When the Boat's a Rockin...

On Saturday evening, we went to Yeoido and went on a leisure cruise. What, you don't cruise for business? Anyway, despite the unpleasantness that is the monsoon season and the less than perfect weather that comes with it, the cruise was a great time. Ideally, as we took the 7:30 ride, we would have seen the sun setting over the metropolitan skyline and the Han River, but it was was overcast at first and dark toward the end, so we'll have to take it again in better conditions.

After making our way to the financial district (name?) which is on an island in the Han, we found the docks and bought our tickets. Looming behind us was the 63 Building, which is the tallest building in Seoul with, you guessed it, 63 floors, 3 of which are underground, which also means that the elevator only goes to 60. What a ripoff.


The water was calm, but the light was not right for taking pictures with a little point-and-shoot camera, so the pictures are few. Before you leave the dock, you have to write your name and phone number on your ticket stub. You then give the ticket stub to the cruise attendant. You must do this in case the boat sinks and they have to call your relatives to come identify your putrid corpse.

"Hello mistal. Corey is palent. You son on Han boat sinked. Come see Korea: Spaakling. You like kimchi?"



The following is a picture of the boat I plan to ride next time, I don't care how much it costs. I'm going to get drunk like a pirate and pillage until the Koreans run in fear, but that shouldn't take much. (Click on it for more detail)


Koreans are suckers for photo ops and backgrounds. Everywhere you go, even if you go to see a beautiful sight, there are pictures of that sight for you to pose in front of. Apparently, the cruise we went on was a couples cruise (or just a cruise that couples enjoy), and of course there was something to pose in front of. It was a giant heart made from rope lights. We took the obligatory pictures.


So, after volunteering to take pictures of a bunch of drunk Korean couples, a man approached us and gave us a brief history lesson of the bridge we were traveling under at that moment. It was dark, so I don't have a picture of it, but during the Korean war, the Americans bombed the hell out of the bridge so that people couldn't cross from southern Seoul into northern Seoul. By the way, the city is divided right through the middle, so this could be a problem. The bombing also killed a bunch of people. Way to make me feel bad about being American AGAIN. Thanks Korea.

After the boat ride, we went to the 63 Building, and paid $7.00 each to take the elevator to the Skydeck (floor 60). There's a cute little bar and lots of funny Korea-couples sitting in front of the windows with their arms around each other. Pictures and video (!) to come in the next post.