World Flavor

It’s week 5 of the BootsnAll Indie Travel Challenge. This week is all about traveling in Asia.

I’m living in Asia now – have lived here for over 5 months. And yet I feel I’ve barely scratched the surface, since I have only been to South Korea so far. I am excited to begin my exploration of the rest of the continent in about a week and a half (which reminds me, I should really plan that trip).

So far, the coolest place I’ve been in Korea is Jeju Island, and I just now went there. Michael Hodson has a great article about how the New 7 Wonders competition was a total scam – I highly recommend you read it. Jeju was a recipient of the award, and many people scoffed at that before they even knew about the scam part. I’m here to tell you that fake prize or not, Jeju is worthy of a visit. Maybe it’s not one of the world’s top natural wonders but it is certainly incredible in its own right. It’s not really on the Western tourist radar yet because it requires a flight from Seoul, but it should be.

The island was made by volcanic eruptions 2 million years ago. Therefore you have a lot of really cool natural formations to see in a relatively small area.

The island has three sites that are recognized together as a UNESCO World Heritage site. These are Seongsan Ilchulbong (aka sunrise peak), Hallasan (the volcano in the middle of the island, and Korea’s highest mountain), and finally the lava tube system.

Jeju’s lave tube system is regarded as the finest in the world. While I can’t compare it to any others I can say you should absolutely take a walk through a lava tube, as it was probably the coolest thing I’ve ever seen.

Perhaps if you’re visiting South Korea you will consider a visit to Jeju, as it is absolutely worth your time.

As for the rest of Asia, there are many places I am really excited to see. A short list would include: Angkor Wat, all of Thailand, and taking a horse trek in Mongolia. I think those things are on the radar for the not-too-distant future.

Where in Asia have you been that you loved, or where do you most want to go?

Alright, I’ve warned you, this post is not exactly safe for work. It includes descriptions and photos of Jeju Island’s sex ‘theme park.’ Click through for more.

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It’s my mom’s birthday – happy birthday, Mom! Here’s a picture of a place you really like, Cape Charles, Virginia at the southern end of the Eastern Shore.

Last weekend I went to Jeju Island through the tour group When in Korea. It was a four-day trip at not too bad a price. But due to it being Lunar New Year (or Seollal) we didn’t fly down (the easy, short way) since it was extra expensive then. So instead we took what is probably the longest way. We took a bus to Mokpo and then a ferry from there to the island. The bus trip is 4 or 5 hours and then the ferry is four and a half. And the bus left at midnight on Friday night.

We got to Mokpo ferry terminal at about 7 in the morning. Then we got on the ferry which in this case was more of a cruise ship.

Our group had 2 rooms available where we could throw our stuff and try to lay on the floor and get some sleep if we wanted.

The ship had plenty of amenities, though.

Finally we made it to Jeju, after what seemed almost an endless journey.

The way back was similar, except the ferry was less luxurious (no rooms, just a big floor that anyone could sleep on) and the bus took longer due to traffic. But the long obnoxious journey was worth it – there’s a lot of great stuff to see on Jeju, as I’ll write about soon. But maybe you should fly.

Korea is nothing if not proud of its local foods. Every region of the country has its famous foods that are just from that area or are originally from there or are supposed to be best there. Often there’s a festival dedicated to that food there as well. This is great for travelers, as it’s easy to find out what is the thing to eat from any given part of the country.

Jeju Island is no different. One of its most famous foods is meat from the Jeju Black Pig. You will likely see on the menu 흑되지 (heuk dweji, or black pig). The meat is not black, it is simply a pig with black hair. Typically a bit of skin with black hair is left on the meat so that you know you’re getting the real deal.

You may encounter the term 똥되지 (ddong dweji) as the name for the meat. This literally means ‘shit pig.’ It’s called a shit pig because traditionally these pigs were kept in a pen just below the outdoor latrines. The pig was used to dispose of human waste – as in, they literally used to feed these pigs shit. When they ate them they decided this made them extremely delicious. So the pigs today are the descendants of these shit-eating pigs. However, they’ve not been fed shit since the 1960s so that shouldn’t make you too squeamish.

The restaurant we got the shit pig from at 함덕 (Hamdeok) Beach served it with a little dish of sesame oil and salt for dipping.

There was also the usual lettuce leaves, hot peppers, and various banchan. There was no gochujang (red pepper paste) which you typically get with meat in Incheon, but there was dwenjang (soybean paste) which you don’t get as much in Incheon.

The meat is very flavorful and definitely has a bit of different flavor than the average pork in Korea.

Verdict? Shit pig is freaking delicious. Jeff seems to agree.

Just a quick announcement for you today – I’ve gotten myself a new camera! I got some money from my grandmother for Christmas and my birthday and with that plus a bit of my own I decided it was about time to upgrade. I had been pretty happy with my previous camera, which was a Canon PowerShot SX100 IS, until a year or so ago. It took good pictures, but in a limited amount of settings. Cloudy out? Not going to get a great shot. Dark? Forget it, basically. The 10X zoom was pretty nice, but I got increasingly frustrated that I couldn’t take very good food pictures, which has become very important to me. When I had a smartphone in the US, I was using that for food shots instead because even it did better in low light!

It took a long time to find any camera I wanted more. A DSLR? But they’re so freaking huge… my camera could fit in a pocket if I wanted. Finally I found out about micro 4/3 style cameras. This seemed like the perfect solution – small, but with a much bigger sensor and the ability to change lenses. So I chose one and went for it. I got it in the mail last Friday, just in time to take it on my Jeju trip. It’s an Olympus E-P2 with a 14-42mm kit lens. It’s not the latest model but I thought it was good enough and at the right price. It’s not too huge or heavy, though I don’t have a case for it yet. I want to get a telephoto lens for it but for now I’m loving it. I chose Olympus over the other options almost exclusively for the art filters, which I absolutely love right now. I also really like the style of the camera itself, which looks like an old film one – plenty of people have already been surprised it’s digital.

I think it’s able to take superior photos right away, and I’m sure once I get used to all its settings it’ll be even better. Starting with my Jeju trip posts (coming soon!), I hope that you will notice an improvement in photo quality here!

A delicious veggie frittata at Tortilla West in Norfolk, Virginia.

It’s week four of the Indie Travel Challenge. The prompt is: what’s your winter travel style? Do you like to go warm or enjoy cold places?

I like doing both. I enjoy skiing even though I’m bad at it (and this year it has not treated me well) and I also definitely enjoy taking advantage of off-season deals. If the weather’s not too bad I’m happy to brave the cold, as I did this weekend on Jeju Island where it was snowing and blowing gale force winds. Most of my time in New Zealand was spent in the winter, and I just threw on my thermals and I was happy.

But I also enjoy being warm (but not too warm). This winter (in just a couple of weeks) I’ll be headed to Malaysia and Singapore where it is positively hot (high 80s/low 90s Fahrenheit now).

Weather definitely affects how I see and enjoy a place, as much as I try not to let it. However if something’s beautiful it’s usually beautiful in bad weather too. Basically, I won’t let winter or the weather stop me (within reason).

Pretty landscape along the Tongariro Crossing in Tongariro National Park, North Island, New Zealand.

I am a museum lover. I seek out cool museums of any kind wherever I go (though to be honest, sometimes I give them a pass if I’m being cheap). The Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History was always a favorite of mine as a child. As a former DC resident and Smithsonian employee, I should probably not say this, but the Smithsonian one pales in comparison to the American Museum of Natural History, located right next to Central Park in New York City.

I made a trip to this museum in January 2010 and here’s what I saw.

It’s a cool building, and of course there’s a hot dog stand outside.

The architectural details are especially interesting.

A statue of President Theodore Roosevelt stands outside. His father was one of the museum’s founders.

Just inside there’s some massive dinosaur skeletons.

I started with the section of taxidermied animals. Though the exhibits are clearly kind of old at this point, they are well done. There are painted backgrounds and recreated scenes to look like the natural habitat. A lot of times they look so alive – perhaps that’s what inspired Night at the Museum.

I’m sure many people find these sorts of displays rather morbid, but I think they’re fascinating, and historically interesting as well.

Of course, the museum is not all displays of dead animals; there are collections of cultural objects as well. The explanation plaques are well done here, and you can learn a lot through viewing these objects.

The Hayden Planetarium in the museum has a space show, which is right now Whoopi Goldberg narrated (the National Air and Space Museum in DC has this one too). This didn’t fit in with my budget, unfortunately.

Next I visited the dinosaur exhibit. This one was really interesting because there have actually been a lot of new discoveries regarding dinosaurs since I was a kid, and I got to learn all about what the new research says (for instance, they had to change the position of this T-rex once they learned more about how it moved).

The reptiles and amphibians section goes into great detail about the life cycle of those animals.

There was a small special exhibit on spider silk while I was there. This tapestry was woven from spider silk!

I next went through the gems and minerals section. I find it hard to really get interested in these sorts of sections even if the stuff in them looks pretty cool. [Here's one place the DC one is better - they've got the Hope diamond.]

There’s one room in the museum with giant versions of things, like a mosquito and this Rafflesia (also known as the corpse flower). Kind of neat.

The final section that I went through was the oceans exhibit. It was especially dimly lit so none of my pictures really turned out. Perhaps I should do another post comparing the two Natural History museums since each has its pros and cons.

Overall, I really like the American Museum of Natural History. I spent hours there and didn’t give every exhibit the attention it deserved. I would definitely recommend a visit.

Details:

• Location: 79th Street and Central Park West. Take the B or C train to the 81st Street Station or take the 1 train to Broadway and West 79th and walk two blocks east. See the website for more directions (bus, etc).
• Hours: 10 AM – 5:45 PM daily. Closed Thanksgiving and Christmas.
• Admission: This is kind of interesting. The ‘ticket price’ is actually a suggested donation. It’s $19 for adults and $14.50 for students with ID. But the thing is, you can pay less. You would have to stand in line and tell the person at the counter what you wanted to pay. So they make you feel like you have to pay the full price, but honestly, you don’t have to. I payed the full student price because even though it’s kind of expensive, I like supporting museums.
• Other Info: For special exhibit and IMAX information, visit the website. Depending on your pace in museums, you should give it 2-4 hours, at least. The coat check is $2 and can save your arms a lot of strain.