KLCC

After visiting the Batu Caves we went to KLCC (KL City Center) which is where the Petronas Towers are. They were built in 1998, and are 452 meters tall. The sky bridge (the highest you can go up)is about halfway up between the 41st and 42nd floors. The subway is above ground at points and you can see grafitti along the river. It costs 1.60 ringgits to get from KL Sentral to KLCC.

It’s hard to get pictures of all of the Petronas Towers with someone in them because they are so big and there are tons of people in the area. From the park side we were able to get more, but not the bottom of the towers as there is a mall there on the park exit side. The park is 100 acres! It has an area for kids and a tropical garden area.

The malls there have everything! Topshop–I was told they were only in Asia in HK–Marks & Spenser with some food and Aunt Annies Pretzals!

We came back to this area at night to go to Skybar on the 33rd floor of Traders Hotel. If you want to reserve a window seat you need to call in advance, but keep in mind you should be a nice person then and let people keep squeezing in to take pictures. We weren’t able to make reservations, but luckely the people near us by the window were super nice and even told us that the top window was open! No marks on your photo from the lights inside. Drinks are expensive but you pay for the view, so we got a bucket of 6 Tigers for 24 ringgits each (the night before in Chinatown we got 3 Caslings for 16 ringgits each) around 6:45, stayed for sunset around 7:30 and left for dinner. They don’t ever let you have a tab at the bar, so be ready to pay when your drink(s) come(s).

I feel like the building in the middle gets no love, but it highlights the towers!

City Palace

City Palace is right next to Jaipur Mantar and was beautiful when you really got into the second part.

The first just seems to hold a museum for clothing (where you cannot take pictures). The end of the museum has info about pong (or at least the first playing cards which were circles), polo and chess and how Indian basically invented all of them! And here I thought England did polo and had no idea for the rest of them. India also invented night polo which is/was played with a metal (at first wooden) ball with a candle in the middle that could rotate so it never fell out or upside down, killing the flame.

There was a performance outside as well.

Into the main hall was a dignitary room (off to the right) where the Indian government welcomed famous people.

There was another performance going on outside of that as well! I liked this one more.

To the left were some famous polo paintings/drawings (who I remembered reading about in the museum) and if you go all the way though it seems like a restaurant that had been taken apart…I was pretty confused so went back to the main part.

There were also come carriages right before the exit.

Pushkar

I got into Pushkar around 3pm on Sunday March 24th 2013 and went to a cooking class at 5pm that night.

The next day I went to Yoga in the Pushkar Yoga Garden which was a great experience–I had never actually taken a yoga class before but had done it at home using videos I downloaded or watched on YouTube. The instructor had it be low level because one person had a hurt back and I had never been. There were 4 people total in the class, 2 boys and 2 girls; 2 had been doing a week long course; 2 were English and 1 was Swiss.

The place is a bit set back from the main road, but you can still hear a bit of the hustle and bustle of the city/town.

It took the guy leading the class about an hour to realize that I can’t bend my back which was pretty funny (I had scoliosis surgery at the age of 13). He said I had perfect form other than my back always being straight~~and that I can’t expect to change that unless they make a flexible metal!

Next I went to Brahma Temple. I was told no cameras and no shoes and was given some flowers (for ‘free’) but was suggested I make a donation to the people giving out the flowers for the temple. If I want to donate to the temple, I’ll do it inside, thank you! My driver tried to give me back my camera, but we got yelled at by a guying telling me I didn’t understand–I did understand, why can’t I told it and have them believe I wasn’t going to use it? Everyone inside (all Indians, by the way) were using their camera phones to take pictures of everything anyway.

The temple itself was very busy, however there were many signs saying what you can and cannot do which take away the specialness of the Temple.

The flowers I was given were meant to be given to some men that were closer to the shrine than we were allowed to go and one of them gave me a dirty look! I managed to slip away to a quiet area–go upstairs!00and took a few pictures on my camera phone (however, later that night my camera phone stopped letting me save pictures–curse of taking photos where I’m not allowed?). The view from the top was nicer because there were less people, but also because you can see the mountains and the top of the buildings were not destroyed or half covered by signs.

When I left I just grabbed my shoes again and walked away. One of the people running the shop ran after me for a bit but gave up once he realized I was not going to come back. There were also some kids who hissed at me.

I then went for a camel ride!

I had a bit of a break at the hotel and laid by the pool where there were some crazy pigeons!

Later I went to Pushkar Lake for the sunset.

Sunset in Pushkar

Driving around India

I used Savvy Journeys who used TheRedDot to plan my trip though India and had a hired driver. I would have preferred to travel by train, but my parents freaked out at that idea, and I don’t want them to be too too worried (it didn’t really help). I was probably able to do more by having a driver, so it was good in the end. Plus, I had to be back by a certain time or miss my flight and days of work and be docked in pay so it’s good that I never had the opportunity to miss a train and be stranded for a bit.

Delhi to Pushkar

We left at 8am and I saw a pig cross the road, a bike and tuktuk on the highway! I didn’t know that they could go that fast! By 2:35pm we stopped for lunch and I realized that I had seen about a million things that shouldn’t be on the highway: cows, pigs, dogs, people walking, people pushing carts, motorcycles with 4 people on them without helmets, camels…However the big trucks were decked out in ways that I thought we super pretty! We did have to stop for about half an hour because of goats crossing the road!

Pushkar to Jaipur

This drive was beautiful–and I got to do 20 minutes of it 3 times! I realized that I left my hotel vouchers in Pushkar and we had to go back. So many mountains, turns in the road to follow them, a lake, a little town at the bottom…

After this there was a lot of industrial areas and marble manufacturing.

Jaipur to Agra

On this drive we had a tax stop which was interesting….people were outside selling things (ugly necklaces and nice bracelets which I would have liked to buy but didn’t like him at the window of the car) and there was a monkey that a man had on a chain who saluted me (it was pretty cute, but I’m not giving someone money for putting a monkey on a chain).

Agra to Delhi

Not much to say here that I didn’t already mention.

Seoul’s Traditional Buildings

There were some beautiful buildings that did not fit into the other posts of palaces or shrines, so I present them here. There is another post for more modern architecture and buildings.

A traditional tower behind Jongno Tower.

Bosingak which is a bell tower.

Heunginjimun (Dongdaemun) gate, which is the second largest gate in Seoul and the largest gate that was part of the original city wall.

Bukchon Hanok Village, a traditional village with bits of new thrown in.

There were other buildings that I could not find a name for but were beautiful just the same.

N Seoul Tower

This has a thousand names: N Seoul Tower, North Seoul Tower, Namsan Tower, Seoul Tower, CJ Seoul Tower…and I have been yelled at for calling it the wrong one by other Westerners! He’s an odd one though…

Anyway, its pretty expensive to get to: 8,000 for the cable car (it was cold and dark so I was not going to walk in the park) and then 9,000 to take the elevator to the top. There is a wait at both parts as well (I’m sure at all times of the day, even to go back). First you do take a free slanted-elevator thing to get from the street to the cable car though.

I like Busan Tower better because you see mountains and the sea, while from Seoul Tower you just see mountains. But that’s just me.

Not much else to say, so have a look at the view.

Oh, right, and there was a bear to advertise the teddy bear museum.

Seoul Museum of History

This museum let me know that I don’t care too much for the dynasty era of Korean history. I tried reading the information but I would get bored less than halfway though reading the sign. That being said, there were some beautiful things throughout the museum.

On the bottom floor there are two exhibition halls, among other things (restaurant, information, gift shop, etc) and the rest of the museum is on the 2nd floor (realistically its the 3rd floor but visitors cannot go anywhere on the 2nd floor).

I first went to the right and there were exhibitions on Jeongdong: a Strange Coexistence and the Universal Exposition of Paris 1900: the Daehan Empire Met the World. The Paris one confused me at first because the sub-heading was not there so I expected some French art…not so much though, it was Korean stuff that was sent to Paris to show the world what Korea was like before 1900.

Below are pictures from Jeongdong: a Strange Coexistence was about the changing times from traditional to Western, which is exemplified in the second picture, of the modern man and the bike. The first picture is of Seoul at the time of 1899.

In the Universal Exposition of Paris 1900: the Daehan Empire Met the World there were many things from the time before 1900 (as the exopsition was in 1900) including the walls that Koreans would put up between rooms and instruments. There were also the chairs that kings were carried on, fans, chairs, pots and drums.

On the floor with the exhibitions, it starts in Zone 1 of Seoul of the Joseon Dynasty, then Zone 2 of The Capital of the Daehan Empire, Zone 3 of Seoul under Japanese Control, and ends with Zone 4 of Development of Seoul.  However, at the top of the stairs there is the Seoul Panoramic Theater, which has a mini-model of Seoul in it. It’s actually called ‘SEOUL: Now and in the Making’ which I thought was a great title for a city display. Very difficult to get pictures of without a tripod because of how bright it is. As I was looking a kid walked in and just went ‘WOAH’ and went all fours and stared down at what he had been standing on as his father and myself laughed.

What I enjoyed in Zone 1 were the models of the city, or models of how life used to be.

Zone 2 is the smallest of the zones and displays the start of modernization/Westernization. One thing that was prevalent was the numbers of foreigners, specifically Japanese,  was increasing–as you can see in the first picture–which lead to Zone 3 quite well. On the floor in one of the three rooms was a map of the Seoul that was before occupation. The final room had a photo show going on with descriptions of the photos. The ones I thought were most interesting were:

• 1907: Report on the national debt redemption movement, the Daehan Maeil Sinmun (Newspaper) and the Hwangseong Sinmun (Newspaper)
• 1907: Japanese army soldiers march in downtown Seoul when Emperor Gojong was forced to abdicate
• 1907: forced abdication of Emperor Gojong and enthronement of Emperor Sunjong
• 1907: Parade of Emperor Sunjong after ascending the throne
• 1097: Uprising of loyal army soldiers
• executing loyal army soldiers
• 1910: Japanese annexation of Korea

Zone 3 had more models, but this time displaying the way things were changing in specific areas, such as Cafes, Barber shops and Billiard Halls. There was also a lot of writing about the changes in culture and how things were under Japanese occupation. Department stores were created, people started to read more as it was a good way to find out about rebellion and young people who dressed in modern styles were basically saying ‘everything you wear is terrible, look at all the money I have, I am better than you because I dress like a Westerner’. At this time World War 2 was going on and Korea had to fly the Japanese flag.

Zone 4 starts with a short sum up of Liberation, US Occupation, and the War. There is a whole museum about the Korean War, so I think they skip over it here because there is no point in going over all the information twice. After that there is information about Seoul growing and expanding in number of people but not size, which lead to overcrowding, bad sewage, shanty towns (and fires in them) and food shortages. This lead into the dictatorship which lead to a lot of construction and helped Seoul become a booming city and Korea a booming country. After that it seemed like the museum skipped a bit, showed a 1970s dress and went to the Olympics, which was a massive deal for Korea to hold, less than 50 years after the Korean War.

Back to the ground floor, there is the Cartographic Achievements of Joseon, which are maps that were collected by a private collector and loaned to the museum for display.

Busan Tower and the Museums there

Headed to Busan Tower during the day (hadn’t been there at that time yet) and there is an amazing view of the port and the mountains. Makes me feel like I have to much more to see in Busan.

There were some messy pidgins.

And the now-seeming-standard locks and heart shaped metal.

When you get down to their shop, you walk outside and can go into the Museum of Musical Instruments which has A LOT inside, given it’s small space, but not a lot of labeing. I was looking around a few times trying to figure out what things were to no avail. Mostly drums and pipes.

Going halfway down the next set of stairs you can go into the World Modelship Exhibition Hall which is only 1,000 KRW. It’s pretty small inside here, but they seem to pack in even more than the Musical Instruments Museum.

Two Titanics which is a bit odd, but Norway and Japan are represented as well.

There is a model of an American ship below a photo of Doko, so I’m sure if they think we are protecting the islands or what was going on there…

Finally, across from that is an art exhibition which was one of the more beautiful I’ve ever been to (including museums). I believe the theme was Harmony and Smart, given these two pictures.

I only ever take pictures of art that I like (or if it looks insane) and in here I only skipped 2 or 3 pieces. Below are my favorites. This was free!

Who knew people wore chains on their boots?!?