Hotel Korea Suwon

... before Sunday's 13.1!
Today's run was the least fun of all the long runs so far. It was a full 12 miles, and its pouring rain, so I had to do it in the gym. I listened to my IPod, but tried to watch the TV too. Of course, here's my own personal hell...the only channel worth watching (all others were Korean programs) was the sports channel. Korea recently had their baseball championships (GO PHILLIES! btw) and have been ...

... tower blocks, we pulled into the car park. I imagine the folk village came before the tower blocks, as Suwon has grown rapidly over the last few years. However, despite not being in the countryside as we thought we would be, I soon discovered that they did a pretty good job concealing the village from the jungle of tower blocks so close by.

The folk village was quite large, and set around a river. Over the course of a ...

... than 95% complete. We began our self guided tour at 'Paldalmun’, the southern gate, before climbing up hundreds of stairs to ‘Paldalsan’, the highest point in the centre of Suwon at 143m. There was quite a view from here, out over the sprawling tower blocks to the hills in the distance. There was also a giant bell and a number of sentry posts. It was an impressive sight, but given we had taken our time and only explored about a quarter of the ...

... was less than $6!!! The only draw back is that doctors in Korea are very specialized. I have not seen a general practitioner. This means that if you have a throat pain and an eye infection, you need to visit a throat doctor and then an eye doctor separately. But, hey, for $6 I will visit the various doctors! On a side note, I think the fruit in Korea tastes so much better than the fruit back home. There is only one type of apple, but it is amazing! I eat one ...

... it's the crowning glory of any trip to Seoul. And that the palace lies in the nation's capital and within every history buff's reach is truly an icing on the cake.

With that, I'll give the Palace Greatly Blessed by Heaven five stars for being one of the country's more interesting historical and cultural destinations and for making my first trip to the Land of the Morning Calm an incredibly enriching and rewarding experience.

... are English names written in Korean......cafe latte in Korean characters.....so if I say "cafe latte" really slow, then the barista knows what I want! Yay! Same ridiculous prices as in the states of course....$4-6 for a cup of fancy espresso or you can go to Dunkin Donuts and get a cup of regular joe for $2.50. And I think the cups are smaller here. That makes sense though...Americans and our super sizing everything. I get paid on the ...

... the old lemon simply replies "ahhh Korean culture. Korean culture" and keeps on a scrubba dubbin this man's back. Like you do that at home you seriously might get killed washin a back in a butt naked shower brawl. However Korean's expect a thank you after a volunteer, man on man back wash.The meat gazing out here is unacceptable as well. You'd think my penis was holding a press conference every time I step up to a urinal. Im in my last term and the end of my ...

... the train picked up speed to 300Km or 186 miles per hour. As villages and small cities whizzed by I began to realize how important this system is. It is a powerful tool linking the country together. It keeps cars off the road, planes out of the air and CO2 emissions down. It is faster to take the KTX from Seoul to Busan than to fly because of security checks. I really admire Korean public transport and ...

... thought was my saviour - a giant can of insect spray with pictures of dead mosquitos all over the front. Ignoring the Gut Fairy's claim that this was industrial strength repellent, I began liberally spraying my sleeping quarters for the evening , twice coating the sleeping bag for extra protection. Though I soon drifted into a light sleep, things began to go wrong at about 2.30am when my stomach began to rumble like an obese American's at the end of an All You Can Eat ...

... Korean girl. I was able to reserve a ticket for Panmunjeon Tour. To tell you the truth, I had given up the ticket, because I asked about it both in a TI office on Insadong street and in my guesthouse, and they told me that no tickets was available. I was really glad to get the ticket. Anyway, I walked up to National Folk Museum located at the end of the palace, although I didn't enter the museum. The animal statues placed in cicle ware picturesque.
Suwon, Korea Rep. misocutlet