cant smell that from postcards...

whenever i get to a new place, people were asking how i would find it.  and funny enough, the answers i had were probably unexpected... it usually involved the ambient sound and smells. 

you see, with the globalization and the hyper-focus on visualization of EVERYTHING, we are almost too used to the images.  well, i am.  for instance, when i was at the shibuya crossing, it felt a bit weird- like ive been there before. but of course, ive been there before, through countless screens, many times. perhaps ive seen it more often than i have seen the middle of high park in toronto.

so what i remember is the information that was never on those images- the smells, the slight air movement, the energy of the crowd.

shibuya was fairly quiet for its density, though the wind never really stopped. the smell of transport exhaust and the slightly damp ground hit me right on the face as i got out of the subway stop. 

similar thing in hong kong.  i landed in hongkong in early afternoon of thursday, 13 june 2019. i was spending time with my aunt before leaving s korea, and wasnt really aware of the magnitude of the situation in hong kong demonstration.  that was the day after the big violent demonstration.  i didnt know, but the pouring rain and the tropical heat, mixed with sharpness and unease of the city made me wonder instantaneously: this stop in hongkong could be a big mistake- i might have a terrible time.

it's hard to describe. i didnt 'see' any real evidence of violence myself- just the bunch of garbages and broken things down by the drains and the rain poured heavily over concrete jungle of hong kong.  the dense air, however, carrying tension, made me want to leave.

however, the next day, when it cleared up, looking down from the big buddha in lantau island, along with the statement to suspend the bill (which is insufficient yet surprising at the same time), the place felt different, once again. the sound of it and the smell of it changed drastically.

last year, when we went to portugal, lots of people asked how porto was- of course, it is one of the top destinations at the moment; yet, typically me, the first thing i said was how loud porto was.

you see, porto is in renaissance. 
with the tourism boom, everyone's fixing everything. there's drills and construction everywhere. and unlike the beautiful serene images we see on screens and publications, the reality hits us with so much more information.  so yeah, my memory of porto is simply LOUD.

in tongyeong, where my cousin lives, the surprise was the quietness of the town.  though it's a working port town, the closure of shipbuilding business brought town a certain kind of quietness.  the salt tang with quiet boats gliding on water.  i was told that things pick up during the summer. i believe it.  yet, i will remember it as a quiet town- quieter than the little hamlet villages in middle of mountains, in jirisan.  jirisan was full of birds, wild life, winds, water. it was quite full on. noisy celebration of outside.

singapore airport- so many people told me the amazing stuff in that airport.  different food stalls, amazing butterfly place, etc etc. but you see, i landed there around midnight. my flight was on for 225am. and it was full of people transferring from long haul to another long haul.  so many people quietly dragging their rolly bags on floor, and the slight buzz from all the lights that were on the expensive boutique shops. and the faint smell of tiredness and traffic. 

so many places i went, it felt like i kinda knew them.

the things that are not on the post cards, however, were the real things.
how peculiar.