South Korea

1. Bus tour dimulai dari gwanghwamun. Jadi kowe naek subway terus turun di gwanghwamun sta. (광화문역). Abis itu keluar di gate 6 (inget!)...
2. Bus dimulai pukul 9.00 pageee. Jangan kepagian .. rugi!! kecuali kalo dikau mo ngebersiin bis nya dulu .. terus jangan kesiangan, waktu keliling berkurang. Jadi kalo kupikir pikir, perjalanan subway akan memakan waktu 30-40 minit, jadi yach .. kira kira 8.30 lah berangkat nya ..
3. Nah, begitu keluar dari gate 6, cari tiang bertuliskan 'seoul city tour' seperti gambar di bawah ini:

Nah entar ada orang yang kelihatannya juga mo ikutan. Mungkin kamu bisa langung beli tiketnya ato mungkin di dalem bis, tergantung. Nah, karena ada banyak tipe tour, kamu pilih yang downtown tour adzaa (lebih beragam). Untuk routenya, garis besarnya seperti tertera di bawah ini:

Gwanghwamun(gate) - Deoksugung(Palace) - Lotte Hotel - Namdaemun Market - Seoul Station - War Memorial of Koreal - U.S.Army Yongsan Base Itaewon - Itaewon - Crown Hotel - Meyong-dong - Namsangol Tranditional Korean Village - Sofitel Ambassador Hotel - National Theater Namsan Seoul Tower - Hyatt Hotel - Tower Hotel - Shilla Hotel - Dongdaemun Market - Daehangno - Gyeongbokgung Palace - Police Museum - Sejong Cultural Center

Jalur ini nggak lengkap, ntar di dalem bis kamu dibagiin peta lengkapnya. Kalo emang mo yang laen, ada tour palace (cuma palace ajah), worldcup tour (tour nggak jelas), night tour (tour kurang kerjaan, dingin !!), sama cheonggechon tour (tour ngeliat cheonggechon).
Harga tiketnya terakhir setauku sech 10 rebu won, untuk 1 day tiket, jadi bebas turun dimana ajah terus naek dimana ajah juga. Ingat, jam terakhir bis adalah jam 5 sore. Untuk last place, terserah, kamu nggak harus kembali lagi ke gwanghwamun. Tapi ingat cari tempat yang terjangkau subway. Jangan pilih pemberhentian terakhir di seoul tower !! kecuali kalo mo jalan kaki turunnya ha ha ha .. ada sech bus, tapi lebih puyeng lagee.

4. Jangan keliru dengan bis yang laen, liat gambar ini:

apa lageee yach .. eng eng ..

April 21-22, 2006

Busan is located in the southest part of Korea peninsula. It is one of most dense population and known as largest port city. Seoul people said that they have different accent when Busan people speak Korea. mmm .. I think so, little bit different. I visited Busan for 2 days after finishing a confrence in Daegu city by express train (KTX). By train, you will stop at Busan station which is already downtown of Busan. So, try to 'taste' the night of Busan downtown. Not as crowded as Seoul, but oke, I think.

As it is located near the beach, the main food will be sea food. Fresh sea food with delicious ways of cooking (I mean: korean ways^^). The important point is try to bargain the price first before you eat or enter the food shop that you can get the low price. The are many shop beside the beach and sometimes they compete to give the special price. Unfortunatelly, they only able to speak in Korea.
The most famous beach is Haeundae Beach where so many Korean gather at noon and sometimes it is still crowded during night in the summer season. Near there, so many hotels with cheap price or probably you can find cheap youth hostel in this area. Last time, I slept in the hostel with no-bed (they only give blanket and pillow) and the price is really cheap. Night time near the beach is also nice, may pubs also.
If you visited Busan, don't forget to visit APEC park. APEC is the meeting of asian pacific country leader related to the economic, politic issue. Some nice buidings there with the complete documentation of APEC meeting.
As in 2002, Korea held the world cup, a world cup stadium is also exsisted here named as Busan wold cup stadium. The design is very good, i think better than Seoul world cup stadium.

I give it that subtitle because, frankly speaking, I have no opinion if I have to stay here, in this city. Oke, nice and calm, but too silent and I am not a retired man who has to stay alone, ha ha ha .. Sure, if you like to stay or visit becautiful calm place, this place is exactly perfect for you. Actully I did not spend the night time in the downtown of the city which probably more crowded area. Again, it is just my imagination.

There is a bautiful river across Gongju area which you can spend the whole day for cruising it. Probably, the most 'interesting' view is the temple and tomb located in the Gongju park. In here, you can go insite the 'underground' tomb or take some pictures in front of the temples (??) there.
Oke, for me, a transit city .. :_D

It was 26-28 June 2003.

Gyeongju is located in the south-east part of Korea peninsula. This probably the recommended place to go when you visit to south-east part of Korea. This place is rich of Korea cultural and artifacts from very ancient time, such as neolitic age, bronze age, and beginning of iron age, as this place is old Silla capital kingdom. Silla is a part of trilogy kingdoms story of Korea history. To find the complete information, you can visit the Gyeongju National museum. There are also some small original-like 'stupa's and big bell from that periode.

How about tasting the original tea of Gyeongju? Yap, this region also has a special traditional tea ceremony. 15 minutes just for drinking a cup of tea! for me, it will be less than 1 minute and one more minute for another 2-3 cups more. ke ke ..
Also still in this region, there is Buddha temple, Bulguksa means land of happiness. It is a temple complex with some pagoda and old buiding, also small river flows there. Silent and nice.

Do you know 'hyundai'? A giant corporation from South Korea. Hyundai is one of the top company in Korea besides LG, KIA, and Samsung. And Ulsan is where hyundai company is. As the basis of Hyundai corp., sometimes this city is called as hyundai city. It is an industrial city and some other bigs company are there also, for example SK petroleum refinery plant, polimer, and so on. I have a chance to enter the Hyundai heavy industries and when you entered it you have to be guided. Many large ships being built in the dry docks. Hyndai ship is one of the topmost ship building industries in the world with around, it said, around 60 produced big ships per year.

Near Hyundai, there is an oil refinery, SK Corporation, which is the first oil refining company of Korea and has led the general energy and chemical industry in Korea. They also produced some basic chemical for polimer industry, such as propilen. The refined oil and products are exported to China. Do you believe that if all the pipelines are put together end-to-end then the entire length of pipelines will be able to reach the moon. That the officer said.