Friday 31 October 2014

AQUA COWS (caribbean bay & hanu festival)

during warm october i decided to visit the largest indoor/outdoor water park in the world (says visitkorea.or.kr)
in the close proximity of caribbean bay lies everland - huge theme park with annual attendance over 6 million of people, which explains this photo:

that day as any other, vast majority of sweet teens headed to everland (although i must admit i also have been attracted by its massive wooden - yes, wooden - roller coaster with 1 641 meters in length)
however, i withstood its lures and set my foot towards the aqua paradise, day ticket cost 28 000 wons (560 cz crowns) which is notably less compared to the peak season.
main reason is that a great number of crazy outdoor attractions is closed :/
on the other hand the place offered relaxed atmosphere so i could enjoy deserved remedy for my old bones in peace kkkk :D
outdoor bubbles under the sun!!!!!

again. korean people, you can take your clothes off ! just sayin'


the water park appearance is utilizing caribbean elements, indoor part is extensive open space structured in five height levels

wheeeeeeee, which one?

after checking all the rides, i found myself momentarily content just sailing the river way on a rubber ring in afternoon sunshine ---

i felt goood there
when you are nearby, give it a try and avoid weekends

leaving the park, passing the ships, heading towards the blushing trees:

for way back i took yongin everline which is fully automated driverless light metro line connecting everland with seoul, i wish this transportation good luck and only rational travellers


on the way i could witnessed a stadium under construction
no biggie for korean economy


the cow part

business english teacher showed me a website which offers for foreigners travelling with shuttle buses which operates the routes from seoul to one of many festivals held all around the korea
i chose hanu festival in hoengseong - beef festival :D
it is annual gathering to celebrate hanu - Korean native cattle.
hell rider

you can taste there great beef meat and many other specialities and agriculture products, try farm life and get to know local rural traditions, this all acompanied by music and dance programme and kids attractions


ms cattle kent

adults watching random kids fighting, girl won and is like let's get out of here

hundreds of festival tents stretched along the river with packs of korean feasting around tables crammed with food -that was hanu festival
overall i appreciated the fair
educational sculpture/ride for kids

more to come-- (more warm autumn hiking)

HOMESTAY (songdo district)

another october day/night/day me and my roommate spent with a substitute parents.
this "cultural discovering" programme was organised by uni for us - the exchange students.
husun and sunja picked us up in the late afternoon and we rode to songdo international business district --
tri bowl and posco buildings

songdo is a colossal $40 billion(!) worth project to build modern and luxury smart city from scratch on a reclaimed land (6 km square of tidal flats previously) in between int'l airport and seoul itself. (entire project to be finished in 2015)
korean loosers - can not build skyscraper straight 
to give an example of songdo sophisticated infrastructure, take its rubbish disposal system, cited from this article:
"No rubbish trucks will ever roam the leafy streets of Songdo, instead all household and office waste is sucked through a network of underground tubes to vast sorting facilities where it is all processed, deodorised and treated."
haha, they built an artificial canal so they could cross it with a footbridge afterwards




you can find there its own ny-like central park and venice-like canals, both residential and commercial areas.

in the evening we ate generous dinner together and strolled through "central park", then we headed to their 3 bedroom apartment.
other apartments such was this one are sold by real estate agent for nearly 900m wons = 18 000 000 czech crowns, riiiip offff alert, the place was nice but that much money...?
but we slept well, (yes, i slept at millions worth president suite :D)

illuminated by the late morning sunlight me and roommate checked the park quickly one more time to discover this instrument:
the metal piano actually responded to your finger taps and played
this totem should illustrate some of the countries' characteristics through unique faces


22km long bridge connecting airport with songdo

after breakfast in paris baguette we crossed incheon bridge (6000won toll = 120 czech crowns for passenger car)  to check yeongjong high school on yeongjong-do (the island with airport)
our foster dad is the principal there..it was sooo modern, surprisingly - in september 2013 they started historically their first academic year

subsequently we visited another beach, more precisely mud flat, but it was warm
me, sunja, vit, husun - the most natural fake family
we taught some random kids a game - i just had made up - called: catch the stick
at lunch time we visited chinatown in incheon which was super crowded on holidays with hungry queues stretching out on the street from restaurants.

afternoodlewards we were transported back to uni. homestay was nice even though we communicated in pattern as follows:
A={google translator voice recognition (korean)} >
cell phone speakers (english) >
our respond (english) >
possible understanding > B | follow up question > A^^^
B={hooray}

more to come--

SECOND IMP (laaaaaate)

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