.::* Living and Dreaming *::.

East Asia Tour

This is just a quick update on what has been happening over the last couple of weeks.

Nagoya, Japan - April 27 - May 3: Liz came to visit me for a few days to kickstart our tour of Asia. We went for dinner with my boss who also offered to drive us to Ontake San (an active Volcano) for a hike the next day. We went to the volcano and discovered that there was too much snow for us to be able to hike so we just went for a quick hike near the base and saw a couple of really pretty waterfalls. The cool thing about these waterfalls is that pilgrims come here to do some training which involves them sitting/standing under the pressure of the waterfall. We got lucky and ran into some people doing that. It was pretty interesting to see.

My boss also rented a cabin in the mountains so we stayed the night. After out hike we went to a hot spring. The next day on our way back to Nagoya, we stopped at a really small village. We saw a museum and walked along the main streets bustling with tourists and souvenir shops. Johny had a takoyaki party for us when we got back and that was fun.

The next day we went sightseeing: Nagoya Castle, The Robot Museum and downtown. We went on the ferris wheel attached to a building downtown and had a romantic picnic dinner next to a water fountain.

The last things to do were farewells and AIESEC NILC had a farewell party for me. It was really nice to see everyone. We made food and played a trivia quiz. Also, Miki made a farewell presentation for me and it was absolutely lovely. Afterwards, a few of us went to Izakaya and Liz and I decided to walk home afterwards which took an hour and a half.

My roommate Satoko took Liz and I to the aquarium and we saw the dolphin and killer whale show. Then we went to the Italian Village for a snack and kaiten sushi for dinner.

Packing was such a pain. I had too much stuff and ended up mailing 3 boxes home from Taiwan. It was cheaper there and I just couldn't lug my stuff with me all the way to Hong Kong. I think all of the AIESEC local showed up at the airport to see me off and that was amazing. I never expected so many people to be there and it was weird to say goodbye. Hopefully I will get to go back at the end of August for a day or two to see everyone again.

Taipei, Taiwan - May 3-7: Henry came to the airport to pick Liz and I up. We went straight to Taipei to meet up with Abner and Brenda and dropped off our luggage at Abner's place for a couple of hours. We all went to Roehe Street Night Market and there we had some street food. We tried a mild version of stinky tofu which wasn't too bad and this slimy oyster pancake which I didn't like too much. We also had shaved ice servced with mango, strawberries and kiwi and topped with a lot of condensed milk. Very sweet and satisfying. Then we went to Henry's place to stay the night there.

Aside from eating a lot of food in Taipei, we did a bit of sightseeing. We saw the National Palace Museum and garden which were packed with Japanese and Chinese tourists. Aiya, and we thought we had left them behind in Japan. We also saw Chang Kai SHek Memorial, the President's Office building and Sun Yat Sen Memorial. One night we went to a small village called Jioufun on the mountain side and spent some time at a teahouse. It was a nice view but what got most of our attention were the ants on our table drinking from the droplets of sweet tea and they were carrying off some of our dried cuttlefish crumbs.

Liz got frustrated with the city and I got a little bit bored so Henry took us hiking to get away from it all. We went to Yuanshan and hiked Mt. Cising. We got to see the milk pond which really looks quite milky from the sediments. Also along the way was a nice waterfall except that it was fenced away. It was good to do something else. I was really out of shape though but I guess this is my warm up for the rest of Asia.

And on a final note, we watched the movie called "Curse of the Golden Flower". It's kind of weird, a little too Hollywood and along the lines of "House of Flying Daggers". For me, I think I would have liked to waste my time watching something else.

Seoul, Korea - May 7-10: Liz and I arrived in Seoul kind of late. We hopped on a bus and went straight to our hostel, Seoul Backpackers. It's a cute place and as far as hostels go, it's relatively clean. Hanmin met us at the hostel and took us out for a drink and Korean pizza/panacke. It was really nice of him to wait up for us and make sure that we got to our hostel safely.

In Korea, we had to go to the Vietnam Embassy so that Liz could get her visa for Vietnam. Also, we got to try on Hanbok dresses at the tourist centre and we saw Changdeokgung Palace and Secret Garden and the Gyeongbokgung Palace (we got to try on some armor costumes too). Hanmin gave us a tour of 1/4 of the Korea University campus and now Liz is convinced that she wants to do an academic exchange here when she starts her masters. It really is amazing.

Seoul is really amazing too. It's so spacious here and it seems really peaceful. It's definately really beautiful. Hanmin also met up with us every night and took us around so we have been spoiled so far on our trip. Not only that but we got Hanmin to give Liz and I Korean names. I'm Su-jin and Liz is Hee-jin. I forgot what they mean but I'm sure they're something good.

Now a Liz moment. At the airport when we were trying to find our bus to go to the hostel, some guy came up to us trying to get us to follow him. Liz immediately assumes he's a cab driver and refused to follow him. Then we found out he was trying to tell us where the lineup for the bus was, which was on the other side of a pillar. At this point, the man says to us, "you make me so angry" and waves his hand in a circular motion beside his head. I think that's universal for, you're dumb.

Hong Kong, China - May 10-14: We decided on a stop in Hong Kong to get ready for the real backpacking adventure in South Asia. It was really nice because we got to see people we knew again. Also, Liz and I got our hair permed and I'm really glad we did because it's so easy to take care of now. Less maintenance AND we look good.

We did a bit of shopping for things we needed on our trip, went to Jean Philippe's farewell dinner, made our own sushi dinner, went to Tribecca for some dancing and we also managed to squeeze in a super easy hike to Lung Ke beach. The beach was really nice and secluded. I think it might be my first ocean beach too! First of many...

posted by ~diana~ @ 8:15 PM