2yenTran

New blog for photography

2011-11-02T22:48:00.001-07:00

So I decided to create a different blog for my photography endeavors.

http://2yenphotography.blogspot.com/

It's been a while...

2011-10-11T12:05:00.000-07:00

So it's been over a year since I've blogged. It's been a hectic year so I sort of forgotten about it. So what has happen?

I ended up taking that second trip to Vietnam in November. However, this time around it didn't seem as exciting as my visit in 2008. Part of it was probably because I got sick for a couple of days in Hanoi, probably from some bad eggs I had for breakfast. The two main things I wanted to see on the trip, Bai Dinh Pagoda and the new Hanoi Museum, were disappointing. I did enjoy my stay in Hue where I was able to spend a lot of time with my relatives. I did not take that side trip to Bangkok after I found out that the fees cost as much as the plan ticket.
Left Kabam to go back to work at Lyris.
Biggest thing to happen to me so far in 2011 was my purchase of a home in San Jose. Though there has been some minor issues I've enjoyed living there so far. Having my privacy back is definitely a big plus.

Can't really think of anything else right now.

Side trip from Vietnam?

2010-09-29T20:37:00.000-07:00

While planning for my trip to Vietnam in November I found a promotion going on by Vietnam Airlines where if you fly from Vietnam to several different destination in Asia the tickets are heavily discounted (Information Here). $49 for round-trip tickets to Bangkok from Hanoi! However, I still haven't decided on where or if I want to do a side trip yet.

College Football is finally here

2010-09-04T20:49:00.000-07:00

The first week of college football is finally here and I was really looking forward to seeing USC play again even with the bs bowl ban from the NCAA. Of course the rest of the Pac-10 is embarrassing the conference again with Washington losing to BYU, UCLA losing to Kansas St., and Oregon St. losing to TCU. Why is it that it's always only USC that can consistently represent the Pac-10 with some honor outside of the conference.

USC won their game and the offense looked like a well-oiled machine but the defensive secondary looked horrible. This is the first time I've been worried about how we're going to do this early in the season for a long time now. Is our defense going to be torn apart all season long or will they grow up and become a force to be reckon with?

Next trip booked

2010-08-25T02:01:00.000-07:00

Today I booked my next vacation trip which will be in November. I'm going to go back to where it all started...Vietnam. I last went to Vietnam in 2008 and it was the start of my string of trips to Asia. Since then I've been to South Korea, Shanghai (which included a day trip to Hangzhou), and Japan. My last trip to Vietnam was the first time I traveled overseas alone so I was a bit hesitate to do many things. Since it's so easy to get ripoff in Vietnam I was really extra careful and mainly stuck to tours and sightseeing. There's still a lot of places in Vietnam that I want to see that I didn't get to last time, like the Perfume Pagoda. I had actually booked and paid for a tour to the Perfume Pagoda for the day before I was schedule to leave but I ended up being too tired after two straight days of touring that I didn't go.

This time around I'm not going to book my full hotel accommodations ahead of time, which was a big mistake I did last time where I ran out of stuff to do in Saigon after two days and was ready to leave the city but had already booked 5 nights in the city. I'm going to probably just book the first 3 nights in Hanoi and just go from there. Of course, doing this can leave me stranded without a place to stay but I think I'll risk it this time. I usually like to plan things out ahead of time but I'll just go with the flow this time, but I'll of course have an idea of places I want to see and stay at.

I'm still debating on whether to make a trip to Sapa or not.

For now I know that I'll be visiting Hanoi, Saigon, and maybe Nha Trang. I'm still debating about Nha Trang though, which is Vietnam's most popular beach resort location. However, I'm actually not the kind of person who likes to spend my vacation sitting around on the beach, I actually want to go out and do stuff. I realize that the last time I was there and was staying near the beach in Da Nang. I was pretty much bored with the beach after 15 minutes, which kind of sucked because the the town center was too far away to walk to. I'm also not sure if I want to take a detour to Hue to visit family.

Haven't blogged in a while

2010-07-08T21:25:00.000-07:00

I realize I sort of stopped blogging once I start to import my posts to Facebook. I've came to the realization that there are probably people on there that I don't really want to read my blog so that sort of triggered something in me that prevented me from blogging. I've removed the Facebook import setting so hopefully that will free me up to blog more often.

So a quick update on my life:
- Started a new job in May, now I'm working for a social gaming company.
- Took a road trip to Big Sur which turned out to be kind of disappointing.
- Starting to plan my next big trip which is going to be going back to Vietnam again.

Downtown San Jose pho restaurants

2010-03-25T13:44:00.000-07:00

Went to 3 different pho places for lunch the last 3 days in downtown San Jose. My ranking:

1. Com Ga Nam An - The quality of the chicken makes the difference here.

2. Pho Lan Noodle House - smaller portions than Pho Queen (for me this isn't a big factor but for other people it might) and the broth is more flavorful (more msg?).

3. Pho Queen 2 - biggest portions but broth is kind of bland.

Happy Year of the Tiger!!!

2010-02-14T14:55:00.001-08:00

Chuc mung nam moi!!! Van su nhu y!!!

Japan It Is #4

2010-02-03T22:27:00.000-08:00

So my Japan trip will be next month, planning to fly out on March 4th and come back on the 19th. I've been trying the last couple of weeks to get everything ready and planned out. I've finish booking my flights and hotels but I'm still working on the itinerary. February is going to be a hectic month with Tet, my brother's birthday, and his son's birthday all falling around the middle of the month so it's going to be hard trying to fit in time to try to finish up my vacation planning.

The current high-level view of my schedule is going to look something like this:

March 4-5: Fly to Tokyo
March 5-10: Tokyo (with a day trip to Mt. Takao)
March 10-12: Kusatsu Onsen
March 12-18: Osaka (with day trips to Kyoto & Hiroshima)
March 18-19: Tokyo
March 19: Leave Japan

I found using Google's My Maps a good way for me to plan my trip because it allows me to map out all the points of interest that I might want to visit. Using the map allows me to see where the clusters are so that I plan ahead without running back and forth. It also allows you to add your own comments to each point of interest, which I use to store information I found about each place from the web. However, unlike regular Google Map searches it doesn't show you the name of each point when you hover over it. You actually have to click the icon to get the information for each point of interest, which can get annoying.

I do have a rough idea of a schedule for the first Tokyo leg.

March 6th (Saturday)
- Morning/early Afternoon: Ueno Park area.
- Afernoon/early Evening: Sensoji Temple & Asakusa Shrine.
- Evening: Back to hotel then maybe Shinjuku, Shibuya, or Roppongi Hills.

March 7th (Sunday)
- Morning/early Afternoon: Harajuku area.
- Afternoon/early Evening: Akihabara
- Evening: Back to hotel then maybe Shinjuku, Shibuya, or Roppongi Hills.

March 8th (Monday)
- Really early morning: Tsukiji Fish Market.
- Morning/Afternoon: Tokyo Tower, Sony Building, Imperial Palace.
- Evening: Back to hotel then maybe Ikebukuro area (Sunshine City). If time allows: Shinjuku, Shibuya, or Roppongi Hills.

March 9th (Tuesday)
- Morning/Afternoon: Trip to Mt. Takao for hiking.
- Evening: Back to hotel and rest for the evening or maybe Ikebukuro area if didn't get a chance to previous night.

March 10th (Wednesday)
- Morning: Catch train to Kusatsu Onsen.

Of course everything would be dependent on weather and how jet lag we feel when we get there.

Looking at the above schedule it looks like I might have to drop a couple of places off the list of places to see because they might be too out of the way like the Ghibli Museum (an animation museum) and the Rikugien Gardens (a very nice garden from what I can tell from Youtube videos). I really would like to visit the Rikugien Gardens though so I might need to find a way to fit it into the schedule.

Japan It Is #3

2009-12-09T20:54:00.000-08:00

Though I haven't posted much about my planned Japan trip next year, I have been doing some research for it. The current dates I have set is for early March and I'm planning for about a two and a half week trip. I also got confirmation from my friend that he should be able to come with me this time. In Tokyo I was looking to stay at the Hotel Metropolitan though I don't know if the hotel discounts on Expedia will last until the time that I can book it. Since the $200 coupon I got for my trip to Shanghai won't be available until January 11th, I can't book and finalize everything until then. For Osaka I was originally thinking of booking the Chisun Hotel Shinsaibashi, however, after reading one of the Tripadvisor reviews about the rooms having stains and it being a bit old and outdated, I started to have second thoughts. But currently I haven't found a replacement hotel.

One of the things that my friend really wanted to do was have an authentic onsen (hot spring) experience so I also did some research on the matter. It seems that Kusatsu (which is about 2h30m train ride plus an additional 30m bus ride to get to from Tokyo) is a famous onsen destination near Tokyo so I decided that's probably where we're going to go. I was thinking of spending two nights there at Kusatu Onsen Kiyosigekan which is a Ryokan (Japanese style hotel) in between our stays in Tokyo and Osaka.

A video of Kusatsu

As for stuff to do I still haven't finish researching all that information yet, though one of my friend just went to Japan recently so I was thinking of taking a look at his itinerary.

Vietnamese Coffee

2009-12-09T16:46:00.000-08:00

I had ordered some Vietnamese coffee online at vietnamese-coffee.com. I actually don't recommend buying Vietnamese coffee at this Web site or online unless you can't get to a Vietnamese grocery store or you want to buy the brands that they don't have at the Vietnamese grocery stores like Highlands Coffee or the Legendee brand coffee from Trung Nguyên. After doing some comparison shopping the prices at the grocery store is quite cheaper than buying online, especially if you add the cost of shipping (Examples: a 14 oz. can of condense milk costs $3.95 and a bag of Premium Blend Trung Nguyên coffee costs $9.75, while at the grocery store it only costs about $2 and $8 respectively).

Originally, I wanted to buy the most expensive Trung Nguyên coffee to compare with the most expensive Highlands coffee since they're the two biggest coffee chains in Vietnam. However, I couldn't find a Highlands coffee that compared in price to the Legendee from Trung Nguyên. The Legendee was $17 for a 250g pack. Why so expensive? It's because the Legendee is an enzymatically-treated coffee that is suppose to give the same "balance and flavor of the famous Kopi Luwak, or Civet/Weasel coffee", more info can be found here (my co-worker claims its all marketing). I couldn't find an equivalent for Highlands Coffee online.

I tried the Legendee today and I have to say, it's definitely the best coffee I've ever tasted. But to be honest I have very limited experience drinking coffee and only started drinking coffee infrequently since I had some really good coffee at a Caffeé Pascucci in Seoul during my trip in April. It wasn't until after that experience that I thought coffee was something I can drink daily. All my prior experience with coffee were either horrible or so-so. I actually didn't have Starbucks until my Shanghai trip a little over a week ago and it was horrible, I don't think I would ever go back. Though I did have a huge headache after drinking the Legendee, I'm not sure if it's because I didn't eat anything when I drank it or it was because I wasn't use to the strength of the coffee.

I also let one of my Vietnamese co-worker try the Legendee today and he says that its the same taste as one of the cheaper Trung Nguyên coffee so during lunch we decided to go buy some of the Premium Blend version. As mentioned earlier, I was getting a headache from the Legendee so I didn't want to do a taste test today but me and my co-worker are planning to tomorrow. I'll let you know if I can taste any difference, and whether I think the Legendee is worth 4 times more than the Premium Blend. I'm not sure if we'll have enough filters to also taste the Gourmet Blend of Highlands Coffee.

Highlands Gourmet Blend ($5.50, 200g)

Trung Nguyên Legendee ($16.95, 250g)

Trung Nguyên Premium Blend ($7.99, 425g)

Shanghai Trip Intro (November 2009)

2009-12-07T19:25:00.000-08:00

I had a floater holiday left from work where I can take any day of the year off as a vacation day. I usually use it on my birthday because it's my belief that my birthday should be a holiday anyways =). But this year my birthday landed on a Sunday so I didn't have to use the floater for it this year.

Originally, I had decided to try to use my floater so I can take a three day weekend trip some where. I had thought of going to visit my friend in Los Angeles since I still had some credit on my Southwest Airline account that I really need to use up before it expires. But he wasn't free and I didn't want to go down there just for a sightseeing trip since I had lived in LA for five years during college so there wasn't anything I wanted to see that I haven't already. I was debating about maybe taking a trip to Seattle but in the end I couldn't think of anything I wanted to see there since it's just basically another American city. I quickly thought about taking a Vegas trip since I was getting offers through email from MGM for free hotel stays but I was there just a couple weeks ago and it didn't really appeal to me that much so I didn't want to spend a weekend alone there.

As time passed by Thanksgiving started to come up and about two weeks before Thanksgiving week I thought, "Hey, if I use my floater holiday plus two vacation days I can take the whole week off!". That's when I decided to plan for a bigger vacation than what I was originally thinking of. Some of you might ask, "How can you not spend Thanksgiving with your family?" To be honest, Thanksgiving doesn't really mean much to me since growing up as part of an immigrant Vietnamese family we didn't really celebrate it. The last five or six years we did start to celebrate it but even though we do have turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy, etc. it's nothing like what a traditional Thanksgiving day dinner really is or what you usually see in the movies. It's more of a I think we should do it since it's expected kind of feeling. None of my family members seemed to care except for my future sister-in-law.

At first I was thinking of maybe going to Bangkok, but the price was slightly a bit too much for me since I was planning to go to Japan in March of 2010 I didn't want to spend too much money. The place I really wanted to go to was Japan but I had already planned to go there next March with my co-worker. Then the idea of going to Shanghai popped into my head and I decided why not! (For some reason Beijing didn't popped into my head until my co-workers mentioned it later but by that time it was too late.) Plus Expedia had a deal where if you book a flight and hotel package with them by December 31st I get a $200 coupon for my next vacation trip package booked through them by April 30th, which was perfect since I was planning to go to Japan in March anyways! So after a quick research on hotels, I booked my trip.

From the beginning it seemed that I was really unprepared for my trip. Being sick before my trip didn't help my preparations either. I also booked my Seoul trip back in April pretty last minute also but this time around it seemed like everything went wrong.

Usually I like to blog about my trip day per day during my trip, which I did during my Seoul trip but I realize doing so took away too much time from my trip itself so this time around I'm not blogging about my trip until over a week after since I got kind of busy since I got back. However, things aren't as fresh in my memory as it would be if I actually blogged during my trip.

This trip is going to be a multi-post summary so stay tune.

To be continue...

#3 USC vs. #8 Ohio State

2009-09-13T16:45:00.000-07:00

USC won 18-15 last night in a great game. This game was a lot closer than I had expected, I was expecting a blowout especially after that early interception by USC. I think the game was so close because USC was trying to protect Matt Barkley too much. Last year USC blew Ohio State out by picking their secondary apart, and I think they could have done that this year. We saw examples of this on the last drive of the half and at the end of the game, but I think USC was too concern with him making Freshman mistakes like he did on the interception. However, holding back the passing game hampered USC's offense most of the game when Ohio State was just stacking the box with 8 players. Luckily, except for a couple of gaffs USC's defense for the most part played lights out.

The last drive

USC Defensive Highlights

Matt Barkley Highlights

Pictures from my Vietnam trip in 2008

2009-09-11T11:34:00.000-07:00

I've started to upload my Vietnam pictures from my trip in August 2008. You can see them here http://www.flickr.com/photos/16058526@N05/ . Hopefully, I'll finish uploading the rest by the end of the weekend.

Here are some samples:

iPhone still sucks!

2009-08-18T02:19:00.000-07:00

Well, I'm lying here in bed at 2:30 in the morning typing up this blog post on my new iPhone 3G S. I really wanted the Samsung Omnia HD but they still haven't announce if they're ever going to bring it to the states. So even though I hate Apple products I finally broke down and got the 3G S. I really needed a new phone and my old plan finally expired, hopefully, this phone will hold me over until the Omnia comes.

AEM V2 Cold Air Intake Installed!

2009-08-02T23:41:00.000-07:00

So I finally got my AEM V2 CAI installed today with my brother Phat's help. I originally thought it would take a max of about 4 hours but it ended up taking about 6 hours to complete. However, after a test drive with the new intake I can definitely feel the increase in lower rpm power. The car also seems easier to launch from a standstill. I couldn't hear much difference between the sound of the car with the intake compared to stock but my brother says that it has a lower growl to it. I've only taken it for a short test drive but so far I'm definitely happy with it.

(Took a while to just remove all the original hoses)

(Couldn't have done it without my brother Phat's help)

(Don't know why he's laughing, that part was a pain in the butt to do)

(Had to cut through the plastic underbody cover to fit the intake. Thank you Bao for letting me borrow his Dremel)

(Finally done)

(Thought I had lost the decals but I finally found them in Phat's toolbox)

(Got to have a picture of me also =P)

Why couldn't the S2000 AEM V2 intake be as easy as the RSX Type-S version =(.

AEM V2 Cold Air Intake Arrives!

2009-07-29T00:43:00.000-07:00

I purchased an AEM V2 CAI last week online and it's already here! I hadn't expected to come until the end of this week. Can't wait for the weekend so I can install it. Looking at the manual this might be harder to install than I had anticipated.

s2000 - secret compartment

2009-07-23T19:31:00.000-07:00

So I was watching a youtube documentary video about the Honda S2000 and they started to mention something about a secret compartment. I was like, "secret compartment!?!". I did a google search and found where it was located. I've had my car for over 10 months and did not know it was there. Originally, I had thought it sucked that the s2000 barely has any place to easily store stuff but I guess I just didn't know where it was =). I even found the car's owner manual in there. Now, if there was only a secret cup-holder some where.

(Had no clue this was there for over 10 months)

(The owner's manual)

Michael Jackson - R.I.P.

2009-07-05T23:06:00.000-07:00

I had been debating on whether or not to do a Michael Jackson post since there are probably already millions of them out there. Michael Jackson has always been one of my favorite singers, more so when I was a child then now but whenever anyone ask me who were my favorite singers I always mention Michael Jackson, I always get a snicker for this from my college friends when I say it but I don't care. However, I always seem to follow it up by "well, before the 90's version" as a defensive reaction. To be honest, all the stuff since the early 1990's has really affected my interest in him but Billie Jean and Smooth Criminal are always two of my favorite songs of all-time, and some of his other ones are closely up there.

Smooth Criminal
Billie Jean

Hiking @ Joaquin Miller Park

2009-07-05T22:36:00.000-07:00

About a week and a half ago my brother called me up out of the blue and asked me if I wanted to go hiking. This was the first time I've gone hiking on a weekday and during the evening. Luckily, it's summer so the sun is out longer. This time my brother Tony and I went with my cousin Billy and his girlfriend May. Again, I looked up a place on bahiker.com and decided on Joaquin Miller Park. Every hiking trial we've went to so far had a trail map at the beginning of the trial so I didn't really do any research before we went. When we got there there was no trail map so we had to basically guess at where we're going. After walking for a while we had to turn back around the same way because we weren't sure if the trial was going to loop around or not.

Man, I miss the USC Campus

2009-06-16T14:58:00.000-07:00

USC #1 football factory

2009-06-16T12:07:00.000-07:00

Just ran across this today on Youtube. USC was ranked the #1 football factory of all time =).

Highest paid Vietnamese athlete is a Badminton player!

2009-06-04T23:12:00.000-07:00

According to this news story from an online Vietnamese news site, the highest paid Vietnamese athlete is a badminton player!

Minh shoots for world top ten ranking

17:07' 04/06/2009 (GMT+7)

VietNamNet Bridge – Nguyen Tien Minh, ranked Vietnamese No 1, has set his sights on a spot in next month’s World Badminton Federation’s top ten rankings with plans to play well in three world ranked tournaments this month.

Nguyen Tien Minh.

Minh, who leapt from 24th to 19th in the world rankings last year, fell in at 11th on the most recent world federation rankings released last week.

As scheduled, the HCM City-born athlete will compete in Singapore, Indonesia and the Philippines in his effort to make the world top 10.

"I’ll do my best to join the world top 10. However, it’s harder to climb one step in the top 10 than it is to climb 10 steps within the top 100," said Nguyen Tien Minh.

"I’ll sustain my current 11th place world ranking if I qualify for the Singapore Series quarter-finals from June 9-14. But I hope not to disappoint everyone. I’ll keep attacking on the court to reach the top 10."

The 24-year-old player, who became the first Vietnamese Olympian badminton player at the Beijing Games last year, secured two sponsorship contracts in the past two months.

Becamex Binh Duong Company, which owns the Binh Duong football team, has agreed to sponsor him with VND20 million (US$1,100) each month in a one-year contract.

Earlier last month, HCM City-based Victor sportswear company inked a four-year sponsorship deal with Minh, providing him with $2,000 monthly.

The sportswear company also agreed to cover Minh’s fees for three Asian tournaments each year.

Minh is the best paid Vietnamese athlete with a monthly income of more than VND60 million ($3,300).

VietNamNet/Viet Nam News

However, foreign soccer players are probably the highest paid athletes in Vietnam. A Vietnamese-American soccer player is apparently being paid around $10,000 a month to play for HAGL (link), which is owned by a Vietnamese tycoon.

Japan it is #2

2009-05-17T22:12:00.000-07:00

(image from wikitravel)

So over the weekend I decided to do some research for my trip to Japan next year and decided my first research spot would be Akihabara, Tokyo's "Electric Town". This is definitely one of the places I want to visit in Japan, since it's a haven for electronics and anime. Though my interest in anime has waned over the years its still at a point were this place is a must visit.

wikitravel.org is generally a good place to start to find out some really basic details of places around the world. Its usually good with transportation details on how to get to a certain place. The one for Akihabara gives you some basic information to start with but I found another site with some more useful information, japan-guide.com.

I also found a youtube video that gives a nice explanation of Akihabara. However, though the host's English is good, her acting sucks, it doesn't seem natural at all. Plus the person who wrote the dialog needs to be shot, it sounds like something we would see here in the 40's or 50's. The user doesn't allow embedding of the video so you would have to check it out by following this link (Akihabara popculture)

Japan it is #1

2009-05-11T00:52:00.000-07:00

So I've pretty much decided that my next trip will be to Japan. The person who bailed on me last time said he should be able to go this time so we'll see how that goes =). Though it won't be until next year I thought it would be nice to do a series of posts from now until then on my plans for the trip. To be honest I've wanted to go to Japan since high school (mainly because of anime) but I actually don't have a clue as to which places I would want to visit in Japan. Off the top of my head I can only think of Osaka castle, Akihabara, and Shibuya. Climbing Mt. Fuji might be interesting and I'll probably visit some pagodas, I always like visiting pagodas.

So my current list:

Osaka castle
Akihabara
Shibuya
climb Mt. Fuji
find some famous pagodas to visit

My next trip

2009-04-30T19:13:00.000-07:00

Even though I've only been back from my trip for about a week, I'm already thinking about my next trip. There are four countries I've always wanted to visit: Vietnam, South Korea, Japan, and China. Last year I had visited Vietnam and this year South Korea. Originally, I had planned to go to Japan instead of Korea this year but someone, I won't name who, bailed on me so I decided to go to Korea instead because the Won had depreciated against the Dollar by several tens of a percent so it was a good time to visit Korea. For next year, I'm leaning towards Japan. My preference is to visit Japan before China, however, over time the Yuan will definitely continue to appreciate against the Dollar so the longer I wait to visit China the more expensive it will probably be.

I actually have tier levels for the places I want to visit =).

Tier 1
Vietnam
South Korea
Japan
China

Tier 2
Thailand
Cambodia
Laos
Myanmar/Burma (when the Military Junta is dispose of first, of course)
Hong Kong

Tier 3
United Kingdom
France
Italy

Tier 4
Austria
Australia
Germany

It's probably going to take me several years and several trips just to visit all the places I want to see from the Tier 1 countries. I've only scratched the surface of all the places I want to visit in Vietnam from my last trip there. One of thing I did learn from my trip to South Korea is that one week is too short, I ended up rushing too many things in the end. For my trip to Japan I'm definitely going to try for at least 2 weeks minimum.

Free performance at the Incheon Airport

2009-04-27T18:42:00.001-07:00

I happened upon this free performance at the Incheon Airport so I decided to take a short clip of it.

Seoul, 6th day

2009-04-27T17:35:00.000-07:00

On the last day before my flight I decided to go to Gangbeokgung, which was close to Bukchon Hanok Village. I took the subway from Myeong-dong station to Anguk Station and walked about two blocks to get to the palace entrance. The sign at the ticket booth said that on all days except Thursday you're required to enter the palace with a tour guide in a group. I was a little bum about this but while I was waiting around for the next tour group to start I realize that it was Thursday! After realizing my stupidity I went into the palace. I had taken several videos of the palace grounds and of the performance I saw but they were all lost when I accidentally crashed my external hard drive.

Pictures

While walking through one of the doorways I notice people were gathering around a stage area so I decided to sit down and check it out. It was basically a free performance of five different traditional Korean music and dance. I took a video clip of each performance but again their were lost due to the external hard drive incident.

When I got back I rested for a bit and then went shopping for gifts for people back home that I've been putting off doing.

Overall, I really enjoyed my trip to Seoul. The only regret I had was that it was too short and I had to rush a lot of stuff at the end.

Bye, bye external hard drive & Flickr

2009-04-26T20:48:00.000-07:00

On Friday, after I had moved all my pictures and videos of my trip from my laptop to my external hard drive, I accidentally kicked the drive over really hard. Now it will no longer will connect to any computer instead it just makes a loud clicking noise. I was able to recover a majority of my pictures using a recovery program on my laptop, however, it can't seem to find any of the stuff I had from my visit to Gangbeokgung and most of my videos.

I've uploaded the pictures I was able to recover to Flickr and you can see them here.

Seoul, 5th day

2009-04-25T00:04:00.000-07:00

On my fifth day in Seoul I decided to go to Gwanaksan for some hiking. This was one of the things on my itinerary that I really wanted to do. I had originally wanted to do it on Monday but it rained all day that day. Though it didn't rain on Tuesday it was still gloomy, windy, and cold. Wednesday wasn't perfect weather either but it looked sunny enough so I decided to go. It wasn't until I got outside that I realize that it was still really windy and kind of cold. Which made the fact that I was wearing shorts look kind of stupid. I probably got a lot of stares because of this.

From my previous research I know that the hiking trail starts near the entrance to Seoul National University, which to my understanding is considered the most prestigious university in South Korea from some readings I've done online. Using Google maps it seemed that the Seould National University Station was the closes subway station to the university which makes sense. However, on Wikipedia it says the "easiest route" was Gwanak Station which from Google map was on the other side of the mountain and no where near SNU so I was a little confuse as to which station to go to. I ended up deciding to take the route to SNU Station but I also had to find a bus to take me from the station to the campus gate because the station is actually a little distance north of the campus. Using Google maps I was able to find out that I can take a bus to the SNU entrance, and that the bus stop I needed to get on was actually across from a KFC =).

On the subway to SNU Station I notice a few other people in hiking gear who were all middle-aged or older. From my readings I knew that Gwanaksan was a favorite hiking trail for older folks, but as with the Japanese tourists in Myeong-dong I didn't realize there would be so many until later on. When I got out of the station I decided to take a different bus other than the one I had written down because I notice all the other hikers were taking it and it was actually one of the three bus options I had written down to take coming back. My stop was pretty easy to spot, there were several stalls lined up on the street selling hiking gear and the distinctive gate for SNU was just ahead. One thing I didn't do and I didn't realize this until I saw people do it on the bus coming back is that you're suppose to scan your T-Money card on the way off the bus also not just when you got on.

Before I went to the hiking trail I decided to take a video and some pictures of the SNU gate and the surrounding area.

When I was done recording and taking pictures I headed in the direction that the other hikers were heading. From my readings on the internet there was suppose to be an information booth that I can get a trail map from, however, after walking for a while I did not see any information booth (on my way back I saw something that could had been the information booth but it was empty and there were no signs saying "information" on it). The beginning of the trail a paved road an an ascending slope.

I was still looking for the information booth but couldn't find it. Instead I found this useful map near the park/pond area. I had started at the bottom-right trail you see on the map and I decided if I was going to do this that I might as well head to the higher summit which is the left one on the map.

There was a nice park/pond area on the trail. There was also a botanical garden near the beginning of the trail that I didn't go to.

Before I took the fork left to get to the summit, I decided to take a side trail to check out one of the pagodas I saw on the map. This trail turned out to be really steep and my thighs were already starting to burn after only going about half way up.

These laterns were all along the trail giving you an idea where to go.

The beginning of the trail went along the side of SNU so you can see many of the campus buildings along the trail.

I decided to take a video at the bridge below.

I had to take several breaks along the way. Here's a video of one of them.

It was actually still a while before I got to the summit, but when I did this is the view. I also realize that the left trail in the video is probably the one coming from Gwanak Station, which is probably the easier route =). Oh, the thing I keep calling the observatory is actually radar equipment.

I was already dead tired when I got to the top so I was hoping the way down a lot easier, but it was not. First I finally slipped but luckily I landed on my butt instead of head first into a bunch of jagged rocks. After checking myself I only notice a sprain my my right arm that went away after a while. My camera and camcorder in my backpack also seemed fine which I was really glad about.

Later I hit a fork in the road that I didn't notice before, one was a rocky path along a stream and the other was a dirt path that went into the woods. My first inclination was to go along the stream since it had the line of laterns I mentioned earlier and I didn't remember going through a wooded area like the one I saw. However, all of the people I saw heading down the mountain were taking the wooded path so I decided to go that way also. I ended up getting completely lost. I didn't see those other people any where in sight, and there seemed to be several different diverging trails. I was completely lost for about 15 to 20 minutes. The story about the man dying in the woods that I heard of a while back started to pop into my head. I was debating on whether to just stay still and wait to see if anyone passes by or keep on going. It didn't help that I started to hear weird animal noises. The situaton was straight out of a monster movie. I decided to keep on walking on what I thought might be the correct trail, I made sure I was going downward and towards the radar equipment I saw at the top of the mountain in the distance. After a while I saw the stream again and saw people on the original trail I was on. I breathed a big sigh of relief.

After I got off the trail I was really starving. I had decided beforehand that I was going to eat at that KFC near the subway station. I went back to the same bus stop that I got dropped off of to catch the same bus that took me here. I thought the bus would just go around the roundabout head back up the same street I came from but instead it went into the SNU campus. At first I wasn't worried because this gave me a nice chance to see the SNU campus which was what I originally wanted to do anyways and believe the bus would eventually go around in a loop anyways to where I wanted to get off. However, the bus all of a sudden stopped in the middle of the campus and everyone got off. Now I was a little worried, I tried to explained to the bus driver that I might have gotten onto the wrong bus and that I was trying to get to SNU Station. Of course, he didn't know English...well, not very much of it. I think he mention something about two stations which I was confused about. I tried to mention again that I was trying to get to "Seoul National University Station" or any subway station. I think I did hear something about "Seouldae Station" (later found out that SNU is also called "Seouldae" for short). After a while he led me down the path a bit and when he saw a bus with the same bus number we were just on coming he hailed it and told me to get on. Even now, I'm still not sure if the buses always stopped there as their last stop and don't go all the way around in a full circle, or maybe it was his break time. He did go into a building after I got on the bus. Oh well, at least the bus I go on turned out to be the correct one, I also notice that one of the stops it made was at a bus stop just to the left of the SNU gate, which was probably the correct stop for me to get on originally instead I had gotten on at the stop just to the right of the gate. Well, at least on that second bus going to SNU Station a group of very cute college coeds got on the bus and one of them sat right next to me. If I didn't probably smell and looked weired in my shorts (I did not see a single persion in shorts during the all day), I might had tried to struck up a conversation. However, I was too tired to try and I probably looked weirder on that bus than the raggidy old woman with a shovel. At least she looked like she was doing some work for the campus. Sigh, the girls were so my type, maybe I should had gone to school in South Korea.

I ended up eating at the KFC and had no further incidents getting home after that.

Seoul, 4th day

2009-04-23T20:33:00.000-07:00

Well, I ended up getting up before 5 a.m. on the 4th day. It was another gloomy day but at least it wasn't raining, however, hiking was out of the question. Spent most of the morning surfing the web and doing research on where might be a good place to buy a different lense for my camera. At first I was thinking of going to the Yongsan Electronics Mall, which is basically a giant mall for electronic products. I read that just going there was an experience in off itself. However, I read that besides computer parts the deals at Yongsan is not that much better than places you can find online in the US. I found from further research that for camera lenses it's better to go to Namdaemun Market where there's a said street that sell cameras and camera parts.

Before I headed out I decided to have breakfast at Pascucci again and then I went to the Lotte Duty Free section of the Lotte Department Store to buy a The North Face jacket. I ended up not buying the one I was looking at the previous day because the only had it in a light blue color. I ended up choosing a black jacket.

After heading back to the hotel to drop off my stuff I decided to use the new jacket I had bought since it was a very gloomy and winding day. At least it wasn't raining like the previous day. Namdaemun Market was only one subway stop from my hotel so it wasn't a long trip to get there, however, I wasn't sure where exactly where in Namdaemun Market it was. I had read that it was suppose to be right across from the Namdaemun Gate so I decided to go to the tourist booth and grab a map. However, when I looked at the map, Namdaemun Gate was no where on the map. Maybe because it was burnt down by arson last year? (link) I believe I've seen what was suppose to be Namdaemun Gate on the bus ride from the airport to my hotel on my first day here, which was basically a walled off area with a painting of how the gate was suppose to look going around the wall. I didn't see that on the street where I got off of the subway so I decided to to head to the other end of the market to check. When I hit the end of the market I decided to go right but after a while I realize it didn't look like that was the right way so I headed back and went the other way.

Well, going the other turned out to be the right choice and I found the row of shops related to camera equipment. I had checked the price of the lense I wanted on Amazon and it was going for $230 so I wanted to see if I can get it for cheaper here. The first shop I went into wanted over 400,000 won which without having to do the calculation in my head I knew was way, way over price. I shook my head and left not even bother bargaining. The next shop wanted 310,000 won. This was where my deficiency in Korean actually helped me out. At first when I tried to do that conversion of won to usd in my head I had thought it was below the $230 mark so I was going to buy it (later using Google I found that 310,000 won is actually just about $230). However, I asked him if they take credit card, he shook his head like to said no but he then said there was a 10% charge for credit card. I told him I only had about 240,000 won on me and after asking him if there was an atm around there which he didn't seem to understand so I said I will leave to go find an atm and will be right back. He didn't seem to understand me and thought I was leaving for good so he lowered the price to 270,000 won! This is why I don't like bargaining and I suck at it too. He was willing to take my 230,000 won and charged 40,000 won to my credit card with no fee! I wonder if they're trying to avoid taxes or something. For some reason he didn't give it to me in the box that he pulled the lense from, instead he gave me the lense and manual inside a cloth bag. When I got back to my hotel I notice that a little edge of one of the sticker on the lense had pealed a little bit off so I suspect that it might have been a used lense. Man, I hope its not a fake! (Note: I've used it to take pictures the last two days and haven't seen anything wrong with it.)

Photo of me that the guy at the store took with the new lense.

That night I decided to have dinner at The Outback. I got the New York Strip, but it came out kind of dry even though they did seem to get the medium-rare part of it right. At least the waitress was cute.

Seoul, random ramblings 2

2009-04-21T01:23:00.000-07:00

Man, there are a lot of Japanese tourists here. I've read beforehand that a lot of Japanese like to come to Korea to shop because it was cheaper than buying the same stuff in Japan but I didn't expected there to be this many. My hotel seems like it's mainly booked by Japanese tourists, all the clerks here seems to know Japanese. I've only seen a couple "white" westerners and notice two Chinese families, all the rest seems to be Japanese. More than once I got spoken to in Japanese in the hotel elevator. It seems like the whole Myeong-dong area is geared towards the Japanese tourist, most of the clerks I've notice in the stores seem to know some Japanese. A lot of the girls standing outside the cosmetic stores will usually yell out advertisements in Japanese. If you want a more English friendly environment I believe Itaewon is more the place to be. However, there are some very cute Japanese girls walking around all the time so I'm cool with it =).

Oh, I finally found a trash & recycle bin in Myeong-dong. I think I missed it the first couple of times because it's painted grey. In the states the trash bins are usually green so I think that's what my eyes and brain were train to look for I guess.

Seoul, 3rd day

2009-04-21T00:15:00.000-07:00

Well, my plans of pushing myself to stay up later so that I wouldn't be waking up between 5 a.m and 6 a.m. worked...I ended up not waking up until noon! For my first two days in Seoul the weather has been great so I was shocked when I looked out the window and it was raining, so waking up at noon wasn't so bad. I checked the weather online and the forecast was that it was raining that day and a chance of rain the next. The rain wasn't too bad just a slight continuous drizzle, luckily I had brought an umbrella with me so I was prepared. My back has also been killing me the last couple of days so it was a good opportunity to take it easy. I ended up having lunch at the KFC again and afterwards I decided to check out the Lotte Department Store that was right across the street from my hotel.

When I got to the Lotte Departmart Store I couldn't seem to find the entrance, all the doors where close and the lights were off. I decided to keep walking around, I was actually looking for the Lotte Duty Free store which from my memory of the previous night the sign was closer to the Lotte Hotel. When I got to the edge of the Lotte Hotel I saw a big group of Japanese tourists coming out from the Lotte Hotel and going behind the buildings so I followed. I later found out that the Lotte Department Store closes once a month on a Monday and apparently that day was one of those days. However, the Duty Free Store, which were just the 9th and 10th floor of the Lotte Department Store, was still open but apparently the only way to get to it was to use the elevators in the back of the store. There was a line waiting to get on the two elevators that were available and when it was my turn to get on I was packed in shoulder-to-shoulder with the other tourists. I have never been so packed into an elevator in my life, it was so packed that when the door first tried to close it opened up again because one of the guys was sticking out just a little bit too much. If you've ever seen videos of how they try to pack people into the Tokyo subway trains during rush hour it was basically something like that. I walked around for about an hour or so, there was nothing there that really interested me besides the small section for The North Face brand clothing where I spent most of my time browsing. I ended up not buying anything because I wanted to check the pricing online first before I buy, there were a couple of jackets that I was interested in. The rest of the store was mainly cosmetics and high end luxury goods.

That night I decided to have dinner at my hotel again. This time I just got the club sandwich but also decided on trying a cocktail from the bar. For the cocktail I went with the Gimlet which I ended up not liking very much. The sandwich was good though.

After resting for a bit in my room to digest my food I decided to go try that English pub style bar again at the Lotte Hotel. This time there was more people but it still wasn't packed. However, there was live entertainment this time with a singer and pianist. They played a lot of English songs. The best part of the night was when drunken Korean business men started to get up and dance to the music, the funniest one was a guy who danced flamingo style. I later saw the guy leaning against the way in the restroom, he didn't look too good but I think he was with friends so he should be okay. I ended up drinking Heineken draft instead of the bottled ones because it was cheaper. After about three glasses I decided to head back and call it a night. Oh, and for my friends and family who keep bringing it up there were no lonely girls at the bar to pick up. Most of the women there were with their boyfriends or co-workers.

Seoul, 2nd day

2009-04-20T03:16:00.000-07:00

On my second day in Seoul I decided to take the subway to go visit the Bukchon Hanok Village area. Bukchon is an area that still has some very well preserved Hanoks (traditional Korean homes) that regular people still live in. Apparently, the current Korean President's old home is in this area but I wasn't able to find it. There were only a couple of other tourist around so it was a good chance to take some very nice pictures. You can see the full set here.

The walk to Bukchon from Anguk Station.

Bukchon

Some of the view from Bukchon.

After Bukchon I decided to do the walk over to Gyeongbokgung Palace. My back was already in serious pain so I decided to only check out the Geunjeongjeon section of the palace. Since this was a tourist spot I felt comfortable enough to use my brother's camcorder to take some videos.

Pictures

That night I decided to eat dinner at the hotel. I got the steak tenderloin for 30,000 won, which was expensive but I guess that's what you would expect from a hotel diner.

The first two days I've been getting up between 5 a.m. and 6 a.m. so that night I decided to push myself to staying up later. I decided to walk around after dinner.

After coming back and resting for a bit at the hotel I decided to head out again around midnight. After walking around for a bit I decided to try the English pub style bar at the Lotte Hotel, which was one of the few places still open at that time. There were only a few people there. After spending over 14,000 won on a bottle of Heineken (I'm pretty sure this the most expensive bottle of beer I've ever paid in my life) I decided it wasn't worth getting a second so I headed back hotel and went to sleep.

Seoul, random ramblings

2009-04-18T17:16:00.000-07:00

Maybe it's just me but do Koreans wear sunglasses? I know they sell them from looking at the stalls in Myeong-dong but when I was walking to the National Museum and around Myeong-dong I hardly saw anyone wearing them, and it was pretty sunny out. I felt a little weird having mines on. Also, where are all the trash bins? I thought Seoul was suppose to be a modern city but I still haven't seen a public trash or recycle bin. Maybe it's place somewhere that only natives now about?

Seoul, 1st day

2009-04-18T13:48:00.000-07:00

After scrolling through some of the tour brochures to get an idea where the general tourist usually goes, I decided to go to the Namdaemun Market and the National Museum of Korea since they were on the same subway line. I didn't really like Namdaemun Market, I'm not much of shopper so it wasn't my thing. The National Museum, however, was very nice and I had a nice time there. While taking a break at the museum cafeteria I talked with a middle-age couple, the first foreigners I've talked to while in Korea. I was only able to finish two of the three floors of the exhibit hall and didn't get a chance to go to the Pagoda Garden so I'll probably come back again in the next couple of days, it's only about a ten minute ride for me on the subway so it's very easy to get to. It was the first time I've ever taken a subway system in my life (I don't count the BART system in the Bay Area as a subway system).

A typical subway platform in Seoul.

A gate at Namdaemun Market.

The walk from the subway exit to the front gates of the museum.

The walk from the front gates the museum entrance.

View from outside the entrance to museum exhibit halls. There were tons of students there and it was a Saturday. Do Korean students not get Saturday off?

I just thought this was funny. Make sure not to fall off the side of the building!

The museum has free admission but I decided to pay 3,000 won to get the digital guide (there was also an audio guide for 1,000 won), however, I ended up not using it that much. I'll post a few of the exhibit pictures here, if you want to see the full set go to set 1 and set 2. I'll upload all my pictures to flickr when I get back to the States.

The digital guide.

That morning I finally found the KFC I was looking for during my first night in Seoul. I don't know how I missed it since there was a big sign outside. I decided to go there for an early dinner when I got back to Myeong-dong. I had one of my favorite sandwiches, the Zinger sandwich. I notice that Zinger sandwiches are different in Asia than in the States, the one I had in Korea is more similar to the one I had in Vietnam though I think the ones I had in Vietnam are a little bit better. I like how the chicken they use for the Zinger sandwich is actually slightly spicy unlike the ones in the States.

The sign that I missed when I was looking for the KFC on the first night here.

I was also able to finally snap some images of Myeong-dong. It was really crowded and I had to keep moving so I was just snapping these images on the fly.

My hotel.

That night I decided to go to Itaewon. I've read that Itaewon is where many foreigners like to hangout especially US servicemen and foreign English teachers. Itaewon is where you would go to hang out at bars, to find a place to eat, or shop. I'm not a guy who would just go into a bar and sit down especially when I'm alone so there wasn't much for me to do there plus I was already tired from events earlier in the day. After walking from end-to-end I decided to head back.

This took a lot longer to type then I thought, I can now finally start day 2...lol

Ibis Hotel (Myeong-dong, Seoul)

2009-04-17T16:23:00.000-07:00

I can't seem to use Movie Maker to compress the videos from my brother's camcorder like I did with my sister's camera when I went to Vietnam so I might have to wait to upload my videos until I get back to the States since it takes to long to upload them at the hotel without it be compress.

First night in Seoul

2009-04-17T15:42:00.000-07:00

By the time I arrived in Seoul I was too tired to do much so I just went walking for a bit around Myeong-dong trying to find something to eat. I tried to find the McDonald's and KFC in the previous post but had no luck. Instead of the McDonald's I just saw the same Burger King I ate at the last time I was here during my layover. Maybe whoever drew that map had Burger King confused as a McDonald's? I decided to eat at the Burger king again.

The sign for the bus I was waiting for to get to Myeong-dong.

First thing I ate in Seoul (forgot to take the picture before I already finish eating).

Arrived in Seoul

2009-04-17T05:42:00.000-07:00

Finally arrived in Seoul. Feeling really hungry so I'm going to go explore, maybe I'll hit up that McDonald's in my previous post. I'll post the video I shot of my room later. The upload speed isn't that fast so hopefully it doesn't take forever to upload.

Thao-Nhi Tran

2009-04-15T14:16:00.000-07:00

Today would had been my youngest sister's 15th birthday. I hope she is either resting peacefully in the afterlife or having a happy next-life.

Where to eat in Seoul

2009-04-15T00:14:00.000-07:00

Unlike some travelers I'm not a go by the seat-of-your-pants kind of guy. I like to plan my trips out to a certain degree. I don't plan my trips to the smallest details but I like to get a general idea of certain things. So just now I was able to find a very useful map that shows me where some very useful restaurants are near my hotel. Those who know me knows that I'm a very picky eater, so this is definitely something I need to plan out a head of time.

I was able to figure out that the red dot should be where my hotel is located from this map I found on the hotel's website.

Throwing it all together on google map.

Isn't technology great. Nothing says Korea like McDonald's and KFC =).

Hiking @ Leona Canyon Regional Open Space Preserve

2009-04-13T23:48:00.000-07:00

On Saturday I hadn't plan to go hiking and stayed up until 4 a.m. the night before. But my brother Tony wanted to go again so we ended up heading out around 2 p.m. This time I was with my brother Tony again and my sister Vi, who didn't get to go last time. My brother Uyen had to work so he couldn't make it this time. We ended up deciding to go to the Leona Canyon Regional Open Space Preserve.

The Leona Canyon Regional Open Space Preserve is a partially covered trail but is not as wooded as the Huckleberry trail. There's also a very nice pond at the beginning of the trail (well, depending on which end you start I guess).

Vi & Tony at the pond.

Me at the pond

As you can see, the Leona Canyon trail is not as covered as the Huckleberry trail.

There was a very nice stream that ran along side the trail.

Another nice feature of this trail is that there are a couple of benches along the trail for people to rest or relax on. We couldn't rest at the second bench we saw because an old couple had already occupied it so we decided to trek on. We were on the steep section of the trail so my legs were really feeling the it and I kept looking a head for the next bench (I wasn't even sure if there was one). After periods of thinking I wasn't going to make it my sister and I finally saw the bench. Thank you to the Jalquin/Irgin, and their descendants for this life saving bench =).

One of the things I didn't like about this trail is that it's not circular, so when we hit the end of the trail at Merrit College we had to head back the same way. The way back was fairly easy since it was mostly downhill. On the way back we finally notice the "BE AWARE" sign, so I guess we were lucky that we didn't run into any of these.

Random pictures

Hiking @ Huckleberry Botanic Regional Preserve

2009-04-13T22:29:00.000-07:00

For a while I've been trying to think of an activity to help keep me in shape. For a while one idea that popped into my head was hiking and I finally gave it a try the last two Saturdays. So far it has been a great experience. I found a great website called http://www.bahiker.com/ that talks about some of the available trails in the Bay Area and it has been a great help.

My first hike was on April 5th. I went with my two brothers, Uyen and Tony. We decided to go to the Huckleberry Botanic Regional Preserve. It's a very wooded trail as you can see.

At the first stop I was feeling okay, however, we decided to take the short route which turns out to be a steep climb up the side of the mountain. My brother needed to take another rest and when I did I started to get a little light headed.

After a while I was okay and we started out again.

Overall it was a good first hike and it did show how out of shape I was. There were also some very nice views of the Oakland hills like the following.

First Post

2009-04-13T20:19:00.000-07:00

I wonder how many people I would offend if I actually start blogging. Maybe if I stay away from politics, religion, work, race then I should be okay, but then what is there left to blog about?