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If you’re walking around the Expo, there are so many things to see and experience, including cultural performances. I was lucky enough to be present for this performance of the Central African Republic. I love African music–it’s so energetic and exciting, in my opinion. So, these folks were a real treat–exciting rhythms and a bit of a fashion show. Enjoy.
 Central African Republic Performers  Central African Republic Performers  Central African Republic Performers  Central African Republic Performers  Central African Republic Performers  Central African Republic Performers  Central African Republic Performers  Central African Republic Performers  Central African Republic Performers
Depending on the time of day (I think after 2 p.m.) when you walk into the entrance to the Belgium Pavilion, you’re offered a cookie and a piece of chocolate. It’s really a nice introduction to this small, but charming pavilion. Oddly, I haven’t taken a photo of the outside entrance, but the next time I’m at the Expo (probably this Tuesday), I’ll take a shot and post it here.
There are three main areas of the pavilion. Upon entering, you’re in a room that features interactive screens about Belgium and its relation to the ocean. Also in this room is a rotating platform where you can view a few chocolatiers plying their famous Belgian trade. The smell is, obviously, quite nice and you may be able to get a few more free samples. (I’m not sure about that because I didn’t spend enough time at the chocolate carousel to find out.)
 Making Chocolate Goodies Another area is the great souvenir shop, where you can buy, what else, chocolate and other Belgian products. It’s one of the better souvenir shops at the Expo, so give it more than a cursory look.
 Belgium Souvenir Shop Finally, there’s a delightful restaurant, featuring several different Belgian offerings and a small selection of Belgium’s famous beer. I haven’t tried the food yet, but it definitely looks appetizing. Here’s a shot of the restaurant and the food menu.
 Belgium Restaurant  Belgium Menu And here’s Corrie, a colleague, enjoying a refreshing Hoegarden beer.
 Corrie Enjoying a Hoegarden Another interesting thing about the pavilion, for me, at least, is that several of my former students work there, mainly on the weekend. Walking into the pavilion is like walking into one of my English classes! The young men and women working there are extremely friendly and their English skills are pretty good. Definitely pop in and say hello to them and tell them that Ron sent you. Also ask for Ian or Etian, two of the Belgian supervisors and great guys. Here’s a shot of some of the souvenir shop workers and one of the Belgian chefs. The two in the middle are former students.
 Belgium Pavilion Workers So, here’s a concise rating of the Belgian Pavilion:
time and day visited-several different times, including weekends and early daytime weekdays
decor–charming
lines–haven’t seen any very long lines, probably because this is not a guided tour
multimedia–several interactive screens
souvenir shop–excellent
cultural assets–chocolate, chocolate and more chocolate!
restaurant/bar–quite nice, appealing looking food, small but nice selection of beer
overall rating–very good, you can spend some time here watching the chocolatiers, browsing the souvenir shop or enjoying the restaurant offerings. Definitely put this on on your list of places to visit, especially if you’re a chocolate lover.
 Angola Pavilion Entrance OK, so here’s my first pavilion review. Let me state that these are just my opinions and others may have different thoughts about individual pavilions, so caveat emptor, so to speak.
I was going to give a grade to each pavilion, but, me being a teacher, that seems too pedantic. I’ll just give a recommendation about whether or not a pavilion is “must see.” Most of the international pavilions that I’ve seen are worth a visit. If you’ve got a lot of time, take in as many as you can. However, if you’re only going to be in Yeosu a day or two, you’re going to have to maximize your time. You really need at least several days to browse around. Hopefully, these reviews will help you.
Angola would seem to be an unlikely country to have a great pavilion, but it does. It has a beautiful exterior that easily catches the eye, but it’s kind of off in a corner. I haven’t noticed any long lines, but I’ve usually been by the pavilion before noon, so later times might mean longer lines. (That’s true of any of the pavilions–go early in the day to avoid the lines.)
This is one of those pavilions where visitors are ushered in in groups, probably about 20-30 at a time. Once inside, you’re given an introduction to the country by way of several video monitors. Then, you’re led into a larger theater with a large screen that shows a several-minutes long video about the gorgeous Angola coastline. Very nicely done. After that, you go into a small interactive area that also has a few cultural assets.
If that were all that the pavilion had, it probably wouldn’t be worth waiting in line for. The thing that makes this a special visit is the restaurant and performance stage. The restaurant has an extensive menu, and you can sip on a beverage, including various teas and beers. When I ate there this afternoon, the staff told me that only a few choices on the menu were available, but the food items would be arriving in the near future. Also, the Angolan beer, Cuca, hadn’t yet arrived. No problem.
After around 2 p.m., you can also take in some of the Angolan musical performers and dancers on the stage in the restaurant. I haven’t been there late enough to check that out, but I hope to go there tomorrow evening to catch some of the performances, and I’ll post my impressions at a later date. At any rate, the restaurant seems like a great place to chill and enjoy some African music. Adding to the laid back feeling is the friendly staff. If you go there, enjoy a chat with Uzail, Bernie, Leandro or Eldon. Cool dudes, and everyone else seems very accomodating, too.
On a couple of these photos, there seems to be some odd ghost-like figures on the back wall, but music videos are projected there when live performances aren’t taking place.
 Angola Pavilion Restaurant  Angola Pavilion Restaurant  Angola Pavilion Restaurant  Angola Pavilion Restaurant The paintings along the wall are part of a monthly rotating exhibit of Angolan artists. Here’s a close up of one of them.
 Angola Pavilion Restaurant Painting Like I said, I had lunch there today. I ordered a rice and seafood stew and it was darn good! The downside was that there were a few small bits of crab shell that I bit into, so I don’t think I’d order that particular dish again, but it was good. I also had a small cup of coffee. The total bill was 16,000 Korean won , around 14 or 15 US dollars. Most of the pavilion restaurants, and there are many, charge between $10 and $20 an entree. You can get cheaper food outside the pavilions at any of the numerous food courts. The food in those courts, mostly Korean fare, is also quite edible. I promise, you won’t go hungry at the Expo. For even cheaper fare, there are many small Korean food stalls and coffee shops clustered around the main gate. Most of their food looks very palatable.
 Angola Rice and Seafood Stew I didn’t notice a souvenir shop, but there may be a small one. I’ll report on that later.
So, here’s a short summary of the Angola Pavilion.
time and day visited–Tuesday, May 15th, 10:30 a.m. and Thursday, May 17th, 12:30 p.m.
decor–entrance good, restaurant awesome
lines–short in the morning, maybe longer later on
multimedia–large screen presentation, a few interactive screens
souvenir shop–??
cultural assets–a few, except for the restaurant, which has many
restaurant/bar–superb, prices in line with other International Pavilion prices
overall rating–I consider this a must-see for the restaurant alone, although the large-screen video of the Angola coastline was spectacular. Laid back atmosphere with friendly staff. Make room for the Angola Pavilion on your itinerary.
OK, I hope you enjoyed my first review and I’ll try to get more of these posted on a frequent basis every few days, or, depending on time, perhaps a couple a day.
OK, one final post with photos from my vacation in Laos and Thailand back in December. I put up some children’s photos last time, so this one has a few photos of adults.
Most of these were taken around the New Year holiday, but the Lao people like to start celebrating several days before and continue for a few days after New Year’s Day. Here’s lunch at Nai’s house on Dec. 31st, eaten by about 7-8 family members and friends. Let’s see, what do we have here? Looks like the remains of some fish, deep-fried chicken feet, various greens, a veggie salad and, of course, Beer Lao.
 Lunch at Nai's House While some of us were eating and talking (with me pretending to listen–I don’t speak or understand the Lao language, yet), other folks, including Nai, were playing cards. It looks like a Lao version of gin rummy, I guess, with small wagers included.
 Afternoon card game These are a few of Nai’s brother’s friends, who are working on a good-sized platter of semi-congealed cow blood soup. Various herbs are thrown into the soup, along with a couple of hands full of peanuts. Yummmm! Nai’s sister Nui is on the left.
Next are Nai’s brother Pui (Poo-ee), in the center, flanked on the right by cousin Mot (Maht) and on the left by another lovely cousin, whose name I’ve forgotten. Mot’s mother (one of Nai’s sisters) and father live and work in Thailand, but he was visiting the homestead for a few weeks. I mentioned to Nai that Mot didn’t appear too happy to be here, but Nai told me he wasn’t happy to be going back to Thailand (and to school) soon. The young lady asked me, through Nai, to find her a Western boyfriend. I told her I’d put her photo on the internet, so here it is.
 Laos friends The day before, on the 30th, Nai and I were in Vientiane visiting a Lao friend’s pub. While shooting pool, Nai introduced me to a friend of his from Nai’s village. He’s a policeman in Vientiane, I believe, and a very friendly fellow. Here he is, posing with Nai.
 Nai and Friend I really love this guy’s expressive face. To me, he looks like one of the characters in the early-60s hit TV comedy “Car 54, Where Are You?” Actor Joe E. Ross played my favorite character on the series, Officer Gunther Toody. Mr. Ross is on the right. On the left is Fred Gwynne as Officer Francis Muldoon. Gwynne was also famous for the Herman Munster character on “The Munsters.”
 Fred Gwynne and Joe E. Ross What do you think–resemblance or not? To help you decide, here’s another photo of Nai’s friend with me, an obligatory shot, I suppose. Nai took the photo, but he did such a lousy job. It makes me look too fat! Where’s my chin? I DO have a chin. (I must have had my head tucked into my neck on this one!)
 Ron and Nai's Friend We also took a walk along the Chao Anouvong Park along the Mekong. One of the signature features of the park is a larger than life statue of King Anouvong, the last ruler of the Lan Xang (Million Elephants) Kingdom. The Vientiane Times of June 15, 2010 (by way of LaoVoices) states that:
“Since Chao Anouvong is remembered for reuniting the country, his statue will depict the strength of his leadership, and should be as close to lifelike as possible,” said Head of the Ministry of Information and Culture’s Fine Arts Department, Dr Bounthieng Siripaphanh.
The statue, which is costing about 5 billion kip to make, will stand about 8 metres high and 3 metres wide. The king will be represented holding a sword in his left hand while gesturing with his right.
One of the greatest achievements of Chao Anouvong’s reign was the construction of Vat Sisaket, Vientiane’s oldest standing temple today.
This Wikipedia article, however, is not so kind to the king:
Modern Lao nationalist movements, on the other hand, have turned Anouvong into a hero, even though his strategic and tactical mistakes combined with his hot temper led to the end of the kingdom of Lan Xang (Million Elephants) destruction of Vientiane, and a permanent division of the Lao people between the country of Laos and the Lao-speaking provinces of northeastern Thailand.
Hero or not, it’s still an impressive statue.
 King Anouvong Statue That wraps up my vacation to Thailand and Laos, so we’ll be goodnight and adieu, until next time.
 The Moon and Venus at Dusk From Nai's House
First, let me state that “gaming” in the post title does not refer to online gambling, like poker or other card games or virtual slot machines. Here it refers to online computer or video game playing.
Let me also state that I enjoy playing computer games, even in my somewhat advanced state of decrepitude . . . err, I mean in my wise, mature years. I mostly still play quite a few of the old classic simulation games, like the Civilization and Railroad Tycoon series, both debuting in the early ’90s. Also on my computer are strategy games, such as Panzer General and role-playing games (RPGs), my favorite being Baldur’s Gate. Most of the games on my computer, and I have many, originated in the early or mid 1990s, and you can still buy them very cheaply at various Internet sites. I get many of these classics from GOG (Good Old Games).
About the only new (modern) title that I regularly indulge in is my favorite baseball simulation (not a video game), Out of the Park Baseball (OOTPB).  OOTPB 13 is due to be released in early April, just in time for the start of the new baseball season. I mainly play within a fictional major league against the computer. I am, of course, the General Manager and Manager of the New York Yankees. Unfortunately, I’ve finished under .500 the past three seasons–I’m sure I wouldn’t last 3 months under “The Boss,” legendary Yankees owner George Steinbrenner.
I’ve also been known to play some of the classic games ’round the clock. I distinctly remember playing Civilization I, when I first got my copy of it, from about 4 in the afternoon until 10 the next morning (it was a weekend, luckily). Mind you, now, these were (and are) games on my computer that I played against the computer, not head-to-head online.
That brings us to Korea’s present perceived problem of too many people getting addicted to online computer games, like World of Warcraft,  Starcraft and others. These games are big business over here, with, even, professional gaming leagues and gaming stars pulling in big bucks.
It’s become such an addiction for some people, that incidences of domestic violence, bullying, murder, deaths due to exhaustion and deep vein thrombosis, and other consequences have been reported. In one very tragic case, a young couple let their 3-month child starve while they took care of a “virtual” child in an online game, spending most of their time in an Internet Cafe, rather than taking care of their real child. The Korean government estimates that their are 2 million Internet addicts in the country. So, they are trying to do something about it.
The government is proposing a new law that will allow people to play online games for only two hours, then the game will shut down. There will be a 10-minute cooling off period before users can login again, and then they can only login once more in a 24-hour period. This goes with a law passed last year that makes it illegal for young gamers to play certain games between the hours of midnight and 6 a.m.
Whew! It seems that on line gaming can be quite a problem. I know that some of my university students own up to staying awake into the wee hours of the morning and then coming to class barely able to keep their eyes open. Let’s hope something can be done about the problem. Of course, that raises the issue of WHO should do something. Should the government step in or should parents, relatives and friends, and/or the game companies take care of such matters? In the U.S., alcohol is regulated by the government, but if an adult wants to drink him or herself to death, the government can’t stop them. There are AA meetings, so how about IAA (Internet Addicts Anon.)? A complex, difficult issue for sure.
As for me, I only play a couple hours a day for at most a few days a week, if I even have that much time. Of course, I’m no longer a spring chicken. I have other things that wake me in the wee hours. I’ll write about THAT soon.
Other Sources:
ingame.msnbc.msn.com South Korea Introduces Yet Another Law to Curb Gamings Ills
Forbes.com South Korea May Limit Young Online Gamers to 2 Hours a Day…to Prevent Bullying
msnbc.msn.com South Korea Targets Internet Addicts
dailymail.co.uk Video game addicts in South Korea could be limited to playing online for just four hours per day
As I indicated in the previous Chinatown post, I did have enough time to tour Wat Traimit, one of the big attractions of Chinatown. According to the link on that post, the Golden Buddha in Traimit is the world’s largest solid gold Buddha image, weighing in at 5.5 tons and standing 15 feet tall (although the image is seated). So, at today’s gold prices, the image is worth quite a few millions of dollars!
 Wat Traimit Buddha There’s also an interesting history of the 13th century statue, a history involving deception and discovery. Again, check out the link to read about the image.
Here’s another smaller Buddha image that’s near the Golden Buddha.
 Wat Traimit Small Buddha Statue There’s also a detailed history of Chinatown located in a second-floor exhibition, which shows 3D life-sized scenes of daily living and which also includes a scale model of Chinatown as it looked in the mid 1950s or so. This was the only photo I got of the exhibition, since most museums and similar places don’t allow you to take photos. I didn’t see any signs forbidding it, but I didn’t want to offend anyone. At the final exhibit, the scale model of Chinatown, I saw someone else taking a shot, so I figured it was ok and took the one below. As with all the photos taken this vacation trip, I had only my pocket point-and-shoot with me. It’s a good camera, but it doesn’t do too well in dark lighting, so I had to crank up the ISO to capture this shot. In post-processing, I removed most of the digital noise that’s usually present with high ISO settings, but in doing so, the image lost some of its sharpness, as you can see in the photo below. I’ll have to bring along my small tripod next time.
 Wat Traimit Chinatown Exhibit And, of course, here are a few shots of the exterior of the wat. As you can see, Thailand’s revered King Bhumibol Adulyadej is honored everywhere.
 Wat Traimit  Wat Traimit Bell  Wat Traimit 3D Mosaic This one is looking up to the spire from a position close to one of the outside walls.
 Wat Traimit Directly next door to Wat Traimit is a smaller temple, sort of an annex. Here’s a detail shot of the roof of that area.
 Wat Traimit annex roof detail Also next to Traimit is a boys’ school (well, I didn’t see any girls, so I assume it’s a boys’ school). At the entrance to the school is a statue of a scholar (again, I assume) from days gone by. Here are the kids during what appears to be recess.
 Boys' School recess And the scholar.
 Boys' school scholar statue. Finally, I did have some time to go to the Siam Paragon shopping mall to buy some reading material. They usually have some kind of display outside the center, and this year’s set-up featured an Alice in Wonderland motif. (Pretty girls not included) Quite colorful.
 Alice in Wonderland at Siam Paragon shopping center OK, that’s about it for the Bangkok portion of the trip. It feels like I’ve kind of over-saturated the blog with too many photos of the trip already, so I’ll just post a few more from Nong Khai and Laos a bit later. In the meantime, I’ll process the new Expo 2012 photos I took this past Saturday and get those up soon. More later.
In all my previous visits to Bangkok, I’d never visited Chinatown, except for a crazy tuk-tuk ride on my way to another area several years ago. I’ve read and heard that this section of Bangkok is one of the city’s most interesting and fascinating to visit. Here’s what Lonely Planet has to say about it:
“Bangkok’s Chinatown is the urban explorer’s equivalent of the Amazon Basin. The highlights here are a rather complicated web of tiny alleyways, crowded markets and delicious street stalls. Unlike other Chinatowns around the world, Bangkok’s is defiantly ungentrified, and getting lost in it is probably the best thing that could happen to you. The neighbourhood dates back to 1782 and relatively little has changed since then. You can still catch conversations in various Chinese dialects, buy Chinese herbal cures or taste Chinese dishes not available elsewhere in Thailand. Getting in and out of Chinatown is hindered by horrendous traffic but the area is a brief walk from Hualamphong Metro station.”
Although my time in Bangkok was very limited this trip, I decided to take a brief excursion to the Chinatown area, knowing full well that I wouldn’t be able to see it in depth. I had several hours to kill before I hopped aboard the overnight express to Nong Khai, so I dropped off my big bag at the luggage holding room at Hualamphong Railway Station and made the short walk (15 minutes) to Chinatown.
It’s easy to find the main road, Yaowarat–just look for the large gate marking the beginning of the area.
One of Chinatown’s main attractions is Wat Traimit, which is a short walk from the gate (I took the shot of the gate from the top of Traimit). It was on the right hand side of the road as I was walking down Yaowarat.
I wasn’t sure how much time I was going to spend browsing around the area, so I decided to visit the temple on the way back, if I had time.
Unfortunately, I didn’t have all that much time to spend in Chinatown, with its many shops, side streets and vendors’ stalls. It was extremely busy and crowded with shoppers and tourists, and walking was quite slow, although it’s probably faster than driving. Motor bikes would probably be the fastest way of traveling through the dense mass of traffic.
It’s a very popular place to buy gold, gems and other jewelry, but it appeared that, in the short time I spent there, you could buy just about anything you might be looking for. Here are a few items that caught my attention.
Traditional clothing.
Tassels
Fruit and vegetables.
Stuffed crab, anyone? Chinatown is renowned for it’s nighttime outdoor eating venues. Unfortunately, by nightfall I’d be on the train to Nong Khai. The next time I’m in Bangkok, I definitely want to visit this area at night.
Oh, and did I hear you say that you need a barber’s chair?
So, just about anything you need or want, you can probably find it here.
Yes, I did return to Wat Traimit and took the tour of the temple area. This post is getting rather long, so I’ll save the wat for next time. More later.
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 shots from my recent trip to Seoul. I only had my pocket camera, not the DSLR, so the quality isn’t the best, plus for some reason, my memory card got corrupted and I lost many of the better ones. All of these were taken in the Gwanghwamun area, near the Sejong Center for the Performing Arts. This is the cultural heart of Seoul, a very high rent district, which has many theaters, concert halls and other venues. I was a bit pressed for time when I went the week before last, but I hope to get back up there in December and spend more time walking around the area.
I went to Seoul to get some more pages added to my passport. Here’s where I had to go–the U.S. Embassy. The last time I was up here, in 2005, believe it or not, the building was ringed with Korean riot police, acting as security, but nowadays you only see a few yellow-garbed security police.
I was standing in a central plaza of sorts when I took the embassy photo. In the plaza are a couple of large statues, one of King Sejong the Great and one of Admiral Yi Sun-shin, who used Yeosu as his headquarters in his battles with the Japanese. Unfortunately, the photos I took of the King Sejong statue were some of those that were lost on my memory card, but here’s one of Admiral Yi. You can see way off in the background the golden-colored Sejong statue.
Walking down the road a bit, you can see this odd Christmas-tree like structure, which marks an open space for street performances.
On this particular day, there was an exhibition of wheel chair skills, including basketball shooting and ballroom dancing, as this photo shows.
Just down from the performance space is a very lovely walking area below street level alongside a stream. It’s a great place for an afternoon stroll, and this day it was filled with office workers on lunch break, families and tourists.
Of course, the area is filled with upscale bars and restaurants. Here’s one that I thought was interesting, JS Texas Bar, complete with Elvis statue. It also had a classic Marilyn Monroe on the other side of Elvis, the iconic shot of her billowing skirt from the movie “The Seven Year Itch.” Unfortunately, it was one of the photos that the memory card ate.
Like I said, I hope to go back to Seoul in December and get some more photos. This time I’ll take the DSLR with me and a new memory card. 
P.S. I took a walk down to the Expo site this past Saturday and got quite a few shots of the construction progress in that area. Things are moving along quite nicely, it appears, and I’ll try to get those photos posted sometime this week.
Finally, we’re getting some gorgeous weather. For the last week and a half or so, clear blue skies have banished the overcast conditions that we were experiencing, though it’s still quite humid at times. I got sunburned riding my bicycle last Sunday and while walking around town in the middle of last week. Marvelous!
Before the great weather, I went down to the Expo 2012 site to see how things had progressed since May, the last time I’d been down there. I got a lot of shots of the ongoing construction, but I also took some more photos of the wall murals that I mentioned in a previous post.
Here are a half dozen or so of the paintings. Peruse at your pleasure and, as always, click on ‘em for a larger version.
Sadly, some of the paintings that I photographed in May are no longer there. In this area of town, crews are widening the road in preparation for the Expo. Walking a bit down the hill, I saw that the mural wall came to an abrupt end where it had been demolished by the “improvement.” Here’s what I saw at the end of the wall.
Yikes! Well, I suppose it’ll look better once they finish the construction. This area will lead into the international village where all the foreign workers at their various pavilions will be living while they’re in Yeosu.
Construction is ongoing at the Expo site; here’s a brief preview of the new hotel being put up. I’ll have more Expo photos in a few days.
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