I went to Korea to play a poker tournament and then go on vacation for two weeks. The tournament part turned out to be quick and painless - three hours into the thing, QQ ran into a set on a 6 high flop with 60 BB, then, 15 minutes later, ran into another one on an 8 high flop with 25 BB. As they say in this country, gg no re.

I don't actually care about this because, as it turns out, I've been busy watching this:



Yes, that's right, they really do have a Starcraft channel here...actually, two gaming channels, which both mostly show non-stop Starcraft games complete with breathless, excited commentary. If poker ever catches on here, the results will either be really really good or really really bad. I'm not sure which.

When I haven't been watching that, we've been doing stuff like this:



In that shot, I'm paying 10 bucks to have lots of fish eat dead skin cells off my feet to make them healthier. Oddly enough, this not only actually works, but is probably the most fun thing I've ever done in a foreign country.

If fish that nibble substantial parts of your legs off aren't your thing, you could always do this instead:







Those are shots of a 1300 year old, partly rebuilt Buddhist temple basically in the middle of nowhere (it helps to have in-laws that love you despite not actually having a language in common who will ferry you around to places like this one.)

Bonus shot from a particularly nice cliffside:



Prettiest. Country. Ever.

I'll probably get some more card games in and/or find Adam [censored] Junglen's mom at some point, but right now, I'm enjoying this vacation a lot.

Swami54 says

Those pictures are incredible. I would love to visit Korea. What do you think travel would be like if you didn't know someone in the country?

09/30/07

Anonymous says

Excellent pics, I didn't know it was such a beautiful place, thanks for the tour.

09/30/07

Anonymous says

Thanks for sharing the pics. Looks like you're having a great time. Who gives a shit about poker when you can have an experience like that!!

09/30/07

Mr_Taterhead says

excellent pics and report.

you need a pedicure.

09/30/07

Bond18 says

Considering i lasted like 30 minutes in the WCOOP ME and that was one of the main reasons i didn't bother with Korea, i am really regretting not going. Do tell, how's the Korean BBQ?

09/30/07

Adanthar says

BBQ = awesome. I'm kinda surprised because I don't like spicy food, but the options here are excellent. I'm really loving it here.

Hard to say what it'd be like without my wife, but there's a surprising amount of English all over the place (signs etc.) - even if nobody actually speaks it, it's possible to find your way around on your own. Probably not as much fun, though.

09/30/07

burningyen says

Holy cow, I had no idea about the man-eating fish thing, and I've been to Korea many times now! Pretty cool. The DMZ is an interesting place to visit too, if you have a spare day. At night, you can get a great panoramic view of Seoul from the top of that space-needle-looking tower at the top of that mountain, I forget the name. And make sure to get some country-style and buddhist-style food in the Insadong neighborhood.

10/01/07

A_Junglen says

Watch out for those fish....

They'll getcha!

10/01/07

Anonymous says

Soaking the feet after traveling and playing poker is almost as good as the after sex cigarette. I cant see why the game wont catch on in Korea. I remember how much the ROK soldiers
use to gamble when we performed joint maneuvers with them back in Team Spirit 80 in the USMC.

10/15/07

Log in with your TwoRags.com account. Click here to register. Email: Password: Remember log-in information