Bangkok, Khao Sun Road & an Overnight Train to the Railey Penninsula

I had set off on my tour of Thailand solo, but luck threw me into the bottom bunk at the Refill Now! Hostel. Leon Smith was already in the top bunk, he was also almost over Bangkok and looking to see the better parts of Thailand. I had promised a friend I would tour a little Bangkok since, as he put it, "It makes you appreciate everywhere else so much more!" - OK, I'll take that. Leon obliged to spend a few hours snapping some shots around this exciting & very interesting to navigate city.

So he "guided" me to the canal system within the city that was once known as the "Venice of the East" - a stretch, I know, especially since I witnessed raw sewage dumping into the canal where we were jumping onto our water taxi. But anyway, it was a crowded boat and they charge like 25 cents to ride, at certain times two boats pass each other in a narrow part of the canal and everyone knows to huddle behind the plastic tarp wall that I had allowed to drop down in front of me... yep, you guessed it, splashed down the front, thanks again Buddha for not getting it into my mouth. (I had been warned to keep it closed in this situation) Lesson learned we made it to our spot and jumped out to see a temple -- SO, none of this is really interesting me anymore, I'm not into religion enough to delve inside of these places, and honestly the architecture loses it allure after about the hundredth one. I continued on, this was my first "tuk-tuk" ride, it's a motorbike/scooter which has a two, or four, or sometimes six person carriage on the back. These guys are nuts, weaving into oncoming traffic whenever it might save them a second. I was loving it, the methods of navigating this city are WAY more fun than the standard sights. Next I attempted to see the Grand Palace only to find out I wasn't dressed appropriately, (It's too hot for pants!) so we wandered through another temple. The pics will be cool but it seems that only the outdated/aging relics are on display, the real shits kept away from the tourist train and their flashing machines. Onward still, a walk to the Chao Phraya River which we took a ferry across for another quarter and yet another temple. Cheers to Leon for seeing it all through with me, I'm tired just writing about it. We didn't spend long there so back across the river we came, ended up sitting on some upside down plastic trashcans while a local man fanned the sweat off our faces. Oh wait, I forgot to mention we had just ordered "street" Pad Thai - and the local man, who was the vendor, noticed we were sweating profusely so he shared some of his air. The Pad Thai was awesome, two bucks, fresh & fast, but maybe not the best choice on a hot sticky day in Southeast Asia. Whatever, another tuk-tuk ride to the train station to finalize our plans south.

Leon didn't really have a plan, just go places he hears are cool and enjoy them. I had heard of an area where the rock climbing was second to none, and the beach was mighty fine as well, so he agreed to take the 15 hour overnight train with me. We bought our tickets, went down to the "Metro" (their version of a Subway) - this was cheap, easy and clean. Once we arrived at our stop we ascended to the "Sky Train" (an elevated train) - also cheap, easy & clean...plus a great view of the city. I felt like I'd seen my sights and now it was time to relax by the pool, have some dinner and head out for my only real night on the town.

But wait! There's one more mode of transportation I haven't mentioned, this one was Leon's favorite by far and according to him I was to "have a go," so we did. After the Skytrain there's about a 30 minute more walk to our Hostel, we were a bit out of the way for good reason, so we needed another ride. At the bottom of the stairs from the train were a row of dudes wearing red vests on scooters, like a taxi stop. We jump on the back of this thing (helmet-less mind you) and they ride us back to our place, it was nuts but I wasn't too freaked out, actually pulled my camera out and snapped a shot of Leon, best fifty cents I've ever spent on travel. These little bikes (125cc) can't go very fast with guys our size on them but it's of course the oncoming traffic I worry about, and I was wearing flip-flops. OK maybe it was a little disconcerting but it was another thrill to add to the pile so I went with it and it worked out just fine.

That night we headed out on Khao Sun Road, the infamous backpackers area where the nightly booze fest takes place, or as my friends & I from Cali like to refer to it, amateur hour. Eter Callejas, another friend from the hostel, joined us this evening, the three of us took our hostels personal tuk-tuk to the Skytrain, well almost the Skytrain. Actually we got out early since there was an elephant walking down the street and all of us wanted to have a look. We were quite buzzed but it was good times for sure, dudes let us feed it and pet it or whatever, it was a fun five minutes but the novelty wore off as we were declining taking a ride.

Once on Khao Sun it was your typical night market, with a few twists. The first was the amount of people, they were everywhere and it was like spring break, one place actually brings a 4 foot tall glass "keg" to tap right at your table. Not my style (anymore ;) but it was amusing. I just found out last night that it's currently the southern hemisphere's summer break, that coupled with Dec thru March being the "high season" most likely created this craziness. The second twist was the insect cart that came by us, I had never seen anything like it & because of my interest in trying most everything once I asked which was the best... the roasted insect merchant quickly pointed out the crickets & grasshoppers. (I guess the maggots & roaches aren't American favorites) Eter was totally down with this idea, I imagine our enthusiasm & the encouragement of a dready who had been snacking on them recently pushed Leon & I into picking out a grasshopper. He sprayed it with soy sauce, salted it, we "cheers-ed" our four inch snack and crunched it down. .. ... .... ..... It was OK!Kinda like a potato chip, the taste was fine it was the barbed legs which feel stuck in your throat until your next drink that makes it freaky. Actually took a couple beers before that feeling went away. The rest of the night was pretty normal, hit a bar with A/C, a not so common luxury which I imagine cost us a few more cents for beers in the long run. I eventually found my way back to the hostel for a good nights sleep. The next day was pretty much just recovering by the pool & packing for our trip south.

It's time for some more traveling, this time we were taking an overnight train. Our taxi was late picking us up at the hostel and it was rush hour so we were a bit stressed when we arrived at the train station with about five minutes to spare. We stocked on snacks/water and found our seats. Basically since we booked late all that was available was a 2nd Class A/C car with reclining seats, not too bad for 15 bucks, our train departed. Five minutes in our train stopped and lot's of people filed into our car from the front of the train. Hmmmm, what is going on? Not many English speakers in a 2nd Class train car leaving Bangkok... hmmmm. What's that smell? Finally somebody thought of the word Fire -- I guess the car in front of us had caught, still not clear exactly how but basically once everyone had moved all their crap from that car to our car we started backing up, back to the train station. Yippee. Of course I'm antsy anyway so I got out and watched the process of disconnecting the car from ours, waited an hour for another engine to hook-up and pull that half of the train somewhere, where they dropped off the bad car, reattached a new, hopefully safer sleeper car, and hooked the entire train back together. Another two hours go by before we leave, now I'm actually OK with this since a Thai train rushing down the one train line had no appeal to me whatsoever. We were off schedule and they needed to squeeze us in wherever there was room, I just kept thinking of the Metrolink engineer who crashed a train because he was text messaging and missed the red light. There were so many stops on our express train but once it got rolling I roamed around and saw some interesting sights. We were apparently in the "family" car, as I moved forward people were getting more and more energetic, to the point where I was blocked from going by a band jamming & singing! People were trying to set me up with drinks but since I had exhausted myself on purpose so I could sleep on this crazy train, I politely declined and wandered back to my seat for some quiet time, 13 more hours to go at this point. When I woke up it was morning and since we could actually see outside I enjoyed the rest of the ride through rural Thailand. Our train was to Trang, we took a bus from Trang to Krabi, a tuk-tuk to Au Nang and finally a longtail boat from Au Nang to Tonsai Beach, where a guy named Ronald Post was waiting to meet us.

I'll get into the best part of my trip to Thailand (so far) in my next post, this one ended up being too long.

Namhansanseong, HONG KONG, Macau & Chinese New Year

From the title I just created I'm afraid this might be a long one, I'll do my best to keep it interesting.

My last morning/afternoon in Seoul there was a sight I'd heard 

of that would give me a great view of the city as well as showing me some ancient architecture. You see, I actually wanted to spend some time in China on this journey but since they have Visa requirements that

 take a few weeks to solve (mailing it to their embassy, and waiting for them to mail it back) I opted to just go where it's easy and see the Great Wall of China some other time than the dead of winter. Namhansanseong is Ancient  Seoul's "Great Southern Fortress" - don't get the wrong impression, I know it's nothing like the real thing which I hope to hike a good size chunk of someday, but it did have many similar traits as well as showing me that Seoul isn't all about the metropolitan area's I'd become very familiar with. It was 10 degrees that morning so I bundled up and took a taxi to the top, hiked about 3 miles of the wall which had some pretty steep grades, and eventually back down to the bottom. A nice walk that landed me at a bus stop which I took back to the apartment. It was time to pack my bag and go to Hong Kong!

Jono got back from work, got his shit together and we caught an airport Limo bus to Incheon Airport. It was a four hour flight, we got into Hong Kong's airport late & rode the train to Causeway Bay which was the location of our small but centrally located Hostel. Of course we were a bit wired so we headed out to an OK bar which of course had karaoke and some pricey Hoegarten's - at the bar I introduced Jono to Liar's Dice, a game that I hadn't played in a very long time and thought would make for some good times. After a few games, and a few more beers we sang a song, Hotel California, and I think we were getting booed. Not for our voices but because they were not into an English song at that point in the evening. Whatever, we ignored and finished the song with gusto, and I think got out of there by 4am or so.

The next day was the biggest travel day I've had in a very long time, we got up early and found a cheap sushi place, figured this would be the best way to prep for an afternoon of hiking. Once full we caught the subway to a bus stop which took us to the trail head for the Dragon's Back, a portion of the Hong Kong Trail which traverses the entire island.

The trail was awesome and had some spectacular views, after what I'm estimating as 5 miles we ended up at Big Wave Beach for some pizza & beer.

(Big Wave Beach as viewed from the

 summit of our hike.) 

An hour or so later we caught another bus 15 minutes back to our area and got cleaned up for a night on the town.

On our way to the tram which would take us to a magnificent view of the city/nightly light show we wandered through the flower markets which were definitely different compared to what I'm used to seeing in the west. People take their horticulture very seriously here and produce some of the most 

amazing plants I've ever seen. We finished wandering that "fair" and caught a cab to the Peak Tram, this took us up the mountain.

 The view was sick, the entire city is laid out in front of you, both sides of the Harbor are completely visible as well was the nightly Symphony of Lights. (Because of the haziness it wasn't quite as spectacular as I've seen in pictures plus only down on the Harbor Promenade do they pipe the music in which goes with the lights.) But again, the view was amazing and the ultra modern peak tram upper viewing area was a sight in itself. After about and hour we caught a cab down and it was onto to Jumbo!

There's an area on the southwest part of the island known for it's floating restaurants, Jono had been to the most famous one named "Jumbo" a few years prior and wanted me to experience what they had to offer. He had seen them serve a meal which was prepared at the table and all he remembered was crazy flames. This place was different, we took a boat to the establishment and requested that whatever flaming dish he saw last time be brought to our table. 

The name of the dish was "Drunken Shrimp" -- So here's how it went:

They roll a cart next to your table with a clear glass bowl full of 16 fairly large live shrimp. They have it covered and the server barely lifts the cover to pour Chinese Wine into the bowl. I was noticing that she seemed paranoid something might go wrong but kept pouring more of this wine into the bowl, and the shrimp started freaking out. You see, they're sober, and then the wine gets them drunk so they start to "dance," one actually jumped through the opening upon the 4th pour and onto the cart. It was hilarious, and she seemed unsure of how we would respond. (Of course by that point we were toasting with the neighbors, the staff and the drunk shrimp which made her feel much more comfortable.) After a few more minutes the shrimp had worn themselves out, passed out drunk in their jacuzzi of wine, so she removed the cover and lit the entire bowl on fire! Yeah, now it was starting to make sense, we insisted on tasting the wine and it was hot, spicy and had to be well over a hundred proof the way it lit up so brilliantly. After the flames died down she added some veggies & spices, stirred it up some more and poured those bad-boys onto our plates. The taste was like nothing I've ever had, the shrimp had soaked up a good amount of the wine which then assisted cooking them from the inside out, the spices were new and had also absorbed, pretty much fused with the shrimp meat.

They served it with a spicy dipping sauce which went perfectly, and we finished it up with some unique fried rice. Definitely one of my top 5 dining experiences ever.

By the time we got out of there and back on the island we felt perfect so it was time for a night on the town, we were aiming for Soho but ended up in Lan Kwai Fong (the next neighborhood over, close enough for a couple of drunks on a Chinese bus at midnight) - people were everywhere and there doesn't seem to be any kind of open container law ;) After a few we headed to another neighborhood called Wan Chai, here we found a pub where the girls were dancing on the bar (Coyote Ugly style) so Jono got up there and stared working his magic, it was an impressive sight while I slumped in a corner due to our 18 hour day and eventually called it a night. On the way home I got accosted by several obnoxious "mama-sans" trying to coax me into their bars/brothels, which seemed nice enough but not my style, although I was amused.

The next day we checked out, went back to that same sushi place for more raw energy and caught a hydrofoil ferry to Macau, another Chinese Territory that I'm considering SE Asia's Las Vegas. 

An hour ride to the port seemed like nothing, that ship cruised, once docked and through

 immigration we caught a cab to our Hotel Sun-Sun. Again I'm not going to bore you with details of sightseeing but we spent the next few hours wandering around sampling the local cuisine which consisted of a mix of Portuguese & Cantonese, and was quite good. Saw some ruins, temples and strolled back to our hotel to clean up for dinner and casino hopping.

Now we basically checked out the MGM Grand & the Wynn first to get a feel for the place, and then started walking through the rest of the Macaunese casinos which were different.

 Nobody drinks, there were no booze on the tables and it seemed rather quiet, everyone was drinking coffee. This was not what we were looking for but we went through probably six or seven before we gave up and went back to the Wynn. I lost some money which is stupid since I'm unemployed, but Jono won big and took care of me the rest of the night which somehow made everything OK.  (Thanks again buddy!) That was another long night where we were surprised once and a while by tremendous amounts of m-80's exploding every 20 minutes or so. (Fireworks are legal in Macau) - the next morning we caught a cab to the ferry terminal and headed to Kowloon Peninsula, our home for the next two nights.

Kowloon was nice, we walked though the park on our way to our hotel and stumbled upon a hedge maze. We were staying near the harbor at the Kowloon Hotel, fairly pimp since it was New Year's and this was what I was considering my last "nice" place for the next 2 weeks. I donned my provided robe immediately and relaxed before the parade festivities.

At this point we had a few cocktails and since it's easier to tell this part of the story with pictures I'll just do that. I will say that it was an amazing parade that took several hours, and we had a fantastic time.

So

 that night came to an end and the next day I spent prepping for my time in Thailand, that night was the fireworks. Pretty much the entire city surrounds the harbor to view the three floating barges sending their choreographed gunpowder displays into the sky, our challenge was finding a nice central spot to enjoy and take pictures. Again, this went on for 25 minutes and was the best fireworks display I've seen this side of Vegas NYE - (sorry Hong Kong, the strip has you beat for this one) It was longer, and classier, but not as much... Vegas goes big with music that's more my style so now I think I need to go back next year to compare.  (Video of Finale)

After dealing with getting "herded" into the center of town we found our way to the Temple Street Night Market for some souvenir shopping and dinner. This place was crazy cheap and had everything I needed. I had mis-placed my hat the night before and found a replacement for like seven bucks, sorry Bethany it was a good five years :( We had dinner at a very local establishment and made it an early night since Jono had to be at the airport by 10am and I wanted to see one last sight, the Giant Buddha!

On yet another island, Lantau, there is a gondola to the top of a mountain where there lives a giant stone Buddha. (64 meters) So I parted ways with my com padre and made my way to this final Hong Kong destination. It was foggy as hell, and crowded, but I made my way up a long set of stairs to that incredible shrine. It was HUGE, but like I said it was also crowded being the most major holiday weekend of the year, so I bounced after shooting some shots and found my way back down and to the airport for my flight to Bangkok.

That's where I am now. I got into a very chill Hostel last night, made some friends, had some dinner, a few brews and got a nice nights sleep. It's hot & sunny, there's humidity which I haven't felt since Europe last summer, and mosquito's for my first time since Peru last May. It's a good thing I remembered my DDT & After bite. There's a pool & I'm paying $14/night, not bad at all. I'm off to tour the city and tomorrow I'll start my journey south, first stop will be the Krabi Peninsula for some climbing and whatever, we shall see & if you made it this far you'll probably read all about it in my next post in a week or so.

Gyeongju, the DMZ & an Old Friend

When I last left off I was VERY frustrated and slightly scared about my reemergence of Poison Oak. Long story short, I found that ancient "Korean" secret in a pharmacy, guess they're more used to seeing this type of reaction to a natural toxin than I considered, and with a few over the counter pills the "rash" (not blisters thank Buddha) seems to be in remission.

Now I didn't want to spend my entire week in Korea in Seoul, so after a little research and advice from Jono I decided to travel south by bus to the
town of Gyeongju, the ancient seat of the Silla Dynasty. I won't bore you with the sightseeing, let's just say it was something I've never seen before and I found very interesting. The 5000 year old history of the Korean Peninsula has been fascinating me way more than I expected, and I had no problem strolling around this strangely modern city dotted with a large number of enormous tombs, restored pagodas & pavilions. Once my feet got tired I caught a cab to a resort Jono had referred me to because they have another sweet Jimjilbang. My plan was to stay overnight here, an idea I wasn't completely comfortable with since I was not actually getting my own space. But for about $12 I had unlimited internet access, (that's where I wrote my last post from) a multitude of hot tubs & saunas, and what I discovered was a nice little cubby hole under a stage where people are allowed to crash. The way this works is it's a full service, 24 hour spa and there's no re-entry, so once your in you need to stay in until your satisfied, otherwise you need to pay again to get back in. They provide blankets, some cushions to rest your head and a warm padded floor. That night I pretty much just relaxed & read, this being the point of the Jimjilbang, your not to leave until you are physically & mentally where you want to be. The next morning I was up early, had one more steam and caught a 20 minute cab to Bulguksa.

Here's a shot of the temple entrance, there were a ton of other structures involved and at least five different huge golden Buddhas that I was not allowed to snap shots of, and I didn't, I don't need any karma issues this early in my trip. This took me about an hour to roam around but the real reason I had come to this area was the mountain it was situated at the bottom of, Tomhansan Peak (2444 ft) the highest in that province, I had planned to climb it while also seeing yet another huge stone Buddha in a cave, a place called Sokkuram Grotto. I couldn't find the trail until I noticed six gray clad monks wandering up a path. I wasn't sure if just anyone could speak with them, if they would understand me or if they could respond, but since they were the only local looking peeps around I decided they might have my answer. One of the older gentlemen gestured me towards a younger monk who spoke better English, this young bald dude was wearing an Adidas backpack over his monk attire, and said I was on the right path. (I though to myself, does he mean enlightenment?)

Anyway, up I went and it was sweet, a walk through the woods on a crisp day in January. The woods were similar to where I grew up in Pennsylvania but not the same, they have a few trees I was not familiar with and the grades are very steep. Like if the Sierras were the height of the Appalachians. After about an hour I made it to the grotto, checked out the big old Buddha in a cave, and kept going up the mountain. Another 30 minutes to the summit and it was awesome, I could see the Sea of Japan to the east & south. I think on a less hazy day I could have seen Japan, but I was pleased with this 360 degree view of South Korea, it gave me a better sense of the how small it really is. I hiked back down and caught the bus into town, and then another bus back to Seoul. It was a good overnight adventure and my feet were tired. (I'm travelin' light, no hiking shoes just my sneakers)

I got back to Jonos house by dark, chilled out until he got home and then we went out for Gamjatang. (potato stew with pig spine) I was impressed, it falls right off the bone and has great flavor while maintaining it's tenderness. Once finished we wandered around his neighborhood a bit and made it back to the apartment. We took it fairly easy that night since he had to work the next day & I had to be up at 6am to get to my tour, so we watched a Korean flick called "Old Boy." Yes it was subtitled, but I found it very intelligent, it was the first time in a while that I didn't need to be dazzled by special effects. The acting & writing was very good, and kept you guessing till the very end. I recommend.

The next morning I got up early & it was snowing. I had to ride the subway into Seoul (1 1/2 hours) to the hotel where my tour into the Demilitarized Zone was leaving from. This started out like any other, too much talking and not enough seeing. We first saw the "Freedom Bridge" that was used to exchange POW's after the Korean War. I got my passport stamped at Dorasan Station, the last train station before North Korea which isn't actually functioning... yet... they have high hopes. After this we went to an observatory which had restrictions on photography, and since it was another hazy day we couldn't see much from there except for the two huge flags in the DMZ, the closest on the south side in Freedom Village, and the further in the North within Propaganda Village. (So named b/c the north used to blare communist propaganda 24 hours a day towards the south, I guess they've come to an agreement to settle down a bit. What I did find amusing was that the south used to respond with blasting "happy" music right back at them.)

The conclusion of this half of the tour was the "3rd Tunnel" - 73 meters deep it was discovered because the engineer who designed the tunnel escaped from the north and told the south, there have been a total of four tunnels discovered so far. We walked down and through to the first of three concrete barriers under the DMZ, it was pretty cool & once again for security purposes we were not allowed to take any pictures once inside the tunnel ;)

They fed us a beef stew for lunch, while a Japanese man who had been trapped in North Korea and defected performed a few songs for us, it was a little odd but entertaining. After this it was time to go to the Joint Security Area (JSA) - when an important meeting is held, this is the area crowded with guards and media. We had full on South Korean MP escorts the entire time, and were not allowed to take any pics unless told to. I saw a North Korean Officer as well as the room with the line down the middle, actually stood on the other side of the line and had my picture taken with a guard. It was intense, and they stressed to us over and over how serious and volatile the relations between the two sides are. You would think things would calm down over the past 50 years. The last part of this tour was our closest view of North Korea proper and The Bridge of No Return. For those of you who remember Mission Impossible II, this was the bridge that Tom Cruise got traded on, I forget exactly why. Basically if someone decides to go across it that's it, they're there for good, no in's & out's, like Cox Arena but with landmines, bad weather and a shitload of barbed wire.

Got back to Seoul and met Jono in Gangnam, although I'm probably paying way too much for it text messaging is helping me out a lot on this trip. We started at a Thai bar drinking Belgium beer, moved on to more Galbi & Soju, met some Korean dudes who liked our style, (our style being let's all do a bunch of shots) and went across the street for Noribong, Korean style karaoke. It was good but we both had agendas and couldn't stay too long. (Plus they only served non-alcoholic brews, whatever) Jono had a big work day the next day and I was trying to meet up with an old college buddy who Ben Nevin (another MU alum) had informed me was also teaching in Seoul.

So I was pretty well lit, Jono was crashin' out and at this point I'm feeling pretty confident in my Seoul navigation skillz. I contacted Matt Leach, after according to him its been 14 years. (although I can't put my finger on it like he did, Mansfield was hazy times and for some reason I didn't realize he'd actually left Mansfield by the end of '95. I was there till the end of '97.) Anyway, caught a cab and found him in the Samsung Plaza, he's living just 2 subway stops over from where I was in an area called Bundang. I had actually been there the Saturday prior so we went to that same Irish bar that he was familiar with, and proceeded to reminisce about our days at MU. It was amazing, such a nice guy and he hasn't changed a bit. Same sense of humor, easy too talk to and an all around good guy. We caught up on what we'd been doing for the past decade or so and I actually received a call from Ben (the great unite-er) about 3am our time -- because it's like $500/minute we kept it short but it was just surreal reacquainting with each other in some random Irish pub in a suburb of Seoul, Korea, and talking to Ben like he was up the street. I'm hoping to get Matt & Jono together since they seem to be on similar paths here on the Korean Peninsula but we shall see, for now I'm just happy to have had the opportunity to bring that part of my life back in such a positive manner.

I've been extremely hungover all day and haven't left the house, I'm calling it a rest day. Tomorrow I may see a sight or two but come 6pm we start our journey to Hong Kong. Two nights in a hostel on Hong Kong Island, a night in Macau, and then two more nights on the Kowloon Peninsula at a pretty sweet spot just off the parade route. I'm not sure when I'll get to do this again so for now Gung Hay Fat Choy! (That's Happy New Year in Cantonese, I'm spelling it phonetically) It's the year of the Ox, let's hope that's a good thing ;)

Seoul & a Jimjilbang, Good Times, Bad Times

I'm typing on a bright pink keyboard right now.
Once I got to Seoul Jono hooked me up with his fancy apartment key and a "T" card, you juice this thing up with Won, stash it in your wallet and use it for all transit. (buses, subway & taxi's) We chilled for an hour or so at his house, drank a beer and left to get some food. He wanted to introduce me to Galbi (Korean BBQ) in his neighborhood (Yatap) but we got sidetracked with my T card education and just got on the subway to Itaewon. This is the area of town that's got nightlife, and we found a pretty good Galbi joint right off the subway.

So they bring the marinated meat to your table and cook it right there with 'shrooms, garlic and whatever else you wanna pile on there...it was great. This was my first introduction to Gimchi also, which I'm still not sure about but I keep trying. Gimchi (I think) is cabbage that gets soaked in their version of hot sauce, buried in the ground before winter and left to ferment for a few months or maybe a year. Regardless it's very strong, and different, but seems to be a staple such as cole slaw for us, hot carrots in Mexico, or sauerkraut for the Poles. I'm trying to acquire the taste for it but most people I've spoken to about it say it took them at least a month to get used to it.

Two of Jono's friends, Sue & Ben, joined us at the Galbi joint and we proceeded to drink this great Soju that's served from a Bamboo pitcher and tastes like apple cider, it was a good start to the night. From there we went to a bar, had some beers, did a few Jaeger shots and moved on to a Hookah bar.

Here's where it gets interesting, because by this point Jono & Sue were hammered. We toked on the hookah for a bit while swilling beers and after about and hour I realized Jono was MIA, yet one of his shoes was still at our booth? I had done like three laps around the bar and he was no where to be found. Ben said he knew where he was, so we we went to the bar-back, asked him to unlock the bathroom and there was Jono passed out on the can. (mind you, with one shoe on) I guess he never smokes Hookahs, got dizzy and needed some quiet time ;) Anyway, when we got back to our booth Sue was passed out as well. It was time to start winding down, the time was about 3am.

We got out of there, put Sue in a cab, and they wanted me to see"Hooker Hill" which was very similar to Amsterdam's red light district, hotties competing for our attention from doorways wearing almost nothing and it's like 10 degrees, hilarious, and hot, but mostly hilarious. Once Jono & I each took a dive (ice + drunk + hill = fall down go boom) we hit one more bar, since they never close, and had another beer. Finally we decided to really call it a night, so we got some kebabs (basically gyros with thinner bread) & meat sticks (chicken) then caught a cab back to his crib for some sleep. (It was noon my time, 5am in Korea.)

The next day (Saturday) we had some breakfast and spent the day on the computer booking our rooms in Hong Kong & Macau. Eventually we went to the Jimjilbang, a Korean bathhouse/sauna. This was killer, many different temperatures of hot pools, cold pools, western style (stand up) showers, eastern style (sitting) - a sweat lodge, different styles of Sauna, some just plain hot, some thick with Eucalyptus, the floors in Korea are heated so people would just lie wherever, I guess if your into it one can just pass out here for the night in a quiet corner. The actual Jimjilbang is co-ed and seems to be where families or couples go for a night to eat, and get massages or whatever. We actually did this treatment for like seven bucks, you put your feet in a pool and these little fish nibble all the dead skin off. (Dr. Fish) It was weird but I guess I needed it cause they pretty much ignored Jonos toes while they were mackin' on mine...10 years of wandering OB barefoot, I'd built up some grime :) We got some beers for this experience, I needed to be distracted cause yes, I'm ticklish, and it was. There's also a gym and all the spa amenities that any girl who reads this is used to, I wasn't so familiar.
Now it gets strange again, Jono wanted to get a scrub. For like 8 bucks some dude in the bathhouse will scrub you with a rough loofah to strip your dead skin off, supposedly this is very healthy and effective. So we did it. It was like a massage, except rougher, faster, and a little painful. We were obviously smoother when it was all over, I think I lost a significant amount of lower leg hair, but in the end (we were there like 6 hours) we were incredibly relaxed & rested. I forgot to mention that we both passed out for an hour or 2 in one of the more mild temperature saunas. We went to an Irish Pub around 1am for a few pitchers and got home around 5, my hours are all messed up, I'm obviously jet-lagged. Cheers to Jono who had no problem staying up and entertaining me.

OK --- now I need to sidebar, about 5 days after I got laid off (December 10) my friend Tom & I went to visit our buddy Dave in Mendocino County (12 hours north, above SF) - we both needed to get away. I brought my dirt bike with me since he lives on 80 acres of woods, and within an hour I ran out of trails. So Dave mentioned that we could clear an old logging road, with both of our recent life changes this seemed like the perfect outlet for any frustrations we might feel. So we busted out the Chainsaw, clippers, machetes, and cleared some 40 year old brush. Spent 2 days doing it and made a damn fine road if I do say so myself. We got it done just before their first snowfall of the season, the next day they got 8 inches and I realized I had contracted Poison Oak.

POISON OAK IS EVIL! You see, I used to get poison ivy pretty bad as a kid, and had gotten some cases of poison oak since living in Cali, so I wasn't too worried. But it kept getting worse, on the 5th day I had to drive Tom to the SF airport and my right forearm was oozing puss, yeah, I know, nasty. I was disgusted as was he, I could barely sleep since it actually hurt as well as itched. That night we met up with some friends in the city (DJ Mikey Lixxx & his girl Kristen) and I proceeded to drink as many Long Island iced teas as I could just so I could get a good nights sleep. Woke up the next morning and it had gotten even worse, my entire arm was a blister, so I went to St Francis' Emergency Room in downtown San Fran, where they were even amazed/repulsed/confused - so I told them I needed a steroid shot, as well as pills, which is how we used to treat it when I was a kid. They obliged, thank god, and I hit up the pharmacy for some Valium, 600 mg Ibuprofen & prednisone (the magical steroid that's really bad for me but seems to be the only thing that works) -- I was on my way to recovery, after a night in Mill Valley @ another old friends house I picked up Dorothy at the airport and went back to Dave's for some R & R.

By the 22nd we were driving home & it was drying up, YIPPEE! I felt way better and other than the fact that I was shedding skin things seemed to be looking up.

Around Christmas I had run out of the pills they had given me, yet I still had a few patches on various parts of my body. Luckily years ago I had made a run to Mexico to pick those magic pills up for a situation just like this, so I took more. I knew I was coming to Korea and the last thing I wanted to do was deal with this here, so I made an appointment with my doctor for January 5, I told him my story & he told me to put some aloe on it. I did for 3 days and it was still sticking around, WTF, so I called him and he gave me yet another 'script for prednisone. It's January 8th, I leave on the 14th. I took it and honest to god it was gone. I had a few random dry patches on my arm but it was really gone, and I was happy since this was the last thing I wanted to deal with in Asia.

Now back to the scrub, and it's effects... It brought the poison oak back! Yeah, really, my right arm is blistered again and my lower legs are covered, I noticed it on Sunday and hoped it was just a fluke, hoped I had enough of that damn steroid in my system to clear it out. Nope, it's now Monday night and it seems to be right back where I was on day 3 or 4 (Dec 14th) - where the hell do I go in Korea to get this treated? How do I explain it? I called Dorothy to send me the remaining pills I have at home and it's Sunday there, Monday's MLK day and there's no mail, so the soonest she can get them out is Tuesday which means I see them maybe Thursday?!?!? WTF, I need an ancient "Korean" secret or something.

Today I took a bus to Gyeongju, 4 hours from Seoul, I'll get into that in my next post.

A Rough Start, But a Start None The Less

Since my last post plans came together. I'm currently in Seoul, Korea at my friend Jon-o's house.

But from the beginning: I bought a round trip to Seoul for a month starting January 14. The rough start was that I mis-read my ticket, missed my flight and United didn't have any good solutions for me other than dropping $800 additional bucks to get here 4 days later than I had planned. Soooooo, I kept the United "credit" - got onto the internet and found a ticket leaving the next morning for $200 more than I had originally paid. ($1000 for a next day ticket! Somebody's on my side for a deal like that) I bought it since over the next 6 months I'm spending a LOT of time in airports, and I'll be able to use that ticket for anything from flying to India, back east to the Outer Banks or back from Alaska. Whatever, it's money in the bank and luckily I have the credit.

Now I'm here for 7 days, and then Jon-o & I are off to Hong Kong January 23rd. Supposedly spending 2 nights on Hong Kong Island, than a boat ride for a night in Macau, and then back to Kowloon (Hong Kong mainland) for the actual Chinese New Year festivities. I may have a cocktail or 2 ;)

At this point Jon-o has to go back to Seoul for work, and I catch another flight to Bangkok. This part of the trip is still very much up in the air. Because it's basically February at this point I'm leaning towards not going into northern Thailand and heading south toward the island of Phuket. South of there is the Krabi Peninsula where I hope to spend a few days deep water soloing. (rock climbing over water without ropes)

From here I hope to travel to the east coast and catch a ferry to Cambodia, travel overland to Phnom Penh, take a boat to Siem Reap & explore Angkor Wat. Eventually circling back to Bangkok (overland) - flying back to Seoul for 2 nights and then home on February 12th just in time for Dorothy's birthday.

I'm back in SD on the 18th of February, 12 days later I board a plane for 3 weeks in Australia & New Zealand.

I'm not sure if I'm road-tripping to Alaska in April or June, but whatever, either month will work out.

The first week of May I'm climbing Mount Rainier with 2 old friends (Jimmy Diliberto & Andy Gough) - details have yet to be ironed out but it seems this is actually going to happen. I can't wait.

Sometime shortly after that I'm leaving for New Delhi for some India exploration, but the real goal is to meet Gough & Scott Jablow in Kathmandu for our trek to EBC. (Everest Base Camp) - this one needs to be ironed out more, they've already bought their tickets and I WILL be meeting them there, I'm just not sure when I'm coming back since I'll need to travel back overland to New Delhi for a flight back to Cali.

July we're heading to the Outer Banks for some R & R and after that, well, I'm pushing for Portugal, Spain, Morocco, maybe Egypt. But my Dad might get us involved in a Mediteranean cruise, which isn't such a bad thing, just a little more "civilized" than I'm used to.

Who knows if this can all happen, I'd like it to but don't have any idea where I'll stand financially at that point. We shall see...