NUS MBA Business Study Trip To Korea - Tuesday Part 1

I should tell you that the arrangement for our Korea trip was very kindly made by the NUS MBA office. My allotted roommate was one Joel Teo, another Legal Eagle and an ex-colleague at Lee & Lee.

We got along quite well and spoke to each other before we went to sleep on Monday night...

"Goodnight, Joel. We meet downstairs at 7.30am so that we can take the bus early to Gimpo airport for our domestic flight to Yesosu ya?

"Yup. Morning call's around 6.30am. 'Night"

Tuesday Morning In The Hotel Room
-----------------------------------
***Slight ringing on the hotel phone which abruptly tails off***

"...mphh... Joel....that's prrbly arr wake up coll... I go beth fust...."

*** 20 minutes later***

"Hey... Singapore time's one hour earlier than Korean right... I don't remember changing the time on my watch so...

"Me neither and it says here on mine 6.50am and so..."

"Fuck... Fucking Fuck!!!!

Half An Hour Later In A Cab Whose Driver Had Obligingly Broken Traffic Rules
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
"We're here?.... Here get down?... Ok.. 17 thousand Won? Ok... 20....No, no need.. You keep--- Hey Joel, wait for me. I've got a busted leg and can't run!!!

15 Minutes Later In The Plane After The Applause Died Down
------------------------------------------------------------
"You mean you called us like three thousand times? We didn't hear a thing? What are the odds?

"You guys just sleep like pigs is all..."

"No, but seriously--"

"No... Seriously!"

*sigh*

Visit To Posco Steel
---------------------
Posco is actually an abbreviation for Pohang Steel Company. As the name suggests, it is based in Pohang but also has another steel factory in Gwangyang, which was where we were headed via domestic flight...



After the mad morning rush, I had regained enough composure to take a picture of the scenery surrounding the airport....



"Not bad..." I told myself, as I readied to snap more pictures of the Korean countryside. But the next thing I remember, somebody was waking me up to tell me that we had arrived at the main lobby of the Posco Steel plant...



What followed next was a tour of an awesome steel factory... A big pity then, that pictures were prohibited, which meant that all I am limited to are pictures that I took on the sly. I'll see if I can get some better one's from my friends, though...





This, I think, is the input harbour where raw materials from all over the world come for onward processing....



That was all I was able to take from the factory... The surrounding town, which housed all of Posco's employees on the other hand, they were quite happy for us to snap away at... It was neat and nice and had all the amenities one could expect - schools, restaurants, shopping centres, stadia, gymasiums etc... But compared to the factory, this was boring....But oh well...







----------
Hey, you know what? I'm so sorry I've to stop here again as one of my classmates has just called to discuss the Managerial Economics project... The second half of the semester is turning out to be much more challenging than the first....