Travel: Jiri mountain ~ Piagol

Went to Jirisan (지리산) National park on Sunday with people from work. It also happens to be the first ever designated Korean national park in 1967. This national park is home to the tallest peak in the South Korean peninsula ~ Cheonwangbong (천왕봉) Peak, which is 1,915 meters above sea level. For approximately two weeks in the year, the mountain ranges play host to some of the most spectacular autumn colors in Korea, especially at Piagol valley (피아골).

We did a six hour trek from Nogodan (노고단) to Piagol.

Have a look at the view.





Actually the best part of the whole trip was probably the company. Here are some pictures of the all Korean group I went with.


For more pictures, click 'HERE'

Language: "Kkwang!"

Noted this in the car park of Carrefour while on my weekly pilgrimage there...

주의 means "Be watchful" and sound of two cars hitting ~ 꽝 is pronounced as "KKWANG!". I'm used to car crashes though, that go "Boom!", "Bang!" or "Kerrang!".

Had me a chuckle too, when first introduced to Korean animals sounds!

Korean dog: "Mong Mong" - compared to - Caucasian dog: "Woof woof"
Korean cow: "Meh meh" - compared to - Caucasian cow: "Moo moo"

Waitamininute~! Caucasian goats go "Meh meh"! Does that mean a Korean cow and an American Billy-goat speak the same language??!

Here's a quick link in case you're interested in how animals sound from around the world.

'CLICK HERE'

Culture: Tea drinking

Took a lesson in basic Korean tea drinking mannerisms while at Nagan folk village. Lessons learnt:

1. Receive with both hands after being poured and offered tea.
2. Place cup and saucer on the floor. Pick up only the cup to drink from.
3. Finish the tea in three sips.
4. Hand back the cup and saucer for refills.
5. Repeat until three cups are consumed.

PMS: Lights... what a waste

I originally dreaded the 3 a.m. shift, because in the previous shift 2 months ago, there were no lights around the plant. During construction, only minimal lighting from temporary power supplies is available, as the electricians would still be pulling cables, and setting up the place. Lighting would be one of the last things they'd do, as it is of lesser importance compared to the rest of the electrical equipment.

That basically meant that I had to carry a flashlight wherever I went, including to the loo... otherwise the floors would get wet. Wouldn't want to piss off the nice cleaning ladies would we?

But what a hassle!

Anyway this time round, most of the lighting around the plant was ready, and they had them switched on. Cool ~ no more flash light!

"Great..." I thought to myself, but wouldn't that be such a waste on a construction site? Wouldn't that be Pretty Much Senseless (PMS)?

You've got to realize a few things...

1. They have EVERY single light bulb on the site turned ON, illuminating EVERY nook and cranny. You'd probably think it were daytime if you stood in the middle of the plant!
   *Excuse the exaggeration... but you get my point.
2. No one works on the site at night, as far as any heavy duty construction work is concerned. Who is the light for ~ trolls hiding under the friggin drains?
3. Electricity and energy in general is expensive in Korea. Since I'm not involved in the site-management, I really wonder how expensive it is? Note that even my wee apartment is already nearly a hundred/month.
   For such a big site, its gotta be in the thousands every month, even though the commercial electricity rate ($$) is much lower?! Mind you, they skimp on even USD$100 when we tell them something broke, and needs to be fixed ~ ok!
4. The plant isn't making any money selling power YET, since it is under construction. Even if it did, the money to pay the electricity bill probably comes out of the construction company's budget ~ NOT the owners of the plant...
   Another ding in the construction budget!
5. Other plants and factories I see around the place aren't as brightly lit up as ours anyway.

Another management screw up oversight... and I believe the PMS classification is justified. ;)

@ Work: Field engineer survival 101 - Tip #2

Continuing on a series of Field engineer survival 101 tips...

This is a "Monkey" wrench, as they call it in Korea. Elsewhere, it goes by the name Crescent (USA) and adjustable (say... Malaysia). Use of the Monkey is not limited to tightening/loosening of bolts and nuts.

When necessary, use it appropriately, say to hold down your ramen cup cover, while it cooks.


Other items that may be piled on top to keep the heat in the cup include grinding wheels (as shown in the example above), fittings, pipes, flanges... etc.

By the way, that was my 4 a.m. pre-breakfast at work today. I'm back on early morning shifts for a few days doing alignment work.

Nature: More melons...

After the post yesterday on that weird melon (left pic), I remembered... "Hey, I've seen more funky melons around!".

Dug up some pics, and here's another one that I spotted at Nagan. OK, so it could be rooftop crops. Or maybe pre-modernization engineering had them there to hold down the straw roofs??
OK, what about this ~ cool decoration eh? My first guess would be a restaurant serving melon-ish dishes... Unfortunately not, from the looks of the menu outside.


Some Koreans use their melons in ways too, that have nothing to do with nature. Here's a great example ~ Ms. Sung Hee Lee.

Yup, spotting more melons along the way...

Nature: Weird melon

Spotted this in Nagan on Sunday.

Aren't melons supposed to be on the ground?? I have seen though, smaller melons or gourds with vines clinging onto a wall. But this just seems a little bit odd.

Maybe it's just me.

Travel: Nagan folk village

So maybe my Sunday wasn't a complete laze around the house, as yesterday's post suggested. Went off to Naganeupseong folk village (낙안읍성 민속 마을) on my own ~ Yes, I felt like spending the day on my own, which is perfectly fine. :)

Arrived at 2pm, and was greeted by the change of guard ceremony. Talk about coincidence! I knew going to church in the morning had to have done me good ~



Unbeknownst to me, the 12th annual Namdo food festival (남도 음식문화 큰잔치) was on-going as well!


It was packed, and the streets were just full of atmosphere. Have a look for yourself and clips of how the village looked like on that day.

Here's the exact meaning to the Chinese saying "Mountains and oceans of people" (人山人海).

OK, so in some parts of the village, it was still pretty quiet. On the South side of the village, I found me a shallow well... Story has it, that Nagan village has fortified walls shaped like a ship. Having said so, digging a deep well in the village would be synonymous to punching a big hole in the ship, thus ending the good fortune of the village.

Hence, they dug only a very shallow well, from which the magistrate drank. Supposedly, anyone who drinks from it will become good-natured, and better-looking...

Hell yeah, I'm in!

Back to the hustle and bustle... Street vendors with traditional foodstuff were all over the place. Everything from traditional BBQ to raw seafood was on display/sale.






Had the privilege of watching how some cakes are made... This one ~ ddok (똑), was basically made from freshly cooked rice and green tea mix. After being pounded into a gooey blob, it is lined with (what I think) is very finely ground nut-flour, and cut into munch-size slices...












Even took lessons from a fine lady on tea etiquette... Will blog about it another time.


Check out some of the craft and games they had on too. Good day out for the family...


Dad eats and drinks lots of soju with his mates, mum goes shopping and kids throw sticks at empty tin cans. Sweet~



To end it off, there's a garden outside of Nagan folk village. It's rather impressive, considering that every structure (about 3 meters tall) is made from tiny pebbles and rocks piled up on top of each other! Wow...


Oh, before I forget, there were also some comedians outside the folk village too, to top of the list of events for the day. I didn't understand a single word they said, but had a good laugh (*eww) just looking at them costumes...


And that was my Sunday... hopefully better looking, and better natured. ;)

For more pictures, click 'HERE'.

About me: Lazy Sundays...

First cooked-breakfast I've done in a long while.


Oh crap... I'm late for church!

Language: OK, so you need to travel in korea...

Yesterday, I got acquainted with Mr. B, a French national on project here in Gwangyang. So he asks me the directions to Nokdong ferry terminal (녹동항), from which you can have your car transported over to Jeju Island (제주도).

It just occurred to me how difficult it must be for non-Korean speaking people to organize a trip in this country...

• The detailed country map I had was in Korean ~ not by choice, but because they did not have ANY English maps in ANY of the local shops/shopping centers.
• Nobody along the way spoke decent English.
• Romanizations of street signs (or anything else for that matter!) aren't always consistent.
  Examples: 부산 can be spelt either Busan, or Pusan. Road ~ 로, can either be "-No", "-Ro" or "-Lo"... etc.
  You can get directions in English all you want, but whether it works 100% of the time, that's another question...

Moral of the story: Learn Korean to travel properly in this country, or pay me LOTS and LOTS of money to bring you around... *Evil laugh.

Traffic: Legalized speeding

Remember how I did a post some time ago on traffic cameras in Korea? If not, click 'here'.

Anyway, even with all the pre-warnings, people still do run the traffic cameras out of sheer carelessness.

This is a Korean GPS speed detector, which is hooked up to the car speaker system.

It is perfectly legal in here, and retails for anything between USD$200 ~ 600 for an upscale model with a wide-screen and fully functional GPS navigation system + mp3 player.

When you approach a speed, or normal surveilance camera, a female voice (I wonder why?) will usually say things like:
"Your speed is xx kmph, the speed limit xx meters ahead is xx kpmh, please slow down.."

That's not all... See the little port on the side of it? Hook up an adapter cable from that to your computer USB port, and you can download the latest speed camera locations online, from the manufacturer website! Location datas are updated every couple of weeks, as the police force move some cameras around, or install new ones.

Aren't they smart?!

As I have gathered too, apparently speeding is not enforced heavily using cop cars, albeit the occasional portable radars now and again. Haven't bumped into either one yet, after driving for 8 months, through 4 provinces... Sweet ;)

Culture: Blessings from a pig

Just recently, we started running our power plants. As we move closer to what we call commercial operation date (COD) of the plant, we need to do a few more tests on the units. This is what we call commissioning. There have been no problems as of yesterday ~ as far as safety is concerned. It is a big deal, since the plants do run under conditions which can be very dangerous, if there was even the slightest negligence on the part of the operators.

Hence, the site main contractor organized a thanksgiving and prayer ritual for the safety on site (안전기원제). It involves making offerings to spirits (고사 지내다), where the 'lucky pig's head' was present...


The ritual goes:

1. Individual/group representatives of various departments are called by name to the alter. They present a packet of money, which is then stuffed into the pig's mouth upon making a declaration of their 'wishes'.




2. Having knelt and made the offering to the pig's head, they receive the ceremonial tea, with which they sprinkle three times around the mat on which they stand on. With each sprinkle, they will shout out the wishes on their mind.
   
   
   When it was Steve's turn ~ the customer representative goes "Safety first" three times in English. Other Koreans before him basically used and re-used the phrases "No problems" (무재해) and "Safety first" (안전제일), since it was a prayer ceremony for safety.






3. ... and everyone goes shouting their heart out, reiterating the representative's call for safety.


The whole ceremony lasted for about 1/2 an hour.

I guess when its all said and done... its another good reason to drink and be merry... see you all 6:30PM at the local restaurant for barbeque and a few rounds round of drinks!

People: Nice ajummas...

Walked around the offices on-site first thing, and did my daily ritual of "good morning"s to everyone I recognize.

On my quest, one of the middle-aged Korean aunties (ajumma ~ 아줌마), uses the wee "come-here" Korean sign language on me. And so I strolled over, expecting nothing less than a pinch on the cheek, and the teases I always get about not being married...

Yes, I cop that a lot from the ajummas on site. :">

Anyway, it was a pleasant surprise as she drags me into their little resting room, whips out a big paper bag, and starts stuffing it with fruits she's got laid out on the shelf... Whoa!

Good start to the morning, and I just HAD TO blog about it...

Nature: Berry weather forecast

Apparently, the brighter the colors of wild berries ~ in this case RED, the colder the winter will be...

Judging by the berry bush I spotted at Bonghwasan on Sunday, I think.... winter shouldn't be too cold... uhm... about... -15 Celcius this year??"

Travel: Mountain walk @ Bonghwasan

OK, so maybe this doesn't really classify as a travel post, since I only went to Bonghwa mountain (봉화산) on the weekend, and it is just a 5 minute drive from my house in Suncheon city (순천시). Also, it really is only 355 meters tall...

:P

Anyway ~ It was a bright and sunny Sunday afternoon, and so Linda and I decide to torture each other... as well as Bruno ~ the dog, by trekking up Bonghwa mountain at the back of her place. Linda is an English teacher in Suncheon by the way, and happens to be the ONLY Irish woman I know...

Now say: "Wow...".



So we trek to the top. The wee road is a bit dreary, with steep slopes and rocky footpaths. Being the difficult (*ehem...) climb that it was (hey~ just give me my moment of glory!), seeing nice scenery and flowers just wouldn't do it.



The REAL motivation... Gimbap picnic/lunch up top!


OK... jokes over. Here's the REAL REAL motivation...


The view: Suncheon city - East. Note that it is crammed full with soooooooooo many apartments, but its only 1/4 of the entire city of 270,000+ people. Scary sight.

After the wee picnic, we make our way to one of the more civilized resting areas on another side of the mountain.

Nearby, is a wee health park with various facilities, including these big ass (I mean BIG = 5kg) hoopla-hoops...

In the name of beautiful waists!

There on, the descend was nothing to shout about, with the exception of my Ddokguk (똑국) dinner at a local joint and the rest of the 10,000 km walk home. It really did feel like that, at the end of the 5-hours later!

Anyway, that was my Sunday. Great day out, and great company...

*Linda, hope you spotted the "wee"s... ;)