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.