HwaSong Fortress:
HwaSong Fortress:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hwaseong_Fortress
pix:
http://picasaweb.google.com/arunsdevine/HwaSongFort
caution: there ll be a lot of pix with myself in shades and all that.
left for the place in the afternoon on sunday. we were warned that that place would be nothing more than an evening walk. i went just to satisfy my dad's cries for me to "explore the place". which i am frankly not interested in. what with the struggles involved in communicating and the omnipresent korean stench. and what would u generally find in korea that u wouldnt find in india? some tall buildings. and some korean cultural heritage sites. neither of which i am interested in. erm. and some korean hotties. well there are truckloads of them in our workplace. (i have a biiiiiig crush on my team mate. hoping to tell her tomo. :P at some disneyworld kinda place. named everland. ). [and.... forgot to add. u get named man utd jerseys here. :) ].
nadeem bhai[cook, driver, lahore, part of the hotel "establishment"] gave us a lift to the fort in some kia motors[u would ve seen their names all over the australian open courts. its been bought over by hyundai i think.] vehicle. and someone crooning loudly. [ Himesh Reshammiya for all you ppl from mars. ] we were welcomed by a long line of wannabe amateur archers practising their art on distant targets. we couldnt give it a shot as we were a bit late or too early for that round of attempts. we thought we ll try after the "evening walk". didnt really happen. as we set off towards the fort. even the roads within the fort region have proper traffic lights! and a dragon train which took ppl around the place. from what i saw.. the kids were definitely enjoying the ride.
now to the fort. a couple of peak points. the sights seemed pretty good for a person cuz of all the tall buildings with a mountain range as a nice backdrop. [i am deftly ignoring the fact that the civilization settled in the proximity of the fort was a proper slum :)] a few hundred yards in and a dhobi ghat seemed to re inforce my perception of the area. well. it was just a gentle stream of water. kids splashing water. getting wet. all that. and then to the peak point which was probably the best part of the visit. i took some 3 videos of the view from there. splendid. u could see the whole city from there. [not much of the slums as well.]. [noticed a lot of indians there as well. u are never really far from one are u?]
we then proceeded to "namoon". suwon's commercial street. [all that i was looking for was a Nike store to get a named jersey. found two. neither had it]. a big maze. distinct stench. lots of cheap buys [1000 WON [~ $1] buys]. i couldnt really find anything that i d get in korea for cheaper than india.[perhaps that ubiquitous stick that koreans use to scratch their backs :P] my colleagues over here had suggested leather goods. nah. watches. not really. clothes. no way! ended up buying a handbag and a nice looking watch for ma. a funkyish watch for bro. a nice bag for dad to put all his documents in. 56000 WON.
before retiring to bed the same day, i had uploaded the pix of the place, and of the things that i d bought. sent em home. discussed the trip and the things with the help of those pix with dad and mom over gtalk. quality life indeed. imho.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hwaseong_Fortress
pix:
http://picasaweb.google.com/arunsdevine/HwaSongFort
caution: there ll be a lot of pix with myself in shades and all that.
left for the place in the afternoon on sunday. we were warned that that place would be nothing more than an evening walk. i went just to satisfy my dad's cries for me to "explore the place". which i am frankly not interested in. what with the struggles involved in communicating and the omnipresent korean stench. and what would u generally find in korea that u wouldnt find in india? some tall buildings. and some korean cultural heritage sites. neither of which i am interested in. erm. and some korean hotties. well there are truckloads of them in our workplace. (i have a biiiiiig crush on my team mate. hoping to tell her tomo. :P at some disneyworld kinda place. named everland. ). [and.... forgot to add. u get named man utd jerseys here. :) ].
nadeem bhai[cook, driver, lahore, part of the hotel "establishment"] gave us a lift to the fort in some kia motors[u would ve seen their names all over the australian open courts. its been bought over by hyundai i think.] vehicle. and someone crooning loudly. [ Himesh Reshammiya for all you ppl from mars. ] we were welcomed by a long line of wannabe amateur archers practising their art on distant targets. we couldnt give it a shot as we were a bit late or too early for that round of attempts. we thought we ll try after the "evening walk". didnt really happen. as we set off towards the fort. even the roads within the fort region have proper traffic lights! and a dragon train which took ppl around the place. from what i saw.. the kids were definitely enjoying the ride.
now to the fort. a couple of peak points. the sights seemed pretty good for a person cuz of all the tall buildings with a mountain range as a nice backdrop. [i am deftly ignoring the fact that the civilization settled in the proximity of the fort was a proper slum :)] a few hundred yards in and a dhobi ghat seemed to re inforce my perception of the area. well. it was just a gentle stream of water. kids splashing water. getting wet. all that. and then to the peak point which was probably the best part of the visit. i took some 3 videos of the view from there. splendid. u could see the whole city from there. [not much of the slums as well.]. [noticed a lot of indians there as well. u are never really far from one are u?]
we then proceeded to "namoon". suwon's commercial street. [all that i was looking for was a Nike store to get a named jersey. found two. neither had it]. a big maze. distinct stench. lots of cheap buys [1000 WON [~ $1] buys]. i couldnt really find anything that i d get in korea for cheaper than india.[perhaps that ubiquitous stick that koreans use to scratch their backs :P] my colleagues over here had suggested leather goods. nah. watches. not really. clothes. no way! ended up buying a handbag and a nice looking watch for ma. a funkyish watch for bro. a nice bag for dad to put all his documents in. 56000 WON.
before retiring to bed the same day, i had uploaded the pix of the place, and of the things that i d bought. sent em home. discussed the trip and the things with the help of those pix with dad and mom over gtalk. quality life indeed. imho.
lovedale spoke out loud at 12:54 PM
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