A trip to Seoul

We went to Seoul! In winter, it's noticeably colder there than in Tokyo. Not bitter cold, but cold enough that it was always a relief to go inside.

The culture is has a reputation for being conservative, the train system is clean and prompt, and it's both less crowded and louder than Tokyo. Tons of street food, a good number of outdoor markets. Things are cheap enough that I can see why so many Japanese and Chinese people take shopping vacations there.

Some pictures around town! (You may have to click on an image to get them to show up.)

Street food! This is by no means a comprehensive list, just the most interesting-looking ones.

A few things surprised me - how easy it was to get around without knowing any Korean, how decent the pizza is (I've been routinely disappointed in Tokyo), how many Mexican restaurants there were (not many compared to the US, but more than other parts of Asia), and the sheer volume and variety of coffee shops.

These are pictures of coffee shops I took in a single day. I included shops with signs that advertised coffee through logos, text, photos, or decor. I left out the blurry photos, ones that were too far away to see, cafés not specifically advertising coffee, and one or two I just didn't have room for. For the curious, there are 97 different shops pictured here.

We also saw cultural and historic sites, although I didn't take a ton of pictures inside museums or in sprawling complexes like Gyeongbokgung Palace.



The Seoul Museum of History and the War Memorial are probably the best funded museums I've ever been in. Everything looks new and freshly installed, the rooms lead people through at a reasonable pace, and it has some innovative installations.

That said, my favorite was the Trick Eye Museum. Before we went in, and while we were still thawing from being in the barely-above-freezing temperatures outside, we put our bags and coats in a coin locker. Then we discovered that our tickets included admission to a little attraction on the same floor called the Ice Museum. We thought that it was reasonably likely to be a bunch of refrigerated cases with sculptures or crystal growths inside or something.

Our first thought upon entering was you have got to be $^#%ing kidding.

The whole area was literally a freezer. A good chunk of that was devoted to recreating an Ikea-sized apartment, complete with toilet (partially pictured, no sitting allowed). After spending a couple hours walking around in the winter weather before entering the museum, you can understand our dismay at finding ourselves taking a tour of a freezer without our coats.

After only a couple of minutes, we gladly moved on to the Trick Eye part of the building.

The whole concept is integrating yourself into optical illusions. Many settings were painted sideways or upside down, floors were painted with heavy use of foreshortening, foreground/background cutouts, that sort of thing.

As illustration, the photo on the left is right side up, the setting is painted sideways against the wall. But when you rotate the image, the illusion is easier to buy into.

Even leaving the main exhibit space was an optical illusion adventure.

One floor up from the Trick Eye Museum was something called the Love Museum. Same concept, but it was all about sex. 

I didn't take a lot of photos, and I can't share most of them because I'd be violating some terms of service, so I'll just leave you with this photo.

The person is painted on the backdrop, the wood and butt shadow are a cutout in the foreground.

You're welcome.

Dragon*Con 2013

It's been a while since we've been to Dragon*Con. (Eight years.)
Scroll all the way down if you just want to see pictures and video, I blather on for a while.

Dragon*Con is a convention about sci-fi, fantasy, comics, art, and general pop culture. There are workshops for writers, puppeteers, costumers, actors, illustrators, and discussion groups with scientists, paranormal enthusiasts, horror buffs, and a zillion other sub-sub-genres. There are Q&A panels with the cast of popular movies and TV shows (this year, Game of Thrones, Walking Dead, Fraggle Rock, Pinky and the Brain, Fringe, Supernatural, and a bunch of others). There are celebrity appearances (click here for the list) and live performances.

Last time we were there, it took over the Hilton, the Hyatt, and the Marriott.

Now it takes over the Hilton, the Hyatt, the Marriott, the Westin, and the Sheraton (with the dealers in a separate building altogether), and host hotel rooms are be sold out within minutes of becoming available. If you want to go, plan early!

The con happens between Thursday and Monday over Labor Day Weekend, with events all five days. We registered on Thursday. They've streamlined their process in the last few years (good thing, for 45,000 people), so even though the line outside stretched down the block and around the corner, it went surprisingly quickly. Much of the time, this quickly:

There are so many panels and workshops you can attend, it's difficult to prioritize. But you can only be in one place at a time, so we ended up skipping panels and workshops to eat, get in line for the next big event, or because we were turned away from what we were trying to get into.

The line to see one of the Game of Thrones panels went up the street, around the corner and halfway up the next block to the hotel drop-off area, through the drop-off area and up the stairs to the side of the building, down the short hallway to get IN the building, then partway along the lobby wall to get to the ballroom where the panel was to be held.

To Grandmother's house we go!

I wasn't turned away, but by the time I got a seat I was nowhere near the front of the room.

Then again, I wasn't really anywhere near the back of the room, either. I'm sure it filled up, but I didn't think to look around once it started.

I managed to see panels with cast members from Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Dollhouse, Game of Thrones, Fraggle Rock, Pinky and the Brain, and Venture Brothers; one of the costume contests (a Skeksis from The Dark Crystal won); a live podcast from author Scott Sigler; a live radio play; and a handful of fan-run panels about writing and puppetry. I wasn't able to get into Brian Brushwood's magic show, the geek burlesque show, or the Futurama voice actors panel. Next time!

All this is well and good, but what Dragon*Con is probably best known for is the costumes.

Husband went as Colonel Sanders. He does it frighteningly well and it's easy to pack for an international flight. He was also a rock star, even on the street outside of the con - I think part of the appeal is that he's instantly recognizable without needing to know about a particular TV show or video game.

I had two costumes, Girl Stinky from Sam and Max and a maneki neko (Asian luck cat). Girl Stinky looks like an easy, throw-it-together affair, but it was a ton of work and a huge learning experience for me. Unfortunately, by the end of the first day, I had a blister on one foot so big and deep it felt like I was walking on a balloon, so I switched to the other costume for the other days. Just as well, really, I was only recognized four or five times as Girl Stinky. The maneki neko was recognized a bit more, and the whole costume is much more comfortable.

Photo from Flexible Photography

But this is probably what you came to see: the photos we took. This isn't all of them, but these are either the most clever or the least blurry. I didn't even come close to catching all of the great costumes I saw, but I think I made a decent effort.



One of my favorites was the velociraptor from Jurassic Park. Even up close (like a few inches away), it looks amazing. The head in particular, it has a shaped tongue and roof of the mouth, the teeth are cast coyote teeth, and that eye looks like it could blink at any moment.

Overall, we drew some conclusions about costuming trends.

Most popular themes: Disney Princesses, Star Wars, and Steampunk

Too many: Daenerys from Game of Thrones and Jayne hats

A surprising number of: Beetlejuice, Goblin King from Labyrinth, and the Evil Queen and Maleficent as a pair

I didn't realize the two in the middle are men until I posted this.

Did not see this trend coming: Sharknado

Left from my camera, center from Umo Photography, right from CNet

Since we left, we've been brainstorming about costumes to make for the next time we go to Dragon*Con. Not next year, but maybe in another two or three.

Who knows? Maybe I'll make a luck dragon as a two-person costume.

Monkeys, Fire, and Sightseeing in Ubud

Part 1: What's Bali like?
Part 2: Food and Sleep

Note: there are some bad words in one or two of the videos, and one photo might not be appropriate for young children that like to ask uncomfortable questions.

We hired a cab to do some sightseeing.

One of the places we went is Tegallalang, as much known for its stretch of shops as the rice paddies carved into the hillside. We made the mistake of not actually seeing any shops before we went back to the car to make contact with the driver (who had rather suddenly disappeared), and we were whisked away to another sightseeing spot. Too bad.

We also didn't expect to be charged a parking fee on the way in, but it was only a couple dollars, and hopefully goes toward a good cause.

Another place our driver brought us is a temple known as the Water Palace. Beautiful grounds, as maintained and landscaped as any temples I've seen in Japan.

I felt bad for the handful of animals caged on the grounds (especially the cockatoo), but the plants and architecture were beautiful.

I'm constantly impressed with the colors and intricate detail.

For lunch, we were brought to a restaurant that apparently all the tourists are brought to. Someone flashed our driver a thumbs up as we pulled into the parking lot, I'm still not sure how to interpret that.

This is, by far, the busiest place we'd seen all day. ALL foreigners.

We mentioned that we'd like to see a place to get wood carvings, so the driver said he knew just the place and brought us to RAI Wood Carving, where he clearly knew someone. It was kind of in the middle of nowhere, possibly on an unmarked road.

In theory, all the carving was done on site, but it's a pretty good guess that this guy wasn't spending his afternoon carving until we pulled up. A very talkative little man gave us a grand tour (and a really hard sales pitch). He started with the woodcarver, who may be an artist of considerable skill, but it's a pretty safe guess that he wasn't hard at work until our car crunched gravel in the lot out front. (Tourists! Places, everyone, it's showtime!)

Over-the-top presentation and unsolicited trivia aside, there were several enormous showrooms with beautiful carvings made of several different types of wood. Some were hand-sized, some were taller than I am. There were statues, masks, doors, and elaborately carved furniture.

It's a store, but very much like a museum, too.

Again, the detail is amazing. This statue is life-sized.

This is a door! Lots of carving for something you use to get out of the place you currently are.

I was aghast at how much they were asking for a small statue, even though I knew that the price was inflated. We ended up offering what we were afraid was an insultingly low price (compared to the sticker on the bottom), and we felt pretty awful. But they accepted, then just about jumped for joy.

We got a better-than-internet-store rate, but we could have probably started at half of what we offered and they still would have been pleased. I hate haggling.

---

Monkey Forest is a tourist destination and local landmark. For a small admission fee, you can walk around the park where monkeys roam free, doing as they please. Which can include stealing your valuables if you don't keep an eye on them, or attacking you for food if you try to hide some in your pockets.

I don't trust monkeys to begin with, but they mostly seemed not to care that people were around, unless you threatened his preciousssss.

In a less-traveled part of the park was a temple setting straight out of Indiana Jones. The temple building itself was closed except for ceremonies, but the surrounding area was covered with statues and stone and creeping vines.

No monkeys here, but it was a pretty walk.

Near a different, larger temple on the grounds, there were even more statues. Statues upon statues, even!

I'm pretty sure this is a Balinese Luck Dragon.

A statue of a monkey hiding from the rain on top of a statue of a snake/luck dragon.

Some are more surprising than others.

The end of the snake is the torso of a two-headed something-or-other.
I'm sure it's a well-known story, I just don't know it.

Art imitating life, or life imitating art?

I have lunch with you, but it's like talking to a rock.

Boars and tigers also make appearances at the Monkey Forest temple.
A stylized boar and tiger are often part of ceremonies as protective spirits.

Like I said, the monkeys were pretty chill around people.

Back on foot in downtown Ubud, we strolled past a lot of small shops like this. Most stores sold linen clothing, silk scarves and dresses, art, and/or silver jewelry. It's an odd mix of tourist-fancy and what you might expect to see in a developing nation.

In the posh part of Ubud, as modern as any typical beach town (where we saw no less than four Polo stores), a street fair was happening. My snack of choice: roasted corn on the cob, smeared with some sort of mildly spicy paste.

More or less like a street fair anywhere in the world. Obvious knockoff cartoon characters included.

We got there just as a dance performance was starting. We said to ourselves, "Hey, a chance to see some traditional Balinese dance. Cool!" And indeed, the first minutes seemed to be a tribute to one of the traditional stories, complete with Monkey King costume.

Then it went in an artistic direction I can only describe as "traditional Balinese dubstep." I was particularly surprised with the language in the English-language soundtrack. (NSFW unless muted.)



Our other experience with Balinese dance was a Kecak Fire Dance at a palace. When we saw "Fire Dance," we expected something fairly dynamic, waving torches about and the like. Maybe something akin to belly dancing.

What we saw instead was a Greek-style chorus providing the soundtrack to the interpretive dance retelling of a famous story. It was a cultural experience, for sure, but it wasn't quite as lively as I thought it might be.



Following the first piece was something described as a "trance dance." I envisioned something fluid and soothing.

I definitely didn't read the description closely enough. The premise of this piece was a man who is lulled into a trance while riding a horse, and becomes a menace to himself and others until wrestled (after 20 minutes) off his horse and to the ground. Or something like that. At any rate, you can guess the moment that made sure everyone in the audience was awake.



The first time he kicks the glowing coals at the audience, you can hear several beer bottles being knocked over in surprise.

On our last night, we walked around until dark and finally saw a great sunset. I wish we'd seen more of them!

Food and Sleep in Bali

Part 1: What is Bali like?

Candidasa

We booked a package deal with AquaMarine Diving for three days of diving and a stay at the Watergarden Hotel and Resort.

I highly recommend both of these.

AquaMarine even picked us up at the airport (standard service with tourist dive packages, but still appreciated) at 9:30pm, and arranged a "VIP meet and greet," a service in which someone meets you at the gate, runs off with your passports, and gets everything approved so you can skip all the immigration and customs lines and walk right out the door.

Candidasa is just starting to really develop a tourist center. The whole area is very quiet and every person we saw was very friendly. We were constantly asked if we wanted to hire a taxi, (Hire a taxi? No? How about tomorrow?) but nobody was aggressive about it, like we've heard they can be in the southern regions where the tourist industry is thriving. A little ridiculous when someone driving in the opposite direction honked or slowed down to ask, but never aggressive.

It is standard for employees to have a base salary, so even in the off season when there may not be a single customer for days at a time, everyone has to show up for work just like they would in the peak season. It's a little eerie to walk down a street of restaurants and see dozens of tables with pristine linens and uniformed wait staff and not a single customer.

Our room at the Watergarden was a cabin, set well away from the road, past the restaurant, pool, and spa.

The bed is a canopy style, probably only partly to add to the ambiance; the windows open, but have no screens.

We're pretty sure a gecko snuck in and stole some crackers while we were asleep one night.

The view out the double doors it pretty awesome. We have our own koi pond! We saw a three-foot water lizard swim by once, but I couldn't get to my camera before it swam away.

There are plenty of nice places to eat along the main stretch of road, but the Watergarden cafe was exceptional all by itself. Breakfast was included, and the menu had dozens of items for a traditional breakfast no matter what part of the world you are from (three Asian, three European, one or two Western style). I couldn't stay away from the muesli with fresh fruit, yogurt, and honey. The interesting part was that it was sesame based, not oats. Stuck in my teeth like nothing else, but it totally worth it.

Bonus: gecko in the lamp

These were more like dessert samosas than we expected, but they were so good that eating them was a zen-like experience. And I don't know what's in that brown sauce, but it is amazing.

No shortage of vegetarian entrees!

For our three days of diving, we went to Tulamben to dive the shelf and the Liberty wreck. It's always a good sign when your base of diving operations looks like this:

Past the pool is a set of stairs. At the foot of the stairs is the ocean.

The diving was fantastic! (For divers: 30ºC in most places, a 3mm suit was perfect, and visibility was 15-20 meters.) It was just the two of us and a dive master, who handled navigation and kept an eye on depth and time. The current was so mild that we barely had to swim for long periods of time, it was like a moving sidewalk slowly bringing us past all the coral, fish, worms, and shrimp. We were able to do very long dives, generally 40 minutes to an hour each.

I realized that it was the first time I wasn't nervous going in. I think I'm ready for an underwater camera.

Lunch at the dive resort was good, too. I wasn't sure how to eat it, but all the veggies were fresh and I'm reminded how good tempe can be when prepared by someone who knows what to do with it.

One memorable part of our dive was when we went into the half-open cargo area of the shipwreck and saw a great barracuda the size of my leg. The dive master gestured at my earrings (barracudas are known to be curious and occasionally mistake shiny things for prey), and we backed away slowly. I'm not sure how much we needed to be concerned, I've seen videos online of people getting nose to nose with this fish and it has no reaction, and there wasn't much light to make my jewelry sparkle, but better safe than sorry when the teeth are that big.

The triggerfish are definitely feeling their oats this time of year (egg-laying season). Very territorial. The dive master advised us that if we see one, to face it at all times while swimming slowly away. Apparently it'll hit you from behind if you give it a chance. If one comes at you, blast some air from your spare air source and that should discourage it. One swam right up to my fin before it was discouraged enough, but it was more exciting than terrifying because it wasn't going after my face. It wasn't a tiny thing, either, about the size of a throw pillow.

We also (finally!) saw an octopus. We didn't touch it, but we saw it hug a rock and scoot around to hide, changing colors and patterns the whole time. Definitely one of the highlights of the trip.


One night for dinner we went to a jazz bar/lounge named Vincent's. The architecture, like most buildings here, are open and airy. No air conditioning, but if a fan is on, that's enough.

We were a little surprised when we were led to a table straight out the other side, in a beautiful candlelit seating area just as large as the indoor bar and lounge.

I opted for a veggie-filled pastry, not quite as heavy as a calzone.

Husband ordered a pile of seafood. We have differing opinions on how delicious this looks.

Ubud

AquaMarine also made a trip to the Watergarden to pick us up when we checked out and brought us to our other hotel in the central region of Ubud.

We splurged a little and stayed at the ARMA Museum and Resort. It's breathtaking, but it still cost less than a regular hotel room in Manhattan. Money goes a long way in Bali.

Complimentary fruit basket! The furry one on the left is lychee, the scaly one on the right is snakefruit, but I can't tell you with certainty what the others are.

The resort grounds are enormous, and there is a lot to see. There's the museum of Balinese art, of course, but also a cafe, spa, temple, and elegant Thai restaurant. That's not counting the walkways, villas, ponds, gardens, and the dining area with a stage for performances.

Oh, the places you'll go. And the statues you'll see!

The view over the railing just outside our room

Even the stones in this wall have details.

To add to the atmosphere, there are strategically placed orchids in several trees.

The dining area; the stage is to the left.

Random monkey-and-buck-toothed-turtle statue at one of the many ponds.

Temple gate

Inside the temple

These structures are used for daily ceremonies.

So much detail!

The back door to the museum. Right, not even the main entrance. The back door. 

Random statue

Statue of somebody important just behind the museum

Statue inside the museum that is part of the building, not an exhibition.

Slightly alarming statue in front of another buiding

Statue in front of a cafe, but not done in the traditional Balinese style. It's a little Burton-esque, if you ask me.

The Thai restaurant

This concludes our tour of ARMA, and that doesn't even include the museum! It's quite a place.

Part 3: Fire, Monkeys, and Sightseeing