Girl Gamers

packed my bags and ready to go.

suitcase check, dont need many clothes as im not all that fashion concious and korea
has alot of cheap clothes 😛

carry on lugguage check, the important things: psp, ds, laptop.

now for people who havent traveled much, just a warning, do remember to buy
power converters for all your gadgets and if you have gadgets from different
countrys make sure you get all of them, because some countrys you will find
very difficult to find them. luckly international airports carry the wide range so
check that out!.

thank goodness for portable gaming, all up was 26 hours to reach my
destination of SaCheon right near the bottom of South Korea. with no sleep
still was unpacked and packed again for journey to 2nd largest city, Busan.

23rd August~

Busan, destination for Koreans, japanese and working foreners alike. its a
summer place for the beach mainly, lots of beautiful hotels and resteraunts.
this city is in the guinese book of records for the most parasols, something
like a million… coming from australia i must say its not the biggest beach,
but boy are there lots of people.

staying in a suite at a beautiful hotel called the “SeaCloud” hazzar things with
cloud in the name *cough*. hope you will like the view.

sightseeing ensues for the next couple days, temples, shops, beach and aquarium. interesting thing about the Aquarium, its under the beach, 3 storys below the sad and people with their ugly yellow safty floaties.

25th august

number one biggest city in korea: Seoul. quite different to busan, considering the attiude of the city is not for relaxation. took a train to get here, if i remember correctly 2 and a half to 3 hours. on the way back took 4-5 by bus.

seoul is very nice too, more of what you’d expect of a bustliing asian city, lots of people, lights and stores galore. street markets abound with questionable food and clothes, but i must say this. quality of clothes in Korea is very good so cheap doesnt mean poor quality here and this is a country were everyone dresses up. no bums here… well they atleast dress well 😛

once again lots of temple visits and palaces. i was staying in the “Lotte Hotel World” or something like that, it also is in the record books for the largest indoor amusment park… or so i was told, it actualy continues outside into the middle of a lake. shops, trainstation, resteraunts and amusment park are all underneith the hotel which is very beautiful. ate way to much at the buffet there as it was all very good quality food, and this is something not so easy to find in some of the smaller cities/towns. very very expencive here, so watch out. seoul is abit of a place with extreams, from cheap to very expencive. i had a glass of orange juice which cost me 18 000wan which is 18  aus absurd i say ^^ especialy since it tasted like the oranges were going bad.

oh traveling tip, if something looks like something you know food wise, not neccicarly going to taste the same. ie, grapes O.o

visited a museum that was of the 3 kingdoms period, where they had large areas of miniture city to see all the activities of the villagers and inside the palace to see what goes on there.

2 days of walking later…

27th back to sacheon and time for a rest, oh wait no sleep for you, you have to learn to cook… son of a…

ok, Korean food… hello sir or ma’m, would you like chilli with your chilli? perhaps i could put some seafood with that… but its going to have to come with a side order of chilli.

since had to cook, was time to visit the port and fish market. lots of little old ladys with live seacreatures in buckets and things… i tell you its the great escape with octopie. saw a fish head in a bucket which was still gasping for water… not feeling like eating seafood much actualy ^^’

had a couple days to be lazy but time for running for me, so off i treck around and up a hill, to a park and around a lotus pond. all the street lamps in the area have music playing out of them, its quite nice really.

29th Aug.

been to top left of korea, bottom cost… now its off to eastern side of Korea. where there is a small city famous for many confucious schools and the creators of the masks of korea. there is also a village which has been kept relitivaly the same for around 400 years. the people still live there in there… crap factories would be bad right? lol there is only old people living there in some of the houses which are also businesses for tourists both forean and domestic as there are places to stay the night. its a beautiful place but come on… 400 years. vending machines dont help when youv gotta go to the toilet!

clouds korea fun fact: in some asian countrys and communities (to which i had grown up in) people (mainly female type lady creatures) use toilet paper then put in a basket or bucket next to toilet. this makes for some interesting surprises if you go to public rest rooms… oh and i hope you dont mind but many dont realy care to close the doors either. and for guys, well the toilet door is nearly always showing off the urinals so prepair for stage show. or be like me and find bathroom with locked door ^^

on way back stoped in 3rd largest city, Daegu. where i saw the most packed streets of 18-27 year olds with some top quality stores and some domestic ones which had the more korean style, for females thats shiny and cute. for males it is… well guys wear pink here… pastel pink. found my way to a street of jewlery stores too. trying to find something for someone but jeez, dont bother going for things with gems cause they are all cubic zirconia. even though the metals they use are good quality, that to me is slaping a “im a cheap bastard” sticker on your face. problem is girls like to be shiny so its hard to find things not with some shiny stuff attached.

Korea shopping tip, when you go to a shop to browse or anything… your gonna have your own personal pain in the butt following you around trying to help you. trying and making it sometimes unpleasurable to just browse around since they seem to make it their mission to dress you ^^. so best to find sections with those people absent or already chewing on someone elses butt.

taxis, ok now this is a big thing in most countrys and well here is no different, but for me, this is the most amount of taxis iv seen and with that are some issues to watch out for dear gaming traveler.

now while this is the same everywhere, be sure to know that some times you will get drivers who want your money and will drive you around for half an hour or so for no aparent reason. so best to know where u want to go and point it out, or buses are good too.

safty tip: if you are young and even more so female, just be careful at night going into taxis. make sure you recognize the taxi company and watch out for shady looking drivers. best to always travel with friends anyway at night. there is a problem with people dissapearing in korea, especialy the youth as children are given free run here.

just next to Daegu is a mountain village with a temple right on the top, the largest stone buddha in korea resides on the very peak. im afraid i cant remember the name of the temple but it is very beautiful to walk around as its got many streams, waterfalls and forrests.

from outside of the temple i took a cable car upto the top of a neighbouring peak, and the veiw was wonderful, mountains and clouds drifting off all around you with visions of the cities that combine with the mountains in the distance. in korea one of the top sports/activities is hiking, because there is no worry about animals(linked to the japanese burning of korea when they left) people are safe so you can see lots of people old and otherwise with their sticks and backpacks making a day of it.

got to see a bit of technology in a large department store however not really that much there as majority of things in these shops are clothes, jewlery and purfume. there were some really cool tiny notebook computers designed for wifi work for travel, internet, email, flash ect… laptops are all nice too and cheaper then australia. lots of mobile phones, everywhere and i mean everywhere. shops at street levels, in markets, departmentstores and food shops. LG seems to be the biggest of Korean phones with their Cyon phone series seen everywhere. there is also alot of personal media players mostly with screens for watching series ect, for the long train and bus rides. iv seen quite alot of psps and ds also in use.

clouds fun fact: yes old people are funny. when everyone has mobile phones but maybe they dont know how to use, your sure to see a couple together trying to figure out how to answer the thing ^^.

well its the 31st of Aug and im having a lazy day not feeling like doing much.

so i shall leave my journal here for now.

hope everyone is well and not bored over my long first post catch up.

see you soon with more pictures and happenings from the country with a “K”… no not Kenya.

Anyong asayo