Me Speak No Americano

... and before he knew it, it was June...
Howdy folks!
I am super conscious that I have been falling behind in my blogging duties, and I am making plans to rectify this situation.
You may have to wait a little while longer, however, as I am heading to land of the brave this weekend.
My intention is to make the most of the 10+ hour flight back in time (literally - I leave Seoul at 2pm and arrive in San Francisco at 11am of the same day!) to reflect on my recent experiences and put them through the necessary thought processes that creates the random dribble I put into this blog.
So with that, I will just confirm that yes, I am alive and well, and have not disappeared on a covert mission to the "other" Korea, and that I am mulling over potentially juicy material for this blog.
Not to get your hopes up, but I've heard rumours of the Pulitzer prize for one of these upcoming entries, just sayin... although it could have been someone insulting me in the elevator in Korean. I'm optimistic. At least I should be able to get the most improved award. No? Oh well, better luck next year.

Until then, don't let me hold your gaze any longer than necessary, however if you scroll down there is a very special message for you.....

Beer ghosts! (Hahn-ghoul = Hangul!)

Annyeonghaseyo beloved users of the interweb!
I am becoming notoriously bad at keeping this blog ticking over but I have devised an ingenious incentive plan to keep myself motivated to continue feeding the masses my mindless dribble, I mean, my highly thought provoking insights into the life of an expat in Korea. I won't give too much away, but let's just say it involves the 1.8kg jar of Jelly Bellys I bought at Costco.... hmmmm sugary goodness.
In a previous episode of this amazingly splendiferous blog, I may have casually mentioned that I am studying Korean in an effort to integrate into my new culture and society. I will take the opportunity now to rant on, I mean, elaborate on the learning experience thus far.
Traditionally, I have never considered myself that great at languages. I "studied" Indonesian at primary school and early high school and, although I did quite well in the class, it never really stuck. In fact all I can remember is "my name is Leon", "how are you?" "Good" and "thank you" (nama saya Leon, apa kabar? baik baik saja and terima kasih, in case you were wondering). So for 8-9 years of study, all I can use it for is minor pleasantries with the odd Indonesian and Malaysian colleague at work. Fantastic return on investment! I also studied Japanese for roughly one semester - that was all I could manage at high school before I pulled out. I can't remember the circumstances now, but I think it may have been something to do with my teacher being mental. Either way, I lacked the discipline to stick with studying languages - I even stopped studying English after year 11 - and I was always better at science and mathematics anyway - hence why I am now an engineer and not a journalist!
Over the last few years, however, my fascination in learning new languages has slowly evolved.  It all started when I spent roughly 2 months living with a Persian/Iranian family back in 2004, when I started to pick up a few words in Farsi here and there (FYI Farsi is the national dialectic of Iran). Now, growing up as a Baha'i in Adelaide meant I had a lot of Persian friends who spoke Farsi but, for whatever reason, I never bothered to pick up any Farsi until that point. I learnt a few words and I quickly learnt that a few smooth words would melt any Persian mothers heart and would take me a few extra steps towards scoring the juiciest kabob you've ever tasted - hence adding motivation for me to learn more words! Over the years since then I have picked up a few more additions to my vocabulary, but I'm not quite fluent, as I've never  really created an opportunity to study it.

Kkhh ghhh khh *hack* - actually in Arabic, not Farsi, but when you can produce something as beautiful as this with your script, you know you're onto something good - no wonder it has been described as one of the most beautiful and poetic languages in the world

Spending time volunteering at the Baha'i House of Worship in 2008 sparked even more interest in languages, as I began to pick up a little bit of "functional" Hindi - by "functional" I mean that I was fluent at telling people to take their shoes off, stay off the grass, be quiet and get in line!! To this day I still say "Ek line mei aye" and  "joote/chapal nikalye" in my sleep...
During my time in India however, I made a curious observation about language that never occurred to me before, an observation that I'm sure many others have made before me but, being me, I've probably never read what they had to say - engineers tend to not study books on linguistics and anthropology! I pondered on how language changed as you move across the world, and that even though it seemed like some languages, i.e. Hindi and Farsi, are polar opposites, one could see how language evolves as you move from on side of a continent to the other, in this case with Urdu (Pakistani dialect) being a hybrid of the two languages - this language gradient being one of many examples throughout the world.

Hindi? English? Nepali? Gujarati? Urdu? Bangala? Malayalam? Tamil?
Too many languages in India!

Where am I going with this you wonder? Good question! I am sure I'll make a point eventually, but its an interesting subject to explore if thats your thing - you definitely see it more intensely across Europe where many languages spring from the same or similar sources and share similar words - look at English, German and French!
I suppose the point I'm trying to make is that Korean - the language is actually called Hangul - is kind of like Urdu. Like Pakistan with Persia and India, Korea sits in the middle of two former ancient kingdoms, China and Japan, who made a living of fighting with each other and had a knack for conquering neighbouring territories back and forth like it was going out of fashion - kind of like a two nations playing ping-pong but with Korea as the net. As a result, Korea's culture and, as a by-product, its language - the two are quite inextricably linked I believe - are heavily influenced by both the Japanese and Chinese. Having said that, it is definitely unique enough for any proud Korean to claim that both the Japanese and Chinese copied them (but we all know thats bollocks).

So different yet sooo similar - like all of humanity really

Luckily for me, its more like Japanese than it is Chinese. I say that because fortunately for Westerners living here, Hangul is phonetic, i.e. it doesn't have the multitude of tones that accompany Mandarin and the like. Thank the Lord! I really struggled with the tones when I spent 2 weeks in China last year - just when I thought I had a word or two downpat, no one had a clue what I was saying! Damn the foreign devil that I am!
Having studied Hangul for roughly two months, I am discovering that it is probably one of the easiest languages one could learn (in Asia at least). Sure it has a few strange sounds, like "eu" which is semi-entertaining to ask a Korean to pronounce for you as they pull a ridiculous face to make the noise, and that some of their letters translate to what sounds half way between two English letters, i.e. one letter sounds like a b or a p depending on what word you use it in. It takes a little while to get used to it, but it's nothing compared to getting your mouth around the hacking, cough-like sounds in Arabic/Farsi and the clicks in the native African languages.
Combined with being phonetic, Hangul as a written dialect is similar to English in that it has an alphabet which builds words in a logical manner from the defined alphabet, as opposed to having a distinct symbol for each word. It might be a slightly different form of logic, but it is logical nonetheless - in fact, with the amount of weird rules and inexplicable exceptions to aforementioned rules in the English language, one could argue that Hangul is probably more efficient and logical that English. As a result, learning to read is usually the first skill most foreigners can get their head around - it isn't a difficult task when you put your mind to it - the real trick is learning to understand what you are reading! And then putting it altogether into sentences is another level entirely - thats where having regular classes really helps, which is what I have been getting twice a week up until recently. Computer programs and books are good to help with study, but one really benefits from having people to ask questions too, practice pronunciation with and having the opportunity to actually use what you have learnt in real situations.

The basic vowels in Korean - the combination ones are fun, so is "eu"

After a few basic lessons, one major key to becoming fluent in any language is expanding the vocabulary and then remembering it so you can use it when you need it. One technique that has been bandied around the office, usually in a somewhat entertaining fashion, has been doing "sounds like" comparisons as a memory tool - similar to the title of this post. For example, "here" in Hangul is "yeogi" and we made the comparison with a beloved cartoon character - "not Bubu! Yeogi!" - it took awhile to explain what this was about to our Korean teacher, which made it all the more hilarious!

Yogi and Bubu are yeogi! Where's the picnic basket? Yeogi? Annyo - jeogi! 

In short, I have really been enjoying studying, learning and practicing Hangul, in spite of what I used to feel about learning languages - and there is definitely no better place to learn a new language than in its country of origin! And I didn't realise how much I enjoyed it until the other week a Persian friend here in Korea told me she was impressed with my Farsi and Hangul and said I had a talent for languages - I never, ever thought someone would say that to me! Well - there you go! What a strange and beautiful world we live in - why not learn a bunch of languages while you're at it? It only helps to build a unified world that we all long for - and a true appreciation of how language affects each of us and our various cultures will aid in developing a universal auxiliary language that will reflect the collective experience of humanity, as envisaged in the Baha'i writings. I'll leave you with this quote and bid you adieu! Peace

Today the greatest need of the world of humanity is discontinuance of the existing misunderstandings among nations. This can be accomplished through the unity of language. Unless the unity oflanguages is realized, the Most Great Peace and the oneness of the human world cannot be effectively organized and established because the function of language is to portray the mysteries and secrets of human hearts. The heart is like a box, and language is the key. Only by using the key can we open the box and observe the gems it contains. - Abdu'l-Baha

Happy Children's Day!!

Holy moly its May! Yesterday was a good day... May the 4th be with you! Hehe love it.

Anyway - it's been awhile since my last post - life has been crazy as some of you probably know. Will have to post about that sometime!

For now I thought I'd write a quick update, to satisfy my ever growing band of readers - a grand total of 12 I believe. Eat that Kanye West's Twitter!

Today is a public holiday in Korea, Childrens Day. Naturally, you're probably wondering what it's about and maybe thinking, gauging from the title perhaps, that the purpose of this post is that I will explain it's significance and that you will come away from reading this post feeling like you have gained some cultural insight you didn't have before. Well - I don't have a bloody clue what it's about! Celebrating children I suppose? It would be un-Australian of me to question a public holiday - hell it's a national institution in Australia! So I say "Happy Children's Day!" while I kick it at home. Win.

I've had a few people ask me what I do in my spare time in Korea, seeing as I seemingly have no friends and no life aside from work. It may seem that way, and it is true that my social life has dropped a few notches since moving here, but for some reason I always seem to be busy. I play soccer twice a week -didn't take me long to find some people to play and it never usually does! - and I play squash once a week. On top of that I have a massive back log of books, video games, TV shows and movies to go through, so that keeps me occupied whenever I have free time. I have also been studying the Korean language - I will make a few comments on this in a future post.

I also recently bought myself a bicycle, which I got from a local store down the street for a reasonable price - they threw in all the added accessories for free which was a nice touch... the only problem being that they left out one of the most crucial accessories... a kickstand! Akh! Need to visit them again sometime soon before my two wheeled vehicle decides to give in to gravitational forces when I take my eyes off of it. 

So today, on my day off, I predictably did all of the above... watched a movie, played some video games, studied some Korean and went for a ride on my bicycle - which was the most exciting part!

Bicycles are amazing. I haven't owned a bike in a long time, but as they say, you never forget how to ride a bike and boy have I missed it. I'm not saying they're awesome because of the exercise factor, how they help with keeping carbon emissions down when people ride them to work rather than driving... these are great side benefits but, no, I think they are amazing because they are awesome exploration tools. Walking/running is great for exercise and exploration but you're limited by distance and traffic, to some extent, to getting much further than within a few kilometres of home (unless you're more dedicated than I - most people are) and driving lacks the fresh air aspect and you tend to glaze over as you drive by all the intricacies of the neighbourhood - but a bicycle is a perfect balance. You get the exercise, fresh air and you can travel an appreciable distance, all while taking in your surroundings - this has been extremely useful having just moved to a new home in a new country, where everything is different and I have no knowledge of the local scenery, shops and attractions. I used to enjoy riding as a child for similar reasons - even though I grew up in the area and knew it well, there were always new places to discover - those "black spots" you just never drove past because you didn't have any friends there or whatever - and now I feel just like a big kid (well, I pretty much am a big kid) - riding up and down hills, taking random back streets, and pelting down the bike paths along the river. I even managed to find the Ulsan Grand Park today - the weather was brilliant so everyone was out with their kids, playing football, basketball, walking with their families... and many others were also riding bicycles! Ah, they all stole my idea, I had it first! haha. Such a nice spot and no doubt I'll go riding out there again.

Ergo, I believe the best way to explore a new place is on two wheels and I look forward exploring more of Ulsan and other parts of Korea by a similar method.... however I may be tempted by four wheeled ATV's!! hmmm (thats another story....)

Until next time (hopefully sooner rather than later) - annyonghigaseyo!

Driving me crazy!

Following my story on my almost maiden trip to Seoul (I passed through on my way in to Ulsan), the next few posts will probably be dedicated to some of the finer aspects of life in Korea as I see them.

First up - driving!

I believe that when you observe the behaviours of drivers in any country, you can almost distil the common underlying attitudes and behaviours of any culture and this is no different in Korea. In Australia, you have the laid back attitude, mixed with a little bit of unforgiving self righteous-ness (in the sense that cars belong on the road, pedestrians don't therefore they shouldn't be there and drivers act like that is always the case and no forgiveness if that assumption is violated at an inconvenient moment), some courtesy in patches and a sense that the rules of the road will always protect you. In India, the rules are that there are no rules. Anything goes, everyone owns the road, pedestrians, cars, taxis, auto rickshaws, cows, you name it. Somehow, you manage to get from point A to point B, but not without doubting at various points whether the trip was even worth it in the first place.... "Thanks bhaisab, I'll walk from here..."

As for Korea.... well, let me elaborate.

My first driving experience in Korea was actually long before I got my car - work provides a defensive driving for all staff, as safety is a huge focus here (in my company anyway) and it's especially useful for us expatriates that are not familiar with the Korean road rules and driving behaviours. As part of the course, we did a semi-driving test - where we took a car for a spin around the block and parked the car and such. It was no-where near as harrowing as my actual drivers test, but driving on the right hand side of the road for the first time was definitely freaking me out - you have no idea how much you rely on where you sit in the car to give you a point of reference when driving till when you change! I drove ok, cautiously, but I did drift towards the right side of my lane, subconsciously clinging to the Australian system.

This experience paled in comparison to when I first got my own car here... a bright red, brand spanking new Hyundai Tucson I might add - still had all the plastic on everything inside and had only done 50 km when I first got in it (refer to my previous post as to why it was a Hyundai! haha). I decided that my first drive in my new beast would be a simple trip down the road after work to Home Plus (Tesco's local presence) for some groceries... easy right? Wrong!

Now, to understand the lay of the land here, in regards to driving, let's analyse the average Korean - average to short in stature, mild mannered, fairly quiet, timid, friendly people who will always say hello to strangers, hard working, diligent and generally speaking, fairly peaceful. Take your average Korean and put them behind a wheel of a motor vehicle however.... and a monstrous transformation takes place! Well, it's not that it is completely unpredictable - it's just that Koreans seem to equate driving to work. Koreans are hard and diligent workers and therefore are aggressive by nature in their work life - get the job done quickly, no matter what it takes. They take on a similar attitude to driving. This presents several challenges in both the work world and on the road. 

What this means is that, unlike India, they generally stick to their lanes and obey the road rules most of the time - however this is only when the rules serve their objectives - they assume that if their objectives are compromised, they can bend or break the rules in order to meet their objective. It's the deadline that counts, not how you get there. What this ends up looking like is pure mayhem... Cars and bikes go every which way at times, drivers are impatient and aggressive and red lights will be run if they see no need to stop. To a fresh foreigner, it seems like madness...

So my first drive consisted of my first real drive on the "wrong" side of the road, in a new car I wasn't used to, at night, to a location I'd never been to (thank God for GPS!), and with an order of magnitude crazier traffic than I had ever driven in... needless to say I was a bit confused and anxious throughout the  entire trip and history will tell that I navigated it safely... even if it didn't feel that way!

Since then, I've become a lot more comfortable driving here, and driving on the other side of the road has become normal now, but I still get a bit bamboozled when drivers do things out of left field - like buses cruising around traffic waiting at a red light and ploughing through, being consistently overtaken by motorbikes on the inside (combined with motorcyclists and scooters being very unpredictable in general) and the odd use of the hazard lights as a universal pass to do whatever the hell you want on the road... "oh hey, I cut you off, turned left across four lanes and ran a red light and a pedestrian crossing but if I put on my hazard lights, its all ok, no worries". 

It can drive you nuts at times, but I am starting to see their method in the madness - not that I have any plans to adopt their methods, I will stick to my guns and drive defensively - i.e. I ain't running no red light just because you're honking your horn buddy! - but by at least understanding their driving philosophy can help predict their actions and avoid putting myself or others in danger. 

Definitely one of the keys to navigating this country safely, and I hope that none of it rubs off on me! Otherwise.... look out Australian road users upon my return!
Until next time - drive safely readers!
PS: Although I have become used to driving here now, India is one place I will NEVER drive - here is a video to illustrate why...

Searching for my Seoul... (part 2)

In a galaxy far, far away, our story continues with our hero well rested after an unsuccessful quest after the cheapest hotel room in existence. This has not been the first time he has exerted his energies in search of a bargain and sure as hell won't be the last....

Ahhh well, moving on. After resting my weary legs, I started to feel the stomach rumble and ducked out of the hotel to get some grub. The Lonely Planet guide indicated I was near one of the popular markets, Namdaemun - which is near central Seoul - and I decided I'd go check it out. 

Namdaemun market is fairly similar to every other shopping market I've ever been to in Asia - full of stalls selling a wide variety of stuff - most of it being fake handbags, Louis Vutton ties, Gucci sunglasses, etc that all falls apart within a week or two if you're careful, otherwise it might not make it out of the market alive. Needless to say, when that happens and you go back to return your brand spanking new Ray Band sunnies that just happened to have the lense fall out the first time you try them out, the stall you bought it from magically turns into a deep fried indescribable local food stall. Such is the nature of the fabric of the Asian market universes  - Petaling St in KL and Palika Bazaar in New Delhi can claim similar honours. The one benefit from the Korean version is that the shopkeepers aren't as in-your-face as their Indian counterparts nor are you likely to have poo thrown on your shoe (that is another story entirely!). But I could be proven wrong... however the deep fried whatever it was wasn't too bad and my glasses are still broken.

I can almost go down in history as the worst shopper ever. Unless I know exactly what I want and why I want it, I inadvertently spend my time being indecisive, umming and erring over even the simplest of purchases and usually end up walking away with nada. I managed to get out of my predicament a little this time when, as I was attempting to ask for a price on something, a Korean lady helped me out. She started talking to me, as she knew some English, and then asked if she could walk around the market with me and chat. Apparently, she was from out of town, visiting her daughter who studies at a uni there and she'd been studying English and wanted to practice - so she followed me around and taught me a few things about Korea while we had a relatively broken conversation as she struggled with my accent and I tried my best to follow what she was saying. What surprised me was that her daughter seemed to know little to no English - which is a bit of a role reversal to what you usually come across. The sweet lady even showed me some of the nearby food stalls and explained to me what was in all the dishes - lets just say I might reconsider trying some of those now - ignorance is bliss when experimenting with food!

Since this experience in Seoul, I've since found it is not a unique occurrence - everywhere I go, someone will spot the foreigner and use it as an opportunity to try out their English - mostly its kids saying "Hi" and "Where are you from?". I sometimes wonder how they would even know that I know English - I could be German for all they know - I've never had a Korean child come up to me and say "Guten tag!" That'll be the day... Meanwhile, if you are a foreigner and you don't know Korean or English and don't have a translator or tour guide, you would be almost up the proverbial creek in this country. You'd survive, but English can be a saviour at times, even if it is a poor one.

I parted ways with my inadvertent English student, satisfied that I may have introduced some Aussie slang to her vocabulary just to confuse her (I'm such a great teacher like that) and retreated to the hotel for some shut-eye.

The next day was a little more routine in the tourist sense - I checked out of the hotel, left my luggage in a locker at the train station (I casually mention this, but was a lot more work than expected!) and caught the subway to meet a friend at Gyeongbok Palace. 

Gyeongbok Palace

Gyeongbok Palace is one of the five palaces in Seoul and is the first palace of the Joseon dynasty. It's design follows Confucian philosophy and is simple in design, and from my point of view, looks very similar to a lot of the traditional East Asian architecture that is found throughout China and Japan. 

We arrived there just in time to see the changing of the guards ceremony, where numerous Korean men were decked out in traditional garb with weaponry and all and went through their ritual to the amusement of the gathered crowd. 

Bang that drum sunshine. I never would have thought colourful long flowing robes would be useful in combat, but there you go.

Our timing was not so perfect in terms of the free English tour of the palace, so we ducked out to check out another local market - Insadong. 

Insadong market

Insadong is a quaint market that tends to focus on selling more of the traditional arts and crafts of Korea/Asia and is a bit more cultural than Namdaemun, and has a lot less fake goods on offer. A very nice place to go for a wander on a Sunday afternoon and we were treated to a couple of small "cultural" performances... see the attached video.

I never said it was a Korean cultural performance! Seeing a turkish ice cream vendor in Seoul was a welcome reminder of Istanbul, and definitely unexpected!

Heading back to the palace, I observed more interesting aspects of Korea that I will elaborate on in further posts - due mainly to the length of this one! I imagine many of you have either flicked back to facebook or a youtube video by now, but for those who are still tuned in, I'll finish my story!

The tour of the palace was nice, and learning about and appreciating the history of a place is always fulfilling - I won't go into in this post, but Korea's history is an interesting one and hard to perhaps get an objective view of it - given the ongoing war with the North and long term resentment of Japan - these aspects have a sometimes subtle, sometimes not so subtle, influence on how the country's history is portrayed. 

Kicking it on a cultural tour - the building behind me was the party pad for the royal family - yeah boi

View behind the palace - great day.

After a pleasant afternoon getting my culture on, we made our way to where the Seoul Baha'i Community's Naw Ruz celebration was to be held. For those less familiar, Naw Ruz is the Baha'i New Year (it is also the term for Persian new year as well - literally means new year in Farsi) and marks the beginning of the Baha'i Calendar and the end of the Fasting period. Hence why a buffet Korean meal hit the spot perfectly! Over the years I have noticed however, that no matter how great the idea is, fasting tends to shrink the stomach and you can never eat as much as would have liked. Alas, it happened again, but the food was delish and the company was even better! It was great meeting the Baha'is in Seoul and partaking in a joyous celebration with them - the stand out was the performance put together by the youth and the quiz/game show afterwards. Having seen Baha'i youth do creative performances all over the world, they definitely took a unique approach to it and, as usual, it was an extremely joyful occasion and the crowd really appreciated it. I then had time to catch a coffee with some of my new friends before hitching a ride on the KTX train back to Ulsan. 

Youth performance at Naw Ruz celebration

Overall, I was very satisfied with my visit to Seoul and I look forward to going there more as my time in Korea  continues!

Until next time readers - gamsahapnida!

Searching for my Seoul...

Annyong ha seyo readers! After only just getting back on the gravy train that is the blogosphere, I thought I would be timely to regale you all with a tale of my adventure up to Seoul - that capital of the country I now call home.
Three weeks ago was Naw Ruz - Baha'i New Year - and as there are no other Baha'i's in Ulsan, I decided to head up to Seoul to celebrate the occasion with the community there. Although it seemed a bit early to be travelling away from Ulsan as I had only just moved into my new apartment and hadn't had any time to explore the local area, I thought that I shouldn't pass up the opportunity to meet some of the Baha'is in Seoul and surrounds.
I left the apartment at a reasonable time in the morning and caught a cab out to the train station - it took about half an hour, which isn't too bad considering I had no idea the station was well out of town.
You may have heard that in countries such as Korea and Japan, they have installed these "bullet" trains that are super fast to go between major cities - in Korea it's called the KTX - and I took this up to Seoul. It took about 2 hours and 15 min and cost roughly $50 one way - pretty cheap and quick considering the alternative is an hour or so flight that costs 3 - 4 times as much. For another comparison if one were to drive to Seoul, it takes 4-5 hours I've been told - almost the same distance between Perth and Albany!  The train even felt kind of like flight - a flight that stopped to swap out passengers every half an hour, had no safety briefing and had wireless internet (that I couldn't figure out how to connect to).

"Anyonghaseyo, this is your kaptain speaking... prepare for horizontal take off"

Unfortunately, my goal of looking out the window mindlessly and appreciating the Korean Kountryside  for 2 hours was hindered by being assigned an aisle seat - so instead I enjoyed the company of my iPad - Apple saves the day! Considering the other option was the in-ride magazine which had oh-so-helpful English titles but had absolutely no English in the body of the text - way to appeal to the foreigners. All in all, a fairly pleasant experience and very convenient method of getting around the country.
Now - my first day was a bit of a different one in a tourist sense. In short, I ended up taking an extensive tour of Seoul's subway network - which is top notch - and not really achieving my objective.

Seoul central station - home of the KTX

The longer, and more interesting story, goes like this... leading up to my trip to Seoul, I spent some time trying to look for accommodation. I was hoping to stay with a friend, but due to circumstances, I was unable to and I had to look for a place to crash for the night. In vintage style, I left it to the last minute (as us engineers always say, if it wasn't for the last minute, nothing would ever get done) and so I was poking around on the internet the night before to find a hotel to stay at. As I begin to scroll through the numerous options on a recently discovered and very useful website, asiarooms.com, I stumble across a deal that I could not refuse! Some hotel had slashed the price of its rooms from W120,000 to W700!! In AUD that equates from discounting from $120 to 70 CENTS (I'm highlighting this because I mentioned it to friend and it did not compute). Naturally, I was curious as to whether it was a typo, thinking it cannot be physically possible to rent out a room for 70c a night - surely even turning on the lights cost more than that! Maybe half the room was missing? or it was a closet? or something - I felt like I had to make it my personal mission to find out - I mean what was the worst that could happen? Either it was fake and no harm done, I pay a bit more for a room, or I could find out it was an absolute shocker and I move somewhere else and I lose 70c (oh no!) OR I could gain the eternal fame of having gotten THE bargain of the century - somewhere in my mind the benefits of this scheme far outweighed the negatives.
(Note: I'm not a complete idiot - this website is legit, the crime rate in Korea is extremely low and I know how to avoid dangerous situations - but as they say, curiosity killed the cat - I think it was all for a good cause :) )
With my mission clear in my mind, I set out to find this mysterious hotel.
As I mentioned before, Seoul's subway system is great - at first glance it seems like a confusing network of multi-coloured lines and it involves a complicated version of joining the dots and a bit of keen linear programming to figure out the best way to get from point A to point B - especially when your super cheap hotel is located in dingo woop woop, relatively speaking - relative because as the crow flies, its still a shorter distance than making your way from one end of Perth CBD to the other.
I determined my path of least resistance, with the aid of a giant iPad-esque information screen at the train station which was conveniently in English, bought a ticket at a measly 90c (winner) and made my way to where the website advised of the hotels location.

The ridiculously cheap and extremely convenient Seoul subway...

After several changes of trains, I arrived at where the "pin" marked the sport (side note - imagine google making a treasure map - haha) and low and behold - I was in a fish market! I looked through every back street for this damn hotel and all I found was rows of stalls with seaweed and dried fish. Not only did it stink to high heaven, I repeatedly walked past the same blank faced locals who must have been wondering why this random foreigner, dragging along noisy luggage, was wandering in circles and I still couldn't find the bloody hotel!
In desperation, I turned to my iPad for a solution - thankfully some ignorant or generous locals hadn't locked their wireless (I sometimes wonder why people don't do that, but I wasn't complaining in this situation) and used the ever useful Google to revise my destination coordinates. With a bit more searching it turned out I was way off - the updated location was another 20 min subway ride away! *sigh* I set off again, not willing to give up on my quest for the cheapest hotel in history! I was getting tired at this stage and having delusions about what the hotel would be like... needless to stay at this time I began questioning whether the hotel even existed, and whether I was a sucker to some sort of scam... I imagine if you get enough people giving you 70c, eventually you'll defraud millions, but you have to be a dedicated fraudster to turn a profit.
I eventually made my way to the new location, which as you'd expect from the Google Maps application, seemed highly vague, mainly due to the fact Google Maps for Korea is in, you guessed it, Korean and not English-afied Korean - I had determined I was on the right street but for all intents and purposes had no idea how far along the street the hotel was. I walked for what felt like an eternity and passed countless motels (many of which are the infamous "love" motels - more on this in another post) and hotels, none of which were my mysterious hotel - I felt like I was searching for platform 9 3/4! (insert nerdy reference).

One "love" motel aptly located next to the sexy club. No funny business here

At this point, I decided to loosen the purse strings, excusing myself from the principle of my adventure temporarily, and hopped in a taxi, hoping that the driver would at least have some idea. He plugged it into his GPS and we drove back down the way I had just walked (sigh again with the waste of energy) and drove around the corner with the GPS indicating it was just there... but alas the street ended just before the supposed street number of the hotel! Where on earth was this freakin hotel?! Finally, with no internet nearby to recalibrate and feeling tired after a few hours of investigation, I curtailed my search, and came to a sudden realisation that I wasn't really THAT tight. I was satisfied that I put in a solid effort, with the side benefits of seeing a part of Seoul I probably wouldn't have seen otherwise and figuring out the subway system.

Tired, disappointed, but mildly content, I made my way back to central Seoul, found the nearest hotel and rested.... in preparation for more adventures! To be continued in part 2.... Stay tuned!

Ulsan Downtown

Harro friends and strangers alike!
Apologies for the delay between posts - but rest assured it has been because I have been busy discovering more blog-worthy material!
Since my last post, I have moved out of the inner sanctum of the Hyundai Kingdom and Hyundai's quite well placed hotel, and out into the "sticks", which in reality - isn't. Maybe in reference to work but not to hub of social activity and entertainment. My new apartment is in the downtown area of Ulsan - which is again separated into the new and old downtown areas - my apartment building, called "Starclass", is in the new downtown area (see photos). To the untrained eye, there doesn't appear to be much difference between the old and new downtown, but I'm sure with some more exploring one should be able to discover their hidden treasures and intricacies.

For those who aren't familiar with the Asian landscape, Korea, much like its neighbours, are true believers in the high rise apartment blocks. It's like the Gold Coast everywhere and with nowhere near as good beaches or sunny conditions - and not a hot blonde in sight! It probably has something to do with most Asian cities containing the entire population of Australia in an area the size of Melbourne... in the case of Ulsan, its more like the population of Perth squeezed between Scarborough road and Canning road... ok maybe not that small, but still - according to Wikipedia (i.e. the font of all knowledge - RIP Encyclopedia Britannica) Ulsan has three times the population density than Perth! On top of that, the majority of it's population is huddled next to, and around, the Hyundai Heavy Industries (HHI) shipyards - for convenience and because Hyundai, the ever so gracious and bountiful hosts of this great city, provide numerous apartment compounds for their workers.
Scattered amongst the multitude of eerily similar apartment compounds (with the only defining characteristic being the number painted on the side - seriously, they are all a different shade of beige - no exceptions!!) are the more "ritzy" places which foreigners -  otherwise known as expats - generally occupy in the downtown area. As classy as they are inside, they all have equally pompous names - "Exordium", "Starclass", "Zenith", etc.
Now, I may be making a harsh generalisation, but you would be hard pressed to find a foreigner around here who wasn't in Ulsan because of work related to HHI - bearing in mind Ulsan isn't really a well known holiday destination nor is it an astounding hub of international activity. Granted there are a few English teachers here and there - maybe they live in these apartments too - who knows, but big foreign companies like to look after their expatriate employees and boy you can tell when you see these apartments. These apartment blocks have all the top amenities you could ask for - a gym, a pool in some cases, putting greens and driving ranges (Koreans love their golf). Too bad I left my clubs back in Australia! On top of that most of the apartments around here are pretty high tech - from my understanding, I can turn on my heating and lights via the internet? I'm sure it'd be fantastic if I could read Korean...  I probably shouldn't get used to it... otherwise I'll have withdrawals when I go back home - "this apartment complex doesn't have a driving range? Preposterous!!" :P
A lot of the expats like to live in a few "foreigners compounds" near the yard for convenience - roll out of bed and you're at work - even if they aren't quite as fancy (still pretty damn good by my standards!) however I preferred to have a bit of a life outside of work and so I decided to move downtown instead - at the cost of a half hour to 45 minute commute to work with the company van service - hence the "sticks". If I take the bus it's about an hour but hey - it only costs a dollar! As a result, I have the potential to do a lot more over the weekend - there are an order of magnitude more restaurants, shopping malls, cinemas, etc in downtown compared to the handful of dining options and dodgy clubs and pubs near the yard. More importantly there are 2 Indian restaurants nearby - have to have my priorities in the right order!

That should do for now - until your eyes get more nourishment from my pointless but supposedly interesting dialogue, enjoy this photo of Ulsan from a top of a local ferris wheel (photo of ferris wheel is a free bonus)

Kamsanida!

Bibimbap and Bulgogi burgers!

Foooooood - seems to be the hot topic this time of the year. I've had a lot of questions regarding the food in Korea so far and how I manage to be feeding myself and so this subject will dominate this post - it takes added importance as this is the Baha'i month of fasting (no food and drink between sunrise and sunset as a part of one's individual spiritual cleansing) and once again the fast has fallen at a time when I've started a new job. On a side note it always feels rude to meet new people and then knock back their offers to go to lunch or to reject all the free food that seems to welcome someone at a new work place... all part of the tests that come with the fast!
So, despite the fact that I am unable to eat during the day, I have still had the pleasure of trying the local delicacies during the night hours - cue the vampire music.... Every night I glide down gracefully from the 9th floor of my castle, I mean, hotel and go on the prowl for fresh blood, I mean, food.... well, it'd suit if this was Pennsylvania. Ulsylvania. hmmmm.
I find that the key to discovering food in a foreign country and not getting sick is to balance caution with adventure and to have a bit of common sense - from previous experience the best method is to have a local friend or a friend who is familiar with the way food goes in the area, help you on your journey of discovery. That way, they already know the best places, the good types of food you should try and what is more than likely to make you spend more time in a bathroom than you normally would. Having said that, Korea is definitely no China or India and the standards of cleanliness and hygiene are much higher - of all the Asian countries, Korea is probably second to only Japan in being the most modernised - it is definitely cleaner than Malaysia and Bali and they are generally pretty safe spots. So even if you have no clue, you'll generally get away without getting sick - although you might find out later that you may have eaten Lassie - no worries.
In Seoul, I spent a night with a friend who is very familiar with Korea and she took me to this place that made tofu based soup - and it tasted awesome.
However, I now find myself in a bit of a bind - I haven't got any real local friends here yet. All the people I've met so far are other expats and like most expats - not to be judgemental - don't know a lot of the language and tend to only know where all the western type food joints are. And aren't always that adventurous.
One local I did meet - the guy who was showing me potential apartments (sweet guy) - took me for bulgogi, which was also awesome. He was extremely impressed at my willingness to try everything and that I took to chopsticks like a fish to water - sure you can say being born in China probably means it was always meant to be but I blame the hours of late night practice at the dodgy Northbridge Asian restaurants - long live Uncle Billy's! - and when I was picking up what appeared to be quail eggs with my chopsticks, he said even Koreans find doing that tricky! Haha, I'm so Asian.
Aside from that one experience, I find that due to the general overall hunger that takes over as the sun hits the horizon, I've mainly been dining at the restaurants and the food court at the Hyundai Department store and trying the variety of foods on offer there. Noodles, donkatsu, bibimbap, dumplings (yes!) and steam buns have all been mercilessly smashed - some I've had a few times because they taste so good!
For posterity reasons, I have also visited the local Macca's to try out the unique items on the menu - I know, I know, I have been a long standing opponent to the devil's restaurant and not often do I traverse through the gates of hell that are the golden arches, but I feel compelled to taste the local versions of the menu - it is incumbent on one to try a McFelafel in Israel or a Maharaja Mac in India, so of course I had to try the Bulgogi burger... it wasn't half bad, but I doubt it will feature in my regular routine.
Last night however, I went out exploring to see the local restaurants - to see if I could find something different. Lets just say, it was quite an experience, lots of flashing neon signs, pictures of random food, lots of Korean menus that I had no idea what was going on and many of the restaurants had the Japanese style tiny tables you kneel at.... and I was so hungry and overwhelmed with choice, I just went to Burger King... woo go me! That is where you need a friend with some direction. Today was different, and I found this place with a great beansprout soup - was a lot of food for only $5!
For those unfamiliar with Korean cuisine, when you go to a restaurant, your meal (which is comparatively pretty cheap) is generally accompanied by a whole range of side dishes that are all free and literally unlimited - you finish it and they give you more - its awesome! The side dishes usually consist of random vegetables, kim chi (of course) and maybe some sort of seafood. One restaurant gave me films of seaweed (typically used for sushi) which are used to roll up rice and requires some deft chopstick skills to pull off - I think I probably need a bit more practice but I made a solid attempt.
Needless to say, I have already frequented an Indian restaurant (vital to living anywhere is finding the nearest source of butter chicken - definitely not in Vic Park anymore!)
Next in my food adventures is finding a keen Korean barbeque venue - I have realised that I have to quickly become the local friend who knows the best places to eat before people come to visit! and I don't intend to disappoint!
Let that serve as an invitation to you dear readers! However I may need a few months before you come round... Otherwise, who knows what you might eat - sure it will taste great anyway!
Until next time - annyonghigaseyo!

Welcome to Ulsan!

Or should I say... the kingdom of Hyundai!
I thought it would be good to start the real posts with some sort of introduction to the new environs I find myself in.
It took me two 5- 6 hour international flights and one 1 hour domestic flight to get to Ulsan from sunny ol' Perth (although it was a bit longer as I spent a day in Seoul on the way - I will post about Seoul another time, when I get another chance to actually explore the city) which will be my new home for the next two years.
Ulsan is located on the south east coast of South Korea and is an hour drive from Busan - the second largest city in Korea. I believe it has a population of around a million (similar size to Perth) but for some reason the traffic makes it feel like its larger... I'll explain later.
In a nutshell, Ulsan was originally an ancient city, dating back to some kingdom (my Korean history is shady at the moment) but it really sprung into life when a little company, called Hyundai, decided to build its main heavy industries, fabrication, manufacturing and ship yard here - Hyundai Heavy Industries (HHI). I suppose for awhile it was the main feature, but as it needed a large employee base to support its operations (it now has around 20,000 employees at any one time) and the government was pumping money into the industry, Hyundai effectively built a city for it's employees - hence the Kingdom of Hyundai. It seems that you need a population of a million to support a large manufacturing operation. And when I mean large... its ridiculously huge - if you ever see a big BIG ship, you could probably wager that it was made here or one of the other two main shipyards in Korea - Samsung and Daewoo. It's a bit hard to grasp how big these ships, and the equipment used to build it are until you see it in real life.... but I digress...
As a result of Hyundai building a city to support it's facilities, EVERYTHING is branded Hyundai - for example, I am staying in the Hyundai Hotel - right next to the Hyundai University Hospital, in the proximity of the Hyundai Department store... the lifts are all made by Hyundai Elevator company... everyone in this city drives... you guessed it... well if you said a Kia - close, but no cigar - pretty much 9 out of 10 cars on the road are Hyundais. All the trucks, buses, etc are all Hyundais. It is ridiculous. I don't think I've seen a single foreign car yet. I will take a picture when I do.
As you may have guessed, the HHI shipyard is where I am working. So far, my life has been based around the yard - the hotel is close by, and its probably why everything around is Hyundai. I will be moving into an apartment in downtown Ulsan (half hour drive away) and hopefully there will be a bit more variety there. However, I will be driving to and from work in a few short weeks in my brand new... Hyundai! There is no escaping it!
Until next time... heres a picture I scammed from the interweb, as I haven't got any of my own yet. Enjoy!

Annyonghaseyo!

Hi everybody! (Hi Dr Nick...)

Welcome to my blog!

Now, this is my very first blog and I am new to the experience.

I have started this blog as a sort of virtual diary of my new adventure - I have moved out of Australia for the first time and have now taken up residence in Ulsan, South Korea, where I have taken on a new job. 

The vision is that I can share with you all my thoughts and experiences as I discover the treasures that Korea has to offer, as well as the no doubt humorous anecdotes that will be created as this "gwuah loh" (white devil) tries to fumble his way through Korean culture.

Although this is the first time I have moved outside of the country, I am a well travelled individual, and I will also use this as a portal to share my insights about the world in which we live, particularly as I get a glimpse into how diverse cultures are both similar and different.

Regardless - I look forward to sharing this adventure with you all!

Stay tuned!