Travel

Adventures in Korea!

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I had a crazy awesome couple of days in Korea, but now I am on a plane back to Thailand. Time to recap the adventures!


My Sunday in Korea was a good one! I’m the morning we got up and made our way by car to the Lutheran Church there. It is actually the only Lutheran Church in all of Korea. Everyone there was so nice when I first came in. They even had an shortened English service before the Korean one. After the English service I met Pat. Pat did the liturgy for the English service and was actually a US Army soldier stationed in Korea. Him, his wife, and two kids we’re actually from the West side of Michigan. It was really suprising and nice to see some people from back home.

Right before the Korean service James Lee walked in. James Lee is another high school friend. It completely caught me off guard because I had messaged him and he said he was going to be on military duty as a translator for the upcoming winter Olympics in Korea. Fortunately for me his departure dates for that got moved back! I was so happy to see him too. Everytime I see an old high school friend, like with Kisun, we always laugh about the good times in the dorms and I feel like things haven’t changed a bit!


After church there is a nice get together “youth” group. It was pretty much a group of the church’s young people who have graduated high school. Most of them have made studied either high school or college in the US so their English is very good. John Kim, another high school friend, showed up during this! More sentimental memories! After the youth group we had a meal as a church. Then the group of Maria, John, Kyle (nice guy I met at the youth group) went out to some markets.

After we wandered around the market, and I got my fill of hodduck they took me a Karaoke place. Karaoke here, like Thailand, is pretty serious. They have these places that are just filled with a bunch of dedicated mini karaoke rooms for you and your friends. The room is just big enough for a couch facing a pretty high tech Karaoke system and screen. There were two mics and the system allowed to configure everything like adjusting the key of the song to a better range for you. Even with these features I am still pretty horrible at singing, but it was a fun time!

After Karaoke we all went to a restaurant and had some typical snacks which was liver, intestines, rice cake, and dumplings. Good food! My chopstick skills are slowly but surely improving! After that we all split ways and Maria and I went home where her mom had actually made us dinner. Needless to say, I ate real well that night!

After a packed Sunday I had a more relaxing Monday morning. We woke up a little later and Maria and I went for a hike on a mountain near her house. After we went through the mountain I got some more hodduck of course! She bought some ingredients at a market for her mom. I think it was for kimchi. On a side note, the Ha family has their own fridge solely dedicated to the making and storage or kimchi. It’s a big deal..

After the hike and some lunch we had plans to rent the traditional Korean clothing and visit the palace. If you dress up, apparently admission is free. Plus it would be cool to pretend like I’m in the movie Mulan. So we got off the subway and got in our traditional clothing. Then we walked to the palace and got there at 4:15pm. It closed at 4pm… We had to improvise.

We went to go walk through some traditional village and we spent forever trying to find a park that was on this tourist map we had. But we couldn’t find it, and to make it worse it was around 15°. I’m used to Thailand’s 90° so this was a shocker. After wandering around for a bit and seeing some cool buildings we ended up taking pictures in front of the clothes rental shop!


After returning the clothes we wandered around downtown. They have a cool stream running through the middle of the city and the whole place was decked out with Christmas decorations! Warmed my heart. That’s the stuff I don’t get to see in Thailand. It’s good to be with friends during the holidays!
Next post I’ll talk about my last day in Korea and my Hong Kong flight mishaps and downtown Hong Kong explorations.

Adventures in Korea!

Visiting Maria in Korea!

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I started my normal day with a must Thai session on Wednesday, but instead of an evening session I was packing my bag! I left my apartment around 7pm and walked to the airport.

The nice ladies at the Hong Kong Express check-in desk upgraded me to the exit row because there was more leg room. Maybe because I’m tall by Asian standards? But funnily enough, when I boarded all the people in the exit isles were white people. In our defense we we’re taller than the majority of the passengers… Also, on a side note the security at the airport in Chiang Mai is so relaxed by US standards. Security take 5 minutes and isn’t nearly as serious. It’s pretty nice!

Then after a hour and a half delay I got on the plane and zoinked out until we arrived in Hong Kong. In my half sleepy state I wandered around and took advantage of the free WiFi. When I finally realized I should get to my gate so I can focus on getting some sleep, there were no lines for the immigration, transfer or whatever procedure I had to go through.

Then, since the Hong Kong airport is huge, I took a shuttle bus about 10 minutes to my proper terminal for my morning flight. Then, in the terminal, I found some bean bag chair at a kid’s entertainment section. Unfortunately, there was an old man sleeping on two and a girl sleeping hogging four. I assessed her sleeping and decided I’d risk stealing one from her. I snatched it and ran off to my own corner and set up shop for the night.

After about 4 hours of sleep I got up and repacked for my flight. After a quick bathroom break I was on my way to Korea. I slept most of the way there as well. Then off the plane I had to go through the line for foreign passports which consisted of me and a couple hundred Chinese people. The line was pretty slow, but I got through and Maria Ha was waiting on the other side for me! For those who don’t know, Maria and I went to high school at MLS together.


Then Maria guided us on the subway were we met up with her friend. The three of us went to a Korean hotdog shop for my first taste of authentic Korean food. I had a hotdog covered and deep fried in potatoes. Then it was rolled in coconut sugar and then drizzled in chili sauce. One of the tastiest foods I’ve ever eaten. I had immediate thoughts of bring this back to the US as a drunk, hung over food. In that market this could be an absolute hit! Then we went and got some Hodduck from a stand. I have had a little bit of an obsession ever since with it ever since my high school roommate, Kisun, started making it on special occasions. It’s pretty much a rice dough pancake with a honey, cinnamon, nutty, delicious center. It was so good. That alone made the trip worth it!

After that we went to a board game place where we planned a bunch of different board games and I enjoyed a Korean sports drink, similar to Gatorade. We played a game where you had to get a certain number and type of rubber fruits out of a bowl using chopsticks. Needless to say, I was completely outmatched versus two Koreans. It was super fun nonetheless, and after that we met Maria’s mom for dinner. While waiting for Maria’s mom to pick us up I saw my first snow of the winter season! The restaurant was one of those short tabled, sit down cross legged, restaurants. Food was great. However, my inept chopstick ability did resurface.

Then we went to some supermarkets and I enjoyed perusing the local selections. The fresh seaweed was a first for me. Maria and I happened to find all the free smples in the store which included green tea ice cream, Pho Vietnamese soup, and even rice wine. We bought a couple bottles of the rice wine and the banana flavored rice wine is pictured above.

Second Day in Korea

The next day was a special day because we we’re planning to visit my old high school roommate Kisun, the one who started my love of hodduck. We had a two hour subway journey to his military base. In Korea there is a compulsory two years of military service for all males. So he was just six months in on his military service after choosing to serve after his junior year of college.


After finally making it to the base we met the uniformed military soldiers at the gates. We headed inside the gates to the check in post and there was a hold up because of my US passport. We waited for a while, but while we waited out came Kisun for us! He had a suprised look on his face to see me. His mom told him a friend was coming to visit, but he didn’t know who. We hugged and then he told me that I actually wasn’t allowed on the base! Apparently foreignors have to process their paperwork in advance in order to be allowed on the base.

So we stood outside the check in post and ended up catching up for talking for 2 hours! I technically wasn’t supposed to be inside the gates, but we just kept in low key and we even snuck somewhere to take a couple pictures together. Apparently, according to Kisun, I am the first foreignor to visit the base since it opened 10 years ago. When we first talked to the check in post they had to call in to ask what the procedure was. It went up the line since no one knew what to do because it had never happened before. Maria could go in, but I couldn’t. So they went to the store on base while I just milled around. But we just spent most of our time right inside the gate just reminiscing about good times back in high school. Man, it was so good to see him! Even though I didn’t get to go in I am glad that we got o catch up. Maria and I were his visitors outside of his parents so I think it made him really happy to see us!

Maria and I thought about hitting the DMZ after we talked with Kisun, but there are apparently a ton of regulations now with rising tensions and we would need to plan better. I did get to see acrossed the river into North Korea though!

Next on my adventures are Korean church, possible DMZ visit, hiking some of the local mountains, and of course more hodduck!

Visiting Maria in Korea!

Thai Church Camp Out!

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This weekend I had the pleasure of joining in fellowship with the church here in Thailand as we took to a nearby national park. The banner above shows the church information and celebrates the occasion. The line in red with quotations phrased as a question was the theme. Going off of memory, it roughly means “What do true friends look like?” or something close along those lines.

The weekend started early on Saturday as I got up at 6am and enjoyed the sun rise as I pedalled my bicycle to the church. We we’re to leave at 7am in a caravan for the park. However, time isn’t quite the same in Thai culture as in American culture. We didn’t end up on the road until 7:45, but I have almost started to expect delays like that at this point.


At the park the men and women each got there own dorm/bunkhouse where we would spend the night. Inside the bunkhouses were rows of mattresses laying directly on the ground. Despite the look, they we’re very comfy and I slept very well with the exception of some snoring from one of the older Thai members. We got the pavilion all set up and squared away for our multiple Bible lessons and games. Meals were provided for by the park staff and I through enjoyed all the all you can eat helping of fried rice, Pad Thai, soups, and fresh fruit for dessert.


I got my own name tag as you can see in the picture above I never would have known it was mine if someone hadn’t given it to me! With a blue name tag I was a part of the blue team. Those who had black or red name tags were a part of those teams respectively. We had all sorts of fun games and challenges to earn points for our team. Each person was also assigned a secret buddy to watch out for and do nice things for them without them knowing. That was tough for me since when I got my secret buddy I first had to take the name slip I was given and matchup the written Thai script with the name tags until I found my buddy, because there is no way I can read Thai!

The first day we had an opening service and then a couple more relaxed teaching lessons. The lessons emphaised Jesus as our friend and what good Christian friends are like, following the camp theme. Without Katie, who is sitting next to me in one of the pictures above, I would have been lost. Katie and Liz, another member of the church, have been so awesome in translating for me during church services and then especially during this weekend! Missionary pastor Rob and his wife also have been an immense help too naviagting me through the language barrier.


At night we had some skits about friendship to perform in our groups. I am proud to say the blue group won best skit! I took my role as an English teacher very serious in the skit, so I’m glad it paid off. Even though I couldn’t understand what they were saying I could help but laugh and have a good time watching everybody peform their skits! It was a real hoot! After that we played some games and then had a meat roast. I don’t know if meat roast is the right word for it, but we had several of these small grills cooking kebobbed pork, mushrooms, and who know what else I ate. I really enjoyed the custom, and while a nice smorses is good I think adding kebob roasting to my campfire traditions back home might be in order.

I found out that a major Thai party isn’t complete without some karaoke! Everyone enjoyed getting in on the action, and I even sang a couple as well. There were a lot of Thai songs song, but also a good number of English songs. One of the younger Thai boys sang Justin Bieber’s “Baby” and that was hilarious! In general, though, I noticed the theme of songs was more “get you in your feelings” melancholy type of music rather than upbeat. An example of a melancholy choice would be the video above. Needless to say, I throughly enjoyed watching them sing!


Sunday morning we had group devotions before breakfast and then a nice sevice after breakfast. We rounded up the weekend with a couple last games and the team standing. Blue team took second which earned me some cookies so I’m fine with that outcome. After that we enjoyed the day outside and then headed back to the church!

Overall, I had an awesome weekend! It was a cool experience to really connect with the Thai members and feel the fellowship between us even if we couldn’t always communicate the best. A lot can be said through smiling and laughing and there was a lot of that done this weekend! So thanks to God for that opportunity!

This Thursday I am flying out to South Korea to visit some high school friends and to see what kind of trouble I can get into at the DMZ especially with everything that is happening in the news right now. So maybe say a prayer for me regarding those travels. Check back on the blog soon to hear about my adventures there!

Thai Church Camp Out!