Notes on South Korea and Hong Kong [Series: Incomplete blogs]

Days in South Korea

A mention of Korea brings to mind days of pure sunshine, breezy nights and consistently cool weather. It also brings to mind the circuitous lanes creeping up and down the hills in Itaewon, jimjilbangs and luxuriating coffee shops.

I have mostly sweet memories of it; they only get fonder with time. Sour experiences are selectively filtered out or watered down while pleasant memories get amplified. They call it rosy retrospection. But there's something to it - something unsettling, something too amorphous to be made sense of. But I will try.

HK

First impressoins: HK is very crowded - it's streets are packed with people. The subway has very long platforms and is always full of people. The magnitude of hustle and bustle here is bewildering. Buildings have old, dull and torn out facades. Apartments have tiny rooms and tinier bathrooms. It's a claustrophobic's nightmare. On top of it, accommodation is expensive as hell which is a backpacker's nightmare.

Wan Chai: The first place I visited in HK was Causeway Bay in Wan Chai on a Sunday evening. The hyperactivity of the place was overwhelming. It's streets ran in all directions without following any pattern. Crammed between these tortuous alleys were buildings donning an age old look; a plethora of neon sign boards jutting out from the walls facing these streets. No matter how dampening the exteriors were, most shops inside had swanky interiors and sold upscale items. I spent only one night here since accommodation here was more expensive than other touristy havens like Kowloon.

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The Streets of Taipei [Series: Incomplete blogs]

There was nothing peculiar about that evening when the rain came lashing down. I wouldn't have gone out but I had to. Grudgingly I left home; I walked along the edge of the street barely keeping myself under the shelter of pattering tin sheets.

I am reminded of a random night in Causeway Bay, Hong Kong when I was cornered by a sudden downpour. I vividly remember the almost instant bloom of umbrellas followed by hurried footfalls. It was a weird place - I could never understand how their individuality interfaced with the society. It was loud, it was claustrophobic; yet nobody seemed to have any willingness to talk to each other.

I was in the MRT now, bound to 劍南路站。When it rained, the streets of Taipei looked like stills from a Wong-kar Wai movie. Colorful neon boards jutting out from lackluster buildings reflected off wet roads. Smoke wafting from roadside food-stalls dissolved into the droplets of water dripping off tin sheets. The road was covered with a series of reflections of headlights and streetlamps.

There was a sweet charm in getting lost in the narrow tortuous alleys of this city. The city had pockets of old neighborhoods interlaced with narrow lanes and flanked by dull facades of 公寓. These neighborhoods were the best part of this city. Every morning a swarm of chirpy little breakfast places took birth in random parts of all streets. These breakfast stalls would disappear gradually before afternoon or sometimes evening.

I reached 劍南路站。It had stopped raining and the sky had cleared up. The air smelled of earthy freshness. This place was teeming with swanky malls and upscale showrooms. A mountain guarded the view on the other side. I handed over some stuff to my friend. My next destination was 輔大 located in extreme west part of New Taipei City. I had recently started going to a bouldering gym there.

The neighborhood around 輔大 was pretty much dead in nature. Once you veered away from the highway, all noises disappeared into the stillness that reigned the place. There were no 公寓s, no cozy stalls or night markets. It was a string of large warehouses and small factories - the kind of place that seemed to lack charm.

There were unremarkable turns with badly marked addresses between badly lit, poorly managed warehouses. I took one of those turns, dodging a small pool of water and walked toward a big building with tin walls. The wonky walls of its interior were speckled with motleyed blocks. That was my place.

It was just this little place in middle of nowhere that made me love the entire neighborhood. It was as if the charm of this place was intensified by the lack of it outside. I made numerous trips to this place. I got hooked to it.

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Cycling around Taiwan - 台灣環島 [Series: Incomplete blogs]

At about eight in the morning I left Taipei with a small backpack on my bike. Thirty minutes later, still in Taipei, I bought a helmet and a raincoat. That's all I needed for the trip. Then I cycled all the way out of the city.

I felt the freedom to move at my own pace and stop at my own will, the lightness of being in motion and the dopamine kicks of physical exertion. It was a very liberating feeling living an unrestrained yet minimalist way of life. I set out with keen senses and constant excitement.

That's how actually day one began. It however ended with anti-climactic feelings of physical exhaustion and slight disappointment with a lack of scenery as I was greeted with a string of dull townships and mundane human settlements. I rested in Miaoli (苗栗), a town located in the foothills of western Taiwan.

Sanyi (三義) is one of those towns where you can spend a lot of time doing nothing on a sunny day. The charm in its simplicity had a soothing effect. The old railway station shone proudly in the sunshine. There was just a lady with her kid waiting inside. This was in sharp contrast to the unending row of concrete erections that put me down on day one.

The best part of day one was a small detour along the western coast near Hsinzhu (新竹). I spotted windmills swirling elegantly by the sea against the backdrop of a setting sun. I watched the crisply defined silhouettes of their blades slashing the cerise rays of the sun. Their long shadows spanned the entire width of the highway.

A long, uninterrupted downslope about 5 km in length gets you to Houli (后里) from Sanyi. Floating effortlessly for such a long distance became one of the highlights of this trip.

I slept over in Taichong (台中) and Tainan (台南) - two lovely cities where I found some kind people to host me. The next day I biked to Xinzuoying (新左營) and took a train ride to Taitung (台東). A shitty weather greeted me and after a futile attempt to sleep in an open shelter, I resumed biking again.

The east coast of Taiwan is breath-taking. Every few kilometers there's a sheltered spot which offers stunning views of the ocean and the mountains. 

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