Everything since that night

Doing as much catch up as I can right now. Winter is coming and all...

When we left off, I had just had some chips and beer with some lovely new friends.

Later that night, Rowan and I went to meet a mutual friend from.last year at Kimchee Guesthouse - Daniel. We meet him at his job neat the playground for some pizza and beer, and then to Thursday Party for tequila and beer pong. Along the way we found Calvin and all went for some extra food and drink and a cool underground bar with a built in waterfall.

Fast forward to 8am and Calvin is freaking out because he left his phone at the bar and his flight is at 10am. Add to the game to that he also.missed his initial flight to Korea from Japan and you begin to see a trend appear. I'm over this shit and head to bed to leave him to it. Gilbert, one of that the staff and also still drunk like the rest of us is doing his best to arrange things for Calvin to go.

The after waking up and getting a Kebab I make the grim discovery of Calvin's phone in my pocket. I get back to the hostel and find that he's ditched his flight to stay for his phone. Everyone is pissed at him for this and he's broke as all sweet hell. I tell him the good news and explain that his tiny iPhone 2 is smaller than my wallet and I had no recollection of picking it up for him, nor could easily feel it in my pocket earlier that morning. He was a little pissed at first but was happy to have his phone back. He now works at the hostel to pay for his room. Until he leaves.

That afternoon I get off my lazy ass and rent a bike down at the river. I overestimated the bicycle quality and soon found myself with semi flat tyres, buckled wheels, poor brakes and chain slippage. Still powered 20km in the hour rental duration though. The cycle ways are excellent here with great views of the high rises dotting the river.

The next day I head to the baseball stadium and sit in the LG section to support my favorite team. The amount of crowd participation is insane, with everyone chanting and singing along to theme songs and cheering for the big hits. LG lose in the end but I'm keen to go there again.

That night I meet Daniel again for some early birthday drinks at his hookah bar in Sinchon.  The place was dead but we got pretty smashed. He fell down the stars and sprained his arm and ankle. I split a flaming drink all over my hand and the bar as I picked it up. Good times.

It's now the 2nd of June and I await whatever plans John had been trying to organise.  Unfortunately he drowned his s6 edge while It was charging and wasn't able to quite complete said plans. I was merely told to expect a few old friends at the hostel that night. Trouble was this Turkish guy that smelled insanely bad was hanging around.  A group of guests even resorted to drinking in the smoking room to avoid him. Unfortunately he smoked also. Worse still was the story of why he came to Korea. This gentleman came to seek out the Korean military, because of their technological advances, to aid him in removing a chip in his brain that was causing him to receive signals like a human antenna. We were all thoroughly freaked and told him he stank. He was apologetic and left us alone.

With no one turning up by midnight, a group of us went to the playground and into the clubs as we so often do until daylight.

June 3rd and some Singaporean guys are keen to drink. Given as its as Friday that means all the kimchee staff have to join in as well. Culturally, if you do not join in on your workplace drinks, you're a social outcast and criminal. About a dozen of us got stuck in with a brief appearance by the owner for a shot or two. We hit the clubs yet again that night, and I'm getting really sick of all my clothes smelling like cigarettes, but the laws are slowly changing here to ban smoking in clubs.

June 4th and oh my God.  An old American mate and I head to the swanky side of town to catch a set by a few Djs that will play at Ultra Korea. It's in a hotel club and there are some seriously gorgeous people here. We sit down and have a drink, followed by a group of said gorgeous people sitting next to us - we don't just look like a group because of this, but we look like guests of the hotel.

As the beer flows and a bottle.of vodka appears on the table, we're assured that all the beer is complimentary, but we didn't realise and nor did the water ever say it was complimentary for hotel guests, given as we were sitting in the unsigned hotel guests seating.

After flashing a several hundred dollars bill at us we remain staunch at having done nothing wrong and are let off the hook due to the confusion. The entire group of us were asked to leave the reserved seating so it's not like we were alone in the confusion.

As a result of the 18 dollar Redhill vodkas at the hotel bar, we leave and make for Hongdae.  We check out some reason
Open air rooftop bars and have some Hennessy along the way. We meet an apparent local legend and bar owner along the way and head to his joint for some tequila Jager grenades. Quite the eventful night in the end.

That brings to now, 502am and trying to write this while I have the motivation.  Last night I went to the playground for just a few hours to see the Singaporeans off. Met some friendly faces and old acquaintances along the way, but didn't really drink much at all. Tomorrow should be a proper day of rest as I prepare for the new checkins at the hostel, and the welcome shots we will give them.

Blue and a View

Drum festival was absolutely awesome. I didn't realise how much I had missed the previous night by leaving for dinner, and this time a hostel mate and I stayed until the end.  Later that night, a few of us went to the park and ended up at some club.  Standard stuff really.

The next day, I met with a new friend for coffee and a tour around a few new places. We visited the Blue House, which as you might guess is the Korean version of the White House, and had a look around the back end of the main palace. They have some evening opening hours going at the moment which would be nice to see.

We then taxi'd up a mountain on the southern side of the city called Palgakjeong. The view was good but there was just a bit too much smog preventing us from seeing the whole city. Taking the long way down, we followed a hiking trail for about an hour before reaching civilisation again. The most astounding thing I noticed along the way were the birds. I could actually see and hear birds! I hadn't realised that I'd not heard any during my time in the city until just then. I reminisced briefly about home and carried on.

Some chips and beer rounded off the night with grand plans forming for the coming weekend.

I'm not dead, yet

Since the pub crawl last Saturday, it's basically been a downhill spiral of me quickly losing my morning hours in exchange for more evening hours. 2, to 3, to 5am finishes have often left me without any motivation to do too much during the afternoon, but I have actually accomplished a few things.

I've visited the rose garden festival out in Jungnang, with its hundreds of varieties of roses lining trellis tunnels between the main gardens.

I've hung out in the basking area of Hongdae, with particularly good performances from the dance groups. One guitarist however was an absolute showman, walking down from his podium and getting right up close to anyone with their camera out for a better shot.

I've partied with the guesthouse regulars many times, and often hatched terrible plans to go out drinking only once 2-3am has rolled around.

One of the workers here will be studying at Seoul National University, so I joined them to find and explore the campus. On yet another bloody mountain (as many campuses seem to be), the campus was a gorgeous place with an already vibrant evening well on the cards, as evident by the groups of students congregating with their chicken and beer.

That evening a half dozen of us went to the local international bar Thursday Party for some beer pong. I won my game, but the other kiwi here (and also from Chtistchurch) didn't fair so well.

Throw in the odd day of rest and finally catching us up to yesterday. I went out to Seoul City Hall for the Seoul Drum Festival in the early afternoon. It didn't start until 8pm, and I spent the afternoon lounging on the Lawns in front of the stage/city hall as the groups did rehearsals and sound checks. I took the time to finish off my book in the lovely weather as I did so. Particularly good performances had the drum groups playing along to rock and dubstep tracks, which I thought was awesome.

As the evening rolled on, I caught up with an old friend for dinner, and we partied into the whee hours back in Hongdae Playground, making and forgetting new friends in the haze of convenience store alcohol.

Today I will be going back to the drum festival for more sweet music as my anticipation for Ultra Korea grows. There's some other music performances happening in Itaewon afterwards which I'll check out as well. Hopefully I'm still alive tomorrow!

Seoul

Day 1 back in Seoul and I decide to make it a quiet one (as far as drinking goes) while I try to get some things planned for the rest of the trip. There's a couple friends about an hour outside the city that I'll need to catch up with when able, but the real challenge is trying to contact everyone that's in the city whose kakaotalk IDs I'm missing. Friends of friends will need to relay messages for me.

I went out to a bookstore to pickup some korean study books, which it turns out I don't happen to like once I've torn off the packaging. Ah well, at least I can read it. Practice makes better (never perfect), as my teacher would say.

A nice walk around in the 30 degree heat wasn't nearly as bad as it is in NZ. How I'm not already sunburnt is beyond me, but I plan to do the same again today - gotta get those 20k steps in, and exploring certainly helps with that.

The local university is abuzz with people - turns out I'm in the middle of some double weekend long celebration. To my surprise, Psy had been singing there last night, and is due to perform again at another university next weekend, along with some other kpop groups - something to gate crash.

At this university however, they've setup a hundred mini pubs in the stadium alongside the stage. As night falls, the throng of people crossing the road to pass the gates reminds me of shibuya in Japan. They have all sorts of things going on as I walk the grounds, even a dance battle right along the main street. I do not feel enriched for having witnessed it. The stage captures the attention of thousands of students, while I have zero idea who is performing. The crowd engagement is intense - something that's all to easy to notice missing at other gigs.

More amusing were the water balloon throwing booths. Several hapless Koreans with their heads sticking through holes in a slab of MDF were relentlessly pelted by passers by for a dollar or two.

Temporary tattoos (it's illegal to do real ones without being an actual doctor here), surfing simulators, knickknacks and freebies galore made for a wonderous, albeit completely confusing night given my current level of korean language. The hustle and bustle and hecticness is exciting regardless.

This morning I find myself at my breakfast cafe a bit later than usual, and to my detriment. The place is packed. A seat at the bar was my only option for writing this with a cappuccino next to me. I scoped out a dog and cat cafe yesterday that I'll look at visiting before lunch. Reportedly they have crazy cat lady levels of animals on hand to play with while you have afternoon tea.

Tonight however is the last day of the Hongdae university celebrations, which I'll align with a pub crawl in the same area to catch up with Tasos, one of the owners/guides of the crawl. That just leaves me with occupying myself between afternoon and evening. Idle hands and all that.

Taipei 101

The next day (three days ago now) we went for the tallest building in Taiwan, and 5th tallest in the world, Taipei 101. This thing was a massive piece of engineering that surely only the most demented of minds would consider putting together. The view was great though, and I picked up an obligatory magnet soivineer at the top.

Later that night we had dinner with another of Judy's friends and maid of honour, Brigit. Afterwards we all headed back to our apartment for some after dinner drinkies and the usual games that accompany them. Another of her friend's, Akin, brought some Taiwanese whiskey for me to try, which was particularly good at ruining us with the games.

In the morning (two days ago) we walk from the station to the national museum. The most noteworthy exhibit was perhaps the history surrounding their national flag prior to the Japanese invasion. The famous, original, gold tiger on a blue flag has been missing since it's transfer to the Japanese emperor's palace during the war. Reportedly, a copy was commissioned by the japanese, which is what now hangs in the museum. The original's whereabouts remain unknown.

Next it was a short walk through the park to the national war memorial. Squirrels were aplenty in the trees as we went, and always invited a dozen picture takers whenever they appeared. As we went, we came across a practice ceremony for the swearing in of the next president. Volunteers were guiding (or being dragged by) giant inflated balloon people as the announcers rehearsed their speeches. The best part was watching the officials try to keep people out of the path of the balloons, and the odd cruiser sauntering through with no fucks given as to what was going on around them.

Yesterday was just about wrapping up affairs here in Taiwan. We saw Dave's mum off at the station, and went ourselves after watching Captain America at the cinema. Very cool movie.

I got to my hostel after midnight, and was sad to find no one partying in the common room. Will have to fix that tomorrow.

Taipei

Last night after arriving in taipei and checking into our room, we hit up a party Judy had arranged with all her friends in the city. To the best if my recollection, there was Rosanne, Susie, Cindy, Summer, Jenny, and Momo.  There were some dudes there too but meh to them. Summer is a piece of work, and taught me some interesting Chinese phrases that I dare not try to repeat in present company. A few of us went to a bar afterwards for some followup drinks and the games I love to play with them. Talk of a club was quickly abandoned after cost and distance were factored into the equation. Maybe another night.

Earlier today we met up with a couple of Judy's friends and took a 45min drive out of town to an old gold mining complex. The museum there was quite interesting, and they have a saying where if you can pick up the brick of gold, you can take it. It's worth 15mil nzd and weighs enough to mean it at 223kg.

For dinner we found a hot pot buffet restaurant, complete with beer and ice cream on the unlimited menu. Oh cappuccino ice cream, I know you're not paleo, but I don't give a damn. Things I didn't know I would be trying, and liking, included congealed ducks blood, cow stomach and cow lung. All very nice in the spicy broth of the hot pot.

As I type this, my legs and feet are being tended to by a masseuse. I've never had a foot massage before, and the feeling at times is an intense, almost cringe worthy pressure in all the typically sorest and cramp prone spots. On the whole though its very nice when I'm trying not to laugh from the otherwise ticklishness of the experience.

Red Wedding

We chilled out last night with some fruit before going to dinner around the corner. Red dragonfruit, I'm told, may make it appear as though I'm bleeding the next time I sit down on the toilet. That the kind of info that would be good to know beforehand... At dinner, Judy's parents paid for everything - awesome. I did however have the worst beer of my life.

You see, because it's so hot over here, only the necessities get put in the fridge. I consider beer just one such necessity, but they don't here. Rather than serve their customers a warm beer, they bloody ice in it! Sacrilegious! Still drank it.

This morning we all got ready and headed to what can only be described as a wedding factory. This building was made for weddings. It had 6 floors with the least two wedding halls on each - all of which were in use today, the same day as Judy and Dave's wedding.

160+ guests, and the servers had everything down pat. The technicolor lazerlight show during the initial food presentation was certainly interesting, but hey, when in Rome. We had a 7 course banquet of largely fish based meats. I picked up a bottle of Johnny Walker to have a tipple with the groom - smooth-coughblarghcough.

Judy wore a traditional, long red dress with gold embroidery. The guests however were all rather casually dressed. Many even talked during the speeches given by her 92 year old grandfather. As westerners, we'd call that rude, but here it's the norm. The whole ceremony itself is very quick anyway. They're all giving gifts of money, so maybe they feel they're entitled to be noisy.

After all the food and all the pictures, I've retired back home while Dave and Judy do some final family pictures in the park, complete with 30 degree heat. We'll all chill tonight and pack to leave tomorrow. It's off to Taipei where more fun awaits for 4 more nights, before we all part ways.

All tofu prior to today now seems good...

After killing some time last night, we hit up the food markets. Everything smelled great, and there were so many people and food stalls in attendance.

Dave and Judy kept going on about something called 'Stinky Tofu' and how we had to try it this time. I'm generally keen to try anything once, but now I'm going to have to rethink that policy. Now I'm not one to pick tofu over any meat alternative so I'm already a little biased, but the name didn't do it justice. I don't even think words can do it justice.

Imagine old cabbage stolen out of the neighbours compost bin.

Imagine bottling the smell of a mattress owned by an old, flatulant man.

Imagine every pair of socks and underwear you've ever worn being left to ferment amid the 30 degree hot, humid weather, and then turning a fan on it to spread the goodness around the whole area. Then put it on a plate. Then put it in your mouth. I'm assured it's because this Stinky Tofu actually was shit, and shouldn't be taken to represent all Stinky Tofu. Apparently we have to try a proper, good place before we go, lest my opinion be left to stand.

After some tirimasu Gelato to wash it down, I was encouraged to just pick some meat on a stick to try. Challenge accepted.

I'm told the local nickname for my mystery meat is 'The 7km smell.' I was assured that's because it tastes so good and the smell can attract people from 7km away. It did taste pretty good, despite the meat itself being chicken butt.

We played some games, and I did particularly well with the BBC guns. Won myself a toy. Proud.

After the night market we headed up the hills for a great view of the city at night. The camera on this phone is pretty sweet, so I got some very good shots. If this app didn't crash when I tired to attack have them, you'd probably agree.

This morning we visited Judy's grandparents in preparation for the wedding tomorrow. They're a lovely old couple who've visited Christchurch 4 times, though not since 2003. Her mum and sister joined us, and we had biscuits and juice to bring up lunch time.

After lunch we had a long walk through the park, and are now resting in preparation for dinner. We'll need to make it an early night this time so we're all fresh for tomorrow's wedding.

Four cities and a sleep

Before crashing for the night, we fed our feet to the fishes. For $3, we had the ticklish pleasure of cleaner fish eating away at the dead skin on our feet. It felt like dozens of mini water jets running across our feet, yet you couldn't shake the feeling you were just about to feel a proper nibble and yank our feet out of the pool.

Waking up early in the jimjilbang wasn't as rude for me as it was Dave's mum. She had chosen a spot too close to the men's toilets, with at least one of the loos  clogged and the door repeatedly being left open by the old korean men visiting it.

We walked up the hill of Chungnam university and took in how much it had changed over the years. Even at dinner the night before, it was evident this wasn't the place I had loved anymore. No time to worry about that though, as we had to get to Taiwan.

From Daejeon we hop the high speed train to Seoul, fly to Taipei, hop another train to Zaoying and finally crash in our airbnb apartment. We all slept far better than the night before.

This morning, I went out for a walk in the 28 degree heat at 7:45am. Big mistake. It dawned on me that no one walks in this city. Everybody instead uses the sidewalks to park their bloody scooters and cars. I was walking on the road half the time, particularly because it was maintained a hell of a lot better as well. So odd seeing 200 scooters fly by all at once like some sort of scooter gang.

After finding my local convenience store and picking up some wine ($23 nzd) and a 200ml bottle of Johnny Walker black ($12) I made my way back to the apartment and got stuck into... a book. It's far too early to drink.

Next we all went to a department store for lunch at a popular restaurant chain and spent up large on clothes. I'm writing this from the local dentist where Dave intends to get some cheap fillings. Wouldn't do that to myself while on holiday.

No idea what's happening later. Stay tuned!

Markets, Daejeon.

Yesterday saw Dave, his mum, and I travel down to Daejeon to looking around some of our old haunts. Perhaps most shocking was the accommodation for the night - a jimjilbang, a communal sauna.

It's cheap, 10k won for the night, and for that you get a thin mat to sleep basically anywhere you want within the building.  We found some empty alcoves and claimed our territory.

After having a beer in the cold room, and warming up again in the 59 degree sauna, we all hit the hay.

The day prior, we navigated the namdaemun markets. There's a few concentrations of kids clothing stores in this area, and we all picked something up for our families - a nephew and neice in my case.

Later on, I met with with Daniel for game of thrones night. Dan is a guy I met at the hostel 3 years ago, and teaches English in Gungnam. A half bottle of rum made for a decent episode, but nothing really happened in it to be honest.

The plan for today is to walk about our university, and get back to Seoul for the flight to Taiwan in the afternoon.

Streets of Seoul

After breakfast, I met up with Dave at Yongsan, which hosts a huge electronics store. Around the area we came across some sort of gaming event, with tents for games such as League of Legends. Managed to score a picture with the lovely  cosplayers, but I get the feeling their working day must suck, what with the need to stand around and pose all day long.

After lunch I headed to the main palace in Insadong, but didn't manage to catch any of the final day of the royal culture festival. I did pickup a traditional hanbok  (clothing) for my 7 year old neice though. Just need to find one for my nephew and myself!

Dinnertime rolled around and into the wine I went. Found some aussie crap at the local convenience store, and shared it with some hostel goers. Dinner itself was with Carter, the hostel manager and his girlfriend. They've been together 1yr and 18 days now. We had a good catchup, and I probably had a little too much soju, given how easily my terrible Korean language skills were flowing.

Some more wine back at the hostel, making new friends, and then suddenly I woke up and wondered what on earth I ended up doing last night. Nothing untoward, mind you. Maybe just too much wine (if there is such a thing).

Today is much livelier than yesterday on the streets of Seoul, and here comes my coffee...

Coming in for landing

While one of my flights was delayed an hour, I'd say travel on the whole was OK getting here. It did make me late for drinks though.

After getting to the hostel, the employee had no idea who I am (yet) and no booking on record. I knew I should have done all the booking myself! A quick call to the manager whom the room was suppose to have been booked through sees me with  bed on the very top floor, with no elevator.

It's time to get over to Nonhyeon, a suburb near Gungnam, to meet with the lads. A dozen train stops and a few transfers get me across town in about 45mins.

I'm directed to down a wonderfully BBQ smelling street to where the group is, and jump right in. We hit a couple bars but keep it pretty light in the end.

I'm up early today and am convinced my phone hasn't updated the time zone, but eventually realise it's 10am in nz so no wonder I feel pretty good at 7am Korea time. I've found a quaint breakfast spot and start my day with a breakfast burrito and coffee.

Onwards!