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I’ll get the Wat Traimit photos up soon and I’ll also post some new photos of the Yeosu Expo 2012 site, since I took a walk down in that area yesterday. As usual, I hiked up to Jasan Park to get some shots and then walked down the other side of the hill to catch a bus back to my apartment. In Jasan, there’s a small kids’ playground area that is very colorful. I took a photo of it and played around a bit in Photoshop. Here’s the result.
 Jasan Park playground in Yeosu This took me quite a while to do in Photoshop. I added a new background layer and converted it to black and white. Then, with a layer mask, I brought out the colors in the underlying original photo using my mouse. Whew! It took quite a while to do (using a mouse) and it made me realize that if I want to do more of these types of “enhancements”, I’ll have to invest in a Wacom pen tablet, which makes things a bit easier and faster and which I think I can buy here in Yeosu.
So, be on the lookout for more of these types of shots. Next, though, I’ll get the Wat Traimit photos posted and then some updates on the Expo, followed by other shots of my recent trip to Thailand and Laos. (Maybe not necessarily in that order.)
The weather here in Yeosu has been great lately, with abundant sunshine and temperatures around 6 or 8 C (mid-forties fahrenheit); however, the big factor is that the wind hasn’t been howling, like it usually does this time of year. I even managed to get a few jogging sessions in this past weekend. If it would stay this way the rest of the winter, I’d be quite content. It ain’t gonna happen, I’m sure.
No winter in Thailand and Laos, though. This is the best time of year to visit that area of the world, with temperatures in the 80s (30 C), low humidity and clear skies. It was wonderful when I went there in December and early this month, and it was tough coming back to what I expected to be cold, windy Yeosu. (Like I wrote, though, it’s not that bad right now).
I flew out of Incheon about 1 p.m. on December 19th, after taking the 11 p.m. bus from Yeosu on the 18th and then hanging out at the airport from 4:30 a.m. until the flight departed. Incheon Airport, Korea’s award-winning facility, isn’t all that bad to kill time in–lots of restaurants, internet access and other niceties in this state-of-the-art site.
At the main foyer on the first floor, there is usually some kind of Korean cultural theme or event. Featured this season was a traditional Korean winter scene. At 4:30 in the morning, there are hardly any other people around, and I usually head into McDonald’s for a large coffee. The fast-food joint is situated on one side of the foyer, so this was a very tranquil area at that time of day, especially with the winter scene just outside the boundary of the restaurant. So, here are a few photos of the setup.
Very nice, and, like most other things at the airport, a first-class effort.
I’ll get some more photos of the trip posted when I can, but don’t expect something every day–I have one more week of long work days to go before the schedule settles down. Stay tuned.
Here are a few final shots from my walkabout last weekend at the Expo site. Enjoy.
This is the “backside” of the International Pavilion area, facing the train station.
And another shot of the same area.
It appears that most of the outside work is finished on the apartment buildings of Expo Town.
And a couple of shots of the hotel, where more of the exterior covering is being put on.
Here’s a site that I hadn’t taken a shot of until last weekend. It’s the Fisheries Experience Zone. It’s the blue pylons down the breakwater near Odong Island.
Finally, here’s a general overview of the site. If you click on it a couple of times, you’ll get a very large photo of the area to browse. Might take a while to load.
I’ll be on vacation in Thailand and Laos soon and I won’t return until the first week in January, so I won’t be taking any more strolls around the area until then. More later.
Geez, it seems like I’ve been insanely busy lately, though I know it hasn’t been all that hectic; it just feels like it. Anyway, here are the other shots of the Expo site that I promised in my previous post.
First up is another shot of the International Pavilion area. In the lower right is the beginning construction of the Big O, which will be the centerpiece of the Expo.
Next, the Korea Pavilion from a different viewpoint, just to the right of the previous photo.
There are a lot of things I like about the Expo construction so far, but I think my favorite is this little bit of whimsy on the roof of the Expo Organizing Committee building. The forward looking lady is gazing out to sea with her spyglass. Definitely click on the photo a few times to get the largest view and to get a good look at her face. Love it!
Here, Expo Town is still under construction just behind The Spyglass Lady.
Finally, this was the busiest construction going on at the time, in the area of The Big O and the Thematic Pavilion, if I’m not mistaken.
We’ve had some great weather lately, and today was no exception–clear blue skies and a moderately warm afternoon. So, I took another walk in the Expo area and got some more shots. I’ll get ‘em up quickly, I hope. More later.
I promised some more photos of the Expo 2012 construction site, so here are some of the ones that I took a few weekends ago, on November 5th. I was going to get them up a few days ago, but last week, for whatever reasons, seemed quite busy, and yesterday I spent most of the time on our field trip that was postponed from that previous Saturday. Anyway, here are some of the photos, and I’ll try to get several more posted later this week.
I did a lot of cropping on most of these shots, since almost all of the site is surrounded by fairly high (7 to 10 feet) sheet metal fences and casual visitors, of course, aren’t allowed inside the area. There’s also a lot of clutter, cars, power lines, etc. to exclude in the attempt to get a “clean” view. Despite that, I think you’ll see that a lot of progress has been made since my previous visit on August 24th. Most of the visible changes can be seen at the International Pavilion area. For reference, here’s the Expo map that I posted earlier.
First, here’s a view of the area from the visitors’ center, showing about 2/3rds of the site, excluding the area near the hotel. (As always, click on the thumbnails to get a larger, more detailed view.)
Here are a couple shots taken in the area of the International Pavilion, with the Korea Pavilion on the right in both shots.
This one’s looking toward the apartment buildings of Expo Town.
This looks down a walkway toward what will be the Waterfront Plaza. On the left is the Korea Pavilion, the Expo Multipurpose Hall and the Sky Tower in the distance. Across from the Korea Pavilion is the Climate and Environment Pavilion.
Here’s a closer view of the Climate and Env. Pavilion, taken from the International Pavilion area through an opening in the sheet metal.
A closer view of the Sky Tower.
These were formerly used as silos and were a different color (blue, I believe). So, how did they become white?
Looks like fun! The guy was pushing himself from side to side with his feet and using a power paint sprayer.
Finally, for this post, here are a couple shots of the Marine Life Pavilion (Aquarium) and the hotel. There’s not much change to the exteriors (the base of the hotel shows the most progress), but most of the work is going on inside the structures. I’ll try to get some more photos of the area posted later in the week. Stay tuned.
Once every semester, our special English class (Vision English) students and teachers go on a field trip to various attractions around Yeosu. (Here’s a previous post about the field trip.) We were supposed to take the trip today, but it was postponed until next Saturday because rain was in the forecast; we were told of the postponement a few nights ago.
Everyone was disappointed, because we, the students and teachers, had been working all week on oral presentations that the students have to give at each site. Not that the work was wasted, but everyone was rarin’ to go.
As soon as I found out about the change of plans, I looked at the Korean Meteorological website. Sure enough, they were predicting from one to two inches of rain on Saturday. In the back of my mind, I wondered how accurate the prediction was, since the KMA seems, more often than not, to be unerringly inaccurate with their forecasts. I also noticed that they were calling for an 80-90% chance of rain in the early hours of the morning, with a smaller and smaller chance of rain as the day progressed, finally petering out around noon. In the back of my mind, I thought that we could probably have the field trip after all.
Sure enough, we got just over an inch and a half between midnight and 6 a.m., when it stopped raining. It’s now right around 10 a.m, the time when the field trip would have begun. Guess what? We’ve got beautiful blue skies and lots of sunshine, with absolutely no rain in sight. It figures. Hopefully, there’s no rain in the forecast next Saturday.
Here are a few photos taken in one of Yeosu’s indoor fish markets last April, which just goes to show how timely I am at posting some of my shots.  The fish markets are located in the area of town where there are dozens of folks selling vegetables, fruit, fish and other staples in a hodge-podge of outdoor and indoor markets. Here’s a view of the main street of this area.
Anyway, the outdoor market is still open, but the indoor ones, of which there are a few, are much nicer for winter shopping. Here’s a photo of the outdoor market, which I took way back in October of 2008 (and which I DID put in the main photo gallery, but not on the blog).
Inside the market, folks are busily engaged in buying and selling all sorts of seafood.
Following are several shots of various creatures from the sea; I know about the crabs and fish, but what the others are called, I have no idea. If anyone knows, please leave a comment. Enjoy.
Here are a few more shots of various Yeosu scenes. I suppose this post’s theme could be buildings and construction. There’s quite a lot of construction in the area as Yeosu prepares for the 2012 Expo. Naturally, most of the construction is centered around the Expo site, but there are other areas experiencing hotel and apartment building projects.
One of these is the Ocean Park Resort, out near the Soho Yacht Marina. The hotel being built on the property was originally supposed to be about 660 feet tall, which would have made it the tallest in Yeosu. I think that it’s been downgraded due to construction costs beyond the original estimate. You can see the original design and some early photos of its construction at the Skyscraper City website. Originally schedule to be open this year, it now appears that it won’t be finished until 2014. Here’s the most recent photo I took.
Here’s another shot from the Soho Yacht Marina.
Farther left in the photo above, out of the shot, is the Ocean Park Waterslide area. Unfortunately, it was closed on the day I rode my bicycle there. It’s fairly large and I’m told that it gets a lot of use. Here’s just a small section of it.
Back down the shoreline a bit is another hotel under construction. This one’s kind of isolated with not too much going on around it and it’s more than a few kilometers from the Expo site. Still, if it’s finished in time, it’ll probably get a fair amount of business.
And another view.
This apartment building near Lotte Mart and the Dolsan Bridge has been under construction ever since I arrived in Yeosu three years ago, and very little construction has been done on it. Recently, though, things have been picking up. I think the original outfit that was building it went under and a new owner took over. The original artist’s rendering of the complex has changed, as well as the complex name. Maybe it’ll be finished soon, but who knows?
And, just a few more shots taken on a walking trip. The first one is a view of the harbor where many of the fishing boats are docked.
Finally, there’s no sense wasting roof space above your house. While your laundry is drying, you can also dry a few crops up there, too. More later.
I have a lot of Yeosu photos that I haven’t posted yet, so I’ll start a new theme, so to speak, of Out and About in Yeosu, scenes from around the area, taken in August and September. I’ll try to get a new post up every 3 or 4 days (yeah, right) . . . OK, as often as I can.
First up, I thought I’d do something a little different. Rather than just put up the complete photo, I thought I’d show some close ups, some snippets of larger shots, kind of an abstract thing. First, I’ll show the small shots, followed by the overall scene. Let’s see how this works.
So here are the details. What are they? Shouldn’t be too hard to guess. Please click on each photo to get a larger view. Here’s Number One.
Number Two
Number Three
Number Four
Number Five
Now, so that you don’t see the main photos right off the bat, a little interlude.
Speaking of right off the bat, the first day of the MLB playoffs weren’t exactly heart-wrenching. The over-achieving Rays slaughtered the Texas Strangers 9-0 and the Tigers-Yanks game was rained out.
Looks like the Yanks game will be resumed tomorrow (Saturday in the ‘States) at the point where it was halted, bottom of the 2nd, tied at 1. Detroit scored with a cheapo home run and the Yanks scored without the benefit of a hit. That’s one thing about the New York Nine this season–they can win with speed and savvy baserunning. They were 3rd in the American League with 147 stolen bases (Tampa was first with 155), their most since 2001. Jeter actually struck out in the bottom of the first, but still scored the Yanks run, hustling to first base on a third strike wild pitch, one of those baseball oddities. He subsequently advanced to second on a walk to Granderson (former Tiger) and went to third on a groundout to second. He then scored on a grounder to third. Hopefully, the game can be completed tomorrow, though Weather Underground is showing a 40% chance of rain in The City tomorrow night.
The two teams will probably play another game on Sunday, which is Monday morning in Korea, but that’s OK with me, since we have Monday off because of a national holiday. It’s Korea Foundation Day, a celebration of the (mythical) founding of the country, both North and South. Check out a description here.
All right, enough of an interlude; back to the photos. Here are the main shots.
Number One. This one is part of the steeple of a church down by the harbor. Here’s the original shot, which I took from the Jongpo Ocean Park Walkway.
Number Two. There were several boats lined up along the dock at the Jongpo harbor near the walkway and this is a close up of one of them. Here’s the complete shot.
Number Three. These orange balloon-like things appear to be buoys that might be put in the water as warning signals. You certainly couldn’t miss their colorful presence atop the murky water.
Number Four. Seriously, I don’t have any idea of the purpose of these things. They were lined up across the harbor from the walkway. Very odd looking, yes? If anyone knows what purpose they serve, let me know in the comments, please.
Number Five. I must admit I cheated a little on this one. I rotated the original photo a bit in order to cut out the bottom part of the building. Anyway, they’re part of a building housing, I think, a maritime organization, like a fisherman’s hall or something along that line. Again, if anyone from Yeosu is looking, let me know what you think.
Number Six. Finally, the front of the building that kind of resembles a face, I think, is actually a school. Cute, if you ask me.
OK, that’s it for now. I’ll try to get some more Out and About shots up in a few days (giggle, snort, guffaw–c’mon, Ron, get serious), so stay tuned for more later.
There hasn’t been a whole lot going on around here lately, but we have had some gorgeous late summer/early fall weather; deep blue skies, plenty of sunshine, moderate temperatures and lower humidity have chased away the mostly oppressive summer days. This time of year and the middle of spring feature the best weather in Yeosu, in my opinion. I’ve been out and about, hiking, bicycling, walking and taking plenty of photos. Rather than making one or two huge posts, I think I’ll dole out a few photos at a time, hoping that y’all will keep coming back for more. (Plus, I get pretty lazy, at times, about processing all my shots.  ) Some of these might be interesting, some not. Enjoy, or not. Let me know what you think.
This is from earlier in the summer when the mist/fog lent an air of mystery to things. The humid conditions didn’t stop the local golfers, however, as the lights were on for the night owls.
On one of my walkabouts, I spotted these bright red flowers in a small garden plot on a small side street next to a small house. I think they’re pretty. Anyone know what kind of flowers they are? (I’m definitely not a flower guy, but I was, and am, a proponent of Flower Power).
Finally, it seems that we just don’t get that many good sunrises and ‘sets in Yeosu, at least from my vantage point, especially compared to those I had the pleasure to see in the Dominican Republic and Morocco. Lately, though, we’ve had a few nice sunsets. Here’s one. (Sorry, there ain’t nuthin’ I can do about the power transmission towers and lines in the photo–it was taken from the balcony outside my dormitory apartment.)
I’ll definitely try to get some more photos posted in a more timely manner, probably 3 or 4 shots per post, mostly just random stuff from around Yeosu, so stay tuned for more later.
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