35 Years Old...

 I never did get to writing an overall reflection blog post for summer 2023. Perhaps one day, since the trip is still quite vivid in my mind.

It's hard to believe that I'm 35 years old. I probably mentioned it before, but when I was under 18, I couldn't wait to be of age. As I grew older, I was quite satisfied in regards to my chronological age, till I reached 31. After that, I always wished I was still younger. As time goes on, I'm sure I'll start to appreciate what age I live up to, which will hopefully be a decently long time.

Saturday school started yesterday, and I started a part-time job as a banquet server at a hotel nearby. Any extra income in this economy is a much-needed relief. (I'll probably talk more about my experiences as a banquet server in another post later on). As for today, after coming home at around 1 AM, and catching up on sleep, it was a relatively relaxing day. For dinner, my girlfriend took me out to a relatively new dining experience: Le Petit Chef. It was my first time to experience an interactive dinner. The food was decent, but the experience was definitely the highlight of the night. I only wished that each clip was a bit long. Another "perhaps I'll elaborate further in a different post". 

Off to catching up on more sleep! This up coming school week should be relatively laid back due to no students on Wednesday and a field trip to Edmonton this Thursday. Thank you to all of you that wished me a happy birthday! =)

Day 45 (Aug 22) - Back to Calgary

 It's been a busy month, trying to finish units before the break. But onto the second last post (last one being a reflective overall post) for Asia 2023!

With our flights being relatively late, we had the luxury to wake up late. We did one final pack and clean up before checking out of our hotel. We took a local bus to the airport, which surprisingly, we didn't have to book. The ride was about an hour long, so we got more shut eye in.

As we approached the airport, it started to rain. I believe this is my third Asia trip in a row that had rain on the last day (I believe Japan 2019 did... but for sure Japan 2017 and 2015 did). Perhaps it's a reflection of my heart, in that I miss home, but it's always nice to be able to travel abroad. My girlfriend's flight to HK was earlier than mine, but she took the shuttle bus from our bus stop to my terminal. After spending about half an hour together, it was time for her to head back to the other terminal to catch her flight. I had about five hours to spare before my flight.

I sat by the check in, waiting for about 90 minutes for my turn. As it was time, I approached to check in, but was informed that they had to change my flight since my transit time in the US was too short (originally was supposed to fly to SFO before heading back to YYC). 90 minutes, was apparently not enough time to clear through immigrations. Unfortunately, it was hard for me to get the full message, since the check in counter didn't have a strong grasp of English. However, they were so kind to find someone fluent enough to guide me on what to do in order to change my flight. I left for the ticket counter, in which I had my flight change to Seattle. To compensate for my trouble, they upgraded my seat to an exit row seat. I was fine with that, since my initial thought was more leg room. 

After checking in with my new boarding pass, I dropped off my luggage and headed through security. It was a breeze, which meant I had a good amount of time. I looked around the various kiosks and stores they had, and finally settled for some lunch. As per tradition, I tried looking for a McDonald's, but none were in sight (that I could see anyways). I did find a Lotteria, which is a South Korean burger chain restaurant. I ordered one of their recommended burgers and upgraded my fries with sour cream onion powder. The burger was huge and delicious, and the sour cream powder was a nice touch to the fries. After completing lunch, I headed to my gate to wait to board.

Excited to get more leg room, I rushed eagerly to my seat. Lo and behold, I got a lot of legroom. I was located near the front of economy class, by the exit doors. That meant there was no seats in front of me, which was great. The problem was, there was no storage pocket for me to put my usual stuff inside. Yes, I'm aware that these pockets are filthy, but I do like the convenience. With the pillow, blankets and other amenities Korean Air offered, I had no where to put them since I don't use any of them at all during a flight. Fortunately, a flight attendant was able to take them away for me.

The flight was relatively straightforward, the meals being quite good as well. I wasn't able to sleep, but I did manage to get a few movies in, despite not remembering what I watched. As we landed in Seattle, we got off to pick up our luggage before transferring to another check-in counter to connect to Calgary. I had about three hours to spare, so I wandered around the terminal for a while. I had reverse culture shock while I was walking -- it was weird to hear English everywhere. Also, how people looked and dressed in the sense of having diverse types of bodies and ethnicities was "shocking" to see in comparison to the homogeneous nature of Asia. After walking for a while, I went back to my gate and waited for the flight back to YYC via Alaska Airlines. I was trying not to crash at this point, since it was nearly 24 hours since I had proper sleep. As we boarded the plane, I quickly sat down in my window seat. The gentleman sitting beside me noticed that the seats beside us were empty (since they closed the door) and moved to them. With a gentle smile, he mentioned it was for extra space, which I greatly appreciated as well, since I was able to sprawl along my two seats. 

I think I did end up sleeping for 30 minutes during the flight, since I couldn't quite remember take-off. I was grateful when we landed in Calgary. Due to the small amount of passengers, I was able to get my luggage quite quickly. My dad was waiting for me as I exited the airport, and took me back home for some much needed food and sleep.

It's hard to believe that I spent over six weeks travelling in Asia, and not just Japan. It was a trip filled with new experiences and memories, despite revisiting many places I've been to in Japan already. I'll post a reflective post sometime during Winter Break about this trip!

It's good to be back home! Though I do miss Asia...

Day 44 (Aug 21) - Last full day in South Korea

 We started the day by grabbing some congee for a late breakfast/early lunch. The portions were a lot bigger than I expected but were quite flavorful. Fully fueled, we headed to explore whatever we could for our last day. It started with a store that sold stationary, but at a much higher price than I'm accustomed to. The atmosphere was pleasant, but nothing tickled my fancy. Since we were starting to feel thirsty, we headed to our next stop.

Nudake café in Gangnam was extremely busy, but we were able to grab a seat before I headed off to purchase drinks and dessert. I got some sort of fruity drink while she got a matcha latte. As for the dessert, it was some sort of cake that had a whipped cream filling. The drinks were great, but the $20 CAD dessert tasted like a dry croissant with filling. I can't say that the inner décor was to my liking as well, being quite dark and decorated in a way I didn't find intriguing.

After the café, we headed to a small mall. It wasn't busy so we were able to stroll leisurely. There was a small arcade section with a mini-game machine: The Bishi Bashi. We tried finding one in Hong Kong, but it was occupied. The one here was empty, so we took our time to beat the game. Every time you lost your two lives, you had to put in more coins. I think I ended up putting in around $6-7 CAD while she only had to put in $3. The mini-games reminded me of Mario Party, for those who never played Bishi Bashi before. 

After finishing, we headed out of the mall and walked around for a while before taking the metro to Gundam Base Korea. I was looking for a particular Gundam, but to no avail. We were running tight on time, since we had one last event to attend: Nanta.

Nanta was a comedic show about four cooks trying to prepare for an event. The beginning of the 90 minute show was a bit slow, but it got better as it went on. There was acrobatics, live drumming and a whole range of other activities. Once it was over, we stopped by a restaurant for a late-night dinner. Dinner wasn't anything special, but it was a good way to end the trip.

After making a brief stop at the night market for the last time, we headed back to the hotel to do a final pack before heading to sleep.

It's going to be a long day tomorrow back to Calgary!

Not many pictures were taken this day for some reason, so here's one of the Gundam Base in Seoul. 

Day 43 (Aug 20) - Around Hongdae

 Since she was feeling better, we were able to make up for lost time by spending most of the day traveling. This time, it was off to Hongdae.

After finishing up leftovers from last night, we got ready and headed towards the metro. It wasn't too far from our hotel, taking us approximately 30 minutes to get to Hongdae. We walked towards Egg Drop, a shop that sold artisan sandwiches. It was a little bit on the pricier side, but they had a lot of stuffing. Taste wasn't too bad as well, with the flavors mixing well with one another. Once we've eaten, we headed towards our next location, which was only a few minutes away.

Thanks Nature Cafe was known for having two sheep on its premises. We first went inside to grab some drinks and to relax a bit before heading back outside to pet the sheep. Fortunately, it wasn't too busy so we were able to get a lot of time with the two. Once we had our fill, it was off to the next cafe.

It was a bit of a walk, but we managed to head down a shopping street that reminded me of Kensington back home. We soon found our destination: Cloud with Sky Dog Cafe. There was a lot of barking, which we could hear a block away. As we entered, we saw at least 15 different breeds lounging around or playing with the various guests. Unfortunately, some of the dogs didn't seem to get along well with one another, but overall, it was an interesting experience. The drinks were quite refreshing, though it wasn't unlimited, unfortunately. After spending nearly two hours here, we left and headed to find some dessert.

Along the way, we stopped by a building that had a BTS store, and at that time as well, a NewJeans pop up. I don't know much about those two groups, but we ventured inside for a while to see what they had. Soon after, we stopped by a Line Friends and a Kakao Friends store nearby. With nothing really sticking out to us, we continued on our way to a shaved ice/bingsu.

We found a dessert shop that had a wide variety of sweets, and a relatively long line up. It was hard to find a table, but we were fortunate enough that we arrived when one other couple finished. We ordered a mango bingsu to share between the two of us. It was full of flavor, and filled with various mango and cheesecake chunks. I would have to say it was my second favorite shaved ice on the trip (right after Tsujiri in Uji). Once we finished, we headed out to shop for beauty products. Seeing a candied strawberry stand nearby, we grabbed one before deciding to head back to drop off our shopping. Not wanting to walk all the way back to the metro station, we hopped onto a taxi back to our hotel. Taxis in South Korea are relatively affordable!

After taking a breather in our hotel, we headed back out for dinner. We ended up at a restaurant that specialized in one dish: a chicken stuffed rice in soup. The chicken contained a healthy portion of rice and other stuffing like chestnut and ginseng. There was also a shot of what I read is ginseng liquor. I'm usually okay with drinking straight shots, but I couldn't muster this one. Little did I know, I could have poured it into my soup. Out of everything I had in South Korea thus far, this was the most unique and perhaps one of my favorite meals in the country. Once we finished dinner, we headed back out and explored Myeong-dong some more. We ended up purchasing some tarts for dessert before getting more shopping done.

Just one more full day in South Korea! It's been a very long, but fulfilling trip to Asia thus far!

At the BTS store. I have no idea what those mascots represent. 

Day 42 (Aug 19) - Traveling around Myeong-dong

 We didn't come back to the hotel late last night, but we ended up waking up quite late. There was a restaurant nearby that we stopped for lunch. We got beef soup, which was quite filling. It reminds me of the oxtail soup back in Calgary. After lunch, we strolled around the district to shop for a bit, before heading back to the hotel to rest. She was feeling ill, and I was strangely feeling tired myself. After taking a nap, I got up and went out on my own to finish some errands.

Traveling on my own in Japan is one thing, where I knew the customs and language enough to squeak by. Fortunately, despite not knowing South Korea, it wasn't as challenging as I imagined it would be. I started off by visiting a nearby music store that I saw the night before, to get a CD for my brother.  They had a wide variety of popular Kpop groups, with many I recognized either by myself listening to them or having my students talk about them back home. After picking up the CD, it was off to purchase dinner. 

We wanted to try gimbap and BHC, so I found the gimbap restaurant that she wanted to try. It wasn't very busy, so I was able to place my order and have it made in about 10 minutes. After collecting the gimbap, it was off to BHC. It wasn't as busy as last night, but there was still a relatively long line. I placed my order and was told that it'll take about an hour. Having explored much of the night market last night, I decided just to wander around another section of Myeong-dong. The streets that I went down wasn't filled with as many tourists as the night markets, but they still carried the same charm. I ended up stopping by a large Lotte department store. Wanting to see how similar they are to Japanese department stores, I entered. The layout did seem reminiscent of Japan, and they even had a food hall on the basement level. I went down to the basement to see what they had to offer. I ended up getting more gimbap and a roll cake for dessert. After strolling down the various stalls, it was time to head back to BHC to pick up my order.

With my hands filled with bags of food, it was time to head back. I wanted to grab some fresh fruit drinks from the night market, so I stopped by a vendor we visited yesterday. Now, with my hands extra full, I made the trek back to our hotel. I'm horrible when it comes to directions and I tried to rely on my sense of direction heading back to our hotel. I admit, I did take a wrong turn and ended up going down a familiar path, but one that took me further away from our hotel. It didn't help that I tried using Olive Young as a guide post, since there were many Olive Young stores. I eventually did a U-turn and found the right direction. There was a red onsen sign near our hotel which helped me hone onto the right street.

That pretty much marks the day! It was a pleasant experience traveling on my own for a while. Maybe it's just me, but it didn't feel as hot and humid in South Korea in comparison to Japan, which also helped. Just two more days to go in South Korea!

As for dinner: the gimbap from the restaurant was decent with the rice still tasting fresh and the fillings having full of flavor. The gimbap from the department store though, hits on a whole different level. I can't say why really, but I really liked it more than the other gimbap. The BHC chicken though... was a bit of a let down. It was good, but wasn't enough to blow my socks off. It was nice that they offered a large container of pickled radish and a coke can though!

Waiting for the BHC chicken!

Day 41 (Aug 18) - Good bye Hong Kong, Hello South Korea!

 I had to get up early to finish packing my suitcase. We weren't able to fit everything in the medium-sized suitcase we brought from Canada, so I borrowed one from my girlfriend to bring to our next destination. It also helped that the newer design meant having four wheels. I don't have to lug it behind me all the time now.

Her mom and brother had to leave early to prepare, so I said my goodbyes to them before they went. It was somewhat sad since I won't be able to see them for a while. I'm grateful that they treated me very kindly over the past week and a half. As I finished packing, her dad went to grab us some breakfast before it was time to go to the airport. We had some baked buns, which was a nice way to end my trip to Hong Kong. As we were about to leave, it started to rain quite heavily. We had to use umbrellas to ensure the suitcases didn't get too wet as we made our way to the van. The drive seemed somewhat perilous as well with all the rain, but her dad managed to drive us safely to the airport. I said one final goodbye to her dad, which ended up with a hug! I didn't expect that at all, but it was a nice way to end the first time I met her parents. I admit I was nervous meeting them the first time, but they showered me with food and hospitality throughout my stay.

As her dad drove away, we entered the airport. Security was relatively easy and we went to our gate to await our flight. It's my first time taking Cathay, but the service was top-notch. The seats were comfortable and they had a wide variety of movies to watch on the flight. They even served a meal, despite the flight only being about 3 hours in length. And perhaps the best part was the Haagen-Dazs ice cream! I ended up watching the Mario movie (alright) and Infernal Affairs (I can see why this was critically acclaimed). 

It was nighttime when we landed at Incheon airport. They had something similar to the Narita Express, so we took that train to Myeong-dong, where our hotel was located. Fortunately, it wasn't too hard to find our hotel, so we checked in and dropped off our luggage. We wanted to try the famous BHC fried chicken branch so we made our way down the streets to the shop. The streets were filled with tourists, as we walked past a night market and various Olive Young (Health and Beauty store) stores. As we approached BHC, there was a large line up waiting to enter. Not wanting to wait so long, since we were quite hungry, we ventured back to the night market. I got the chocolate mint drink that I saw in Hong Kong at Coco, but I was sorely disappointed. It reminded me of the chocolate mint protein drink I had at home, which wasn't what I expected from a bubble tea place. We ended up getting some sort of egg... pastry, the spiral potato stick and a type of... pancake before calling it a night.

As we walked back towards our hotel, we stopped by a 7-11 to stock up on snacks. Unfortunately, there wasn't a large selection at this 7-11. Not wanting to compare to Japan, the service at this 7-11 was... different (to put it nicely) from the hospitality in Japan.

But a decent start to my time in South Korea!

Our plane to Incheon Airport! 

Day 40 (Aug 17) - Last Day in Hong Kong!

 With the last full day in Hong Kong upon me, I did what any sensible traveler would do: I slept in. After waking up later than I would normally have, we took her dogs to the enclosed area for one last time. I'll miss her dogs. They're relatively well behaved and were so full of love. Her Labrador really loved it when you scratched her lower back. Her mixed dog was always so gentle when you fed him food directly from your hand. Hopefully, I get to see the two of them very soon once again!

After lounging around for the day, we went back to her mom's restaurant for dinner. I got a shrimp-based soup this time around -- it was unique in terms of flavors though not my favorite way to eat ramen. For anyone that loves shrimp though, I'm sure it'll suit their palette. As we were waiting for her mom to finish cleaning, we stopped by some other stores to buy some food to take home to eat. 

It's hard to believe that my time in Hong Kong is finally coming to an end. True, there wasn't as much exploring in comparison to the Japan leg of the trip, but it was a much-needed break from the constant need to see attractions. Hong Kong definitely has it's charm that is different than Japan or Taiwan. It also helps that I'm able to understand somewhat what people are saying. I was fortunate as well that I had accommodations covered and food for that matter! As for next time, I'll make it a goal to visit the island and to try other types of cuisines that I wasn't able to this time around!

As for tomorrow, we'll be heading off to one last country before coming back to Canada!

The rare time I see her Labrador smile/have a somewhat happy face.