I used to think that my photography skills were pretty awesome, but then I started taking pictures and realised that lenses hate me. These days, and by these days I mean since two weeks ago, I don't even bother to try and make the photo look good, I just aim in the general direction and click the damn thing. Sometimes I don't even bother.
A case in point is when I was waiting for people at Sincheon Station last night and I was standing in front of a chemist with a sticker on the window featuring a picture of a dog holding a syringe underneath the words "Animal Drug House" - an awesome Konglish photo op, but my camera was just too far away in my bag. Then I looked up and saw a row of massive tall jars full of ginseng roots soaking in some kind of liquid, in what appeared to be various stages of preparation. The jars were lit up from behind, there was a reddish glow from a nearby sign too, and the angle from where I was standing was perfect. I knew my photo attempt would ruin the memory though, so I didn't bother.
The following are a collection of photos from the last couple of weeks, in the order that Blogger put them up. Why do they never appear on the page in the order in which I upload them?
They opened a new Dunkin Donuts near me last week. I guess the one 200 metres away is too far for some people to walk. Then a couple of days ago some celebrity guy (
이민호 don't even get me started) turned up to sign autographs, hence the crowds of (mainly) women.
I wonder if every new Dunkin Donuts has a similar promotion, or whether it depends on the individual franchisee. I also wonder whether it is worth the money they have to spend on Mr. Boys Over Flowers. I suspect that it isn't. Bold Prediction: This branch doesn't survive for a full calendar year.
I looked out of my window at exactly 3:59am one morning to see if there were any drunk people to look at with my binoculars and saw crowds of normal looking people rushing down the road, some of them holding infants wrapped in blankets. They seemed to all be heading in the same direction so I followed them and sure enough they were going to the nearby church. I later asked a churchgoer about this who said that early morning services are very popular among people who are especially keen to show god how dedicated they are. The church in question,
사랑의 교회 is a gigantic complex which attracts such large crowds of people on Sundays that they have to hire people to direct traffic for hundreds of metres around. You can see some of them holding red hand-light wand thingies in the photo if you look closely. On the plus side, an ajumma selling 계란빵 egg bread also shows up and I'm a weekly customer.
Apologies for the photo. Sadly, it was the pick of the litter.
Behold the famous Hotel Lisboa in Macau. It now looks pretty old and rundown when compared to the new casinos which have popped up around it, especially during the daytime. I decided to stay there because the place made quite an impression on me during my first trip to Macau in 2005. It was a bad idea.
The rooms might have been opulent once, but seemed shabby to me. The lobby had impressed me before, but didn't strike me as anything special this time, and the service at check-in was irritatingly slow. I felt like calling the International Hotel Inspectors so they can come around and strip it of a few stars. Basically the room was worse than my apartment and you don't see me trying to rent my place out for hundreds per night. The TV was tiny, there was no computer or internets (Macau is an internet dead zone by the way, avoid if you have a similar addiction to my own) and the only thing that seemed like it might be cool was the spa bath. Then after about five minutes I realised that spa baths are boring because there is nothing to do in there except stare at your feet and try not to get sucked into the intake vents.
The best part was that I got a free bathrobe. There was a sign saying that if you wanted one they were available for sale from housekeeping, so I made an enquiry at reception, and was told that it would be deducted from my deposit upon check-out. I checked out and when they gave me my full deposit back I asked them about it they just waved it off. Makes up for the miniature TV I guess.
Next time (if there is a next time) I'm going to do what these other guys I met over there did and stay in a sauna for 20 bucks and get free noodles too.
This monstrosity is the Grand Lisboa, and it is without a doubt the ugliest large building I've ever seen, which is a big call from somebody who lives in Seoul. I should have stayed here, as the rooms were cheaper, and decked out Egyptian Pharaoh style I'm told. I also hear that food and drinks are totally free for guests, which would have been good because the food options that I saw included a fully stocked Deli with a team of sandwich builders at your beck and call and a tasty noodle place which had lots of mix and match options.
The Grand Lisboa also has a poker room, which is where I spent way too much time, and where I realised why I used to like playing poker (you meet lots of interesting characters) and why I stopped playing poker (you meet lots of uninteresting characters, and because I am hopeless at the game and lose money). Anyway, the best thing about the poker was that I got a free blanket. They were handing them out to players who were too cold under the air-conditioning, so even though I was fine, outside was a sweatbox, I got one to drape over my shoulders and made a speedy getaway with it once my chips had disappeared.
I also spent a lot of time trying to figure out why the Lisboa is called what it is in Chinese. While gambling I noticed that Grand Lisboa is written as 新葡京. I know from Korean that 新(신) means 'new', and that 京(경) means 'capital' so I was curious to know what 葡 meant. Unable to use a Chinese dictionary I found out that it means 'grape' in by looking it up in Korean. So Lisboa is translated literally as Grape Capital. I figured that Lisbon, the capital of Portugal, who owned Macau until 1999, must mean Grape Capital in Portuguese also, but it doesn't at all, which doesn't satisfy me one bit. I know want to know whether Lisbon is famous for grapes, if it was known as a grape capital at any point, and who decided that the Chinese for Lisbon was going to be Grape Capital and not something closer to the sound of Lisboa. The fact that Lisboa sounds nothing like 葡京 was the reason that no taxi driver knew where to take me. Yet another reason not to stay in that dump.
By the way, this photo sucks because it was taken out of the back window of the cab on the way to the ferry to Hong Kong airport. The direct ferry link was quite convenient and included check-in servies in Macau. The Hong Kong Airport ferry terminal (Skylink?) was a little disappointing however, run down and poorly equipped, in stark contrast to the rest of the airport. There was a angry Swiss guy, I assume he was Swiss from his accent, his arrogance, and his interest in my Swiss falg adorned shirt, who was laying into a group of scared Dragonair flight attendants, yelling about the ferry link being a disgrace, and Dragonair being the worst in the world. At least we got an airport tax refund. It wasn't long though, until euphoria at free money was replaced by annoyance at having to wait for a poorly air-conditioned bus sitting in the sun to fill up to sardine can bursting-point before leaving for the main terminals.
This last photo is of a moving company at work taking stuff up to a high floor by use of a rising platform thingy. It always seems like a sketchy way to do it, and that a badly balanced wardrobe and a gust of wind could result in carnage.
