6/26
Got into Beijing and got the bus to the hostel (the one around the corner from the one I'd stayed at previously) I'd wanted to stay at without too much trouble for 1RMB instead of taking the easy way out and getting at 17 kwai cab. Unfortunately that hostel was full, so I was back at my other one, though I don't mind too much- they're the same price and the other one was only marginally better. I got breakfast and wrote for quite a while, got cash out, then walked over to the International Hotel where I bought my ticket to Ulan Bator ($172 USD- but it's a LONG distance and a 30 hour train ride). I'd considered buying it online previously but had heard it was much cheaper to buy in Beijing and it was. By getting it here (which was surprisingly simple and straightforward and took all of about five minutes,) I saved about $200- and keep in mind that's $200 U.S. dollars. I walked back, making it a 5km walk for the morning, checked my facebook and Skyped my Mom and Grandma again- all before noon.
I felt quite smug by the time I got lunch at a place nearby that I knew was at least decent. Most of the things listed above sound so easy, but in China I've had days where getting cash out and going one place took me hours and was incredibly frustrating, so I have to appreciate the things that do go well, even if they're only simple errands. And since it's so rare for me to feel self-satisfied and proud, I'm enjoying it immensely. I even managed to read a few pages of the Motorcycle Diaries (which I'm STILL slugging through), talked to two people in my room, organized my photos and renewed my medical insurance. It's 5 p.m. right now and I'm even considering going for a run, taking a shower and a nap before watching the U.S.- Ghana World Cup game at 2:30 a.m. That, or anything else I could possibly do today, will just be whipped cream on top.
In my room, that night, I met Steffi, a cool German girl, and two very petite girls (one Chinese, one Australian) who lived near Urumqi, in Northwestern China. They invited us to come to dinner with them at a place that served traditional food from that area so we went. The kebabs were good, but everything else was average to disappointing.
6/27
After my super-effective day, I didn't do that much really but I met two girls in my room who I really, really liked and felt like I could actually talk to and really connect with. It was also exciting because one of them was the solo American female traveler I've been searching for! She actually isn't traveling in the same way right now (she's a teacher in Korea) but had previously and was planning to again in the future. The other was a German girl, Steffi, who's also traveling alone and is going on the train the same day I am so I'm going to hang out with her. It just always feels so refreshing to have real conversations because so often it's little more than "whereareyoufrom, whatareyourplans, blah, blah, same old, same old," and it's like you're spending a lot of time talking to people and saying absolutely nothing.
I went with the American (I can't remember her name now and she never emailed like she said she would) to the Donghuamen market (tourist place with weird food) though the only thing I got was some semi-dried shark (at least that's what they said) that I shared with her that was better than expected.
At night, the three of us went out, drank a lot of cheap beer and played a great game of Kings. It was a really wonderful, but still somewhat low-key (though late), evening. It was also nice because the two of them brought out some of the best in me, and I love that person I am at my best- she's fun and interesting and just that girl in the room that everyone adores. Most of the time I'm not that girl, and I don't even always aspire to be her because the calmer, quieter me has her own merits as well, but when I am that higher me it's fun and I'm happy and I love it/life/her.
6/28
All three of us woke up quite late and went for lunch at the decent place I knew nearby. None of us felt compelled to do anything adventurous so we wandered for a while, looking through the nearby hutong tourist market until the American girl decided she wanted to dye her hair blue. So, since I would've otherwise just screwed along online I, and Steffi, went with her. The search took us all afternoon, to several different stores, and two hair salons, but no one had blue hair dye that you could just buy and do yourself. We even saw a group of Chinese girls with bright (and incredibly well-done) blue hair and asked them, but they were cosmetology students and had mixed it and done it themselves. They took a picture with us and we continued our quest, but eventually we gave up and found a place with very cheap peking duck for dinner so they could try it. It was okay, marginally better than my first try, but still not great or remotely impressive. Neither of them had ever tried it though and they both liked it so that made me happy. The American girl left that evening on a train to Xi'an and Steffi and I went to bed early, planning to get up at 5:30.
At 4:20 a.m. I was woken up by feverish whispering from the two petite girls in my room. Apparently the 35 year old English woman who had just moved in that day had gotten drunk, stripped off all her clothes and climbed, naked, into the Australian girl's bed. The Australian girl had freaked out and the English girl had managed to get into her own bed, but not before peeing on the floor. The petite Australian girl and the petite Chinese girl had then decided it was necessary to loudly whisper about it for nearly an hour so I couldn't get back to sleep before it was time to get up for the train anyway.
Showing posts with label Shopping. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Shopping. Show all posts
Tuesday, July 27, 2010
Thursday, July 15, 2010
Swinging Shanghai
6/6 - 6/8
Didn't do a whole lot for these days. Rested, read, chilled out. I also spent a fair amount of time walking along the Bund, a historical art deco waterfront area. Along the river, I saw my first Mao sculpture, which was pretty cool. The art deco architecture was awesome and it was particularly interesting to see what, to my eyes at least, was the truly Chinese art deco style.
I also walked all around Nanjing Road, a huge shopping area (with a Sephora, which is always a treat for me) that was quite lovely and over to People's Square, which was a really nice park with several museums in it.
I got a haircut (which included a lovely head, arm and shoulder massage) for about $15 USD including tips, in a really nice salon, and when I left, I was very happy with it. Within about fifteen minutes however, I realized that it was too short, the guy had screwed up my bangs and it made my face look fat. It was a good haircut and the guy was very good, but it just didn't work for me so pictures of me will likely be limited until it grows a bit.
Didn't do a whole lot for these days. Rested, read, chilled out. I also spent a fair amount of time walking along the Bund, a historical art deco waterfront area. Along the river, I saw my first Mao sculpture, which was pretty cool. The art deco architecture was awesome and it was particularly interesting to see what, to my eyes at least, was the truly Chinese art deco style.
I also walked all around Nanjing Road, a huge shopping area (with a Sephora, which is always a treat for me) that was quite lovely and over to People's Square, which was a really nice park with several museums in it.
I got a haircut (which included a lovely head, arm and shoulder massage) for about $15 USD including tips, in a really nice salon, and when I left, I was very happy with it. Within about fifteen minutes however, I realized that it was too short, the guy had screwed up my bangs and it made my face look fat. It was a good haircut and the guy was very good, but it just didn't work for me so pictures of me will likely be limited until it grows a bit.
Sunday, May 30, 2010
Beautiful Neon Explosion
5/5-
Though I got a slow start, I did actually do and see quite a bit today. I started by going to asakusa, an old temple, blah, blah, blah. It was no better than any other temple, even with a nice garden and vaguely interesting history. I spent some time in the area shopping for souvenirs to send home and found a cheap kimono for myself. There's some argument about kimonos. A truly traditional kimono that a geisha would wear, made of silk and embroidered, is wildly expensive and can get into the couture price range (tens of thousands of dollars) so many tourists set on getting a kimono of sorts, opt to buy a yukata which is kind of like a thin bathrobe geishas wear underneath a kimono. Even these are very expensive so many opt to buy them second-hand. Unfortunately, second hand stores selling kimonos and their accessories are very difficult to find. The kimono stores near tourist areas often sell some high end kimonos, but sell many more cheap ones to tourists or Japanese who wear them traditionally. Some people argue that these are not "real" kimonos, and while they are much, much poorer quality than the ones geisha wear, they are still kimonos and that was good enough for me and my slim wallet.
I found a blue-greenish one that was actually fairly plain, though it has a basic bamboo leaf pattern. It fit well, though it was a little long and I liked it emotionally more than I logically should have aesthetically. It was also my last day to possibly buy one and was the right price.
Taking the Tokyo Metro from one station to another should be simple. The stations and trains are fairly clean, there are Women Only cars for peak hours so you don't get molested by a chikan (yes, they have an actual word for subway sexual predators!) because you're so packed in, most signs are in Japanese and English and trains are reasonably fast Unfortunately, there are serious organizational problems that make stations illogical and transfers ridiculous. Amazingly, I never actually had too much trouble, but the system was so illogical and bizarre, I don't know how I didn't. My trip today emphasized that. On the map, Asakusa station is one a particular line, Asakusa. It stops at Bakuro-yokoyama station, where I could transfer to Shinjuku line to get to, Shinjuku. So I entered Asakusa station but didn't see a single sign for that line, despite seeing several for the Ginza line (though I did later find a very small single one, squashed in between other, useless information, that I'd missed). There was a man at an information desk I asked and he told me to leave this station to the street through a particular exit then follow the signs to Asakusa station Asakusa line. In other words, there were two unconnected Asakusa stations. It wasn't a long walk, but just shockingly unplanned. I got to the station, got a train to Bakuro-yokoyama, my transfer point and was again shocked at the confusing directions. To transfer to the other line, I again had to leave the station, go aboveground and walk. Again, it wasn't a long walk, just a few blocks, but there were turns so it wasn't just walk two blocks straight, and few signs, through a neighborhood that didn't feel unsafe exactly, but underpopulated- a place I wouldn't feel completely comfortable walking through at night. Like I said, I somehow managed all this without getting lost or confused, but I just thought it was an insane system. I took a picture of one of the signs to show the craziness, but lost the picture with my camera.
In the middle of the transfer, I stopped at a Yoshinoya, a Japanese fast-food place, for a beef bowl for dinner. Finally, I arrived at Shinjuku. Shinjuku is probably the area closest to the super busy Tokyo at night stereotype you imagine. It's just all neon lights and people and noise and it was wonderful. It was the sort of place where I think other people might feel overstimulated, but I felt like "Finally! A place I won't be bored!" There was also this area of three tiny alleyways nearby filled with tiny bars, most with only the bar and three or four stools before you ran into the wall. Many of them had vague themes and apparently many of them are so exclusive that you can't go in unless you're a regular (so how one becomes a regular in the first place, I don't know, maybe it's hereditary). Anyway, it was just really cool and dark and dingy and off and low-key and happy. I don't know, but I thought it was fantastic.
Though I got a slow start, I did actually do and see quite a bit today. I started by going to asakusa, an old temple, blah, blah, blah. It was no better than any other temple, even with a nice garden and vaguely interesting history. I spent some time in the area shopping for souvenirs to send home and found a cheap kimono for myself. There's some argument about kimonos. A truly traditional kimono that a geisha would wear, made of silk and embroidered, is wildly expensive and can get into the couture price range (tens of thousands of dollars) so many tourists set on getting a kimono of sorts, opt to buy a yukata which is kind of like a thin bathrobe geishas wear underneath a kimono. Even these are very expensive so many opt to buy them second-hand. Unfortunately, second hand stores selling kimonos and their accessories are very difficult to find. The kimono stores near tourist areas often sell some high end kimonos, but sell many more cheap ones to tourists or Japanese who wear them traditionally. Some people argue that these are not "real" kimonos, and while they are much, much poorer quality than the ones geisha wear, they are still kimonos and that was good enough for me and my slim wallet.
I found a blue-greenish one that was actually fairly plain, though it has a basic bamboo leaf pattern. It fit well, though it was a little long and I liked it emotionally more than I logically should have aesthetically. It was also my last day to possibly buy one and was the right price.
Taking the Tokyo Metro from one station to another should be simple. The stations and trains are fairly clean, there are Women Only cars for peak hours so you don't get molested by a chikan (yes, they have an actual word for subway sexual predators!) because you're so packed in, most signs are in Japanese and English and trains are reasonably fast Unfortunately, there are serious organizational problems that make stations illogical and transfers ridiculous. Amazingly, I never actually had too much trouble, but the system was so illogical and bizarre, I don't know how I didn't. My trip today emphasized that. On the map, Asakusa station is one a particular line, Asakusa. It stops at Bakuro-yokoyama station, where I could transfer to Shinjuku line to get to, Shinjuku. So I entered Asakusa station but didn't see a single sign for that line, despite seeing several for the Ginza line (though I did later find a very small single one, squashed in between other, useless information, that I'd missed). There was a man at an information desk I asked and he told me to leave this station to the street through a particular exit then follow the signs to Asakusa station Asakusa line. In other words, there were two unconnected Asakusa stations. It wasn't a long walk, but just shockingly unplanned. I got to the station, got a train to Bakuro-yokoyama, my transfer point and was again shocked at the confusing directions. To transfer to the other line, I again had to leave the station, go aboveground and walk. Again, it wasn't a long walk, just a few blocks, but there were turns so it wasn't just walk two blocks straight, and few signs, through a neighborhood that didn't feel unsafe exactly, but underpopulated- a place I wouldn't feel completely comfortable walking through at night. Like I said, I somehow managed all this without getting lost or confused, but I just thought it was an insane system. I took a picture of one of the signs to show the craziness, but lost the picture with my camera.
In the middle of the transfer, I stopped at a Yoshinoya, a Japanese fast-food place, for a beef bowl for dinner. Finally, I arrived at Shinjuku. Shinjuku is probably the area closest to the super busy Tokyo at night stereotype you imagine. It's just all neon lights and people and noise and it was wonderful. It was the sort of place where I think other people might feel overstimulated, but I felt like "Finally! A place I won't be bored!" There was also this area of three tiny alleyways nearby filled with tiny bars, most with only the bar and three or four stools before you ran into the wall. Many of them had vague themes and apparently many of them are so exclusive that you can't go in unless you're a regular (so how one becomes a regular in the first place, I don't know, maybe it's hereditary). Anyway, it was just really cool and dark and dingy and off and low-key and happy. I don't know, but I thought it was fantastic.
Saturday, May 22, 2010
Random Ranting and Wandering in Trendy Tokyo
Saturday May 1, 2010
Lately, I'm having crazy cravings, like the kind you hear about women getting when they're pregnant (I'm not, don't laugh, it's not something funny, and never something to joke about). Right this second, I would be willing to die for: cottage cheese, a really good salad, and caramel, the hot liquid kind you'd put on ice cream, though I really just want the caramel, though maybe with some whipped cream and peanuts in my mouth at the same time.
I really want to go running again, and I think the weather would finally be nice for it, but I'm afraid that I'll hurt my ankle. I twisted it on my most recent all-nighter in Osaka at some point, but barely, it really didn't hurt much, just bruised and swelled up a bit. It doesn't hurt at all anymore, but it still feels weak and I don't want to push it because then I'm afraid I'll really hurt it and I won't be able to run, or even walk long distances, for ages. Actually, I seem to twist my ankle a fair bit, though it's usually (including currently) no big deal, though it was pretty bad once when I nearly broke it. Anyway, irrelevant.
Tonight, while uploading pictures, I realized that I only have four pictures of me in Japan and two of those are at the Sapporo factory; good thing I've got my priorities straight.
I can't believe it's May already! How the hell did that happen?! That means I've been traveling for just under two months (8 weeks on Monday).
In all that time, and in all my time staying in the hostel upon my arrival in Oz, I have yet to meet a single American female traveler (in the way of doing what I'm doing). I've met single American male travelers, single female travelers from other countries (including Sweden, the U.K., Germany and France,) I've met American couples traveling and two or more American females traveling together, I've even met single American females traveling within a country in which they were based (by which I primarily mean, English teachers in Korea and Japan) but I have yet to meet any other single American female traveler backpacking around countries. This makes me really sad. I know I'm not so unusual or special, so why aren't more American women doing this type of thing?
What it really makes me wonder is if we don't have (additional) sexism in the U.S. that we're unaware of. I don't think I've spoken about it much here, but in Australia, there is extreme sexism (more than I saw in Western Europe in my time there, or in Japan, now) but Australians barely seem to notice. It's a difficult type of sexism to explain; quite subtle, but very obvious if you come from somewhere, like the U.S. that doesn't have it (at least in that way). Most of it is the judgmental views of women (especially, as is true everywhere I've ever been, in regards to their sexuality) that are so totally different from the views on men, but additionally, it is the type of subtle sexism, that if you saw it in the U.S. you'd think, "Huh, that's weird that they'd say that/ That's kind of offensive/ rude/ I wonder how they get away with that," but you don't think too much of it, because it happens so rarely. In Australia, it's still those little things, but they occur constantly. Constantly.
Anyway, that's all in Australia. My point here is that perhaps it exists much more than we realize in the U.S. in a way that we don't recognize, much as they don't recognize it in Oz. About two years ago, I read a book called After (P.S. shout out here to Google for knowing the name of it when I could only remember a few random details). It's meant for teenagers, but is an excellent book that feeds into all my paranoia about privacy and rights. In it, the school slowly becomes more and more restricted and controlled; with extraordinarily harsh punishments, metal detectors and, if I remember right, nationalism in the form of high school rivalry. Throughout, the parents are kept "informed" by emails explaining the additional dangers facing teens and why the restrictions and privacy invasions were so important, essentially brainwashing them (the parents).
I'm not some conspiracy theorist, and I don't really think we need to seriously worry about high schools being controlled, and parent brain washing anytime soon, but I do worry about the effects of what we see and hear, particularly with the recent passing of a law that allows lobbyists greater access and input than ever before.
Again, I'm getting away from my original point, and this really isn't supposed to be political, but what I mean is that perhaps in the U.S., we've convinced women that they are in so much danger, that we are restricting them and their freedom in a way that we simply don't restrict male freedom.
This also isn't to say that women don't face a greater danger than men do. We do. We shouldn't have to, but, shouldn'ts don't really matter in the real world do they? I know I take a risk, and yes, it is a bit of a greater risk than most women take. I'm not denying that in of itself. I'm suggesting that the actual risk has been overblown and that the rewards we miss out on, may be worth it. They certainly are for me.
*This entire post is discussing sexism outside of the spectrum we obviously know it exists in: wages, promotions, reproductive rights, etc.
Quick Note: The above was all actually written on 5/1 and is mostly rambling. The long sexism rant was partially inspired by Marybeth, who you'll meet below. The rest of this entry was written later and actually tells what I did that day.
I finished Lucy this morning, had a very slow lunch at the Cafe that was part of the hostel (margarita pizza that was obviously not really margarita pizza but more edible than I expected upon ordering) and wrote for a while.
I met Marybeth, an American woman teaching English in Japan, about my age. She was pretty interesting to talk to, and very interested in me, which the narcissist in me adores. It had been a while since I'd really spoken to pretty much anyone so I had a fairly long conversation with her. One of the most interesting things she told me was that she had a boyfriend back in the U.S. even though she'd been in Japan since last August! She said that he had been in Japan for three months too, but that still leaves six months, which to me is just insane, but then I'm not a believer in long distance relationships. I told her maybe I'd go out with her that night.
Since I had a few days in Tokyo, I slowed down a bit and decided that today I just wanted to read some magazines at a bookstore and look at a guidebook for Taiwan. Of course, it's not as simple as running out to Barnes and Noble and picking out a comfy chair.
First, I had to look up a place with English books and magazines in my guidebook, then I had to buy a pass, take the subway, transfer once, and then wander for about an hour looking for the right place. I happened to be wandering in a very nice and interesting area: Shibuya up to Harajuku. Shibuya is full of several small boutiques and restaurants in side alleys and huge designer stores on the main Omote-sando street so it was fun to look around. As it was a Saturday it was fairly busy but I didn't feel crushed by the crowd or anything like that. I didn't get too far into Harajuku but what I saw was surprisingly ordinary and trendy/fashionable only in a boring, overdone way, like hipsters. It wasn't nearly as interesting as I had hoped/expected.
I finally found the bookstore on my way back towards Shibuya since I'd missed it on the way up and read Cosmopolitan and Saveur almost front to cover, sitting on a stool I found in the Childrens section. Sitting there for at least two hours, I also skimmed: Food and Wine, Marie Claire, Vogue, Lucky and glanced at a few others. Food and Wine recommended a beer place in Tokyo, while Saveur recommended a particular area to eat. I walked out, much happier, into the semi-darkness. Night had come while I was reading, but the lights, everywhere, were so bright that it would be misleading to actually call it dark.
And now I could feel the crush of people and density of Tokyo. There was particular point when I was right before a large intersection, like a smaller Oxford Circus as the light changed.
In Sydney, at the huge intersection of George St. and the street Woolworths and one end of the QVB is on, people walk in straight, bulging cords as the cars stop. All at the same moment, people walk either way on each four sides of the square and diagonally across, forming a human square with an X in the middle. Though it's a large rush of people, and every once in a while a straggler swerves into one of the four triangles of concrete created in between the X and the square, the crowd always retains this structure. Somehow, the rivers never burst from their path.
This intersection in Shibuya reminded me of that one in Sydney, but with three times the people and none of the order. It was like a fishing net in the open sea where some fish are visible and then, instantly, something changes, and all the fish are caught wildly squirming in the net. It was a vibrating block of people, with nothing below them. I took a picture because it so perfectly captured the idea we sometimes have of Tokyo, as a big city totally filled with people, but of course, lost that picture when I lost my camera in Taiwan (which is why there are no pictures from this point until 5/23).
It was a nice afternoon and I enjoyed my wandering and seeing areas of Tokyo I had wanted to see on the way, but I was tired so I got some ramen and beers at 7-11 and went back to the hostel. I went to bed at around 12 and Marybeth told me that was about the time she'd come back looking for me but we'd somehow missed each other. After how busy I'd been lately, I really didn't mind missing out and getting some extra sleep.
Lately, I'm having crazy cravings, like the kind you hear about women getting when they're pregnant (I'm not, don't laugh, it's not something funny, and never something to joke about). Right this second, I would be willing to die for: cottage cheese, a really good salad, and caramel, the hot liquid kind you'd put on ice cream, though I really just want the caramel, though maybe with some whipped cream and peanuts in my mouth at the same time.
I really want to go running again, and I think the weather would finally be nice for it, but I'm afraid that I'll hurt my ankle. I twisted it on my most recent all-nighter in Osaka at some point, but barely, it really didn't hurt much, just bruised and swelled up a bit. It doesn't hurt at all anymore, but it still feels weak and I don't want to push it because then I'm afraid I'll really hurt it and I won't be able to run, or even walk long distances, for ages. Actually, I seem to twist my ankle a fair bit, though it's usually (including currently) no big deal, though it was pretty bad once when I nearly broke it. Anyway, irrelevant.
Tonight, while uploading pictures, I realized that I only have four pictures of me in Japan and two of those are at the Sapporo factory; good thing I've got my priorities straight.
I can't believe it's May already! How the hell did that happen?! That means I've been traveling for just under two months (8 weeks on Monday).
In all that time, and in all my time staying in the hostel upon my arrival in Oz, I have yet to meet a single American female traveler (in the way of doing what I'm doing). I've met single American male travelers, single female travelers from other countries (including Sweden, the U.K., Germany and France,) I've met American couples traveling and two or more American females traveling together, I've even met single American females traveling within a country in which they were based (by which I primarily mean, English teachers in Korea and Japan) but I have yet to meet any other single American female traveler backpacking around countries. This makes me really sad. I know I'm not so unusual or special, so why aren't more American women doing this type of thing?
What it really makes me wonder is if we don't have (additional) sexism in the U.S. that we're unaware of. I don't think I've spoken about it much here, but in Australia, there is extreme sexism (more than I saw in Western Europe in my time there, or in Japan, now) but Australians barely seem to notice. It's a difficult type of sexism to explain; quite subtle, but very obvious if you come from somewhere, like the U.S. that doesn't have it (at least in that way). Most of it is the judgmental views of women (especially, as is true everywhere I've ever been, in regards to their sexuality) that are so totally different from the views on men, but additionally, it is the type of subtle sexism, that if you saw it in the U.S. you'd think, "Huh, that's weird that they'd say that/ That's kind of offensive/ rude/ I wonder how they get away with that," but you don't think too much of it, because it happens so rarely. In Australia, it's still those little things, but they occur constantly. Constantly.
Anyway, that's all in Australia. My point here is that perhaps it exists much more than we realize in the U.S. in a way that we don't recognize, much as they don't recognize it in Oz. About two years ago, I read a book called After (P.S. shout out here to Google for knowing the name of it when I could only remember a few random details). It's meant for teenagers, but is an excellent book that feeds into all my paranoia about privacy and rights. In it, the school slowly becomes more and more restricted and controlled; with extraordinarily harsh punishments, metal detectors and, if I remember right, nationalism in the form of high school rivalry. Throughout, the parents are kept "informed" by emails explaining the additional dangers facing teens and why the restrictions and privacy invasions were so important, essentially brainwashing them (the parents).
I'm not some conspiracy theorist, and I don't really think we need to seriously worry about high schools being controlled, and parent brain washing anytime soon, but I do worry about the effects of what we see and hear, particularly with the recent passing of a law that allows lobbyists greater access and input than ever before.
Again, I'm getting away from my original point, and this really isn't supposed to be political, but what I mean is that perhaps in the U.S., we've convinced women that they are in so much danger, that we are restricting them and their freedom in a way that we simply don't restrict male freedom.
This also isn't to say that women don't face a greater danger than men do. We do. We shouldn't have to, but, shouldn'ts don't really matter in the real world do they? I know I take a risk, and yes, it is a bit of a greater risk than most women take. I'm not denying that in of itself. I'm suggesting that the actual risk has been overblown and that the rewards we miss out on, may be worth it. They certainly are for me.
*This entire post is discussing sexism outside of the spectrum we obviously know it exists in: wages, promotions, reproductive rights, etc.
Quick Note: The above was all actually written on 5/1 and is mostly rambling. The long sexism rant was partially inspired by Marybeth, who you'll meet below. The rest of this entry was written later and actually tells what I did that day.
I finished Lucy this morning, had a very slow lunch at the Cafe that was part of the hostel (margarita pizza that was obviously not really margarita pizza but more edible than I expected upon ordering) and wrote for a while.
I met Marybeth, an American woman teaching English in Japan, about my age. She was pretty interesting to talk to, and very interested in me, which the narcissist in me adores. It had been a while since I'd really spoken to pretty much anyone so I had a fairly long conversation with her. One of the most interesting things she told me was that she had a boyfriend back in the U.S. even though she'd been in Japan since last August! She said that he had been in Japan for three months too, but that still leaves six months, which to me is just insane, but then I'm not a believer in long distance relationships. I told her maybe I'd go out with her that night.
Since I had a few days in Tokyo, I slowed down a bit and decided that today I just wanted to read some magazines at a bookstore and look at a guidebook for Taiwan. Of course, it's not as simple as running out to Barnes and Noble and picking out a comfy chair.
First, I had to look up a place with English books and magazines in my guidebook, then I had to buy a pass, take the subway, transfer once, and then wander for about an hour looking for the right place. I happened to be wandering in a very nice and interesting area: Shibuya up to Harajuku. Shibuya is full of several small boutiques and restaurants in side alleys and huge designer stores on the main Omote-sando street so it was fun to look around. As it was a Saturday it was fairly busy but I didn't feel crushed by the crowd or anything like that. I didn't get too far into Harajuku but what I saw was surprisingly ordinary and trendy/fashionable only in a boring, overdone way, like hipsters. It wasn't nearly as interesting as I had hoped/expected.
I finally found the bookstore on my way back towards Shibuya since I'd missed it on the way up and read Cosmopolitan and Saveur almost front to cover, sitting on a stool I found in the Childrens section. Sitting there for at least two hours, I also skimmed: Food and Wine, Marie Claire, Vogue, Lucky and glanced at a few others. Food and Wine recommended a beer place in Tokyo, while Saveur recommended a particular area to eat. I walked out, much happier, into the semi-darkness. Night had come while I was reading, but the lights, everywhere, were so bright that it would be misleading to actually call it dark.
And now I could feel the crush of people and density of Tokyo. There was particular point when I was right before a large intersection, like a smaller Oxford Circus as the light changed.
In Sydney, at the huge intersection of George St. and the street Woolworths and one end of the QVB is on, people walk in straight, bulging cords as the cars stop. All at the same moment, people walk either way on each four sides of the square and diagonally across, forming a human square with an X in the middle. Though it's a large rush of people, and every once in a while a straggler swerves into one of the four triangles of concrete created in between the X and the square, the crowd always retains this structure. Somehow, the rivers never burst from their path.
This intersection in Shibuya reminded me of that one in Sydney, but with three times the people and none of the order. It was like a fishing net in the open sea where some fish are visible and then, instantly, something changes, and all the fish are caught wildly squirming in the net. It was a vibrating block of people, with nothing below them. I took a picture because it so perfectly captured the idea we sometimes have of Tokyo, as a big city totally filled with people, but of course, lost that picture when I lost my camera in Taiwan (which is why there are no pictures from this point until 5/23).
It was a nice afternoon and I enjoyed my wandering and seeing areas of Tokyo I had wanted to see on the way, but I was tired so I got some ramen and beers at 7-11 and went back to the hostel. I went to bed at around 12 and Marybeth told me that was about the time she'd come back looking for me but we'd somehow missed each other. After how busy I'd been lately, I really didn't mind missing out and getting some extra sleep.
Saturday, May 8, 2010
Unsmellable Zombie Tentacles
4/15-
My stepdad has been promising to buy me abalone to eat (as well as California Lobster and teaching me to drive as stickshift) for several years now. I've finally, sadly, realized it's never going to happen, so for my first taste of abalone, I went with abalone porridge. It was rather expensive ($15) but it was fairly good, and new.
I bought my ferry ticket, an overnight ferry with Japanese sleeping areas (similar to the situation in the jimjillbang, but in several slightly smaller rooms) for the next night as the day ferries were all booked. Wandering around the downtown area was vaguely interesting and I went into a memorial I passed on the way that was okay, then walked over to the Busan Tower. The view was lovely but there were huge masses of Japanese tourists there, despite the dull gray day, so I didn't stay for long.
Walking towards the fish market took me through a film festival square with generic mall-type stores, a cheap market and an expensive yuppie market with windows I had to tear myself away from. All four of these markets/shopping areas were within about three blocks of each other, which I found interesting.
This was really weird and worried me so when I got back to the jimjillbang, I looked on webmd and between my slight sniffling, my headaches (about which I'd written "My headaches feel a bit like sinus pressure, sort of like when you can't get your ears to pop and it hurts a bit. Damn, I wish they'd go away," and my lack of smell, I diagnosed myself with sinusitis, which is basically when all your mucus gets blocked up in your head. You cure it pretty much the same way you'd cure a cold: sleep, drink hot liquids, and try to drain your sinuses by steam, though anti-biotics may help. Since I now knew I had a disease, I was especially keen to get back and cure myself by hanging out in a hot tub.
The fish market was interesting though, especially the live octopuses for sale. You could buy them and they would cut it up right there but the tentacles keep moving, at which point, people eat them, as they struggle. Some of the tentacles, unaware they're already dead, continue to resist and poke through peoples internal organs, killing several people each year. I did not try them.
Back at the jimjillbang, the actual name of which I still don't know, I screwed around online and bathed, taking special care to breathe in as much hot steam as possible and put my entire head underwater, and went to bed.
My stepdad has been promising to buy me abalone to eat (as well as California Lobster and teaching me to drive as stickshift) for several years now. I've finally, sadly, realized it's never going to happen, so for my first taste of abalone, I went with abalone porridge. It was rather expensive ($15) but it was fairly good, and new.
I bought my ferry ticket, an overnight ferry with Japanese sleeping areas (similar to the situation in the jimjillbang, but in several slightly smaller rooms) for the next night as the day ferries were all booked. Wandering around the downtown area was vaguely interesting and I went into a memorial I passed on the way that was okay, then walked over to the Busan Tower. The view was lovely but there were huge masses of Japanese tourists there, despite the dull gray day, so I didn't stay for long.
Walking towards the fish market took me through a film festival square with generic mall-type stores, a cheap market and an expensive yuppie market with windows I had to tear myself away from. All four of these markets/shopping areas were within about three blocks of each other, which I found interesting.
These ones are actually properly dead.
Eventually I walked into the fish market. My guidebook had called it "possibly the smelliest place in the world," but I couldn't smell anything. I breathed in very deeply, wondering about this, and was greeted with a slight fishy smell, but when I exhaled, I again couldn't smell anything.
This was really weird and worried me so when I got back to the jimjillbang, I looked on webmd and between my slight sniffling, my headaches (about which I'd written "My headaches feel a bit like sinus pressure, sort of like when you can't get your ears to pop and it hurts a bit. Damn, I wish they'd go away," and my lack of smell, I diagnosed myself with sinusitis, which is basically when all your mucus gets blocked up in your head. You cure it pretty much the same way you'd cure a cold: sleep, drink hot liquids, and try to drain your sinuses by steam, though anti-biotics may help. Since I now knew I had a disease, I was especially keen to get back and cure myself by hanging out in a hot tub.
The fish market was interesting though, especially the live octopuses for sale. You could buy them and they would cut it up right there but the tentacles keep moving, at which point, people eat them, as they struggle. Some of the tentacles, unaware they're already dead, continue to resist and poke through peoples internal organs, killing several people each year. I did not try them.
Back at the jimjillbang, the actual name of which I still don't know, I screwed around online and bathed, taking special care to breathe in as much hot steam as possible and put my entire head underwater, and went to bed.
Tuesday, May 4, 2010
Korean BBQ
4/12
I had a slow day today, just wandered around Hongdae, the very cool University area I'm staying in but hadn't had a chance to explore yet and wrote a bit. At around three o'clock in the afternoon, I realized I was starving. (My appetite was very strange from the last few days I was in Cambodia through the first few days in Japan so I wasn't eating regularly.) I didn't want Western-style food so I looked around and when I saw a Korean restaurant with reasonable prices listed outside, I just went in and pointed to the menu and said it was for one person. Fortunately, it turned out to be Korean BBQ which you grilled at your table to desired doneness. I grilled mine with garlic and onions and it was delicious, and I was happy to have Korean food I actually liked. I looked around a bit more and window shopped, finally opening my wallet for a face mask and a really pretty nail polish.
I had a wonderful evening. It was so chill and luxurious and self-serving. I bought a bottle of Cabernet Sauvignon, watched the final episode of Buffy (which, I'd really sadly missed in Australia, where they have it on t.v. and I'd watched from the end of Season Four through the end of the series, except the last episode because I was kind of busy having a life at that point- I suck) and painted my nails and used my Skin Food face mask. It was fabulous; a bit luxurious, a bit odd, seeing as I was in a hostel, but above all, wonderful.
I had a slow day today, just wandered around Hongdae, the very cool University area I'm staying in but hadn't had a chance to explore yet and wrote a bit. At around three o'clock in the afternoon, I realized I was starving. (My appetite was very strange from the last few days I was in Cambodia through the first few days in Japan so I wasn't eating regularly.) I didn't want Western-style food so I looked around and when I saw a Korean restaurant with reasonable prices listed outside, I just went in and pointed to the menu and said it was for one person. Fortunately, it turned out to be Korean BBQ which you grilled at your table to desired doneness. I grilled mine with garlic and onions and it was delicious, and I was happy to have Korean food I actually liked. I looked around a bit more and window shopped, finally opening my wallet for a face mask and a really pretty nail polish.
I had a wonderful evening. It was so chill and luxurious and self-serving. I bought a bottle of Cabernet Sauvignon, watched the final episode of Buffy (which, I'd really sadly missed in Australia, where they have it on t.v. and I'd watched from the end of Season Four through the end of the series, except the last episode because I was kind of busy having a life at that point- I suck) and painted my nails and used my Skin Food face mask. It was fabulous; a bit luxurious, a bit odd, seeing as I was in a hostel, but above all, wonderful.
RAIIIINNN! And Soju
4/10
Today was probably my favorite in Korea. Sandra and I met at ______ station and went to eat at a tiny, local hole in the wall place that had a very long line of (all Korean) people waiting to get in. While waiting, we looked at the grafittied wall we were leaning against and added our own random bits. Obviously people were used to waiting to eat here, which was a very good sign. Sandra ordered our _______, a stew with a red sauce/base, noodles and seafood that you can add things to (we added dumplings, rice cakes and cheese), and added a note asking them not to make it too spicy since I was a foreigner and to add extra cheese. We finally got to sit down and in a very short time, our ________ came out, boiling hot. The waitress put it on top of the portable burner on top of our table and we started eating. This was really delicious, and as I ate more, I liked it more too. It was spicy, but in a good way, like spicy for the flavor, when so much of the other Korean food I had seemed spicy just for the sake of spiciness. Also, it wasn't too spicy; it was just yummy. I could see why people were willing to wait so long for it.
Afterwards, we wandered around the area for a while, which was fairly traditional and just charming. I stayed at Cafe H Works to have some tea as she left to go tutor.
I got a bit lost on my way back to the subway station, but that's all part of the fun. On the way, I passed this, which I found interesting because someone actually had to put the effort in to place it just so instead of throwing it to the ground,
and this, which was neat.
I also passed this, which I still don't understand.
So I went back to my hostel for a short time, then met Sandra at ____, from which point we went to Cafe Benne, a very popular coffee chain, and I tried ______, a warm, almost grainy type drink that I could understand as being very comforting, esecially when it was so cold outside. It sort of reminded me of oatmeal, and it was actually quite good until the last bits, which were a bit too chunky.
Her friend _____ met us there and we all chatted for a bit about this and that, and then there was Rain. RAIIIINN!!! Rain is apparently a wildly popular Korean singer who outranks Stephen Colbert yearly in Time magazines online poll. I don't think I'd heard of them before, so they fixed that by showing me all the Colbert clips, which are genius. I'm a Colbert fan and have seen a lot of it, but somehow I'd missed all these. Watch them- they are amazing.
We went shopping a bit and I realized how much I missed shopping. According to Sandra (and based on what I saw, I'd agree,) Korea is an extremely superficial society so everyone follows trends and dresses really nicely. People always say "Oh the women are so fashionable/chic there!" about New York or Paris. I never noticed it in either place, even though I actively looked for it, but here it really does seem to be true, though maybe I just thought that because I felt so frumpy myself. I wanted to buy new clothes and everything so so bad, but I refrained. It did make me sad though, and this is one of those things I really do miss out on traveling so much.
____ left us a bit abruptly but said he might meet us later and we went over to Fruit Bar- at least I think that was the name of it- and met three of her other friends. They were lovely and fun to hang out with. We ordered Pineapple Soju and it came out like this:
Then we ordered _________, which is a sort of rice wine that was quite good. I told Sandra that I was exhausted and that I had to stop at some sort of convenience store to get a Diet Coke. Sandra relayed this to the other girls as I started to walk off as "She has to get some coke." They stopped and stared at us, "Um, we don't really do that." Sandra and I laughed and explained the mistake as I ran off and downed a can of Coke Zero as quickly as possible.
We found another bar and a group of guys one of the girls knew came in and met us. We ate and drank soju and played drinking games all night long. Below is a bit I randomly wrote afterwards, but explains and describes much of it that I barely remember now (I'm writing this about a week later).
You know what, I had such a good time in Korea. It really was so much fun- from the photo booths (my friend Sandra and I got the best pictures EVER, though sadly, I can't upload them now) and batting cages to the wandering to the late-night drinking, I had a fantastic time. I wasn't a huge fan of the food, in fact, overall, I hated it, though I did like the Korean pizza, Korean BBQ and the one place Sandra took me to, but the shopping was great and everything was just so interesting.
Probably the thing that fascinated me the most was the dating culture and trying to understand that. It really was incredible and so totally different from the Western model of dating that it was just fascinating. Everything goes towards coupling; from drinking games to random dating. There is no hook-up culture.
It's hard to say that this is always so great because it's a very important part of the rather sexist part of Korea, but this aspect of it really was, well, quite nice. At least for me, seeing this side of the culture made the sexist and difficult parts of the culture so much more understandable and logical, in a way I don't always get to see, even with all the respect I noticed for local women in previous cultures.
All the drinking games were intended to couple people up; the first was rearranging our positions so that the seating was male-female-male-female. There were a few other drinking games: my favorite was where someone made a general statement like "Dirtiest Person" or "Funniest Person" (at which point one of the guys reminded everyone that I was a backpacker) and everyone would take one chopstick and point, on the count of three, to the person they thought fit that description the best. Whoever had the most chopsticks pointed at them had to drink and made the next statement.
P.S. The blanks are spaces I'm waiting/hoping for Sandra to fill in for me.
Today was probably my favorite in Korea. Sandra and I met at ______ station and went to eat at a tiny, local hole in the wall place that had a very long line of (all Korean) people waiting to get in. While waiting, we looked at the grafittied wall we were leaning against and added our own random bits. Obviously people were used to waiting to eat here, which was a very good sign. Sandra ordered our _______, a stew with a red sauce/base, noodles and seafood that you can add things to (we added dumplings, rice cakes and cheese), and added a note asking them not to make it too spicy since I was a foreigner and to add extra cheese. We finally got to sit down and in a very short time, our ________ came out, boiling hot. The waitress put it on top of the portable burner on top of our table and we started eating. This was really delicious, and as I ate more, I liked it more too. It was spicy, but in a good way, like spicy for the flavor, when so much of the other Korean food I had seemed spicy just for the sake of spiciness. Also, it wasn't too spicy; it was just yummy. I could see why people were willing to wait so long for it.
Afterwards, we wandered around the area for a while, which was fairly traditional and just charming. I stayed at Cafe H Works to have some tea as she left to go tutor.
I got a bit lost on my way back to the subway station, but that's all part of the fun. On the way, I passed this, which I found interesting because someone actually had to put the effort in to place it just so instead of throwing it to the ground,
and this, which was neat.
I also passed this, which I still don't understand.
So I went back to my hostel for a short time, then met Sandra at ____, from which point we went to Cafe Benne, a very popular coffee chain, and I tried ______, a warm, almost grainy type drink that I could understand as being very comforting, esecially when it was so cold outside. It sort of reminded me of oatmeal, and it was actually quite good until the last bits, which were a bit too chunky.
Her friend _____ met us there and we all chatted for a bit about this and that, and then there was Rain. RAIIIINN!!! Rain is apparently a wildly popular Korean singer who outranks Stephen Colbert yearly in Time magazines online poll. I don't think I'd heard of them before, so they fixed that by showing me all the Colbert clips, which are genius. I'm a Colbert fan and have seen a lot of it, but somehow I'd missed all these. Watch them- they are amazing.
| The Colbert Report | Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c | |||
| Stephen vs. Rain | ||||
| ||||
We went shopping a bit and I realized how much I missed shopping. According to Sandra (and based on what I saw, I'd agree,) Korea is an extremely superficial society so everyone follows trends and dresses really nicely. People always say "Oh the women are so fashionable/chic there!" about New York or Paris. I never noticed it in either place, even though I actively looked for it, but here it really does seem to be true, though maybe I just thought that because I felt so frumpy myself. I wanted to buy new clothes and everything so so bad, but I refrained. It did make me sad though, and this is one of those things I really do miss out on traveling so much.
____ left us a bit abruptly but said he might meet us later and we went over to Fruit Bar- at least I think that was the name of it- and met three of her other friends. They were lovely and fun to hang out with. We ordered Pineapple Soju and it came out like this:
Then we ordered _________, which is a sort of rice wine that was quite good. I told Sandra that I was exhausted and that I had to stop at some sort of convenience store to get a Diet Coke. Sandra relayed this to the other girls as I started to walk off as "She has to get some coke." They stopped and stared at us, "Um, we don't really do that." Sandra and I laughed and explained the mistake as I ran off and downed a can of Coke Zero as quickly as possible.
We found another bar and a group of guys one of the girls knew came in and met us. We ate and drank soju and played drinking games all night long. Below is a bit I randomly wrote afterwards, but explains and describes much of it that I barely remember now (I'm writing this about a week later).
You know what, I had such a good time in Korea. It really was so much fun- from the photo booths (my friend Sandra and I got the best pictures EVER, though sadly, I can't upload them now) and batting cages to the wandering to the late-night drinking, I had a fantastic time. I wasn't a huge fan of the food, in fact, overall, I hated it, though I did like the Korean pizza, Korean BBQ and the one place Sandra took me to, but the shopping was great and everything was just so interesting.
Probably the thing that fascinated me the most was the dating culture and trying to understand that. It really was incredible and so totally different from the Western model of dating that it was just fascinating. Everything goes towards coupling; from drinking games to random dating. There is no hook-up culture.
It's hard to say that this is always so great because it's a very important part of the rather sexist part of Korea, but this aspect of it really was, well, quite nice. At least for me, seeing this side of the culture made the sexist and difficult parts of the culture so much more understandable and logical, in a way I don't always get to see, even with all the respect I noticed for local women in previous cultures.
All the drinking games were intended to couple people up; the first was rearranging our positions so that the seating was male-female-male-female. There were a few other drinking games: my favorite was where someone made a general statement like "Dirtiest Person" or "Funniest Person" (at which point one of the guys reminded everyone that I was a backpacker) and everyone would take one chopstick and point, on the count of three, to the person they thought fit that description the best. Whoever had the most chopsticks pointed at them had to drink and made the next statement.
P.S. The blanks are spaces I'm waiting/hoping for Sandra to fill in for me.
Cool Korea
4/9
With tired, bleary eyes I searched for the bus signs from the Seoul airport and walked outside. It was cold. Properly, truly, my-hoodie-wasn't-warm-enough-for-the-weather, cold. It was wonderful. The air felt brisk and fresh and clean. I had to count, and realized that I'd been in various stages of summer for about a year (Seattle from April to September, Southern California from September to very early November- which is still very warm, Sydney summer from November to early March, then Southeast Asia until April) so the coldness really did feel fantastic and strange. I don't know exactly how to explain it, but it was almost like tasting something bitter after eating tons of chocolate; for a while you love it just because it's different and the contrast is fabulous. It really was stranger than I can explain; it felt like a truly foreign experience.
As much as I was enjoying the cold, I was quite happy to eventually make it to my hostel, a nice little hostel in a University area that felt like someone's apartment. On Skype I called Sandra, a friend of mine from high school who said she'd show me around Seoul, where she's been living on and off for three years, and she told me a subway station and exit number to meet her at for lunch.
I met Sandra at Euljiro3ga and she took me to a restaurant she really liked. She ordered noodles and stuff in soup for us both and right away the waitress brought out the kimchee. It's entirely possible that I've tried it before and blocked it from my memory, but to my knowledge, this was the first time I tasted it. It was not good- to the point that I actually had to spit it out. At the time, I'd assumed that it was just so spicy that I couldn't taste it, but after tasting other spicy Korean foods (one of which was good,) I now realize that it was partially the spiciness level and partially the fact that kimchee is disgustingly horrible. I ate a bit of my soup and noodles, but I wasn't really that hungry and even though I'm normally pretty good with them now, I was having trouble with my chopsticks at the time (but come on! I was using chopsticks to try to eat soup and angel-hair noodles!)
We walked around the area for a while, shopping and chatting. It was a really nice area, very central and busy but with lots of interesting stores, and then she left to go tutor one of her students and I went back to my hostel for a while.
That night, I met Sandra in Apgujeong, a fancy and expensive but very cool area which she lives near. We wandered a bit, just looking around and then went to Mr. Pizza to try Korean pizza. It was quite good, and I think it woke my appetite up because suddenly I was starving and ate half of the small/ medium? pizza. It was basically a crust with some kind of sauce, covered in cheese and with onions, peppers, squid and crab meat on top, with half of the pieces holding a shrimp wrapped in mashed potato type thing, wrapped in thin, fried-type things. I know it has a name and I know I've had that type of shrimp before and like it a lot, but I can't remember the name right now. Anyway, the whole thing was basically: crust, cheese and seafood, so I was happy.
It seemed really random to me that we were just walking down the street and passed a batting cage, but apparently, it's quite normal to just have them anywhere. After I pointed it out, Sandra asked me if I'd ever been in a batting cage before, and oddly, I realized I hadn't so we went. She told me that she'd never gone to one before Korea either, but that now she loved them and that they were great for getting out your anger and aggression. So I went first, and did terribly, but it was fun, and I would definitely do it again, especially since it was quite cheap- something like 50 cents for a few minutes. And though I wasn't angry right then, I could see what she meant. Sandra went next and did much better than I, while I watched and furtively took a few pictures; this was the best.
Next, we passed a photo booth store, where you can go in and take sticker pictures of yourselves and your friends. We do have these in the U.S. but they're pretty bland. They're extremely popular here so all the bells and whistles have been added, practically elevating it to an art form. We went into a booth with special lighting, chose our basic backgrounds (we went with open field, stripper pole, tea party and vanity mirror) and took ridiculous pictures. Then we went over to another machine where we got to add all kinds of funny things like time stamps, borders, little pictures of things like balloons and hearts, sparkles and more. It was so much fun- it reminded me of being a kid. I think I could've spent hours screwing around with it, but sadly it had a time limit, presumably for exactly that reason. Then our pictures came out, we added a special sparkly cover paper and cut them up. I wish I could show them here, but I have nowhere to scan them in. Just trust me when I say that these pictures are awesome.
We walked over to Koobar, a bar where we were supposed to meet Sandra's friend, but he never showed. There were some other people there that she kind of knew, but we mostly stuck to ourselves and danced around a bit. Mostly we started dancing because I'd been judging the other people dancing and they were doing a terrible job. Nearly everyone looks a little ridiculous when they dance, but people who try really hard and think they're really good almost always look the worst, at least to me. I like the people who are just enjoying it, and as long as they're not doing something wildly ridiculous, I think those people are best.
At Koobar, I decided that I really wanted a vodka and Diet Coke. They didn't have it on the menu, but they had vodka on the menu and that was good enough for me. The server came over and Sandra ordered but they didn't have Diet Coke so I said just Coke was fine and pointed out on the menu that I wanted a bottle (which was 3,000 won- about $3, which is crazy anyway) and not a glass, which for some reason was 10,000 won- $10. So my drink should've been about 12,000 won (3,000 for the Coke and 9,000 for the vodka,) totally overpriced and ridiculous, but a Vodka and Coke just sounded so good right then, and I hadn't had one in a long time. When the bill came, Sandra's drink was charged correctly but mine had somehow come out to 19,000 won! They'd charged me correctly for the vodka, but had charged me 10,000 won for my can of Coke. Yes can, I'd thought it was strange too when he'd brought me a can instead of a bottle, but had ignored it. Sandra said that was really weird too and argued with him about it. Apparently, it's $3 for a Coke if you buy a bottle of liquor, $10 without! It was crap and ridiculous and a scam, but it had basically happened due to my lack of understanding so I just paid it, and got over it since I didn't want my night ruined, even though that was basically the end of my night and I went home afterwards (not because I was upset, just because I had to get the subway to get back and the lines stop running at midnight).*
It was a good night, though, and I was thrilled with the pictures.
*I have a whole system about whether to fight or argue about something while abroad/ in a country where I don't speak the language that I'll get into another time.
With tired, bleary eyes I searched for the bus signs from the Seoul airport and walked outside. It was cold. Properly, truly, my-hoodie-wasn't-warm-enough-for-the-weather, cold. It was wonderful. The air felt brisk and fresh and clean. I had to count, and realized that I'd been in various stages of summer for about a year (Seattle from April to September, Southern California from September to very early November- which is still very warm, Sydney summer from November to early March, then Southeast Asia until April) so the coldness really did feel fantastic and strange. I don't know exactly how to explain it, but it was almost like tasting something bitter after eating tons of chocolate; for a while you love it just because it's different and the contrast is fabulous. It really was stranger than I can explain; it felt like a truly foreign experience.
As much as I was enjoying the cold, I was quite happy to eventually make it to my hostel, a nice little hostel in a University area that felt like someone's apartment. On Skype I called Sandra, a friend of mine from high school who said she'd show me around Seoul, where she's been living on and off for three years, and she told me a subway station and exit number to meet her at for lunch.
I met Sandra at Euljiro3ga and she took me to a restaurant she really liked. She ordered noodles and stuff in soup for us both and right away the waitress brought out the kimchee. It's entirely possible that I've tried it before and blocked it from my memory, but to my knowledge, this was the first time I tasted it. It was not good- to the point that I actually had to spit it out. At the time, I'd assumed that it was just so spicy that I couldn't taste it, but after tasting other spicy Korean foods (one of which was good,) I now realize that it was partially the spiciness level and partially the fact that kimchee is disgustingly horrible. I ate a bit of my soup and noodles, but I wasn't really that hungry and even though I'm normally pretty good with them now, I was having trouble with my chopsticks at the time (but come on! I was using chopsticks to try to eat soup and angel-hair noodles!)
We walked around the area for a while, shopping and chatting. It was a really nice area, very central and busy but with lots of interesting stores, and then she left to go tutor one of her students and I went back to my hostel for a while.
That night, I met Sandra in Apgujeong, a fancy and expensive but very cool area which she lives near. We wandered a bit, just looking around and then went to Mr. Pizza to try Korean pizza. It was quite good, and I think it woke my appetite up because suddenly I was starving and ate half of the small/ medium? pizza. It was basically a crust with some kind of sauce, covered in cheese and with onions, peppers, squid and crab meat on top, with half of the pieces holding a shrimp wrapped in mashed potato type thing, wrapped in thin, fried-type things. I know it has a name and I know I've had that type of shrimp before and like it a lot, but I can't remember the name right now. Anyway, the whole thing was basically: crust, cheese and seafood, so I was happy.
It seemed really random to me that we were just walking down the street and passed a batting cage, but apparently, it's quite normal to just have them anywhere. After I pointed it out, Sandra asked me if I'd ever been in a batting cage before, and oddly, I realized I hadn't so we went. She told me that she'd never gone to one before Korea either, but that now she loved them and that they were great for getting out your anger and aggression. So I went first, and did terribly, but it was fun, and I would definitely do it again, especially since it was quite cheap- something like 50 cents for a few minutes. And though I wasn't angry right then, I could see what she meant. Sandra went next and did much better than I, while I watched and furtively took a few pictures; this was the best.
Next, we passed a photo booth store, where you can go in and take sticker pictures of yourselves and your friends. We do have these in the U.S. but they're pretty bland. They're extremely popular here so all the bells and whistles have been added, practically elevating it to an art form. We went into a booth with special lighting, chose our basic backgrounds (we went with open field, stripper pole, tea party and vanity mirror) and took ridiculous pictures. Then we went over to another machine where we got to add all kinds of funny things like time stamps, borders, little pictures of things like balloons and hearts, sparkles and more. It was so much fun- it reminded me of being a kid. I think I could've spent hours screwing around with it, but sadly it had a time limit, presumably for exactly that reason. Then our pictures came out, we added a special sparkly cover paper and cut them up. I wish I could show them here, but I have nowhere to scan them in. Just trust me when I say that these pictures are awesome.
We walked over to Koobar, a bar where we were supposed to meet Sandra's friend, but he never showed. There were some other people there that she kind of knew, but we mostly stuck to ourselves and danced around a bit. Mostly we started dancing because I'd been judging the other people dancing and they were doing a terrible job. Nearly everyone looks a little ridiculous when they dance, but people who try really hard and think they're really good almost always look the worst, at least to me. I like the people who are just enjoying it, and as long as they're not doing something wildly ridiculous, I think those people are best.
At Koobar, I decided that I really wanted a vodka and Diet Coke. They didn't have it on the menu, but they had vodka on the menu and that was good enough for me. The server came over and Sandra ordered but they didn't have Diet Coke so I said just Coke was fine and pointed out on the menu that I wanted a bottle (which was 3,000 won- about $3, which is crazy anyway) and not a glass, which for some reason was 10,000 won- $10. So my drink should've been about 12,000 won (3,000 for the Coke and 9,000 for the vodka,) totally overpriced and ridiculous, but a Vodka and Coke just sounded so good right then, and I hadn't had one in a long time. When the bill came, Sandra's drink was charged correctly but mine had somehow come out to 19,000 won! They'd charged me correctly for the vodka, but had charged me 10,000 won for my can of Coke. Yes can, I'd thought it was strange too when he'd brought me a can instead of a bottle, but had ignored it. Sandra said that was really weird too and argued with him about it. Apparently, it's $3 for a Coke if you buy a bottle of liquor, $10 without! It was crap and ridiculous and a scam, but it had basically happened due to my lack of understanding so I just paid it, and got over it since I didn't want my night ruined, even though that was basically the end of my night and I went home afterwards (not because I was upset, just because I had to get the subway to get back and the lines stop running at midnight).*
It was a good night, though, and I was thrilled with the pictures.
*I have a whole system about whether to fight or argue about something while abroad/ in a country where I don't speak the language that I'll get into another time.
Thursday, April 22, 2010
The Killing Fields
4/7
I still had a pretty bad headache today but I had to get out and do something, both because I was leaving tomorrow and because I was feeling restless and claustrophobic in the guesthouse. I decided I could at least go see the Killing Fields (Choeung Ek Genocidal Center) and the Russian Market since they were the farthest out. I hired a tuk tuk to take me out and started wandering around the fields. They're actually very peaceful, not just a decent memorial, but truly calming. Butterflies flitted over the mass graves and birds chirped on the boughs of the Killing Tree.
The main shrine was filled with skulls and other bones and what was interesting (in an admittedly very morbid way,) was how in some cases you could tell what they died from (gunshot wound, beaten, etc.)
The Russian Market was okay, interesting but not as cool as the guidebook had made it sound (mostly by saying that this was where the clothes from nearby factories like Hurley or Abercrombie & Fitch ended up) so I just wandered a bit, got a pair of pants mended and then walked back to the guesthouse.
Actually, I did buy a korma (a traditional, and still in constant use, Cambodian scarf) simply because of part of the history I'd read. Several of the guidebooks had recommended getting one, just generally, but I'd been able to resist until I read about the group of Northeastern Cambodians who had really, seriously, resisted the Khmer Rouge, and who were branded by being forced to wear blue scarves. My guidebook didn't clarify if these were korma or not, and I doubt it has any meaning to anyone anymore, but I just loved the idea; of fighting for something you truly believe in and never giving up, even when there's no sliver of hope, and of fighting just to fight, because you have to, because there's nothing else to do.
I still had a pretty bad headache today but I had to get out and do something, both because I was leaving tomorrow and because I was feeling restless and claustrophobic in the guesthouse. I decided I could at least go see the Killing Fields (Choeung Ek Genocidal Center) and the Russian Market since they were the farthest out. I hired a tuk tuk to take me out and started wandering around the fields. They're actually very peaceful, not just a decent memorial, but truly calming. Butterflies flitted over the mass graves and birds chirped on the boughs of the Killing Tree.
The main shrine was filled with skulls and other bones and what was interesting (in an admittedly very morbid way,) was how in some cases you could tell what they died from (gunshot wound, beaten, etc.)
The Russian Market was okay, interesting but not as cool as the guidebook had made it sound (mostly by saying that this was where the clothes from nearby factories like Hurley or Abercrombie & Fitch ended up) so I just wandered a bit, got a pair of pants mended and then walked back to the guesthouse.
Actually, I did buy a korma (a traditional, and still in constant use, Cambodian scarf) simply because of part of the history I'd read. Several of the guidebooks had recommended getting one, just generally, but I'd been able to resist until I read about the group of Northeastern Cambodians who had really, seriously, resisted the Khmer Rouge, and who were branded by being forced to wear blue scarves. My guidebook didn't clarify if these were korma or not, and I doubt it has any meaning to anyone anymore, but I just loved the idea; of fighting for something you truly believe in and never giving up, even when there's no sliver of hope, and of fighting just to fight, because you have to, because there's nothing else to do.
Tuesday, April 6, 2010
Playing La(u)ra Croft
3/29
Amazingly, I actually managed to wake up around 6 a.m., get up by 6:20 a.m. and arrived at Chris' hotel at 7 a.m. on the dot. Since she's usually very punctual, I was surprised she wasn't waiting for me with a scowl, but the people at the front desk told me she was still in her room. I told them not to call her and I'd just wait. I sat down to wait, but got up again almost immediately when I noticed the breakfast buffet Chris had told me came with their hotel. It looked so good so I went over, hoping they wouldn't charge me since I was a guest of a guest, but thinking that even if they did, it would be worth it. It's very rare for me to eat breakfast, but for whatever reason, I was really hungry and it just looked so scrumptious. So I ate a lot. Three glasses of orange juice, two croissants, an omelette with onions, tomatoes, sausage and carrots (sadly, since I hate them, Southeast Asians seem obsessed with carrots and throw them in everything for no reason,) probably 3/4ths of a dragon fruit, a bit of pineapple and a few slices of a baguette with different jams or butter. I also took an apple and a piece of their brownie-like chocolate bread with me for later. Unsurprisingly, they did charge me, but it still only came out to $5.50 and I was so satisfied with it, that seemed like a bargain.
Chris came out eventually and joined me for breakfast.
"Oh good, you're here early," she said.
"I thought you said to meet at 7," I replied.
"Yes, we're meeting the driver here at 7."
"But it's 7:21 already."
"No sweetie, it's 6:20."
"Oh."
Crap. That's when I realized that I hadn't ever changed my phone or computer or pedometer clock to Cambodian time, which is one hour behind Malaysian time. I think this is due to Daylight Savings Time because otherwise it makes absolutely no sense since time gets earlier as you go West, and Malaysia is West of Cambodia. I had to think about this for a while, so for comparison's sake, I'll tell you that it's currently 11:10 p.m. in Sydney, 8:10 p.m. in Cambodia, and 9:10 p.m. in Malaysia (in East to West order).
Anyway, that meant I'd really gotten up at 5 a.m. As soon as I realized this and thought about the long day ahead, I immediately felt exhausted. We did leave at around 7 a.m. after all and headed off in a blessedly air-conditioned van to Angkor Wat.
Even with less than ideal lighting conditions, since we were there just an hour after sunrise and Angkor Wat is West facing, an oddity among the temples in that sense, creating a block of darkness and shadows against a bright sky, it was still brilliant. The huge complex looked both ancient and yet had an bit of regality in it's finely chiseled sandstone bricks and rectangular columns. It also reminded me of Versailles; the detailing, architecture and large garden spaces.
Afterwards, Chris and Amarita said they wanted a coffee break, which turned into a lunch break, at 10:40 a.m. I was still full from breakfast, but since I had no idea how long we'd be gone, I ordered a plate of plain rice and a coconut milkshake. Coconut milkshakes are both completely obvious, completely ignored in the Western world, and freaking amazing. The coconut milk is thrown in a blender with some of the coconut meat and a bunch of ice. Some places seem to use simple sugar to make it sweeter, others use a thickener, but that's the basic recipe.
Chris ordered frogs legs in a green pepper sauce and since I couldn't remember if I'd ever tried them or not, I asked her for a bite just to be sure. The sauce was pretty good but the meat was bland and a bit stringy.
After lunch, we headed off to our next temple, Ta Prohm. You may know this as the Tomb Raider temple; it was here that they filmed part of the movie. Very cool.
Even though we'd only seen two temples, they were some of the most important ones, so we called it a day and they went back to their hotel and I rode my bike home. At 5:20 we met at the Old Market and walked around. Markets may all be nearly the same, with just slight variations, but I still love them and this one was rather interesting to see as it didn't seem particularly tourist oriented. I found two pairs of very thin cotton/linen pants, which were just what I was looking for, though pockets would've been nice. I got one long pair in dark green and one capri length pair in black. For both, I paid $11, which was too much, especially for what they were, but I am enjoying them.
Next we went to Koulen for a Cambodian buffet and to watch apsara (traditional Khmer) dancers. It was overpriced, the food was subpar, the atmosphere touristy, and the dancers obviously were not very good; horribly unsynchronized, but we probably wouldn't have gotten to see them otherwise so it was worth it. I also forgot my camera for this, so I have a few crappy cell phone pics, but nothing good. Sorry.
I had another few Angkor beers for 50 cents at my hostel's rooftop bar, talked to a couple of German guys who were actually getting the government to pay for their trip by taking advantage of a program to help unemployed people start their own businesses, so their business was building a blog about having sex and traveling the world, and trying to make money off of it, and then, after listening to one of them tell me that sex was the only thing he cared about in the world, I went to bed (ALONE- just to clarify).
Amazingly, I actually managed to wake up around 6 a.m., get up by 6:20 a.m. and arrived at Chris' hotel at 7 a.m. on the dot. Since she's usually very punctual, I was surprised she wasn't waiting for me with a scowl, but the people at the front desk told me she was still in her room. I told them not to call her and I'd just wait. I sat down to wait, but got up again almost immediately when I noticed the breakfast buffet Chris had told me came with their hotel. It looked so good so I went over, hoping they wouldn't charge me since I was a guest of a guest, but thinking that even if they did, it would be worth it. It's very rare for me to eat breakfast, but for whatever reason, I was really hungry and it just looked so scrumptious. So I ate a lot. Three glasses of orange juice, two croissants, an omelette with onions, tomatoes, sausage and carrots (sadly, since I hate them, Southeast Asians seem obsessed with carrots and throw them in everything for no reason,) probably 3/4ths of a dragon fruit, a bit of pineapple and a few slices of a baguette with different jams or butter. I also took an apple and a piece of their brownie-like chocolate bread with me for later. Unsurprisingly, they did charge me, but it still only came out to $5.50 and I was so satisfied with it, that seemed like a bargain.
Chris came out eventually and joined me for breakfast.
"Oh good, you're here early," she said.
"I thought you said to meet at 7," I replied.
"Yes, we're meeting the driver here at 7."
"But it's 7:21 already."
"No sweetie, it's 6:20."
"Oh."
Crap. That's when I realized that I hadn't ever changed my phone or computer or pedometer clock to Cambodian time, which is one hour behind Malaysian time. I think this is due to Daylight Savings Time because otherwise it makes absolutely no sense since time gets earlier as you go West, and Malaysia is West of Cambodia. I had to think about this for a while, so for comparison's sake, I'll tell you that it's currently 11:10 p.m. in Sydney, 8:10 p.m. in Cambodia, and 9:10 p.m. in Malaysia (in East to West order).
Anyway, that meant I'd really gotten up at 5 a.m. As soon as I realized this and thought about the long day ahead, I immediately felt exhausted. We did leave at around 7 a.m. after all and headed off in a blessedly air-conditioned van to Angkor Wat.
Even with less than ideal lighting conditions, since we were there just an hour after sunrise and Angkor Wat is West facing, an oddity among the temples in that sense, creating a block of darkness and shadows against a bright sky, it was still brilliant. The huge complex looked both ancient and yet had an bit of regality in it's finely chiseled sandstone bricks and rectangular columns. It also reminded me of Versailles; the detailing, architecture and large garden spaces.
Afterwards, Chris and Amarita said they wanted a coffee break, which turned into a lunch break, at 10:40 a.m. I was still full from breakfast, but since I had no idea how long we'd be gone, I ordered a plate of plain rice and a coconut milkshake. Coconut milkshakes are both completely obvious, completely ignored in the Western world, and freaking amazing. The coconut milk is thrown in a blender with some of the coconut meat and a bunch of ice. Some places seem to use simple sugar to make it sweeter, others use a thickener, but that's the basic recipe.
Chris ordered frogs legs in a green pepper sauce and since I couldn't remember if I'd ever tried them or not, I asked her for a bite just to be sure. The sauce was pretty good but the meat was bland and a bit stringy.
After lunch, we headed off to our next temple, Ta Prohm. You may know this as the Tomb Raider temple; it was here that they filmed part of the movie. Very cool.
My Aunt Chris, Me and Amarita
Yes, that is possibly a Stegosaurus on the temple wall.
Next we went to Koulen for a Cambodian buffet and to watch apsara (traditional Khmer) dancers. It was overpriced, the food was subpar, the atmosphere touristy, and the dancers obviously were not very good; horribly unsynchronized, but we probably wouldn't have gotten to see them otherwise so it was worth it. I also forgot my camera for this, so I have a few crappy cell phone pics, but nothing good. Sorry.
I had another few Angkor beers for 50 cents at my hostel's rooftop bar, talked to a couple of German guys who were actually getting the government to pay for their trip by taking advantage of a program to help unemployed people start their own businesses, so their business was building a blog about having sex and traveling the world, and trying to make money off of it, and then, after listening to one of them tell me that sex was the only thing he cared about in the world, I went to bed (ALONE- just to clarify).
Tuesday, March 16, 2010
Shopping Or chid? I choose Art.
3/10/2010
I'm going to have to try to keep these entries MUCH shorter or they'll never happen, so on Wednesday I woke up at a reasonable hour, around 9 a.m. and got moving. First I went to the market to get something to eat- this time I chose a Popiah, which is a sort of roll with sauce, peanuts, cabbage, spices and some other stuff- it was actually incredible, so I ended up going back again later in the day. In the morning, I visited a Buddhist temple and a Hindu Temple and the Singapore Art Museum, which was interesting and had some good, fairly recent art from native Singaporeans.
Next, I walked over to Orchard Road, the main shopping drag with thousands of stores and several malls. Honestly, as much as I enjoy shopping, it really wasn't that interesting because they were all stores we have at home: Forever 21, Zara, Chanel, etc. I grabbed roast duck and noodles for lunch- though I'm still not entirely convinced that it actually was duck and not chicken.
I headed over to the National Botanic Gardens and wandered around there before finding my way to the Orchid Garden. Entry was only $1 SD since I still have my student card and the inside was phenomenal. I've never particularly liked orchids, but seeing thousands of them in bloom in one place in literally every color of the rainbow (Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo and Violet plus brown and pink and white!) was absolutely incredible. After quite a while there, I walked over to the Reflexology foot path, took off my shoes and tried that- it felt kind of good, but was quite uncomfortable at the same time. I'd walked so far by this point that I just took a bus back to the hostel and rested for a short while.
Later, at twilight, I headed out to Arab Street, in the Arabic neighborhood. It was interesting, but nothing was particularly fascinating until I headed down a side street and saw the hipsters. Somehow, next to the decayed buldings, an authentic hipster enclave had sprung up. It made for quite a bizarre sight, as I walked from the somewhat dirty streets with arabic lettering on the restaurant signs, to a cleaner street with very chic, modern clothing boutiques inhabited by Singaporeans with overstyled hair, dotted between genuine, broken concrete-and-dirt hovels in the same building. I imagine it was what all hipsters dream about when they lie down on their 500 thread count hemp sheets.
I'm going to have to try to keep these entries MUCH shorter or they'll never happen, so on Wednesday I woke up at a reasonable hour, around 9 a.m. and got moving. First I went to the market to get something to eat- this time I chose a Popiah, which is a sort of roll with sauce, peanuts, cabbage, spices and some other stuff- it was actually incredible, so I ended up going back again later in the day. In the morning, I visited a Buddhist temple and a Hindu Temple and the Singapore Art Museum, which was interesting and had some good, fairly recent art from native Singaporeans.
Buddhist Temple
Hindu Temple
This was one of my favorite pieces of art in the museum because it actually explores the relationship between the artist, the model, and necessarily, the observer (made that much more obvious by my reflection here).
Next, I walked over to Orchard Road, the main shopping drag with thousands of stores and several malls. Honestly, as much as I enjoy shopping, it really wasn't that interesting because they were all stores we have at home: Forever 21, Zara, Chanel, etc. I grabbed roast duck and noodles for lunch- though I'm still not entirely convinced that it actually was duck and not chicken.
One of the malls on Orchard Road
I headed over to the National Botanic Gardens and wandered around there before finding my way to the Orchid Garden. Entry was only $1 SD since I still have my student card and the inside was phenomenal. I've never particularly liked orchids, but seeing thousands of them in bloom in one place in literally every color of the rainbow (Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo and Violet plus brown and pink and white!) was absolutely incredible. After quite a while there, I walked over to the Reflexology foot path, took off my shoes and tried that- it felt kind of good, but was quite uncomfortable at the same time. I'd walked so far by this point that I just took a bus back to the hostel and rested for a short while.
Later, at twilight, I headed out to Arab Street, in the Arabic neighborhood. It was interesting, but nothing was particularly fascinating until I headed down a side street and saw the hipsters. Somehow, next to the decayed buldings, an authentic hipster enclave had sprung up. It made for quite a bizarre sight, as I walked from the somewhat dirty streets with arabic lettering on the restaurant signs, to a cleaner street with very chic, modern clothing boutiques inhabited by Singaporeans with overstyled hair, dotted between genuine, broken concrete-and-dirt hovels in the same building. I imagine it was what all hipsters dream about when they lie down on their 500 thread count hemp sheets.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
