Back again....

Its been quite some time since my last post..the only update i have is that in the last few days i made a trip to minneapolis, spent a week there and am back in Masan today. The only notable thing in my flight was the 80+ yr old flight attendant on the northwest flight to Narita, Tokyo. Over the past few months of my travelling, I have seen quite a few oldies on the northwest flights but the lady on this one gets the medal. It was pretty obvious that they don't really have any retirement age in the company. Compare this with most of the asian airliners and you would hardly find anyone over 30. Hey..I dont have anything against old people..its just that i dont like being served by them...Back in Masan there are no changes whatsover to take note of...I even got pretty much the same room in the same hotel..Its very hot and humid unlike my previous trip..This is my last trip to Korea and i hope to see whatever i can in this four weeks...most notably Jeju islands..the hawaii of korea!!!

Buddhist temple in Changwon

Today our hotel manager offered to take us to the nearby buddhist temple..As, we didn't really have anythinig to do today, myself and Eduardo readily agreed. Ravi and Jerry opted to stay in the room. We set out in the hotel van and reached the temple in 30 min. The temple was apparently constructed in around 800 AD but was later destroyed during japanese invasion and had been rebuilt during the 16th century. It was simple in construction, basically of wood, and had three halls of worship...All of them had numerous idols of buddha in deep meditation. After spending half an hour or so, we headed back home. On our way back, our manager stopped at a local Korean noodle place. It was more or less like an indian road side dhabha, and i should say i was kind of uneasy about eating in the place...especially because of the reputation of Korean eateries that consider shrimp and fish as vegetables..Thankfully, the noodle soup didn't have any sign of meat or fish in it..and although i would've preferred it piping hot, it was not too bad. Finally capped of my day and the weekend by watching Formula One British Grand Prix (nice to see Montoya win this one) and eating a pint of Baskin Robbins ice cream!!!!

Intl dance festival at the Haeundae beach, Pusan

Going to Haeundae beach in Pusan has become a weekly ritual for us. So, not intending to break the habit, myself, Eduardo and Ravi got together and headed off to Pusan..It was the usual route that we take..45 mins by bus and another half an hour by the subway...I had recently completed reading Graham Hancock's 'Fingerprints of the gods' and my interest in the ancient civilizations is at a all time high right now. I started reading a second book of his 'Heaven's mirror' which is pretty much the same except for the gorgeous pictures of all the anicent sites..especially striking were some of the pictures of Angkor vat (which by the way is in my list of must-see places)..



Quickly finished our lunch at Ganga (of course!!)...In fact it was not so quick..especially with me having to finish my tandoori chicken, chicken Makhani and nans :-). After the lunch we decided to take a walk along the beach..Dark clouds were looming over the sea and at almost the end of the beach, we noticed that there was a dance festival of some sort happening..I thought the setting was really imaginative with the stage set against the sea as a backdrop...there were some volunteers who were guarding the back side of the stage so that there are no people passing by the stage and there by spoiling the backdrop for the audience ( and of course for the numerous photo and video enthusiasts) ...Having spent all afternoon and evening at the beach watching some really impressive oriental and western classical dance, we headed back home (..err...Masan)

love U2

Over the last few weeks, during my trips to/from office, I turn on my ipod, and I invariably go to the same album again and again...its U2's latest album 'How to dismantle an atomic bomb'. The album has some awesome tracks and i just cannot stop listening to them..My personal favourites are..'Miracle drug', 'City of blinding lights', 'A man and a Woman' and 'Crumbs from your table'..Of late, whenever i listen to these songs, I have this intense urge (Believe me!!Its really intense :-)) to make my own personal music video of one of them...but first things first..I have to buy a camcorder before i think of my "personal music video"

Another trip to Pusan

Woke up in the morning expecting some sunlight only to find more rain. I decided that there is no point in waiting for warm weather anymore and thought i would go out anyway...called up my colleagues if anyone is interested and as expected none of them were ready to venture out in the rain..I quickly decided that I would go to Pusan, see the turbulent waters of the south china sea..eat some indian food and come back..Since I had done this already once a few weeks back, I had no problem reaching Haeundae beach in Pusan. Luckily, it was not raining when i got out of the subway station...but the day was dark and gloomy...I walked along the beach for a little while..I was quite surprised to see that there were quite a few people for a day like this..I did notice that no one ventured into the water..the waves seemed particularly menacing today..I sat there for more than a hour watching the waves. Although I had planned on reading a book, I somehow didn't feel like doing it..Today i was in a highly contemplative mood, and the thought that i was all by myself never occured to me at all..In fact i really seemed to enjoy these moments where no one could disturb me..I do know that there are people who cant spend a single moment alone? I wonder why is that so? Or are we afraid of ourselves ? What are we afraid of?

It was time to have some good food after all the contemplation..So without a second thought, walked up to Ganga restaurant which is right next to the beach and stuffed myself with enough indian food that would last for a week :-) By the time i walked out, it started raining..Having no patience to do anything else, i was on my way back to Masan....