Brazil business trip

I had a long 3-week business trip to Brazil in September. Though business travel is not like leisure travel, particularly when you work for Samsung Korea, but it was a new country for me to experience so I thought I should write a little something about it.

Caipirinha

For one thing, Brazil is really FAR from Korea, about as far away in the world as you can get (I think only Argentina is more distant). To get there, we flew 10 hours to Abu Dhabi and then another 15 hours to Sao Paulo! Thank goodness we had business class seats on Etihad. It was my first time flying quality business class for a long flight (I have had subpar business class experiences on shorter United and Vietnam Air trips) and I enjoyed the luxuries of high-class travel. Champagne before takeoff... Yes please! Sleeping is much easier when you are actually flat. The Etihad business class lounge in Abu Dhabi is quite splendid and has a great buffet (the airport there is not so splendid, however). It's hard for me to believe that I have survived 9 business trips to US/Europe with Samsung flying economy.

Once we landed I stayed awake in the car to watch late afternoon in Sao Paulo. We landed on a cool overcast day and the city felt quite bleak. Everything felt dilapidated somehow. Motorbikes zipped between lanes in the traffic, graffiti everywhere on the sides of the road. Sao Paulo seemed to have an endless array of unfinished buildings and work-in-progress pillars for new roads and trains. I couldn't help but wonder how many of these projects had been abandoned. My young Korean colleague in the car said, "This doesn't feel so exotic."

We had all been scared pre-trip with warnings about Brazil's safety. Don't walk alone at night. Beware looking conspicuous at the airport. Pray that you're not kidnapped by a gang. I expected Koreans to be paranoid, but my external research was similarly ominous. I felt anxious.

However, thankfully the Samsung Brazil subsidiary, near Morumbi Mall, was in a decent part of town away from the favelas. I quickly grew comfortable with walking on the sidewalk from hotel to office during the day (a lot of people were also walking), and in the early evening I would walk in a pack with colleagues. If I felt afraid, smartphone apps like GrabTaxi seemed to work well and taxis in Sao Paulo are cheap.

Brazilians, Koreans, and *me* ... enjoying steak

That said, I was not in Sao Paulo to enjoy myself or explore. Korean-style business trips mean long hours and a lot of Korean food! Actually being forced to eat Korean food in Sao Paulo with my team was really frustrating. There is enough Korean food in Korea... Expand your palates a little! I really wanted to visit a traditional Brazilian steakhouse, a churrascaria, and was really sad that my team did not want to try this uniquely Brazilian dining experience.

I had a bit of time to myself during the first 2 weekends that I was in Brazil. I went out to try drinking caipirinhas and enjoy life music. The Sao Paulo social scene seemed to have a relaxed dress code and I felt like I fit in quite well.

Actually, I fit in a little too well... Everyone was trying to speak Portuguese to me! I hadn't known how diverse Sao Paulo is, a lot like New York or Houston in the US. I told my girlfriend that I seemed to blend right in and she was shocked, thinking that all Brazilians have dark features (definitely not all).

Real pizza and dark beer ... I love it!

I quickly discovered that Sao Paulo is a center of business and not a good place for tourism. My first 2 weekends there were cool and gray, and after seeing the Parque Ibirapuerra (a nice walk) and the Sao Paulo Cathedral (dangerous neighborhood), I didn't feel like there was anything more to see. Avenida Paulista was dull.

I did enjoy Sao Paulo food greatly. Beans and grilled vegetables and delicious grilled salmon and chicken and beefsteak... Yum yum yum. Also so many tropical fruits in Brazil. Passion fruit! Starfruit, guava, papaya as well. In addition, because Sao Paulo was settled by so many Italians (more even than New York) one couldn't help but find great Italian food too! Speaking of which, Sao Paulo is full of Italian-style espresso shops. A shot of espresso, a cube of sugar, and a little biscuit or wafer... For $1.20, so cheap! It made me feel a little bitter what I pay to drink mediocre coffee in Korea.

Diversity ... you see I do fit in at Brazil!

Sadly, despite the lack of attractions I did not escape Sao Paulo during my 3-week stay. Rio de Janeiro would have been the obvious place to visit, but my first two weekends in Brazil had awful weather, and my Korean team called me into work on the third weekend when the weather had turned sunny and glorious. Damn. I have a 10-year visa to Brazil now, so I guess I will need to return.

Cat Tien National Park: An Outdoor Adventure in South Vietnam

Finally able to use some of my accumulated frequent flyer miles (40,000 on Asiana), I scheduled an impromptu flight down to Ho Chi Minh City to see my girlfriend for the second time in a month. Needless to say, she was excited, and she planned an adventurous weekend in Cat Tien National Park, about 150km from Saigon.

Excited to see real primates!

A traveler to Vietnam must understand that the “highways” in the country are quite slow, and distances take much longer to travel than in more developed countries. For us, this journey took about 3.5 to 4 hours each way, meaning we were only traveling about 40km/hr.

We meant to depart early from Saigon but we had an oh-so-nice! boutique hotel (I Am Vietnam — highly recommend) and we wanted a little extra time to enjoy the room and the lavish breakfast. By the time we finally reached the bus depot we had missed the direct 10:30am passenger van to Cat Tien (no A/C, I am told), so my girlfriend quickly improvised and found an 11am air-conditioned van traveling north that could drop us off about 25km from the park. The rest of the journey we would complete by taxi (400,000 VND). This is not something that an English-speaking tourist would be able to figure out, though. The journey was crammed full of people in a van that inconceivably kept picking up passengers en route, even though by all appearances it was quite full. Definitely not a luxurious mode of transport — I don’t know how one could do this without A/C.

We finally reached our lodging at about 3pm, the overpriced and uninspiring Forest Floor Lodge, about 1.5km from the park headquarters (thankfully there was a golf cart to transport us). We had missed our planned tour for the afternoon so we borrowed a couple bicycles and rode back to the HQ area for an early dinner, while a late shower burst outside. Our Night Safari tour at 6pm was “rain or shine”, so we bought some ponchos and sat on the top of a van that drove us out a bit into the wilderness. An extravagant adventure full of exotic animals it was not — we saw one snake and several packs of deer. The Vietnamese were fascinated by the deer … such common animals they are in American suburbs, but in Vietnam these are a real rural treat!

The hiking trail in the forest was a little difficult to bike on!

The second day was our big outdoor day. We woke up early (the power returned to life at 6:30am), ate a quick breakfast and took a boat to the Dao Tien Primate Rescue Center. This is an educational reserve where golden-cheek gibbons and other primates are placed after being rescued from illegal captivity in Vietnam or other countries. These animals need to be returned to full health and need to learn the skills to survive in the wild.

Later in the morning we rented bicycles and drove to the Crocodile Lake — 10km on a rocky road and 4km on a difficult and narrow trail in the forest… we hiked the last 1km to the lake. I was already exhausted, sweaty and hot after reaching the lake, which had no crocodiles or birds to see during the mid-day sun. Some men who were filming a wildlife documentary cooked us pork and we rejuvenated ourselves for the long ride back to Park HQ. My girlfriend and I sang songs to lift our spirits in the empty woods, and after a scary short boat ride and a scary 25km on the back of a speeding motorbike through the rural roads near Cat Tien, we finally reached the comfort of a sleeper bus that drove us the rest of the slow way back to Ho Chi Minh City. We watched American action movies like “Expendables 3” and Vietnamese-American music videos, and it was great to lay down flat to catch a nap.

Already exhausted, and we're not even all the way to Crocodile Lake yet

A lazy Monday in Ho Chi Minh City capped off my trip, and I slept as best I could on the red-eye back to Seoul for Tuesday morning. Someday I hope to be rid of those red-eye flights!

Nha Trang: Easy-going Vietnamese Beach Town

With a steady Vietnamese girlfriend now, I am becoming much more of a regular in Vietnam. I scheduled two relatively impromptu trips to see her recently … fortunately there are many direct flights to Vietnam from Seoul.

Po Nagar Tower looks a bit like Angkor Wat in Cambodia

For the Buddha’s Birthday 3-day holiday weekend at the end of May I flew to Nha Trang, a Russian-dominated beach community in southern Vietnam. The international airport there is certainly the smallest I have visited in Vietnam, and I was a little uneasy landing close to midnight on a flight full of Koreans (who do not need a visa to visit Vietnam, lucky bastards). The visa on arrival office was closed when I arrived, which brought a momentary pang of panic to me, but thankfully an immigration officer eventually showed up and processed my paperwork — overall the time to exit the airport was still less than in Ho Chi Minh City. I was happy to have mastered the murky Vietnam visa system once again, and to receive a big hug from my girlfriend waiting on the other side of security.

The good thing about traveling with a local in Vietnam is that renting a motorbike is no hassle. Though it’s a little strange to be a man hugging a woman from behind on the motorbike, rather than the other way around, I would rather have that than trying to learn the obscure rules of the road in Vietnam. The Vietnamese don’t seem to mind.

The motorbike tour of Nha Trang was rather uneventful, as there aren’t many tourist-worthy attractions. We stopped at Nha Trang Cathedral (my girlfriend loves churches), walked around the Long Son Pagoda (with a large Buddha statue), took in the Po Nagar Tower (built by the ancient Cham people, and resembled Cambodia’s Angkor Wat), and stumbled around the rocks on the Hon Chong Promontory (a fine picture-taking destination with the Nha Trang coastline). It was a relaxing May day, hot but dry with the occasional friendly cloud to shield us from the intense tropical sunlight.

The rocks on Hon Chong Promontory are relaxing!

The second day featured a boat tour to nearby islands off the coastline. The vessel was an old crammed wooden design, I muttered a small prayer to myself that the boat would not sink that day — taking my valuable electronics into the sea. At Mun Island my girlfriend and I did a little snorkeling together… coral reef here was bare and dull but it did make for some good swim time (requiring *strong* sunscreen). Lunch was served onboard and there was music time afterwards… a guitar, drums, and a microphone. It was karaoke time and as the only Westerner onboard (there were also Vietnamese, Koreans, and some Indians), I was asked to sing a song. Surprisingly “Hotel California” is well known in Asia … and the crowd loved it! This was followed by “happy hour” on the water, and I forgot to reapply sunscreen, leading to my first sunburn on my shoulders in some time … tsk tsk.

Day 3 in Nha Trang was a visit to Thap Ba Hot Mineral Spring mud bath resort. Don’t want to get dirty, you are thinking? Think again! I was skeptical too, but this place rocked. The mud baths are warm and relaxing and make a great day out for couples. Once you have had about 20-30 minutes of mud, you get to clean off in nice, gushing showers. This place also has swimming pools to clean off further, and a large seating area to enjoy a nice afternoon with a cocktail.

For Day 4, we flew back to Ho Chi Minh City to visit the Saigon Opera House and catch the À Ố Show (pronounced “ahhh! ohhh!”), a cirque performance full of baskets, bamboo, acrobatics, and Vietnamese working songs. It is pretty simple, short, and not really worth the inflated ticket price, but it was still an entertaining performance. If you are accustomed to the amazing acts in Cirque du Soleil, À Ố will seem a bit like a college drama performance in comparison, but it is a good diversion for a tourist’s trip to Saigon — it is certainly a unique performance.

After the performance with the cast of À Ố Show

Singapore: Week of the Lee Kuan Yew funeral

After a whirlwind couple of weeks of work and a grueling European business trip, it was a relief to get on an airplane to see my Vietnamese girlfriend for a few easy days in warm Singapore. On my first visit to Singapore in 2010 I had regarded Singapore as a dull, sleepy island nation. Quite frankly, that type of place was quite alright for me to visit in March 2015, as I was in no mood for long days of sightseeing.

Memorial messages to Lee Kuan Yew could be found all around the city

This trip I was staying in a more historic, less gentrified part of Singapore — Joo Chiat Rd in the eastern part of the city. It was a little distant from the subway but certainly a better value than being somewhere more central. The area was lively at night as it is known for go-go clubs and, interestingly, Vietnamese restaurants. I did not subject my girlfriend to Singaporean renditions of her local cuisine.

After a very late 1am arrival at Changi Airport the night before, the first day in Singapore (Thursday) was lazy. We ate a late lunch at a Chinese seafood restaurant in my neighborhood (where, of course, the waitress tried unsuccessfully to speak to my girlfriend in Chinese), then a slow coffee. We weren’t in the sightseeing area until 4:30pm, which was perfectly fine as we avoided the intense daytime sun and heat of Singapore.

We exited City Hall station and noticed it was very active, with signs pointing to the Lee Kuan Yew memorial site. I suggested we follow the signs — would be a once in a lifetime sort of thing to see the coffin of the founding father, and might just have a bit of a line…

Well, the line stretched and snaked for many blocks, around War Memorial Park several times before extending down the street beyond where the eye could see. This line was massive, and we would be here for hours. My girlfriend and I backtracked through the very orderly crowds and escaped — turned out the queue time was anywhere from 5 to 8 hours for most of the week!

What my girlfriend called the "Durian" theater

My girlfriend really wanted to see the “durian” theater (Esplanade), and we detoured a little around the crowds before we found a path. The sun was covered by a friendly cloud but I was still sweating. We made it down to the Marina Bay and snapped all the typical pleasant tourist photos of Singapore: the Singapore Flyer, the Marina Bay Sands, the Merlion. We strolled along Boat Quay. packed with Aussies and Indians watching their teams compete in the Cricket World Cup and finally dined on hamburgers for dinner in Clarke Quay. In the evening we strolled through the bright markets in Chinatown before retiring.

Friday was all about seeing expat acquaintances who had moved to Singapore — an Italian who works for Intel, a Taiwanese who works for Thomson Reuters, and a Brit at a renewable energy company. I learned surprisingly little about how one actually might find a job in Singapore, but I did enjoy seeing everyone and eating and drinking coffee. In a way, I saw how the “locals” live. In between appointments we walked along Orchard Road, desperate for a coffee and cake cafe (not found on the pricey sidewalk real estate), but did eventually settle into one for a nice air-conditioned break, where I introduced my girlfriend to the delight of French Press coffee.

On Friday evening, my girlfriend and I tackled my former arch nemesis… the Singapore chili crab!! We visited Long Beach at Dempsey Hill, a nice wooded area by the Botanic Gardens. This time I had two big advantages from my first messy encounter… my girlfriend who could eat some of the crab, and a friendly waiter who offered to bring the crab out cut into smaller pieces. Though it still made my hands red, the crab was delicious and considerably better than before.

Above Singapore, at a rooftop pool bar near Somerset station

Saturday daytime brought more tourism, the new Gardens by the Bay. The outside was a little hot for daytime walking, thankfully free of charge though. However we needed the air conditioning beckoning from the two domes on the site: the Flower Dome and the Cloud Forest. At the ticket counter we had sticker shock at the price of visiting both (28 SGD / person), so we received the ticket for one conservatory (16 SGD / person) and needed to make a choice… which dome?! We chose Cloud Forest, a cool misty tropical sanctuary with lots of nice flowers. Trekking the dome took about an hour … after leaving we felt refreshed and a cloud had covered the sun to give us a pleasant walk back to the Marina Bay Sands. The hotel itself looked kitschy and overrun with tourists (the queue area to go to the top of the hotel smelled like bad body odor and the price was exorbitant), but we greatly enjoyed sitting along the Bay outside the mall with a view of Central Singapore’s skyscrapers.

For dinner that evening I met my long-lost friend Stefan, who was now married with a daughter! Thankfully, Stefan and his wife love cooking for guests, and we had a great take on local food: Gado-gado salad, Sio Bak, and Laksa pesto pasta. And the locals seem to be living pretty well!

Sunday, our final day in Singapore, was state funeral day, and our lunch plans with a Singaporean business school colleague were quickly changed as the ceremony was slated to begin at 12:30. We munched on a satisfying dim sum breakfast and escaped just in time for the funeral madness, but not the pouring rain! How fitting that the heavens opened up as the founding father was being led down the Singapore streets. Actually, aside from some street closures the city didn’t seem vastly affected… that said we had been advised to avoid all areas along the route, so my girlfriend and I settled for a lazy afternoon walk along East Coast Park. The trail was pleasant free of cars but the water view was not romantic, unless you’re the type who enjoys staring at container ships in the Singapore Strait!

Looking back on the city center from the Marina Bay Sands

In short, my original verdict on Singapore still stands … as a tourist destination it is certainly a bit dull. But nowadays I look at Singapore in a different light, as a potential place to settle down for a few years after leaving Korea, and in that way Singapore scores well… my friends seem to be enjoying life and living well.

Tet Holiday in Vietnam

Chúc mừng năm mới! That means “Happy New Year” in Vietnamese! In February 2015, I visited Vietnam to see my girlfriend during the Lunar New Year holiday, known as Tet in Vietnam. I would be there for the first day of the Year of the Goat, also known as the Year of the Sheep in Korea and northern China, apparently due to the lack of goats naturally in those places.

Going from Seoul (avg. temp. in February: roughly 0C) to Ho Chi Minh City (avg. temp. in February: about 28C) was a welcome change! Going through immigration was a chore as usual — you never know how long those Visa on Arrival people will take — but at least there were people issuing visas during the Tet holiday! (my girlfriend had been worried about this) Vietnam takes its Lunar New Year very seriously, more so than South Korea even. Most major companies were shut down for the entire week on which the holiday fell, and most good restaurants as well. In fact, I had read an expat in Vietnam joking that Tet actually was a 3-week holiday…1 week to prepare, 1 week to celebrate, and 1 week to recover!

My girlfriend had me set up in a good 3-star hotel near her house … from there we headed to a water puppet show near the center of Ho Chi Minh City. A triplet of musicians sat on each side of a small pool in which the puppets appeared. The skits told old Vietnamese fables, dictated and sung by the musicians on the edge of the stage. About what these fables were about I have no idea, as the whole show was in Vietnamese with no translation available, which I found a little odd as my girlfriend was the only Vietnamese person in the audience. She tells me that only foreigners attend these shows! The artistic quality was good… lots of people and farm animals and the Four Holy Beasts of Vietnam: the dragon, the unicorn, the tortoise, and the phoenix. At the end of the show, the puppeteers emerged from behind a curtain shaped like a Vietnamese pagoda, and everyone applauded.

Water puppet show in Ho Chi Minh City

The show got me in the mood for the inevitable awkward, nervous moments upon first meeting my girlfriend’s parents. They lived in a modest, comfortable house, built vertically like most of the houses that I have seen in Ho Chi Minh City, and had a feast prepared for my arrival. My girlfriend’s parents spoke little English, and I only speak the little Vietnamese that I learned in the first 5 sessions of a Pimsleur course, so I just tried to smile, eat all of the food placed in front of me, and wait for my girlfriend to translate what they were asking! Her father had learned some English over 40 years ago from a US military soldier, but was of course very rusty. Her mother, like most mothers was very concerned that I had eaten enough. My girlfriend kept thrusting food — a lot of pork, I remember — into my bowl, and even though I felt stuffed like a pig my girlfriend’s mother was still asking me to eat more!

After dinner older people handed younger people red envelopes filled with small amounts of money. I received the envelopes — one contained a US $2 bill! — and also distributed some that my girlfriend prepared. My girlfriend then let me lay down for a nap and when I woke up the time was almost midnight. On the top floor of my girlfriend’s house her family had built a small shrine for ancestor worship. Some fruits, sodas, and Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups (imported from the USA!) had been left for the ancestors. Vietnamese people believe on the Lunar New Day that their ancestors will return to enjoy some of these foods and bring good fortune to the lives of the living. Just before midnight, my girlfriend’s family members, 1-by-1, lit incense sticks and prayed before an image of Buddha atop the food.

Then, at midnight, lots of fireworks erupted all over Ho Chi Minh City. After watching fireworks I followed the family to a neighborhood pagoda. The pagoda was packed with worshipers. Monks handed out red envelopes and people were bowing their heads several times in front of every deity they saw.

Ho Chi Minh flower festival

The next day, my girlfriend picked me up from my hotel and we rode on her motorbike to her grandmother’s house outside of Ho Chi Minh City. Her grandmother is no longer living; her uncle maintains the house and the family returns every Lunar New Year to pray to a shrine with her photograph on top. How quickly the city changes from gritty urban buildings into short houses with small yards filled with chickens. More food, more ancestor worship, more time with my girlfriend’s family. A little rain shower popped up in the afternoon, which my girlfriend claimed was lucky on New Year’s Day!

We escaped my girlfriend’s family to into central Ho Chi Minh city, where a large pedestrian flower festival had been set up on a main street of the city. The festival was mobbed and it was hard to get the good pictures that everyone else wanted.

On the 2nd day of the new lunar year, my girlfriend picked me up before sunrise for a flight to Phu Quoc, Vietnam’s island beach destination. The rickety 72-seat propeller plane barely held our carry-on luggage, and as it always seems with these planes we had a rough landing. Fortunately the island town is close to the small island airport and we were able to catch a pre-arranged 9am tour from a local tour agent. We hopped on a bus for a loop around the southern part of the island. A pearl farm, an old Vietnam War prison, a pungent fish sauce factory, then Sao Beach for lunch and relaxation time. The beach was a pleasant walk and there seemed to be some good resorts in that area. In the afternoon a black pepper garden, a fishing village, then back to town, where we caught a ride up to our own resort on the northwestern corner of the island.

Sao Beach, Phu Quoc

That evening we rented a motorbike for a seafood dinner at Dinh Cau night market in town, which I had read was the best place to dine on the island. The market was certainly lively and full of markets and diners, though disappointingly the majority of the seafood on display was no longer swimming. Though we ate well — prawns and shellfish and squid — my girlfriend was not happy with the freshness of the food we were eating.

The next morning I fell ill from exhaustion (not tainted fish, thankfully), and we skipped our pre-arranged morning boat tour to rest. In the afternoon, we ate a late lunch at a popular seafood restaurant for locals — well recommended by our hotel, but one of those places you can only visit with a Vietnamese girlfriend. In the late afternoon, we hung around a fishing pier where we caught a sunset squid fishing cruise out in the sea. We were given rudimentary fishing equipment: a line with no pole and a little rubber lure. No one seemed to be catching any squid, but at least we saw a nice sunset and ate a good meal prepared onboard.

The third and final day in Phu Quoc started with the boat tour that we had skipped the previous day. The snorkel boat picked us up directly from the beach near our resort hotel — a cheap little river cruiser ferried us to the same sightseeing boat from the night before. It took about an hour of traveling northward until we reached the snorkel area: an island surrounded by coral reefs. To avoid the intense sun, my girlfriend opted to stay in the shade of the boat. She watched me plop into the water, when almost immediately I heard “watch out for the jellyfish next to you, mate!” I couldn’t see a jellyfish anywhere. “Just swim for the island!” I paddled my arms and kicked my fins as fast as I could. My girlfriend says that I avoided a big jellyfish. I got lucky.

Thankfully no jellyfish were in sight around the reef and the views were quite nice. The coral was very big … deep but almost touching the water’s surface. Plenty of colorful fish swam below, and large spiny sea urchins sat menacingly on top of the coral. A good snorkel spot.

Ong Lang Beach, Phu Quoc

The snorkel boat fought against the current for an hour and a half to get us back to our beach, where my girlfriend and I enjoyed snipping drinks and snapping pictures. Our time on Phu Quoc was too short — it’s a nice island.

Back in Ho Chi Minh City, my sixth and final day in Vietnam was an easy one. We met my girlfriend’s best friend for a Chinese-style dim sum lunch, then headed to the “Victory Palace”, formerly the presidential palace for the president of South Vietnam. The palace is offers a nice snapshot of presidential life under the old regime and teaches some history lessons from the final years of divided Vietnam. More lazy coffee time followed. I could not believe how many Vietnamese students owned an iPhone 6, which costs roughly $1000 in Vietnam, according to my girlfriend. She tells me that the average take-home paycheck for a new university graduate is about $150/month, meaning that these students are saving for a long time to buy these iPhones!

The final stop was dinner with Ms. Lam Huong, my old Samsung friend who directed my first trip to Vietnam and introduced me to my girlfriend. This was my first trip to see her since, and I did not feel as welcome in her house as I had imagined. Probably Ms. Lam Huong was tired from Tet holiday. She seemed happier to see me once she saw the lingzhi mushrooms that I had brought for her from Korea.

Tet holiday would probably be a difficult time to visit Vietnam as a tourist without a local guide, given the number of businesses and restaurants which are closed and the number of local people traveling around the country. But if you are invited to experience Tet from a local, the holiday is not to be missed!

Taming Bangkok

I am lucky enough to have been to most of the tourist-worthy attractions in Southeast Asia by this early point in my life, yet I had skipped the most obvious attraction of all — Bangkok, the tourist hub of the region. I skipped Bangkok on my around-the-world tour in 2010 due to political protests at the time, and also had bypassed it since moving to Asia. Needing to see my Vietnamese girlfriend, this seemed like an obvious place to meet for a long weekend.

I took a late Friday night flight from Seoul-Incheon on Thai Airways, and sat packed like a sardine in economy for 5 hours. Sadly, Thai Airways has the comfort level of an American airline. Thankfully I managed to catch a short nap and was awake to be greeted with a big hug by my awaiting girlfriend at Suvarnabhumi Airport at 1am. We took a shuttle to a nearby airport motel and caught an overnight nap — then back to the airport and train into the city on Saturday morning.

After finding our boutique hotel near the BTS Skytrain in the Sukhumvit area, we set off around midday for the tourist attractions of Bangkok. Bangkok’s train system is underdeveloped but what little does exist works pretty well. We took the Skytrain all the way to Saphan Taksin pier on the Chao Phraya River, and hopped on a tourist boat heading north. (I had read online about cheaper public boats parading the river, but the system was clearly designed to confuse foreigners to take the more expensive tourist boats from the pier [though still cheap by Western standards])

Our first stop was the Wat Arun, aka “Temple of Dawn”, on the west bank of the river. This temple is known for its tall and steep spires, with a nice view from the upper level of the Grand Palace and other nearby temples along the river. Quite the climb up.

After the 3 baht (!) ferry ride back to the east bank of the river, we walked to the Grand Palace in the hot Bangkok heat. Even in November, Bangkok is quite balmy, and Vietnamese girlfriend really wanted to avoid the intense rays of the sun … to avoid “looking like a Thai girl”, she told me, though the locals kept mistaking her for a local and kept speaking to her in unintelligible Thai anyway. You can experience how massive the Palace is by walking around the perimeter — DO NOT get sucked in by the scammers telling you that the Palace is closed for the day (the entrance to the palace is on the north edge of the complex).

The Grand Palace is indeed spectacular

The name of the Grand Palace does not lie — the Palace is very large and very impressive! You actually only have access to a portion of the grounds as a tourist, but the golden towers and ornately decorated buildings make great viewing. A warning, though: Grand Palace is crowded — try to get there early if you can. By mid-afternoon the tour buses have deposited thousands of tourists on the sight and you can barely get a picture of the place untarnished by the head of a stranger. The supposed highlight of the Palace is supposed to be the Wat Phra Kaew temple, with an Emerald Buddha on the inside. But when we got in the carpeting of the temple floor was packed with shoeless tourists, and the whole place reeked of dirty foot odor. All of this hype to see a tiny little green Buddha statue. Save yourself and your nose by enjoying the rest of the open air portion of the Palace area — majestic and befitting of the royal name.

Tired from the mass of humanity in the Palace, we caught a tuk-tuk for the short walk to the nearby Wat Pho, known for its giant Reclining Buddha. This place seemed much emptier, and we were able to get some individual photos with the enormous reclining statue before the throngs of tourists infiltrated the building. After the busloads of people entered, there was no peace for us to find in this temple.

With our day of tourism over, we set to explore the nearby Khao San Road backpacker area to find dinner. I had read about this area that no self-respecting Thai person would be caught here, and that description felt apt. It is a bustling and loud frenzy of foreigner-packed bars, shops, tattoo parlors and the like. Far from feeling safe among an ocean of similar-looking people, I had the opposite reaction and felt my guard go up as we walked along the crazy streets on a Saturday evening. However, we did eat decent Thai curry for dinner and found relaxation with 120 baht Thai foot massages.

I loved Wat Traimit at near twilight

Our plan for Sunday was to take the early train to Ayutthaya, the old capital, but I forgot to set my alarm and we woke up far too late to make the long trip north from Bangkok. So instead we saw more sights in the city. First Vimanmek Mansion, a large teakwood estate which smelled Victorian and mobbed by loud blabbing Chinese tour groups. Next, the National Museum, also large but which also smelled ancient. Finally, the Wat Traimit, my favorite temple in all of Bangkok. This temple contains the Golden Buddha, the world’s largest solid gold statue. This temple is underrated but should be on every tourist’s Bangkok itinerary. Smaller but cozy and not too crowded like the other temples, and every bit as ornate and majestic.

For dinner we found a comfortable, chic Thai restaurant in the Sukhumvit Road area, Suppaniga Eating Room, and went for an easy stroll along the road outside afterwards. This area feel prospering and hip, and like the Skytrain and the quiet area we were staying in was full of expats. “Where did all of the foreigners come from, and what are they doing in Bangkok?” I wondered. By their relatively sophisticated dress and the ease with which they navigated the streets and the Skytrain, these foreigners did not feel like tourists. Honestly, I have not seen more expats in an Asian city besides the obvious expats hubs Hong Kong and Singapore. It had me wondering if I could move here after the end of my Korean adventure.

Monday was a lazy day. We escaped the heat and sun in the upscale Terminal 21 shopping mall, themed like an airport and with each floor themed like a different destination — London, Paris, San Francisco, Tokyo, Istanbul. My girlfriend and I sipped iced blended coffees and enjoyed the relative serenity of a modern Western-style shopping mall. We had escaped the traffic, the noise, the heat of this massive metropolis. Indeed we had tamed Bangkok.

Another overnight flight back to Seoul … my 6th from Southeast Asia this year, and I was back for another groggy day at Samsung. The restless evening crammed like a sardine in economy class never gets any easier, and upon returning to the chilly, sullen Samsung Electronics headquarters fortress in the suburbs of Seoul I was already missing the easy hot days from my short — too short — holiday weekend to the Thai capital.

Philippines: The Banana Republic of Asia

"It's More Fun in the Philippines". Officially. At least according to the marketers in the Philippine Department of Tourism. Generally, if a place needs a slogan to inspire people to visit, it may be an overrated trap. Just think of Baltimore — the "Charm City" that is anything but charming. Or Malaysia — "Truly Asia"... but what does that even mean? If it means the street trash and cockroaches which I saw in Kuala Lumpur, then please don't send me there. Or just consider all of the random dull cities in Korea with slogans — "Happy Suwon", "Colorful Daegu", "Fantasia Bucheon". But now I digress.

In any event, I was eager to visit the beaches of Boracay after a stressful and unhappy few weeks at work. I was at risk of burnout and I definitely needed the time off.

I wanted to take the direct Seoul flight to Kalibo, but my Vietnamese girlfriend talked me into meeting her in Manila and transiting from there. Flights from Ho Chi Minh City to Philippines are not readily available, so I agreed to inconvenience myself a bit with an overnight layover at the decrepit Manila airport. After reading the awful things about the airport online — "worst airport in Asia" was pretty standard — I decided to rent a room for 5 hours at the Manila Airport Hotel to catch a short rest. An awful hotel, but convenient to the airport, and for $73 was totally overpriced given the quality. But at least I had the peace of mind that I wouldn't be robbed while napping at the airport.

My girlfriend's flight from Ho Chi Minh was supposed to arrive at 4:30am, giving us a tight time window to make our scheduled 6:30am flight to Caticlan. But, of course, her flight was delayed — I ended up checking in solo and waiting in the mobbed and chaotic Cebu Pacific boarding area ... actually "cattle chamber" would be a better description ... hoping that my girlfriend would make it in time for our flight (which was also delayed, as seemingly every flight was at Manila airport on this crystal clear, sunny morning). The puddle-jumper airplane to Caticlan had an open seat next to mine, and I ended up taking the water jetty and tricycle taxi to the beach front alone. But the shower at the hotel felt wonderful, as did breakfast, and thankfully my girlfriend showed up (a bit frazzled) a short while after.

Boracay is not a place with history or culture, and it is not the place to make a lot of plans. The island is a beach and a very nice beach at that — comparable to the Caribbean. You get there, you put on your flip-flops and you walk around the beach. Unfortunately September is still rainy season in the Philippines, and while the rain certainly wasn't long-lasting or overly disruptive, the prevailing winds churn up enough waves such that swimming isn't recommended. Aside from the continual hawking by tour operators, jewelry sellers and the like, as well as the crowds along the beach strip (even during rainy season) Boracay is a good place to chill out and enjoy the simple life. That is, however, unless you're looking to escape Korean tourists, who seem to be ubitiquous.

Puka Beach was very relaxing

We spent the first day walking the beach in bright sunlight (recommendation: bring strong sunscreen to Boracay) and found a sailboat operator near our hotel to take us out on the second day. The sailboat took us around Boracay Island, stopping at the nice Puka Beach on the northern edge of the island, snorkeling in the sea, walking through the Crystal Cave. It felt really relaxing to be on a sailboat again after several years. We were supposed to go cliff jumping as well but the boat commissioner was a bit unscrupulous and we didn't receive the full tour which we had negotiated for. When the young boat handlers asked us for the full payment at the end of the tour my girlfriend and I were really upset, but with patience we managed to bargain down to a discount from our agreed-upon package. A much-needed massage afterwards was just what the doctor ordered to calm us down again.

Dinners were also a highlight. One night my girlfriend and I walked to D'Talipapa seafood market, home to the biggest live lobsters that I had ever seen! We bought one to share (they were a little expensive) and had it cooked in one of the adjacent restaurants. Another night we ate a sumptuous outdoor buffet at the Boracay Regency Hotel.

Unfortunately we had only planned 3 of our 5 days in Boracay, and on the 4th morning we were taking the puddle jumper airplane back to Manila. We checked into a hotel on the sleazy edge of the otherwise upscale Makati area, then caught a taxi to see the historical sights in the walled Intramuros area. It was a rainy day and the taxi stalled in terrible midday Manila traffic. Inside Intramuros we ate a so-so tapas lunch and then walked around to see the old fortresses and churches. Intramuros is not impressive at all — it is run-down, dull, and full of annoying bicycle taxi drivers who yell at every foreign face in sight. I was really unhappy that my girlfriend had chosen to visit this instead of remaining in Boracay. Maybe she wanted me to gather an appreciation for "real Philippines". However we did have a wonderful sashimi dinner at a Japanese restaurant near our hotel, so I ended the day feeling a little better.

Sunset from the highest point on Boracay Island, Mt. Luho

We probably should have left Manila for a day trip on the 5th day, but we woke up late and didn't accomplish anything until lunch. We ate at an upscale Western-style restaurant, Blackbird in the Nielson Tower, and I was feeling quite at home munching calmly on beef carpaccio and beetroot salad. The afternoon was pretty lazy aside from walking around the American Cemetery, the largest US-administered military burial ground outside of the 50 States, where we gathered an appreciation for all the great battles fought in WWII in the Pacific.

We ate a slow shabu-shabu hot pot dinner in Makati's Greenbelt Mall and expected to reach the airport in plenty of time. But on a rainy weeknight we ended up in horrific 9pm traffic and my girlfriend very nearly missed her plane back to Ho Chi Minh City. In fact it was a struggle for me to take a taxi between the newish Terminal 3 and the dilapidated Terminal 1 at Manila Airport. A 4-hour flight back to Seoul, a shower at Incheon Airport, and I was back at my desk at Samsung for the Thursday workday. Ahh... the sacrifices we make to save our precious vacation days.

After my first visit to Philippines I think the term "Banana Republic of Asia" is definitely a more apt description. The infrastructure is terrible. The Manila traffic is horrific. The begging for tourist dollars is aggressive. Filipino food is bland and uninteresting and unhealthy. And prices are expensive compared to Southeast Asia. But the beaches are wonderful and you can drink mango or coconut juice to your heart's content. The diving opportunities, which I did not take up, I am told are amazing, and even during rainy season the weather was reasonable on the beach. Boracay felt safer than a Caribbean island and along as you stay away from Manila, I think you can have some fun in the Philippines.

There are some nice parts of Manila. But not many.