Is Anything in Incheon?

What started out as a miserable day was quickly turned around. How, you ask? By doing what I do best, wandering aimlessly around a place I don't know anything about. Oh, and did I mention, I don't speak the language either... (I'm working on that one though!)

My Sunday started around 7:00 a.m. and although I really didn't want to get up, I finally dragged myself out of bed knowing I was going to be running a 5k.  This was going to be my first race since I've been to Korea and I was both nervous and excited at the same time. It's been awhile since I've ran. But you have to start somewhere. I had convinced a group of people to run together, then one by one they started dropping like flies. The day of the race, the number of remaining runners was down to 3. No worries though, 3 was still a good group to run with. It also didn't help that the weather forecast called for a downpour. I kept positive despite the obvious, until about 9:00. After leaving late and a $30 taxi ride, we arrived at Incheon Station, but ended up in the wrong park. By the time we found a map and realized where we were supposed to be, it was 40 mins. too late and the park we needed to be at was nowhere close. Between the bad directions and it being that early on a Sunday morning, I was not a "happy camper" to say the least.  After the realization that this was not happening, we decided to wander around since we were already there. 

Turns out we were in Jayu (Freedom) Park. It was beautiful, but random. The park was up high and overlooked the town. It was breathtaking from the right view. But we also saw some strange things. Why on earth would there be a chicken house in a park? This was definitely a first! The statues were also on the strange side. There seemed to be no theme. There was a giant pipe statue, one of MacArthur, some kind of bright-colored characters that reminded me of Teletubbies, and ride outside of the park was a giant statues of a bowl of noodles. Whatever floats their boat.  

Since we weren't making the race, we figured let's see what's in Incheon. Honestly, none of us knew of anything. When I think of Incheon, I think of the airport and that's about it. I was pleasantly surprised with this place, just not for a Sunday. Right outside of the park, where we saw the giant noodles, was Chinatown. I love the fact that I've been to 3 Chinatowns in Asia and they all seem to be more like China than China actually was. And what I mean by that is when I think of China, I have a certain stereotype that comes to mind. I think bright colors like reds and blues, dragons, and temples. But when I was in China, I didn't see too much of these things. It seemed more subtle and not enough dragons. Well, that is except for China's Chinatown. But Korea's Chinatown seemed to be exactly what I think of. There were beautiful, bright colors everywhere, authentic food, and of course, dragons! This would've been great, except for the fact that it was Sunday before 10 a.m.. In Korea, everything starts later. Before 10 a.m., good luck finding anything open including coffee shops. Strange, I know. So it was too early and on a Sunday. This is the worse time to travel around anywhere in Korea. 

After we left Chinatown, I had one mission in mind. Find coffee! I'm not a morning person and it was still early. We had no idea where we were going, but coffee seemed to be nonexistent here. We ended up walking the 5k just looking for an open cafe. Then finally, something went right. We found Dunkin Donuts. So not only did I get my wakeup coffee, but I got delicious cream-filled goodness to cheer me up. After that, I was ready to explore. 

We continued roaming the streets for several more hours before deciding to head home. And this time by subway, no more taxis that don't know where they're going! It took an 90 mins. to get home, but at least we knew where to go and we got seats, nice cushiony seats! Incheon has a lot going on, just not on Sunday mornings. I'll definitely be going back one afternoon to finish what I've started!

The best part of living in a foreign country and the ability to explore. That's when you get to see what life is really like. It's much more satisfying than tourist attractions that you've probably seen online and you know what to expect. The unexpected is way more fun!

Stay tuned...

Peace & Love,
Elissa Rae

Bottoms Up Beijing ((blog & video))

  

Last week I got the chance to hit up another country in Asia. This time, China!

After arriving at the airport, I was anxious to see my friend, but customs seemed to make sure the reunion waited a little bit longer. They didn't believe my passport was mine. After 5 minutes of staring, I gave them my ARC card that I use in Korea. Apparently that didn't look like me either. So after giving them a 3rd form of ID, they let me through. I found my friend and we booked to Beijing!

As soon as we checked in, we were out the door. First stop, happy hour at Hooters. It's been forever since I've heard of happy hour since no where in asia has ever heard of this concept. After relaxing and filling our stomachs, we wandered down to the Silk Market. Oddly enough, we bought pearls here and not at the Pearl Market... Deciding we did enough damage for one night, we thought why not go out. We were told to check out Hou Hai and so we did. This was a great place. It was a huge lake with shops and restaurants around the entire thing. There were romantic restaurants with lights strung all around, bars with live music, and outside was one massive living room with couches everywhere. It seemed endless. It looked like a great place to spend the evening, but unfortunately for us, we got there late and everything seemed to be closing with a few exceptions. 

Saturday we woke up early, well early for me. (10 a.m.) First stop, Tiananmen Square followed by the Forbidden City. I was surprised that we had to go through security before entering the train station and the Square, but I guess you can never be too safe. The place was packed. We wandered around, stopping to try on silly hats and pose for pictures. It felt like we were celebrities for the day. Random Chinese people would ask to take pictures with us throughout the day. Why? Because they had never seen a foreigner before. So why not go along with it? While walking through the Forbidden City, you would expect to see very traditional sights, then BAM there's a basketball court and laundry hanging on the line. Guess they're moving to modern times. 

Next on our list was Chinatown. There was barely room to make it down the narrow, crowded streets. It was exactly what you would expect. Too many people, lots of strange foods on sticks, (like scorpions), and pushy salesmen. They would yell at you to buy things to a point where I thought at any given moment I wanted to punch one of them. Needless to say, we didn't spend too much time here. We trekked it to the Pearl Market next. Although we wandered around in the wrong direction for a while. We did some more damage then headed home for some R&R to prepare us for Bar Street later. Bar street was a blast. We met a lot of different foreigners from all over the globe and turned the place into one huge party. We stayed out all night and enjoyed live music, good company, and strange drinks, like bowl jobs. 

And how could we forget, The Great Wall of China. Safe to say, it was the worst taxi ride of my life. It a long ride, but we finally made it after 2 hours of traffic and getting car sick, up the wall we went, taxi driver and all. It was a perfect day and there was not a soul in sight. Although you can only walk around for so long before you get bored. 

We ended our trip with the a private concert from our taxi driver on the way to the airport. Beijing was a blast, but it's good to be home. Stay tuned...

Peace & Love,
Elissa Rae