63 Building

The 63 Building is the tallest building in Korea. It has an observation deck, an I-Max theater (we went and saw one on dolphins), restaurants, a shopping mall and an aquarium featuring 20,000 fish.

The Fortress Wall

Unlike the "Great Wall of China", the Fortress Wall that once surrounded the royal city of Seoul, including the five Joseon Dynasty Palaces, is significantly smaller. The construction of the wall was started in 1395 by King Yi Seong-gye and required nearly 120,000 workers. The original wall was 12 meters high and 18.2 kilometers long with four great gates and four small gates, but during the Japanese colonial period the wall was the partly torn down in the name of city planning. Now all that remains of this relic is 10.5 kilometers of wall, three great gates and one small gate.
(Above) This is a view of the inside of the wall. As far as we know, very little effort has gone into the restoration of the wall. (Below) Snaking through the mountains, one can barely make out the wall as it fades into the distance.

Namdaemun (Great South Gate)

Flowers For Rachel

I took this picture of a Tiger Lilly for Rachel cause I'm too cheap to get her the real thing. Sorry Rachel.
Located in the Changdeok Palace is the oldest tree in Korea. This Chinese Juniper is over 700 years old and the Koreans think that the huge twists and turns look like a dragon. The branch that comes down to the left is the dragons tail. Some people think that it looks like a monkey is perched at the end.

Mt. Bulam

Mt. Bulam is located outside our front door. On the first Sunday of August, we met some of our friends to hike to the top of the mountain. The picture above is our Korean posse. The girl standing between the two foreigners is Eun Young and the other white guy is Glenn (who works with Rachel at Poly). The other two infront are Grace and Sun.
This not-so-flattering picture of us was taken from the peak. The day was crazy hot and humid and the weather network claimed that it felt like 47 C.

It looks like the top of the world but the peak is only 507 meters above sea level.

"Hey, Rachel. It looks like we left the lights on in our apartment."

The Boyz

These two handsome gentlemen are our nephews. Zane, who is in the blue shirt with ice cream all over his face, is two years old and Raith, in the orange shirt, is three years old. You can find these two boys in the small city of Swift Current, Saskachewan.

We think of Zane as a gentle giant and Raith is a ladies man.

The Maleys Minus One

This page is dedicated to the Maleys (Baby Imogen, Tanya and Anthony) who live in Nelson, B.C. Unfortunately, Anthony is not cute enough to make it onto this page.

Ode To The Fast Food Restaurant

This, in my opinion (but not Rachels,) is the most beautiful building in this great nation. It is the Mc Donald's head quarters for all of Korea (that's just my assumption).

These are the fast food restaurants that Rachel and I have come across frequently in our travels throughout the city (and where we ate for the first week in Seoul). The main two are Baskin Robins & Dunkin' Donuts. These two can most likely be seen together and are as common as Tim Horton's and Wendy's.

Other great western restaurants that can be founds here are Tony Romas, Outback Steakhouse and T.G.I Friday but they will run you around eighteen dollars a plate.

If you're willing to spend about twelve dollars on coffee for two people, Starbucks is the place to go. I haven't tried out any other coffee shops but rumor has it that all you will get is a cup of watered down instant coffee and that's what coffee in Korea is like.

And when it's late at night and nothing is open, we can still depend on 7-11.

Changdeok Palace

In 1405, the Changdeok Palace was built by King Taejong of the Joseon Dynasty as the second palace of the dynasty, the main one being Gyeongbok Palace. Both palaces were burnt down during the Japanese invasion of 1592. After the war, the Changdeok Palace was rebuilt from 1607 - 1610 and served as the main palace until 1868 when the restorations of Gyeongbok Palace were complete. The picture above is of Injeongjeon hall.

Inside the Injeongjeon hall (above) is the kings throne.

And these two like to think that they're royalty.

This is the library that is within the Secret Garden of the Palace. In Seoul the Changdeok Palace is known best for this Secret Garden.

If anyone would like to see more pictures, just leave me a comment and your e-mail address

Outside Of Seoul Station

It sure doesn't look like Red Deer over here but it's starting to feel like home. This is a picture outside of the Seoul Station, the main subway/train station in Seoul. At the top left of the picture you can see the Seoul Tower in the distance and some where in this picture is Rachel. It's like "Where's Waldo?".

Seoul Tower

On top of Mt. Namsan, 480 meters above sea level, stands the Seoul Tower. These pictures are the view from the observation deck.