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.

Chiang Mai -- The Jewel of Northern Thailand

Last week I saw a Friday holiday on my Korean work calendar, which of course meant that I needed to find another place in Asia to explore! I chose Chiang Mai in northern Thailand and was not disappointed.

Thankfully, there is a well-placed evening Korean Air flight from Seoul to Chiang Mai, which put me in at about 11pm on Thursday evening. The immigration line at Chiang Mai airport was slow, due to a horde of Chinese tourists which arrived just before my flight, but thankfully at the end of the process my Vietnamese girlfriend Xuanhoa, who had flown in from Ho Chi Minh City via Bangkok, was waiting for me.

Wat Phra Singh

We took a taxi to the boutique hotel that I had booked on Agoda, tucked away on a quiet side street in the old city of Chiang Mai. The hotel was not easy for taxi or tuk-tuk drivers to find, but I liked the quiet location in a quaint residential neighborhood. And Xuanhoa had prepared balloons and cake for my (early) birthday! Though I was exhausted from a long workday and 5-hour flight, I felt very welcome.

Friday started slowly for us, and we eventually walked around the old city near our hotel to find a Thai food restaurant for lunch, operated by an old, thin expat and what seemed like his Thai wife. Such cafe/restaurants are common in Chiang Mai. Actually, the city appears to have a booming expat scene, boosted by Bohemian tourists who decide that life is better operated at a northern Thai pace. Given the friendly and calm nature of the city, I can't blame these expats for settling there.

Full from a tasty and healthy Thai curry lunch, we wandered to the Wat Phra Singh, an impressive Buddhist temple in the old city built in the northern Thai (Lanna) style. Most Thais are practicing Buddhists and I could see several Buddhists, including Xuanhoa, bowing their heads in front of the Buddha statues. Thai Buddhist temples are quite different from Korean Buddhist temples — a lot more color, spires, and gold-painted thin Buddha statues with the deities wearing pointy hats — rather than the fat, bald, happy Buddhas which one would see in Korea or Hong Kong.

Doi Suthep

From here, I decided we should go see the most fascinating temple in Chiang Mai — Wat Phrathat Doi Suthep — situated in the mountains overlooking the valley that Chiang Mai sits in. One cannot leave Chiang Mai without ascending up the mountain to see the gold-plated pagoda, and the view of Chiang Mai below. Reaching Doi Suthep was a bit challenging. We convinced a tuk-tuk driver to take us to the nearby Chiang Mai zoo for 80 baht, then found a songthaew (red pickup truck with covered bench seating in the back) to take us up and down the mountain for 200 baht, stopping along the way for 45-60 minute stops at a hill tribe village and the Bhuping Palace Gardens. Nothing photoworthy in the hill tribe village — just little shops and the pathetic Doi Pui "waterfall". The palace gardens, a royal retreat in the winter for the Thai monarchy, were pretty and green though the palace buildings themselves were quite dull. We also got caught in a brief afternoon rain shower, but considering we were visiting Chiang Mai during summer rainy season we got rather lucky with the weather during our 3-day trip.

Doi Suthep made the trip up the hill totally worth the effort. It has a spectacular pointed gold pagoda surrounded by elegant buildings and statues nearby. Though mobbed by tourists in the late afternoon, you can still feel the holiness of the place as you walk around in your bare feet, see the Buddhist imagery and the Buddhist believers praying nearby.

Back in town, Xuanhoa and I changed for a Friday evening dinner date with my Samsung colleague Reg, who had booked a reservation at the Dhara Dhevi hotel, a 20-minute drive outside the city. When we arrived I felt we had arrived at a royal palace... the architecture is spectacular! The restaurant did not disappoint — delicious curries and stir fry dishes delighted our palates. And we were treated to an entertaining traditional dance and music performance as well. We certainly paid tourist prices (3600 baht for 3 people with cocktails), but totally worth the journey.

Traditional dance and music at the Dhara Dhevi hotel

On Saturday, Xuanhoa had booked us for an elephant tour at a rural camp about an hour away from the city. Interestingly, our tour group consisted almost entirely of Middle Eastern tourists, and we were led by a very smiley Thai lady nicknamed "Gift". The camp we visited, Chok Chai, was mobbed by Chinese tourists and offered its fair share of kitschy time-fillers: a ride down an ugly muddy river on a bamboo raft (without life jackets!) and a ride on a ox-drawn carriage along a dull highway. We did get a photo op on the back of an adorable baby elephant, then watched a rather silly elephant show. We all had the opportunity to pay to feed bananas and sugarcane to the grown elephants, then we watched a 30-minute show of elephants standing on their hind legs, elephants kicking soccer balls, elephants painting, elephants dancing to "Gangnam Style". It was certainly cheesy.

The tour guide then herded us onto a 2-person seat on the back of a very large elephant, who was guided down a steep, muddy river valley into the raging river below. The whole time I was fearing falling off the elephant or being thrown off in an elephant act of rage, but thankfully our elephant was well-behaved. Though the elephants were huge creatures and probably could carry far more than the weight of 2 people on their backs, with all the tourists churning through this tourist factory the Chok Chai camp felt a bit exploitative. I didn't see any signs of elephant abuse, but I couldn't help wondering how these elephants were treated when the tourists weren't around.

After a buffet lunch, we left the elephant camp in the afternoon for a couple other kitschy tourist traps outside of the city. First, we stopped at a Karen long neck tribe village. The women in this village wear heavy copper rings around their necks to elongate them. These women eat, sleep ... basically spend their whole lives wearing these rings. Painful to see! The handicrafts that the Karen women made looked nice but I was not in the mood to purchase, and it is clear that the Karen moved to near Chiang Mai to be closer to tourist dollars. We then stopped at Tiger Kingdom, full of tigers in cages who look sedated, particularly the larger tigers. People pay to get pictures with these zombie tigers, but I did not want to support this zoo. Granted, the tigers in captivity may have better lives than tigers in the wild, but still I did not find the Tiger Kingdom to be super pleasant.

Look how adorable the baby elephant is! I hope he is treated well at the camp...

When we finally returned to town we had the elephant van drop us off in front of the Wat Chedi Luang temple in the center of the Chiang Mai old city. Another very impressive temple, adorned with ferocious-looking dragons on the outside. In the evening, we reunited with Reg and ate at a delicious vegetarian restaurant named Anchan in the trendy Nimmanhamin Road area just outside of the old city. The restaurant's slogan, "You Won't Miss The Meat," proved accurate! We finished the evening at the North Gate Jazz Co-Op, watching expats jamming out tunes in front of a mixed tourist/local audience. Not your typical Thai tourist night out, but the music was decent and Xuanhoa had never heard live jazz before, so was worth the trip. Xuanhoa and I finished our night by taxiing to Reg's hotel, Le Meridien, and walking around the night bazaar nearby.

On Sunday, having already checked off the major tourist attractions, Xuanhoa and I decided to rent a motorbike to drive ourselves around a bit. Super cheap: 150 baht for the rental (with 1000 baht deposit) and 100 baht to fill the tank with gas. Definitely the cheapest self-mobility vehicle I have come across in my travels! We were able to wander a bit outside of the old city with the bike, with the highlight of our afternoon definitely being the Wat Suan Dok on the western part of town. Another grand temple, this one was decorated with much pointier tops than the other temples. Actually, the design sort of reminded me of the Mormon temple in the Maryland suburbs of Washington DC. But, all in all it was a lazy Sunday. We drank coffee and treated ourselves to Thai massages, which are always painful for me!

At least this elephant seemed happy...

3 days was enough to take in Chiang Mai, but not enough to have a restful vacation. I slept about 3 hours on the overnight flight back to Seoul and reported dutifully into work on Monday morning, exhausted and wishing I had more time to explore the jewels of Southeast Asia.

Siem Reap -- Angkor's Ancient Treasure

Having also made two trips to Vietnam already in 2014, I am starting to tick more and more items from my Southeast Asia bucket list. For a 3-day weekend in July, I visited the ruins of Angkor Archaeological Park around Siem Reap, Cambodia. The park showcases the remains of what had been a mighty Khmer Empire from the 8th to the 13th century.

Outside of Angkor Wat

I arrived at tiny Siem Reap airport off a direct evening flight from Seoul on Friday evening, meeting my friend Xuanhoa from Vietnam. We went straight to sleep and the next morning woke up with one single goal in mind – to reach Angkor Wat temple as quickly as possible. Thankfully there was a brigade of tuk-tuk drivers waiting outside of our hotel and we were easily able to negotiate a driver to take us around for the entire day for $15. Gotta love Southeast Asia prices. One of the interesting and somewhat strange things that I noticed already was the dollarization of the Cambodian economy – almost every price was quoted to us in US dollars, and upon paying with dollars one also tends to receive most change in dollars, unless you get into sub-dollar units where the rare Cambodian currency makes an appearance rather than American coins. This makes understanding what products are worth much easier, though change was not always readily available for bigger bills ($20 and above).

The tuk-tuk driver spoke very little English, but seemed to be experienced in driving people around all of the various sights. First stop was the famous Angkor Wat, the world's largest religious monument. The temple is quite large, as advertised, and takes a few hours to cover, though if you are a Hindu religious scholar you could spend days analyzing all of the elaborate carvings in the stone. I, on the other hand, am not familiar at all with the Hindu religion, so though the carvings were artistically interesting they lacked meaning for me. I bought the book "Ancient Angkor" from one of the many hawkers around the temple (they all seemed to have the same book), but the detailed explanations in the book did not make sense to me and, frankly, the book took away from the experience of just taking in the temple with my five senses.

Look at the huge tree growing out of the stone!  (at Ta Prohm)

Unlike many of the famous churches of Europe, Angkor Wat temple no longer seems to get great use besides the masses of tourists wandering about, though I did see the occasional monk in orange gown walking through. As you're walking around, you're simply admiring the scale of the construction and wondering how difficult it must have been for a pre-industrial culture to haul all that stone through the jungle to this place. The surrounding temple grounds are very grassy and green, perhaps because we visited during Cambodian rainy season. Once upon a time a large city surrounded the temple on those grounds, but the city and its inhabitants have long since disappeared.

Thankfully upon leaving the temple our tuk-tuk driver spotted us from the sea of tuk-tuk drivers waiting outside. One could get around Angkor park with a bicycle but walking only would simply not be possible – such is the scale of the place.

We continued on our circuit of the park into the large adjacent city Angkor Thom, and proceeded to The Bayon in the center, a complex of face towers. Over 200 faces are carved into the stone towers, and there is still debate regarding who is depicted. At the nearby Baphuon, we climbed up the steep steps to the summit for a view, then my friend pointed up to the sky. "Black cloud," she said, and we scampered down just in time to take cover inside a stone passageway as the heavens opened and rain started pouring down. It was rainy season, after all. Our journey disrupted for an hour or so, we waited for a lighter moment to hike out and try to find our tuk-tuk driver, though my long trousers still became extraordinarily damp on the walk.

The Bayon

After taking some time to dry off while eating a late lunch, the rain let up and we wandered back to the tuk-tuk to see the Ta Prohm temple, made famous by the movie "Tomb Raider". This temple was really cool. This temple was quieter and offered many opportunities to explore around the many hidden corners. Also there were massive trees that had grown up around the stone structure. Unfortunately this temple is in a bit of a shambles and looks like it is undergoing substantial restoration work, though we did not see any workers on this rainy afternoon. After making our way through the temple and stopping on the opposite end of the city for a fresh coconut milk, the heavens once again opened up, raining even more heavily than before, and this time my friend and I were stuck under a small tent with a couple Cambodians and their scarf shop. After an hour as the torrential downpour subsided slightly, and my friend and I needed to hike through the Ta Prohm to get back to our tuk-tuk before dark. On the way back the temple was completely empty, and we were surprised when the first person we saw in the temple was our tuk-tuk driver, who seemed to have become a little worried about whether he would see us again.

On Saturday evening we explored the night market of Siem Reap a little and walked along the cleverly named "Pub Street".

On Sunday my friend wanted to go further afield, so we wandered into a travel agency in Siem Reap town to book a car driver for the day. This time the price was $50 and we traveled in an old Toyota Camry from the 20th century, but at least it had strong air conditioning.

One of the outer temples...I lost track of all of the names!

My friend wanted to ride out to Kbal Spean, a small village about an hour's drive from Siem Reap. From there we did the roughly 1 mile trek up a hill in the jungle to the River of A Thousand Lingas. Here we could see Hindu sculptures that has been carved into the river banks. After our hike, and a picnic in the jungle by a waterfall, my friend and I headed back towards Siem Reap to visit the Banteay Srei, a more isolated temple with exquisite carvings cut into sandstone. Our driver continued taking us to other outer temples, including Pre Rup, with imposing brick towers that dominated the surrounding plain. The outer temples, though not quite as grand as those closer to Siem Reap, were still definitely worth visiting. It was nice to experience these areas which are less crowded but still very impressive. I lost track of the names of all the sights which we visited.

On Sunday evening we watched a traditional Aspara dance show, but I did not find it all that exciting. The dancers were very slow and there was little which was sexy about their movements!

On Monday, my friend Xuanhoa's birthday, we slept in and checked out late morning from our hotel. We ate delicious Japanese sashimi in Siem Reap, mailed some postcards, then rented bicycles and drove to the Tonle Sap, the largest lake in Southeast Asia. The day was warm and my friend became quite tired, but thankfully there was no rain. We were there to check out life on the lake and see the floating houses for the working fishermen. Though there were tons of tourists there when we arrived, including several busloads of Koreans, I could not understand the attraction of this lake. Tonle Sap is a dirty lake, the inhabitants are very poor and the point of taking a boat onto the lake seems to be to wrestle money from the wallets of unsuspecting, innocent tourists. Our boat driver seemed angry when we did not agree to make a $50 donation to "buy rice for the local school". I assume that those bags of rice are unopened and sold again day after day. The whole tour felt like a racket.

Floating Village, Tonle Sap Lake, Siem Reap

We returned to town late afternoon, ate a cheap Cambodian dinner, then I showered and headed to the airport for an overnight flight back to Seoul. Alas, short vacations! Also, Cambodian food is not all that delicious – there is a reason you don't see Cambodian restaurants overseas.

Cambodia is certainly one of the poorest countries I have ever visited. At all the sights around Siem Reap you see men, women, and children trying to sell your books, magnets, postcards, scarves, and other souvenirs. The kids know enough English to say "$1...I need to go to school"..."You are so handsome"...etc. etc. In Vietnam, my friend tells me that Cambodians are regarded as lazy people who just sit around waiting for handouts from donor countries. Vietnamese people even taunt that Cambodians are too lazy to have sex!  (though given the number of children around Siem Reap this clearly isn't true)  However, Siem Reap felt very safe, and I never felt threatened while there, even by the off-duty police officers who tried to sell me Cambodian police medallions!

I came away from this trip wondering how an ancient civilization that could have built such a mighty empire and magnificent temples had decayed into the poor state that it is today. It felt in Siem Reap, besides the airport and the hotels nearby, that since Angkor Wat the Cambodians have built little.

Return to Vietnam

Eager to make the most of my vacation days, and a well-placed South Korean holiday on a Friday in early June, I took a 4-day trip to central Vietnam last week. I was also eager to rendezvous with my new Vietnamese friend Xuanhoa, who I met in Ho Chi Minh City in January and who visited me in South Korea in early May. I hadn't left Korea since my Hong Kong weekend trip 2 months earlier, and had gone several months without a business trip, so I was really eager to get my passport stamped again. And I was eager to recapture some of the bizarre magic from my January trip.

Imperial Citadel in Hue

Once again I had a pre-planned itinerary, this time courtesy of Ms. Xuanhoa ... I love traveling to new places and having local people show me around! Xuanhoa is a native of Ho Chi Minh City but had traveled to central Vietnam several times for work and pleasure, so she knew exactly where to take me and how to get around. It also helps that there are direct flights between Seoul Incheon and Da Nang's small airport.

On Thursday morning I left Seoul and arrived at Da Nang in early afternoon, 4.5 hours later. Xuanhoa was flying in from Ho Chi Minh and we met at the airport, then rushed to catch a bus which would take us to Hue, the former capital of the Nguyen dynasty. Quickly I was reacquainted with Vietnam's poor infrastructure. Though only about 100km away, the journey to Hue took us 3 hours on a simple two-lane highway. At least the lush green mountains to our west provided a beautiful background for much of our journey.

Old Town Hoi An

We checked into the nice hotel in Hue which Xuanhoa had arranged and were met there by Mr. Dat, Ms. Lam Huong's husband (see my January post). Mr. Dat and Ms. Lam Huong both grew up in Hue and Mr. Dat was there for some family commitments. He took us to a local restaurant where we ate spicy pork wraps and shrimp dumplings — very typical Vietnamese cuisine. Xuanhoa and I capped off the evening with a boat ride on the Perfume River, so named because of the pleasant smell the river once had, though today that has been eliminated through industrialization. The boat ride included performances of traditional Vietnamese songs and the lighting of paper candle lanterns which we dropped into the river ("to make a wish," Xuanhoa told me).

The next morning I woke up and took in the lovely city view  from the window of our hotel room. Hue is not a built-up city, has green mountains tucked behind it and clean air. Oh blue sky! How joyous! I missed pollution-free sunshine in both Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh, and also miss it in my day-to-day life in South Korea.

Loved Hoi An Old Town. Gets a big "thumbs up" from me!

Xuanhoa and I found a beef noodle restaurant for breakfast in Hue, then tried to beat the heat by hitting Hue's ancient attractions in the morning. We started at the Imperial Citadel, the palace of the old Nguyen kings. This palace was large and uncrowded, with nice groundskeeping in some areas, and several old red buildings where you could see how Vietnam's government was once conducted. The heat was beastly, though, and like most Vietnamese women Xuanhoa was afraid of the sun. We then headed to the Tomb of Tu Duc, a Vietnamese king in the mid-1800s and a poet-scholar. Tu Duc had the whole place built in accordance with feng shui principles — the gardens and lily-pad ponds convey a feeling of harmony.

Mr. Dat picked us up at our hotel and we headed back to Da Nang ... the drive was a little faster with our own personal driver. From there Xuanhoa and I took a 1-hour bus ride to Hoi An, an old merchant port. Xuanhoa picked a hotel in a strategic location near the Hoi An Old Town, a UNESCO World Heritage site. The Old Town is lovely! Great shops packed with Vietnamese clothes and goods, fine restaurants, and small streets with old buildings near the river. Being a World Heritage site has protected the Old Town from any new development, though it also brings masses of tourists in the evenings. Thankfully the Old Town is also protected from cars and Vietnam's many motorbikes. Unfortunately Xuanhoa did not introduce me to Hoi An's famous chicken rice, but we did try some tasty street food (and some less tasty cao lau).

The next morning Xuanhoa and I headed out early to head to the Cham Islands, located about 10 miles offshore from Hoi An. The islands featured tasty seafood and snorkeling above a bed of coral (though the snorkel equipment was decidedly low-grade). The whole tour lasted from about 8am to 3pm. Back in Hoi An we took our chances in the afternoon heat by renting a bicycle to drive about the Old Town. Pedaling the bicycle actually felt better than walking, and the afternoon heat became significantly more bearable while sitting in the shade eating an iced lotus bean dessert.

In late afternoon on Saturday we retreated to Da Nang and checked into a beach resort. Walking along the sea coast at sunset was very refreshing. For the evening, Xuanhoa and I trekked into the city for a "Date Night", though there is not much to see in Da Nang city except the picturesque bridges crossing the city's Han River (including one that looks like a dragon!).

On Sunday, Xuanhoa and I trekked outside of Da Nang to the Ba Na Hills overlooking the city. Ba Na was formerly a French resort and I could see why the French placed their resort up there – the temperature was refreshingly cool! Development has taken off at Ba Na since the introduction of a cable car a few years ago (a wonderful and long ride) and the place is being transformed into a European-style castle fantasyland for children. Such a strange attraction to have in Vietnam! Great views of the city and sea, and of course I loved the weather.

Cham Islands — relaxing and with excellent seafood!

For sunset, Xuanhoa and I returned to sea level and visited the Linh Ung Buddhist Temple, on a hilly peninsula with a wonderful view of the sea. As Xuanhoa and I had evening flights from Da Nang, we still had time to enjoy a dinner of boiled pork wrapped in rice rolls, dipped into fish sauce.

The overnight flight back to Seoul provided little time for sleep and I was a mess on Monday morning at work (particularly as I received food poisoning from the Sunday evening fish sauce), but my 2nd trip to Vietnam was as delightful as the first. Central Vietnam was far more tranquil and I enjoyed the history of the place. This region hasn't succumbed to the massive development seen in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh and provides a great breather for someone, like me, who lives in one of the crowded bustling metropolises of Asia.

Return to Hong Kong

Though it was one of my favorite destinations from my world tour in 2010, I unbelievably took 1.5 years of living in Korea before making my return to Hong Kong early this month. In my first visit as a tourist, I had been dazzled my Hong Kong’s buzz and excitement. Now I wanted to return to see old friends and escape Seoul for a long weekend.

Little Liam really is "the bee's knees"

The flight from Seoul was straightforward, 3.5 hours, and Hong Kong was every bit as accessible to the foreign tourist as I had remembered it. Just as 4 years prior, I transported myself directly from the airport to the Central District to reconnect with my expat friends Evan and Kathy, still going strong in HK after almost 5 years! But times are a-changin’ and my friends now have a 1-year-old son, Liam, who is quite the happy clam. We met for afternoon tea at the Mandarin Oriental with Kathy’s sister who was also in town. Delicious and I loved the accompanying food – small cakes and quiches and sandwiches even. Delightfully colonial! Evan and Kathy were surprisingly fascinated about life in Korea and I tried hard to convince them to visit.

I also caught up on the weekend with my Korean and B-school friend Yunki and his wife, as well as my old Samsung work colleague Han who sounded thrilled with his new lifestyle, even if he needs to make the dreadful 2-hour-each-way commute to Shenzhen. “Suwon on steroids” he called it, in reference to Samsung Electronics’ less-than-flattering hometown.

I took Monday to finally tour Macau – easy to reach from Hong Kong via ferry. Thanks to compulsive mainland Chinese tourists, Macau is the world’s largest casino town. However, it lacks the glitz and style of Las Vegas, even making shameless (and uninteresting) replicas of Vegas casinos like the Venetian. The town has clearly chosen to embrace the casinos over glorifying its colonial heritage – aside from a clean and glitzy pedestrian shopping area the ruins of Portuguese times gone by looked somewhat shabby. I came away less than impressed.

Best "selfie" I could muster in Macau's Senado Square

My eye was also drawn to more of the grittier aspects of Hong Kong than I had observed on my first visit – the claustrophobic neighborhoods and the concrete jungle of pedestrian bridges and tunnels. Hong Kong possesses a wealth of natural beauty in its harbor and the lush green hills around all of its tall buildings, but day-to-day I would probably be overwhelmed by meandering to-and-fro through the maze. My mood was probably not helped by the fact that the weather rained the whole time during my 4-day visit.

At least I found real dim sum – courtesy of a couple friendly local ladies (married!!) who I met while stuck waiting out a torrential flooding downpour in Soho on Sunday evening. So good! Even when the weather is dreary in Hong Kong, at least you can always eat well.

Authentic dim sum always satisfies

Niseko Trip #2

This post is long overdue ...

My group of expat all-stars from Samsung Korea traveled to Niseko, Japan for the 2014 Lunar New Year holiday. The snow was so good during Lunar New Year 2013 that we just had to return. Though not as spectacular as the year before, Niseko once again did not disappoint!

Just like last year, a big group of us rented a big house in the Grand Hirafu Village, ready to shred for 3 days on the most amazing powdery snow I have ever seen. We got quite unlucky with the weather this year as high winds prevented us from skiing on the top of the mountain for all 3 days that we visited. However, even with 20% of the ski mountain accessible the skiing is still many times better than Korean skiing! We were still able to do some backcountry skiing in knee deep powder — totally worth it.

This year the skiing took a back seat to the delicious meals and wonderful camaraderie our house of 13 experienced together after ski day. We knew from the outset that our house would be a bit like an "Animal House", sort of a grown-up fraternity similar to the movie "Old School". We ate lavishly at elegant Japanese restaurants our first two nights before catering in at our house on the third evening. It seemed like a grown-up dinner at first, but naturally evolved into a night of vodka pulls, flipcup, and physical challenges. We collectively felt hungover the day after — and we all learned the valuable lesson that skiing is much, much harder after heavy drinking!

Of course, the return to reality after leaving ski fantasy land was hard, and it's not clear how many more of these expat rendezvous we will all still be in Korea for. The brief, fleeting moment of rediscovered youth that we all felt in Niseko 2014 is a feeling we all will not forget for some time.

Loving quirky Japan, as always!