Friday, August 1, 2014

Seoul Brother --- Korea Day-12.7

OMG, on another Malaysia Airline flight from Bali to Kuala Lumpur to Phnom Penh to Korea. Four countries in a couple of days. This time we make good on our stopover in Kuala Lumpur and take the train into the city.


train into Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Too Rich for my blood
Petronas Twin Towers
Oh wow, this is HIGH end. We go to the Petronas Towers and it makes ‘The Magnificent Mile,’ Park Ave and Rodeo Drive look like strip malls. Every high end store I have ever seen and others that I am, evidently too poor to have even heard of. Everything is so new and modern. We have a spicy and delicious lunch and head back to the airport.






             #monksbelike
Can A Holy Man Get An Upgrade? 
This is our last Malaysian Airline flight. (Please God, get me through this. Send me a sign.)  In mid prayer three monks board the plane and sit near us—I’m not sure what this ‘sign’ means but…



#monksbelike
Orange is the New Black




#monksbelike
Skipping Immigration
           




We land safely in Phnom Penh and we get off right behind the monks. Suddenly there are people getting on their knees and bowing. No, not to us, but to one of the monks. The paparazzi are there taking his photo as he disembarks. He is swept through a special door and on to his own bus as the rest of us are funneled thru immigration, where a Khmer Rouge type immigration officer proceeds to rip us off. He asks to see the money we have from Malaysia, then he takes it all (over $20) for a $1 picture. He tells us to use the ATM behind us to pay $20 for another visa…

Traffic in Phnom Penh
This is our last night in Cambodia and we go to dinner with Kidist and her roommate. Later that night I start to feel sick, real sick. We figure it’s dehydration and Kidist has me chug lots of water and a little Gatorade. Unfortunately I have a 5 hour flight to Seoul, Korea in a few hours. I am so sick I’m turning green. 

BA & Spencer
Luckily Greg handles all the bags and ticketing, but when entering Korea you have to fill out a health/quarantine form. Every illness they mentioned I had—Headache? Yes.  Nausea? Yes. Sore Throat? Yes… but if I check yes they won’t let me in, so I fake it. Greg goes first and gives all the information. I am on the brink of heaving but I smile and say, “I’m with him, whatever he said.” I get thru it all and we head to the Seoul Train Station to meet my friend Spencer. I thought the train station would look like Penn Station or Union Station—wrong.  It was bright and clean, a huge new structure.

Yung Mi, Adda, Spencer & Ceilo
Spencer moved to Seoul three years ago with his lovely wife Yung Mi and their two young daughters, ages 8 and 4. We use to work production together, now he has his own record label (with some slamming talent) he has photo and art exhibits around town, he programs music venues and is producing major tv shows for Korea and China. He lives in a fabulous high rise high-tech apartment, (where we are staying.) and is really enjoying life. He is doing it bigtime!
Spencer's music at Burger B- Chicago Speakeasy

Yes BA, you are eating this
Food Market
After we drop our things off we go to a food market to pick up a few things and we walk to a restaurant where he has a photo exhibit. It’s interesting to go from the old (market) to the new (restaurant) in a few minutes and it all works well together.
Fish on a stick
City Hall

DJ
There are all kind of cool things happening in Seoul, like the Silent Discos.  At a Silent Disco you wear a headset and listen/dance to one of 3 colors—each color a different DJ. If you are listening to blue and find yourself dancing with a green, you can change colors to green with them, or maybe the red DJ works better.
"Ho Bar"--No Comment

We go back to Spencer house around 8:30p to prepare for dinner. His younger daughter wants ice cream and they don’t have the type she likes. So Spencer gives his 8 year old some money and tells her to take her little sister to get ice cream. He reminds her that she’s in charge and to hold her sisters hand crossing the street.  I think this must be a game he plays with the girls; but his daughter takes the money and they leave.  Wait, wait, wait! It’s dark outside, and you just sent 2 babies out by themselves.  Neither Yung Mi nor Spencer seem concerned and continue to prepare dinner. I can’t believe my mature responsible friends are letting this happen, but they did and 30 minutes later the girls come back happily full of ice cream and ready for dinner.  I was stunned but they told me that there was nothing to worry about. There is no 
    With a kick like this, I guess she
          can cross the street alone.
crime, kids are safe going out alone, learning to cross the street and to be independent. (We’re not in Kansas anymore.)  I’m still freaked out and call my big sister back in the US and tell her the story. At first she was shocked and then she said, “we use to be able to do that too.” Yeah, there was a time when we didn’t have to live in constant fear and were allowed to go out and explore on our own.
 
We all had a lovely evening and no one was stressed. This feels good.












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