beomgye, anyang

I’ve been in Anyang 2 months. It’s a suburb/satellite city of Seoul, but with the subway it’s pretty easy to get into the city centre. Here is a video of my apartment and a few photos.

There’s a Homeplus/Tesco 5mins away – Yay! Earl Grey teabags on demand!The river and parks are a nice place to walk, if a little crowded.Public art is popular. This piece provided someone with a handy place to lock their bike, which is not part of the scultpture!I’m told I live in the main area of the town. There’s an array of restaurants and watering holes a stone’s throw from me.Fun for all ages.It’s even livelier at night – the neon doesn’t turn off til dawn.

But the best thing is my apartment; bigger, newer and lighter than all my others.

Even the roof beats anything else, providing 2 putting holes…and a foot doctor path (walk along barefoot for therapeutic relief)…Not to mention the views.

Malaysia Truly Asia…

Yes, the commercial promises the world’s best dive sites, a shopper’s paradise and the world’s largest flower. But I stayed away from all that and spent the week in Melaka, a UNESCO World Heritage site variously influenced by Chinese, Portuguese, Dutch, Indian and English.

Melaka is a medium size city, although the historic centre is small and easy to walk around. Apart from some incongruously ‘restored’ red Dutch buildings, it’s a pleasant mix of chinese temples, colonial residences and ancient mosques, plus a healthy handful of tourist souvenir shops.

The streets further out from Jonker Walk are less well-kept, less cutesy and more interesting.

Melaka was known as Venice of the East due to its crucial role in the eastern trade network – all over and finished by the time the British took over in the 19th century. The seafront itself is now just a concrete mass of major hotels, shopping centres and parking lots (with a few cute kitties).

But to stay with the nautical theme, you can visit a reproduction Portuguese galleon which houses an exhibition on the history of Melaka. The crew were not very responsive though.

You can also visit a replica of the Sultan’s Palace and enjoy more dioramas there.

Probably the best thing was the river cruise. It’s a somewhat picturesque route…

which we had walked along earlier and seen this…

Monitor lizard!! At least a metre long. But nothing prepared  us for what we saw whilst on the cruise.

But even better than that!

Yes, monitor lizards having sex. Alas, I was so transfixed I didn’t think to take photos until it was nearly over and the pair of lizards swam off in different directions. Typical dinner date, I guess.

I wonder what exactly they were eating. I hope it’s the huge rats I saw on several occasions in the open sewers, rather than the profusion of stray cats. It was nice being in a country where they don’t dislike cats (I still don’t know why Koreans are so prejudiced against them), but I guess they’re not seen as pets, but rather, pest control. There was the cutest cat family in one restaurant we visited, who decided to rest under our table and enjoy their own lunch with us.

Other Malaysian animals I got up close and personal with were the mosquitoes. They were not as impressive as the monitors, but their bites did swell up to disproportionate sizes.

Melaka zoo was surprisingly good, I think because it featured animals in their natural climate (rather than yellowing, depressed polar bears that you usually see in zoos).

I touched an elephant for the first time (and also got elephant snot on me). There were lots of cute fluffy chicks in many of the cages. Then we realised they were lunch.We also saw some strange bear-like creatures getting their lunch via a hesitant zoo-keeper who had to quickly empty a bucket and retreat back along the gangplank before they chased him off.So with all this eating, we got hungry for our own lunch; chicken in black pepper sauce and pineapple fried rice

Scrumptious! In fact ALL the food in Malaysia – from the full english breakfasts to the chinese chicken rice balls to the coconut leaf rice and curries – was absolutley delicious!satay, Satay Celup Bukit Cinamango & chicken sandwich with fresh juices, Cafe Limau Limaubanana leaf curry, charppati houseNasi Goreng (fried rice) with chicken and seafood Tom Yam soup, roadside hut

Mmm…mmm….more mmm…..

Our hostel in Melaka, Tony’s Guest House was very colorful, decorated by the owner himself.Tony runs a small cafe downstairs, which offers a large variety of breakfasts and light lunches.There were only a few other guests, and for the size of the rooms, the price and the location, it was one of the best bargains I’ve ever stayed in.

It was generally quiet everywhere in Melaka; the taxi drivers expounded on theories to explain the lack of tourists from the recession to global warming. Personally, and somewhat reproachfully, I think it might be because shops and restaurants didn’t seem to have set opening times. We’d walk past a cafe serving breakfast one morning and the next day it would be closed, even at lunchtime. Or we’d return to a nice bar we saw one evening, only to find it closed by 6pm the next day. Maybe because there weren’t so many (foreign) tourists about, places just kept the hours convenient to them.

However, there was development everywhere. On the bus journeys to Melaka zoo and a nearby beach labelled as ‘fishing village’ on the map, there were any number of hotels or condos being built in the seemingly middle of nowhere. And plenty of resturants and roadside cafes too, just mostly all closed.

We returned to Kualar Lumpur to spend the final day seeing a bit of the city. Unbeknowst to us, our room was actually in an apartment on the outskirts of the town (also unbeknownst to us, run by Koreans!) but had a wonderful view of the sci-fi cityscape…It’s not a city made for walking around. And in the heat, who would want to do that anyway? But there is a nice monorail to use…We managed to get to a couple of ’sights’ before giving up.The Petronas Towers were, yes, tall! But we didn’t feel like queuing for the special ‘invitation’ you have to get to go up.China Town was the most crowded, commercial, cheesy place. We exited it as quickly as possible, not wanting to buy the marked up chinese merchandise I’d seen on sale in Beijing last year.

It’s sad to say, but the best thing about Kuala Lumpur, and this really does make up for everything else, was leaving it. Because, guess what? If you fly Malaysia Airlines, you can check your baggage in and get your boarding pass at the train station, then stroll around town until you’re ready to take the express train to the airport. Greatest system for travellers ever!So. Malaysia.

Melaka

Kuala Lumpur

Being stared at lasciviously and/or talked about directly in front of me as if I’m not there, despite the fact there are Malaysian women wearing less clothes than me

Food

Jeju-do

Literally everyone says you can’t come to Korea without visiting Jeju Island. So off we went for a weekend in february. I wasn’t expecting the weather to be nice, but at least I’d miss the crowds of Koreans on on their summer holiday. Well, that was the plan, but somehow there were still bus loads of tourists everywhere we went. I guess being only a budget airline flight away,  its a year-round destination for Koreans looking for a quick weekend getaway.

JejuAir gave out free balloon shapes – I think mine was meant to be a flower. Unfortunately it didn’t make up for the truly awful service on the return flight (severe delays, no communication, riots at the airport….what fun!). I was on a package tour, but with the limited public transport on Jeju, it’s probably the easiest way to go if you speak no Korean. Jeju’s pretty and all, but somehow it has no soul. It made me think of the Isle of Wight, a pretty island with a load of dubious tourist attractions built to fill in the time for people who don’t really like being outdoors, but who came to the island anyway because that’s what they thought they should do. Maybe that’s a little harsh, but even the ‘wonderful natural scenery’ was just not that special. It wasn’t bad, but I’ve seen better. Is this the jaded view of a world traveller now?

Dragon Rock

Juju seen from Udo (cow) Island

coral beach, Udo Island

Botanic Gardens

grandfather figures, Botanic Gardens

cacti graffiti, Botanic Gardensbabies, Udo Island

‘Mongolian’ horses (leftover from the mongol invasions) are even more prolific than golf courses. The riding was so fun, I decided all these ‘false’ tourist attractions were about as real as anything else Jeju has to offer. Alas, I could not visit the Chinese Acrobats at Happy Town, nor the curiously named Goblin World, but I did get to see the Folk Village peopled with oddly-proportioned figures and piles of retro junk that wouldn’t look out of place in your average rural Korean town…these students look oh-so-familiaraccording to this old-fashioned store, the comic book fetish has been around a long time in Korea

The Teddy Bear Museum was a bit misleading, being more of a stuffed toy museum, but very fun nonetheless.aerial viewa wolf in sheep’s clothingI wasn’t allowed on here, so I had to make do with the camel
Big Bear’s House

But the highlight had to be Love Land; a sculpture park and ‘art gallery’ all about sex. Amusing, slightly bizarre and just a little bit naughty, it was worth the whole trip just to see ajummas posing in front of giant phalli.toilets‘The Biggest Penis in the World’‘Avarice of Noble Woman’no gays in Korea!‘When Chili Met Oyster’  - my personal fave

Jeju…worth the trip? It was a nice weekend away. Would have been nicer without busloads of other tourists; I imagine even if the weather was better and I’d been able to hike, I’d have still encountered hordes on the slopes of Hallasan.

movie time

And now for something completely different. Well no, not completely, but a little more exciting than endless photos. Here are some movie montages of my recent travels (courtesy of independent film maker and imovie addict Jonathan Bronson).

Chungju, Chungcheongbuk-do

Inwangsan, Seoul

DMZ Odaemi Village, Gangwon-do

Taiwan

Seolnal second time around and we hopped on a plane once again (still in keeping with ‘Chinese New Year’ as it’s known elsewhere), this time bound for Taipei rather than Beijing. Only a four day holiday, but enough to see Taeipei and two close towns, Danshui and Juifan.

And we chose just the right time to leave Korea as a cold spell set in…

First, and most importantly, food.

grilled tofu stuffed with vegetables

fried sweet potato with cinammon

noodles and minced shark balls (?)

tea

dumplings and pancakes

pancakes with ice cream, ground peanuts and coriander – seriously yum!

‘frog eggs’ – I think really tapioca balls

airport meal

Taiwan had its fair share of weirdness:

take cheap non-alcoholic beer and add green tea flavour…voila! a disgusting concoction fit, I can only assume, for raising a new generation of alcoholics

amusing English translations

condoms in grabby-claw game machines (what happens if, as is more than likely, your claw fails to pick up your prize?)

random pigs

I did not get a picture of the crazily crowded and countless mixed-up market stalls selling chicken heads next to porn, alongside cheap plastic toys (something for all the family I guess). But the experience of squeezing down never-ending ally ways, big enough for only one person but with three walking abreast, avoiding unrecognisable cuts of meat hanging from above, and trying to not get in the way of the holiday crowd shopping as if this were the last holiday ever, was unforgettable, if not camera-stable.

We saw the main sights in Taipei, which were actually more engaging than I’d imagined. Teipei 101 really was a beautiful building…

…and, on closer inspection…big!

The view was somewhat obscured due to the clouds blowing around its top.

The tall structure is stabilised with ‘dampers’ (huge balls which somehow counteract the movement of the building in an earthquake). They’ve been adopted as the symbol of Taipei 101 in the form of  the ‘damper babies’.

There was also a cool art exhibition of delicate gold insect sculptures. Beautiful, but very expensive.

Longshan Temple was the other ‘must-see’. We went in the evening, when it was full of people making offerings for the new year. It was nice to see the temple actually in use, rather than as a simple ornamental building.

The subway system was the most high-tech I’ve seen. Instead of paper tickets, there were reusable plastic counters which you slotted into the machine at the end of your journey.

We used the subway to get to Danshui, originally a fishing village but now a touristic seaside suburb. There were not many people about and all the sites were closed because of the holiday, but it was nice wandering along the promenade and back streets.

The other day trip was a bit more of a mission – train then local bus – to Juifan, the seaside village that inspired the ‘look’ of the abandoned town in Spirited Away. It was more than a little rainy that day, so the sea view was non-existant.

It reminded me a little of Cornwall, with misty, winding streets, tea rooms and little souvenir shops.

antique bed, reused as seating in tea house

Finally, the last day in Taipei.

Formosan Aborigines Park

National Palace Museum

riverside residences

Year of the Bull

private tuition