so i have my first birthday in korea and the teachers decide to give me a 'surprise'. at lunch i was told by one of the teachers there was going to be a 'presentation' for my bday in the english room at 1.20. good job he told me as i was going to do some typing in the teachers room. then two teachers asked me what time they should come to my presentation? good job i knew what they were talking about. then they all come and give me a cake and some gifts which was ...

so today was a day of high political drama and personal mishaps!the DMZ is the demilitarized zone seperating north and south korea and is 2km each side of the armistice line so 4km wide. our tour guide said there is no 'D' in the DMZ and its heavily militarized and even mined. also they were very strict on photography and tours have even been cancelled short and have to return to seoul for violations. ironically the DMZ has become a wilderness zone and many speci...

so today headed down to the national museum of korea. again this was free so worth checking out again when i'm not rushed. they had sections on other asian cultures, ceramics, pottery, bronzeware, bhuddist statues and paintings. the highlight for me was the section on the three korean kingdoms (silla, baekje, goryeo) and the unified silla kingdom. they had royal artefacts including what could be the crown jewels and gold crowns. and more stuff on hwaseoung fortre...

so this morning was a bright clear sunny day and the weather had finally turned for the better. breakfast was a fish noodle soup and i had to tell my landlady that would be enough for today. i noticed a lookout point on the mountain from the bus so i walked over to get a clear city view shot of all the skyscrapers and the seoul tower. then took the long train ride to suwon again with vendors peddling shaving machines to magic wipes!video : mountaintop panaroma ht...

PART ONE OF FOUR BLOG ENTRIES FROM SEOUL............so i leave beautiful, sunny, hot deagu and head north to seoul.... as the train pulls into seoul suddenly the clouds get all darker and heavy rain begins to pour. i had been checking the online forecast a few times, as late as the morning i left, and it only said 'occasional showers'. so somehow i have to try to make it to my guesthouse and dump my backpack. took the subway as far as i could go but the rain was ...