Category: Travel

I woke up naturally about 15 minutes before my alarm was set to go off, and I used that time to drink a bit of coffee and hit my daily Duolingo quota, which incidentally finished the Korean course, every lesson completely maxed out. So, I suppose there is a question of how to keep my 450 day Duolingo streak going now that I am “done” with Korean.

It was cold outside and windy. I was glad I decided to throw on a sweater at the last minute. I got off the public bus at the World Cup Stadium eMart and did not see the scheduled shuttle bus to the venue. As I was about to do a loop around to see if it was waiting off the main road, I saw it come barreling down the highway. We didn’t wait around long before taking off. It was nearly an hour to the Hallim Sports venue and as I got off the bus it seemed even colder than before, if that was possible. The swarms of student volunteers were in a panic as no one seemed to have predicted such unseasonably cold weather. I sheltered in a gymnasium for a moment before deciding to bite the bullet and grab my kit from the information table.

As I still had more than an hour to the beginning of the race I headed over to a convenience store to rustle up some breakfast. It was a smaller store so there were slim pickings, but I made due with a sugar boost and a hot coffee. I returned to the stadium to use the restroom, put on the free T-shirt as an extra layer, and throw my ticket in to the lucky draw. The sun was fully out, but it wasn’t enough to make up for the gusts of arctic wind. I was truly impressed by the number of runners committed to shorts and t-shirts as their running gear. A military marching band played the national anthem, and speeches were made with a full camera crew in operation (as a broadcasting station sponsored race, I wouldn’t expect less), and eventually the race began.

It was good. I probably made a fool of myself at times singing along to the chorus of various songs. The coastline course was amazing, the air was super clean, the sea sparkled in the sunlight as waves crashed upon black volcanic rock in a burst of spray. The route was mainly closed off to traffic with teams of volunteers controlling traffic at every intersection. I think I reached the runner’s high within the first 2km and despite some minor pain in some tendons never hit the wall.

Upon completing the race, I noticed that my running tracker on my phone quit a few minutes early, meaning I wouldn’t get “credit” for a half marathon, unless I wanted to run a couple extra laps around the track. Oh well. After rehydrating a bit and mulling around enjoying the glow of a successful run, I was back on the shuttle bus to return to the World Cup Stadium. I popped into the eMart to grab a salad, and while waiting in long lines for the Sunday family grocery shopping, the people in front of me let me slip through first.

I popped on the Airport bus (per navigation directions) to return to town, surprising the driver, but after assuring him I knew where I was going, I was on my way back. I went directly to another restaurant recommended by the hotel staff to nourish myself on some sort of seaweed stew, a local specialty of Jeju Island. The walls of the restaurant were decorated with handwritten notes from guests from around the world, so I guess I wasn’t exactly discovering a hidden treasure.

Back in the hotel, I threw some jeans on over my exercise shorts and prepared to head to the other side of the island, but got caught in a conversation with a Danish woman who had spent a few weeks on Jeju just walking all the trails. She was planning to travel until the summer of 2020. Another person in a handful of days in the middle of a long trip. I don’t think I am being ambitious enough. I recommended that she try the ferry to China.

It was a long, but easy ride to the airport adjacent guesthouse where I would spend my last night. It was a private apartment converted to a guesthouse with at least of the six floors involved. The proprietor had earned a bachelor’s at Peking University in the 90s so we chatted in Chinese, and her father, who was around helping out took a liking to me after she told him I had done the half marathon. Despite being in his 70s, he still regularly runs marathons, though missed the signup cutoff for this one. I finally got a chance to shower, and spread my stuff out in the male dorm that I would have all to myself that night.

I headed out into the gentle afternoon to grab a coffee and sit still for a while. I was glad that I chose to stay an extra night and not try to bring all my stuff to the venue and then directly go to the ferry, but it was still stressful running around all day. Though only a couple of blocks away from the main “downtown” strip of Jeju City, the “Yongmun” neighborhood was like its own small town out in the boonies, so I ended up walking almost all the way back to the main strip to find a coffee shop. I got caught up in some phone calls that kept me in the coffee shop until nearly 7 when I was both hungry and desperately needed to pee. The shop didn’t have its own restroom and I trudged back to the neighborhood in the now blistering cold.

There were a cluster of chicken shops at the intersection near the guesthouse and I had my heart set on some celebratory chicken and beer. I placed an order for chicken, then went over to a supermarket to pick up a big bottle of beer, and at nearly eight I was back in the guesthouse sitting down to eat a real feast. Not only did I have a salad, but a whole fried chicken served with fried potatoes. I did my best, but couldn’t eat it all. I watched a couple episodes of “Curb Your Enthusiasm” while eating, and passed out by 10.

The alcohol woke me back up at 2 am, and I had trouble getting back to sleep.

Running Total: 17410 RMB (USD 2593.75)
Daily Average: 276.3 RMB (USD 41.17)

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Tramping in #Jeju, Day 3: #Hallasan #한라산 Up Seongpanak, Down Gwaneusa. 1200 meter elevation gain. 7.5 hours #등산 #hiking

A post shared by @ danwu248 on Mar 29, 2019 at 12:05am PDT

I was up with my alarm predawn and stumbled out into the lounge to gulp down a few cups of coffee and do my Duolingo set before going out for the day. I knew I might not have the energy to study later, so I had to get it done while the caffeine worked its way into my bloodstream. Having learned my lesson at Dobongsan, I made sure to wear long sleeves and pack a down jacket just in case.

It was light outside by the time I headed to the bus stop, and I didn’t have to wait long before the 281 came rumbling along. It was a good 45 minutes of twisting, stomach-turning roads before I could topple off the bus at the Seopanak trailhead.

I made exceptionally good time up the mountain, stopping periodically for a swig of liquid and mouthful of calories, but ever mindful of the cutoff to ascend to the peak and the lunch awaiting me. The scenery was nice enough, though the leafless trees gave a rather desolate feeling. Signs pointed out every 100 meters in elevation gain, and I passed the tree line around 1,700 meters in elevation. Coming out of the ocean like that, it is an impressive mountain. It makes me want to go back Malaysia to properly summit Kinabalu.

The crater lake at the top was low of water but impressive nonetheless, and I spent more than half an hour plopped down on a rock munching away on a salad and snacks. A golden weasel (?) occasionally stuck its head out from under the rock to look at me or dart out to grab to nuts that a previous hiker had dropped. I spent some time chatting with a Korean-Canadian who was towards the end of a 2 year roundabout. Two years is a long time, but I guess when you get working holiday visas and can stop for a couple months to build up a nest egg, it makes sense.

I headed down the north trail (Gwaneumsa), which is both far more scenic (in terms of enjoying the mountain rather than the view from the mountain) and a harder trek. Vast stretches of the path were muddy from melted snow. Though slightly shorter, it felt longer because I was getting tired and anxious to get back. I eventually made it out of the forest to the parking lot. I had to transfer buses, but there was no difficulty returning to the town where my hotel is.

I vegged out a bit in the lounge, showered, noticed how I got a little burned despite touching up sun block multiple times, and vegetated a bit more before deciding to explore the market for some food options. Approaching early evening, the market was crowded, and the “street food” stalls were packed with queues. I want a sit down meal, so spent quite a bit of time looking in and around the market, eventually finding a smallish, oldish place with a decent amount of people eating inside. I had some sort of abalone soup with plenty of other seafood in it, though it basically tasted like a bean paste soup.

I was still a bit hungry later, and grabbed an ice cream from a 7-11. I was beat, and decided to watch something on my laptop. At one point, some new guys to the dormitory asked me if I wanted to drink with them, but I had to decline the offer.

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Tramping around #Jeju Day 4: Lonely Rock and Jungmun Beach (中文海灘), #제주도 #濟州島 #해수욕장 #꽃

A post shared by @ danwu248 on Mar 30, 2019 at 4:31pm PDT

On my last day before the marathon, I didn’t have any particular plans other than the wish to do a short 5km run to stay limber. That didn’t happen. I was pretty hungry when I woke up, so I decided to go out for some breakfast, arriving at a Dunkin Donuts just as they opened. I spent a couple hours there working on my computer.

I headed back to the hostel and borrowed a bike, but didn’t make it very far before realizing what a horrible idea it was. The roads are way too hilly and being out of biking shape, attempting to put 10 or 20 km on a bike would absolutely wreck me. I made it over one hill and followed a cutoff to a scenic attraction to make the best of the situation. It was beautiful, and I realized why a car would be necessary to really make the best of Jeju. There are scenic spots every couple miles along the coastline, and while one can walk lots of trails going through the scenic areas, you could cover a lot more ground in a day with a car.

I biked back to the hotel, ditched the bike, changed into sandals to be more comfortable and caught a bus to Jungmun Resort area where I knew there was a beach. I packed swimming trunks just in case. Firstly, Jungmun means “Chinese (writing)”, so I had to check out the area. Secondly, the resort area is really resort-ish. To get to the beach, I followed a “valley of flowers” and came out looking over the ocean. Past noon and hungry again, I stopped at the convenience store and had a simple meal at a table outside.

Afterwards, I followed the boardwalk, which was a bit more hiking than I intended, leading along the top of the cliff above the beach, before cutting down some stairs to reach the beach, which was only populated by a large group of student surfers. I walked the length of the beach and not particularly eager to move on, found a spot to lay out a blanket and take a nap. The wind started to pick up, and though the warmth of the sun was enough to compensate for its chill, the way it would sometimes pick up the sand convinced me my nap was enough. Regarding swimming, the beach was only open for swimming in July and August, and sticking my feet in the water convinced me it was for the best. However, as I was leaving I did notice some kids frolicking in the water.

Rather than head straight back, I decided to follow a trail for a bit. The trail led through and around some luxury resorts, a yachting harbor, and patches of green punctuated by thousands of flowers in full bloom. The wind continued to grow in strength, and by the time I decided to cut back to the main road to catch a bus, I was thoroughly chilled.

I tried the market again for food, heading directly to one restaurant that had caught my eye previously. Unfortunately, I hadn’t seen the “2 ppl and up” fine print, so it was out of the question. I went back to the hotel and asked the front desk if they had any recommendations. Upon their advice, I had some bbq pork veggies thing that was not only amazing, but the restaurant “tolerates” single portions. I wouldn’t have minded paying for a double portion of meat, but the veggies were basically bottomless. I felt like a total foreigner that meal both with the auntie taking over the cooking for me and me dropping food everywhere in my eagerness to eat.

I did my best to pack everything up so I wouldn’t have to worry about it in the morning. It was my last night in the hotel, and I would be at the marathon until checkout. The original plan was to take everything with me from the hotel (south side of island) to the venue (west side of island), run, take everything to the Jeju City (north side of island). Try to catch a ferry to the mainland, arrive late at night, find somewhere to sleep, then catch a bus the next morning. However, upon second thought and noticing how there was no time scheduled for eating or showering, I looked at flights, and decided to spend a night in a guesthouse near the airport and catch a flight in the morning. The irony is that a flight ticket is about the same as a ferry ticket.

So, I went to bed early to be ready for the race, which no longer seemed like the biggest concern among the swirl of other travel worries.

Running Total: 16817 RMB (USD 2505.5)
Daily Average: 271.2 RMB (USD 40.4)

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Tramping around Jeju, Day 1. Olle Trail from Seogwipo to the Jeju World Cup Stadium.

A post shared by @ danwu248 on Mar 27, 2019 at 4:13am PDT

Jeju Island is pretty nice, and despite my apprehensions about it being expensive, it is much the same as everywhere else in Korea, but with a more tropical laid back vibe.

For my third night in a row, I slept close to 10 hours, and was shocked to see my weight shooting up on the scale. I puttered about in the morning on Wednesday until about 11am, when I decided to go out for a long-ish walk. I looked on the map to see which direction I should head, and noticed a dashed line not far from my hotel and cutting through a nearby park, so I decided to follow that. It was one of what must be dozens of walking routes on the island, and it took me on quite the scavenger hunt.

The trail was pretty well marked by both colorful arrows and color-coded ribbons tied to trees. It did take me a while to realize that these roadside markings were for the trail and not some other symbols, and I did have a bit of confusion when there were multiple overlapping trails, but it wasn’t long before I didn’t even pull out the phone to check the map. The first leg was through a park, full of blooming trees. On the other side of the park, waiting at a crosswalk I noticed a restaurant that was too inviting to pass up. Specializing in steamed kimchi and kimchi stew, I ended up feasting for lunch when I was originally planning to fast. The restaurant was full of kitsch and old household goods, and my individual serving of kimchi stew was served on a burner because they brought by a packet of ramen to cook.

After lunch, I realized I was immediately in the countryside, as the trail headed down among orchards full of tangerine trees (or whatever the famous local citrus fruit is best called). All the farms had stone walls of igneous rock, and this first cluster of farms were in a deep depression that I later learned is the widest crater in Korea. On the other side of the crater, I passed a second temple, which could have doubled as a flower shop from the number of planters perfectly arranged. The trail cut across the highway and in and out of neighborhoods of lovely individual houses with neatly manicured gardens before heading up a long hill and ultimately a hike over a forested mountain. I was regretting not stopping at the last convenience store for water, but on the other side of the mountain, after a brief detour at what would have been a magnificent waterfall if it wasn’t the dry season, I was back in civilization and stopped to get an ice coffee and bottle of water.

There wasn’t much left to the trail before it deposited me at the Jeju World Cup Stadium. I popped into the eMart supermarket there to buy a bunch of salads and splurged on a big jar of mixed nuts, before hopping a bus back to the hostel where I hung out for the rest of the evening.

The lounge area is pretty popular among the guests at night, who bring by takeout sashimi and so much alcohol. They are all Korean and I keep to myself.

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Tramping around Jeju, Day 2. Balancing need to train for marathon with sightseeing and desire not to fall off a cliff. #trailrun #coastline #jeju #volcanicrock #제주도

A post shared by @ danwu248 on Mar 28, 2019 at 12:53am PDT

I slept well again, but finally got my weight in check. Around 10, I knew I needed to get some exercise so laced up the running shoes and decided to follow a trail in the opposite direction. For some reason, I was under the impression that the coastline trail would be more suitable for running, but most of it was through natural scenery. After cutting through the heart of town and heading down hill, I found myself at a parking lot full of tour buses and people who were paying 2000 a pop to see some waterfall. I didn’t have any money on me so I continued on my merry way. The coastline is amazing, full of black volcanic rocks serving as the canvas for the natural art of erosion. Sections of the trail were along roadway where I could actually jog, but I mostly picked my way slowly over tree roots, ducking under branches, scrambling up and down stairs, etc. At about the sixth kilometer I reached a fishing harbor, and decided to make that the halfway point. I followed the road all the way back, which wasn’t much better, still excessively hilly.

I showered and a bowl of noodles for lunch, apparently “meat noodles” are a local specialty. After an espresso and a brief nap, I spent the afternoon in a coffee shop, and the evening back in the hostel lounge. On my way back I swung by a mart to pick up supplies for hiking the next day. I did some research on hiking the main mountain and knew I needed to properly prepare. There are cutoff times to ascend the mountain, so I would have to get an early start. I set an alarm and went to bed early.

Running Total: 16627.6 RMB (USD 2477.26)
Daily Average: 277 RMB (USD 41.29)

I was pretty wrecked on Friday morning, and passed most of the morning in a haze. After packing up my stuff in advance of checkout, I wandered over to a fancy brunch place a friend had recommended to me. Afterwards, I just hung out on the couch for a few hours vegging out to Matt Groening’s latest animated show. I had two nights at a guesthouse in Itaewon booked for the weekend before I head out of Seoul for the last time (this trip). As checkin isn’t until 3, I was in no rush to move and it wasn’t a problem for me to hang around.

Actually, that reminds me of a funny story from the previous day. A guest had overstayed his booking, refusing to get out of bed or checkout, instead arguing that the hostel staff were wrong about what day he checked in and what day it was. He argued a long time, despite constantly saying “I don’t want to argue.” The hostel staff merely pointed at the computer records: you checked in on this day and paid for X number of days, you need to check out. His retort simply “you are wrong,” with no provision of documentary evidence other than repeated assertions. They really should have called the police, especially as he always wore a baseball cap and face mask, making it impossible to see his face. But, the owner came by and sorted out some solution where he agreed to pay another night without admitting he was wrong.

Anyways, the guesthouse in Itaewon was way better than the previous one I stayed in. After dropping my stuff off and paying a key (!) deposit (!), I had a Starbucks, which failed to do me any good, and a big bowl of pho, which helped a little. I was inclined to take a power nap in the room, but my roommate came in and chatted with me a bit. Unable to secure any plans for the night, I eventually decided to head over to a gastropub owned by a friend of a friend. Planning to study a little Korean over a beer, that didn’t quite happen as when I plopped down at the bar, a guy working on his laptop turned to me and was like “oh, it’s you.” We chatted for a bit, talking mostly about board games, for some reason, and I made a point to leave early to catch up on sleep.

With Saturday my last full day in Seoul, there was no way I wasn’t going to finally go hike some mountains. I didn’t get on the road until about 10am, and thought I had looked up a HomePlus supermarket right at the subway transfer point, but hadn’t looked close enough. It was an “express” version, which doesn’t sell the packaged salads (I have half a bottle of dressing, might as well eat healthy). Fortunately, there was one about 700 meters away, and the route took me through some very “traditional” markets selling used clothes and army surplus items. The next subway station over, where I got back on the road marked the area as a famous flea market in Seoul. It took so long to get to the mountain because every train I got on ended its run after a few stations and I had to wait for the next one.

Also, mid-morning, my prepaid data ran out. By my estimate, I had used maybe 800 megabytes, far less than the 1.5GB I had paid for. I guess I had gotten cheated. On the other hand, it was still a good deal (I paid less than 20 dollars for the equivalent of 120 dollars worth of data). I just wish I could figure out how to charge a bit more to last me this final week.

By the time I got to Dobongsan, the sky was gray and rain began drizzling down. It was sunny when I left, and I was so certain it would be warm, I only had a t-shirt on under my windbreaker. The weather didn’t seem to deter the swarms of hikers, so I carried on. After passing a hundred stalls selling all sorts of hiking gear, alcohol, and Korean snacks, I finally found the trail head and saw that it had stopped raining. However, within ten minutes of beginning the hike, it began snowing. As I climbed up, the snow got thicker and thicker, to the point where the main peak (a pitiful 726m) looked like I was in the Alps or Himalayas.

As soon as I started down the other side of the mountain, the sun broke through the clouds, but the wind picked up. I was certain I would get lost in the mountains because 95% of hikers return by the same route up, and the fresh snowfall made it hard to follow trail, which is also not very well marked with signs. There was a point where I caught up to a pair of Korean hikers, and kind of followed them for a while because they seemed to know the way. On the top of the third mountain over, I ran into a party of foreign college students posing for pictures. From there on, the trail was easy to follow, but it didn’t matter because they came down with me. We talked a bunch, and they stopped for photos a lot. It was annoying, and amplified by my lack of data coverage, because I was incommunicado and was supposed to meet someone for dinner.

I dozed on the train back into town and missed my stop because I needed to bid a farewell to the exchange students. I rushed, rushed, rushed back to the hostel, to shower, change, and charge, but it wasn’t necessary. That friend didn’t even reply to me until 7pm, suggesting a dinner at 8pm. I was so freaky hangry, but endured. With the sun down, it was as cold as on the mountain top. I walked the 20 minutes to the appointed restaurant, and spent close to 20 minutes waiting out in the cold. Needless to say, it was a strained dinner, but we cleared the air over coffee afterwards.

Back in the hostel, I was hydrating and thinking about skipping the Saturday night party scene, but got called out to meet another friend. Its so weird how crowded that one bar street gets, but the weirdest bit is the military police patrolling it. With an Army base a stone’s throw away and the propensity of trouble to follow alcohol, I get it. Nonetheless, it makes me uncomfortable. I guess it’s lucky I don’t look like a soldier. One of the guys I met on the hike had spent a couple hours in a (Korean) police station the previous night.

I went to a club — no cover charge, my driver’s license was accepted without question, and the hand stamp washed away easily — to rendezvous with my friend. So much for taking a night off of alcohol.

Running Total: 14355.3 RMB (USD 2138.25)
Daily Average: 261 RMB (USD 38.88)

I was super hungry in the morning and decided to track down the gukbap place I had gone to with S & Y after the feed the homeless service activity over a month ago. It was even better than I remembered. I grabbed a Mega Coffee on the way back so I wouldn’t have to waste so much time making my own coffee.

I finally got around to nailing down my schedule for the remaining days in Korea. The (half) marathon is only about 10 days away, and I went ahead and booked places to stay.

I was sitting downstairs studying with mild chitchat, but felt an overwhelming sleepiness, so I decided to mix it up by taking my nap first and eat lunch second. I had the last packet of salad for lunch and hung out downstairs for a bit–sucked into two episodes of “Modern Family”–before heading to another new (to me) cafe.

The coffee was good, but I was dealing against the Scylla and Charybdis of my own lack of energy and distractions through the phone. It’s hard to muster my concentration in the first place, its even harder to find the flow after hanging up the phone. Jazz and rain don’t seem to do the trick any more.

I didn’t do much else that day. After hanging out in the hostel for a bit, I headed out into the drizzle to find some food. I wanted some spicy tteokbokki or Japanese ramen, but ended up popping into a North Korean cold noodle place. It was nice, and gave me the boost of energy to do a bit more studying in the evening. If was a quiet evening and I didn’t have any temptation to drink.

I slept well and was up fairly early in the morning. I only had one coffee and did the minimal studying necessary before I decided my time would be better spent taking advantage of the clean air. It was still somewhat wet and gray, but I had a good run. One shower later, I had another coffee and kept studying in the living room while a Canadian guy was watching “Vikings.” We had talked about going around the corner to a homemade Japanese ramen place the previous day, and as we were both hungry, we headed over at 11am only to find that they didn’t open until 11:30. We went back to the hostel to wait it out, but the wait was worth it.

I took a short nap before heading over to a nearby neighborhood to explore a bit and find somewhere nice to spend an afternoon. I picked a cafe that looked pretty good, but I was the only person there and it got cold after a while. It was also hard to focus on work, so I gave up mid afternoon and went back to the cozy hostel.

There had been talk about a barbecue at the hostel on Wednesday night, and having been cancelled on account of the rain, I was under the impression of it being postponed to Thursday. That wasn’t to be the case, but I had the idea of barbecue fixated in my mind and kept talking it up around the hostel hoping to stir up some interest. While talking, a Serbian fellow who was in Seoul on a visa run for China asked about book stores in the area. As he wasn’t comfortable about getting lost, I agreed to accompany him. We headed over directly, and I got a chance to really look through a bunch of Korean textbooks, paying particular attention to the way they presented Hangul. The first one confirmed my intuitions about the need for a better system, the second gave me some good ideas on sequencing, but the third was a book solely dedicated introducing the writing system, basically the Hangul museum distilled into a textbook/workbook. I’m going to have to meditate on whether the fool’s errand of writing my own introductory textbook is worth it.

After about an hour in the bookstore, it was getting into the evening and I was still antsy about getting together a group for dinner or something. By the time we got back it was apparent that I missed whatever window was available, so I headed back out to see about feeding myself, dropping a bunch of money at a banchan truck and picking up a couple bottles of soju. I enjoyed my dinner in the hostel living room as people came in and out and hung around. There was still much chatter among the guests about going out to party that night, and I was on board for whatever.

However, I was also perfectly content to entertain myself, and I put in some earbuds and cranked the volume on music for quite a while, even as I was marching along the streets with five other people off to some bar or club. At some point, there was a huddle and the group split up because someone had some bad blood with me, and I ended up a convenience store with the two French guys drinking more even though I really would have preferred to just go to bed early at that point. There was a Korean man also drinking at the convenience store and we all hung out together. After a polite enough time, I made my farewells and headed back to the hostel, which despite being well past midnight, still had plenty of people around, meaning I was up for another hour or two talking. Eventually, I was able to get myself under control and go to sleep.

I had seriously wanted to go to be around 11 so I could wake up early for another run, but that social bug seized me and just wouldn’t let go. I don’t know if it was the most volume of alcohol I’ve had in a while, but I was the drunkest, completely transforming into the kind of guy who talks to giant invisible rabbits and quotes liberally from the Sermon on the Mount.

Running Total: 13481.6 RMB (USD 2008.4)
Daily Average: 254.4 RMB (USD 37.9)

In order to ensure I’d have enough time to meet up with the Seoul-based friends who convinced to return to the capital, I needed more than a weekend. However, given the budget-busting Airbnbs, I made accommodations to return to the ole’ Hongdae stomping ground where I could attempt to live cheaply for a few days. After a three week absence, I must say I was also curious to check-in on the drama.

I took my time packing up my belongings in the Airbnb Monday morning, and hopped on a bus to get to Yeonnam-dong. When I entered the hostel, I was surprised not to be greeted by any familiar faces. Being too early for check-in, I dropped my bags and went to an Indian restaurant about three doors down from the hostel. I had always meant to try its lunch special. It wasn’t worth the return.

I swung back through the hostel to grab my backpack and spent a couple hours in the wonderfully fragrant bakery/cafe. At 3 pm, I returned to the hostel to check in and change for a run. The living was fuller at the time, and with many recognizable faces. One person asked in a somewhat accusatory tone “Why did you come back?” I suppose I could have retorted: “Why haven’t you left?” but I was otherwise welcomed like I had never left. Nevertheless, I hold that it is better to leave a place and return then to always stay there. You need the perspective of seeing other places for comparison, and there is a frisson to returning to a familiar location.

I took a longish run, stopping at 9.5 km to buy groceries, and carefully jogging the 3.5 km return trip to avoid overly tossing the 500 won marked down salad packs. After a quick shower and change, I wolfed down a salad before taking out the bottle of makkoli and packet of prawn crackers I also bought as a supplement. I spent the evening in the living room hanging out with guests and volunteers.

One of the volunteers needed to go to Hong Kong on a visa run, and had been having trouble booking a plane ticket, so I did that for him through my Chinese bank in exchange for cash, which means I might have just enough to squeak through.

Apparently in the interim, someone had punched in an Netflix account to the set-top box, so my harddrives are superfluous. On the other hand, the account isn’t age verified, so a lot of content is blocked. Even shows like “The Good Place” which is as wholesome as cheese. What the forks? Looking for entertainment options, I recommended we watch “The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt” and we ended up finishing the first season that night.

A group of partiers went out drinking and I wasn’t even tempted to join them, but that doesn’t mean I didn’t drink too much. By the time I finished my bottle of makkoli, a Norwegen girl came in with a 1.7L bottle of beer. When she went on the second beer run, I handed her some cash. Despite the best intentions to not drink too much, too late, I personally accompanied her on the third beer run. (And I suddenly recall that I don’t know exactly how much that last bottle of beer cost).

I went upstairs to use the bathroom once and came down with a box of fried chicken and tater tots.

It was past one when the partiers returned and within minutes there were noise complaints. After getting chewed out, I took the initiative as a party pooper, finished my glass, hit the lights, and went to bed.

Drama Update: Other than a new volunteer, there wasn’t a major shift in the composition of the hostel workforce. One long term resident had to be kicked out including with the involvement of the police for fighting. Finally, I received confirmation that I wasn’t insane with the insomnia of my final few nights in the hostel, as I overheard one volunteer try to talk reason with the perpetual violator. Chatting with her later, she asked if I noticed anything missing. The guitars are gone.

I was a bit hungover in the morning, which was spent studying Korean and drinking coffee with peace and quiet. I had an early lunch of salad and green curry (with free rice), and tried to take a nap. Mid-nap, I got caught up in a conversation in social media and wasn’t able to get out the door to a coffee shop until nearly 3 pm. Where does all the time go?

Under recommendation, I went to a Vietnamese coffee shop for an authentic ca phe sua. It was a cool little cafe, but not really suitable for working, so after a halfhearted attempt to be productive, I gave up and headed back to the hostel. I hung around the entrance for about half an hour shooting the shit with a couple of the guests. There are quite a few interesting and friendly people, but it is magical the affect this hostel has on people, sucking them into its gravitational field, resulting in very little tourism.

At six, I hopped on the subway to go to Gangnam to meet someone for dinner. We had fried chicken and beer at a Craft Hans which was nothing like the establishment of the same name I had patronized in Itaewon. One order of chicken was more than enough for the two of us and I even left food uneaten. She paid, which was only fair, as she had blown me off on previous attempts to get together. Despite a few extra weeks of studying Korean, the conversation was rather strained Konglish with reliance on Papago for translation. That was disappointing. She offered to drive me home, but I declined the offer.

Running Total:
13102 RMB
(USD 1957)
Daily Average:
256.9 RMB
(USD 38.37)

One of the cardinal rules for budget travel is to plan out your itinerary to minimize backtracking because the cost of transportation from place to place can make a real dent in the budget. On the other hand, when one is hanging out in a small country for more than a month, one sometimes finds oneself shuttling back and forth. And so, Friday morning found me packing up and heading to the Busan train station to journey back to Seoul for a week. I left Seoul because I was lonely and bored and tired of the pollution, but there are compelling reasons to return. At the same time, there are reasons to get back to Busan as soon as possible.

Anyways, at the Busan train station, I had to wait in line to buy a ticket from the counter because the handful of self-service machines were credit card only. Despite the wait, I had basically perfect timing to hop onto the “cheap” train, though I suppose I should actually try the KTX express train some time. It doesn’t seem worth paying double the price to save 2 hours, though. I grabbed a coffee and a donut from Krispy Kreme before settling into my seat on the train. I napped, listened to podcasts, and studied Korean on the ride, which passed quickly.

The sun was setting behind an overcast sky as the train pulled into Seoul. The cold, drizzling rain made me question myself as I found my way to a bus stop to get the the Airbnb I booked. I found the address (though I wish the map had told me the “short cut” was over a hill when I could have walked around) and let myself in through the pass code. At this point, I feel safe in generalizing that no one in Korea uses keys. Every apartment has a smart lock. I spent the weekend in an apartment hosted by a young Korean couple with a passion for surfing. They were still at work when I arrived around 6 and I vegged out for a while until my growling stomach forced me to seek food.

I went to a weird tonkatsu restaurant. It was on the second floor and painted in primary colors. A number of kids were running around while their moms were collecting empty beer glasses. It seemed like both a bar, offering reasonably priced draft beer and a kids restaurant at the same time. I had a cheese tonkatsu, which tasted like a giant mozzarella stick, though on close inspection there was pork inside. When I returned to the apartment, my hosts were back home, eating pizza and watching Big Bang Theory. We briefly said hello, but it wasn’t a situation to hang out together. I watch half of Loving Vincent and passed out early

My hosts were out the door before I got up in the morning. I made a coffee, but didn’t want to hang around the apartment too much so I located a McDonald’s on the map and took a walk. I passed through a park — actually the same railroad park from the Hongdae area (I wonder how far it stretches) — and generally got an impression of the neighborhood between two stops of the subway. I hung out in the McDonald’s until about 11 and popped by a eMart Supermarket to pick up a salad for lunch.

I took a nap and went to a coffee shop to work for a couple hours. The coffee was a bit expensive, but it was a really cool cafe/photo gallery. I would have liked to stay longer but it was the high afternoon and the AQI had dropped to an acceptable level for exercise. There is a stadium and park in the area, so I jogged over there and did laps in the stadium while a soccer game was underway. I just assumed it was open to the public, but when the game was over and all the players were leaving, I left too because I would have been the only person left in the stadium. I headed into the park afterwards, but it wasn’t so good for jogging because it was basically just a big hill. However, there was a massive collection of exercise equipment on top of the hill, including free weights. I ended the run and lifted weights for about half an hour.

On the way back to the apartment, I wanted to grab a sports drink and snack, but time was tight. I had an appointment at 7pm to meet my high school classmate who I see every time I visit Korea (and had blown me off when I was in Seoul a few weeks ago). We went to a restaurant that was more like a Korean pub in the sense that the food was mediocre and mainly served to accompany the alcohol. Her friend who owned the place kept commenting on how handsome I was, which I guess might have been weird, but in all modesty, I’m used to that from China. We went through a couple bottles of Makgeolli, a Korean rice wine, though it might be better to think of it as a rice beer, and a couple dishes including fried tofu (supposed to be “pancake” style but, whatever), Korean sausage stir-fried with veggies, and some cold noodles.

We had a great talk, discussing work, ethics, and life philosophy with barely any reminiscing about El Paso. That’s really good. On three visits over four years, we’ve gotten to know each other quite well, graduating from relying on common history for small talk to freely shooting the breeze.

My friend picked up the tab for dinner on condition that I buy the cocktails at the bar. Southside Bar, opened by a couple Texans, was inconspicuous on the fourth floor of some random building along the main street. The place was full of expats enjoying their Saturday night. I didn’t even look at the food menu, but I saw some nice looking tacos and heard the wings are good. The cocktails were crazy expensive, but properly done with two full pages in the menu for their original creations.

At some point, my friend’s boyfriend joined us and we joined the table where his best friend and business partner was drinking with his fiancee and its getting hard to describe the situation without names. In any case, it was a lot fun and we didn’t leave until 2am. Fortunately, though my airbnb isn’t in Itaewon, it is close enough to walk home, which helped me sober up enough that I wouldn’t wake up my hosts when I stumble in.

I definitely had a bit of a hangover in the morning and lounged around until around 11am, when I needed to get some food in me. I went up and down the street looking for some hearty Korean fare, eventually stopping at a place specializing in “Hangover Soup.” It wasn’t my intention, but the place was packed, so it had to be good. And, seriously, when I say specializing, I mean that was the only thing on the menu. After waiting a few minutes for a table, the hostess sat me and another guy together. Recalling the soup as I write this, I could go for it again.

Afterwards, I hopped straight on the subway to head to the World Cup Stadium for what is now my Sunday in Seoul routine of sauna and swimming. I had good soak in the hot tubs and half-napped in the common room. While lounging around, someone I had matched with on Tinder that morning asked if I wanted to grab lunch. Since I had already had lunch and hadn’t gotten to my swim yet, I proposed dinner instead. So much for grabbing a salad at the Home Plus (which surprised me by being open on Sunday when it had previously been closed). Why is it suddenly so easy to be all social and meeting people when it was so hard last month?

The pool was pretty crowded with a bunch of kids fooling and some people getting private swim lessons. A kid moving crosswise in the middle of the pool ran into me on one lap. Pretty much all the lanes had several people hanging out on one end or the other and I was surprised by the size of some of the swimmers. I don’t want to be fat-shaming or anything, but I’m kind of used to small skinny people in the pools, which makes it easy to share with 4-5 people in a lane. Anyways, I set a new personal best record, doing 40 laps or 2000 meters.

I wanted to hang out and study Korean for an hour before going to my date later, but I was really wiped by the exercise. So, when my date texted to ask me to hurry up, I got dressed and hopped on the subway to go all the way over to the Coex Mall in Gangnam. It was, let’s say, an interesting encounter, where I was more like a girlfriend or therapist helping her analyze/interpret a situation. TMI. We split a half BBQ chicken, half original New York cheese pizza. I’ve been craving pizza, so that hit the spot.

I finally spent all the T-Money on my transportation card, and had to top it up. So, that 50 bucks lasted about 6 weeks. Not too bad.

I caught a bus back to my airbnb so I got to enjoy some night scenery from the windows. My hosts were sitting at the table drinking wine and listening to old Korean music when I got back and I joined them. We chatted for a couple hours before going to bed. They are good people.

It was an expensive weekend. Not just traveling back on the train, but staying in an apartment (versus a hostel) and dropping big bucks socially. Maybe it is better to be bored and lonely. Ha!

Running Total: 12721 RMB (USD 1894)
Daily Average: 259.6 RMB (USD 38.65)

Though I had no complaints* about the hostel I was staying in, when the week I paid for ran out, I decided to change locations. It is maybe a bit too comfortable in Haeundae where most days I barely venture to eat or drink coffee outside a 100m range of the hostel. Furthermore, I had heard from some expats that Haeundae is like its own world apart from Busan, so I was starting to worry that I wasn’t experiencing the “real” Busan. I booked an Airbnb in a more central location to accommodate the change.

I didn’t wake up as early as I wanted and didn’t have the energy for the long run I had planned to take in the morning, but still go out there to log another run along the beautiful Haeundae beach. After a quick shower, I made a pot of ramen noodles to finish off the lettuce and chicken from a few days ago. I went back upstairs to pack up and after bringing my stuff down, I had a second breakfast and worked on my computer until noon.

I dragged my stuff to the subway and rode the 30 minute distance to Seomyeon. The area is like an entirely different world, crowded with people, restaurants, and shops. I met my classmate for lunch (my treat this time) and followed by coffee.

There were tons of tempting places to eat and even several clusters of street food to sample, but I was so full from lunch, I wanted to keep it light with a salad. I headed over to the nearest Home Plus to buy enough salad to last two days, and spent the whole evening in my private studio apartment with a double-double bed. The most exciting part of having a private apartment was that there was a washing machine and detergent. I have been hand washing my socks and underwear regularly, some shirts occasionally, but these jeans I wear every day have gone six weeks without a launder. I don’t have another pair of pants to wear while waiting for them to dry. I had a chance to do a lot of laundry (by hand) in Daegu, but access to a washing machine was almost worth the price differential over the hostel (which would charge 5000 a pop).

I finished Pride and Prejudice and spent some time browsing the Chinese reading app on my phone for other books. I reread the first chapter of
Pride and Prejudice in translation and found that entertaining, but wasn’t willing to pay for more than the free preview. I do need to get a Chinese book in my rotation to keep that low frequency, literary vocabulary fresh.

*One actual complaint is I had a weird roommate for almost the whole week. I never saw him in person, but he was literally in his bunk 20 hours a day doing God knows what (there are privacy curtains). But, seriously, I went in and out of the room morning, afternoon, and evening, and he was always in there.

Thursday morning was cold. The weather app said there were snow flurries, but I didn’t see anything outside the window. I had a coffee and went out to exercise. I had about a kilometer on the streets before reaching Busan Citizens Park, on the other side of the train tracks. It’s a huge park, and was beautiful in the bright sunlight. I jogged haphazardly along the intersecting paths, often returning to a cluster of exercise equipment in the northwest corner to do a set of pull ups.

I had a lunch date and arrived at the restaurant a few minutes early. There was an old auntie in the lane telling passersby to come into eat. I was able to convey in Korean that I will eat there in a bit, but I was just waiting for a friend first. While waiting, I looked up and down the street at all the enticing restaurants with bright signs advertising delicacies I’ve never even heard of. I wish I could throw this diet out the window and start eating 5 meals a day, but then again, a meal is so filling, always coming with rice and banchan. Once again, I ate too much at lunch, but had a leisurely afternoon in a cafe to digest over conversation.

March 14th is “White Day” in Korea, a sort of local Valentine’s Day. Apparently, the custom is for women to give men chocolates on February 14th and for men to give women candy on March 14. I gave an avocado.

They were doing street repairs outside my apartment from 8 pm until 7 am. Oh, that was annoying.

Running Total:
11034 RMB
(USD 1643)
Daily Average:
240 RMB
(USD 35.7)

Monday morning was clear again after the rain, though the air quality was already back to the baseline mid-50s. After digesting my breakfast, I went out for my longest run yet–15.5 km. Midway through the run, I stopped to take a photo and saw a message from my parents. Oh yeah, Monday morning, Skype time. I wrapped up the run as quickly as I could, and dug out my computer for the monthly check-in.

While talking, one of the hostel workers came by to give me a gift bag, thanking me again for helping them shoot the hostel promo. It was a canvas tote bag, which is always useful, and a mug, which just makes me laugh. So, I’m already the crazy guy who carries a mug around so I can use my Aeropress to make coffee, but now I have two mugs. It’s a lot of extra weight in the suitcase to lug around. I’ll have to figure out something to do with it, especially as I kind of prefer the one I already have — a freebie from a conference — which has a picture of a brain and the Guangzhou skyline on it, versus just the name of the hostel.

After a quick shower, I had lunch at my usual spot, ordering the Soybean Paste Stew, and drinking a whole pitcher of water. I had just gotten back to the hostel and plopped down on the couch to zone out, when I had another call to take over WeChat. By the time that was over, the exercise and meal were wearing me down, so I took a quick power nap before heading across the street to get a free coffee and get a little bit of work done.

In the late afternoon, I headed over to Home Plus to buy a salad, but took my time exploring options to get more nutrients and stretch a dollar. I found a pack of pre-cooked (oven roasted) chicken breast that was basically the same unit price as fresh chicken breasts and avocados were also on sale, though the price would still shock anyone in the US. They worked out to about a dollar each or the price of a bottle of soju. Although on second thought, nine bottles of soju might be fun.

I tried to do a bit more writing or studying in the evening, but I couldn’t quite get in the mood. I’ve noticed, I’m losing my mojo. Even for Korean studying, the motivation is flagging. I went up to bed fairly early and read for about an hour before turning off the light.

While I was downstairs making my coffee in the morning, I got a call from someone I haven’t seen in a few years. I guess I need to finalize some plans to add 3 months in Europe to this global trek and add a visit to Paris. I suppose I wouldn’t mind some A1 level French. Merde!

I walked over to the Busan City Museum of Art and toured all the galleries on the third floor, which consisted only of a exhibition (“Unbelievably Heavy, Awfully Keen”) to a contemporary Busan-based artist and a smaller handful of pieces listed as donations from some rich person. I was quite impressed by Bang Jeong-A’s artwork and sense of humor. Some of the works were quite psychedelic and the names of the paintings surpassed the usual descriptive — self-important spectrum one often finds on the title placards. For example: “He Had a Grudge Against His Unfaithful Girlfriend who was Living with him and…”, “Take This, You Brats”, “What Made Her Life So Miserable?”, and “Goons–Yes! Bro, Bro, Bro.”

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Wonderful exhibition of #art by 방정아 (Bang Jeong-a) at the Busan City Art Museum #부산시립미술관 Go visit before it ends on June 9!

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On the way back to the hostel, I swung by Home Plus again to get more salad fixings and a snack, and ate at the hostel. I opted against a full-on nap, but ended up dozing on a couch in the coffee shop after reading for a bit. I’m maybe a day from finishing Pride and Prejudice. Speaking of literature, I was perusing Twitter and found a discussion of which books a guy says is his favorite is a giant red flag. Scrolling down, I think I’ve read 80% of the titles and authors being piled on and definitely enjoyed them. I get how saying a particular book is your favorite may reveal the shallowness of your intellect, but I feel like we are moving closer to some book burnings. There seems to be Cultural Revolution-style mob mentality rampant through the progressive circles of the online community, and even a recent oped arguing this point aroused an inordinate amount of wrath from the China twitterati. Nevertheless, the fact that thought policing and identity politics are starting to be satirized suggests a reversion to the mean may be coming.

Anyways, in the late afternoon, despite being a little hazy, I went out for a short run along Haeundae beach alternating sprints and jogging. Without even showering, I changed to less smelly clothes and went to get a haircut in an old school barbershop. The barbershop was “straight out of central casting,” with 60s music on the radio and a DJ running through the events of 1966 while introducing each song. Despite being traditional, it was luxury and probably the most expensive haircut I’ve had in my life. I kept looking at the price list, which had numbers like 3, 5, 7, 1.5, and thinking those prices seem way too cheap. Well, instead being multiples of a thousand (which is the norm when abbreviating in Korea, especially as 1000 won is about a dollar), they were multiples of 10,000. C’est la vie. The barber spoke English and it was a much better experience than a hair salon.

I went directly to dinner afterwards, checking out a restaurant from the list of recommendations in the hostel. As I was heading back the 100m or so to the hostel, some large drops of rain started falling. I plopped down on the couch just as Eat, Pray, Love was starting on the projector. I was almost tempted to watch but it isn’t really the environment to follow a movie. I played on my phone, but regularly looked up to marvel at the style of exoticism that appeals to middle America. I couldn’t feel more like a farang if I was walking down Khao San road in fisheman pants and a Chang tank top. On the other hand, I would be willing to pay money for a movie that was just Julia Roberts eating pasta. And now I am imagining a whole series of films of famous actresses eating various foods. Heavens.

I went upstairs early and kept reading Pride and Prejudice, but was interrupted at some point to Facetime yet another person. I spent nearly an hour in the stairwell, where I could get a decent Wifi signal. At the end of which, both of us agreed as to how weird the situation (the call, not the circumstances of where I took it) was. Then, straight to bed.

Running Total:
10305 RMB
(USD 1535.6)
Daily Average:
234 RMB
(USD 34.9)