RunAndyRoo

Coming Home

I planned my trip back home months and months ago (back when I registered for the Chicago Marathon). I used to think about going home all the time - how things would look different to me now.

I still think about it a bit, but I’m not as worried as before.

In HK, I had to work all the time. My only day off was Monday, and I worked almost constantly the other 6 days. It was hard to have much of a life that way. So…. I was isolated. Set far away from everything I’ve ever known, Bunkered down by a strong work-load, Surrounded by a sea of unrecognizable language, and looked at and called an outsider… Of course it was isolating. It reminded me of the cold winters I used to run in the Monmouth countryside, one day in particular.

I was dedicated to try running through anything, in a way I just wanted to hear my fellow runners say, “Dude, You’re crazy!” (in a group of people that run 90 miles a week, that’s a big compliment).

One day, the windchill reached -17 degrees F. But…. This is a chance for ‘Crazy’ of course I’ll have to try it. Plus I had a 15 mile run in mind for that day.
Blah, blah, blah… I’ll skip to mile 8. I had turned around and was now going against the wind. (I made a bad mistake of running with the wind first on a cold day, big no no - you work up a sweat then the sweat turns to ice). Now I’m freezing. Just about as cold as I’ve ever been. I’m stranded out amongst the miles of endless baron cornfields. In for the next 7 miles those plains of Illinois turned into Mt. Everest.

I saw nothing but blinding white snow reflecting sunlight and the deep black contrast of black country road. The only resonating sounds were my foot strikes and my breath. Everything else was blown away by the constant whistling of wind, and was now probably 2 counties over next to the empty McDonalds bag I had seen on my way out.

I think there are 2 types of isolation. Being surrounded by absolutely nothing or being surrounded by absolutely everything foreign. So in a way my two stories separate here, but both needed time to adjust when arriving home. A nice warm blanket and a nice meal with friends

Heavy Edits Needed Heavily

I am really lazy about this blog.  Most of the time if I don’t write something down, I’ll forget it.  The same with experiences… If I don’t write it down, it’s hard for me to relive it in my mind.  

Mostly, this blog is for myself.  I type it up while I’m on the train or the bus using my phone.  My iPhone loves to auto’correct’ words, which is nice sometimes because my fat thumbs are too big to push the appropriate buttons… but a pain other times.   Also, sometimes I write little bullet points and then forget to go back and tell the story…  Or I’ll only write half of it, get to an exchange station, then forget to type the rest.

Also, I upload it from my phone… and rarely log on from my laptop.  That means the format of my posts are at the mercy of my ‘copy and paste’ version from my phone.

Sorry about that.  I am interested in making heavy use of the ‘edit’ button on the top of each post to clean things up.  Other wise most of these posts look like gibberish.

Malaysia

First impressions -

:: remember, I had just ran my 100k the day before and I was tired and sore.

• So far, I’m really not impressed with KL. Coming from Singapore (one of the cleanest cities in the world), there is an instant realization of how filthy the streets are. Now, they might not be terrible.. But they’re not clean.

Also, the air pollution is noticeable here, sort of like downtown Hong Kong… Where you just don’t feel like staying outside too long. You can just feel the hot breath of exhaust floating around you.

I’ve walled around a bit now… I’m up at the KL tower, in Asia it seems that any big city needs one of these towers, most of them have one (Tokyo, Macau, Seoul, Kyoto, Kuala Lumpur…). This one seems the most desperate for tourists. Complete with souvineer shops, ‘cultural’ experiences, photo stands in front of fake night skylines, a two headed turtle animal show, and even pony rides… That’s right… PONY rides!

I’m debating whether I should even bother going to the top of this thing… I swear if it’s more than $5 USD I’m skipping it.

Hostels - Hostels come good and cheap here. Ive actually been blown away by them… For $8usd/ night I got a shared two person room with free wifi and breakfast. The place is super clean, the people are friendly, and there is even a large common room with a plasma screen tv playing newly released movies. DA BOMB.

Things are cheap here. 1 USD is about 3 Malaysian Ringots. Not only are the hostels cheaper, but just the normal grocery stores and everything is cheaper. Coming from Hong Kong and Singapore - It’s not too big of an accomplishment, but it’s very welcome!

For dinner I had a plate with rice, fried chicken, fried fish, vegetables, and a 7up from a street stall. While I passed him the 10 Ringotts we both smirked like we got away with highway-robbery.

The Partonas Towers are a real work of art. Although their round shape makes them look like oversized parking garages, they are a spectacular beauty at night.

• Cheap Taxi I was fed up and feeling sick, so I just got a taxi. The ride lasted for about 15 - 20 minutes, so I was surprised when he only asked me for $1.50usd. Amazing. I rounded it up to an even 2 bucks, he couldn’t believe his luck. For the second time today, We both smirked like we got away with robbery.

• cool people at the hostel

Day 2 -Batu caves - monkeys - hacking coconuts - right hand - snake - museum - stroll through the park - tower breakdown - taxi

• roommate

I hear lots of interesting stories while I’m in the hostels. Everyone there has to have some story as to why they decided to travel. My roommate, Alex, was especially interesting. He was a stockbroker. Six days a week he drove from his nice suburban home into London’s downtown financial district. Alex would intensely monitor 3 computer screens and hack away frantically at the keyboards in front of them. He did this for 13 hours a day. Because of this he has partially damaged his eyes.

Looking at him today, I could only see a glimmer of that life. The 6 foot 250 pound man was wearing worn capri gym pants and a blue sleeveless Nike top. He carried one black school bag and one medium sized travelers backpack. These two bags were now given the responsibility to carry all of his belongings for two years.

Alex had.. well… ‘gone mental’ as the British would say. Although he had a high paying job, a home, a nice car, and a long time relationship… He left. He sold nearly everything- Thus his two backpacks.

He said there were times when he wanted to just kill himself. He couldn’t deal with the stress. He grabbed his two packs, kissed his girl goodbye and left. He hitchhiked and rode trains all the way from England through Germany and up into Russia… Then down past China into Cambodia and Vietnam.

He’s a real nomad. The way I could only dream about… I don’t have the guts to do what he did. I don’t think I could ever hitch a ride with some stranger. He had tons of stories of incredible compassion others showed him, sometimes offering a place at their house, a meal, a ride to the next town… All of that adds up. I’d feel like I had to give something back if I were him.

Now he says he wants to be a farmer… Do ‘a real job’.., I guess making $150k a year with 6 weeks paid holiday, wasn’t fulfilling to him.

Wonderful dude though… It was nice chatting with him.

Day 3 - foreigner pricing

I hate foreigner pricing. It’s the absolute worst. It happens in tons of places. Mostly in the markets and in small business shops.

They have Nasi food here. Which is delightful to eat… They hand you a plate with rice and then you choose the rest of your food buffet style and at the end someone looks at what you picked and makes a judgement call on the price. “hmmm…” the old woman will say, picking the plate up to her nose to get a good look, “12 ringgotts.”.

To me this is a good price, but I can see the other younger woman shake her head in shame from the corner of my eye… Foreigner priced food.

I didn’t argue.. What can I say - I’ve been here for 2 days… [“NO! Chicken, veggies, mystery meat and rice should only be 8 Ringotts!” ](the price I paid yesterday for a similar meal plus drink). Oh well. I took it and then watched locals by dishes at half-price.

This happens at other places too… Like the aquarium, ‘Malaysian price: 35 RM, Non-Malaysian: 45 RM’. Things like that annoy me. If everyone’s tickets were 45 I might have gone in… But I walked away in protest.

• twins

The early bird gets the worm, but it takes a night owl to get the twins. I woke up at 7:30 (about the time the sun rises) and it still wasn’t early enough to get the free tickets to the Petrona Tower sky walk. Registration starts at 8:30, but it’s standard that you have to get there before 7 to even get a shot at the tickets.

• shortest person in the world.

I swear I saw an old woman that was under 2 feet tall. She had two normal sized elder citizens pushing her in a special modified stoller. It was pretty wild.

• islamic head scarves and muslim dress.

Sundown 100k

The race- it all seems like some cruel dream now…

It was a fairly hot sunny day to begin with.  The race started at 6 and the sunset at 7:30 here. So I had to battle with the sun from the get go. One dumb amateur move I fell victim of was not bringing a hat [hey! This is a NIGHT race]. I’m stupid.

At about 7pm the weather improved a lot. We ran next to the ocean and benefitted from a nice cool breeze. There were plenty of families cooking out and camping on the Saturday night so the environment was really outstanding.

I ran a bit too fast to begin with, typical. I felt like my 10 minute pace was very relaxed [Ha, til the 40k mark].  Then the struggles began. My plan for running 10k then walking for 10 minutes was out the window due to random walking breaks I felt necessary to counterbalance my overly enthusiastic start.

I ended up really having a hard time between 40k-50k. I just felt cashed!  [Ouch.] It began looking like another 50k “accomplishment” for me. [Pathetic.]

In the ultra world you can’t take anything for granted. The races have wild mood swings [yep, like your crazy ex-girlfriend…]

You have to know how hard to stride out the good times, and know how to tread water and survive during the worst. This is what makes and breaks a race; if you’re not tough enough to handle the worst… It’s going to be a short race for you.

I finally battled my way to the 50k mark, 20% sure that a drop out was inevitable.

Again, you never know what will happen.  I spent 30 minutes in the turn around area. I felt like complete hell, but then something happened… most people would blame it on my youth, I recovered.  Still it wasn’t roses… It was a battle. I was mixing walking breaks frequently with my robot limp, that I called ‘running’.

This continued on til the 60k mark. Something happened there. It was about 3am and the weather had cooled.  [‘This is my opportunity! Finally some relief!’]. I booked it for 3 miles, which was a big improvement. While ‘booking it’ I made a mistake. I wasn’t micromanaging my body. I was just running free. You HAVE to do body maintenance checks frequently.  Go figure, I had burned off all the water I had been pouring on my head and began dripping sweat. I pushed through it.

When I stopped, I felt like hell again. I thought that my good spurt was going to be a turning point… Unfortunately it was.  I was dehydrated. Badly. The way I haven’t been dehydrated before.  I was light-headed and I couldn’t even have complete thoughts.  Don’t get me wrong, I had plenty of water with me, but water had become the scum of the Earth. The most evil thing I could think about.  I didn’t even want to say the word, let alone put it on my head, or DRINK it [are you crazy! I’m not drinking that stuff].

What do you have to do in this situation? Force yourself to drink, obviously.   [I felt the way Dumbledore did when trying to obtain the necklace horcrux [nerds might get that reference, but that’s what was going through my head].]  I hated water. I was even afraid of water!  I just kept telling myself, if I get to the next check point (which should have been 70k) I will finish the race. It was a stupid mind trick, but by a miracle I didn’t flag down the Quitter’s Bus and I got there [the aid station was actually at the 72k mark… ugh! TOTURE!].

I forced myself to ask for more water in my camelpak, and cringed when they obliged.  Then I forced myself to drink- yuck.  And I forced myself to pour some on my head (that’s exactly what I want right now… More water on my head, my heads been wet for the last 12 hours…)- [gross]. Now I felt like a cat stuck outside on a rainy day. Drink Drink [yuck] [yuck] Pour Pour [gross] [gross]

Slowly my cottonmouth dissipated. That gave me motivation to drink more. Drink Drink [yuck] [yuck] Pour Pour [gross] [gross]
::: One thing that happens during these races is that you get sick of drinking the isotonic drinks like Gatorade and you can even just get sick of the taste of water without being dehydrated.  I mean to the point where you want to vomit.  Now it becomes a cruel fraternity drinking game with yourself, trying to drink more than you want to - without throwing up.  I’ve lost this game in a 50k before, however today I faired better. [no puking! Score.]

I finally started to enjoy the taste again, or should I say find it bearable.  But it took a lot of willpower to get to that point.

The same thing happened with food. My appetite vanished.. And I would smack you if you even tried handing me a Gu packet.  Just seeing other people eat them made me feel like spewing.  [This problem never got completely resolved. I never did get my appetite back… I really didn’t eat enough.  I had two packets of Gu chomps, which are like blocks of gummy bear that taste just like Gu- I took a couple bites of other things, but somehow I managed to eat these quickly enough to not be repulse by them… But better yet, my queasy stomach didn’t budge.] ( my appetite was gone for about 2 days, and on the third day – I feasted)

Problem #2: this whole hydration thing slowed me down a lot!  Now not only could I only walk, but I had to complete 30k in 7 hours. Easy Peasy normally, but not today. I was fairly sure I would not make the cutoff times. It’s frustrating to know that if I could just run… If I just had some energy… If my legs would loosen up just a little bit… This all would be so easy! I remember thinking “all I have to do is run less than a marathon in 9 hours [at the 60k mark].  Very frustrating!  I felt the way I had when I broke my arm, easy things became hard.

Then something happened, I wised up!  Sustainably mediocre was now my mantra.  I shortened my stride and took quick little running steps. When I got a hint of feeling tired I would walk [better walk early while I can still speed walk. I did that for the whole 70k-80k.]

Okay, 20k left. I have 5 hours now. I have to make it to the 90k mark in 3 hours to meet a cutoff time.

This is when magic really happened. I was really down on myself, and I just told myself that I DIDN’T Come all this way to quit. I have to give it all I got for this cutoff.  I kept with the speed walk/short stride running.. But I noticed something. I had to stop because of my breathing [hmm… Posture Up!]. BINGO!
I was now running like Haile Gabriel-Sallasse in slow motion [or so I pictured in my head].. My shoulders pulled back, my chest up high.  Breath, Breath.
It wasn’t a fix-all… But it let me run for longer periods of time.

[I normally never listen to music while I run… especially during a race, but after reading about so many great runners doing it – I thought it would be okay too.  Plus I needed every trick in the book this race.  After the 50k mark I ‘plugged in’ for a while to motivate myself during the early morning hours]  

Magic#2: The song ‘Something To Be Proud Of’ hit my iPod. This song always chokes me up a bit. For some reason I just really wanted to run this one for my dad after hearing it.[ Inspiration struck!] I kept imagining him saying he was proud of me after I finished the race. Lots of walkers and joggers would say, “way to go” or “keep it up” or some other generic phrase, but I’d get choked up if it was from an older gentleman roughly my father’s age.  I don’t know why I kept choking up during this 10k period, but my eyes even watered a few times.  At a certain point in the race I even expected to see my parents at the finish line. [They were on the other side of the world]

I’m not ashamed of this, I would consider you cold if you went through this much punishment and didn’t end up a little emotional.  And I certainly had gone through enough.  My feet were going numb, I was hot, sweaty, hungry, tired.  My core was destroyed.  And my legs.. hah… I wish they had gone numb… it was just this constant pounding soreness.  Every step was just self-inflicted pounding on all these exhausted elements.

However, I couldn’t have been more proud of myself for battling back in this race; I had to finish. That victory over dehydration was too good of an effort to waste.

I smoked that 10k. 1:20. My goal was to do it in under 3 hours. Now finishing wasn’t just possible it was basically certain. I just needed to complete 6 miles in 3 and a half hours… Even at a walk, victory was mine.

This easy task turned out to be such a pain in the tassk [like whenever my dad tries to do any small fix-it plumbing projects around the house]. The part I smoked was the breezy ocean front. Now it’s about 10am and the sun was pounding down on my hatless head.  Again, I soaked my head with water every couple of minutes and drank plenty, [we don’t need any mishaps 5 miles out].

At 97k, I was spent and the sun had toasted what was left of my energy.  I felt heat exhaustion slowly sucking the life out of me. By this time I was putting water on my head about every minute… And it would evaporate just as fast, I guess that’s what I get for running so close to the equator [1 degree away]. Heat exhaustion finally made me lose it.  I laid down in the shade under a tree - So close to finishing and I laid down - I wanted to quit again-  A passerby reminded me of how close I was and I stood back up like a baby giraffe.  Luckily I was only sitting for about 30 seconds.  I felt like a heavy weight boxer that just avoided getting counted out. I trudged on, slowly but surely.

Finally I could see the finish and my eyes never waivered too much from it.  Each step was closer… Each step was closer. [it all comes down to putting one foot in front of the other]

I even picked up a little jog as I crossed the last 400 meters.. [you know I’m known for my kick]

I finished at a time of about 16 hours and 22 minutes. Pathetic to serious runners but an accomplishment for me. I wanted to cry, but I held it back from embarrassment and because that last 10k had really been anticlimactic and drained me too much for that. I just haven’t been this proud of something I’ve done for a long long time. It was one of the most difficult things I’ve ever done… A slow grinding 16 hours of pain.

All the finishers were strewn around the food area and stage – we gave each other a knowing grin as we hobbled passed one another.  We were in pain and we will surely be robots for a few days, but we did it.

….

….

—-/ a few weeks later-—

I still think about the race from time to time, but like so many of my so called ‘accomplishments’ it is starting to fade away. Another medal to put in the storage box with my dusty 5k trophies and my highschool ribbons. It almost means nothing to me now. Just another story that can’t accurately be described when people ask me about it later. I will probably brush off the question with ‘oh, it was hard’ or something stupid like that.  I guess that’s why it was important for me to express my feelings directly after the race.  I wrote that first section in the following 2 hours.

Honestly, that’s just the way I am, the thrill of accomplishments last for about a week or two then I don’t care any more.  I just feel like I’m better than that.  I really didn’t train my hardest for this race, I had to walk for parts of it, I wasn’t even disciplined enough to relax and run slowly at the start, and the winner had finished the race while I was still at about the 60k mark.  Garbage.   

I guess I see it as a stepping stone that my weight pushed down into the mud.  My eyes are focused on what’s next.

——-

My future plans - Qualify for Boston at the Chicago Marathon.  

Then maybe run another 100k or my final goal a 100 miler. 

Singapore 2

Day 3

I’m going out to St. Johns island today. Scratch that. If you want to go for a day trip you need to leave very early. I got there at 11:30am. The next ferry was at 2pm. The last ferry was at 3pm. So I would have been able to stay for like half an hour.

• Senosa beaches

• thunder rice White rice green beans peanuts lettuce dried salted fish and tofu.

• green areas

One nice thing about Singapore is that they have plenty of open fields. That’s something you don’t see in Hong Kong… Just a flat open field of grass (unless it’s a soccer field).

• Safety I’ve seen a bunch of Safety signs all around the city promoting citizens to use caution. One sign’s slogan read, “Safety starts with and ‘S’ and ends with You!” hmm interesting. Another displayed the dangers of loose cords on the floor of an office. Yet another on sports health and safe exercise. So watch out everyone and remember, “If you think safety is expensive, try having an accident”.

• COINS Grrr! I spent like 2 hours looking for this stupid coin museum. Typical Andrew thinking… “you’ve gone this far, why not go a little further and take a look” that led me from the MRT (when I knew it would be hard to find) to a bus… to walking for over an hour… to finally taking another bus back and giving up on the wasted part of my afternoon.

• Night Safari!

I should have come earlier. Much earlier.

• Asians going camera crazy, me going blind. Camera vent.

First off, Asians are camera crazy. CAMERA CRAZY!
I was at the night safari waiting for the Animals of the Dark show to begin. There really wasnt anything too special about the stage, but if I had daydreamed a little too long I would have believed Sammy Sosa was stepping up to the plate with the Home Run record waiting to be broken on…. THIS pitch! Swing and a miss… Hmm. THIS pitch!… Damn. THIS, oh darnit out of focus. Meh, pop up to shallow left field.

My eyes couldn’t take it anymore. They love to stretch out their arm and try to take a blind picture at themselves, the way sorority girls do at special formals and every weekend..

It usually takes them about 3 tries to get a good shot. By that time (because keep in mind it’s night and their flash is on) I’m blind. The entire show looked like three bright dots on stage.

I just get really frustrated with this kind of stupid photography. I hate the people that think they are artists just because they bought a big camera. Get over yourselves! To steal a line, ‘sticking feathers up your butt does not make you a chicken’… Sticking a camera up mine doesn’t make you an artist [It would make you my doctor].

I just hate the whole “capture the moment” advertising campaign that led to this. God, you’re taking a picture of a landmark that has heard more clicks than an African elder and seen more flashes than Snoop Dogg at Marti Gras.

That’s why I usually find someone to take a picture of me in this “moment” so then I have something to put in my photo album that I can’t get 120,000 Google Image results of.

I shouldn’t even start with the people that take pictures of the food they make and put it online… My God! Unless you’re advertising today’s special at a third rate hobo restaurant, you shouldn’t have pictures of the food you made on your wall.

• museums
• landmarks
• me in picture/ been done before
• practical/ explaination.

Day 4 - camper waddle - hooters - American ties. Cultural ‘melting pot’ - National Museum — No matter how hard they may try, I feel like they can never truly take all the bias out of their own national museum. This is a time to boast in front of tourists and rally in front of St. Joseph’s Elementary 2nd grade class.

I’ve been to the museums of Korea, Hong Kong, and Singapore. All of them were over taken by Japan during or before WWII. All of them liberated when America’s second bomb forced Japan to say mercy. I can’t help but feel a little proud of this. It’s very bitter sweet. It’s something that made me feel physically sick when I was in Hiroshima, but now it’s a chip on my shoulder? Hmm… I’ve got 62 miles to ponder this matter tomorrow.

:: None of the museums really thanked America. They usually just mention the bombs dropped and they move on.

• Slow Jams

I love trying to get a glimpse of normal life. Tonight is Friday on the Marina. The crowd is made up of 60% visitors lugging big cameras and possibly a tripod [nerds]… The rest are normal people doing normal things… Runs are running…skateboarders are getting hassled by the po-po… Friends are chatting in small groups.. The middle school couples have found a dark corner to speak words they don’t yet understand. Somewhere there are loads of people too cool to come down here anymore it’s grown tired. But for me it’s new And chill. I’ve come here 3 out of my 4 nights.

• Fourth Meal The midnight binge is ON! Fruit shops and noodle stalls are in full swing for fourth meal and late night drinks.

Singapore 1 

I had a window seat. The final 20 minutes of my flight reminded me of a quote from Forrest Gump, “I didn’t know where heaven stopped and the Earth began it was so beautiful.”

The view was a swirl of small clouds and blue sky on top with blue water and the faint shadow of small islands on bottom. There were plenty of times when I could decide if I was looking at the ocean or the sky.

I read up about the rules and regulations of Singapore in the previous 3 hours and 20 minutes of the flight. I read that chewing gum, pornography, and homosexual acts are banned. I think the Europeans were glad they weren’t judging based on fashion styles. Also drug trafficking is punishable by death.

Although I knew I had nothing to worry about (unless they checked the depths of my computer) I was still a little bit worried about being called out for a “random” drug screening urine test or having my luggage checked through by customs. In the end the immigration officer gave me and couple looks over when I showed him my passport and away I went.

The first night was pretty relaxed. I just got some noodles at a nearby restaurant and then went downtown. I didn’t even open the 7 free tour guide books I picked up. I just bought a rechargeable MRT card for the train and left. ‘City Hall’ seemed like a fine place to stop. There should be something to see there… And boy was I right.

This area is about a half mile away from the huge banking area and the view of the 60-some-odd story buildings were amazing. The lights are reflected from a beautiful ocean inlet which seemed to attract monuments, well-thought architecture, and plenty of camera trigger happy tourists.

I stayed and let the view and summer night soak in. Ahhhh… That’s better. I was about to take off my pants and make myself more comfortable.. But then I remembered how uptight they are here. Is a dip in that nice dragon fountain too much to ask?

Day 2

I stayed in most of the morning and got things set for my trip to Kuala Lumpur and organized some other arrangements.

When traveling it’s important to keep an eye out for what other people are doing. For example in Hong Kong people stand to the right side of the escalator, the left side is reserved for those that want to walk quickly up. In Singapore, it is the opposite. It will take a couple days for me to break this habit.

• special units / bicycle.

I have been keeping notice of all the signs to try to find the most ridiculous, but also to make sure that I am within the law at all times. As I walked through a small underpass, I noticed a “No Riding” sign with a bicycle crossed out on it and a fine amount of $1000. Of course while I enter a man on a bike whizzes by. A moment later- another man on a bike whizzes by. Swiftly followed by a special units team (of five officers) carrying semi-automatic rifles marching quickly. By that time I made it out of the tunnel and another biker was approaching, although he had to slow down a bit to weave through the piles of dead bodies.

• Japanese Love I find it interesting that Korea, Singapore, and Hong Kong love Japan. Each of these countries endured Horrific Japanese occupation during the second world war. Hundreds of citizens became POW’s (basically slaves) or were brutally slain.

The occupation left a Japan imprint on each of these countries and even now Japanese culture is popular here.

When the deadly tsunamis hit Japan I got a good feeling of how much each truly loved Japan. Hong Kong seemed too busy to care. I can’t comment on Korea. And Singapore is still selling support Japan t-shirts even now (months later).

I just find it odd. I guess all is forgiven and forgotten after the US bombs dropped, but I just can’t imagine Jews supporting Germany in a natural disaster this way.

Actually, now that I think a little more in depth - if I want to make that analogy I can more accurately depict the Chinese as “the Jews” to Japan’s “Germany”. Japan committed many atrocities during the war in China and they haven’t forgotten. To this day they dislike each other and argue over ownership of islands… after the tsunami I heard murmurs of ‘serves them right’ or ‘karmas a bitch’ (paraphrase).

-Magic crystal balls.

I love little things that bring a big smile to my face. There was a hippy man that did a dancing ball routine. When I came he was moving three clear glass balls in his hands. He ended by moving one ball. He would move them up his arms and effortlessly twirl these 2 inch diameter balls through his fingers. It brought out a little inner child from me.

When you forget about the man and just watch the balls dance it is almost like they are floating in air. It’s magical. But it also takes that child’s innocence to believe it and not think about how it works. The real magic is that this man can bring it out of each of the 40 spectators so easily.

I’m glad to start to be able to get this feeling back. I lost it some time ago. I set my guard pretty high all the time, in fear of being scammed. I suppose I want to live in a world where balls float magically in thin air. . I watched his act twice. [edit: I watched his act three times].

• No Durians!!!

Durians smell the way I imagine the Bears offensive line’s locker room smells like. It’s this stale sweety smell. I regrettably discovered this after two long days of walking in the heat of Singapore… And I confess.. I forgot to take a shower in between [or too lazy]. I had just walked down the street full of fruit venders and piles of discarded durian carcouses when I took off my shirt and smelled the durians again! Ewwwww! I scrubbed myself for 20 minutes.

Hong Kong Wrap Up

The King of Chung-

Currently I’m living in Chungking Mansion… Which is really just a necessary evil. This is a huge building of hostels. It’s kind of run down and the elevators are small, crammed, and slow. The actual hostel I’m staying at is okay. It’s on the top floor, 150 HKD a night for a single bedroom with tv, toilet, and little shower… Oh! AND AC. Not too bad, but not worth it if you’re staying longer than a few days. It would be 4500 per month. I was paying 3000 in Sha Tin.

Reflection.

I love Hong Kong. Chicago is my home city, but HK is by far my favorite.

Most memorable moment - Finishing the HK marathon. My IT-Band was killing me. I just had the hardest time finishing this race. I came in at just under 5 hours, which was my most disappointing finishing time ever. But despite all that, I really felt like I had to work or this finish… Something I’ve never really had to do before. It was a struggle and a triumph which made for a little bit of an emotional finish.

Best day- I guess the day I first hiked around Sai Kung. It’s so beautiful out there. I also swam in the ocean for a bit. Just a pretty solid day.

Most beautiful place- The Peak for city views and Ham Tin beach in Sai Kung for nature.

Best tourist spot- Mong Kok. The market can be pretty fun, the food is great, and there are usually street performers.

Best food- Must be crab-congee. I really loved that. But how could I not mention Hot ‘Miss’ Ramen?

Best fast food - Yoshonoya y’all! Not much selection, but it’s what’s up. Shake-Shake fries at McDonalds are pretty tight too.

Most disgusting food- Chicken feet. Chomping on chicken cartilage just isn’t the same as a Charleston Chew. Yuck.

Surprising food- testicles. They weren’t great… They weren’t bad. But they were surprising.

Surprisingly good- pigeon and snake soup. Mmmmm snake soup!

Worst day- All Wednesdays. Long day at work with naughty children… Especially when I was feeling sick.

Best festival- Chinese New Year of course. Everyone has a ton of days off work and school… Loads of activities… Fireworks… It’s a lot of fun.

Best place for drinks - 7-Eleven. Best bar in HK. LKF usually isn’t much fun… It costs an arm and a leg there. SoHo is a bit more chill and has great food, again VERY expensive. Best place to chill out and have a couple is honestly on the terrace of the IFC. Bring your own food and a couple bottles of your favorite drink and enjoy the wonderful views from the free tables and seating.

Favorite activity - running run 19 mile loop to Tai Wo and back. Especially if there are people playing the Er Hu, listening to then makes a good pit-stop.

Most annoying - Chinese food-eating sounds. Slurping, smacking lips, and other obnoxious noises spew out while noodles and rice get sucked in. Gross. The spit wind-up hack gets a dishonorable mention as well. Hggmmmmmmm…hhhheaaaaaaaaaaaaa

Hong Kong week

• Sha Tin

I went to the 25 years of Pixar at a museum in Sha Tin. It was broken up into two big adjacent exhibit rooms.

Wow. All I have to say is Wow… But for those of you that didn’t go… I should say more than that.

At first it was kind of boring. Unless you are a Pixar fanatic. You could breeze through it pretty quickly. It was mostly filled with sketches of different characters and in-depth info on the different movies.

• BBQ
• Macau

Korea 2

Day 5

DMZ tour - “Don’t try to understand the military. The tour guide summed up the reasons for conflict between North Korea and South Korea this way.

• wild life The DMZ has basically been left untouched for many years. This area is now celebrated for it’s wildlife. Pictures of fish swimming passed old bullets reminds the people of how easily the world has moved on after the war. However, the estimated number of 700,000 land mines are still a danger to heavier animals. The tour guide put it this way, “they won’t kill you, they will only blow off your ankle.”

• tunnels. low ceiling. Coal paint. The North has made 3 known tunnels trying to gain access into the South. One of them has been turned into a tourist attraction. Although there is not much to look at dozens of people make the trip down the low-ceilinged steep tunnel everyday.

The tunnel is proof of Northern aggression. The North tried to explain that they were merely looking for coal, and quickly painted a coal type paint on the walls to justify their claims. It didn’t work. It is now rumored that the North wants commission from the tours (after-all, they are the ones that made the tunnel).

• flagpole

The most visible example of competition between the two is the existence of the number 1 and number 2 tallest flagpoles in the world. After the split South Korea put a large flag pole on their side of the boarder… North Korea countered and put a taller one on their side… This went back and forth until the North put a 1,600 meter tall flag pole up and the South figured this flagpole war was stupid and quit.

• Ginseng. 6yrs 50g (powder or extract - $42)

This is supposed to be the best ginseng in the world. I could figure that from the crazy price they wanted for it. It is run by the government and offers a full line of different ginseng extracts and products.

• “Only Koreans” I spent the rest of my day walking around. I went to the World Cup stadium and another market. Finally I just ate some street food and went back to the hostel.

I met some news friends there and we decided to have a few beers. Around midnight we tried to get into some clubs but they were charging us a foreigner rate. Claiming ‘Your face is not Korean, $10,000 to get in for you’. Similar things happened at 2 other places and we went home.

Day 6 - motor oil noodles Not much to say about this… Just ate some traditional Korean noodles with a thick dark sauce. It tasted good, but looked just like motor oil. Our crazy hostel host led us there.

‘Boss’ as we call him is a bit crazy and plenty cheap. We had to make a quick stop at Watson’s (medicine shop) so he could get some “free beauty cream” for his face. “You know it’s free at any Watsons… Just go right in”, he said as he rubbed the light makeup-like cream on hid face. He was telling us like it was this big secret and normal to take advantage of free samples every single day.

• Olympic Stadium

I arrived at the baseball stadium about 5 hours early. So, I walked across the street to the Olympic Stadium. There were a few people here and there, but for the most part the place was basically empty.

I started walking around and snooping a bit. I found a small Olympic museum which was nice. Then I got to the practice track. I figured walking on this was as close as I would get to being in the stadium… Until I noticed the athletes entrance. There was a cleaner smoking outside with the large metal gate to the track left wide open. I asked if I could go in and he said that it was fine for me to take a peak. I walked a little bit on the track and I could feel it…

There’s a bit if magic left in this building.. even 23 years later. I think when an Olympiad has been held in a place there’s a spark that never leaves. Kind of like an old battle field, you know what happened here and in this case you can see the old footage over and over. Athletes in pure joy and devastation.

• fire breathing Korean food can get spicy. The normal rice cakes all come in what tastes like watered down tabasco sauce with sugar added.

I could handle that fine so when I ordered noodles in red sauce I thought it would be fine. I swear they gave me the wrong noodle set. I thought I pointed at warm medium spiced noodles, they gave me cold extremely spicy noodles. The cook was laughing at me a bit because she could tell my face was red and my nose was running. It was a battle. I was determined to finish most of the noodles. They gave me some other cooler vegetables to eat. I did finish almost all the noodles, but I was close to tears.

I had some Baskin Robbins mint chocolate chip to extinguish my mouth. Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.

• baseball

The baseball game was great. The biggest difference was the cheering. I’m sure this game really didn’t mean much, but everyone was going crazy! They had organized cheers lead by a man on a stage with 4 cheerleaders. They also pounded 2 big drums to keep everyone in beat. The two fan groups were divided so the spirit could really gather.

It was fun to cheer along with my inflatable boom-sticks even though I didn’t know the words. One I learned was: - pu-tomp LG (powerful LG) In MLB there are lots of very negative chants but for the most part there was a lot of sportsmanship here. The only booing I ever heard came right at the end. The last play came when the other team tried to steal home base and the runner was called out at the plate. It was a very close call. The other team argued the call for about 10 minutes before the officials finally made a solid decision. During this time the home team lined up for high-fives the way the a highschool team does, but other team didn’t reciprocate the gesture, so the fans started booing.

Day 7

-Visit Korea Year

One of my roommates at the hostel said that there was a way to apply to take a free bus from Seoul to Busan. I found out this was a way Korea was trying to spark tourism in these lower areas. It was a sweet deal, these tickets normally ran about 50 bucks a pop.

The bus to Busan was full so I signed up for the bus to GyeongJu City, the ancient capital.

The bus was wonderful. I went on a Thursday so the bus was nearly empty. I think there were only 8 of us on a huge coach bus with a DVD player, AC, big comfortable reclinable seats, and maps and little tour books of where we were going, perfect! Thanks for the hook up Korea!

GyeongJu

• drop off

The free bus was great, but it dropped us off in front of these fancy hotels and country clubs outside of town. Yeah, the people riding the free bus are going to stay at the Hilton. Oh, and I don’t recall anyone carrying their 3-wood onto the bus.

• walking scattered. I was in a bit of a pickle now… I actually needed to exchange money. I only had about 20 bucks in Korean money (20,000 kwr).

I couldn’t take the bus, it was in Korean. I couldn’t take a taxi, it was too expensive. I couldn’t take the train, it was just as far away as my hostel. So with my 13kg bookbag and my 18kg rolling luggage - I walked.. And I walked.. And I walked..

• the savior

I finally made it into town! I had made one more stupid mistake though.. I didn’t have a Google Map picture of my hotel. I simply had the address and vague descriptions given by the hostel “5 minutes to Police station. 3 minutes from the train station.”

I tried walking in the middle of these points but it was helpless. I finally asked an auto-mechanic for directions. First he led me to his computer- [Google Maps - Score! He can show me where to go!]
Then he led me outside [wonderful it’s just down the street, he will point me there] Then he led me to his car [oh.]

I really didn’t have much of a choice. I let him drive me to the hostel. The man had left his unlocked shop unattended and taxied me to my hostel free of charge. It was amazing. He was the Savior of my trip! I honestly would not have found it. I was still at least a mile away with no sense of direction. Savior. I would repay this kindness to someone else.

• frustrated hills After walking with my luggage forever I was happy to take a seat for a bit and start actually making something of the day. I picked out some nearby historical sites and started walking.

I took another bad turn. I was going the wrong way. I walked for another unnecessary 40 minutes. I’m hot. I’m hungry. I got to the tombs… I’m looking at steep hills in a park. Stupid Steep Hills! Nothing more. Urg. I walked for an hour for this!

I knew my lack of appreciation for these Ancient Burial Grounds for the past Kings of Korea steamed from hunger and heat.

Then I tried finding a place to eat…. Water water everywhere… All the shops were closed. The Koreans are on a slightly later eating schedule. It was nearly 6pm!- where I come from thats prime eating time!

As Karl Pilkington would say: “I can’t be dealin with this. “

The only places that were open were American fast-food restaurants. Whenever I go to one of those I just imagine all the Asians looking at me shaking their head and whispering “typical” under their breath. I usually try to avoid them if I can.

• grass on the other side.

Sometime I just need to eat something to turn my day around. I’ve known that trick for a while. I got back after the sites after my disappointing KFC. I saw plenty of tombs, the Ice House, Cheomseongdae, and the famous Anapchi Pond. The pond was by far the best site, however, the whole countryside is gorgeous.

Day 8

“Can I have some water please”

Somehow I found my way to the temples I was trying to see. When I got there there were like 3 different schools of children. Hundreds and hundreds of them crawling over the temple like unorganized ants. I must have gotten 150 “Hello”s. The best was a girl running up and yelling, “May I have a glass of water?” then running away again.

• Temples - Japan freak

I had ridden on the bus with an older plump man. He was about 32, but he looked older. I saw him again in the temple and we decided to make the walk to the grotto together. He told me all about his obsession with temples and his teaching in Japan. He is now teaching in the Western US. He wanted to continue teaching in Japan with his wife after two years… But he wanted to continue to have a wife, as she was tired of teaching in Japan and dragged him back ‘home’.

The temple was beautiful, just like most. The grotto was a lot of work for not much payoff. Oh well. Its supposed to be one of the best preserved outdoor rock sculptures of Buddha. It is protected behind a big glass encasing and photography is strictly prohibited. As I looked at the statue, I heard a loud CAAaChhh… CAaachhh.. Caaachh. The old man next to took a picture and the sound was echoing around the small cave. He quickly put his camera away and I could feel the death stares directed at me - the only white guy in the cave.

• Too much Soju I made the bus trip to Busan. It only cost about $4. I met up with Joe, an old friend from the US. We hung out at his apartment for a while and then met up with some of his friends.

Right away the drinks started coming. We had a few drinks at the bar and then went for Korean Barbecue. Joe brought along 2 Korean friends. One man in his 40s, who looked like he was in his 30s and started drinking like he was in his 20s, urging everyone to drink around him and pressuring more and more sojo to be poured in the glasses. Then a 24 year old conservative friend. I lied about my age so the 24 year old would have to pour all the drinks that night.

::: That’s the way it works. It is rude to pour your own drink. So you may say something like: “I’m just going to go home…” or the less subtle: “I’m really thirsty” or maybe even: “Hey Dumby, pour me a damn drink!” if you are feeling extra saucy [I made that last one up].
::: Also, the youngest or the inferior is required to pour and serve and cook. Korea is very hierarchical like that. [so I said I was 26].

• ‘Oh my God, we didn’t order a side dish!’ Another tradition is that unless you are in a Western bar… You HAVE to order food with your drinks. The servers will offer you friendly reminders throughout the night if you don’t.

  We had just ate and had a firery European girl with us. She complained and complained that she didn’t want food and that we should act stupid and not order the required side dish. The two Koreans were freaking out which led to: ‘Oh my God, we didn’t order a side dish!’

We broke another taboo by bringing in our own soju, I blame the European girl for that too.

That night the older Korean’s age caught up to him early. He was passed out by 8:30 and we dragged him around the bars with us like A Weekend at Bernie’s.

As the night wore on my memories fade. And the next morning I woke up with a hangover. It was a goodnight.

Day 9 - “What are YOU lookin’ at LAADies”

We didn’t feel like doing much so we went to one of the popular beaches nearby with a spectacular view of a bridge. It was still early, but there were plenty of people kicking the sand around. We took off our shirts and laid down on our beach towels. Ahhhh… Feels good to relax… I had nearly fallen asleep when I heard Joe say, “What are YOU lookin’ at LAADies” [Score! This is either some of his friends that are stopping by OR some nice women that want to hang out.].

I opened my eyes to a very big surprise.. 2 old ladies. 2 OLD Ladies. Not what I had imagined when my eyes were closed.

One grandma was about 2 feet away from us. She was pointing and yelling to the other grandma. Joe tried to understand her Korean but he couldn’t. She kept yelling for a minute and then left to continue on down the beach [presumably looking for her next victim].

::: The old ladies are known for this type of behavior in Korea. They call them The Ah-ji-ma [or something similar]. This translates to ‘married woman’. The story goes that after the Korean War there weren’t enough men left to run the country.. So the women did it. Through this they became very opinionated and more than a handful of bossy. They will push their way through a crowd or scream you out for not following tradition.

• chill
• amusement park
• teacher party

Day 10 - fish market - bus back

• Kazakhstan bros I had just gotten to the hotel and unpacked my things. It was about midnight and I was starving. I really hadn’t explored that little town near the airport.. so I figured I’d see if I could find some good food and maybe stop in a place to get a drink.

As I stopped to tie my shoe, about a minute away from my hotel, a college student (about 19 or 20 years old) came out of a car and asked men if I knew English. He asked me about the hotels in the area and directions on how to get to the airport in the morning. He looked like a lost puppy or a giraffe that hadn’t quite found its legs yet.

He was asking how much the Rex Motel was… I told him I had no clue, but it looked like a shady place. I told him I had an extra bed in my room (the hotel gave me two twin beds). He could stay there if he wanted. Him and his friend checked out the place and he said it was okay.

These two were pretty clueless and very unorganized. His friend was trying to help him pack his 7 bags down to 3 so he could take them on the plane. They didn’t know anything about the airline regulations… They didn’t know how to get there…And They were just asking me very simple traveling questions. I helped them as much as I could. I simply just wanted to go to sleep. By this time it was almost 2am.

In the morning I helped the student carry his things off to a airport bus taxi. And away he went.

I let him stay with me in the spirit of couch surfing and I suppose because people in Korea had been so nice to me. I got to know him and his friend a little bit and learned about the Kazakhstan culture. I was too tired to dig much deeper into the discussion.

Day 11 - drop off - Hhhhhhhhhhhhwwwwaaaaaaaakkkkkkk Spitting is pretty crazy here. It is banned to spit on the streets of HK, so usually I hear a wind-up with no delivery….. But here they will just spit everywhere. In ashtrays, recycling bins, onto train tracks, and of course on the sidewalk. I don’t mind the spitting actually, it’s just the noise. Every time……Hhhhhhhhhhhhwwwwaaaaaaaakkkkkkk

Korea 1

day1 -quiet rides

The first impression of South Korea is that it is very quiet (especially compared to Hong Kong). I’m not sure where this silence comes from. It may be a mutual respect for each other’s feelings and space that Hong Kong lacks.

• baseball I had forgotten that South Korea loves baseball and that I had seen them compete in world competitions. I believe there are even a few South Koreans that have become great MLB players.

Everywhere you look young men and women are where caps supporting their favorite MLB team. I’m very happy to report that I’ve seen more Red Sox, Giants, White Sox, and Phillies caps than Yankees caps. I’m sad to report - no Cubs hats so far, but the mere fact that the popularity is not dominated by Yankees caps is a sure sign of intelligent baseball fans.

• motorbikes and traffic

Traffic drives on the right side of the road and traffic is very heavy and crawls along in the city - A small slice of Chicago! The main difference is the motorbike. These drivers are reckless and will drive everywhere. They treat these machines like bicycles, driving them down the sidewalk and down the wrong way on streets (most of them deliverymen). Thank God, there are only a fairly small number of them so far - compared to Macau, where it seems everyone has one.

• language barrier

• American food and coffee and weight

List of some of the places I’ve seen: starbucks. Dunkin donuts. Mcdonalds. Burgerking. Outback. Bennigans. Baskin Robbins. Subway. Quiznos. Pizza hut. Papa johns, Tgi Fridays. Taco Bell.

I think it is no surprise that there are a larger number of heavyset people in Korea (compared to Hong Kong and some other Asian places). Of course it doesn’t hold a candle to American obesity - I merely noticed that some of the younger citizens were a bit heavy.

• subway system —- jumping over the turnstile The subway system is the most efficient way to travel in Seoul, but it can be quite difficult using single use tickets. I elected to simply pay $5 USD and get a reusable card. Then you can just scan the card and go. I would recommend it to anyone staying for more than a couple days.

I saw this as a sign of disrespect to authority. It seems a little counter-intuitive of what I would expect from an Asian country, especially one so close to china and Japan. I think it steams from a lack of confidence in those error prone machines.

• similarities to Japan
• Getting traditionally drunk

We visited the Coex building which is a famous shopping mall and conference center. Hong Kong has it’s fair-share of malls… So I wasn’t too impressed by anything but the UNOs pizza. I didn’t want to eat in some food-court so I suggested we walk around the area. We weaseled around some small streets until we found a place full of locals.

We had to sit on the floor while we ate.

I had read that it was very common for Koreans to have a few drinks with their meals.

• neighbors
• paying for us
• walk home.

Day2

-Ginseng drink — grainy red bean taste. Sweet. Good. -Incased pagoda - Student Green demonstration

• Ch stream This is a man made stream. It was very beautiful and appreciated by the locals. Many of them were playing near it and love taking walks along the water. It is a bit of an oasis from the high rise business building surrounding it.

• Squid snacks These sea food snacks have been growing on me. I first tried one in Japan and have gotten used to eating these dishes in Hong Kong. Now the thought of eating cut up heated pieces of squid doesn’t phase me at all. Actually it sounds pretty good. I enjoying popping in those bite sized chunks and chewing on them for a minute before being able to swallow it.

• Inside market

• Eating with locals — drinking In new countries I like to try to eat at places with lots of locals in it. This is one of my favorite ways to understand the culture. For lunch today, we ate at the market. There were tons of stalls serving similar dishes: kimchi, vermicelli noodles, rice noodles (which look like Italian mastacholi), pork, preserved sausages, and long sushi rolls (similar to California rolls). We ordered (or pointed at) the sushi rolls, rice noodles, vermicelli noodles and ordered a milky alcoholic soda drink which seemed to be at most tables.

Some locals were hitting the bottle early and often on that Saturday lunch rush. As we walked and tried to pick the cleanest looking stall, we noticed finished bottles on several of the tables. The locals were red in the face at 1 o’clock and cheers-ing round after round of soju.

• Another grilling place. We went to another grilling place. This one was not as traditional as the first, but It was nice. It seemed to have a more trendy modern style with tables and chairs and adjustable pull-down copper vents. The cooking style was a bit different but the food and taste were similar. This grilling style used a metal grate where the other one used a stone pan.

  The menu was in Korean so we just pointed at a set dinner and hoped for the best. We got some nice strips of beef, onion, kimchi, and some spiced bean sprouts. It was good.

• metal chopsticks Silver chopsticks are traditional in Korea. At normal restaurants they will be made of stainless steal. These chopsticks can be a bit hard to handle because of their flat shape and their heavier weight, but if you are a chopstick master (like me) you should get by fine… If not, keep a fork in your pocket.

Day 3 - prison museum The Prison Museum seemed like it would be your standard old prison tour. I did the one at Alcatraz… Yeah yeah.. Chains shackles, cells… Take a couple “Please Get Me Out Of Here!!!!” photos and move on. First chance I got - I took this very photo (insert photo here)

I couldn’t be more wrong! Little did I know the story behind the prison was full of cruel punishment, torture, and oppression. As I recall, In the early 1900’s Japan had seized control of Korea and up until 1945 had used this prison to silence revolutionary ideas.

The museum is actually quite sad. Plaques on the walls and wax figures recount the horror of the prison and the cruelty of the Japanese during this time. Many Korean citizens lost their lives at this very spot. Each plaque I read gave me a sick feeling in my stomach - and made me feel like such a jackass for taking that photo.

Now that site is Liberation memorial, a place to celebrate freedom! The experience left a bitter sweet taste in mouth.

• sinchon

We wandered around Sinchon for a bit. This area is full of bars and places to eat. One section seems devoted towards low-budget lodging for young couples affectionately nick-named “love motels”.

Again we found a place crowded with locals to eat. A man cheering for customers while clapping loudly ushered us inside. The atmosphere matched the first man’s enthusiasm. Waiters cried out and locals chatted loudly.

One waiter came and suggested we order “chicken with cheese”. I have a feeling that this may have been the only menu item he knew in English (I get offered generic items often for this reason).

It was sort of a stir-fry type place. We mixed the large heated pan in the middle of the table (full of rice cakes, pieces of chicken, pieces of hot dog, noodles, and veggies in a tomato paste).

• cable car, N Seoul tower This is a very common popular tourist spot. The views are beautiful from the top of the park, however the elevator ride up the tower will set you back a pretty penny…. Thinking about eating on top of that? Who do you think you are, the banker in Monopoly? Super overpriced. About $20 to ride up the elevator and about $40 per dinner up there. Ouch.

• missed the train missed the bus, argued with the motel miss.

Last night was kind of a mess. After we finished sightseeing at the tower we thought we had enough time to take the train back to out hotel. We made it to the first transfer before it closed. The buses had also stopped leaving a long expensive taxi ride as our only option. Once we decided we were effectively stranded I thought of another option.

For the price of a cab ride we could just get a book a night in one of those small motels we had seen nearby. We got lost for an hour… Then argued about the price with the motel managers before realizing we only had 5 hours to go until the trains started again. We were in a middle ground. We didn’t want to go out for 5 hours, but we didn’t want to pay 40 bucks to sleep for 4 hours.

We went for it.

• All-nighter. Western bar and Barfly.

We went back to the bars and somehow wound up in a western themed bar. It was kind of funny to see their interpretation of something I am familiar with. They did a good job, but the prices were expensive ($100 for a bottle of Jack, if that gives you an idea)… The beer was a little more reasonable, however.

We had our one drink apiece and went back to walking the streets. At times it was like a carnival. There were street games. People were popping balloons with darts to win prizes and shoot pellet guns. There were batting cages. It was fun. They must not be good at darts. It seemed way too easy for me to win a big prize.

Then we found a small nightclub called Barfly or something cheesy. We spent $10 total on out drinks and danced for hours. I think I hit my dancing peak around 4am… One more hour!

We were spent. So tired. Worn out. Beat. We had only had 2 drinks all night and we were ready to pass out!

The club closed at 5 and we had 30 minutes left. We walked around and ate some Burger King. That’s when it hit us. Why are there so many people still awake?!?

• Koreans still going strong at 5!

There were still BBQ places rockin’ at 5am Monday morning… You gotta be kidding me! They hadn’t slowed down a bit. Groups of friends still laughing eating and pouring the soju. I can’t imagine what time they finally settled down or how many of them had to work in a few hours. edit: I did find out the next day was a public holiday, but it was still impressive.

Day 4

• dropped off my friend at the airport.
• HeyBackpackers Hostel

This is my first time going to a youth hostile. I found the sign and walked right into an apartment filled with bunk beds. Three bedrooms - bunk beds, living room - bunk beds, linen room - bunk beds, little balcony with a roof over it - bed.

The place seems a bit unorganized, but clean for the most part. A nice place to stay for a couple nights.

• manager The owner / manager is a bit of a character. He likes guests that are talkative and active. He was complaining that it was too quiet lately (coming off 2 hours of sleep, sounds fine to me).

• military museum. I happened to visit the military museum on a type of South Korean memorial day.

• With hopes to reunite! I have seen this phrase said in different ways and I have wondered if it was true. Are they merely trying to save face in saying that they hope one day Korea can become whole again?

• “bastard” Kim. And “god damn communists

I got a slight insight from a man wearing a military uniform. We were watching short videos explaining the Korean war. Keep in mind that I really didn’t know much about it. I couldn’t tell you when it was or who was involved (besides the two Koreas) or why it happened.

During the first video I heard the man murmur “bastards” and “god damn communists”. There still seems to be plenty of hard feelings festering for the past 60 years.

Maybe its true that South Korea wants to reunite, but at what costs? Does that mean a peaceful solution? Waiting for North Korea to eventually just become a democracy and then have an ice-cream social to celebrate? Or does it mean that they will invade North Korea the way they were invaded so many years ago. In a way one could say that North Korea wanted unification in the 50’s.

I honestly can’t see South Korea ever going on the offensive alone, but If tensions between America and North Korea got heated, I think they would help.

• Thank you brother.

I’ve come to realize how much the USA has influenced South Korea. The military man was apart of the ROK, South Korea, Army. He thanked me for what my country has done for South Korea. Originally he thought that I was part of the US forces. He could see the sides of my short hair from under my baseball cap. Even after I told him I was merely a tourist, he continued to thank me for about 5 minutes (which was uncomfortable and a bit awkward for me). But I think it was something he felt very proud of. He even wore an American flag on his uniform.

It’s something most Americans don’t realize I suppose… And something I have long taken advantage of. I usually just make fun of US policy and I try to ignore what the military seems to be up to at any given moment. I’ve never been all that patriotic, but for the second time in 2 days I have found a reason to be proud.

The last words Michael, the Korean ROK soldier said to me, “Thank you, Brother.”