World Flavor

Yesterday’s Indie 30 prompt was about where you’re going in 2012.

This would’ve been a great time to announce that I’ve booked my ticket to Malaysia for February, but actually, I failed to do so last night. There was some problem with the website or something, so I wasn’t able to.

But I’m still planning a trip to Malaysia from February 11-25. I know I want to explore Kuala Lumpur a bit, head to Penang, check out Melaka, and dip into Singapore for a day or two. Langkawi was recommended to me so I’m considering it.

So far, though, we haven’t done much planning. Maybe we won’t do a lot. Mostly we want to eat and see cool stuff. My boyfriend really likes trying new fruit, so we’ll search for good fruit. Other than that… I don’t know.

I would love suggestions for (peninsular) Malaysia and Singapore!

I’m sure I’ll go other places in 2012 too, but we haven’t gotten there yet, because they’ll be in August or later. I’m hoping to have some exciting announcements about it in the next several months or so.

I’d also like to take this, the last day of Indie 30, to reflect on the past month. I really enjoyed participating in the 30 Days of Indie Travel. The prompts didn’t go up until about 5 or 6 PM local time here in Korea so usually, I was a day late with them according to my time zone. But I managed to write something for every post!

It was great to have inspiration and motivation to write something new every day (even if I didn’t love every prompt). It’s going to take a lot of self-discipline to keep up that momentum. But I want to try.

Something that this project made me realize was that I don’t want my blog to be a place where I just talk about Korea. Of course, I will write about my Korean adventures (I have a lot of catching up to do!) but I also want to pull travel memories from further back and write about them. I want to write about everything, and have helpful guide-type posts. So thanks, BootsnAll, for hosting a project that really help me realize what I want my blog to be – not to mention it was a lot of fun!

Yesterday’s Indie 30 prompt: What does travel mean to you in one word?  

Without further ado, the word is:

adventure

Yesterday’s Indie 30 prompt was about your favorite piece of travel gear.

I have several items of gear that I like, but for now, I’ll make this short and sweet. The coolest piece of travel gear I’ve bought recently is the ScottEVest Women’s Essential Travel Jacket.

For one thing, it’s comfy and looks good. I got mine in black. It’s great for layering and can be used in a wide variety of settings and temperatures – the sleeves even zip off to make it a vest.

The best part, of course, is the pockets. I seriously would have needed another bag if I hadn’t had this while moving to Korea! It has 18 pockets, and they’re mostly not obvious. With this jacket, you don’t need a purse – and I am really a purse person. There’s a pocket for everything. And it’s made not to look full of stuff when it is. I can actually hide a paperback book in here – no one will know the difference. If all the pockets are full you can tell, but not as much as you’d think!

This is seriously the coolest travel jacket I’ve ever seen, and I absolutely love it. I can’t wait to take it on the road – but I’m also wearing it now, of course.

ScottEVest is having a Cyber Monday sale of 30% off right now, so grab it while it’s cheap!

Yesterday’s Indie 30 prompt: Share a photo or video that just makes you want to GO. RIGHT. NOW

At the moment, two countries are really drawing me in – Turkey and Croatia. Here’s a picture that might explain why Turkey.

Photo by ismaSan

I so want to see Cappadocia for myself. As well as many other places in Turkey. In Croatia, I want to see the city of Dubrovnik and Plitvice Lakes. And I also really want to go on a horse trek to Mongolia.

There are a couple of people I know who are amazing photographers, and whose photos will inspire intense wanderlust in you.

The first is Mary Tanner, who was my roommate at EPIK orientation. Go look at her pictures now. Seriously.

The second is Samuel Jeffery of Nomadic Samuel. I also met him at EPIK orientation and his pictures are great too.

Now I’m going to daydream about traveling to different places…

Yesterday’s Indie 30 prompt: Post a photo of your favorite place and tell us what you love about it.

My favorite place. That’s a tough one. It could be somewhere near home like the farm (which since has no more horses), or somewhere abstract like in Jeff’s arm or on a horse. But I’m going to choose from places abroad I’ve been. Okay, maybe it’s not that tough. My favorite country so far has been New Zealand.

There are many amazing places in New Zealand, but only one place really stole my heart, and felt like home. That place was Dunedin. There’s the downtown with its beautiful architecture and delicious restaurants. The Botanic Gardens in all their majesty, with a duck pond where ducks will eat out of your hand. There are several very climbable mountains nearby that give breathtaking views. The Otago Peninsula with its wealth of wildlife and beaches. The quirky university scene with all its crazy partying, trashy bars (and nice bars), and plenty of cool people to meet. I’m not a partier, so I was worried about the fact that Dunedin is known as a party town. But I loved its energy. I embraced being a Scarfie (seriously, I wore a scarf every damn day – that’s what I get for going in mid-winter). I loved it even when some really weird stuff happened – I just embraced its strangeness.

Someday soon I’ll have to really write about Dunedin and all the things you can see and experience there. But for now, I’ll leave you with this picture.

I think this Tiger Tea ad, painted on the wall of a shop on George Street and covered with a little graffiti, really brings back the feeling of Dunedin to me. Note the striped utility poles.

I want to go back to Dunedin someday, and not just for the fries. It’s a city that really grows on you, if you let it.

Well, I’ve fallen a little behind here. Friday’s Indie 30 prompt was: Family shapes who we are, but sometimes the family we create plays a bigger role in our lives than the one we were born into. Tell a story about how either of your “families” have impacted your life and your travels. 

My parents are not exactly world travelers. They are in fact not hugely interested in going abroad, since, they say, there’s so much to still see in the US. This is certainly true. My mom also is afraid to fly so it limits their destinations.

But that doesn’t mean they’re not travelers. We may not have gone off to Europe together as a family, but we still went on plenty of trips.  We went to Orlando twice when I was little. For several years we took an annual vacation to the Outer Banks of North Carolina. We went to Salisbury, Maryland, or Ocean City, Maryland, or the Hampton Roads Area of Virginia nearly every weekend, whether it was for shopping, to see a movie, to compete in a horse show, or to walk on the boardwalk.

So they definitely instilled in me a love of going new places. Today they cruise around the country on their motorcycles. They definitely have their own wanderlust, it just takes a different form than mine. Me, I want to learn new cultures and taste new foods and see new places. Really, so do they – only they choose to do it within their own country.

How has your family affected your travels?

Yesterday’s Indie 30 post asks what you’re thankful for.

This was my first Thanksgiving to be out of the country. I missed my family and eating my mom’s delicious cooking. Jeff and I decided to do a little to recreate my typical Thanksgiving dinner – we made mashed potatoes and macaroni and cheese.

We knew we couldn’t really replicate a full Thanksgiving dinner – for one thing, that’s way too much food for two people. Turkeys are hard to find and expensive in Korea. And I’ll confess something: I don’t like turkey. For me, Thanksgiving dinner is all about the sides – specifically the mac and cheese and mashed potatoes. And buttery rolls – that’s something I could not procure for this dinner. Mashed potatoes are easy to make in Korea. Mac and cheese is very slightly more difficult, though Home Plus sells real cheddar. We had gotten a large block of cheddar in Itaewon so we were set, plus I added “pizza cheese” aka slightly plasticky mozzarella. It added a nice stringiness anyway.

But Thanksgiving isn’t just about food; it’s also about being with your family and thinking about what you’re thankful for. So here’s what I’m thankful for:

• A family that loves me and supports me even if sometimes they might think what I’m doing is a little crazy…
• A wonderful relationship with Jeff, whose love of adventure is as big as mine, and who is my best friend as well as my true love and all that.
• Wonderful friends, many of whom I won’t be seeing for a while but who are still very important in my life!
• My health and full use of my senses and limbs – travel would be difficult without that, to say the least.
• The ability to travel. Mostly the willingness and love of experiencing new places and things. Thanks to my grandparents for taking me on my first big trip which really sparked my interest in going to new countries!
• My job, especially my students. Just them saying hello to me and being excited to see me makes me smile every day. I am so grateful to have a job where I am happy every day (mostly…).

There’s other things of course. But I think that covers the most important things. Happy Thanksgiving!

Yesterday’s Indie 30 prompt: Where would today’s travelers be without smartphones, GPS, iPods, iPads, or even the internet? Share one item of tech you can’t live without or tell us how technology has changed the way you travel.

I’ve already talked about my love of my Nook Color for travel. I of course can’t travel without my camera and I am also enjoying using an iPod Touch, as well as a little video camera that my grandparents got me.

But I think I’m going to use this post to talk about a piece of technology that I’ve bought for travel that I’m not satisfied with. That would be my netbook.

A couple of years ago, I decided that for traveling, a small portable computer would be the way to go. So I did my research and bought myself an Asus Eee PC 1000HE. I used it on several short trips and was quite happy with it. It’s definitely small and light. It works well for looking things up on the internet.

But as time went on, I got frustrated with it. I’m now in Korea and it’s the only computer I brought with me. It makes doing anything online a total pain in the ass. Oh, you want to switch tabs in Chrome? Well hold on there, miss, I’ve got to freeze for 3 minutes! It has a webcam and microphone which would be great if I could use Skype without terrible results on the other end.

I’m not trying to do major photo or video editing or do much else other than surf the web on it, but it’s still slow as molasses. Not too surprising since the processor is terrible and has a puny 1 GB of RAM.

So I’ve decided I must, must have a new laptop, and that’s what I’m getting for Christmas from my parents (thanks, parents!).

I like to travel light, but for me, it is worth it to carry a couple extra pounds to avoid major annoyance every time I do anything online. Not to mention that when I’m actively traveling, a faster computer will mean less time spent working on blogging and uploading photos, and more time for doing fun stuff!

Yesterday’s Indie 30 prompt: The word travel comes from a French word meaning “work” and sometimes, getting there is work. Between crowded buses, long airline delays, overnight trains and crazy rickshaw rides, transportation can be stressful, but it can also be a rewarding part of the tip. Tell us about a time when the journey became more important than the destination.

Besides the times I was on backpacker buses in New Zealand, which I already talked about a little this month, I can think of at least one other time that the journey was what really mattered.

On September 20, 2008, some friends and I headed out in a rental car to explore the Catlins region not far south from Dunedin. This is a rural area jam-packed full of scenery. You can see a lot of it in a day trip from Dunedin. We didn’t have one particular destination; we had many places we wanted to go, and we also decided to stop at anything that looked cool.

We had booked a horseback ride with Te Taunga Adventures in Owaka but we got there early so we continued down the road to see what we could see. We came eventually to Surat Bay Scenic Reserve which is a lovely beach with a sign in front saying “Warning: Sea lions may be present. Stay well clear of them.” We didn’t see any this day, but it was a beautiful place nonetheless.

Then we did the horse ride through beautiful farmland. We were lucky enough that it was lambing season – we saw a newborn lamb stand for the first time as we rode by!

Next we attempted to go to Cathedral Caves, but unfortunately high seas prevented us from exploring them. Instead we went to McLean Falls. The fern-covered trail brings you to a small waterfall, but I realized the trail went on. Eventually it gets you to a big, impressive waterfall.

After that short hike we took a brief walk around Lake Wilkie.

As we headed toward Purakaunui Falls, we saw a great view and pulled over to capture it.

Upon arriving at Purakaunui Falls, we were a little disappointed. There were a lot of people there, the walk to them was short, and they were just not as impressive as McLean Falls. The interesting thing is that if you look into what to see in the Catlins, Purakaunui Falls shows up but McLean does not. I think it’s because McLean Falls is further from the main road plus requires a 40 minute hike round trip. But it’s worth it!

We got to Tunnel Hill and realized none of us had brought a flashlight. Tunnel Hill is an abandoned railroad tunnel that you can walk through. If you are a bit afraid of the dark like me, I wouldn’t recommend going through if you don’t have a flashlight. I also wouldn’t recommend trying to substitute your camera’s flash for a flashlight. Trust me, it just makes it creepier. But I made it through and back again and survived.

After stopping at a cozy café in Kaka Point, a cute little town, we headed to our last stop of the day – Nugget Point and Roaring Bay. Nugget Point, an absolute must-see in my opinion, is a steep bit of landing jutting out into the sea, surrounded by tiny islets. There’s a lighthouse, too. This is definitely one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen.

Nearby, Roaring Bay is a little beach where you can see sea lions and yellow-eyed penguins. Yellow-eyed penguins are only found in New Zealand and its subantarctic islands. They are one of the rarest penguins in the world. You can see them at Roaring Bay, some beaches on the Otago Peninsula near Dunedin, and Oamaru. Roaring Bay’s hide is very close to the parking area and gives a nice view of the penguins. Dusk is the best time to see penguins – when we got there they were right below us on the beach! I’ll have to write about another penguin viewing spot I’ve been to later on.

Darkness was falling so we made our way back to Dunedin. The journey had been magnificent, a memory to treasure forever.

Yesterday’s Indie 30 prompt asked about someone special you met on the road.

I’ve never had a ‘travel fling.’ Or any sort of fling. Come to think of it, I’ve been in a relationship every time I’ve left the country – except for the first time. And then I was in 9th grade and traveling with my grandparents so I was not exactly in the right situation to even meet any French guys, not to mention anything else…

When I was in Venice, I did get grabbed and grinded in a club. It was exciting for a second because that had never happened to me before, but it quickly felt gross and sleazy and I escaped. A friend of mine got licked on the ear in Monkey Bar in Dunedin and I narrowly avoided a couple of weird encounters there.

I am, though, traveling with my significant other. We just casually said to each other, oh hey, happy 4 years 11 months anniversary. The typical word is ‘celebrated’ for that sentence, but we have long since stopped celebrating anything other than ‘big’ anniversaries – and our 5 year one is coming up soon! We may treat ourselves to a stay in the Seoul Hilton for that one (I say ‘treat ourselves’ but actually we’d be using Jeff’s Hilton Honors points…).

Traveling can be really exciting within a relationship, assuming you are actually good travel partners. My advice would be to try out a short trip with your loved one before embarking on something longer. Maybe those quirks that you find endearing at home will be obnoxious on the road.

It’s nice to have someone to share travel with. We’ve made an agreement with each other that we will not refrain from doing something we really want to if the other person doesn’t really want to do it. That might mean I go to the zoo for a day while he walks around the city instead. Hopefully this will help when we’re actively traveling long term.

At some point I’ll probably have a lot more advice for traveling couples, but for now this’ll have to do.