Handphones and motorbikes.

After over three weeks, I finally have a phone. At 130,000 won, it was the cheapest new phone that I found. It's in full colour and can take both pictures and short videos. Those multimedia options are completely useless. I took a few pictures and a video with the phone. After fumbling around on a Korean computer for three days trying to upload the photographs that I'd taken, I realized that the quality was absolute shit. I'd do better with an empty can of coffee with a pinhole and some photopaper. At least I already have an actual digital cam.

A good chunk of my Saturday was spend on a motorbike (the one in the picture below), exploring the "countryside". Matt was doing the driving (can you even "drive" a bike?) and I was riding on the back. We left the city in search of a dog farm.

What's a dog farm you ask?

It's Korea, use your imagination.

In searching for this "farm", we took a wrong turn and ended up having a good time just riding in the countryside on a few different one-lane roads; paved and unpaved. I had a chance to see some pretty nice Korean countryside. I had a good time hanging onto the bike with one hand and taking pictures in the rain on the back of a moving motorcycle. Sorry mum. We even passed a small temple in our travels. Something tells me that wasn't the only random temple in the countryside that I'll come across.

One interesting thing that we did come across was a regular chicken/duck/goose farm. Well, maybe that's not the most interesting thing in the world to stumble upon. It was still pretty cool. I took a couple of pictures and said the Korean version of hello to the guy running the place.

Eventually we did find the dog farm. It was... disturbing. Why did I agree to see this anyway? It featured about a dozen beautiful dogs chained up in pens. They were all large dogs like dalmations, shepards, etc. Awesome dogs. They should be someone's pet in the countryside, not being bred for the purpose that they were being bred for. It was sickening. Ironically, the chicken farm made me hungry. I guess I'm just a hypocritical bastard. Then again, I've never had a chicken or a duck for a pet. Some people do.

Sunday was filled with more bike riding. I tried to make it to an English church, but taking the wrong bus and not really knowing where I was going killed that though pretty quickly. Instead, I had a good time riding on a motorbike again. This time, I did some solo riding. It was pretty fun. If I own a bike sometime soon, don't be surprised.

Around supper time, we decided that it would be a good idea to go to the highest building in Ulsan (the Lotte Hotel) and see what the helipad looked like. Unfortunately, I didn't have my camera with me. I took some pictures with my phone, but they are of such shitty quality that I don't feel like posting them. I'll just have to sneak up to the roof of the hotel (via the fire escape) again, but with my camera.

Following the escapade on the roof, we met a few more friends at the Outback Steakhouse for dinner. I had calamari and beer. This was followed by most of us heading to Matt's place for a game of Risk and beer. I haven't played that in a while. It was a good time. A few more girls dropped by near the end of the game for some post-game adventures with us. Good times.

Monday was playing pool at "Cheers" again, followed by curry and sangria at Lyndon's place. He's a prof. at the university here, which I live beside. We're thinking of going camping next weekend. It should be a good adventure. Maybe I'll find the last South Korean wild tiger.


I'm tired now, so this is the end of this update.