31.8.11

York


I am not a fan of the North.

Actually, excluding Oxford, Cambridge and maybe Brighton, I find most of England outside London quite scary. So I wasn’t thrilled to be informed that my company was sending me up to York for work. My last company had sent me to some northern towns (Manchester, Leeds) and they had certainly left me underwhelmed.

York, however, proved to be somewhat different. I actually enjoyed my trip up there. I was lucky with the weather, it was warm and sunny most of the day, with the rain starting only as I was already heading back to the train station for my return, and I had time to walk around and explore in the sun. The city centre is quite small and quaint. I was surprised that there were actually a fair number of tourists about, a surprisingly large number of whom were German. Before my trip, my mother had reminded me that my favourite museum when I was a child had been the Jorvik Centre, which I clearly remember adoring when I was about 10 or so (the last time I was in York). Curious to see if it would hold up to my childhood memories, I went to have a look. The museum is dedicated to the period in the late 9th century and first half of the 10th century when York was the centre of Viking operations in Britain. It attempts to recreate parts of the city as they would have looked under the Norse Kings, based on excavations done in the area. Clearly, it is a museum aimed at children. You go downstairs and hop into a little pod that looks like something from a ride in a theme park, which is used to transport you around the recreated city. Seeing it as an adult, it struck me a bit kitsch, but still interesting. The museum is well put together and it certainly examines a fascinating period. it also gave me a better appreciation of the streets above ground and structure of the city as it is today, so when i resumed my above-ground wanderings, everything seemed better put into context.

8.8.11

snapshots of Korea- history


when HS, one of my young Korean acquaintances, was 7, he came over and asked me what car my parents drove. i said Toyota. he looked interested and came over and whispered in my ear that he liked Toyotas, but i should tell his parents that. when i asked why, he said it was because Koreans dont like Japanese cars.
Koreans have reasons to dislike the Japanese, and the Japanese, unlike the germans, have failed to apologise for their wartime atrocities. That said, the Koreans get their revenge in their history, or so i gather visiting a prison that has been converted into a museum in North west Seoul. It was constructed beginning in 1907 while Korea was a force protectorate of Japan, and it was used during the Japanese occupation as a torture centre, where many Korean patriots lost their lives. the museum is anxious to remind everyone of this, and walking around, you cant help but coming away with the impression that the Japanese were sub human barbarians. What the museum rather draws a veil over is the fact that the Japanese occupation ended in 1945, and the prison was used continuously by the South Korean government, which at times failed to recognise the civil and human right its own citizens, until 1987. However, that last 42 year period is ignored to filled the walls of tales of "patriotic martyrs" dying for Korean freedom. I wonder if Asia will ever revisit its wartime wounds.

snapshots of korea- portraits


A lot of places i go, especially in the provinces, i see portrait studios where families can get their portrait done. this appears to be a massive industry and appears to provide an interesting reflection of the values that are important to provincial Koreans. there seem to be two main types, the massive portraits that include several generations and have everyone in traditional dress, and the more modern, showing just an immediate nuclear family. in the latter type, everyone wears modern Western clothes. the fathers all look like respectable salary men. the women have floral like tops and pearls. the son, if there is one (and there are always 2 children it seems) is often in military uniform, preferably what looks like officer wear. the daughters always look serious but feminine. i wonder how many families commission such works? do they hang them in their living rooms?

snapshots of korea- suwon


the Seoul metro is amazing. it goes out more than 40 kilometres in various directions. so, for just over one GBP, i was able to take the metro out to Suwon, a city of over 1 million people about 30 kilometres from the capital. It is traditionally known as "The City of Filial Piety". the cool thing is that it is a totally walled city, the last remaining one of its kind in South Korea. you can spend the whole day wandering the palaces and the exterior wall. If friends hadnt pointed me to it, i never would have known of Suwon's existence, reminding me how lucky i am to have local guides. without them i think it would be easy to miss alot in this country.

Snapshots of korea- my hotel


i decided to stay in a more traditional hotel. i dont know why. i was seriously tempted by some of the ultra modern posh hotels like the Park Hyatt, and they were even quite affordable. but i have stayed in a lot of 5 star business oriented hotels, so i decided to go for something different. i think it was a good choice. i found myself near a major market, up a winding street past several small restaurants and great smells. the hotel was still 4 star, but it had an older feel. it had the typical and ever baffling Asian-hotel light system, controlled by a box by the bed (you know- the one where you press 5 buttons and turn on every light in the area before finding the total off one for sleeping!) and slippers for every occasion. it even had a box that looked like a microwave for disinfecting things and a toilet that got disinfected several times a day

snapshots of korea-the provinces


i try to do some trips outside the capital, and i go to the capital of the old Silla Empire, Gyeong ju. the town is really spread out, so i rent a bike and cycle around. i dont see a single non-Korean the whole time i am there. i wander through parks and watch people working. i have a massive meal in a restaurant after barely making out, having just learned enough of the alphabet to get by. it seems impossible to put in words how spectacular this city must have been back in its heyday when it united the Korean peninsula for the first time....back when Europeans were locked in the provinciality of the dark ages, the Silla Kingdom conquered the other two kingdoms in the area,Baekje in 660 and Goguryeo in 668. we were behind even then....
accidentally, i wander past a wedding party and get invited to join, and i do with pleasure

snapshots of korea- palaces


there are amazing palaces in Seoul. I tried to go to as many as i could, although Gyeongbokgung was definitely my favourite. architecturally, they are amazingly intricate, with inner layers leading on to other inner layers followed by gardens and more layers. it astounds me how little we know in Europe about Asian kingdoms, their architecture, history and way of life. but Asians themselves are far from ignorant of their history- all the palaces were filled with tourists. The tourists were overwhelmingly Korean, although i did see some Chinese and Japanese. representing the Western world, i saw one small group of Argentine tourists....and that was it. it is our loss really, we are missing a lot by not paying more attention to this fascinating civilisation. on the one hand you would think the Korean government would do more to encourage tourism, given that Korea has the makings of a tourist mecca- affordable and decent hotels, beautiful nature, great shopping and a rich history.....but they dont seem to do much propaganda abroad. maybe they dont want our dirty, uncouth western tourists? i might not blame them.....

snapshots of korea- teenage fun



i have known two korean kids since they were 4 and 7. i knew them in Moscow, and they took the time to show me their Korea when i was in Seoul. we got slurpies at smoothie king and wandered around the shops of Myeongdong. we went into the "cool" shops like Codes Combine, Giordano and Bean Pole and ate amazing food and drank soju. The big teenage korean fashion rage is wearing fake glasses, sometimes with fake lenses, sometimes with no lenses at all. We went by the movie theatres to see what was on. We then went to their house when their cousin was playing video games obsessively. amazing.

6.8.11

random notes on packaging


my new job has required me to focus alot on consumers and their behaviour- what make people do the things they do? why do people in one country buy an item obsessively, whilst elsewhere the product cant sell at all. obviously these are large questions that necessitate a book long answer, but my point is just to say that as of late, i have been a bit more observant of random matters like packaging. most people dont give the subject a whole lot of thought, although it is a multi-billion pound industry, and based on what i see in seoul, I would imagine packaging gurus are flourishing in this country. I realise i am generalising horribly here, but i have the impression Koreans love packaging. everything i buy comes beautifully packaged, often with several layers. the supermarkets resemble a museum of packaging ideas, with items seemingly packed for the sole purpose of showing off their clever packaging. the shelves of supermarkets are filled with neatly arranged and brightly packaged items. everything looks neat and organised. I am sure it must be an environmentalist's nightmare, but i am simply mesmerised by aesthetic elements, and the time and effort planning something that will ultimately be ripped up and dumped in the bin.

1.8.11

food




Everyone know my love of Korean food. Along with Chinese and Indian (ok, and Mexican), it is one of my favourites. I had it from time to time as a child, but it was really living in Moscow that I started to become obsessed. There was a cheap Korean place in my dormitory building at Moscow State University that served a cheap bipinbop. It was the best culinary option around (the other being stolovaya) and although it wasn’t brilliant, I became a regular. Later, working with Koreans in Moscow, I was able to experience more refined (and better quality) Korean cuisine. I soon came to know all the Korean places in Moscow, and to frequent them. Korean friends taught me to make kim bop. Moving to London, I quickly made a point of finding the best Korean restaurants and supermarkets where I could get my Kimchi fix. So when I booked my tickets to Seoul, food was the first thing on my mind. Despite the disadvantage of being vegetarian (which is a massive minus in Korea), i ate well everywhere.

Of course I immediately rushed to try the Korean dishes I already knew- bipinbop, kim bop, and the ever-present kimchi, but there were also many dishes to discover.

One of the great things about Korea is that there are open air street markets everywhere that serve local dishes, and the hygiene standards are so high that, unlike in some countries, you can select whatever you want knowing it will be completely safe. The markets are also great because you can see the food, decide what looks interesting, and have a small portion, before moving on to the next stall and trying something different. I spent several evenings wandering around trying different dishes, many of which I had never seen in Korean restaurants in Europe, such as Ddeokbokee- rice cakes in a spicy red pepper sauce that had me addicted from the first bite. On my first evening in Seoul, I ran into a friend from childhood and we spent the entire evening wandering the length of Gwangjang Market, sampling everything we could. But the culinary delights of Korea are certainly not confined to the markets, there are excellent restaurants all over the country. Koreans seem to prefer their own cuisine, as I found very few foreign restaurants there. But you would struggle to walk down any street without stumbling over a series of eateries, many of them quite small, as though they had been set up in someone’s front room. That said, many of them serve stunning food at very affordable prices. Even the larger restaurants in posh districts of Seoul are affordable. My Korean friends claim it is easy to live comfortably without ever having to cook, there are just so many options available. When I went out with Korean friends, I often allowed them to order for me, so I would invariably end up with a surprise...cold brown noodles in red pepper sauce with egg, pancake like creations and delicious banchan at every meal. The culinary wonders of Korea are not confined to Seoul, in small towns in the countryside the selection was overwhelming. People would find it strange that i dont eat meat, but plenty of food was always found for me. I will definitely be going back.