June 10th 2007 - Yangansa
June 10th 2007
Kamikaze pilots and Peo's annual bath
It's late and I really should be getting to bed, but seeing that we get told off whenever we are late with our web update, I've decided to give up some of my precious resting hours to keep you guys updated !!
Even though the first vessel has been delivered, work is still ongoing and a lot of my collegues are kept busy till late at night (or early morning), trying to get ready for the gas trial. I am not involved in this part of the project yet, so I have been able to keep the working hours close to normal. Tuesday was my longest working day this week, as I went to Busan for inspection with a guy from the yard. He was friendly enough, which was good, as we had to spend loads of time together ... you see, he had absolutely no idea about where to go or how to return ! We got back at 21:30 after seeing most of the surrounding area. In the end I had to guide HIM!
And this brings me to the topic of the week - TRAFFIC ! In school I was been told that the Japanese invented the kamikaze concept. I'm not convinced. My theory is that the Koreans invented it and the Japanese adopted it during their occupation of Korea and subsequently made it famous during WWII. One of the first things you notice when in Korea, is that every driver, that being car-, bus- or truck-, is a potential dive-bomber. They turn up from impossible angles, adhere to no written or unwritten rules and park their vehicles where they please ! Much like a kamikaze. I have never seen as many vehicles passing red lights as in Korea. On a normal trip to the 2nd factory, about 30 km from the main yard, I normally see around 10 cars or trucks running red - many without even slowing down. It reminds me of Zanzibar where nobody had figured out the system of the islands first light regulated intersection. When I stopped for red, the rest passed. When I crossed on green, the rest stopped ! But they had the excuse of having only one light on the entire island, and when push comes to shove, maybe there was a system. Just not the one I had expected. But here in Korea green means go and red apparently also... Add to that the fact that everybody park their cars at impossible angles, cross lanes without looking, walk or play on the streets without being aware of the cars, fall asleep behind the wheel the few times they actually stop on red .... etc etc. For me it is a great mistery how these very polite people (Koreans) so quickly can turn into road raging maniacs from hell ?!? I was told that some years back, when the automobile sales were down in Korea, Hyundai sold their cars with a drivers license in the glove compartment. That would explain a lot.
Esta semana no ha sido de grandes cosas . Peder tubo unas inspecciones en Busan , una cuidad a 70km. de ulsan con uno de sus compañeros de oficina. Normalmente el viaje dura 1,5 hora en auto , pero el tipo que manejaba no sabia bien el camino .....y bueno el viaje duro un poco mas de 2,5 horas.....lo que dejo a Peder FELIZ con el dia de inspecciones...ji ji
Y bueno el tema que queremos mostrarles esta semana es la manera de manejar coreana. Aqui la gente no respeta semaforos en rojo, doblan de 5ta fila , estacionan donde "Literalmente" hay un espacio para el auto , y los autos aqui son grandes, digase Camionetas SantaFe, Vera Cruz, Sonatas, Camionetas Kia, etc. Los autos chicos son los Hyundai Accent ! asique la verdad es dificil a veces maniobrar bien en las calles , porque los autos son bien anchos , largos y grandes . Lo mejor es meterse a las calles pequeñas donde generalmente estan los mercados...ja ja eso es de verdad un desafio al conductor ! entre los peatones que NO miran a ver si viene un auto, la gente que tiene sus puestitos en la calle y los autos estacionados a las orillas y tenemos que mencionar las motos , estilo italia . Si aqui generalmente los hombres durante la semana manejan moto , para ir mas rapido a las oficinas ...lo que hace interesante manejar entre 07:00 - 08:00 y 17:00-18:00. Las motos vuelan por todos lados, te adelantan por la izquierda, derecha, casi por arriba !, pasan semaforos en rojo y doblan desde cualquier fila ! es increible. Me encantaria tener una camara y grabar esto.
Lo mejor que he visto hasta ahora es una moto en la cual el condutor va fumando y hablando por celular ! en MOTO ! no se como no se cayo o le paso algo , pero aqui es asi . El trafico es como la ley de la selva. Las leyes de transito no se respetan y como no tocan la bocina van lentito no mas ....ja ja es de verdad Super dificil ...pero hasta el momento voy Invicta .....CERO choque para mi .....Peder ya lleva dos topones ...jaja y se preocupaban de que yo manejara aqui. Los compañeros de Peder estaban medio nerviosos de que me podia pasar algo manejando....pero despues de aprender a manejar en Santiago uno sale con una Muy buena escuela para el mundo del manejo. Aqui manejan lento pero muy mal .
Peder tiene una teoria , el dice que los Kamikaze eran coreanos y que los japoneses al ocupar corea adoptaron el nombre y se apropiaron del termino. De verdad es interesante manejar aqui en la cuidad. Se ve Cualquier cosa. Ademas parece que este pais no conoce el termino Ingeniero de Transito ! ,los semaforos por lo general duran mas de 3 minutos....SI ! ,no tienen rotondas, etc.
Es extraño para nosotros esto , ya que los coreanos son gente Muy educada y tranquila, pero una vez manejando se transforman ! . Nos contaron que años atras Hyundai no tenia las mejores ventas de sus autos y lo que hacian era vender los autos con licencias de conducir en la guantera ! .....eso explica mucho de lo que vemos aqui.
Unfortunately, the only problem is not the one with the drivers. This country is in serious need of road engineers (or whatever they are called). Somebody to tell them that a red light doesn't need to be 3 minutes long, that lights CAN be syncronised, that you don't have to stop a entire 8-lane highway for a tiny sideroad with no traffic ... that would be the above photo ! Parking is another problem. There are so many cars here that people just drop them wherever! Even in the countryside, you will find roads that are near impossible to pass for parked cars. That would be the following photo ..
Aqui un cruce de 8 pistas , un paso zebra y el semaforo de 3 minutos......para la callecita lateral del lado derecho! que no vimos pasar a nadie mientras esperabamos la luz verde !
The photos don't really give the issue credit, so you'll just have to trust my word. It's BAD ! On the positive side, most people don't drive very fast and there are a lot of surveilance cameras (for speeding).
Anyway - when we are not bitching about the other drivers, we are still having great fun here (bitching is kind of fun also !)
Estacionar es otro problema , aqui por ejemplo , cerro arriba la calle super angosta con lo que apenas pasan los autos . Notese que aqui no hay autos pequeños , solo Camionetas SantaFe, Vera Cruz ,Sonatas , etc. Los autos "pequeños son los Accent !"
Peo had a shower this weekend. It is not one of her favorite things to do on a saturday, but we all got out away without too much blood shed.
Peo tubo su 1er baño en corea. No fue lo mas agradable para ella , pero por lo menos Peder quedo con todos los dedos en su mano , no fue tanto lo que rasguño . Y ella quedo feliz porque hacia mucho calor .
Saturday Paula and I went to Ilsan beach about 1 km from our house for a coffea. The scenery is pretty, but as the neighbor is Hyundai heavy Industries, we decided to stay dry.
El Sabado fuimos a tomar un cafe a la Playa Ilsan , a 1km. de nuestra casa. Es super lindo el lugar, aunque viendo que los vecinos son Hyundai Heavy Industries no quisimos bañarnos. Dicen que el agua es buena para bañarse ....pero no quisimos probar .
Not everybody did so, and before a swim - always remember to warm up ! I'm sure that warming up is the right thing to do, but I couldn't stand for the 5 guys jumping around in wetsuits in the hot sun !
Aqui unos nadadores preparandose para la competencia.....era divertido verlos hacer ejercicios antes de meterse al agua. Hacia demasiado calor !
At night we went out with my collegues for ribs and Soju - the korean (mild) snaps. This was the time for another first - plastic glove on top of the knitted glove ... perfect tools for eating ribs !! Here's Sergey digging in.
En la noche fuimos a comer costillas de chancho . Aqui se comen con guantes para no ensuciarse !
I had great plans to go diving sunday, but the dive centres were all closed. Next plan was to go windsurfing, but as I haven't surfed for close to 5 years now, I figured I should start off with something less than a typhoon. So I dropped the windsurfing and had a hot chocolate in this nice restaurant instead.
El domingo era para busear, pero no encontramos ningun centro de buseo abierto , luego Peder queria hacer windsurf , pero habia tanto viento y hace mucho que no practica que abria llegado a Japon ( y no es broma ! ) ....asique decidimos tomar un cafecito en este restaurant, muy lindo .
On our way back to Ulsan, we came by a really nice temple. The road up to the temple was quite pretty and Paula took these artistic photos.
Aqui en nuestro viaje de vuelta a la cuidad. El camino para el templo es super lindo y lleno de verde.
Don't ask me how ...
Aqui una foto medio artistica....
The temple is called Yang-Ansa and is located well inside the mountains. Summer has arrived and the hillsides are very green.
El Templo de Yang-Ansa esta ubicado en medio de las montañas y como ya el veranito llego por estos lados se ve todo muy verde.
Yang-Ansa had some interesting statues outside the gate.
Yang-Ansa tiene estas estatuas a la entrada.
... as well as inside (it's the statue to the left !).
Now it's midnight, so I'll wrap it up for now. This page will probably be updated by Paula tomorrow. Ciao !
...y tambien estatuas adentro .