How to Stay Cool in the Seoul Heat

(My house in Seoul, Korea)

HOT.

1 pm. I finish teaching my level 1 English class here in my air-conditioned institute. I take the elevator down to the first floor, walk through the lobby to the glass doors and open them. The torrent of heat hits me instantly, riping off my flesh and searing my clothes to my burning body.

It's July in Seoul. 29 degrees Celsius with intense humidity. It feels almost as hot as last summer in Seville, Spain, where it was 40 C and Greg and I had to walk 20 mins to our hostel with full heavy backpacks on. I almost died then, and according to most of my Korean friends, I might also die this summer.

Not wanting to die, I have compiled a list of Things Koreans Do To Stay Cool in the Seoul Summer:

1. Buy an air-conditioner. Yeah, Steve and I were thinking of buying one, but not only are they not good for the environment, they are expensive. The used shop sells a small air-conditioner for 300,000 won - er... $300. Not quite worth it for one air-conditioner for only two months of HEAT. We'd also fight over who's room gets the cold air!
2. Buy a fan. Aha! That we did! Yesterday, we each bought an electric oscillating stand-up fan (mine was $35). I cannot convey the bliss I am experiencing siting in front of the fan and feeling the blown air cool the sweat of my face...
3. Buy a hand fan. I could and I might, but I haven't yet. I used to have a small battery fan I used while traveling Europe many years ago... hmmm, I miss that fan.
4. Eat ice cream. On almost every corner here in my area of Seoul - Sinchon, there are corner stores (7-11, By The Way, Mini-Mart, and countless other family-run ones). Each one sells a wide variety of delicious ice cream, which I have been gluttonously indulging in.
   
5. Go to the beach. The nearest beach in one hour away on the outskirts of Seoul near the airport - Inchon. I have yet to go there. My favorite beach is 4 hours away in Busan, on the south coast of Korea. Beautiful. I'll probably go back there in August.
   
6. Go to a mud festival. Specifically, the Boryeong Mud Festival happening this weekend! I am planing on checking it out this weekend, so I'll let you know how it goes. The cooling high-quality mud with refresh this cooked human....
   
7. Live at work. YBM, my school, is completely air-conditioned and cold. If I brought in blankets, I could theoretically live there indefinitely! Think about it - no commuting to work!
   

So there we go. How I am going to stay cool in the hot summer Seoul heat.

Oh, one more point I forgot: Live at the movie theater - and watch The Dark Knight, opening next week! Definitely my most anticipated movie this summer. Make sure you catch it! "I am Batman."

Busan and Back (Part 2 of 2: The Photographs)

BUSAN: The Photographs

After taking the overnight bus down to Busan from Seoul (~$30), Steve and I met up with some of his friends. Our first stop was Beomeosa, the largest Buddhist Temple in Busan - about 1500 years old.

Beautiful lanterns lined the pathway into the temple. This would have looked amazing at night.

The Main Gate and I

The lines and colours in the paint still show through after hundreds of years of exposure.

One of the Main Temple buildings had this huge drum inside and two fantastic dragons outside.

Close-up on Dragon 1: looking very serpent-like.

Close-up on Dragon 2: looking less serpent-like and more European dragon-like.

Tall, tall, tall bamboo

An amazing tree (that I don't know the name of). The picture is the right-way up!

The best shot I could bet of this cool earwig-like insect. It was about 3.5 cm long!

Overlooking a portion of the temple complex

The use of bamboo

As spring arrives, flowers bloom

The Waterfront

...Where development meets nature.

Steve and our two friends.

The domed space-age building where Korea hosted the leaders of countries bordering the Pacific Ocean for the 2005 APEC conference.

A friendly robot who greeted us in the lobby of the APEC conference center.

Ajashi (older Korean gentlemen) playing Baduk (or 'Go' in English)

Chillin' on the Beach

To the beach! Haeundae Beach - why Busan is so popular!

Beautiful

Steve juggling beer and water bottles.

I love this shot because it looks like wings are erupting out of the little girl's head!
Seagull hat!

Eating a Traditional Korean Seafood Dinner

Korean food is always eaten with many side dishes!

Eating Bundagae (Silk Worm Larvae)...

For more of me eating weird seafood, including *gasp* live octopus, watch the short film - the Peter Bond Travels: Food Attacks in Busan!

Dig in!

Busan and Back (Part 1 of 2: The Video)

When you travel, there are many experiences you have that you might not have expected to experience before traveling.

Eating strange and mysterious food is one of them.

Traveling to Busan (the second-largest city in Korea after Seoul) last month, I experienced some of the most unusual and dare-I-say disgusting seafood I have ever tasted. Bundagee (Silk worm larvae), mongae (maybe a sea squirt), some sort of Korean sea worms, and the topper: Live Octopus.

Yes, live. Alive. Octopus. Live. I know.

See it for yourself here, in this new episode of The Peter Bond Travels: Food Attack!




My defense for eating a very smart creature alive and in pieces is that Steve and I didn't order it. My Korean friends did. It is a delicacy here. And as they say, do as the Romans (or Koreans) do.

Even though I liked the taste, I won't be ordering it again. My conscience won't allow it. But if you're so bold, give it a try...