Korea: The Most Pleasant Place on Earth

Korea is an impressively pleasant place. Impressively. Pleasant. You could draw similarities from Chinese and Japanese culture, but at the same time there is defeintiely something unique and impressively pleasant about the culture there (like, say, our beloved land of Canadia being compared to an Anglo-American smoothie with a dash of maple syrup and beaver tail). Busan itself is the little brother to Seoul, a well-rounded city with tons of neat stuff to be done. I only had about a day and a half to spend in the country, but Korea is truly unlike anything else I've experienced.

My good friend Matt "We like Matt" Pocketwatch was by host and guide for the very short weekend. He, like his friends who I had the pleasure of sharing these adventures with, work at a language center in Busan and enjoy the bustling city life that makes a Macau resident like myself green with envy. The wide open spaces, fresh air, and general pleasantness of Korea contrasted the things that Macau doesn't have strong suits in. It was surprisingly refreshing to get a pint of craft beer, or be on public transit where the riders are quiet, polite and well-behaved (it was a struggle to me to follow suit).

One of last weekend's indulgences was Karaoke (called Nori bong), which has a big following in Korea (and I mean a BIG following). Participation involves booking a private room with couches & tables, food service and a tv/entertainment unit complete with videos of the majestic Korea countryside to accompany your lovely rendition of Sweet Caroline. You can order a whole array of food & beverages to ensure that your group is well supplied for the hours of hopeless tone-deaf wailing. I'd love to show you a video I took from that night, but I'm afraid it is neither flattering from a musical nor adult point of view.

Holi Hai is a celebration in Indian culture where people throw pastel-coloured paint powder at each other (I believe this is where our Western version of paint-parties came from). Why it was taking place in Busan is beyond me, but Matt lived up to his pal status and booked us a pair of tickets, to join his work friends. We snacked on some great samosas, sported our white t-shirts, and. I learned that I'm really bad at throwing paint; underhand, overhand, with my left or my right, at close range or at a distance, my throws ended in the powder helplessly dissipating into the air, or blinding friends and strangers alike through direct hits to the cornea. It made for some very colourful-yet-squinty partying, and it looks fuggin cool. 

I wasn't diligent enough to go out for actual Korean food, instead opting for Indian, Burgers, steak & bakery snacks instead. Korean fried chicken is one of my favourite foods, but due to reasons, it never ended up on a plate in front of my face. One of the best things I did consume was a thing called Makkoli, which rhymes with broccoli and tastes nothing like it. It's a rice-wine-kind-of drink that comes in a tin teapot and is served in simple (usually scratched/beat up) tin bowls. Some of you may think "But didn't you have Soju Stuart?" and, no, I can't say that I did. Despite Korea being a nation of ~30 million people, Soju is the most consumed liquor in the world by net volume (this gives you an idea of how available & consumed it is throughout the country). I stayed 20 nautical miles well away from the stuff because of its reputation for taking the life from your very body before you're even finished drinking it. I only had about 14 hours sleep between 3 nights anyways, and I didn't exactly feel like crawling back to work on my hands and knees. 

Korea really is impressively pleasant, even the cherry blossom trees were in FULL BLOOM. LOOK AT THAT. There were cute little bakeries on every block, fresh strawberries being sold out of the beds of tiny trucks, wide sandy beaches with soft beige sand, and access to tasty, inexpensive food & beverages no matter where you went. It was a whirlwind tour that could have only been made better with fried chicken, which is my own damn fault for not injecting into the weekend. Matt, I will be back, and I will be ready for as much Korean Fried Chiggin as you can throw at me.