Guest post by Evan and Rachel.
Our first ‘big’ trip started in January of this year. We left from the east coast of the United States on a cold, winter day and landed in boiling hot Jakarta, Indonesia some 30 hours later!
We spent several months traveling around Southeast Asia. After island hopping in Indonesia, we visited Malaysian Borneo, passing through Brunei on our way overland to Kuching. We flew from there to Phuket, Thailand for some more island hopping, and eventually rode the train from Krabi to wild Bangkok. We moved north from Bangkok just as the most recent ‘red shirt’ demonstrations were starting, finding ourselves next in peaceful Chiang Mai, and then tiny, mountainous Pai.
A long bus ride from Pai led us to the Huay Xay border crossing, where we passed into Northern Laos. Floating down the Mekong from here, we stopped briefly in Pak Beng and then moved on to beautiful Luang Prabang and eventually Vientiane. We celebrated Laos New Year and then packed onto a flight that took us back to the United States – this time to San Francisco on the west coast, from which we slowly made our way back east.
We had traveled some before this long trip as well. Rachel spent six months living and studying in Morocco, and Evan traveled solo all across North America.
We decided to come to Seoul because we didn’t want to stay home! However, our bank accounts weren’t up to the task. We needed a way to refresh our finances and keep exploring and adventuring at the same time – teaching ESL in Seoul was a perfect opportunity. Now that we’re here, we absolutely love it. It’s a wonderful country.
Settling down as expatriate in Seoul
In some ways it’s very different as traveler, in other ways it’s just the same! When you’re traveling long term, there are certain things you can forget about and certain things that you must attend to fairly regularly. Those things tend to reverse when you settle down. For example – we could get away with being a little dirty and unkempt on the road. After all, sometimes we were sleeping in a bamboo hut without a shower! That doesn’t apply when we’ve got a nice, tenth floor apartment with a fully functional bathroom. While I may have to take a shower more often now that we’re settled as expatriates, I no longer have to share that shower, or my bedroom, with ten or twelve other travelers! That is a definite change of pace.
Other things are just the same. There is a constant language barrier and all the tribulations and hilarity that come along with it, although we get more of a chance to learn the language given the length of our stay. Whereas normally we may stay in one place for a month while traveling, we’ll be in Seoul for at least a year. There are still the constant new experiences and inadvertent cultural exchanges that really make travel and living abroad so wonderful. It’s still a grand adventure, even if we’re not constantly moving!
Living in Yangpyeong-Dong in Seoul is fantastic. It’s one of those rare places in a big city – it’s quiet and lovely. If it weren’t for the towering office buildings in the distance you might forget you were in one of the largest cities in the world. The people around here always seem to be smiling. There are small restaurants everywhere, in fact there are two on the bottom floor of our apartment building! I’ve been trying to distinguish which was best, but I honestly can’t. What I can say is that I’ve found a new favorite dish – Kimchi Pizza! Ah, Kimchi. It grows on you. I’ll miss it whenever we’re out of Korea.
Guest bloggers Evan and Rachel are a couple from North Carolina, USA and currently settling down in Seoul, Korea for at least a year after having done much traveling in Asia and other parts of the world. Rachel graduated from UNC Charlotte with a degree in Middle East Studies and Evan has been working on a 4 year degree for about 7 years, working in I.T. On and off.
Visit their travel blog at www.EvanAndRachel.com or their youtube channel www.youtube.com/evannrachel for more details.
If you like to share your travel experience with trailofasia.com, feel free to drop a message.