Seoul found

It was good to note the progress of female emancipation in Korea. Korean women these days exercise vigorously the right to die of smoking-related illnesses. This is known as 'progress'. The cafes and bars of Seoul are filled with glamourous, elegant women smoking furiously as if there is no tomorrow.

M. and I found ourselves a large tented street stall along the pavement outside of our posh hotel near Myung-dong in downtown Seoul in the small hours of the morning. We drank beer while trying to amputate our tongues with searing hot ddukbokki (rice cake slices cooked in hot chili paste).
"Are you drunk?" M. asked.
"Getting there," I said. The pungent odour of garlic was seeping into every pore, through the layers of clothes and into the bloodstream like a drug. The chili paste was acting as a local anaesthetic - I couldn't feel my tongue anymore. Everyone around us seemed particularly happy to be there having instant noodles and fish cake soup with their soju. The owner brought us a plate which contained brown cooked silk worm pupae.
"What's that?" M. asked.
"Um... If I told you, you wouldn't eat it."
"Well then, I'm definitely not having it."

M's neck must have at least stretched a couple of inches. Everywhere we went he strained so hard to look at things - the city he hadn't visited in 7 years. It was funny to see him so engrossed if only because I am so jaded about Seoul. We went to E.'s flat to have green tea cake and Chinese tea - M. spent a good couple of minutes staring out into the riverside. It was also funny to hear him exclaim every now and then, "I think I've been here before!". It made me feel like I was looking at Seoul for the first time, sometimes. But actually, I'm glad that I am away from there.

We heaved back to Hong Kong a boxful of foodstuff that my mother packed for me. It is an eclectic mixture - salt ("of the finest quality", says the description on the box in my mother's neat handwriting), straw slippers (what is this?), seaweed ("good if you cook it with rice in the rice cooker") and wild sesame seed powder ("make congee with this, add 500ml of water and a pinch of salt").