Seoul . . . .

I have at last reached writing about the final destination of our ‘Asian Invasion.”  Ironic upon reflection that the name of the trip I chose was in fact what Asia did to me.  Coincidentally the name still applies, it is just that it was Asia that did the invading on me.  On all my senses.  My values.  My priorities.  My concept of what normal is… So much it left me weak at the knees by the time we landed in South Korea’s capitol, Seoul.

Since I so frequently describe how fatiguing this voyage was, I will not go into how little of the enthusiasm I had for traveling remained by the time Korea rolled around.  It goes without saying my energy and interest was running on reserves by that point, but you can’t just do nothing in a city like Seoul.  Especially for me being obsessed with its food.  Not to mention I know three words of the language – 100% more than the last three countries.  So nevertheless, though experiencing lethargy I had never endured prior, I was still thrilled to be in a country I have wanted to see since I was a child!

Having just come from the skylines of Tokyo and Hong Kong, the view of Seoul seem overly monochromatic in comparison.  It is unfortunate they chose to hold apartment buildings to codes generating potentially the plainest buildings in Asia, but the country surrounding is quite mountainous and beautiful.  The street view of the city offers a much-appreciated dose of color to the cookie cutter buildings. 

There is art on most every wall and alley of the younger parts of the city.  The older areas sheltered more traditional values including traditional food markets where the same families have been selling their time-honored commodities for generations.  

Following suit to every city so far we visited, Seoul too lined its streets with colorful markets and food vendors every direction we turned.  This stuff may get old for some, but not me.  It snapped me out of my exhausted mindset and in its place put me into a curious and hungry one.  And what a place to try new foods…

It can be said without a doubt that Koreans love meat.  Probably more than Americans do.  Certainly a much larger variety than most cultures at least.  Street carts braised meat so bizarre appearing even I had reservations about sampling them.  However the aroma of peppers and garlic infusing with these mystery proteins would make even the most devout of vegans second-guess their values momentarily.  Not to worry, there were plenty of vegetarian friendly foods as well. 

Anywhere you can get food undoubtedly has a form of noodles in a spicy broth.  Without needing to say they will also give you kimchi – a spiced, pickled and fermented vegetable dish.  It’s often compared to coleslaw or salad back home, but taking into account the frequency of it being eaten, it’s more accurately like bread in the states.  You’re hard pressed to find a meal that will be served without it.  And I couldn’t have been happier.  

We even made it to a kimchi exhibit in a museum by the palace.  Very interesting to see the process and learn the history of the food.… oh right the palace, that was cool too.   

But by this point I got my fill of old architecture, palaces and temples.  However, they did have some very beautiful ones.

One of our days we visited a nearby national park.  The trails were great.  There was a large mountain right in the middle of the park and many points of interest throughout it.  

Near the top was a Buddhist monastery that was one of the most ornate structures I have ever seen.

What struck us as odd were the thousands of hikers on the trails of the park.  Not the usual environment of a hike.  Usually people go to escape from people, and there were easily the most people we saw in one place in Korea here at this park. 

Traffic jams at every funneled point of the trail.  Shoulder to shoulder groups of middle aged couples outfitted with matching visors and hiking polls.  It proved frustrating, but the park itself was gorgeous. 

Recognizing the difference in our cultures, Korean people came across as rude.  I’m not bent out of shape about it, but the number of times I watched ladies push us out of their way was remarkably different to home where we move for each other.  Katherine did manage to find a group of people who were very friendly. 

A needed breath of kindness that makes me retract my blanket description of Koreans as rude.  The social norm was simply hard to understand.  Great respect is paid to you as a customer.  We were welcomed over a microphone each time we entered the grocery store.  Conversely, no one would as little as move to a side of the path as we both approached.  Overall the vibe didn’t feel hostile just more like I was a naïve American tourist.  Not far off.

We took a lift another day up a mountain in Seoul’s equivalent to Central Park.  It had a free viewpoint of the city.  At the top people bring notes and love letters they write on padlocks and lock to the fences and structures for others to read. 

All in all, Seoul proved to be as distinct and self-defining as Tokyo, Bangkok and Hong Kong had been.  While there were many aspects I personally wouldn’t describe as my favorite part of the trip, the whole experience of the city was a fantastic one.  I was impressed with the efficiency of all the visited cities and Seoul was no exception.  The city worked hard at maintaining public services and areas like community gardens, city parks, play grounds and exercise equipment.

That all aside, it is a foodie’s dream of a city.  The food is exceptional. Restaurants are everywhere.  There are ‘bulgogi’ barbeque eateries where you cook your own meat.  There are street vendors with pastries.  Push carts of fruit.  Kimchi with every meal!  

Seoul was a perfect grand finale to a trip packed full of fantastic food, colorful temples, vibrant markets and an excessive amount of walking.  And as great of a time each stop was, the trip also let me appreciate the value of coming home.  

hong kong . . . .

As mentioned before, setting out to swallow all of a foreign continent in as limited amount of time as I was provided for Asia is a daunting task to say the least.  It could also be said that if the challenge is even at all possible, you will surely be left with quite a bit of mental indigestion there after.  Trying to stay attentive for nearly three weeks in four countries leaves all senses fatigued and numb by the end, and you will inevitably miss something.  But it didn’t stop me from trying regardless.  Each country wore me out in its own right.  

Simultaneously though, all provided a glimpse of calmness amongst their invasively overwhelming character.  Out of all of them, it was Hong Kong that I felt the most at home in.  It was this city that seemed most akin to the large American cities I am accustomed to.  Hands down it was the least taxing place to unearth someone who spoke English.  The restaurants all seem to emulate the current trends in high-end American bistros.  And the culture – having been influenced by British rule for well over a century – was not far from an unassumingly approachable bridge between eastern and western life styles.

The influence of Hong Kong’s history with the UK defines the city in many ways still even now though it is technically China.  Because of its long period of foreign control while the Chinese government was not in its prime, Hong Kong and the greater metropolitan has artificially collected more wealth and businesses than its mainland counterpart.  The city is self-sufficient in that it has its own contained form of government and currency.  It is the only place in China that has uncensored media and internet access.   All of which attracts foreign business, tourism and a young, progressive thinking crowd of Chinese citizens to the area.

When we arrived to the city it was just at sunset.  The view from the plane was quite breathtaking.  (Unfortunately the cabins fragrance made any deep breath short lived.  Ethiopian Air was a fantastic airline, BUT American and Ethiopian concepts of personal hygiene differ and so the plane reeked of sweaty bodies.) I hadn’t anticipated it would be one of the most aesthetically pleasing cities I have seen. Islands parallel to China’s coastline, bordered by gleaming beaches and bright blue water.  Each islet housed an entanglement of modern architecture and mountains competing for the highest point.  This town is well maintained… and I mean that in every way.  Part of customs was riding an escalator that did thermal scans on all the incoming international passengers.  If you are running a fever you are pulled aside and quarantined.  (Ironic this was the city I got sick in) 

A short bus ride and we were at our hostel in an area that felt like a miniature Time Square.  Its hard not to notice how clean everything is right away.  5,000 Hong Kong dollar fine for spitting makes good sense how they maintain that.  There are also cameras everywhere, but there wasn’t an overpowering sense of big brother like you might expect.  Rather, it was as if the entire personality of the city shared an obsessive-compulsive need for public hand sanitizer dispensers and a 24-hour custodial crew for the walkways.  I didn’t mind after the polar opposite visit to Bangkok.

Diverse architecture can be seen just about anywhere within Hong Kong.  They have the world’s longest escalator (or more accurately series of escalators), which cuts the artsy district SoHo right through the middle.  

They have a colossal central library and seemingly spare little expense on the design or the construction of government funded projects.  

All which utilize bamboo tied together as scaffolding... 

We took a cable car up a nearby mountain to hike a few trails and get a better view of the city.  I can recall every kid at some point in their childhood cracking a joke about digging straight down to get to China.  

Walking around and seeing how different even the plants are on that mountain was a blunt memento that I was in fact on the other side of the world.

With out a doubt the most expensive of the four cities visited, Hong Kong felt more like the States than the rest of Asia when it was time to eat.  The mom and pop establishments I loved in Thailand have been replaced by professional kitchens and global food on a strikingly endemic proportion in Hong Kong. 

It is easier to find Indian food than Chinese in many instances.  Overall the city offered a vast and very delicious variety of cuisines.

If you are craving dim sum it is not hard to come by. 

And if you are having a homesick moment, flavorless omelets and toast can be found at one of the classic All-American 24 hour diners.

We took the trolley around the city once just to get a good view.  You see a lot but they stop so often that it is not a practical way of getting around. 

Locals use the tracks as a bike lane and get home much quicker than paying a dollar the ride would be.

When the sun sets on the city, the buildings blaze with colorful lights and lasers.  

There is a light show over the bay every night where people gather and watch it synchronize to music for fifteen minutes.  

A little cheesy, but does your city provide free public entertainment every night?

Just a twenty minute bus ride through lush mountains and you are at a beach with warm water and a spectacular view.  The sand to garbage ratio made the area even more appealing to me as I am most familiar with Southern California’s less then immaculate coastline.  

A hairy Italian man was kind enough to stop taking candid photos of families he was obviously not one of to snap a few of me, Katherine and the water.

All in all, I loved Hong Kong.  The city was everything you want a city to be, with mountains and beaches just a bus ride away.  

The people are sophisticated enough to pay homage to their ancestors and tradition.  

And young enough to recognize the lighter side of life and modern interests.  The citizens are friendly.  The streets are clean.  The scenery incredible; and absent getting sick my last day there, I cannot think back to the city with any dislikes.   

 I do recognize my romantic memoir of Hong Kong misses a lot of imperfections.  No city is free of them.  They too suffer from dilemmas of dependency on natural recourses, tax budgeting and social injustice like all major cities.  Nonetheless, it can be safely said that Hong Kong is doing many things right, and because of it’s high scoring GPA, I will always remember it fondly.

Next stop… Seoul

thailand . . . . . part 2

Time can be alarming with the way in which it moves as you travel in and about foreign countries.  In one moment it has a way of standing still.  You are taking in so much at such a fast rate it feels like time has slowed down, but as you move about a place, or try and fit as much as you can do into a short window, time vanishes. 

This is no new revelation, and being American I am more prone to never give time a chance to even feel slow.  That was definitely the shared mentality in Japan.  But Thailand offered a needed punctuation from the crammed itinerary we had set forth.  

There were times at which I was forced to just sit down and let time catch up to me.  It was those moments that I realized how beautiful of a country I was in.

We spent a day traveling into the countryside in the cheapest cab we could find.  It was the back of a pickup truck with benches.

  

Our other option was to spend more and sit in a presumably smelly van... The drive to and from the national park we visited may very well have been the most pleasant moment of the whole trip.  

The country itself was gorgeous with postcard scenic views each direction you looked.  Small shacks with the family dog out front.  Elephant crossing signs.  

Rice patties framed by jungles and mountains.  As much stuff as I can find to do in cities, I was quickly reminded how much I prefer to get out of them.

At the park we spent the day at there were a series of seven waterfalls.  Each of which were beautiful on their own.  Several were deep enough to swim in. 

The water was pretty chilly, and there were an excessive amount of fish expecting to get fed by you, but how can you pass up getting in the water in such a great place.  

The park itself had quite a bit of wild life including elephants and tigers.  I listed those cause they seem the most rare.  And well, they are.  So naturally we saw no signs of either.  We did spot a five foot long lizard we believed to be a komoto dragon.

After looking it up it’s actually called a water monitor because it’s not on a specific island, but the prehistoric looking lizard is virtually the same animal.  There were also several monkeys.

Overall there is not much to write about such a place that pictures don’t do a better job explaining.  I am glad parks like it exist.  I am glad I got to see it.

The end of the visit to the park marked the end to our stay in Thailand.  However the gravity of the country stuck with me for some time after.  There is not a single place like it.  The amount of stuff sold on mats and tarps on the side of the road.  

The contrast of delicious food eaten on wobbly plastic tables.  The smiles from the local people.  The kamikaze driving of the moped taxis.  All still held my focus as we traveled to our next destination of Hong Kong.  Fortunately, China felt more like home and helped me decompress from the experience of Bangkok.

Next post . . . Hong Kong