All posts filed under: Asia and beyond

korean wedding

Korean Traditional Wedding and Tastes of Seoul Streets

Published by

Sorry, the second part of the Korean trip was delayed. The 2 weeks of the Turks’ adventure can’t be summed up in one post, right? So here’s the more interesting one. Our Turkish guests were lucky to attend two weddings during their stay as my brother’s modern wedding came only two days after my traditional Korean wedding. Two completely different styles in two far distanced cities. The traditional Korean wedding, though more complex and less glamorous(?), was fun and even educational for the guests, the old and the young together. It was most likely their first and last time to experience it. Having done it myself, I can understand why it had gone out of favour. However, with the rise of international marriage, the tradition is said to be coming back and it was indeed a very memorable experience, and the best part of it is unarguably trying on the beautiful traditional clothes, Hanbok. Three tough Turks flew all the way to Korea to carry my bridal carriage and to throw wild chickens into the air for blessing. Have you cuddled a live chicken …

Turks go to Korea: Cultural and Culinary Shock, Pleasure, and a TurKo Tie

Published by

I’m back from a long and exhausting trip. The 2 weeks of our time in Korea were divided into two; a road trip and a family affair, which I’ll write about in the next post. But first, I’ll share stories from our trip out of Seoul. For those who are not familiar with Asian culture and who visit Korea for the first time, there are two challenges; first, chopsticks, and second, sleeping on the floor. The first wasn’t a big issue since most restaurants had forks available, and as time went by, the Turkish guests got better and better with chopsticks and even got to love them and bought some to use in Turkey, with some thinking that they will probably lose weight by eating chopsticks, hahah. But everyone refusing to sleep on the floor often complicated things when booking an accommodation. Most Koreans sleep on beds nowadays but there are people who still prefer to sleep on a warm floor like my mum, and many hotels have options for a room with a bed or under-floor heating. The fact is that you …

A wine trip to Georgia – Pheasant’s Tears

Published by

Pheasant’s Tears…. Ok, let’s get started, finally! It is one of your lucky days having two posts in a row from me! Ehem… What a poetic name! Very fine wines make pheasants shed tears of joy when they sip it….. Well, I must have been a pheasant in my past life, because I cry, too. When I sip a good wine, all the words for describing wines stop dead in my head and all I manage to utter is simply wows with my eyes automatically closing and my head moving sideways in a very slow motion. There should be non-verbal evaluation of wines like this. Words can disguise emotions but the body language can’t as passion is felt rather than spelt out. Don’t you think so? Have you had this kind of moment? You just want to savour it, feeling reluctant to say a word, as if any words would spoil the taste. Sorry, let me get back on the track. Though it wasn’t entirely irrelevant to the review I’m about to write because my …

Georgian food

Let me fill your glass with my past stories: Part 2 – Georgia

Published by

I’ve done it finally! Now I’ve unearthed the mysteries and secret talks surrounding Georgian wines and Caucasus mountains! My devoted love and curiosity about wine, which started in the New World, has led me to another ancient wine-producing country. My wine pilgrimage routes: Australia and New Zealand – France – Spain – Italy – Turkey – Greece – Georgia – next ? Here I am in Batumi, Georgia, where I entered and re-entered the Sarpi customs building at the Georgia-Turkey border 8 times in total, messing up my passport with 8 stamps on a single journey. Duh! I’m crossing the border where mosques are instantly replaced by churches. The Sarpi customs building is built in the shape of a key to heaven, by the way. We arrived in Batumi later than scheduled due to the delayed flight in Istanbul. My first impression of Georgia was very different to what I’d imagined. Batumi had many casinos and the area around them was clean, well-maintained with renovated old buildings as well as modern architecture. Our plan was …

Let me fill your glass with my past stories – Part 1: Australia

Published by

I’m back! I disappeared without a trace 2-3 months ago. I even let my blog stranded. A lot of people might have wondered at the missing domain page. Today, in my defence,  I’m going to fill your empty glass with what I’ve gone through for all that time. I finally worked up the courage to buy a flight ticket to Australia after 4 years on the road; it was about time I pick up the broken pieces of my past. Well, more honestly? I was getting more and more agitated about the wines I’d tucked away when I left Australia 4 years ago. It’s a long  and expensive journey and you have to have a good excuse to go, except those who have a family over there. But missing this gorgeous beach was a good enough reason for me. Australia, for sure, has the most beautiful beaches in the world and I haven’t found any equivalents yet through all my travels. In all discussions about beautiful beaches, my vote always goes to Australia. First, I …