Category: Travel

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Tuesday/ packing up

I am getting ready to go out on Wednesday for my next trip to China.  It’s a new project.  So last chance for anything that needs to go with to make the cut and jump into my suitcases. (If only it were possible to snap my fingers and the suitcases just assemble themselves! ).

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Friday/ so long, longhorn

This Texas Longhorn looked down at me as I was exiting the security clearance into the departure area at Bush Intercontinental Airport’s C Terminal to make the 4½ hr flight back to Seattle. These cattle are known for their diverse coloring and despite the fearsome and long pointed horns, generally have a gentle disposition and intelligence.  The longhorn is the official animal of Fort Worth, Texas, which is therefore nicknamed ‘Cowtown’.

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Thursday/ more Houston architecture

I finally had some time before the sun set on Thursday to walk around downtown Houston and snap some pictures.  At the courthouse a guard chided me, said I am not allowed to take pictures (because it’s a federal building).  What a sad state of affairs, I thought – if citizens cannot even take pictures of their own city’s or country’s courthouses and buildings.   But then one of my colleagues pointed me to a 2010 New York Times article http://lens.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/10/18/you-can-photograph-that-federal-building/ that says the guard was wrong.  As a general rule – a photographer can stand in a public place and take pictures of federal buildings.

Houston's starter light rail system runs from downtown to the the Fannin South station by Interstate 45.
This is the First United Methodist Church on Clay street in downtown Houston.
This is the elevated circular walkway at the base of the Chevron tower on 1400 Smith street.
The Allen Center is just a workhorse office block close by the Chevron tower but I like the glass-enclosed entrance with the escalators up to the entrance lobby.
This building was formerly the headquarters of Gulf Oil (whose gas stations have long since left the gulf coast but are still found in New England). It was built in 1929, and is a beautiful example of Art Deco architecture.
More art deco styling at 815 Walker Avenue in downtown.
More art deco from the JP Morgan Chase (formerly Gulf Oil) building.

 

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Tuesday/ more Houston

This is the Chevron tower on 1400 Smith which was built in 1982, formerly occupied by Enron.
The building with the stepped top is the Heritage Plaza, completed last major office building completed in downtown Houston in the midst of the collapse of the Texas real estate, banking, and oil industries in the 1980s.in 1987,
This is the view from the 29th floor in my firm's offices in downtown Houston where I do training instruction this week. The UFO sits atop the Hyatt Regency Hotel and houses the open-view elevator shafts.

 

It’s Thursday and I see I left this post in ‘Draft’ mode so it’s now late! but here it is.

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Monday/ arrival in Houston

I am staying downtown in Houston and still need to go out and take more pictures of the steel and glass architecture.

This is the view toward the east from my hotel room on the 19th floor in the Hyatt downtown with the setting sun's reflection.
Don't look down if you are afraid of heights! The windows from the inside elevators in the Hyatt's enormous 30 story tall inside lobby provides a spectacular view. I am on my way down to get a beer and a bite to eat right there in the lobby bar.
Arrival at Houston Intercontinental airport late Sunday afternoon.
Not all buildings downtown are perfectly square. I did not write down the names of these two office towers.

 

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Sunday/ to Houston

I’m on the way to Houston for the week for work.   What used to be a Continental flight is now United Airlines and there is no spare seat on the flight : that’s the way we fly these days, it seems.   (And no, I’m not sitting up front in the big seats, but I did get an exit row seat, so I have a little extra leg room).

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Saturday/ in Seattle

It’s still Saturday and I have arrived in a sunny and clear Seattle – same as Hong Kong was when we left it.  It was the usual 3 1/2 hrs to Seoul with a connection time of an hour before we did the 9 hour trek east to the West coast of the USA.  There was a diagram of the trajectory of the North Korean rocket in the Korean newspaper.

This is Gate 19 at Hong Kong airport with a long walkway out to the Asiana plane.
This picture from the Korea Joongang dialy newspaper shows the trajectory of the North Korean rocket launched on Friday.
Our flight path from Seoul to Seattle went over Tokyo.

 

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Saturday/ at Chek Lap Kok Airport, Hong Kong

My Google Latitude position on the way to Lantau island, bottom left. I have just crossed the mainland border by foot. It took a little time today since I was not the only 'Foreigner' in my line (meaning the 'Foreigner' lines that are usually wide open were open to mainlanders as well).
This is on the Shenzhen side of the Hong Kong-mainland border.

I am at Hong Kong International Airport, bags checked and all.  I am always a little stunned when I am done packing to see how much stuff can be squished into a suitcase.  (Many years ago when I used to pack the family car’s trunk for a road trip with everyone’s stuff and food, I had the same experience).   I am stopping over in Seoul, and then on to Seattle for an arrival in the middle of the day.

 

 

 

 

 

From Wikipedia : Bird's eye view of Chek Lap Kok Airport (local name for Hong Kong International airport). The old airport that was surrounded by high-rise buildings with one runway jutting into Victoria Harbor was Kai Tak Airport, and closed in July 1998.
Colorful mural made by local school kids, celebrating the new airport's 10th birthday in 2008.

 

 

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Friday/ all packed up and checked in

I have packed my two bags and checked in on-line with Asiana Airlines. (And hey, nice to know the airspace is now clear of North Korean rockets.  The rocket was launched this at 7.39am this morning but broke apart before leaving the atmosphere).  I don’t have a scale to weigh my bags but I think I’m under the 70 lb mark.

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Friday/ Cherry Blossoms

The official 2012 poster for the National Cherry Blossom Festival in Washington DC by artist Peter Max. (Is that Uncle Sam on his way to the Capitol?).

It’s the centennial of the National Cherry Blossom Festival in Washington DC.  And the blossoms (called sakura) are out in Japan as well.  Cherry blossom forecasts are available on-line for both places so that visitors can time it just right.

Check out Google’s ‘Street View guide to Japan: Cherry Blossom Season Edition’ with 360° views at the most popular sites there.

Here is the link  http://www.google.com/intl/en-US/landing/japanview/#cherryblossoms

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Thursday/ the road less costly?

This is from a recent Wall Street Journal : a guy that takes his folding bicycle with on international trips to save his company money on taxi fare.  And he refuses to fly business class on 16-hr flights to India, he says.  ‘I would never dream of spending an extra thousand dollars to stay in a hotel room that’s slightly more comfortable than the bed I get in a $100 hotel room. Why would I do that with an airline seat?’.

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Wednesday/ Tomb Sweeping Day

A little shrine on the sidewalk near the hotel in Sheung Wan area in Hong Kong.

Wednesday was Tomb Sweeping Day.  I found the colorful little shrine on the sidewalk in Hong Kong near the hotel (those are incense sticks in the tray). Some enterprising individuals have started to offer tomb sweeping as a service, but it is not without controversy.  Can one really outsource the activities that go with remembering someone very personal and close?  (No – the point that the cartoon from the South China Morning Post is also making).

Cartoon from the Wednesday edition of the South China Morning Post addressing the use of tomb sweeping services instead of doing it oneself.

 

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Tuesday/ Hong Kong update

Life goes on in Hong Kong after the conclusion of a bitter election for new Chief Executive.  Leung Chun-ying or Leung CY was elected by the 1,200-member Electoral Committee over Henry Tang and Albert Ho in a campaign marked scandals, dirty tactics and smears.   The city also had some protests against the Electoral Committee, saying every resident should get to vote (of course).  Then last week there was the arrest of two billionaire brothers Thomas and Robert Kwok who run Hong Kong’s top property developer in a high-profile corruption probe.  They proclaimed their innocence at a news conference yesterday, and were released on bail.

The pictures are all from Monday night.

The gold dragon in the jewelry store did not have a price tag, but it might be as much as $US 50,000.
I took this picture from the tram. The stately old Western Market building in Sheung Wan close to the hotel is now a theatre.
This is a very large Easter rabbit ! It's in front of the new iSquare mall building in Tsim Tsa Tsui.
Japanese strawberries for sale in the Sogo department's store's basin.
One of the many tunnels in the MTR. The train gets you where you need to be, but sometimes you walk 5 or 10 mins to get to the other line that you connect to.

 

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Sunday/ hello Hong Kong

I think these flags on the Hong Kong side of the road after the Shatoujiao crossing have been put up for the Qingming Festval but I am not sure.
The Lion Rock tunnel is on the Kowloon side (the peninsula and not Hong Kong Island) and is near the Kowloon Tong station.

Our belated holiday weekend (the Qingming Festival or Tombsweeping Festival) has arrived.  We are all very happy – double happy – to get a break from the grind on the project.   The start-up went well, but it is always necessary to stick around for a few weeks to coach the new users and to work out any remaining  wrinkles with the new system.  So Sunday night finds me at my old haunt – the Marriott Courtyard – on Hong Kong Island.  I took a coach bus from the Shatoujiao border crossing to Kowloon Tong station, and from there a taxi to the Marriott on the western side of Hong Kong Island.

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Wednesday/ back to Incheon airport

View from the Airport Express train. We're approaching Incheon airport, so this waterway is probably connected to the ocean (Incheon airport is on an island ).

By Wednesday morning it was time to pack up and check out to go to the airport for my flight back to Hong Kong.  By now I was a ‘pro’ at using the Metro and finding the Airport Express train at Seoul station.  Confession : it’s not that hard to be a pro when you have an interactive map of the Seoul metro on your smart phone!  Still, it takes a few run-throughs to know which exits from the stations to take.  Take the wrong one, and it might be a long walk to the next street crossing because you’re on the wrong side of a busy highway!

I just stepped off the train after arriving (the one below), and I'm taking the escalator up into the passenger terminal at Incheon airport. The latticework overhead looks like stainless steel.

 

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Tuesday/ the War Memorial of Korea

The War Memorial of Korea is a sprawling facility with military hardware on display and coverage of wars fought on the Korean Peninsula from ancient times.  The most recent one of course, was the Korean War of 1950-1953.  I also made a stop at Yongsan station where the electronics market is but did not buy anything.  (1. The new iPad is not yet on sale in Korea. The 4G frequencies in the country are different from what the iPad has been designed for and some of that is still being worked out. 2. I cannot possibly lug around even one more device with me on my travels, anyway).

The main entrance to the War Memorial of Korea. It is a sprawling complex, with an outside area with military hardware on display as well (airplanes and boats and cannons).
Yongsan station is where the electronics market is (large department stores with cubicles selling computers, cameras, phones and tablets).
A peek at the plaza outside Yongsan station.
Here's General Motors Korea putting its wares on display inside Yongsan train station. Some of them are Cruzes, and the little grey one on the left is a 2012 Chevrolet Sonic sub-compact.
I love the colors on this suburban train.
This is the 'Brothers Statue' at the War Memorial of Korea.
Close by is the Korean War Monument, with bronze soldiers in action at its base.
There is a lot of movement in these bronze soldiers 'in action' at the base of the Korean War Monument.
The Korean War (1950-1953) is well documented inside the museum. I did not realize how perilously close to losing all of the peninsula, South Korea came. This area around what is known today as Busan port was at one point the last stand. (On 15th Sep 1950, General MacArthur landed American and South Korean marines at Inchon, 200 miles behind the North Korean lines, which was also a turning point).
This is a night picture of the Rainbow Bridge at 8 pm at Dongjak station. I read on-line that at 8 pm each night, water is pumped through a series of nozzels along the edge of the bridge and colored with LED lighting. Well, I was there at 8 and NONE of that happened ! .. I will have to check into it and find out if I was at the wrong place or there at the wrong time, or both. The speck on the hilltop in the distance is Seoul Tower.
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Monday/ more Seoul

My first stop of the day was at the fish market at Noryanjin station.   Then I went back to Seoul station to go check out the exterior in daytime.  After that I made a quick stop at the Naedamun street market and then went off to see if I could find the cable car boarding station for Seoul Tower.  I did, eventually!

This sign is almost unnecessary (you can smell the fish market!) .. on the overpass at Noryangjin station on Line 1.
The fish market is a large open warehouse with lots of vendors selling anything you might find in the sea.
Some octopus for you? 
Which way to go? (The newer signs inside the metro stations are very clear, so these old metal floor signs have fallen out of use).
Here is the exterior of the old arrival and departure hall at Seoul station. The new station hall is all glass and steel and not nearly as interesting as this one.
The sign and the Korean flag on the new Seoul station arrival and departure hall.
The entrance to the Namdaemun fashion street market. A fancy department store is right across the street behind it.
I think this marketer’s outfit is of a traditional Korean warrior. Very nice. I want to dress up as a Korean warrior when the next Halloween comes by.
See Seoul Tower in this picture? This foot path with stairs go all the way up to the Tower. But it was only a few degrees above freezing, so I walked down again to the cable station to take the cable car up to the Tower.
This is on the way up, a view from the cable car. The building looks new but is in the traditional Korean architecture.
Here is the view of the tower after one arrives in the cable car. There is another elevator up to the observation deck. The tower was built in 1969 and opened to the public in 1980. Its height is 236.7 m (777 ft) from the base.
This view is from the observation deck, looking north. (Wow. The distance to the north pole given to the nearest 10 meters!   5,837.57 km comes to 3,637 miles).
The Han river flows through Seoul. There are already 6 subway lines crossong it, and by 2018 there will be three more crossings, but these will be tunnels beneath the riverbed. Check out the cluster of white apartment buildings on the left. Seoul’s population is about 11 million people (seouls? seoulites?).
The Han River flows through Seoul and then merges with the Imjin River shortly before it flows into the Yellow Sea. The total length of the Han River (to include its tributaries the Namhan and Bukhan Rivers) is approximately 514 kilometres (319 mi). Although it is not a long river, the lower Han is remarkably wide for such a relatively short river.
[Picture and text from Wikipedia]
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Sunday/ modern Seoul architecture

I read about the GT Tower East with its wavy exterior and had to go and take a look at it.  It is by Gangnam station (use exit 9) between several other modern financial company buildings and Samsung buildings. Sunday night I went to check out Itaewon – the gritty expat area with bars and nightclubs, popular with US army personnel from the base nearby.

Gangnam station is in one of the most affluent areas of Seoul, located in the southeast.
These buildings are right by exit 9 of Gangnam station, I assume most of them are of financial institutions.
Here is the spectacular GT Tower East building 'making its waves' for me. It is 130m (390 ft) tall and was completed only recently (Feb 2011). It was a collaboration of Dutch architectural firm ArchitectenConsort and Hankil Architects & Engineers from Seoul.
These hands are at the base of the GT Tower East.
The Boutique Monaco building is close by and about as tall at 117 m (382 ft). It was completed in 2008 and designed by Cho Minsuk and Park Kisu.
This is one of several Samsung buildings in the area. My picture was taken by a Chinese student. She 'accosted' me right there on the street - she needed someone to film her in front of the building while she did a little speech to apply for a internship at Samsung.
This is a few blocks in from the main streets with the glass and steel buildings where the restaurants and bar signs jostle for business from the foot traffic.
Yes, I would like a dumpling. And your name is Mr. .. ? I cannot read Korean 🙁
Here's the sign for Itaewon station. I had to switch train lines twice to get to the darn place ..
.. and ended up checking out only the outsides without going into any one of the establishments. Some are holes in the wall, others are in the basement and still others are on the 3rd or 4th floor of a building.
The Dubai restaurant promising Arab food on top of an Dunkin Donuts and a Mr Kebab !

 

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Saturday/ Saemungil Museum Street

The two ancient royal palaces in Seoul are connected with Saemungil Museam Street and Sejong Main Street.  I first went to Gyungbokgung Palace and then I walked down to Changdeokgung Palace, spending a lot of time in the underground museum with its entrance at the statue of a seated King Sejong The Great.  I only made it to the entrance of the second palace, and plan to go inside tomorrow.

My 'home' station, the one closest to the hotel. 'Young dump-o' helps me to remember it.
A street scene outside Gwanghwamun station. Lots of (Korean-made) Hyundai and Kia cars on the streets, of course.
Here the layout of the two palaces that shows how they are connected with the Museum Street and Sojong Main Street. Watch for following pictures of the two statues on the Main Street.
These two stony-faced guys are outside the Seoul National Museum of Korea.
This is the first entrance to the Gyungbokgung Palace. First constructed in 1394 and reconstructed in 1867, it was the main and largest palace of the Five Grand Palaces built by the Joseon Dynasty. The original palaces consisted of hundreds of buildings on many acres.
The corner of the main palace hall. There is an on-going reconstruction effort to restore more of the original buildings.
A peek is given to visitors into the inside of the main palace building. That's the throne with golden dragon decorations.
This ine is for my Seattle readers and friends! I'm in the traffic mirror, and that figure with the hammer in the background is exactly the same one we have in downtown Seattle in front of the Art Museum. Hmm, which one was first? I will have to check into it.
Here is the monument for the legendary Admiral Yi Sun-sin. He is one of the most revered figures in Korean history - an oustanding leader, strategist and ship-builder and died in late 1598, in the Battle of Noryang, the final confrontation of the Imjin War with the Japanese.
Admiral Yi's famous 'turtle ship' with a closed deck.
This is a 1:55 wooden scale model of a turtle ship inside the museum.
This picture from a short documentary shown inside the museum of the wars that raged in the Korean islands around 1600. Those ships with the rising sun flags are Japanese, of course .. and a bloody sea battle is about to start.
This is King Sejong the great (hold still kids, so mom can take a nice picture!). He appears on Korean bank notes, and is credited with using military technology (think cannons and gunpowder) to strengthen his kingdom. He is also credited with creating Hangul, the Korean characters what are in wide use today for the written language. 1397, t
Here's the entrance to Changdeokgung Palace. I haven't gone inside yet.
A mural on the street promoting Seoul.
This is Jongno Tower, a 33-story office building owned by Samsung Securities. It was built in 1999.
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Friday/ arrival in Seoul

My trip from Hong Kong airport went very well.  My plan to get from Incheon airport in Seoul to the Marriott Courtyard hotel at Seoul Times Square was not too bad, either.   I did have a little trouble spotting the hotel in the dark and wet weather at my arrival at the closest metro stop.  It was just a four block walk but the darn Marriott hotel sign was on the opposite side of the Times Square buildings (of course!).

This sign was posted at the entrance to the baggage claim. No meat allowed! NO! NO! (I love the angry cows and pigs!).
The Kookmin Bank. ‘Kook min’ means exactly ‘Cooking a little’ in Afrikaans. I guess that’s MY bank! (Sigh. I would love to cook MORE, but I have to be home to do that).
.. and here’s the Woori Bank. Is that a Korean or Australian (Aboriginal) name?
The highest currency Korean note – 50,000 won. And how much is that? About US$44.
The super luxe connection from the airport terminal to the Incheon train station : all gleaming steel and glass and curves.
ere’s what you need to ride the Metro and buy yourself little snacks and knick knacks at the 7-11s and Family Marts : a T-money card.
The big blue line comes in from Incheon airport at the west of the city.
I took the Airport Express (ArEx) to Seoul station and then the Metro Line 1 down to Yeongdeungpo station. (Even the anglicised names are not easy to work with for a Westerner!)
Waiting at the Seoul metro station on Line 1 for the train to Yeongdeungpo station.
A cute whimsical display of Seoul station’s outside. There is a little model train that runs around and around, too. I will try to get some real pictures this weekend.
This is a peek outside Seoul station before I made my way down to the Metro station.
The huge display on the Seoul Square building is striking, because it is animated and the people keep ‘walking’ from right to left.