Wall

Writing gives me anxiety. That's why I let Amanda spin her words in my stead. The first thing that happened on the day we went to the Great Wall of China was funny. China is one hour behind Korea, we set all our devices (Amanda's watch) to this time except for Amanda's ipod, which was our wake up call. So when we thought we were waking up at 7 we actually woke up at 6. We asked a few confused middle aged man who spoke minimal English for breakfast before we realized our mistake and went back to sleep. The breakfast at our hostel wasn't bad, but wasn't particularly substantial even by Asian standards. We climbed into the minibus to go to the Great Wall and stopped at another hostel to change buses. We were the only people at our hostel who signed up for the grueling Jinshanling to Simatai hike as opposed to the supposedly flatter Ming Tombs/ Mutianyu walk. The bus ride took 3 hours from Beijing. It was bumpy and the streets were small. I actually slept, which never happens, so it must have been soothingly bumpy.

We picked up a guide not far from the Wall. He didn't speak too much English, I didn't see the point. The landscape was nice as far as we could see it, gradually rising hills, green and rocky, and much more corn than I expected. While the limited visibility from Beijing lifted slightly it didn't dissipate which was surprising as we climbed and the grayness of the cloudless sky continued. Of course the driver almost killed us several times, but we got there finally and got out of the bus. They offered a liter and a half of water and a snickers bar to everyone. We already had 3 liters of water in our bags and several snacks, we were prepared hikers undaunted by the extra weight of water. When we made it through the gates, anxious to get started, we received postcards with a small map detailing the route options. We could either hike up to the first tower and walk to the 22nd where we would descend, take a small shortcut and hike to the 5th tower or take the cable car and ascend quickly and effortlessly. Amanda considered the cable car, but I considered any shortcut a form of cheating and the only people we could cheat would be ourselves. She was concerned about her sensitivity to the sun and the extreme humidity which was already drawing the moisture out of our bodies like a dehumidifier as we were standing still. We compromised as we always do and hiked to the 5th tower.


On the way up we passed this sign. It will become relevant later. Seeing the great wall wasn't nearly as anticlimactic as other places I've seen and dreamed about. The Great Wall is mythologized as much as any structure on Earth, but not by me. It's a wonder that I was pretty surprised to be seeing. China never held much of a pull for me, but it was a great time and a logical choice for a short break from the Korean peninsula. I never really pictured going there as I always had pictured going to places like Italy and the Netherlands and the UK. Some places live up to the hype, most don't. I never thought I would see it so it ended up being pretty damn impressive but I imagine if you've always had your heart set on it then it might let you down. It's a damn impressive structure to be sure. It takes half an hour just to hike straight up the mountains it's built on top of. It's wide enough for 7 or 8 people to stand shoulder to shoulder on it. It has a tower, sometimes a two story tower about every .2 km and some of those are still standing. It's steeper than you want to climb let alone build. It's really something else, but like anything else you get used to being up there after an hour, and it becomes the road, like any other, you're walking on.


This is Amanda. She's wearing more layers than would be optimal in this heat and humidity, but she's afraid, and rightly so, that her fairest of fair skin will lobsterize in the invisible sun's rays. You can barely see to the hill in the background, but rest assured the sweat was pouring off everything with pores. This section of the wall was easy. The wall rose like a ramp. And although it became steep at times it was well cared for and rarely treacherous. The bricks looked nice and the towers were completely intact. The hike looked easy despite the aforementioned heat and the hawkers. Amanda looked like she was about to slap someone after a bottle of water was shoved in her face the tenth time. The pushed water on us after we had refused several times and were in the process of drinking our own water. It's a problem, we ignored them as much as they would allow us to ignore them.


Here's where the don't slip advice becomes relevant. Slipping is death and there are no handrails. We trekked up this section slowly, deliberately, and were mocked in German that I understood by some Germans who strode cavalierly down a slope like this (I don't know if it was this staircase or another one) who commented that Americans avoided difficult physical work and shouldn't undertake such a challenge. My German reaction time was not quick enough for retort. Our slowness was not from a lack of fitness but a will to live. On the first leg of the hike I took time to observe the scenery but here I was enjoying the challenge and the climb and how much I didn't care that I was sweating my entire shirt a different shade of green.

This is where the vending came to a head. If you look very closely at the top of those daunting stairs, which, let me assure you, are far more daunting from the top than the bottom not to mention the lack of a side wall to lean on or shield you from the sheer drop, you will see a man standing like an archer in the doorway. As we are climbing this staircase of doom, slowly, cautiously, he proceeds to yell about water and postcards. As for water, we have it. As for postcards, I'm concerned with not dying, shut the fuck up. He stood in the doorway as we were almost at the top hawking trivialities like a monk on a sacred mountain wearing a Def Leppard t-shirt. We refuse, stop, force him to go inside so we may complete the staircase of doom without having to step around a man standing directly in our way. When we enter the tower he's even more persistent, shoving water in our face and blocking our way as we try to avoid him and pass him saying, "No" in progressively louder, angrier voices. Despite his harassment of us; he is the one to lose his temper. "No, no, no, no" he shouts in an extremely loud and mocking tone. Twice he blocked Amanda as I skirted him so she got the brunt of his harassment and this is her last straw. Almost out the second door she stops turns around and yells at him, "Why are you shouting? Why are you shouting? We don't want any water. Go away." He continues yelling "No, no, no, no" like an asshole and we can hear it almost until we reach the next tower. There were only two left. The last one was full of women and a persistent child who really shouldn't have been forced into labor like that.

This is what it looks like against that charcoal sky. The descent took far longer than we expected, and our bodies were breaking. A 40 minute hike and we made it to the parking lot, nothing but a pebble bed, construction equipment and two hawkers. We saw a few others from our group and sat down by them. I bought a beer from a hawker and celebrated our trek. We were subsequently harassed by a bee that would not leave us alone for anything. When our minibus arrived and the rest of our party, who had chosen the full 1-22 tower trek, arrived more hawkers followed them. As we piled into the vehicle they attempted to follow shoving t shirts and water into our faces while we refused. We forced them out almost physically and escaped. Exhausted, drenched, stinky, we started our 3 hour ride back to Beijing.

The mini-bus and tour cost 320 Yuan which was a pretty fair deal. It was an all day affair, and we saw the part of the wall that we wanted to see. It was unfinished, and though we met plenty of other tourists on the way there were times between towers when we were completely alone. Just us and the Great Wall and the mountains stretching off into the distance that can only be imagined.

A Fling with Beijing

Dan and I finally took our Beijing vacation we had been planning since May. We were in China for just five days. Here’s how it went:

Day 1 Wednesday: Started the day at 2am with a bus ride from Gwangju to Incheon International Airport. After a short 2 hour flight, we arrived in Beijing. We took the airport express train into town and a cab to our hostel, Peking International Youth Hostel. Even though it was 11am they let us into our room, which turned out to be amazing! We paid 400 yuen a night (about $60) and it really was worth the money. After we checked in we took a walking tour, passing The Forbidden City (right next to our hostel), The Gate of Heavenly Peace (where we said hi to Mao) and Tiananmen Square. Then we attempted to find a recommended duck restaurant, but it didn’t happen so we just stopped at a nice restaurant on the street next to the square.

At this point we were both overheating, sweaty and tired. So after lunch, we finished the tour and went back to the hostel to book our trip to the Great Wall for Thursday. Then we relaxed and read up on Beijing and the Great Wall before going to bed early.

Day 2 Thursday: Because we went to bed so early, we were both up at about 6:00am! Well, actually, I forgot to change the time on my IPOD so we actually woke up an hour early and surprised the old Chinese man watching the lobby by asking for breakfast! So we had to go back to bed for an hour before we could have breakfast and join the other people in the lobby for our tour to the Great Wall.

There were quite a few people going (maybe 10) but we were surprised (but later understood their hesitation) to learn that we were the only ones who signed up for the hike! We had to get out at the Downtown Backpackers Hostel and catch another van from there.

Dan is going to write about our Great Wall experience soon… it’s just too much for one post!

Day 3 Friday: We got up early once again and had a mediocre breakfast at the hostel. Then we rented bikes and set out for The Temple of Heaven Park. The ride was a little chaotic, nothing too extreme although we did have a mini crash when a guy pulled out directly in front of Dan and our brakes didn't work too well. The temple was CROWDED. So many people. Too many people. We checked out the “cookie jar” and the Echo Wall but there were just too many people to really enjoy it.

After we returned the bikes, we set out to meet Dan’s friend Jake at a subway stop near the Summer Palace. Jake has been living and teaching English in Beijing for 4 months so it was great to catch up with him and have a little boating adventure. Once we actually found the Summer Palace, we rented a paddle boat. The Palace is actually a big park that is made up mostly of water, so a boat is ideal to see everything. We paddled away, trying to avoid the ferries and small rented motor boats zipping along beside us. The smog made it a little difficult to see, but it was pretty sweet overall. After a couple of hours we returned the boat and took a walk around the lake. Then Jake had to run off to his Chinese lesson and we had to meet Adam and Alison for dinner.

After a shower (which was necessary after every voyage out of the hostel) we met our Gwangjuian friends Adam and Alison who are on their way home (to the USA) from working in Korea. We headed to the Beijing duck restaurant recommended to us by the owner of the Chinese restaurant in Gwangju. We found it after we wondered through the Donghuamen Night Market (delicious fried mice, scorpions, huge beetles and star fish for sale). The restaurant, Quianmen Quanjude, was nestled among the high end shopping found in Chongwen. This place can definitely make you forget China had any communist intentions at all. The duck was delicious, although we weren’t really sure what to order so we ended up getting 1 ½ ducks and made Vietnamese style wraps out of it.

After dinner we met up with Jake, and he took us to the seedy foreigner underbelly of Beijing, Sanlitun Lu. We saw a great Uighur band at Cheers and had a few beers. Alison and Adam were exhausted from a grueling day of traveling, so they took off and left the three of us to wonder around, admiring the pretty Chinese girls (much less done up than the Korean girls) and boys and drinking beer. Then we got to witness a street fight. Pretty awesome. At 3am we called it a night.

Day 4 Saturday: After getting in so late, we took a well deserved break from getting up at the crack of dawn and slept in until 11am! Then we headed to our main destination for the day: the Silk Market. Located in Chaoyang directly off the Yonganli subway stop, this six floors of shopping is a shopaholics dream. It could also be the anti-consumers nightmare. We planned on buying some gifts and cheap clothes. We came out a little over budget, but I think we did alright. Personally I thought the sales people were pushy, but not smothering. They definitely wanted you to come into their shop, but compared to the desperation I’ve seen in places like Mexico and Vietnam, this was a cake walk. The market was basically a mall, with lots of small shops, air conditioning and a food court.

That night we once again met up with Jake, who this time brought a friend, but we somehow missed hooking up with Adam and Alison. The four of us had some dinner (hot pot) that was similar to shabu shabu in Korea. It was okay, but I wasn’t really completely satisfied. Because Jake and Ben have been in Beijing much longer than Dan and I, we kind of let them take over the ordering and I don’t think they have quite the appetites we do!

After dinner we headed to the main backpacker hutong (alleyway), Nanluogu Xiang, for some drinks. Ben turned out to be quite the misogynist, which was interesting for a minute, until he realized that making blatantly sexist statements in the presence of at least one sharp tongued feminist might not be the best idea. Dan, being the mediator that he is, managed to distract him for a while, but we called it an early night anyway.

Day 5 Sunday: We slept in and checked out of the hostel at noon on the dot. Luckily, the weather had cooled considerably so we walked over to the Forbidden City. Unfortunately, probably because of the cooling weather, the lines to get tickets and to enter the palace were INSANE. So we just hung out in the park that skirts the moat.

After one last delicious meal we set off for the airport the same way we came, taxi to the airport express train, train to the airport.

Our flight was delayed for some unknown reason, giving us cause to worry that the bus tickets we had purchased back to Gwangju might not have been a very wise decision. But Dan and I managed to pull off some of the best traveling either of us has seen in a long time. We had exactly 25 minutes to catch our bus from when we departed the plane. We had to catch a shuttle, go through immigration, grab our one bag from the baggage claim, go through customs (where we did not have the proper form ready) and RUN LIKE HELL for the bus. But we made it. With one minute to spare. I think we can now be declared professionals.

Overall, fantastic trip. I’d love to see more of Beijing when it’s not quite so hot, humid or polluted. Here’s to wishing!!

Gwangju Restaurant Guide

As everyone who knows me understands, I love food. I get really excited about good food, and when I find something delicious I usually can’t help but eat it again and again. I also LOVE eating out. It was tough for me when I first moved to Gwangju in August 2008 because there weren’t a whole lot of restaurants that catered to western tastes. I’m not talking fast food here; there are plenty of Lotterias and Mickey Ds. I’m talking about a diversity of foods and flavors, as well as healthy and organic food. In just the couple of years I’ve lived here a ton of great restaurants have opened, plus I’ve discovered some great Korean places as well (of course). I hope this list helps any newbies to the Ju’ and even some old timers that want to spice up a night out.

First Nepal- Delicious Indian goodness. The food is great, the service is great, and I always want to go here. Definitely the best Indian spot in town, the staff is very friendly as well. It is a little on the spendy side, Dan and I usually spend around 25,000 won for a boozeless dinner.

Directions: Downtown, head down the street across from the Migliore, take the second right. Second floor, it’s on your left. Or head down the pedestrian street next to the YMCA, after about 150 yards you'll pass a mini-stop on the intersection on your right, then it's 20 yards ahead to your left.

Outdoor Galbi- I don’t know what the name of this restaurant really is, but it’s quite famous in the foreigner circles as having the best beef galbi in town. You get many delicious sides dishes (note the emphasis on delicious, no live octopus or strange gelatinous milky creature here) and the meat is fairly priced. Dan and I love it because if we’re not that hungry we get two portions and spend about 15,000, if we are really hungry we get three. Service is good, you can drink the night away there, enjoying K-pop tunes on the giant TV outside!

Directions: Down the same street as First Nepal 75 yards, big outdoor seating area, on the right.

Shabu Shabu- Originally Japanese, this is a soup that you cook at your table. After the big pot of spicy broth with mushrooms and greens cooks down, add thinly sliced beef. Dip that in wasabi and red sauce and eat. Fucking delicious. Seriously. You also get side dishes and udon noodles to add. The best part, when you are finished the server takes your pot and fries up some rice in it. So good. 10,000 a person.

Directions: Downtown, walk through the YMCA's corridor, between the tourist info office and the photo shop, and it's across the alley on your left. There's also a good Shabu Shabu place in Sangmu on the same street as City Hall about half a kilometer toward the bus station. It's on the left when coming from City Hall.

Alleyway- Opened recently by a permanent foreigner fixture in Gwangju, Michael Simning. This small restaurant offers some really good western food, including breakfast on the weekend. This is a must have whenever you are feeling a little homesick or just need some good conversation, even if it's someone else's. Reasonably priced, we usually spend about 20,000 with sodas. They do take-out as well.

Directions: Downtown, on the street with the Lotteria, (the first street toward the river from the amphitheater park) across from Zara’s, down a SMALL alley. Right next store you can find the foreigner market.

Lemon Table: This small, kitschy café offers some delicious burgers, onion rings, pasta and salads. Dan and I have only tried the chicken salad and a couple of the burgers, but we were very satisfied with everything we’ve had. Definitely choose this over Burger King if you need a burger! We usually spend about 23,000 here.

Directions: This one is slightly difficult to explain, it's on the corner of the amphitheater park furthest from the intersection. It's to the left of Gloria Jean's Coffee.

The Couple Set Place- I don’t know what the actual name of this downtown Italian restaurant is, but we love the “couple set” here! It includes your choice of salad, pizza, pasta and drinks, You also get soup and cheese bread to start. It is MORE than enough for two people, and the cheapest deal around (22,800). Stick to the regular pizza’s and pasta and you can’t go wrong. We like the chicken salad, I’ve never tried the other one offered. The décor is very unusual and interesting, including very comfortable couches and an indoor balcony.

Directions: Down the street from Zara’s, in the alley right next to UNIGLO clothing store. You will see a fat Italian chef statue outside, it’s on the second floor. There's another good couple set place in Chonnam that is similar. They supply construction paper and crayons on the tables. This one is down the first street parallel to the main Chondae hoomoon street. It also has a fat Italian chef outside showing the way, it's on the second floor as well.

Hoa Binh- This is a fairly new Vietnamese restaurant in Sangmu. Even though it’s a bit of a journey for us, we’ve been here pretty much every other week since we found out about it. The Pho noodle soup is excellent, and comparable to what we ate in Vietnam. We particularly like the chicken and flank steak soups. We usually get one large soup and one rice option, the spicy pork rice is SO good. It’s cheap too, free tea and it comes to about 18,000 for the both of us.

Directions: On the main street, next to E-Mart, look for the Seven Monkey’s Coffee. It is in the same building, second floor, beneath Todai seafood buffet.

中华村 (Joong hua chon)- Chinese food in Yong Bong- This is also a new addition to our eating out routine. Recently opened on the Yong Bong Dong side of Chonam University, the owner spent many years in China and has brought all he learned with him to satisfy our Chinese food cravings (I went through the shakes myself). This isn’t exactly like the all fried Chinese take-out you get back home, but I think it’s better. Definitely ask for the set menu. We LOVE the kungpao chicken and fried noodle set, it comes with some awesome steamed rolls also. This place is cheap (usually around 20,000, but if you want to bare bones it you can get a set to fill two people for 8-13,000), and we always leave absolutely stuffed.

Directions: Next to Hoban Apt, three long blocks from the Seattle Coffee in Yong Bong Dong. It's tricky to get here actually, so here's a map.

Chinese Food in the bus terminal- Again, I don’t know the name of this place, but it is easy to find, right next to the TGI Friday’s in the bus terminal. The menu is all in Korean, and the staff isn’t friendly, but the food is good and reasonably priced. If worst comes to worst, you can point at things in the display window. If you are in the bus terminal, I would recommend this restaurant, or the sushi place next store for cheap, quick delicious food.

Grissini Italian Trattoria- I very recently tried this restaurant and I am so sad I haven’t discovered it before now (we're sad but our budget is happy). The food here is AMAZING. True to Italy, the portions here are small but serious quality. My friends and I shared two homemade pasta dishes, a salmon dish and a steak with veggies. We also had the most delicious bruschetta I’ve ever eaten. Everything was cooked impeccably, the service was perfect and the atmosphere was peaceful and comforting. If you want to really impress your date, or just have a delicious meal with friends for a special occasion, this is the only option! For the four of us, five dishes and a bottle of wine, the total was 157,000. Not cheap, but well worth it.

Directions: In Samgmu, near the LotteMart, across the street from VIPS, on the first floor, next to a coffee shop.

If you haven’t tried some of these places, please do! I’m sure there are many other delicious places as well, I didn’t mention TGI Friday’s, Outback or VIPS because well, they are pretty much the same back home, minus the kimchi. If you know of any more great places let me know, we love trying new restaurants.

Amanda. (Some parenthetical expressions supplied by Dan).

Dmz OMG

Considering our pending departure from Korea, Dan and I decided it might be our last chance to make a trip to the DMZ. We signed up for a USO tour (94,000 won) and traveled to Seoul late Friday night so we could be ready to go EARLY Saturday morning (7:15 am!). The USO was super easy to find and most people had beaten us there, about 45 people were waiting in lobby when we got there. Our clothing and passport were checked, no shorts and no printed tee-shirts or tank tops allowed! Only foreigners are allowed to visit, apparently Koreans could feel such an overwhelming desire to see their families in North Korea that they are a just too tempted to run straight across the border and defect to the wonderful dictatorship to the north. Either that or they might open fire on the North Korean guards. I’m not sure.

Anyway, as always when I am around a group of people that speak English, I cannot help but just sit and listen to everyone’s conversation the whole time. The people next to us were incredibly hung-over, the group behind us was from Australia, and there was an adorable family who had adopted a Korean girl who had come back to show her where she was born. And I didn’t actually speak to any of these people. This eavesdropping problem is annoying as hell, and I sure hope it fades when I get back to the states.

So we went to the border, which is actually just little flags. No fence. No wall. Nothing. Well, except for snipers and land mines. We got to go in one of the buildings that is directly on the border and actually stand on the North Korean side. So yep, we went to North Korea. I thought the DMZ was one of the most beautiful landscapes I’ve seen in Korea. Tons of foliage and wildlife. A sharp contrast to the majority of South Korea.

An army dude conducted the border part of the tour. He wasn’t too informed about the history of the two countries. He was also chock full of propaganda, referring to North Korea as communist every single time he mentioned the country, which I thought was pretty off base. Yeah, I think it’s more of a totalitarian dictatorship/ sovereign death-cult, but you know, same same in the the United States government’s eyes. Axis of evil, hate us for our freedoms and all that.

We had an adorable Korean woman for the rest of tour that included going down the tunnels dug by North Koreans to invade Seoul and discovered in the 1980’s and 90’s. We also went to a train station that will supposedly connect South Korea with the Trans Siberian railway. When the two Koreas are reunited. Yep, not holding my breath for that, but it would be pretty cool to ride a train from Seoul to London. All in all, it was kind of interesting but not too stimulating. Kinda like Korea.