Last updated Sunday June 10, 2007
When we travel to Korea for business we usually stay in the Hyatt in Seoul. It's up on the side of a mountain overlooking the whole city. It's very impressive to look up at it at night. This is a shot out my hotel room window as the sun is coming up over the eastern part of the Seoul. During the winter the huge swimming pool is covered over by an ice rink, which they light at night like this. The white things are trees where they replaced the leaves with tiny white lights. Very pretty at night.
The purpose of this visit to Korea was to make some circuit board changes on the cell phone/PalmPilot product we are working on. Mahmoud is pointing out the changes on the design he wants to the Korean engineers who take it from there. While they were working on that detail work the toll of two trips in two weeks knocked me out. Notice all the empty cans of caffeine carrying drinks. We were all struggling to stay awake.
Most of the trips involve endless meetings like this one. When we finally get around to some real business the crowd storms the whiteboard while Mr. Lee, my counterpart, holds his head and wonders what he has gotten us into.
Sometimes we get to do real work and witness a drop test where one of our phones gets released from a 1.5 meter height onto a plywood floor. Can you tell if this test passed or failed? The two characters on the right, David E. Wang and Mahmoud (who doesn't need a middle initial, or even a last name) are testing the results of the circuit board layout done above only a few weeks later. The Koreans turn design changes around very fast.
We eat in the company cafeteria almost every day for lunch. Here's Mahmoud admiring the pan of Kim Chi, which is cabbage in a hot sauce that sat on the roof in a clay pot for a few months. Have it with every meal! The lunch today was Bim Bim Bob, rice with vegetables, tuna and more hot sauce. The hot sauce is, "Good for the Health" according to the Koreans. I must be real healthy by now. Makes Mexican food seem bland.
Here's a typical restaurant row in Seoul. Kind of puts our urban clutter to shame doesn't it. Sometimes we go out to lunch, and it's almost always Bul Go Gi, which translates to fire meat. The young lady here is stirring the thin strips of marinated beef on the charcoal grill built right into the table. We add veggies and wrap it in lettuce and more hot sauce. Outside the restaurant they were selling cellular phones on the street. Ken couldn't resist getting into the act.
Of course we have to go shopping when we visit Korea. I've bought so many socks, like this bunch from a nice lady on Itaewon street, that I might never have to laundry again. Mahmoud is buying a purse for his wife, as have we all for our wives and girlfriends. It was pretty cold in January so I bought a neat two piece Gortex jacket from this young lady. She demonstrated the waterproofness by dumping a bottle of water on the sleeve while I was wearing it. The water beaded up and ran right off. The liner unzips and is a complete lightweight jacket on it's own. Great for traveling.
There are thousands of street vendors near the markets. This one is selling a tool that does everything. He was showing how to pound these hardened nails into concrete, rock and metal. I bought one, though I haven't tried it out yet. The coin operated boxer could be found all over town. The Koreans are not content with video boxing, they would rather duke it out with this mechanical opponent. This one has IMF painted on its forehead. IMF represents the bad economic situation to the Koreans and not the organization itself.
One of the attractions near the Hyatt Hotel is the War Museum. It's a huge building (which we haven't been inside of yet) surrounded by large implements of war. The statue is on top of a dome with plaques inside.
Here is a full on B-52 bomber. It's so big and heavy you wonder how it gets off the ground. David is peering into the cockpit from the observation platform.
When I was in the big green machine in the very early '70s I was assigned to an air defense post at Fort Bliss Texas. We had these same missiles as they used in Korea. Unfortunately they were obsolete even in the '70s and a modern fighter could fly right over a battery with little risk. The ones on the left are Hawk missiles. The big one on the right is a Nike Hercules.
One night the Korean engineers and we went out to a Korean style fish restaurant. Ms. Lim the waitress is serving up the main dish of a huge plate of raw fish sliced real thin. That's Mahmoud in the background thinking, "They are really going to make me eat this???" To accompany the fish was a zillion different sea creatures in various forms that made them unrecognizable, except for the octopus. It was served very fresh, meaning still wiggling. One person had to hold the plate down so we could peel the suckers off and pop them in our mouth. Funny feeling when the suckers stick to the inside of your cheeks. Good thing we had liberal amounts of Soju, the local booze, to lubricate the whole process, and make my face red.
The engineering facility that we visit is right in the middle of a bunch of huge clothing factories. There are several factory outlet or econo stores within a few blocks. You might think why we would want Korean clothes, but they make them for all the big name brands and fancy designers. All of us have been reoutfitted, especially me since I lost 36 pounds in the last six months. All my pants were falling down so I bought some new ones. Outside one of the Samsung econo stores was a stand selling designer socks for under a dollar a pair. We stocked up on socks. Mr. Lee was looking pretty GQ in this plaid sport jacket. Fortunately he didn't buy it. These slacks were too fancy for Mahmoud and David E. They just wanted cords to knock around in.
One night Mr. Lee took us out looking for a restaurant to eat dinner. Somehow we ended up in this night club named Bulldog's Bar, the "Total Event Club".
We did have some snacks, such as this dried squid and octopus. I started with the octopus thinking that the skinny tentacles would be easy to bite off. Boy was I wrong! I about broke my teeth chewing off a piece. That red stuff on my knuckles is not blood, just sauce that ends up on everything. We drank local Korean beer, though the locals were swilling Budweiser.
Two of the bartenders entertained us by juggling bottles of booze (with open spouts) and piling up a bunch of glasses and pouring alcohol into the top glass until it overflowed and lighting it on fire. No one died but one of the bartenders got conked on the head by a flying bottle.
After the juggling act they picked me out of the crowd (do I stand out in a room full of Koreans or what?) and made me drink the contents of that top glass in the stack. The flames must have burned up most of the alcohol or else I was already too drunk to notice. Then they put on a rock tune and told me to dance! I didn't let them down, though my pants almost did since they were a pair of the old loose ones. They tried to follow my act by having a Korean couple drink the contents of the next two glasses, then dancing. I think they showed more movement during the drinking than the dancing.
Before we left we grabbed a picture with our new friends. From left to right it's me, the waitress, Bulldog himself, Mr. Lee, David E., Mahmoud and one of the juggling bartenders.
We do do some sightseeing. Here's a temple somewhere near Seoul, though I can't remember where. Between China and Korea they are all starting to look the same.