Asia | GRRRL TRAVELER

Is Korea a state-of-the-art country?

Filed under Crazy Korea, Korea by Christine Ka'aloa on September 26, 2011 at 10:26 am {22 comments}

People ask me what I love about living in Korea. One of the things I’m always amazed by is the technology which makes living here feel more efficient, easy and pretty darned cool.

Here are 7 cool things Korea’s got…

1. T-money and rechargeable transportation cards

In big cities, much of Korea’s transportation system runs on rechargeable smart cards and smart devices, which take the place of cash. You can reload money onto your card by placing it down on the card reader; but the technology is powerful and highly sensitive. Rather than search for a card at the bottom of a bag, I’ve seen frazzled ladies in a rush slap their entire purse on the sensor and have it still read

How it works: Touch chips are embedded inside and are readable by card-reading machines. These cards are used primarily for transportation – buses and (more…)

10 funny quirks you didn’t know about Koreans

Filed under Crazy Korea, Features Slide by Christine Ka'aloa on September 23, 2011 at 10:54 am {32 comments}

Korean culture is often a dynamic and fun to observe. Most of the time, from a foreigners viewpoint, it offers interesting quirks which might leave you either scratching your head or speechless. Here’s 10 of my favorite Koreans quirks…

1. Koreans love English (even if they don’t always know what it means)!

Despite being unable to find a lick of English translation where I need it, Koreans actually think English words are cool, visually speaking.

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Fear Factor Korea (Part II: Fresh foods)

Filed under Crazy Korea, Fear Factor Foods by Christine Ka'aloa on September 19, 2011 at 12:02 am {7 comments}

Fake plastic models of alternatively safe ‘Korean fast food‘ meals for purchase.

Warning: video links referred to in this post are not for sensitive viewers or animal lovers.

Last year, I wrote a post, Fear Factor Korea: Foods which may make you cringe. This is belated but is the extension that I accidentally forgot to post…

It’s all too easy for a foreigner like myself, to point a camera and say, Ewww to foreign foods I’m not culturally raised with nor understand. That’s why in this post, I’d like to applaud Korea for is its proud aspiration towards healthy and FRESH foods.

And …to say, Ewww.

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Kimbap restaurants: the healthy fast food joints in Korea

Filed under * Korea tips & stays, Korea by Christine Ka'aloa on September 12, 2011 at 11:47 am {16 comments}

In Korea, it often feels like there are never any really fat Koreans (…okay, they are exceptions; but it’s rare)! Obesity is not a chronic problem in Korea, as it is in the west. One theory is owned to how Koreans eat healthy. Korea may have restaurant chains like McDonalds and Burger King, but they aren’t a ‘fast food’ kind of country.

Frozen or microwave foods ? Koreans like their food fresh.

Preservatives? The keyword is fermented.

Koreans do however, occasionally like their meals served simple, cheap and pali! pali (fast)!

Kimbap restaurants chains are the healthy equivalent to fast food joints.

The meals they sell are often thought of as “simple home foods”, which are made quickly and sold cheaply. Most of the dishes on the menu is under 5,000 won. Kimbap (sushi rolls), jigae (stews), ramen or udon (noodles dishes) and rice meals such as bibimbap are all standard platter of most kimbap shops (photo examples here). Order it as takeout or dine in; either way, your dish comes with a small plate of panjan (or side dishes).

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Trip planning for India: How India books travel at cheap prices?

Filed under India, India tips & stays by Christine Ka'aloa on September 9, 2011 at 11:26 am {3 comments}

Photo courtesy of Igougo.com

Planning my first backpacking trip to India, in 2008, was a stressful mess! I was Skyping with my girlfriend in California. We were both, wildly flipping back-and-forth between Lonely Planet India pages and internet browser windows for hours, attempting to plan the best route around India and decode its train schedules and bookings.

This time around, I didn’t have the time or patience to repeat that kind of planning. Fortunately when I arrived in India, there was a wealth of travel agencies at my disposal everywhere I went. They’d give me advice about transportation planning and for a slightly higher rate, they would book my bus and trains for me. But I still felt there was a pot of gold deeper below the surface.

Midway through my trip, I met others and gained useful search tips to help me plan my trip on my own. Most of these sites were recommended to me by vacationing Indians, (more…)

Dealing with Indian currency and a torn rupee

Filed under India, India tips & stays by Christine Ka'aloa on September 5, 2011 at 6:42 am {4 comments}

There are times dealing with currency in India made me want to bark and growl with feverish frustration. It’s urked me so much I decided doing a post might relieve me and toss a head’s up to fellow travelers.
Here are 3 annoying ways India deals with money…

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Tis the Season of Patbingsu!

Filed under Crazy Korea, Korea by Christine Ka'aloa on August 28, 2011 at 1:31 pm {17 comments}

Back in Korea for the summer, I passed a neighborhood Paris Baguette and da-ding! I realized I was back just in time for patbingsu (밭빈수) season! Yowza!…

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Fear Factor Foods in Laos

Filed under Fear Factor Foods, Laos by Christine Ka'aloa on August 22, 2011 at 6:55 pm {9 comments}

As an American, I’ve lived most of my life in a shiny glass bubble…

So for me, traveling is my time to experience bold new adventures and broaden the glossy sheen of my bubble. One of the greatest thrills for me in visiting Asian/Southeast Asian countries, is encountering the unique culture shock or Fear Factor (see my Korea post here) of its different cuisines.

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