Wednesday, November 30, 2005
DAY 86: South Korea
South Korea, or at least Seoul, turned out to be very different from any expectations that we had for it. With our extensive preparation for this trip, plus our brilliant grasp of world history (note the sarcasm), all we really knew about South Korea was that we were involved in a war there against North Korea (aka notorious member of the "axis of evil"), that there were "Siberian-like winds" at this time of year, and that we'd heard Seoul was the shopping mecca of the universe. Basically, as you`ve hopefully realized, we really didn`t have much to go on.
Luckily though, our arbitrary, "Hey, let`s make that layover in Seoul last 5 days" decision turned out to be a good one. (Thank you again Lonely Planet.) While there, we were able to add much to our limited knowledge of Korea: the US was largely responsible for the tumultuous division between North and South Korea that exists today (imagine that!), the winds while freaking cold, weren't quite as "Siberian" as we'd dreaded, and the shopping was a bit too much for even the heartiest of travellers (I can't even handle the chaos of Marshalls or Ross - the food courts in Seoul however, we're something else entirely)! Adding to our expanding world knowledge, we also learned that Koreans love their heartthrobs (we've got the socks to prove it!), that you can pay $50 to stare through a telescope at a deserted town in North Korea across the demilitarized zone and trudge through a dripping tunnel dug by the North Koreans in an attempt to make a surprise attack on South Korea, and that there are such things as "love motels" that, besides for renting rooms by the hour, come complete with round beds, silk sheets, heating pads, ceilings with glow-in-the-dark stars and an interesting variety of items that can be purchased from vending machines. (We only stayed there one night, but it was an experience. And by "we", I mean Leslie and I of course.) South Koreans are extremely welcoming and friendly (just to stereotype them all), and the woman who owned the guesthouse we stayed at for the last few nights loved her dog so much that she had photos copied to give to guests (he is quite cute). In addition, on the culinary side, we learned that metal chopsticks are particularly slippery to eat with, Korean food comes second only to Indian in spiciness, and if you go into a restaurant not able to read or say a single thing in Korean, it is still possible to obtain a good meal with only the word "meat" (which we later found out, was Korean BBQ- I'd always wondered)!
As for the tourist route, we toured through several palaces (we've noticed a theme in Asian archetecture of buildings burning down every 50-100 years or so and then being rebuilt only to burn down again - perhaps the wood would have something to do with it...), visited a Folk Museum and War Memorial Museum (South Korean museums are informative and very organized with follow-the-arrows precision, which almost makes up for the fact that there's very little in English), walked through an "interactive" Seodaemun Prison (talk about graphic violence and anti-Japanese sentiment), and explored a Buddhist temple. For our nightimte activities, we hiked to the Seoul Tower at night for a view of the city only to find it closed for reconstruction and got lost in the dark on the way back down, as well as did the meet-up-with-friends-of-friends-you've-never-met-before thing in a desperate attempt to have someone other than just your sister to talk to (which was much needed and extremely fun). Yes, it all worked out for the best, and South Korea was surprisingly a fascinating city to visit.
Luckily though, our arbitrary, "Hey, let`s make that layover in Seoul last 5 days" decision turned out to be a good one. (Thank you again Lonely Planet.) While there, we were able to add much to our limited knowledge of Korea: the US was largely responsible for the tumultuous division between North and South Korea that exists today (imagine that!), the winds while freaking cold, weren't quite as "Siberian" as we'd dreaded, and the shopping was a bit too much for even the heartiest of travellers (I can't even handle the chaos of Marshalls or Ross - the food courts in Seoul however, we're something else entirely)! Adding to our expanding world knowledge, we also learned that Koreans love their heartthrobs (we've got the socks to prove it!), that you can pay $50 to stare through a telescope at a deserted town in North Korea across the demilitarized zone and trudge through a dripping tunnel dug by the North Koreans in an attempt to make a surprise attack on South Korea, and that there are such things as "love motels" that, besides for renting rooms by the hour, come complete with round beds, silk sheets, heating pads, ceilings with glow-in-the-dark stars and an interesting variety of items that can be purchased from vending machines. (We only stayed there one night, but it was an experience. And by "we", I mean Leslie and I of course.) South Koreans are extremely welcoming and friendly (just to stereotype them all), and the woman who owned the guesthouse we stayed at for the last few nights loved her dog so much that she had photos copied to give to guests (he is quite cute). In addition, on the culinary side, we learned that metal chopsticks are particularly slippery to eat with, Korean food comes second only to Indian in spiciness, and if you go into a restaurant not able to read or say a single thing in Korean, it is still possible to obtain a good meal with only the word "meat" (which we later found out, was Korean BBQ- I'd always wondered)!
As for the tourist route, we toured through several palaces (we've noticed a theme in Asian archetecture of buildings burning down every 50-100 years or so and then being rebuilt only to burn down again - perhaps the wood would have something to do with it...), visited a Folk Museum and War Memorial Museum (South Korean museums are informative and very organized with follow-the-arrows precision, which almost makes up for the fact that there's very little in English), walked through an "interactive" Seodaemun Prison (talk about graphic violence and anti-Japanese sentiment), and explored a Buddhist temple. For our nightimte activities, we hiked to the Seoul Tower at night for a view of the city only to find it closed for reconstruction and got lost in the dark on the way back down, as well as did the meet-up-with-friends-of-friends-you've-never-met-before thing in a desperate attempt to have someone other than just your sister to talk to (which was much needed and extremely fun). Yes, it all worked out for the best, and South Korea was surprisingly a fascinating city to visit.
Thursday, November 17, 2005
DAY 73: China
Okay, so while we have the free internet at our hostel in Seoul, we may as well get you all up to date (so what if we've checked out already).
We had been pre-warned about possible communication issues in Beijing from Anthony and Laura, so we were equipped at the airport with directions to our hotel in Chinese. Beijing is very much a modern city, with many of the stores and restaurant chains you expect to find in the US. Our hotel was in prime location, on a pedestrian street surrounded by shops selling everything from stylish clothes to some of the most interesting food we've seen yet. (Judging by the sign on the stairs - "Night cat action need only pay for 2 hours" - other people liked our hotel as well). Our first night, we tried some of the local cuisine from the street stalls... who knows what most of it was. While we were adventurous, we did refrain from trying the starfish on a stick, scorpion on a stick, and multiple types of other skewered insects and sea creatures ("Was that really a seahorse???"). There were planty of tourists taking pictures, so I didn't feel too bad when I accidently let an "oh, gross" comment slip.
We spent our days in China seeing the sites (Tiannamen Square, Summer Palace, Temple of Heaven and the Forbidden City) and happily chatting with local students. Our firt day, we met Lilly, an English/Art major who showed us her school's art exhibition, took us to a lunch of Peking duck, joined us for tea tasting and gave us some contacts for acrobatic and kung fu show tickets. We were excited to have made a friend, until day after day, we met more English/Art majors who wanted to sell us art, take us to buy Peking Duck from their favorite restaurant and sell us show tickets. From 10:00 AM to midnight, it seemed these art students were everywhere. And while we helped them practice their English, Meridith drew the line at buying only one piece of art work. I would have to say that much of our time in Beijing was spent shopping. We had two good 3-4 hour trips to the Silk Market where we picked up plenty of knock-offs and honed our bargaining skills even more.
For our last day in Beijing, we had planned for a doozie. We were going with a guide to a little-visited section of the Great Wall to do a day hike, followed by an acrobatics show. Unfortunately, there was a miscommunication in regards to pick up time (Meridith didn't read her own handwriting correctly) and the hotel conveniently told our guide that we were no longer staying there, and thus we missed the trip. Conveniently (note the sarcasm), the hotel's trip to to the Great Wall and the Ming Tombs was leaving in an hour, so we joined that to salvage the day.
To let you all know, in most Asian countries (in our experiences), when you join a tour, you inevitably make a stop at some type of store. In China, we had already been taken to pearl store (where we learned how to tell a fake pearl from a real one) and a silk "museum" (they showed us how the silk was produced from silk worm larvea, then tried to sell us $1000 bedsheets). On the Great Wall tour we were first taken to a jade store (again learning to determine a piece of jade's quality) and then taken to a traditional Chinese medicine clinic (I don't know what else to call it).
So imagine this: A man in a lab coats sits everyone down in a room and begins explaining how Eastern and Western medicine are different. "Western medicine works quickly but does not cure the ailment, while Eastern medicine works slowly but cures a person for life". We were told that Chinese doctors can determine the health of all of your organs by taking your pulse. Okay, "pretty interesting that this is what they believe" you think. Then the Chinese doctor says something about a checkup for free, but you have to pay for treatment (a little hard to understand when he has a thick Chinese accent, so you try to be more attentive to figure out the meaning of his words). All of a sudden, a door opens and in walk 6 "doctors" in white coats, asking if you want them to check your pulse. It was like something out of a prison movie. A little freaky, so we decided to just have faith that our pulse was beating, and would continue to do so without their help.
So in the afternoon, we made it to the Great Wall, stretching over 6,700 km. We hiked the touristy section for a few hours, got some decent pictures (we really did TRY to get some without a 100 people in it) and enjoyed the scenery. We scrambled back to our hotel and booked a different acrobatic show on our own. It was by far the best thing we did in Beijing. It was 90 minutes of pure exhiliration. It opened with two contortionist women balancing 6 trays of glasses while they switched from one impossible position to an even more ridiculous one. Then there were women juggling umbrellas with every limb of their body, 5 and 6 year olds who bent in amazing ways while holding up themselves and 3 other people with one arm, men jumping through raised hoops, juggling, and a finale of boys climbing and jumping between vertical poles. Needless to say, we clapped for 90 minutes straight and I spent the rest of the night reliving my own childhood gymnastics career, wishing I had been in the Cirque de'Soleil (this was very similar).
Beijing was a very pleasant city, where we both enjoyed the culture (Acrobatics were #1), the sights, and the comforts of a modern city (yes, we did eat at the Outback... and we loved it). Meridith, in keeping with the tradition set in the previous countries, began talking about moving there for a little while. A trip back to Beijing and to see more of China could be in the future...
We had been pre-warned about possible communication issues in Beijing from Anthony and Laura, so we were equipped at the airport with directions to our hotel in Chinese. Beijing is very much a modern city, with many of the stores and restaurant chains you expect to find in the US. Our hotel was in prime location, on a pedestrian street surrounded by shops selling everything from stylish clothes to some of the most interesting food we've seen yet. (Judging by the sign on the stairs - "Night cat action need only pay for 2 hours" - other people liked our hotel as well). Our first night, we tried some of the local cuisine from the street stalls... who knows what most of it was. While we were adventurous, we did refrain from trying the starfish on a stick, scorpion on a stick, and multiple types of other skewered insects and sea creatures ("Was that really a seahorse???"). There were planty of tourists taking pictures, so I didn't feel too bad when I accidently let an "oh, gross" comment slip.
We spent our days in China seeing the sites (Tiannamen Square, Summer Palace, Temple of Heaven and the Forbidden City) and happily chatting with local students. Our firt day, we met Lilly, an English/Art major who showed us her school's art exhibition, took us to a lunch of Peking duck, joined us for tea tasting and gave us some contacts for acrobatic and kung fu show tickets. We were excited to have made a friend, until day after day, we met more English/Art majors who wanted to sell us art, take us to buy Peking Duck from their favorite restaurant and sell us show tickets. From 10:00 AM to midnight, it seemed these art students were everywhere. And while we helped them practice their English, Meridith drew the line at buying only one piece of art work. I would have to say that much of our time in Beijing was spent shopping. We had two good 3-4 hour trips to the Silk Market where we picked up plenty of knock-offs and honed our bargaining skills even more.
For our last day in Beijing, we had planned for a doozie. We were going with a guide to a little-visited section of the Great Wall to do a day hike, followed by an acrobatics show. Unfortunately, there was a miscommunication in regards to pick up time (Meridith didn't read her own handwriting correctly) and the hotel conveniently told our guide that we were no longer staying there, and thus we missed the trip. Conveniently (note the sarcasm), the hotel's trip to to the Great Wall and the Ming Tombs was leaving in an hour, so we joined that to salvage the day.
To let you all know, in most Asian countries (in our experiences), when you join a tour, you inevitably make a stop at some type of store. In China, we had already been taken to pearl store (where we learned how to tell a fake pearl from a real one) and a silk "museum" (they showed us how the silk was produced from silk worm larvea, then tried to sell us $1000 bedsheets). On the Great Wall tour we were first taken to a jade store (again learning to determine a piece of jade's quality) and then taken to a traditional Chinese medicine clinic (I don't know what else to call it).
So imagine this: A man in a lab coats sits everyone down in a room and begins explaining how Eastern and Western medicine are different. "Western medicine works quickly but does not cure the ailment, while Eastern medicine works slowly but cures a person for life". We were told that Chinese doctors can determine the health of all of your organs by taking your pulse. Okay, "pretty interesting that this is what they believe" you think. Then the Chinese doctor says something about a checkup for free, but you have to pay for treatment (a little hard to understand when he has a thick Chinese accent, so you try to be more attentive to figure out the meaning of his words). All of a sudden, a door opens and in walk 6 "doctors" in white coats, asking if you want them to check your pulse. It was like something out of a prison movie. A little freaky, so we decided to just have faith that our pulse was beating, and would continue to do so without their help.
So in the afternoon, we made it to the Great Wall, stretching over 6,700 km. We hiked the touristy section for a few hours, got some decent pictures (we really did TRY to get some without a 100 people in it) and enjoyed the scenery. We scrambled back to our hotel and booked a different acrobatic show on our own. It was by far the best thing we did in Beijing. It was 90 minutes of pure exhiliration. It opened with two contortionist women balancing 6 trays of glasses while they switched from one impossible position to an even more ridiculous one. Then there were women juggling umbrellas with every limb of their body, 5 and 6 year olds who bent in amazing ways while holding up themselves and 3 other people with one arm, men jumping through raised hoops, juggling, and a finale of boys climbing and jumping between vertical poles. Needless to say, we clapped for 90 minutes straight and I spent the rest of the night reliving my own childhood gymnastics career, wishing I had been in the Cirque de'Soleil (this was very similar).
Beijing was a very pleasant city, where we both enjoyed the culture (Acrobatics were #1), the sights, and the comforts of a modern city (yes, we did eat at the Outback... and we loved it). Meridith, in keeping with the tradition set in the previous countries, began talking about moving there for a little while. A trip back to Beijing and to see more of China could be in the future...
Sunday, November 13, 2005
DAY 68: Singapore and Malaysia
OK, so I'm sitting here in a crowded Internet cafe in Beijing surrounded by literally a dozen teenage Chinese boys playing some kind of interactive war game on the Internet, wearing headphones, and quite unaware of the volume that they are yelling at each other at. I'm wishing I had brought ear plugs. I guess the stereotype of the demure and quiet doesn't really fly here. Ahhh, the things you learn while traveling, I feel so insightful.
We've definitely got some updating to do. I could have actually added Thailand into the title of this one because we never even actually finished updating you all on our trip there. We left you with Leslie off to get her dream massage and me, Meridith, about to try out my bargaining skills at the local market... As it turns out, Leslie's Thai massage was a bit masochistic (sp?) which sadly took away from the joy. From the way she describes it, it basically consisted of a small Thai gymnast pulling at her limbs with all her might while Leslie tried to simultaneously hold back her tears and envision herself in her "happy place" (Leslie probably should have asked for a lighter massage, but she figured she was in the hands of a professional). In other words, she isn't really recommending it. I, on the other hand, despite Leslie's lack of confidence, did my best yet with bargaining at the local market. I might have gotten a bit carried away though when I learned that I do my best bargaining when I could care less about whether or not I actually walk away with the item. Later, upon our return to Bangkok, we actually spent our last morning at the grand "Weekend Market", a mass of stalls selling everything from clothes and housewares to fried bugs and squirrels on leashes. Needless to say, we had to ship a box of stuff home to NJ.
Singapore and Malaysia marked the half-way point of our trip. Singapore felt amazingly like a city in the US, just without all the Americans. My friend Laura and her fiance Anthony live there while she's attending an international business school and it was awesome to be able to stay with them and of course, have someone to show us around. We visited the Rodeo Drive-like Orchard Road, toured the city with a bus-load of folks who doubled us in age, kicked back on the island of Sentosa, enjoyed the Indian, Chinese and Malay cuisine offered at hawker stalls, and experienced the nightlife with the largest ex-pat community we've seen yet (and what limb-flying, foot stomping dancers they were - be warned!). The best part by far though, was being around friends. Not to say Leslie and I aren't company enough for each other, but that, for those of you who know us both, two months, 24-7 is a LOT. Amazingly enough though, we've managed to get along very well and have had no major disputes to date (knock on wood). Ours hosts, Laura and Anthony were awesome and we didn't even have a chance to do something without them anticipating our needs. Thanks guys!
Our relaxing continued in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, where we stayed with another wonderful pair of hosts, my friends Kim and Alex. Kim is teaching at an international school there and has a fantastic set-up which we were happy to take advantage of. Our timing, exquisite as always, found us in Kuala Lumpur for the Muslim holiday of Hari Raya, which for non-Muslims, basically translates to everything-shuts-down-for-four-days (conveniently, the exact amount of time we were there for). We went our first morning to do a canopy walk in the rainforest, wary of Kim's story of leeches that fall from trees "although I don't think they're in that rainforest". Besides for mild paranoia on that front, and for the fact that the canopy walk ended up being closed, we had a great hike, leech-free, through our first rainforest. (Our exciting wildlife spotting was highlighted by several millipedes that reached at least 8 in long!) The next day, having not learned our lesson, we woke everyone up really early to go to the top of the Petronas Towers, which also happened to be closed. (I know that is as big a shock to you as it was to us, but let's face it, who's really thinking clearly that early in the morning?) Luckily for us and our survivor instincts, we were more than happy for the rest of our trip wandering around the city, shopping (you can always count on the malls), eating at Chilli's (don't judge!), searching for the notoriously repugnant-smelling durion fruit, and lounging on the couch, watching DVDs and munching on nachoes. Despite Kim's unjustified sense of guilt at not predicting that everything would shut down, we had a wonderful time and in fact enjoyed the excuse to just relax. Thanks to you guys too, and your amazing DVD collection of course! (Oh, and you all have Kim, technology teacher extraordinaire, to thank for us actually getting our photos onto this blog. Yeah, don't hold your breath for any more photos until January, it was quite an undertaking to say the least.)
OK, we're going to save China for a blog on its own. It definitely merits it. Coming soon to computers near you!
We've definitely got some updating to do. I could have actually added Thailand into the title of this one because we never even actually finished updating you all on our trip there. We left you with Leslie off to get her dream massage and me, Meridith, about to try out my bargaining skills at the local market... As it turns out, Leslie's Thai massage was a bit masochistic (sp?) which sadly took away from the joy. From the way she describes it, it basically consisted of a small Thai gymnast pulling at her limbs with all her might while Leslie tried to simultaneously hold back her tears and envision herself in her "happy place" (Leslie probably should have asked for a lighter massage, but she figured she was in the hands of a professional). In other words, she isn't really recommending it. I, on the other hand, despite Leslie's lack of confidence, did my best yet with bargaining at the local market. I might have gotten a bit carried away though when I learned that I do my best bargaining when I could care less about whether or not I actually walk away with the item. Later, upon our return to Bangkok, we actually spent our last morning at the grand "Weekend Market", a mass of stalls selling everything from clothes and housewares to fried bugs and squirrels on leashes. Needless to say, we had to ship a box of stuff home to NJ.
Singapore and Malaysia marked the half-way point of our trip. Singapore felt amazingly like a city in the US, just without all the Americans. My friend Laura and her fiance Anthony live there while she's attending an international business school and it was awesome to be able to stay with them and of course, have someone to show us around. We visited the Rodeo Drive-like Orchard Road, toured the city with a bus-load of folks who doubled us in age, kicked back on the island of Sentosa, enjoyed the Indian, Chinese and Malay cuisine offered at hawker stalls, and experienced the nightlife with the largest ex-pat community we've seen yet (and what limb-flying, foot stomping dancers they were - be warned!). The best part by far though, was being around friends. Not to say Leslie and I aren't company enough for each other, but that, for those of you who know us both, two months, 24-7 is a LOT. Amazingly enough though, we've managed to get along very well and have had no major disputes to date (knock on wood). Ours hosts, Laura and Anthony were awesome and we didn't even have a chance to do something without them anticipating our needs. Thanks guys!
Our relaxing continued in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, where we stayed with another wonderful pair of hosts, my friends Kim and Alex. Kim is teaching at an international school there and has a fantastic set-up which we were happy to take advantage of. Our timing, exquisite as always, found us in Kuala Lumpur for the Muslim holiday of Hari Raya, which for non-Muslims, basically translates to everything-shuts-down-for-four-days (conveniently, the exact amount of time we were there for). We went our first morning to do a canopy walk in the rainforest, wary of Kim's story of leeches that fall from trees "although I don't think they're in that rainforest". Besides for mild paranoia on that front, and for the fact that the canopy walk ended up being closed, we had a great hike, leech-free, through our first rainforest. (Our exciting wildlife spotting was highlighted by several millipedes that reached at least 8 in long!) The next day, having not learned our lesson, we woke everyone up really early to go to the top of the Petronas Towers, which also happened to be closed. (I know that is as big a shock to you as it was to us, but let's face it, who's really thinking clearly that early in the morning?) Luckily for us and our survivor instincts, we were more than happy for the rest of our trip wandering around the city, shopping (you can always count on the malls), eating at Chilli's (don't judge!), searching for the notoriously repugnant-smelling durion fruit, and lounging on the couch, watching DVDs and munching on nachoes. Despite Kim's unjustified sense of guilt at not predicting that everything would shut down, we had a wonderful time and in fact enjoyed the excuse to just relax. Thanks to you guys too, and your amazing DVD collection of course! (Oh, and you all have Kim, technology teacher extraordinaire, to thank for us actually getting our photos onto this blog. Yeah, don't hold your breath for any more photos until January, it was quite an undertaking to say the least.)
OK, we're going to save China for a blog on its own. It definitely merits it. Coming soon to computers near you!
