OMG, on another Malaysia Airline flight from Bali to Kuala Lumpur to Phnom Penh to Korea. Four countries in a couple of days. This time we make good on our stopover in Kuala Lumpur and take the train into the city.
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| train into Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia |
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| Too Rich for my blood |
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| Petronas Twin Towers |
Oh wow, this is HIGH
end. We go to the Petronas Towers and it makes ‘The Magnificent Mile,’ Park Ave
and Rodeo Drive look like strip malls. Every high end store I have ever seen
and others that I am, evidently too poor to have even heard of. Everything is
so new and modern. We have a spicy and delicious lunch and head back to the
airport.
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#monksbelike
Can A Holy Man Get An Upgrade? |
This is our
last Malaysian Airline flight. (Please God, get me through this. Send me a
sign.) In mid prayer three monks board
the plane and sit near us—I’m not sure what this ‘sign’ means but…
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#monksbelike
Orange is the New Black |
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#monksbelike
Skipping Immigration |
We land
safely in Phnom Penh and we get off right behind the monks. Suddenly there are
people getting on their knees and bowing. No, not to us, but to one of the
monks. The paparazzi are there taking his photo as he disembarks. He is swept
through a special door and on to his own bus as the rest of us are funneled
thru immigration, where a Khmer Rouge type immigration officer proceeds to rip
us off. He asks to see the money we have from Malaysia, then he takes it all
(over $20) for a $1 picture. He tells us to use the ATM behind us to pay $20
for another visa…
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| Traffic in Phnom Penh |
This is our
last night in Cambodia and we go to dinner with Kidist and her roommate. Later
that night I start to feel sick, real sick. We figure it’s dehydration and
Kidist has me chug lots of water and a little Gatorade. Unfortunately I have a
5 hour flight to Seoul, Korea in a few hours. I am so sick I’m turning green.
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BA & Spencer
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Luckily Greg handles all the bags and ticketing, but when entering Korea you
have to fill out a health/quarantine form. Every illness they mentioned I
had—Headache? Yes. Nausea? Yes. Sore
Throat? Yes… but if I check yes they won’t let me in, so I fake it. Greg goes
first and gives all the information. I am on the brink of heaving but I smile
and say, “I’m with him, whatever he said.” I get thru it all and we head to the
Seoul Train Station to meet my friend Spencer. I thought the train station
would look like Penn Station or Union Station—wrong. It was bright and clean, a huge new
structure.
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| Yung Mi, Adda, Spencer & Ceilo |
Spencer
moved to Seoul three years ago with his lovely wife Yung Mi and their two young
daughters, ages 8 and 4. We use to work production together, now he has his own
record label (with some slamming talent) he has photo and art exhibits around
town, he programs music venues and is producing major tv shows for Korea and
China. He lives in a fabulous high rise high-tech apartment, (where we are
staying.) and is really enjoying life. He is doing it bigtime!
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Spencer's music at Burger B- Chicago Speakeasy
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| Yes BA, you are eating this |
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| Food Market |
After we
drop our things off we go to a food market to pick up a few things and we walk
to a restaurant where he has a photo exhibit. It’s interesting to go from the
old (market) to the new (restaurant) in a few minutes and it all works well
together.
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Fish on a stick
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City Hall
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| DJ |
There are
all kind of cool things happening in Seoul, like the Silent Discos. At a Silent Disco you wear a headset and
listen/dance to one of 3 colors—each color a different DJ. If you are listening
to blue and find yourself dancing with a green, you can change colors to green
with them, or maybe the red DJ works better.
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"Ho Bar"--No Comment
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We go back
to Spencer house around 8:30p to prepare for dinner. His younger daughter wants
ice cream and they don’t have the type she likes. So Spencer gives his 8 year
old some money and tells her to take her little sister to get ice cream. He
reminds her that she’s in charge and to hold her sisters hand crossing the
street. I think this must be a game he
plays with the girls; but his daughter takes the money and they leave. Wait, wait, wait! It’s dark outside, and you
just sent 2 babies out by themselves.
Neither Yung Mi nor Spencer seem concerned and continue to prepare
dinner. I can’t believe my mature responsible friends are letting this happen,
but they did and 30 minutes later the girls come back happily full of ice cream
and ready for dinner. I was stunned but
they told me that there was nothing to worry about. There is no
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With a kick like this, I guess she
can cross the street alone. |
crime, kids are
safe going out alone, learning to cross the street and to be independent.
(We’re not in Kansas anymore.) I’m still
freaked out and call my big sister back in the US and tell her the story. At
first she was shocked and then she said, “we use to be able to do that too.”
Yeah, there was a time when we didn’t have to live in constant fear and were
allowed to go out and explore on our own.
We all had
a lovely evening and no one was stressed. This feels good.
Saturday
morning we get up and go sight seeing.
We stop at
another street market and it feels like being a kid on Saturday morning, when
you’re shopping with your mother. The wonder of it all, as the adults maneuver
their way around and you just follow—looking and smelling and touching. It’s so
amazing to you that there is an order to it that everyone, but you,
understands. It’s a magnificent puzzle.
Off we go
for drinks at “Back to Vinyl” a very cool hipster record bar. Yes, records as
in vinyl as in LP’s. This place has thousands of records and all you have to do
is make a request. Spencer had us rocking to Sly and the Family Stone! They
also had Watermelon Mint Martinis. Yummy. Even more yummy was the pristine
projection of the 1943 B&W classic French film, ‘Le Corbeau.’ This place is
EPIC.
We hit a few
more bars on the strip and then decided to call it a night since we have an
early flight back to the states.
Seoul is a
great city. The perfect last stop before coming back to the US. It was fast “balee balee,” and bustling but
also safe, friendly and dignified.
