This blog is getting out of hand. What started of as just a personal diary to keep a few people back home updated on my travels has grown to something I never imagined. First of all, this is showing up in google searches. If you google image 'samarkand uzbekistan restaurant' the number 1 & 2 pics are my blog, and further down another pic. This explains why this is the no.1 most viewed pic on my blog.Also, I was googling a festival, and pictures of my apartmen...

I have a trip planned for every weekend now well into May. This weekend started with the first one which is Andong, 90 mins north of Daegu. I had been to Andong before in October for the annual Mask Dance Festival (see earlier entry). Andong is famous not only for its annual mask festival, but also for the Andong Hahoe Village, which is a Unesco recognized site. This is a 600 year old folk village still maintained by members of the original family. It has even be...

Business ownership can change quite frequently. The lady in gwaneum market selling fish sticks closed down over christmas. I thought she went away for the holidays but a new owner came in january with a new storefront. Then she decided to change the price of fish sticks from two for .70 cents to two for a dollar. Now she has decided to change the line completely, stopped carrying fish sticks, and switched to waffles and spicy rice noodles. The lady around the cor...

Behind my block where I live is a large through road like a highway. I never bothered to go there as its just a traffic bypass with no retail stores or anything to do. Turns out there are four bus routes I never knew about that terminate here. One can get me downtown maybe 5-10 mins quicker than my regular route, one will goto Seobu bus terminal and Mount Apsen, and one will goto DongDaegu intercity bus and train terminal via Exco where the Costco store is, one g...

As part of my visit end of this month to the Presidential Palace, Cheong Wa Dae (having been selected as a contributing writer for THEKOREABLOG), my school invited the local media to interview me about my blog, my writings, and time spent in Korea.This is a Google Translated version of the article - very jumbled, but you get the jist of it......--------------------------------------- -----"Korea is a very attractive country" Asif Q chilgokjung native teachers, Pr...