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Asia Afterlogue 2015: The Demilitarized Zone

Posted on December 2, 2015

The most sobering part of our trip was the day-long tour to the Joint Security Area separating the Republic of Korea from North Korea along the 38th parallel – the Demilitarized Zone or DMZ. Ironically, it’s the most heavily militarized border in the world. The army base is huge and the soldiers are not for show – they are in a state of constant readiness to repel an attack from the North. Miles and miles of razor wire and freshly-painted spiked equipment glint in the sun. Two hundred and fifty kilometers long, and about 4 kilometers wide, the DMZ is both a testament to hope and an example of blight and discord. All vegetation that could conceal escapees has been cut. The mountain sides…

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Categories: Travel

Asia Afterlogue 2015: Fashion

Posted on November 30, 2015

Compared to North America, where many office workers look more like they’re off to a home improvement store, Koreans in downtown Seoul were very fashionable. Men wear suits and ties, nice belts and shined shoes. Refreshing to see, and we were certainly motivated to up our sartorial game a notch. The women – all tiny and well-coiffed – were very couture. Even the children wore coordinated outfits. Bangkok is a different story. Folks are either conservative dressers or outlandish and ‘out there’. Aside from skin colour, a lot of the tourists stood out due to their clothing – boring footwear, no accessories, wrinkly (wrinkle-free) shirts, zipper pants (who thought they were a good idea for anyone but archaeologists) and cargo shorts of many pockets.…

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Asia Afterlogue 2015: Cafe Culture & Cartoons

Posted on November 27, 2015

We were surprised at the number of coffee shops – independent and U.S. chains – on every street corner in Seoul and Incheon. Unlike in Dubai, where every air-conditioned transit shelter was sponsored by Tim Horton’s, there was no evidence of the Canadian institution in Korea. Strangely enough, every cup is brewed individually in a commercial machine from freshly ground beans – no steaming pots of java on a hot plate. That makes ordering during rush times interesting – they hand you a lighted disk that vibrates when your order is ready. Definitely not fast food. Unfortunately, most of the coffee we drank was awful. Americano – black/no sugar – tasted like hot brown water. Even Dunkin Donuts coffee was hot, but tasteless. One…

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Asia Afterlogue 2015: Safe & Secure

Posted on November 25, 2015

We’ve never been over-concerned about travelling overseas, but after the Bangkok temple bombing earlier this year, we wondered what changes we’d see. Seeing soldiers on the street is nothing new. In Thailand, most of the young soldiers are about the size of my thirteen year old grandson, although they adopt fierce expressions and try to swagger. The older men tend to be chunkier, their glances are sharper and they move more slowly – perhaps because they’re usually adorned with lots of gold braid and shiny leathers. In Seoul, there was plenty of evidence of law enforcement – airport police, tourist police, subway police, etc., but they didn’t appear uber-vigilant. In fact, there is a somewhat whimsical approach to making policing more friendly. The tourist…

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Asia 2015 Afterlogue: Food

Posted on November 23, 2015

Okay. We all enjoy good food. But in my experience, folks living in Asia take food to a whole new level. In Canada, Toronto specifically, owners of mobile restaurants have had a horrible time trying to get a vibrant street truck culture going. By comparison, in Portland, Oregon, an entire city block has been designated as a Food Truck Zone where you can buy foods from around the world, any kind of grilled cheese you can imagine, sweets, meats and all sorts of gastronomic treats. Here, not so much. In the countries we’ve visited recently – Korea, Cambodia, Thailand – food is where the people are. In Seoul, Hub and I would stroll down the bustling streets in the evening, marveling at what was…

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Categories: Travel