asia

서울

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So country 88 and country 91 South Korea. We’ve both watched Squid Games so we knew what to expect. We also knew to avoid men with briefcases in the Subway.

Our flight landed very early in the morning and so there is always the “Can we check in early” gamble to take. Thankfully after bussing it from the airport to our hotel in Gangnam (Whoopah Gangnam Style) we won the lottery (There is a whole joke there about Won being the local currency of Korea, I just can’t think of it) and got into our room at 9am. Had showers and naps and then off for our first culinary adventure.

Found an awesome little bbq place nearby and settled in. Not long after getting our food a single woman at the table next to us sidled up to me and told me I was using the wrong glass for the Soju (rice wine). She then proceeded to chat away in broken English and a bit of google translate. She then taught us that you need to put a soju shot into a glass of beer, put one metal chopstick in and clang it with the other chopstick to mix it and turn the beer cloudy. Apparently that’s how all the locals drink soju and beer. After about a half hour of chatting she started to get very touchy…huggy…”oh I do love you” stuff. Awkward! And Weird! And obviously the road to some sort of scam.

We’re still not sure what sort of scam it was as we saw through it pretty quick and disengaged with her suddenly. She got the message and left. Chat GPT gives three suggestions.

1. Cult recruitment that then requires donations and monetary support

2. Distraction to get you drunk and then steal your stuff

3. An invitation to a bar where you will be told it’s free drinks but you will be charged a hefty fee to leave. Ha! We’ll never know coz we didn’t fall for it.

We spent the next few days exploring and eating more amazing food. In Seoul you are never more than 20 metres from an icy cold ice tea and as it was 32 degrees most days we had plenty of them.

Our first Subway experience was hilarious. They don’t necessarily have the names of the stations in English, so often we were looking for 양재 “two circles thermometer man big H” to make sure we were going in the right direction. We also hadn’t paid enough money for the ticket so when we got to the other end the gates wouldn’t open. Thankfully a lovely lady came by and spoke to the intercom to work out what we had to do and then made sure we were ok before leaving us. I don’t think she was trying to recruit us into a cult. That’s one thing that will last is how helpful and sweet the South Koreans are.

Google translate has also changed the game when travelling. We had an entire conversation when we went to get the refund on our travel card before we left, they guy spoke no english at all. Then turned up to the actual office to get the money and he greeted us in English with “hello how may I assist you today”.

We went to a local market to try the local food. Found a local restaurant filled with locals (always a good sign) then looked around at what everyone was eating. Number one South Korean delicacy, beef tartare with freshly chopped baby octopus (still writhing) and a raw egg. When in Seoul… Nigel ended up with a few blood blisters inside his check as the suckers tend to fight back and suck on your inner cheek. I don’t know as I had the bean sprout fritters.

But you can’t get that close to North Korea without trying to get as close as you can to North Korea. So we booked a trip to the demilitarised zone and to the observation point where you can see into North Korea. What an interesting day. You can google the history of the Korean Peninsula but basically at the end of the Second World War Russia claimed the top half and America claimed the South. Then North Korea invaded the South in the 1950s and the Korean War began. In 1953 there was an armistice but there has never been a peace deal signed so technically the North and South are still at war. As recently as September 2024 there were still niggles going on. The North Koreans were sending balloons over the border containing trash and used toilet paper and manure along with the key message “We are the best”. The South Koreans were sending usbs with K Pop videos and Southern propaganda. Kinda funny when you think about it. However, there have also been some recent missile launches over the border and a bit of shooting back and forth and the whole area is still covered in hundreds of thousands of landmines. It’s not entirely safe to visit.

At the observation deck you can see the massive Hollywood sign on the North Korean side that says “We are the best”. Ironic that it’s just behind the propaganda village they have built to look like everything is amazing but no one actually lives there. We did see people wandering about in other areas doing their daily North Korean thing. Their flagpole is also one of the tallest in the world. For a long time there was a tit for tat war with South Korea where they kept increasing the flagpole height. Now the South has given up and the North has an ungainly tower with a few tacked on extensions to it which is taller than the South. It was a surreal experience to be voyeurs into a strange and unknown country.

The thing we love most about travel is exploring new places, learning about new lands, seeing and breathing the culture and growing as a human. Every country teaches us more about what makes the world great and what makes it not so great. We are grateful to be able to do this. Overall our time in South Korea was 엄청난 “Circle thermometer over box, man with head and thermometer over oval and L thermometer over short L”

Singapore La

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We’re locals now la, we’ve been here multiple times in the last 3 years la. We even know enough Singlish to know that you put la at the end of every sentence la.

What a lovely feeling to arrive somewhere that’s so easy and familiar and you know how to get around. Tag on tag off the MRT with your phone or watch. Contactless payments everywhere. So easy. But the heat, it’s oppressive and exhausting and leads to making activity driven decisions based on how much you feel like tackling it.

We stayed this time in Little India, a vibrant area of Singapore filled with flowers and temples and spice stalls and pani puri and samosa. We stayed right next door to a very famous and well attended Hindu temple. We also had the temple bell literally right outside our window. So three or four times a day the temple bell rang and the ceremonial horns and drums created a cacophony that lasted about 45 minutes. And yay it started at 6am. What made it even more special was that we were there for the birth of Ganesh festival, which meant that the festivities continued all day and into the night. By the end, Ganesh himself may have suggested earplugs.

I had three Singapore things that despite being here so often over the last few years I hadn’t managed to tick off.

1. Universal Studios on Sentosa 2. Satay Street for satay from stalls 7/8 3. The light show on the waterfall fountain at the Jewel at Changi airport

Each of these things have been missed in previous visits for various random reasons. We thought we were being clever tackling Universal Studios Singapore without an express pass. “How bad could the queues be?” we said. Answer: bad enough to melt a human. Within minutes the tropical sun had us resembling slightly wilted theme park mascots. So, like true survivors, we caved after the 40 minute wait for the Minions ride and bought the Express Pass. Best decision of the trip. Suddenly we were breezing past the queues like VIPs. Heatstroke averted, rides conquered. The next day we did the sensible thing and swapped roller coasters for air-conditioning at the Singapore Oceanarium.

If Universal was sweat and adrenaline, this was serenity and awe. Jellyfish glowing like floating lava lamps, manta rays gliding like underwater kites, sharks doing their best to look menacing (but also kind of smug). There were dolphins, schools of neon fish, and endless reasons to just wander amongst the fishes and forget about time. Honestly, it felt like stepping into another universe, but cooler — literally. This Oceanarium has now become our benchmark. Everything will always be compared to this. “Well it was good, but not as good as the one in Singapore” “Yeah the jellyfish are cool but not as impressive as Singapore”. “ Awesome shark tank but nothing like Singapore”. There are loads of things to recommend in Singapore but this one is right up there.

Of course, no adventure is complete without Nigel’s input, and Nigel’s input is usually craft beer. He and his mate Tony had sniffed out Smith Street Taps, tucked deep inside a maze of a Chinatown warehouse, the sort of place you’d expect to find secret societies rather than hops and barley. Some truly bizarre brews were on offer including a yam and banana smoothie like beer and a Long Island Iced Beer that tasted more like alcoholic lemonade than beer. It was worth the hunt: icy pints in hand, satay skewers sizzling nearby. Hot tip — nothing pairs with an IPA like smoky satay in an industrial-chic hideout overlooking the infamous tiled roofs of Chinatown.

But the food highlight came later at Satay Street. Imagine rows of tiny tables plonked right in the middle of the road, people squatting elbow-to-elbow, smoke from dozens of grills curling into the night sky. The air was thick with the smell of charred chicken, peanut sauce, and that unmistakable Singapore buzz. We feasted until the satay sticks piled up. Magical chaos, deliciously smoky, and very, very Singapore.

And finally — the ultimate airport flex. We finally made it to the Jewel at Changi to see the famous waterfall sound-and-light show. Standing there as music and colors played over the world’s tallest indoor waterfall was genuinely breathtaking. Only in Singapore do you find yourself lingering landside in an airport just to watch a fountain put on a show — and only in Singapore does that actually feel like the perfect ending to our Singapore adventure.

Seoul next! Whoopa Gangnam Style! Also solidly avoiding being taken to a remote island to play a Squid Game.

So yes, Singapore gave us sweat, spectacle, sea creatures, satay and stout. Would we do it all again? Absolutely. But next time, we’re buying the express pass first.

Singapore Again!

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On our 2022 trip to South East Asia we hubbed in and out of Singapore a few times, so when we arrived at 6.30am from Auckland it felt familiar and comfy. Singapore is very efficient and so getting our luggage was quick and we were straight down to the mrt underground where you tap on and off with your credit card. One stop and we were at Expo station where our hotel was and although it was raining we managed to hike our way to check in. 

You really feel like you get your money’s worth when you get the luck of being able to check into a room at 7.30am. So thankful. We spent the day resting and showering and shopping for supplies at the supermarket next door. Went for dinner at the food court next door and then back for an early jet lagged night. We have decided that this hotel is the most convenient hotel in Singapore. Happy to provide recommendations.

Next day we were up and straight onto mrt to town to see, once again, the great landmarks of Singapore. We went to little India and had authentic Indian street food Pani Puri and mango lassi. Yum. Then lots of wandering. 

In the afternoon we had arranged to see our friend Lotta in her home neighbourhood of Holland  Village so we headed off on mrt and arrived in an amazing part of residential Singapore. A real town centre, every store you could imagine and a really international feel to it. We drank champagne and caught up on life together in the humidity. Then home to food court Chinese food. 

Our final full day saw us head into the ArtScience museum which is an iconic lotus shaped building outside Marina Bay Sands. It has various exhibitions at different times of the year. Currently they had one called Art meets Science which was focussed on light art. A room of light where flowers grew at your feet if you stood long enough and butterflies fell if you hit them while walking. Next was a room where you could sit and colour in a picture which would then be uploaded to fly around on an immersive wall where everyone’s planes, butterflies, birds and other creatures flew about. It was amazing to hear little kids yell “there’s my butterfly” and to hear Nigel say “Yay there’s my Nige Air plane”.  I had done a jennigeltravel plane so that was fun.

We then went off in search of satay and found an awesome version in Haji Lane where Nigel found his true beer love in a Singapore brewed hazy ipa and we both discovered “xo carrot cake” which is actually a savoury fried slightly spicy radish based dish that you need to try to appreciate. It was YUM.  Back to our ridiculously convenient hotel to have an early morning flight which was so simple. Up, over the road, one stop, check in… done. Love Singapore.