Many thanks to Per Rekdal for giving us all a lot of useful information. I 
miss one detail - when will we get our invitations and registration papers? 
Do you have any information?

Eva Maehre Lauritzen
ICOM Norway president



At 11:42 09.03.2004 +0100, you wrote:
>Dear Colleagues,
>
>Two representatives from ICME was invited by the host museum (The National
>Folk Museum) for the planning of the meeting in October. A few impressions
>as seen from a visiting outsider - and most of us will be visiting
>outsiders in October - may be of practical interest for the international
>committees as well as for the individual delegate. :
>
>1) COEX
>The facilities of the conference centre are really excellent. The area set
>off for ICOM 2004 have rooms for each international committee's sessions
>close to each other on the same floor along a 200 meter long hall. Will be
>spacious and easy to find each other. From the mingle area you look over
>to an old, beautiful Buddhist monastery across the street. Can be visited.
>
>"Power Point" presentations are not only welcome, but recommended by the
>conference facilitators (They have slide projectors, but beamers/power
>point are preferred). A special room is set off with proper equipment and
>personnel so that each speaker can test out his/her power point
>presentation in advance.
>
>The basement (and also on some other floors) contains numerous restaurants
>and cafés of all kinds. This means that session time is not lost while
>delegates spread out in a large area hunting for lunch and not coming back
>for hours.
>
>Banks are also found in the basement as well as innumerable shops of all
>kinds (for instance the second largest bookshop in Seoul). And a subway
>station. Plus an aquarium. Plus a number of cinemas. Elsewhere in the COEX
>complex is a Kimchi museum (Kimchi is a traditional dish that all Koreans
>seem to be mildly (or was it wildly?) obsessed with. Joking aside, making
>kimchi was the traditional way of preserving cabbage so that vegetables
>could be had all through winter. You'll find enormous kimchi-pots at the
>back of restaurants, still in use, and if there is one souvenir I'd have
>loved to bring home from Korea it must be one of the man-sized
>kimchi-pots. They are magnificent).
>
>In short: everything can be done at the COEX.
>
>2) Flying to and from Korea
>For some airlines there is also an air terminal in the basement of COEX,
>where upon departure you can check in your luggage and be transported to
>the airport. But this is only for a few Asian airlines, though including
>Korean Air and its alliance partner Air France. Bus transport (often
>called limousine) to the airport is from many places in Seoul and is not
>hard to find. Costs 12.000 won.
>
>It is very easy to find your way at the terminal building at the new
>international airport INCHEON, both on arrival and departure.
>
>Patrick has in an earlier message given advice about early flight booking.
>May pay to check Korean Air separately. Korean Air flies from several
>European cities as well as from several cities in North America, from
>Cairo in Africa and of course from multiple cities in Asia and Oceania.
>
>3) Post conference tours. Information about the post conference tours will
>soon be available. But it may be useful to know that the post conference
>tours that are being planned are one and two day (one night) tours. That
>is for Saturday October 9 and for Saturday and Sunday October 9 and 10.
>
>4) Transport in Seoul
>The subway system is everywhere and is said to be very efficient (have not
>tried it). Does inevitably take some time though if you have to use
>several lines in order to reach from A to B. International committees
>should take travel time into account if they plan programs taking place in
>different parts of the city. Taxies are numerous, black taxies (luxury
>taxies) are more expensive than the others. In the rush hours surface
>transport takes time!!!
>
>5) Food/eating out
>Korean food is fabulous. If ever there was a country to visit just for the
>food, it must be Korea. The Koreans often worry about their food being too
>spicy for their foreign guests. Don't worry, it is usually only mildly
>spicy.
>
>A meal (lunch or dinner) may cost from 4 000 to 40 000 won and more (in 1
>US$ you have about 1 200 won), depending on what kind of restaurant you
>choose. You will find lots of restaurants looking like snack bars that
>serve very good Korean meals from 5- to 10 000 won. Japanese restaurants
>are also common.
>
>If you are many together at a bit more costly restaurant, it is not
>necessary to order a complete separate meal for each person. The number of
>side dishes alone is almost enough to satisfy.
>
>In many restaurants (cheap and expensive alike) you can choose between
>sitting at a low table and at a high table. Some restaurants have a fake
>low table! Underneath the table there is a hollow, making it possible to
>sit "normally", but the appearance is of sitting at a low table).
>
>Low table normally requires you to take off your shoes. In some other
>settings too, taking off your shoes is normal.
>
>6) Seoul
>Heavily damaged during the Korean war, Seoul now appears as the most
>modern megapolis. But the royal castles with their gardens and the
>mountains around, represent the timeless part. Notable is that areas of
>tall office buildings that in a Western city would go dead after office
>hours, in Seoul are vitally alive with bars, cafes and restaurants during
>the whole evening. And the numerous high rise apartment buildings that in
>Europe easily would be associated with less desired neighbourhoods, are
>the opposite in Seoul: they are sought after, they are well kept, they are
>expensive and the surroundings are a wonder of tidiness and neatly parked
>new cars.
>
>As such Seoul is a challenge to what at least Europeans have a tendency to
>take for granted as constituting a good and beautiful city. The
>inhabitants seem to thrive in their ultramodern megapolis, the crime rate
>is low, the streets and sidewalks are clean and people are friendly. Of
>course they do have their share of all the usual problems of large
>cities - no reason to idealize - but it is nevertheless interesting to
>experience how differently what is seen desirable and not, can be
>conceived.
>
>Anyway, Europeans should not worry: There ARE areas of narrow streets and
>low, cosy buildings with small shops and restaurants well suited for
>strolling around in. But there will not be much time for it: numerous
>cultural events are planned.
>
>
>Per B. Rekdal
>ICME
>
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Eva Mæhre Lauritzen,
tlf. +47 22851737, faks +47 22851790

Universitetets naturhistoriske museer og Botanisk hage/ Natural History 
Museums and Botanical Garden
Seksjon for Utadrettet virksomhet/ Interpretation Department
University of Oslo
Pb. 1172 Blindern
N-0318 OSLO; Norway

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