A Weekend of Fire Pots,Bongs and Gangnam Style?

Procrastination has enslaved me. I still haven’t posted those entries that I promised in my last post. Tonight, I am off to Seoul and therefore won’t be able to post anything this weekend as well. So I am posting a quick update before I leave.

The temperature has plummeted significantly over the last week and sweaters have become essential. Being the (mis)adventurers we are, we have still planned a trip to the DMZ over this cold wet weekend (temperatures close to zero degrees C expected).  We have booked tickets for the 2122hrs KTX to Seoul tonight. We plan to spend the night at Siloam Fire Pot Sauna (Jiljimbang). Tomorrow morning at 8 we start our morning tour of DMZ from USO Camp Kim. Once we are back in the afternoon we plan to check into the  Bong House. We still haven’t planned what we will do after that – go to Gangnam and do some style maybe?

In other news, Sandy blew the roof off my cousin’s apartment in Boston. And cricket fever has gripped me as the domestic seasons around the world have kicked off this week and mouth-watering test series (Ind v Eng, Aus v SA) are about to start in the next. By the way is anyone else following the Ranji Series Opening Day?

Next week, I promise to write those posts and prove that procrastination is my bitch.

About me – Deepak Pitta?

Nagin Dance, Crabs & Autumn

0835hrs
19^th  October 2012, Friday
HHI Office, Ulsan.

Right, so it’s been more than a week since I stated that I would post something in the next 2 days. I apologize. There are a lot of things I can blame for this tardiness – too much work, too much partying, too much alcohol, cold weather, too much cricket and most importantly Umang’s Nagin Dance (put me in shock for 3 days).

As promised the next few posts will be more visual than verbose. I haven’t had the time to process all the 1900 photos that I have taken so far in Korea. But I will share some of the best ones taken over the last one month.

There have been 4 weekends since my last detailed post. I will list down the highlights from those weekends here. Over the next few days I will most detailed posts/photos for each of those weekends too. Here is a small teaser of what you can expect:

Weekend # 1 (22-23^rd Sept):
–          Hair Cut debacle at Toni and Guy
–          Visit to a local fish market
–          Amethyst caves & lunch in a temple mess
–          Finding the mysterious Paraeso waterfalls
–          Hike Hike Hike in beach slippers

Weekend # 2 (28^th – 2 October):
–          Chuseok Long weekend trip to Seoul
–          We almost miss our KTX train
–          Overnight stay at a Jiljimbang (Korean Spa)
–          Partying at night clubs near Hongik University
–          Check in at Grand Hyatt
–          Night City Bus Tour & Party at JJ’s@Hyatt
–          Sightseeing Seoul’s palaces & hanok villages
–          Amusement park – Lotte World
–          Sightseeing Hooker and Homo Hill in Itaewon
–          Myeongdong and Namdaemun Markets

Weekend #3 (6^th– 7^th October):

–          Rented a car from Avis for road trip to Jinju Lantern Festival
–          Stuck in Traffic Jam on highway
–          Checked-in to a shady motel near Nam River (4 of us in one small room)
–          Battled the crowd at the lantern festival
–          Dinner: waffles, 2 crabs, one whole chicken, 15 bbq fish and soju
–          Next morning drove to Haedong Yonggung temple (gorgeous place by the sea)
–          Had lunch at Korean restaurant
–          Drove back to Ulsan and dinner at Namaskar restaurant

Weekend #4 (12^th – 13^th October):
–          Farewell party for some HHI friends on Friday night
–          Tried all sorts of alcohol – beer,soju,whiskey, tequila, rum & more!
–          Next morning – Slept well, but tummy wasn’t too happy about all that drinking
–          Hangover- headed for HHI Autumn Festival for expats (yes! autumn has arrived)
–          Hiking at Mt.Namsan – Gyeongju
–          Visit to Gyeongju National Museum
–          Dinner and entertainment at Hyundai Hotel Garden
–          Extremely cold conditions – worsened by equally bad rock band performance
–          Decent fireworks to close the night

1851 hrs
22^nd  October 2012, Monday
HHI Office, Ulsan

From Singapore to Ulsan

1600 hrs

14^th August 2012, Tuesday

HHI Office, Ulsan.

After an extremely tiring and circuitous journey we finally made it to Ulsan yesterday evening at around 6:30pm. Our journey was smooth till Seoul – we landed at Incheon Airport on time (around 7:30am), sailed through immigration and easily made our way to Gimpo Domestic Airport to catch our next flight. This is where the problem started.

We found out from the Korean Air ground staff that Ulsan airport was probably closed due to adverse weather and our flight at 12:50pm was put on “HOLD”. They told us to come at 1140am to check if the weather had improved for the flight to go ahead. We started brainstorming alternate ways of reaching our destination. Suggestions ranging from a 6-hour road trip to taking the KTX (bullet train) were thrown into the discussion. In the mean time we also tried out Starbucks Korea – we needed the caffeine. As we waited we noticed that an Asiana Airlines flight to Ulsan had taken off- an indication that the weather had improved in Ulsan? The display board also indicated sunny weather at Ulsan Airport. Hope!

At 11:35am we approached the Korean Air staff again. This time the news was positive and we were told to check-in our baggage and get our boarding passes. So we and our 70 kg luggage stood in line to check-in. At this point I would like to describe an interesting aspect of Korean Air Check-in procedure. Right behind the walls of the check-in counters are some baggage scanners. The staff doesn’t give you your boarding passes until your luggage is accepted by the airport security monitoring these scanners. A few of us were called inside this room to open our bags and display the contents which the security personnel felt suspicious. After this we proceeded through the security check to the departure gate. We then boarded the flight. The flight left the gate on time and moved towards the runway to takeoff. We were all smiling at our good fate. A couple of minutes later the flight stopped a few meters from the runway. An announcement in Korean from the flight captain and a loud collective sigh from the Korean contingent of the passengers was enough for us to interpret that we were not going to Ulsan (and obviously there was an English announcement after that). We got off the plane and took a bus to the arrival centre, collected our bags from the belts and made our way to the Korean Air help desk yet again. It was 1:35pm.

One of the Korean Air employees suggested a solution: fly to Busan and subsequently take a bus or taxi to Ulsan. We all agreed that this was a good idea. We then called Singapore and informed them the same. We went through the same process of checking in and security checks and made it to the 3pm flight to Busan. This time there was no delay and the flight took off on time. We were exhausted and took a small nap on the flight, but the journey wasn’t over yet.

By the time we exited Busan Airport it was 4:30pm. It was dark and cloudy, but luckily it wasn’t raining. The information counter recommended us to take jumbo taxis to accommodate all of us and our bags. We negotiated two SUV taxis to take us directly to the apartment in Ulsan. The drivers needed the full address of the apartment in Korean for entering it into the GPS. So we called the apartment office and found this out. What followed was a 2 hour drive to Ulsan through Busan, its suburbs and its traffic. At the apartment we settled in pretty swiftly, thanks to the help from KBR veterans already living there and the Apartment Manager Kim.

This morning we woke up early and made it to the office by 8am. It has been a rather sluggish day – we are still trying to tune ourselves to the office culture, get our computers in shape, waiting to get network connections for our laptops and struggling to stay awake. But I am sure everything will be back to normal tomorrow.

Countdown: 94 days to go.

1620hrs

HHI Office, Ulsan

Deepak Pitta