Alive in Khao San / Goodbye Korea

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Landed yesterday in Bangkok, VERY late. My ticket was a cheap return ticket from Seoul (since I fly back to Canada out of Seoul in a few weeks) with a 5.5 hour layover in Beijing. I met (this is a recurring theme no?) a half Korean, half American guy on the plane. Son of an American soldier and a Korean woman, he was travelling to Thailand to study muy thai (boxing) in Chang Mai. Good company. I'll look up his school if I decide to head north from Bangkok.

Anyway, the flight over I was worried about landing in Bangkok at 11:45 pm. Would everything be closed? Would the taxi driver be able to find the guest house? Would he try to rip me off? Would the guest house honor its reservation or would I have to wander the streets looking for accomodation at 2 am in a city I'd never been in? Hard not to think these things in a 5.5 hour plane trip, unable to sleep. Lonely Planet summed it up well: "A lot of nail-biting anxiety is expended on international flights arriving in Bangkok around mid-night. Will there be taxis into town, will there be available rooms, will my family ever hear from me again?" lol, I smiled reading that. In this case, the 'Bible' made me feel a bit better: "You can always go to Th Khao San, which stays up late, is full of hotels and guesthouses, and sees a near continuous supply of 'fresh-off-the-birds' just like you." So, when I got into town, I resisted the urge to follow my new friend to his $30 luxury hotel near the aiport and took a public taxi into town. Couldn't have been easier. And my $5 bed was just fine.

Khao San is suprisingly... calm, normal. It's basically one small neighbourhood of backpackers planning trip to other parts of SE Asia. Bars, restaurants, taxis, shops, crowd every lane. Chabad is a gigantic building nearby. Liron was right. Everything is in Thai and English with a bit of Hebrew here and there. I pointed it out to a fellow backpacker who didn't notice that it was even a different language. Lodging is dirt cheap (well, it depends if you want AC or not) and food as well. Although everyone will gladly rip you off in this neighbourhood if you don't put in the effort. Going to spend tonight, and perhaps one more night here, while I get on my feet, book train tickets, etc.

Now, to end the Korea story. The last two places I visited were Sokcho and Seoul. Sokcho. The bad first. A lost bag, full of goodies (passport, etc.). An over-priced dirty motel room on the first couple nights with a large cockroach attempting to befriend me. An aborted attempt to climb a mountain because the "Canadians" I hooked up with melted like wax bc of the "incline" of the mostly flat waterfall trail. Then, one of them fell and cut open her leg....waiting outside the outhouse. I proceeded to lose the aforementioned bag while focused on gettnig her back to the hostel for first-aid. I also left my phone a bus at one point. That one completely my bad. It wasted a day at the beach while I tried to work with generous but uncomprehending Koreans to get my phone back. Needless to say, I can tell you EXACTLY how to get to the bus office where you can look for lost items. I think that might cover everything?

Now the ugly, good, cute and bizarre, in no particular order, depending on how you look at each moment. There's the haircut I got, an accidental "marine" look since the hairdresser didn't quite get what I was asking for. There was the tourist information officer who worked tirelessly to help me get my stuff back. Park and I became friends over those few days. I'll happily give him a tour of Toronto should he make it over to Canada one day. There was the sweet hostel Park moved me to, a very homey (if mosquito-y) place, with free internet, clean and cheap rooms (20,000 won or about $18 - good for Korea) and free breakfast. The owner of "The House" hostel, Mr. Yoo, was very friendly, kind and generous. He also gives ridiculously long lectures on Sokcho when you walk in. He spends 10 minutes drawing all over your map about where to go, what to eat, what buses to take. Helpful, but by the end of it, your map has become a web of lines and messy writing. I would definitely go back.

One last moment: I asked Mr. Yoo for a dinner suggestion. He leads me to a restaurant where the owner proceeds to "Mama" me, as I struggle with how to eat this traditional Korean stew. She moves from directing me to doing it for me. Cute and uncomfortable all at once. What an odd feeling.

I didn't see much of Seoul. I was focused on getting my butt to Thailand, booking fights, buying books, going to the Canadian embassy and then picking up my bag from the bus terminal (Mr. Yoo had found it and was shipping it to me by bus). I did spend one night out in Hongik, with Ayesha (remember her from Busan?) and her friend. Okay, it WAS a little weird to be wondering around the 'hot' university clubbing area of Seoul with two hijab wearing Malaysian women, but it was good to see Ayesha again. I also had a more conventional pub night out with a Japanese friend I'd made after sampling cow intestine at the hostel owner's request (ew, I completely agree).

I did make it to the DMZ, but not to Pamunjom, the UN peace village where you can see NK soldiers. A bit underwhelming and expensive. But I like politics too much not to have enjoyed it. It also provided one final "those crazy North Koreans" moment. They've been building invasion tunnels to the South for 40 years. The SK have discovered four over the years. Including one I explored (but wasn't allowed to take pictures of) on the DMZ tour. Apparently, the North Korean government never owns up to these tunnels, but instead accuses the South of building them every time the South finds one. So the South has to point out which way the dynamite holes face and other technical details. The North has also built one of the most massive flags inside a fake village.

I'll attach the last few Korea pictures later. But they mostly consist of a few gorgeous shots from the few minutes I spent at the Seoraksan park, near Sokcho, and a few of the DMZ. Or rather, the one or two places I was allowed to take pictures very far from the DMZ.

For now, I'm planning my time in SE Asia. I've realized most of it will need to be spent in Thailand. I only have three weeks. I've narrowed it to two options:

TRIP 1
Three directions are interesting from Bangkok right now:
- North: Chang-Mai and a trek into the tribal areas (4-5 days)
- East: Ko Chang (island national park, beaches, etc.), Angkor Wat and Siem Reap (over the border in Cambodia) (5-6 days). This is about gigantic city-sized ruins and a quick flavour of Cambodia, a very poor place. Ko Chang is just about the beach.
- South: train to Surat Thani and the islands offshore (Ko Tao, Ko Pha-ngan or Ko Samai) (4 days). This is really about the beaches, the diving, the snorkelling, and the partying.

I would likely need to return to Bangkok to get from one leg to the next. I know this is doable since a Frenchman I met just came back from doing something similar (except Angkor Wat - although apparently many people departed from Ko Chang to Angkor Wat)

TRIP 2
Asher hates travelling in circles (and backtracking) so the part of me that wants to be going in a straight line has an eye on the Far South route, which would take me, after the islands mentioned in "South" under trip 1, to Phuket, through Malaysia (and Kuala Lumpur perhaps) to Singapore. I would then fly back to Bangkok for the trip home. I don't have time for Indonesia. This is definitely doable in two-three weeks, since it's easy to adjust the pace by stopping more or less often on the journey south. This trip is more about the adventure of doing something off-the-beaten track (although I'm sure there will still be plenty of backpackers along the way).

Thoughts?

Oh, one last thing. I used the airport in Beijing. Facebook and Youtube were blocked. lol. Funny bc my generation lives on those two.

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Comments

[Mila]

Catching up with Asher
Dearest Asher, After completing the calendar, I decided to catch up with your travel blog. Your well written casual style is most informative, descriptive and reflective at the same time, with a healthy dose of humor. I can almost hear you....and loved seeing you in the photos. What a marvelous collection of images and experiences to internalize and enjoy now and to recall in the future. Keep writing - I am a fan. Love you lots, Mila