon Hanok Village

Traditional dress store

Girls in traditional dress

Still raining. We drove past the presidential "blue house" and got one or two photos through foggy and rain-smeared windows.

The Blue House

Then into the royal palace next door. Still raining on and off. Had a decent wander around there which was pretty cool.

Gwanghwamun Gate

Heungnyemun Gate

Geunjeongjeon hall

Inside Geunjeongjeon hall

Courtyard of Geunjeongjeon hall and Bukhansan Mountain

Gargoyle at Geunjeongjeon hall

Covered walkway on west side of Geunjeongjeon hall

Covered walkway on west side of Geunjeongjeon hall

Gyeonghoeru pavilion

Bukhansan Mountain

Locals in traditional dress

Decorative roof at Gyeongbokgung Palace

Gangnyeongjeon hall

Inside Gangnyeongjeon hall

Locals in traditional dress

Looking towards Gwanghwamun Gate from Heungnyemun Gate

Gargoyle at Gyeongbokgung Palace

Asian women need instructions on how to use the toilets

Girls toilets at Gyeongbokgung Palace

So a reasonably decent tour. Shame about the weather.

Finally a very long drive back to the ship.

Banghwa Bridge

Queen Mary 2 docked at Incheon Port International Passenger Terminal

Queen Mary 2 docked at Incheon Port International Passenger Terminal

Incheon Bridge, connecting Yeongjong Island and the mainland of Incheon

Sunset aboard the Queen Mary 2

Queen Mary 2 bell

19:30 the usual pub for drinks/music/trivia (we got 16/20 this time - would have gotten a couple more if we'd joined with the table that marked ours - they knew two that we didn't heh). Really must join ranks with some English people as the questions do tend to be a bit British-centric.

When we got to dinner we found two new people on our table (Bruce and Maria from Sydney). They'd been on board since Sydney and were going all the way to Southampton. But they kept on being at a table by themselves and asked to join someone else. We'd had two seats free since Virginia and Bob got off in Shanghai so that was quite nice. Stu had chicken consomme, Korean chicken and chocolate volcano cake. I had smoked duck, penne, and wasn't going to have dessert because I was so full, but got tempted by the key lime pie heh.

I really feel like we don't belong on this cruise. Bruce and David spent most of the evening talking about travelling business class and comparing airlines, and the sizes of their apartments. Bruce and Maria live in one of the toasters in Circular Quay, and at one point I think I overheard it was 192 square metres (although only heard a snatch of that conversation I could be wrong). Various British couples we've met have summer homes in Europe. We're too young and not rich enough to belong on this cruise...

Some time overnight the phone moved forward an hour. Possibly late yesterday afternoon when we got in mobile range of Korea. Moved the Canon forward an hour. But turns out Stu's random camera had been an hour out for the Hong Kong and Shanghai part of the trip. Because it automatically changed itself in Busan to be another hour forward. Had to turn summertime off, but need to remember that the times on it may need adjusting.

We arrived in Busan at a container terminal out of town, and it was on our port side, so I was able to watch the arrival from our balcony.

Coaches lined up waiting to take tourists on their tours

ATM van at Gamman container terminal

Finally got eggs benedict for breakfast, but felt too stressed to enjoy it (we had to get ready for our tour shortly afterwards).

Due to arriving at a container terminal, there's nothing setup for customs and immigration, so officials came onto the ship and setup in the Queens Room. But after queuing for ages, all we did was walk from one side of the room to the other and get a port card on the way out. All very odd, don't know what that was about. Unless they had temperature sensors setup that I didn't notice (I was trying to catch up with our group, as we'd got from second last to last when another couple pushed in to go in front of us, and another group merged with us and also had people get in front of us. I really really didn't want the last seats in the coach as they're a lot harder to see out of). Then it was down to deck 1 and we walked straight off the ship onto the wharf. Pretty cool. They had a small welcoming troupe there which was also pretty cool. We managed to catch up with the group and even get ahead, as some others delayed in figuring out where to go to get to deck 1, and some then had to wander all the way up the wharf to go to the bathroom, so we actually got reasonable seats on the coach.

The coach ride for the morning was a one and a half hour drive to the Gyeongju area.

Trump World tower

Our first stop was the Bulguksa Temple complex which was quite a nice place. The structure on the 10 won coin is at this temple which is cool. I was worried leaving this place that we'd be last back to the bus but we were actually first back on the bus. (I had to find a bathroom - this one had toilet paper on a roll as you go in, but I had to use half of it to wipe down the seat :( Seriously, what is it with Asian women who feel the need to pee all over the seats?? If you're going to piss all over the seat, why don't you lift the damned lid and piss all over the rim, and not where I have to sit next?!?! It was like that in Shanghai the other day too. I did have an extra roll of toilet paper with me, but was able to make do, but was very unimpressed).

Map of Bulguksa Temple area

Lake and bridge at Bulguksa Temple

Gwangmok Cheonwang inside the gate

Cherry blossoms at Bulguksa - really the only cherry blossoms we saw the whole trip

Bulguksa Temple

Paper flowers in Bulguksa Temple

Decorated temple roof

Dabotap Pagoda as featured on the 10 won coin

Dabotap Pagoda

One of the lions at Dabotap Pagoda. Another is in the British Museum, the other two are missing

Daeungjeon Hall

Seokgatap (Sakyamuni Pagoda)

Museoljeon Hall at Bulguksa Temple

Paper flowers leading to Birojeon Hall at Bulguksa Temple

Vairocana Buddha in Birojeon Hall, National Treasure No.26

Magnolias at Bulguksa Temple

Gwaneumjeon Hall

Stone Garden at Bulguksa

Stone Garden at Bulguksa

Sakyamuni Buddha and his sixteen disciples in Nahanjeon Hall

Lanterns at beophwajeon - site of stone foundation

Wooden carved pig at Geuknakjeon

Good luck pig at Geuknakjeon

Large bell pavilion

Sadly we're a little too early for all the cherry blossoms in this part of the world, but the magnolias are in full bloom at the moment and they're very pretty.

We stopped for lunch at the nearby Commodore Hotel. Three coachfulls of people in one of their function rooms. So was a little chaotic. Meal was decent enough though. And it wasn't seated on the floor like it said it would be in the guide heh. After lunch there was a performance by local Korean girls - with fans, drums etc. That was quite nice. The table we sat at was pretty odd though. There was a single guy, a couple from possibly Germany, a single lady, and two Japanese ladies. And noone talked to each other. Very odd.

Gyeongju Tower

Joongdo Tower

Korean dancers who performed for us after lunch at the Commodore Hotel

Korean dancers who performed for us after lunch at the Commodore Hotel

Korean dancers who performed for us after lunch at the Commodore Hotel

Korean dancers who performed for us after lunch at the Commodore Hotel

It was around this point that I knew I was getting sick. That telltale throat feeling and start of a cough. This made me very grunty with all the hundreds of other sick people on this cruise.

After lunch we went to Cheonmachong tomb (the flying horse tomb), in a park containing many royal tombs from the Silla dynasty. That was quite cool (although the artifacts are all replicas as the originals are kept in storage). What's amazing is that they've found any in tact tombs in recent times at all. I'd have thought they'd have all long been raided over the last millennium.

Magnolias

Royal burial mounds

Inside Cheonmachong tomb

Cheonmachong tomb

Cheonmachong tomb exterior

Finally we went to the Gyeongju National Museum to see the Divine Bell of King Songdok and quite a few "national treasures" including some of the artifacts found in the royal tombs.

Bell of King Seongdeok

Crown ornament, one of Korea's National Treasures

Gold mounted dish, National treasure No. 626

Crown and belt, National treasures No. 188-190

Model of the Gyeongju area

And then the hour and a half long trip back to the container terminal.

Me and the Queen Mary 2

Queen Mary 2 at Gamman container terminal

Queen Mary 2 at Gamman container terminal

Looking aft along the Queen Mary 2

Overall quite a good tour, and we quite enjoyed the day. Except for getting sick of course.

I went up to the top deck for a bit, but then watched the departure from our balcony (18:44 pushback from the wharf). The lights of Busan were all on by this point and the Busan Harbor Bridge is lit up with multi-coloured LEDs which cycle through the rainbow which made the bridge look amazing.

Busan Harbour Bridge lit up

Before dinner we ordered a copy of one of the photos we'd had taken before the previous night's formal dinner. For dinner we both had deep fried brie for entree. Stu had a seafood spaghetti and rum cake, and I had chicken cordon bleu (a tad dry) and a white chocolate panna cotta (a repeat! gasp!).

Then collapsed into bed.