SE Asia Day 9 (part 1) Angkor Wat

I met my driver, Chang, in the community area at the guest house.  I had a quick breakfast and we headed out.  As we rode through town, I got a much better impression of Siem Reap than I did of Phnom Penh.  There were plenty of new western hotels developments.  But, I didn’t see as much poverty as I did in the capital.  There weren't the gangs of beggars or street kids.
Here’s Chang as we drove along the road through the Angkor complex.

This is a picture of the south gate of Angkor Thom.  We passed through it to get into the Angkor Thom complex.  , I I have to say this was really surreal.  Even with all the groups of Japanese and Korean tourists, there were plenty of views with no people in them.  I realized fully that the Khmer people are really capable of great things:  both wonderfully great and horribly great (the killing fields).
This is the best meal I think I ate the whole trip, and possibly the entire month of October.  It was chicken amok, which is a curry with coconut milk.  It was really amazing.  It was in one of the tents inside the Angkor Tom complex (#27 I think).

Below is a cool tree that has grown over the temple at Ta Phrom—one of the temples used in the filming of Tomb Raider.
 
And here are some Korean tourists at the same sight.  I couldn’t resist taking a picture of them.  They were literally saying “hi-ting” for the picture!  I’m not joking.  For non-Konglish speakers, “hi-ting” is a bastardization of the English word “fighting.”  It is used as a generic cheer for Koreans, usually at sporting events.  I love it!

Then, here’s me at the mother of all Wats: Angkor Wat.  I look a little scruffy because I hadn’t shaved or trimmed the beard for all of my trip.

Here’s another without the gratuitous hairy shot of me.  Angkor Wat is the largest religious structure in the world period.  Pretty amazing.  Why was it abandoned?  Basically, Angkor was attacked attacked by the Thais.  So, they moved their capital to a lower-profile spot in Phnom Penh where the Khmer Empire faded.

The weather was hot so it was definitely nice to have a tuk-tuk to ride around in to cool off in the breeze as we rode between temples.  Unless you are going to spring to pay for a tour guide to tell you the history of each site, or do studying beforehand to know what you are seeing, the temples at Angkor are definitely seeable in a day.  It was a good day.

SE Asia Day 6: The Mekong Delta

For my sixth day, I signed up for a tour to the Mekong Delta.  I’ve always been reluctant to take guided tours.  But this one was $10 and included everything—including lunch.  We rode in on a minibus with about 15 seats for about two hours to get down to the delta region.
We made a pit stop at a tourist trap place that sold trinkets and food.  The stuff actually looked kind of cool, but was more than I was willing to pay.  The place had a nice garden area.

Here are some bottles of “snake wine.”  In each bottle is a whole snake that has a scorpion in its mouth.  At a later stop, they were giving samples of this stuff and I tried it.  Snake wine tastes like liquid snake—simple as that.

When we arrived at the delta area, I was surprised at how wide it was.  I haven’t ever been to a major delta region before.  The river seemed to move very slow and was so wide that it could be mistaken for a lake.

We made four major stops on our boat tour of the delta.  First, we visited a small island that had a bee farm.  There, they had honey tea for us to taste, and of course there was an opportunity to buy some honey.  This kid was an expert bee keeper.

There they also had a huge python for people to hold and take pictures with.  One person said that it was the biggest snake he’d ever seen, then the tour guide corrected saying, “It’s not a snake—its a python.”  Of course.  That’s a distinction without a difference if I ever heard one.
Here’s my fun tourist picture with the python.

Then, we went to a place to listen to traditional music of the region.  The songs were from a traditional Romeo and Juliet style story about two young lovers whose parents didn’t want them to be together.  They served use some interesting fruits during the music.
The fruit in the foreground is called dragon fruit.  It has a pink skin with green pedals or scales on the outside.  The flesh is white and almost apple or pear-like in texture with small black seeds like a kiwi.  It was the first time I’d ever eaten, seen, or even heard of this fruit.

I don’t actually know what the below fruit is.  It is like a big grapefruit with a much milder taste.
 
Above, in the small dish to the right center is a mound of spiced salt that is used as a condiment when eating fresh fruit.  I must say that I appreciated the spice more than the salt on the fruit.
From there, we went on a canoe ride through a canal to another island.  They had hats for each of the passengers to wear.

Our rower was a middle-aged woman who looked like she was more comfortable on water than on land.  The strap on her hat was made of the same material that her blouse was made from.

The next stop was at a coconut candy factory.  When I think of coconut candy, I think of something with actual coconut flesh in it with chocolate over it.  These candies were more like taffies made from coconut milk. 
The final stop on the tour was for lunch.  The simple lunch that came with the package included some vegetables, rice, and a cut of pork.  It wasn’t bad.  Then, we had a couple hours of down time to laze about in the area in the hammocks and nap or relax.
Overall, I had a great day.  I must say that it was easily the best $10 I’ve ever spent on travel.

A Week of Goodbyes: Friday

My last Friday at school went so fast. I said goodbye to one student for good. Apparently, he’s taking a break from our hagwon and going to another instead. He’s a very bright and articulate kid, but also a lazy brat. This kid is one of these Korean kids whose mom’s treat kind of like those toy dogs they carry around. by that I mean they take the kids to the salon and get their hair all did.

This kid has the most put together kid of any 10 year old, much less any 10 year old boy, that I’ve ever seen. He has little highlights in his hair, and all class he’s playing with his hair more than most of my girls do. So, imagine my surprise when he came up to me today and said, “Teacher your hair is very awful.”

I had just buzzed my hair, preparing for the heat of Southeast Asia. I looked at him square in the eyes and said, “Really Antonio? You are no one to talk about bad hair.” At the end of class, when were saying goodbye, I wished well, and told him, “Have fun with your hair!”
Maybe I gave the kid too much of a hard time.

After school, my bosses took the teachers out for a goodbye dinner. In addition to me, there is a Korean teacher leaving next week. I have to say that I enjoyed the dinner more than all the other company dinners. When walking home, the two other American teachers and I decided to go out for a drink.

I insisted on the Hollywood Westren Bar (where the above picture was taken). The couple invited a few friends of their friends and I invited one of mine. I got to put a few faces with names and got to meet some readers of the blog. It was surreal to meet so many people who had read my blog and who knew who I was without my knowing them. One guy actually said, “I feel like I’m meeting a celebrity.” Wow, if I meet many more readers, my head my get so big I’ll have to buy an extra seat on the plane.

But really, its satisfying to hear that what began as a way to keep my friends and family back home updated, turned out to be useful for other expats coming to Korea.

That doesn’t mean what you think it means

This picture is of a glass divider in the Geoje location of the Kortalian (Korean + Italian) food chain Pastario.  I say Kortalian because they have things like Kimchi Risotto.  The reflections in the pic are from the businesses across street.  Pay special attention to the last line.

Despite the slogan, this is indeed a family restaurant.

A million people can’t be wrong…or can they?

South Korea hosted the largest demonstration in twenty years on June 10th.  Protestors estimate that over a million people gathered across the country with half of those in Seoul.  Of course, police drop the number to less than half of that.  The main topic for the protest was beef.

Of course there are always other issues that are bound up here, and I'll readily discuss how irrelevant they are with anyone who asks.

Leading up to the protests, police barricaded the paths to the presidential palace with shipping containers.  They welded shipping containers together, two-high, filled them with sand and greased them up so protestors couldn’t climb them.

Below is a picture a barricade from the Korean blog Modern Day via The Marmot’s Hole (the comments here are also interesting).

Here is a picture of the protest in progress from Chosun.com via Korea Beat.

Here’s a roundup of links for those wanting to read more about the protests and the controversy:

• My own look at the controversy last week. [An American in Geoje]
• The reneging of the beef deal will cause trouble with the Korea-US Free Trade Agreement. [World Politics Review]
• How the Lee Myung-Bak’s government and US trade officials are scrambling to save the agreement [BBC]
• News that Korean auto workers were considering a strike so they could join anti-US beef protests. [Trading Markets]

And in regard to the auto-workers potention strike, I have an idea: you can continue to implement a protectionist trade policy and keep US beef out under the guise of a public health issue.  Then, we could ban Korean-made cars since they could potentially be deadly.

Or, we could prevent the sale of Samsung or LG cell phones since they may cause brain cancer.  This is also pretty damning since Korea is a de facto closed market when it comes to cell phones.  Hey, if the signal from a cell phone can pop a popcorn kernel, they what is it doing to our brains?  We must stop this threat.

Mad cows and electric fans

Below is a picture from the BBC of a clash between riot police and protestors near Korea's Blue House (the counterpart to the US White House).

 

What was the cause of the violence?  Was it an unjust war?   No.

 

Were the protestors fighting for civil rights?  Nope.

 

Was the mob protesting an election fraud or coup?  Uh uh.

 

They are protesting beef.  Seriously. 

I am disappointed in South Korea's common sense.  The issue of US beef imports, which are cheaper and of better quality than domestic beef, has been brewing for some time.  This hysteria has been fueled over an irrational fear of mad cow disease.

Teens have been the most visible force behind this movement to continue the ban on US beef.  There have been several high-profile and well-attended candle light vigils protesting the resumption of beef imports next week.  The campaigning by teens was driven by SMS and instant messages.  I can understand teens being caught up with an issue that has been tied to nationalism and deemed important.

These teens have been flooding message boards with such politically emo comments as, “Are we fated to die so young?” and “I just want to live and fulfill my career dreams, not die mad like an American cow."

These statements have found their way onto Youtube.  One of the most ridiculous is the following video.  My favorite quotes are:

IS THIS ANOTHER US FORIEGN POLICY OF INVADING THE WORLD?  IRAQ FOR NUCLEAR WEAPON AND SOUTH KOREA FOR MAD COW DISEASE?  WHY KOREAN GOVERNMENT IGNORE OUR VOICES, DO NOTHING TO STOP THIS? [sic]

and

WHAT IS U.N. DOING?  WHY DONT THEY INTERVENE TO THIS POSSIBLE MASSIVE GENOCIDE FROM HAPPENING? [sic]

Genocide?  Seriously?  One commenter on the above video noted, "mad cow is the new fan death."  I had to look it up.  Korean urban legend says that fans left on overnight will cause death.  I always wondered why Korean fans had a shut-off timer built in.  Korean news programs even keep a running tally as they report each "fan death" the occurs.  The problem is there isn't science to back it up.

The same is true with this mad cow hysteria.  I thought adults would not be so gullible, but as that first picture shows, the mob has proved me wrong.  The fact is, that this whole movement is really just economic protectionism under the guise of a public health issue.  Korean beef farmers wouldn't be able to compete with US beef.  So, they are trying to bring up these irrational health concerns.

Here are some reasons why this fear is ridiculous:

1.  If you don't want to eat American beef, then don't buy it!  In Korea, beef is clearly labeled as being domestically or foreign produced.  Currently, most foreign beef comes from Australia.  Koreans can vote with their won.

2.  The US has about 100,000,000 cows.  There have been 3 cases of mad cow.  So, for every cow that was found to have mad cow 33,333,333 don't have it.

3.  The US has a human population of over 300,000,000.  There have been 3 cases of vCJD, the human counterpart of mad cow.  That's a 1 to 100,000,000 ratio.  Even the UK, with more than 100,000 cases of mad cow had only 163 human cases, which works out to be .0000027% of their population.

4.  Koreans are far more likely to be hit by a car than come come to harm from mad-cow tainted beef.  As I've noted before, the child traffic accident fatality rate for Koreans is the highest in the industrialized world.  Why isn't the mom starting a campaign for parents to buckle their kids in the car instead of focusing so much attention on such a silly concern?

I'm confident that beef imports will resume as scheduled, and that in time, Koreans will begin to appreciate the quality and price of US beef.  I plan on eating pounds and pounds of US beef a week just as soon as I can get my hands on it.  And I'll continue to defy fan death by sleeping with the fan blowing in my face, and with the air conditioner on at the height of summer.  I know I'll be fine, but I'm just a little worried  to see what the mob will focus its irrationality on next. 

The Restaurant Downstairs

My building has two restaurants on the first floor.  One is a spring roll place and the other specializes in 감자탕 (gamjatang).  Despite the name, which literally means "potato soup," the featured ingredient is pork backbone.  The meat is tender, and in the version I had, there was a potato in the soup.  The picture below is from the wikipedia entry on the soup.

Anyway, I was walking home the other night and noticed the place was closed much earlier than usual and that the following sign was posted on the door.  I took a picture and had my co-worker translated it.  It roughly said:

Due to personal reasons, the restaurant will be closed for a few days.  Sorry.

The next day, I took the following picture inside the front window:

I guess they had to shut down so they'd have a place to dry their clothes...

Cult Fresh Meat mmmmm!

Cult Fresh Meat mmmmm!

Zenkimchi

I noticed yesterday that the number of hits my blog was receiving shot way up. I started the blog mainly as a way to keep in touch with friends and family back home. Most visits come from friends or through searches on google for geoje (I'm on the first page of results). So, I was surprised to see the huge influx of referrals from ZenKimchi.

ZenKimchi is great blog about life in Korean. The food section is probably the main attraction--if you on google for "Korean food" an you'll see that ZenKimchi has the same spot as I do for Geoje.

So for those interested in learning about Korean food, I highly recommend ZenKimchi. His post "Top 15 Strangest Foods I've Tried Thus Far" is a great primer on the odd food choices available here in Korea.