A post in reply to Megan's question:

Here's Bruce Lee for you. I didn't see any handprint though.

Indian Food in Seoul

I have about 10 more posts I want to make about Hong Kong, but I couldn't miss this opportunity to blog about the Indian cuisine in Seoul.

Now, I have to say, non-Korean food in Korea is pretty bad. It's a good thing I love Korean food, so this is never much of a problem. Corn is standard on pizza, it's not considered a topping. Food with the word "cheese" in it usually means a slab of Kraft style processed cheese on top of your food (which unfortunately I've come to enjoy) and don't get me started on the restaurant called Han's Deli, which by the way, is in no way, shape or form, anything like a deli. Koreans cook Korean food very well, but they should stick to that.

But, when you can find a foreign food restaurant that is actually owned and run by someone other than a Korean, you actually have a chance of finding some decent food. There are at least two amazing (and I mean amazing) Indian/Nepali food restaurants in this city, and both are within a 30 min walk or less from my house. The first, where I usually frequent, is called Everest. The second, which I just discovered tonight and inspired me to write this blog, is called Namaste.

Everest is located a minute walk from Dongdaemun station on line 4 and 1. Go out exit 3 (I think) and go up the first alley on the left by the pharmacy (약국). Take the first right, and it's on the second floor of the building straight ahead. I highly recommend the mali kofta, but everything that I've tried is amazing. Click here for their website.

Namaste is located right outside Dongmyo station on line 6 and line 1. Go out exit 5 and it's on the second floor of the building immediately to the left. Everything we tried was great there, but after only being there once, I don't want to make any particular recommendations, but I will tell you that I tried the Dhaniya Adraki Chicken and I was impressed. This restaurant has a great atmosphere. I love the decor. Click here for their website. I guess they have a second, smaller location in Jogno by Bandi and Luni's, but the menu is slightly different. I can't rate the quality of that location, but I'm sure it's worth a try.

Victoria Peak

The Peak is a view point of the city from atop one of the high peaks on Hong Kong Island. To get to the top, you can take the Peak Tram, which is a rather expencive, but quite entertaining form of transportation. It is essentially a trolley that goes straight up the side of the mountain. It sort of has a roller coaster feel to it. The tram will take you up to the top of the peak and into a huge tourist complex. After passing many restaurants and stores, you can go up to the top deck to get a view of the Hong Kong sky line. There is a whole mall outside of the peak building, plus a walking path to get away from the hoardes of tourists.


Usually I stay away from shopping areas like this, because they tend to be way overpriced, but I did find myself a cute little ox for only $80 HKD. (aprox. $12 USD) . I usually hate knicknacks like this, but I am the year of the ox, and I was in Hong Kong for the year of the ox, so I thought I needed a little ox to comemorate the experience. Surprisingly, we were able to bargain in this store. The original price was $98, but my friend said $80 and the shopkeeper accepted the price.

Avenue of Stars and a view of Hong Kong Island

One of our first stops in Hong Kong was to see the 8:00 pm light show from the Avenue of Stars. When we stepped out of the building onto the boardwalk and I was completely overwhelmed by the view. It was by far the most amazing cityscape I've ever seen in my life. All the tall skyscrapers, belonging to companies from all over the world, line the harbor on Hong Kong island. The light show is a combination of strobe lights and sparkling lights on the buildings on the island that are coordinated with music. It was interesting to see, but I think the actual view of the harbor at night was much more amazing than any flashing lights.


We watched the light show from the Avenue of Stars. This a walkway along the harbor in Kowloon where many famous Chinese movie stars have thier names in the sidewalk, and many have thier hand prints. We first went that first night, but we decided we had to go back durring the day so that we could get our photos with the stars.

Here's me with Jet Li's handprint.


Here's me with Jackie Chan's handprint. He used to be one of my heroes when I was younger. I still love Jackie Chan movies! This was so exciting!

Here's a view of the harbor durring the daytime. The small building is the convention center.

Hong Kong For Lunar New Year!

So I just returned from Hong Kong and all the festivities for Lunar (Chinese) New Year there. I'll go into details for individual things later, but before I go to bed, I just wanted to give an overview of the things I did and saw.

We flew out of Seoul at 10:30am Saturday morning, in the middle of the biggest snow storm I've seen here. Granted, we haven't got much snow at all this year. I think there may have been an inch on the ground. Nothing an airport can't deal with. But, we did have to sit on the runway for almost an hour for de-icing. We arrived in Hong Kong late, but we got through customs quickly and found our airport bus to our hotel quickly.

We stayed in Kowloon, near Tsim Sha Tsui metro station, on Nathan Road. Because my friends and I reserved our hotels at different times, we wound up staying in two separate guesthouses, but fortunately they were across the street from one another. This area has many guest houses that sport the cheapest prices in the city. Unfortunately, in Hong Kong, you really do get what you pay for. Here in Korea, you can pay 20,000 won and get a decent love motel for the night, but in Hong Kong, you can pay the equivalent of $20 USD and get a closet sized bathroom that may or may not have a drain for the shower. Our guesthouse fortunately had a drain on the floor, so while we stood over the toilet to shower, the water did go away. My friend's place evidently didn't even have a drain. They had to wash their hair over the sink. Not really sure how they washed their bodies... The beds were well used foam mattresses that sort of sank towards the side. Pillows were about the same quality. But, I haven't found any lice yet, and I didn't see any roaches, so besides a little discomfort (not that much really, I can sleep just about anywhere, as long as I can lay down and I have a blanket) it was a good deal. I certainly couldn't have afforded a nice hotel for 3 nights.

The two most famous guesthouse places in Kowloon are Mirador Mansion, where I stayed and Chungking Mansion which was a block away. These aren't really mansions by any definition that I know of, they are just some generic, rundown, city buildings. There are plenty of other places too around where we were, like Golden Crown Plaza where my friends stayed. I have a feeling they are all similar or worse quality. These places are often the homes of illegal immigrants moving to Hong Kong. We saw many Africans and Middle Eastern people around here. The Middle Eastern people were particularly annoying though, because they were constantly trying to sell either tailoring or watches, and they would pester you on the street trying to get you to follow them to buy their goods. Though, in comparison to the street vendors in Vietnam, I guess they weren't so bad.

Day 1 we met up after we settled in our rooms, and set out to wonder around. We went to Kowloon park, then found our way to the Avenue of Stars and watched the light show. More on that later. We walked around some more, then headed home, because we were exhausted from waking up so early for our flight.

Day 2 we ate DIM SUM! for breakfast, then took the Star Ferry over to Hong Kong Island. We took the tram up to the Peak, ate and walked around a bit up there. Came back down and walked around, explored the elevated sidewalks and the longest covered escalator in the world, went around SoHo, found a microbrewery, remembered why I didn't like beer when I was younger, went home, changed, went back to SoHo to go out, had fun for a while, but in the end were rather disappointed by $7 beers and a lack of dancing (there was a wine bar that was playing salsa and Latin beats, but no one shared my enthusiasm for checking that place out...). We then headed back to Kowloon (the subways were open all night that night) then went to McDonald's for a midnight snack before heading home.

Day 3 we searched for a new dim sum restaurant, but everything seemed to be closed, so we settled for a classic hong kong style diner. Ate some yummy food headed to the cable car. The cable car took us to a giant Buddha and a giant tourist trap, but it was still fun. We headed back to our hotel, and met up at 7:00 for the parade. We just happened to be right in front of one of the three performance areas along the parade route, and we were entertained by an MC until the parade started at 8:00. The parade was great and we headed back to our hotels afterwards.

Day 4 we met at 11:00 and went back to the first dim sum restaurant that we ate at to eat again, since we knew where it was. We didn't have time to waste, and we needed some barbecue steamed pork buns stat. We then took the ferry over to Wai Chai to see the golden flower statue that was given as a gift to the city by the People's Republic of China when they were handed back the city from the British. We walked along the harbor, took a doubledecker tram (like a trolley) and then headed back to our hotel to pick up our bags and hop back on the airport bus. Everything else went as it should, and I was back in my room in Seoul by 11:00 pm. And now I'm here typing.

My overall view of Hong Kong? It's an amazing city. It sort of felt like what New York City with slightly more Chinese writing. It was a bit like Montreal in that the city is completely bilingual. We only found one person the whole time we were there that didn't speak English. It has the most beautiful cityscape I've ever seen. It was absolutely mesmerizing. Especially at night.

It was expensive in some respects. Eating prices were similar to home, but still cheaper, because there is no tipping (but a service charge is always added to the bill). Drinking was incredibly expensive, and supposedly we were in the cheaper part of town for that. I found the transportation to be quite reasonably priced. Fares are charged by distance, so if you're only going a few stops, you pay less than a US dollar, and if you go far, you might pay around $2 USD. Trams and buses were very inexpensive.

I found shopping to be expensive, but it's hard to judge, because the city is inundated with upscale shopping areas (think Coach, Burbury, Club Monaco, Dior, Yves Saint Laurant, etc etc etc.. ones I have never even heard of because they are so ridiculously far out of my price range.) So, for all I know, they could be cheaper than at home, but I would never spent $100 USD on a shirt at home, so why would I start in Hong Kong? I was pricing cameras too. I found one in Mong-kok for about $100 USD higher than the average price in the US, then I found one by Tsim Sha Tsui for about $100 USD less than the US price. I was too confused, I decided just to wait til I got back to Seoul.

My goals for HK posts:
Avenue of Stars/ light show
Chinese New Year Parade
Dim Sum
Random City Sights
Cable Car/ Big Buddha
The Peak

설날 : Lunar New Year

설날 (Seollal) is Korean for Lunar New Year. If you don't know what Lunar New Year is, you have probably heard of Chinese New Year, which is essentially the same thing. The traditional Asian calendar runs on a lunar cycle rather than a solar cycle like the modern calendar, so new year's day changes every year. This year it falls on January 26th, and next year it will fall on February 14th.

Koreans generally have a family celebration, probably at a grandparent's home. Traditions for Lunar New Year include wearing hanbok (see picture), bowing to elders and giving money to children. The game I learned at Korean class last Saturday, GoStop (hwat'u) is often played with family. Seoul is pretty dead I hear for Seollal, since so many people are with family, often outside of the city in their hometowns.

And what will I be doing for Seollal you ask?? I'm leaving the country again. Yea, I know I just got back from Vietnam, but I can't stand sitting around my apartment for 4 days with no work. So, I'm heading to the city that every Chinatown in the world models their Chinese New Year's celebrations off of. Where's that? Hong Kong! I'm heading out tomorrow morning early, and I'll be at my hotel (or shady guesthouse, whatever it is...) by 3:00 pm tomorrow. I'm going to see the annual parade, fireworks, some temples, and do some shopping... hopefully for a camera... since I've been talking about a camera for 2 months now. Leaning towards a DSLR now too.. dangerous...

I hope to come home with some amazing photos and stories. I won't be updating 'til I'm home I suspect. See you all soon! Enjoy your Lunar New Year and head to your local Chinatown and watch a parade and think of me.

The drama that has everyone watching....

Ask any of your female students what they were watching on tv monday and tuesday night, and I guarantee it was this drama. 꽃부다남자 That's pronounced gopuda namja. It's English title is Boys Before Flowers. My kids wrote the time to watch it on my hands and told me I had to watch it. I turned on my tv to KBS2 at 10:00 on tuesday and watched about 20 mins or so. Of course A) I was coming in half way through the season, so just like any drama, I had no idea what was going on, and B)... it was in Korean... so I had no idea what was going on. I had one of my students try to explain it for me today, though I'm still quite confused. Now that I've found this here on youtube... I'm assuming it's a fan sub... I'm going to try to watch it... though I've had a few obsessions this past week, so we'll see how much time I can devote to this when I'm hooked on my manga... (I'm reading Red River on onemanga.com) maybe if I can get caught up in that series, then I can devote time to watching this.

Anyway, If you are interested, here is the first 10 minutes of the first episode (I hope it's the first episode). I have no idea if its worth watching, but if the opinion of every female student of mine can be trusted, it must be addicting. Also a great conversation point with your students.

BoysBeforeFlowers01.1
by jangchris0101

(My appologies, the video I had posted before was not the first episode. This is the first episode.)

To watch more, go to mysoju.com.