Seolbong Lake

On this morning David, Jeppe, Me, Myself and I decided to head out to a nearby lake. Why a lake you ask? Well the town we were staying in wasn't that big and certainly wasn't touristy. A quick look in researching the area in Google Earth prior to departing showed a collection of pictures in this area, so concluding it had to be the most photographic area in the city it seemed worthwhile visiting.

But how to get there? It seemed to be within walking distance and we started off OK but soon found ourselves under a freeway with the option of following or heading off towards this Expo sign nearby.

The little trick I learnt was to follow the locals. In the early hours the older people tend to head out for their morning strolls and Tai Chi workouts. They know the area and also know the recreational areas to head towards. This paid dividends as we found the lake on the other side of the Expo sign.

The lake during the day has a huge fountain balsting out the centre of it. Not so early in the day (it was about 6am). The buildings going up the hill in the background are a ceramics museum and exhibition. I guess baking clay and varnishing them is a big thing in this part of the country.

Cute pavement decoration. The 1000M mark indicates the walk around the lake. Because it was man-made they were able to set the dimensions on it and it is 1000 metres around its circumference. Perfect for those people who run a set distance, and there were a few this morning.

The lake has a number of art pieces around it to break up the monotony and offer something for the silly tourists who enjoy getting up at the crack of dawn to photograph.

The whole area was amazingly serene and I was pleased we'd taken the time to come and check it out.

That's the main ceramic exhibition, which obviously wasn't going to be open so early in the day. The giant vase was quite cool though. Not being able to enter this we needed a hand in knowing where to go next and fortunately for us there was one doing just that.

This headless chap is the mascot for both the exhibition and the city itself. He reminded me of a Homepride man who had had a run-in with a hungry Hannibal Lecter.

Ascending the hill took us past a number of ceramic pieces, some more stunning than the others.

Some very nice graffiti on the side of a walk-through kiln attraction, which I'm betting shows the pottery and glazing process used in producing most ceramic pieces.

Headless HomePride man again.

Looking back down the mountain towards the city. Our hotel is one fo the tower blocks way off in the distance, showing the distance we had covered. It was actually much nearer than it appears.

At the top of the ceramic walk is this building, which I think is another exhibition hall. We couldn't get close to it due to the closed gate (the bars of which the camera was squeezed through to take the photo) and should we have made it through the gate Headless Homepride Man #3 was clearly stopping us. I would call him a bouncer but given he's made of clay I doubt he'd bounce.

Large traditional looking building passed on the way back down. The map of the complex we saw at the bottom of the mountain showed a childrens park with some funny looking long slides. That was the main impetus for ascending it. The maps at the top however had the kids park painted out indicating that a) it was no longer around and b) the maps need updating elsewhere. It was still a worthwhile walk however.

Here's a giant chicken and I stuck my head up its arse (I need to see if I can find the photo). It would be an amusing story to tell the others when I got back to the hotel.

"What did you get up to this morning you loon""I stuck my head up a chicken's arse. How's breakfast"

Halfway down the mountain is a large open area, which given by the signage was currently being used for some sort of learning festival. I only took the photo because they somehow managed to make reading look cute.

I wonder if the inspiration for this work ever asked the sculptor if their bum looked big in that?

If so, they need also mention if other body parts were also affected by the same problem.

On the northern bank of the late a small group were gathered to do their Tai Chi exercises. These old sprightly folk were amazing to watch and put me to shame. I doubt very much whether I would be able to complete the routine that they were doing. It was amusing that at one point they started practicing Karate chops. We joked that having done it for 5 minutes the instructor might shout out the instruction to attack us for taking photos and filming them.

Really nice modern theming on a nearby pagoda.

We passed this shop on the way back. It looked to only sell oversized childrens costumes. These would have been fun to buy if I could have fitted in them and if I had means for transporting them around for the rest of the tour. As I couldn't do either and as the shop wasn't open anyway there was no way I could do it.

I like how the butcher shop has a photo of a happy pig. "That's before we killed it and chopped it up to server to you"

Some of the shops were starting to open as we made our way back. The stock of fresh crab had been delivered to this restaurant. It was amusing to discover that most people could quite happily order food in a restaurant but not if they saw it alive outside first. That's clearly not a problem to the locals here. For humour value I'd probably pick one on the bottom if only to see if the others would attack the hand grabbing it on the way down.

A rather saucy advert for, not sauce, but beer. I'd love to know what the actual slogan says as I can't see what the connection between beer and a woman partly exposing her breasts could possibly be.

Dinky van!

Nice metallic flower tree piece that I tried to photograph on the way out but the light was too low. Got a better photo on the way back.

Inchon downtown at around 0720. I can tell the time is approximately that by the length of the shadows and the frequency of traffic on the road.

This French style motel looked very out of place in amongst all the other buildings. The red logo above the motel sign signifies that the building has a spa. These are very common across Korea.

A rather bizarre poster advertising some event from a few months back. No idea wha the fruit eating bald dudes are supposed to be representing.

And here we are back at our hotel. The hotel Miranda, named after Miranda Sawyer who is most famous for playing Queenie in Blackadder II. The Koreans fell in love with her portrayal and many cities have some sort of monument or recognition of her acting prowess.

The morning walk went extremely well and even though it was nothing more than a lake with some pottery around it, from it I started to convince myself that early starts were actually a good thing. This came mostly from seeing the old dudes out on their constituitionals and me thinking well if they can do it so can I.

So I told the others at breakfast about how I stuck my head up a chicken's arse and soon after we were en route to the largest theme park in Korea, Everland.