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.