The Second Happiest Place on Earth

Greetings,

As our time slowly winds down here we've been working our way through a list of must do's. Although the list is still really long we managed to scratch one more item off the other day:

The Lotte Wheel.

The giant ferris wheel is one of the largest landmarks in Ulsan and probably the only landmark that's well known (relatively speaking, of course) outside of the city limits.

There isn't much information available on Old Lotte, but she was built sometime in the 1990's and she sits around 520 feet tall. She's also on top of a Lotte Department Store that has some great Mongolian food, but that's a different blog for a different day.

Some of our more astute readers might remember seeing her in a few other posts. But for those of you who don't remember the wheel at all, prepare yourselves.


Ah, there she is in all her glory. It's kind of like when the giant gates open in Jurassic Park and you get to see the dinosaurs for the first time.

I'm not sure why it took us so long to visit such a famous landmark, especially since we love amusement parks so much. I guess the allure of ferris wheels (even giant ones) just isn't that strong.

But it was worth going just to see the great signs they had. Like this one that warns you against committing such serious infractions as: eating food, running, and being elderly.


I have to admit that once I found out that I wasn't allowed to elderly, a lot of the attraction was lost for me.

But things went from bad to worse when I read the next warning sign.

Imagine having the nerve to tell us not to romp. I'll romp as much as I want and wherever I want to. No man, woman, or ferris wheel will take away my right to romp.

Aside from some humorous signs the wheel also provided some great views of the city.

Well, at least it offered some views. The Ulsan sky line is definitely still developing. But hey, we learned that we live near mountains - who knew?

We also learned what we already knew, that driving in Korea makes about as much sense as voting for the BC liberals (Ba dum bum boom).

Look at that picture. There are three lanes on the top of the picture that are turning left into two lanes on the bottom of the picture that are turning right. It's like a game of twister, but with cars. That's not that bad of a scene either. I wish we could have gotten a rush hour photo.

The busses have a little more order but not much. In the time that were watching there must have been two or three jams where every driver thought they had the right of way. I was hoping for a little bus rage, but alas it wasn't to be.

Ahh, such a happy couple. You should note the existence of my manly beard. It's taken about 24 years to grow, but it was worth the wait.

Being so high up gave us another unique view of the city. A view of the beautiful scenery to the south.

Ahh, who doesn't love the smell of a good petro-chemical plant in the morning? It's hard to see through all the pollution but there's at least twenty-five smoke stacks pumping out god knows what into the air. Make sure that you right-click and look at an enlarged view of that photo. That picture only represents probably a tenth of what this city has to offer.

Well, there ya have it. A quick blog about one of the city's fine attractions. Scratch one more off of our list.

But remember, wherever you go and whatever you do...

Big brother's always watching you:

Cheers

Shayne