evidence and impact
August 13, 2006
Some Pictures of Korea
As promised, a few pictures I took on our recent trip:
One of the places we toured during our time in Seoul was Changdeokgung palace, which includes some breathtakingly beautiful buildings. The entire palace complex is made of wood, making it very susceptible to damage, so tourists are not actually allowed inside any of the buildings. There were opportunities to view portions of the interiors by looking in through windows and doors, but most of the tour focused on exteriors. The only way to see Changdeokgung is on an escorted tour, there are three tours offered in English daily.
The painted trim on many of the buildings was spectacular, very bright and bold:
The (ceramic) tiles used on roofs and on top of walls were very interesting:
There were very cool details everywhere:
The palace grounds also had beautiful gardens and wooded areas, and a large square lily pond.
One area contained a compound of more modern palace buildings, this was the part of the palace most recently occupied. The Joseon dynasty ceased to exist with the death of the last king (I can't recall the exact date but I believe it was in the mid-20th century), now the palace is unoccupied. This is what the modern buildings look like:
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We spent most of our time in Korea in the city of Icheon, which is about an hour's busride from Seoul. We were working at a manufacturing plant located a few miles outside of town. The plant is surrounded by rice fields and small areas growing ginseng, both commodities Icheon is famous for within Korea. This is a view of the area around the plant:
The close-to-the-ground buildings past the road are greenhouses. Most of the fields are planted with rice, the areas planted with ginseng are under the black covering in the bottom center of the picture. They were also covered when we were here last time (which was in February when the ground was frozen and there was no rice growing). I don't know what is growing across the road from the ginseng.
This is a view in another direction, of more rice fields.
If you are interested in seeing some other pictures I took in Icheon (and a few in Seoul), and you haven't already seen them when I linked in an earlier post, please check them out on this blog:
http://thisisitzz.blogspot.com/ ¶ 1:05 AM
One of the places we toured during our time in Seoul was Changdeokgung palace, which includes some breathtakingly beautiful buildings. The entire palace complex is made of wood, making it very susceptible to damage, so tourists are not actually allowed inside any of the buildings. There were opportunities to view portions of the interiors by looking in through windows and doors, but most of the tour focused on exteriors. The only way to see Changdeokgung is on an escorted tour, there are three tours offered in English daily.
The painted trim on many of the buildings was spectacular, very bright and bold:
The (ceramic) tiles used on roofs and on top of walls were very interesting:
There were very cool details everywhere:
The palace grounds also had beautiful gardens and wooded areas, and a large square lily pond.
One area contained a compound of more modern palace buildings, this was the part of the palace most recently occupied. The Joseon dynasty ceased to exist with the death of the last king (I can't recall the exact date but I believe it was in the mid-20th century), now the palace is unoccupied. This is what the modern buildings look like:
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We spent most of our time in Korea in the city of Icheon, which is about an hour's busride from Seoul. We were working at a manufacturing plant located a few miles outside of town. The plant is surrounded by rice fields and small areas growing ginseng, both commodities Icheon is famous for within Korea. This is a view of the area around the plant:
The close-to-the-ground buildings past the road are greenhouses. Most of the fields are planted with rice, the areas planted with ginseng are under the black covering in the bottom center of the picture. They were also covered when we were here last time (which was in February when the ground was frozen and there was no rice growing). I don't know what is growing across the road from the ginseng.
This is a view in another direction, of more rice fields.
If you are interested in seeing some other pictures I took in Icheon (and a few in Seoul), and you haven't already seen them when I linked in an earlier post, please check them out on this blog:
http://thisisitzz.blogspot.com/ ¶ 1:05 AM
August 04, 2006
Home
I returned home yesterday from a month-long trip to Korea. So very glad to be back; a month is a long time to be away and it is such a comfort to be again among the familiar. Sleeping in my own bed is a luxury I take for granted way too much of the time.
Our plane on the trip home.
The trip was a long one, but that is to be expected as is roughly the distance of 1/3 of the way round the globe. 11 hours from Incheon to LAX, with enough time zones crossed to result in arrival before departure time. A day with two dawns and two sunsets, two full days on the same day. Despite spending one of those days in an airline seat, it always seems a bit magical.
We (I traveled with my husband) had the hassle of a lot of heavy luggage this trip because it was a business trip and we needed to haul tools and hardware for the work involved. We devised a system of piggybacking the bags that allowed us to move all of it ourselves, but we were both pulling rolling cases with both hands, a very cumbersome feat. Crowds were a real challenge to negotiate, we encountered a (luckily) mellow one in the Seoul Express Bus Station both times we were traveling through there. On the way home we had to pick up our bags to clear customs and then make our way to the check-in counter of our connecting airline in another terminal. We were very fortunate it was within a relatively easy walk, I really didn't want to have to lift those heavy bags on and off the shuttle bus. Everything considered we managed to move all that weight with only a few minor hassles, we were lucky and we had a plan.
We spent a marvelous July in Korea. We worked hard but reasonable hours and got the jobs we went to do done. From a business perspective the trip was a success and will likely result in future opportunities for work, we are of course most pleased about that. We also enjoyed our downtime, which turned out to be about 2 weeks, including weekends, because we have to build in a cushion of time in case we encounter tenatious problems. Problems are expected and we had our share of them this trip, but none took an excessive amount of time to resolve, thankfully. So we had some time to explore a little of what life is like in Seoul and Icheon, a town of 100,000+ people an hour's busride from Seoul. I will post some pictures and commentary of our adventures in the next couple of days. ¶ 9:53 AM
Our plane on the trip home.
The trip was a long one, but that is to be expected as is roughly the distance of 1/3 of the way round the globe. 11 hours from Incheon to LAX, with enough time zones crossed to result in arrival before departure time. A day with two dawns and two sunsets, two full days on the same day. Despite spending one of those days in an airline seat, it always seems a bit magical.
We (I traveled with my husband) had the hassle of a lot of heavy luggage this trip because it was a business trip and we needed to haul tools and hardware for the work involved. We devised a system of piggybacking the bags that allowed us to move all of it ourselves, but we were both pulling rolling cases with both hands, a very cumbersome feat. Crowds were a real challenge to negotiate, we encountered a (luckily) mellow one in the Seoul Express Bus Station both times we were traveling through there. On the way home we had to pick up our bags to clear customs and then make our way to the check-in counter of our connecting airline in another terminal. We were very fortunate it was within a relatively easy walk, I really didn't want to have to lift those heavy bags on and off the shuttle bus. Everything considered we managed to move all that weight with only a few minor hassles, we were lucky and we had a plan.
We spent a marvelous July in Korea. We worked hard but reasonable hours and got the jobs we went to do done. From a business perspective the trip was a success and will likely result in future opportunities for work, we are of course most pleased about that. We also enjoyed our downtime, which turned out to be about 2 weeks, including weekends, because we have to build in a cushion of time in case we encounter tenatious problems. Problems are expected and we had our share of them this trip, but none took an excessive amount of time to resolve, thankfully. So we had some time to explore a little of what life is like in Seoul and Icheon, a town of 100,000+ people an hour's busride from Seoul. I will post some pictures and commentary of our adventures in the next couple of days. ¶ 9:53 AM
