Cruising on Hangang River: Moonlight Rainbow Fountain

When I went on the cruise on Han River, I was only looking forward an ordinary boat ride that would allow me to view the city in the night.....

So I was sitting on the boat, looking at the city with the light.... doing the same thing the guy was doing at the beginning of this clip... 吸收天地精華....

How peaceful!  How zen!  How gemütlich!

Gotta absorb all that I can!



Then, there came the highlight of the trip.... the the light show and water dance-- also known as the moonlight Rainbow Fountain from the cruise over Hangang River.... an absolutely pleasant surprise....

The Moonlight Rainbow Fountain is said to be the longest bridge fountain in the world.  It is installed along the Banpo Bridge (반포대교 or 盤浦大橋)...

(Gotta appologize for the quality of the video at times because my sister's camera has this strange habit of refocusing itself...)

Accordingly, the fountain is made with with nearly 10,000 nozzels on both sides of the bridge and shoots out 190 tons of water per minute.... wow...

Thank God... the water was pumped up directly from the river.... and... goes right be to the river...

The cruise did stop for sometime when we were approaching the Banpo bridge.  This was when I took this clip...

At around the end of the water/light show, I was with my friend and her son inside the cabinet.  When I realized that... apparently... the boat was moving towards the bridge...

So I told my friend and her son...

Since I walked much slower then them, they have already ran to the front of the boat as I was still trying to walk towards that direction....

All of a sudden... I felt.... something like rain or storm coming down..... and thought... "OMG... typhoon is here...."  Instinctively, I hid behind till the storm was gone...

Ended up, as the boat was turning around, it went under the waterfall.... and... those who did not hide for cover fast enough got all drenched...

As for me, I happened to stay dry not because I was able to hide out fast enough... but because I can not run and my top walking speed is much slower.... (Guess, this accounts for the benefit of being an handicapped?! 8-O lol )

Getting to the cruise is easy... I believe that I had boarded at the Jamsil Dock.  One way of getting to the Jamsil Dock is to get off at the Sincheon (yes, with an e... not Sinchon that is on the same line next to the Hongik Univ) station on the green line or line 2.  This stop is southern to Hangang River and one stop away for the Olympic Sports Complex.

Onces you get out of the subway station, simply move towards the direction of Hangang Park.... The riverside park is within walking distance from the subway station although it might be a 10-15 minute walk depending on your speed.

Once you enter the Riverside Park, look for the establishment with the C& sigh by the water... This is where you can buy tickets and board the cruise.

The trip I took took off at around 7:30 PM and lasted for around 90 minutes, which not only allowed me to see the city in the night but also the Moonlight Rainbow Fountain in action.

If I remember correctly, it costs something like 12,000 won (yet, don't quote me...) as of Aug. 17th, 2010.  I was told that there were two other types of cheaper cruises available... except for they all were sold out and... they don't go as far as the Banpo bridge.  Shall anyone ask for my opinions, I would strongly recommend the 90-minute cruise after sunset.... except for... simply my humble opinion.... (Of course, I assume, you could always find people who might see things different...)

Found some pictures this guy took for the Moonlight Rainbow Fountain.... Nice pictures and think I might share them with you...

http://www.flickr.com/photos/68558939@N00/sets/72157622223020275/show/

I would have loved to go by the Banpo bridge, the park or during the day to see the fountain and take some pictures myself... except for... unfortunately, not enough time.... @#$%$#*

Police and the Seoul Station

When I got out to Seoul visiting the first time, the first destination was the Seoul Station... since... there must be a tourist information station for me to pick up a tourist map.

Getting out of the subway.... I saw a lot and a whole lot of the armed police dressed in black...

Thinking to myself...

"OMG... poor policeman... gotta be hot in that kind of attire."

Then, I saw people setting up a stage... thinking...

"Nice... even outdoor concert taking place during the weekend.  Sort of like the summer stage in Central Park, maybe?  Really nice...."

So I went on finding my way into the Seoul station to pick up a map.... not knowing that it was already people mountain people sea... on the outside... by the stage...

Sometimes, there were people singing and other times there were people giving speeches...

All these people were sitting on the floor under the summer heat... Heroic! Heroic!

So I decided to walk away from people.... thinking to myself... so many people and so many armed police... @#$%$@

First.... I can't run...

Second... although I can walk, the ordinary fastest speed I am capable when walking is possibly considered "medium slow" to the others....

So many people... so many police...

This is when my over-active imagination started to run wild.... wallmart... world cup.... German Love parade... or... the death of Mufasa... 8-O

In addition, I never really like to stay too close to armed people such as policeman... reminding me of the hunting trip of Cheney.... 8-O

So I decided to start walking away... trying to get away from the crowd... away from the police.... and the Seoul Station...

So I walked north... only to come across more and more police...

And, I turned back... passing the same groups of police by... trying to walk south... even more...

I tried to cross the street... except for... the zebra line stopped at the middle of the road...

I even decided to go back to the subway station.... only to encounter even more of the armed police in groups...

What makes it even funnier is that... after I got back into the station, it was as if I walked into 鬼撞牆.... it took me almost like forever to get back out...

I must have walked pass each every exit at least 2-3 times when attempting to get back out of the station.... You see... first of all, I would not take the same exit I took before, which leads you directly back to the Seoul station.  On disability accessible exit out...

Yet, not all exits have escalators or elevators... At one of the exit, it was after one got out of the station using escalator do you find them stairs.... because the Seoul station is located somewhat at the foot of a hill....

I eventually got back out to the ground....  Welcomed by even more bus-full of armed police... It looked as if some of them must have just arrived and were just getting off the bus....

So.... from there on... for miles... all the way towards the Nan Dae Mum Market... even more armed police under the Korean sun...

One thing I have to tell you is the there is something absolutely wonderful about having policemen everywhere...

First of all, you don't have to be worried about bad people because, even if you get rubbed (and especially when the most expensive item I had was the pair of MBT sandle 8-O), you don't even need to dial 911 to call the police.

Second, although I didn't quite know where I was walking to... or... where I was, at times, having all the police around made it really easy for me to ask for direction... especially when in an area where there were not too many pedestrians.

Third, think about it... "I am nobody Royal... You don't really need to put forth such security measure to welcome the arrival of Ratprincess... 不好意思!  太破費了!" (Speaking of the utility of delusion of grandiosity. 8-O lol)

Sort of like what they say... it never drops but it pours...

I had never seen a Korean Police in my life... until the day came... when I saw far more Korean police than, perhaps, the total number of police I have seen in my life so far.... 8-O lol

It was not until later did I realize...

Like Taiwan, Korea used to be a colony of Japan.  On August 15th, 1945, Japan surrender to the Allied forces and that was the end of the 35-year colonization.... and Korea made this day the liberation day.

As a result, the first day I got out to see the world since become some strange kinda disabled, August 15th, happens to be the Liberation Day in Korea.

Incheon or Yeongjong Grand Bridge?

I took the Airport Limousine bus going from Bundang to Incheon airport when leaving the country.

Picture taken on an Airport Limousine from Bundang.
Is this Incheon or Yeongjong Grand Bridge? (Update 8/26/2013: Think it might be the Yeongjong Grand Bridge.

I know that there are now two main bridges linking the Yeongjong Island (where the airport is) and the mainland of Incheon...  However, I was not sure whether it was the Incheon or Yeongjong Grand Bridge I was on.

Unfortunately, the person I ask the question to give me this response...

"I don't know...."

Interpreted by me as... "What kind of useless question?!" (Well, actually pretty useful if you are a tourist... 8-O  lol)

On a second though, maybe I should have asked the bus driver instead except for... wasn't quite sure the hard-working bus driver trying to bring out all luggage speaks English?  (20 20 hindsight.. I guess...)

Today, after all of my googling effort trying to figure out the route of Bundang Airport Limousine...  The identity of that bridge remains unknown and it is driving me up the wall....

A picture of Yeongjong Grand Bridge I found online

Because the bridge seemed to be nice long and pretty curvious (is this a word?) bridge... although might not have been as long as the 杭州灣跨海大橋 (Hangzhou Bay Bridge)..

personally, I would suspect it to be the Incheon Bridge....

Shall any Korean come across this posting and know which Bridge the Bundang Airport Limousine crosses, please inform.

(8/26/2013 update: Don't know how stupid I could have been.  Went online to check for the route of the Bundang Airport Limousine today cuz someone came to visit this post and found out the bus takes the Incheon Airport Expressway... what it translated into is... shall the online info be correct, it's the Yeongjong Grand Bridge I was speaking of... "the world's first 3-dimensional self-anchored suspension bridge." 3 years later, I sort of answered my own question. lol)

A tale of illiteracy

When I was in Korea, I was 100% illiterate... so illiterate that I didn't know how to order food...

So, I was at the Nan Dae Mum market when it was around the dinner time.

In case you don't know... one problem concerning illiteracy is... even though all dishes are shown in the menu, you still have no idea what these dishes really are...

As I was walking around, I walked into this street where the restaurants show you the samples... Unfortunately, even by looking at the samples themselves, you still can't quite tell what these dishes are... except for.. by the color of the dish, you know the majority of them have hot chilly sauce as one of the ingredients.

At some point, I chose one of these restaurants where there was AC.... ordering my food by finger pointing... while asking... "Is this Korean?"

My first dinner in Seoul

"Yes.  Korean." So must have the shop-keeper responded.

To be honest, I can't quite tell you what this dish is... since... in order to forget something, you need to know what it is first.  Since I had never really known what it was, it makes it impossible for me to forget it.. right? 8-O lol

All that I could recall is... there is kimchi, blood and intestine of some kind.

The dish also came with a bowl of rice and four side dishes.

From then on, this became my default shopping method regardless whether it is the watery yellow peaches or this sausage like snack ... finger-pointing plus "That... How much?"  (Finger-pointing has never felt more legit.... 8-O lol)

What is stuffed inside of this sausage like traditional Korean snack might be sticky rice and some kind of blood... sort of like the Taiwanese 糯米大腸 minus blood... (I even took a trip to the night market to get some  糯米大腸 in order to show you what the Taiwanese sticky rice sausage looks like)

Korean sausage stuffed with sticky rice etc

Taiwanese sausage stuffed with sticky rice etc 

So, after my short trip in Korea, I went to Shanghai... feeling such a relief because... come on... I grew up in Chinese!

Though, to be honest... I was only semi-literate...

So my brother-in-law dropped me at the Bund so that I could take a small walk on the boardwalk.    We were supposed to meet up somewhere after I walked past the 百度橋 (Baidu Bridge)... When trying to locate my brother-in-law, I saw a armed guard and a sign like the one shown in the picture...

"卫兵神圣, 不可侵犯"...

Well, the word "兵" is the same in both the traditional and the simplified Chinese.  That I recognized...

Yet, I couldn't recognize the word 卫... As a result, in my attempt to understand these four words, I replaced the word 卫 with the Mandarin Phonetic Symbols ㄗ...

Since this sign was located right next to an armed soldier or a police, the term "卫兵" must refer to some kind of soldier.

As for the second part of the phrase "神圣,"  the first word 神 is also the same in both traditional and simplified Chinese.  Yet, the word "圣" looked almost like the word "經".  Combining these two words together, we have the phrase "神經"... which, in English, would mean... "Neurotic."

In other words, this sign tells people that.... "The [some kind of] soldier is neurotic. Shouldn't be assaulted or offended." 8-O

怎麼會這樣?  How could it be?

Doesn't quite make sense..... although... there is something true to it... you don't want to offend neurotic people...  @#$&*@#$

Finally, I found my brother in law.  As we were driving by the Russian embassy next to the Baidu bridge, I saw the guard and the sign again... and commented...

"Why do they tell people that the soldier is neurotic and should not be assaulted?"

Ended up, the word "圣" is not...  "經"... rather it is the simplified version of "聖"... with these two words  "神聖" together meaning... "sacred."

Thus... the reason why the guards shouldn't be assaulted or offended is not because they are neurotic but because they are... sacred... It is 衛兵神聖 rather than ㄗ兵神經... 8-O lol

(Aren't you so glad that I am not your Chinese teacher?! lol)

Guess this is the reason why... children of the world... wherever you are.... it is very important to develop your literacy skill... otherwise, not only would you have problem putting food on the dinner table, you might think of something sacred as neurotic.  8-O lol

Garden 5

I came across this commercial with Jang Keun Suk 張根碩 and Park Shin Hye in it...

As I was watching this commercial...

I thought... Garden 5?

Sounds familiar...

Then, the light ball went off... OMG... I was also in Garden 5 during my stay in Korea.... I might have been to the places they were showing in this commercial except for... it was not until after I left Korea did I came across this Korean drama and heard of the man 张根硕...

It apparently is a new shopping complex in Songpa, which just opened in June... According to some info from Wikipedia, it is now the largest shopping mall in Asia... (Don't know whether it is true or not...)

Getting there was really easy... if by subway, get off subway line 8 at the Jangji station (장지역, 長旨).

The first question that came to my mind when arriving at Garden 5 was... "There are only 4 buildings in total... Where is the 5th?"

My Korean friend had no idea either....

Since shopping has never been my kind of thing, Garden 5 would have been filtered out automatically... except for... my friend had some time that day and was going to take her son to Garden 5... and... since she asked, I followed.  Thank about it... well... going to the department stores with Koreans... could be accounted as some pretty genuine Korean experience... as good as visiting places like Namsangol Hanok Village (남산골한옥마을 or 南山韓屋) ...  I guess... 8-O lol

After googling around for the entire afternoon, I still could not find much info about Garden 5 except for the following article written at the end of 2009... The Garden 5 development is slow to progress  (Looking back... when walking around, we did still find a whole lot of empty spaces...) 

One thing I would say is that... this could also be the shoe-lovers' paradise...  following is a picture of the multi-floor shoe department...

You see the sign on the shelf with a telephone number?

Apparently, because there are not so many people around, the shop keeper has gone somewhere else.  This posting tells people that... this is my cell number... give me a call if you need some help... (Never seen things like this before... 8-O lol)

Shoe department in Garden 5

An outdoor shop at Garden 5.. found a bag with NYPD on it

An ode to Subway elevators/escalators

If there is anything that makes this trip of mine drastically different from any other trips I have done so far... it would be... avoiding stairs...  And, as a result, taking detours....

Sometimes, such inconveviences do have their upside... for example, otherwise, I would not have the opportunity to release the lotus lantern the other day.... (and this is sort of like what you call... looking at the bright side of life... 8-O 8-X)

In terms of public transportation...

I love taking buses... as opposed to taking subway/metro....

Two reasons...

Although it is much faster, most of the times, to take subway, you get to see more of the city with buses.... slow and stop.... in New York, in Taipei, in Shanghai and in Seoul.... and even in airports... 8-O

With the buses, there are, most of the time, far fewer stairs you have to manage....

All of these cities I mentioned above have disability access....

However, the design is universally stupid at times.... leading me to the conclusion that... either them people doing the designs must not be physically disabled or this world is designed not for people with physical disability.... For instance, them escalators... a lot of cities have only escalators going up but not going down.... a real killer for people with knee problems...

In addition, there seems to be an assumption that all people with disability uses wheelchair... and only people in wheelchair could be disabled?!

I am not gonna make you believe that I can not do stairs at all....

I can force myself to do a few stairs but I have to do it slow... one stairs at a time... if necessary.  However, the revenge of my body is very scary... if it feels that I overdo it....

The New York subway system just celebrated its 100th anniversary not too many years ago... I can understand why there are relatively fewer disability access... This is part of the reason why I used to use buses to go places....

However, with them newer subway systems in Taipei, Shanghai and, perhaps, Seoul.... I have a problem with disability inaccess kind of design...

For these cities, you might be able to find elevators to go down to the metro station in case all elevators you find only go up... except for... there is no guarantee that the elevators could be found.....

Worst of all, after all the detours you have taken, circling around like a dog chasing its tail, when you find that elevator of you life... it might be out of order.... and... you have to restart your search... all over again... Sometimes, you might as well walk to the next subway station.

At times, you come across situations within which... just when you are praising to yourself... "How wonderful!  There are escalators going both up and down!"  You find yourself in front of them stairs... and.. many many stairs... This is especially traumatizing on days when your body is in the piece-of-crap shape.... 8-O lol

The second day I got to Seoul, I was shipped me out to explore.... Seoul.

I decided to go to Seoul Station because something told me that it is where I could find the tourist information booth to get a tourist map...

Seoul Subway Route Map

All that I had... a Subway map in Korean, a language I had no idea about, and the only thing I knew... when I get back, I have to get off at the Sunae station and I have to transfer from the yellow line to the orange line at the Suseo station.

Arriving at the Suseo station, I saw escalators and I was overjoyed... So I followed the sign trying to get to the orange line... except for... at some point... I found myself circling around as if I walked into... 鬼打牆....

"Where is the elevator?  There is the sign saying this is how I get to disability access... but how come all I see are the stairs?"

Seoul Subway Wheelchair disability access

So I spent the next 5-10 minutes looking until I came to the conclusion... the devise shown in the following picture is THE disability access... and there was no other disability access...

Ended up, there are many of these kind of disability access all over town...

Since I spoke no word of Korean and many Korean don't speak English, provided I am not on wheelchair, I had never used this... wouldn't be difficult to explain to the station worker my condition anyways...

So, I climbed up... one step at a time... like everyone else... I guess.... 8-O lol sigh...

While trying to drag my big fat butts up them stairs, the thought that I might have to climb all those stairs for the next few days started to form a nightmare... one as scary as the nightmare on Elm street...



"It can't be... that's gotta be a different way around..."

Ended up, since one could also transfer between the yellow and the orange line in Dogok, after I eventually got to the orange line, I got off at Dogok.... in search of more accessible disability access...  It took me a whole lot of sign following and walking around and around... till... voila... I finally found it... the escalators of my dream... which run both up and down.... (speaking of... I have a dream.... 8-O lol)

It was not until a bit later did I realize that... inside of each every station, there is a map outlining the blueprint of the station... It shows you where you are, where the stairs, escalators and elevators are... sometimes even toilets...  The only problem I had was... this map is only available when you are inside of the station but not on the ground level.

Subway station Map

I find this map extremely useful.  The only recommendation I have is to make it available is to also make this map available at the ground level entrance.  This is so that people with disability knows what to expect once they set off with their stair climbing mission whether going up or not.

In addition, one scary thing about them stairs towards the metro is that, first, they are huge stairs, second, the subway could be as deep as something like 6 floors below the ground level, and, at some locations, the exits/entrances are not connected.  As a result, if you enter the station through an entrance without disability access, you are doomed....

One night, due to circumstances, I took the "non-disability-accessible" entrance after a long day...  The problem was... there were only two options... Keeping going down or try to see whether I could walk back up.... By the time I got to the subway, my body was already in the kind of shape I was when I just got injured.  I was so in pain and I could barely move.  You see, if the station map was available, this could have been avoided...

Since I started feeling something was coming down the second day, sometimes I wonder whether my sickness later might have something to do with the fact that the entire body, from neck down, was inflamed.  If I knew for sure that the elevator going down was only a block away... I might not have to go through my entire Shanghai trip later sick like a dog.... Just an hypothesis, though....

Since I was such a determined traveler and since I did not have much more time in Korea, despite the severe pain and physical condition, I was out and about again the day after partially because I had totally ran out of Korean currency and needed to go into town to exchange more money...  Though I moved even slower and with a cane.  I kept on moving forward.... 8-O lol

Somewhere over the Internet, I learned that the "black market" kinda money exchange places in Ming-dong area give you the best deal.  Since I hadn't had the chance to check out Ming-dong (明洞), I decided to go to there that day....

When I got off from the dark blue line at the Ming-dong station, I went to check out the station map to see which direction might have disability access.  Unfortunately, I did not find any sign of elevators or escalators going to the ground level.

Without hesitation, I hopped onto the next train to get off at Nam Dae Mun (南大門), thinking... that... what is the likelihood that they would haveno disability access to the ground two stations in a roll...

So I took the escalator all the way up and I exited the subway gate.  After I circled around like a doggie for a while, I came up with the conclusion that... oops.... on a day when I could hardly walk on flat land, I landed on a station without any disability access to the ground level.

I went to speak with this ticket agent, who told me that... "This is an old station.  No.  We don't have elevators going to the ground level.  However, it is not too far.  Only one floor."

I looked up... and pondered to myself...

"Should I get back and take the subway all the way to the next stop Seoul Station or should I try to climb up since I am already in a piece of shit kind of state anyways?"

Well, following the rationale that I was already in pain and already in the piece of shit state, I decided to start bringing myself up with both arms and, of course, both legs... one step at a time... painfully...

Many subways must have come and go...  because I can't quite tell you how many bunches of people had past me by...

Some look at me with curiously...

Others wanted to offer help except for... I was not even sure how they could help me.

At some point, the ticket agent appeared next to me... and I wonder whether it was because some passersby might have told him about the apparent struggle of this strange creature....

"I didn't know that the stairs are so difficult for you!  Let me help you!!"

Before I could respond, I found him pushing me up from the bottom up... all that I had to do was to move my legs up...  It felt as if we flew all the way up them stairs....  In no time, we were up on the ground level inside of the Nam Dae Mun Market.

I thanked him, thanked him and I could not have thanked him enough.

To this day, when I thought of that ticket agent and the strange scenario, I remain to be thankful and will always be.

After all these time, to be honest, I don't even recall what it might have felt like when I could do stairs with so much ease.... until that day.

At one of the entrance of Nam Dai Mun Market, I thanked this life-saver of mine, I rested my body a bit.  And, I kept walking on... backwards to Ming-dong after the interesting detour.

Isn't life funny?  You can run but you can't hide.  I took a deliberate effort to get off at a different subway station.  Yet, them stairs..... I still can not escape.

It sort of reminds me of that story.... This servant saw death in the market, with a strange look on his face.  The servant went home and asked the master for one of the fastest horse so that he could go as far as he could to avoid death.  Later that day, the master bumped into death and complained...

"Why did you do that to my servant?"

Death replied with something like... "I was just surprised to see him here because I shall catch him tonight in the far-away land!!!"

At the same time, shall I have not taken the detour to Nam Dae Mun, I would not have had the chance to encounter that wonderful man and the experiences of flying up to the ground!  8-O lol

I did not really get to take the local buses in Korea this time.... mostly having to do with the fact that I don't know the language and the city.  One of my greatest regrets, I guess, in my trip to Korea.

In Shanghai, it was much easier for me to learn to use the bus system... mostly having to do with the fact that....  though I am not very good with simplified Chinese and I also don't know the city, at least, I am half-literate... and it makes it much easier for me to navigate all around town.

Another reason why I decided to take it to busing is that...

Although there surely are elevators available to go down to the subway stations, the apparently visible elevators are not really all that easily accessible.

The day I got to Shanghai, I transfered to the subway after getting off the maglev.  After asking around, the officers at the security check told me that I would need to ask one of the transit people to take me down to the elevator because these elevators were locked.

I had to swipe the card at the entrance first before going back out to take the elevator.

I had thought it was because that was a special station.... because that's where people taking maglev would get off...

When I went out another day, I asked some volunteers whether there are elevators available because I have physical disability and I have problems with stairs.

While one of the ladies told me... "No," this guy from a distance somehow overheard our conversation and replied...

"Yes.  You see that elevator over there... that is the elevator going down to the subway."

So, happily, I got to the elevator, I pressed the down button and waited for the elevator to arrive like a good girl.... under the Shanghai heat...

I waited a bit and a little longer but did not really hear any movement...

This is when I saw this red button....  Apparently, you have to press the red button to contact the workers of the station.

After pressing the button, someone spoke to me over the speaker phone.

"Hi, there, sorry... I have problems with stairs and need to use the elevator."

"Wait a minute and someone will come and get you."  So the person replied.

Someone eventually came up with the elevator.

Inside of the elevator, I asked the lady who came to get me... "Do I need to trouble someone to come to get me every time?"

Apparently... yes...

Since I am very vain and I don't really like to trouble others because I am "handicapped."

From that day on, I decided to take it to the bus instead...

Well, I might have gotten lost a time or two...  essentially... thinking I was walking north... ended up I was walking towards the west....  but, by the time I left Shanghai, I was already able to get to specific destinations by bus.

One of my proudest achievement this trip, I guess..... 8-O lol

Well, if the purpose of locking the elevators down is to deter people from using elevators, I guess... the purpose is served.

At the same time, how on earth would could one spend all these times and using all these words talking about subway elevators/escalators?   On a second thought... well... at least I am not talking about the disability access to toilets, right? Or... maybe I should consider it..... 8-O lol

The man said... 사랑해요 | 我愛你 | I love you

"사랑해요 | 我愛你 | I love you" was what the first Korean man I came across in Korea trying to teach me.... as we spent the night together along for the first time... and ever... whom I spent my first 85,000 won (Korean currency) on....

8-O

Sounds almost like I am going into the direction of the American gigolo scenario... and ratprincess finally got laid once for a change... 8-O lol

That strange Korean man I am talking about is a gypsy cab driver who drives a black van... even got the metering kind of machine inside of the car... although my Korean friend and her friend had no idea about this kind of cabs at all...

So, when I arrived at the Incheon airport, it was about midnight and all public transportations had already stopped running....

I found these three kids from the US, possibly teaching English in Taiwan and Korea now...  Although I had no idea where I was going, I decided to split the cab with them going into town from the airport.... thinking... maybe I would be able to find a cheap hotel to spend the night instead of going to my friend's place at this hour...

On our way to Seoul, I got a hold of my friend and she apparently checked out the hotels all around town... The taxi driver also made a few phone calls to hotels...

Both came back with the same conclusion....

All hotels were fully booked.... (yet, I guess, if I were feeling up to paying 500 or 1000 US dollar a night, I might be able to find a room... 8-O lol)

It was not until the day after did I come to the realization that the situation might have something to do with the fact that.... it was Saturday and the second day was this Korean national holiday called "Liberation Day".... celebrating the liberation from the Japanese.

Before the ride, the driver told us that he would charge 2000 won for each person since it would be a 80000 won trip into town.

When we finally arrived at downtown Seoul, he suddenly raised the price to 25000 won... saying that all cabs would raise the fare by 10% after midnight and he also had to cover the fees for the tolls.

Ended up, we all paid an extra 5000 won (the equivalence of 5-6 US dollars) for the trip between the airport and downtown Seoul... and... to be honest, I found that driver to be really stupid... Unless he had never done it before... why didn't he simply charge 25,000 won in the beginning?  In that case, we didn't even have go through the experience of feeling being cheated....

You see, there is something strange about human psychology... if, inevitably, I have to be cheated, I'd rather be unaware of it... 8-O lol

Since even my friend can not find me any hotel room in town, it might not be any safer or cheaper for me to take one of them ordinary cabs and my friend already has this guy's cell phone number, I decided to take his taxi to go all the way to Bun-dang...

It was during the ride going to Bun-dang did this man started beginning to act... how do you describe it... frisky...

So he asked whether I am single...

So he asked what I think of Korean man?

And, he wanted to be my boy friend.... 8-O lol

Also, he tried to touch my hand...  @#$%&*$%#

Since it was already 1:00 or 2:00 o'clock early in the morning in a country I have never been to and, its language, I had no idea about, provided that we were on the highway, I had to go on  leisurely conversing with him for fear that.... damn... this guy could really drop me right off there this hour in the night....

Concerning his request to be my boyfriend and since he would not decrease the additional fare rate from 60000 to 50000, my only response...

"No 50000, no girlfriend."

He also tried to teach me Korean....

"사랑해요 (I love you)..."

"사랑해요 (I love you)..."

"사랑해요 (I love you)..."

Mister even came up with this proposal... "You go home with me... 0 dollars!"  (Man... he really underestimated my worth... 8-O lol)

And, wow.. man... didn't know that Korean men are so forth-coming and straight-forward.... 8-O

Well... in my much younger years... I had imagined foreign love affair like...

羅馬假期 or Roman Holidays...



東京假期 or Seven Nights in Japan...



OMG... 好悲情ㄚ and so romantic as well!

Except for... man... I am also somewhat royal since I am the Ratprincess... How come my experiences are so much different these other royal pals?  (Perhaps, having something to do with the rat part of my title... 8-O lol)

Yet, looking at the bright, in the ratological version of 韓國假期 or Korean Holidays, at least, I sort have someone serenading me incessantly and tried to make me say to him...  사랑해요... 사랑해요... 사랑해요.... (I love you... I love you... I love you....) though nothing comparing to the following.... 8-O lol



What happened then?

He finally took me to my friend's place and I paid him the 60000 won for the trip between Seoul and Bun-dang.

And, one might wonder... what might I have done to make him acting so?

I swear to God... all that I did was trying to negotiate with this guy about the cab fare... That's all.

I guess... this man might have a thing with women who haggle?  And, whenever I hear 사랑해요 (I love you), I thought of the cab driver, Mr. 사랑해요..... 8-O 8-X lol

어떡하죠 如何是好 What should I do: There is something about Jeju

I was supposed to arrived in Incheon airport at 8:30 PM the first day of my trip this time.

The matter of the fact... everybody on the flight was getting all ready for landing when the pilot announced something like...

"We will be landing in Incheon airport within 20 minutes and we are actually ahead of the scheduled time."

So we all sat there like good boys and girls with seat-belt fastened.... waiting... waiting... and waiting to land....

All of a sudden, the plane was going up and down as if I were riding on a roller-coaster.

"Some bad turbulence..." I thought to myself...

I, like the rest of the people, remained seated waiting to land in less than 20 minutes...

And, we kept on waiting.... till... must be 30-40 minutes later...

We heard the pilot broadcasting again....

"Due to weather condition, the pilot has decided to land in Jeju."

Jeju?  Where is Jeju?

I vaguely remember the name of Jeju, especially when I was looking up plausible trips before I booked the tickets for this one.  Yet, I was not quite sure whether what I thought as Jeju was that Jeju the pilot was referring to.

At some point, I asked this American guy from Boston next to me....

"Where exactly is Jeju?"

"It is a small island down south.  To be honest, the only place that really needs air-traveling to get to in Korea." So he said.

"Wonder whether this happen a lot?"

So he replied, "Nope.  I have been taking this route many times.  It has always been a smooth and straight forward flight."

Not until I came on board... I guess... 8-O lol

In my mind, I vaguely remember reading about other airports in Korean...

"Are there other airports in Korea than the one in Seoul and the one in Jeju?"

Apparently, yes... except for... we never found out why the pilot chose the farthest airport to go.....

So we eventually landed at the Jeju airport... around 10 o'clock.... or you might say that Jeju was the first stop for my trip in Korea... with the following two the first two pictures I took of Korea....

When we finally landed and as everyone was making phone call on their to tell their friends about the detour.  Unfortunately, yours truly is one of the last person on this planet without a cell-phone.

In the original plane, upon arrival at the Incheon airport, I would take this airport express bus to Bun-dang where my friend would come pick me up at 10:30.

Since it was already after 10 when I arrived in Jeju, I was very concerned that my friend might be outside waiting for hours in vain.

I spoke with the flight attendant about the possibility of getting off the plane to make a phone call... Unfortunately, no-can-do... especially since it was an international flight and there were immigration issues involved...

Ended up, the wonderful flight attendant of the China Estern airline lent me her cell phone to make the call.... (This is the point when I have to tell you that... there are nice people everywhere.... Amazing world....)

The view of Jeju airport

Interesting bright lights over the water by Jeju island.

Somewhere along this trip... I thought of money...

You see, mama had suggested that I bought some Korean money when we were at the Airport in Taipei except for I thought... why not wait till I arrive in Korean to do since since I would be using US dollar anyways?

Since this guy sitting next to me came from the States, I was wonder whether I could buy some Korean money from him except for... all that he had... a coin or two...

Sitting there... on the airplane in Jeju... not knowing when exactly the airplane would take off... I thought of the trip to Bremem I took almost two decades back...

I took off earlier that day from a small town called...something like... Lorelei am Rhine...

The ferry on the Rhine was delayed... so were the local trains and  ICE (express train)....

In the original plan, by 8:00 PM, Friday night, I was supposed to have changed to a local train in Bremen in order to get to this small town where the family I was going to stay with lives...

Except for...  by the time I was about to get to Bremen, it was going to be around or later than 10 o'clock...  The family told me that they won't be able to pick me up.

This is a city I have never been before... only know that it was a big city... a sea port...

In my head, I ran through all different scenarios...

Maybe I will sleep in the train station?  Apparently, many people have done that before..

Or, since I have this unlimited Europass... I might as well change to a train going down south, switch to another train going north somewhere in the middle of the night and call it a night....

Of course, always the option of staying at an hotel except for... gotta know where to stay first and God know how much it would cost.... only if I knew where the youth hostel might be....

In addition, what was worst off... I totally ran out of Germany Mark.  I was so busy trying to catch the delayed trains and ferries during the day that I didn't have any chance at all to go to the money exchange place to get some cash.... By the time I got to Bremen, the money exchange place would have closed and nothing would be open during the weekend...

I will be along in Bremen for the first time, without German currency, not knowing where to stay..... 18 or 19 years old...

Speaking of....

어떡하죠? 如何是好? What should I do?

A different kind of 어떡하죠.....

Well, don't worry.  Am I not here typing these words out today? lol

Ended up, this guy who had been taking the same trains the entire day heard of my strange planes, called his wife and took me home.  They let me stay in their daughter's room over night.  Second day, he bought my US dollars based on the currency rates reported on the newspaper.

(Guess this is part of the reason why...  for me, if people need a roof and they don't mind my small room, they get the roof.  And, yes, sometimes I do wonder how I could live up to this age.... 8-O lol)

Back to Jeju...

Decades later... I found myself in similar situation... I've got only US dollars.... even if the plane took off soon, it might be mid night when I arrived in the airport already....

OMG... all that I've got US dollars only.... 8-X

The plane did take off and I did arrive at Incheon airport... and, thank God, the currency exchange places were still open....

It was not until thereafter did I came to the realization that... after certain hour, especially it was already after midnight.... there were no more public transportation available... no more buses, no more subways, and, of course, no M60 or supershuttle.... other than the Gypsy cabs that would cost me over 100 US dollars to get to where I was supposed to go....

Ok.. for you well-to-do people or people with steady income, only 100 dollars, so what?

Yet, yes, babe, for yours truly... ouch... that is some money... Ok?! 8-O lol

If my life were a drama, this is the point when the song "어떡하죠 | 如何是好 | What should I do" playing in the background with the camera gradually zooming in to my brave face to show my traumatic expression... or... zooming out further and further away to show how minute, helpless and along yours truly felt....

Except for... my life ain't no soap opera and I am no leading character in no freaking idol drama... (Good way to exercise my over-active imagination, at least, I guess... 8-O lol)

Ended up, the first thing I did in Korea was to spend the majority of the first 100 US dollar worth of Korean money on cab fare... the kind of the cabs even the Korean locals had not seen before. 8-O lol

At the same time, still can't quite understand why other people's first impression with Jeju might be something like this...  while, not my Jeju.... 8-O lol

PS.  From now on, I will always have some local currency available wherever I travel... if possible...

Getting a lift

One thing differs this trip from my previous trips is that....

I spent a whole lot of time looking for disability access... escalator, elevator, or taking detour... 8-O lol

One day, I was stuck at a subway station in Seoul because there was no elevator going to the ground...  The gentleman working at the booth found out I was having so much problem bringing myself up them stairs, he graciously pushed me all the way up through all those stairs till I was up to the ground... 

I was and remain extremely thankful to him because, otherwise, I might be struggling to get up till the day break next day.... 8-O 

At the same time... a different definition of getting a lift... I guess... 8-O lol