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!