Seoul - 서울시

Finally made it to Seoul! I say finally because it's such a major Asian city and somehow I never made it there until now.

Went to some random store to grab a bite to eat. They had some sort of buns filled with different ingredients, and of course one of them was: Kimchi! So I had to get that. It was pretty good. 

 

 Ignore the statue. Check out those kids in the bottom left! They were super funny. 

 

These were signal beacons used in ancient times to communicate across the whole region. Depending on how many were lit there were different meanings. Basically, if all five were on fire then they were in really big trouble and the battling had begun. 

 

 This is Hoshi! She's awesome. On the left is me. haha. That's right: Eating Korean BBQ, in Korea, with a Korean. So great! 

To help you realize how awesome Hoshi is: Her favorite pasta her whole life was pasta alla carbonara (that's the one made with pancetta and eggs). Anyway, in Korea instead of using eggs they just use sauce! So she found out her carbonara was fake! She saved up her money and traveled to Italy to try real carbonara, and spent three months going throughout all the regions eating their best food.

How cool is that?! I asked her about all kinds of places where I served my mission and if she tried foods there and she totally had tried it all! Amazing.

My friend Tony from college told me that I needed to make sure I tried Jun while I was in Seoul. So even though we had just eaten, we ate some more! What a fantastic day! : D

 Okay, so I had to get a photo of these apartments because they seriously all look the same. I had a pretty tough time finding my way home.

The airport in Seoul is the best in the world. I mean, it's literally the best in the world. It even says so!

In the above photo you're looking at free massage chairs that are provided for everyone. In the photo below is a room full of La-Z-Boys in front of a big screen playing movies. 

 Next is their rest area: 

And of course a free blanket, book and even tablet. That's right. This is airport is ridiculous. It is so awesome.

Okay, so that's my blog post on Seoul, but if you really want to get a feel for my visit you have to check out the video I made. Being in Korea it only made sense to me that I would make a PSY video. Check it out: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qrTZ69VDepw

Singapore...again!

So coming back to Singapore I contacted Cloud (she's in the back left of this picture, haha) to see if she knew anyone who could host me for a night. I stayed with Dai Xi! He's awesome. He kind of wants to come to the U.S. to get his master's and I think he should totally do it because he would have a blast.

After church I went and hung out with Ada. We grabbed some lunch and then went exploring!

At first we were using google maps, but then we were like, whatever, we just have to head towards the water. Haha. So we started hopping fences and walking through back alleys to get us to the water as fast as we could. It was pretty fun and definitely my way of seeing a city. Once we got to the beach we rented some bikes and biked around a little.

That night we went over to Clarke Quay. This extra day in Singapore really helped sell me on it. It has some pretty cool places to hang out and it's a fun place.

 

That's it! Now I'm off to Korea!

Kuala Lumpur

After a great visit to Kuala Terengganu (apart from feeling a little sick I think from the sun), I took a night bus to KL. It was alright. Buses are never that great. 

I only had a day to see KL, but fortunately there aren't too many big sites so I was able to quickly go see the main ones!

The Petronas Twin Towers. Probably a couple of the most famous buildings in the world. They definitely reflect the modern side of Malaysia and the bottom is all filled with high class shopping. 

Can't get anywhere in Southeast Asia without running into these guys!

Outside the Batu Caves. 

I wasn't all that impressed by the caves, especially considering the 272 steps I had to walk up with my backpack on. Here's a picture where my head isn't blocking the view of the steps: 

Malaysian is a super funny language. As I walked around looking at signs everywhere it seemed like they would just copy English but spell things wrong. Lift? "Lif" Taxi? "Teksi" Promotion? "Promosi" 

Okay, so this was awesome: I've always thought that in the U.S. it would be super cool if you could just buy some fruit on the go. You know, sort of like fast food? I know McDonald's technically has apple slices or something, but they're so small and unnatural that I feel like it ruins the point. Anyway, in the KL train station there was this stand that has pre-sliced fruit! Want some Papaya? 50 cents. Want some Mango? 65 cents. Want to get whatever other random fruit? They have it! 

I was stoked to get something healthy going into my body. haha. 

After all the fruit I definitely had to go get myself a Big Mac Meal. It's just too hard to resist when it only costs about $3.00 USD! Anywhere in the world with Big Mac Meals around that price is a great place if you ask me. Unfortunately Taiwan is one of those places so it's going to be hard for me to resist going there all the time this summer while I'm there on my internship. 

Anyway, you may notice in the photo that even the McDonald's is Halal!! What does that mean? Basically it means that the food had to be prepared by a Muslim or else they can't eat it! For a more detailed definition, here is what I got from wikipedia: 

The food must come from a supplier that uses halal practices. Specifically, the slaughter must be performed by a Muslim, who must precede the slaughter by invoking the name of Allah, most commonly by saying "Bismillah" ("In the name of God") and then three times "Allahu akbar" (God is the greatest). Then, the animal must be slaughtered with a sharp knife by cutting the throat, windpipe and the blood vessels in the neck (while the animal is conscious), causing the animal’s death without cutting the spinal cord. Lastly, the blood from the veins must be drained.

Isn't that awesome?? Malaysia is super muslim and so it makes sense that even McDonald's would make sure that their food is Halal. You'll find similar signs posted around Singapore. 

That's it for KL! I would have stayed longer but I actually really wanted to get back to Singapore to hang out with my new friends that I had met at FHE on Monday. I would arrive Saturday night - just in time for church the next day!

Kuala Terengganu and Pulau Kapas

After a long bus ride I made it to Kuala Terengganu!! I made a couple new friends on the bus and we decided to get some McDonald's together after the ride because we were hungry and wanted something easy. 

It's always funny to me to see how long I go without McDonald's on a trip. This time I made it...about 4 days! I think that's a new record! :P

The next day the first thing I went to see was the Crystal Mosque. Kuala Terengganu is interesting because pretty much everyone there is Muslim. It was also interesting because there was a major language barrier with most people because they only spoke Malay.

One of the beautiful things about mosques are all their symmetry. Above is a photo of the roof. 

 

After the mosque I went to spend my day on Pulau Kapas, cotton island. It got that name because of the soft, white sand. I don't think it was the whitest sand I've ever been on, but it was definitely the softest! It was like walking around on powdered sugar or something. It was great.

Unfortunately it was so comfortable that I fell asleep for a couple hours on the beach!! I actually got sunburned and felt a little sick, so I went and found a hammock under a tree where I could relax and spend the rest of my afternoon.  

 

Me on my hammock. It was a needed break. 

 

This guy is awesome. His name is ALee and he is the first person I think I've ever met from Iraq! He's actually from Baghdad! I had a great time chatting with him and it was super interesting. He and his family actually moved away from Baghdad because it got too dangerous, and they went to Syria. Then in Syria, Arab Spring happened (basically civil war broke out), and so they moved back to Baghdad! What a crazy life! He made a good choice in moving away to Malaysia. 

One thing I really liked is I got to get his perspective on the war in Iraq. I asked him what he thought of America going to Iraq and he said that he thought it was a really good thing because otherwise they would never have been able to overthrow their dictator. I thought that was pretty cool. He was a really nice guy and I hope to see him again someday. 

I don't think Kuala Terengganu is really much of a tourist destination and there's not a whole lot to see, but it was definitely worth making the trip up there just to meet ALee! So great. 

Tioman Island - Day 2

Another day in paradise. 

I have to admit though: the sleeping situation was not paradise. hahaha. Throughout the night I would cover myself up with a blanket to protect me from mosquitoes, and then I would uncover myself to cool off, and then cover myself up again because I was being bitten by so many mosquitoes. 

I ended up sleeping in a little because I didn't actually sleep much during the night and I had to catch up on sleep in the morning when the mosquitoes weren't so bad. haha. 

Monitor lizard. They were all over.  

So in the video you can see this better, but I went on a hike to monkey bay which was pretty cool. Then I got offered a ride in a water taxi back to Salang (the beach where I stay), which was even cooler. The hike was super sweaty and I was happy to have an alternate way to get back. 

Swam out to this platform and chilled. It was super nice. 

This is actually the next morning, but here's the crew!

Tioman island is one of those places that you go for relaxing vacation and stay for 10 days or even a few weeks. The couple from Italy/USA (Eugenio and Katie) had done just that. They planned to go around Malaysia but instead decided to spend all their time (I think 13 days) in Tioman. I was pretty tempted to stay there longer, but there's too much of the world to see and I'm too young and full of energy to hang out in one place for too long. 

Here's a short video of Tioman Day 2: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S5-9nD4hLXg&feature=youtu.be

Tioman Island - Day 1

Tioman Island is pretty much the closest Malaysian Island you can get to from Singapore. Time magazine rated it as one of the world's most beautiful islands. I was excited to get out there and check it out for myself.

On the boat ride out. In this photo the water is already clean, but it was pretty interesting to see how dirty the water was when we were close to Malaysia and then how it progressively got cleaner as we went along (2 hour boat ride).

We also passed many other islands along the way. 

....this makes me miss Japan 

Everyone had their cameras and phones out to take pictures

This was a snapchat that I decided to just save on my phone and not send to my friends. I didn't want to make everyone too jealous. haha. 

It reminded me of the Amalfi coast in that it's one of those places you really have to go see in person to fully appreciate all the beautiful shades of blue there are. 

In the water you can see all the way down to the coral. Without even putting on a mask it's like you're snorkeling. 

My host, Joanna, is on the far right. In the middle are new friends that I made who went there to dive. Next to me is Tony, Akhil, Eugenio, Katie, and then Joanna. 

We all went out for dinner together. The dinner conversation was amazing. Especially Tony seemed to know a lot about just about everything and it was really really interesting just sitting there and listening to everyone talk. I'm usually a pretty talkative guy and would consider my background pretty interesting, but in this circle I just wanted listen to everybody else. It was really awesome. 

To see a video I made of day 1, click on the link below:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pm6-5DKhoYA&feature=youtu.be