Continuing Cheonan

I didn't spend much time at "home" (for obvious reasons) since I taught during the day and did some sightseeing with Mi-Suk during the afternoon and weekend. This was my first introduction to a Korean Buddhist Temple. While very pretty, I am comfortable saying that if you've seen one, you've seen them all. Unfortunately, I will have seen at least ten others in the future since every Korean city wants you to see one of their numerous "famous" temples. This one, however, was particularly cool because it was my first and it has one of the largest sitting Buddhas in the world.

I also saw the Independence Museum which documents much of Korea's Japanese occupation. It is an interesting place to visit.

Another first for me was visiting a Korean traditional village. Much like the temples, if you've seen one traditional Korean village, you've seen them all. I will have also seen at least ten more during my time in Korea. They are quaint places that are wonderful for walking around, taking photos, and doing some personal reflecting. It was also my first time trying sikhye, a sweet rice drink that is typically served chilled (the older lady who served me took a liking to me ;).

During my week in Cheonan I had a series of great lunches (being with a local always helps), though I only photo documented one (I guess this one is only great if you like fish):

Through the Couchsurfing community, I met up with other English teachers living around Cheonan. One teacher took pity on me and my lodging and offered her place to surf for the weekend (the whole point of couchsurfing, I suppose). Consequently, another first in Cheonan, my first couchsurfing experience! My hostess was wonderful and even cooked up a West Indian dinner for Mi-Suk and I. With my last teaching job (for now) coming to an end, my backpacking of Korea was about to begin.

Cheonan Love . . . Motel!

Sunday morning I was off to my next job teaching English at Sangmyung University in Cheonan, South Korea. My former boss and friend, Mi-Suk, was the one that put me in touch with this job, and yet again she was going to be my supervisor. My role was to substitute for another teacher who had to do a last minute visa run to Japan. There was a small chance that his paperwork would not be ready and that I would be expected to teach for the whole semester. I wasn't sure how I felt about that, though!

Initially, I was to stay at the other teacher's flat for the whole week, but due to a communication gap and a pit stop by him to his apartment, I only crashed there one night. The place was nice, quaint, and above a noodle shop, though I didn't snap any pictures of the interior (I thought I'd have a whole week to). This was also my first introduction to the keypad entrance of residences. You don't need a key to enter, just enter the code on the keypad and voila, you are in your unit!

Once I discovered the schedule of this job, I quickly began to think to myself how I could certainly get used to this. First class was either 10 or 11 depending on the day, lunch at noon, and the last class ended at 5. Sometimes, no students would show up and no class had to be taught. Friday was just one class. However, I really enjoyed teaching the classes when students came. Since these were optional classes, the only students that showed up were the ones that were motivated to learn.

My new lodging had a much better location in downtown Cheonan, but was, um, a bit seedier to say the least. It was a "love motel" (very common in Korea, ask me about them sometime) complete with mood lighting.

Goodbye Olympic Parktel and the Best Job I'll Probably Ever Have!

The two weeks working at the Olympic Parktel camp went by very quickly! On my one day off, I was able to visit Hongdae with one of the TA's, Raven. We took Raven's car (Hyundai, big surprise) to the area, and at the end of the night we hired a driver to drive Raven's car home effectively parking the car at the hotel, giving us the keys, and walking off to drive the next person. The service only cost about 15000 KRW (about $11 to $12), but the experience is one I will never forget. The driver coasted from Hongdae back to the Jamsil area at a measly 150 to 160 kph (93-100 mph). Sure, on the interstate of the United States, this isn't that big of a deal, but around the crowded streets of Seoul, South Korea, this was a huge deal. I couldn't find the backseat belt buckle (the thing that offers the gratifying click) so I, instead, wrapped myself around the strap, literally!

The Karaoke Fiends!

On the last day of our camp, we had our farewell staff dinner, which is always fun and sad, but I had to duck out early. I had a date with my previous Chosun camp colleagues around the Hongdae area. It was great to catch up and sing karaoke with Jonny, Jessi, Misuk, and Sora after not seeing them for two weeks. At the end of the night, we parted ways agreeing to have a UK reunion at some point, but the subway was already shut down for the night. One thing that I think Korea has a bit backwards is that on weekdays the subway runs later (to cater to people who work late, very late), but on weekends it closes early (so revelers are not able to use it). In all honesty, it's probably more intelligent but a bit frustrating. Instead of cabbing it, I made a few new random friends outside the subway entrance near a convenience store, while we sipped beer, munched on snacks, and exchanged stories. I boarded the subway at 5:30am to arrive at Olympic Parktel just in time to say bye to Lauren who was heading for the airport to go back to the US. A fruitful evening/night/morning indeed!

A Trip Back In Time, First Stop Seoul

So my last Korea post had me leaving Gwangju heading for my next camp in Seoul. Let's resume from there. The date would be early September 2009.

Quite possibly the best job I ever had in the history of my life was THIS camp job in Seoul. Let me break it down. The camp was two weeks long for a total of 6 days working, 1 day off, 6 days working, then end of camp. The hours had the potential to be long, but it wasn't that bad, the Teaching Assistants (TA's) got the brunt of the long days. We had three meals provided per day, AND, I forgot to mention, we were housed at the Olympic Parktel Hotel in Seoul near Jamsil. It was supposed to be 2 people sharing each room, but my roommate was married and lived in Seoul and would often just go home after the camp was finished! This left me with my own room, sort of!

There were five native teachers, four from the US: me, Erin, Lauren, and Stanley, and one from South Africa, Richard. In reality, we had four different camps that lasted for 3 days each, but the first day of each camp didn't start till 1pm and the last day of the camp ended around noon. Anyway, I'm complicating things. Bottom line is, life was good. The first day of each camp we'd play games then teach them for one hour, the second day was the long day which included athletic competitions, ice cream, museums, baseball, pizza, ice cream, then late night drinks for staff! Third day was tying up loose ends, then students leaving. Sometimes, naps (for the English teachers) were part of the day to day activities. The poor TA's had to wake up early in the morning and take the students for morning exercise. I tried to get up and go six different times, but I just couldn't make myself roll out of bed. What further complicated issues (for the TA's) was that my room became a sort of late night hang out complete with food, drink, and conversation until 3 or 4 am. Not that big of a deal when you had to report to the camp at 10am, but a bit of an issue when you (the TA's) had to report in at 7am.

My TA and I with one of my classes

At one of the four baseball games we went to over the course of two weeks!

Piggyback racing was a normal daily activity!

By the end, we had been to 3 different museums, a baseball game, and an outdoor sculpture park four different times (one time for each camp)! Nevertheless, the fact that you can get paid to live in a hotel, have all your meals provided, and your work entailing 1-2 hours of teaching English and playing games with kids is just plain awesome!

More photos available at
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2559099&id=14815291&l=5121acb2c9

Order! Order, I Say!

I'm out of order! More specifically, my posts are completely out of chronological order. I guess it doesn't really matter because aren't we all a bit out of order? I'll try to include dates in future posts to make things a wee bit clearer (probably only for me when I read this in like forty years)!

The Return to and (Eventual) Exit from Taipei

I decided to try a different hostel than before. Motivation one, was my curiosity of what other hostels were like in Taipei; motivation two, was I wanted a more central location; and motivation three, I had heard a few good recommendations for this particular place, Eight Elephants Hostel. Upon entering the hostel, there was a slight theory of the business model of this place (that would later be corroborated by others). Hire only females and make sure they are attractive ones. There were four people working, and they all fell into this category. Anyway, the place was pretty lively and an invitation was immediately extended for Friday night festivities. I'll fast forward since there isn't anything terribly exciting except going to an all you can drink bar, me subluxating my shoulder, witnessing a fight between an expat and a Taiwanese guy and then having the misfortune of still being around when the police showed up, all capped by an eventual 7am bedtime and an Egg McMuffin!

I slept in late on Saturday but was completely fine with it, the week had caught up to me. I had evening plans to meet up with Debbie (from my first day in Taiwan) to get a feel for the nightlife like the Taiwanese do it! We met up at Ximending (the trendy bustling area mentioned in an earlier post), and as soon as I exited the subway, I was greeted by Debbie with a bubble tea in hand for me, so nice! We grabbed some famous noodles (that weren't anything to write home about), walked around, then stopped at a giant courtyard of outdoor seating for various establishments. It was a very lively atmosphere and they also had BOGO drinks! We decided to continue exploring and headed to the nightlife area of City Hall where I was able to witness some of Taiwan's finest folks entering and exiting the place. No attempt was made on our part since I was sporting the sneakers! We hopped for a bit, but finally got comfortable at Roxy Roots listening to live music, having a few, and eating again! I didn't want a late night, since I had to catch my 1pm flight the next day. Fast forward again, heading to the airport on Sunday when I realize my flight is not 1pm, but 1am. No matter, I think to myself, I'll just be 12 hours early, I'll kill the time in the airport. Quickly I realize that 1am actually means I've already missed my flight by 12 hours. So while I was jamming to the tunes at Roxy Roots, my plane took off, without me, oops!

I was already on the bus to the airport when I realized this, but figured I'd just talk to the ticket counter when I got there. However, low cost airlines, don't really have ticket agents and everything has to be conducted by phone. Thank God for Skype and free wifi, otherwise how else could I easily and, relatively, cheaply make a call to the Philippines! Anyway, if I wanted to fly that night it was going to cost me over $200, but if I waited two days, I could fly for $90. What a great opportunity for me to see more of what I haven't seen, is what I told myself! I decided to change hostels again since I was too embarrassed to say hello to everyone that I had just said goodbye to. I did learn some interesting stories about Eight Elephants that would be worth sharing sometime. Nothing bad but kind of interesting!

The Cats Pajamas was the next hostel I decided to try. When I arrived, I ran into some Spanish friends that I knew from Manila, truly a small world! They were catching the return flight that night (or actually morning), but they invited me tag along on their random shenanigans. Those guys truly kept me entertained, as soon as we all finished lunch, all (and I mean all) of them were looking for a bakery to get some desserts. Once they found desserts, they did not hesitate to dig into each other's choices without asking. I thought that was kind of cool. Once dessert was finished, they were looking for a coffee shop. Quite frankly, I'm not sure how they got to see any of Taipei. Eventually, we all returned to back to the hostel, they packed their stuff up to get ready to leave, while I watched some of the guests and staff sing karaoke. I didn't know this, but you can turn any computer into a karaoke machine with only a microphone. The program needed is called UltraStar and in addition to providing lyrics, it shows you where your pitch needs to fall as you sing. One thing I noticed throughout my time in Taiwan is how many young expats are able to speak Mandarin like nobody's business. It's quite a sight to see, and is always refreshing to see that westerners are so willing and able to learn a complex language like Mandarin!

The next day I just took a stroll by one of the major rivers of Taipei with a bubble tea in one hand and a couple dumplings in the other. I had just remembered that my phone can be used as a radio, so I listened, walked, sipped, chomped then chomped, sipped, walked, listened then repeated, for a good part of the day. Oh yeah, I also almost stepped on a snake!

Determined not to miss my early morning flight to Manila again, I got back to the hostel swatted a few mosquitoes with an electric racket/swatter (a very unique experience), swapped a few stories with a Thai girl and a couple Canadian guys, then headed for the airport around 9pm--a good 4.5 hours before my flight would take off! I arrived to my apartment in Manila close to 4am, but not before walking by another 7/11. This time I gave it a miss!

In the Company of Kaohsiung

The next few days around Taiwan involved me heading further south to a town called Kaohsiung. The goal was to make it to Kenting National Park, but I was running out of time (or so I thought. More on that later)! I took a train from Hualien to get to Kaohsiung (later than I would've liked due to my indecisiveness) and arrived in the afternoon. After exiting the train station and pausing to get my bearings, I was approached my a university student that attempted to voraciously sell me pen, yes a pen! He said it was to raise money for his tuition, and I might've been inclined to assist him except the pen he was trying to sell me (more like steal from me) was 300 TWD or almost 10 USD. Maybe he thought I was some fresh off the boat/plane/train idiot that didn't realize the conversion rate. So anyway with my new pen, I headed to the hostel, just kidding! The hostel, called Cozy Planet, was a converted 3 bedroom flat that was kept in pristine condition. I literally arrived, threw my stuff down, then asked the owner Sam about taking one of the loaner bikes they had for an evening tour of the city!

I got lost! No matter, I finally made it to the former British Consulate all while befriending an equally lost Australian fella!

We didn't spend too much time there but next headed to the famous river walk, which was a bit difficult to enjoy since it began to rain . . . hard!


We wanted to eat dinner somewhere, but couldn't find anything except TGI Friday's and Outback, which I refused to eat at. So, we settled for a mixture of a Taiwanese mall food court, street food, and 7/11. I biked home, met my dorm mate who was on the tail end of her travels before heading back to the US, exchanged stories, sampled some Taiwanese wine and liquor the hostel provided, then hit the hay!

I woke up fairly early Friday morning to take the bike and do more exploring. This day was a fairly relaxed one, but one that covered a lot of ground, and one that I enjoyed a lot. I went back to the river walk which has a nice trail and just biked biked biked until the river turned away from the city. The day wasn't super sunshiny, but it was perfect for bike




I should say that I almost ended up on the "interstate" flyover with my bicycle due to some poor shortcut calculations and some bad map reading. Fortunately, disaster was averted, but I did have to physically carry the bicycle over some concrete barriers and by some puzzled (or angry) police officers. I headed to Lotus Lake and leisurely biked all around the lake.



The lake is rather large with many statues and temples



and I decided to stop at one of the cafes to have some bubble tea and admire my trustworthy companion!



I planned ahead and took a direct non confusing route from the lake and biked back to downtown to see the Love Pier (which I didn't find all that lovey or romantic) and Taiwan's second largest building called the Tuntex Sky Tower

and a random building that I thought was kind of strange. It's design is such that as you are on higher floors, the amount of room decreases significantly (my guess is each floor is 1/3 less than the one below it). I wonder what the purpose of this design was or the incentive to live on a higher floor is.



Biked back to the hostel, returned the bike, then hopped on the bullet train from Kaohsiung to Taipei (a 90 minute ride instead of 4 hours). Nobody sitting next to me, which allowed me to enjoy my 7/11 boxed meal without any embarrassment from accidentally flinging food while using the chopsticks!

Scoot Scoot Coasts and Mountains of Taiwan

Definitely disappointed in myself because of last night! After getting back to the hostel, we had a few drinks, K had a few more than I. He didn't want to drive, and I didn't blame him, so I became the DD except it was on a scooter. I don't know if anyone reading this (if there even is anyone reading this) has ever had a passenger on a scooter/motorcycle/bicycle (passenger slightly under the influence, nonetheless), but it's not really easy to stop/go/steer freely, particularly when your comrade doesn't trust your driving (brief introductions in hostels don't do much for trust issues)! Anyway, after searching for a particular restaurant that we never found, we had to opt for McDonald's due to restaurant closing times. Can you believe it? I ate at freaking Mc'D's in Taiwan, what the heck? I was determined to start AND end TODAY on a much better note!

7/11, as usual, was the first stop then we headed straight for Highway 11 which is the coastal highway on the eastern side of the island. The day was beautiful and the ride and views were phenomenal.

Laughing at the helmet is acceptable!



Unfortunately, photos and words can obviously do no justice. The waters around Taiwan tend to be rough, particularly during the early part of the year, so no swimming was attempted. After riding and stopping every 10-20 miles along the coast, we took one of the east/west windy roads to get to highway 9, which heads through the mountains.



The colors of the fields in the valleys were a shade of green to remember



On one of our many stops to take in the view, I remember telling my riding companion, Kewin, that two things would make this already awesome experience even better. One, if I had some tea to drink while enjoying the view, and two, instead of Kewin along for this ride, a lady! Fortunately, I was able to remedy one of the two dilemmas when we stopped at WuHe tea farm to sample a crapload of tea (maybe even two of the dilemmas were solved as tea clerk was indeed female). I was easily sold, and after drinking literally 10 cups of tea (they are small cups), possibly more since I would sneak pour more if the lady was taking too long to refill my cup, I bought a tin of tea and we began our return trip back to Hualien after a quick stop at, you guessed it, 7/11



The route we took

Scoot Scoot Taroko

Waking up early has never been a strong suit for me, particularly on misty drizzly days! However, I was determined to put my two full days in Hualien to good use. Another one of the hostel guests, Kewin, and I haphazardly created a sore excuse for an itinerary. Today was touring Taroko Gorge and tomorrow would be down the coast and up through the mountains. We knew there was a plethora of scooter rental shops near the train station, so after stopping by 7/11 for breakfast we headed towards the station. Consulting Lonely Planet for the scooter shop they recommended, we quickly saw how fast an LP pick goes to a store's head. There prices were significantly higher than everyone else and they required more paperwork and documentation. Fortunately, we found another store down the street that requires only passports (no license required, crazy) and the payment in cash! We negotiated for a two day rental which cost us about $10/day per scooter. Off we went to Taroko Gorge, fortunately, the rain had let up (first a quick stop at 7/11 again to stock up on water and snacks, of course)!

The gorge was a perfect place for a scooter or motorcycle. There were plenty of windy roads to test your tire traction with bits of straightaways to let loose on the lovely 125cc scooter (as I'm typing this I'm laughing to myself because 125cc is tiny BUT surprisingly those things haul ass more than you'd think). You did have to mind the countless number of buses that would be weaving through the lanes, particularly when heading through narrow areas. Buses don't slow down or yield in Taiwan (it seems to be a very common trait in all of Asia). We stopped briefly at the next major "town" for a quick bite then headed back towards Hualien. On our way home we decided to take the scenic route and saw a random assortment of villages and coastal areas and even got funny looks from the coast guard as we rode up right to the beach! For giggles, I found a nice dirt patch where I thought doing donuts would be a good idea. I almost broke multiple bones in my body by nearly falling down a ravine, but by the grace of whoever you believe in, I didn't! I was humbled for the day as I rode back to the hostel!





Links to the Taiwan Albums with all the photos:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2484180&id=14815291&l=c9cb42fcc7
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2484737&id=14815291&l=6253c1ca32

Dumplings Help Me Feel Complete

Up somewhat early to hit up a bank and grab some coffee for a big walking day! Part of my motivation was dumplings, more specifically xiaolongbao, from Din Tai Fung. My first tourist spot, however, was Taipei 101. It used to be the world’s tallest tower before the Burj Khalifa shot up over everything else! I decided to skip going to the top of the tower since admission was about 15USD. If it had been the world’s largest tower, I’m sure I would’ve gone up, funny how the mind works!

Since I love walking, I decided to hoof it to lunch while taking my time to stop and see anything else that caught my eye. Taipei is truly a lovely city, it’s laid out fairly well, with good public transportation, and of other importance, it has awesome parks with ponds scattered throughout the city. I stopped at more than one to relax and people watch. After zigzagging my way to lunch (on purpose, in case you were wondering), I finally arrived to Din Tai Fung. I planned for a late lunch/early dinner since this restaurant absolutely buzzes during the lunch rush. After reading my little instruction guide on the proper way to eat xiaolongbao, my food arrived and was absolutely wonderful.

If you ever have the chance to eat there (or a similar type place, as I’ve been told they are everywhere if you know where to look), I would definitely recommend it. On my walk, more like waddle, home, I decided that I was going to forego another night in Taipei and head to Hualien for a few days in search of a nature check. Ran to the hostel, grabbed my stuff, went to the train station, arrived in Hualien, where the hostel owner and a guest picked me up, had a very creatively named beer (called Taiwan Beer) at the hostel bar, and then called it a night!