Home sweet home

After slightly more than nine months, I find myself at home again. Seems just like a summer break, where I get to be at home for three months. So the deal is I'll be working from home, "on the beach" for the same client I was in Korea for. I'm not sure how good my productivity will be, but it will be nice to be at home for a bit. I wasn't too thrilled about not knowing exactly where I was going after the project, but all that's settled now, and it all worked out for the best too. I didn't want to spend two months hanging around doing nothing, although to be honest, the idea took very little time to grow on me. But the current deal is a good compromise. I told my boss that I might go to the Maldives with my dad, and he said "you can go wherever you want, as long as you don't tell me about it". Haha... doubt I'll actually go, though, but it's nice to have the flexibility to work from wherever I please. My brother's coming back from Shanghai next weekend, and he's staying for a week. It'll be the first time in years that the whole family is together, so that's pretty exciting. Going to go to Penang, I think. Family, sandy beaches and delicious food - what more could a girl ask for?

Meanwhile, I still haven't heard about my H1 visa. I'm starting to think about what offices I'd like to be transferred to. It's the easy way out, of course, to go back to New York, where I already have a base, where I have lots of friends, where I'm comfortable. But at the same time, I'd like to be closer to home, and just about anywhere else fits that requirement. I'm thinking London (yay Pegs!), maybe Sydney, with Singapore as a distant third. Don't know if I'm quite ready to come home just yet, although it would be nice to put down some roots. The thought of starting fresh somewhere alien is somewhat daunting, though. Anyway, it's a little too early to count my chickens just yet.

I had a two hour nap this afternoon. Sigh... it's lovely to be home, where I'm always welcome with open arms :)

Wulai hotsprings and waterfall

On a beautiful Sunday morning in Taipei, my teammates and I hopped into a cab for the hour-long drive to Wulai, one of the many hot springs locations around Taipei. Wulai has the added attraction of being in the mountains, so the air is a little fresher and there are plenty of trees around. The best thing about the area is the waterfall. It's been a while since I've been this close to nature, and it was particularly relaxing to get out of the city for a bit. I wish I could've gone for a dip in the river, though.

Trees! Nature!

The presence of a cross on the top of the mountain was a little surprising

The cab could only take us to the foot of the mountain as the town is closed to traffic, so we took a tiny train took us the rest of the way up the mountain.


My teammates Peter (L) and John could barely fit into the train! :p

The top of the mountain was a little disappointing, though. There's a resort up there that looks like it was built 20 years ago and never maintained since. It has an amusement park and an empty pool and a few run-down looking chalets. We were hungry but the only things on the menu were unidentified pieces of meat that didn't look particularly appetizing. We were looking forward to a soak in the hot springs, but we had imagined a European-style outdoor natural-looking pool instead of tiny buildings filled with what looked like big bathtubs that were mostly for private use. Definitely not suited for 3 colleagues.

Oh well. Maybe I can go to a spa sometime. Sans the two male colleagues.

Sign language

I doubt I'd want to swim in poo, even if it was in the forest

Does it rain dirt up here?

Enough said...

Reflections

It's my last weekend in Seoul and I can't help but think back to my last weekend in New York. Of course I didn't know it was my last weekend at the time. It was the weekend of my birthday and I spent a lovely Sunday in Metuchen with my college roommates. The following Friday night found me appreciating the majestic skyline of New York from a rooftop party in Roosevelt Island with one of my best friends, followed by brunch in a cherry blossom-filled restaurant with my roommates and tea back at my place. By the time I left, I was itching to go, itching to spend some time in Asia again and at home. But now, five weeks later, I'm missing my friends and I'm missing the tiny apartment that I used to call home.


From the outside, it might appear to be a glamorous lifestyle - the luxurious hotel rooms, the exotic cities, the expense account. But it's also a lonely lifestyle, coming back to an empty, impersonal hotel room after a long day in the office. My heart aches, sometimes, with the loneliness. I miss you guys. I miss having roots. I want to have a closet again, not just live out of a suitcase.

The good news is I'm being sent to the Singapore office where I'll be on the beach for the next month or so. I'm looking forward to some downtime and weekends at home. :)

350 Challenge!

My college roommate is one of the most admirable people I know - he actually works to save the environment, not just gives it lip service like most of us, including me, do. Sure I do my bit for the environment whenever and wherever I can, but this guy is actually working for a company whose main goal is to offset carbon emissions. How cool is that? For the rest of us who are not quite as altruistic as he is, get the Brighter Planet Credit/Debit card from Bank of America - your credit card points will go towards funding carbon offset projects like wind power farms. Also, to all you bloggers out there: get the Brighter Planet 350 Challenge badge for your blog and help to offset 122,500 lbs of CO2 - the equivalent of turning off 35,000 lightbulbs for a day!

Sights in Taipei

One of the must-dos in Taipei is the night market, particularly the Shilin Night Market and perhaps the HuaXi Night Market, a.k.a. Snake Alley. My team and I went to Shilin the second night we were in Taipei. It was exactly as I expected - just like Chinatown at home, but twice as large. There were food stalls scattered amidst the shops selling everything from cheongsams to dildos. People were thronging the streets, and the clamor of hawkers selling their wares filled the sky. I was tempted to try Taipei's famous oyster omelets but we'd just come from a delicious dinner of Peking duck. Besides, when we first stepped out of the cab, we caught a big whiff of stinky tofu from the night market, which completely turned my colleagues' stomachs, so any more food that night would've been pushing it for them.

Snake Alley was a little more staid, with only a few people scattered around instead of the huge throng in Shilin, but that was probably because I went during the day instead of at night when it's at it's peak. It was very different from Shilin in that it sold mostly food. A section of the market had a bunch of foot reflexology/massage shops and two dildo shops. What is it with the Taiwanese and their dildos?? With my rudimentary grasp of traditional Chinese characters, I managed to get a delicious bowl of oyster noodles. Omelets are only sold at night, apparently, so no oyster omelet for me :(

My oyster noodles :) YUM!

A funny dog I saw - can't decide whether it's adorable or pitiful

After my lunch, I made my way to XiMenDing, Taipei's major shopping district. It was then that I understood why Snake Alley was so empty - everyone was out shopping! The area was packed with young people strolling through streets that were closed to cars for the weekend. The hustle and bustle with the incredible variety of stores made it a shopper's paradise. Upscale international shops mixed with local boutiques lined the streets, which branched out in three directions. Little alleyways were home to some food stalls and more clothes stalls. These were my favourite, because this is where bargaining can be done! However, in conversations with the client, I found out that it used to be the case that these stalls charged ridiculous prices with the expectation that bargaining would bring the price down by 30-50%. Nowadays, they tend to charge more reasonable prices so there is less bargaining. That made me feel better about not trying to bring the price of the blouse and skirt I bought down further than I did. :)

One of the weird things I saw in XiMenDing - the Taiwanese apparently have this thing for costumes. And big-headed mice.

Bustling XiMenDing, complete with McDs

My final stop for the day was the Chiang Kai Shek memorial. The Gate of Centrality and Perfect Uprightness stands at the front of the memorial. The impressive 30m-high, five-arched gate, topped with blue tiles does a great job of preparing one for the size of the memorial. From the gate, I entered a huge plaza, flanked by the National Theater and the National Concert Hall. At the top of the National Theater steps, a group of teenagers were energetically practicing some dance to blaring hip-hop, which provided an interesting contrast to the austere surroundings. The plaza then narrows to the Boulevard of Homage, which leads to the monument itself. The marble memorial, topped with a roof of shiny blue tiles, is built on a mind-boggling scale. The architectural concept is similar to the Lincoln memorial in that a huge flight of stairs brings you up to the top of the memorial where a giant statue of Geneneral Chiang is housed. However, I think Chiang's statue easily dwarfs Lincoln's. The Chinese like to do things on a large scale. In the bowels of the memorial is a museum filled with Chiang's artifacts, most famous of which are two bullet-proof, all-black limousines.

Gate of Centrality and Perfect Uprightness - what a name!

Teens dancing on the steps

Chiang Kai Shek Memorial - in preparation for Buddha's Birthday the next day

The enormous Chiang Kai Shek statue

Black limo!

On my way out, I stop by what I thought was a tomb, but turned out to be a water cachement area. Pretty neat.

The water cachement area I thought was a tomb

Actually, come to think of it, I've felt like an idiot too many times in Taiwan - especially since I've had to call the reception at both hotels because I couldn't figure out how to turn off the lights!!

Latest in Msian news...

Latest Malaysian headlines on BBC news:

May 8, 2008
Malaysian woman can leave Islam
A Buddhist woman who converted to Islam upon marriage to an Iranian Muslim was allowed to convert back to Buddhism after divorcing the man. Penang's Sharia court allowed this because she "had not received proper counseling during her conversion." However, "in many countries converts are treated just like those who are born into Islam - and are prohibited from changing their faith" so the local religious council may appeal against the ruling.

The question is, why should anyone be prohibited from changing religions?

May 4, 2008
Malaysia plans women travel curb
The government is proposing restrictions on women traveling abroad on their own, requiring them to obtain written consent from their families or employers.

WHAT?

April 27, 2008
Chelsea visit sparks Malaysia row
Malaysian Muslim groups are protesting English football club, Chelsea's visit to Malaysia because the coach and a player are Israeli and this will offend Malaysia's pro-Palestinian stance. The pre-season match is considered "insensitive" to the Palestinian people so Malaysians should boycott the match. A protest will be held outside the stadium.

What is wrong with my country???

Long Shan Temple

I'm in Taipei, Taiwan for the weekend. Temples are one of the main attractions of the city and the Long Shan (Dragon Mountain) temple is one of the must-sees. It's one of the oldest temples in the city, which is impressive considering the number of disasters it's survived in it's 260+ year history. Earthquakes, typhoons, even an Allied bomb in WWII has hit the temple, but they just keep rebuilding this place, and maybe each time they do it just keeps getting better, because this temple is pretty awesome.

The coolest thing about it are these dragons that are carved on the twelve main pillars of the temple.
There are also dragons on the roof to protect the temple. Doesn't seem like they're doing a very good job, though...


The main hall of the temple is ornate and filled with gold leaf.

This joss-stick urn is adorable! I love the little fat men holding up the lid. Didn't like the incense so much, though. Temples always make me feel like I'm going to walk out with lung cancer.

The quantity of offerings on this table shows how popular this temple is. I've never seen so many offerings in one place before. Not sure how appetizing I'd find this stuff though, especially if I were a god...
These little flower arrangements are available for sale outside the temple as an offering to the gods. The sickly sweet scent of their perfume provides a good counter-note to the incense. They remind me of Indian temples, though. Perhaps it isn't surprising considering that Buddhism and Hinduism have the same origins.

One curious thing I saw at the temple were all these people throwing little red, crescent-shaped blocks of wood on the ground. I think it's got something to do with divination of the future or immortal answers to one's questions, but I wonder how you're supposed to read these random patterns. Faith is a curious thing.

The importance of doing laundry...

... should never be underestimated. All these years, laundry has been such a simple thing for me. When I'm at home in Malaysia, all I have to do is put it in the laundry basket and it will appear in my cupboard, washed, folded and perfectly ironed where necessary. When I was at school, the laundry room was always just a flight of stairs away. In New York, things were a little harder because I had to walk three blocks to get my laundry done and making sure I had enough quarters was always a pain. But now that I'm in Seoul... doing my laundry is elevated to a whole new level of complicated.

The first thing my team and I had to do was find a laundromat because washing one shirt costs about $12 or something ridiculous like that in the hotel. Questioning the staff at the reception was particularly unhelpful. Staying at the Park Hyatt is great, but the staff just automatically assume that one is used to a certain level of luxury so anything you ask them to recommend will always be top quality and hence top dollar. In the case of laundry, no one at the reception could think of a laundromat that wasn't only "for locals", whatever that means. The staff at the entrance foyer pointed us to a laundromat that was about five blocks from the hotel, but the language barrier presented another problem. In the end, we had the hotel staff call the laundromat before we went and the laundry guy had to call the hotel when we got there in order to figure out what we wanted.


A day later, I have my laundry all washed and clean smelling. They even ironed my gym shirt! And everything is now in plastic bags. I had to walk back to the hotel with my computer on one shoulder, and two handfuls of shirts on hangers. What a pain! And it cost the three of us $147 to get two weeks' worth of laundry done. But the worst thing is, I have to leave for Taiwan in two days, so all those beautifully ironed shirts will have to be folded and stuffed into my luggage, and then I will have to unpack and iron them again. Sigh... if only I were at home again and I didn't have to worry about laundry.

Foodie-fun-time

My teammates are great, but they're not very adventurous when it comes to food, and I'm afraid they've already vaulted over their tolerance level for kimchi in the first week. Nowadays, we eat mostly western food, or "safe" asian food like sushi as a team. Kimchi is permanently on the veto list. :(

Luckily for me, when my brother was in town, we ate Korean food to our heart's content. In fact, I think I might be getting pretty close to my tolerance level for Kimchi myself. Well, at least for the next few days anyway ;).

We had Bulgogi for dinner one night. This was what our table looked like - and this is before we even ordered! There's a tub of glowing hot charcoal in the middle of the table, which the grill is placed over, and surrounding it are little bowls of kimchi. That was an excellent meal, but when we stepped out of the restaurant, we realized that there was a seafood bulgogi place next door! Sigh, if only we'd gone just a few more steps down the road...

Mussels and what looks like snails at Hyehwa

Saturday breakfast was a little room service pampering - eggs with sausages, bacon and grilled mushrooms, served with a bakery basket. This is meant for one, but the two of us couldn't finish it! And no, this meal did not have kimchi in it.

After breakfast, we headed to the Noryangjin fish market. I was expecting a lot of fish, but I didn't expect this: stalls as far as the eye can see, all selling roughly the same product: fish, octopus, shellfish, crabs, prawns, even worms!

The sprawling Noryangjin fish market

worms

Unidentified finless objects

A sample of their wares

Crabs!!

The thing to do in Korea is to eat a live baby octopus. My brother and I didn't dare to. My dad's horror stories about wrestling with the octopus as it clings to the plate for dear life and then feeling it wiggling down your throat towards your tummy put us off the idea. However, there were lots of octopii for sale at the market, including these super-long tentacles.

Some sort of stingray

Some sort of shellfish that we tried. It was a little chewy, not as sweet as conch, but good nonetheless.

Sea urchins - delicious! But don't eat the brown stuff.

We had a light lunch there of grilled prawns and raw sea urchins and some sort of shellfish. I'm afraid we got a little fleeced - $15 to buy the seafood from the market and another $8 to get them cooked (or in the case of the urchins and the shellfish, to cut them in half or slice them up). It was the most expensive meal we had, but at least it was good.

On Saturday night, after finally discovering the Daehangno area, one of the first restaurants we saw was a tiny noodle place with a line around the block. We figured that had to mean it was good. Half an hour later, we had one steaming bowl of kimchi noodles (delicious!), one ice cold (literally) bowl of kimchi noodles (not so delicious), som sort of boiled dough sticks (kinda gross), and some fried dumplings stuffed with some meat and vermicelli (excellent). All for about $12. Gotta love Korean food :)

I do like kimchi a lot, but I also think I'm ready for a little break from it. Luckily my teammates won't go near the stuff anymore, so I think I'll be safe until I get my next kimchi craving!

Korean nightlife PC style

My brother came to visit me for the long weekend since he had Thursday and Friday off for Labor day. Unfortunately, even though it was a public holiday here on Thursday, I still had to work so I didn't get to spend as much time with him as I wanted to. But we did have lots of fun exploring the city together.

On Thursday night, we went to Myeongdong, a hip, hot and happening area in downtown Seoul that's filled with bright lights, restaurants, bars, shops, and hawkers peddling their wares from makeshift stalls. The mostly pedestrian-only streets were thronged with people, and there was an electric buzz of excitement in the air.

Unfortunately, I don't think Gandalf shared my point of view. He seemed to be quite disapproving of the young crowd.

Friday night was spent in another part of town, where lots of university students hang out. We'd read about this area, Daehangno, in the guidebook, but the cab driver must have misunderstood us, because we ended up in a totally different area. Nevertheless, the area was just as lively and packed as Myeongdong, and to be honest, we didn't even know we weren't at Daehangno until we entered a subway station and discovered exactly where we were. If you're looking for fun and excitement in Seoul, visit the area around the Hyehwa subway station on the blue line. I have no idea what it's called, but the place looks like a "western town" for Koreans, sort of like what Chinatown is like for Westerners, or Asian fusion, but heavy on the Asian.

On Saturday night, we finally ended up in Daehangno, after getting lost and wandering in the general, educated guess direction of our destination for about an hour. We were just about to give up, but luckily we didn't, because we eventually found it, and it was just as great as Myeongdong and Hyehwa. Lots of people, bars, restaurants and clubs everywhere, and a kind of bustling excitement that I've never experienced in New York.

All the elements of a successful nightclub...

Seoul is an awesome city. There's so much to do and see here that it's mindblowing. There's the cultural and historical aspect of the city, there's all the stuff that you would find in any other major city, there's nature that's so close that you see hikers kitted out in all their gear on the subway, and then there are so many trendy hangout places that I'm spoilt for choice. I've never known any other city like it. I suppose that in a city with about forty universities, there's gotta be lots of cool places to hang out.