Choku !!!

Choku is name of a game played in Korea. In Korean ‘Cho’ mean foot and ‘Ku’ means ball. So Choku means football, but the game has very less to do with soccer. The game is similar to Asian games discipline Sepak Takraw (cross between volleyball and soccer).

Choku is a modified version of Sepak Takraw. In Choku ball can pitch 3 times before returning, whereas in Sepak Takraw ball should be returned without even a single pitch. The height of net in choku is around 3 feet whereas in Takraw it is more than 6 feet. In Takraw only feet should be used, in choku one can use head also, but no hands.

In Samsung campus employees play Choku regularly during lunchtime. Sometimes there will be thrilling contest between different groups. I am still not sure how many players should be there in each side, usually I have seen people playing with 5 in a team. We also wanted to play this game from long time, but didn’t get any opportunity, as none of our teammates in Samsung play outdoors sports.

Last weekend when we had been to Gumi park, we saw many people playing the same game in dedicated courts. One group was playing like professional. I was totally impressed by their skills. It is difficult to explain more in words, please have a look at this embedded video.



On the other end of the park we found a person teaching Choku to his kid. We somehow built rapport with him by asking curious questions like ‘which game’, ‘is it sepak takraw’, eventhough we knew about the game. Then we asked him can we try playing this game. ‘Yes’ was his reply and our desire play to Choku was fulfilled. He explained all the rules. Subhajit and me played the game for 20 minutes. I struggled a lot to return the ball.

Me and subhajit playing Choku

To conclude, to play Choku one need lot physical strength, but it is good game to play. Looking forward to play more Choku during weekends.(if time permits :))

Gumi Park

On Sunday 22nd April we had plan of going to Geumo San with Infineon G3 ( Madhu, Suren and Sampath) and Darko. But the overcast weather was not encouraging and we dropped the plan. After lunch at 3.30 pm we were getting bored and thought of going to a Park which is 10 minutes walk from our guest house. The park is next to basin of Nakdong river. We had seen illuminated windmill of this park from the distance when coming back from Daegu after Jinhae trip.

Me and subhajit with IFX guys

Windmill

First I thought it was a usual park with a windmill as an attraction. But there are many more stuffs in it. The authorities have maintained the park very well. In the beginning of jogging track there is a board mentioning that the track is 2.5 km in lengh and one can burn 146 K calories in one lap.

2.5 km = 146 K cal

There is a playground in which people were playing Choku (more about it in separate post), Basketball. Lot a people were skating, cycling around the ground. We watched Choku for a while. One group was playing Choku like professionals. While watching the play some guys representing nearby church distributed us a pack of tissues. Madhu thought that they were selling tissues, but it was just an invitation for next weekend’s ceremony at a church nearby.

Playing Choku

Then, we went to mustard plantation next to river basin, had photography(macro and landscape) and video session there.

me, madhu and mustards

After sometime Infineon G3 felt cold as they were not wearing jackets and decided to go back to the guest house. Me and subhajit stayed as we had a plan of taking snap of illuminated windmill, so we continued watching ‘Choku’.

Skating ring

Then we explored other stuffs in the park. There was a skating ring where people of all group from kids to old people were skating. Our further exploration led to Korean village environment set up. It had farming place, huts, fish pond, kimchi pots, water wheel grinder, stone grinder etc.

Village set up

At end of the park we found a man playing Choku with his small kid. We built rapport with him asking curious questions and ended up playing Choku with him. We continued playing until it turned dark.

Premium Rice Pakoda, 1000 won for 10

While coming back we found a mobile shop of some eatable. It looked like pakoda, our initial feeling was that it was non-veg. After enquiring we found out that it was made of ‘Premium Rice’. For ten pakodas the cost was 1000 wons. The pokoda was similar to goli bajji(mangalore bajji).

Before coming back I captured illuminated windmill in my cam.

Illuminated wind mill

Before concluding I still don’t know what is the name of this park, will update it here when I get know the same.

More snaps of this park are shared in my picasa album.

Lotte Mart: Big Bazaar of Korea

In Gumi if you ask a local, is there any place to roam ? The immediate reply will be Lotte Mart. I had seen this mart building on the day I arrived in Gumi. Was curious to check whether the place is like 'Forum mall' or 'Big bazaar'.

Actually the mart is more like big bazaar, in fact much bigger. Almost all the stuffs are available here. It better to express in pictures than words.

Trekking Gears

Golf accessories

Pet animals for sale

Cycle shop

Ghass Phush

Different varieties of Fish

Red Meat

Wine Section

Food items

Not only stuffs to buy, there are also there facilities in the mart for kids to play.

Children's' playing arena

Toy Train

My experiments with cooking

Today 15th April was a normal boring Sunday. The ‘Dal’ and ‘Sabhji’ prepared by Keshab were becoming monotonous. I took the initiative try out my experiments by preparing ‘Sambhar’ with assistance from Keshab.



The vegetable ingredient were Onion, Carrot and Potato. The Sambhar powder used was one the prepared by my mother.



The sambhar came out very well. I got complements from madam and Keshab. In fact when we went to have dinner, more than 50% of sambhar was already over. The actual complement goes to my mother because Sambhar powder is most important ingredient.

Indian Guest House, Gumi

Choi Guk Hwa(owner), Keshab, Subhajit

When I say to my friends that 'I am in Korea for onsite assignment', the next obvious question will be where are you staying ? and what you are doing for food.



Many expect sad reply from me, but the reply will be other way because I am staying here at Indian Guest House(IGH). Started in February 2007, the guest house has all the necessary facilities and most important thing, Indian food is available here prepared by Keshab.

Keshab cooking

Dining hall

So in case you are coming to Gumi for onsite assignment note down the contact details of IGH mentioned below.

Address:
Jinpyeng Dong, 586-8, Myengmum Bill Ka Dong 201,
KyengBuk Gumi City, Korea

Phone Numbers:
Owner: Choi Guk Hwa : 016-242-5248
Manager: Keshab : +82-10-7558-5248 (010-7558-5248)

email: ighgumi@yahoo.com

Also Read:
- Gumi City

Gumi City

It is more than three week of my stay at Gumi City, Korea. I wanted to post about this city from long time. Got time to write the post, as I didn’t go anywhere this weekend. Gumi ??? many people wouldn’t have heard about this place. It is an industrial town located half way between Daegu and Gimcheon. The Nakdong River divides city into North Gumi and South Gumi. Many companies have set up industries here. Samsung have a Mobile plant here and LG has a LCD plant in collaboration with Phillips. There are many other industries.

Flashy Lights

Before coming here from India, I thought this place to be dark place with no night life. But it turned out to be other way, the city flashier than I expected. Near bus terminus there is a shopping center by name “Lotte Mart”(more about it in different post). There is one multiplex ‘Megaline’, still haven’t seen a movie in it, planning to see SpiderMan-3 in it. Lets see when it will materialize.

Megaline - multiplex

At every step you can find an eat out of different categories. Some are dedicated for the type of food (pork, beef, octopus). There are traditional Korean restaurants also, where one can sit on the floor and eat.

Looks like our Brigade Road

Near Megaline there are many commercial establishments. One road full of shops resemble our Brigade Road. There are shops of all International brands Nike, Adidas hear. To my surprise I found one clothing shop by name ‘Indian’ !!!. Yeah Indian is a brand here.

Indian - a brand !!!

So many things are in this City then whats the problem. There are some. First of all Gumi is far from major cities like Seoul and Busan. Further the city is poorly connected to neighboring cities like Daegu, as there is no bus service during nighttime. For foreigners more troubles because very less people here understand English here. If you have an international travel card then more trouble. There are only two ATMs Daegu Bank and Korean Exchange Bank in which foreign card works, both are near Lotte Mart(Gongdan Bus Terminal).

Daytime

To conclude Gumi city is not as bad described by some people in India but compared to Seoul it is nothing. Actually there should be no comparison. The silver lining is that there is a Indian Guest House(IGH) here.

Destination Jinhae ....

Cherry blossom festival … what is it ??… I first though it would be something about cherry fruits. Then we came to know about it is about Cherry Flowers. On Friday Night Subhajit asked Keshab “have you seen cherry blossom in Korea” .. keshab replied “ yes .. the shoe polish”. I and subhajith burst into laughter.




Then we searched for “Cherry Blossom Korea” in google, the majority of results were about a place called Jinhae, a coastal city near Busan. On Saturday we didn’t have much enthu to go, as we had compensate for sleep lost during weekdays. Then I came to know that last day of festival is on Sunday April 8th. Immediately we decided to go on Sunday. Subhajith also agreed after saying many ifs and buts, as we won’t be coming to Korea every time during spring season.

Our madam(owner of IGH) got information that there is no direct bus from Gumi to Jinhae. So we had take bus to a place called Masan and from there local bus # 760 to Jinhae. Following the instructions, we took 11 am bus from Gumi and reached Jinhae at 2 pm via Masan.



Jinhae Tower:
First we went to Jinhae Tower. This tower has a historical significance. It was erected by Japanese during their colonial rule. On the top one can witness the vegetation of the place dominated by pink color, courtesy 'Cherry Blossom'. We also saw the performance of naval band from the top. After having photo session we decided to look for a different place.



After coming down from top, we collected a Jinhae - cherry blossom festival brochure .. it was completely in Korean. In it there was photo of a railway station(we had seen its photo in internet) in the side section with some Korean characters and we did the pattern recognition of those characters in the main map. According to the map, the place was 3 km from the Jinhae tower.

On the way while crossing a Road a local person had a glance at us and asked us Bangaladesh ?? ... don't know relation he had with Bangladesh. :). may be his geography knowledge was limited to Bangladesh.



The map was bit confusing, we almost lost our way. Somehow we managed to reach the station asking passerby by doing Dumb Charades(DC). The name of station was Gyeonghwa station. It was abandoned many years back. The cherry trees on both side of the track were treat to eyes.



Subhajith wanted to go to a Island which he had seen on Internet. As we didn't knew its name, we used map of Jinhae to point out that place to a Taxi Driver. After reaching the place, we got know its name 'Haeyang Park'. The entry fee of the place was 1000 won per head. There was a bridge connecting mainland to island. There was a display of old warship of Korean Navy. The ship had everything in it from captain's cabin, sonar room, pantry, crew mess to barber room :) It was total paisa vasool.



After sunset, the lit up bridge was looking too good. The time was 7 pm. It was getting too late, as we had take bus to Gumi. We decided to have a quick glance at marine museum. There are so many things in it. Model of turtle ship, fossils, corals, rubies etc.



We came back to Jinhae at 8.30 and 9.00 pm to Masan. Unfortunately the last bus to Gumi was at 6.45 pm. So we had to workaround and take bus to nearest city i.e. Daegu. From Daegu, the next bus to Gumi was there at 10.30 pm. We reached Daegu at 11.30 pm and last bus to Gumi had left. Then we had take a taxi to Gumi. It cost us 35000 won. Anyway, the drive in taxi was different experience, for a few moments we were traveled at 160 kmph! At 11.15 pm we reached Gumi, and our cherry blossom trip concluded.

More photos are shared at Picasa album - Jinhae.

10 things which I am missing

It’s been more than 15 days of my stay in Korea. I am missing so many things here. Among these, 10 things I am missing the most.

Ramanjaneya Gudda

1. Mother and her food: No explanation needed.
2. Ramanjaneya Gudda: A perfect stress buster for me.
3. Handwriting Institute India: Missing RYB’s, assisting assignments and Rafi’s golden words.
4. Ajaysimha : A friend in need is a friend indeed.
5. Sigma Top 10 : For more explanation contact Harish Malleshappa.
6. S10 Cab: Ravi’s sincere missed call.
7. Urvashi Theatre
8. Shivani : relax .. she is my niece.
9. [Reserved for future use]
10. Radio City and Radio Mirchi

Shivani

I would have missed Indian Food here, but thanks Keshab because of him we are not missing it. One more thing I would have missed was World Cup cricket, as India is already out of the competition it doesn’t matter.

Anayang Hasayo Seoul !!!

Title in Korean ?? yes ... Anayang Hasayo means 'Hi'.

'Hi Seoul: Soul of Asia' is the punchline of capital city of Korea. Last weekend we went to explore the city. Seoul is divided into two parts by Han River. One can make out infrastructure quantity by looking at map of Seoul, there are 20+ bridges over Han River connecting two parts of the city.



On 31st March Saturday it was raining in Gumi. We almost decided to cancel the plan, but somehow we decided to carry on. We took 9.44 am train and reached Seoul Station around 1 pm. The journey was not so exciting as we expected the train to be faster than Indian Trains.



In Seoul Station Majid and Hussu came to meet as we didn't how to explore the city.
Then as per Majid's guidance we planned to go 63 square. We took seoul metro to commute.


In 63 square we took tickets for Sea World and Skydeck. First we went to seaworld. There were many sea creatures in it, from Penguins, Eel to Jelly Fish.



Then we took elevator to Skydeck. There was a Cafe there, Hussu took 500 ml mineral water there. The cost was 1000 won !!!. After 7 pm I took snaps of night view of Seoul. The snap of olympic expressway next to Han River came out too good.


Later we went to Suwon to stay at Murali Malladi's friend house. His name was Rajeev and incidentally he was a ex-emuzian.



Before going to sleep we chatted with Rajeev about various topics from current state of emuzed to life in Korea. Next day mornring we went to Suwon fort with Murali, in his Hyundai Verna which he had bought a day before.


In aftertoon we went back to Seoul to see Gyeonbokgung palace. We used seoul metro to go station number 327. The entry fee for the palace was 3000 won. it turned out more worth than that.


There was display of stuffs related to Korean culture in the museum. It took more than 2 hrs to just to have glance at various thing displayed in it. Frankly speaking it need one complete day to see everything in detail.

Later we went to Yongsan Station to do window shopping in electronics market. Finally we took 8.15 pm train and reached Gumi at 11.30 pm.

More photos are shared in piscasa album