Less than 24 hours ago I was just arriving at the airport in Seoul S. Korea after flying 14 hours from NYC aboard Korean air where the flight attendants were beautiful and impeccably dressed women with decent English, striking men and delicious food. My first taste of Korean food was on this flight and what they call bibimbap. They told me it was rice and vegtables but it was so much more. It is delivered with veggies in a bowl and steamed rice and a set of directions. You take the steamed rice, add it to the veggies then add a container of chili paste, my favorite, and sesame oil. You mix it all together and the spicy dish is wonderful. This came served with a side of seaweed soup, not bad for my first meal.
By the time I had arrived at Incheaon airport I had been up for over 24 hours and still had a 4 hour bus ride ahead of me. I left the plane and was immediately stopped by quarantine. Everyone had to pass through a line of medics taking some sort of skin reading. While on the flight I had noticed on average that the Koreans wear a lot more surgical face masks then the average and realized after getting an information card that the Koreans were afraid of Swine flu. They handed out anti-bacterial wipes for everyone and seemed slightly obsessed with national health and the swine flu scare.
Once through immigration I made my way outside to find my bus to Gwangju. I was happily surprised to arrived at the bus and see that they all were like first class. As a confused foreigner trying to read my ticket a fellow bus goer and Korean jumped to my rescue. He showed me my seat and even used his cell phone to call ahead to let my ride know I was on my way.
My Korean bus guide sat next to me during the ride and with his bad English told me his English name was James Chon, like James Bond. He did a nice little gun demonstration so I knew what he was referring to and started asking me lots of questions. He told me all about the baseball we were watching and gave me chocolate and gum. I know its sounds strange, but he was just being friendly, and not looking for a western bride. He was a business professor at one of the University's, and was 49 years old. Telling your age over here is quite normal as your age shows your status and the respect you deserve. After talking the first hour my comfy chair and the baseball game put me right to sleep and I awoke to the Gwangju bus terminal.
I was picked up and brought to my apartment at 11pm where I passed out promptly and awoke in the early morning hour to my first day in Korea...
Showing posts with label travel. Show all posts
Showing posts with label travel. Show all posts
Monday, 31 August 2009
Friday, 3 July 2009
Traveling in Colombia
As I said before I traveled for over six months in South America. This experience was amazing and wonderful and I wanted to share my previous blog....
Colombia has been absolutely amazing so far and everyone I have met has stayed in Colombia far longer than they ever planned to. My original plan was so visit 2 or 3 weeks and by the time I eventually leave here I will have stayed more than 7. If I stay any longer I would need to extend my visa. Its hard to truly explain how amazing this country is. The people have been nothing but extremely nice, generous and helpful and the country itself has an amazing and diverse beauty from the coast to the coffee region and beyond. I have already been captivated by the country and have been able to appreciate it further and with a greater understanding after reading Gabriel Garcia Marquez´s book ¨One Hundred Years of Solitude¨. This book has been my bridge into the mysteriousness that only Colombia has. It has beautifully captured the spirit and feel of the country for me through a magical realism that I only understood once I visited. From Cartagena to Santa Marta and Taganga on the coast, each place is uniquely different but completely amazing. Cartagena is a beautiful old Spanish colonial town that is mixed with a wonderful Caribbean feel with hot summer days, busy streets and friendly people.
On the Friday night when I was there everyone went out to the Havana Club where there was a live band and tons of Salsa dancing with all the locals and little time to rest. The woman and men here have a built in sense of movement and dancing comes naturally, but to be honest, I think I held my own pretty well...Thanks mom!After Cartagena I headed north east to Santa Marta and Taganga. I made the bus journey with James, a British guy I met my first night in Cartagena because we were both headed in the same direction. When we boarded the bus we were the final two people on so I got the privilege of riding shotgun. I think this was the best and scariest seat on the bus. I got to see all the scenery including passing other vehicles around blind corners, racing around hairpin turns and almost watching the bus kiss other vehicles with only a couple inches to spare. This was only the first of many similar rides. Despite the scary, fast driving we arrived safely in Santa Marta where we immediately moved on to Taganga.
Taganga is a small fishing village a couple kilometres away and over a hill from Santa Marta. Here there were dirt roads and tiny beaches where locals congregate on Sundays with the family. Along the beach there are tons of food stalls where I was able to try many different fruit smoothies which some were amazing, others I was not a fan of. I also was able to try their coconut sweets that they sell along the beach by ladies balancing their treats on their heads. This small town has been one of the highlights of my trip so far and its hard to fully appreciate its uniqueness in words. Because Taganga is so small and there is no grocery store or ATM many days we would take the short 10 minute 50 cent bus ride over the hill to Santa Marta. The ¨bus¨ is actually just a minivan where they squeeze as many people as possible on board. On the bus is where I met some very interesting people and found it to be one of the best places to observe. On one journey I met an 80 year old man trying to learn English. He was very sweet and spoke with me the whole way back to Taganga. On other journeys I noticed that if a mother was travelling with kids or infants whoever was closest might take the kid on their own lap whether they new them or not.
Santa Marta is a busy town with street venders everywhere and a charm unique to the town. People here were friendly and not pushy like they could be in Cartagena. I loved wondering the streets looking at all the different things they were selling and different food carts, fruits and juices. The weather was always warm and the town very pleasant. From Taganga we set off to Tayrona national park with six other travellers. Tayrona is where the Tayrona Indians used to live before the Spanish killed them all off. To get there we caught a boat on a horribly cold raining day and set off on choppy seas to the amazing beaches of the national park. On the almost 2 hour freezing boat ride we were able to see the tallest mountain in the Sierra Nevada´s which run along the coast and awesome flying fish. By the time we arrived on the little beach my lips were more blue than the water and I am pretty sure I had hypothermia. When the sun finally came out the beaches here were amazing. We staying in a little hammock gazebo thing that over looked the beaches which you can see in the picture.
It was totally unique. It was completely open and inside slept 24 people in hammocks. It took some getting used to the hammock but once you get the hang of it it became quite a treat.
After our very relaxing time in Tayrona we returned to Taganga where myself and two others prepared for our trek to La Ciudad Perdida, or The Lost City. This is a 6 day hike into the Colombian jungle to the amazing ruins the natives left behind after they were killed off by the Spanish. The city is believed to be from around 800 AD, have over 169 terraces and housed thousands of people. It is called the lost city because it was only rediscovered in the 1970´s. Since its discovery the city has lost many of its treasures due to treasure hunters and until a couple years ago was in guerilla territory, and still is to some degree. In 2003 there were 8 people kidnapped from the trek and all were returned safely but it is now protected by the military though the guerillas remain not far outside the protected area. To get to the lost city we hiked three days going through indigenous villages with natives still living the traditional way with mules to transport their goods using the same trails we were hiking on.
We also had to cross the river that flows back and forth at least 9 times, of course, only the last crossing did I manage to get my shoes soaked when I put my shoes back on after crossing, then slipped in. We also hiked through mud and rain, and survived the mosquitos that left everyone´s legs swollen and red and finally we walked up the over 1,200 very old, precarious, slippery, steep steps to the city. When we finally arrived on the main terrace though, all the hiking was well worth it. The city rests in the middle of this amazing valley raised up on a plateau with a waterfall falling in the distance and over looking the Sierra Nevada´s.
The Lost City was about 3 weeks ago now and since I have moved south. Because I have already written a novel I will be better and write more very shortly and update you on the last 3 weeks. Below are links to the rest of my pictures.
Cartagena= http://picasaweb.google.com/linseypaddock/Cartagena?authkey=Ad6WD7mUha8#Tayrona= http://picasaweb.google.com/linseypaddock/ColombiaTagangaAndTayrona# La Ciudad Perdida= http://picasaweb.google.com/linseypaddock/ColombiaLaCiudadPerdida#
Colombia has been absolutely amazing so far and everyone I have met has stayed in Colombia far longer than they ever planned to. My original plan was so visit 2 or 3 weeks and by the time I eventually leave here I will have stayed more than 7. If I stay any longer I would need to extend my visa. Its hard to truly explain how amazing this country is. The people have been nothing but extremely nice, generous and helpful and the country itself has an amazing and diverse beauty from the coast to the coffee region and beyond. I have already been captivated by the country and have been able to appreciate it further and with a greater understanding after reading Gabriel Garcia Marquez´s book ¨One Hundred Years of Solitude¨. This book has been my bridge into the mysteriousness that only Colombia has. It has beautifully captured the spirit and feel of the country for me through a magical realism that I only understood once I visited. From Cartagena to Santa Marta and Taganga on the coast, each place is uniquely different but completely amazing. Cartagena is a beautiful old Spanish colonial town that is mixed with a wonderful Caribbean feel with hot summer days, busy streets and friendly people.
On the Friday night when I was there everyone went out to the Havana Club where there was a live band and tons of Salsa dancing with all the locals and little time to rest. The woman and men here have a built in sense of movement and dancing comes naturally, but to be honest, I think I held my own pretty well...Thanks mom!After Cartagena I headed north east to Santa Marta and Taganga. I made the bus journey with James, a British guy I met my first night in Cartagena because we were both headed in the same direction. When we boarded the bus we were the final two people on so I got the privilege of riding shotgun. I think this was the best and scariest seat on the bus. I got to see all the scenery including passing other vehicles around blind corners, racing around hairpin turns and almost watching the bus kiss other vehicles with only a couple inches to spare. This was only the first of many similar rides. Despite the scary, fast driving we arrived safely in Santa Marta where we immediately moved on to Taganga.
Taganga is a small fishing village a couple kilometres away and over a hill from Santa Marta. Here there were dirt roads and tiny beaches where locals congregate on Sundays with the family. Along the beach there are tons of food stalls where I was able to try many different fruit smoothies which some were amazing, others I was not a fan of. I also was able to try their coconut sweets that they sell along the beach by ladies balancing their treats on their heads. This small town has been one of the highlights of my trip so far and its hard to fully appreciate its uniqueness in words. Because Taganga is so small and there is no grocery store or ATM many days we would take the short 10 minute 50 cent bus ride over the hill to Santa Marta. The ¨bus¨ is actually just a minivan where they squeeze as many people as possible on board. On the bus is where I met some very interesting people and found it to be one of the best places to observe. On one journey I met an 80 year old man trying to learn English. He was very sweet and spoke with me the whole way back to Taganga. On other journeys I noticed that if a mother was travelling with kids or infants whoever was closest might take the kid on their own lap whether they new them or not.
Santa Marta is a busy town with street venders everywhere and a charm unique to the town. People here were friendly and not pushy like they could be in Cartagena. I loved wondering the streets looking at all the different things they were selling and different food carts, fruits and juices. The weather was always warm and the town very pleasant. From Taganga we set off to Tayrona national park with six other travellers. Tayrona is where the Tayrona Indians used to live before the Spanish killed them all off. To get there we caught a boat on a horribly cold raining day and set off on choppy seas to the amazing beaches of the national park. On the almost 2 hour freezing boat ride we were able to see the tallest mountain in the Sierra Nevada´s which run along the coast and awesome flying fish. By the time we arrived on the little beach my lips were more blue than the water and I am pretty sure I had hypothermia. When the sun finally came out the beaches here were amazing. We staying in a little hammock gazebo thing that over looked the beaches which you can see in the picture.
It was totally unique. It was completely open and inside slept 24 people in hammocks. It took some getting used to the hammock but once you get the hang of it it became quite a treat.
After our very relaxing time in Tayrona we returned to Taganga where myself and two others prepared for our trek to La Ciudad Perdida, or The Lost City. This is a 6 day hike into the Colombian jungle to the amazing ruins the natives left behind after they were killed off by the Spanish. The city is believed to be from around 800 AD, have over 169 terraces and housed thousands of people. It is called the lost city because it was only rediscovered in the 1970´s. Since its discovery the city has lost many of its treasures due to treasure hunters and until a couple years ago was in guerilla territory, and still is to some degree. In 2003 there were 8 people kidnapped from the trek and all were returned safely but it is now protected by the military though the guerillas remain not far outside the protected area. To get to the lost city we hiked three days going through indigenous villages with natives still living the traditional way with mules to transport their goods using the same trails we were hiking on.
We also had to cross the river that flows back and forth at least 9 times, of course, only the last crossing did I manage to get my shoes soaked when I put my shoes back on after crossing, then slipped in. We also hiked through mud and rain, and survived the mosquitos that left everyone´s legs swollen and red and finally we walked up the over 1,200 very old, precarious, slippery, steep steps to the city. When we finally arrived on the main terrace though, all the hiking was well worth it. The city rests in the middle of this amazing valley raised up on a plateau with a waterfall falling in the distance and over looking the Sierra Nevada´s.
The Lost City was about 3 weeks ago now and since I have moved south. Because I have already written a novel I will be better and write more very shortly and update you on the last 3 weeks. Below are links to the rest of my pictures.
Cartagena= http://picasaweb.google.com/linseypaddock/Cartagena?authkey=Ad6WD7mUha8#Tayrona= http://picasaweb.google.com/linseypaddock/ColombiaTagangaAndTayrona# La Ciudad Perdida= http://picasaweb.google.com/linseypaddock/ColombiaLaCiudadPerdida#
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