Post-Korea adventures

OK, so it's been a while since I made an entry, but here's a shot at trying to sum up what's been going on since I left Korea. I made my way to Delhi via Hong Kong, I as with every departure became nostalgic about the good times which had been had and in effect was reluctant to leave. Delhi was everything that I remembered, my taxi driver was your stereotypical half crazy, possibly drunk, fairly incompetent, un-roadworthy taxi wielding Taxi driver. He was great, between brief glances at where he was driving he was pointing out the construction sites of the stadiums for the upcoming Commonwealth games, I call them construction sites due to the fences around the site, but it appeared that there has yet to be any construction of these much needed stadiums, I'm awaiting the date of the Games and will be amused to hear if the setting is ready, or in the more than likely case not, maybe they can postpone them for a while, international sports on Indian time (i.e. late).

I spent a day in Delhi doing very little, and made my way by train to Kolkatta to meet Celine, a French girl I met in India two years ago. The ride was its usual slow paced, nicely ventilated (due to the lack of closeable windows), urine smelling ride, but that's India, and that's what I come to experience. Being the usual few hours late I arrived in Kolkatta, said my goodbyes to the interesting Bangladeshi men I had been sharing a compartment with and left for Sudder Street, the PharaGanj of Kolkatta. The time on the train was interesting, despite the efforts of the highly religious Bangladeshi men I was not converted to the one true God idea, what works as proof for faith for some is somehow lost on me. One man in an attempt to save my soul from eternal damnation due to my lack of acceptance made things very clear; taking my hand in his he held my index finger in a firm but non-threatening way, he explained in a educating tone, "see your finger, hard inside, soft skin outside, hard nail on the end. Not your parents, one true God." he finished this sentence with a finger raised in the air, I nodded as if considering his words of wisdom, but inside simply felt a desire to bring up more complicated, scientific explanations for such human characteristics, but decided to refrain, he was after all attempting to help me. In all an interesting ride. In Kolkatta I checked into a dodgy hotel and took a walk, on returning to the hotel I ran into Celine, it was great we talked shit and drank in a gloomy seedy Kolkatta Bar.

After a few days we made our way to Darjeeling accompanied by a twosome from LA named Matt and Becca, they are a brother an d sister travelling together, her fairly well travelled, and him a very green young guy currently studying in Oxford. Unfortunately Darjeeling was closed due to a strike. We spent two days in an awful India-Nepal border town named Siliguri, awful, but we did meet a cool South African guy named Rob.

We were able to enter Sikkim after two days with a semi-permanent halt to the strike, apparently the Government were willing to re-enter negotiations to allow 'Gorkhaland' to become a state within India independent of West Bengal, though Political I have no emotional attachment to the cause, and as a selfish human being just thought of the inconvenience which it had caused me.

To put it simply Sikkim is a must see place, I'll post some pictures, but if you like trekking, quiet, peaceful and cheerful people and beautiful scenery. I leave it for you to decide.

I made my way back to Kolkatta with two Korean guys I met hiking, Hee Seung and Yeong hoon, amazing guys, great conversation and very kind for helping me with my Korean. We stayed in a guesthouse dominated by Asian travellers, it was a great international mix, I had a cool Christmas and met many great people.

After that I came to Puri in Orissa where I am now, it was manic for the first few days with accommodation hard to find and little of the usual touting you get in India's tourist areas, I spent my first night sleeping on the roof of a guesthouse, but that was OK. New Years came around and good times were had by all.


This just about brings me up to date, so I shall say my goodbyes, hopefully it won't be so long before I make another entry.

As Summer ends

OK, so the humidity is calming down and all of the signs of Autumn are coming, the Autumn flowers are out and the leaves are getting tired, I'm looking forward to trekking in the red and golden leaved hills before my time here comes to an end and the cold of Winter hits.

So just to let you know what has been happening here in recent weeks. I have been finding myself becoming increasingly comfortable, this means that I am being a little over indulgent at times and am conducting myself in ways different to usual, but a little discipline and thought will get me back on track for my adventures. I have less that three months left and this means that it's time to consider what it is that I will do after my Korean experience. Recently I have spent a lot of time in Hongdae park listening to live amateur music, which I have to say at times is some of the most interesting, entertaining music I have ever heard. Drinking seems central to Korean social culture, just as it is in Europe. I find the more I get used to speaking and understanding Korean the better my time is here, I have less of the inconveniences I had at first and I can actually make friends with people not relying entirely on their English ability.

Recently many of my days are spent just relaxing and talking with my friends, it is good to be in a place with many (fairly) like minded people, though as with every experience, especially when working on fixed one year contracts, people leave. An recently most of my first friends here are leaving, this makes sense seeing as they had been here for around three months when I arrived. It's an interesting time, but reflects my usual experiences as I am now getting very used to these emotions and I have to admit I am less affected than others. There seems to be a goodbye party every weekend, and it's making me very jealous, as this feeling of comfort which I am experiencing here inspires me to new adventures.

This weekend there was the weekend of a large Dance Music festival in Seoul (Gatecrasher) this festival would probably be the best option for a party, but the desire to save money for my future travels, and the desire to have more varied relaxed times, meant that I chose instead to go camping, so the dissenters from the usual crowd made our way to the beach near to Seoul. Immi, Simon, Eunyoung and I spent Saturday might on Muido (Mui Island). It was beautiful, the sand was perfect, the scenery amazing and the camping conditions perfect. We cooked food on the fire, listened to music and chatted about everything and anything. Simon and Immi have amazing plans for when they leave, involving living outside in New Zealand, I love hearing about future adventures, seeing the excitement in people's eyes and their idiosyncratic thoughts, it's amazing and possibly my favourite topic of conversation. I can safely say I will truly miss the people I have met here in Korea, and at the moment my thoughts are that as my life progresses, it is indeed heading in the right direction, that of me becoming increasingly more comfortable, educated and increasingly enjoying my existence.

I'll check in again soon no doubt, and hopefully I'll have more of an idea of what it is that I am going to do with myself, but I am firmly aware that plans always change, nothing should be set in stone and that any experience can be enjoyable in it's own individual way.

The new housemate

OK, so I have a new housemate, it is a kind of long term rabbit sitting task for my friend Immi.

Mr Noodles is a cool guy, he appreciates beer, cucumber and good music, I also have found that he is quite partial to watching Alan Partridge and Have I got News for you. We spend our time chilling out, he has a bit of confusion over language, I have found he understands English, Korean, as well as a few words in French and Dutch. Though where his knowledge of the latter two comes from I am not sure. Today we have been chilling out listening to music and studying, but he is a bit 날라리 (a lazy bad student) and can't focus on the books for long. Here are a few pictures so you can make your introductions, though I don't think he is very interested in travel, as I have found with many Korean inhabitants he is afraid of the outside world, of it's dangers, diseases, and cultural differences.

Daily life; procrastinating and enjoying my free time

OK, so since I arrived back from Thailand I have been attempting to spend my time in slightly different ways. I have been broadening my horizons and visiting some great places, as well as filling in some of the gaps in my experience here.

The weekend after arriving we spent a weekend messing about, through a combination of night times in the Park, Jim Chil Bangs and Baseball. The weekend was awesome and really chilled, though the going out on Sundays leaves Mondays very tiring indeed.

The weeks seem to follow the usual form, I mix my time doing marginal amounts of language study, writing and seeing friends, I have a good time with this, I have met many open minded, free thinking intelligent people here and that suits me down to the ground, not only do people intrigue me with their own stories and ideas but they are also great platforms for bouncing my own ideas off of, this might be a selfish motivation for social interaction, but it suits me fine. I find writing to be a strange kind of hobby, and I certainly understand the idea of writers block, it seems when I have ideas I can in no way write them down fast enough, and at other times I literally can't write my name. Korea is a truly energetic place, I find I can do many things without having to give myself the kick up the arse for enthusiasm which I do in other places, though my thoughts and behaviour are all over the place, so I think this is a time for pure experience, and on reflection I will be able to better articulate what and how I feel.

On Saturday I spent my morning at one of the Palace here, Gyeongbokung, it was beautiful and for the first time in a couple of months the humidity took a short break, making the tour a little less sweaty. I managed to take some cool pictures, and more importantly sit back and take a rest for reflection. The main issue with having a good social life and a job teaching language is that you get very little time to be silent and to spend time with your own thoughts. The palace is a great complex of small palace buildings which were home to the Joeson Kings of Korea, despite their relative grandeur to the rest of Korea, if considering these buildings by European standards, for a Royal complex this place is relatively humble, yet beautifully serene. I would say that they are a must see place when visiting the region, simply to relax and enjoy, before hitting the madness of modern Korean culture.

After the palace I went to the horse races, not really my thing, but it was amusing to see how gambling has these ridiculous Ora of seriousness all over the world.

Saturday night was again spent in the Park in Hongdae. It was chilled out and I spent most of my time with new people, namely a French guy named Olivier and a Korean Girl named Jo. It was good to spend time with randoms, and the place certainly had a chilled out bohemian vibe, the range of music and nationalities of people helps. With a mixture of random events, odd conversations and interesting people it was a successful night. It was also great to hear the adventures and thoughts of many new people. The night ended with a bit of time spent by the Han river which produces excellent views in the lights of dawn. I'm really not looking forward to the freezing temperatures of Winter.

And so it is back to work again after another weekend of adventures and debauchery. Keep it foolish...

Thailand

OK, so here's how it went. I finished work at 9.30 on the 28th of July, I flew at 8am on the 29th, arrived in Bangkok at 6pm, took the bus to the railway station, jumped on a night train, jumped on a morning bus, jumped on a morning boat, and finally arrived in Koh Pangan at 2pm. No sleep, aeroplane food, and many odd conversations after a day at work and I was on one of the world's premier party island, and I was knackered.

I contacted Eunyoung and James only to find that I had overtaken them, they were in Koh Tao. We met 5 hours later, I spent the time in between talking to some guys who have lived on the Island for years, they were married and seemed to live off of the backs of their Thai-wives hard work.

James and Eunyoung's arrival was great, was cool to see them and great to meet their new friend Louis from Belgium, he is a top guy.

The first day we went to the 'Half-moon' party, it was an experience but really not my thing, and to be honest the 40 hours without sleep did not help. Still it was a great night and involved much moving around the Island, I was pleasantly surprised by the Island's beauty and the abundance of space, the Party areas really were restricted to a few places, so you could get away.

The next day was fun filled and sorrow filled, we borrowed mopeds and headed around the island, this involved a lot of dodgy off road driving and lots of stops in great places. Not long after our stops we came into trouble, firstly with Louis and Eunyoung coming off in the sand, and shortly behind them James and I did the same, just hitting potholes and falling off, and few scratches on us, but more on the bike, safe to say this was an expensive day on motorbikes, still it was fun. Though I will never borrow a bike from uptight tossers again, it's India all the way for motorbike riding.

The rest of my holiday was great, it was very chilled and I did very litte, the Islands were beautiful, the weather hot, and the ocean warm, it was a vacation to remember, and luckily for me not too much of an adventure, because if it had been there is no way I would have come back, despite my affection for Korea.

The times were good, the people great and the weather fantastic.

Every day life

As much as I am a dedicated ESL Teacher, I do spend most of my time thinking about other things, I enjoy my times attempting to explain the idiosyncrasies of the English language, though this is harder than you think as I myself have to decipher them from my own limited linguistic knowledge. Most of time is spent thinking about the future, attempting to be creative and considering my plans for the weekend, I am still a little lost on why I spend time considering these because no matter what myself and my friends do, it always ends up being fun, and more often than not ends with a few quiet beers on a Sunday afternoon mulling over life and semi-coherent ideas on what is the best way to go about things.

I feel I am settling rather well into Korean life, I'm picking up language and making friends, though it seems impossible to lose the 'weird foreigner' label, maybe I am actually weird? I still have a few reservations with certain aspects of the culture, but this is no different when I stay in the UK, I have never understood the 'respect your elders' doctrine of behaviour, surely to respect everyone equally and infinitely (until they give you reason to disrespect them of course) is infinitely better for all parties. In Korea, this well practiced and institutionalised Confucian idea seems to be subject to much misrepresentation, it seems that some individuals use this cultural principle to simply treat others like dirt (those younger than them of course) and simply put it down to their right, founded on cultural principles. This confuses and infuriates me, it seems that there is no room for debate in a Confucian society, and that, in my opinion, can not be a beneficial thing. Maybe this is the cause of the odd fallacies which I have previously mention, of which, by the way, I have many more of, and I will indulge you with at a later date.

I am finding as I am growing happier, my creativity and ability for abstract thought is diminishing, maybe this is why all genius' are fairly insane, the sole cause of great thought is unhappiness and contempt for conventional happiness. I will investigate further and let you know what I think. My times here in Korea have undergone something of a re-invention, I'm trying to be more enthusiastic about life and it's small pleasures, so far it seems to be working, though I'm still waiting for the Epiphany or crash landing one usually endures when one lies to them self. Again I will fill you in at a later date.

At the moment I'm beginning to miss my family and friends from home, the time difference here is about as awkward as it can be, due to my working hours and home-people's routines. I'm not so much homesick as family-and-friend sick. I do often wonder what damaging thing I did to my own mind to contempt my home country so much, maybe it is Karmic guilt from past lives' bad actions.

Anyways for your viewing pleasure here are two pictures, one of me (and some friends in the sea), the other of me in a swim cap trying to seduce a male celebrity, yes I am aware I have mentioned this before, but this shot is from behind, adding more detail and perspective to the event.

Mud festival

So this weekend was based around the the 3 D's; dirt, drinking and monsoon rain.

I had a weekend to remember, quite wisely and in tune with my usual sound judgement I decided to go out drinking the night before my morning train to the mud festival, this involved beers and soju with two of my students Hyang Jin and Jacob, along with my co-teacher Maya. It was a funny evening but too drunken to be had before a full weekend of partying.

The Saturday kicked off with a train journey dominated my bad jokes and card games, it flew past and before we knew it we were at the festival a little drunk and very excited.

First we found a place to put up the tents, this was easier than I had first thought and the sunny weather made me think that maybe we were the smartest people in the world to simply turn up with tents. The festival consisted of mud wresting, around a million photos, dodgy music and fun times. We spent the majority of our time messing around and mud wrestling, until Hyewon got hurt, inevitable I guess when you have 100 drunken people jumping on each other is a 10 metre paddling pool. This warranted going to hospital whilst covered in mud. This was great as I got to go in an ambulance. Hyewon seemed OK though a little sore, and after a couple of hours waiting, dodgy looks and even stranger conversations, we were out of the hospital, with the all clear from x-ray results and in a taxi on our way back to the festival. By this point the rain and depleted interest in mud meant that things were winding down a little getting ready for the nights antics. We made our way to James' room for a shower and to hook up with the group. By this point we were all starving hungry and in need of a bit of a chill out.

We made our way out for some food, on the way we got wet from the rain, and I won a frog teddy from a stall where you have to knock down blocks with a baseball, I am too cool. I had a pizza, well some pizza, and then we made out way to the fair ground, after spinney rides, sick feelings, and about a tonne of rain we decided to go looking for a bar to shelter (and drink) in. We found one and literally took over, also seeing Dylan the Welsh guy, he seems to crop up everywhere. It was a funny night with Gareth doing his usual hilarious leading of the banter, he is a funny bugger I have to say. I had a cool time and a funny conversation with a group of Korean girls and some young American soldiers who had taken a shine to them but needed a translator. I did my best and it was very funny, it was nice to meet some soldiers who I actually liked, a very rare occasion.

Around 4:30 am as the bar shut we decided it a good idea to forget camping (good idea as Eunyoung's tent had 3 inches of water inside, mine was dry), we made our way to the Jjim chil bang, which was surprisingly quiet and not a jjim chil bang at all, just a shower room and a sleeping area, still it was good to get a couple of hours sleep.

The morning consisted of goodbyes and packing away tents in Gail force winds, but it was an adventure and Kurt was a champion for helping me out. We took the train home, felling blue, (and for Hyewon, sore).. In all good times.

We arrived back around 4 and had some food and coffee, this helped though I was almost too tired to talk or eat.

In all I had a great weekend.

At the moment I'm felling pretty positive about Korea, I'm having fun, I have great friends and all is going well. But we will see which way the wind blows.

Peace out..