Porky pig and Makgeolli - 24 Jan 2007

Pig Trotters
This was served to the table a dish ladden with pig trotters and a dish of pig sausages - I was not used to the taste of the sausages.

Porky pig...to be precise I had pork trotters - deliciously cook around the Mapo-gu area. It was my first time to this dinning area of many small restaurants all selling different types of pork dishes.

Side dishes include 2 different dishes of kimchi, kimchi soup and fresh white cabbage (to be dipped into chilli bean paste). My observation is that Koreans eat lots of vegetables at every meal - this is excellent for dietary and health reasons.

These small eating houses had rows and rows of cooked pig trotters displayed like above. For payment, these small family restaurant takes credit card - it's so convenient in Seoul - credit card payment is accepted almost everywhere.
Drinking Etiquette
Visitors to Korea for the first time need to understand some drinking etiquette and this involves Koreans offer glasses of liquor to each other as a gesture of camaraderie. When someone offers you an empty liquor glass, you are expected to hold it out and receive a fill-up, drink it empty, and in likewise fashion return it to the person who offered it to you. This drinking tradition helps promote close ties around the drinking table.

Business in Korea begins after office hours and that is the time when you get to know your Korean partners and make friends. This is how I made great friends with Koreans.

Liquor - Makegeolli

It was my first time having a different type of Korean liquor called 막걸리Makgeolli. It is an acquired taste with it's milky colour but with low alcohol content around 6%. My understanding is that this drink is a traditional commoner's beverage and enjoyed by farmers and laborers, but by business people as well.

They are served at drinking houses around universities, at festivals, picnic areas, or anywhere people might enjoy a mild drink with a fermented flavor. It taste better mixed with a bottle of soda like 7Up.

Hurry, hurry in Seoul - 22 Jan 2007

This visit will be my 50th trip to Seoul since 1993 - one of my most visited countries in Asia Pacific.

10 minutes into SQ (short for Singapore Airlines) plane touching the Inchon International Airport (Seoul) tarmac, many Koreans will be unbuckling their seat belts, standing up and taking their hand luggage. I am not surprise as this happens everytime I arrive into Seoul.

I would not do it as it is dangerous since the plane is still moving. The heavy overhead hand luaggages could fall and hurt them or worse hurt someone badly.

But I just love the Koreans and the reason my close Korean friend tells me is a Korean word "palli palli" which can be translated as: "Hurry," or "Hurry up!". This very popular phrase seems to originate from when Korea was trying to catch up with more economically-developed nations. Even though Korea has now become the twelfth-largest economy in the world, the habit of being in a perpetual hurry has remained. Even foreigners can get caught up in the frenetic pace of life here.

Singaporeans and Koreans have some affinity in this hurry world. Singaporeans call it KIASU(kee-ah-soo) Hokkien adjective literally meaning, "afraid of losing".

A highly pejorative description beloved of Singaporeans. Possibly our defining national characteristic. We love to make fun of ourselves and have a comic character "Mr. Kiasu" created by Johnny Lau.

Feelling cold in Tokyo - 16 Jan 2007

On 16 Jan 2007, I arrive Tokyo from Singapore and it was freezing. On top of that, I was not feeling too well - coughing and a cold. A good friend, Phill was waiting for me at Narita Airport - we both took the Limousine bus to the hotel because we have big luggages. Otherwise, take the Narita Express (train) direct to Tokyo, from there it is easy to get to your hotel.

As always the Limousine bus arrives on time, our bags are taken and put into the under carriage of the bus. The bus driver will rattle someting in Japanese and bow to all the passengers - that is really cool. It just shows that Japanese takes their job with pride.

My 1st trip to Japan was to Osaka on business in Oct 1999.

Hotel Review:
Hotel: Hotel East 21
Pros: Price is reasonable @ Yen 18,000 includes breakfast and broadband internet access
Cons: about 45 minutes via subway to Shinjuku and not much buzz around the hotel
Recommendation: I would recommend this hotel if you are looking at a reasonably priced hotel

SURGICAL MASK

The next day, I was feeling much worse and was advise to use the "surgical face mask", which I had it in my luggage everytime since the SARS. I took it out and it was great - the mask traps the mositure and it gives relief to the nassal passage.

I first saw the use of surgical face mask in public was in Tokyo. I think the reason is hygiene and also stop the spread of contagious cold and flu from one person to another. People who are not feeling well and have to travel on buses and train will put on surgical mask.

It is a good practice to have a surgical mask handy - you will not know when you will need it. Other ways to protect yourself from germs: Practice good hygiene. Scrub your hands often with soap and water or with an alcohol-based hand sanitizer such as Purell.

Traverse around Asia Pacific

Wish to talk something about my travel around Asia Pacific which I have been doing since 1993 mostly for business. I live in Singapore and it is a hub for many MNC (short for Multi-National Corporations). Singapore is so strategically located within Asia plus it's excellent infrastructure that makes her an ideal HQ (headquarters) for many companies.

The strangest thing is that one day my son asked me would it be cool to visit one country every month - and it did not occur to him that I did exactly that 2006 - Australia, China, Hong Kong, Korea, Japan, Vietnam, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, USA, Philippines and India.

I love to travel and that makes a great difference in being a successful regional person. Meeting old friends and sharing cultural antedotes just helps close the cultural differences. People need to learn to live with one another - beneath the colour of the skin - blood is all the same.