Travel

It's been a while since I flew out of my country to another.

This time is to a country I longed to go for a long time. This time, I could.

Korea.

What a trip. We walked. Got lost. Found our way back. Walked some more. Ate. Drank. Shopped. Met friends. Opened hearts. Spoke the local language. Spoke English.

Time is so short. I wished I can be there for longer. I wished I can see more, experience more.

This trip only makes me want to go back for more.

Korea is a great place for the creative mind to flourish and find inspiration. It has its crazy moments; People can be curt, people can be in a rush and the language barrier is real. It could do with more public rubbish bins and less public spitting, but it's a country with its own charms. Quaint restaurants, even quainter cafes, but with big ambitions. It's a mix of tradition and increasing metropolitan tastes. On one street you can see youths in their school uniform just fresh off school, hanging out and laughing over nothings; then on the other, you can see a few older men smoking cigarettes and sharing a few bottles of soju, discussing about their dreams.

On one street, history and modernity co-exists together. In an old house, you see a modern cafe. In a modern restaurant, you taste traditional Korean food with a good makgeolli (rice wine) to boost.

Roads turn from busy to quiet, and even though every door looks the same, they boast a different air, a different kind of pride. The persistent ahjummas (aunts) who keep inviting you into their shop for some fried fish, the trendy young girls who brave the cold all day inviting you into their shops to buy their snail creams, all these looks the same and feels similar, but a different charm to them still.

Every night back at the hotel, I would reflect on the day and wondered if this is a place I would want to come back. Even if the day may turned out less than expected, and people's response may turned out to be less than friendly, I'd still want to come back.

I can't pinpoint what exactly is the reason why I want to come back. Maybe I'm just short of time and there are just too many things to explore. Locals often told me that it is a small country, but I beg to differ. Korea may be small geographically, but it's big at the heart of it.

It's not a perfect country, but Korea leaves much to be explored again.

Or maybe I'm just happy I got my Tablo album after so long.