Wrap up thoughts

I've been avoiding doing this final post since I got home only because I thought I'd have some final profound thoughts to wrap up this trip...nope

I guess I'd like to start out by thanking everyone who followed along with my trip. I'm looking at my stats and I'm currently at 1,005 hits for my blog which is really amazing. THANK YOU!
Knowing that people were looking at my page and expecting results from me really kept me accountable with blogging on days I was too tired from being out all day.
This really was a lot of fun to do and I'm glad I kept a log of all the awesome stuff we did.

So I wanted to give some overall thoughts good and bad about the cities we went to to kind of sum things up for those who don't have a chance to read through all the posts.

Hong Kong

Spent most of our time hanging out with both mom and dad's side of the family. Hong Kong was the first Asian city I ever visited as a kid and I always have fun here. Every single time I've come, I literally breathe a sigh of relief and my first thought is "I'm average!" only because I speak Cantonese and I look like every other guy on the street.
The only things that bug me are that the city is really small and there are WAY too many people that tend to be pushy and rude.

Macau

I kind of felt like Macau was like Disneyland where you only need to go once and you're fine with it. The day we went, it was jam packed full of people, I don't gamble so most of the activities there don't apply to me and the major area that people visit, I covered on this trip. I don't tend to enjoy going to the most popular tourist attractions because they tend to be expensive and well...full of tourists

Beijing

Beijing is always going to be my second home. I spent an unforgettable 3 months here in '08 and this is the first time I've been back. It was awesome to see how different a lot of things have changed. We spent most of our time visiting sites like the Forbidden City and the Great Wall of China so lots and LOTS of walking. I'm so glad that we left when we did because if you didn't see the news, there was record smog that cast over the city the day we left. When we came back through Beijing on our way to HK from Seoul, I was surprised how bad it was and I'm thankful the timing of the trip worked out otherwise we wouldn't have been able to even go outside without risking our health.

Shanghai

I don't think we spent more than an hour without cramming some kind of food in our mouths in Shanghai. It was so much fun seeing some of my favorite people and just hanging out with them. I still have dreams about the hot pot restaurant Hai Di Lao and cannot wait to go back. This is my 2nd time in Shanghai and it definitely was better than my last time so I'm looking forward to making another appearance here. It's cleaner than Beijing but to me, it just doesn't have the same Chinese charm or feel because it's so westernized, very similar to Hong Kong.

Seoul

I've said it once and I will continue saying it. EVERYONE is well dressed and good looking. Seriously, by the 3rd day I was tired of looking at everyone's outfits and wishing I had enough money and style to dress as well as them. I think 3 days was enough to spend in Seoul because it was just so expensive. By expensive I mean almost equivalent to paying for anything in the US. Seoul was fun but I'm not all that into shopping and we spent most of the time walking around the big shopping districts. I think I'd like to come back with a group of friends to go check out more of the night scene.

It was somewhat of a shock to me how different the cultures varied from city to city. Hong Kong and Seoul were similar in the sense that people woke up late and stayed out until 12-1am so shops wouldn't open until 11 or noon and you can always find something to eat. Whereas Beijing and Shanghai were more "normal" and restaurants would close at 9 or 10. Also, people got taller in each city we went to, which I thought was funny.
Also, here in the US people are constantly making fun of owners of the Galaxy Note 2 and other large sized smartphones. On the flipside, all I saw in China and Korea were Note 2's and bigger phones which I thought was funny...they must be compensating for something...

Right now I'm already thinking about my next trip around spring or fall of next year and I'm thinking maybe a mix of Singapore, Philippines, Malaysia  Indonesia, and/or Thailand?

Again, it was a blast writing this blog and getting some really good feedback from friends and family about it.
Thanks for reading!
-Andrew

Tips for traveling

I wanted to keep an ongoing list of travel tips I learned from things that I did or wished I did while on the trip. This is my ongoing list, in no particular order

1. Bring a small roll of duct tape. Luggage can rip
2. Keep a pen with your everyday bag because filling out customs forms gets tedious
3. Roll up clothes and put them in ziplock bags, that way it's easier to organize and won't get wet
4. Memorize your passport number, it's annoying to have to pull it out all the time
5. If you're going to a cold place, bring hand/toe warmers
6. Bring a few cliff bars, you never know when the next time you'll find a place to eat or if you're in a rush, they come in handy
7. Carry twice as much cash as you think you'll need, if you're going to use an ATM, tell your bank ahead of time
8. Pack half as much as you think you'll need, most hostels will have a place you can wash your clothes and most of the time people aren't going to notice/care you wore your underwear twice in a row
9. If traveling through different countries that require visas, bring a few 2x2 pictures of yourself for the visa application, those can get expensive
10. When flying, wear sweats, shoes that are easy to take off, and keep your metal-y stuff in your bag. It makes going through security much quicker.
11. Bring a power strip, that way you're not fighting with people for an outlet if you need to charge your stuff at the airport.
• Also bring outlet adaptors because US electronics aren't going to plug into the wall anywhere else outside the US
12. Most public places in China don't provide toilet paper. Plan to either bring your own or just don't poop
13. Exercise well before the start of your trip. I'll be easier to carry heavy baggage and endurance to walk around all day and night will be better. I focused mostly on legs and back and started working out 3 months prior.
14. Personal preference but I've traveled with luggage, duffle bags, and backpacking backpacks from REI and the backpack wins hands down. It evenly distributes the weight on your body and pulling a rolling luggage makes you look like more of a prime target for suspicious people.
15. Leave the ego at home and try to learn a few words of the language. I've never run into people that were rude because I was trying to say Thank You in their native language.
16. Talk with strangers, ESPECIALLY Australians, if I could, I'd pay an Aussie read me a book just to hear the accent. I've learned a ton about the world and many of these tips I've posted are from conversations with fellow travelers 
17. Depending on your personality and who you're traveling with, don't travel with a set agenda, just know what everyone's goals are for the trip and the city and plan around that. Delays and unexpected events are going to happen

Packing, repacking, re REpacking

Ok I got side tracked in my last post because I started thinking about the puppies I saw today so let me start over...
It's 3am now and I've packed my bag for the 3rd time. First time it was packed full, 2nd time I had to shift things around for the extra stuff we bought today, and 3rd time I took out a bunch of old clothes and my ratty converses to toss out because I can live without a few pairs of socks with holes in them and faded tshirts.

I gave this exit trip a lot of thought today. Because I have to go back to work the morning after we get back to Minneapolis, I'm going to be jet lagged by 14 hours. So 8am central is going to feel like 10pm HK time. I bought a cup of very strong coffee at 9pm tonight and I'm hoping it can keep me up the entire night.

The flight is at 11, we have to be at the airport at 8, which means take the bus from Sha Tin before 7 which will be a challenge because we have all of Kimberly's stuff that we hauled over to our uncle's place before the big trip to bring down to the bus station and through the airport to check in.

I'm really hoping this no-sleep plan will work so I will knock out immediately on the 13 hr plane ride back to the states. I'm physically exhausted from a very busy day but my mind is jittery and wide awake so here goes nothing...*cheers* (raised cup of coffee)

Puppies!

It's 2am right now, I'm sitting on the floor of my uncle's house trying not to pass out. Today was a super busy day and unfortunately, it rushed past super quickly. Woke up around 9 and ate breakfast with my uncle and aunt on my dad's side of the family. Then headed out to run errands with Kimberly like closing her bank account and getting last minute gifts and snacks to bring home.

We were in Mon Kok and Kimberly took me to the street that I haven't been to where they sell all the delicious I mean adorable puppies and kittens. I just....ugh I don't know how I feel about it to be honest. From all the research and knowledge I have from owning a rescue dog for the past year and a half, I just can't agree with this form of selling and buying pets.

For one thing, all the puppies (I didn't pay attention to the cats because they're jerks) were between the ages of 2 and 6ish months. My first issue is, what happens after 6 months because I doubt they're all getting adopted by coincidence at that age. Next I now realize why none of the dogs I saw in China were leashed. I think that by taking them away from their mother at such a young age because they're at a very cute stage warped them in their young development stage of learning important social lessons that only being in a litter until around 9 weeks teaches. So that's probably why they're so incredibly attached to their owners that they aren't required to have leashes (I could be wrong).

Next, there were 2-3 dogs in a very small cage and they were just craving the touch of someone to pet or hold them. I'm not going jump to the conclusion that these animals are being maltreated but whenever one of the workers opened up the cage to clean it, the puppies would automatically want to play. Being locked in a glass case all day every day sounds pretty awful to me.

Finally, some of the pet stores were selling husky and English bull dog puppies. These things get BIG fast and considering how small the space is in Hong Kong, I really don't know if people think about the exercise needed or even how much even the husky would suffer in the intense humidity and heat in the summer.

People weren't allowed to take pictures but...whatever. I'm not going to blow a whistle on their businesses because obviously there's a demand for adorable tiny puppies and it's legal to run the way that they are. I just felt that this was important enough to share my opinion about and have pictures to back me up.

This tortoise could barely turn around in its tank

And these bunnies...well they were super fuzzy and cute ^_^

Last leg of the trip

I'm writing from the direct train from hongkik to the airport. I'd say we totally chose the right place to stay in seoul because it was so central to everything. Also, the subway seat I'm sitting on is heated which is pretty awesome.

Last night we had a blast hanging out with Kimberly HKUST classmate David and his Korean posse.

They took us out to eat dak galbi which is a dish with spicy chicken, cabbage, rice cakes sprinkled with cheese on top. I wish I heard about this food sooner because it was so good.

After dinner we went out to an arcade and played the latest version of pump it up which hasn't come out in the states yet. Yup, super Asian thing to do.

So this is pretty much the end of vacation for us. I'm not signing off just yet but right now we're on our way back to hong kong to grab the rest of the stuff and then we head home.

Overall seoul was fun. I wish we could have brought more people with us and the price of things is equivalent to the US but it was a good time. Next time, I'll have to spend time outside of seoul to check out the countryside.

Right now, I'm feeling pretty tired from all the traveling and walking around we've been doing. At home I'm usually driving to my destinations and I don't go out much so basically 3 weeks of flying, walking, and sightseeing is a lot of activity considering all the things we did.

We're cutting it pretty short right now. It's about 12:30pm, it takes almost an hour to get to the airport, and our international flight is at 3. Hopefully we won't have any ticket troubles this time again.

Oh yah, one more thing. we managed to be in seoul for 5 days and not once did we hear gangnam style. :)

"You're ugly and the only thing you can do is buy clothes. If that doesn't work, get plastic surgery" -Korea

So this is pretty much the message I got from being here for the past 4 days. I'm probably wrong in thinking that but with SO many places to buy clothes, get face creams and makeup, and advertisements for plastic surgery, I really can't help but feel like the culture puts a lot of pressure on its youth to look good.

My immediate reaction when I first got here was, wow EVERYONE looks good.
Just from walking up and down the streets in Meyongdong and Dongdemun I see all these gorgeous looking guys. How can I compete with this?

Ok the last one kind of looked like a girl but ads like this for guys are everywhere. Granted, that's what marketing is supposed to do but I feel the look of the guy is much different from here and what I'm used to seeing even in China.

Also, there are ads for plastic surgery all over the subway station

Now I feel kind of bad because the people that do live here probably are constantly pressured to keep up appearances instead of just wearing a comfortable pair of old sweatpants and a t shirt.

This commercial plays NON STOP on the subway, I mean how the heck does she make unplugging an  electrical outlet sexy?!

There's absolutely nothing wrong with the culture, it's just the way it is and I just wanted to share my feelings with the people who haven't been to Korea yet. /rant

Asians are weird

I haven't really kept up my daily activity posts only because we haven't really done anything to write home about besides eating Korean bbq, Starcraft, and walking around the shopping districts in meyongdong and dongdemun.

We decided to go to gangnam to figure out what the deal with the place was. Yes I know I've heard the song too...

Joanna told me about a fantastic place in the Coex mall called red mango that's supposed to have really good frozen yogurt and desserts. The coex mall is supposed to be the largest underground shopping center around. We stopped at a busy restaurant and had bimibap for lunch but then a little while after, we walked by this really fancy all you can eat seafood restaurant so that was kind of disappointing.

We spent the better part of an hour looking for red mango, turns out it moved to a different location 1 subway stop over. Went there and followed the directions online. Arrived at the location and found that they were shut down. Another disappointment :/

A few people suggested going to an authentic jimjilbang, a Korean spa and so we went to a big one called Yonghan dragon hill spa. I know my title of the post is over generalizing things but neither of us really understood the draw of the place.

We paid $12 each and the options were to swim outside in the hot pool or enjoy the saunas.

The main lobby area had heated floors and so a lot of people were just laying on the floor.

There was a separate room called the "fresh air room" so we sat in there for about 5 minutes before leaving. I think there must be some sort of placebo effect because it was just a room with people laying around.

We checked out the sauna which was a large brick oven you walked into. There's something I can't put my finger on but being in a small very hot dark space with a ton of other people who look just like you doesn't sit well with me. Also there were couples making out around me in the dark so that was pretty weird.

Overall we didn't have a good experience with it. We tried to keep an open mind but I think this is entirely a cultural thing that we never grew up with. Going to the public bath house is a family or couple activity and for me, being there with my sister was kind of awkward...

The real reason anyone should visit seoul: Starcraft

So after much planning and anticipation the day finally came. It was the day we would go to the GOMTV station to watch people play Starcraft competitively at the GOM TV station.

For those who are unfamiliar with how nerdy I am, Starcraft is an online Real Time Strategy game where you work to build an army and pit it against your opponent. The game has been nothing short of a national sport (I'm exaggerating) and there are prize pools of about $60,000 every tournament.
Koreans have mastered the game and constantly win in worldwide competitions.

I was lucky enough to be here to have a chance to check out one night of the qualifiers.

The studio is actually located in a high school and is free to attend. The game is casted in both Korean and English but you have to give them your ID for an English head set to listen.

I've been playing Starcraft since I was in 4th grade and I've been playing more intensely since Starcraft 2 came out 2 years ago. I have to say that it was a blast seeing the production, the live audience and the casters do their thing. 

What was most surprising was that one of the players EG_JD had groupies in the audience call out his name and cheer for him.

The matches lasted about 3 hours with 5 players trying to get into the top 2 spots for Code S. Unfortunately, there were no protoss players so it was mostly ZvZ and TvZ games.

I was a little disappointed that we didn't arrive into Seoul one day early because Huk and Nestea were playing the night before. Many of the matches were great and exciting to watch.

Overall it was a great time and I would recommend any Starcraft fan to check it out if they make it out to seoul. The next time I'm here, I'll be one of the competitors...

Korean overload

Last night we got into seoul. It kind of annoys me that for a 6pm flight you must be there early therefore we left at 3pm and the entire traveling portion eats up the rest of your day.

 We had to take a 40 minute "limo" ride into the city, they're called limousines but they're just large coach buses in Korea. When I got off the bus I got into sensory overload. Everyone was well dressed and good looking, even the babies. Any random person on the street probably made me look like Gary Busey in comparison. So many shops were open and brightly lit and every other restaurant was a Korean bbq place.

Right now I am SO excited to be in Korea. We got to the hostel at 10:30 and it's easily the nicest place we're stayed at. It's called the Grape Garden House and it's a small 2 story house in the university district. The shower is the hottest we've had, the floors are heated, and there's breakfast in the morning. We met the husband and wife owners Min and Luna and they were so nice. They asked if we were interested in going to bbq with them.

 On our way there we met Sue who is also staying at the same hostel as we were and she tagged along for dinner as well. Sue is originally from Germany and has been in Korea for the past 3 months just hanging out which I think is so cool.

It was great having them with us because Luna is studying to be a Korean teacher for English speaking students. She taught us some useful phases and some eating manners. Dinner was absolutely delicious and it's unfortunate we can't have bbq in Minnesota the same way.

Kimberly's classmate, David met us at the restaurant on his way home and I asked him about live octopus. Luckily there was a place next door that served live octopus tentacles. I don't think I would give the experience justice if I wrote it out so here's the video:

 Looking back, I don't think I'd do it again. The only enjoyable parts are the ones that are moving and are the small parts otherwise the large chunks are just slimy and require a lot of chewing. This morning my mouth still tasted like fish and my stomach just felt heavy because you can't fully chew the thing so it goes down mostly whole. 

Hai di lao the place where food dreams are born

So this required its own blog post because it was so amazing.
Aaron suggested going to a hot pot place he hasn't been to but has heard a lot about it. The restaurant name is Hai Di Lao (海底捞) and up to this point I thought the restaurant service at Fogo De chao was the best I've ever had...I was SO wrong.

We had to wait about half an hour for a table. For people who are waiting they serve you popcorn, Orange juice, and fresh sliced oranges. If you don't want to fill up on snacks you can get your nails done or get a shoulder massage FOR FREE.

The cool thing about HDL was that the menu was in English and so it was easy to order. When you sit down, they give you an apron, a clear ziplock bag for your cell phone in case you want to use it and not get it dirty, and someone walks around every 15 minutes with fresh hot towels.

Before the food comes you can get fresh mini oranges, watermelon, grapefruit, or Spanish peanuts. And then they have an entire condiment bar for dipping sauces.

When your food arrives the waiter does everything for you in terms of ripping the lettuce into smaller pieces to spooning food on your plate and they get visibly upset if you want to do it yourself.

If you accidentally get sauce on your clothes they have a spray that takes out the stain in 3 minutes.

Probably the best part of the experience was when we ordered the hand pulled noodles. They not only make noodles from scratch in front of you, they dance with it to gangnam style.

I also need to mention that this restaurant is open 24/7. We sat and ate for 3 whole hours. This place is amazing and I need to go back immediately.

Getting Lost is Fun!

We didn't really have much of an agenda for our last full day of Shanghai besides meeting up with my friends Aaron and Gulya from BLCU so we asked Dinghan where we could go to check out some worthwhile stuff. He suggested the Fabric Market where you can bargain for clothes and suits.

We took the train over there and similar to the electronic market in Beijing this was an entire building of suits, dresses, and accessories. I'm not really into clothes shopping myself but the fake D&G belt I got from Joanna on her last trip to china was starting to wear out so I went in search for a new belt. I was able to bargain for less than $10 for an "authentic" Hugo Boss black belt, I should have gone way lower but the lady jumped ahead and cut the belt for me so she got me - -''

I did help Kimberly bargain for a burbury scarf knockoff for $5.

We wandered around the building for maybe an hour and then left. It was kind of dark and depressing in there, not sure why anyone would want to be there for more time than they have to. I didn't know where we were going but it didn't really matter because we found ourselves in a really run down neighborhood that was overflowing with authenticity and character.

We grabbed some random lamb meat that was being grilled, it was delicious but if I was going to get sick from anything on this trip, it would be from this.

There was just so much to look at and so many cute dogs walking around! One thing I definitely have noticed that I haven't seen a single dog on a leash yet they are completely obedient dogs and closely follow their owner. If I had brought Speedy with me, he would have run off and I probably wouldn't see him again.

Afterwards we decided to go on the completely opposite side of town to the business district to check out all the super tall buildings that make up the famous Shanghai Skyline.

I was shocked to see it would cost $20 each person to go up to one of the towers' observatory not only because of the cost but it was smoggy that day so the visibility wouldn't have been very good at all. We decided to go into one of the buildings and go up to the 54th floor where the Hyatt Hotel was and just look around from the restaurant. The place was so classy I felt like we didn't belong there at all but the view was so worth it.

I've definitely learned from the past trips that I've had that it's best not to set a strict agenda and just go with the flow because you never know what kind of fun you'd have. We went out to dinner with Aaron and some of his friends at a hot pot place called Hai Di Lao but that requires its own blog post ^_^