Korea

The last few days we have been in South Korea. We were super excited for several of our stops. 

The first stop was Busan, which is a large port city of about 3.5m people. It has many temples and beaches, and an extensive world-class metro (subway) system.  We were looking forward to visiting their (world’s largest) fish market and the famous Gamcheon Cultural Village. Unfortunately, it was a super rainy day, and as we boarded the busses at the cruise terminal, we got dumped on big time, and just as we got to the steps of the bus, they said there was only one seat left, and it was 40 minutes until the next bus (and a long walk to the taxis). Luckily, a short time later we finagled our way onto a private bus, and man, this was the nicest bus I had ever sent. Fancy! 

15 minutes later we were at the metro station. It is really cool figuring out the ropes. I’ve have gotten use to not knowing the languages, but not knowing the characters that make up the languages is another layer of discomfort.

Okay, time out. Did you know that our friends at Google have invented Google Translate. You can literally point your phone at any menu, sign, or the screen at the metro ticketing kiosk, and it will convert it to English. If you’re at a restaurant, you can say (or type) whatever you want, and it will translate it and display or speak whatever you said in the selected language.

So now that I’ve set the scene, imagine sitting down at a restraint, pointing your phone at a menu printed in Korean, and it quickly overlays the foreign characters with English. Click a button and say in English, “we would like for Korean tacos and a kimchi burrito”, and your phone repeats what you said to the waiter in Korean! They can reply, and it translate what they say back to English. Makes me feel like secret agent man…

It works! Of course this is a best case scenario. (Pointing your iPad at a road sign as you drive down the road is probably the worst case. Thank goodness we always have drivers…)

So we relay enjoyed our visit to Busan.

Today I visited Jeju Island, a jewel of the Korean Peninsula. Jeju Island is a popular tourist destination. I caught the fist bus as soon as the ship docked, and got “downtown” at 7:30 in the morning, only to learn that the little island’s downtown doesn’t really get going until closer to lunchtime. So, I took advantage of the lack of crowds to leverage  some  outstanding photo opportunities.  They say a picture’s worth a thousand years, so…

The following day, we were in Seoul. Unfortunately, we were not attracted to any of the excursions being offered, and it was a long haul from the little port city of Incheon to the big city. Being kinda burnt out front the recent excursions, we decided to save our energy for climbing the Great Wall the following day, and we had a leisurely day exploring the great little port town. 

Next stop, China, but guess what? Yup! That my friends, is a completely different story. 

“Annyeonghi gaseyo” amigos. Thanks for checkin’ up on us. 

🙂
– Mike 

(Over PA): “Attention, all personnel. Due to circumstances beyond our control, lunch will be served today.” – Corporal Radar O’Reilly (played by Gary Burghoff on M*A*S*H)