We took a Grab (the Southeast Asia version of Uber/Lyft), which costed only ~$15 USD for some 30 km, which is super cheap. I have no idea how the economics of that even work since the cost of a car is about the same everywhere. The driver dropped us off at the base of the temple and we had to walk up a long flight to stairs in the burning heat.

The temple grounds has a lot of rooms like this for worshipping. They all have big golden statues in them too.

The Thai royalty is also a big deal too.

Not far from the temple was the palace gardens of Bhubing Palace. It was a nice scenic walk, but otherwise there isn’t much to see.

As usual, Mike has made a video about this part of the trip. Check it out!

On the way back, the same driver who took us here to begin with was still hanging around, apparently looking for people to drive back. When he bumped into us, he offered to drive us back for a rate less than what Grab charged (way to cut out the middle man)!

That ends our touristy day trip. See more of my trip to Chiang Mai here.

And now for the dish we came here for…

When the lid is opened, the shrimp immediately try to jump out, so the lid can’t be opened for very long. They’re hard to grab too because they keep wiggling.

They taste like eating small pieces of shrimp sashimi, but at the same time I had to chew through the shells. There’s a little bit of flavour from the spice and herbs that were added, but it’s subtle. We were given some chili sauce on the side to give it more flavour. The spicy sauce is what you’d expect from chilis and cilantro.

I have no idea how “clean” this dish was since it’s raw… I could only bring myself to eat a couple for fear of getting parasites or some other foodborne illness. My friends on the other hand were completely grossed out by this even though they initially wanted to eat it. To be fair, this is the first time I considered shrimps to be like bugs at all.

My buddy made a video summarizing the entire experience. See below.

Otherwise, that’s it for eating live shrimp!
See all the photos here

The war history exhibits revolved around conflicts that revolved around the Korean Peninsula such as the Russo-Japanese War and the Sino-Japanese War

To remember the soldiers, the names of fallen soldiers are inscribed on the walls

In the outdoor exhibit, I was surprised to see an American B-52 bomber here – I wish we got to go inside it though.

No surprise, there were lots of tanks.

And rockets.

This museum definitely contains many interesting items and relics and is worth a visit for those interested in military history or looking at cool military vehicles. For many Koreans, I’m sure a lot of the museum content is still relevant to them as the Korean War is still technically on-going and it is clear that it is a huge part of their history.

Link to more pictures: here

The one purpose to come here would be to simply admire the old-style architecture. The area is quite big and we ended up spending about 2 and a half hours here. Apparently, only part of the palace grounds have been reconstructed since the Japanese occupation, so in the future, there are definitely going to be more to see here.

Upon entering the palace grounds, people are greeted by one of the main gates to the palace. The banner uses Chinese characters rather than Korean since in the past there was wide use of Chinese characters in the Korean language.

The pond with the pavilion was definitely the most beautiful location on the entire palace grounds.

The pagoda is also another impressive piece of traditional architecture. The construction has a Chinese feel to me, but I am definitely not an expert in Asian architecture. The National Folk Museum of Korea is also located here, and visitors are able to learn about the history of how the Korean people lived back then.

Those who enjoy nice walks around beautiful architecture and scenery should definitely come visit this place when travelling in Seoul.

Link to more photos: here

Although this has been one of the most serious military clashes in the past year, this isn’t much different than what happened March, which was when a North Korean submarine allegedly sank a South Korean navy ship (more information here).  South Korea is attacked, but the country did nothing other than use strongly worded letters and speeches to declare how dangerous North Korea is and how they should be punished for their actions.  After the event today, it seems a similar response from South Korea is likely.

South Korea isn’t willing to fight a war with North Korea.  As much as South Korea wants them dealt with, it simply isn’t worth it.  The events of today are evident to show that if South Korea decides to make any move against the North, artillery strikes can easily strike targets in the South causing huge casualties and costly infrastructure damage.  South Korea doesn’t want that to happen.

The prevalent point of view of wars today is that casualties are unacceptable.  The War on Terror and the Iraq War support this.  Every now and then, the newspaper posts a story about how a brave soldier gave his or her life for their country.  People don’t like fighting wars that involve soldiers on their own side getting killed.  According to a poll done by Gallup, most people in the United States believed that sending troops to Iraq was not a mistake at the start of the Iraq War in 2003.  As time went on, casualties mounted.  War didn’t seem like such a good idea anymore.  Support for the war dropped from 75% in 2003, to 41% in 2010 (source).  South Korea does not want to fight this war.  It isn’t about whether the South will win or lose.  It’s about casualties.  They know that if they fight this war, many South Koreans will die, and that is unacceptable.

Ever since the world wars, people learned not to no longer fight a war on such a large scale anymore.  Even in the Cold War, conflict on the scale of World War II was not seen.  People learned.  It still is the case now.  As stated before, many South Koreans will be killed.  On top of that, any country who is obligated to support either country would be putting their soldiers’ lives on the line as well.  North Korea controls an active army of 1.1 million, while South Korea controls an active army of 687 000 (source).  On the other hand, North Korea won’t declare war on the South either.   They too know that a war with the South would be very destructive for them.  An all out war would not be pretty.

Just by knowing the South isn’t going to declare war on the North, the only other response is diplomacy.  It’s what they’ve been doing since the signing of the armistice of the Korean War.  The end result: more strongly worded speeches and letters.  North Korea’s response to it: “We don’t care.”