Adventures Abroad: August 2010

Mom came to Korea to see me!!!! My excitement can not be put into words. I had so much fun with her here, and I am so grateful that she flew to the other side of the world to visit!!

I find that too much information is a bit boring for you, so I posted lots of captions, and only some captions. If there is something that you just really want to know about, please feel free to ask.

Mom's first meal in Korea. Korean bbq with all the sides!! The sides are usually a random assortment of kimchi type vegetables, soup, lettuce, and rice.

Notice the man laying on the floor. He was in a seat, but slowly fell out and ended up sleeping on the floor of the subway.

Another view of the man sleeping on the floor.

So many neon lights. I might miss this part of Korea when I go home.

An aisle of dried fish, shrimp, and squid....

An assortment of kimchi vegetables.

Mom found my apartment.... 5th floor.

Mom pretending to check the mail. Although that is not my mailbox.

Mom's new visor.

Shopping in Myeongdong. It is the most crowded shopping area I have ever seen.

After a couple days in Korea, we took off for Beijing, China.

First stop: Temple of Heaven

At the Temple of Heaven, we were approached by this group that wanted to take their picture with us. I wish I could say this was a rare occurrence, but it happened many times!!

I wonder why Lays doesn't bring this flavor to the States. MMM.... fish soup flavored chips.

I bought these, but haven't tried them yet- blueberry flavored chips!

Now who doesn't want a duck in a box??? at about $50, I'm not so sure it's a bargain.

Unidentifiable piles of meat.

Chickens.

Chicken feet.

This sign was posted on the escalator... if your hair manages to get caught while riding the escalator, then I am a bit concerned as to how you are riding on the escalator.

Our first Chinese meal at 'Mr. Lee's'. It was good. Beef and rice.

On our way to the Great Wall, we stopped at the Ming Tombs. An Emperor lived here during a dynasty.. sorry I don't know the specifics!!

Climbing to some 2000 stairs to the top of the Great Wall.

This sign was posted several times along the Great Wall.

A man selling water at the top of the Great Wall had this donkey tied up. He said that's how he gets to the top. I can't even imagine seeing this, probably, 80 year old man with a cooler of water riding the donkey up the steep, rocky incline to the top!

After what seemed like 4 miles of stairs as a steep incline, we made it to the top of the wall.

Mom and me on the wall.

More stairs....

The wall... it was quite hazy, so it's hard to see.

Along the way to reach the wall were many vendors, all selling the same stuff. They would run right in front of us and not let us pass as they told us about the shirts or what not they were selling.

A view down our hutong. Beijing is famous for them. A hutong is narrow street with homes built around a courtyard. The housing is questionable, and most of them do not have toilets and must use the public toilet on the street. Our hotel was situated in the middle of this.

We went to dinner. This restaurant was picked because they had a menu posted outside with pictures and some English. We figured this was our best bet. Take a look at some menu items we had to choose from....

Small yellow croaker dip test paper -or- wild mushroom dip examination paper

deep fried little yellow croakers

applause - i mean really.... how could something be translated to mean 'applause'??

A pot of fresh..... um.. fresh what exactly??

fish head with bean curd in pot

We settled on beef with green peppers. Turns out the green peppers were actually spicy peppers, not the kind of green pepper we know. They were too hot eat.

The next day, we walked around Tienanmen square.

Next was the Forbidden City. A huge crowd was waiting to go inside. Not a drop of rain in the sky. Those umbrellas are for the sun. Let me tell you- I have never been so hot or sweat so much in my life as I did walking around in Beijing.

Inside the Forbidden City.

So many stairs... everywhere we went.

Something about the sign and what this family is doing seems ironic to me... Carelessness... here let's climb on the sign.

We went on a rickshaw tour of a hutong- a narrow street with many houses.

Starbucks.

Mom and I couldn't seem to catch a taxi. Then this thing pulled up. Turns out the price is jacked up for foreigners, but I managed to pay less when I told him I didn't have any cash. He wanted close to $80 for a 10 minute taxi ride. I told him I only had the equivalent of $20. He took it with no problem. A normal taxi would have cost about $4. Oh well....it was an experience anyway.

We went to the site of the 2008 Olympics. This is the Bird's nest.

Next stop: Summer Palace

This is very popular in China. For some reason, they have decided that it is far too inconvenient to stop when your baby has gone in their diaper. Instead, the baby wears this sort of backless outfit. That way the baby can just go whenever, or where ever, including in the middle of a busy sidewalk. I can't quite figure out what you do when the baby goes on your arm, as she might in the above picture, or in the stroller as you are pushing her.

McDonald's

These are tiny cages about 5 inches tall with HUGE grasshoppers inside. Not sure what the purpose is, but these were hanging outside of a restaurant.

Drum and Bell towers. The Drum Tower was the time keeping center for the whole city and was equipped with bronze clepsydras (water clocks) and drums that were beaten to mark the hours. The towers were used to signal the time throughout the day.

Really steep stairs.

Back to Tienanmen square.

For lunch we went to a small restaurant on our street. The food was really good. We ate sweet and sour chicken, but here are a couple things you could have chosen.

Rape mushrooms or egg fungus.

Or the fride dumplongs.

This is our sweet and sour chicken. It was really good.

After four days in China, we came back to Korea and did some sightseeing.

First, we went to a palace.

Look- I'm a soldier!

After the palace, we went to a burger place for the biggest burgers ever!

mom's chili cheese burger.

My onion fresco burger!

After lunch, it was on the War Memorial.

On Saturday, we went to the DMZ. It was a little frightening being that I had to sign a form saying I could be injured or killed while there. Luckily, we made it home safely.

That gray building lies in North Korea. The blue ones lie in South Korea. It is hard to see, but at the top of the stairs is a North Korean guard looking through binoculars at us.

Mom and me standing in front of North Korea!!

This is the room where North and South meet to have talks... it doesn't happen often. The guards are there to protect us while visiting the DMZ.

More guards protecting us while we tour the DMZ.

It was a really hazy day, but that flag pole lies in a village just over the border in North Korea. The village has been dubbed 'propaganda village' because it is essentially a facade to make South Koreans want to defect to North Korea. They sometimes play propaganda through loud speakers.