Road trippin’ with my two favorite allies
Fully loaded we got snacks and supplies
It’s time to leave this town
It’s time to steal away
Let’s go get lost
Anywhere in the U.S.A.

Yeye, Jake, and I decided to take a roadtrip to show Lil’Ye Lake Tahoe while she was visiting California. We were super lucky because of the absolutely superb weather we had (although it was dumping buckets on us the way home). Lake Tahoe has always been one of my favorite places to visit in Northern California with the clearest blue waters imaginable and gorgeous blue skies.

While we were up there at Tahoe we had all kinds of fun, including:

• Gambling and drinking free at the casinos
• Cruising with the top down up the eastern side of the lake
• Taking a swim in what felt like a bucket of ice (where Jake got second-degree sunburns)
• A casino buffet with an amazing view
• Then playing around Emerald Bay and cruising up the western side of the lake
• I didn’t enjoy listening to metal on glass when the windshield wipers with no wipers scraped over the windscreen of Kelsey’s beat up Stella

• Chicago for Tyler and Allie’s beautiful wedding
  • Also got to see all my Busan/Greece buddies
  • Ate awesome food Hot Doug’s and Manny’s Jewish Deli come to mind
• New York City for some tourism in the city
  • Broadway shows, more food, and sightseeing
• Now in Washington DC with Dana Wang checking out the sights

It’s definitely fun being back home where I know how things work, cleanliness, and not feeling bad at getting angry at people for doing incomprehensible things. Soon I’ll be flying back to SF to start meeting back up with the family. Super happy at the moment.

Songdo Beach from the hiking piece on the west

As you may have read a few days ago I went on a long walk with YeYe up the Suyeong River, which was a lot of fun. So I decided to go on another local travel destination with my buddy Kenny, to Songdo Beach. Busan has a series of beaches which aren’t all near each other, given Busan very craggy geography (rivers, cliffs, ports, etc…). Songdo Beach happens to be on the far side of Busan from where I live, which explains why I have never been there. I have wanted to make it out to Songdo because I have heard that it is a popular haunt (along with Dadaepo Beach) for sailors, particularly Russian sailors…which are just about as salty as they come.

I woke up fairly early on Seolar (설날) and was at first blown away by a silent Busan. I now know that I have never heard Busan be silent. I almost always can hear traffic, construction work, or just random people yelling. Hearing the city be so silent inspired me to get the hell out of my house. So I called up Kenny, jumped on 1003 bus heading to Jagalchi. It takes more than an hour from Jangsan to Songdo, which can be achieved either via Bus or Subway to Jagalchi and then catching a cab down to Songdo. Yes, you can take a connecting bus down to the beach…but I didn’t want to walk from bust stop to bus stop near Nampo-Dong since there is like 5 different stops with 10 lines on each. I’m just to lazy for all that.

Kenny with the ships in the background

Anyways, Kenny and I arrived to what I found to be a fairly unimpressive beach, with uninspired sculptures in the unclean water and apartment buildings jammed right up to the beach.  Although buildings encroaching upon the beach isn’t an unusual thing in Busan, where it is also seen at Haeundae and Gwangan (I think only Songjeong has portions free of buildings), it is something I’m not very fond of. Also I was depressed not to find any drunken sailors on shore leave. So Kenny and I did a little exploring of the beach areas…which as I already mentioned wasn’t very impressive. The best thing the beach has to offer is a slightly interesting view of the cargo ships moored out at sea (although they can be better seen from Taejeongdae). After puttering around the beach for a half and hour or so, Kenny and I decided to pick up some lunch.

Can whales bend into a U shape like that?

After lunch, Kenny and I were at a loss for what to do next so we fell back on a Korean standard for days off, hiking and drinking makeoli. So we trekked off to the hiking cliffs to the west of the beach with a couple bottle of makeoli (unfilitered Korean rice wine), looking for a decent non-windy place to enjoy. We eventually found a nice little cliff side behind some old fisherman and his wife to view the cargo ships out at see while drinking our rice wine. Little did we know this would just be the beginning on our alcohol powered tour of the city that would ensue afterwards.

As Kenny and I were sitting out on the rocks soaking things in, we were discussing how it’s really difficult to explain our experiences in Korea to family and friends back home. I will be going home soon and I remember my buddy Eddie returning from Japan and his attempts at relaying his experiences to his friends, including myself. They were entertaining in short…but very quickly we got tired of conversations starting with “In Japan,…” followed by a story that isn’t interesting if you were there in the vibe of things. A similar thing happened to me after I returned from a study abroad in Greece (I remember Tyler getting annoyed at my stories).  I definitely took something away from Eddie’s attempts and my own story telling failures: that people will ask about your travels, but most of the time they just don’t really care, have patience, or just want a short quip about the place. It’s kind of like people asking “how are you?” they don’t want the real answer they just want something quick and digestable like “good” “tired” or “been better”. So Kenny  and I attempted and I think absolutely failed at describing our situation (no offense Kenny but I don’t think we pulled this one off). I’ll blame our lack of planning what to say while drinking, giving Kenny no preparation time, and my not wanting to do more than one take.

Unsuccessful attempt at describing Songdo Beach

After messing around on Songdo Beach, we high tailed it over to Nampo-Dong to attempt to do some shopping for the girls. Sadly, our attempt were destined to fail due to it being a holiday. Seolar is like Christmas for Korea. Everyone is at home with their families and most shops are closed. Although we did enjoy some “road sodas” and these Korean pastries that filled with sugary spices. The name slips me at the moment but they are freaking delicious. If you ever want one go to PIFF square in Nampo-dong and look for the cart with a line 30 people long, even on a national holiday, even when several competitors are selling the same snack. I guess this cart has been featured on 3 different television programs in the past month, hence it’s booming popularity. We enjoyed our snack and resigned that our attempts at buying small gifts for our girlfriends was failing, I suggested moving on for a beer somewhere new.

Kenny with our snacks

Next we moved on to Texas Street, another hot spot for sailors on leave. We went to this little drinking joint on corner, run by an old time Texas St. ajumma named Christine. My friends and I love stopping by this place, primarily for the decently priced Russian beers that are conveniently not named but numbered by the percentage strength of alcohol. But we also go there for the nice seedy ambiance; crammed in between Filipino and Russian run juicy bars, you will usually hear one or two cat calls entering the place. Then you order up a beer from Christine while taking a seat next to a sailor hailing from some distant land. Start trading stories while deflecting Christine’s attempts to sell you Filipino food, offerings to find a girl for you, or encouragements to try to Chinese massage place down the adjacent alley. All in all, it always makes for an interesting night. Luckily, this night Kenny and I got to enjoy a beer with an American sailor who had been on the seas for almost 40 years. He actually came to Busan for his first time in 1976. Said it was a much different place back then with much more poverty, struggles, and mysteriousness to it. After we finished up our beers, we were off to Haeundae.

Back in Haeundae, Kenny and I were feeling a little hungry so we stopped by this little Japanese Izakaya that YeYe and MingMing took me to on my birthday. They got some damn good food for cheap. After eating our fill and warming up with a couple cups of hot sake, we decided to take advantage of the slightly warm night and drink on the beach. We wondered on down to the beach, stopping to grab some beers on the way, and found a nice spot on the boardwalk. To make the evening even better, Kenny’s girlfriend Daisy decided to join us. We then proceeded to live it up on the beach until…well the night got a little fuzzy. I’m not sure when we finished up or why at some point I was wearing women’s pants… let’s hope those memories don’t come back to me.

Konglish spelling of Massachusetts

Udon at the Japanese Joint

Kenny and Daisy on Haeundae

Last me on the beach...

]]> http://www.ashesthandust.com/2011/02/songdo-beach-with-kenny/feed/ 0 http://www.ashesthandust.com/2010/10/favorite-festival-in-korea-fireworks/ http://www.ashesthandust.com/2010/10/favorite-festival-in-korea-fireworks/#comments Thu, 21 Oct 2010 02:13:35 +0000 ryguy http://www.ashesthandust.com/?p=1236 Continue reading →]]> So today is the opening ceremonies of my favorite festival in Korea, the Busan International Firework Feswtival! Tonight it’s opening with a ridiculous number of K-Pop music groups including: Super Junior(K.R.Y), BoA, 2AM, SHINee, SG wannabe, Jo Sung Mo, Chae Yeon, Son Ho Young,Trax, V.O.S, and Danny Ahn. Perhaps more, perhaps less I don’t know.

Tomorrow night is some kind of international fireworks festival, and then Saturday is the big show. Last year, the show was the most impressive fireworks display I have ever seen and the word on the street is this one is supposed to top that.

I LOVE FIREWORKS!

Busan Fireworks Festival

Blog post from last years festival

Here is a long list of festivals all over Korea.
http://www.theyeogiyo.com/Entertainment/Events/events-calendar.php

Also on another fun news note. Korea is panicking over a 400% increase in the price of Chinese Cabbage, i.e. the stuff Kimchi is made from. For more news check this link to an article about it. http://www.economist.com/blogs/asiaview/2010/10/kimchi&fsrc=nwl

EDIT: Apparently looking closer at that list of October events in Korea, there is a band touring from my hometown of Roseville. WTF are the chances of that happening. http://supercolorsuper.com/2010/09/28/tera-melos/

EDIT2: Jesus, there is another band from the Sacramento area too! What’s going on here http://supercolorsuper.com/2010/09/04/the-advantage/

• World Expo
• Great Wall
• Forbidden City & Tienanmen Square
• Spending the 1 year with YeYe in China
• Seeing Eddie and all the Hong Kong cats; also just found out Brit should be there too! Fun times
• Oh and of course CHINESE FOOD!!!! (so want some Beijing Duck)
• etc…

The list goes on but if you have any recommendations to throw my way for things to do and places to see in the Beijing and Shanghai areas please let me know! Always love a friendly travel tip.

Sadly though because of my Passport being tied up in the Chinese Embassy, I can’t make my birthday trip to Tsushima…so it looks like I will have to make some B-day plans on the fly…like tonight since it’s tomorrow.

On another side-note, this will be Eddie and I’s third time meeting in Asia, each time in a different country (I don’t count Hong Kong as China because, well, frankly they seem too different), in the past 6 months. EPIC!

Also, for the people that have visited the World Expo…any exhibits that I should spend my time to see? I here there are massive lines so I should probably use my time wisely and not waste it on the less impressive displays.

What I found most interesting about these videos is that they show just how much of a different world North Korea really has become. The main narrator describes North Korea as the land that time forgot, like walking into 1930s Stalinist Russia. As you will see in the videos, North Korea puts up a facade to impress their tourists which really just displays how eerie the Northern dictatorship really is; like the Potemkin Villages built for Empress Catherine II most of the tourist destinations are just empty husks of false luxury built to impress. In reality this is only effective in displaying the austere decadence of a country that continues to limp along because of the solidarity of their brainwashed masses and charity of the rest of the world meant to appease a dictator that threatens world peace.

Vice Guide to Travel: North Korea
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3

Having trouble embedding the videos into my wordpress blog, so just use the links above.

So first off the most apparent thing for me on the island was the working girls. They seem to permeate every aspect of life in Patong (and to a lesser extent all of Thailand). From the insistent inquiries of  “Thai masssagggggge?”  being chorused at you every few hundred feet from an army of Thai masseuses in a nasally southeast Asian accent to the common street girl trying to vice grip onto your arm as you walk down the street. As you walk the town during the daytime it is hard not to notice the shear number of silver haired middle aged white men walking the streets or eating in restaurants with a cute 20 something Thai girl in tow. The thing that really got me though was when you go to any bar in Patong expect to be accosted by a variable batallion of cute Thai working girls, guess it would be awesome if that is your thing, but as I said before totally not mine. Anyways, it was entertaining for a short time just because it is such a culture shock but that culture shock was short lived. It didn’t take long before I was tired of playing games of Connect 4 or Jackpot (a really fun dice game) to supplement minimal levels of communication because of language barriers punctuated by constant insistent pleas of the girls asking for drinks (they make money off each drink bought for them).  To follow that up at some point the bartender is going to go over to attempt to convince you to pay a bar penalty to take the girl home, since I was never game for this I just ended up eating Panaeng Curry from the retired Lady-Boy who ran a street food cart every night at about 3am.

Another constant barrage of distraction was the insistent peddling by just about everyone for whatever wares they may carry. Walking anywhere usually comes with a plethora of Thai, Indian, or many other assorted flavors of peoples constantly asking “Tuk-tuk?”, “Hey man, cheap Armani suits look inside”,  or “Ping pong show?” It isn’t that bad but I found it got to the point where I would avoid making eye contact with anyone that was on the sides of the street or that I didn’t immediately recognize. Making eye contact is like a death sentence, death by an overzealous shop keeper following you down the street trying to convince you how much you need a knock-off luxury Armani suit for cheap.

The last thing that lessened my experience of Patong was something that has great potential to ruin just about any holiday abroad, American soldiers on R&R. The week I was traveling to southern Thailand just so happened to be the same week that the USS Ronald Reagan supercarrier and its battle group ported in Phuket. Don’t get me wrong American sailors need some R&R because, well hell, their jobs are hard as fuck! They do tough dangerous work with very little thanks or thought about it. With that caveat asside, traveling to a place where there are literally thousands of horny sailors who have been out to sea for months on end and are then let loose to roam the alcohol fueled and sex crazed streets of Patong with a big pocket full of coin is not really my choice circumstances for traveling. Nothing like a bunch of drunken sailors brawling and whoring it up to make me want to head out of town.

Phuket though is an awesome experience, just for a shorter amount of time than the 5 days I spent there. I think two days would be plenty enough time to get your fill of the island’s unique brand of culture. It was very interesting seeing a place so different to any I have seen before. Never have I been to a place that makes Las Vegas prostitute industry look so phuny nor have I ever been to a place that is so open and encouraging of transvestites and transexuals (even San Francisco fails to hold a candle to Patong in this respect). Yes, I do got stories about the Lady-Boys but I guess I will leave that for another post, one less negative feeling because those girls (or boys?) are a hilarious.

So for a 4 day weekend I had I traveled to Gwangju in probably the most horrible weather conditions. There were Typhoons out in the Pacific causing it to rain insanely for most of my stay in Gwangju (luckily I came prepared for this). Even despite the weather patterns I actually loved Gwangju. There just seems to be a feel to the people there that gives off a totally different vibe. For example, while walking from the bus station to the downtown district (a walk I absolutely don’t recommend) I was openly propositioned by a gay man…this was the first openly gay man I have met in Korea (most tend to keep it a secret). Despite my annoyance  of his repeated attempts while I was waiting for the cross walk to give me the “go ahead and cross with a slightly less fear of death” sign (drivers in Korea are horrifying…I think they intend to kill me), I was joyed to see this! It made me happy that this guy was so out there and open where as in most of the country supposedly homosexuality doesn’t exist and is some kind of Western Phenomenon. From that moment I knew that this place had something special to it.

After walking through rains that could have recreated Noah’s flood and getting relentlessly hit on (the guy seriously was incorrigible), I found my luxurious love motel accommodations at Sharp Motel (aka # Motel). So I proceeded to shower myself up and go and hit the city. Gwangju is a women’s boutique shoppers paradise with tons of one off boutiques that offer something outside of the normal Korean women cookie cutter patterns (fashion trends in Korean women are usually obvious because you will see streets filled with women wearing the same styles). In addition to that, if cafe culture is your love then Gwangju has got you covered with a plethora of plush, handsomely decorated coffee shops. I particularly enjoyed Cafe Serendipity which is located somewhat off on a side street but has decent Pasta, good coffee, awesome decor, and the owners kitten provided me with much entertainment while I was researching in my guide book. I almost forgot to mention but Gwangju also has a very alive Art scene with graffiti art on the walls to an art street full of art academies and galleries.

While I was at Cafe Serendipity I met an American guy named Chris and his Korean girlfriend who’s name escapes me (I wish I wasn’t so bad with names) that were really great. First we went to a local foreigner bar which has a German Brew House theme to it and threw back some brews (this was their first time out to some of the foreigner bars in Gwangju). After which I guess I made a good impression on them for yhey decided to take me to a club that was opening that evening in Gwangju called Club Volume, with no cover and free drinks. So obviously this resulted in some level of ridiculousness on my part, including Chris and I getting sucked up on stage dancing in the green laser lights. So after a night of crazy dancing I went back to my all inclusive Love Motel and passed out.

The next morning I woke up and went to beautiful Boseong (보성) which has Korea’s largest Tea plantation. It was absolutely beautiful there with lushly green mountain sides covered in tea plants. I learned that tea needs to be grown in a highly variable climate ranging from high heat to cold with high humidity. So apparently this place was selected because it was climatically perfect, with high humidity, high and low elevations, etc… there was a lot of complexity to it, even the trees were hand selected to create a buffering effect on the weather patterns there (I think they were California Redwoods or something domestic to home). While I was there I met another awesome couple that decided to help me figure out the whole experience then again I must have made a good impression because after they invited me to join them for dinner at their favorite duck restaurant which was absolutely amazing! After that I went out with Chris and his girlfriend again to the other big foreigner bar called Speakeasy for some darts and then back out for some more dancing.

I always maintain that my favorite thing about living in Korea is absolutely the people and Gwangju did not fail to disappoint. I love how when undertaking a solo adventure in this country you can meet so many interesting and friendly people that can take a good experience and make it an unforgettable one with many stories and lots of fond memories.

Sadly I didn’t actually get any pictures with Chris and his Girlfriend…next time I guess