The first thing we did was go to Benares Hindu University, famous for having a nice campus, and we went to the art museum there. Then we came back to the city and walked along the river from Assi Ghat all the way to our hotel. We did a little more walking along the river but it started to rain really hard in the evening and that put a damper on our plans. The next morning we got up early for a dawn boat tour of the Ghats, before heading out of town to Kolkata.

One of the major pilgrim activities in Varanasi is bathing in the Ganges. More symbolic than anything, as the people are probably dirtier after the bath. At the "burning" ghat, where they cremate people, we learned that all cremated bodies are dumped into the river. Also, people who's souls don't need to be cleansed in holy fire, such as a pregnant woman, are just dumped whole into the river (weighted down of course). It used to be that poor people couldn't afford enough wood to burn their loved one's body completely, and there would be stray body parts floating about in the river, but tourists complained and they've since established a system of charity to assist in the cremation process. On top of the dead people, there's also plenty of dead animals and live animals and probably countless tons of garbage and waste. In addition to bathing in the water, hotels wash laundry in it, and some people actually drink it. Suffice to say, if one of us drank the water we'd probably die within minutes.

Ganges at Dawn

The dawn boat tour was cool, and it's about the only way to get a good look at the very interesting waterfront in Varanasi. The city is basically really long and skinny along the one side of the river, so if you want to see it you have to get out on the water. We hired a boat from in front of our hotel, we negotiated the guy down to 150 rupees for an hour boat ride, which is ridiculously cheap, and after we realized how hard it was paddling the boat against the current, we gave him a bit extra.

One of the Ghats

You can see the people dressed in orange who came to Varanasi to experience the holy water of the Ganges. It was an incredibly colorful and interesting place. The narrow streets were packed with groups of people all wearing only bright orange, walking to or from the river, among the multitudes of other pedestrians.

Market

I think this was a market area, super crowded with people, and lots of boats trying to offer their tour services. 

Bird

Very, very colorful. After the boat tour, it was off to the airport and then to Kolkata. The hotel we stayed at in Kolkata was really cool, it had a colonial style and it was pretty isolated from the city around it which seemed to be a reasonably good thing at least as far as the nighttime goes. Sadly, we were unable to enjoy it much, as Paula and Hilary both started to feel the first symptoms of illness here. We ended up just chilling in the hotel and then we left in the morning to catch our flight to Bagdogra, and from there we'd take a long car ride up to Darjeeling.

The drive out of Kolkata was pretty long and I took a lot of pictures of the traffic around us, super colorful buses, trucks, taxis, etc. As you can see, there's a lot of artistic customization of vehicles. Even though we did a lot of driving, there was always enough to see and you didn't feel like you were losing time being stuck in a car.

Pilot

The buses all had a little "Pilot" decoration on the driver's door, this one was pretty simple and cool.

From Kolkata we flew off to Bagdogra to grab a jeep up to Darjeeling, one thing that's amazing is how flat most of India is, and then when you reach the Himalayas they just explode up out of the ground with little warning.

Hong Kong! On the way to India, we had a long layover in Hong Kong and we took advantage of it to get out and walk around the city a little bit. It was me, Hilary, and Paula, and we had a great time. The weather was super hot and we were sweating like crazy but we went on the longest outdoor escalator in the world (allegedly) and stopped in a Mexican place for margaritas. We also went to the zoological garden and saw monkeys hanging about (literally). We also stopped into a Hong Kong diner to get some food - real Chinese food! And dropped by the waterfront to see some amazing views.

Read on for the real adventure - India

So we went to an ATM. Foolishly I hadn't brought my ATM card, and Hilary's was Mastercard and the only ATM in the so-called "international" airport only took VISA. Paula, fortunately, had a Visa ATM card and she was able to get out 6000 rupees, about 130 USD. Pissed off and tired and with little money, we went outside to get a taxi to our hotel. Mistake. Once outside we found out we had to go back inside to get a prepaid ticket for a taxi, but found our way blocked by security, and we were permitted to send 1 person in with no bags. We chose Paula because she had the hotel information and the only money. Another mistake - we probably should've sent me because I'm a man. While Hilary and I waited outside we spotted a Korean family and asked them about the money issues, but the guy just said "sorry I live here" and left. 

When Paula came out, she had the taxi slip but she was pissed off. Inside, she'd gone to the Delhi Police Prepaid Taxi stand where she was informed that the taxi would cost 410 rupees. With a purse full of fresh 500 rupee bills from the ATM (and only 500 rupee bills), she quite obviously chose to give the guy a 500 rupee bill. After glancing down at her purse and then back up, the guy plopped up a 100 rupee bill and said "it's 410." She fought him and insisted that she had given him 500 (especially since it was literally impossible for her to have given him anything else except Korean Wons) but in the end she had to give him another 500. All in all, things were off to a great start.

We got in the taxi, an old-school affair resembling a VW Vanagon but quite a bit smaller, and without any A/C, and headed off towards who knows where (hopefully our hotel). One of the first things you notice in India is the smell. The air is just thick and heavy and very very smelly. The next thing you notice (if you're in a car on the street) is the absolute lawlessness of the roads. I thought Koreans were bad with their red-light running and making turns from the wrong lanes and scooters going the wrong way but Oh. My. God. India takes it to a whole new level. Many cars are lacking functioning brakelights and most don't have - or use - turn signals. We had arrived late at night and cruising down the "freeway" with us at about 1am were a bunch of kids sitting halfway out the windows of their cars, high-fiving and waving their arms to music, and touching their friend's car, all while their drivers weaved and swerved with zero regard for the lines on the concrete. I don't think Indian people even know that you're supposed to stay in the lines. 

Then there's the things you see on the sides of the roads, which our first night was mostly people sleeping. People sleeping on the dirt roadside, people sleeping in the luggage rack on their taxi, people sleeping in their rickshaws, and people even sleeping in/on the divider in the middle of the freeway. It was dark and there are minimal street lights so we didn't see much but we could tell from the rough dirt roads that Delhi was gonna be a shock. We finally got to our hotel and before going to bed we tried to ask the hotel manager about taking the train to Agra the next day to see the Taj Mahal, but all we could get from him was that his driver would be there in the morning and we could hire him to drive us there, which we didn't want to do. Eventually we made it to sleep at around 3am-ish.

In the morning we looked out the window to see a shocking sight. Delhi was just about the opposite of Hong Kong. Dirt and dirt and dirt. Not exactly encouraging on our first day after the previous night's experience, but we had to head out and try to catch the train. We had some information from Lonely Planet and stuff about the possible trains to Agra, but we'd had to sleep past the fast train (2 hours) because we got in so late the night before. We had a time though, so we headed off the train station, ignoring our hotel manager's suggestion that we hire his driver for 5,000 rupees. We also missed a crucial piece of information in Lonely Planet's entry about Delhi and the train station.

We only had to walk a couple blocks but the experience of being out on that street makes any short walk quite the experience. Not only that but it started to rain hard as we approached the station. Exhausted and dripping wet we approached across the taxi parking lot and saw a giant building, open with no clear "main" entrance, and filled with people. I'm pretty sure that all the taxi drivers and everyone had gone inside because of the rain and so there was a giant wall of people facing us, pretty terrifying to enter. They all pointed us down further so for some reason we kept going, following their pointing. We found a ticket-buying area, where we were quickly intercepted by an official looking guy who asked us where we were going, and we told him. Mistake. He led us away from the ticket office back into the rain and started telling us a bunch of stuff and confusing us and something about construction and that the train we wanted we had to buy tickets somewhere else and then go to Old Delhi station (we were at New Delhi station) and so we foolishly listened to him, foolishly got into an auto-rickshaw, and found ourselves at the West Indian Tourism Development Company(?), talking with a tour guide about our options for going to Agra.

We went through a lot of stuff about trains and possible classes and waiting lists and all this stuff and also hiring a car and we could see other stuff in addition to the Taj Mahal, but we really just wanted to see the Taj Mahal. Uncertain of what we were doing and really exhausted, we (I) made the (wrong) choice to take the car for over 7,000 rupees, which I paid with my credit card, because at this point everything had sucked and I wasn't interested in messing with the trains and just wanted something to be easy and good (fat chance). We also talked to him about our possibilities for booking an overnight train to Varanasi from Delhi the next day, and eventually he guaranteed us tickets on a 3 o'clock train getting to Varanasi at like 6:30 am and we left, planning to go back to the office to pick up the tickets around noon the next day.

We got in the car with our driver and started the loooong journey to Agra.

I don't know if it's the existence of Bollywood or what made me think India was modern but I had no idea just how undeveloped it really is. If you're interested, read some of the info on Wikipedia, starting with Poverty. You hear about cows causing traffic jams in India but until you're actually there you don't realize that that's not a rare occurrence at all. It's hard to describe everything you see on the side of the road driving through India but there's a ton of cows, a ton of people just standing around, a ton of people doing manual labor, people pooping, people peeing, people everywhere, biking or walking along the street. Generally, unless disrupted by a cow as in the above photograph, car & truck traffic sticks to the right lane(s) and the left lane is populated by all other traffic - pedestrians, cyclists, rickshaws, autorickshaws, slightly-less-adventurous cows, goats, pigs, etc. One of the cooler things about traffic in India is the trucks and buses, which are colorfully decorated with handpainted logos and graphics, usually instructing you to "Blow Horn" when passing, or to "Use Dipper at Night" i.e. flash your lights instead of blowing your horn. Everyone is always honking in India, except at the cows, and I think it's because side-mirrors seem to be considered an unnecessary addition to the width of your vehicle which should be folded in (if possible) or sheared off ASAP. So, when you pass someone, you have to honk the whole time so they know you're there and don't try to change lanes. Also, it seems that they just change lanes without reason, without signal, and without looking, so if no one is honking then you're free to assume that the lane is open and they just go. Suffice it to say, it is an unbelievable experience to ride in a car in India.

Along the way to Agra, we left Delhi (it is its own state) and entered Uttar Pradesh, at which point we had to stop and pay some tax. Conveniently located at the place where we stopped our car were a bunch of guys with monkeys on leashes. While our driver was out paying the tax, the guys surrounded our car, putting the monkeys up on our windows and holding up crap for us to buy. Not interested in buying anything, we were interested in taking a picture of the monkeys, which Paula did. Mistake. The guys started asking for money. "Picture money! Picture money!" and we were still in our low-cash situation and really weren't that desperate for a crappy picture through a car window, so Paula deleted the photo. She tried to explain to the guy and show him that she had no picture on her camera, but he was not satiated and continued to yell "Picture money!" and get really aggressive. Fortunately we'd had the foresight to lock the doors so when he pulled on the door handle we were safe inside. At this point we were a little bit scared of the monkey guys and our driver finally came back from wherever the tax office was. W told him that we didn't have a picture, and he said "no problem" and we drove away. It was our first really bad experience with trying to take pictures, and this would have a large impact on the rest of the trip.

A while after that our driver decided, despite our objections, to stop at some touristy restaurant for lunch. We weren't very hungry and just wanted to get to the Taj Mahal, but we took the opportunity to go the bathroom, where I accidentally used the offered tissue to dry my hands and then didn't have any money to give the guy, and then we found ourselves waiting around for our driver. Our best guess is that he has some agreement with these people where he brings tourists there to eat and buy crap and they give him food for free, probably one of the rare chances for him to get a meal, judging by how skinny he was. It's sad, but it kinda sucked because we were ready to get out of there and we had to wait around a while doing nothing.

Finally, after about 5 hours or so of driving, we arrived in Agra. At one point, we caught a glimpse of the Taj Mahal in the distance and started to get excited, but in typical India fashion our excitement was soon crushed when our driver drove past the entrance and we found ourselves parked on some other street waiting for his "friend" who was a "guide" who we "couldn't" get into the Taj Mahal without, and of course would require an extra fee. At this point, Hilary started crying (the 2nd time, she cried earlier in the tour guide's office) and we told the guy to just take us to the Taj Mahal. Lonely Planet had said nothing about a guide and no one had said anything before but our driver insisted that we "had" to have a guide to get in. Also, Agra and the whole area around the Taj Mahal is no cleaner or nicer than anywhere else in India, which is a bit shocking compared to the Taj itself, and dampened our excitement a little bit as well.

As soon as we parked and exited the vehicle we were beset by some guy who flashed some credentials and started talking, and we soon figured out that he and the other two guys crowding around us were "official guides" who would be our Taj Mahal guide for about 500 rupees or something like that. We weren't exactly sure what was going on at this point but the guys swarming around us like bees were pissing us off, so we just started walking into the entranceway hoping we could find some other foreigners or something. The guides followed us/led us in by just walking the same direction as us, and the one guy seemed to be under the impression that we had hired him. We finally found some other foreigners (not Americans) but they were on their way out so we asked them if they had a guide and they said no, they'd shown up early and waited in line for about 30 minutes and gone in, no guide no problem. So we walked on. Then some random other Indian guy started asking us if we had hired the guides and we said no and he started yelling at them in Hindi. While they argued we decided to slip off to the side so we could have a moment to think. By this time the guides had admitted that we didn't need them to enter the Taj Mahal BUT they could slip us in past the queue (now probably an hour and a half wait) for a fee of 300 rupees per person (like 6 USD).

We decided to hire the guide to skip us past the queue, and so after he had argued with the random guy he came back over to us and we told him we'd hire him to get us past the line but not to go inside. They led us to the ticket office where we got our tickets and shoe covers (to be used on the white marble) and complimentary bottles of water. The line skipping turned out to be a slight rip-off since the line for ladies was basically empty and Hilary and Paula just waltzed right in, and I actually had to wait in line for 5-10 mins because as it turns out the process is totally unofficial and illegal, and they don't really get you PAST the queue they just slip you in near the front. I was feeling a little awkward about it as I stood out like a 6 foot 3 white man in India, I didn't know if we'd get away with it. Quite obviously though, the guides have some sort of arrangement with the security as they were able to just walk in with me without showing a ticket or being wanded and patted down, but their agreement is not quite good enough I guess, because our guy started walking away from us, instructing us to follow close behind and put the money in his hand, but he wouldn't look at us and when he got the money he slipped away and went back out. It was worth it though, for about 6 bucks each.

We were in.

One of the first things you notice about the Taj Mahal is the quantity of people, and the lack of foreigners. Considering the Taj Mahal's status in the world you would have thought there'd be more foreigners there, there's a few, but not as many as you'd expect. Also, the Indian people all stared at us. Like, hardcore staring. And taking pictures of us, right in our faces. It's weird, but you can sorta tell when someone is taking a picture of you and not just a picture that has you in it. There's also a large amount of clearly off-limits gardens and reflecting pools that the Indian people didn't seem to have any qualms about going into to take a picture, or just sit and hang out, or like some kids did, play in the reflecting pool. They all got yelled at for it, but they kept doing it. Like everywhere else in India, there's also a large contingent of people trying to sell stuff, namely photographers, but also guys who would just tell you where to take photos (which is annoying when you're already taking those pictures).

Classic Taj Mahal with reflection

I think just about everyone and their brother knows that you are supposed to take pictures of the Taj Mahal with its reflection in the REFLECTING POOLS. I mean, could it be more obvious? But no, this guy followed me around telling me where to take photos, photos I was already planning to take, and then expected money from me. He probably didn't want very much, but I wasn't exactly psyched about the "service" he'd provided, and I had 0 rupees, so he got nothing. The photo above is one he "suggested". It's amazing how the experience of seeing one of the most amazing artifacts in the world can be totally squashed and dampened by people trying to sell you stuff or get money or stare at you. It was really hard, in the moment, given everything that had happened to us, to appreciate the experience. Looking back it was worth it but at the time it was just so frustrating.

We made our way around and checked out the whole thing, putting on our little shoe covers to go in. Inside the Taj Mahal is actually a little disappointing, it was a bit crowded and you couldn't see the coffins very well, and you weren't allowed to take pictures which of course means I didn't like it by default. Tell me I'm not allowed to take pictures and my interest level drops about 30%. I just love taking pictures. We also had an interesting experience with some middle-age guys who I'm pretty sure took a picture of Hilary and Paula, and then kinda followed us around the outer inner rooms of the Taj. On the way out, the sun started to come out from behind the clouds so we slowly made our way out while taking even more pictures. 

We hadn't really made a plan for meeting back up with our driver so we were worried but when we got back out to the parking area, he was there just hanging out in the car. His English was not so good, so we had some communication difficulties, which really manifested themselves in our attempt to go to dinner. We tried to tell him that we wanted to go back to the place where he had stopped for lunch, the lunch we didn't eat, because it was in the middle of nowhere and we were ready to get away from people, and he said "Oh, quality restaurant!" and we thought "Oh, that's good, let's go!" HA! He quickly drove in the wrong direction back onto the road where Hilary had cried and took us to Quality Restaurant, where we could get dinner. I guess he had friends there too or something. The food was actually pretty decent and the price wasn't bad but there weren't any other people there which I think maybe should have been a red flag for us to not eat there, given future events and hindsight. 

It was starting to get late and we needed to get back to Delhi so we made a quick stop at the Red Fort just to take pictures at the entrance and then we got back in the car and started the adventurous drive back.

In addition to all the same things we saw on the way there, driving through India at night is doubly as harrowing as driving during the day. First, our driver waited a loooong time to turn on his headlights, and would frequently leave them off for a minute or two after flashing them when passing a car. Second, there were NO streetlights, None. Zero. Not a single one until we got back into Delhi. Third, most cars and trucks and all rickshaws and auto-rickshaws and bike-rickshaws and cyclists do not have brake lights. Most of those vehicles also don't have headlights, and of course there's no reflectors. Although, some motorcycles would have a CD tied to the back as a reflector, and I also saw trucks with hubcaps hanging from the back that maybe acted as a reflector, but seemed pretty dull. 

As scary as it was to rocket up behind a guy on a bike-rickshaw only to discover at the last possible moment that he has a big bundle of metal pipes sticking out behind him and realize that you just narrowly avoided being impaled, it was a bit more troubling that our driver seemed to be falling asleep at the wheel. I wasn't as worried as Hilary and Paula but they could see his eyes in the rearview mirror and said it didn't look good. After a few hours we actually stopped so he could have some tea and we let him take a nap, waking him up after about 20 mins to start driving again. We encouraged him to put on music and turn up the volume, he had one song he really liked that we heard about 70 times going there and back. Hilary and Paula tried to get a party atmosphere going in the car but I don't know how well it was working. Eventually we hit some serious traffic when we got closer to Delhi and then there wasn't any problem since the stop-and-go nature of the traffic kept him on his toes. 

Upon return to our hotel, he wanted a tip (ugh, we'd already paid over 7000 rupees to hire him, but that was through the tour guide so we don't know how much money they'd give him), and we gave him 100 but he wasn't happy and wanted 200. We laughed, told him that he fell asleep, and went inside leaving him standing there with his 2 dollars, looking unhappy.

That was our first full day in India, we'd seen the Taj Mahal, and yet we were not exactly excited given the things we'd been through, and we were feeling a little nervous about the Varanasi train situation (we didn't have tickets yet) and we had to be in Varanasi by the next day so we could stay in the hotel we'd already booked and make the flight we'd booked the next day. We'd also just read the paragraph in Lonely Planet about how we should just go straight to the Delhi train station International Tourism Bureau and ignore everyone and everything they say to you, which is basically the opposite of what we did, because they will try to redirect us to overpriced and unreliable tourism offices, which is exactly what happened to us. So we went to bed unsure of whether our tour guide's "guarantee" would come through with our train tickets. 

At this point, I was wishing we were still in Hong Kong.

Day 16 of my 365 project (1 pic/day for a year). Neon sign with moon in the sky, Guri-si. Taken December 25, 2009.

143 at Jongno intersection. Taken on Dec 14, 2009.

Christmas started for us on Christmas Eve. Hilary, Katie and I hung out at Hilary's apartment in Donong and exchanged gifts. As you can see, I received a Lego Millenium Falcon which I promptly put together. The next day, Christmas, would be for meeting up with friends and hanging out.

Our plan was first to meet up with Kenley and Stuart in Guri and have food, and then perhaps go into Seoul for a Christmas party. In Guri, we went to an "Italian" restaurant that was decent, and then to the food court at GS Square to get dessert, and debate our next move. Hilary had made tentative plans to meet up with Natalia in Seoul for a party, and eventually we decided to go, except Stuart who wasn't feeling great went home.

After hanging out at the GS Square food court for a bit, we took the train into Seoul. Exiting the subway station we were greeted by light snow and various people dressed in animal costumes handing out fliers for stuff. Shortly after this we were approached by two alligators offering free hugs.

It was sort of a white Christmas.

The party was at Bar Mario, where we met up with Hilary's friend Natalia from Argentina who she met in Spain. He parents are Korean and she's been living in Korea for a short while, so she speaks Korean but she communicates with Hilary in Spanish, as English is her worst language. Mario, the owner of the bar, was interested in Hilary, and then when he found out she had a boyfriend he switched his attention to Katie. Regardless, he liked us and that resulted in us getting free drinks. After we got ourselves some beers, Mario showed up at our table with some Jagermeister shots in test tubes, it was the start of something wonderful.

In the Christmas spirit, we were also provided with free alcoholic eggnog. After that, there was another round of Jager and then Mario dropped a bomb on us. He told us we could have anything we wanted, on the house. Someone foolishly suggested tequila, and we tried to insist that we just wanted a round of tequila shots. Mario wouldn't listen, and he came back with a whole tequila bottle, and things got really crazy from there.

Mario pouring us our first round of tequila shots. Next to Natalia are her two friends who were really nice and cool but I can't remember their names, seeing as we managed four rounds of shots from that tequila bottle.

Things started to spin, and after we spent some good time chatting and drinking at our table, everyone was drunk enough to get up and dance and act like fools. I think this picture adequately reflects the dizziness of the night.

Kenley laughing about something.

Mario nearly fell over but luckily Katie saved him. Mario was all over her, they actually kissed thanks to Hilary, who pushed Mario to do it. Katie wasn't really into it but it was hilarious and luckily Mario didn't remember the next day.

In the taxi going back to Donong.

The next day we went to see Avatar. Waiting in Starbucks near the theater for our group to form up, we found this awesome sign.

After Avatar, we headed down to Jongno to get Indian food at the restaurant behind the Bolshingak bell.

Natalia, in color replace mode on my Canon S90.

Stuart was with us again for the movie and dinner, here he is after dinner at the station on our way home. It was the best (and only) drunk Christmas ever.

In December, John had to return to Korea for some more deposing of witnesses for his case, and this time my oldest sister Elise came also. I managed to secure a couple days off work to hang out with her for the week while John did work. One of her goals, being pregnant, was to buy Korean baby books, and so we'd end up spending a lot of time in bookstores during our sightseeing outings.

They came on December 12th, and I met up with them at their hotel in Gangnam, Seoul, and stayed there with them to facilitate tourism. It was really cool to have them visit, and really nice to see some family. The photo above was taken by Hilary at the hotel's breakfast buffet. As you can see, Elise ate so much that her stomach is bulging way out. Or, she's pregnant, not sure.

The first thing we did was go back to the National Museum, this being my 3rd time there. Luckily, it's free and really big, so this time we spent a lot of time on the 2nd and 3rd floors seeing the art rather than the historical stuff on the 1st floor that we'd already seen.

Day 2 was just Elise and I and we did a walking tour of Seoul. Hilary had the GEPIK training that weekend so she was able to stay the night with us at the hotel but she had to go back for the lectures in the morning. We started the walking tour at Namdaemun, the southern gate of Seoul. Sadly, someone set fire to Namdaemun a few years ago and burned it down, so it's still enclosed in a giant building while it's being repaired. The picture above is Elise after pretending to cry about not seeing the gate. Rest assured, we would see a gate before all was said and done. The tour then went through Namdaemun outdoor market, with a stop in Shinsaegae Dept Store, the most elite of department stores in Seoul.

Leaving Namdaemun market brought us to the old Bank of Korea, one of the few remaining examples of colonial Japanese architecture. The Japanese ruled Korea for about 35-40 years until when they were defeated in WWII and the Allies freed Korea so they could colonize it themselves, leading to the USA and USSR splitting the country along the 38th parallel, causing the Korean War and creating the DMZ. 

From the old Bank of Korea, we walked towards the center of downtown Seoul, stopping in at this Anglican church, the only (?) church of this style and design in South Korea.

After the church we passed by City Hall and the big plaza downtown where Koreans do most of their protesting, and found our way to this street I don't know the name of. It's possibly the main-est of streets, given that it is home to statues of King Sejong (above) and Admiral Yi Sun-shin (not pictured), as well as the start of Cheonggyecheon stream and leads right up to Seodaemun and Gyeongbokgung (Gyeongbok palace), the West gate of Seoul and one of the biggest palaces in Korea. The statues are situated on a large island between the lanes of traffic on either side, and the street is so wide when the little countdown timer starts at the crosswalk it gives you more than 30 seconds from when the walk sign starts flashing.

Further down the island, past the statues, we found an ice rink and a snowboarding hill under construction. Also, these oddly painted statues were all over, each done by a different artist. We weren't sure about the snowboard hill at the time, but later I saw on TV some video of guys snowboarding off the jump in some sort of demonstration thing.

Here's Elise crossing Cheonggyecheon (Cheonggye stream/river). There used to be a stream flowing through the center of Seoul, until it was paved over with a road to help manage traffic problems. Anyway, the former mayor of Seoul decided to do away with that road, and he tore it out and put the stream back, he also committed to improving buses and subways, and Seoul's traffic has actually gone down since the stream was reincarnated. He proceeded to then get elected President of Korea. We stopped just shortly after this at a Mr. Pizza (Love for Women) for lunch and then headed on to Jongno intersection where we found a giant bookstore and met up with Hilary.

Elise bought so many Korean baby/children's books that the cashier had to call for reinforcements and they counted the stacks multiple times to make sure they weren't missing any. John had mixed feelings about all the book purchasing.

We went up Jongno Tower to have a look down on Seoul from the 33rd floor. We were informed there was a cafe up there, but all we found was a super fancy restaurant so we went back down.

Jongno intersection is the site of Bolshingak, this bell pavilion. We'd be back there later.

Our next day started at Tapgol Park, the site where Korean students gathered to proclaim Korean independence, home to the stone pagoda pictured, National Treasure of Korea #2.

Then it was back to the Bolshingak belfry to see the bell. By pure accident we were there just in time to witness a bell-ringing ceremony, or so we thought. They let us in to the pavilion, and since it was so cold we were just about the only ones there, and we stood around a bit taking pictures and wondering when the bell-ringing would start. Then, a Korean tour guide led a couple Korean guys in and took them up to the battering ram and began prepping them to ring the bell. Since we were the only other people there, and we were awesomely foreign, he came and offered us 2 spots on the bell-ringer. Hilary and I accepted the invitation and Elise took pictures and video (coming soon), while we helped the guy ring the bell 12 times (he's on the far right above).

Behind Bolshingak we found a great Indian/Nepali restaurant, and again Elise ate all the food.

After Bolshingak we headed to Dongdaemun Toy Street, an amazing street featuring shops that sell all the toys you could ever want, at warehouse prices. Hilary bought a Lego Millenium Falcon that would become my Christmas present.

When we were sick of toys, we went and saw Dongdaemun, the east gate of Seoul. Finally, we saw a gate that wasn't covered for construction. Seodaemun (the west gate), at the end of the street with the Sejong statue, was enclosed in a protective housing while being repaired, just like Namdaemun.

Another picture of Dongdaemun, from the front.

Elise, Hilary and I stopped into a coffee shop across the street from Dongdaemun where we chatted and Elise told us funny college stories about her and John.

We went to Coex mall where there's a board game cafe, and John and Elise taught me how to play Settlers of Catan.

Elise and John came out to Maseok for an evening, in the photo above we're at Eomaejib, a great dwejikalbi restaurant.

After dinner, we went to a noraebang for a couple hours and sang the night away.

Back in Seoul at the hotel, John does some work. Always working.

We went back to Coex mall, but before going in we were intrigued by a sign for the Coex Artium, and thinking it might be some sort of art gallery, we went up. Turns out it's a theater where they're showing performances of a Korean-adaptation of Legally Blonde (the Korean actress had to dye her hair/wear a wig). We didn't stick around for that though, and found our way to a cool little roof garden where we admired the really tall building above us, and our view of the roof of the building next to us, before heading back in.

Inside Coex mall is the Kimchi museum, where you can learn the history of kimchi and learn about all the different varieties, as well as the methods of making kimchi and why it's so good for you.

Hilary and I pose for a picture in front of a kimchi pot display.

Back in the hotel, we played Settlers of Catan, which after we had played at Coex I decided to buy.

We went out for a late dinner of samgyupsal at a restaurant near the hotel, and then the next day Elise and John left back to America. We had a pretty awesome week hanging out together, and I'm sure John had a great time doing depositions all day every day. I know there's not much anecdote here, but I like doing the epic picture posts so that's what I'm serving these days. Click on them to head over to Flickr and see the rest of the set, I got a lot of good ones.

Hilary and I went back to the National Museum to finish up what we started with John, and met up with Hilary's friend Natalia, with whom we had Italian food in Itaewon afterward. Not much to say about this visit but I took some photos I want to share. The first, above, is some columns out in front of the museum, and that's all I know about them. Also, this was before thanksgiving, even though the blog posts are out of order.

Panorama of the National museum as seen from the reflecting pool, which was closed off for construction the 1st time we came.

The museum's main entrance.

From the steps on the backside of the museum, looking down at the tiny little Korean people.

A statue on display in the museum.

A bell, looks like a smaller version of the one at Bolshingak, which you'll learn more about later.

People.

Hilary checking out some long painting.

A column.

Hilary and Natalia chatting. After this it was off to Itaewon for some delicious Italian food, and then back home.

For Thanksgiving, we actually managed to have a pretty traditional dinner, thanks to the efforts of Hilary, Katie and Stuart. The key was a box of stuffing mix sent by Katie's family, but it wasn't the only thing. Stuart brought mashed potatoes and with it, gravy. I didn't do any of the cooking but I did bring some extra sweet potatoes. It's difficult and expensive to get turkey in this country, but Katie got some chickens to make up for that. All in all, we had chicken, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, stuffing, gravy and rolls, a good Thanksgiving meal considering the circumstances.

The day after, Hilary, Katie and I went into Seoul and saw a couple palaces and hung out with Kenley and Stuart. Not much else to say about it but I've included some pictures.

Some public art in Seoul, near Anguk station and Changdeokgung (Changdeok Palace).

We had to wait for an official tour to get into Changdeokgung, so we went around the block to a small, cheap "palace" to spend some time.

Changdeokgung.

Palacial throne.

Changdeokgung was actually a pretty cool palace, very expansive with lots of cool stuff to see in lots of different spots throughout.

Outside the palace after the tour, we did a little exploration of the backstreets and found a little playground with slides and some bars to swing on. We played around there until some Korean kids came around and ruined the fun, then it was time to go. Overall, it was a pretty good Thanksgiving weekend.