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Published: April 4th 2011
Hi everyone, we're a few days into our journey so it's time to catch up on the 'ole blogging.
To date we've spent all of our time in and around Seoul, and have been pleasantly surprised by how much we like Korea. The people are friendly, the city is clean, the food is spicy and flavourful, and the soju is far too cheap for it's alcoholic content.
Our major stopoffs so far have been within Seoul, to palaces, markets and tea shops. Outside of Seoul we have toured the DMZ (Demilitiratized Zone) and stayed overnight at a Buddhist temple.
Like anywhere foreign most of the fun is simply in trying to live. The journey and not the destination if you will. This is particularly apparent when you don't actually know the language. It effectively causes an internal regression to the tender age of two, when everything was new, and mimicry was the order of the day. At restaurants you find yourself peeking out from the brim of your hat at the tables around you, looking and listening for clues. Did they put their rice into the soup, or should I just eat the rice on its own? When
I'm finished with the chopsticks can I put them on the table, or should I leave them on my plate? Should I have a hat on at all, or am I being rude and likely creepy by glancing out from under it at folks nearby? Yes.
Overall we haven't had many issues, just one where a waitress wouldn't give up trying to use Korean and our shrugging and head shaking had little effect. Even this was improved to my experiences in say Italy, where an Italian woman would have taken our confusion as a hint to speak louder and louder with the assumption that diminished volume was the true hinderance to fully comprehending Italian.
Palaces are palaces, markets are markets, but the tea houses are pretty f'ing cool. I had a ginger tea that when I spilled a drop, it bore through the wooden dining table, the floor beneath and struck a passerby who screamed and defiled himself on contact. It was the strongest tea I have ever tasted and it may have given me superpowers. I'll be taking costume suggestions at any time.
The DMZ was interesting in a boring sort of way. Conceptually interesting, a
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Palace Guards4km wide divide between North and South Korea. It's also a living bit of juxtaposition. A heaviliy militirazied area in a state of permanent stalemate that actually resulted in the involuntary creation of a supremely massive nature preserve. Wildlife never had it so good. In S. Korea they talk of reunification and their desire to unite the Korean peoples. Will this happen in my lifetime? Probably not. Germany fully? Maybe, but the Koreas are so polar opposite that it will take the youths of a future generation to really begin knocking down those philiosophical boundaries.
One of the destination highlights for me was the visit and stay at the Buddhist temple. It was an isolated temple, in the country, approximately two hours outside of Seoul. We wore grey jump suits that made you feel a little bit Amish and a little bit like MC Hammer. Over the stay we were a part of the monks ceremonies. We took part in the chanting, practiced meditation, took hikes around the property, played with dogs, learned more about tea and caligraphy and we woke up at 4am to start the day. One of the ceremonies was to perform 108 prostrations while the
monks chanted. A prostration is a bow, which you would think to mean a normal bow but is actually more like a burpee. Slow, so very slow burpees, and by the end painful so very painful.
Anyway I could rattle on, but this seems like a good time to stop. Subscribe to this on the left if you haven't already and you can also check out Aimee's blog at http://www.adventureswithaimee.com
I hope all is well.
Take care,
Michael
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greg
non-member comment
superpowers
So what kind of super powers will ginger tea give you?