Hotel Balihi Busan

... and sisters (2 have passed) and I would say I had over 30 cousins. It’s a weird feeling to say that I would have been a totally different person if my mother didn’t have me with an American. I will always remember this place for the smells, popular dishes such as Spam, the busy street lights, expensive alcohol from home($140 for a 1/5th of patron), and the oriental looking pine trees. Most of all I will remember the loving people. I will miss Korea, but here I come Malaysia!!!

... perfumed booths.
On the first floor, you get women's clothes
On the second floor, you get casual women's clothes
On the third floor, you get formal women's clothes
On the fourth floor, you get kid's clothes
On the fifth floor you get more kid's stuff including games but I was started to get fed up of the escalators
On the sixth floor I did not look
On the seventh and eighth floors you finally get men's clothes and sport articles, and realise that this is ...

... discover th*t there *re no se*tbelts. B*d *ss. Sweet. Cool. I'm now just pr*ying for * s*fe ride. We p*ss by the docks on the Se* of J*p*n witch remind me so much of my beloved Se*ttle. Not bec*use the docks were sh*ped the s*me, or *nything. But bec*use of *ll the port cities I've been to, I like Se*ttle the best. So the c*b ride went through 5 long tunnels, c*rved out of m*ssive pe*ks, e*ch of which completely shielded us from the inevit*bly ...

... and chatted with my co-workers... Next, we all did this clapping and patting routine to a song. First, we patted the person to our right then clapped four times, then patted the person's shoulder on our left. It went on from there...different patterns and what not.... I don't know....



THEN, the cute P.E. teacher gets out the mic, and I groan internally.... or maybe I did externally too ...

... we can do is throw our food out separately, and let others do the dirty compost work for us. So I say, "Here! Here!" L.A. County Office of Waste Disposal, "Here! Here!" Way to take the initiative. Cause....L.A....you really need to.... :)



Umm....ok, sorry that was a tangent. I don't remember my previous train of thought....



So I guess I'll take off!!



Merry Christmas everyone!! Miss you!

... the streets came alive with cars, buses and people alike. We boarded the KTX at 6:15am. The KTX is a high speed bullet train that runs on magnets at speeds of 300km/h. We also met the other people from the surf club called "Seoul Board Riders". A mix of guys and girlies, all like minded, we were off. Nathan, the club leader is a very cool and super friendly Aussie working and living in Seoul. Once the train took off I watched through the window for ...

Another rainy weekend in Busan... Anne and I went to an open air market in Nampo-dong. It's a huge shopping district on the harbor. There are lots of stores and neon lights--kinda reminds me of Vegas sometimes... Down some of the streets there are vendors selling clothes, hats, food, jewelty, etc. These are pretty cheap. In these areas there are vendors that sell food. I finally tried "Street Meat." Some ...

... to realise now that, even in a western restaurant, Koreans really don't like applying heat of any kind to fish. The steak was cooked, but cooked Korean style, meaning it only just touched the pan and was quickly flipped, before an even quicker transfer to my plate. 'Blue rare' is how Wikipedia class a steak, be it beef or fish, that is.... 'Cooked very quickly...the outside is seared, but the inside is ...

Attending Moff's wedding was one of the most serendipitous events of my life. It was such an honor to be part of this wedding and I will always remember it. Thank you for such a great experience, Eric and Miri.

I took the 5:30 train... well technically I took the 5am train, but I will spare the reader the in depth tale concerning the catastrophic disaster of getting to busan. Super abridged version: wrong train, only ...

... down the mountain and back to civilisation. It had been an experience for sure. But just not one we were ready to repeat. So after stuffing our faces with croissants, courtesy of a fake French bakery (they are everywhere) we boarded the train to Gyeongju. Gyeongju was the capital city during Korea's Silla Dynasty and the city and surrounding areas are awash with relics, tombs and temples. Or so we are led to believe anyway. Basically, by the time we arrived in ...