Monday, January 7, 2013
Day 01 – Favorite place(s) you’ve been to
Hongdae. It's the Seoul-est place in Seoul. If you have any image of Korea, Hongdae is that place. Korea promotes itself as a very cultural and beautiful country with palaces, flower gardens and cultural villages, and although those aspects still hold in the highlighted parts of Seoul, I was not attracted to Korea because of that. It's not the K-pop, it's the culture of the current generation. Hongdae is the urban area of hipsterhood, reason being, it's the area near a university, so it's filled with youth, fashion, and neon lights, and everyone is a walking mannequin, wearing all these Korean-esque outfit that you only see in dramas and tumblr. It's just fascinating how real Hongdae seem to be. I didn't go to Hongdae til my third day in Korea, and once we stepped out to have a walk out night, I saw a man puke out of drunkenness at the side of a road, a couple arguing (probably breaking up) and shouting at each other, and a seemingly distraught woman bidding farewell to her soldier boyfriend.
Well, basically Hongdae is a more toned down Harajuku of Seoul.
Day 02 – Where you’d like to travel next
Europe. Preferably start with somewhere where I can speak French, and then backpack from one country to the other using the train, because their public transport is efficient like that.
Day 03 – An adventure/challenge you had while traveling or living abroad
During my Mesir trip, Una gave me a list of challenges to do since she was sponsoring the plane tickets. There were 10 altogether, but one of my favourite ones is "Talk to at least three foreigners in languages other than English and Malay." which was really interesting and I had fun doing it.
1. This Egyptian guy I sat next to on the plane to Cairo. He was a lecturer at Cairo University, I can't remember what he was teaching, but he got on during the transit to Bangkok. Very sweet. He woke me up for Subuh as I asked him to do, before I slept, and he was the first to welcome me to Egypt and wished me a nice trip. But we talked in English so that probably didn't count.
2. German guy. On a business trip. Met him at the transit, our conversation was short and was in English as well, so didn't count.
3. Egyptians are pretty friendly. Well kind of, they're quite straight forward most of the time, but they start conversations out of nowhere sometimes, and I'm dumbfounded because I don't talk Ammi Mesir, which is their primary language, so I either reply back in French or in Fushah (which is the arab we learn at school). But it's still conversation. It counts right? A worker asking me what I want in a library. A woman asking me to take care of her baby while she prays. Another woman wanting to pray asking me to take care of her things while she does so. (I was standing outside the mosque since it was so full, and wasn't doing anything while waiting for my sister who was still in there.)
4. I followed my sister to an international jaulah, it not only consisted of Malay students from Cairo, Alexandria and Tanta, but also Indonesian, Filipino, Iranian, African, and others, which I can't exactly remember, but I had a conversation with an African woman, from Madagascar, and it was in French. I had my French exam about 2 weeks before that, and it was my first actual conversation in French and it wasn't actually that bad, but it wasn't particularly good either. She understood English and helped me with my French which was very sweet of her. I kept forgetting how my professeur used to say that French likes to shorten their sentences, so I was utterly confused for a while when she kept saying "Tasuer?" and then I realized she was saying 'T'asœur' which is shortened from 'Tu as sœur' meaning your sister. -_-
5. An Indonesian woman. I sat next to her during the flight back to Malasyia transit Doha. She was a bibik for an Egyptian family who was travelling to Doha, and there were two kids who kept coming in and out of the seats and it was very uncomfortable for me. He even kicked me at one point. But during the time the kids weren't there, we had a conversation, and apparently I had to use all the Indonesian vocabulary I know, because she couldn't understand my standard Malaysian, and here I conclude that I don't watch sinetron enough to grasp the language.In all honesty, I was quite disappointed with myself during the Mesir trip, because I had more conversations with locals in Korea, relative to the period of my stay than I did in Mesir. One point being, I can actually make a conversation in Korea, people understood me, and I understood them, but Mesir Ammiah seems so foreign to me, plus Egypt is quite a terrifying country and I was alone most of them time. (With strangers during most of THAT time, since my sister had exams and stuff) I know it seems like an excuse, but I just want to remind myself the next time I go travelling, to man up and talk to people!
Day 04 – A picture of you in another country
My current facebook profile picture is me at Borg el Arab airport. And I don't normally be in pictures, since I'm the one taking them, and I 'd rather take pictures of the scenery or the people around me IN those scenery rather than my own face. So here's a picture of my sister, being approached by a Korean middle-schooler, we were actually quite lost at that moment, the map provided by the guesthouse wasn't accurate so I went to call them saying that we lost, and my sister was left there, since the telephone booth was across the road. I like this picture, because of the story behind it, and also because it's a representation of backpacking. We literally just got off the plane. THAT were the only things we brought and it was the starting point of our journey.
Day 05 – What do you bring with you when you travel?
Clothes, a small towel, toiletries, camera, money, passport, journal (to write stuff, travelog)
I pack lightly. I really hate bringing heavy luggages, so I usually end up bringing a lightly packed backpack, which is very convenient and I recommend to anyone travelling to do just the same. You save money for plane tickets and if you're backpacking, you're constantly on the move, because it's better to spend the night at multiple places according to your itinerary rather than staying at one place for the whole trip, so it's easier and you don't get tired quick.
Day 06 – What does “home” mean to you?
Somewhere where you can be yourself. No matter the place, or the people you're with. As long as your shoulders aren't tensed, your breathing's not hitched, you don't have to be constantly on your toes, you can take off your armour of confidence and just relax. It's somewhere you're familiar with, a sanctuary, it gives you peace and comfort and a roof from the rain of negativity the outside world always give.
Day 07 – Besides people, what did/do you miss from home?
Comfort. I've explained this before.
Day 08 – A favorite food from another country/culture
Shawarma. Simply scrumptious. We didn't buy food in Korea with all the shubhah, and halal ramen is just vegetarian ramen, so travelling to Mesir was a delight because of the cuisines, and it was during Ramadhan, so the more the nikmat.
Day 09 – A song you like from another country/language
I'm gonna rule out Korea for this. It seems like I'd be quite bias, so, Thomas Dutronc's Turlututu, it's French, and I listened to it randomly on a plane from Bangkok to Cairo, and it was surprisingly very good.
Day 10 – A favorite foreign movie
Sunny. No doubt. The best
Day 11 – Did you have any milestones or “firsts” while traveling or living abroad?
Of course I'm going to pick England for this. I grew up there. Everything was a first. First school. First friend. First Iqra'. First English book. First birthday was in Kelantan though. Gomo Kelate Gomo #tetibe
Day 12 – Someone who influenced you to travel abroad
My mom. She has always been very enthusiastic about geography and culture, and she taught me all I know about backpacking, and it's just really inspiring for someone to have a very strong fascination towards travelling throughout her whole life and still looking forward to it.
Day 13 – A favorite travel quote
"Ya Allah. Jadikanlah tempat yang ingin aku pergi ini sebaik-baik tempat. Sesungguhnya kau adalah sebaik penempat."Day 14 + Day 15 – What did you learn from traveling abroad? Advice to someone who’s thinking about traveling to another country
If you want to do something, just do it! If you really want to do it, you'll get rid of all the excuses. I mean, I see lots of people tweeting about wanting to backpack around the world, but they don't want to do it now. It just sounds so absurd to me. The thing is, if you're not doing it now, you're not going to do it ever. That's my motto in practically everything. From studying, to hobbies, to travelling. Of course, money is one issue, but people don't realize that backpacking takes way less money than they think. It's a matter of a buttload of researching and booking plane tickets a year before (really). If you can get your hands on the latest gadget every season, and go shopping at least once a month, then I don't see why you're saying you don't have money for travelling.