Korea for beginners

I have nothing to declare, except my genius.

2010-10-01T15:17:00.000-07:00

I've been very lucky in the last six weeks. No missed flights or connections, no illness, no passports or wallets lost or stolen. It all went very smoothly - too smoothly, almost. However, it appears the travel gods realised this a little too late and decided to give me a shake-up on the way home just for good measure. The story begins in Kota Kinabalu...

On my return from Sepilok I was driven from the bus station back into central Kota Kinabalu by a lovely, friendly, English-speaking taxi driver. I arranged for him to pick me up at 6am the following morning to take me to the airport and, as he requested, called him later that evening to confirm. That evening I packed everything in anticipation of my early start and headed out for dinner. I ate an extremely average meal at a local restaurant - I was forced to send the meal back because the chicken was hot on the outside and cold in the middle - clearly they hadn't microwaved it long enough. Classy. I had a beer, sat on the restaurant balcony and watched the world go by, contemplating my last few hours in Borneo.

Upon leaving, I decided to go across the road to the fancy bar at the Hyatt hotel and get myself a double whisky. I never sleep well the night before an early start so I figured a little helper wouldn't go astray. Crossing the road in the rain, I was met with a large sign outside the bar stating 'NO SINGLETS, NO FLIPFLOPS'. I was wearing both, and a pair of jeans. Dismayed, I turned away and crossed the road in search of somewhere else. I reached the corner of the street when I heard someone calling out to me. I turned, and saw a well-dressed local huffing and puffing - I remembered bumping into him at the restaurant earlier that evening. Evidently he'd been chasing me along the road, and said he saw me alone and wanted to know if I'd like to join him and a couple of friends for a drink. I figured why the hell not, so off we went. He led me back to the hotel bar, where I pointed out that shabbily dressed backpackers were not welcome. He waved it off and said "Don't worry, you're with me" and in we strode - nobody batted an eyelid and he was greeted warmly by all the staff. I deduced from that he was either someone special, or a raging alcoholic.

It was a brilliant night - whisky was ordered by the bottle, free shots of Japanese whisky were shouted for us by management and there was an enormous cheese platter set in front of me which I got stuck into - a year in Korea without cheese does that to a girl! I reeled out of there around midnight, politely declining his offer to put me up in the Hyatt for the night if my accommodations weren't up to standard. Er, no thanks.

My 5am start was hideous - my mouth felt like I'd been brushing my teeth with a cats tail, my head was pounding and I was suffering from a whisky and cheese hangover. At 6am I waited patiently outside for my pre-booked taxi which didn't actually turn up. Given my flight departed at 7.25am for Kuala Lumpur I was definitely cutting it fine, and ended up running down the road in search of another taxi which I eventually found. He drove me to the terminal like a bat out of hell and I made check in by a whisker. That was one major stress I didn't need, as if I'd missed that flight there were no more connections that would get me to KL in time for my flight to NZ. But, crisis averted. Phew!

On arrival to KL, I made my way from the LCCT across to the international terminal which took around fifteen minutes by bus. I made the decision to take a sleeping pill on the flight and try and get a few hours kip despite the fact it was daytime. Down went the valium and a couple of small bottles of white wine for good measure. Evidently this was not sufficient, as I only dozed on the way to Melbourne and got off the plane drugged up to my eyeballs and rather incoherent.

I was meant to transit in Melbourne for six hours, however in my drugged up state I decided I was in New Zealand and needed to go through customs. Stamp in passport, I proceeded to the baggage collection where it took around ten minutes to dawn on me that in fact my luggage had been through-checked to Auckland and I was in fact land-side in Australia - exactly where I wasn't meant to be. I trudged back through the airport and approached the check-in counters, intending to check in and return to the warm, comfortable transit lounges. By this time it was around 1.30am Melbourne time, and there were only two check-in counters open. I explained (slurred) my predicament to the highly amused check-in guy who advised me to take my boarding pass to security and go through - "no worries, mate". Apparently security didn't see it that way and refused to let me through until three hours before my flight. So there I was, drugged up to hell, no luggage, a thin sweater and stuck in the public terminal where the temperature inside was the same as outside - six degrees. All of the seating was lumpy and made of metal, and in the interests of public comfort the construction work currently being undertaken by the airport was done only in the wee hours, when nobody was around. Except for idiots like me.

I staked out one of the few solid metal benches around the terminal and decided to try and get some sleep. Right behind me a jackhammer was going full tilt and every ten minutes or so an enormous trolley laden with scrap steel would be pushed out the door, past my head and out through the terminal - the noise was incredible. As I was settling in and making my 'bed' (head on suitcase, curled up in fetal position with metal seat digging into my hips) I made a comment to a uniformed guy near me about how some forgetful idiot had left their backpack behind. The look of concern on his face failed to register in my drug-addled brain and I promptly fell asleep. I was rudely awoken by a large group of over-zealous security guards advising me that I was required to leave the area immediately as the 'team' was coming in to dispose of the suspicious bag. It was at that point I wished I'd kept my mouth shut.

I wandered around the terminal for quite some time, pondering my predicament and feeling a great deal of empathy for Tom Hanks' character in 'The Terminal'. The one cafe that was still open was off limits to me as their credit card facility wasn't working and the only cash machines I could find dispensed a minimum of AUD$50. Against my better judgement I ended up first in the breakfast line at McDonalds as they were the only ones who would accept plastic - given that's what my breakfast tasted like I thought it was rather apt, really.

Finally I was permitted to return to the lovely warm transit area, where I promptly fell asleep on one of the comfortable chairs. On my return to New Zealand I managed to screw up also. After clearing customs, I waited in a long queue for the xray machine (which is about ten feet from the arrivals hall) only to discover on reaching the front that I didn't fill out a customs declaration. In my defense, my microchipped passport declaration had included a customs declaration so I thought that was it. Apparently not. I announced to the customs officer that I didn't know I had to fill one out - he listened to my Kiwi accent and looked at me with a puzzled expression on his face. I'm sure he thought I was a complete muppet. I was escorted by a customs officer back through the airport and back through customs where I had to fill out a form and be escorted back through and trek all the way back to the xray queue. All this to hand over a piece of paper declaring that I have nothing to declare. It did cross my mind to quote Oscar Wilde and say 'I have nothing to declare, except my genius' however based on my series of aforementioned actions this probably wasn't that appropriate.

On top of that, my own mother didn't recognise me in the arrivals hall, and I quote - "I wasn't looking for someone blonde". I ended up greeting myself and searching for 20 minutes before I found her.

Still, I made it home safe and sound, no bags lost or major dramas occurring. Travel gods, you're good to me! Valium, you're not.

Can orangutans tell the time?

2010-09-27T19:06:00.000-07:00

My final destination on this trip was Kota Kinabalu, Borneo. Despite its tropical island location, it is really just another city and for that reason didn’t hold much appeal for me. So, in my search for something a little different (and some much needed time on my own) I boarded a bus to Sepilok, located approximately six hours east of Kota Kinabalu. It was an interesting and beautiful journey through winding jungle-covered mountains and narrow gullies – it was made all the more colorful by the stunning digestive pyrotechnics on display right throughout the bus. I was lucky enough to be seated in the immediate vicinity of no less than four travel-sick passengers (one behind, one in front and two beside) and at times found it difficult to keep my own breakfast down due to the loud retching and heaving emanating from the seats around me. Looking on the bright side (and armed with decent set of earplugs and an impaired sense of smell), for MYR$40 I got transport and entertainment.

Sepilok itself is a tiny place, and has very little to offer in the way of shopping, restaurants, nightlife or culture. In fact, at first glance it has very little to offer apart from a remote jungle location and a large roundabout. Whoopee! – I hear you say. Screw Paris and New York, let’s go where the action is! But really - what draws visitors to this tiny one-horse town? It is in fact the Sepilok orangutan sanctuary. Established in 1964, the sanctuary runs a world-renowned orangutan rehabilitation program which attracts thousands of visitors each year.

Set up on 43 square kilometers of land on the edge of Kabili Sepilok forest reserve, the sanctuary caters for orphaned and confiscated orangutans together with dozens of other wildlife species. Each orangutan takes over ten years to be fully rehabilitated – this may sound like a long time in human terms but in fact is only a relatively small chunk of an orangutan’s 60-year life expectancy. The baby orangutans are nursed and nurtured much like any human baby – fun times, jungle gym games and other activities designed to help them develop the necessary upper body strength required to function in the wild. They then move on to ‘infant school’ where they learn to interact and establish bonds with other young orangutans. Once they ‘graduate’ (usually around five years old) they move on to ‘outward bound school’ where they are introduced to life as a forest-dwelling orangutan and human contact is significantly reduced and restricted. Once they find their feet they are left to their own devices, rarely returning to the sanctuary for a free meal and a bit of company. The sanctuary has an incredible setup in the jungle and it was truly a rare pleasure to see the orangutans roaming freely in their own territory.

The public are allowed in to witness the twice-daily feeding at 10am and 3pm – how the orangutans know exactly when lunch time is baffles me, but at every feed without fail, there they were, ready to go. I wouldn’t be at all surprised if they’ve got stolen Casio digital watches hidden under all that fur – they are rather partial to ‘borrowing’ the odd item from tourists.

The area is also inhabited by a huge number of other species, most notably the macaque monkey. Cute but feisty, the macaques in these parts are a dime a dozen and by all appearances (and in stark contrast to the low reproduction rate of the orangutans) breed like rabbits. Upon entering the sanctuary early this morning I came face to face with a large, mature short-tailed male macaque which terrified me no end. I was alone and heading toward the feeding area when he climbed up on the narrow walkway railing and headed straight towards me. He eventually stopped right opposite me and sat and stared. I took a couple of pictures and realized that I could do one of two things: run like hell, or talk calmly and quietly to him as I walked away. The former option would almost certainly result in a chase and possibly even a few bites and scratches – the latter carried the same risk but was infinitely preferable so I decided on that. He wasn’t terribly interested in me, and after cocking his head at me as I spoke softly to him (“I’m going to go this way, it’s ok, please don’t bite me as I’m too young to die of rabies and I don’t want to look like Sharon from Kath and Kim”) he looked fairly non-plussed and wandered off into the jungle. All I can say is that I’m glad he was alone – on the return journey we (being a group of around 30 people) encountered a ‘gang’ of macaques blocking our exit from the sanctuary. Attempts to get past them were met with teeth baring, snarling and lunges in our general direction which had us retreating at roughly the speed of sound. We ended up having to wait for the ranger to come along and scare them off so we could get through. Life’s tough in the jungle!

In short, my visit to Sepilok and the sanctuary was a truly magical and unforgettable experience. In the absence of words to do it justice (and the presence of some rather strong local beer) I will instead leave the pictures to do the talking. Enjoy!

Lunacy on the Nam Song

2010-09-17T19:06:00.000-07:00

It has been described as both a traveler’s paradise and a sullied Eden: whichever way you look at it, Vang Vieng is an almost obligatory stop on any travel route through Laos. The mountains surrounding the town are breathtaking – the limestone cliffs jut out of the Nam Song river and tower above the town’s 25,000 residents and hordes of tourists. The area is steeped in natural beauty and offers a wide range of activities including rafting, mountain climbing, caving, kayaking and trekking. With all this on offer however, tourists flock to the muddy banks of the sometimes lethal Nam Song river for one purpose – tubing.

After hiring a large rubber inner tube, we traveled around three kilometres upstream where we were deposited unceremoniously at the first stop on the tubing trail – the ingeniously named ‘Bar Number 1’. Sitting rather precariously on the river bank, this small wooden shack reverberates with dance music and offers the cheapest drinks on the river. Tube-goers can sit on the decks and smoke shisha, play some table tennis, get themselves painted up by the ever-obliging bartenders or take a seat on a cushion, soak up some sun and watch kayakers capsize on the nearby rapids. A rustic ‘Engrish’ sign outside advertises ‘free shorts’: you’d be forgiven for thinking they went so far as to provide free clothing for unprepared tourists. Instead, on arrival you will be offered a free shot of a particularly vile unidentified alcohol containing wasps. Yes, wasps.

As with many south east Asian countries, health and safety isn’t a consideration in most aspects of daily life. Poverty is rife in Laos, and with a large percentage of the population living under the poverty line it isn’t what you’d call a litigious society. So, health and safety aside, a number of enterprising locals have capitalized on the hedonistic tendencies of tourists and lined the banks of the Nam Song river with wooden shacks, enormous rope swings, zip lines, water slides and bars selling cheap alcohol. A recipe for disaster? Absolutely. This recipe, however, contains one more key ingredient – a river. In the rainy season, the river levels rise to the point where they virtually engulf some of the river bars and the murky brown water moves with frightening speed. A fair number of tourists have lost their lives to this river and, from what I understand, are often not able recovered from its waters. There are days (particularly after heavy rain) where the river is ‘closed’ to tourists, however the bars are still open and tubes can still be hired for those brave or stupid enough to take it on.

We spent some time at Bar Number One having a drink, soaking up the sun and chatting to fellow travelers. When we were ready to move on, we plunged into the river via the small slide attached to the bar. As we discovered, this slide doesn’t claim lives but it does claim sunglasses – two pairs from our group. Billy was unable to find his, but was offered a new pair for free by a woman toting a large bag of lost and as-yet-unclaimed sunglasses. He promptly lost these at the next bar and spent the rest of the day blinded by the bright sun.

The second bar we stopped at (imaginatively named Bar Number Two) offers an incredibly precarious and highly dangerous rope swing. Even at low river levels, there is insufficient clearance to let your legs dangle down as you swing. The first day we went tubing, the river was swollen from the previous day’s rain and most people were unable to clear the water at all and instead hit it with great force, wrenching their shoulders and forcing them to let go. I’m surprised there were not more dislocations and injuries although in saying that alcohol is a great anesthetic – I’ve no doubt that sobriety later that evening would have been accompanied by a great deal of pain. I was also greatly amused by the strategies of a good number of men who tried to avoid hitting the river on the downswing by lifting their legs up either side of their body, exposing their nether regions. Of course when they don’t achieve sufficient clearance, you can imagine exactly which part of the body connects with the water first. At high speed. If I had a dollar for every man I saw emerging from the waters breathless, pained and holding themselves I could have purchased the entire bar.

Bar Number Three offers a far safer alternative – a swing with a far greater level of clearance, even in the rainy season. It looked like great fun and I eventually worked up the courage to climb the slippery wooden ladder and have a go. My legs were shaking as I climbed and I couldn’t look down as that would have been the end of me. I realized upon reaching the top that there was nowhere to go but down via the swing, as the ladder would have been infinitely more dangerous to descend. So, grabbing the swing I set off and discovered that, like a lot of things, it wasn’t anywhere near as scary as what it looks like. No sooner had I been fished out of the river at the bottom I was back up the ladder for a second go.

We finally left this bar and, jumping in our tubes we floated down river headed for a bar on the opposite river bank. We bypassed a number of other bars including one offering mud wrestling and mud volleyball. We declined to stop as we have it on good authority that these mud pits were in fact pink-eye central – the scourge of the Nam Song affecting a huge number of travelers. The bar we arrived at boasted three attractions – a zip line, an incredibly high rope swing and an enormous waterslide. It was also what appeared to be ‘self service’ – you relied on whoever happened to be standing on the dock to toss you a rubber ring and fish you out of the river otherwise you’d just whizz on by.

Lip service was paid to health and safety, with signs everywhere proclaiming you would be refused admittance to the swings and slides if you had imbibed any alcohol that day. The bar is conveniently situated at the base of the slide and zip line entrance and the women behind the bar were dishing out alcohol with great gusto and watching as people downed their drinks and headed straight for the slides. The madness doesn’t stop there, however. No attempt is made at coordination of those on the zip line, rope swing OR slide, so your chances of a mid-air collision at any given time are pretty high. Billy quite literally came within centimeters of colliding with a guy who had just come down the zip line. Just to add a bit of extra danger to the mix, there was also an approaching kayaker AND someone tubing down the river at the same time so upon landing all four of them were dangerously close together. I can’t imagine what landing on a kayak would feel like, and I’ve no doubt that a mid-air clash of heads could quite easily result in death from drowning. Very scary stuff.

Tubing is dangerous, but with a bit of common sense and an appreciation for the dangers of the river it can be a lot of fun. Every tourist-filled bar pumps out music and offers incredibly cheap alcohol (bucket of whisky and coke for $2, anyone?). The atmosphere is fantastic, the weather is hot and it’s a great way to meet fellow travelers and take a break from reality. I’ve done it for two days running and will take a break today ready for one final day on the river tomorrow. After that, the next stop will be Vientiane and then on to Malaysia, Brunei and Borneo. Sabaai dee!

Relaxing in Luang Prabang

2010-09-14T00:02:00.000-07:00

Last Friday we said goodbye to Cambodia and hopped on a plane to Luang Prabang, Laos. It was one of the most expensive legs of our entire journey (around $200 for a one hour flight!) but well worth it considering the bus journey can take anything up to 24 hours from Siem Reap.

We touched down on time at a tiny little airport on the outskirts of Luang Prabang. Upon obtaining our visas Billy was horrified to find out that Canadians are charged considerably more than any other nationality in the entire world - US$42 to be exact. Even Bin Laden would get a cheaper visa than him. I paid my US$30 and skipped on through – I love being a New Zealander!

We had pre-arranged accommodation and were picked up promptly by a rep from our hostel. Our transport turned out to be a flatbed truck with two sets of three seats on the back of it. The seats had clearly been liberated from a van at some point and were literally thrown in the back of the truck – they were not bolted down in any way. I was amused to see that these same seats now form an impromptu ‘waiting room’ outside the hostel bathrooms.

Luang Prabang is a beautiful little city and has provided welcome respite from the craziness and the begging which was so rife in Cambodia. Situated 425 kilometres north of the capital Vientiane, the city is a UNESCO world heritage site and is home to a little over 100,000 people. There is a huge number of restaurants and cafes here – overall there’s a strong Thai influence, with a little bit of French thrown in for good measure. Not a bad combination if I do say so myself!

We initially planned to stay four nights but have ended up extending that a little as (a) we’ve heard some rather dubious things about our next destination, and (b) it’s such a lovely relaxing place we don’t want to leave! I’ve largely spent my days cycling around the town taking in the views along the river, dining in cafes and visiting local sights and attractions.

On Sunday we planned to go to Tat Kuang Si Park, located about 30 kilometres out of town. During breakfast we met a couple of other travelers who ended up coming along and it turned out to be a great day. On arrival at the park we paid our $2 entry fee and made our first stop at the ‘Free the Bears Rescue Centre’. Unfortunately it appeared to be cleaning time and all we got to see was a few Laotian cleaners – not quite what we were hoping for! We moved on through the park and within a few minutes arrived at the waterfall which was absolutely gorgeous. After a good walk around we found a good swimming hole and settled down for a while. Unfortunately Jacques re-injured his already injured foot while entering the water so was unable to swim – the rest of us braved the climb up a large tree to make use of a rope swing above the falls which was great fun! One of the Laotian guys with us managed to snap some hilarious mid-air shots of me, so they will be duly posted once he emails them through! Apparently he showed his friends and they call me the ‘flying foreigner’.

That night we met up with some other travelers from the hostel and hit the night markets for some dinner and drinks. After much consumption of Lao Lao we decided that given it was a Sunday night, what better to do than go to a Lao nightclub! It was an interesting place – it was surprisingly busy for a Sunday night and we had a good dance and a few drinks. One of the English guys with us began chatting with an attractive Laotian girl and came back very quickly to report that many of the ‘girls’ around us weren’t actually girls. A lot of them had done a great job at presenting themselves but there were one or two sporting rather large man hands, shoulders and jaws – something no amount of makeup can cover unfortunately. I tried to study some of them discreetly and figure out who was who - it was a bit like playing ‘Where’s Wally’, but with an adam’s apple.

I have also spent some time at a little place called ‘Big Brother Mouse’ which is located in the central part of Luang Prabang. BBM is a Laos-owned and based project which promotes literacy and English to rural and urban Laotians through the publishing and provision of books. They also run a daily English practice program, whereby foreigners can drop in to the centre between 9am and 11am each day to help locals improve their English. Today I spent two hours teaching English to a sixteen year old Laotian girl who has minimal English skills – it was tough, but I really hope she got something out of it. I spent a lot of time on the alphabet and phonics as it seemed she hadn’t even really grasped the basics yet. She was very sweet and very diligent – fortunately I was aided by a man who was there for conversation practice who was able to speak Lao and a bit of English, so he provided translation for me when needed. She doesn’t own any textbooks – just a notebook full of phrases written by foreigners who have visited the shop. I am going back to teach again tomorrow and have bought her a small Lao-English picture dictionary to help her along. BBM publishes one which isn’t particularly comprehensive, but is more than ample for beginners and costs less than $2. The centre is doing some great work and is a cause well worth supporting – . I was interested to note that in the three times I’ve been in, the only volunteers I have come across have been New Zealanders. There will be a future generation of Laotians with Kiwi accents – watch this space!

Tomorrow we head to Vang Vieng to go tubing. Given the amount of rain we’ve had recently I suspect the river will be rather high and potentially quite dangerous so I haven’t made up my mind yet as to whether I will go tubing or not. The other consideration of course is the current outbreak of pink-eye which travelers are picking up from the river – the thought of tubing down a river full of poo really doesn’t excite me, so I think I will find something else to do with my time!

Cambodia, you're so good to me.

2010-09-08T02:31:00.000-07:00

We arrived in Phnom Penh by bus, a mere six hour drive (including customs and visa formalities at the border) from Saigon. We travelled by ‘luxury’ tourist bus and found ourselves once again considerably disappointed at what we received for our $12. Much like my experience on Aeroflot Russian Airlines, it was nothing like what the brochures and posters promised. I sat squished into my uncomfortable, non-reclining seat and was forced to listen to a hideous Vietnamese karaoke DVD on repeat. I passed the time by counting the bugs scuttling past, willing myself not to need the on-board bathroom (revolting beyond belief) and glaring daggers at the poster stuck to the window proudly proclaiming the company’s ownership modern fleet of top-class red luxury tourist buses. Ours wasn’t red, nor did it boast any of the other features proclaimed on the poster. However, one can’t be too choosy I suppose – considering we made it in one piece I should be thanking my lucky stars it didn’t fall apart entirely en route.

It is hard to believe that two of the most popular tourist attractions in Phnom Penh are an old school and a bit of farmland on the outskirts of the city. Although seemingly insignificant, these two places have in fact been the sites of some of Cambodia's most horrific war crimes. We spent a full day exploring the S-21 Genocide Museum and killing fields – a sobering experience but one I would recommend to any visitor to the city.

Cambodia's history has been a long and fairly bloody one - in 1975 the Khmer Rouge took power under the leadership of Pol Pot and began a backwards social revolution of sorts. His goal: re-starting civilization from ‘Year Zero’ through a form of agrarian socialism. He drove city dwellers out into the countryside where they were forced to work – those who didn’t or couldn’t were shot dead on the spot. Those in the upper classes were shot, as were the educated or those holding any power in government. Many Cambodians were captured and tortured in S-21 until they confessed to working as spies for the US government – even where this was not the case ‘confessions’ were given simply to put an end to the torture which in some cases went on for months. In total, over 17,000 Cambodians were sent to S-21 – ultimately only seven survived. That’s a 0.04% survival rate – not good odds, really.

Fortunately, Pol Pot did not succeed in his mission to revolutionise Democratic Kampuchea and despite estimates of up to three million lives lost to the Khmer Rouge regime, today the country is slowly rebuilding itself. Poverty is still rife – you can see it in the living conditions, the begging and the horrific levels of child prostitution that still exist today. Modern-day Phnom Penh was no exception – every night that we ate dinner in the city we were approached by no less than four or five children selling books, bracelets or other worthless trinkets. They are proficient in English, masters of manipulation and, as we discovered upon refusing to buy their products, have a wide and rather colourful vocabulary which may either be presented in full word form or spelled out and accompanied by a middle finger.

A couple of days in the city proved to be enough for the three of us. Kristin moved on to Battembang and Billy accompanied me to Sihanoukville, a coastal town 5 hours away on the Gulf of Thailand. There we spent two nights staying in a small bungalow near the beach, relaxing on the sand, exploring the peninsula by bike and soaking up the lively nightlife. The last morning we were there, I was both horrified and delighted to find that my pre-purchased snacks for the long bus trip back to Phnom Penh had been mauled by rats. I had woken up the previous night convinced I could hear packets rustling and in my sleepy state assumed it was Billy with a case of the munchies. When I couldn’t see him, I then decided it was the rain outside and promptly fell back to sleep. Come morning, there was not one individually-wrapped packet left untouched and it was clear the local rat population had dined like kings whilst I slumbered. I mentioned earlier that this also delighted me – primarily because upon inspection of the bungalow, the only possible entrance point we could find was situated in the wall right above Billy’s bed. I was tickled to think that in his alcoholic, absinthe-induced catatonic state he inadvertently provided a small tribe of rats with a human obstacle course.

We returned to Phnom Penh to collect our bags and stay one more night before heading north to Siem Reap. As it turned out we were sharing a dorm room with two other EPIK teachers from South Korea who, as it transpired, I had met at orientation a year ago and Billy had met in downtown Daegu. Small world! They ended up getting the same bus as us to Siem Reap and we’re currently staying at the same hotel here.
This week we spent two days exploring the temples of Angkor. I won’t bore you with the details, but needless to say it has been incredible – the temples are absolutely mind-blowing. Unfortunately I wasn’t allowed up the main tower of Angkor Wat as I wasn’t suitably clothed (you could see my knees – hussy!). I did however climb one temple called Pre Rup which was spectacular. On reaching the top, I was struck by the number of people who were just sitting there, enjoying the view and contemplating life. After a few minutes of doing the same, I began to wonder whether they were actually still contemplating life, or whether their thoughts had moved on to more pertinent matters such as “how the hell am I going to get back down those f*cking stairs”. There’s only so long I can pretend to enjoy something, so eventually I was forced to hand my bag over to Billy “They Named A Goat After Me” Stevenson and began my slow and clumsy descent. Let it be said, I have not had an aversion to heights or stairs since I bungy jumped and threw myself head first down a flight of stairs in London, breaking my femur. Clearly those two events were not simultaneous, but both have left me very nervous of heights and precipitous staircases! I noticed several people bounding past me down the temple face like mountain goats, but I would venture to say my movements were more sloth-like. Anyhow, I made it to the bottom safely and in one piece, so I guess that’s the main thing.

My two favourite temples so far have been Ta Prohm (the temple in which parts of Tomb Raider were filmed) and Kbal Spean – a river and waterfall located deep in the jungle around 45 kilometres north east of Ta Prohm. It isn’t strictly a ‘temple’, but rather a series of carvings in and around the river dating back to as early as the 11th century. It pre-dates Angkor Wat by almost 200 years, making it one of the most ancient sites in the entire region.

Right now I’m kicking back in my hotel room relaxing – it’s 33 degrees outside and 70 percent humidity which doesn’t make for ideal daytime exploring conditions. I’ve also managed to pick up some sort of cold or flu virus and eye infection so am trying to get a bit of rest before we head into Laos on Friday. Siem Reap is a hedonists paradise – a good meal out will set you back around $3, cocktails $1 each and a one-hour full body massage anywhere from $3. Our hotel is situated less than five minutes walk from the central district (ingeniously named ‘Pub Street’) and the night markets – my bag is quite literally bulging with dresses right now. I think I need to book myself into Dressaholics Anonymous after the purchase of my tenth and eleventh dresses last night. Although to be fair they aren’t all for me… (well, 2 aren’t).

Cu chi coo, Ho Chi Minh

2010-08-31T03:33:00.000-07:00

And here we are in Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon). Bigger, crazier and just as 'tooty' as Hanoi, we managed to find a hotel off the main roads and secure a little bit of piece and quiet.

One of the highlights of my time here was the Cu Chi tunnels, which are located in the Cu Chi district around one and a half hours drive from Saigon. The tunnels were constructed during the war by the Viet Cong and used as a hiding place from the American soldiers who were unable to find the tunnels and, when they did, largely underestimated their complexity.

The tunnels at Cu Chi have been preserved by the Vietnamese government and cover around 121 kilometres: a staggering distance when you consider they were dug entirely by hand using only small spades and buckets. We were able to travel through a small section of the tunnels (approximately 120 metres long) and experience what life was like underground for the Viet Cong. I can't say I could have survived in those cramped conditions - the tunnels are tiny, dark and very, very hot. You wouldn't want to venture down there if you were claustrophobic or, unsurprisingly, if you were partial to pies.

The Vietnamese were a wily lot - their tunnel system was exceptionally labyrinthine, and the traps they dreamed up for the American soldiers were nothing short of genius. No stone was left unturned in their quest to outsmart the US and what they lacked in fire power they more than made up for in cunning. They would hide out in their tunnels during the day when American soldiers were patrolling, well hidden underneath the trap doors scattered throughout the Cu Chi area. By night, they emerged and fought when the Americans were resting and when the malaria-ridden mosquitos were out in force. Malaria was a prominent cause of death for Viet Cong soldiers, second only to battle wounds.

Our tour guide for the half day was a fascinating man. Vietnamese, he spent seven years fighting for the Americans and was a wealth of information and stories, some of which he was reluctant to share. His name was 'Bin' (pronounced 'bean'), or as he liked to be called, Mr Bin. Prior to the war he attended medical school and was training to become a doctor. He met his girlfriend there and they planned to marry. Tragically, war broke out and his girlfriend and family were murdered by the Viet Cong and he was drawn into the war to fight for the Americans.

It is pretty incredible to think that so many of the people who still walk the streets of Saigon today have been witness to the horrors and atrocities of the Vietnam war. It's even more incredible to think they survived. To live through this and maintain any sort of faith in the human race or in God (presuming there is one) would be a difficult task and require exceptional strength of character. Although that said, if you've lost your livelihood, your home and even your family what else is left except blind faith? It doesn't bear thinking about.

The atrocities of the Vietnam war are well documented at the War Remnants Museum in central Saigon. The building is home to a range of war paraphernalia such as old aircraft, tanks and munitions along with an extensive collection of photographs from newspapers and private collections around the world. Interestingly, it has been known by a number of names across the years, including 'The House for Displaying War Crimes of American Imperialism and the Puppet Government', the 'Museum of American War Crimes' and later as the 'War Crimes Museum', until 1993 when it was given its present name following liberalisation and normalisation of US-Vietnam international relations.

The museum also features a craft workshop which provides work for those affected by Agent Orange - this is set up right next to the main entrance and is the first thing you see upon entering the building. Those working at the shop are mostly kids, and all have obvious physical deformations. Blatant marketing strategy? Absolutely. Heart-rending? Undoubtedly. Exploitation? I'll let you be the judge.

Some of the photographs from the exhibition were truly breathtaking, particularly those by Japanese photographer Yasufumi Murayara who documented the aftermath of the war and, primarily, the lives of those who were affected by Agent Orange. Some of the photos were sad yet inspiring and others tore me up inside. I actually had to leave the exhibition around three quarters of the way through as I was viewing the photos through a haze of tears. How anyone could inflict such horror on an innocent population with such little understanding and disregard for the long-term effects is beyond my comprehension. Murayara began photographing Vietnamese victims (mostly children) in 1998 and the extent of the deformities they suffer is heart-wrenching. His pictures capture an incredible amount in a single shot and despite their quality it seems surreal and wrong to find beauty in them.

You may have noticed from my earlier explanation regarding the museum's nomenclature that it is not the most impartial exhibition in town. It focuses solely on the Vietnamese war perspective and the evil of the Americans. Admittedly, I can't say I could stand in that museum and say I was proud to be an American (not that I am but that's beside the point), however it is important to note that there are two sides to every story - the Vietnamese are equally as guilty of perpetuating the horrors which plaster the walls of the museum. Not only that, but they committed these heinous crimes against their own people.

It's hard to understand the point of museums like this sometimes - although historical, paying money to witness such suffering seems macabre and borderline voyeuristic. Of course, they pay tribute to the innocent lives lost in the name of war and document history so that we may ensure it never repeats, however the very same events are still taking place today in the world. Tragically, those who incite war aren't the ones visiting these places - they are the war mongers of the world whose opinions won't be swayed by the suffering of a small south east asian nation. Whether it be over communism, religion or natural resources, the wars will continue regardless. We will not learn.

But, I digress. The rest of our time in Saigon was great. We met some great people at our hotel and spent a lot of time with them and found many great places to eat and drink. We also ran into friends we had met in Hanoi and Hoi An which was a nice surprise - it's just like being back in little ol' Daegu!

One other memorable part of my trip was my visit to the Christina Noble Foundation Sunshine School which is located in Ho Chi Minh City. After reading Bridge Across My Sorrows and Mama Tina many years ago (and countless times since) I made it my mission to visit there if ever I made it to Saigon. That I did, and yesterday I was privileged enough to visit the school, meet with some of the coordinators and also one of Christina's daughters who arrived with her own family as I was there. The school was amazing - far more modern and developed than I could have imagined and staffed by some of the loveliest people you could meet. I saw a lot of the kids too, who were just like Korean kids - cheeky, inquisitive and full of boundless energy. I'm giving consideration to a volunteering post there next year for a few months, so watch this space.

And on that note, I will leave you. I find myself finishing this post in Phnom Penh, Cambodia - it has stopped raining outside and there are streets to be explored and food to be eaten. I'm off to the killing fields and the Tuol Sleng museum tomorrow morning so that should be a cheerful day all round! I will attempt to upload some photos soon too - unfortunately the connection here is too slow and I'm too impatient.

More soon!

Finding happiness in Hoi An

2010-08-29T03:31:00.000-07:00

Sorry folks ... a quick and boring post this time as I'm really tired and now don't have a computer as mine passed away this week. Again.

Last week we left bustling, noisy Hanoi and boarded the sleeper train for Hoi An in search of a little peace and quiet. We arrived around midday to an incredible amount of rain which transformed the streets from arid scooter-filled highways to small rivers. The Vietnamese of course were well prepared with enormous rain ponchos, whereas we were not and ended up getting rather soggy.

Hoi An was a refreshing change from Hanoi, with smaller, cleaner and quieter streets and quaint French architecture dating back to colonial times. The city is relatively small and is a gastronomic paradise - you could virtually eat in a different restaurant every night for months, probably longer at the rate a lot of them turn over.

We initally checked into a lovely hotel with a swimming pool but decided that we would only spend two nights there in order to preserve our travel budgets. We moved across the road and spent two nights in the Sea Star Hotel which was far from exquisite, but doable.

I can't say that I really did much in Hoi An and this is precisely why I loved it. The pace of life is slow, and more notably it was too hot to really do a heck of a lot. Early in the stay we attended a cooking school which turned out to be great fun. And, contrary to popular belief, I am actually capable of cooking edible food! The fact that I am still alive and writing this is proof, as I ate everything I made. We met Sanj and Kristy, a British couple who have been travelling for almost two years. They were absolutely lovely and we ended up having dinner with them a few times before we left Hoi An.

We also met up with Cristian, a Chilean traveller we met in Hanoi. A fairly large night was had on Wednesday after dinner - Billy and I ended up in a strange bar in what seemed like the middle of nowhere drinking vodka and playing pool with four Polish guys. Vincent and Cristian (French and Chilean guys) arrived later and the night went on until the wee hours when we finally managed to navigate our way home.

On Thursday Vincent, Cristian and I hired bikes and rode out to China Beach and spent the afternoon swimming and relaxing in the sun. Billy paid us a surprise visit later in the afternoon looking like a human lobster after deciding to ride a scooter all the way to Da Nang and back without any sunscreen on. Needless to say he spent the next few days regretting that decision!

My final day in Hoi An was spent relaxing, posting home the clothes I had tailored, and having lunch down on the river. We then rode around the island for the rest of the afternoon and met Billy, Kristin, Sanj and Kirsty for a final dinner before departing for the airport to catch our flight to Saigon.

All up, it was a brilliant stay in Hoi An - I really loved the city and it's sleepy vibe and of course the people we met there. I hope to go back one day soon with an empty suitcase as it's a shopping paradise!

Onwards to Saigon ... more soon.


The lantern bridge spanning the river, Central Old Town


Tree-lined streets in the Old Town


The river heading out to China Beach


Having dinner at our favourite restaurant by the river


Looking up the river from the island


Traffic jam, Hoi An style


Cooking school - getting taught the basics!

My Hoi An pancake - not quite to recipe, but absolutely delicious!

You've heard of snakes on a plane ... now for cockroaches on a boat!

2010-08-24T04:54:00.000-07:00

Hanoi is a great city, however there is only so much smog and tooting one girl can take. So, what better way to take a break than to jump on a smelly, noisy, tooting tourist bus and head to Ha Long Bay, a beautiful UNESCO world heritage site in the north east of Vietnam.

We purchased a three-day tour package which gave us one night sleeping on a Vietnamese junk boat (very aptly titled, but more on that soon) and one night in a three-star hotel on Ha Long Bay's largest island, Cat Ba. We were lucky to get a relatively small, friendly and wonderfully diverse group of passengers from the USA, Canada, England, the Czech Republic, Austria, Denmark, Belgium and Peru. A lot of the tours are designed for young backpackers and involve copious amounts of alcohol and 'hookups' which wasn't what we went to Ha Long Bay for - perhaps with the exception of Billy we were all delighted to have a such a low-key group!

Our accommodations were simple and by all appearances, fairly pleasant. The small group meant that there was plenty of space on the boat, even after factoring in the hundreds of cockroaches and the tribe of rats residing in our ceiling. I'm all for wildlife, but the thought of sharing my bed with a number of small, stealthy and exceptionally speedy cockroaches gave me the willies and you will not be at all surprised to hear that no blissful slumber was had that night. The rats in the ceiling were evidently delighted to have some human company and spent much time in the dead of night screeching at each other and having races across the length of the ceiling. That evening Billy was also evicted from the room due to alcohol-induced snoring, so between cockroach paranoia, rat races and pouring Billy out the door it wasn't a particularly satisfying night's sleep.

But, I digress. The trip itself was great - we saw some incredible places including Sung Sot cave: an enormous limestone cave that seemed to stretch on for miles. Despite the fact that the cave has been developed to accommodate large numbers of tourists, much of it seems to be well preserved and, for the most part, tastefully done. I did take exception however to the garish rubbish bins scattered throughout the cave complex. You would think that in a world heritage site considerable effort should be made to blend in any necessary man-made objects such as rubbish bins with the natural surroundings. Not in Vietnam. The rubbish bins were .... giant metal penguins. Classy.

Late on Friday afternoon we moored around the back of a small island and jumped in some kayaks. We kayaked right around the island and returned to the boat for a swim in the beautiful emerald coloured water. It was incredibly warm and deep, so we decided to jump from the boat which was, in hindsight, better in theory than in practice. The boat was around eight or nine metres high, which doesn't sound like much until you're standing on the edge looking down clad only in a flimsy bikini. Myself, Kristin and two other English girls eventually worked up the courage to take the plunge, with Peter the Danish tourist on hand to photograph the event. I went feet first, got a sinus full of salt water and, for my troubles, ended up with my bikini top around my neck. I decided to go again, and this time tied everything tightly to ensure no unwanted public exposure. However, what I didn't factor in was the slippery deck. We had decided to jump as a group of four but as the other three girls leapt gracefully off the deck and into the emerald waters below, I slipped sideways and ended up tumbling off the boat in a most undignified manner. There were some unrepeatable and most unladylike utterances on my way down, but despite all this I emerged victorious, bikini intact. Job done.

Our evening was lazy and relaxed, with drinks on the top deck after dinner until late into the night. The following day we moved on to Cat Ba Island, the largest island in the archipelago. After checking into our hotel and having some lunch, we took a short boat ride out to the promising-sounding Monkey Island. We had visions of a large and beautiful island offering white sand, clear water, lush foliage and teeming with wildlife, and we were naturally disappointed when we were told we would have only around one hour on the island.

As it transpired, Monkey Island is to idyllic paradise as Kim Jong Il is to world peace. We climbed off the boat and found ourselves standing on what was (to be fair) white sand. Unfortunately you couldn't really see this as most of it was either covered with Vietnamese tourists or trash. In approximately five seconds we went from excited to confused, confused to disappointed, disappointed to disgusted, and then finally just bemused. What possessed any self-respecting tour company to ferry passengers to this remote rubbish receptacle is beyond me - by the guide's own admission even most of the monkeys have upped and swam to other islands, which with short arms and legs like theirs would be no mean feat!

We walked the length of the beach, returned and pondered what to do with our remaining 58 minutes and thirty seconds. It was around this time we spotted a group of Vietnamese tourists crowded around a lone monkey in a tree near the water. We approached cautiously and, like the bona fide tourists we are, began to take pictures. At this point one particularly idiotic Vietnamese man decided to try and poke the monkey, or provoke him into doing something - goodness knows what. The monkey responded by baring its teeth, screeching and swinging wildly in the man's direction. I managed to get a mid-lunge photograph before emitting a pretty decent screech of my own and retreating rapidly to a safe distance.

In short, Monkey Island wasn't what it cracked up to be. We saw two monkeys, enough rubbish to fill a tip and more tourists than Paris in the spring. Despite the dearth of monkeys on the island, the over-abundance of idiotic tourists ensures that the name 'Monkey Island' isn't entirely false advertising.

We returned to Cat Ba and had a lovely evening getting shoulder massages and manicures and watching a spectacular (and fortunately distant) electrical storm whilst sipping cocktails on the waterfront. The next day we re-boarded the Cockroach Express and headed back to Ha Long City via a lovely little floating village.

It might sound like our trip to Ha Long Bay was a bit of a disaster, however that isn't the case at all. Like anything in life you need to realise that sometimes things just won't be up to expectation - this tour was no different. The scenery was beautiful, the people were friendly, the weather was excellent and overall it was a fantastic three days. It's hard to put into words the beauty of the area, so I'll refrain from giving you a full history and instead leave the photographs to do the talking. Enjoy!


Inside the caves on a small row boat - so beautiful!


The boys on their boat with our guide


Inside the cave complex and my attempt at a panorama photo


Kristin and I on the row boat


From the 'what were they thinking' files


Stunning shoreline at Monkey Island


A particularly aggressive monkey lunging at an idiot tourist. Go monkey!


Our lodgings on the Cockroach Express


Jumping off the boat. Undignified fall not captured, thankfully.

Ha Long Bay - the view from our bedroom window. Spectacular!

Good morning Vietnam!

2010-08-18T00:12:00.000-07:00

We were awakened at 10.30am by a loud knock at the door. It was Billy, who was up, dressed, fed and raring to go. Bleary-eyed, we dragged ourselves downstairs to take advantage of the free breakfast which finished at 11am, then headed out to explore the city on foot. We were joined by Cristian, a Chilean guy who was also staying in Billy’s dorm room.

Our first stop was Hoan Kiem Lake, situated in the heart of the Old Quarter. We paid our 10,000 dong and headed across the bridge to visit the Ngoc Son Temple which is situated on an island at the northern end of the lake. It was a beautiful little temple but the main drawcard as we discovered was the embalmed remains of a giant tortoise who previously inhabited the lake. It is said there are still other tortoises of his kind in the area but whether this is true is debatable – I can’t imagine that a lake in the centre of a bustling, relatively dirty city like Hanoi would be a haven for tortoises, but you never know!

In a bid to better understand Vietnam’s bloody political history, we headed around the lake to the Hoa Lo Prison Museum. Given the nickname ‘Hanoi Hilton’ by American prisoners in sarcastic reference to its overcrowded and unsanitary conditions, the prison was used primarily during the war to house and torture captured American servicemen in order to elicit information. It was also used to elicit false statements from American soldiers regarding treatment of prisoners by the Vietnamese for as a tool for anti-American war propaganda. Built by the French in the 19th century, the prison occupied almost 13,000 square metres of land and housed hundreds of Vietnamese political prisoners and agitators. What remains of the prison today occupies a much smaller site and offers a glimpse into Vietnam’s tumultuous history that is fascinating, horrifying and startlingly reminiscent of the atrocities of Nazi Germany.

The museum presents many aspects of prison life, some considerably more horrifying than others. We viewed the small, claustrophobic cells in which political prisoners were incarcerated and tortured, stockades in which they were held and, most disturbingly, an enormous guillotine with which many hundreds of prisoners were beheaded. Interestingly, what remains of the prison today is situated immediately next to a large international high-rise hotel in a fascinating juxtaposition of old-day revolutionary ideals and present day capitalism.

We continued on through the city, meandering towards St Joseph’s cathedral. We stopped for lunch and a drink at a little café called La Place which unbeknown to us was a top pick in the latest edition of the Vietnam Lonely Planet guide. The food was fantastic, the drinks cold and delicious and the staff wonderfully friendly. We had an impromptu Vietnamese lesson from one of the waitresses whilst we sipped on fresh mojitos and iced coffee. It’s tough being a traveler.

After lunch we crossed the street to St Joseph’s cathedral, an impressive old building reminiscent of medieval Europe. The church was beautiful inside, and offered a peaceful retreat from the incessant cacophony of motorbike horns in the streets outside. We emerged from the church next to a school where students were flooding out, greeted by what seemed like hundreds of parents – all sitting astride scooters. It made for quite a sight and made crossing roads in the area nigh on impossible!

Perceptions so far

Hanoi is buzzing. Scooters are absolutely everywhere and much like Korea, road rules seem to be a minor concern if not an inconvenience. Cars and scooters toot their horns loudly and incessantly, weaving through traffic and crowds of pedestrians, often whilst delicately balancing an enormous load of goods destined for a market stall somewhere in the crowded city streets. Persistent street sellers hawk some of the most ludicrous goods imaginable whilst the locals crouch on the filthy roadside surrounded by food stalls, small children and mangy-looking animals. The streets are dirty, the air is thick with the stench of sewerage and exhaust fumes and even the leafy green boughs of nearby trees are unable to hide the tangled web of electric cabling which snarls its way above and along the city streets.

Yet despite all this, Hanoi retains an air about it which I cannot put a finger on. Despite the seemingly frenetic pace of life, a sense of calm somehow overrides the chaos and you find yourself content to simply meander along the street and soak up the atmosphere. The roads are in chaos, yet somehow everything seems to work. The locals are incredibly laid back and their countenance is apparent even as you observe what appears to be pandemonium all around you. Hanoi is a city steeped in traditions and culture yet buzzing with activity and rife with change. Hanoi is alive, and I love it.

Our hotel room at the Little Hanoi Hotel

Crazy scooter traffic on an intersection in the old quarter

Hoan Kiem Lake, Old Quarter

First picture together - we made it!

Day One: Farewell to the land of the morning calm

2010-08-18T00:01:00.000-07:00

The day dawned clear and warm, and only around one hour after I bid the previous one goodnight. Dragging myself from the warmth of my bed and piling into a taxi at 6.15am I said my final goodbyes to my life in Korea through a sleepy haze. Kristin and I departed Dongdaegu for the last time and boarded the Express bus to Incheon International Airport.

We made excellent time, arriving in just four hours. We checked in our bags, which, contrary to our confident predictions, weighed a ton: so much for packing light. Our flight left Seoul at 2.15pm and landed in Guangzhou, China three hours later. After discovering that there is in fact nothing to do in Guangzhou Airport we settled into a coffee shop to have some dinner and to avail ourselves of the free internet. As it turned out the internet isn’t actually free and, because neither is China, we were unable to access the majority of the sites we wanted to view. It was a long four hour layover.

Our arrival in Hanoi was smooth – we processed our visas with no problems and managed to locate our driver, allowing us to avoid the taxi touts at the arrivals gate and move swiftly from the airport to the hotel. After sixteen hours of sleep-free travel and only one hour of sleep the previous night, bed has never looked so good.

Indulging my inner hippopotamus

2010-07-21T01:33:00.000-07:00

Mud, glorious mud. Even as an adult there's something inexplicably appealing about it. A return to childhood? A break from the stresses of daily life? Or a chance to be 'at one' with nature without the need to hunt for suitable foliage to use as toilet paper? Whatever your motivation, if you're looking for mud look no further than Daecheon Beach, South Korea - home to the annual South Korea Boryeong Mud Festival.

Last weekend Boryeong underwent its annual transformation from sleepy Korean seaside town to a magnet for Korean and foreign tourists alike. Hundreds of thousands of people flocked to the opening weekend from all over Korea to wallow in the mud and experience the many delights the festival has to offer. Not only can you soak up its purported therapeutic benefits, but you can also unleash your inner brat and indulge in some literal mud slinging which, as I discovered, has its own mental therapeutic benefits!

The festival began back in 1998 and was the brainchild of a local cosmetics company seeking publicity and promotion for it's range of mud-based mineral-rich skincare products. In the 13 years that have followed, the festival has attracted millions of tourists to sleepy Boryeong, placing it firmly on events calendars both in Korea and around the world. The attraction to the event lies not only in the mud, but in the adjacent 3.5 kilometre stretch of beach which offers a place to relax, unwind and wash away the stresses of city life and, of course, the mud!

Setting off from Daegu early on Saturday morning, we made the four-hour journey north together with 2 busloads of foreigners and a large amount of beer. Two hours into our trip our peace was shattered by the introduction of the 노래방 (noraebang) machine, which and provided some ... interesting entertainment. On arrival in Boryeong we deposited our bags at our pension, changed and headed straight for the center of the action - Daecheon Beach.

The festival offers a huge range of activities, including a mudfall (think waterfall, just with mud!), inflatable obstacle courses and slides, mud wrestling pools, coloured mud body painting, a 'mud prison', 'self-mud-massage' stations and mud-flat skiing to name a few. A list of all the activities can be found on the official website which, in true Korean style offers some wonderful flowery language and some fabulous Engrish.

After arriving at the beach and finding the weather rather cold and windy, we decided to warm up from the inside out. Stripping down to our bikinis and dumping our gear in one of the free lockers, we headed to Family Mart where we purchased some drinks and headed down to the mud pit. We walked straight into an all-out mud war which proved to be a fun, albeit somewhat painful experience! The mud had been dumped in a car park and contained not only sand (great for exfoliation purposes!) but also gravel and small rocks. A number of brave (stupid?) people had parked very close to the area and in some cases the cars were so coated in mud you couldn't tell what colour the car was meant to be. I'm sure the mud itself wouldn't harm the paintwork, however the rocks and sand wouldn't have done it any good, particularly when hurled with the same vigor as what were pelted with!

Mud slinging

Classy ladies (L-R): me, Jo and Michelle

(photos thanks to Megan Preece Photography)

Our visits to the mud pit were interspersed with swims in the sea which were welcome relief from the crusty, fast-drying mud. One of our friends had purchased an enormous inflatable raft which provided endless entertainment - that is to say until it met an untimely end at the hands of a rock (or possibly a screwdriver).

Saturday evening was spent lounging down by the beach with friends - we briefly saw some fireworks and a few short performances on the main stage. I use the term 'performances' loosely, as the majority of what we saw consisted of randomly selected drunk foreigners showcasing their dubious dancing talents and apparent lack of dignity to a small, bemused crowd of Koreans. We also encountered a seemingly underfed and voracious mosquito population - I became a human pincushion that evening and even now, 4 days later, I have all the outward appearances of carrying some sort of strange disease. I am crimson from my sunburn and my feet and legs are covered with bites that no amount of antihistamines and cooling cream will relieve! Ah, Korea.

Saturday night I had a great sleep, although unfortunately the same can't be said for Kristin and Bosun. I've always been aware I'm a heavy sleeper, but that night I slept through multiple noisy attempts by drunks to access our room and bathroom and a further attempt at window entry by a drunk foreigner. Being a heavy sleeper definitely has its perks, however I do worry what would happen if my house ever caught fire!

Sunday was spent lounging on the beach, with our return to Daegu around 3.30pm. I elected to return on another bus with friends, as the one I booked for the tour departed at 1pm and I wasn't keen to leave the sand and sea that early! I have to say in hindsight that I would never book with Daegu Pockets on any tour ever again - this is the second one I've been on that has been poorly organised and totally unprofessional. This year they planned six buses and three houses, however managed only two buses and what I can only assume was one house because nobody would or could tell us where the other one was. It was (in my opinion) absolutely not worth the price they charged and it has to be said that certain members of their staff could benefit from a little remedial training in basic customer relations.

Overall it was a brilliant weekend and one I will remember for a long time to come. Unfortunately I can't say the same for another friend of mine who was involved in a freak accident shortly after his arrival to mudfest. A deliberately ugly slide tackle in a friendly ball game left him with a broken tibia and fibula (front and back shin bones in laymans terms). He had to return to Incheon by bus with NO painkillers and has since undergone surgery to insert a large metal rod the length of his shin. This incident has left me dumbfounded on three separate counts - firstly, the guy who tackled him knew the damage he did and apparently offered no apology or assistance; secondly, the surgery was done under local rather than general anaesthetic (Kevin was awake to hear every little thing) and thirdly, the hospital has offered him no appropriate pain relief medication such as morphine at any stage during this ordeal. He told me the pain has been excruciating and beyond anything he could imagine, however the Korean doctors maintain they don't provide pain relief because they don't believe in drugs. This is coming from a national health system notorious for over-medicating its citizens - visit the doctor for relief from flu symptoms and you will be prescribed a minimum of fifteen pills a day (and I speak from personal experience with three separate doctors). I can only hope Kevin gets through this ordeal safely and with his sanity intact. Having spent time in hospital last year for the same thing, I know exactly how hard it is to be away from family at times like this. That said, I can't even begin to imagine the same situation with cultural and language barriers thrown into the mix. Get well soon Kevin, we're all thinking of you!

High point: Buying soju in a plastic bottle from the local convenience store in my underpants
Low point: Being the main course in the mosquito feeding frenzy

Kristin (centre) and I (right) making a beeline for the water after being pelted in the mud fight

The South East Beast

2010-07-13T20:10:00.000-07:00

I've had a lot of questions around where and when I'm travelling, so thought I might as well save time and put it down on my blog! Hopefully this will provide some sort of incentive to write a bit more about my travels as they happen, but don't hold your breath.

Furthermore, if you have any recommendations (good or bad) for any destinations on this trip, please leave a comment below.

THE SOUTH EAST BEAST
(a rough itinerary)

August 16th - 18th

Hanoi, Vietnam

August 19th - 22nd

Halong Bay, Vietnam

August 23rd - 27th

Hoi An/Da Nang

August 28th - 31st

Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City), Vietnam

September 1st - 5th

Phnom Penh, Cambodia

September 6th - 10th

Siem Reap, Cambodia

September 11th - 13th

Luang Prabang, Laos

September 14th - 17th

Vang Vieng, Laos

September 17th - 21st

Vientiane, Laos

September 21st - 23rd

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

September 23rd - 29th

Borneo and Brunei(exact dates for Brunei tbc)

September 29th -30th

Depart Kuala Lumpur for Auckland

September 30th

Touchdown - Auckland!

T minus 32 and counting!

Young and unscrupulous?

2010-07-12T18:46:00.000-07:00

Since I arrived at school this morning, I've received a plethora of gifts and letters from various students who wanted to say their goodbyes. My desk is now littered with candy, cakes, choco-pies, iced tea, hand-made paper flowers, cards, letters and even a balloon with my portrait on it.

One of the letters I received was from one of my favourite and very sweet little fifth graders, who I think might have utilised Google translate or something similar to try and convey her thoughts in English. She's clearly spent a huge amount of time on it, and also wrapped up a gorgeous little gift of various candies for me in 'I love you' paper. The contents of the letter were wonderful, so I thought I'd share them for the sake of posterity.

Dear Diana Teacher ~~

Hello Teacher

Hmm, first of all, reading this letter, you must bear it in mind that this is a whopping sentence.

D you know your 'the first impression' when we saw you first time?

Of course. You cannot know that.

We thought you to be younger teacher and not to be scrupulous.

However, why!

We thought you to minded us after you said to us in English class

Oh my

As soon, it passed over half a year this and that

that is called one year is very long in English study respects or very short in human relations respects.

In friend relations respects, that is called one year is, that is to say a day

Time seems to be vague.

there is a difference in the flow of time with an exceptions to a set pattern notion. whoever passed away quickly, whoever passed away slowly.

Whenever passed away quickly, whenever passed away slowly.

That is why I am fascinated by freedom of time.

It is summer night even winds are hot. Keep your health, Rdieu.

~Young-woo

I would love to read the literal translation of whatever she plugged into the translator - it's clearly deeper than your average 'thank you teacher, I will miss you'. I think she's put a lot of thought into it, but unfortunately much of it was lost in translation. Korean language differs from English in that it uses a subject-object-verb sentence structure, ensuring that anything you plug into a translator will not make sense when translated into English. Still, the sentiment is there, and I feel honoured that she has taken the time and thought to write it out for me. It's the little things like this I'll remember!

Parallel universe

2010-07-12T02:37:00.000-07:00

It isn't until the realisation that life as you know it is about to change sets in and forces a gradual, yet significant shift in perspective.

Not a day has gone by in the last two to three weeks where I haven't wondered whether leaving Korea was the right decision. I've come to the conclusion that life in Korea (or rather the figurative rollercoaster ride it takes us on) is very much an inverse bell curve. It's starts out by welcoming you with open arms, offering new experiences, food and a culture unlike our own - opportunities abound and things are rosy. Next comes the period where you are no longer a newbie and you've settled in to your life - it's a little less bright than when you first came in, and many of its idiosyncrasies have made the transition from endearing to frustrating. You long for time to accelerate, for the ascent back to reality to begin. As you're nearing the end of your time here, things start to look bright again, and you begin to wonder whether signing that contract renunciation was a good idea. Is spitting in the street really that disgusting? My apartment isn't great, but it must be preferable to living with my parents or dirty flatmates. Perhaps I could stay and study the language after all. I'm going to miss kimchi...

Still, life must go on and reality beckons with that all-too-familiar finger. Whenever I begin to think that perhaps I should have re-signed, I have to remind myself that it's better to go out on a high than to remain here and be thoroughly sick of the place in another years time.

In retrospect - what will I miss? Quite a lot, I have to say. For starters:

The ridiculously low cost of living
The general expat lifestyle and (more importantly) the other expats!
The cultural challenges that keep me on my feet
Discovering new things around every corner - even after almost a year here I'm finding restaurants, stores and attractions I didn't know existed
Interaction with my students
Being 'different' and sticking out like a sore thumb. Sometimes it's not fun - you need to be mindful of the image you portray and how it reflects on all foreigners. Unfortunately not everybody does that (especially the US military!) so the rest of us normal, decent folk try to pick up the slack!
The food.
The food
Did I mention the food?

On a more negative point, things I won't miss are the constant language barriers, the 100-decibel hoiking and spitting in the streets and the driving. It has to be said, at times these things do serve as a source of mild entertainment (with the exception of the spitting which for the most part effects only my upchuck reflex) but I won't miss them in any way whatsoever.

I also have to say - I will greatly miss the Engrish I see scattered about town. Despite their best efforts to teach and learn English as a second language at all levels of education, it seems that for the most part what is taught doesn't translate to any practical situations - like advertising for example. If anything, the use of English in Korean advertising and marketing is almost cargo cult-esque: that the sentiment is there, however there lacks any real underlying understanding of substance. Still, it makes for great entertainment while you're out and about, and I am going to try and document as much of it as possible before I leave Korea.

And on that note, I'm going to leave you with a little excerpt from Alex Garland's 'The Beach'. I watched the film again recently and the final scene really resonated with me for some reason. I guess we all find our own parallel universe - the time has almost come for me to exit this one and return to reality. Apropos The Beach ... next stop, south east Asia!

And me? I still believe in paradise. But now at least I know its not some place you can look for. Because it’s not where you go, it’s how you feel for a moment in your life when you’re a part of something. And if you find that moment, it lasts forever. - Alex Garland

The end is nigh!

2010-07-07T20:09:00.000-07:00

It’s hard to believe that in just 39 days, Korea will no longer be reality and instead become just another memory. It’s been one hell of a journey!

It seems like only last month I arrived here, wide eyed, culturally ignorant and apprehensive about my new home, new job and the prospect of making a whole new set of friends. Korea has been kind to me – I’ll give it that. My job is a breeze – the hours are short, the kids are fantastic and I couldn’t have asked for better Korean co-teachers and colleagues (except perhaps the principal, but that’s neither here nor there). In the last year I have heard a lot of horror stories about bad relationships with co-teachers, uncooperative schools and diabolical, undisciplined students but I have to say I’ve not experienced any of these kinds of problems. That said, I have had some issues with a new co-teacher this semester but these have been due to differences in teaching styles and have not been on a personal level. It has been immensely frustrating, but in hindsight I think that perhaps in a strange, masochistic way I have relished the challenge and approached it as I do most things – head on. This job doesn’t offer a lot in the way of challenges, so you have to take what you can get – even if it isn’t perhaps the challenge you were looking for!

I’ve met some amazing people in the last year, and I hope to stay in touch with all of them. I’m especially going to miss Jo and Jeannine who have been my drinking buddies, dancing partners, agony aunts and best friends through everything. I’ve always maintained that when traveling, it’s not where you are that makes it but rather the people you’re with – I still stand by that, and Korea is a perfect example.

There are a lot of uncertainties around my return to NZ, and it would be fair to say I’m pretty nervous. I know without a doubt I’ll just slot back in where I left off – get a new job, buy a car, see old friends etc, but it’s the return to all that which has me nervous. Will it be enough? Time will tell I guess. One thing is certain – I’m really looking forward to seeing my family again, it’s been too long! I also believe I’m getting far too soft in my old age – I was thinking the other day about leaving Korea and got all teary. I taught my last 6th grade Wednesday classes yesterday and got all teary. I think about going home and how I’ll feel the moment I see my family again, and I get all teary. I think about all the times I got teary and I get teary. Good god, what’s happened to me? Still, if Steve Price can do it on national television then I can do it anywhere!

It’s going to be very strange to be back in New Zealand, where everyone speaks English and I’m just one more kiwi in amongst 4.2 million other kiwis. During my 3 years in the UK and my year here in Korea, being a New Zealander has been my defining quality. It’s how I’ve been identified and differentiated. On reflection, going home will, in a way, be a loss of the identity I’ve known for those four years. That’s not to say I’ve no other defining qualities (after all, I drink soju, I’m immensely clumsy and am rather opinionated) but it’s going to be a noticeable change for me anyway.

Anyhow, 39 days 'til I bid you adieu, Korea. Don’t disappoint me!

Deflated and happy!

2010-07-03T05:16:00.000-07:00

As Danny Bhoy so eloquently put it, you often don't know what's in your own back yard - unless you're Fred West. So, with that in mind, today Jo, Michelle and I ventured west on our bicycles to explore Daegu a little more.

It was a stinking hot afternoon, with temperatures around 33 degrees (that's around 91 fahrenheit for you non-metric folk). After meeting in Seongseo, we headed to Hands Coffee for some respite from the heat. Yes, that's right. Within ten minutes of setting off from home, it was already hot enough to seek out air conditioning. We were melting.

Jo had decided not to bring her bike as it looked like rain, however we managed to convince her otherwise and headed down into Seongseo subway station to hire one of the station bikes. This little system is yet another one of my favourite things about Korea - you simply turn up to the station, hand over your identification (in our case, our alien registration cards) and hey presto - you've 'hired' a bike!

Of course it wouldn't be a true Di afternoon if I didn't create some sort of unintentional drama. So, I decided to avail myself of the free tyre pump upstairs at the station and reinflate my back tyre which was starting to look a little sad. And of course, in true Korean fashion, it was considerably more complicated than we initially thought, and all I succeeded in doing was allowing every last little bit of air to escape out of my tyre, leaving me to ride on the rims. Not quite my aim obviously, but at least I wasn't alone in my mechanical oblivion. One of the subway staff had come upstairs with us, and set about attempting to rectify the situation. He had no luck either, and after insisting he get his car and we drive it to the bike shop (a very generous offer which we declined), he summoned a colleague from the depths of the station to assist. The second guy was ex Korean army which apparently still wasn't enough to qualify him in the tyre re-inflating stakes. His determination however was admirable, as was the steady stream of sweat that quite literally poured off him.

After realising that we were fighting a losing battle against the bike pump, we abandoned my bicycle at the station and 'hired' another one with the intention of heading to the local bike shop after our ride. The subway workers were so sweet - the ex army guy disappeared and re-appeared with my rented bicycle, I didn't even need to go back down into the station for it! Free, AND hand delivered. You can't ask for more than that!

We finally set off from Seongseo and headed west towards the river. As far as Korean city rivers go, it's quite a pretty spot. The eastern side of the river is lined with trees and cliffs, while the western side is undergoing considerable urban development. We rode along the side of the river and spent some time relaxing on the rocks, together with approximately half of Daegu's oversized ant population who seemed to take quite a liking to Jo's feet.

Returning home, we stopped to look at a very old abandoned riverside Korean house I found on my last ride out to the river. In true 'dynamic Korea' style, the beautiful old house has been demolished and in its place lies a pile of rubble. As is the way in this country, there will most likely be a brand new high-rise apartment building or store in its place within the next three days. The Korean ability to get things done never ceases to amaze me! They can quite literally raze and rebuild an entire apartment block in a matter of days - it's incredible. It definitely keeps you on your toes - it's entirely plausible that you can eat at your favourite local 불고기 restaurant, only to find on awakening that it no longer exists and the new 8-storey building which appeared in its place houses a Samsung megastore, 3 PC bangs, a luxury jimjjilbang and six hagwons. Ah, dynamic Korea!

But, I digress. Our return home was relatively uneventful save for a calorific encounter with an icecream freezer at Gangchang station - Korea's ice cream selection has never failed to disappoint, and today was no exception. Cookie dough cones with chocolate and nuts - disgustingly unhealthy but a great 'reward' for a hard afternoon's cycling in ridiculously hot and humid weather. In other words, any excuse!

We stopped by the corner store on the way home and picked up a few small bits and pieces to say thank you to the kind subway workers who tried to help us. I then wheeled my poor, flat-tyred bicycle through the streets of Seongseo and up into Keimyung where I finally reached the bike shop and had my tyre reinflated (in about ten seconds flat, might I add) and checked for leaks. I also had the brakes replaced, as the screeching from the front ones was beginning to attract neighbourhood dogs. The entire exercise cost me the princely sum of 10,000 won (around GBP5, or NZD11) including labour. Yet another reason to love Korea!

Tonight will be a very lazy night in with a DVD, as my body is suffering from sleep deprivation once again thanks to the 2010 World Cup (and soju). Tomorrow promises great things, beginning with a trip to the pool in Yongsan to awe/terrify the locals with my rather ugly and ill-fitting one-piece swimsuit. 아싸!

World cup Engrish!

2010-06-19T20:50:00.000-07:00

There is no shortage of Engrish in this country, however despite its pervasiveness the novelty has definitely not worn off and it never fails to make me laugh. Here's a gem I found in Haeundae Beach (Busan) on Saturday - it is an attempt at the catchphrase 'Korea Fighting' but with one small typo...

The yellow writing translates as "2010 South Africa World Cup Event". I'm not

sure about the 'fig thing'...

World cup pever!

2010-06-17T18:23:00.000-07:00

It has finally hit - the 2010 World Cup is upon us. Its presence in Korea is pervasive; radio, television, store windows, public transport and individuals are plastered with team memorabilia, often with some interesting English slogans: 'Go to the South Africa!' Korean pop band 수파주니어 (Super Junior) has released an official world cup song called 'Victory Korea' - check it out here. The song features the all-too-familiar catch cry "대한민국" (dae-han-men-guk) which translates to 'Republic of Korea'. Add a blaring horn, some clapping and you've got yourself one very catchy little chant.

I have to admit, I'm not a fan of soccer (yes, I am a New Zealander and I WILL call it soccer despite England's best efforts to convince me it's called football), yet I find myself looking at game schedules, picking teams, predicting scores and even staying up until the wee hours of the morning to watch some of the later games. I've been swept up in Korea's world cup fever, and I have to say I don't mind one bit.

Korea is ranked 48th in the world according to the FIFA world cup seedings. Considering the opening-round victory against Greece (16th) their performance was admirable. Unfortunately they didn't fare quite so well up against 6th seeded Argentina last night, going down 4-1 in Johannesburg. It certainly wasn't for a lack of support - I have watched both Korea games live in Duryu Park with around 100,000 football-mad Koreans and the atmosphere both times has been electric.

New Zealand's progress so far has been promising, although I'm not expecting great things from our All Whites. To even make it to the World Cup has been a boon, so any additional goals or victories will simply be an added bonus! It is only the second time since 1982 that New Zealand has competed in this competition - at odds of 2000/1 of winning, we're not exactly favourites to take the title!

Still, it's not all about winning - I will continue to sit back with my soju in hand and absorb every little bit of Korean craziness the World Cup has to offer. Gun bae!

The Korean team take a half-time break

A visit to the health club

2010-05-31T23:46:00.000-07:00

Picture this: you've just entered the changing rooms to prepare for your workout. Naturally, as a foreigner, you are an object of curiosity to others in the room. Different body shape! Strange clothes! Speakee the Engrishee! You are slowly getting used to the stares (or crafty use of changing room mirrors), when out of the corner of your eye you spot her - the ajumma. Clad only in her birthday suit, she moves toward you at speed, zeroing in on you like a fat kid on a cupcake. Approaching you, she launches into a long and incomprehensible speech in high-speed Korean about her son who is studying in Boston (Massachubatts, presumably) and peppers you with questions that your present 50-word Korean vocabulary is ill-equipped to deal with.

A difficult situation under any circumstances, it becomes considerably more traumatic the moment she pauses to present one of two seemingly innocuous objects. That's right - the small Korean gym towel, or the common hairdryer. The former is wielded at both ends and used to vigorously 'floss' mid conversation. The hairdryer - although an effective conversation stopper - is used to dry between the legs, rather than the head. This is best achieved by placing one foot high up on the counter top - particularly traumatic if you happen to be at close range.

Let it be said, I have nothing against nudity. However, being verbally accosted by a naked, foreign-language speaking woman who is either flossing or drying in close proximity is certainly an experience. I guess it is things like this that make my time in Korea so memorable ... just another idiosyncrasy in the land of the morning calm.

But, dear readers. It doesn't stop there. Visiting a Korean health club is a very different experience to Western-style gyms for a number of reasons. These include:

Micro-towels. No bigger than a tea towel, they don't offer much in the way of coverage, but as discussed, nudity is a totally accepted and expected way of life in Korea.
Showers are communal, and shower rooms look suspiciously like what I expect you might receive at Her Majesty's Pleasure. Dropping the soap probably isn't such a concern however.
Generally speaking, nobody breaks a sweat. Vigorous exercise is rare - men come here to pump iron and women come to walk at snails pace on the treadmills and gossip.
Cell phones are an essential exercise tool. Towel - check. Workout clothes - check. Water bottle - check. Cell phone - check. If I had a dollar for every time I've seen a workout stopped to answer a phone call or text message I'd be a millionaire.
Women walk backwards on treadmills. Yes, they haven't actually realised the same effect can be achieved using a cross-trainer, without the need for public humiliation. They spend up to half an hour walking backwards, which commands total and utter concentration. One foot wrong and not only will you go shooting off the end and into the lap of the guy on the bike (who's probably on his cell phone and wouldn't notice), you've got an excellent chance of cracking your head open in the process. The very same thing happened last year in my gym, and the woman was knocked unconscious and an ambulance was called.
Clothing is provided. Women work out in orange t-shirts and grey shorts, and men wear blue. Interestingly, the men's t-shirts are far too short, but this seems to be the fashion. As a rule, if it doesn't stop around your belly button you're not Korean enough.
Man love is everywhere. Men straddle each other to provide support and spotting when lifting weights. They spend considerable amounts of time in front of the mirrors lifting each other's shorts and shirts to admire, touch and compare muscles. Again, there's nothing wrong with this (and I'm certainly not complaining!), its just something that you really wouldn't find in a western-style gym
Some of the machines inside the gym are ... interesting. Vibrating belt machines are all the rage and provide considerable entertainment for yours truly. There is also a strange contraption that allows you to hang upside down for long periods of time. It is not uncommon to see someone leisurely perusing the Korea Times with their feet pointed at the ceiling and blood pooling in their head. If anyone is able to enlighten me as to the health benefits of this I'd be very grateful!

Melt away that fat ... or at least entertain those around you while you give it a good jiggle

In short, Korean health clubs are interesting. I find myself with plenty of time to observe as I sit on the bike for my 40-minute solo waygooken spinn class (breaking a sweat even, heaven forbid!). I'll miss my gym when I leave - I quite enjoy a lot of these little idiosyncrasies and I suspect I'll be suffering reverse culture shock on my return home!

Desiderata

2010-05-18T05:00:00.000-07:00

A thought for the day... clearly not my own, but rather that of the illustrious Max Ehrmann. Food for thought, a little something to warm the heart - chicken soup for the soul. Enjoy!

Go placidly amid the noise and haste,
and remember what peace there may be in silence.
As far as possible, without surrender, be on good terms with all persons.
Speak your truth quietly and clearly; and listen to others,
even to the dull and ignorant; they too have their story.

Avoid loud and aggressive persons, they are vexations to the spirit.
If you compare yourself with others, you may become vain and bitter,
for always there will be greater and lesser persons than yourself.
Enjoy your achievements as well as your plans.

Keep interested in your own career, however humble;
it is a real possession in the changing fortunes of time.
Exercise caution in your business affairs,
for the world is full of trickery.
But let this not blind you to what virtue there is;
many persons strive for high ideals,
and everywhere life is full of heroism.

Be yourself. Especially do not feign affection.
Neither be cynical about love;
for in the face of all aridity and disenchantment
it is as perennial as the grass.

Take kindly the counsel of the years,
gracefully surrendering the things of youth.
Nurture strength of spirit to shield you in sudden misfortune.
But do not distress yourself with dark imaginings.
Many fears are born of fatigue and loneliness.

Beyond a wholesome discipline, be gentle with yourself.

You are a child of the universe no less than the trees and the stars;
you have a right to be here. And whether or not it is clear to you,
no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should.

Therefore be at peace with God, whatever you conceive Him to be.
And whatever your labors and aspirations,
in the noisy confusion of life, keep peace with your soul.

With all its sham, drudgery and broken dreams,
it is still a beautiful world.
Be cheerful. Strive to be happy.

- Max Ehrmann, 1927

A sad goodbye – the curse of Wee Jock Poo Pong McPlop?

2010-05-17T05:16:00.000-07:00

So I’ve officially passed the nine-month mark of my contract and have less than three months left in the land of the morning calm. I have to say it is bittersweet – in some respects I am really looking forward to getting home and seeing family and close friends again, but I will also be sad to leave behind life in Korea. Undoubtedly, I am ready to leave. My tolerance has been wearing thin of late, but I guess that’s part and parcel of living in a foreign country and having been ‘on the road’ for almost four years. And possibly old age! I’ve been traveling and living away from home for some time now and I can quite safely say I have gotten the travel bug out of my system – well, at least the long-term strain of it anyway! My return to New Zealand from Korea will include Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Malaysia, Borneo and Brunei – a trip I have been wanting to do for quite some time!

It’s funny how easy it is to forget how lucky I am to experience life in another country (or indeed, even ‘life’ at all). Lately I’ve been guilty of perhaps not embracing life quite so much as I should – something I fully intend to do in my remaining three months.

Last week I had an email to tell me that a good friend and former colleague had passed away unexpectedly in London as a result of an accident. Vivacious, vibrant, unique,, infinitely positive and very well known and respected in his field, his death will leave a huge void for many, many people. I’ve never met another person quite like him and possibly never will again. We had our differences at times (both being as stubborn as mules) but he had a heart of gold and was generous almost to a fault. When I broke my leg, he dropped everything at work and came with me in the ambulance to the Royal London Hospital where he sat with me for hours, held my hand, mopped up my tears and tried to lift my spirits with some atrocious jokes until a diagnosis was finally made. I distinctly remember sitting outside the x-ray room awaiting my turn, listening to his tale about how lucky I was not to have broken my femur – in his thick Scottish brogue he vividly recalled how his friend had suffered a broken femur a few years back and he was “hoowlin’ like he’d ne’er heard befoor”, and how it was literally months before he was back on his feet. No sooner had he finished this sobering tale, I was x-rayed and informed that my femur was broken. It was one of the only times I ever saw Greg speechless.

Surely, he was no saint either. To echo the words of his best friend, he was opinionated, uncompromising and perpetually late. He and I were similar in this regard (although I am very rarely late!) and at times his vocal opinions on some issues (including my life!) frustrated me no end. But, that’s what made him who he was. A Scot through and through, a colleague and most importantly, a friend, he will be in my thoughts for a long time to come, and the world is undoubtedly less bright without his presence. I’m sure right now he’s up there, propping up heaven’s bar quoting Robert Burns and giving The Almighty a stern lecture on the state of Scottish football and his sub-standard selection of Scotland’s finest. Rest in peace, Greggie.

Farewell, dear friend ! may guid luck hit you,
And, 'mang her favorites admit you!
If e'er Detraction shone to smit you,
May nane believe him.
And ony De'il that thinks to get you,
Good Lord deceive him.
- Robert Burns

Puppy mills in Busan

2010-03-30T21:57:00.000-07:00

Further to my previous post, I would like to share with you an 'insight' of sorts into Korea's attitudes to animals. Recently, a puppy farm has been sanctioned in Busan, and is scheduled to open in March. This 'farm' will be used to breed small pet dogs as companion animals of the exact kinds currently filling Korea's over-populated and under-funded animal shelters.

Please take the time to read this - it is heartbreaking, ludicrous and illustrates perfectly the Korean governments attitude to animal welfare in this country.

Note: This article is not my own writing, and has been taken from http://animalrightskorea.org/. It clearly summarises the issues and sets out just how incredibly backward this entire proposal is.

Please also take the time to visit http://www.uniteddogs.com/stopkillingdogs/ and sign the online petition. It takes just a few seconds and your support can make all the difference in the lives of South Korean dogs!

-----------------------

Here is another astounding move by the Korean government that demonstrates its inept handling of animal welfare in Korea. Puppy mills are set to become part of a national policy!

Several governmental agencies and local administrations are involved in this ludicrous venture, including the Ministry for Food, Agriculture, Forestry and Fishery, the Rural Development Administration, the Gijang-gun Office and the Gijang Agricultural Technology Center in Busan.

The Irresponsible Proposal

With government approval, a so-called Companion Animal Breeding Center is being established at the Agricultural Technology Center in Kijang-kun, Busan. It will open in March.

Typical of the Korean government's focus on generating money rather than raising ethical standards, the Companion Animal Breeding Center is designed as an income source for farmers. It is based on a belief that the companion animal industry will be booming by the next generation.

Breeding will focus the small high-end pet dogs such as Yorkshire Terriers, Maltese dogs and Pomeranians. In other words, it will breed the kinds of dogs that currently live in crowded shelters all over Korea because they have been abandoned by irresponsible owners. This stupid government move will put a tremendous strain on volunteer and welfare agencies like KARA, who are already struggling to help shelters.

According to a spokesman from Agricultural Technology Center, "Once the center is opened, research and development to nurture the industry related with companion animals as a new industry of animal resources shall be fostered." This was said with apparent ignorance of the disaster ahead.

It has been reported that more than 1,000 animals are already at the center, even now before it opens. The health and condition of puppy mill dogs are ignored.

The Lead-Up and Justification

The Rural Development Administration had a hearing on the development of the companion animal industry and relevant officials from related industries, academics, policy departments and others at the National Institute of Animal Science were in attendance. No one thought it prudent to ask any advice from animal welfare groups, or perhaps they did not want to hear it, which gives an idea of the direction the hearing was destined to head in.

At a hearing about the policy, Professor Kim Byung-soo of Gongju National University gave a presentation on the "Trend of Domestic and Overseas Studies of the companion animal" and General Manager Park Yong-hee of Korea Pet Industry Association presented "Prospect of Domestic and Overseas Advancement of the Companion Animal Industry." Other presentations were given, all naturally relating to profit rather than animal welfare.

It was concluded that companion animal breeding will be a growth industry--one that even offers export potential. Much of the forecast of the future relied on the idea that a greater population of singles will exist in the future who will want pets. A rising middle class was another excuse.

The market size of the companion animal industry in Korea is approximately 1 trillion KRW a year, less than 50 trillion KRW in the US and 12 trillion KRW in Japan. Clearly officials are presuming there is room for growth on a massive scale.

President Ra Seung-yong of the National Institute of Animal Science of Rural Development Administration said that, “Research will be undertaken to grow a new animal resource industry based on companion animals,” and he added that, “research will be diversified into the development of food for dogs, transplanting fertilized eggs, reproduction, and so on, starting this year to satisfy the demand of producers and consumers.”

This is the demand the government is hoping does exist or will exist. What Ra Seung-yong is really talking about is big money via a form of expanded animal exploitation. What he does not recognize is that this policy will produce is a national animal welfare disaster.

The Situation Now

Animal protection groups have to spend millions of won to rescue and protect abandoned animals every year. Each group has to raise millions of won by itself because they get no government help. The need for money and the situation for dogs will only get worse.

The Korean government is rushing headlong into a money making scheme without having considered the consequences. It does not seem to have factored into its decision making the reality that thousands of animals are killed by government run shelters every year.

Not only this, it is again going against a global trend in animal welfare. Forward thinking and progressive nations are encouraging and promoting the adoption of abandoned animals to solve their companion animal over-population problems. What does the backward Korean government propose to solve the problem in Korea? Breed more dogs!

The Ministry for Food, Agriculture, Forestry and Fishery is fully aware of the companion animal problems that already exists in Korea. It even announced that the average number of abandoned animals annually is up around 100,000. That's conservative: animal protection groups estimated that the truer figure is up around 700,000 animals abandoned. It is incredible, then, that the ministry should be so irresponsible as to be backing the puppy mill proposal.

Of course, the Ministry for Food, Agriculture, Forestry and Fishery is the one that is far from adequately handling Korea's dog meat industry.

We already have in Korea an unscrupulous pet breeding industry rife with animal abuses. Breeding animals suffer in horrific conditions and surplus animals are killed or eaten.

The current animal protection law prohibits the sales of pet animals less then two month old. But this is ignored. Complaints from pet buyers and conflicts with pet sellers occur all the time. Sales of pet animals on the street or over the Internet are illegal, but government agencies stand by and do nothing.

Regulations on pet breeders and sellers insist on a number of facility-related requirements and training programs. But the enforcement of such regulations has been nonexistent. Even the training and qualification of public servants in charge of these areas is in question.

To date, government mismanagement has resulted in a cycle of animal abandonment and over-population that wastes enormous financial resources of volunteer agencies and tax payers' money. But now it is setting itself up to preside over an "expanded" version of what is already a most intollerable situation.

Response to Protests from the Gijang-gun Office

The English in the follow letter is either original or translated. Either way it is not easy to read. Nonetheless, it gives a good indication of the ignorance abounding in government circles of life in the real world:

We express appreciation with high evaluation for having profound interests on love and protection of pet dog and other companion animals. The companion animal welfare center that this Gijang-gun wishes to undertake is focused on the animal welfare as the partner of valuable life that exchanges the emotion together with people for a long time with sharing of hearts coming from high age and nucleus family trend, not the experimental breeding for the new breeds of companion animal.

The part that you are concerned of, namely, the harassment of animal with the removal of medium not fit to the purpose of breeding process of new type may occur. However, the project that our agricultural technology center undertakes is to select outstanding medium for healthier and more social nature from outstanding dog breeds in the same category that we used the terminology of breeding in broad implication and there is no possibility of euthanasia or anything similar to that at all. For this purpose, an organization is structured and operated with the participation of professor in public health of companion animal, veterinarian, researcher, livestock technician and the like.

Currently, the reality of the pet dog producing farms have lack of conscience and breeding technology on the breed management to cause indiscrete production of hybrid kinds and cross breed today. In addition, the farms have difficulty in importing (or outstanding domestic breeds) of high priced breeding dog.

Consumers who purchased them would treat them as the pet animal rather than thinking as the companion animal that they will be discarded once the effective value declines that the problem of the stray dogs continues without removing such a problem that all people who love animals would share the sentiment. Looking into this aspect, if correct management and production of companion animal is made, the stray animal issue would be solved fundamentally.

Furthermore, before undertaking this project, the farms would be implemented for advance fundamental education in companion dog management, introduction of pet animal theories, animal protection law and the like for the welfare of companion animal and it would educate regularly on companion dog behavior psychology, pathology and others, and it would hold seminars on companion animal welfare from time to time.

In addition, together with those who wish to have the animals, we plan to have the companion animal culture even more matured not to have any animal harassment or inappropriate breeding management together with the socialization training and education of companion dog as well. And, in order to comply with the eight-week pedigree (8주령) of advanced countries of companion animal, sales of pedigree will be sold to purchasers with sufficient qualification.

We know that your heart to love animals and are the same as the heart of us. We hope you to participate with unyielding interest and affection, and we will lead to protect animals. Thank you.

What Should Be Done

Of course, this ridiculous scheme should be abandoned. What the government should be doing is promoting the sale of shelter animals through pet stores and working to re-home abandoned companion animals.

Why isn't this being done? It's simple: the government cannot make money from such an ethical and social service. It has to spend money to do what is essential its job, but it doesn't want to.

The Korean government does not care about animals and it wants welfare agencies to pick up the bill.

Following are contact details for where to submit protests:

Person in Charge of the Project in Gijang County Office
(Agricultural Technology Center)
Kim Tae Su

Tel: 0082-51-709-5310
E-mail : yslee37@busan.go.kr

Minister For Food, Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (MIFAFF)
Mr. Chang,Tae-pyung

Government Complex,
Gwacheon, Jungang-dong,
Gwacheon, Gyeonggi-do
Korea
Email: master@mifaff.go.kr
Tel: 822- 500-1501~2/ 822-2110-4000

Ministry for Food, Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries

Government Complex,
Gwacheon, Jungang-dong,
Gwacheon, Gyeonggi-do
Korea
Email: wmaster@mifaff.go.kr
Tel: 822-503-7200
Fax: 822- 503- 7249

Mayor of Busan Mr. Huh-Nam-shik

(611- 735)
Busan City Hall
051-120, Jungang-ro 2001
Yeonjae- Ku, Busan
Korea
Tel: 8251- 120

Mayor of Gijang- Gun, Busan

(619- 906)
400, Gijang Dae-ro, Gijang-up
Gijang-gun, Busan
Korea
Tel: 8251-709- 4000
Fax: 8251- 709- 4444

Gijang Agriculture Technology Center
Shin-Mun-Go

(120- 705)
New Im-gwang Bldg.,
81 Uijuro, Seodaemun-gu
Seoul, Korea
Tel: 8251- 709- 5303

Rural Development Administration
Administrator Mr. Kim, Jae-soo

(441-707)
Suin-ro, 150, Gwonseon-gu
Suwon city, Gyeonggi-do
Korea
Tel: 8231- 299-2200
Fax: 8231- 299- 2469

Seonwon fashion show!

2010-03-30T03:28:00.000-07:00

Some clips from my sixth grade 'fashion show' role play. A lot of fun to make, and the costumes were even more entertaining!

Not bad for 6th graders who are generally 'too cool for school'.

Part I - some of the better presentations

Part II - outtakes, set to the tune of Benny Hill & Sixpence None The Richer.

Canines - cruelty cuisine.

2010-03-29T04:36:00.000-07:00

After two frustrated attempts, on Saturday I finally made it out to the Daegu KAPs animal shelter. I rode my new bike out there (cue incitement of bike rage, that's a whole other story). I met Billy at the station and we headed down to the cat house as there seemed to be an abundance of dog walkers available.

To be honest, I found the whole experience a little distressing. There is a large number of cats living at the shelter, the majority of which are suffering from some kind of physical injury or sickness. Despite this, they are friendly, well adjusted and delighted to have some human interaction, even if it's only for a couple of hours. On arrival I knew it was going to be difficult, but it wasn't until I met a little tabby cat who was so sick it's eyes were literally stuck together and it couldn't see a thing. It was coughing and sneezing and clearly unwell but all it wanted was a cuddle. It broke my heart and made me cry - I wanted to take him and each and every other cat home and look after them - cue crazy cat lady, 30 years early!

KAPS (Korean Animal Protection Society) does an incredible job on the little resources they have available. They rely mostly on donations from the public - both monetary and other resources such as blankets, food and medicine. The stories of abuse and neglect are heartbreaking and enough to leave you wondering just what sort of people we share our world with.

Dog meat is considered a delicacy here in Korea, and like many Korean foods is a 'cure' for many ailments including impotence and poor skin. How it claims to do this is beyond me (how is it different to any other meat?), but in order to get these 'health benefits' the dogs are tortured prior to their deaths to increase the flow of adrenalin in their bodies. Often this is done in front of other dogs - it is well known and understood that dogs can understand the suffering of others, so this is used to the dog-trader's advantage. Dog meat is also 'tenderised' by hanging the dog from a tree and beating it to death. In short, the dog meat trade in Korea is archaic, abhorrent and a sickening crime that should be punishable in an eye-for-an-eye manner.

In a society as modern as today's Korea, there still exists some archaic practices such as this which are founded on nothing but greed and self-fulfillment. The worst part is that even though it is illegal under South Korean law, authorities turn a blind eye and instead the protection of these animals is left in the hands of independent animal welfare groups. Dog meat dealers have become hostile to those who disapprove and, since the Seoul Olympics of '88 and the increased international awareness of Korean dog farming, many markets now post plain-clothed security guards to keep foreigners away.

Korea is like that friend you know that you can only spend so much time with. Too much and it starts to get on your nerves. When you're feeling positive within yourself, things that would normally drive you crazy are simply passed off as endearing idiosyncrasies. When you're down, even the simplest of frustrations can push you towards that fine line between love and hate and make you want to spend as little time with that friend as possible without cutting them off completely.

At times, Korea is wonderful. Colorful, dynamic and inhabited by some wonderful people that really make you glad to be here. Sometimes though, Korea gets you down. Whether it's something as small as the constant staring and unwanted attention on the street, or the larger things such as animal welfare that really open your eyes and lead you to doubt whether Korea is the modern, progressive country it portrays itself as. Me? I know it happens in all countries, but the degree to which animal cruelty takes place in this country leaves me staggered. Furthermore, Korea gets away with attributing this outright cruelty to 'traditional practices' - "it's what we've always done". It's disgusting, cruel, inhumane and out of step with the rest of the OECD. Get your act together Korea.

"The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated" - Mahatma Gandhi

An enduring love affair with Taiwan - Part 2

2010-03-29T03:49:00.000-07:00

We awoke the following morning and headed to the much-lauded Martyrs Shrine, situated slightly north-east of central Taipei. Constructed back in 1969, the shrine was architecturally inspired by the Hall of Supreme Harmony in Beijing's forbidden city. The site is dedicated to the memory of more than 350,000 Taiwanese soldiers who lost their lives in both the War of Resistance against Japan and the civil war between the Chinese Republican and communist forces.

View looking from the gate down to the Martyr's Shrine

The temple complex was sprawling and housed several immaculate buildings including a guard house, temple and several smaller buildings of worship. The main attraction at this site is the hourly changing of the guards - a perfectly choreographed and somber affair lasting around ten minutes but well worth hanging around for. We spent some time relaxing in the quite gardens, perusing the scores of plaques lining the walls of the memorial complex. I read many different accounts of heroic, selfless acts committed by the Taiwanese soldiers and it was hard to comprehend that a country like Taiwan which is seemingly so modern and independent could have such a turbulent and bloody history. The English translations of heroicism and bravery were somewhat undermined by the lack of English proofreading - despite the tranquility of the surroundings and the sombre tone of the stories I couldn't help but giggle at some of the wording. For instance, I learned that the Pacific War was in fact initiated by the Japanese in 'Pear Harbour'. Jokes aside, this was one of the highlights of the trip and a definite must-see for anyone visiting Taiwan.

Kristin arrived later that afternoon, and we headed out for a walk around Ximending to see the sights and sample more of Taipei's ubiquitous bubble tea. Later that evening we headed to the Shilin night markets, however my night ended before it had actually begun thanks to what I can only assume was a dodgy Vietnamese lunch earlier in the day.

The following morning we rose early and headed to the 228 Peace Memorial Park which was only a stone's throw from our hotel in Ximen. It was a beautiful, tranquil morning and the park was relatively quiet, save for a few squirrels and the odd person relaxing on a park bench. After a walk around the grounds, Kristin and I decided to have a go at walking the stone path, or 'reflexology path'. Designed to target specific areas of the feet, the stones on the path are inlaid pointing upwards (i.e. set in the concrete on their ends rather than on their flattest surface). They are also very, very painful! Kristin and I were quickly joined by an elderly Taiwanese man who seemed intent on having us experience the full reflexology kit and caboodle. Kristin sat and watched whilst I was led at high speed by the hand from one end of the path to the other (and it felt like the longest path in Asia at that point). After my torture was over, he proceeded to take Kristin through a series of exercises - all conducted on the stones - including facial massage, full body stretching and back massage! I was also made to lie on the stones and roll around - he also attempted to stretch my legs above my head but the pain was too much for my poor body. Lying on stones is not as comfortable as it looks!

"Let me just bend your completely inflexible leg up above your head. I promise I'll stop if I hear anything snap."

We then headed to the Chiang Kai-Shek memorial hall, just a few stops away on the MRT. The memorial is located in the east end of Liberty Square alongside the national theatre and national concert hall. As with so many things in Chinese culture, symbolism was rife in the design and planning of the memorial hall. The stairs to the memorial itself numbered 89, representing Chiang's age at the time of his death.

Chiang is a somewhat controversial figure in Taiwanese history and is both revered and loathed by the Taiwanese. He led China successfully during the second Sino-Japanese war but his nationalist government party was defeated by the Chinese Communist Party with the help of Soviet Russia. He was forced to retreat to Taiwan, where he ruled with an iron fist until his death in 1975. Many statues erected in his honor throughout Taiwan have been removed and there has been much argument for the re-naming of the Chiang Kai-Shek memorial hall, however under the current president this is unlikely to happen.

The following morning after Kate's departure, Kristin and I headed to the Museum of World Religions for a dose of culture. This turned out to be one of our more interesting experiences as we were privileged enough to encounter a helpful man in the subway who not only agreed to show us how to find the building, but also invited us to a special tea and prayer ceremony attended by Taiwanese religious leaders, diplomats and representatives of the ten main world religions. As it transpired, he was actually the President of the Taiwan United Nations organisation and is currently fighting to have Taiwan admitted to the UN independent of China. It was certainly not your average museum visit!

Despite being an independent country (to all intents and purposes) Taiwan is currently represented in the UN by China as it is not considered to be a sovereign state. Interestingly, I discovered that Taiwan is recognised as an independent sovereign country by only 24 countries around the world. Taiwan's applications to join the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the United Nations have been numerous, but each time have been rejected due to it's status as a 'breakaway province' of China rather than an independent, democratic country. A worthy fight perhaps, but from what I understand is somewhat of a losing battle.

After the tea and prayer ceremony we dined in the incredible vegetarian restaurant at the museum, and then headed north to Beitou to explore the town and visit the hot pools. We came across a dragon parade, which Kristin decided she had to take part in to win a long-standing bet with a friend of ours. I also joined in, marching in line with the slightly amorous and dentally-challenged locals. It was a beautiful day for it, and very hot! Photographic evidence in hand, we headed out for what we thought was a brisk walk to the thermal valley. We ended up getting rather lost, but eventually found what we were looking for. Hot and sweaty, we headed further north to Danshui, a gorgeous little port town on the outer fringes of Taipei. After much shopping, eating and relaxing in the sun we headed back to central Taipei to relax for the evening. Bliss!

Without a doubt I would go back to Taiwan for another holiday. After spending just seven days in Taipei itself, there were still so many things I didn't get a chance to see. It would also be an incredible place to visit in summer - I would love to head south to the Taroko Gorge and Green Island for some snorkelling, hiking or biking. So far this is my favourite place in all of Asia, beating out Hong Kong for first place (and that's saying something!).

An enduring love affair with Taiwan - Part 1

2010-03-03T18:41:00.000-08:00

Well, again it has been some time since I have done any updates, however those of you who have complained will now wish you never said a word. I’m in the process of writing up my trip to Taiwan and so far it is set to rival the Yongle Dadian. So grab yourself a coffee, a cheeky biscuit or two and enjoy the first installment.

Before I begin, I probably should set the scene. Personally, I knew little about Taiwan before my visit so will share a fact or two about the country with you prior to boring you senseless with details of my trip.

Taiwan is an independent republic located off the coast of China with a population of around 23 million. It is the second most densely populated country in the world and is largely Buddhist, with a small minority of Christians. The official language is Mandarin, with a minority of people speaking Taiwanese. It is a modern, dynamic country that relies heavily on electronics and machinery exports to survive. Taiwan has a complex political status and is struggling to be seen by the larger international community as an independent republic. They are currently fighting for membership of international organizations including WHO and the UN – China is doing its best to hinder these attempts and refuses to maintain diplomatic relations with any country which formally recognizes Taiwan as the Republic of China.

Scene set!

Escaping the cold weather and drudgery of a semi-refrigerated school with no classes, I headed north to Seoul to begin my first official vacation from Korea. On the assumption I wouldn’t need to pre-purchase a train ticket for mid-week travel to Seoul, I arrived at Dongdaegu station only to find everything inexplicably sold out. I managed to somehow get the last ticket on a train two and a half hours later, so after grabbing a newspaper, coffee and bagel I staked out a spot in the gate lounge and settled in for the afternoon. Fortunately the winter Olympics were playing on the television nearby, so that proved to be a welcome distraction from the journalistic atrocities of the Korea Times.

I was due to fly to Taiwan in the early hours of Thursday morning so I headed to Incheon to stay with a friend on the Wednesday night. I left the apartment around 5.30am on Thursday morning only to find the whole city covered in snow! Not an ideal scenario as it causes havoc with flights – mine was delayed for an hour as there was a significant de-icing queue on the runway. I didn’t mind too much however, as I was luxuriating up in business class perusing the cocktail menu compliments of a free last-minute upgrade from Cathay Pacific! The one hour delay also lessened the waiting time in Taipei airport, as Kate’s flight got in around 1 hour after mine did. Unfortunately this did mean I had only twenty minutes in which to savor the airport’s tasteful 1960’s decor– it looked like what I imagine Auckland Airport did around 20 years ago.

Incheon Airport, 9am on 25th February. Chilly!

After meeting Kate, we located our bus and headed to downtown Taipei. It was raining solidly, and didn’t stop for the first two and a half days we were there. Not to be deterred, we headed out to explore the Ximen and ShiDa areas, umbrellas at the ready. Our hotel was located right in the heart of the Ximending cultural and shopping district which provided a fantastic base from which to explore. Known as the ‘harajuku of Taipei’, the Ximending area attracts over 3 million shoppers per month, which for a country the size of Taiwan gives you a good indication of its popularity! Interestingly, it is also well known for student prostitution (thanks Wikipedia!).

Ximen district by night - around 1 minutes walk from our hotel!

Later we headed to the National Taiwan Normal University area and visited the ShiDa night markets. We didn’t stay particularly long as it was pelting down with rain, but had a good walk through all the stalls and took temporary refuge from the wet in a Taiwanese restaurant to indulge in beef noodle soup (Kate’s second bowl of the day!).

The following day we headed to the Taipei Fine Arts museum which was quite interesting. Amongst the various exhibitions was an ‘interactive’ piece, whereby you could submit your name and contact details with the chance to participate by ballot. Participation would enable you to join 9 other lucky participants in sitting in a hot tub outside the museum in full view of Taipei’s unsuspecting public. ‘Sittings’ were an hour long, after which time participants would be ready to exit and unleash their pruney white winter bodies to unfortunate museum-goers..

Inside the Taipei Fine Art Musem

The interactive spa pool installment

After the museum we headed to Beitou, a small town north of central Taipei famous for its natural hot springs. In contrast to the museum ballot, the public baths here provided Kate and I with an open opportunity to expose our white winter bodies – seemingly the other few hundred spa-goers who crammed into the pools with us had the same idea.

Much to our relief (and unlike Korean spas!), Taiwan bathing etiquette requires that you wear a swimsuit at all times. After changing in freezing cold outdoor changing rooms, we jumped into the pools (purely a figure of speech – we daren’t make a splash, lest the ageing lifeguard blows his whistle at us!). Kate managed to incur the wrath of The Whistle when she dared sit on the edge of the hot pool and dangle her feet in the water. We pondered the logic of this for a while until we were informed by someone in the pool that dangling your feet in hot water whilst the rest of your body is cold can draw blood away from your heart and can cause you to faint when you stand up. Fair enough!

The Beitou public baths

Dinner that night came courtesy of the food court in Taipei’s central MRT station. Not just any old food court either – it was a glorious, unabashed monument to gluttony and a great big middle finger to Kate’s ‘no sugar’ diet. We did a full loop of all of the stores before settling on a Taiwanese restaurant. There were a lot of store options, however many of them involved being able to speak and read Chinese through a complicated pre-ordering system. Well, in all honesty I’m sure the system was very simple, however our extensive vocabulary of ‘thank you’ and ‘hello’ ensured we were unable to order a single thing. The same sorts of places exist here in Korea - I can read the Korean alphabet but Chinese is a whole new ball game!

Inside one of the food court bakeries - scene of Kate's spectacular fall from the no-sugar wagon

The following day we visited the Longshan temple, which is a famous landmark near central Taipei. Built way back in 1738 by Chinese settlers, it has been destroyed in full and in part over the years by various events such as fires and earthquakes. Its most recent destruction occurred in 1945 during the Taipei Air Raid – it was bombed by the Americans who were convinced it was housing Japanese armaments. Many precious artifacts were destroyed during the raid which also claimed around three thousand (largely civilian) Taiwanese lives. Interestingly, Taiwan’s pro-American political stance means that to this day the bombing has been excluded from history books and media.

After leaving Longshan temple, we wandered through the daytime markets and stumbled across what looked like a quaint little traditional Chinese street. It turned out we were standing on Bopiliao Old Street, which is the most intact street within the previously walled city of Taipei dating back to the Ching dynasty. It had recently been restored and was the film set for ‘Monga’, a recently release Taiwanese gangster movie. We wandered through the restored buildings and courtyards and past the film sets which were filled with gawping fans and tourists. As we were leaving we came across a street artist who was cutting out silhouettes of peoples faces from coloured paper. We stood and watched for a minute, amazed at his ability and attention to detail. Unfortunately a minute was just enough time to be spotted (as a foreigner in Taiwan you generally stand out) and he announced that he was going to do cut-outs for Kate and I for free. We thought this sounded like a great deal, so we accepted. Little did we know he wanted to use us for entertainment purposes and to draw a crowd! He cut, and shouted “Dance! Dance!”. We danced, albeit begrudgingly. The crowd grew larger, and we grew more and more embarrassed. The relief when he finished was palpable – we scurried away, cut-outs in hand. It was embarrassing, but one of those experiences that you just can’t put a price on – something I will always remember! Particularly as it was captured on video…

No visit to Taipei would be complete without a visit to Taipei 101 – formerly the world’s tallest building at 509 metres tall. It has since been bumped to second place by the Khalifa Tower in Dubai which stands at a staggering 828 metres tall. Unfortunately nobody informed the Taipei 101 gift shop, which still sells a wide array of useless souvenirs and knick-knacks proclaiming “Taipei 101: the world’s tallest building”.

The building itself is an amazing feat of engineering and has been designed to withstand typhoons and gale force winds of up to 134 mph, and the strongest earthquakes likely to occur in a 2,500 year cycle. As testament to this, an earthquake measuring 6.8 on the Richter scale struck during construction of the tower, toppling two large cranes from the 56th floor and killing five workers, - the building sustained no structural damage whatsoever and construction resumed almost immediately.

The name ‘Taipei 101’ reflects the one hundred and one floors of the building, which in turn reflect and commemorate the renewal of time – as the tower was being built, a new century arrived (hence 100+1). 100 is also the traditional number of perfection, so 101 symbolises going one step beyond perfection. The main tower is comprised of 8 segments – in Chinese culture the number 8 is associated with good fortune, abundance and prosperity. The entire building has also been designed according to feng shui principles to maximise positive energy. Trust the Chinese to think of everything!

We visited the observation decks on the 89th and 91st floor (indoor and outdoor respectively) and enjoyed incredible views out over Taipei. Unfortunately visibility wasn’t wonderful, but still enabled us to see most of Taipei and its outer limits. We reached the observation decks via the world’s fastest elevator, which travels at around 17 metres per second and is fully pressurized to prevent your ears from popping as you whiz upwards! The interior is also designed to darken on departure and give passengers a view of the ‘night sky’ – cue a chorus of “oooooh! aaaaaah!” from excited tourists. Each elevator costs a paltry US$2.4 million dollars – a bargain! They’re certainly an improvement on the elevators I had the joy of experiencing in Latvia. The floor of the tiny lift quite literally sagged, courtesy of three enormous, loping, out-of-breath American tourists who insisted I hold the lift and wedged themselves in. The minute I felt the floor sag in the middle I tried to fight my way out but was met by an unmoving wall of blubber. I had to make do with propping myself up in the corner on the side rails and praying feverently for my life as we lurched skywards. Approximately 47 minutes later we arrived at the 10th floor where I frantically disembarked, kissed the ground and searched for the nearest stairwell (OK, so it wasn’t quite 47 minutes but it certainly felt like it!) It wasn’t so much a ride in an elevator as an opportunity to see my life flash before my eyes, repent my sins and make an impromptu bucket list! Had I a pen and paper I probably would have jotted out a will just to round things off.

But, I digress. That evening we wandered through the streets of Ximending, exploring shops and sampling a range of street food ranging from the delicious to the completely unidentifiable. A particular favourite was a Taiwanese spring-onion pancake cooked with your choice of extras (egg, corn, cheese, mystery meat) and spread with a delicious oyster sauce. Despite our best intentions we managed to avoid eating stinky tofu, a Taiwanese specialty. I like tofu as much as the next person and eat it regularly here in Korea, but quite frankly the smell was enough to make even those with the strongest stomachs feel queasy. The smell can only be described as what I imagine a large, fully-populated pet store (stocking mainly dogs and mice) would smell like after two weeks closed up. In hot weather. With no air conditioning. Furthermore after reading about how it is made (compliments of Wikipedia!) I can quite honestly say that I am exceptionally glad that neither a single bite nor atom of stinky tofu came anywhere near my person. For a full, no-holds-barred description of this foul and hideous food click here. I was particularly enamored with the statement “Some less scrupulous stinky tofu factories in China reportedly used rotten kitchen waste, chemical dye and human feces to prepare the brine in order to achieve the odor and texture in short period of time.” Excuse me while I puke.

On the subject of faeces, we also came across a particularly intriguing restaurant in Ximending called ‘Modern Toilet’, which is one of a chain of themed eateries throughout Taiwan (clearly not just a ‘flash in the pan’). In keeping with the name, customers are seated on toilets, dine from mini toilet ‘bowls’ and wipe their hands and faces on toilet rolls hung above the tables. A quirky theme indeed, but their advertising could benefit from a little less of a direct approach (see below). Clearly, patrons of Modern Toilet can see they will dine from a ‘toilet bowl’, but is the graphic illustration of poo really necessary? Perhaps I'm missing the point and it's some sort of delicious Chinese mainland fecal-inspired side dish. We didn’t dine there as we had already eaten, but we spent some time investigating their menus and having a giggle at the advertising and decorating.

And that's all from me right now ... second installment coming soon!

Okay, okay. An update ...

2010-02-01T21:53:00.000-08:00

Well, it has been some time since I posted anything online – mostly because I’ve had very little of note to report! There are a few Korea-related things taking shape in my head right now so once I find the time and words I’ll post something up. In the meantime however, I’ll give a brief rundown of recent happenings here in the ROK.

Christmas was great – some friends and I headed to a city called Daejeon which is a little under an hour away on the train from Daegu. We stayed at one of Korea’s ubiquitous love motels, dined on a Vietnamese Christmas dinner and indulged in some R&R the following day with a visit to the hot springs and Thai massage (when in Korea…)

New Years Eve was spent in Seoul with a large group of friends from the EPIK program. Eleven of us boarded the KTX on New Years Eve and headed north into plunging temperatures. – New Year’s Eve was the coldest day Seoul had seen the entire winter and we rang in the New Year in Pavilion Square rugged up against the -18 degree temperatures (that’s zero Fahrenheit for the Americans). After midnight we headed to Hongik University district where we met up with a large group of fellow EPIK and hagwon teachers and spent the night drinking, chatting and wound up the celebrations with a visit to a luxury noraebang (karaoke house). The following day we went to Lotte World, which is an enormous indoor theme park/shopping mall/monument to Western capitalism – bought to you by everyone’s favourite East Asian industrial conglomerate - Lotte! Some of the attractions included an indoor theme park, ice skating rink, bowling, indoor shooting range, video arcades, western-themed restaurants, souvenir shops and a folk museum. Hours of endless fun for millions of Koreans, and even more fun for Westerners observing said Koreans on the ice rink.

My time in January has largely been spent teaching English classes at other schools (known as ‘camps’) and battling technology problems. I worked at three separate English camps over the break, including one at my own school. One of the schools I worked at asked all of the students to give themselves an English name and as you can imagine there were some absolute pearlers. Notable examples include Puzzle, Bad Boy, Spring and Summer (all boys), and Ice, People and Cream (all girls). At the end of the camp students were asked to write a letter to one of the native English teachers on the camp. I got a bundle of letters with some wonderful quotes and sweet sentiments – namely “you have a boyish face” , “tell me how to get a small face like you” and “why aren’t you married?”.

It also snowed like crazy on the first day of my first camp – see pictures below. It was the first and (hopefully) only snow of the Daegu winter, but boy was it a good one! I had to walk home in the snow that day as the school I was teaching at was located deep in a valley and buses and cars were ill-prepared for the snow and unable to drive up the hill. It was a treacherous 4 kilometer walk home but again, a novelty so I didn’t mind it too much at all. Goodness knows I need the exercise.

Last weekend a group of us headed north to the Taebaek Snow Festival, which took place at Mt Taebaek up near the North Korean border. The website for the festival made it sound like great fun, and a day not to be missed. On arrival we found some snow carvings and sculptures, some largely disappointing sled tracks for small children, and one dog sled capable of carrying up to two waif-like children. One of the highlights for me was the ice café – a giant igloo in which you could purchase a coffee and drink it at the frozen chairs and tables. A little cold on the butt, but definitely a novelty. Later in the afternoon James decided to liven things up by face-planting on a frozen river – by some miracle he didn’t break his nose although the small cut on his forehead bled profusely. He also acquired a most attractive ‘trout pout’ when his teeth cut into his lips on impact. As usual the practical Koreans had an ideal remedy for his head injury – a sticking plaster and some panadol. After a fall like that I’m surprised they didn’t treat it with more caution as he really gave it a good knock. Still, overall it was a nice day out – definitely worthwhile just to inhale some clean mountain air as opposed to the usual Korean city smog and haze.

The ice cafe

The outside of the ice cafe

And coming up over the next month … Taiwan! I leave Daegu on the 17th of February and head to Seoul where I’ll be staying with Drew for a night and catching an early flight to Taipei on the 18th to meet my sister Kate. Friend and fellow EPIKer Kristin arrives on the Sunday and we’ll be around and about Taipei until the following Thursday. At the moment it looks like I’ll be staying on in Seoul for Joanne’s birthday but have yet to finalise anything. Bring on the travel, it’s been far too long!

Waiting for love

2009-12-16T04:47:00.000-08:00

Last week I was privileged enough to spend some time volunteering at an orphanage here in Daegu. After contacting the orphanage via email to enquire as to volunteering opportunities I was invited to attend their annual Christmas party for games, pizza, carols and a movie.

To be honest I really didn’t know what to expect. I had no idea of their ages or individual circumstances or even what sort of organization the orphanage was. On Saturday afternoon I arrived at Ansim station where I met Todd, who is heavily involved with the orphanage and the local church. We also met several of the other volunteers and then headed over to the orphanage.

The building itself is located on the outskirts of Daegu in what appears to be a much lower socio-economic part of town. Slightly run down, it may have been a school in a former life although it is difficult to tell. It is in a slightly industrial area, which no doubt ensures a reasonable level of rent (assuming any is paid of course) and fronts onto a large and dusty outdoor recreation area and car park.

The kids were shy at first but quickly warmed up to the new faces – even the quietest of them were running around like lunatics and begging for piggyback rides. It was great to see their personalities coming out, as there were some rather nervous looking kids when we first arrived. Members of the local church began to trickle in throughout the afternoon along with local Korean teachers who also volunteer at the orphanage – some even living there full time to help care for the kids. The relationships between these teachers and church members appeared very strong and it was clear that these are very important people in their lives. After meeting with a lot of them and speaking to them you can’t help but wonder if these kids are in a better place now than they ever have been. The volunteers I spoke with were all kind, generous, intelligent, cheerful and infinitely patient. What better role models could you ask for given the circumstances?

Throughout the afternoon we played games, watched some performances by the kids and even staged a performance of our own. After carol time Santa made an appearance and gave each of the children a present which they were absolutely thrilled with. One of the little boys received a remote-controlled toy car which went down an absolute treat. He stopped playing with only long enough to jam a couple of pieces of pizza into his mouth before resuming ramming it into peoples ankles and mastering the art of the wheelie.

One little boy was absolutely adorable, and it broke my heart to think that someone out there simply didn’t want him, or his seven year old sister who was also at the orphanage. Apparently his parents split up and decided that neither of them wanted the kids so they simply gave them to the orphanage and moved on. He was a dear little boy with a very laid back and adaptable personality. At only 20 months old it was both fortunate and sad that he was so comfortable in the presence of so many strangers – whether this is testament to his personality or his unstable upbringing I do not know. His sister seemed very much the same – a very pretty little girl who was friendly and eager to participate in everything from singing to games to cleaning up afterwards.

Mi Young - aged 20 months

Oh boy, a present from Santa!

Looking at these kids it was hard to believe that some of them have had such turbulent pasts. I have no idea of the backgrounds of most of them, but for the most part the parents have generally split up and decided that neither of them wants to take the children. Or, in a number of cases the children have been left with the mother who is often young and generally unable to support them financially. A very sad situation indeed and one I find difficult to understand, particularly given some rather contradictory aspects of Korean culture.

On one hand, Korea is a very harmonious and collective culture and it could be argued that they look after their families far better than the majority of western countries. On the other hand, Korea is also a culture built on social hierarchies: where respect and obedience is critical to maintaining social harmonies. Any deviation from the expected social plan (i.e. school, university, marriage, children, and career) is considered shameful, particularly where children are concerned.

To be an unmarried mother in Korea is considered immoral and deplorable. These mothers are considered to be the lowest rung on the societal ladder, are socially ostracized and often alienated from their own families as a result. Unwed mothers are regularly turned down for jobs. There is no getting around this, as to not disclose this fact will only lead to accusations of dishonesty and termination of their contracts. The government takes a similar view – children born out of wedlock are entitled to only around US$45 a month in support. Korean children adopted into Korean families are entitled to US$85 a month. Incredible when you think how much money the government must give in order to subsidize the large number of orphanages throughout the country.

The government is trying to increase financial benefits for unmarried mothers but social stigma is proving to be a huge barrier. Nobody will come forward to claim these benefits – they would sooner have an illegal abortion or have their child in secret and relinquish it to an orphanage rather than face a lifetime of stigma at the hands of general society.

More recently, Korea’s first unwed mothers support network has been established – the first of its kind in the country. It is incredible to think that a country would sooner ostracize members of society and adopt its children internationally rather than provide the necessary support for women who genuinely need it. With any luck this organization (and future organizations) will, in time, help to remove - or at least lessen - the stigma of unmarried mothers. In turn, the need for so many orphanages will no longer exist and the lives of so many women and children will not be so miserable. We can but hope.

If you want to read more on this topic I recommend checking out this article – a fascinating insight from both an unwed mother and a Korean adoptee. This is also a great article – a little older, but the sentiments and attitudes it speaks of are still rife in Korea. Older still but equally as fascinating is this piece from the South China Morning Post (20/06/98) which refers to some orphans as ‘IMF orphans’, in reference to the IMF’s Korean bailout back in 1997 which was blamed by many for the economic downturn.

Me – I have signed up to volunteer regularly at the orphanage as an English teacher and as a general lackey. These kids need and deserve every opportunity in life and if I can do just a tiny little bit to help it’s got to count for something. Besides – who doesn’t relish the opportunity to be a big kid once in a while?

Singing Christmas carols in English

Having a treat - Dunkin' Donuts in the playhouse

Rugrat central

The Christmas feast put on by the orphanage

One of the evening's Christmas performances

A visit to the 38th parallel

2009-12-08T04:27:00.000-08:00

No visit to North or South Korea would be complete without acknowledgment of the nation's turbulent history - so with that in mind, last weekend I headed north to Seoul to check out the DMZ. Formerly one of the most tense fronts of the cold war, it is now the most heavily militarized border in the world.

Being new to this country and still (relatively) young, my knowledge of the Korean war until recently was relatively scant. I have since done a lot of background reading and have been both intrigued and horrified by what I have learned. Nobody ever said war was pretty, but it is difficult to believe that a modern, liberated and capitalist country like South Korea has so recently been the subject of such conflict (and still technically remains at war!).

Our trip began at 7.00am when we met at the US Army base at Camp Kim, and then headed north to the DMZ. The bus trip took around one and a half hours and offered very little in the way of scenery apart from twelve lane highways (increasingly lined with barbed wire) and the occasional guard post. Upon arrival in the DMZ, a member of the US military boarded our bus and checked our identification. Interestingly, there are a number of nationalities who are not permitted to enter the DMZ - I understand also includes South Koreans.

After having our I.D checked, we boarded a 'secure bus' (see non-heated and designed for military use, not comfort) and headed through the DMZ and into the JSA (Joint Security Area).Our first stop was Freedom House, which was constructed in 1998 specifically for meetings between North and South Korea. We passed through the building and out onto the other side, where we stood facing a number of small single-room buildings (much like pre-fabs) and another building very similar to Freedom House directly across from us.

As it transpired, we were looking directly at Panmun-gak, which sits on the North Korean side of the JSA. It was originally constructed in 1969, and an additional level has since been added by the North Koreans in an ongoing game of one-upmanship (our building is better than yours). On all USO tours you are permitted to enter the Military Armistice Commission conference room (see below), however on this occasion we were not able to do so, due to 'swine flu'. How we could infect an empty building is beyond me, but there you have it. Apparently illogical Korean flu paranoia transcends both cultures AND heavily armed borders!

In the absence of a visit to the conference room (the main attraction of which is that it is half on North Korean soil), we were regaled with stories of bad behaviour by the North Korean soldiers. Apparently one of the buildings is known as a 'recreation room' but has no facilities for recreation. During MAC conferences the North Korean soldiers demonstrate their maturity by entering the building and making throat-cutting and rude gestures through the windows at conference participants. Consequently the name of the building has been changed unofficially from 'recreation room' to 'monkey house' by American and Korean soldiers. To be fair to the North Koreans, I suppose leisurely gesturing is a form of recreation, is it not?

As you will see from these photographs, the South Korean soldiers are still actively patrolling the Military Demarcation Line (MDL), or Armistice Line. The MDL is marked by a series of (1,292 to be exact) white posts, and was established as the ceasefire line at the end of the Korean War in 1953. As well as wearing their haute couture green uniforms (complete with too-short green pants), they also sport mirrored sunglasses as part of their uniform, ensuring that the enemy cannot look them in the eye. Rumour has it that their lovely short pants contain ball bearings to confuse the enemy - the rattling noise makes it harder to detect whether it is one or more people walking. Clever!

We were told in no uncertain terms to refrain from making any gestures whilst standing outside Freedom House - North Korea's Panmum-gak building is heavily guarded and monitors all movement on the South Korean side of the border very closely. As you will also see from the pictures, there are many surveillance cameras on the building along with an observation room obscured by mirrored glass. No pointing, no waving, no YMCA and absolutely no flipping the bird.

After leaving the JSA we headed back to the outer limits of the DMZ to where it all happens .... the gift shop. You can purchase any manner of useless trinkets here - puzzles, purses, mini ROK army uniforms, money, glasses, and the world's most disgusting soju (compliments of Pyongyang). We opted to buy nothing, and instead headed out the door back to the bus only to discover it was snowing. It was a very chilly day but we didn't expect that!

We then headed out of the JSA and off to lunch, passing through barbed wire-lined roads littered with land mine warnings. It is so easy to feel like a tourist on a trip like this (after all that is what we are), however seeing signs warning of live mines and being waved through checkpoints by machine-gun wielding officers brings you back down to earth with a thump and drives home the fact that this isn't just another fun trip on the never-ending tourist trail. War is real. The Korean war was (and potentially will again be) real. As you drive through this seemingly desolate and uninhabited no-mans-land you are constantly reminded of the turbulent history of these two countries, of the fragility of peace and the ongoing abeyance of war.

One of the more positive aspects of the DMZ is the abundance of wildlife which now thrives in the absence of war and human habitation. It has become an accidental paradise: according to environmentalists there are around 2,900 different plant species, 70 different types of mammals and 320 different types of birds living and thriving in the DMZ. The mammal count includes the rather strange 'vampire deer' - called so due to their tusks (in lieu of antlers). Their eyesight is particularly bad, so when frightened, instead of running away, they actually run toward the source of the noise - rather illogical really. Their official name is the Siberian Musk Deer, but vampire deer sounds so much more ... enticing. For those Twilight fans (or otherwise), here's one I prepared earlier. We shall call him Edward.

Unfortunately due to this accidental paradise's location (i.e. in a war zone) they also share their habitat with thousands of unexploded landmines due to heavy fighting during the war. There are apparently periodic explosions as unlucky deer stumble into mine fields.

After lunch at a Korean restaurant, we headed to the tunnels inside the DMZ. Tunnel 3 (or the 'third tunnel of aggression') has been opened to the public, so we donned our attractive yellow hard hats and headed a few hundred metres underground into the murky depths of what once was a planned assault route on South Korea. We did wonder at first what the hard hats were for (more Korean PC health and safety probably), however as the tunnels got lower and lower, and the 'thunk' of plastic hard hats hitting the metal beams got louder, it became apparent. Fortunately the more vertically challenged amongst us (i.e. me) barely had to bend down at all. At over 6 feet tall Jeremy was not so lucky, and divided his time between Hunchback of Notre Dame impersonations and contributing to the hard-hat symphony that had us laughing most of the way through the tunnel.

The tunnel itself was discovered in 1978 after a tip-off from a North Korean defector. The North Koreans tried to downplay the existence of the tunnel, saying it was a disused coal mine. To further 'confirm' this statement, they painted the insides of the tunnel black. Unfortunately the geology of the region doesn't support this - it is predominantly granite. Oops. They also tried to attribute the creation of the tunnel to the South Koreans, however the tunnel started in the North and headed south, which begs the question - why would you invade another country only to spend years digging your way back? Logic isn't a Korean specialty but surely even George Bush could spot the flaw in this argument.

In any event, the tunnel came within spitting distance to Seoul (around 50km), and was capable of transporting a full division - around 30,000 fully-equipped soldiers - an hour. A very sobering prospect! In total, four tunnels have been discovered, however US and ROK militaries believe there could be anywhere up to a further ten in existence. They regularly drill in the hope of discovering more but have not found any more to date.

Our final stop was the Dora-san observatory (a.k.a world's ugliest building), where we were able to see a large amount of North Korea through high-powered binoculars. Strangely enough, there was a yellow line painted on the ground at the observatory, from which we were not allowed to move past to take photos. You can take photos above your head looking out to North Korea, and you may use the high-powered binoculars to admire the view, but heaven forbid you cross that line.

Foreign policy experts summit: I can see North Korea from my house!

Don't cross that line. And don't ask why ... because we don't know.

The world's ugliest building.

We also listened to commentary from one of the USO guides who provided some fascinating insights to life in North Korea. Recently an industrial zone has been set up in North Korea which is staffed by North Koreans who are in turn employed by South Korean companies. In effect, most of the things you buy that are stamped with 'Made In Korea' were likely to have been made here. Workers under Kim Jong Il's totalitarian regime earn around USD$60 dollars per month, of which his gracious government liberates around USD$54.00. USD$6.00 is apparently an extravagant wage by North Korean standards, as your average worker outside the industrial zone receive around $2.50 after tax. Try imposing a 90% tax rate on any other country and see what happens!

Another interesting view from Dora-san observatory is of the jamming tower. This effectively jams all incoming foreign TV and radio signals, preventing North Korean citizens from knowing what is happening in the outside world. They (by all accounts) exist in some sort of Orwellian dystopia and are fed a constant stream of propaganda assuring them that they are in fact the happiest citizens in the world and that they have more than they could ever want or need (despite the fact that a third of the country is quite literally starving to death). Communism - the liberation of the people from the burdens of liberty.

“When provoking a war of aggression, we will hit back, beginning with the US!”

There are however murmurings of unrest within the country - defectors are beginning to make their voices heard, and Kim Jong Il's recent show of aggression and disregard for international sanctions has placed North Korea firmly in the spotlight. Famine and the economic crisis have resulted in unrest and lack of discipline in the 1.1 million-strong army. Hunger and poverty are driving North Koreans out of the country (those who make it out alive that is), so it remains to be seen whether the current regime will cease to be sustainable once Dear Leader has popped his clogs. To read more about these defectors, click here or here. Their stories are both heartbreaking and inspirational.

I have been very tempted with the idea of a tour into North Korea - you can go for five days for around 1,000 euros including flights (ex Beijing) which is a great price. However, since NK is a communist country, all profits from tourism go straight to the government and it is a regime I have no interest in supporting.

And that, dear readers, is all from me right now. There is so much to learn about this part of the world, but I won't bore you with all of it now. There is plenty on the internet to keep you entertained/horrified/educated, so I urge you to check it out. The horrific story of the 1976 DMZ axe murder incident is definitely one to read up on.

Til next time!

Move over Disneyland, here comes Daegu!

2009-11-24T23:28:00.000-08:00

The Daegu Safety Theme Park – not quite every child’s dream but something I have seen advertised around the city and am similarly perplexed and amused by.

After seeing the theme park at Palgongsan on Saturday and being reminded of just how puzzled I was by the advertising, I decided to do some research on it. After all, what self-respecting child would want to visit a safety theme park over a regular theme park? What could it possibly have to offer? Well, after some investigation, I discovered it has a lot to offer, perhaps less so for the thrill seeker and considerably more for the more boring/anal retentive/paranoid. Still, as I delved deeper I discovered that there was indeed logic behind erecting such a white elepant…

The DSTP website’s opening gambit is simple and to the point - "accidents take place unexpectedly in our daily life. When we meet these situations, we may not know what to do. Daegu Safety Theme Park was opened to the public last December, and it was designed to inform you of how to react in emergency situations”. Quite how they came up with the name ‘theme park’ is a mystery, but I guess it’s a logical attempt at selling an otherwise tedious concept.

So what can we see and do at this Theme Park? You’d be surprised – visitors can experience the unbridled exhilaration of a range of attractions including:

an unparalleled 'historic transition disaster study space'
Three glorious floors dedicated to subway safety
a 250 degree three-sided theatre dedicated to educating you on the dangers of mountain and forest fires
play area - no boring monkey bars and slides here kids. Ambulances and fire engines (sounds like my kind of playground!)
Find risky factors in our daily lives! 'A space to learn reaction against various risks at home by rotary pannel'.

My personal favourite on the DSTP website was the tab entitled 'every citizen is a disaster'. If they're referring to driving habits they're spot on.

But in all seriousness, I can understand the sentiments of having such a place to educate people. A large part of the focus at the park is on mountain safety as Koreans love hiking but can be somewhat impractical at times. In addition to the park, there is also an outdoor survival education centre nearby which is a pretty smart idea. The numbers of hikers in this country are huge – it is a national pastime and I can fully appreciate the dangers inherent in such a sport, particularly in a country such as Korea where the weather can be very extreme. A large portion of the park is also dedicated to subway safety. This also sounds tediously boring, but much like the wilderness survival has a very real aspect.

On February 18, 2003 a fire at Jungnano station (central Daegu) took the lives of 192 people and injured 148. A former taxi driver set fire to a subway carriage at Jungnano station using four litres of gasoline and a match. He had recently suffered a stroke and had been left partially paralyzed and extremely disgruntled at his medical treatment. His wish was to commit suicide but he told police that he did not want to die alone and wanted to do so in a crowded place.

Other passengers on the train quickly became aware that the man was attempting to start a fire but were tragically unable to prevent him from doing so. The trains at that point were very new, with the interiors made of highly flammable components such as fiberglass, carbonated vinyl and polyethylene. As a result, within two minutes of the fire starting, flames had engulfed all six carriages of the train.

Tragically, so many people died because of a litany of errors by subway station staff. Upon seeing the smoke, officials radioed the driver of a train entering the station from the opposite direction to tell him to “proceed with caution” (rather than not enter at all). He pulled up alongside the burning train and opened the doors, filling the train with toxic smoke. Almost immediately after, he closed the doors and a fire detector inside the station was triggered, shutting off power to both trains and trapping them in the station.

The following is from a horrifying article on the disaster: “Transcripts show Choi Sang-yeol made three announcements advising passengers in train 1080 to remain seated while he attempted to reach superiors. Finally, he was advised "Quickly, run somewhere else. Go up... kill the engine and go." Choi then opened the doors and fled, but in doing so he removed the master key, shutting down the onboard batteries which powered the train doors — effectively sealing passengers inside. Later investigation showed 79 passengers remained trapped inside train 1080 and died there.”

At that point, subway trains were not equipped with any fire extinguishers, stations had no sprinklers and lacked emergency lighting. An attempt was made to cover up liability in this disaster, but both the arsonist and the driver survived and were later found and sentenced to life and five years in prison respectively for their parts in the tragedy. The incident provoked debate as to whether Korea’s rapid industrialization had resulted in cutting of corners and consequently compromised passenger safety – attempts were made to improve fire standards across the country but action has been very slow due to budget constraints.

The reality of a tragedy like this is almost too much to comprehend. I travel on the subway regularly to this station and had no idea of the horrors it was home to in the past. In a way I can understand the Korean government’s sentiment in building a safety theme park, but building is one thing – having people attend and understand is another. Even more importantly, what’s the sense in having this sort of thing when those who are building and running our state facilities have no idea what to do in an emergency? A sobering thought indeed, and we can only hope that Korea has learned from this tragedy.

Hardly a child magnet...

The Daegu Safety Theme Park as viewed from the outside.

A temple and an insight into Korean parental attitudes. Wow.

2009-11-24T22:19:00.000-08:00

Last weekend I visited Palgongsan, one of Daegu’s largest mountains. Situated around 22km north east of the city, It is also home to the famous Donghwasa temple and a myriad of ancient monuments and treasures.

Palgongsan is traditionally hiked by Koreans, however we took the easy route and opted to hike via cable car. The day was absolutely stunning, with not a cloud in the sky. It isn’t until you get out of the urban jungle that you realize just how noisy city life is. As we disembarked the bus, the pace of life seemed to instantly slow to a crawl, and the quiet descended (save for a bus or two struggling up the hill behind us).

We took the cable car up the mountain to admire the stunning views across the city, and after returning we walked across to the Donghwasa temple. Built in 493 (and reconstructed a further eight times), it houses a huge amount of history and important Korean artifacts. The name Donghwasa translates to ‘temple of winter flowers’ and has been designated by the Korean government as the 9th head temple of the Jogyejong Korean Buddhist Order. It was absolutely stunning!

We also visited one of the world’s largest Buddha statues in the grounds of temple. Erected in 1992, it is said to be symbolic of Korea’s wish for reunification. Irrespective of symbolism (other than religion of course) it was a magnificent sight – we couldn’t have picked a more perfect day to visit. There were very few tourists around and it all felt incredibly peaceful and serene.

A Korean friend tells me that during the national university entrance exams (a single eight-hour test for high school students), many Korean parents visit Donghwasa to pray for the success of their children in these exams. Not once, not twice, but once a day for the one hundred days prior to the exam. Incredible! Given that Donghwasa is a good hour from central Daegu on the bus, the determination of these parents impressed me no end. I then learned that these are the ‘lazy’ parents - the more hard-core parents actually hike to Dongbong peak, approximately three and a half hours each way) to pray to another Buddha statue. And yes, they do this every day for one hundred days.

It is a known fact that education in Korea is taken extremely seriously, but I didn’t quite realize to what extent. I hear stories of children and teenagers committing suicide after failing an exam and have often wondered exactly how kids can place such great import on academia. Clearly parental pressure is far greater than I ever imagined it to be. To encourage your child to succeed is one thing, but to reach the extent that a parent would hike for seven hours a day for one hundred days to ‘ensure’ their child passed an examination would create an inordinate amount of pressure on anybody, irrespective of age.

It is said in Korea that ‘ten more minutes of studying will change the face of your future wife/husband". Clearly, from a very early age, parents (regardless of their economic standing in society) instill in their children the importance of making it into the right universities. I’m told that it is very common for Korean mothers to have lunch ‘clubs’, which provide a platform for bragging and one-upmanship.

Korean society has so many different faces; it is hard to put a label on it. I see so many different aspects (or ‘isms’ as the case may be) reflecting so many different things –materialism, Confucianism, collectivism, utilitarianism (and lets not forget alcoholism, which is also rife!) - the list goes on. As a country it contrasts hugely with what I have grown up with, but it is for that very reason I find it so fascinating. I’ve no doubt that the New Zealand education system could benefit from adopting some of the practices you see here in Korea, and vice versa – but that’s a whole new rant I’ll save for another day!

To sum up, Palgongsan was beautiful. I was sad I didn’t get there in time to see the leaves turn, but it was still absolutely stunning and I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend it as a day trip (cable car or hiking, you decide!). If I’m feeling brave I will head back in the winter to see the beautiful winter flowers – watch this space!

Buddha statue, Donghwasa temple

Some pretty lanterns on the walk to the temple

The view from Donghwasa temple - stunning!

The view from atop the cable car lookout. What a perfect day!

It's getting cold...

2009-11-15T23:25:00.000-08:00

Ok – so just a quick update on life in the R.O.K. Nothing too exciting has been happening, but in the absence of a home computer and Skype I’ll endeavor to keep you updated via this blog until I resolve a few technology issues!

I’m amped
So my cruddy laptop finally blew up a couple of weeks ago. I purchased a new one, and after a week of waiting finally got it. It’s a beauty – 15 inch screen, enough RAM to support my webcam (finally!) and it even has pink sparkly flowers on the lid. Niceuh! I then had to ship it off to a Korean technician to load up English Windows XP (no more Vista – hooray!). The evening I got it back, the hard disk blew out rendering it completely unusable – “no operating system detected”. Excellent timing, as that evening I had planned to watch a DVD on it with a friend – no go! So … it’s now back with the retailer and it’s either going to get surgery or be replaced. Once I get it back, it has to go back to the technician to have Windows reinstalled again – Fun With Technology. I am convinced I am jinxed when it comes to these sorts of things. 2 laptops and a brand new power adaptor – all dead. That, and everything I touch gives me an electric shock, and my hair is ridiculously full of static. I’m all powered up!

I’m late
OK – I know I promised lots of beautiful pictures and stories about Nami Island. I’m afraid you’ll have to wait. I had a small issue on Sunday, involving me and an alarm clock. Joanne and I went out for James’s birthday on Saturday night, and had a couple of drinks. I managed to set my alarm for the correct time, but not the correct day. I awoke at 7am – half an hour after I was meant to get on the bus in Yongsan. Panicking, I called Joanne to see where the bus was and if there was any hope of catching it up. She was also still in bed, having also mucked up her alarm. What a useless pair we were! After a quick phone call to the tour leader we resigned ourselves to the fact that Nami Island was going to have to wait until another day, and went back to bed. Sunday night I went to dinner with Mr Korea and had 보쌈 (bossam), which is steamed pork with a selection of a million different side dishes. It was so good!

...and I'm cold.

It’s getting pretty cold here now – I’ve purchased two big winter jackets and a heap of sweaters, stockings, socks and scarves. Our school is like a large refrigerator, so no doubt there will be a heater added to the list of acquisitions in the near future! This weekend Drew is coming down from Incheon and we are going to either go up Palgongsan or Apsan (mountains in Daegu). Fortunately both have cable cars for the less hiking-inclined such as myself. It’s going to be pretty cold up there, so I’ll be making full use of my massive winter jacket – I have to buy a hat as well, but the only ones they seem to sell in this country make me look like a teapot so I’m still looking.

More soon!

Korean culture 101: contradiction and curiosity

2009-11-03T20:57:00.000-08:00

Korean culture is vastly different to that of any other I have experienced in my travels. I suspect that much of this perspective has come from living and working here (as opposed to just travelling), but even just a few days in this country would be enough to leave you simultaneously awed, amused and perplexed.

It is hard to put into words the experiences I have had - even a simple trip to downtown Daegu provokes so many thoughts and reactions. I would challenge anyone to complete this trip without thinking at least some of the following:

"What is he/she thinking?!" (usually in reference to demonstrations of general impracticality, bizarre clothing or a fluorescent dyed dog)
"Don't these people have any manners?" (in reference to being pushed and shoved both on and off the subway despite it being half empty)
"You wouldn't see that in my country" (practicality/common sense with regard to general health and safety)
"That was close" (after nearly getting run over - on the footpath)
"That's disgusting" (after hearing yet another man emphatically clearing mucous from his throat and spitting it on the pavement in front of you)
"Have I got something on my face/in my teeth?" (constantly being stared at in streets/stores/subway)

In this post I'm going to attempt to sum up some of Korea's idiosyncrasies - some endearing, others not so much. Enjoy!

Driving: I've mentioned this before, but the driving here is really a stand-out feature and deserves an honourable mention. I have it on good authority that it takes only two weeks, zero experience and very little effort to obtain a full driving licence - this is abundantly clear from the carnage I see every day on the roads. Move over, Italy and Latvia - you've got nothing on South Korea! Footpaths are not just for people. It is not uncommon to walk along the path only to find a bicyle, motorbike, car or small truck bearing down on you, tooting indignantly. If the light is red, just drive your car up onto the footpath and around the lights - hey presto, wait avoided! Indicators are for decoration, and are not required when executing high speed lane changes. Parking also beggars belief - no matter where you go, you get the feeling you've just missed yet another parking competition for blind people.

After observing such driving it does become clearer however, that our complaints about Asian drivers in New Zealand are not without justification. No matter where they go in the world they exhibit similar driving behaviour - I now understand that their driving skills (or lack thereof) are virtually inherent, and no amount of local driving education (or panelbeating) is going to alter this.

Spitting: This is something I will never, ever adapt to. Despite their paranoia about disease (swine flu!) they do not find it in the least bit unhygenic to spit ... anywhere. Train stations, subways, hallways, you name it. If it doesn't move, spit on it. If it moves, you didn't spit quickly enough! Age and gender are no barrier to spitting either - it's not uncommon to hear someone hoicking up a lung or two onto the pavement and then turning around to find yourself looking at a 70-year old grandmother!

Holding bags: If you are standing on the bus, it is not uncommon to have a seated stranger take your bags for you. It is considered polite, even though it sometimes seems like you're being robbed ever so politely and willingly. I've had it happen once, and seen it happen to others on many occasions. In most other countries in the world you wouldn't see your bag again, nor would you give it up quite so obligingly!

Public displays of affection: This is generally something you don't see in Korea, however it is very common amongst same-sex friends. It is not uncommon to see girls holding hands, or boys strolling down the street with their arms around each other. Koreans are very comfortable with their sexuality which at times is refreshing, and other times a litle perturbing! Last night at the gym I witnessed a rather strange sight - a young Korean guy (early 20's) sitting back on a shoulder press while his friend sat straddled across his hips and crotch in order to talk to him. Interesting!

Making loud noises in public places: In apparent incongruity to many Korean ways (including loud and disgusting hoiking), Koreans are greatly offended at loud noises in public places - this includes conversation on the subway. I couldn't begin to count the number of times I've been with friends and we've been shushed by locals (usually elderly, but not always!).

Korean 'love sticks': No, this is not romantic, nor does it refer to some deviant Korean sexual practice. It is in fact the most contradictory term for a stick used to beat children with. I kid you not. Corporal punishment is rife in Korean schools - although technically illegal it is widely practiced and generally accepted (according to surveys around 7 out of 10 schools practice it). Traditionally, Korean children have been viewed as their parent's possessions and are taught to accept punishment as a form of acceptable discipline. Obedience is seen as being essential to maintaining family harmony and taking a beating (whether it be from parents or teachers) is a somewhat abject display of filial piety. This is purely conjecture on my part - I am uneducated on the subject and in no way agree with it or condone it as I believe it is a short-term solution to longer-term problems (and in itself creates further psychological problems). To illustrate this point, earlier this year, a Korean student was flogged over 100 times at school and then went home to commit suicide. There are companies who specialise in making 'love sticks', although these are often replaced with other common household items such as pipes, bats, broom handles, golf clubs and even good old fists.

A lovingly handcrafted Korean 'love stick'

Men with megaphones*: Quite literally the bane of my existence in this country. We get told off for talking on the subway, yet when armed with a small truck and a megaphone it is perfectly acceptable for anyone to park up in a quiet suburban neighbourhood and shout incessantly into said megaphone. Those who do this are usually hawking some kind of product - watermelons, cassette tapes (yes, they still make them apparently), tangerines - product is no barrier to megaphone advertising. The most infuriating part of the whole exercise is that I can't understand a word they say and generally there are around three sentences repeated. Over. And over. And over again. Usually for long enough to rouse you from blissful slumber early on the weekend, or as I discovered today, at 7am on a Wednesday morning. I tend to keep my windows shut to try and block out at least some of the noise (and the accompanying familiar, full-bodied diesel exhaust bouquet).

* This Korean 'phenomenon' was summed up beautifully by Luke Martin (author of ROKetship) - make sure you check it out!

Removing your shoes: Shoes are not worn indoors in this country - period. At first I found this a little strange, but I have come to accept it, understand it and appreciate it! I first wondered about the logic - after all, we wear our shoes inside at home in New Zealand and it's perfectly ok, right? After wandering pavements covered in mucous, you soon realise that this is an eminently practical idea. When you look at the bottoms of your shoes and think about what you have stepped in that day, it makes absolute perfect sense - I'm going to find it difficult to return to the Western practice of leaving them on when I get home! It scares me to think of all the disgusting filth in our carpets.

Shopping: Although the selection and stores here are great, I have discovered that browsing in a store is not so much individual pursuit as a team sport. You cannot set foot inside a Korean shop without being greeted and followed around the store by a minimum of one shop assistant. Constantly. When I say followed, I don't mean at a distance. I mean shadowed, stared at, full-blown personal space invasion. In your face. Koreans do not find this unusual in the slightest, and I suspect it is their interpretation of excellent customer service. Unfortuantely it is not mine, and serves only to frustrate me. I often find myself leaving stores because of it - I really have to be in the right mood to shop in this country! It happens less frequently when you shop with a friend, but still occurs. Jeannine and I went into a shoe shop on this premise and were shadowed by a male store clerk who also serenaded us with a Beyonce song ... you don't get that every day! He then proceeded to try and rip Jeannine off to the tune of 40,000 won for a pair of shoes, which he quickly reduced to 10,000 when we began leaving the store. I'd have happily paid him that to stop his atrocious singing!

Ajuma: The quintessential little old Korean ladies. Ajuma are a law unto themselves. Usually elderly, they have black, permed hair, tattooed eyebrows, very colourful clothing and the quintessential pièce de résistance - a large visor. High velocity, low centre-of-gravity, they're feisty and often funny but by god you don't mess with them. They have no hesitation in exercising their Confucianistic right to respect for age and will happily shove you out of the way to get on the bus first, or give you an elbow in the kidneys in order to get that last little free sample at the E-Mart food hall. They don't take any crap from anybody!

To my horror, my Korean teacher also tells me that the term 'ajuma' actually refers to an unmarried woman over the age of 30 - the downhill slide has well and truly begun! Maybe I should invest in a visor...

Free stuff: Just about everything you purchase in this country comes with free stuff. Buying skin care products? Get a free set of tupperware containers and a million different free samples. Buying makeup? Free crockery. Groceries? Free paper towels. Yesterday on my box of cereal I got a free packet of highlighters - go figure. It's definitely not a complaint though, I have received some great free stuff! If I break out some Korean at the local store I get free lifesavers. If you smile at old people, they smile back and sometimes give you fruit (?!). Men give me chewing gum. Little kids give me acorns. Either they're all-round generous or I'm missing some important symbolism! (halitosis? scurvy?).

And that sums up my take on Korean Culture 101. More soon!

Swine flu mania and Halloween

2009-11-03T17:41:00.000-08:00

I'm now two and a bit days into a week of no classes .... yes, that's right - swine flu paranoia finally got the better of Seonwon Elementary School and the children have been evicted for a week. Bless. By some stroke of good fortune (hah!) the teachers are required to remain at school for reasons known only to the multitudes of Korean education system bureaucrats. Still, I can't complain too much - I'm student free, have plenty of free time for reading and studying Korean, and relaxing to the soothing, melodic sounds of an electric saw (compliments of the construction crew building our new gymnasium) a mere twenty feet from the door of my office. Said office is also semi-refrigerated, so much of my day is spent boiling the kettle to make tea and re-fill my hot water bottle.

Life in Korea is really enjoyable - unfortunately the weather has started to turn very cold which has necessitated many shopping trips for scarves, gloves, hats and coats. Any exucse to shop really! Since the cessation of my regular trips to Busan I have really been enjoying life in Korea a lot more. I have met so many wonderful people here in Daegu, both English and Korean. I'm getting out and about and trying to see as many other parts of this city as possible and am discovering new, weird and wonderful things around every corner. TIK!

In a couple of weeks I am heading to Nami Island in Gangwon province, which looks beautiful. The information flyer I have states "Nami Island - where men can leave their luggage from everyday life behind and share with nature". I can only hope that women are allowed to do the same. We will be renting bikes and cycling around the island, and also riding a 3-metre 'sky bicycle', the sound of which quite frankly makes me nervous. It looks beautiful though, and will be one of the last chances I get to see the leaves turn before the cold winter finally settles in. We're also going to see Le Petit France, which sounds like a rather bizarre abberation on the Korean landscape but interesting nonetheless. It's the Korean interpretation and 'local experience' of French culture (who needs Paris?!) set to the concept of La Petit Prince. In true Korean style, tourist publicity curiously states that it is "highly popular to family-sized tourists". Given the relative size of Korean people, I can only assume they have a lot of British and Americans visiting. After all, when in Korea, France is high on everybody's list of things to do - is it not?

On the subject of Korean experiences, I have been meeting a few local Korean people . It's great being able to see the city with someone who speaks the language and offers an entirely different experience to the usual Western perspective (and accompanying mangling of the language). Koreans are genuinely friendly people and are never too shy to say hello or help you out if needed. I got chatting to a Korean guy on the bus the other night who has just opened a bar in the central city. He seemed really nice, and has given me some VIP tickets and free drinks when I visit - score!

I also had another date with Mr Korea who seems really sweet. We met on Friday night in downtown - I had just come from dinner with friends down at Keimyung University, and he had eaten also. So .... we went to a restaurant where he proceeded to order a heap of food and some soju. We chatted, grazed and drank for a couple of hours before he whisked me off to a very fancy cocktail bar and then on to a club - all at his expense. We didn't finish up til around 5am, and it was a great night and well worth the sleep deprivation. He neglected to tell me that he was on the 6am KTX to Busan for work so he didn't actually go to bed that night - I don't know how he managed it! I struggled to make Halloween the following evening despite a good six or seven hours sleep. I'm not so sure that date number three is as significant as many people have led me to believe (Korean dating protocols apparently state it means a serious relationship) so I've relaxed on that front a little. He did mention on Friday night however that as the first-born son his parents are pressuring him to marry and have children - definitely one to be wary of! In saying that, he didn't sound too enamoured with that prospect so I didn't flee the restaurant. I definitely think that Western girls have it easier than guys when it comes to dating Koreans. By all accounts the girls are very high maintenance and are expected to pay for everything. So far I've expected nothing and received everything - he won't let me pay for anything. Hooray for my Korean predecessors!

This weekend I'm off to Busan to see Fatima and hit up Centum City (worlds largest department store) for some serious winter clothes shopping. Friday night we're going out to dinner and relaxing, and Saturday night we're going to dinner with Mr Korea and his friend and then out to a club afterwards - I'm really looking forward to it!

Halloween at Skyy Bar, Daegu

Pizza in a cup ... a 4a.m. Daegu delicacy!

Partying it up at GoGo Party for Lia's 'tight and bright' 80's birthday party

Back to my 80's roots...

2009-10-26T07:06:00.000-07:00

Well, here I am again. Another day, another dollar, another T.I.K experience!I'll try and keep this brief as I have a little bit of lesson planning to do before I go to bed - it will save me getting up early and preparing something when I'm all bleary-eyed and not thinking straight! That, and I'm meant to be going to the gym tomorrow morning. Hah.

This weekend was rather eventful - Fatima came up from Busan on Friday night and we headed out to Sugar Joe's to catch Adrenalin's penultimate gig which was brilliant! I also had dinner with Katy, Amanda and Hyemi (my Korean co-teacher) - we went to a curry house in the city and it was good, although quite possibly the hottest thing I've eaten in Korea so far! Even my eyes were sweating.

Saturday we headed downtown where I got a haircut (I found an Australian hairdresser, formerly director of Toni & Guy who charges the equivalent of £15 for a cut and style!). London, you can shove your £160 hairdos! We headed out later that night to GoGo Party for Lia's 80's tight and bright party which was a brilliant night out. As with most boozy nights in Korea it finished at a noraebang, where it was all too much for some - we sang (well, I use the term loosely) and Jeannine and Chris somehow managed to sleep through the wailing. By the time Fatima and I headed home the sun was coming up and we were feeling a little worse for wear. Special mention must be made of Fatima's efforts the following day - she christened my toilet in a most spectacular fashion, courtesy of too many baggie drinks and noraebang soju chasers. I somehow managed to feel rather sprightly the next day, but had other things to focus on ... my first Korean date!

Fatima will attest to the fact that I wasn't really looking forward to it at all. I was initially, but as the day drew closer I began to have visions of it being tedious - that, and there was also the distinct possibility that he wasn't actually good looking at all, and that I had initially viewed him through Korea's thickest soju goggles. Heavy with trepidation, I set off for downtown and hoped that it would be over quickly and painlessly.

As it turned out, I was pleasantly surprised. I recognised him immediately and he was very friendly and sweet - not to mention very nice looking. Bonus! He took me to a restaurant in the university district where we had a really nice meal and a drink. He was shocked to discover I not only ate Korean food, but liked it - why are Koreans always so surprised? They have the most amazing food! In short, it was a successful night and I'm seeing him again this weekend. He works for one of the big banks here in SK so is currently working in Pusan Monday to Friday and back in Daegu on the weekends. Suits me!

This week is absolutely chocka block already - I have classes and dinner dates with lots of new friends - some of which I haven't even met yet - so the week is shaping up to be a good one! I feel like I never stop in this country, but that's what I love about it. There's always something happening! Korea is dynamic, as they say.

Other little oddities from this week:

Catching some of my students filming me cleaning my teeth at school. Filming someone I can understand, but your English teacher? Cleaning her teeth? Sad times.
Having four little students knocking at my door on Saturday morning - I had not long since staggered out of bed and answered the door looking a little worse for wear. They told me their names were 'Happy' and didn't know any other English so they just stood there grinning and trying to peek around the door into the house. Needless to say, as much as I love my little students, they are far less cute in the early hours of Saturday morning when you've got a hangover.
Being asked by a sweet little third grade student if it was ok to write "Oh shit" instead of "oh no!". I told her it probably was better just to use 'no' but didn't elaborate.
Nearly being squashed on three consecutive crossings en route to my local subway station. This was NOT due to inattention, rather the Korean way of driving (again, I use the term loosely). Red light means go faster.TIK!
Being whacked across the back by one of the older teachers (ajuma!) at school - apparently she really likes me so I qualify for the special treatment. I'm not sure what it was for, but apparently it meant I'm 'one of the gang'. Ouch.

Speaking of school, swine flu paranoia has well and truly set in. My school has managed to avoid it so far, but today several students were diagnosed with it and they're talking about shutting the school down. Of course as a teacher I still have to go in - ridiculous. Still, it will give me plenty of time to study my Korean as I never seem to get the time outside school to do it! That and I've got three Korean teachers on tap in my office - I might as well make use of them.

More soon!

Things that make me smile

2009-10-20T05:35:00.000-07:00

A Korean businessman offering me chewing gum as I sat at the train station drinking my coffee. So considerate! (either that or he could smell my breath from ten paces!)

Being told by little old ladies on the subway that I’m beautiful (I suspect they actually mean “you’re in my seat”)

Being offered food by random strangers in restaurants and public places – Koreans are genuinely friendly, generous people and it makes a refreshing change from London!

I also love the honesty and sweetness of my little students – here are a few gems from their English speech competition entries:

“I want to be a warm-hearted doctor” – sixth grade boy
“I like listening to music. Daesung (member of Korean boy pop band BigBang) is so cute, that’s why I love him” – fourth grade male student talking about his hobbies
“Anne of Green Gables is a story about a girl with ugly red hair and feckles” (sic) – fourth grade student
“Being afraid of something before you try it is silly, I think”. – third grade student’s speech on rollercoasters
“This story touched my heart. If everyone loves each other there will be many miracles”. Fourth grade boy doing a speech on the story of ‘Heidi’.
“My hamster’s name is Hamsun. He listens to me very much, I think he is smart”. Third grade student speech about her pet hamster, Hamsun.
Finally, there was also the mildly alarming sixth grade boy’s speech about how much he admired his sister – “I want to put her into big people”. (!!?)

A quick two-week mash-up

2009-10-20T05:33:00.000-07:00

Well, it has been an eventful last couple of weeks. I'm going to attempt to mash it all into a short entry, minus the not-so-happy bits! Looking back it seems as though I have been doing a lot of thinking recently, and I guess I have. This blog is intended to be a catalogue of my life and times in Korea so it stands to reason I'm going to write about what is happening in my life, and I hope you enjoy reading it.

This weekend I went down to Busan to stay with Fatima, and we were joined by Drew who had made the trek down from Incheon, near Seoul. It was a brilliant and much-needed weekend on the town, with the main drawcard being the 5th annual Busan Fireworks Festival! Drew and I both arrived Friday night and set up camp at Fatima’s apartment. After a couple of glasses of wine we went out on the town to meet up with a group of others for a few drinks. It was a great night of noraebang (that’s karaoke), drinking and dancing. I even met a very attractive 29 year old Korean guy from Daegu – what are the odds of that? He is taking me out in Daegu this weekend, but how it goes remains to be seen. I’m picking that it will most likely be an exercise in futility (and particularly bad sign language) but you never know til you try, right? I’m also particularly mindful of the Korean courting process – I hear that after three dates you’re considered officially dating (apparently not in America!), and if you meet the parents then you might as well clip the ball and chain on! Run, Di! Run! Needless to say, there will most likely be an entertaining (if nothing else!) post coming up on this blog - stay tuned!

The festival fireworks themselves were absolutely incredible – we watched them from the comfort of an apartment rooftop at the western end of the beach. The whole show lasted the best part of an hour, and it was an amazing sight to behold. I took a few photos, but for the most part just lapped it up and thought about a lot of stuff. I seem to have been doing that a lot lately! Kate and Al got married that same night, so I thought a lot about how that was going and what everyone back in NZ was up to. After the show a few of us went into Kyungsung for the evening – again I met some great people and it was well worth the hangover and sleep deprivation the following day!

Looking ahead I’ve got a lot to look forward to – live music gigs to go to, 80’s tight and bright parties, Halloween, tours to other parts of the country and also the arrival of a friend in a month or so. We’re going to tour Daegu and Seoul in search of puffy little dyed dogs and the sorts of experiences only Korea can offer! Til then I’ll be hunkering down in warmer clothes as the weather is starting to get a little cold and wintery. On the upside of course, the leaves are all turning and the autumn colours are absolutely stunning. I will try to get out and take some pictures while I still can!

I'm also one month into my Korean lessons, and although it's challenging I'm once again relishing the opportunity to study and get my brain working again! Teaching elementary school students doesn't exactly provide a cerebral workout, so now that I've completed my TEFL certification I'm getting stuck into (and on!) Korean. 그것은재미있어요!

For Grannie

2009-10-20T05:31:00.000-07:00

Well, it’s been some time since my last entry – two weeks in fact. And what a ride it has been – so much has happened, so much has changed in such a short time.

Last Monday, 12th of October I had a call from New Zealand to say my grandmother had passed away. You can never quite prepare yourself for the actual event of someone’s passing, regardless of the circumstances and no matter how imminent. Those phone calls are what every traveller dreads, but are an unfortunate by-product of life, travel and our own mortality. All you can do is hope the calls don’t come, and hope that when they do you have the strength to deal with them on your own!

In a way, it was a blessing for my grandmother as she has not been in the best of health and had all but made the decision to move on. Stubbornness runs in the family, and I have nothing but respect and admiration for her decision. I loved my grandmother very very much, and feel so fortunate to have had her in my life for this long – I can only hope to do her proud in following in her footsteps as a teacher (I suspect she was eminently more patient than I am, and I daresay more ladylike)! I will certainly do my best.

I was thinking about her the other day, and remembered a toast she used to say at family gatherings. Given it has been thanksgiving recently here in Korea and I have been teaching my adult students about toasts, I included it in my lesson for them. I felt it was quite befitting as one of them had just become a grandmother for the first time, and in a way it was also my own sort of (private) tribute to Grannie. So...

Here’s a health to all those that we love
Here’s a health to all those that love us
Here’s a health to all those that love them
That love those
That love them
That love those
That love us

(Partially) philosophical musings

2009-10-08T20:16:00.001-07:00

Well, the honeymoon phase is supposedly drawing nearer to a close, but I’m still just as happy here now as I was six weeks ago. I’m slowly getting to grips with the Korean way of life, and learning the language. It’s quite a buzz to be able to go out and read some of the signs and menus (although understanding what the word means is a whole different ball game!). I’ve begun to establish a routine, which includes much more sleep than I was previously getting, and also going to the gym.

The highlight of my day is still lunch – I could never get sick of the food here (just fat!). How anyone could come here and want to eat ‘western’ food and pay a premium for it is beyond me. But then again, everyone is different. I guess I’ve been away from home for long enough not to be homesick or crave particular foods (that said, please forward any jars of marmite, marshmallows and peanut slabs to my home address!).
It seems a little strange to see friends around me (some of whom are traveling for the first time) get homesick. I guess it hit me when I first went traveling but I’ve been moving around so much over the past few years that in some ways homesickness doesn’t really affect me as I have no tangible ‘home’ to go back to. New Zealand will always be home – don’t get me wrong – but I speak of home in the sense of bricks and mortar, as a familiar house or place of residence. Home is always going to be where my family is – I guess distance has become all too familiar and the addition of technology (hooray for Skype!) means I can keep in touch with loved ones by way of phone and webcam which makes it infinitely more bearable.

I do miss my family and friends a lot, and have recently been considerably frustrated at events that are occurring for which I cannot be there for – both good and bad. New babies (Sas & Stu!), weddings (Kate & Al!) , housewarming parties (Mel & Thom!), and the not so good – family issues, sickness and the passing of loved ones. It’s times like this that I realize that every day is a gift and regardless of where I am in the world I need to appreciate and give thanks for my life, health and happiness. Over the last year or so I’ve become all too familiar (perhaps uncomfortably so!) with the concept of life and mortality, and as such have come to the conclusion that irrespective of where I am or what I do, the one thing I don’t want is to have any regrets. Granted, there may be some poor life decisions (dot com!) along the way, but life is all about learning. As ‘they’ say (whoever ‘they’ are), the only real mistakes are the ones from which we learn nothing. Mark Twain said it better than I ever could: “Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than by the ones you did.”. So … onwards and upwards – Korea!

An update… life in the R.O.K

2009-10-08T20:12:00.000-07:00

Well, it’s been some time since my last post, so I thought I’d better get cracking and write something. It’s been an eventful time – today I have no classes so it is the perfect opportunity to try and condense the last few weeks into a blog post that won’t put you all to sleep!

A couple of weeks ago I went to Busan for the day with Mi Young, a teacher from my school. We were accompanied by her husband and three year old daughter, and two other couples (friends of theirs, also with children). We drove down, leaving at 8am on a glorious sunny day. On the way I was fed up on some amazing food, and then after meeting their friends en route I was also plied with kimbap (delicious Korean sushi with vegetables, crab and sometimes even spam!) Effectively, I ate my way to Busan – it was heaven.

We visited the Busan aquarium at Haeundae beach which was fantastic. Although I’ve been to aquariums before, this had a lot of different sea life in it that I had not seen before. What also made the experience great was the fact that we were there with some little kids – things like aquariums somehow become more exciting when seen with a child! Mi Young’s daughter was so well behaved, and very cute. The penguins were darting around like crazy in their tank and she alternated between staring, mesmerized and squealing as they zoomed past her at high speed. The three other little kids with us were similarly entranced, however two of them weren’t quite as well behaved. One in particular was demanding toys and throwing the odd tantrum, but Mi Young’s little girl was very placid. I bought her a blow-up fish from one of the many stalls in the aquarium and it didn’t leave her hand the entire day – even during her two hour afternoon nap!

We then went to an amazing Korean traditional village for lunch, and ate in a hut with a traditional mud floor and low table. Not the easiest thing to sit at for me as I am still unable to sit cross-legged as a result of my accident, but I’ve learned to adapt by poking one leg out in front of me under the table. Classy. We had some amazing food – the entire table was covered in plates and I didn’t know where to start. I’ve adopted a rule here in Korea – eat first, and ask what it was AFTER you’ve finished. Offal is infinitely more palatable when you think you’re eating a tasty bit of steak! The meal was incredible, and I tried every single bit of food on the table (as is custom in Korea). My favourite (without a doubt!) was Hoddeok, or Korean pancake. More of a dessert food, but it was served up before and during the meal and I couldn’t get enough of it. Most Korean pancakes are of the salty variety, stuffed with anything from kimchee to scallions or even oysters. But not Hoddeok! Hoddeok is stuffed full of delicious brown sugar, nuts, and cinnamon and then pan-fried to perfection. Probably not the healthiest, but worth every single calorie.

Our final stop for the day was the Yonggungsa temple, which is situated on the coast of the north-eastern part of Busan. It is right on the water and is a truly spectacular place. Build way back in 1376, it has been lovingly restored over time and is now both a place of peace and prayer and a tourist attraction (seemingly incongruous, but that in itself sums up many aspects of Korea!). It was here I also saw my first ‘dyed dog’ – see attached pictures. I’m slowly building up a gallery of these, as the mere concept fascinate me no end (and to clarify, this is from a bystander point of view only!). I have been intrigued enough to investigate, and have since learned that it is done for fashion and that if you are wanting to dye your dog (what self respecting person wouldn’t?) you need to invest in special dog dye, as human dye is too toxic for animals. You’ll be delighted to know I’ve saved you the time and effort of researching the best place to purchase your canine-friendly dyes – simply click here. Truly bizarre … but that’s what I love about this place!

More recently we had Korean thanksgiving, which is known here at Chuseok. I went to Busan for the long weekend and had a really good, relaxing time. There were a number of new experiences, including:

My first swim at a Korean beach – Haeundae
My first trip up a Korean mountain (admittedly via cable car instead of the traditional hiking route), where we enjoyed glorious views across Busan. We climbed the side of a hill to sit atop a ledge overlooking the city – it was so serene, with a small prayer house and many birds fluttering around in the quiet afternoon sunshine. The peace and tranquility were momentarily shattered by a Korean hiker hollering “Hello! Where you from!” up the hill, but that’s the Korean way I guess – they will talk to foreigners even when spotted a hundred feet off in the distance!
Purchased my first K-Pop CD (kids, don’t mix soju and shopping, this is what happens!)
Played Jenga in a bar
Went to the world’s largest department store at Centum City – a glorious, 293905m2 monument to capitalism in the heart of Busan.
Found (well, purchased) and ate the most glorious fresh Korean steamed pork bun – heaven in a box!

The Chuseok moon over Gwangalli beach, Busan

Yonggangsa Temple, Busan

From the 'What were they thinking' files ... dogs with dyed tails and leg tufts

Catching the last of the summer rays, Haeundae Beach

Lunch at a traditional Korean restaurant with one of the teachers from my school (second from left) - Busan

A wee Korean cutie - her daughter finding a penguin to cuddle

Views from the mountain, Oncheonjang, Busan

Wedding crashers ... Korean style!

2009-09-23T03:45:00.000-07:00

Last Friday afternoon I received an invitation to a Korean wedding, which was scheduled to take place 2 days later on the Sunday. In typical dynamic Korean style, I had just two days notice which is probably generous by typical Korean standards. I decided to go along, and dragged Paul along so I didn't have to make conversation with myself all afternoon (at least I speak English).

I was invited by one of my co-teachers, as it was her brother-in-law's wedding. Her husband was the best man (or Korean equivalent) so we didn't feel too much like we were crashing a completely unknown wedding.

It was not a full, traditional Korean wedding, but a somewhat scaled-down and more modern variation. I was very sad to hear that, as apparently a custom of traditional Korean weddings is to tie a chicken and a rooster to the wedding table and ceremonially release them during the event, at which time the guests chase them in an attempt to capture them. Those who succeed are allowed to keep the rooster, which I imagine ends up on a Korean dinner table somewhere rather than as a pet or a wedding 'keepsake'. I guess this part of the traditional ceremony is akin to the Western tradition of throwing the bouquet. I imagine throwing a rooster or two over your shoulder would be considerably more exciting, and the possibility of it crapping on your guests in mid-toss would add a whole new air of drama and anticipation to an otherwise boring tradition. I can only hope that in the unlikely event of me ever getting married that they allow roosters in Elvis's little white chapel in Vegas.

The roosters (so I'm told) are symbolic. The crowing of the rooster marks a new day, and a fresh start (like the marriage for the couple). The crowing is also meant to scare away evil spirits. The chicken represents fertility, and the hope that the bride will have many children, which was important in traditional agrarian societies - probably not so much in modern-day Korea!

But, I digress. The ceremony itself was pretty standard, with one notable exception. The ceremony was held in a hotel ballroom and lasted only 20 minutes. On any given day the hotels are booked out with weddings in half hourly slots - the venue is set up with your cake and standard plastic flowers and you are given only a short amount of time to herd your guests in and out before the next wedding (the time of which is conveniently signposted on the door outside). After the ceremony everyone departs for the banquet which is usually held nearby - in our case the same hotel in the basement restaurant. The food at this wedding was amazing - I didn't know where to start! Despite claims by my co-teacher that the food was not good (the Koreans are very self-deprecating), we ate and drank til we felt sick. So did the mosquitos, as I discovered.

It is also customary to give gifts at a Korean wedding, however it is very difficult to know what to get for a situation like this. Paul and I deliberated over what to offer as gift, and finally decided on a simple congratulatory card and some money. Our only remaining hurdle was deciding what to write in said card, particularly when (a) the recipients don't speak English, (b) have not met you, and (c) you do not know their names. Bearing this in mind, we decided a blank envelope with some money would suffice. If we were to write in the card however, we envisaged something along the lines of "to whom it may concern, congratulations on your marriage. Yours faithfully, the white people". As it transpired, our gift was rejected ("you are guests!" ..... er, yes....) so we needn't have worried.

The ceremony itself was very simple. The bride wore white and looked stunning, the groom looked terrified, the parents all looked grim and there were toe-tappin' oldies and errant children everywhere. The wedding cake looked amazing, particularly as it was nestled atop a smoke machine, and it was cut during the ceremony. On the bride's return down the aisle the bubble machine kicked into life, and the guests made a hasty exit to ensure their place at the buffet.

Chalk up another fantastic Korean experience!

2009-09-21T06:44:00.000-07:00

Q. How did the two guys in this picture get to be this old?
A. With driving like this, I have absolutely no idea. Candidates for poorlifedecisions.com!

Spotted on the road near my house. I use the term 'road' loosely, as it's more of an eight lane highway. And yes, they are driving INTO the traffic.

Teaching the teachers

2009-09-10T04:41:00.000-07:00

Well, I'm almost at the end of my second week of teaching. So far it has been great - my confidence in the classroom has increased considerably and I'm slowly becoming a part of the furniture at the school.

Today I had my first teachers lesson - they've got me teaching the teachers English every Thursday afternoon which is a scary prospect. I foolishly asked them today what they would like to learn, hoping like hell it was nothing to do with songs and music. So what did they want? Songs and music! I agreed, with one caveat - they weren't to make fun of my atrocious singing. They thought that was hilarious, but I wasn't kidding. I am atrocious! My co-teacher sings like a bird and plays guitar like Hendrix (as well as being beautiful and elegant!) so I volunteered her to do the singing and playing - I think she thought I was kidding. Hah!

I also learned a very important lesson today - check your clothing before making important presentations. I realised just seconds before I entered the room full of teachers that the zipper on my pants was all the way down. Classy. Crisis averted - they probably wondered why I was laughing when I entered the room, and assumed it was nerves. Or I was a bit mad. They weren't far off on either count!

During the presentation I asked if any of the teachers had any questions. One of the few male teachers nudged one of the girls and she went bright red, and proceeded to announce in broken English in front of the entire teaching staff "he would like to have some one-on-one tutoring from you". This was after his previous (and very open) questions as to my age and marital status. Hmm. He wasn't bad looking but when he stood up the top of his head was approximately level with my chin. Not good. (shades of Green Wing - "you're better looking when you crouch down").

Today I also received my very first present from a little 1st grade student (very young and cute). I was accosted by her and her big sister and friends outside the school and she proudly presented me with .... an acorn. I was so honoured, and she was grinning from ear to ear (probably thinking "sucker, she's easily pleased"). How could I refuse a gift like that?!

Tomorrow I have the sixth grade all day. It's Friday, the weather is stinking hot, the class materials are truly awful and they are just not interested. I've decided to spice up the lesson with Mr Bean's Christmas (the one where he gets a turkey stuck on his head) as an exercise in past/present tense (a tenuous link I know, but I don't think they'll care!). Their current learning materials (namely the DVD) are absolutely awful. Today's one was a lesson in 'who is he' and 'who is she'. Cue token paedophile in knitted sweater lurking in playground saying "Who is she? She is pretty!" (speaking of a ten year old girl). In another episode he also lurks outside a store and says "Who is he? He is nice!" (talking of a small boy). It sounds a little odd, but what strikes me is that he is just Joe pedestrian - he doesn't have a name, he just lurks. Fishy!

And on a final note, this weekend is shaping up to be a big one. Tomorrow night everyone seems to be hitting the town, and Fatima arrives from Busan for the weekend! Saturday and Sunday is the annual Body Painting festival in Duryu park and Saturday night is K-pop night in town (lots of big stars coming out apparently). It all happens in Daegu!

More soon!

The final thought

2009-09-08T03:09:00.000-07:00

Korea is an amazing place. Compared to life in Auckland and London it is not easy, but the challenges it throws at you make it an incredible experience, and one that I am very grateful to be having! The people are warm and friendly, I love my job, the weather is great and around every corner lies something new to be discovered – whether it be markets, a temple, a new restaurant or even new friends. Life here is crazy, and is constantly keeping me on my toes and that’s just the way I like it. I feel much more alive, more interested in things and less like I’m just a faceless cog in a big corporate wheel somewhere. No doubt there will be times when these good things begin to wear me down (after the honeymoon phase is over!), but at this point in time, life is good.

Keep it coming, Korea.

School life so far

2009-09-08T03:07:00.000-07:00

In my first week, I invited students to ask me any questions they liked in order to get to know me better. These questions included How old am I? Am I married? Do I have a boyfriend? Are you fat? What is your blood type? What style of man do you like? Do you like giraffes/monsters/ghosts? (my 3rd graders pulling out all the random English vocab words there) Do you want to fight?

And from the “questions we’d like to ask but won’t” file... is watching porn at school acceptable? On my second day in the teachers office (which I share with 2 english teachers and a PE teacher), I turned around to find the PE teacher watching porn! Clearly he’s not fazed by the thought of his co-workers seeing this – perhaps it is acceptable behaviour? (although I doubt it!). I gave him the benefit of the doubt and thought it might have been some sort of video for anatomy/physiology, but after looking 10 minutes later I safely concluded that it was definitely for personal rather than educational purposes!

The naughtiest kid so far has been one of my fifth graders. On the first day he was loud, arrogant and obnoxious with my co-teacher, and I tried really hard to play him down when I was speaking. After my presentation, his question to me as he sat back in his chair with his arms folded and a smirk on his face was “What is my name?”. Fortunately I had a seating plan in front of me which he didn’t know I had – I held his gaze, quickly glanced down at my cheat sheet, back up again and said “Kim Dong Hun”. The entire class burst out laughing at him, his mouth dropped open and he went very quiet. I used my advantage to point the Aspden finger and say “I know exactly who you are and you’d better behave”. He was shell-shocked and didn’t know what else to do but nod. He has been an angel ever since.

Di = 1, Devil Child = 0!

Life in Korea

2009-09-08T03:06:00.001-07:00

There are many things I am learning about Korea – here are just a few:

Road rules: as far as I can deduce, whoever is on the road makes the rules. Which, in a city of two and a half million makes for exciting driving anywhere you go! It is essentially a free-for-all, with no attention paid to road markings, give way rules, and the age-old ‘footpaths are for people’ school of thought. I think it was summed up precisely by the POE coordinator, who wrote “the main danger in Daegu comes from traffic, particularly motorbikes and scooters delivering food at break-neck speed on the sidewalk! Always keep your eyes open when walking around and, secondly, keep your taxi driver focused! Having your man turn around to you in the back to practise his English as you whiz round the schinchandero is not wise! Inform him of the turn in the road! The truck swaying into his lane! The police checkpoint! His glass of soju tipping, precarious...” and the scariest part is, it’s true.

Buses: I have discovered the ‘rapid’ bus, which leaves from near my house and goes straight to Jungangno in the city centre. As far as I can tell, the name ‘rapid’ bus comes from the nature of the driving – foot flat to the floor, hand on the horn and slamming on the brakes at the very last minute irrespective of how many little old ladies are on the bus. It seems as far as they’re concerned the more agima they can get plastered across the back seat the better. You have to just about take a running jump off the bus, as although the door opens, the bus doesn’t actually stop most of the time, it just slows down. That makes for exciting travel, particularly if you’re wearing heels and/or carrying bags! I also stand corrected when I say the bus doesn’t stop most of the time. It stops at 11pm. On the dot. Regardless of where it is. It might be half way through the bus route (and effectively the middle of nowhere as far as I am concerned as I don’t know the city at all!), and the moment the big hand hits 11, that bus stops. The driver will order everyone off and you can bloody well make your own way home from there! That’s not much fun after you’ve been in town drinking baggie drinks and you’re feeling a little tipsy, and even less fun when you forget to take your written address with you. After consulting with taxi drivers in broken Korean, English and really bad sign language you might eventually get where you want to go – if you’re lucky.

Food: amazing. I absolutely love the food here, and I can’t wait to try more of it! I’ve been getting the names of everything we have at school and writing it down so that one night when I’m too lazy to cook I can go down to one of my local takeaway stores (which are entirely Korean, no pictures or anything English) and order something. I really don’t like eating at western food places here, as it tends to be overpriced, predictable and a little bit strange. A good example of this is a place called ‘Bennigans’ in the city. It is supposedly an Irish pub in America that doesn’t serve Guinness. Go figure!

Baggie drinks: Yup, drinks in a plastic bag. The ultimate in class! They are large, hideously strong and really cheap (£2 for a massive long island iced tea/cosmo etc). They will pour the drink, pass it over and ask you to taste it and tell them if it needs more alcohol! (“Er, no thanks, I think I’ll just sit and sniff this until I pass out”). They also give you free stuff with them, like fireworks. Now that’s my kind of street stall! London, you can keep your £8 single G&Ts!

Clothing: The more English words the better, irrespective of how much sense it makes. The engrish over here is fantastic – I’m trying to write down some of my favourite ones I see around. So far these include “an oily substance” (proclamation on one of my 5th grade student’s shirts), “put on this cloth, stem boat willy” (seen on a mickey mouse tshirt in town) and a handbag shop called “the lord is my banner” (of course!).

A weekend in Busan

2009-09-08T03:04:00.002-07:00

Since my arrival I’ve been lucky enough to explore not two but three cities. This weekend I jumped on the train from Daegu and headed down to Busan for a couple of days. It is a much larger city than Daegu (maybe twice the size?) and was a little overwhelming at first, but it seems like a pretty good city to be living in! Paul and Cameron have both been set up in pretty sweet apartments – Kevin and I were very jealous! That was another surprise – Kevin arrived from Incheon for the weekend so together with Fatima it was a mini-orientation reunion.

Friday night I arrived on the slow train from Daegu, where Paul met me at the station. We headed out for some dinner at a local restaurant before heading down to Hyundae Beach to meet Fatima and Kevin. The beach is great – very big, and the water was lovely and warm. We ended up getting a few bottles of soju and relaxing on the sand for most of the evening. I was especially excited about the fact there was no mosquitos, and I was able to sit in a dress, sans repellent and not spend the entire evening slapping at my ankles like a mad woman. After much soju was consumed, we made a futile attempt to get into the casino but it was a no-go without our passports (despite Paul’s best drunken efforts to convince them we had lots of money).

Saturday we headed to the seafood markets down near the beach and it was an amazing sight. The seafood was incredible and (for the most part) all still alive! I speak with particular reference to the escaped octopus we saw making an optimistic break for freedom down the street. It was promptly chased down, scolded and slapped by an ‘agima’ (little old lady) and plonked back in its bucket. That was one of the funniest things I’ve seen in a long time! For lunch we headed along to a restaurant, picked out an enormous live crab which was promptly thrown in the steamer, cooked and served up for our lunch. For the crab, a huge array of side dishes and a drink it came to a little under £10 each – not bad, although probably considered expensive by Korean standards!

Saturday night was spent cooking dinner at Cameron’s apartment, where the five of us ate and drank before heading out into the local town to check out a few bars. It turned into a true orientation-style night out, with things winding down at the noribang (karaoke room) at about 3am.

High point – octopus slapping, good company, amazing food
Low point - leaving

Thoughts on Korea so far...

2009-09-08T03:04:00.001-07:00

Food: Love it! Very spicy – I have even learned to love (!) kimchi and have it every day with my lunch. We get a cooked meal at school which so far has been the highlight of each and every one of my working days. Sad, I know but the food is amazing! My friend Billy has promised to take me out for the local delicacy (cows intestines) and has also threatened to get me eating spine stew – I’m not convinced that it is going to be anywhere near as mouth-watering as what he tells me, but I guess I’ll try anything once. Verdict still to come – watch this space!

Television: Hilarious. I have cable at my apartment and I love flicking through the channels and finding the over-acted, melodramatic Korean soap operas. There are also many earnest advertisements on TV for what I can only assume is health insurance – every time I see them I laugh out loud as they are so atrociously acted and cheesy you just can’t take them seriously! I also have access to (wait for it...) the math channel! This generally involves some droll, gormless man standing next to a blackboard solving quadratic equations or something equally as mind numbing. Television’s answer to valium!

People: The people here are lovely. I often get approached in public by people wanting to know where I am from, and if I am a son saeng nim (teacher). Teachers are held in fairly high regard here so maybe they think I’m smart or something – go figure! I bought a pair of shoes the other day from a particularly amorous Korean salesman who enquired as to my age, marital and boyfriend status and proceeded to ask me out. There are many, many good looking Korean men in this country, but unfortunately for me he wasn’t one of them!

Arrival in Daegu

2009-09-08T03:02:00.000-07:00

Day 1 - Hot, hot, HOT

The day of my arrival was stinking hot and humid – one of the hottest days Daegu has seen for some time. Fortunately I was dressed appropriately for the weather – jeans, a shirt and all my heavy bags! Excellent. I was met by my new co-teacher Hyemi, who, fortunately for me, speaks very good English. We headed straight to my new school to meet the principal (“hello, I’m your sweaty, stinky new teacher”) and then on to my new apartment to drop off my bags.

The area I am living in seems nice – it has many green spaces and the school backs onto a big park and mountain. My apartment is literally a 1 minute walk from the school, 5 minutes from the buses to the city and 10 minutes from the subway. There is also a large shopping district (uh oh) just a short walk away.

My first night was a little hard, although I’ve no doubt it was made harder by the fact I had only two and a half hours sleep the night before! As well as tired, I was feeling very apprehensive and sad to have left some new and amazing friends from orientation, who have since moved to other parts of the country – Gwangju, Incheon, Busan and Jeju.

High Point – a 12 hour sleep!
Low Point – acquiring 47 new mosquito bites during said 12 hour sleep

My apartment - needs furnishing! I have since bought a couch so my room doesn't seem quite so empty...

Day 2 - Exploring Daegu

I spent my first Saturday in Daegu exploring the city and doing some shopping with my co-teacher. By 12pm I was set up in my new apartment with everything I needed (except perhaps a spa, man-servant and personal chef). I spent the afternoon in town and eventually ended up meeting a big group of existing Daegu-ites who were heading out for a night of pub golf at various watering holes around the city. I joined the crawl and met a lot of new people which was great – it was an excellent night topped off with pizza in a cup (what more could a girl ask for?) and a 3am taxi ride home that rivalled the previous 4 hour trip from Incheon to Jeonju. This was effectively four hours worth of Jeonju-narcoleptic excitement crammed into an action-packed, pant-wetting, suicidal fifteen minutes! I have since made it my mission to avoid getting taxis wherever possible as every single driver appears to have been trained at the same school – excessively high speeds, no indication, veering in and out of lanes as they please and generally driving like they’re on speed.

Orientation - Jeonju University

2009-09-08T03:00:00.000-07:00

How do you prepare 650 newbies for life as a teacher in Korea? As best you can! The rest is about luck, pluck, initiative, persistence and a little bit of charm (also known as ‘kissing butt’).

After being shipped to Jeonju University (“the place for superstars”), we were assigned rooms and given a list of classes and activities for the next nine days. The predominant activity we took part in was not on this list – extra-curricular soju drinking. That stuff is potent, but was the fuel for nine straight days of socialising with our fellow teachers from around Korea. It was an amazing week – I met some amazing people, had some amazing experiences and experienced some amazing hangovers. At 20% alcohol and 50 pence a bottle can you blame me?

We learned how to deal with elementary, middle and high school students; how to incorporate role plays and interactive learning; how to deal with our co-teachers; a brief history of Korea and finally to speak a little bit of Korean. This class wasn’t so popular as by 7pm when the class started most teachers had eaten, finally recovered from their previous nights hangover and were heading out to do it all over again. Learning the Korean alphabet wasn’t quite as high on the priority list as it should have been! I made it to two classes but decided against the other two.

I was very sad to see the end of orientation, but it was time to hit the real world and put everything into practice. Eek!

Touchdown!

2009-09-08T02:58:00.000-07:00

I made it to Korea on time and in one piece after a nice short flight from Hong Kong. I was greeted at the airport by a member of the EPIK team, who escorted me straight to what looked like the longest queue in Asia. I proceeded to wait over an hour to eventually be given a number and herded onto a bus bound for Jeonju.

The drive down was relatively uneventful – most people had come off long flights and slept the whole way. I did the same although my slumber was largely attributable to laziness rather than jet lag. The 4 hour drive was quite the introduction to Korean roads. I can safely and unequivocally state that the drivers in this country are utterly insane. Our long and boring trip from Incheon to Jeonju was made infinitely more exciting by our narcoleptic bus driver but fortunately for us the constant blaring of car horns kept him awake for at least some of the journey and somehow we made it to Jeonju without collecting a single truck, car or pedestrian.

My first impressions of Seoul (as seen from the window of an erratically driven bus) were of a much more organised, less haphazard city than the likes of Hong Kong. Even from a distance it gave the impression of being a very modern, efficient place – one I can’t wait to explore in greater detail!

Despite such modern appearances, Koreans have a very strong sense of tradition, honour and pride, or ‘gibun’. I suspect it will take me a little time to get to grips with the complex social systems and hierarchies here, but hopefully any transgressions will be overlooked or forgiven as I am a foreigner!

I have found the language somewhat difficult to grasp, however with so much going on in terms of classes and general culture shock it comes as little surprise. I plan to enrol in Korean lessons when I get to Daegu at which point I hope to be a little more settled and focused. Until such time I will continue to bumble and mangle my way through various key phrases with help from my faithful Lonely Planet book (“bbop chi ma se yo!” I don’t want it extracted!)

So far I am feeling good about being here – nervous at the thought of being chucked in at the deep end but excited at the prospects and possibilities that lie ahead of me. Life as a san saeng nim will be a big change from corporate life in London, but I am looking forward to the challenge. Who knows, I might even develop a liking for small children! But let’s not get carried away just yet...

Bring it on, Korea.