North Korea hands over nuclear details

In a 18'000 page document, North Korea handed over details on their nuclear programme, which was actually already due by end of last year in December.
Link to BBC news
Last year North Korea demonstrated a show of strenght by nuclear weapons tests and fueled the suspicion that they were running uranium enrichment facilities. The western media talked about this causing a great shudder to South Korea because the North Korean threat became more real. We were asked if we felt any fear at all living in South Korea at that time. Well, the South Koreans and we also heard this all before. In time, threats like these seem to have a deadening effect. No one around us even talked about it.

Busan - Korea's Seafood Mecca

One interesting city in South Korea you shouldn’t miss visiting is Busan, situated in the south of the peninsula. Busan was the only city during the Korean War that had never been occupied by the North Korean troops.
From Seoul there is a hypermodern high-speed train called KTX running about every half an hour between these cities. The fastest train only takes less than 3 hours (I think it is 2h40min to be precise) to cross the whole country. It is very recommendable, though, that you book your seats in advance. Optimistic as we were (and due to the fact that a train is running every 30 minutes), we just went to the ticket counter at Seoul station on a Saturday morning and wanted to get tickets to Busan. Well, our optimism definitely didn’t pay off this time. The next train that had available seats they could offer us was at 5pm. After long discussions they told us we could get standing tickets for the 1pm train. Although we didn’t feel too much inclined to standing for 3 hours, gaining an extra 4 hours in Busan was the stronger argument, so we accepted.

Therefore on our way to Busan we stood in the hallway of the KTX for 3 hours, and we weren’t alone. A few soldiers, two young girls and a cranky old man stood there together with us – and we later learned that the girls and the cranky old man only had tickets for a later train, but sneaked on the earlier one. Probably they got their tickets even later than we did, so probably even the standing tickets for our train were sold out already. We actually were quite surprised that even the standing space was so packed – but then we knew why. At least there was a drinks vending machine where we stood, so we definitely didn’t have to die of thirst. The most awkward thing that happened was that the cranky old man deliberately scared the ticket controller, a friendly and good-looking lady, almost to death when she walked by a second time. We don’t know if this was out of revenge (we actually don’t know what penalty he got for being on the wrong train) or just because he found it funny to scare people like this. At least we had some entertainment since we didn't see much of the landscape from our miserable position.

Must-see places in Busan are Haeundae Beach, where the raw fish street is worth a visit. Prices are of course astronomic in Korean terms, and we didn’t know we should have bargained them down. Unlike in Seoul, obviously at such a place it is not outrageous at all to ask for a reduction of 50%, especially during the low season. But we didn’t learn that till we came back from Busan and told our Korean friends about it. There is also an aquarium that is worth while seeing at Haeundae Beach that shows creepy, sweet and weird creatures of the oceans, and you definitely should try the 3D ride, but be sure you do not suffer from whiplash injury when you go there since the ride is quite brutally shaking you around.

The next day we tried out a few places in the city of Busan. If you take a walk from Busan train station down south you will reach Busan Tower with a nice park surrounding where people fly their kites and from where you can overlook the city. For the more shopping inclined there is Gukje market (국제시장), which means international market and sells anything you can imagine from clothes, shoes, snacks, handbags, jewelry, watches, and lots of fake produce. If you continue strolling south from Gukje market you will come to the port where Jagalchi market (자갈치시장) is.

This is definitely the most worth while seeing spot of the city. If you enter the huge building, you will see one seafood stand after another, the place looks tacky and dingy, you can sense the smelly taste of fish in the air and you see people buying their seafood, still alive but being slaughtered the moment they are being bought, the leftovers spilt all over the floor. On the second floor there are tables and people that serve you a meal, you can go and choose your seafood alive and they will bring it on your plate, if you please - still alive and moving.

If you want some more weird experience walk down the Jagalchi fish market street just next to the big Jagalchi market building, where you will see ocean creatures as seafood you’ve probably never seen before in your life. Busan is supposed to be famous for its grilled eel, chopped alive and grilled while it’s still moving, that is.

So we went ahead and tried that dish. Although it tasted fresh and – interesting - it is quite uncommon for western palates. Probably you need to get used to it before you can really savor the taste and the consistency. Despite the interesting experience, after coming back to Seoul, we were really glad to bite into a hearty entrecote beef steak at a French restaurant.

Shanghai Express

Over the weekend of Children's Day in Korea we decided to go on a short trip to the most vibrant metropolis in Asia - Shanghai.
The most popular sightseeing destination - the Bund with its colonial style buildings and many street vendors - offers a stunning view on Shanghai's flagship area Pudong, with the world famous Pearl Tower, Jin Mao Tower (hosting the Grand Hyatt Hotel) and lots of other prestigious buildings. We surprisingly even found Mirae Asset, the biggest Korean Asset Management company, amongst one of them - not exactly an internationally known company. They must have spent a fortune for that prominent placement of their logo. Kind of a downer is the water quality of the river - we thought the Han River in Seoul was dead, but can anything in the world look more dead than the Huangpo River?

On top of Jin Mao Tower (88th floor), which was till recently the highest point one could get on in Shanghai, we were awed to see that an even higher building right next to Jin Mao Tower was being established - with construction workers walking on vertiginous scaffolds. What stunned us the most was the fact how they could get that crane up to these heights? And how will they get it down again??? It is said that Shanghai is built on sand, and the speed at which things are being built might take its revenge later. Seoul had a similar boom two decades ago, and accidents like the collapse of bridges, buildings and airplane crashes in the mid-90s revealed that construction speed was obviously more important than security features. We hope Shanghai won't run into the same trouble - but seeing the speed of which things are developing gives me a cold shudder.

The next must-see thing in Shanghai is the bustling shopping street in Nanjing Road. Here you hardly get around the vendors that try to sell you fake handbags and watches. Curious of how this works (since none of the wares can be found in public) we went along with one of them. We were taken to a small side street off Nanjing Road and entered a small clothings shop. When we were in, a door in the back opened and gave view on a much bigger room with all the fake products. And then we were stunned again. The lady in the back room took one short look - not even a fraction of a second - at my watch and said: "Ah Omega watch - but it's a real one, right?" Seems like they are really the experts!

We were lucky that our friend got us tickets for an acrobat show of a different kind . ERA not only gives you the chills, there are daring feats you've never seen in your life - guaranteed.

Link to ERA website

A place called Xiantindi (New Heaven and Earth) offers a welcome conclusion of the evening, with a cozy drink in one of the many bars or restaurants. This is the place where most expats and foreigners gather, similar to Itaewon in Seoul, but this place has a much less tacky flavor.

If you don't want to miss out on an unexpected gourmet experience combined with the most exciting night view on the Bund, you should try Jade on 36 in Shangri-La Hotel Pudong. Relatively costly, but the overwhelming haute cuisine creations by Paul Pairet will blow your mind.
Link to Jade on 36

For a less expensive and much more Chinese culinary journey, try Nanxiang dumpling restaurant in Yu Garden (Yu Yuan). Here they serve the best dumplings in Shanghai. It is just next to the zigzag bridge which leads to the Yu Garden entrance, and you will recognize it by the masses of people lining up for it. If you want to sit down in the restaurant, go to the 3rd floor directly.

Link to more pictures of Shanghai Express