Hualien and Toroko Gorge

Last weekend was my final full weekend in Taiwan before I head out to China and Thailand so I decided to visit another part of the country. I headed down to Hualien on the east coast of the country and spent some time there and in Toroko Gorge. Hualien was a cool laid back town with more Beatle Nut shops per square mile than I have seen anywhere else in Taiwan.

Toroko Gorge was the highlight of the trip. It's about a 40 minute bus ride from Hualien and then the Gorge has a number of places to explore. It's a great place for hiking, to see nature, get some fresh air and get to get away from all the hustle of the city.

Danger in Taiwan!?!?!

I have to admit, for the most part Taiwan is safe but there are some dangers to be mindful of...and no, armed robbery is not one of them. This is one of the safest places I have ever been in my life. I think I could leave my wallet sitting on the ground in the middle of a busy market and come back in an hour and either find it sitting in the same place or find out that someone has picked it up and is frantically looking for the owner. With that said there are some dangers worth noting.

Before I arrived I was warned that there were a lot of mosquitos in Taiwan but I had no idea how serious I should have taken that warning. I expect to see mosquitos in the summer time and I expect to be bitten a few times if I stay outside for a long period of time without wearing mosquito repellant. First of all, mosquito repellant doesn't work on these mosquitos. They drink Off! for breakfast. Secondly, not only do you have to worry about being bitten by a mosquito outside but you're not even safe inside. They are everywhere. In the apartment I am staying in I find mosquitos in every room, including my bedroom. Even places like restaurants and coffee shops aren't safe. I can't tell you how many times I have been lit up by mosquito bites while studying at a coffee shop...and yes, I was inside.

Next on the danger watch list are the scooters. I find that in many countries scooters are the preferred transportation. They are cheap, take up little space and can be parked almost anywhere. Because they are so small they can also be riden almost anywhere, including the sidewalk. Watch your back because some of these people will fly full speed down the sidewalk and dare you to get in their way.

The next danger hasn't resulted in anything too bad recently but it has in the past and could in the future. This danger is the earthquakes. I have only been in Taiwan about four months and I have felt at least 5 earthquakes. Now, these weren't massive 8.0 quakes. They were more in the 4.0-5.5 range but they happen so often that I feel on edge like very soon the big one is going to hit. A 5.0 earthquake will not destroy a building but whenever the ground is moving under your feet, that event doesn't produce a feeling of security and it will make you spill hot coffee on yourself so watch out.

Warning! For the most part people in Taiwan are very friendly but make no mistake, the Grandmas have sharp elbows and they will elbow you to death. On many occasions I have had an older lady elbow me in the ribs in order to move me out of her way. This is usually not followed by an "excuse me" but rather a look of scorn, which says "how dare you be in my way". Hide your wife, hide your kids!

There seems to also be some sort of unknown plaque rolling through the country as everywhere you go you see people wearing surgical masks. This is so prevalent that fashion designers have created their own lines of surgical masks for the ultra trendy yet still cautious. Most people just have a basic reusable mask that they keep with them but I am always amused when I come across the woman with the Chanel handbag and Chanel surgical mask to match. Anything less would be uncivilized.

The last danger is the danger of playing chicken. I'm not sure why this is but I feel like the way people drive on the roads, or the sidewalk for that matter, walk down the street, gather into lines and really any interaction, which requires one person to yield to another in order to avoid a collision, always turns into a game of chicken. If you're walking down the side walk people will walk toward each other until the very last second and then someone will move just enough to avoid a collision. Many times people will walk in front of you or pass you so closely that they almost (and on occasion do) knock you over. People will try to squeeze through the smallest gaps in a crowd or line to get around someone else. If your standing in a line waiting for the train and there is any space in between you and the person in front of you in line or you are at the edge of the train platform, rest assured that someone is going to jump in front of you and fill that gap. This is the case in any line. People will see you standing in line waiting to order food and will just step right in front of you or if they see you walking toward a line that they also want to get into will sprint full speed to beat you to the line. I guest I could look at it in a more glass half full way and see this as a more efficient use of space. Why let a perfectly good gap go to waste, right?

What's worse is that many people drive the same way that they walk, which makes for some very close encounters for pedestrians and other drivers. I have witnessed my fair share of scooter accidents but I'm actually surprised there aren't more. To put things into perspective, the close calls aren't nearly as bad as what I've seen in India or Indonesia but it's still something you should be very aware of. Watch your back...and your front and side.

A week in Seoul, South Korea

I had a break from school for a few days so I decided to take a trip to South Korea. This was also right before North Korea vowed to preemptively strike the United States with a nuclear weapon. Although the western media was all over this issue, no one in South Korea seemed to be the least bit concerned so I didn't let this issue stop me from going.

I took off from Taipei and landed in Seoul 2.5 hours later. The metro in Seoul was a bit more complicated than the metro in Taipei but I figured it out and made it from the airport to the Grape Garden House where I would be staying for the next week. This place was run by some great people but definitely had some interesting characters staying there. The first one I met was a guy from Finland who had a Mohawk and introduced himself as Lunatic. He later went on a rant about how he was going to throw Molotov Cocktails through the window because the owner told him not to turn off the lights in the living room at night. I think the nickname was appropriate.

While venturing around the Hongdae area where I was staying I came across a number restaurants that had murals of various artists and historical figures. Two of the most common figures were Michael Jackson and Hitler. Why those two you might ask. I asked the same thing but have no idea. Among other things, one thing that I liked about Seoul over Taipei is that everything stays open very late. Many places seem to never close. My first night there people were just starting to go out to the bars and clubs at 1:30am and it was a Tuesday night. In Taipei, it is a ghost town at 12am unless you're inside one of the clubs on a Wednesday night (ladies night) or on the weekend.

The first few days were spent visiting many of the historical sites and trying to learn what there was to do in Seoul. With the help of a friend I was able to get a sim card for my phone so I could use Google maps and I guess make an emergency phone call if I needed to. Seoul, like I expected, was much colder than Taipei so I was glad that I brought some cold weather cloths with me even though I haven't had much opportunity to wear them in Taiwan. The city is pretty easy to get around, clean and the people didn't seem to be as willing to hit you with an elbow in order to get in front of you in line as they are in Taipei. Also, you can cross the street in the crosswalk without worrying that a car or scooter will run you over like you have to worry about in Taipei.  

The areas that I spent the most time in were Myeongdong, Hongdae, and around city hall. It is a fun city that is very developed and has a lot to do. Good food is easy to find, the people are nice and you can get by with some basic korean phrases or even the point and grunt method of communication. Not as many people speak English as I expected but that gave me the opportunity to learn some korean phrases. Most of the time I pronounced the phrases so poorly that I had to pull out my phone and use my Korean Phrases app and my Learn Korean app. Both have a list of words and phrases categorized by situation and you can click on the word or phrase to hear it spoken. I often found myself turning the volume up on my phone and pressing play, :-P.

Of course I had to check out a number of Korean BBQ places and kill multiple bottles of soju. The place above was recommended by a friend and was really good. I have to say, even though many people told me that all the Korean BBQ places are about the same, I would have to disagree. I went to some crappy BBQ places that I would never go back to and some great places that I want to move into.

I haven't experienced this in Korean BBQ places in the States but in Seoul most places will give you a plastic bag to place your coat into so it doesn't absorb the BBQ smell. That's all well and good but since the rest of your cloths will absorbed it, I don't know that saving your coat is doing much good.

Aside from the awesome BBQ to be found, I as enjoyed the food at Myeongdong Gyoja. This place is in the center of the Myeongdong shopping district and is much smaller than I expected. I went with a guy that I met at my hostel who is from Japan but is in Korea studying Korean. His English was very limited and my Japanese and Korea were non-existant but we both understood good food. Also, he could order the food with much more human like qualities than I could given the fact that he had been studying Korean for few years, so I let him work his magic.

I checked out the Korean War Memorial and went to a few museums about the war. It is pretty amazing to see how far South Korea has come in the 50 years or so since the war. I went to a few night markets but they weren't much different from the ones in Taiwan so I just grabbed some food and bounced.

I think riding the metro and bus in a city is always an interesting experience. I still remember all the people who would get on the trains in Mexico City with modified backpacks, which had a stereo system or dvd monitor in them and these people would play music or a movie from the backpack and try to get everyone to buy a copy. This wasn't on one or two trains but on every train. In Seoul I didn't see any modified backpacks but they have the same hustler spirit. People are constantly trying to sell you things but most of them are pretty polite about it if you tell them that you aren't interested. There are few things more annoying than a pushy salesperson. Although most rides on the metro were uneventful, I did have two occasions of entertainment. The first was when I entered the station and noticed a man lying on the floor talking on his cell phone. At first I couldn't tell if he was injured and needed help or not. An attendant from the metro station came over to help the man only to realize that he was not injured but rather just too drunk to stand up. After this realization the attendant's compassion disappeared and he stood the guy up and pushed him onto the next train. I don't know how that guy will get off the train but I guess the attendant figured now it's someone else's problem.

The next entertaining bit came when I was on the train and a different drunk guy got onto the train carrying two large, empty jugs of water. The man had a portable radio with him that he was blasting music from at full volume. One of the other patrons on the train started talking to the drunk man. Although this was all in Korean, based on the situation it appeared that the other patron asked the drunk guy to turn his radio down. The drunk guy responded with "go f$%k yourself". They got into an argument to the point that I thought they were going to throw down right there on the train. Finally the drunk guy stood up and tried to pick up his water bottle. He was so drunk that he was unable to pick it up so he punted one of the jugs across the train car into a group of women standing on the other end of the train car. He sat back down for a bit and then he finally reached his stop. Before leaving he stood up, looked around, and yelled what I can only assume was the Korean equivalent to "f#@k all you'll" and bounced.















While I was in Seoul I knew I had to take a trip to the DMZ so I booked a tour for my last day in the city. When I was booking the tour every review I read said that the Joint Security Area at Panmunjon was the highlight of the tour. Unfortunately, I didn't know that those tours fill up fast and have to be booked five days in advance. All in all the tour was still interesting. Photography wasn't allowed in most places so I don't have many pictures but I was able to see one of the tunnels North Korea dug underneath South Korea to prepare for an invasion, a museum about the war and was able to see parts of North Korea from the train station that leads to Pyonyang. Interesting experience.

Outside of the Grape Garden House in Hongdae.

Myeongdong shopping district.

Itaewon

Near city hall.

Markets

Korean war memorial.