Rude Awakening

So far I'm not loving Seoul. Fell leaving the airport and banged up my knees. Developing a bad sore throat (actually bagged a school visit this morning, first time I've done so the whole trip, but we have four hours of college fairs later today and I really need to be able to make it through that). And my room at the Lotte Hotel Seoul went off like a car alarm at 3am - all the lights went on and a man started yelling at me in Korean from under the bed (turns out that's where the radio speakers are, everything is controlled from a display panel on the bedside table).

Apparently (and yes, there was a note about this on the desk when I checked in, which I read) they were doing an inspection of the power system, with outages expected, and when the power came back on everything in my room came on with it. This effect, which happened three times between 3:00 and 3:20 a.m. today, was NOT mentioned in the note.

Have no idea if this happened to anyone else, as I haven't seen anyone yet today. Have no pics yet to post from Seoul, so here, in no particular order, are some of my faves that didn't make it onto the blog earlier.

And, a note to my birding friends: I have no bird list to speak of, because I have had no opportunities to get out and do any birding. Probably it was naive of me to think I would be able to do any. Sincerest apologies.



My Linden Tour "buddy" Jenae Schmidt of SUNY Binghamton. Your buddy makes sure you're there and don't get left behind when we leave schools or go to the airport. Jenae is a seasoned traveler and a neat person and has been a great buddy.






The Twin Towers in Kuala Lumpur at night. This was a lucky shot out the back of a taxi cab window while stopped at a traffic light.










A shrine at the Bangkok airport.









Ho Chi Minh City. The bus was moving; I think this is the severest example of that particular type of visual distortion that happens when everything is in motion that I have.











A crazy building in HCMC (there are lots of crazy buildings in HCMC).









The Hong Kong skyline, seen from the Star Ferry from Kowloon.










Outside the Grand Formosa Regent Hotel in Taipei.









Patricia Perrier of Clarkson University, perched on her luggage at the Ho Chi Minh City airport.