KOREAN SPRING

The Garden of Morning Calm has a special place in my heart, because it served as a place of healing during a rough period in my life. I can still recall the deep and luscious fragrance of nature that seemed to quench my thirsty soul, intensified by the spring drizzle. The flowers that were in full bloom, glistening with raindrops and painting the world with color that no human could artificially reproduce. And of course, I wrote a blog post about it two years ago, and mentioned that I would want to visit again in autumn. And I did! It took two years, yes, but I did it. This time I went by public transport, which was an incredibly long journey (especially since I'd also moved further away than my address from two years ago), but time isn't really an issue if you're with the right company. So from Cheongryangri Station I took the train to Cheongpyeong, then took the bus for another 30 minutes. (Tip: Cross the street from exit 2 and take the regular city but instead of the

Afternoon tea isn't really a thing here in Korea; I would say most of our Western influences come from the US, whereas tea is more UK-related. Nevertheless, I feel like these days more and more cafes are venturing out to tinker with new concepts, because frankly, the only way for your cafe (or restaurant) to survive in Korea now is to go viral on social media, or be exceptionally delicious, or deal with something totally novel and interesting. I suppose this is the case for most places, but Seoul is already overloaded with cafes, and a special option such as Cafe Treeanon is really like a breath of fresh air amidst the hustle and bustle of a crazy city life. Located a short walk away from Gangnam-gu Office Station exit 4, Cafe Treeanon emits a cozy and antique sort of vibe that reminds you of the plump, sweet, caring white granny who loves to bake cookies and knit scarves and stuff - the kind of granny we Asians never had. The building already looks quite old, as if the owner did

Pho is quite common here in Korea, although I've heard a Vietnamese friend tell me that the Koreanized pho is too sweet and not flavorful enough; in other words, not the real deal. I've never tried authentic pho before, and truth be told I'm not too sad about missing out because the Korean version is quite delicious too. That being said, when I agreed to meet up with a friend at Jongno and literally searched online for the closest pho restaurant from the subway station, I was pleasantly surprised to come across Emoi, which seemed a lot more legit than the ones I was accustomed to. For one thing, the staff were Vietnamese, which made me think I might finally get to try actual pho this time. The interior and atmosphere also seemed a bit... foreign, for lack of a better word. Directions: walk straight from Jonggak station exit 4, make a right at Starbucks, then make an immediate left. Another thing I liked was that the menu was very simple and not very diverse, whi

Our third day in Taipei was the most laidback one; we'd woken up way too early on the previous two days, and so decided to sleep in this time. The day was rainy as usual, and our first destination was breakfast at Yong He Dou Jiang Da Wang (Soy Milk King), a very local, low-priced fast food joint specializing in soy foods. I read somewhere that you should go to this place for a true Taiwanese local breakfast experience, so we went a full 8 subway stops to Daan station and walked about 10 minutes to a bustling little 'restaurant' already with a line of people. To be honest, I've actually visited this place once when I was in Singapore (I think) when a friend took me to for the real Singaporean 'local' food experience. There I also tried similar dishes, though I didn't know what I was in for. So although I knew it wasn't a first, I still figured I'd go again to try other things, because who says you're only allowed to visit a place once wh