Seoul has been an interesting experience, and in many ways very different from what I expected. Instead of staying in a hostel, meeting other foreigners, and wandering about the city to different sites and markets, I have spent most of my time getting to know a group of Chinese students who are learning Korean. They are friends of one of my friends from Hong Kong who has been studying abroad in Seoul and 3 of the guys have been kind enough to let me stay at their place. Like when visiting other friends throughout China and Korea I have felt less like a traveler and more like a resident. Yet I have also been able to tour the city and experience much of what Seoul has to offer. In many ways I have been able to get the best of both worlds.
Living with and hanging out with the Chinese students has allowed me to practice my Chinese before returning to China as well as experience Chinese cultural elements as much as I would be able to in China. And on top of all this, I have been able to taste some incredible home-made Chinese cooking that one of the guys I have been living with is able to so professionally prepare. I have also had the chance to share some American culture with them. On one of the nights I was lucky enough to be able to prepare one of the only dishes I know, spaghetti with meat and veggie sauce. It was pretty funny watching everyone put the spaghetti in small bowls, pick it up with chopsticks, and slurp it into their mouths like a noodle soup. It was the first time I was able to really appreciate the Chinese concept that the louder you eat the more of a complement it is to the chef.
Yet getting to know the Chinese students has mostly only occupied my nights here. During the day I have toured the sights of Seoul, including the national palace, associated museums, all sorts of markets, and my favorite site of all, the demilitarized zone (DMZ). I have always been fascinatd by the division of North and South Korea, and have always wanted to tour the line that cuts the peninsula in two. Early this morning I set out on a tour set up by the United Service Organizations Inc., better known as the USO. We were thrown right into the heart of it all, as the first sight we saw was the Joing Security Area (JSA), where North and South Korean forces stand face to face and where military negotiations have previously been held between the North Korean forces and the United Nations Command (UNC). As soon as we entered the sight we could see the Military Demarcation Line (MDL) separating the two Koreas, and on the other side a North Korean building where a guard was staring at us through binoculars. Next, we entered the UN building where negotiations between the two sides took place. After our tour group had moved throughout the building the American Army soldier who was leading the tour informed us that this building actually sat on the MDL dividing the peninsula, and the area where I was standing was technically in North Korea. Pretty wild.
The next sight we saw was an observation tower allowing us to see approximately 27km into North Korean territory. I spent a while looking through the provided binoculars staring down the propaganda village where no one actually lives, the world's tallest flagpole, and an industrial complex where South Korean companies have set up factories employed by North Korean labor. The last part of the tour consisted of walking through part of one of the 4 tunnels that North Korea secretly tried to build under the DMZ and towards Seoul. All around, it was an absolutley fascinating tour. If I ever have the money and time I would love to visit the North. It is just an incredibly mind-blowing country.
Tonight is my last night in Seoul and tomorrow I depart for China by the same ferry that took me here. I will miss Korea but am pumped to began digging into China.
Also, I have finally uploaded my photos to facebook and they can be publicly viewed. For the South Korea album go here: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2274122&id=10614491&l=a2f877ed6d
For the Hong Kong and Mainland China album go here: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2267105&id=10614491&l=71c6bdca62
Thursday, August 27, 2009
Saturday, August 22, 2009
Busan, Jirisan, and Gyeongju
After returning from Jeju-Do, Dan and I had a mostly restful day, hanging out at his apartment, hitting up the PC Bong (no, not that type of bong), but later that night we met up with his co-teacher from the school he teaches at for a specialty of Busan called hui, which is raw fish, better known in the West as sashimi. Dan is really fortunate to work with a really great co-teacher. Since he spends almost all of his time at the school working with his teacher, having a good one makes all the difference.
So, we headed out to a part of Busan actualy called raw fish town (when translated) and entered one of the most incredible fish markets I've ever been to. The whole market is devoted to ajumas (the respectful word for elderly Korean women) marketing their fish, squid, and octopus to hungry customers looking for their dinner right on the spot. After surveying the different types, vendors, and prices, a choice is made and the ajuma sets to work on first beheading the fish right in front of you and then masterfully slicing it up into gorgeous slices of mashesoyo (delicious) raw fish. Then, the fish is dipped in spicy soy bean paste, mixed with a fat slice of garlic and rolled up in sesame leaves to be eaten amongst many other raw fish afficionados while looking out onto the Busan harbor and the beautiful Busan bridge. And of course, you can't forget to dedicate some soju (rice wine) to the fish who gave their lives to provide such a tasty meal.
The next day (or perhaps the day after that - I'm starting to lose track of time) Dan, his girlfriend, her brother, and I headed out for a three day trip to summit Jirisan, the tallest mountain on the South Korean mainland, as well as see some other sites along the way. Although only 4.5km long, the hike on the first day was grueling due to the incredibly steep incline of the trail, as well as the packs we were hauling which held our clothes, food, sleeping bags, and cooking stove/utensils. It was the first time I had ever hiked with such a big pack, but I relished the challenge.
At first when we reached the shelter where we would spend the night we were relieved. However, once we saw how many people had the same idea as us we began to worry about our sleeping situation considering we didn't have a reservation. Although the shelter can sleep up to 125 people, the popularity of hiking in Korea combined with the proximity of this shelter to the tallest summit makes it so that the shelter fills up 5 minutes after it is open for booking online. We had actually been told by the park service that we would still be able to sleep onthe floor, but it soon became clear that many also had the same idea and we would likely have to spend the night outside, like most of the other 3-400 hikers. I had never seen such a site in my life.
To put our minds at ease, we focused on cooking up our dinner, consisting mostly of Gimchi (the spicy fermented cabbage which is the staple dish of Korea) ramen noodles. In comparison to everyone else, we were eating like peasants. As I walked around the area I saw meals being cooked on small gas stoves that were comparable to a small restaurant. People were cooking up gimchi jigae (a type of stew), bibimbap (rice, vegetables, egg, and spicy bean sauce all mixed together) and bolgogi (Korean BBQ).
As soon as the sun set we began to realize how unprepared we were to stay out in the cold and wet environment. We spent an hour or so trying to sleep on the giant, rubber matted stairs that marked the beginning of the path up to the summit. However, we soon realized how little we would be able to sleep there and how wet we would be in the morning. So, after the workers of the shelter had gone to bed we snuck in and found small spaces on the floor to curl up among a mass of sleeping (and heavily snoring) bodies. The spot that I squeezed in happened to be sandwiched between four or five pairs of feet kicking me on my left side, and a slightly overweight guy's belly to my right. Despite this, I still considered myself to be warm and dry. However, a few hours in that guy to my right suddenly felt the urge to roll over, transforming me and his belly from acquaintances into good friends. That was the last straw. I had to get up, took a bathroom break and when I returned found a tiny spot to curl up into a ball, raised up above everyone else next to the people who actually had reserved spots. Well, not long after that I was awoken by the guy next to me who moved himself over and made room for me in the reserved area. I can never thank him enough, for I was finally able to sleep.
Of course my sleep did not last long considering everyone woke up at 3am, including us, to prepare breakfast and make the final 1.5 hour ascent to the peak for sunrise. It was quite a sight to be trudging up the mountain at 4:30am in pitch dark waiting to summit in a line of headlamps. As the sun rose (unfortunately behind the clouds, but still making for a beautiful vista) I was partly annoyed to have to share the summit with so many but mostly was in awe of people of all ages, both men and women, making such a difficult ascent, so early in the morning, especially after such rough sleeping conditions. It was most definitely worth it, however, when looking over the mountains beyond mountains of Jirisan national park and southern South Korea. We spent the rest of that day on an arduous 8 hour, 11km, hike down which led us to a beautiful temple, a bus stop, and finally the town where we spent the night. Shower, food, and rest never felt so good. The next day we went to a quite touristy, but very beautiful and quite bamboo 'village', which was really a small town. It wasn't anything special but quite nice and relaxing after a hike that still had our legs sore.
Upon returning to Busan, Dan and I still felt the need to hike more for some reason and spent my last day in Busan hiking Geumjeongsan, the highest mountain of the area. Possibly the best part of the hike was near the end when we stopped for Pajeon (a type of rice, vegetable, and seafood pancake) and makgali (hommade fermented rice wine, much sweeter than soju), a favorite activity of ajashis (older Korean men). I can understand why they like it so much, as the rest of the walk down was made much more pleasant.
That night we were invited by Dan's co-teacher to her house for a home cooked dinner. We had an absolutely delicious meal of barbequed pork and many incredible side dishes. This meal, among many others, is convincing me that Korean food is quite possibly what I'll miss most about the country. After dinner I learned how to play Korea's favorite card game, stop-go, introduced under Japanese colonial rule intended to weaken the local population because it is a game mostly intended for gambling. However, it seemed that neither Dan or his co-teacher quite knew the exact rules so we moved onto Nintendo Wii tennis, where I was reminded of Dan's video game prowess.
The next day Dan had to return to work so I decided it was best for me to get moving on. I spent the next day in Gyeongju, an incredibly relaxing town, which was once the capital of the Silla dynasty for 1000 years and therefore has hundreds of sites to see. However, after a day of touring I felt I had seen the most important sites and was ready to head back to Seoul and then eventually China.
I arrived yesterday and booked a hostel but am actually fortunate enough to spend the rest of the week at the flat of some friends of my friend from Hong Kong who is studying abroad in Seoul.
Unfortunately I'm low on camera battery and therefore unable to post pictures of everything I've described, but once I fix that problem they should be up soon.
So, we headed out to a part of Busan actualy called raw fish town (when translated) and entered one of the most incredible fish markets I've ever been to. The whole market is devoted to ajumas (the respectful word for elderly Korean women) marketing their fish, squid, and octopus to hungry customers looking for their dinner right on the spot. After surveying the different types, vendors, and prices, a choice is made and the ajuma sets to work on first beheading the fish right in front of you and then masterfully slicing it up into gorgeous slices of mashesoyo (delicious) raw fish. Then, the fish is dipped in spicy soy bean paste, mixed with a fat slice of garlic and rolled up in sesame leaves to be eaten amongst many other raw fish afficionados while looking out onto the Busan harbor and the beautiful Busan bridge. And of course, you can't forget to dedicate some soju (rice wine) to the fish who gave their lives to provide such a tasty meal.
The next day (or perhaps the day after that - I'm starting to lose track of time) Dan, his girlfriend, her brother, and I headed out for a three day trip to summit Jirisan, the tallest mountain on the South Korean mainland, as well as see some other sites along the way. Although only 4.5km long, the hike on the first day was grueling due to the incredibly steep incline of the trail, as well as the packs we were hauling which held our clothes, food, sleeping bags, and cooking stove/utensils. It was the first time I had ever hiked with such a big pack, but I relished the challenge.
At first when we reached the shelter where we would spend the night we were relieved. However, once we saw how many people had the same idea as us we began to worry about our sleeping situation considering we didn't have a reservation. Although the shelter can sleep up to 125 people, the popularity of hiking in Korea combined with the proximity of this shelter to the tallest summit makes it so that the shelter fills up 5 minutes after it is open for booking online. We had actually been told by the park service that we would still be able to sleep onthe floor, but it soon became clear that many also had the same idea and we would likely have to spend the night outside, like most of the other 3-400 hikers. I had never seen such a site in my life.
To put our minds at ease, we focused on cooking up our dinner, consisting mostly of Gimchi (the spicy fermented cabbage which is the staple dish of Korea) ramen noodles. In comparison to everyone else, we were eating like peasants. As I walked around the area I saw meals being cooked on small gas stoves that were comparable to a small restaurant. People were cooking up gimchi jigae (a type of stew), bibimbap (rice, vegetables, egg, and spicy bean sauce all mixed together) and bolgogi (Korean BBQ).
As soon as the sun set we began to realize how unprepared we were to stay out in the cold and wet environment. We spent an hour or so trying to sleep on the giant, rubber matted stairs that marked the beginning of the path up to the summit. However, we soon realized how little we would be able to sleep there and how wet we would be in the morning. So, after the workers of the shelter had gone to bed we snuck in and found small spaces on the floor to curl up among a mass of sleeping (and heavily snoring) bodies. The spot that I squeezed in happened to be sandwiched between four or five pairs of feet kicking me on my left side, and a slightly overweight guy's belly to my right. Despite this, I still considered myself to be warm and dry. However, a few hours in that guy to my right suddenly felt the urge to roll over, transforming me and his belly from acquaintances into good friends. That was the last straw. I had to get up, took a bathroom break and when I returned found a tiny spot to curl up into a ball, raised up above everyone else next to the people who actually had reserved spots. Well, not long after that I was awoken by the guy next to me who moved himself over and made room for me in the reserved area. I can never thank him enough, for I was finally able to sleep.
Of course my sleep did not last long considering everyone woke up at 3am, including us, to prepare breakfast and make the final 1.5 hour ascent to the peak for sunrise. It was quite a sight to be trudging up the mountain at 4:30am in pitch dark waiting to summit in a line of headlamps. As the sun rose (unfortunately behind the clouds, but still making for a beautiful vista) I was partly annoyed to have to share the summit with so many but mostly was in awe of people of all ages, both men and women, making such a difficult ascent, so early in the morning, especially after such rough sleeping conditions. It was most definitely worth it, however, when looking over the mountains beyond mountains of Jirisan national park and southern South Korea. We spent the rest of that day on an arduous 8 hour, 11km, hike down which led us to a beautiful temple, a bus stop, and finally the town where we spent the night. Shower, food, and rest never felt so good. The next day we went to a quite touristy, but very beautiful and quite bamboo 'village', which was really a small town. It wasn't anything special but quite nice and relaxing after a hike that still had our legs sore.
Upon returning to Busan, Dan and I still felt the need to hike more for some reason and spent my last day in Busan hiking Geumjeongsan, the highest mountain of the area. Possibly the best part of the hike was near the end when we stopped for Pajeon (a type of rice, vegetable, and seafood pancake) and makgali (hommade fermented rice wine, much sweeter than soju), a favorite activity of ajashis (older Korean men). I can understand why they like it so much, as the rest of the walk down was made much more pleasant.
That night we were invited by Dan's co-teacher to her house for a home cooked dinner. We had an absolutely delicious meal of barbequed pork and many incredible side dishes. This meal, among many others, is convincing me that Korean food is quite possibly what I'll miss most about the country. After dinner I learned how to play Korea's favorite card game, stop-go, introduced under Japanese colonial rule intended to weaken the local population because it is a game mostly intended for gambling. However, it seemed that neither Dan or his co-teacher quite knew the exact rules so we moved onto Nintendo Wii tennis, where I was reminded of Dan's video game prowess.
The next day Dan had to return to work so I decided it was best for me to get moving on. I spent the next day in Gyeongju, an incredibly relaxing town, which was once the capital of the Silla dynasty for 1000 years and therefore has hundreds of sites to see. However, after a day of touring I felt I had seen the most important sites and was ready to head back to Seoul and then eventually China.
I arrived yesterday and booked a hostel but am actually fortunate enough to spend the rest of the week at the flat of some friends of my friend from Hong Kong who is studying abroad in Seoul.
Unfortunately I'm low on camera battery and therefore unable to post pictures of everything I've described, but once I fix that problem they should be up soon.
Thursday, August 13, 2009
Jeju-Do (재주도)
The trip to 재주도, advertised as Korea's Hawaii, did not go as well as expected due to bad weather and Dan catching a slight fever. The ferry ride was a lot of fun (as are all ferry rides for me). We had a nice Korean meal after we got on the boat at 7pm, accompanied by some soju (Korean rice wine). Metal Slug4 kept us entertained for a while as well as eating dried cuttlefish and talking about American pop culture with our newfound Korean friend "Chris".
We didn't make it to our room until 2am at which time we crashed on the floor of our bedless, third class room, shared with one other person. A 5am arrival time at Jeju had me tired and cranky, but after catching a cab to our motel and passing out until noon I felt much better.
We spent the first day doing some typical tourist activities such as waterfalls (very nice) and botanical gardens (kind of lame). That night we tried out the infamous black pig barbeque (흑돼지 - heuk dwae ji), which is indigenous to the island. Although it was my first Korean BBQ while in Korea, the black pig unfortunately did not live up to its reputation.
The next day we intended to get up at 7am for a 10 hour hike up to the crater lake at the top of Hallasan (한라산), the island's largest volcano. However, due to heavy rains the night before the park was closed. Also, Dan was feeling pretty horrible so we hung around the town where we were staying (서귀보 - Seogwipo) for the day and night. While Dan rested I spent some time practicing reading and writing the Korean alphabet, which he had been teaching during the trip (thus explaining why I've practiced writing so many words throughout this post). It is a surprisingly easy script to learn due its logic and simplicity, especially in comparison to Chinese (which was previously used as the writing system in Korea before the 15th century).
Fortunately 한라산 was open the next day. However, since our ferry left at 7pm that night we weren't able to hike to the crater and only could do a shorter hike 200m short of the summit. However, the hike was still amazing and the highlight of the trip due to the extreme weather through which we hiked. As we hiked along the ridges intense winds blew us up against the volcano with powerful rain that felt like sleet and hail. We could barely see a few meters in front of us the whole trip due to the cloud we were surrounded by and thus the mountain seemed that much more mysterious and exciting.
That evening we caught the ferry back to Busan, resting most of the way (despite a few rounds of Metal Slug) and arrived back at Dan's apartment early in the morning for some much needed sleep. This was of course after a filling breakfast at 맥도날드 (I'll let you look that one up if you really want to know *^_^* )
We didn't make it to our room until 2am at which time we crashed on the floor of our bedless, third class room, shared with one other person. A 5am arrival time at Jeju had me tired and cranky, but after catching a cab to our motel and passing out until noon I felt much better.
We spent the first day doing some typical tourist activities such as waterfalls (very nice) and botanical gardens (kind of lame). That night we tried out the infamous black pig barbeque (흑돼지 - heuk dwae ji), which is indigenous to the island. Although it was my first Korean BBQ while in Korea, the black pig unfortunately did not live up to its reputation.
The next day we intended to get up at 7am for a 10 hour hike up to the crater lake at the top of Hallasan (한라산), the island's largest volcano. However, due to heavy rains the night before the park was closed. Also, Dan was feeling pretty horrible so we hung around the town where we were staying (서귀보 - Seogwipo) for the day and night. While Dan rested I spent some time practicing reading and writing the Korean alphabet, which he had been teaching during the trip (thus explaining why I've practiced writing so many words throughout this post). It is a surprisingly easy script to learn due its logic and simplicity, especially in comparison to Chinese (which was previously used as the writing system in Korea before the 15th century).
Fortunately 한라산 was open the next day. However, since our ferry left at 7pm that night we weren't able to hike to the crater and only could do a shorter hike 200m short of the summit. However, the hike was still amazing and the highlight of the trip due to the extreme weather through which we hiked. As we hiked along the ridges intense winds blew us up against the volcano with powerful rain that felt like sleet and hail. We could barely see a few meters in front of us the whole trip due to the cloud we were surrounded by and thus the mountain seemed that much more mysterious and exciting.
That evening we caught the ferry back to Busan, resting most of the way (despite a few rounds of Metal Slug) and arrived back at Dan's apartment early in the morning for some much needed sleep. This was of course after a filling breakfast at 맥도날드 (I'll let you look that one up if you really want to know *^_^* )
Saturday, August 8, 2009
China to Korea
The last days of my stay in Changsha, Hunan Province, China were exciting yet relaxing. At night, Xu and I would check out the quite lively bar scene, while during the day we would rest at his house and go out for delicious Hunanese cuisine for lunch with his parents. Xu's hometown friends along with some others we made along the way were great to hang with and I was sad to have to go, yet excited for the rest of my trip.
Unfortunately, the only train tickets left to Beijing were soft seaters. I would have felt sorry for myself and my lack of sleep had it not been for the many people in our cart who bought tickets that didn't even have seats and thus had to stand for most of the 15 hour ride (or find awkward places throughout the train to try to lie down, such as in the aisle or the washroom area).
I could barely wait any longer to get to Beijing and it was all the sweeter since I was met at the train station by my old roommate from the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK), Zhang Yin. Unfortunately, Yin and I weren't able to spend a whole lot of time together due to his internship during the day, but we still were able to go out for dinner and walk around the city every night. My days were mostly spent wandering the city, small excursions into the countryside, practicing my Chinese, and looking for the nearly impossible to find office where I could buy ferry tickets to Korea.
After 4-5 days in Beijing, I woke up at 5am to catch a 6:30am bus to Tianjin where I needed to be at 9am, 2 hours before the 11am ferry departure to Incheon, Korea. Unfortunately, however, the tourism workers at the office where I bought my ferry ticket gave me horrible directions as to how to get to Tianjin so early in the morning. After unsuccessfully looking for the obscurely located bus that was supposed to magically take me directly to the ferry, I almost broke down and gave up (perhaps partly due to a lack of sleep). Fortunately, I summoned up the courage to keep going, hailed a taxi (who at first I tried to pay to take me to Tianjin), which brought me to the Beijing South Train Station. I was amazed to find out that not only did this station have bullet trains to Tianjin that only take one 1/2 hour, they start leaving at 6:30am and some even go directly to the port city of Tanggu, located 50km outside of Tianjin, where the ferry dock is located. A 7:45 train got me to Tianjin by 8:15, while the slowest bus in the world took me twice as long to get half the distance to the port. After making it to Tanggu and catching a taxi to the dock, it was 10:30 and I was sprinting towards the ferry, barely making it through Chinese customs in time. I never thought I'd be on that boat.
All in all, the ferry was incredible, truly one of the most remarkable experiences I've had traveling thus far. While many wondered why I would want a form of transportation that takes multiple times longer than flying, I know fully understand why I made that decision. To me, there is something so much more charming about travel by land and sea (especially if public transportation). Just the port alone with all of the giant cranes unloading cartons from around the world was fascinating. After setting sail, the rainy weather passed and soon we were out on the great blue ocean. Despite my extreme exhaustion I spent most of the day on the ship's balcony enjoying the life at sea. I was thus further inspired to take a trip on an international ferry someday from the Americas to Asia.
Partway through the day I met a really nice Korean girl and her Dutch friend (who was quite familiar with Korean culture) with whom I spent most of my time on the ferry with. They showed me a variety of Korean dishes in the restaurant as well as introduced me to Korean language and culture, most especially with some latenight drinking of a mix of Korean rice alcohol and Chinese beer out on the deck of the ship. Yet perhaps my favorite part of the trip were the middle-aged Korean women drinking, dancing, and singing karaoke (or norebong in Korean) in the ship's night club. Somehow, I found myself thinking that my mom would have fit in well with them, despite linguistic and cultural barriers.
25 hours after boarding in Tianjin we docked in Incheon, South Korea and I was able to check another country off the list. A 45 minute train ride took us into Seoul, Korea's primate metropolis. While my newly acquainted Dutch and Korean friends continued on I decided to spend the night in Seoul. After struggling with the phone system of the country (which doesn't have SIM cards and is not compatible with phones from the rest of Asia and Europe) I was able to get into contact with another friend of mine from CUHK, Andy Chui Chak Lam, who I met up with for a late night drink or two.
The next morning I boarded Korea's bullet train, the KTX, for a smooth 3 hour ride at 300km/h to Busan in the Southeast on the coast where I met my old flatmate from UMiami Dan Goldberg who is teaching English here for a year. We spent the evening walking around town and eating delicious Dolse Bat and Kimchi. Tomorrow we leave for the volcanic island Jeju Do for a few days of hiking and sightseeing.
Anyongi Geuseyo!
Unfortunately, the only train tickets left to Beijing were soft seaters. I would have felt sorry for myself and my lack of sleep had it not been for the many people in our cart who bought tickets that didn't even have seats and thus had to stand for most of the 15 hour ride (or find awkward places throughout the train to try to lie down, such as in the aisle or the washroom area).
I could barely wait any longer to get to Beijing and it was all the sweeter since I was met at the train station by my old roommate from the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK), Zhang Yin. Unfortunately, Yin and I weren't able to spend a whole lot of time together due to his internship during the day, but we still were able to go out for dinner and walk around the city every night. My days were mostly spent wandering the city, small excursions into the countryside, practicing my Chinese, and looking for the nearly impossible to find office where I could buy ferry tickets to Korea.
After 4-5 days in Beijing, I woke up at 5am to catch a 6:30am bus to Tianjin where I needed to be at 9am, 2 hours before the 11am ferry departure to Incheon, Korea. Unfortunately, however, the tourism workers at the office where I bought my ferry ticket gave me horrible directions as to how to get to Tianjin so early in the morning. After unsuccessfully looking for the obscurely located bus that was supposed to magically take me directly to the ferry, I almost broke down and gave up (perhaps partly due to a lack of sleep). Fortunately, I summoned up the courage to keep going, hailed a taxi (who at first I tried to pay to take me to Tianjin), which brought me to the Beijing South Train Station. I was amazed to find out that not only did this station have bullet trains to Tianjin that only take one 1/2 hour, they start leaving at 6:30am and some even go directly to the port city of Tanggu, located 50km outside of Tianjin, where the ferry dock is located. A 7:45 train got me to Tianjin by 8:15, while the slowest bus in the world took me twice as long to get half the distance to the port. After making it to Tanggu and catching a taxi to the dock, it was 10:30 and I was sprinting towards the ferry, barely making it through Chinese customs in time. I never thought I'd be on that boat.
All in all, the ferry was incredible, truly one of the most remarkable experiences I've had traveling thus far. While many wondered why I would want a form of transportation that takes multiple times longer than flying, I know fully understand why I made that decision. To me, there is something so much more charming about travel by land and sea (especially if public transportation). Just the port alone with all of the giant cranes unloading cartons from around the world was fascinating. After setting sail, the rainy weather passed and soon we were out on the great blue ocean. Despite my extreme exhaustion I spent most of the day on the ship's balcony enjoying the life at sea. I was thus further inspired to take a trip on an international ferry someday from the Americas to Asia.
Partway through the day I met a really nice Korean girl and her Dutch friend (who was quite familiar with Korean culture) with whom I spent most of my time on the ferry with. They showed me a variety of Korean dishes in the restaurant as well as introduced me to Korean language and culture, most especially with some latenight drinking of a mix of Korean rice alcohol and Chinese beer out on the deck of the ship. Yet perhaps my favorite part of the trip were the middle-aged Korean women drinking, dancing, and singing karaoke (or norebong in Korean) in the ship's night club. Somehow, I found myself thinking that my mom would have fit in well with them, despite linguistic and cultural barriers.
25 hours after boarding in Tianjin we docked in Incheon, South Korea and I was able to check another country off the list. A 45 minute train ride took us into Seoul, Korea's primate metropolis. While my newly acquainted Dutch and Korean friends continued on I decided to spend the night in Seoul. After struggling with the phone system of the country (which doesn't have SIM cards and is not compatible with phones from the rest of Asia and Europe) I was able to get into contact with another friend of mine from CUHK, Andy Chui Chak Lam, who I met up with for a late night drink or two.
The next morning I boarded Korea's bullet train, the KTX, for a smooth 3 hour ride at 300km/h to Busan in the Southeast on the coast where I met my old flatmate from UMiami Dan Goldberg who is teaching English here for a year. We spent the evening walking around town and eating delicious Dolse Bat and Kimchi. Tomorrow we leave for the volcanic island Jeju Do for a few days of hiking and sightseeing.
Anyongi Geuseyo!
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