Hanoi

This week finds me in Hanoi. It's a sudden business trip, so sudden in fact that I almost didn't have enough time to get a visa...of course with it being a business trip it means we're stuck in an office all day with very limited opportunities for sightseeing. Still, I've not been here before so I'll take what I can get.

The flight here was a swift three hours 55 minutes (but I think we had favourable winds) although we did fly right through a thunderstorm. The turbulence wasn't too bad but it was a tad unnerving having lightning go off right next to the plane...I had visions of us having a Lost-type incident and crashing on Hainan. Alas, we were saved from China's favourite tropical resort and arrived safely in Hanoi. I know next to nothing about Hanoi so you'll have to forgive the lack of substance to this post. I know it reminds me a lot of being in China back in 95-96. One thing I will say is that if China is the 자전거왕국 (Kingdom of bicycles) then Vietnam is 오토바이왕국 (Kingdom of Motorbikes). It is absolutely insane.
They ride in all directions at once and it is a miracle that there aren't more accidents than the one we saw today.

As I mentioned my lack of a guidebook and daylight hours makes sightseeing somewhat difficult but I did manage to get a picture of a temple that some internet sleuthing leads me to believe is the Tortoise Tower.

Saturday...

Saturday saw me run into Dad and Iain at COEX. We were there for the wedding of Jang Dong Gun (장동근) to Emilyand also to Alex...

Some people drive me mad...

There was a report in the paper the other day talking about the rocketing rate of people emmigrating from the UK. They then quoted several people who had themselves emmigrated discussing their reasons for doing so. Of the five people quoted three of them responded that the main reason that they had left was "because of all the immigrants". It beggars belief that they cannot see how stupid it is to say something like that having been welcomed (presumably since all professed to being much happier) as immigrants themselves to a new country.

Off to Vietnam

I will be in Hanoi for the next week, so blogging will resume when I return.

Housing in Korea

No matter how much people complani about unaffordable housing in the UK, I'm pretty sure that the situation is worse here in Seoul. Read this extract from Brendan Carr's blog.

How far is Korea from the “affordable housing” ideal? St. Louis-area consultant Wendell Cox’s Demographia site is a treasure-trove of information including an index of housing affordability. He published a housing affordability study for 2007, which uses a simple multiple of Median House Price to Median Household Income (the “Median Multiple"). Where average housing prices are three times’ Median Household Income or less, Cox rates housing as “affordable”.

The US market currently has a Median Multiple of 3.7, which implies that the US market is a bit out of whack with US income levels. A Median Multiple between 3.1 and 4.0 is “Moderately Unaffordable”, 4.1 to 5.0 “Seriously Unaffordable”, and 5.1 and above, “Severely Unaffordable”.

Where is Seoul’s housing market in relation to Wendell Cox’s Median Multiple? Remember, this is based on comparing the median cost of housing to the median income of the people who presumably want to buy that housing. According to the Chosun Ilbo last week, the Median Multiple in the city where I live and work is 17.8 for all housing stock, 19.5 for newly-built apartments of the type I am living in. I’m not sure where 19.5 falls on Cox’s scale—“Disastrously Unaffordable”?

I don't suppose we shall be becoming house owners anytime soon...

What's for dinner?

While we were at the zoo, we worked our way around all the animals and eventually came to the herpetarium (it's the reptile house in case you're wondering). Alex and Emily looked and shrieked at all the snakes and then we got on to the Crocs.
There were a couple of ponds with crocodiles of varying sizes in and then an empty pool like this:
This doesn't look good, I thought to myself. That fence looks like it's been broken down. Sure enough, around the next corner we came across:

Photo by Scott Kinmartin.

I pegged it and I think Sunme and the kids ran for it too...but it is a bit worrying that they're still not home after 48 hours...

Lions, Tigers, Monkeys and Foreigners...

...are all things you can see at the zoo apparently. We went to the zoo on Saturday. Here we are on the chairlift on the way up:

We looked at the animals, watched the dolphins and had a good time. However, when we were looking at the monkeys, a lady next to us was fussing over the monkeys and saying how cute they were. She then turned around saw us and fussed over us in the same way...oh well!

Independence Day

Today was Independence Day to commemorate the anniversary of the Japanese being relieved of their 30odd year rule of Korea. A lot of people hung Korean flags out to celebrate.
We didn't cos the attachment on our balcony for flagpoles has rusted away.

It was threatening to rain all day (although didn't until 7:00pm) so we didn't venture too far. We just took the kids to the park to let them burn off some energy and give the downstairs neighbours a break.

Alex drew a face in the sand that looked like a "Scream" mask.
Emily had a go on the swings and then had a temper tantrum because she thought some ants were chasing her...

Still alive...

...so I've had a few complaints about not updating the blog recently. To tell the truth we haven't really done anything recently as the rainy season finally seems to have arrived.

Anyway, here are a couple of photos just to prove that the kids are still ok. (Don't forget to click on them for larger versions.)

Last weekend we had lunch with some of ex-students. They won the lottery shortly after we left Korea and are now extremely well off. We went to quite a fancy place for lunch and the meal for two families of four came to about 400 pounds. In the grounds of the restaurant they had a man made waterfall...

Another day went to have a wonder round and the kids convinced Sunme to buy them lollies...

Alex did manage to finish his eventually...although he also got a fair bit around his mouth...

This weekend just past we had some friends and their children round for dinner. I first met these friends when I came to Korea back in '96 and I've met them every time I've been back...their kids were born a month or two either side of Emily.

It's a bank holiday this Wednesday so weather permitting I will try and do smoething post-worthy...

The view from my office...

Believe it or not we are in the shadow of Seoul Tower...

Not a breathtaking view, but plenty to spy on...