Showing posts with label Asia. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Asia. Show all posts

Sunday, June 23, 2013

I love Konglish!

Koreans use English a lot in advertising and business names.  They throw it around like we use French, it instantly fancies up a place.  Unfortunately, our two languages are different enough that the point they're trying to make doesn't always come across crystal clear to native English speakers.  Here is a collection of the best Konglish (Korean-English) from my recent trip to Korea.  Remember, this isn't meant to insult anyone...when I see Konglish it makes me smile.  Hopefully,  it'll make you smile too! =)

"New feeling of soda beverage" indeed.  It tastes like lemon-lime milk.
I'm sure this is some kinda copyright infringement!
I AM always wondering what's "most recommendable"
From now on, I'm starting all letters "Dear. You"
I want to go to there...
Ain't no party like a Thursday Party because a Thursday Party don't stop!
In all fairness, they use "ho" to mean "hoff"...don't mix your German and English people!
Where do you want to go for coffee?  I dunno "whoever."
Just weird
hehe.  Baby Face.
Governor of New Jersey *slash* female clothing boutique in Busan!
Kinda insulting, no?
Hmm....
Man, this is the "Coffee of Dream!"
Well, Lotteria...I do enjoy "injoy"ing stuff!
I'm YOUR fan too!  Wait, what are we fans of?!
Ha!  I imagine clown-filled horrifying rooms!
Ok ok, kinda immature.  tee hee
What a coincidence!  I hate Mondays too, but so does everyone... how are we unique?
Drinking is Fun Fun!

Friday, June 21, 2013

Busan Day 2 - Busan Out!

Today was our full day in Busan and we made the most of it. The weather was wonderful! The temperature stayed below 80 and there was a cool breeze. Perfect weather for exploring this coastal metropolis.

First, we visited Beomeosa Temple, another place I didn't make it to on my last visit to Busan. On the subway we had another person come up to us and ask if we were Spanish. Koreans are pretty good at pegging our ethnicity, they're just one peninsula off! Of course she also told Christina how pretty she was, a theme that comes up throughout the day!


Beomeosa is one of the most well-known temples in Korea, and it was easy to see why. This place was buzzing with activity from monks, temple stay patrons and worshipers. The temple is set high in the mountains in the north of Busan and has some amazing scenery. 
Beomeosa Temple 
Beomeosa Temple - Mountainous Grounds
Beomeosa Temple Door Art
Beomeosa Temple - Mountainous Grounds
Beomeosa Pagoda
Woodchuck in Shoes! Korea, you're so crazy!
What?! Mexican Chicken?!
Humetro (the Busan Metro) has an adorable mascot....but I don't know what it is. Rail car?
After the temple, we went to Seomyeon City Center to find some lunch. We found a Chinese restaurant and got some jjajangmyeon (noodles with a bean paste sauce with onions, pork and shrimp) and fried dumplings. Yum! Seomyeon area is sort of like a downtown, it's mostly a business and shopping area.

After lunch, we checked out the Jagalchi Fish Market followed by the Gukje Market for some souvenir shopping. The fun thing about the Gukje Market is that you get to negotiate prices. The venders know that as well, so they try to flatter you. Christina was told how beautiful she was at at least a couple shops! She obviously is beautiful, but I'm sure this is probably going to her head. 

Despite not being told how beautiful I was...I was able to talk down the price on a trinket to the point the vender called it a "tear price" and gestured that she was crying over it. I'm sure she still probably made a 300% mark-up!

I was reluctant to post about it, but all the walking in Busan makes you warm and thirsty and the perfect remedy for that is patbingsu! We stopped at a coffee shop and got an 8,000 won version of the dish. It was delicious! This one had tteok, ice cream, nuts, mochi and red beans. This version beats out Paris Baguette by far!
Jagalchi Fish Market
Busan's waterfront is pretty industrial...which makes me think twice about seafood here

More Patbinsu - Again, don't judge me! This was dinner.


After over-indulging, and swearing off patbingsu for life (or at least until Atlanta), we went to Taejongdae Park. The park is situated on an island off the southern coast of Busan.  It has great cliffs with views of the city and sea. I visited this park before and it's really beautiful. 
Taejongdae Art

This is how I appreciate art!
Sea at Taejongdae

Taejongdae - Christina

Lighthouse
Look! It's Japan!
By the time we left Taejongdae it was dark. We headed back towards Nampo and stopped at the Lotte Department Store to check out the sky deck. It turns out there is a children's petting zoo on the top floor. Anyone who knows Christina knows that animals are irresistible to her. She ran around chasing rabbits and petting pot-belly pigs for a good 20 minutes before we headed back to the hotel for the evening. 
This hamster is about the only animal that would let her touch it!

Tomorrow is our last full day in Korea. We're heading back to Seoul in the morning. We head back to Atlanta on Sunday. This trip has been a great opportunity for me, but way too short. There's always much more I want to do than I can accomplish. Anyway, next stop, Seoul!

Thursday, June 20, 2013

Busan - Omurice, Buddhas and A/C

Today, Christina and I hopped a morning train to Busan. We arrived at noon and checked into our hotel in the Nampo area, near the gukje market and the Lotte Department Store. We dropped off our bags and ran to Lotte to catch the aquatique show and have some lunch in the food court.

Lunch was at a place called Curry Pot. I had omurice...I will admit that I had no idea what it would be when I ordered it..but it looked good! Turns out it was an Omelet wrapped around RICE (hence omurice!) it also came with a piece of tonkatsu wrapped around a sweet potato....see a theme here? I was clearly surprised by both items on my plate! The dish was swimming in a Japanese curry, so I'm assuming Curry Pot is some Japanese chain. 

T-Rex does NOT hate omurice!
After lunch we decided to go up the Busan Tower to check out the view. Christina really loves getting the lay of the land from above. Last time I was in Busan, I went up at night, so it was cool to see the daytime vantage. 

Before going up, we went into a small tourist shop near the base of the tower to bask in some free air conditioning. One of the vendors here swindled Christina into two packets of face lotion masks by telling her not to buy certain products because they were only for older people, and she was too beautiful to need that..."no no, not that one, that only for your mommy! You too beautiful!" Man, she knew how to play Christina! Consequently, if you're in Korea, and a beauty store vendor pushes some red ginseng products on you, you should feel insulted...or extra "mommy"-like anyway! 

While functionally helpful, this outdoor escalator tube was a breezeless oven!
Buddha en route to the Busan Tower. Korea is so colorful!
Busan Tower
Busan from above - Lotte Tower under construction
Lots of ships!
After the tower we hopped the subway across town to Haeundae Beach where we caught a bus to Yonggungsa Temple (용궁사). This temple is unique because its situated on the coast, not up in the mountains like most in Korea. I think it's my favorite temple in Korea! It may not be as stately as Bulguksa in Gyeongju, but it's one-of-a-kind location catches your eye!

Entryway pagoda...we could use one of these back in Atlanta!
Yonggungsa
Yonggungsa
Super Korean-looking Buddha
Main Temple - Yonggungsa
Intricate -Yonggungsa
Korea definitely catches your eye - Yonggungsa
Yonggungsa
Bonus Dragon - Yonggungsa
Hi Pigs!
Bye Pigs!
You knew this was happening - Yonggungsa

After the temple, we took a stroll down Haeundae Beach then caught a cab back to our hotel in Nampo. The cab driver went over the main large bridge across the bay and we could see the entire city wrapped in twilight and fog. Busan is a very scenic place! He also gave me pronunciation lessons on everything I said to him in Korean. After a couple years of on-and-off effort at learning Korean, it seems I'll never get the hang of it. Then again, I'm not sure if I should be taking pronunciation lessons from someone from Busan....

Haeundae Beach
Everything in Korea has a mascot!

After we got back to the hotel, we walked around the gukje market for a while. We both bought some souvenirs and hit up Paris Baguette for...you guessed it...Bingsu! 

Don't judge...you knew this would happen! It was my dinner!

We have no plans yet for tomorrow, but after what feels like about 10 miles of walking today, I'm hoping to sleep in. Our hotel in Seoul, while nice, had poor air conditioning and the hardest beds I've ever slept on, which is saying a lot considering how many Korean beds I've tried. The place we're staying at in Busan lets us make the room an ice cube and has almost America-level soft beds. Ahhhhh..... zzzzzzzz