This might be a bit boring, or interesting, who knows. I'm getting pre-flight jitters and it helps me to type stuff.
On my first outing I took a 50L Quechua rucksack, which was packed with mostly outdoors stuff for New Zealand:
2 shirts (including one quick-drying one)
1 pair quick drying walking trousers
1 pair running shorts (mainly for doing yoga)
1 sunhat
2 pairs of pants
3 pairs socks, including 2 thick walking socks
1 pair North Face sandals
1 mountain hardware jacket
1 Peter Storm rain coat
1 Quechua lightweight sleeping bag
1 silk sleeping sack
1 micro fibre fleece
1 large micro fibre towel and one small one (I cut the large one in half, I lost the small one)
camera, mp3 player, phone, and the various leads and adaptors to plug them into computers and wall sockets
A four-section toiletries bag (one of the ones that can be hung one the wall) with shower gel, razors, malaria tablets, water purifying solutions, plasters, toothpaste, travel toothbrush, mosquito repellant (50% DEET), sunblock
sketchbook, notepad, pens, pencils
New Zealand and South East Asia guidebooks
1 canvas shoulder bag to use as a day bag
Plastic cup and camping cutlery set
Wind-up torch and head lamp
Spare glasses (never used) and a shitload of contact lenses (hardly used them, ended up throwing most of them away)
Compass (it now does not point north but south - not much use, although it came in handy several times for orientation)
It all came to about 20kg
And I was wearing a shirt, underwear, socks, quick drying walking trousers and some Merrel hiking shoes
Well eventually I abandoned all the shirts in favour of t-shirts which I picked up along the way. I just couldn't be arsed trying to look smart. T-shirts just feel a lot more comfortable against the skinI find in hot weather than shirts. Also one of the trousers went in favour of shorts, all the thick socks went, I went through several hats, swapped the guidebooks for novels, never used the purification tablets, the sandals broke so I got some flip flops and wore them most of the time, the other shoes really hurt my feet after a while and I went through three pairs of other shoes. I also bought a small backpack for going on day hikes, as the canvas bag didn't last five minutes, although I used my main bag for big walks in New Zealand. The silk sleeping sack was supposed to protect me from bed bugs but I hardly used it, it wasn't that comfy to sleep in and got ripped easily, it was most useful as a sleeping bag liner when staying in huts in NZ as my main sleeping bag was woefully under powered. I ahd to buy some other stuff for hiking in NZ as well, such as a warm hat, gloves, camping stove attachment and a set of pots. I hardly used the fleece outside of NZ, except on buses/trains/planes with crazy AC on, and in the north of Thailand. The travel toothbrush went mouldy so I bought a new one in a 7-eleven in Saigon. The head lamp got broken in my bag, however the wind-up torch I used a few times. I also came back with a yoga mat which I bought in Indonesiam, and an umbrella which I picked up in Japan.
The most important thing for clothes is to wear stuff which is comfortable and which dries quickly, it really sucked in Japan having wet clothes from the rain and not being able to dry stuff due to the humidity.
As I'm just going to Asia this time I'm taking a lot less, got it all in a 28L Tofana bag.
2 t-shirts, both quite thin so they'll dry quickly
1 slightly smarter polo-type t-shirt for hanging around in bars
1 shirt, a very thin O'Neill one
the same yoga shorts and fleece as before
2 pairs shorts
2 pairs pants
2 pairs thin socks
1 pair flip flops
1 pair North Face trekking shoes (in case I go up to the Himalayas - anything else I need I'll have to buy/rent up there)
yoga mat
camera, alarm clock
note book, pens, Goa guidebook (probably the first thing to get chucked), copy of Midnights Children by Salman Rushdie
umbrella, emergency poncho, torch
travel toothpaste, toothbrush (a normal one!), mossie repellant, sunblock, water purification tablets
The main things which have gone are the jackets and the sleeping bag. I'm quite happy that I've got enough stuff to wear and survive (not that I need a yoga mat to survive... well it helps my mental survival) and yet can carry my bag for long distances if needs be.
I'll probably think of something else to write in a minute...
Monday, 27 September 2010
Tuesday, 7 September 2010
Back in the UK (for a bit)
Its been a while... I suppose I should start from where I left off. Linda and me travelled from Hong Kong to Beijing, where we did a dodgy tour to the great wall which included a diversion to a Chinese medical centre, had a walk around the back lakes, Forbidden palace and had hot pot (huo guo) by one of the hutongs (old-style streets). It was hot, humid, and very busy. Chinese people don't like to queue, the worst thing was taking the subway when everyone would try to get onto the train at once without letting anyone get off. I dreaded it. Still, the subway, food, drink and cigs were all very cheap so we were trying not to complain too much.
On our first day, we braved Beijing train station to get train tickets for Xi'an. The tickets are sold in a huge hall with lots of ticket booths, all of which had long lines (okay, so they queue up sometimes). We found the only "tourist" window (i.e. which had someone who could speak English) and managed to get some hard-seat tickets for the 12 hour trip (no sleeper berths available). When the time came to get the train, we showed up at the station 2 hours early. Passengers have to wait in this large hall for the gates to the platform to open, and the waiting room for our platform was already chocka with people, sitting, standing, sleeping on the floor like in an airport. When the gates were about to open, there was a huge rush of people trying to get through, it was absolutely crazy, and we couldn't understand why all these people, most of whom had reserved seats on the train, where fighting each other to get in. Turned out that a lot of people only had standing tickets, so we had a less than pleasant journey on a very packed train. I had an aisle seat and at one point I had one man sleeping on my shoulder and another with his head on my knee.
After that we just took buses which were fine, and a lot easier to get tickets for. Xi'an was a lot quieter than Beijing, although not especially pleasant or interesting to wander around. We visited the immortal sages temple and nearby market, which was cool, and rode a tandem around the city walls, which was probably the nicest thing we did in China. Rather than take a tour to the Terracotta warriors we found out where to get the public bus, which leaves outside the front of the train station. We got to the museum site pretty early and it was great having the place virtually to ourselves, the warriors were amazing, the scale of the place has to be seen to be believed. Its also amazing that the main pit has only been half excavated to date and they still don't know all of what's down there. We took a sleeper bus from Xi'an to Shanghai, which looked like the ones I'd used in Vietnam with the three rows of bunks.
Rather than stay in Shanghai we took a train to Suzhou, which is famous in China for its system of old canals. Its a very picturesque place to wander around, although actually quite dull. The most interesting thing I did there was to get up at 6am and go to the nearby park, where, as I hoped, there was lots of elderly Chinese people doing Tai Chi (er, I didn't hope they were elderly but you know what I mean). I had a go myself, but as I haven't had many lessons I felt a bit silly doing it in front of Chinese people who had probably been doing it their whole lives. Its quite a special thing to watch to old ladies shadow boxing under a tree.
We got a bit annoyed with the hostel we stayed at in Suzhou (Ming Han Tan), the only Chinese food on the menu was fried rice, which I usually love but this had half a litre of oil floating on the plate. Meanwhile the staff where on the next table having a huge Chinese banquet. Not that I was expecting that, its just a bit frustrating when they can obviously cook all this nice food for themselves but give the guests such shite. A similar thing happened in the next place we stayed, in Hangzhou (Tour An hostel). The problem with both places is that there was not much in the way of places to eat nearby and we were hungry when we showed up. Breakfast was out of the question too, I think we had a pot noodle for breakfast nearly everyday. Actually I started to grow to like that. The range of pot noodles you can get in the Far East is pretty impressive. I had fun trying to translate the Chinese characters on the top - soon I could tell what "flavour" I was letting myself in for - Beef, shrimp, chicken etc.
The best place we stayed was the 7 Sages hostel in Xi'an, the staff were great (staff in the other hostels were not interested in helping at all), the food was good too (breakfast and dinner), they had a guitar (sweet) and the place is set in a very cool looking old Chinese army barracks with the typical round entrances to get in to different courtyards. The only weird thing was the room - the shower and toilet were separated from the rest of the room only by glass, so it was a bit voyeuristic when one of us was on the loo.
Hangzhou was a bit boring, there is a nice big lake but unfortunately it was perpetually swamped with yellow baseball cap wearing Chinese tourists. We weren't too sad to leave, and it was actually really nice when we got back to Hong Kong. Just the general mannerisms of people and the way they behave to each other, like letting people get off the subway trains first and so on. We celebrated by getting hammered.
My original plan for China was to travel to Guillin and Yangshuo, across to Yunnan province then up to Chengdu and maybe into Tibet. There were some major difficulties with that, not only the weather (the worst floods China has had for years) but also getting into Tibet sounded like an expensive nightmare. In the end I decided to go to the airport with Linda (she had a flight booked, I did not) and try to get on her plane. It turned out that there was still some seats left so I thought, why not, and next thing I'm back in London.
So I've been bumming around Manchester for the past few weeks, helping a friend move house, trying to sell stuff online, and catching up with people. One of our friends has had a baby, another one has managed to get her ex-partner out of her house and is much happier. Linda and me went camping in Malham, Yorkshire, which has some amazing scenery but was very cold and wet. We also had a day out to Southport, which has the biggest beach I've ever seen - big as in you can't see the sea its that far away.
I think I was just tired of the travelling but I'm getting itchy again now, the options are either get a job or go off travelling again. I think I'll regret it if I don't go to India, as I don't know what my situation with regards to holidays will be like in the future, and its definitely a place I'll want to spend some time in. Considering I'm a vegetarian and a yoga nut, it seems crazy that I didn't just go there first (but then I had no idea about Asia or most other countries then). I lodged my application for an Indian visa yesterday, I think after I go there I'll be ready to stop moving for a while and get my head down.
Alright, next time I'll put some more pictures up for people who aren't on facebook!
Rob
On our first day, we braved Beijing train station to get train tickets for Xi'an. The tickets are sold in a huge hall with lots of ticket booths, all of which had long lines (okay, so they queue up sometimes). We found the only "tourist" window (i.e. which had someone who could speak English) and managed to get some hard-seat tickets for the 12 hour trip (no sleeper berths available). When the time came to get the train, we showed up at the station 2 hours early. Passengers have to wait in this large hall for the gates to the platform to open, and the waiting room for our platform was already chocka with people, sitting, standing, sleeping on the floor like in an airport. When the gates were about to open, there was a huge rush of people trying to get through, it was absolutely crazy, and we couldn't understand why all these people, most of whom had reserved seats on the train, where fighting each other to get in. Turned out that a lot of people only had standing tickets, so we had a less than pleasant journey on a very packed train. I had an aisle seat and at one point I had one man sleeping on my shoulder and another with his head on my knee.
After that we just took buses which were fine, and a lot easier to get tickets for. Xi'an was a lot quieter than Beijing, although not especially pleasant or interesting to wander around. We visited the immortal sages temple and nearby market, which was cool, and rode a tandem around the city walls, which was probably the nicest thing we did in China. Rather than take a tour to the Terracotta warriors we found out where to get the public bus, which leaves outside the front of the train station. We got to the museum site pretty early and it was great having the place virtually to ourselves, the warriors were amazing, the scale of the place has to be seen to be believed. Its also amazing that the main pit has only been half excavated to date and they still don't know all of what's down there. We took a sleeper bus from Xi'an to Shanghai, which looked like the ones I'd used in Vietnam with the three rows of bunks.
Rather than stay in Shanghai we took a train to Suzhou, which is famous in China for its system of old canals. Its a very picturesque place to wander around, although actually quite dull. The most interesting thing I did there was to get up at 6am and go to the nearby park, where, as I hoped, there was lots of elderly Chinese people doing Tai Chi (er, I didn't hope they were elderly but you know what I mean). I had a go myself, but as I haven't had many lessons I felt a bit silly doing it in front of Chinese people who had probably been doing it their whole lives. Its quite a special thing to watch to old ladies shadow boxing under a tree.
We got a bit annoyed with the hostel we stayed at in Suzhou (Ming Han Tan), the only Chinese food on the menu was fried rice, which I usually love but this had half a litre of oil floating on the plate. Meanwhile the staff where on the next table having a huge Chinese banquet. Not that I was expecting that, its just a bit frustrating when they can obviously cook all this nice food for themselves but give the guests such shite. A similar thing happened in the next place we stayed, in Hangzhou (Tour An hostel). The problem with both places is that there was not much in the way of places to eat nearby and we were hungry when we showed up. Breakfast was out of the question too, I think we had a pot noodle for breakfast nearly everyday. Actually I started to grow to like that. The range of pot noodles you can get in the Far East is pretty impressive. I had fun trying to translate the Chinese characters on the top - soon I could tell what "flavour" I was letting myself in for - Beef, shrimp, chicken etc.
The best place we stayed was the 7 Sages hostel in Xi'an, the staff were great (staff in the other hostels were not interested in helping at all), the food was good too (breakfast and dinner), they had a guitar (sweet) and the place is set in a very cool looking old Chinese army barracks with the typical round entrances to get in to different courtyards. The only weird thing was the room - the shower and toilet were separated from the rest of the room only by glass, so it was a bit voyeuristic when one of us was on the loo.
Hangzhou was a bit boring, there is a nice big lake but unfortunately it was perpetually swamped with yellow baseball cap wearing Chinese tourists. We weren't too sad to leave, and it was actually really nice when we got back to Hong Kong. Just the general mannerisms of people and the way they behave to each other, like letting people get off the subway trains first and so on. We celebrated by getting hammered.
My original plan for China was to travel to Guillin and Yangshuo, across to Yunnan province then up to Chengdu and maybe into Tibet. There were some major difficulties with that, not only the weather (the worst floods China has had for years) but also getting into Tibet sounded like an expensive nightmare. In the end I decided to go to the airport with Linda (she had a flight booked, I did not) and try to get on her plane. It turned out that there was still some seats left so I thought, why not, and next thing I'm back in London.
So I've been bumming around Manchester for the past few weeks, helping a friend move house, trying to sell stuff online, and catching up with people. One of our friends has had a baby, another one has managed to get her ex-partner out of her house and is much happier. Linda and me went camping in Malham, Yorkshire, which has some amazing scenery but was very cold and wet. We also had a day out to Southport, which has the biggest beach I've ever seen - big as in you can't see the sea its that far away.
I think I was just tired of the travelling but I'm getting itchy again now, the options are either get a job or go off travelling again. I think I'll regret it if I don't go to India, as I don't know what my situation with regards to holidays will be like in the future, and its definitely a place I'll want to spend some time in. Considering I'm a vegetarian and a yoga nut, it seems crazy that I didn't just go there first (but then I had no idea about Asia or most other countries then). I lodged my application for an Indian visa yesterday, I think after I go there I'll be ready to stop moving for a while and get my head down.
Alright, next time I'll put some more pictures up for people who aren't on facebook!
Rob
Thursday, 22 July 2010
Hong Kong
Microblog for today:
Three nights, Hong Kong island, Yes Inn, very hot, humid, and raining every day. Went for a hike yesterday to Shek-O, just came down off the hills to the village as torrential rains started, very lucky, watching the news later on and many parts of Hong Kong were flooded. Hopefully picking up my Chinese visa today and getting to the mainland.
Weirdest thing I've seen so far: Live toads for sale in a supermarket:
Three nights, Hong Kong island, Yes Inn, very hot, humid, and raining every day. Went for a hike yesterday to Shek-O, just came down off the hills to the village as torrential rains started, very lucky, watching the news later on and many parts of Hong Kong were flooded. Hopefully picking up my Chinese visa today and getting to the mainland.
Weirdest thing I've seen so far: Live toads for sale in a supermarket:
Friday, 16 July 2010
Seoul
I had a couple of ideas for the title: Seoul man, Seoul music, Heart and Seoul, Lemon Seoul... But all a bit corny hey? I've had a bit of a cold for the last few days, so sorry if this is a bit unhinged.
I've been in the South Korean capital for four days now, and I haven't really done much to be honest. The place I'm staying, Lee and Nos guest house, is really relaxing. There is a free breakfast of eggs, toast, cereal and fruit juice, free internet (actually I've had that in all the places in South Korea - unlike in Japan, Australia and NZ), and even free use of the washing machine. I've ben doing yoga on the patio every morning before the other guests get up, and the rest of the time mostly chatting or reading a book (I picked up Iain M Banks' Matter of the shelf here, its a weighty tome).
Speaking of books I read two great ones recently: Hokkaido Road Blues by Will Ferguson, about the Canadian authors hitchhiking journey across Japan, and Last Seen in Lhasa by Clare Scrobie, another travel book, this time about the authors various trips to Tibet and the people she meets, including an amazingly hard sounding female monk.
So far in Seoul I've been for food in the local area, the university district. There are loads of cafes with twee-sounding names and even twee-er decor. I went to meet my mate Rob in Myeongdong before he jetted back to the UK, he was with some ex-students of his, a Korean man and woman. Plenty of drink went down, including a crazy cocktail called Hwajinkamnehsu (that's spelled from memory), loosely translated means "happy ending", consisting of a shot of Soju (rice whiskey) in a shot glass on top of another shot of something sweet (we used this weird Korean raspberry wine), in a half pint glass full of lager, that then had to be chugged. We ended up in a cool bar (LP music bar), where the walls were lined with LPs and requests could be made (I got the Doors, Riders on the Storm). I also had a look at some of the districts in the day, mostly malls, shops and restaurants. At least I got some tacky fridge magnets for my collection.
The monsoon rain I was experiencing in Japan has finally caught up with me, its been pouring down all day. It eased off earlier on and I went for a walk in the Bukhansen national park. It is very pretty there, with lots of exposed granite outcrops sticking out over the misty forests. I had to do a bit of rock climbing to get onto a ridge section, which made for an interesting change as a lot of the walks I've done recently (both here and in Japan) have been so well-maintained as to be almost dull (nicely formed paths, staircases going up hills etc., probably really good for limiting erosion I suppose but it takes the wildness factor out). It wasn't so interesting to be lost in the park in a thunderstorm, but I made for the nearest place that looked on the map like a main road and managed to get a bus. Ended up totally drenched, including my so called waterproof hiking boots, not sure if I want to carry them on the plane with me to Hong Kong, I might as well just have a pair of sandals.
A bit of a frustrating day but at least I got out of the hostel. Its Friday night and I know I should party, but can I be arsed?
I've been in the South Korean capital for four days now, and I haven't really done much to be honest. The place I'm staying, Lee and Nos guest house, is really relaxing. There is a free breakfast of eggs, toast, cereal and fruit juice, free internet (actually I've had that in all the places in South Korea - unlike in Japan, Australia and NZ), and even free use of the washing machine. I've ben doing yoga on the patio every morning before the other guests get up, and the rest of the time mostly chatting or reading a book (I picked up Iain M Banks' Matter of the shelf here, its a weighty tome).
Speaking of books I read two great ones recently: Hokkaido Road Blues by Will Ferguson, about the Canadian authors hitchhiking journey across Japan, and Last Seen in Lhasa by Clare Scrobie, another travel book, this time about the authors various trips to Tibet and the people she meets, including an amazingly hard sounding female monk.
So far in Seoul I've been for food in the local area, the university district. There are loads of cafes with twee-sounding names and even twee-er decor. I went to meet my mate Rob in Myeongdong before he jetted back to the UK, he was with some ex-students of his, a Korean man and woman. Plenty of drink went down, including a crazy cocktail called Hwajinkamnehsu (that's spelled from memory), loosely translated means "happy ending", consisting of a shot of Soju (rice whiskey) in a shot glass on top of another shot of something sweet (we used this weird Korean raspberry wine), in a half pint glass full of lager, that then had to be chugged. We ended up in a cool bar (LP music bar), where the walls were lined with LPs and requests could be made (I got the Doors, Riders on the Storm). I also had a look at some of the districts in the day, mostly malls, shops and restaurants. At least I got some tacky fridge magnets for my collection.
The monsoon rain I was experiencing in Japan has finally caught up with me, its been pouring down all day. It eased off earlier on and I went for a walk in the Bukhansen national park. It is very pretty there, with lots of exposed granite outcrops sticking out over the misty forests. I had to do a bit of rock climbing to get onto a ridge section, which made for an interesting change as a lot of the walks I've done recently (both here and in Japan) have been so well-maintained as to be almost dull (nicely formed paths, staircases going up hills etc., probably really good for limiting erosion I suppose but it takes the wildness factor out). It wasn't so interesting to be lost in the park in a thunderstorm, but I made for the nearest place that looked on the map like a main road and managed to get a bus. Ended up totally drenched, including my so called waterproof hiking boots, not sure if I want to carry them on the plane with me to Hong Kong, I might as well just have a pair of sandals.
A bit of a frustrating day but at least I got out of the hostel. Its Friday night and I know I should party, but can I be arsed?
Monday, 12 July 2010
Gyeongju
After an easy 1 hour bus ride (and cheap - 4000 won or about 2pound50) I was in Gyeongju. First impressions were of a run-down little town, and I think that was about right. Its a lot more basic than Busan, lets put it that way. The main reason for coming here was so I could learn a bit about Korean history and have a hike up a hill. There are various tombs dotted around (big hills covered in grass, we have the same in England), and thats about it for the central part of the city. Today I walked to Namsan, which is a mountainous, forested area known as an "open air museum" apparently. The hike was nice, especially after all the boozing I'd done on the weekend. There are various things dotted around the forest like carvings of Buddha in the cliff-faces and a couple of pagodas. There were a lot of dragonfly, and I saw a cool frog, brown with bright green patches on its back (I was to slow to get a photo before he disappeared).
Might go to visit another site tomorrow, or just get on the bus to Seoul.
Saturday, 10 July 2010
Busan hellraisers
After a couple of days of relative inaction, just doing yoga and going out for food, I just had the messiest weekend I've had for ages.
On friday night I met up with a friend I'd made on tuesday, my namesake from London. We went for food in a place recommended by the hostel owner, Jin, and I'd invited a couple of people from the hostel along with me (all French!). The food was great, can't remember the place name but it was very cheap for rice and lots of side dishes and home made Maekjoli, a kind of fermented rice wine that was much nicer than soju. My buddy went off to meet his girlfriend at the train station and I went back to the backpackers.
Things were fairly sensible up to that point, but we had arranged to meet up later on. I got a phone call from him at 3AM, asking me to come to the beach to set off some fireworks and have a drink. I naively thought that asking a taxi driver for Gwangali beach, the second most popular beach in this city, would be enough to get me there. After two drivers indicated that they didn't know it, I took my map to a convenience store and asked the man working there to write the name of the place down in Korean. I didn't know the Korean for "beach"*, so I just ponted at the nearest subway station to Gwangali on the map (all the trains had stopped by then). Third time lucky and I made it to the beach and found my friends.
It was nice to just sit out watching the sun come up with a few beers and a bit of a picnic (instant noodles, tangerines and bananas). We set off fireworks and it was very relaxing. Later on we went to Hyundae beach, which was empty when we arrived but got very busy later on. Lots of Koreans floating around in rubber rings, apparently not many Korean people can swim. We went in the water quite a few times, it was cold but not too bad. Some more people showed up (everyone was teaching English here except me) and we had more drinks. There was talk of going to an Indian restaurant, which I was excited by, but we ended up going for Korean again, near where Rob was staying in Hyundae, and had the most disappointing meal I've had here. No vege options, no tofu or egg and the kimchi was horible. I basically just had rice with a bit of seaweed mixed in. Some one spilt a drink and we left pretty soon afterwards.
It was dark by then, and Rob, his girlfriend K and myself were steaming drunk by that point and we probably should have gone home to bed, but we stayed out. We ended up walking around in the rain, trying to take a taxi to a certain bar (no joy, we just got driven around in a circle), then finally going into a bar called U2, where we drank, played pool and had a shisha, which I'd never tried before.
Today I'm going to Gyeongju for a few days before I go to Seoul. I'm burning up a the moment, think my metabolism is going into overdrive trying to deal with all the alcohol.
*Note: The Korean for "beach" is "beachy". Nice one.
Wednesday, 7 July 2010
Busan
My last night in Fukuoka turned out to be a bit of an anti-climax. I went out to find some bars with an American guy who I met at the Khaosan Fukuoka hostel. We walked for quite a way from our digs an spied a bar upstairs just before the bridge over to Nakasa island. After one beer we were ready to move on as the place was dead (it was a Sunday though), and the barman charged us 200 yen on top of the drinks just for being in the bar. Not much money but as always, its the principal of the thing, nowhere in or outside the bar was there any indication of any bar charge. We left and crossed over to the island, which is quite a seedy area, lots of girly bars and drunk business men wandering around. I realised that I had left my umbrella in the bar (amazingly it wasn't raining when we left), so I went back for it, after which we couldn't be bothered to walk back through the same area so we just went back to the hostel. Probably a good thing because I hate trying to pack my stuff up and travel with a hangover.
The next day I caught the bus to the ferry terminal easily enough. I was told about a departure tax from Japan, and indeed I was charged 700 yen "surcharge" when I went to collect my ticket, and a further 500 yen for a ticket to use the terminal facility, i.e. get through immigration. I got my own back though, as I'd bought the ferry ticket at the reduced student fare and nobody checked on my (non-existent) student status. The ferry trip on the Beetle was fast but a little boring. As it goes so fast its not allowed to go out on deck, in fact they insist that you remain in your seat, strapped in, in case they have to brake to avoid a whale or something. There was no one sitting next to me to talk to so I just used the time to try and learn Hangul, the Korean alphabet.
Immigration in Korea was easy. I had booked a hostel, Zen Backpackers, in the Seomyeon district of Busan, so I wandered out of the ferry port and used the force to find the nearest subway station. It was a bit tricky buying a ticket, as there was only vending machines and no real person. Although the machine had a button for English language, the display kept flipping back to Korean. I put my newly learned reading skills to good use an bought a ticket to what I thought at least was the right place and luckily it was. Finding the hostel was a bit trickier. The owner of Zen, June, had emailed me a map which I had dutifully copied down. However after following the directions I could not see any sign for the place. I spent a while wandering around, asking people who spoke no English for directions, and generally getting hot and fed up. At least it wasn't raining.
I noticed that there was another hostel nearby, Blue Backpackers in a bright blue building, and figured that any hostel owner must be able to speak some English. The lady owner was very nice and took me over to the huge apartment building nearby, which I had been walking around and randomly taking the lift up to various floors, and put me on the lift to the 15th floor. June (who is a man, not what I expected) couldn't understand why I had gotten lost, and it turned out that I had not noticed some additional directions on the map for getting to the right lift and floor in the building. So, my fault, as always, but a sign somewhere in the building lobby might have been handy.
That night I went out for dinner with another guest, a very young looking Taiwanese lad, at a traditional Korean restaurant. The place had floor seating on these weird chairs with no legs, just a seat and a backrest, and a barbeque pit in the centre of the table. I feared a meat feast, but it was mostly fish, tofu, and various vegetables and kimchi, with a stone pot of extremely hot rice. We had a couple of bottles of Korean lager to go with it and some soju, which is a Korean spirit I had been warned about, but I didn't think it was too bad. Certainly not as face-wrenching as the Lao-Lao whiskey. After the food, which was very good, we retired to a Hof bar, which I think is just what Koreans call their modern-style bars, for a couple of bottles of stout. It was a brand I'd not seen before but it was good. My Taiwanese friend kept me talking about what things are like in England (he had never been to Europe) and was getting increasingly red in the face, probably from the booze, so we went back to the hostel.
The next day I was up and out about 11am after I sneaked in some yoga in the lounge area while no one was about. I went to Beomeosa temple, which just looked like every temple I'd seen in Japan. But my main reason for going there was that I had read about a hiking trail that leads from that temple, over some hills to another, much nice temple. I spent the rest of the day hiking, including going up a mountain and getting a good view for a change, and trying to find a place that would give me just a rice dish and not some sort of barbequed goat meal. I failed in the food quest and just had to make do with a tasty mango ice pop and a disgusting packet of corn chips. The walk I did passes through the site of an ancient fort, Geumjeong, although the only parts remaining of it are four stone archways which served as gates. It was nice to be out in nature for the whole day, sans rain, after my last couple of hiking trips which were wet and miserable. Eventually I made it to Seokbulsa temple, and it was quite a good one, on top of a hill with some Buddhas carved into the rocks nearby. On the way back down I noticed some Korean people were using the random exercise machines which were just sitting in the forest.
After such a healthy day, I ruined it all by going on an all night drinking session with some lads from the hostel (from Wales, London and the states), with the aim of staying out for the football which was on here at 3.30AM. Highlight of the night for me was our impromptu darts tournament, played on some high-tech dartboards which electronically kept the scores. Rather than having sharp metal points, the darts have blunt plastic ends and stick between the plastic protusions on the surface of the board. (Somehow I won, and no one was more amazed than me)
I'm still in the same hostel, but moving over to Blue Backpackers tomorrow. After they were so nice to me when I arrived, even though I was staying at a rival business, I thought it was only polite to stay with them. As its the World Cup final this weekend, I thought I might as well hang around here as the area has masses of bars and food places. After this I want to go to Gyeongju, which sounds like a cool place, mountain hiking and temple visiting.
The next day I caught the bus to the ferry terminal easily enough. I was told about a departure tax from Japan, and indeed I was charged 700 yen "surcharge" when I went to collect my ticket, and a further 500 yen for a ticket to use the terminal facility, i.e. get through immigration. I got my own back though, as I'd bought the ferry ticket at the reduced student fare and nobody checked on my (non-existent) student status. The ferry trip on the Beetle was fast but a little boring. As it goes so fast its not allowed to go out on deck, in fact they insist that you remain in your seat, strapped in, in case they have to brake to avoid a whale or something. There was no one sitting next to me to talk to so I just used the time to try and learn Hangul, the Korean alphabet.
Immigration in Korea was easy. I had booked a hostel, Zen Backpackers, in the Seomyeon district of Busan, so I wandered out of the ferry port and used the force to find the nearest subway station. It was a bit tricky buying a ticket, as there was only vending machines and no real person. Although the machine had a button for English language, the display kept flipping back to Korean. I put my newly learned reading skills to good use an bought a ticket to what I thought at least was the right place and luckily it was. Finding the hostel was a bit trickier. The owner of Zen, June, had emailed me a map which I had dutifully copied down. However after following the directions I could not see any sign for the place. I spent a while wandering around, asking people who spoke no English for directions, and generally getting hot and fed up. At least it wasn't raining.
I noticed that there was another hostel nearby, Blue Backpackers in a bright blue building, and figured that any hostel owner must be able to speak some English. The lady owner was very nice and took me over to the huge apartment building nearby, which I had been walking around and randomly taking the lift up to various floors, and put me on the lift to the 15th floor. June (who is a man, not what I expected) couldn't understand why I had gotten lost, and it turned out that I had not noticed some additional directions on the map for getting to the right lift and floor in the building. So, my fault, as always, but a sign somewhere in the building lobby might have been handy.
That night I went out for dinner with another guest, a very young looking Taiwanese lad, at a traditional Korean restaurant. The place had floor seating on these weird chairs with no legs, just a seat and a backrest, and a barbeque pit in the centre of the table. I feared a meat feast, but it was mostly fish, tofu, and various vegetables and kimchi, with a stone pot of extremely hot rice. We had a couple of bottles of Korean lager to go with it and some soju, which is a Korean spirit I had been warned about, but I didn't think it was too bad. Certainly not as face-wrenching as the Lao-Lao whiskey. After the food, which was very good, we retired to a Hof bar, which I think is just what Koreans call their modern-style bars, for a couple of bottles of stout. It was a brand I'd not seen before but it was good. My Taiwanese friend kept me talking about what things are like in England (he had never been to Europe) and was getting increasingly red in the face, probably from the booze, so we went back to the hostel.
The next day I was up and out about 11am after I sneaked in some yoga in the lounge area while no one was about. I went to Beomeosa temple, which just looked like every temple I'd seen in Japan. But my main reason for going there was that I had read about a hiking trail that leads from that temple, over some hills to another, much nice temple. I spent the rest of the day hiking, including going up a mountain and getting a good view for a change, and trying to find a place that would give me just a rice dish and not some sort of barbequed goat meal. I failed in the food quest and just had to make do with a tasty mango ice pop and a disgusting packet of corn chips. The walk I did passes through the site of an ancient fort, Geumjeong, although the only parts remaining of it are four stone archways which served as gates. It was nice to be out in nature for the whole day, sans rain, after my last couple of hiking trips which were wet and miserable. Eventually I made it to Seokbulsa temple, and it was quite a good one, on top of a hill with some Buddhas carved into the rocks nearby. On the way back down I noticed some Korean people were using the random exercise machines which were just sitting in the forest.
After such a healthy day, I ruined it all by going on an all night drinking session with some lads from the hostel (from Wales, London and the states), with the aim of staying out for the football which was on here at 3.30AM. Highlight of the night for me was our impromptu darts tournament, played on some high-tech dartboards which electronically kept the scores. Rather than having sharp metal points, the darts have blunt plastic ends and stick between the plastic protusions on the surface of the board. (Somehow I won, and no one was more amazed than me)
I'm still in the same hostel, but moving over to Blue Backpackers tomorrow. After they were so nice to me when I arrived, even though I was staying at a rival business, I thought it was only polite to stay with them. As its the World Cup final this weekend, I thought I might as well hang around here as the area has masses of bars and food places. After this I want to go to Gyeongju, which sounds like a cool place, mountain hiking and temple visiting.
(picture: carvings at Seokbulsa)
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