Weekend in Ulsan Part 1

* In the bathrooms of really fancy restaurants here they have special mouth wash dispensing machines. Do we have this back home, or have I just never been to a fancy enough restroom before? Is this something unique to Korea? They are all about brushing their teeth after meals so it doesn't surprise me if its something they came up with.
* H1N1 has made for some interesting safety protocols being put in place. The door knobs in the hotels have all have condoms on them. That's right, the metal door knobs have rubber covers on them. Because rubber door knobs will some how hold less germs then metal ones?
* At night Koreans turn off the headlights of their cars when they come to a red light. This is apparently considerate (not dangerous)because they are not blinding the on coming traffic or pedestrians in the cross walk. Lets just hope they always remember to turn them back on before the light turns green again.
* I went to a whale museum, well, the outside of it. I didn't pay to go in. I thought it was going to be an aquarium and show me all the different animals that live in the local ocean here.... nope! Turns out its a museum of whaling. Yea, it was a museum of the history of whaling and how practices have changed over time. I didn't feel like paying to go inside to see it. Plus their was a free whaling vessel for me to explore outside the museum. It was complete with replica crew, harpoons, and meat hooks. And right across the street from the museum are 3 or 4 restaurants that serve whale meat, so that was enough of an experience for me without having to go inside.
* Amethyst Caverns. Sounds great right? Then like me you were tricked. It was so lame!!!! It was an emptied amethyst mine that they flooded with water so they could sell tickets to boat rides to see nothing but empty mine shafts!!!! They stuck fake plants and waterfall in it just to give people something to look at I guess. Oh, I was soooooo disappointed. I should have know it was going to be lame before I even got in the mine because there was all kinds of games and rides outside. They didn't want people to feel like they wasted their time by coming out there for nothing so they set up a petting zoo, go cart track, and dragon swing so people wouldn't demand a refund. Oh what is the worst is that there a special room inside the mine where people are suppose to go and "feel the healing power of amethyst." Of course, I already mentioned that this is an empty mine and these is not more amethyst, so they set up a portable heated floor for people to sit on, and used red and blue flood lights on the wall it was lit up purple like amethyst... Ha!
* The guy who works at the front desk of my hotel picked the best English name I have ever heard. People have Korean names (obviously) and if they studied English then they usually have an English name too. Anyways, the name he picked was Shrek! How great is that!?! He works at a 4 star hotel and his name tag says Shrek on it! I asked him if I could take a picture of him because his English name was so cool, he said yes and laughed. (I would post it here but you can't really see his name tag too well)
* So what was the best part of this weekend you ask? I got to take a bubble bath at this 4 star hotel. It was my first access to a bathtub since I moved here and I took advantage of it. I had my true blood novel from Tempest, and a beer from the minibar and had a relaxing evening in the tub. Ah, it was perfect!