Korea Top Gun

..................................................................................There is a delicacy here in South Korea, a culinary adventure for the strong willed and slightly savage, it is sannakchi, otherwise known as a baby octopus, thats still alive! The four of us, Angela and Mike, who I had met in Thailand, and Mike's girl friend Mija and myself sat down on the floor for our meal. Mija had called ahead the night before to make sure we could get a fresh octopus that night, as well as to pre-order our entire feast! So they just kept coming with the plates. At last, it was time. A rather large plate is placed before my eyes, and nothing seemed amiss, at first. Then the movement is perceived, writhing there in a mound of slime were the tentacles of the beast, blindly searching, crawling, latching onto what ever they came into contact with utilizing their surprisingly strong suckers. I exclaimed, "Good God, it's alive, ALIVE!" Then we dug in. Check out the video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dyBKKYFVzPc I had a great time hanging out with my air force buddy's out at Osan Air force Base, about an hour outside of Seoul. Besides the strange food, the highlight was hanging out in a city park with what seemed like half the retired community of Seoul. Angela and I were immediately invited to partake of the makkoli, a milky rice whisky that is the traditional drink of Korea, and is making quite the comeback by the way, and soju (rice whisky). We also were very graciously offered food, anything from sushi to jelly donuts, and finally, we were encouraged to join in on some karaoke! I sang a rousing rendition of "Beat it", which garnered blank stares of confusion and bewilderment, followed by a strong effort at "love me love me" by the Cardigans performed by one Angela. She brought the house down, I've never seen such spontaneous joyous dancing, except maybe that scene from "The Blues Brothers" when Reverend James Brown kicks it proper like. Next was one of our drinking buddies, who kind of serenaded my companion (all these old guys were VERY interested to learn we were just friends). A series of gentlemen waltzed with her while I took pictures, that was until I felt inclined to cut in and save her. This action resulted in us being escorted off the premises fairly abruptly! Guess I must have insulted someone. Other highlights were a weekend trip to Jeju Island with Mike and Mija where we trekked up a volcano and played at miniature world, eating kalbi - Korean style bar-b-q that you cook at your table, eating tons of kimchi and dichon (served at every meal), eating pondegi - silk worm larva, , and getting a tour of the runway at the base, which would describe if it weren't top secret. On the whole, I had a great time there and was glad I stopped by on my way to China.

Kyoto - Not Another Temple!

..............................................................................Or shrine! The site seeing kind of got to me I have to admit. Would have loved to just hang out at one peaceful temple, meditate or do a water color, but damn it was COLD! So, what really characterized my Kyoto experience, other than getting to know the bus system like the back of my hand, was the people I met at the venerable Tojian Guesthouse, quite possibly and simultaneously the most derelict and lovely place to stay in the world.

http://www.linkclub.or.jp/~bangkok/touji.htm

It consisted of a broken down old home next to the highway overpass with holes everywhere, so lets call it semi-enclosed accommodation. The front door didn`t lock, nor any other door in the place, I was in the 8 bed dorm, peachy. After crawling past the tea table and mat that the owner sleeps on!, you find yourself in a 8 foot by 8 foot room that serves as the living room for guests. There is a small table, free coffee and tea, and EVERY night the owner and/or staff force feed you free beer, sake, and the most potent, nasty booze they could find on the planet, my favorite being korean rice whisky, or as I call it, rubbing alcohol without the `smooth aftertaste`. I think it`s no secret the strategy that was going on, get the guest pissed so they forget the environment their in, better yet the name of the place, the city, and their own names for that matter. It gets even BETTER! You will notice on the slideshow below a couple of pics of what seems to be shipping containers stacked in a vacant lot. Well, those ARE shipping containers, and that is the addition, or as architects like to call it, the modernization of Tojian Guesthouse. How this novel and sustainable design escaped the folks at Arch Record I will never know. The experience is as follows: You exit the main building though a paper sliding door, where you find the restroom and sink. Then you see a ladder going up into the shadows, its scary. If you have the nerve and lack the wisdom of self preservation instinct, as I do, you may actually decide to ascend said ladder, between buildings as it were, to satisfy some insane feeling of curiosity. On the next platform you find, you guessed it, storage. Complete with a missing wall so you can throw even more `junk` onto the roof of the original house. Fire hazard anyone? Then you climb another ladder to the third level. Here you realize that instead of wood, there is cold hard steel under your feet. This is of course, the laundry room. Makes perfect sense, if fact, it really should be higher, preferable perched out on the edge of some narrow gang plank, exposed to the elements. But your attention is quickly drawn past this machine, to the glow emanating from a paper door to the highest storage container, yes, its the penthouse. Now some people say they are curious, but then there is the diabolical sort that tend to make fools of themselves, like yours truely. I had to, just slowly, peak into this room! I tip toed the screen, and slowly inched it to the right, until it made a nice screech like fingernails on the chalkboard. Through the 6 inch crack, on his tatami mat, was the most gruesome sight I have ever beheld! On the 3rd floor of the Tojian Guesthouse, in secret, dwells the TROLL man! It, I mean he, turned and scowled at my intrusion, as if to say, `Don`t you knock!`, and I fled.

The End.

Also included are the Osaka and Nara pics, blog to follow.

http://picasaweb.google.com/ethan.ahlberg/KyotoOsaka

Takayama Gets It`s Matsuri On

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..Took my leave of the bustle of Tokyo, and sped on the `Nozomi` express train up into the mountains of Central Honshu`s Hida District. The scenery was spectacular as we followed the mountain river into the Japanese Alps. Takayama is a quaint little mountain town with streets out of a page of history. Many shops selling the local woodcraft's the region is known for, and rice balls! I was just in time to catch the spring festival, the Sanno Matsuri, a celebration of the end of winter and a hopeful look ahead for this years harvest, plus a bunch of extremely ornate floats called `yatai` complete with puppets! I stayed at the Tensho-ji Youth Hostel which was connected to a shrine of the same name. Very cool even though dorm room was for 50 and the curfew was early. I mostly enjoyed wondering the streets and up into the park on the hill overlooking the town.

http://picasaweb.google.com/ethan.ahlberg/Takayama

Come in Tokyo!

.........................................................................................Most people tend to dislike Tokyo, treat it as a spectacle to take in for a day or two, but not a place you would want to really hang out in, kind of like Vegas I suppose. They did not have the time I had. Thanks to my friend Nozomi, I had five days I will always remember, fast yes, overwhelming, maybe, but fun as hell. For those that don`t remember, I met Nozomi while scuba diving in Honolulu way back in November. We`ve kept in touch all that time, and she was gracious enough to let me crash on her studio apartment floor in the Tama district for four nights. Not only that, she took those days off to be my official escort/body guard on a whirlwind tour of the biggest city in the world. She also supplied me with the gifts! A book on Japanese culture, all kinds of tour information, maps, brochures and such, and some cool stickers. It even gets better! She insisted on cooking for me, and turns out she`s a world class chef, at least in my humble opinion. Needless to say, basically being pampered and not having to worry about transportation or ordering food and having my happy-go-lucky (she is always laughing!) companion made my experience what it was. Considering we barely spoke the same language, it was tse goy that we became such good friends and could amuse each other so easily!

In summary, we saw many cherry blossoms, checked out a cool onsen (my first public bath experience), went shopping for a new camera to replace the one that got stolen, ate tons of sushi, took the trains about 20 times a day, wondered around the museum, saw some cool architecture, both traditional and modern, and had a cocktail at the Park Hyatt (lost in translation) to top it all off.

http://picasaweb.google.com/ethan.ahlberg/Tokyo

The Sun Sets on Southeast Asia

...................................................................I`m speeding through the Bangkok night in a neon pink taxi, feeling detached from my surroundings. The city streets race across the window in a blur, like a scene from a noir film. It`s 4am on a Monday morning, and the metropolis murmurs with life, whether its cranking up for another steamy day or winding down from its last hedonistic night is hard to tell. My chest aches and I avoid conversation with the cabby. I`m being whisked away to another adventure, this one called Tokyo, but I`m leaving my heart in Thailand. The past three weeks have been surreal. I left the monsoon in Cambodia, only to have it catch me in Phuket. I spent three incredible days scuba diving. One day at Rancha Yai where I met an elderly gentlemen from Napa who talked like Dracula. Then an overnight cruise to the Similan Islands for the best diving of my life. The water was not the clearest, but there were millions of fish and the corral and rock formations were incredible. My diving buddies for the six dives were Ben, a fireman from England, and Bruno, a Rastafarian from Germany. Our guides were great, especially Mary, an Austrian supermodel:) Returning from paradise, I took in a little of the scenery of Patong, mainly consisting of ugly old men being walked around by tiny Thai go go girls, pretty disgusting. Having enough with that, I booked a ferry to Koh Phi Phi, the island most famous for being decimated by the tsunami. The islands of Phi Phi are scenic, and EXPENSIVE. I booked a room for as cheap as I could find, and happened to grab a rickshaw\cart with two girls from Tokyo. We were quite the site being pushed down the beach side path with all our luggage! I spent two days relaxing and soaking in the sun. The half moon fire shows on the beach were fantastic, and to top it all off, Ryo, my Japanese friend, agreed to give me a much needed hair cut one drunken night, and it turned out pretty nice. I had two days before I needed to head back up to Bangkok, and I decided to head over to Hat Railay in Krabi off a recommendation from my friend Lin. It was a real scorcher of a day, and after leaving my bag on deck, I searched out a empty seat in the air conditioned cabin. I sat down next to an older farang, and tried to cool down. He ended up changing seats, so when I broke out my book on Shanghai I had been struggling through I had the three seat row to myself, and that`s when I met Alex. She politely asked if she could get by to the window, and I obliged, not really looking up. When I sat back down I beheld a tall woman with a gorgeous, angular face, big green eyes, and light brown hair with blond highlights, tangled and cute. She was fanning herself off in the heat and I commented on the oven-like conditions, and we fell into conversation. She had the kind of elegant, proper English accent that makes you feel like a barbarian in comparison, and I loved listening to it. We talked intensely for the entire 1-1/2 hour trip, so involved, in fact, that I missed my stop at Railey! So there I was, standing on the Ao Nang pier, debating what to do. So I asked Alex if she wanted to try to hire a long tail boat to accompany me back to Railey, she said yes. Two weeks of island hoping, full moon party`n, laughing at the zombies being awakened from the safe sleep zone, sharing sunsets, sunrises, tiny $6 huts, 4 star resorts, motorbike adventures(no injuries to report!), sneaking into resort pools, being robbed(my camera with all the pictures!), getting through a bought with the flu(Alex), putting my flight off three times, and many, many Lipton Ice Tea`s later, I found myself hugging good bye to an incredible, tearful girl in front of Suk 11 in the dead of the night. It`s the stuff dreams are made of.

http://picasaweb.google.com/ethan.ahlberg/ThailandDiving

http://picasaweb.google.com/ethan.ahlberg/LastDaysInBangkok

also see some long lost pics from Laos and Vietnam waterproof camera

http://picasaweb.google.com/ethan.ahlberg/VengViangRiverAdventure

http://picasaweb.google.com/ethan.ahlberg/HaLongBayKayaking