Warsaw: Day 01

Tokyo Starbucks

Listen closely and you can catch the sound of all the employees saying Hi or Thanks or Goodbye or Cappuccino Latte Grande all in unison....

Laos

Never again on my dime. One of the most boring places I've ever been to...

Travel: Paris in the evening

Playboy Jazz Festival

Jazz festival...




the most interesting part of the festival ---- the people...

Peru: Chucuito

A beautiful morning in Ashgabat

Dishes, dishes everywhere...

And this is how the Ashgabaters get their television programs - satellite dishes. Everyone seems to have at least one. Some have two or more of these monsters. One of the pics captured the moment of a dish being either removed or stolen - who knows? It is a very easy target for the homeless and the drug addicts - the dish capsule can fetch about 2 dollars on the street.

Ashgabat

Ashgabat in a very dense fog. The memorial area dedicated to Saparmurat Turkmenbashi (the Father/Leader of all the Turkmens) and the book Ruhnama (now in two volumes) he wrote to spur the spiritual development of the nation. It is now a mandatory subject in every school and college, as well as a must-have item in every company or household. It has been translated into all major world languages by the companies who wanted to win construction or trade deals from Saparmurat.
As you can see, the monument to Saparmurat has a Nestle ice-cream vending booth, and the inscription on the memorial stone at the Ruhnama park claims that the construction was "complited in february 2003" (sic!)



Photos by Valera Meylis

A view from my mom's apartment

The other side of these mountains out there would be Iran (about 20 miles south). The building below (surprise, surprise) is the Iranian Embassy, which used to be the Regional Communist Party Committee. Times they are a-changing.

Hagia Sophia

Inside the marvel of architecture Hagia Sophia (pronounced Ahya sOfiya). The most surprising things is that most of the building, some of the icons and the mosaics have survived, proving in a way that re-branding is all we need, tolerance or not. Jerusalem is another example of such successful re-branding, the city that everyone claims to be their own... New York, the old New Amsterdam, may become such New Jerusalem...

for more information see this Wikipedia article

Moscow: Day 2

A view of Moscow from Krymskiy Bridge - the exhibition hall I am about to go to is on the right-hand side (The Central House of Artists).



Inside, there was an international exhibition of graphic design, a so-so collection of posters which hung in every way possible throughout the halls. The most striking ones are below. Don't I look like a young Donald Rumsfield? Maybe I am getting delusional.

Moscow: Day 1

Fresh from the airport, to drop off bags at the hotel, which has a beautiful modernist building right across the street (Lesnaya 18) and then off to Pushkin Museum. The museum had a wonderful exhibit, but no pictures can be taken WHATSOEVER, so all I could do is snatch a picture of a beautiful lamp (see below) and the hall before getting yelled at by a militiaman. I will provide the captions to the pictures when I am less tired.


Beautiful lamp at the Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts

Trip To Korea: The Last Day

Day 6. Time to leave the country. The Korean Airlines Elite Lounge is truly a marvel. Food was impeccable, selection of alcohol impressive, free bottles of water aboundant. These pictures represent my boredom - having nothing to do for two hours before the departure of my plane.
Doubt if I ever come to Korea for itself, but I definitely will use Korean Airlines to travel to Southeast Asia - there's China, Mongolia, Vietnam, Laos, Japan and Cambodia yet to be visited, preferrably in that order :)

Trip to Korea: Day 5

Day 5. Train trip to Gyeongju, the ancient capital of Silla Kingdom.




Now, how boring these tombs REALLY are!... the palace at least has some nice views and a pond. A group of American women was strolling at the same time, so of course I had to ask them what the heck they are doing in this neck of the woods. They came to visit their daughter/sister who came to teach English to a city nearby. They have skipped going to Seoul, since they are afraid of big cities, the town they live in has exactly one traffic light and a church. Mahvellus.



The market next to the train station is mostly food and the basics. Mostly elderly. Mostly on the floor. Mostly poor.




At the Seoul Train Station after a speedy ride on the TGV Korean Version, 300km/h almost all the way through the tunnels and bridges built especially for these trains.

Trip to Korea: Day 4

Day 4. A bus trip to Sokcho, a small village on the East Sea. The bus itself was supercomfortable, with ample seating, footrest, personal fan etc. Surprising, but 80% of Korea's surface is mountains. One biological stop where I saw this "foreigners only" sign and then within an hour - Sokcho!





Sokcho - a very small port, though the boats from Vladivostok come almost daily, it happened to be the place of some Asian games a couple of years ago, and so now it has become an architectural centre of East Korea, with its splendid helix tower and SuperWide Screen Theatre.




An hour-long boat ride along the shore of the East Sea. The highlight of the tour was a stop for some statue on the top of the hill (the excursion was in Korean, so I have no clue). When the boat stopped, the sea waves showed their strength and two women in the cabin felt very ill. To cheer them up, their friends started singing VERY loudly and banging on the tables. Needless to say, the sick women puked non-stop all the way back. Priceless.




By far, the best lunch. The fish was chopped up right in front of me, then cooked and placed on a slow burner. Delicious! and yes, it rained, so the smudge you see, is a raindrop :(



On the way back to Seoul, I took the wrong bus (non-express) and it exhausted the hell out of me and everybody else on board. But nothing that a bottle of Soju could not smooth over. Highly recommended. Drink thoroughly chilled. For a description and a picture, see Wikipedia :)

Trip to Korea: Day 3

Day 3. Walking through the city on my way to see the old palaces.



A small palace that serves as a tomb to kings and queens of yester years smack in the middle of Seoul and next to a huge marketplace.



Another big palace Changdeokgung. A guide who spoke Korean was quite vivid and interesting, he manipulated the crowd like a magician.



A very quiet place in Changdeokgung palace. Would be a great place for a quiet Sunday afternoon, but one cannot enter the palace at will, only as part of a tour. Guards heckle everyone who strays off the tour.




A beauftiful traffic woman who regulated cars and people with such grace, bowing with utmost respect after each turn. Mesmerizing!

Trip to Korea: Day 2

Day 2. An early morning trip to the DMZ, the no-man's land between the two Koreas. One can not take pictures at the zone, the recently discovered 3rd tunnel, but the degree of disneyfication of that place is stupefying. There are gift shops everywhere, even the binoculars to look at the North Korea have coin slots in them. I am sure that Kim Jong Il is very unhappy that the South Koreans are charging hard currency to show the tunnel that he dug.








A phantom railroad station built on public money, the one that has full customs and cargo inspection facilities that no one uses (yet! as the claim goes) - It is not the last station from South Korea, it is the first station on the way to the North Korea!



Korean Ginseng - The Best Ginseng in the WHOLE WIDE WORLD, or so I kept hearing from our guide :)



The first great, simple great dinner in Korea: no spices, variety and the green drink soju 25 degrees proof, not to be confused with sake (or you will hurt Korean national pride, as we learned the hard way).

Trip to Korea: Day 1

Day 1. A quick 45 min ride from the Incheon airport that crossed a very, very long bridge over the Yellow Sea and I am in Seoul. Itaewon, the area where my hotel was located, is one of those seedy areas that exist primarily to contain all the night clubs, bars for the US soldiers, their spouses, friends and base personnel as well as a new (to me) species - Canadian teachers of English. Definitely, a breed apart, as I have never seen so many geeky, socially awkward people who have nothing to show, except their "whiteness" and native language. Judging by the quality of signs in English that skill is specious at best.
Leeum, the Samsung Museum of Art, sports two huge tarantulas and immaculate bonzai trees, bamboos and manicured lawns. A bus tour around the city, a visit to the electronic shopping center (no displayed prices, yet no haggling - prices are exorbitant).
A quick meal (disgustingly covered in red pepper, but served with plenty of great tasting water), and I am back to the hotel to make arrangements for the next day travel to the DMZ zone.

The Cliffs of Moher