Seoul, Korea: How to Spend a Short Layover

Seoul’s Incheon Airport is routinely voted the best airport in the world. It’s probably one of the best airports to be stuck on a long layover. With a Korean culture museum, free cultural shows, and lots of great food, Incheon isn’t a bad place at all to have a delayed flight.

ticket into Seoul

Gyeongkokgung Palace

Seoul’s old royal “northern” palace, built in 1394, is the biggest of Seoul’s Five Grand Palaces.

The palace has been destroyed and rebuilt several times throughout its storied history, first by the Japanese in the 16th century, and more recently by the Japanese again during its imperial expansion just before the First World War.

Korean pagoda on an island in the palace complex

If you’re lucky, you can catch a reenactment of the changing of the guard ceremony. They hold the ceremony every hour on the hour from 10am-3pm. Reenactors dressed like royal guards from the Joseon Dynasty marched in, while the commander of the royal guard watched and directed from the top of one of the huge wall gates.

You can also book an interesting guided palace tour for only $15 from our friends at Trazy.com. They’ll take care of all of the arrangements, and you’re sure to have a great time.*

Mountain temple in Incheon, Korea

The temple is dedicated to the dragon god, and, while small, is a beautiful mountain temple and very atmospheric.

Of course, if you want to see more of South Korea, the easiest and most efficient way is by train! You can purchase a Korail Pass (KR Pass) HERE*!

The KR Pass is a train pass offered exclusively to foreigners visiting Korea, and is the most economical way to see the country. Just like Japan’s JR Pass, this pass allows the holder unlimited rides on nearly all Korean trains for the valid period, and see as much of the country as you can while saving the most money.

BOOK Across a Golden Land

Hello, friends!

I’m very proud to announce my second book, Across a Golden Land: A Journey Through Burma

Once again, I open the pages of my ever-present travel journal to bring to life the story of one of my greatest adventures; my incredible journey across the mysterious, golden land of Burma.

I didn’t know much about Burma before my first visit. I knew it sat at the geographic and cultural crossroads between Thailand, India, and China. I knew it had been closed off to foreigners for about fifty years. For some reason I knew Burma was one of three remaining countries to still use Imperial measurements, and that it was one of only two countries where (until recently) Coca-Cola was not sold. Besides these trivial facts, I knew very little. When I learned it was possible to get a visa easily from the embassy in Bangkok, I knew I had to see for myself.

CLICK HERE: You can download Across a Golden land TODAY for $2.99 on Amazon.com!

“Golden Land” Gallery

This gallery contains a collection of photos from my trip to Burma. If you’ve read my latest book, Across a Golden Land, you can see some photos from the places that I have described here!

If you haven’t read “Across a Golden Land”, you can purchase it HERE on Amazon!

driving along the streets of Yangon

streets on Yangon

Walking around the old town, we first passed the Rangoon City Hall, which combines Victorian architecture with Burmese-style elements.

city center of Yangon with old colonial era buildings

the main square

In the very center of the city sits the 2000 year-old Sule Pagoda!

park in yangon surrounded by barbed wire

Mahabandoola Gardens

One of my favorite parts of Yangon was the “Book Street”, where people set up open-air shops selling hundreds of second-hand books in Burmese and English. Many were missing their covers, and held together by makeshift brown paper covers with the names scrawled on in black marker. I love this! A book is a book, whatever its condition, and the worse the condition, the more read it must have been!

inside five star strand hotel Yangon, Burma

The Strand Hotel

 Burmese noodles at a teahouse: we enjoyed a cheap and flavorful lunch, finished off by a cup of hot and sweet Burmese milk tea.

golden pagoda at night, Yangon, Myanmar (Burma)

Shwedagon Pagoda

Mt. Kyaiktiyo

Because of the heavy fog, it was nearly impossible to see anything on top of Mt. Kyaiktiyo. There, balanced precisely on the side of the mountain, is the Golden Rock, the legendary shrine said to balance on the hair of the Buddha.

The fog up there was insane!

inside a burmese night train

inside the train

 Mandalay Palace, a modern re-construction of the ancient palace of the Mandalay Kingdom.

teak wood monastery, Burma

Golden Palace Monastery

 Kuthodaw Temple, the site of the world’s largest book! Each of these short pagodas contains scripture from the Pali Cannon of Buddhism.

river boat along the Irrawaddy river past green hills and golden temples

an Irrawaddy riverboat

Mr. Bobo and his trusty horse Nanda. This was our ride during our stay in Bagan! Bagan was more of a rural village than a town. Sure, there were a few cars for hire, but what better way to get around than by the iconic horse carts?

green field with ancient temples, Bagan, Myanmar

Bagan

Our last sunset on a hidden, white-sand beach on the Irrawaddy River, It was beautiful, a moment that I will never forget. Finally, after waiting all week, and after struggling through the terrible weather, we saw our one, stunning sunset.

You can also watch our video about our trip through Burma HERE!!!

Kyoto, Japan: A Short Guide

Kyoto, Japan 京都

Kyoto, Japan is one of my absolute favorite cities! Full of history and culture, Kyoto is the former capital city of Imperial Japan, and is located three hours away from Tokyo by bullet train, in the Kansai region of the big island of Honshu.

Pick up a temple stamp book,

and visit these three top sites!

Kiyomizu-dera 清水寺

One of the first temples you should visit in Kyoto is Kiyomizu-dera, one of the city’s most popular places.

The entire temple complex is full of beautiful shrines, and there’s a lot to do. Get there early, because it can get very crowded!

golden pavillion temple in Kyoto, japan

Besides the pagoda itself, there’s a little tea house where you can participate in a Japanese tea ceremony, and a small market area where you can buy all sorts of gold stuff, including ice cream with gold leaf, and

sake with tiny flakes of gold floating in it.

Ginkaku-ji 銀閣寺

Unfairly overlooked in favor of its golden brother, the Silver Pagoda is a quieter, more reverential zen temple. Surrounded by beautiful gardens, this UNESCO World Heritage Site dates back to 1460 and was restored in 2008.

tall shoots of green bamboo in Arashiyama, Kyoto, Japan

Fushimi Inari 伏見稲荷大社

Get up early and take the fifteen-minute commuter train from Kyoto Station to Fushimi Inari, a mountain shrine dedicated to the Shinto god of rice, money, and sake.

fox messenger of the god inari, Kyoto, Japan

Along the way, you’ll pass many statues of foxes, the vehicle of the god Inari.

Eating

Nishiki Market 錦市場

Head to Nishiki Market for delicious fresh food and awesome Japanese snacks! From fresh sushi to matcha tea,

to baby octopus on a stick

, Nishiki Market has it all!

Video: Beer and Ice Cream (Japan)

Video: “Oishi” Means “Delicious” (Tokyo+Kyoto)

VIDEO Bugs and Beer – Snacktime: Asia! Ep.10

Bonus Video!

We are in New Mexico, but that won’t stop us from enjoying the best of Thailand’s convenience store snacks.

When cold weather and rain force us to spend a day indoors, we decide it’s finally time to break out the silk worms, and wash them down with a few bottles of Berliner Weisse.

Related Comics:

Road Trip!

Food of the Future

Comic #25 – Road Trip!

Comic #25 – Road Trip! 14 June 2016

Pinky came to visit Michael’s home in Texas for a few weeks.

Some friends and I wanted to take her around the Lone Star State, so we drove out west to visit Carlsbad Caverns National Park in New Mexico, right past the border.

It’s a long way…

Texas is so big!

Texas is a little bigger than Thailand!

Needless to say, the drive got a little boring after a while…

VIDEO: Trekking With Elephants in the Chiang Mai Highlands

Michael’s family visits Thailand and spends a special day in the highlands of Chiang Mai with a family of rescued elephants.

Relevant Comic:

Chiang Mai

More information:

Elephant Welfare in Thailand

Learn more about how to encourage ethical animal welfare, and how to help out the elephants in Thailand with this e-book:

Elephants, Tigers, Monkeys, and More: Elephant Welfare in Thailand

Learn more about the Elephant nature Park: https://www.elephantnaturepark.org/

Review: Pink and Purple Beer???

This week we tried something new, weird, and kind of awesome: purple and pink beer!

purple lavender beer and pink sakura cherry blossom beer in Bangkok

We had heard about this for a while, and finally went to Kenshin Izakaya, a Japanese restaurant and bar on Sukumvit Road, to check it out.

The purple beer was lavender flavored, and it really was! Even without tasting it, the smell of lavender was really strong. You have to really like lavender if you want to try this beer, which I do, so it’s ok! It is very, very purple.

The pink beer was supposed to be sakura (Japanese cherry blossom) flavored. It was sweet, but I guess I’m not so familiar with the sakura flavor. It was hard to identify the taste.

They also had other crazy beers too, like tomato beer or passion fruit beer. I guess we’ll have to try those next time!

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