Month: March 2013

Seoul, South Korea

On the Seoul Train

Joel

On my final day in Seoul, I sort of hit the skids. There was a lot that I wanted to see, but unfortunately, being a Monday, most museums and palaces were closed. So I aimed for the tackiest of tourist attractions: The Space Needle – or whatever the Koreans call it. It is positioned at the dead geographic center of Seoul and is definitely geared towards young romantic couples. There were expensive restaurant packages you could purchase for use on special floors at the top and a juvenile elevator ride with special space effects video to watch on the ceiling. Plus the usual pictures take. On arrival at the top as a momento of the occasion (for $ of course). The view was quite extensive, although it was a bit hazy again. Seoul is a very big city of ~12,000,000 people, so it is quite amazing to see sprawled out everywhere with mountains on the fringes and a river running through the middle.

The ride to the top and bottom included a cable car that plopped you down afterwards at the bottom in an interesting neighbourhood of pedestrian shopping alleys that seemed to extend indefinitely around the city, full of little shops, restaurants, and food stalls. Maybe all of Seoul is like that. It is very nice. The variety and number of eating places is quite amazing. And there is no shortage of cafes to give Starbucks here plenty of competition.

Now at the airport awaiting my flight to San Francisco, I have been very impressed with Korea and would like to come back to check out more. Very nice people, great food of every kind, excellent slick public transportation network, world’s best airport for eight years running (or so they are claiming – it is very nice) including a great express train into the center of town, and super-fast wifi everywhere you go (sometimes free, like everywhere here in the airport or at cafes, restaurants, museums, and hotels, or sometimes cheap at about $3 a day for access throughout the city including the entire subway and train system). There also appears to be quite a bit of mountain biking, hiking, and probably paddling around outside of the city, as well as road biking throughout the city.

Only downside has been the weather, which is comparable to the northeastern U.S. for this time of year: a bit colder and darker than I’m used to coming from sunny Australia.

South Korea

The DMZ up close and personal

Joel

Woke up early to catch a bus up to the DMZ and explore a few parts of it open to tourists. It was probably the very coldest day I have experienced in a while with the wind howling like it was. The good news is that the cold snap that came through overnight also cleared out the skies for excellent visibility. The DMZ is only about an hours drive north of Seoul, and as you get closer while driving up the coast you can feel the seriousness of the area starting to build as razor wire fences begin to appear next to beaches with military observation posts overlooking inlets that divide the North from the South.

You are instructed to bring your passport and carry it with you at all times while on the tour. They write everyone’s passport number down for their records before they allow the tour bus in. Once in, the tour bus needs to weave through tank barriers as it descends on the first stop, “The 3rd Tunnel”. The 3rd Tunnel is a tunnel the North Koreans were digging under the DMZ that was discovered in 1978. It is now a tourist attraction with ramp and train ride down to a depth of 73 meters below ground. We had the cheap tour that required us to walk all the way down and all the way back up, which was a decent workout. In the tunnel, which required hardhats and me to bend over as I walked the whole way, you can get within 170 meters of the actual demarcation line between the two countries, but there are 3 thick steel barriers installed thereafter to keep the North Koreans from using it to invade the south as they had originally planned.

From there we climbed a big hill (in a comfortable tour bus) that overlooked the border where you could see North Korean cities and housing and scrutinise them with binoculars. After that we were taken to visit a brand new train station that they hope will one day just be a stop on the way into the north and beyond to China, Russia, and Europe.

Unfortunately, much of the tour was heavily restricted photographically. It is also possible to get an even closer tour down to the actual border that lasts longer, but it is also much more expensive and requires security clearance several days in advance.

After the DMZ tour I rode the bus back into Seoul and hopped the subway to visit the National Museum of Korea – the biggest in the country. It is quite interesting to see how South Korea doesn’t really see itself as a ‘South’ because so much of their ancient history is intertwined with the North. Aside from government offices, virtually every institution just refers to itself as ‘Korean’ as though it is patiently waiting for an inevitable reunification with their cousins to the north. The National Museum of Korea was full of ancient artefacts from all over the Korean Peninsula that have been held for decades and made little effort to mention a difference between the two.

Most every museum I have been through in Seoul has been free, which is always nice, but I noticed a special exhibition that required the payment of a fee. It sounded too interesting to pass up, so I coughed up some quid and headed on in. It was titled ‘Art Across America’ and I was amazed to see that a good quarter of the exhibit contained paintings and furniture from my hometown Philadelphia Museum of Art, including quite a few that I recognised. I also recognised other pieces from LACMA in Los Angeles which I often visit while in California.

Seoul, South Korea

Funky Seoul

Joel

Well, two days into my South Korean visit and I’m quite impressed! It has a bit of a cold, dark, dank Tokyo feel to it, but that’s probably largely due to the season. It seems much easier to travel around than Tokyo because so many people seem to at least know some English. Those speaking fluent English have not been afraid to come out and help me when I’ve appeared dazed or confused trying to find my hotel or navigate the subway system.

My hotel room is TINY, but I knew that when I signed up. It’s only $50 a night and it had rave Trip Advisor reviews, so I jumped on the deal. It has everything you need (private shower right over toilet, big HD color TV, tea pot, fridge, bed). I’m very happy with the place, in hip Sinchon, which is full of funky shops, bars, restaurants, and right on the excellent subway system. A bit of a university neighborhood, which is always nice. The people who run it are very nice, speak fluent English, and are very good at offering suggestions on what to see and do.

Seoul is very safe and I’ve found most people to be very friendly and patient with a foreign language speaker like myself. I always feel obligated to ask how safe the area is for me to be walking around with a camera – and I often get laughed at like it was a stupid question because it IS so safe.

I headed out towards the 1395 Gyeongbokgung Palace to check it out and a few other things in it’s neighborhood this afternoon. An amazing and huge place that borders the South Korean President’s house in the back. Sadly, the Japanese destroyed the place TWICE over the years, burning it to the ground in 1592 and tearing down a previously restored version during WWII so they could plop their own HQ in its place. Now restored again, we’ll see how long it lasts this time!

There were a few free excellent museums adjacent to the palace, one on the palace and another on Korean folk art. After getting palaced-out I strolled into a few busy historic neighborhood nearby that was full of homes and shops preserved in traditional Korean architectural styles and very wealthy owners. After that, I kept walking south into the center of town through countless pedestrian malls closed to traffic to find a canal that ran next to public walkways. Too bad they had a few too many foot crossing stones permanently affixed – it would have made a great little whitewater paddling circuit!

China, Kathmandu, Nepal, South Korea

I shall go to Korea.

Joel

Or should I say, “I shall go to Korea if I can only get through China on the way!”

Eventful day, starting off with another strike in Kathmandu that left all the roads deserted of cars – but not people or rubble (put there by protesters to hamper vehicular traffic). After our Air China flight finally took off, we flew right past Mount Everest, mostly shrouded in clouds, on our way to Lhasa, Tibet. It’s so tall that it pokes straight through the top of the clouds!

We started our descent into Lhasa with warnings about turbulence and then the pilot suddenly announced in Chinese that it was too dangerous to land there so they were going to skip it and fly straight to Chengdu. Many were cheering and I thought it was someone’s birthday, but then they translated it into English. Skipping a layover sounds nice, but that meant we arrived here two hours early and I was left with a total of seven hours to kill without being allowed to go anywhere. I’m not sure how many on the plane were being disadvantaged by the decision, but they were remaining quiet.

Once I arrived in Chengdu, I had to face immigration without a Chinese visa. They were actually very nice about it, but they did confiscate my passport and tell me I wasn’t allowed to leave the airport terminal. At one point I had 5 Chinese officials escorting me around. I get the impression they don’t deal with too many transient visitors. The Chengdu airport is huge and full of empty gates and there are very few people who appear to be using it. Even so, they forced our plane to park way out on the tarmac with 90% of the gates empty and forced us to bus in. I managed to squeeze some Yuan out of an ATM so I could get some dinner after finally finding out how much it was worth so I knew not to overdraw or underdraw my account.

When my passport was confiscated, I immediately expressed concern about how I was going to get it back (as I have never been asked to surrender it before). I was assured by an official that whenit came time to check-in for my midnight flight, the passport would be waiting at the check-in desk for me to pick up and the flight staff would know about the whole situation.

Normally the earliest you can check-in in person is about 3 hours before your flight takes off, so I had to waste many an hour shuffling around the huge empty terminal as it closed more and more shops in the evening. So I finally get my chance to check in and I get to the check-in counter. Of course, the staff know absolutely nothing about it. Furthermore, they are unable to check me in without a valid passport so I was completely stuck. As it turns out, my passport was not at the check-in counter, but sitting in an immigration office about 300 meters away – behind a security zone, which required a passport and a boarding pass to get through, and next to the emigration queue that also requires the same plus a valid visa from the Chinese government.

Nobody at the check-in counter knew what to do about this conundrum until I quietly mentioned that I actually had two passports (which I never disclosed to the Chinese officials, but then again, they never asked). This got everyone excited because it provided the partial solution to the problem: I was now able to get my boarding pass, which allowed me to get through security and closer to the immigration office.

In the end, I was escorted through security by an airline official straight to the immigration office that held my other passport. They were able to get the managing Chinese official to come out and he very nicely went to great lengths to expidite my acceleration through the final emigration line – even going so far as to actually fill in immigration forms for me so I could legally leave the country I was denied access to visiting in the first place. Now my passport has a Chinese emigration stamp even though I was never technically in the country.

I don’t know if I was their first ever transient passenger, but they obviously need to grease the wheels on their processes… But maybe its just the Chinese way of conducting business. Other countries usually provide a last-minute-escape route for transients only there to catch connecting flights which you usually find just before you get to the immigration desks. This just keeps you in the emigration holding zone in the airport and allows you to circumvent the issue – although I have heard Canadians complaining about having to go through U.S. customs when trying to simply go south of the USA.

Everyone was always very nice, polite, and respectful in this episode, as you always are when dealing with government officials, and nobody ever suggested or even implied that I had ever done anything wrong, but…. what a circus!

Fortunately, I made it into Seoul as scheduled and was able to negotiate the extensive train and subway network with my luggage to find my hotel.

Kathmandu, Nepal

Bookend Strikes

Joel

It’s my last day in Nepal so I decided to explore a street I’ve been driven down numerous times that contains the old palace, which is now a museum. Unfortunately, the museum is closed, so I pony up my two bits to see the famous “Garden of Dreams” next door instead. It’s an odd intersection because there is a large compound across the street being protected by U.S. military officers, but it isn’t the embassy. Instead, I discover later, it’s an “American club” for diplomatic staff and expats – no tourists allowed. Sort of a country club with baseball field, pool, etc. I remember seeing something similar in Colombo, but I never heard of such a thing in Australia.

Anyway, the Garden of Dreams was quite nice. It is an old garden that had fallen into disrepair prior to 2006 when it was fixed up and restored to its original splendour. It is located behind a big wall, protected from the noisy, dirty, busy street that runs between the old palace and the American club. There were a number or restaurants and cafes inside, so I decided to kick back with a cup of coffee to enjoy the surroundings a little longer. A little bit of paradise insider big noisy dirty Kathmandu.

Upon leaving the gardens it suddenly struck me that there were no cars around and all the stores were still closed. Another strike? You bet! Another strike to bookend my Nepalese experience. One strike the day after I first arrive, and another strike the day before I leave. There were police with machine guns on the street corners of Thamel, my neighborhood, so I thought it best to retreat to my hotel room since everything was closed and the streets were looking a bit edgy.

Fortunately, by evening, I was able to find quite a few stored open to buy some last minute souvenirs of the place. Nepal has been lots of fun, but it does have a lot of problems and I am looking forward to moving on tomorrow!

Kathmandu, Nepal

The News from Nepal

Joel

In the newspaper today, it was disclosed that Nepal ranks #8 on the miserability index. That is, Nepal is considered to be the 8th most miserable place to live – just below Syria and Kosovo, but above Namibia, Djibouti, Turkmenistan, Belarus, Burkina Faso, Liberia, and Zimbabwe. Must have something to do with the persistent power outages, air pollution, noise pollution, crumbling infrastructure, and lack of employment opportunities. There are big plans to invest in a range of infrastructure improvements in Nepal over the next ten years now that the political situation has begun to stabilise somewhat.

I hopped on a Yeti flight today (yes, they even have an airline named after the Abominable Snowman). It took me back to Kathmandu from Pokhara for the last few nights before I fly out. I was instructed to make sure I had a seat on the left side of the plane so I could admire all the Himalayan peaks as we made our 25 minute journey. I didn’t think it would make too big of a difference with all the haze and smog that has accumulated since my hike, but we did punch our way up over most of the diffusion in our simple prop plane so I could see all the peaks along the way. And yes, they were pretty cool to watch as we flew past.

Now back in Kathmandu, I ventured out for a haircut while the offering was cheap. Like many things around here (including taxis), there always seem to be strings attached to any price that’s been quoted. One of the bizarre customs with hair cutters in Nepal is that they also provide all kinds of massage services. This has put me off many times, but I did stumble across one place that already had two Westerners getting haircuts, so I thought I would get mine done. I tried to find out the price before we started and I could only get “As you wish” as an answer. Finally, after getting him to mention 200 ringgit (just over $2), he started in and pulled out the exact same clippers I use to cut my own hair. After finishing with the cut, he starts slipping in little additional services that were related, like shaving the back of my neck and behind my ears with a straight razor. But then he starts mumbling something about putting some ointment in my hair and he starts in on his head massage. Then, before you know it, he’s trying to work his way down to giving me a back massage – at which point I had to cut him off, knowing the actual haircut was finished. The whole thing was totally bizarre.

Nepal, Pokhara

The Mountain Museum

Joel

My last full day in Pokhara saw the thick haze return to obstruct most of the views of the Himalayas, so I thought I should go check out the International Mountain Museum. Getting there became the usual drama in places like this. All you want is a simple taxi ride to the museum and everyone’s eyes light up like it’s a potential sales opportunity for a day-long chauffeur job. It makes you think twice before going anywhere that requires a cab!

None of the cab drivers around here want to use their meters, so you need to negotiate a price before you get in. Then on the way there they try to entice you into seeing all the sights around town you haven’t been to yet. Then they insist on a round trip fare and say they will wait for you while you see the museum. “Half hour?” they ask. “Um, actually, how about 2 hours. I like to take my time.” I read the museum was quite large. They look at you like your crazy and I’m sure the financial appeal of the deal suddenly doesn’t sound so good. I send him off telling him to come back in 2 hours and not wait so he has the opportunity to earn from others, but I’m not sure he ever left.

Anyway, the museum was quite interesting and it actually did take me a few hours to get through it. There was information on each of the world’s highest 20 peaks (even more interesting after hiking past some of them) and who were the first to climb them. There was information on all the local plants and animals of Nepal, as well as Yeti(!) There was gear donated to the museum that had been used to get to some of the summits. It was interesting to see how rudimentary some of it was by today’s standards. Most of the gear seemed to be donated by Asian expeditions and not from the West. There were also displays on each of the native groups prominent in different regions of the country, like the Sherpas of the Everest area.

It seemed as though the 1950’s were the big years to conquer all the summits. There is still one left in Nepal that has never been successfully climbed, but the Nepalese government stopped letting people try back in 1963. It’s called Fishtail and it is very steep and difficult to ascend.

One of the most interesting displays was of all the garbage they have cleaned up from Mount Everest. One climber who eventually made it to the top was so dismayed by all the things left by previous climbers that he organised a regular cleaning campaign to collect the waste and fly it out. Among the debris were pieces of broken ladders (used to get across crevices in the ice), big piles of cooking stove gas canisters (some flattened by ice pressure over time), old ripped up tent fragments, and big piles of oxygen tanks – some dating back to the 1960’s.

Nepal

Classy Customs and Other Cultural Observations

Joel

The Nepalese have a custom they use when handing you money, food, or menus. They extend the item with their right hands while channelling respect with their left hands by touching their right elbows. It’s actually quite classy, I think.

Otherwise, I always find it interesting when political borders don’t really match the cultural borders in most countries. There always seem to be transitions taking place from region to region. Nepal is predominantly Hindu, but the majority of people living in the mountains are Buddhist – which is closest to Tibet/China. Some of the traditional Nepalese music you here sounds either very Chinese or very Indian to me. Many of the TV shows you see look like Indian shows. Every time I attributed a cultural element I encountered to another country, my trekking guide quickly corrected me and said it was Nepalese. The traditional dress worn by both women and men here also look similar to dress worn in other mountain regions to the northwest of Nepal.

Nepal, Pokhara

Pokhara MTB

Joel

With just a few days left of my stay in Pokhara, I’ve took a day of rest to recuperate from endless Annapurna stair climbs and descents and lined up a bit of mountain biking for this morning in the nearby hills. Like all my other pursuits here, I’ve found myself with a personal guide to show me around. Or at least I did initially. An Australian guy from Victoria came and joined us at the last minute. It certainly seems a bit slow here this time of year, but that is good for me. Nepal seemed pretty busy with Chinese tourists when I first arrived, but that was due to the Chinese New Year holiday period in China – which is over now.

Hills? More like mountains! The mountain bike circuit, which was supposed to be their least hilly, kicked off with. 500 meter climb up to the top of a ridge overlooking the city of Pokhara and its neighboring lake. Too bad the place has become so hazy again – the views would have been quite spectacular otherwise. From the top it ran along a gentle roller-coaster ridge hugging track for a while before a quick descent down to a huge plateau of rice paddies next to the lake. From there the ride was fairly flat all the way back into town. About 700 meters of climbing in all and 30kms in length. Our guide offered to take us up the another mountain on the other side of the lake, but we both politely declined.

I don’t know what it is, but every time I have ever rented a bike overseas, I have always had a problem with the seat post continually sliding down until the bike becomes too hard to peddle and I have to stop and raise it again. This has happened to me in Fiji, Egypt, and now Nepal. Otherwise, it was a much nicer bike that I have been able to rent in the past.

The bike tour operator was actually a front for a local mountain bike club. Good mountain bikes are prohibitively expensive for many Nepalese, so the club would conduct tours for tourists and get the tourists to pay fees that were high enough to finance good bikes for the club members who would ride them the rest of the time.

Annapurna, Nepal

Final day of the Annapurna Trek

Joel

The final day of my Annapurna Trek was pretty straightforward. Up early for breakfast, down another steep staircase all the was to the river to cross a bridge, back up the other side, rinse, and repeat. Eventually our track widened to a roadway where a half dozen 4wd vehicles hung around waiting for tired hikers to ferry out. We passed by them and continued to hike on the road as it gradually just became one long decline back along the river to where we started 5 days ago.

Overall, quite a spectacular hike. It was also very interesting also to pass through all the villages and see how many Nepalese earn their keep. Now back in Pokhara, in my choice room with spectacular views, my legs are very sore and sick of stairs! I do have a bathtub which I should put to use.

One bit of irony from the experience of passing through countless villages that rely on spring water to drink and mules for deliveries: they always had power 24 hours a day 7 days a week. Here in Pokhara I’ve been back now for six hours and still now power. It seems to be off more than its on. How to the villages get power? They generate their own through micro-hydroelectric generators that use channelled water from nearby streams. We passed quite a few of them. Each required a substantial amount of work to set up and each could only power about 40 homes, but they are very lucky to have power when they need it.