Wednesday, August 19, 2009

Korea Trip, 2009

Jeju Island, Seogwipo shore, down the stairs from the beach condo we stayed at. Note the creek flowing into the ocean.


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Korea Trip, 2009

Jeju Island, Seogwipo shore. Taken during a very hazy summer day.


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Friday, August 07, 2009

Korea Trip, 2009

Seoul, folk village. This woman and these musicians were re-enacting a traditional funeral chant. We were in the area for a good forty-five minutes, and she didn't let up once. I went in the little courtyard to watch a couple of times, but the view was blocked by the video crew. These were the only decent shots I got.


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Korea Trip, 2009

Seoul, Myeongdong shopping district. I felt like a giraffe among a herd of gazelles, in this crowd of Koreans (though note the lone American in the foreground, there). And, although I did see poverty in Korea, it was here that I saw the only beggars I encountered during the trip. The folks in the caution vests are street preachers.




Korea Trip, 2009

Seoul, Lotte World amusement park. There was this very interesting folk museum upstairs. Here are the kids using oldtimey laundry paddles, and listening to a narration from a mannequin.


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Korea Trip, 2009

Seoul, Lotte World Amusement park. Yes, those are Korean performers dressed like Scottish Highlanders, playing bagpipes. There were lots of foreign dancers representing different areas of the world; I'm sorry I didn't get a few snaps of them.

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Korea Trip 2009

Lotte World indoor amusement park. This place was huge, and indoors! The photos were shot from the balloon ride, which circles the perimeter up near the ceiling.


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Korea Trip 2009

These are views of the northeast corner of Seoul, with the Han River in the foreground, taken from our room in the Sheraton Walker Hill hotel. It was very hazy--I don't know how much of that was due to the rainy season, and how much to pollution. I was told that it's much clearer in autumn.


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Wednesday, August 05, 2009

Korea Trip 2009

To the north of Seoul is this curious place, Imjingak. It's on the border with North Korea. It looked like a Korean rest stop, with bus parking, convenience stores, snack bars, but also with monuments, reflecting pools, even a little amusement park. The pool is in the shape of unified Korea. The landscape shot shows the rail line going over the river into North Korea. The wrecked train engine is from the early days of the war.

There were fences with ribbons and banners, wishing peace and unity to the Korean people. And over the border I could hear automatic weapons shooting, as the Norks were having a live-fire exercise.



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Korea Trip 2009

The harbor city of Mokpo; scenes of the harbor and of a garden on the grounds of a museum. The rock formation is locally famous because it looks like a man wearing a traditional Korean hat, from some angles.





Tuesday, August 04, 2009

Korea trip 2009

Jeju Island, Seogwipo shore



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Yudalsan Sculpture Garden, Mokpo, South Korea

I was here last in 1997, and this time was surprised to see that all the sculpture was new. They must rotate the pieces, to keep the park fresh.



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Korea trip 2009

Suncheon, Songgwang-sa Temple



Suncheon, Songgwang-sa Temple detail

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Korea Trip 2009

Seoul, on the grounds of a historical palace.



Seoul, in front of a historical palace. Sorry, but I'm too lazy to look up the names of the different palaces we went to.

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