Looking back briefly...

Okay fine, when you get right down to it, we did more in Hong Kong than eat and shop...we also did more in Korea than get lost. However, I seem to be perpetually behind in this blog so sometimes I just jump ahead. Here are a few other “highlights so far,” (actually not so much “so far” as “in the first month,” so that includes Korea, Hong Kong, and Macau) to give you a taste of what I didn't put in words!

Visiting a folk village near Seoul, Korea on the same day that about 100 schools each brought 100 kids... It was crazy, but also fun--kids are always fun!

Imperial tombs from Guangyu, Korea. Guangyu is the old capital of the Shilla empire...founded when Julius Caesar was attacking Gaul and shortly before Jesus was born. There is so much amazing history we never learn about in North America...I really should do a masters on comparative history. (Note: I called them imperial tombs...my non-historian travelling companions called them "lumpy hills")

Being pillars at the remains of a temple in Guangyu... :)

A classic Hong Kong shot. As a historian, I definitely don't approve of Hong Kong's attitude. If there's a historic site on prime real estate, money always wins out and the historic site goes...of course that has created one of the most recognized harbour views in the world. (Sidenote for movie fans: The new Batman movie was filmed here.)

The temple of 10,000 Buddhas in the Hong Kong New Territories. Look very closely at the walls--they are lined with tiny buddha statues. And no, there aren't exactly 10,000 Buddha statues...there's more! I think there was over 12,000 in the main temple alone.

The Holy House of Mercy in Macau...doesn't every organization include the skull of their founder over their mantle? It makes for good dinnertime conversation.

Exercising in Taipa vllage (near Macau). These exercise machines are installed in parks all across China--I remember them from when I lived there. They are awesome!

Thanksgiving dinner :)

A Hong Kong harbour tour on a Chinese junk...I wonder if the good old"Duk Ling" liked life better as a fishing boat or prefers to be a tourist attraction?

Lamma Island: no cars allowed. It was quite a refreshing change from Hong Kong! We rented bikes too, just to fit in.









That's it I think...the next post will be on Beijing. Cheers!

Churches and casinos

Macau is full of dichotomies: 15th century Catholic churches and 21st century Vegas-style casinos; Portuguese barbecue and Chinese noodles; open-air squares and cramped backstreet markets...It's a fun place to spend a few weeks.

Macau was actually one of the last remnants of Portugal's empire; the Portuguese were in charge here until 1999 (and oddly enough, it was Portugal that wanted to give it back, not the other way around...). It's had an interesting history in it's 400+ years, from its beginning as a trade city, to its defiance of Spanish rule in Portugal, to its sheltering of refugees from Hong Kong during WWII and from China during the Cultural Revolution. Despite this, with the rise of Hong Kong a century ago, Macau has quietly been forgotten by the larger world. In the last twenty years, though, it's been trying to reinvent itself as a tourist city—and while it does cater to those who come to soak up its history—it mainly caters to those who come to gamble away billions in its 28 world class casinos (not playing poker though, but playing war, a very simple card game...).

I'm sure you'll all be surprised to find out that we were part of the former tourist group, perhaps because the history seemed to seep out of the cobblestones and pool wherever I stopped. It wasn't quite as good as Guanggu, Korea where the history sizzled in the very air, but it was pretty good!! :) Also, it's not that I'm at all averse to learning and studying history that's new to me, but I especially enjoy encountering history that I have some knowledge of... and Macau was filled with remnants of its European past: squares dominated by Catholic cathedrals, baroque architecture, and a laid-back atmosphere that stood out all the more after spending a week in Hong Kong.

The food was awesome too...even the frog soup...but I think I wrote enough about food in the last post so I'll spare you more descriptions here. :) Instead, here are some of my favourite sites to visit in Macau.

The ruin of the church of St. Paul is the iconic site to see in Macau. This former Jesuit church, built from 1582 to 1602, was once the largest church in Asia. It fell into disrepair after the Jesuits were expelled from Macau due to doctrinal disputes. Today only the intricately-carved stone facade from the front of the church survives. Many other Catholic churches are alive and well though, and we happily spent hours wandering through several of them.

The Monte fort was another of our favourite sites. This was the main fort—though one of several—built by the Portuguese. It was built in 1616 and originally belonged to the Jesuits and St. Paul's church. Yet interestingly enough, only one cannon was ever fired, and only once. It was fired by a Jesuit priest in a desperate attempt to turn aside a Dutch invasion...against all odds the cannon ball hit a gunpowder store and blew the attackers out of the water! It's brilliant how small random events change the course of history isn't it? Poor Jaclyn, though, since she is Dutch by heritage, she got teased just a bit about her countrymen's failed attempt at invasion. Sorry Jaclyn! :)


Then we saw this house. It was cool and we liked it. It had oyster shell windows (but they aren't in the picture). The windows in the picture were made at different times and the old ones are better but they don't know how to make those ones anymore. Does it sound like I'm writing this paragraph in a hurry? Well, I am. Mostly because I can't remember any other specifics and couldn't easily find them online. Besides, I'm in Beijing already so I really should just post this post. :)

Even the church we attended Sunday morning was a historical site. The Protestant chapel, the oldest—and once the only—Protestant church in town, was built by and for the East India trading company. Also on the compound was the Protestant cemetery which the British were finally allowed to establish in 1825 so that the few Protestants in town no longer needed to clandestinely bury their dead in the surrounding hills (the Catholics wouldn't bury them on hallowed ground).

It was kinda funny when we were looking for a church to attend, actually. We'd asked at the tourist information centre about which churches had English services. We were told that only one Catholic church did and it was out of town. When we asked if there were any Protestant churches she looked at us, rolled her eyes, and said,”We don't have any information on the Protestants!” It was wonderful, though, to share in worship and fellowship with our brothers and sisters in Macau. In fact, we have been quite blessed to have found English services to attend in most of the countries we've been to so far.

That's all for Macau I think...definitely a recommended city to visit if you get the chance!

Eating and shopping (but mostly eating)

As my friend said while reading the Hong Kong guidebook, the two things to do here are shop and eat... Jaclyn took care of most of the shopping (though we did a bit too), but all three of us (four while Rita was still here) took the eating comment to heart!

One notable aspect of Hong Kong cuisine was the variety. We quite happily sampled everything from masala chai and Indian curry to Vietnamese pho soup and spring rolls. Of course, we enjoyed many a traditional Chinese meal as well, such as hot pot, dim sum, and lots of fresh seafood.

Dim sum is fun! It's usually a brunch or lunch option where there are lots of small prepared dishes on trolleys. As the trolleys pass by, you can take any of the small dishes. Usually each dish has three or four portions of dumplings, pork buns, etc. These are shared among the people at the table, so the more people at your table, the more variety of dishes you get to sample.


One of my favourite meals from when I lived in China was hot pot, so when Jaclyn's cousins Mike and Cynthia suggested going to a hot pot restaurant, I was excited. A hot pot meal consists of a pot of boiling hot broth on a burner in the center of the table where you cook the noodles, tofu, vegetables, or meat that you order. It was a fabulously good meal!



One night we went out for seafood—fresh seafood—and I mean fresh! When we arrived at the restaurant, our dinner was still swimming around in aquariums outside the door. We pointed out this fish, and those clams, and that crab... they were scooped out of their aquariums and, fifteen minutes later, they appeared piping hot on our table. And they were delicious!


We also indulged in lots of the snacks that Hong Kong claims as specifically theirs. We dined on red bean and green tea ice cream, pineapple buns (that don't actually contain pineapple), ham and preserved egg congee (a type of porridge), egg tarts (though Macau claims these as well), fishball and noodle soup, and lots and lots of milk tea.

On an amusing note, although Hong Kong really is a large cosmopolitan city, there still is a touch of the rural roots you rarely see in the west. For example, a few days ago we were in a large shopping mall and as we left, a man in a chef's hat wandered through the front doors and headed for the nearby restaurant...carrying a large slab of raw beef!

Ahhh...food! It really is one of the best reasons to travel!

When in Rome (or Korea as the case may be)...

Unfortunately (well, actually, fortunately), this post will be picture free. Why? If you can't figure that out from the context, you'll have to live with not knowing.

One of the things that everyone is supposed to do in Korea is go to a Korean jimjibang (or bathhouse). So...we thought we'd go and it was quite the experience! Now, I'm not squeamish about public bathing—I'm part Finn after all—I grew up attending sauna. On top of that, one of my favourite activities in Turkey was going to the hamam. However, in regards to the jimjibang, it might have been a good idea to have a first experience in a place where people spoke English!

Our first hurdle was actually finding the jimjibang. It turned out to be on the top of an unfinished department store building. Don't get the wrong idea though, once we found it, it was actually quite posh. However, the surprised look and lack of English at the front desk should have been a warning signal... We didn't take it that way though, instead we walked into the women's section a bit unsure of what to do, and, oddly enough, being the only people with clothes was more awkward than being without!

Once the awkwardness wore off, though, things were better...but keep in mind that that didn't happen until we were clothed again! The fact that we had to dress in the supplied orange uniforms helped us feel like we fit in—even though that's actually quite hard to do as a blond in an Asian country. The purpose of the supplied clothing was to give us access to the co-ed restaurant/TV room/games room downstairs. Yes, I am serious! You don't go to a jimjibang just to bathe, you go for the whole day (and night—accommodation is also provided). You can play pool, check your email, watch TV, eat dinner, and a whole host of other activities—it was rather impressive actually.

However, for a supposedly relaxing environment, there seemed to be a distinct lack of relaxing experiences. Clearly the pools and saunas upstairs were meant to be relaxing (even if it was more awkward than relaxing for us—the random foreigners), and perhaps that was meant to make up for the other areas. In the TV room, for example, you could lounge on the hard wooden floor or relax against a log to watch TV, or in the sleeping rooms you could curl up for the night on the same wooden floor with a hard foam block masquerading as a pillow!

Don't get the wrong idea though, we were all glad we went...and we'd probably all go again (I know I would). After all you can't beat the price (five dollars for the spa and a night's accommodation) and besides it's one of those quintessential Korean experiences. A jimjibang is to the Koreans as a sauna is to the Finns.

Lost in the hills

If there was any theme to our time in Korea it was being lost. We got lost on the metro, lost on the streets, lost in the mountains, and once we even got lost in the bathroom! I really think that getting lost has gotten a bad reputation though...I've always been rather fond of it. I've had some of the best times of my life while being lost! (Okay, so I've had some pretty frustrating times too—but those ones don't tend to stick and if they do, they tend to turn into great stories!) :)

Lost in the mountains, part one

The first weekend we were in Korea, Rita joined us on a trip south in search of a tea plantation Amanda wanted to see. The plantation was supposed to be located in a mountain park close to the town of Gwangju. We arrived at the base of the mountain in the early afternoon and Rita masterfully used her Korean to try and get directions. Instead, she found two older Korean gentlemen, one of whom spoke English.

This meeting caused a slight detour to a small roadside “restaurant,” where we had snacks and tea. Thirty minutes later, though, we headed up the hill following our new friends' reluctantly-given, but thorough, instructions. (Reluctantly given because they didn't think the tea plantation was worth seeing.) We started out energetically, but the heat and the incline soon slowed us down, especially when we realized that none of us actually knew what a tea plantation looked like! Perhaps, we theorized, we'd already passed the tea plantation without recognizing it...or perhaps it was just around the corner.

Just around the corner was the grave of the eccentric painter who had started the tea plantation—but no actual plantation. Perhaps it was around the next corner...

Or not. Around that corner, the trail seemed to peter out and turn into a dry creek bed. We decided the creek bed must double as a trail so we thought we'd check around just one more corner.

After fighting vertically upwards through spider webs and underbrush, our “trail” finally brought us to a destination, but unless the tea plantation was disguised as a graveyard, it wasn't the destination we were looking for. There was, however, a real trail leading up around yet more corners...

We eventually ran out of corners when we reached the peak of the mountain, where the view was amazing. Part of that view was the tea plantation right near the bottom of the mountain...but we never did figure out how to get there!

Lost in the mountains, part two

After heading south from Gwangju and actually finding a tea plantation, Rita had to head back to Seoul. The intrepid backpackers, however, continued on to the coastal city of Busan. One of Busan's main tourist attractions is the remains of the fortress on Geumjeongsan Mountain. Not much remains of the fortress, though, except the four gates and some of the walls, but the hike and the scenery were highly recommended.

We planned to head out early, but due to several complications involving the lack of banks and ATM's, we didn't arrive at the mountain until almost noon. We had transportation as far as our first stop, a Buddhist temple about half way up the mountain, but after that we got to walk. The beginning of the trail was extremely well-marked though, even if it was a bit strenuous, so we arrived at the North Gate in just under an hour. It seemed important to climb the wall upon arriving, but even though we had the cameras posed and ready, no one fell off while climbing!

The North Gate and surrounding walls were suitably impressive, and we were definitely looking forward to finding the other three gates. So, after a short rest, we optimistically headed out to find them.

Three hours later we'd found some friendly Korean women, several roads, a small rural village, far too many steep inclines, a few maps, lots of signs in Korean, several unlabeled trails, and a town. We didn't, however, find a west, east, or south gate! Eventually, we did find a bus stop...and decided to use it. The bus drove down the mountain—right past the East Gate! But by that time it was almost five and we decided we'd had quite enough of the mountain for one day.

Funnily enough, when we were swapping stories with another backpacker later that day, we found out that she had also spent the day on the mountain—lost! Then, when we arrived back in Seoul, Rita informed us that when she had visited the mountain, yes, you guessed it, she had also gotten lost (and, now that I think about it, she didn't bother warning us either; thanks a lot Rita! :). Ah well, it's all part of the experience, I guess. Besides, now we'll just have to come back and see the remaining gates another time!

And we're off...

...but the blog entry is 2 weeks late! :)

So. Let's see if I can get this blog caught up.

My sister Amanda and my friend Jaclyn and I flew to Korea on September 23rd. For Amanda and I it's the start of a two-ish year trip around the world and for Jaclyn it's a month long Korea/Hong Kong vacation. In Korea, we met up with our friend Rita who is teaching English in Seoul. Rita is fabulous! She very kindly shared her small apartment with three crazy backpackers and didn't even complain about tripping over our random belongings which seemed to instantly spread throughout her entire apartment. (Thanks again Rita!)

Unfortunately (or fortunately depending how you look at it) Amanda isn't much more of a planner than I am, so our time in Korea was quite haphazard and off-the-cuff. Jaclyn is a planner but since this is her first trip she was content to follow along, at least for the first few days...

We didn't really see all that much of Seoul, though we did pack in a few sites. We saw the changing of the guard, visited a palace, ate great Korean food, went out to a Korean Folk Village, and various other touristy-type things!

The Korean food was a definite highlight for me...though I'm very disappointed that we didn't get a chance to try dog. :( At least I'm pretty sure we didn't...I can't be 100% sure since the menu wasn't always in English. Don't you just love ordering food in foreign countries off menus you can't read?! It really adds an element of surprise and suspense to the meal, which really does make things taste better! Really, it does! Try it some time.

More Korean details will follow...soon...I promise! (Just keep in mind that I'm not mentioning how I define the word "soon.")