{"version":"5.0.0","exportedAt":"2026-11-09T16:33:23.277Z","locale":"en","owner":"Jayden","platform":"DailySay Digital Legacy","articles":[{"slug":"sindang-hurricane-park-dakbal","title":"Hurricane Park, Sindang-dong: The Tteokbokki Alley Old-Timer's Chicken Feet Stew","description":"Hurricane Park, an old-timer of Sindang-dong's tteokbokki alley: dakbal (chicken feet) stew and fried rice. Add steamed egg; cheese rice cakes are a must.","topic":"food","tags":["Seoul Food","Sindang-dong","Dakbal","Chicken Feet","Tteokbokki Town"],"publishedAt":"2026-11-09T20:00:00+09:00","updatedAt":"2026-11-09T20:00:00+09:00","growthStage":"evergreen","version":"1.0","content":"\nSay *dakbal* (spicy chicken feet) in Sindang-dong and most people think of **Ujeong (우정)**. I've been there before. The catch: it's become so famous that I don't even try anymore.\n\nSo I went to **Hurricane Park**, in the same tteokbokki alley. The sign sets the tone: **38 years in the business. Dakbal specialist: bone-in in broth, or boneless and flame-grilled.**\n\nThe verdict first: **this place is really, really good.**\n\n\n**In three lines**: **Hurricane Park** (허리케인박, formerly Yaksok Tteokbokki), an old-timer of Sindang-dong's tteokbokki alley. Dakbal in broth with noodles and bean sprouts, finished with **fried rice**, and it's genuinely good. With dakbal, **always add the steamed egg, and cheese rice cakes are a must.** I went **back once more** around 1:30 a.m. in October.\n \n\n## An old-timer of the tteokbokki alley\n\n\n \"허리케인박\" (Hurricane Park) in yellow on red, with \"(formerly Yaksok Tteokbokki)\" below. \n \n\nIn the middle of the red sign, in yellow: **허리케인박**, Hurricane Park. Top left: **38년 경력**, 38 years of experience. Below in white: **닭발(뼈있는국물, 무뼈 직화구이)전문점**, a dakbal specialist serving bone-in feet in broth and boneless feet grilled over flame. On a white band to the right: **(구)약속떡볶이**, formerly Yaksok Tteokbokki. A true **old-timer** of the alley.\n\nSindang-dong's Tteokbokki Town has plenty of similar red signs, so look for the **\"(구)약속떡볶이\"** line.\n\nThe owner sets the mood. **He's an upbeat guy**, and now and then he hands customers **1,000 won worth of lottery tickets**, which is a fun little bonus.\n\n## Dakbal means steamed egg. Always.\n\n\n Steamed egg, puffed up in an earthenware pot. \n \n\nFirst to arrive: ***gyeranjjim***, Korean steamed egg, in a black earthenware pot, with bits of green vegetable and orange carrot set into the puffed yellow surface. It's **7,000 won** from the sides on the menu.\n\nSpicy chicken feet need this next to them. **If you order dakbal, always add the steamed egg.**\n\n## A pan of dakbal on the burner\n\n\n Starting to bubble on the table burner. \n \n\nAround 9 p.m. on a Sunday, a two-handled pan lands on the tabletop gas burner. **Chicken feet** sit in a deep red broth, with white ***tteok*** (rice cakes) between them, the broth right up to the rim.\n\nThe dakbal here comes two ways: **bone-in in broth**, or **boneless**, either in broth or flame-grilled.\n\n## Noodles in, then bean sprouts\n\n\n Yellow noodles go into the middle of the pan. \n \n\nOnce the broth is bubbling, **yellow noodles** go into the middle of the pan. On the add-on (*sari*) list, **ramyeon and jjolmyeon (chewy wheat noodles) are 2,000 won each**.\n\n\n Then a heap of bean sprouts on top. \n \n\nThen a heap of **bean sprouts**, also **2,000 won**.\n\nOne more thing: with this dakbal, **adding cheese rice cakes (3,000 won) is a must.** Put those in first.\n\n## Fried rice to finish\n\n\n Fried rice spread to the bottom of the pan. \n \n\nAbout half an hour later the pan has become **fried rice**: rice stained with the red sauce, mixed with seaweed flakes, the edges stuck and darkened against the side of the pan, scraped and spread to the bottom with a single ladle.\n\nOn the menu board, fried rice sits under a heading called **\"K-디저트\" (K-dessert)**: **fried rice 3,000 won, fried rice with flying fish roe 4,000 won.**\n\n## Menu (as of August 2026)\n\n| Menu | Price |\n| --- | --- |\n| **Hurricane boneless dakbal** (in broth or flame-grilled, per person) | **15,000 won** |\n| Hurricane dakbal in broth (per person) | in the 10,000s of won |\n| Hurricane tteokbokki for 2 · 3 · 4 | 17,000 · 21,000 · 28,000 won |\n| Chadolbagi (beef brisket) tteokbokki for 2 · 3 · 4 | 24,000 · 32,000 · 41,000 won |\n| Add-ons: ramyeon · jjolmyeon · bean sprouts · enoki · vegetables · sausage | 2,000 won each |\n| Add-ons: egg · fried dumplings | 1,000 won each |\n| Add-ons: **cheese rice cakes** · tuna · cheese · 5 gimmari (fried seaweed rolls) | 3,000 won each |\n| Add-ons: plain rice cakes · fish cake | 4,000 won each |\n| **Steamed egg** | 7,000 won |\n| Sundae (blood sausage) · fish cake soup | 5,000 won each |\n| Mixed fritters | 10,000 won |\n| Rice ball · rice ball with flying fish roe | 4,000 · 5,000 won |\n| Fried rice · fried rice with flying fish roe | 3,000 · 4,000 won |\n| Soju · beer | 5,000 won each |\n| Jim Beam highball · Bombay highball | 6,000 · 5,000 won |\n\nThe tteokbokki comes with rice cakes, fish cake, ramyeon, jjolmyeon, fried dumplings, egg and vegetables (cabbage, scallion, carrot), and you can **switch to jjajang (black bean) sauce**.\n\n## October, back again at 1:30 a.m.\n\n\n October, the second visit. Same pan, same sprouts. \n \n\nTwo months later, around **1:30 a.m. on Sunday, October 18**, I was back in front of the same pan. Same two-handled pan, same red broth, bean sprouts on top and a rice cake in front.\n\nPast midnight on a Saturday night, the shop was **still open.**\n\nFor another chicken meal in Jung-gu, there is also [Dakjinmi Gangwonjip's chicken soup in Namdaemun Market](/en/posts/namdaemun-dakjinmi-gangwonjip-dakgomtang).\n\n## Visitor info\n\n📍 **Hurricane Park, Sindang-dong** (허리케인박 떡볶이닭발, formerly Yaksok Tteokbokki) · 58 Toegye-ro 76-gil, Jung-gu, Seoul (Sindang-dong Tteokbokki Town)\n\n- 🍽️ **What I had**: steamed egg, dakbal in broth, noodle and bean sprout add-ons, fried rice\n- 💰 **Prices**: boneless dakbal 15,000 won per person, add-ons 1,000–4,000 won, steamed egg 7,000 won, fried rice 3,000 won\n- 🌙 **Late nights**: open at 1:30 a.m. on a Sunday\n- 🗺️ **Map**: [Open in Google Maps](https://www.google.com/maps/search/?api=1&query=%ED%97%88%EB%A6%AC%EC%BC%80%EC%9D%B8%EB%B0%95%20%EB%96%A1%EB%B3%B6%EC%9D%B4%EB%8B%AD%EB%B0%9C%20%EC%A4%91%EA%B5%AC%20%ED%87%B4%EA%B3%84%EB%A1%9C76%EA%B8%B8%2058)\n\n\nThe address and the name \"Hurricane Park Tteokbokki Dakbal (Yaksok Tteokbokki)\" are based on the Korea Tourism Organization's VisitKorea listing and DiningCode (checked October 2026), and prices on the menu board during my visit in August 2026. A digit in the dakbal-in-broth price had been written over, so it's given only as \"in the 10,000s\". I couldn't find official opening hours, so please check before you go.\n \n\n## Jayden's verdict\n\n> Everyone says Ujeong for dakbal, but this tteokbokki-alley old-timer is seriously good too.\n\n- **Order this**: dakbal in broth + steamed egg (7,000 won), and cheese rice cakes (3,000 won) are a must\n- **Finish with**: fried rice (3,000 won)\n- **Would I go back?**: I already did, at 1:30 a.m. in October.\n- **Bonus**: the upbeat owner sometimes hands out 1,000 won of lottery tickets.\n"},{"slug":"volun-career-birdhouse-mentoring","title":"The Scholarship Student Who Became a Mentor | Seoul Future Foundation's Volun-Career","description":"At university I received a scholarship from the Seoul Scholarship Foundation, now the Seoul Future Foundation. This September I went back as a mentor in its alumni programme, Volun-Career: a wooden birdhouse with younger students, then an aspiring IT engineer's résumé.","topic":"diary","tags":["Mentoring","Scholarship","Volunteering","Seoul Diary","Career Advice"],"publishedAt":"2026-11-08T23:30:00+09:00","updatedAt":"2026-11-09T00:20:00+09:00","growthStage":"evergreen","version":"1.2","content":"\nSaturday morning, 12 September. A banner stood on the way into the venue.\n\n**Mentoring: shall we start with tools in hand?**\n\nTools, at a mentoring event. Years ago I was a student on this foundation's scholarship; that day I came to pick up a **mentor** name card. The day I moved from the receiving side of the table to the giving side. And the first item on the programme wasn't advice. It was **a cup of screws**.\n\n\n**In three lines**: I joined **Volun-Career**, the alumni mentoring run by the **Seoul Future Foundation** (formerly the Seoul Scholarship Foundation), which supported me at university, as a mentor on 12 September 2026. In the morning I built a **wooden birdhouse** with younger scholarship students; after lunch I gave advice to those aiming for IT jobs. Going through one student's **résumé** reminded me why education and sharing matter.\n \n\n## From scholarship student to mentor\n\n\n Three Saturdays of mentoring that start with tools. \n \n\nAt university I received a scholarship from the **Seoul Scholarship Foundation**. It has since been renamed the **Seoul Future Foundation**.\n\n**Volun-Career** is its mentoring programme, pairing graduated scholarship students with current ones. According to an interview the foundation published, the name joins \"volun\", from volunteering and social contribution, with \"career\". The idea is that a scholarship doesn't end with the payment: those who received it pass something on to the next students.\n\nIt started as a pilot last year. That first round focused on job hunting, and the foundation says the mentors felt a lot of pressure to prepare and the mood was a little stiff. So this year they changed the order: **woodworking first, sweating and getting to know each other**, and the talking afterwards. Each session built something different.\n\n- **Session 1, 8 August**: a stool\n- **Session 2, 22 August**: a storage box\n- **Session 3, 12 September**: a birdhouse\n\nThe foundation says it chose mentors mainly from those about three years out of university, mixing people in jobs and in graduate school, from startups to licensed professions. I became a **session 3 mentor**. My group was meant to have three younger students, but one was ill and couldn't come. So that day there were **three of us, me included**.\n\n## Why I signed up: a test with just one wrong answer\n\nIt wasn't my first time as a mentor.\n\nYears ago, through the student knowledge-mentoring programme of the **Korea Student Aid Foundation**, I went to the **Haeseong Community Children's Center**. There I tutored a middle-school student who had no interest in English, and whose grades showed it.\n\nSo instead of drilling exercises, I tried to teach English itself, through my own **experience of going to the UK**. Not English as a school subject, but as a language people actually use across the sea.\n\nSome time later the student came back with a test result.\n\n> Just one wrong answer.\n\nThe student was genuinely happy about the better score, and said something along these lines: English at school was boring and hard to follow, but English with me was fun and felt new.\n\nThat stayed with me longer than the score. A student who'd had no interest in English was starting to find it enjoyable, and that was what made me proud. I felt then that passing on knowledge doesn't end with teaching; it can help someone discover a possibility they hadn't seen. My interest in sharing and in education goes back to that day.\n\nBut in 2020 COVID-19 surged again, and that mentoring couldn't continue for long. A few years went by.\n\nThen a **text message about Volun-Career** arrived from the foundation. I applied straight away.\n\n## From a bundle of boards to a birdhouse\n\n\n 10:07 a.m. For now, just a bundle of boards and a cup of screws. \n \n\nEvery table had a **bundle of boards** wrapped in blue plastic and a **cup of screws**. The woodworking was led by a woodworking social cooperative, **우드어스** (Woodeoseu). By its record, **24 young people** took part that day.\n\nWe didn't start with screws. The co-op first talked about how wood is used in nature and daily life, and **what building a birdhouse means for the environment**. Then it laid a finished birdhouse next to the loose parts and showed us the order: front, sides, roof.\n\nAfter that, hands were busy. We lined up the direction and position of each board; one person held the parts while another drove the screws, and we checked together wherever something was slightly off. In its interview, the foundation's organiser said they put woodworking first so people would **get to know each other naturally by making something together**, instead of starting with awkward self-introductions.\n\n\n 11:23 a.m. A house with a door, pencil lines and all. \n \n\nBefore lunch, the birdhouse stood up. A **round entrance hole** in the front, **two hooks** on the side for hanging it on a tree, and the pencil lines still on the boards. A few flat boards had become **a house with a door** in a little over an hour. Our table made **two**.\n\nA name card was waiting at my seat. It's the photo at the top of this post: under the foundation's name, **Today's Mentor**, and below that, my name. A name that used to be on a scholarship list was now in the mentor's seat.\n\n\n Lunch, for hands that had been holding boards all morning. \n \n\nLunch was a boxed meal: a **JOE'S SANDWICH** sandwich, **Ceres apple juice** and a **Loacker wafer**.\n\n## The line missing from a résumé\n\n\n 1:36 p.m. Tools down; now the real mentoring. \n \n\nThe afternoon was the mentoring itself. My group were students hoping for **IT jobs**.\n\nOne of them wanted to become an **infrastructure engineer**. They had done a lot, and the more they talked, the clearer it was that they were genuinely capable. I could see they'd do well.\n\nBut the résumé wasn't showing all of that.\n\n> What they had done was everywhere. What they did best was nowhere to be seen.\n\nThat isn't a problem of too little experience. If anything, it's more likely the more you've done. Everything looks important, so everything goes in, and the line that shines brightest gets buried in the list. Recruiters don't spend long on one page. In that short time, \"this person is great at this\" has to stick.\n\nSo we talked about **how to present that strength effectively**, so it would be the first thing a reader notices. The advice wasn't \"go get more experience\". It was about **how to bring out what they already had**. Not so different from the boards that morning: the materials were all there. What remained was choosing which side to stand up as the front.\n\n\n Two birdhouses, and the three of us. (All faces and name tags are blurred.) \n \n\n## Teaching is learning\n\nThe Chinese classic *Book of Rites* has a chapter on education, the *Xue Ji*. It says that only after learning do you know what you lack, and only after teaching do you know where you get stuck. So teaching and learning make each other grow. In Korean the four-character phrase is **gyohaksangjang (敎學相長)**.\n\nIn 2020 I went to teach English and came back having learned the value of sharing. This time I went to look at a younger student's résumé and came back having relearned why education matters. Both times, the one teaching took home more.\n\nYou build a birdhouse for a bird that hasn't arrived yet. You drill the entrance and fix the roof without knowing when, or which bird, will move in. The first line of the foundation's mentor announcement read **\"Pass on the love you received.\"**\n\nThe scholarship I received long ago was probably a house someone had built in advance, too. This time it was my turn to hold the boards.\n\n## Jayden's verdict\n\n> A birdhouse in the morning, a résumé in the afternoon. I went to teach and came back having learned.\n\n- **Programme**: Seoul Future Foundation 2026 alumni mentoring, Volun-Career, session 3 (Saturday 12 September, 10:00–14:00)\n- **What we built**: a birdhouse (woodworking led by the social cooperative 우드어스)\n- **Mentoring**: students aiming for IT jobs. On a résumé, let **what you're best at** show before the list of what you've done.\n- **What stayed with me**: why education matters, and why sharing does. Once again.\n"},{"slug":"sinyongsan-pancone-italian-lunch","title":"Pancone, Sinyongsan: Italian Done Right for a Team Lunch, and the Lamb Steak Wins","description":"A Monday team lunch at Pancone near Sinyongsan Station: a pasta spot, but the lamb steak is the best thing here. Focaccia to French rack, then gelato, in order.","topic":"food","tags":["Seoul Food","Yongsan Office Lunch","Italian in Seoul","Team Lunch","Pasta"],"publishedAt":"2026-11-08T20:00:00+09:00","updatedAt":"2026-11-08T20:00:00+09:00","growthStage":"evergreen","version":"1.0","content":"\nMonday lunchtime, near Sinyongsan Station.\n\nThe plate rims are printed with **Pancone** and a **P** monogram.\n\nThis was a *hoesik* (a Korean team meal with coworkers), and we did Italian properly. Pancone is **a pasta place**, but the best thing here is something else: **the lamb steak.** It's good every time I go.\n\n\n**In three lines**: A Monday **team lunch** at **Pancone**, an Italian place in Hangangno 2-ga, Yongsan-gu, near Sinyongsan Station. Focaccia, burrata and salad, then risotto and three pastas, and finally the **lamb steak** (French rack), the best of the day. For dessert, a nearby gelato shop: **Potto flavour and pistachio**.\n \n\n## Exposed concrete and a red poster\n\nWe arrived around 11:40. The ceiling is **bare concrete** with exposed ducts, and milky glass **pendant lamps** hang on cords. The windows are big enough that the shop signs across the street show right through.\n\nOn a black vertical-plank wall hangs a single frame: a red poster of a woman in a dress, labelled **ANNA HELD**. Round wooden tables, chairs with cane backs. On the counter, two bottles of pinkish sparkling wine labelled **VILLA JOLANDA**, a **CatchTable** (Korean reservation app) stand and a terminal. The kitchen is open to the dining room.\n\n## Focaccia and burrata to start\n\n\n Three pieces of focaccia and olive oil in a wooden bowl. \n \n\nFirst, **focaccia**: three square pieces in a wooden bowl with a small dish of **olive oil** and pepper. Golden tops, big holes in the crumb.\n\n\n Burrata in olive oil, topped with semi-dried tomatoes. \n \n\nWith it, **burrata**: a generous pool of green olive oil on a P-monogram plate, swirled with black balsamic. In the middle sits a round white **burrata**, crowned with dark red **semi-dried tomatoes** arranged like petals.\n\n## A salad in a wooden bowl\n\n\n Cucumber, black olives, red onion and small white pieces. \n \n\nNext, a **salad** in a wooden bowl: diced **cucumber**, **black olives**, thin **red onion** and small white pieces, tossed in dressing. Behind it, a pale yellow drink with a dried orange slice and a sprig of herbs.\n\n## Risotto and pastas, all at once\n\nFive plates arrived within a few minutes. Each had a serving spoon or perforated tongs resting on it, with side plates for everyone: a share-from-the-middle team-lunch setup.\n\n\n Brown risotto under finely grated cheese. \n \n\nThe **risotto** is spread flat on the plate, brown, with a mound of **finely grated cheese** in the centre and chopped parsley.\n\n\n Round browned pieces and chopped nuts. \n \n\nA deep plate holds **cream sauce** and **round pieces browned on top**, scattered with **chopped nuts**. They look like gnocchi.\n\nThen, true to a pasta spot, **three pastas** in a row.\n\n\n Tomato spaghetti with basil and cherry tomatoes. \n \n\n**Tomato spaghetti**: noodles coiled up in a thick tomato sauce, with **grated cheese** and **basil leaves** on top and blistered **roasted cherry tomatoes** around the edge.\n\n\n Vongole piled with clams. \n \n\n**Vongole**: oil-dressed noodles with **open clams in their shells** covering one side of the plate, halved cherry tomatoes, chopped parsley and garlic bits scattered through.\n\n\n Carbonara with crisp pieces of meat. \n \n\n**Carbonara**: spaghetti in a yellow sauce, topped with **crisp pieces of cured meat**, with **coarse black pepper** scattered all the way to the rim.\n\n## The best of the day: lamb steak\n\n\n Four bone-in pieces of lamb on a yellow purée, a green sauce and a dark paste. \n \n\nLast came Pancone's **lamb steak**, listed on the menu as the **French rack**: a bed of **yellow purée** with **four pieces of lamb on long bones** leaning against each other, seared dark brown on the outside.\n\nIn front are a **dark paste** that looks like chopped mushrooms and a **green sauce** of chopped herbs and vegetables, with a streak of red sauce on the right.\n\nThe pasta was good, but **the lamb steak is the best thing at this place.**\n\n## Gelato for dessert: Potto and pistachio\n\n\n Cream-coloured Potto on top of light green pistachio. \n \n\nAfter lunch we walked a little way toward Hangang-daero 48-gil and bought gelato at a **gelato shop** for dessert.\n\nAt the bottom of the paper cup, light green **pistachio** flecked with dark bits; on top, cream-coloured **Potto** flavour, named after Potto, a Korean cheese-cream sandwich cracker. Potto is my all-time favourite, and pistachio is always a must.\n\n## The order that day\n\n| Order | Plate |\n| --- | --- |\n| 1 | Focaccia with olive oil; burrata |\n| 2 | Cucumber, olive and red onion salad |\n| 3 | Risotto; cream-sauce gnocchi gratin |\n| 4 | Tomato spaghetti; vongole; carbonara |\n| 5 | Lamb steak (French rack) |\n| Dessert | Potto and pistachio gelato from a nearby shop |\n\n## Practical info\n\n📍 **Pancone (판코네)** · 1F, 7 Hangang-daero 40ga-gil, Yongsan-gu, Seoul (Hangangno 2-ga)\n\n- 📅 **Visited**: Monday, August 10, 2026, lunch\n- 🚇 **Getting there**: under 400 m from Sinyongsan Station (Line 4).\n- 📲 **Booking**: there's a CatchTable stand and terminal on the counter.\n- 🗺️ **Map**: [View on Google Maps](https://www.google.com/maps/search/?api=1&query=%ED%8C%90%EC%BD%94%EB%84%A4%20%ED%95%9C%EA%B0%95%EB%8C%80%EB%A1%9C40%EA%B0%80%EA%B8%B8%207)\n\n\nThe address and the \"French rack\" menu name are based on online information as of October 2026. Opening hours and prices differ between sources, so they're not listed.\n \n\n## Jayden's verdict\n\n> It's a pasta place, but the lamb steak is the best thing here. Good every time I go.\n\n- **Order this**: the lamb steak (French rack). For pasta, we had tomato, vongole and carbonara.\n- **Who with**: coworkers, a lunchtime *hoesik*. Everything shared from the middle.\n- **Dessert**: gelato from a nearby shop. Potto flavour (my favourite) and pistachio (always a must).\n- **Tip**: first plate to the lamb takes under 30 minutes. For a team lunch inside a one-hour break, be seated by about 11:40. For another weekday lunch in Yongsan, see [Bâton](/en/posts/yongsan-batong-brunch).\n"},{"slug":"hongcheon-weekend74-cafe","title":"Weekend74 Cafe, Hongcheon: A Red Benz by the Rails, a Sidecar and an A-Frame Wooden Roof","description":"Weekend74, a cafe on a friends' trip to Hongcheon: a good menu, huge grounds with a forest path, a sidecar, a red Benz, then lunch at Dongmakgol.","topic":"travel","tags":["Hongcheon","Gangwon-do","Korea Cafe","Weekend74","Korea Travel"],"publishedAt":"2026-11-07T20:00:00+09:00","updatedAt":"2026-11-07T20:00:00+09:00","growthStage":"evergreen","version":"1.0","content":"\nA Saturday trip to Hongcheon with friends. Outside the cafe we stopped at that morning, on a patch of grass beside a country road ringed by mountains, sat a red Benz convertible.\n\nWhere the front number plate should be, it says **Weekend74 cafe**.\n\n\n**In three lines**: **Weekend74** is a cafe in Nam-myeon, Hongcheon-gun, Gangwon-do. The menu was **good**, and above all the **grounds are huge**, great for wandering, forest path included. A Honda sidecar, a red Benz, a Unimog truck and an A-frame timber ceiling give you plenty to look at, and lunch afterwards was snail *ssambap* at **Dongmakgol Sikdang** in Seo-myeon.\n \n\n## A sidecar on the deck\n\n\n The logo on the sidecar matches the cafe sign. \n \n\nThe first thing you meet is a sidecar on a dark wooden deck: a small motorcycle with **HONDA** on its front rack and a yellow and black sidecar attached. The logo on the side looks like a 7 and a 4 joined together, the same as the Weekend74 logo on the roadside sign. Past the deck, stepping stones cross the lawn to outdoor tables under parasols.\n\n## A red convertible by the rails, and a white truck\n\n\n Weekend74 cafe in place of a number plate. \n \n\nA short walk on is the red **Mercedes-Benz convertible**. With its black soft top up, it sits on the grass between the road and the rails, weeds grown up around the wheels. As in the cover photo, a **rail track** on sleepers and gravel runs in front of it.\n\n\n A Unimog with Weekend74 on the cargo box. \n \n\nIn the long grass next to it, a white **Unimog** (Mercedes-Benz's off-road truck). The cargo box carries the **Weekend74** lettering and logo, and a small sign under the grille says **눈으로만 보세요**, \"please look with your eyes only\".\n\n## Huge grounds and a pine-forest path\n\n\n Parasols and a dirt path among the pines. \n \n\nThe real draw here is **space**. The grounds are huge, so you end up wandering for a good while. A dirt path runs through a grove of **pines** with twisting trunks, white parasols open beneath them. This is a cafe with its own forest path.\n\n\n The A-frame building and the sunken fire-pit area. \n \n\nThe cafe building is a **triangular A-frame** whose roof comes almost to the ground. A terrace with parasols and metal chairs sits in front of the grey metal roof, and at the front of the lawn there is a seating area dug into the ground around a round **fire pit** lined with stones. The sky was covered in grey cloud that day.\n\n## Inside: an A-frame timber ceiling and glass walls\n\n\n A planter down the middle of the long table. \n \n\nInside, a long table runs beside a thick timber column, and a **planter packed with green plants** fills its middle. At the back is a counter with a display case. And the menu was **good**, too.\n\n\n Window seats, with the deck and mountains outside. \n \n\nThe window side is **glass from floor to ceiling**. Round tables sit under cone-shaped pendant lights, and the wooden chairs have cushions in blue, red and green. Outside: the deck, the fire-pit area and the mountains behind.\n\n\n The upper floor right under the roof. \n \n\nThe upper floor sits right under the sloping roof. The angled wooden ceiling has indirect lighting, and **grey fabric chairs** with rounded backs line up at white tables. Beyond the glass balustrade you look down on the ground floor and the lawn outside.\n\n## On the way out\n\n\n The roadside sign, with an arrow to the cafe at the bottom. \n \n\nThe roadside sign reads **Weekend74 cafe** under the logo, then a line in Korean inviting you to \"a pretty cafe with great scenery and atmosphere\", and an arrow marked **카페 가는 길** (this way to the cafe). Tall pines and a mountain rise behind it.\n\n\n Timber buildings with skylights. \n \n\nOn the way out: dark timber buildings with shingle roofs and a row of **skylights**, the grey A-frame rising behind them.\n\n## Lunch at Dongmakgol Sikdang: big nature, super fresh\n\n\n Stir-fried octopus and snail ssambap at Dongmakgol Sikdang in Seo-myeon. \n \n\nFrom the cafe, lunch was at **Dongmakgol Sikdang** in Seo-myeon, Hongcheon's go-to for snail *ssambap* (rice and toppings wrapped in leaves). Deep in the countryside, and **as fresh as it gets**: piles of leafy greens, red stir-fried *jjukkumi* (webfoot octopus) and a pot of snail soybean paste. **I would go back, 100%.** The full write-up is in my [post on Dongmakgol Sikdang](/en/posts/hongcheon-dongmakgol-jjukkumi-ureong-ssambap).\n\n## Visitor info\n\n📍 **Weekend74 (위켄드74)** · 1123 Namnoil-ro, Nam-myeon, Hongcheon-gun, Gangwon-do (Namnoil-ri)\n\n- 🕐 **Hours**: 10:30–19:30 (last order 19:00)\n- ☎️ **Phone**: 010-3617-7477\n- 🚗 **Getting there**: it sits on a country road; follow the arrow on the roadside sign.\n- 🍽️ **Same-day lunch**: Dongmakgol Sikdang in Seo-myeon, about 16 km west of the cafe\n- 🗺️ **Map**: [Open in Google Maps](https://www.google.com/maps/search/?api=1&query=%EC%9C%84%EC%BC%84%EB%93%9C74%20%ED%99%8D%EC%B2%9C%20%EB%82%A8%EB%A9%B4%20%EB%82%A8%EB%85%B8%EC%9D%BC%EB%A1%9C%201123)\n\n\nAddress, phone and hours are based on Kakao Map and other online listings as of October 2026. Check closing days, the menu and prices on Kakao Map or Naver Map before you go.\n \n\n## Jayden's verdict\n\n> A cafe you only finish after a lap of the forest path. Weekend74 wins on sheer space.\n\n- **Highlight**: the huge grounds and the pine-forest path. Wandering is half the fun.\n- **Who with**: friends, on a trip to Hongcheon.\n- **Pair it with**: snail ssambap at Dongmakgol Sikdang for lunch. Big nature, super fresh, and a 100% would-go-back.\n- **Tip**: the cars, the sidecar and the forest path are spread out across the grounds, so give yourself time.\n"},{"slug":"yongsan-lau-pa-sat-singapore-food","title":"Lau Pa Sat, Yongsan: Singapore Shrimp Noodles and Satay That Taste Like the Real Thing","description":"Lau Pa Sat in Yongsan, Seoul, serves Singaporean food and nothing else. The satay and shrimp noodles taste genuinely local. Plus desserts from COMMCOMM.","topic":"food","tags":["Seoul Food","Yongsan","Singaporean Food","Satay","Shrimp Noodles"],"publishedAt":"2026-11-06T20:00:00+09:00","updatedAt":"2026-11-06T20:00:00+09:00","growthStage":"evergreen","version":"1.0","content":"\nThere's a place in Yongsan that takes Singaporean food **seriously, and serves nothing else.**\n\nOn a side street in Hangang-ro 3-ga, you open the door and one whole wall is Singapore. The three towers of **Marina Bay Sands**, the water in front of them, palm leaves around the edges. At the top of a poster on that wall is the name of the place: **라우파샷, LAU PA SAT.**\n\nOn Thursday evening, October 1, I ordered two things: **Singapore shrimp noodles, and satay with prawn skewers.** The short version: both **taste genuinely local.**\n\n\n**In three lines**: **Lau Pa Sat** in Hangang-ro 3-ga, Yongsan, takes Singaporean food seriously and sells nothing else. The **satay** and **Singapore shrimp noodles** taste like the real thing, though of course they're even better in Singapore itself. Before dinner, I picked up three desserts at **COMMCOMM bakery cafe** nearby.\n \n\n## A wall of Singapore\n\n\n The Marina Bay Sands mural and a poster for \"Singapore seafood muchim\". \n \n\nThe mural covers the entire wall next to the entrance: three towers, buildings reflected in the water, oversized tropical leaves wrapping the corners. The poster on it reads **\"싱가폴 해산물 무침 18,000원\"**, Singapore-style seafood *muchim* (a dressed, salad-like dish) for 18,000 won.\n\nAbove the counter in front of the kitchen hang a thatch-style awning and strings of bulbs. A sign on a pillar says **\"주문은 QR로\"**: order by QR code, from your phone.\n\nThe name Lau Pa Sat belongs to a hawker centre (an open market of food stalls) in Singapore's financial district, which is also **Singapore's only hawker market inside a gazetted national monument.** From the name to the walls, this place sticks to Singapore.\n\n## Singapore shrimp noodles: two prawns, one fish ball\n\n\n Singapore shrimp noodles in a laksa-style broth. \n \n\nThe broth is an orange-tinged beige, in the style of **laksa**, the spicy coconut-milk noodle soup. On top:\n\n- **Two prawns**, heads and feelers still on\n- **One round fish ball** in the middle\n- **Two triangles of fried tofu** in front\n- **Bok choy** on the left, with **bean sprouts** tucked in between\n- **Sliced scallion**, **a handful of cilantro** and fried shallots on top\n\nWhite noodles lie under the broth. These shrimp noodles **really do taste like you're eating them locally.**\n\n\n White pickles on a matching blue-patterned dish. \n \n\nOn the side: **white pickles**, on a dish with the same blue scroll pattern as the bowl.\n\n## Satay, prawn skewers and peanut sauce\n\n\n A metal tray full of skewers. The bowl at the top is peanut sauce. \n \n\nAfter the noodles came a full metal tray. On top lie **large prawn skewers grilled with a red spice rub**, heads on. Underneath are **two kinds of meat skewers**, one dark brown, one lighter with clear grill marks.\n\nA red floral bowl holds thick **peanut sauce**. Satay is a Southeast Asian dish of marinated meat grilled on skewers, dipped in peanut sauce. This satay, too, **tastes genuinely local.**\n\nOf course, eating it in Singapore itself is even better. That goes without saying.\n\nLau Pa Sat is a one-minute walk from [Bâton in Yongsan](/en/posts/yongsan-batong-brunch). If you want another meal from these Hangang-ro 3-ga side streets, read them together.\n\n## Before dinner: COMMCOMM at 3 p.m.\n\n\n The red acrylic board: weekdays 08:30–22:00, Saturdays and holidays 12:00–19:00. \n \n\nBefore Lau Pa Sat, around 3 p.m., I stopped at **COMMCOMM BAKERY CAFE** on Hangangdae-ro 44-gil, on the Sinyongsan Station side. A red acrylic board leans against the building entrance, next to a stand-up sign: **\"PET FRIENDLY · 반려동물 동반가능\"** (pets welcome).\n\n\n The WELLNESS TABLE poster on the window. \n \n\nThe window carries a **WELLNESS TABLE** poster. Its Korean line invites you to enjoy ciabatta made with less sugar, together with healthy soups and bagels. Pictured: **green potato soup, spicy tomato soup, \"Chocolate Bacon Infused with Truffle\" and \"Mushrooms Smothered in Cheddar\"**. The poster next to it shows a **low-sugar ciabatta** and a **wine campagne**.\n\n\n Polka-dot pumpkins on the inner wall. \n \n\nInside, framed polka-dot pumpkin prints hang on a white wall. A wooden table holds a figure in an acrylic case and a vase of flowers, and on a display bed of grey stones sits a yellow polka-dot pumpkin object.\n\n## Three desserts to go\n\n\n Each label has the item name written by hand. \n \n\nThe desserts come in three pulp boxes. The labels say **\"COME HERE COME WITH ME\"** in red, followed by the COMMCOMM logo, a handwritten item name (one reads **\"베리\"**, berry) and the shop's address.\n\n\n Three boxes, three desserts. \n \n\nOpen them up and here's what's inside. A tall **soufflé-style pancake**, white cream on top with yellow cubes and an orange shard. A **square cake** covered in white cream, with red bits between the layers. And the last one:\n\n\n A chocolate bear, lying flat. \n \n\n**A chocolate-colored dessert shaped like a bear lying on its belly.** Only the snout is cream-colored.\n\n## Visitor info\n\n📍 **Lau Pa Sat (라우파샷)** · Hangang-ro 3-ga, around Hangangdae-ro 7-gil, Yongsan-gu, Seoul (a one-minute walk from Bâton)\n\n- 🍽️ **What I ordered**: Singapore shrimp noodles, satay and prawn skewers\n- 💰 **Price**: Singapore seafood muchim 18,000 won (wall poster)\n- 📱 **Ordering**: by QR code at the table\n- 🗺️ **Map**: [Open in Google Maps](https://www.google.com/maps/search/?api=1&query=%EB%9D%BC%EC%9A%B0%ED%8C%8C%EC%83%B7%20%EC%9A%A9%EC%82%B0%EA%B5%AC%20%ED%95%9C%EA%B0%95%EB%A1%9C3%EA%B0%80)\n\n📍 **COMMCOMM BAKERY CAFE** · 1F, 14 Hangangdae-ro 44-gil, Yongsan-gu, Seoul (Hangang-ro 2-ga, near Sinyongsan Station)\n\n- 🕐 **Hours**: Mon–Fri 08:30–22:00, Saturdays and public holidays 12:00–19:00\n- 🐶 **Pets**: welcome\n- 🗺️ **Map**: [Open in Google Maps](https://www.google.com/maps/search/?api=1&query=COMMCOMM%20%EC%9A%A9%EC%82%B0%EA%B5%AC%20%ED%95%9C%EA%B0%95%EB%8C%80%EB%A1%9C44%EA%B8%B8%2014)\n\n\nLau Pa Sat's name and the price are from the restaurant's poster during my visit in October 2026; I couldn't confirm the exact address or hours online, so only the neighborhood is listed. COMMCOMM's address is from its takeout label and the hours from the board at its entrance; a plaque by the door gives different hours (Mon–Fri 08:30–21:30, Sat 12:00–20:30, Sun 12:00–18:00), so check ahead on weekends and holidays. The description of the original Lau Pa Sat is from its official site (laupasat.sg, checked October 2026); I couldn't confirm any connection between the two.\n \n\n## Jayden's verdict\n\n> A place that takes Singaporean food seriously. The real thing in Singapore is better, of course, but this tastes genuinely local.\n\n- **Order this**: the satay and the Singapore shrimp noodles\n- **Tip**: ordering is by QR code, so bring your phone\n- **Tip**: COMMCOMM bakery cafe nearby welcomes pets. Check its hours ahead on weekends and holidays.\n"},{"slug":"yongsan-office-lunch-nodeul-tea-picnic","title":"Nodeul Island, Round Two: Takeout Burgers, Then a Coworker's Tea Ceremony by the Han","description":"The last of my lunch breaks by the Han. Back on Nodeul Island: takeout lunch, then a coworker brought out a tea set. A little chilly, and all the better.","topic":"diary","tags":["Yongsan Office Lunch","Nodeul Island","Han River Picnic","Korean Tea Ceremony","Seoul Diary"],"publishedAt":"2026-11-05T20:00:00+09:00","updatedAt":"2026-11-05T20:00:00+09:00","growthStage":"evergreen","version":"1.0","content":"\nTuesday was a public bike and an açaí bowl. Wednesday was Nodeul Island and a packed lunch.\n\nAt lunch on Thursday I was **back on Nodeul Island**, two days in a row. I brought lunch to go again, but the star of the day was something else. Once we had finished eating, **a coworker brought out a tea set.**\n\nIt was a bit windy. But that slight chill in the air? **I loved it.**\n\n\n**In three lines**: Thursday, October 15, 2026, my second lunch on Nodeul Island. On a black table over a rainbow-print picnic mat: **takeout burgers, fries and coleslaw**. After the meal, a coworker served tea, *dado*-style (the Korean way of tea), from a **celadon tea set** they had brought. Windy, a little chilly, all the better, and a lot of fun.\n \n\nThis is the last part of the series. The first two: [Part 1: an açaí bowl on a riverside deck, by public bike](/en/posts/yongsan-office-lunch-bike-ride) and [Part 2: a thermal lunch box on a stone bench on Nodeul Island](/en/posts/yongsan-office-lunch-nodeul-island).\n\n## A full table\n\n\n One grey box, several yellow MOM'S TOUCH wrappers and a tub of coleslaw. \n \n\nOn the way to the island I was carrying a paper bag printed with **SHAKE SHACK**. Around noon on Nodeul Island, the black table we set on a rainbow-print picnic mat filled up with takeout:\n\n- **A grey paper box**: a paper boat of **crinkle-cut fries** and a burger wrapped in white paper\n- **MOM'S TOUCH wrappers** (a Korean burger chain): several wrapped burgers with the yellow logo, and thin fries dusted with seasoning\n- **Coleslaw**: shredded cabbage and carrot in a clear tub, with a wooden spoon stuck in it\n- A **drink cup** in a paper carrier beside the table\n\n\n Crinkle-cut fries, and tomato and lettuce peeking out of the paper. \n \n\nUp close, the grey box holds a heap of wavy-cut fries in a paper boat, and the burger beside it is half-wrapped in white paper. Lettuce, two thick slices of tomato and something red that looks like bacon stick out of the wrapper.\n\n\n A wrapper with yellow drawings, and grass and river behind. \n \n\nI held one of the wrapped items up toward the river: behind it, dry grass, the riverside path and a grey Han River, all blurred.\n\n## The burger from the side\n\n\n Lettuce, tomato, melted cheese and a patty between the buns. \n \n\nHeld up and seen from the side: lettuce, a big slice of tomato, melted yellow cheese and a patty between golden buns. The crinkle-cut fries behind it now have ketchup on them. A few bites in, the burger was shrinking from one side.\n\n## A windy riverbank\n\n\n Sunlight breaking on the water, a white arch bridge on the left. \n \n\nLook up and there is the river. Not as clear as the day before, with a thin layer of cloud. The wind was up and the air a little chilly, and honestly, **that was the best part.** Where the sun got through, the water glittered. On the left, a **white arch bridge** (by its position, Hangang Bridge); across the river, a riverside road and buildings on a hill.\n\nWe were almost exactly where I had walked under the willows the day before, on the island's west bank.\n\n## After lunch, a coworker's tea ceremony\n\n\n The tea set on the tray, and an open thermos in front. \n \n\nOnce we had finished eating, my coworker brought out a **tea set** for *dado* (다도), the Korean way of preparing and serving tea. A **stainless steel tray** went on the table with a wire rack on top, and on the rack a **celadon teapot** and matching cups. The teapot has a handle on its side, and the glaze is covered in a net of fine crackle. In front: an open stainless thermos and a small lid rest with a brown clay base.\n\n\n Pale green tea in each cup. \n \n\nMy coworker filled every cup with **pale green tea**, tiny bits of leaf floating on top. The thermos spout tilted in, and the teapot lid came to rest on its stand. Celadon cups after burgers and fries. Tea served by the river in the wind was **so much fun.**\n\n## Three lunches in one table\n\n| Part | Date | Place | Lunch | Sky |\n| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |\n| [Part 1](/en/posts/yongsan-office-lunch-bike-ride) | Tue, Oct 13 | Riverside deck, Bogwang-dong | Jamba Juice açaí bowl | Packed with small clouds |\n| [Part 2](/en/posts/yongsan-office-lunch-nodeul-island) | Wed, Oct 14 | Nodeul Island | Packed thermal lunch box, black tea | Cloudless, cool breeze |\n| Part 3 | Thu, Oct 15 | Nodeul Island | Takeout burgers, fries, coleslaw; a coworker's tea ceremony | Thin cloud, windy |\n\nTuesday, Wednesday, Thursday: three lunch breaks in a row by the Han, anywhere from about fifteen to a little over fifty minutes by the water.\n\n## The lunch route\n\n- 📅 **Date**: Thursday, October 15, 2026, around noon\n- 📍 **Place**: the lawn on the west bank of Nodeul Island, Yongsan-gu, Seoul\n- 🍔 **Lunch**: takeout Shake Shack burger, crinkle-cut fries and drink; MOM'S TOUCH burgers and fries; coleslaw\n- 🍵 **Tea**: a coworker's tea set (celadon teapot and cups, stainless tray with a wire rack, thermos)\n- 🌬️ **Weather**: thin cloud, a bit windy and slightly chilly\n- 🗺️ **Map**: [Nodeul Island on Google Maps](https://www.google.com/maps/search/?api=1&query=Nodeul%20Island%20Seoul)\n\n## Jayden's verdict\n\n> It was a bit windy, but the slight chill made it even better. So much fun!\n\n- **Highlight**: after the burgers, a cup of tea poured by my coworker right by the river\n- **Who with**: coworkers. The tea set was my coworker's.\n- **Tip**: from the lawn on Nodeul Island's west bank you get the river and the white arch bridge in one view. On a windy day like this one, it gets a little chilly by the water.\n"},{"slug":"sangdo-nakji-hanmari-sujebi","title":"A Whole Octopus in Hand-Torn Noodle Soup, Sangdo-dong, Seoul: Lunch That Starts With Barley Rice","description":"A sujebi (hand-torn noodle soup) shop on the ground floor of the Brownstone arcade on Sangdo-ro, Dongjak-gu, Seoul: a whole small octopus in every bowl for ₩12,000, barley rice first, and easy parking.","topic":"food","tags":["Seoul Food","Sangdo-dong","Korean Noodle Soup","Sujebi","Octopus"],"publishedAt":"2026-11-04T22:00:00+09:00","updatedAt":"2026-11-05T00:00:00+09:00","growthStage":"evergreen","version":"1.2","content":"\nThe restaurant's Korean name, 낙지한마리수제비, means **\"sujebi with one whole octopus.\"** Sujebi is Korean hand-torn noodle soup, and the name is meant literally: inside the bowl sits **one small octopus**, whole.\n\nWednesday, around noon, on the ground floor of the Brownstone arcade on Sangdo-ro in Dongjak-gu. Before the soup, a bowl of **barley rice** came to the table.\n\n\n**In three lines**: a **hand-torn noodle soup** shop on the ground floor of the Brownstone arcade in Sangdo-dong. The bowl with a whole octopus is **₩12,000**, and ordering it brings **barley rice** first. Soft, chewy dough, octopus that isn't tough, and a perfect broth. **Highly recommended.**\n \n\n## Ground floor, red sign\n\n\n The red sign on the arcade's ground floor, with a parking notice by the door. \n \n\nThe red-lettered sign hangs over a shop on the arcade's ground floor. The banner by the door shows a big photo of sujebi topped with octopus, and below it a notice: **\"Parking is behind the building.\"**\n\nPark in the **arcade's car park**. It was very easy.\n\n\n Menu board and seafood photos, and two rows of autograph cards. \n \n\nInside, long wooden tables run down the room. The walls hold the menu board and framed photos of braised and stewed seafood, with **two rows of autograph cards** pinned underneath.\n\n\n The whole-octopus sujebi is ₩12,000. Everything on the menu can be taken away. \n \n\nSujebi tops the board: **clam sujebi ₩10,000, whole-octopus sujebi ₩12,000, seafood and octopus sujebi ₩15,000.** Below are a spicy octopus rice set, a seafood pancake and big Gaeseong-style dumplings; on the right, sharing dishes such as braised octopus, octopus hot pot and braised monkfish. The red strip at the bottom reads **\"All menu items available to take away.\"**\n\n## Barley rice comes first\n\n\n Barley rice and lettuce over a red sauce, with young radish kimchi on the side. \n \n\nOrder the sujebi and they bring **barley rice**. A scoop of rice mixed with barley, lettuce on top, a red sauce underneath, and a small dish of **yeolmu kimchi** (young radish kimchi) beside it.\n\nMix it and eat. **It's best as a starter.** By the time I photographed the sujebi, the barley bowl was already empty.\n\n## Sujebi with a whole octopus\n\n\n A whole octopus among the thin pieces of dough. \n \n\nClear broth in a black earthenware bowl. Thin pieces of **hand-torn dough** cover the surface, and among them sits **one whole octopus**, legs curled, head and all.\n\nThe dough is **soft and springy**, a lovely texture. The octopus is **just right to eat** and not tough at all. **The broth was perfect.**\n\n\n Octopus legs above the broth. \n \n\nThe portion was **about right**, and if you need more, just ask and they'll **give you more**. Generous, and kind.\n\n\n The barley rice went first; the sujebi was just getting started. \n \n\n## Visit info\n\n📍 **낙지한마리수제비상도** (Nakji Hanmari Sujebi Sangdo, \"whole-octopus sujebi, Sangdo\") · 19 Sangdo-ro 31-gil, Dongjak-gu, Seoul, Brownstone arcade **1F**\n\n- 🕚 **Hours**: Mon–Fri 11:00–22:00 (last order 21:30), Sat–Sun 11:00–21:30 (last order 21:00). Open every day of the year\n- 🍽️ **What I ordered**: whole-octopus sujebi ₩12,000 (barley rice and young radish kimchi come with it)\n- 🚗 **Parking**: the arcade car park, **behind the building** as the sign by the door says\n- 🥡 **Takeaway**: the menu board says everything can be taken away\n- 🧾 **Origin**: per the shop's origin board, octopus from China; rice and radish kimchi from Korea\n- 🗺️ **Map**: [View on Google Maps](https://www.google.com/maps/search/?api=1&query=%EC%84%9C%EC%9A%B8%20%EB%8F%99%EC%9E%91%EA%B5%AC%20%EC%83%81%EB%8F%84%EB%A1%9C31%EA%B8%B8%2019)\n\n\nPrices and origins are from the shop's menu and origin boards on 4 November 2026; hours are from its online listing on the same day. They can change, so please check before you go.\n \n\n## Jayden's verdict\n\n> Barley rice to start, then soft sujebi and tender octopus. The broth was perfect. I want it again.\n\n- **What I ordered**: the whole-octopus sujebi. The barley rice comes with it.\n- **Tips**: mix and eat the barley rice first as a starter. If the portion isn't enough, ask and they'll add more. Park behind the arcade.\n- **Going back?** Yes. Highly recommended.\n"},{"slug":"guui-chamchinara-tuna-omakase","title":"Chamchinara, Guui-dong: A Hidden Tuna Omakase That Grills Gopchang Too","description":"A hidden tuna omakase near Gangbyeon Station: fair prices, tuna until you're stuffed, and gopchang grilled on the side. A Saturday-night course in order.","topic":"food","tags":["Seoul Food","Tuna Omakase","Gwangjin-gu","Gangbyeon Station","Korean Sashimi"],"publishedAt":"2026-11-04T20:00:00+09:00","updatedAt":"2026-11-04T20:00:00+09:00","growthStage":"evergreen","version":"1.0","content":"\nEarlier that day I'd been at COEX for the closing day of [Frieze Seoul](/en/posts/frieze-seoul-2026-coex-amex-invitation). Dinner was in Guui-dong, Gwangjin-gu, near Gangbyeon Station on the east side of Seoul.\n\nThe sign reads **참치나라** (Chamchinara, \"Tuna Land\") in blue brush lettering, with **おまかせ 오마카세** (omakase) underneath. Inside, a wooden counter with the feel of a *nopo*, one of Korea's long-running, no-frills neighbourhood joints.\n\nBottom line first: **a hidden omakase gem, and seriously good.** If I lived anywhere near Guui, I'd honestly go every day.\n\n\n**In three lines**: **Chamchinara**, a hidden tuna *omakase* (chef's-choice) spot in Guui 3-dong, Gwangjin-gu, near Gangbyeon Station. **Fair prices**, tuna piled onto a seaweed-lined bamboo mat **until you're stuffed**, and they even **grill gopchang on the side**. Old-school vibe, very satisfied, 100% going back. Per the notice on the door, it's **closed on Sundays**.\n \n\n## It starts with udon and Chungha\n\n\n Udon in a wood-grain bowl. \n \n\nWe sat down around 9 p.m., and **udon** was the first thing on the wooden counter: clear broth, thick noodles, fried tofu and green onion in a round wood-grain bowl.\n\n\n A bottle of Chungha, pickled garlic, white pickles and seasoned laver. \n \n\nNext to it: a green bottle of **Chungha** (a Korean clear rice wine), a shot glass and a paper cup. A black dish holds **pickled garlic** and thin white pickled slices, with a few packets of **seasoned laver** (*gim*) stacked behind.\n\n## A seaweed-lined bamboo mat, the first round of tuna\n\n\n Two kinds of sashimi and radish sprouts on a seaweed-lined mat. \n \n\nThen the house format appears. A **bamboo mat** sits on a wooden tray, piled with **fine, dark green seaweed** like a nest, and the sashimi goes on top.\n\nRound one has two kinds: **pink tuna slices** on the left and **white slices flecked with red** on the right, with radish sprouts in the middle and wasabi in the corner. A glass soy-sauce dispenser stands alongside.\n\n## Whelks and grilled fish\n\n\n A three-section dish: grilled fish, whelks and another grill. \n \n\nNext, a **three-section white dish**: two pieces of skin-on grilled **orange-fleshed fish**, a pile of **boiled whelks** with a small fork, and two browned **chunks of grilled fish**, each on a perilla leaf.\n\n## Thick-cut red tuna\n\n\n The mat refilled, with thicker cuts. \n \n\nThe mat gets refilled. This time it's **deep red tuna** cut **thick**, almost into cubes, plus two red-flecked white slices. The pieces are bigger and thicker than round one.\n\n**The portions of tuna are generous.**\n\n## Gopchang on the side, then abalone\n\n\n Grilled gopchang with garlic, peppers and green onion. \n \n\nIt's a tuna place, and yet they **grill gopchang** (beef small intestine) for you on the side. I haven't seen that anywhere else.\n\nA black stone plate holds browned pieces of **gopchang**, grilled alongside whole **garlic cloves** with char marks, blistered **shishito-like peppers** and halved **green-onion whites**.\n\n\n Thinly sliced abalone on the mat. \n \n\nOne side of the mat gets **thin slices of abalone**, the dark frilled edge still attached, with a few radish sprouts and a pink slice of sashimi in front.\n\n## The mat keeps filling until you're full\n\n\n Pink tuna with white streaks. \n \n\nThe refills keep coming. Several long slices of **pink tuna with white streaks running through**, a red chunk, a white slice.\n\nThen red tuna and abalone, then big pink and white slices again. The seaweed stays put; only what sits on top changes. It goes on **until you're stuffed**.\n\n## Rice balls wrapped in green laver\n\n\n Black-sesame rice wrapped in green laver and topped with orange roe. \n \n\nBetween rounds, a different plate: **four rice balls** on a blue floral dish. Rice mixed with black sesame is wrapped in loose **green laver** (*parae-gim*) and topped with **orange roe** and a brown piece.\n\n## Pajeon and seafood ramyeon to finish\n\nA white square dish of dark brown pieces that look braised comes out once, and then the pancake.\n\n\n Pajeon cut into triangles. \n \n\n**Pajeon** (Korean green-onion pancake) on a blue-rimmed plate, cut into four triangles and browned in patches, with green onion showing through.\n\n\n Seafood ramyeon with clams and shrimp. \n \n\nLast, **seafood ramyeon**: curly noodles in red broth in a white bowl, topped with **clams**, **shrimp**, white pieces of seafood and dried vegetable flakes.\n\nBy this point you are **completely full**.\n\n## Near midnight, the sign on the way out\n\n\n The Chamchinara sign with おまかせ and the phone number. \n \n\nIt was close to midnight when we left. **참치** (tuna) in blue brush lettering on white, **나라** (land) small beneath it, then **おまかせ 오마카세**, and **02-447-0119** in red at the bottom. A second copy of the sign hangs inside the window, under a row of bare bulbs.\n\nThe door has a notice made of menu pictures, with **참치** (tuna) and **해물모듬숙회** (assorted blanched seafood) at the top and, in big letters at the bottom, **일요일은 쉽니다**: \"Closed on Sundays.\"\n\n## Practical info\n\n📍 **Chamchinara (참치나라)** · around Gangbyeon-yeok-ro, Guui 3-dong, Gwangjin-gu, Seoul (near Gangbyeon Station, Line 2)\n\n- 📅 **Visited**: Saturday, September 5, 2026, dinner\n- ☎️ **Phone**: 02-447-0119\n- 🗓️ **Closed**: Sundays\n- 🗺️ **Map**: [View on Google Maps](https://www.google.com/maps/search/?api=1&query=%EC%B0%B8%EC%B9%98%EB%82%98%EB%9D%BC%20%EA%B5%AC%EC%9D%98%EB%8F%99%20%EA%B0%95%EB%B3%80%EC%97%AD%EB%A1%9C)\n\n\nThe name, the \"omakase\" wording and the phone number come from the shop sign, and the Sunday closing from the notice on the door (September 2026 visit). I couldn't confirm the exact address, opening hours or prices online, so they're not listed. Call ahead before you go.\n \n\n## Jayden's verdict\n\n> A hidden omakase gem. If I lived near Guui, I'd honestly go every day.\n\n- **Order this**: the tuna that keeps coming on the bamboo mat, and the gopchang they grill on the side.\n- **Price and portions**: fair prices, generous tuna, and they keep feeding you until you're stuffed.\n- **Going back?**: 100%.\n- **Tip**: closed on Sundays, so for a weekend visit, go on Saturday. My afternoon that day is in the [Frieze Seoul post](/en/posts/frieze-seoul-2026-coex-amex-invitation).\n"},{"slug":"yongsan-crystal-jade-jjamppong","title":"Crystal Jade, Yongsan I'Park Mall: Jjamppong With a Coworker on a Late Night, Plus a Coupon Pancake","description":"Working late, so dinner with a coworker at Crystal Jade, Yongsan I'Park Mall: seafood jjamppong, jajangmyeon, six xiaolongbao and a coupon sojwabing.","topic":"food","tags":["Seoul Food","Crystal Jade","Yongsan I'Park Mall","Jjamppong","Yongsan Office Lunch"],"publishedAt":"2026-11-03T20:00:00+09:00","updatedAt":"2026-11-03T20:00:00+09:00","growthStage":"evergreen","version":"1.0","content":"\nI was working late. Dinner still had to happen, so a coworker and I headed out. The mission: **jjamppong**.\n\nThis is the second time *jjamppong* (spicy Korean-Chinese seafood noodle soup) has shown up on this blog. The first was at [Guryonggak in Yangjae](/en/posts/yangjae-guryonggak-jjamppong-ganjjajang). This time, true to my life as a Yongsan office worker, it was I'Park Mall, the shopping mall attached to Yongsan Station, and **Crystal Jade** inside it. A Wednesday, around 7 p.m., and a bamboo steamer reached the table first.\n\n\n**In three lines**: **Crystal Jade**, a Chinese restaurant on **the 7th floor of Living Park** in Yongsan I'Park Mall. A late-night-at-work dinner with a coworker: **jjamppong** in the middle, with **jajangmyeon, xiaolongbao, sojwabing** (a flaky scallion pancake) and rice. The sojwabing was on a **coupon**, and we enjoyed it.\n \n\n## The steamer comes first\n\n\n Six xiaolongbao to a steamer, each with its pleats gathered at the top. \n \n\nFirst out were the **xiaolongbao** (soup dumplings): six of them in a ring on perforated paper inside a bamboo steamer. The skins are glossy, and the pleats on each one twist together at a single point on top.\n\n\n Two dishes of dark sauce with ginger, and a red-seasoned side dish. \n \n\nNext to them: **dark dipping sauce with julienned ginger** in two small dishes, and a blue-and-white plate holding a handful of translucent strips tossed in red seasoning. The placemats are printed with a **purple cloud pattern**.\n\n## The main event: jjamppong\n\n\n Octopus, mussels, mushrooms, cabbage. Some vegetable edges are charred. \n \n\nRight after, the **jjamppong** landed in the middle of the table: the bowl we came out for. The broth is an orange-tinged red, with toppings heaped above the surface.\n\nAn **octopus tentacle**, suckers and all, curls up out of the broth, with **mussels** in the shell wedged beside it. Brown-capped mushrooms and **wood ear mushrooms** sit among big pieces of **napa cabbage, onion and bok choy**, topped with thin strips of carrot and scallion. The cabbage and onion have **blackened, charred edges** in places.\n\n\n Jjamppong served into a small bowl. This is how much noodle was under the broth. \n \n\nMy coworker and I **split the jjamppong into small bowls**. The **white noodles** hidden under the broth come up with mussel, mushrooms and cabbage, and the big bowl is still full of them.\n\n## Jajangmyeon with cucumber on top\n\n\n Glossy black sauce and a handful of cucumber. \n \n\nBeside it, the **jajangmyeon** (noodles in black bean sauce) comes with so much sauce that no noodles show. **Large chunks of onion** and other pieces sit in the glossy black sauce, with a pile of thinly julienned **cucumber** on top.\n\n## Sojwabing, on a coupon\n\n\n Golden outside, thin layers inside, with scallion tucked between them. \n \n\nThe bonus of the night was **sojwabing**, a flaky scallion pancake, which we ordered with a **coupon**. It comes cut into pieces on a blue-and-white plate: golden pan marks outside, and at the cut edges the thin dough **separates into many layers**, almost see-through, with green scallion between them.\n\nIn a word, it tastes like a **jeon (Korean savoury pancake) with no filling**. Thanks to the coupon, we enjoyed it.\n\n## The whole table from above\n\n\n Clockwise from the jjamppong: jajangmyeon, rice, xiaolongbao, sojwabing. \n \n\nFrom above, our order for two is clear at a glance: **jjamppong** in the centre, **jajangmyeon** to the right, the **sojwabing** top left, the **xiaolongbao** bottom left and a bowl of **rice** below. Empty plates, ceramic spoons and the ginger sauce fill the gaps. Most of the dishes have blue rims or blue-and-white patterns.\n\n\n Amber tea in a white cup, with a stainless steel jug behind. \n \n\nA cup of **amber-coloured tea**, with a stainless steel thermos jug at the back of the table.\n\n## Visit info\n\n📍 **Crystal Jade, Yongsan I'Park Mall** · 7F Living Park, Yongsan I'Park Mall, 55 Hangang-daero 23-gil, Yongsan-gu, Seoul\n\n- 🚇 **Getting there**: inside I'Park Mall, which is connected to **Yongsan Station** (Seoul Subway Line 1 and the Gyeongui–Jungang Line)\n- 🍽️ **Ordered that day**: jjamppong, jajangmyeon, xiaolongbao, sojwabing (coupon), rice\n- 🗺️ **Map**: [Open in Google Maps](https://www.google.com/maps/search/?api=1&query=%ED%81%AC%EB%A6%AC%EC%8A%A4%ED%83%88%EC%A0%9C%EC%9D%B4%EB%93%9C%20%EC%9A%A9%EC%82%B0%20%EC%95%84%EC%9D%B4%ED%8C%8C%ED%81%AC%EB%AA%B0)\n\n\nThe floor (Living Park, 7F) and address are based on online place listings as of October 2026. Opening hours vary between sources, so they're left out, as are prices. Please check before you go.\n \n\n## Jayden's verdict\n\n> Jjamppong with a coworker in the middle of a late night at work, plus a coupon sojwabing that tastes like a jeon with no filling. We enjoyed it all.\n\n- **Who with**: a coworker, as dinner on a night I was working late.\n- **Ordered**: jjamppong in the middle, with jajangmyeon, xiaolongbao and the coupon sojwabing.\n- **Tip**: the jjamppong comes in one big bowl and empty plates are on the table from the start; we split it between two. I'Park Mall is connected to Yongsan Station.\n"},{"slug":"yongsan-office-lunch-nodeul-island","title":"A Packed Lunch on Nodeul Island: A Cool Breeze, the 63 Building and a Cup of Black Tea","description":"Part 2 of my lunch breaks by the Han. A packed lunch on Nodeul Island under a cloudless sky, a cool breeze, a freshly renovated island and a cup of black tea.","topic":"diary","tags":["Yongsan Office Lunch","Nodeul Island","Han River","Packed Lunch","Seoul Diary"],"publishedAt":"2026-11-02T20:00:00+09:00","updatedAt":"2026-11-02T20:00:00+09:00","growthStage":"evergreen","version":"1.0","content":"\nThe day before, the sky had been packed with small clouds.\n\nThe next day, Wednesday, the sky over Nodeul Island had **not a single cloud in it.** The breeze was cool.\n\nIn [Part 1](/en/posts/yongsan-office-lunch-bike-ride), I took a public bike to a riverside deck and finished an açaí bowl. The second lunch is on Nodeul Island, an island in the middle of the Han. This time I went with a **packed lunch box**, and a flask of black tea.\n\n\n**In three lines**: Lunch on Wednesday, October 14, 2026, a lunch-box outing to **Nodeul Island**. On a stone bench facing the Hangang Railway Bridge and the 63 Building, I opened a **thermal lunch box** (multigrain rice, soup, rolled omelette, kimchi) and poured a cup of the **black tea** I had brought. The freshly renovated island looked lovely, and **I want to go back.**\n \n\n## The 63 Building beyond a green bridge\n\nStand on the island's west bank and past the grass is the river, crossed by the **green truss Hangang Railway Bridge**. Behind it rise the towers of Yeouido, and the tallest, with the Hanwha logo at the top, is the **63 Building**. The sky is blue from top to bottom.\n\nNodeul Island sits in the Han River with Hangang Bridge running across its middle; it belongs to Yongsan-gu. Freshly renovated, the island looked lovely.\n\n\n Apartments across the river, seen through willow branches. \n \n\nA few steps on, willows line the riverside path. Their branches hang almost to the ground and sway in the cool breeze. Through them: apartment blocks and a riverside road on the far bank.\n\n\n Tall, thin trees over the lawn. \n \n\nOver the lawn, a few tall, thin trees point straight at the sky. One of them has already lost about half its leaves.\n\n## A thermal lunch box on a stone bench\n\n\n Lunch on a stone bench, the railway bridge and the 63 Building behind. \n \n\nA little after noon I opened lunch, on a **grey stone bench** at the edge of the lawn. The same railway bridge and 63 Building are right there behind it. I laid a napkin on the stone and set out the black thermal containers one by one.\n\n\n Multigrain rice, soup, rolled omelette and kimchi: four containers. \n \n\nWhat I packed:\n\n- **Rice**: white rice mixed with red grains\n- **Soup**: a clear soup with what looks like napa cabbage and scallion\n- **Rolled omelette** (*gyeran-mari*): yellow, studded with scallion and bits of carrot, cut into thick slices\n- **Kimchi**: leafy-green kimchi with chunks of radish in a small tub; the empty tub beside it holds only streaks of red seasoning\n\nThe rice, soup and omelette are in matching black thermal containers; the kimchi is in small plastic tubs. A stainless steel thermos stands beside them.\n\n## A cup of black tea\n\n\n The tag on the tumbler: Twinings Lady Grey. \n \n\nAfter lunch came the **black tea**. A **Twinings Lady Grey** tea bag tag hangs from the stainless tumbler, and the tea in the white ceramic mug is a light brown. A larger thermos stands next to it.\n\nA cup of black tea, outdoors. **I loved it.**\n\n## A loop through the flower beds\n\n\n A magpie on the sloping lawn. \n \n\nToward the end of the lunch break I walked the paths inside the island. On a sloping lawn stands **a magpie**, with dry grasses and shrubs along the edge and a small wooden birdhouse-like structure on the grass.\n\n\n Willows and the river beyond a bed of pink flowers. \n \n\nThe beds on the river side are full of low **pink and white flowers**, with name labels tucked among them. Beyond them, a willow, a pier at the water's edge and apartments on a hill across the river all fit in one frame. The water glittered in the sun.\n\n## Through the silver grass\n\n\n Silver grass and one of the island's buildings. \n \n\nA roadside bed is thick with **silver grass** (*eoksae*), its plumes leaning in the wind, and one of the island's low buildings sits behind it. Nearly 1 p.m.; I had spent a little over fifty minutes on the island.\n\n## The lunch route\n\n- 📅 **Date**: Wednesday, October 14, 2026, a little over fifty minutes around noon\n- 📍 **Place**: Nodeul Island, Yongsan-gu, Seoul (the island in the Han crossed by Hangang Bridge)\n- 👀 **The view**: the Hangang Railway Bridge, the 63 Building and Yeouido's towers to the west\n- 🍱 **Lunch**: a packed thermal lunch box (multigrain rice, soup, rolled omelette, kimchi)\n- ☕ **Tea**: Twinings Lady Grey black tea from a tumbler, a mug and a thermos\n- ☀️ **Weather**: clear, not a cloud, cool breeze\n- 🗺️ **Map**: [Nodeul Island on Google Maps](https://www.google.com/maps/search/?api=1&query=Nodeul%20Island%20Seoul)\n\n## Jayden's verdict\n\n> A packed lunch, a cool breeze and a cup of black tea. I want to go back to Nodeul Island.\n\n- **Highlight**: a lunch box facing the Hangang Railway Bridge and the 63 Building, and a cup of black tea outdoors\n- **Would I go back?**: Yes. The renovated island looked lovely.\n- **Tip**: sit on the stone benches at the edge of the lawn and the railway bridge and the 63 Building are straight ahead. The next day's lunch was on Nodeul Island too. [Part 1](/en/posts/yongsan-office-lunch-bike-ride) was a Seoul Bike and an açaí bowl.\n"},{"slug":"homo-ludens-gamification-at-work","title":"Why Gamification Matters at Work: What Homo Ludens Teaches About Play and Work","description":"Huizinga argued in Homo Ludens that culture arises in and as play. What play's features mean for work and onboarding, and gamification beyond points and badges.","topic":"work","tags":["Gamification","Homo Ludens","Onboarding","Project Management","First Run"],"publishedAt":"2026-11-02T09:00:00+09:00","updatedAt":"2026-11-02T09:00:00+09:00","growthStage":"evergreen","version":"1.0","relationships":[{"type":"continues","slug":"onboarding-is-an-experience"}],"content":"\nIn [part 1](/en/posts/why-onboarding-matters-in-projects), I wrote about why onboarding matters in projects. In [part 2](/en/posts/onboarding-is-an-experience), I argued that onboarding should be an experience, not a document. The question for this last post: why turn that experience into a game, of all things?\n\nTo answer it, we need to talk about play before we talk about work.\n\n\n**At a glance**\n\n- In *Homo Ludens* (1938), Johan Huizinga argued that civilization arises and unfolds in and as play.\n- The play he described has freedom, a time and place set apart from ordinary life, order and rules, and tension. Those features look a lot like the conditions of good onboarding.\n- Good gamification isn't about sticking points on top of work. It's about putting the judgment at the heart of the work into the form of play.\n \n\n## *Homo Ludens*: man the player\n\nThe Dutch historian Johan Huizinga (1872–1945) published *Homo Ludens* in Dutch in 1938. The English edition, which came out in 1949, carries the subtitle *A Study of the Play-Element in Culture*. *Homo ludens* is Latin for \"man the player,\" or the playing human.\n\nThe book's central claim fits in one line:\n\n> Civilization arises and unfolds in and as play.\n>\n> — Johan Huizinga, *Homo Ludens*\n\nHuizinga isn't saying that play later turned into culture. He's saying culture emerged in the form of play from the very beginning, and never fully left it. That's why he treated play not as one branch of culture but as something that comes before it. Early in the book he notes that play is older than culture, since animals never waited for humans to teach them how to play. From there, he goes looking for the play-element in law, war, poetry, philosophy and art.\n\n## Play, as Huizinga saw it\n\nIn the first chapter, Huizinga sets out the formal features of play. Four of them matter most for this post:\n\n- **Freedom**: play is voluntary. In the English translation's words, \"play to order is no longer play\"; at best it's a forced imitation.\n- **A separate time and place**: play happens apart from ordinary life, for a set stretch of time. Huizinga grouped the arena, the card table, the stage and the court of justice together as playgrounds, and the magic circle is on that same list. Decades later, Katie Salen and Eric Zimmerman popularized the term in *Rules of Play* (2003) as shorthand for the special space you step into when a game begins.\n- **Order and rules**: Huizinga wrote that play creates order, and is order. The rules inside a game bind everyone, and whoever breaks them spoils the game itself.\n- **Tension**: the uncertainty of an outcome not yet decided, and the urge to resolve it through your own effort. Huizinga thought this tension plays a particularly important part in play.\n\nThere's one more. Huizinga also said play is connected with no material interest. I'll come back to that fifth feature later.\n\n## Laying play over onboarding\n\nPut those four features next to the conditions of good onboarding from [part 2](/en/posts/onboarding-is-an-experience) and they overlap more than you might expect:\n\n| Feature of play | Carried into onboarding |\n|---|---|\n| Freedom | Room to choose what to explore first and which options to try |\n| A separate time and place | A practice ground that doesn't touch the real project. Mistakes made here stay here |\n| Order and rules | The criteria for a good decision are visible and apply to everyone equally |\n| Tension | You make a choice without knowing the outcome, then see the result and the reasoning right away |\n\nI want to underline the second row. In part 2, one condition of good onboarding was a safe place to be wrong. In Huizinga's terms, that's exactly the playground set apart from ordinary life. Because everyday rules are suspended there for a while, you can try the choices you'd hesitate to make on a real project, and fail at them.\n\n\n Four features of play as Huizinga described them, and what they look like as onboarding design. \n \n\n## Good gamification and shallow gamification\n\nGamification is usually defined as the use of game design elements in non-game contexts, a definition proposed by Sebastian Deterding and colleagues in 2011. The trouble is how broad that is. The same game element can produce completely different results depending on how you use it.\n\n| | Shallow gamification | Gamification done well |\n|---|---|---|\n| Core | Points, badges and leaderboards stuck on top of existing content | Making the call at work becomes the core action of the game |\n| Rewards | Given for logging in, clicking and getting to the end | Given for good decisions, together with the reasoning |\n| Failure | You lose points or drop down the leaderboard | A chance to learn why and try again |\n| Participation | Pushed with leaderboards and reminders | You open the next quest because you're curious |\n\nBy Huizinga's standards, shallow gamification isn't play. Leave a dull document as it is and bolt points onto it, and people tend to learn how to collect points before they learn the content. Pressure people into joining through a leaderboard, and the freedom is gone. **It borrows the look of play while stripping out what makes play work**.\n\nIn gamification done well, rewards follow judgment. Levels and badges aren't the goal. They're a record that says, \"I can now make calls like these.\"\n\n## Work isn't play, and yet\n\nThere's something I should be honest about. Huizinga said play has no material interest. Work does. We're paid for it, and it has real consequences. You can't turn work into play wholesale, and I don't think you should. You can't treat a real production incident like a game.\n\nBut **the time when you're learning the work** is different. Onboarding is time set aside to practice judgment, a step removed from real consequences. It's the most natural place for Huizinga's separate playground to exist. For the stretch when someone is first learning how a company works, I think there's every reason to borrow the form of play.\n\nOne more thing. Onboarding is usually mandatory, which seems to clash with freedom. Here's how I resolve that tension: **what you need to learn can be fixed, while how you walk that path stays your choice**. Which mentor to meet first, which option to try, when to retry the ones you missed. Even that much freedom moves onboarding a little closer from something you have to do to something you want to do.\n\n## That's why I built First Run\n\nIf, as Huizinga argued, human culture arose in play, then onboarding, the first time someone meets a company's culture, can start in play too. That's why I built [First Run](https://firstrun.fit/en). The conditions of play from this post are all in it:\n\n- **A separate space**: the campus of Make Feelbetter, a fictional IT company. Decisions made there don't affect any real project.\n- **Order and rules**: every answer is graded Excellent, Good, Risky or Poor, with the reasoning and a learning point.\n- **Tension**: you choose what to do first in real work situations and see the outcome right away. There are answer combos, too.\n- **Freedom**: you pick one of five roles to start, and from level 3 you can take on other roles' quests. Missed quests can be retried on the Review Board.\n- **Rewards as a record**: a seven-chapter story from prologue to epilogue, levels, badges, area unlocks and 12 achievements, and at the end a result report with your strengths, areas to work on and recommended review quests.\n\nStill, the center of First Run is judgment, not points. The project context from part 1, onboarding as an experience from part 2, and play from this post: I wanted to bring all three together in one place. Turning onboarding you read into onboarding you decide and experience. That's why I built First Run.\n\n**Try it yourself** — the demo is free in your browser on desktop or mobile, with no sign-up, in Korean, English, Japanese and Spanish. If you're curious about a version built for your company or project, you can request a custom build on the site. [Play First Run →](https://firstrun.fit/en)\n\nThat's the end of the *Onboarding, Played* series. Thanks for reading all the way through.\n\n\n**In three lines**: **Auckland Pie Garage**, a New Zealand-themed place on Dosan-daero 49-gil in Apgujeong Rodeo. A Wednesday lunch of **Kiwi Brekkie** (21.0), **fish and chips** (23.0), **minute steak** (29.0) and **fisherman's pasta** (21.0). If you order one thing, make it the **fish and chips**. Menu prices are written **in thousands of won**, so 21.0 means 21,000 won.\n \n\n## A sign on the shutter, Kia ora one letter at a time\n\n\n The shutter-box sign, with Kia ora below. \n \n\nBold black letters on a silver shutter box read **AUCKLAND PIE GA**. Under the ceiling hang letter cards in a row: **K·i·a·-·o·r·a**. The walls and ceiling inside are bare **OSB board**, lit by yellow glass pendant lamps.\n\nA yellow sticker on the glass display case by the door says **NEW ZEALAND kiwi kiwi**. The **APG** that keeps turning up on the menu (APG house salad, A.P.G signature) looks like the shop's initials.\n\n## The menu: five pies and a \"Garage Brunch\"\n\nWe sat down around noon and opened the menu clipped to a board. Here's what it lists, with prices.\n\n**New Zealand pies** (\"Baked fresh, served hot\")\n\n| Pie | Price |\n| --- | --- |\n| Mince & cheese pie | 12.0 |\n| Butter chicken pie | 13.0 |\n| Chicken & leek pie | 12.0 |\n| Steak & cheese pie | 14.0 |\n| Sausage roll | 13.0 |\n\nPies can be made into **combos**: Mash combo (mashed potato, gravy, green peas) **+3.9**, Salad combo (APG house salad) **+6.9**, Chips combo **+5.9**.\n\n**Garage Brunch** (\"From the kitchen\")\n\n| Dish | Price |\n| --- | --- |\n| Seafood chowder | 12.0 |\n| 3 eggs omelet | 16.0 |\n| Root salad | 18.0 |\n| Garage eggs Benedict (bacon +1.0, salmon +2.0) | 21.0 |\n| **Kiwi Brekkie** | **21.0** |\n| Spicy meatball (as pasta +4.0) | 19.0 |\n| Super Neba cold noodle | 23.0 |\n| 3 layers lasagna | 22.0 |\n| **Fisherman's pasta** | **21.0** |\n| Mushroom crumble pasta | 19.0 |\n| **Minute steak** | **29.0** |\n| **Fish & chips** (salad instead of chips +2.0) | **23.0** |\n\nDesserts: choco fudge cake 7.0, almond pie 6.5, carrot cake 6.0, mini lemon tart 5.0, C.C.C. cookie (chocolate chunk chewy cookie) 3.0.\n\n## Coffee first\n\n\n Leaf-shaped latte art. \n \n\nThe coffee beat the food: a white cup on a black saucer with **leaf-shaped latte art**, a paper napkin tucked underneath.\n\n## Kiwi Brekkie: a whole breakfast on one plate\n\n\n Sausage, hash brown, bacon, asparagus, scrambled eggs and bread. \n \n\nAbout ten minutes later, two plates arrived together. The first was the **Kiwi Brekkie** (\"brekkie\" is Kiwi and Aussie slang for breakfast). The menu lists scrambled eggs, bacon, sausage, spinach, asparagus, mushroom, tomato, hash brown and baked beans.\n\nA **thick sausage**, scored on the diagonal, carries a round **hash brown** on its back. Bacon and asparagus sit behind it, a heap of yellow **scrambled eggs** beside it, and two slices of white bread brushed with olive oil lean in at the front.\n\nFrom above you can see it all: two hash browns, a cherry tomato, fried onion and mushrooms, and **baked beans** filling the edge of the plate.\n\n## Seriously good fish and chips, with malt vinegar on the side\n\n\n Fried fish, crinkle-cut chips and peas, with Sarson's malt vinegar on the side. \n \n\nThe second was **fish and chips**: a steel basket with handles, lined with newsprint-style paper and piled with **fried fish** and **crinkle-cut chips**, topped with arugula and shredded carrot, with a handful of **green peas** and a sauce in a steel cup at the front. The menu describes it as fish, chips, tartar and green peas.\n\nThe bottle beside it is **SARSON'S MALT VINEGAR**, labelled \"Craft brewed, since 1794\": malt vinegar with fish and chips, the British way.\n\nSplit a piece of fish and the **white flesh** comes apart in flakes. A pair of **tongs** sits between the two plates for sharing.\n\nThis is the basket I'd point you to first. **The fish and chips are seriously good.**\n\n## Minute steak: sliced beef and green beans\n\n\n Stacked steak over a fried egg, green beans and baked beans alongside. \n \n\nThe third plate was the **minute steak**. The menu lists beef, fried egg, mashed potato and baked beans.\n\n**Sliced seared beef** is stacked up and sprinkled with parsley, with a **fried egg** showing its yolk behind it, baked beans and a roasted carrot. Grill-marked **green beans** are piled in front, with a dark brown sauce in a steel cup and a spoonful of **wholegrain mustard** at the edge.\n\n## Fisherman's pasta: three green mussels\n\n\n Three big green-lipped mussels, shrimp and a squid ring. \n \n\nLast came the **fisherman's pasta**. The menu says NZ green mussels, squid and an oil-based pasta.\n\nOn top of the spaghetti: **three big mussels** with green-edged shells (New Zealand green-lipped mussels), several shrimp, one squid ring, a cherry tomato and a lemon wedge, all under parsley and grated cheese.\n\n## Practical info\n\n📍 **Auckland Pie Garage** · around Dosan-daero 49-gil, Apgujeong Rodeo, Sinsa-dong, Gangnam-gu, Seoul\n\n- 🗓️ **Visited**: Wednesday, October 7, 2026, lunch\n- 🚇 **Getting there**: about 500 m from Apgujeongrodeo Station (Suin–Bundang Line).\n- 💰 **Prices** (from the menu): pies 12.0–14.0, brunch and mains 12.0–29.0, in thousands of won (12.0 = 12,000 won).\n- 📋 **How the menu works**: add a combo to a pie (+3.9 to +6.9); fish and chips can come with salad instead of chips (+2.0).\n- 🗺️ **Map**: [View on Google Maps](https://www.google.com/maps/search/?api=1&query=Auckland%20Pie%20Garage%20%EC%95%95%EA%B5%AC%EC%A0%95%EB%A1%9C%EB%8D%B0%EC%98%A4%20%EB%8F%84%EC%82%B0%EB%8C%80%EB%A1%9C49%EA%B8%B8)\n\n\nPrices and dishes are from the in-store menu during my October 2026 visit. I couldn't confirm the exact street number or opening hours online, so they're not listed. Check a map app before you go.\n \n\n## Jayden's verdict\n\n> An Apgujeong favourite: British food with a New Zealand accent, and the fish and chips are seriously good.\n\n- **Order this**: the fish and chips.\n- **Also on the table**: Kiwi Brekkie, minute steak, fisherman's pasta and a latte-art coffee.\n- **Tip**: menu numbers are in thousands of won, so 21.0 is 21,000 won.\n- **See also**: for another lunch in Sinsa-dong, over on the Garosu-gil side, see [Not Bad Coffee & Sandwich](/en/posts/sinsa-not-bad-coffee-sandwich-hangang).\n"},{"slug":"onboarding-is-an-experience","title":"Onboarding Is an Experience, Not a Document: Deciding Sticks Better Than Reading","description":"Plenty of onboarding docs, yet new members still get lost. Why reading doesn't stick, and the four things good onboarding needs instead.","topic":"work","tags":["Onboarding","New Hires","Employee Training","Project Management","First Run"],"publishedAt":"2026-11-01T09:00:00+09:00","updatedAt":"2026-11-01T09:00:00+09:00","growthStage":"evergreen","version":"1.0","relationships":[{"type":"continues","slug":"why-onboarding-matters-in-projects"}],"content":"\nIn [the last post](/en/posts/why-onboarding-matters-in-projects), I looked at why onboarding matters in projects from a PM's point of view. The conclusion went like this: goals, scope, decision makers and change processes can be handed over in documents, but **how to judge the situations you keep running into** doesn't travel well on paper.\n\nThis post picks up the next question. So what does good onboarding look like?\n\n\n**At a glance**\n\n- Documents tell you what the rules are. They're much less good at telling you what to do first in the situation in front of you.\n- Good onboarding has four things: decisions in realistic situations, role-based paths, feedback with reasons, and a safe place to be wrong.\n- In one sentence: onboarding should be something you experience, not something you read.\n \n\n## Plenty of onboarding material, and people still get lost\n\nA lot of onboarding looks the same. A few wiki links, a company intro deck, some process docs and a friendly \"Ask me anything.\" The [First Run](https://firstrun.fit/en) site lists four reasons this kind of onboarding often fails:\n\n| Problem | What happens |\n|---|---|\n| Repeated explanations | The team explains the same company and project context to every newcomer |\n| Documents that go unread | There's plenty of material, but it's hard to finish or remember |\n| Slow ramp-up | Until people face real situations, they don't know how to act |\n| Role-specific standards | Developers, PMOs, planners, designers and publishers each need different things |\n\nThe one I think sits underneath the others is the third. Even people who have read every document get stuck, because **knowing a rule and recognizing the moment it applies are different skills**.\n\nSay the onboarding doc reads: \"Scope changes must come in as change requests.\" Everyone nods. But the real moment doesn't arrive wearing a \"change request\" label. It arrives on a Friday afternoon two days before launch, when a friendly client contact messages you: \"Could you just tweak this one line of copy?\" Recognizing that message as a change request is not a skill you get from reading the doc one more time.\n\n## Four conditions of good onboarding\n\nSo where does that instinct come from? I think good onboarding needs four things.\n\n### 1. You make decisions in situations that resemble real work\n\nThis matters most. It means changing the basic unit of onboarding from **a document to read** to **a situation to judge**. A situation has context, it has options, and each choice has consequences.\n\nI went through the same thing studying for the PMP. Most PMP questions don't test facts directly. They describe a project situation and ask what the PM should do first. As I wrote in [Part 1 of my PMP review](/en/posts/pmp-pass-review-part-1), when I memorized answer sentences, I got the question wrong again as soon as a few words changed. So in my [error log](/en/posts/pmp-error-log-method) I stopped copying questions and started collecting judgment rules: \"If ___, first ___.\" Onboarding works the same way, I think. What should stick isn't a list of rules. It's judgment in context.\n\n### 2. Each role has its own path\n\nA developer and a designer can join the same project and face completely different situations in week one. The developer has to make calls on API errors and debugging, the planner on conflicting requirements, the designer on design system rules and usability reviews. Onboarding that shows everyone the same slides fits nobody.\n\nThat doesn't mean you only need to know your own role, though. Projects run on collaboration, and conversations get much easier when you understand what keeps the people next to you up at night. **A path that starts with your role and then widens to the roles around you** is the second condition.\n\n### 3. You get reasons, not just right or wrong\n\n\"Correct\" and \"Incorrect\" don't teach much on their own. At work, choices are rarely simply right or wrong. They're **better or riskier**. One option is the best move, another is fine but not ideal, and another looks harmless now but carries real risk. That's why feedback needs both a grade and a reason.\n\n\nThe quest below is an example I wrote for this post. It is not an actual First Run quest.\n \n\n> **Situation** — Friday afternoon, two days before launch. The client contact messages you: \"Could you change the text on the checkout button? It's a quick one.\" You're a developer who joined the project this week. What do you do first?\n\n| Choice | Grade | Why |\n|---|---|---|\n| Share the request with the PM and let them decide whether it becomes a change request | Excellent | A change right before launch can affect QA, translation and UAT, so the decision belongs to the decision maker |\n| Ask the client about the impact first, then summarize it for the PM | Good | The direction is right, but negotiating on your own before a decision can set expectations |\n| It's small, so fix it now and tell the PM after it's deployed | Risky | Well meant, but it skips the agreed process and adds regression risk right before launch |\n| Say you're busy, suggest Monday, and don't write it down | Poor | The request disappears and comes back after launch as a bigger issue |\n\nCompare Risky and Poor. Neither is a good choice, but for different reasons. Risky is the danger that comes from trying too hard. Poor is the problem that comes from letting something slip. Hearing that difference, with the reasoning, is what changes your call the next time a similar situation comes up.\n\n### 4. There's a safe place to be wrong\n\nPick the Risky option on a real project and you pay for it after launch. Onboarding is one of the few times you can be wrong without paying that price. For that to work, it has to be clearly OK to get things wrong, and you need a way to go back and try again. Not a test you fail once and move on from, but a practice ground where you see why you missed and take another shot.\n\n\n The four conditions drawn as one loop: a situation, a decision, the reason, and another try. \n \n\n## Document-based vs. experiential onboarding\n\nPut the four conditions side by side and the difference is clear:\n\n| | Document-based onboarding | Experiential onboarding |\n|---|---|---|\n| Basic unit | A document to read | A situation to judge |\n| Path | The same material for everyone | A path per role, widening to other roles later |\n| Feedback | None, or right/wrong | A grade, the reasoning and a learning point |\n| Mistakes | Made for the first time on real work | Made in practice first, then retried |\n| Done when | You've read it all | You can make the call |\n\nTo be clear, I'm not saying documents are useless. For information you need to look up, like goals, scope and decision makers, documents are the best tool. But onboarding that ends with documents leaves out the hardest part for a new member: the first moment they have to make a call on their own.\n\n## That's why I built First Run\n\nWhen I asked myself what format could hold all four conditions at once, my answer was an RPG. That's why I built [First Run](https://firstrun.fit/en). Here's where the four conditions live in it:\n\n- **Judgment in context**: quests built from real work situations ask what you'd do first. They're judgment questions, not facts to memorize.\n- **Role-based paths**: there are quests and mentor NPCs for five roles (developer, PMO, publisher, planner and designer), and from level 3 you can take on other roles' quests too.\n- **Feedback with reasons**: every answer is graded Excellent, Good, Risky or Poor, with the reasoning and a learning point.\n- **Safe failure**: missed quests can be retried on the Review Board, and at the end a result report lists your strengths, areas to work on and recommended review quests.\n\nAll of it can be customized for a company or a project. Quests can be built from your real work scenarios and project rules, with NPCs modeled on your mentors, your office map and your branding. In other words, a scene like the example quest above can be filled with your own team's real situations.\n\nOnboarding documents aren't going anywhere. But where the documents end, the moment a new member first has to decide alone begins. I wanted people to live through that moment safely, before it happens on a real project. That's why I built First Run.\n\n**Try it yourself** — the demo is free in your browser, with no sign-up, in Korean, English, Japanese and Spanish. [Play First Run →](https://firstrun.fit/en)\n\nThe next post tackles the last question in this series: why a game, of all things, and why play matters at work. I'll look for the answer in Johan Huizinga's *Homo Ludens*.\n\n\n**In three lines**: Lunch on Tuesday, October 13, 2026. An **açaí bowl** from Jamba Juice at Yongsan Station I'Park Mall (granola, mango, coconut chips, chia seeds), carried by **Ttareungyi** (Seoul's public bike) to the riverbank toward Oksu. On a bench on a riverside deck in Bogwang-dong I finished it in about fifteen minutes, under a sky **packed with small clouds**.\n \n\n## A wall of apartments across the water\n\n\n High-rise apartments line the opposite bank. \n \n\nThe river opens up in front of the bench. The water is calm, and on the far bank high-rise apartments stand shoulder to shoulder like a wall. The sky is grey cloud from end to end.\n\nMy bench: **the riverbank next to Gangbyeon-buk-ro (the north-bank expressway) in Bogwang-dong, Yongsan-gu**, between Banpo Bridge and Hannam Bridge, on the north-bank stretch heading toward Oksu.\n\n## What came out of the Jamba bag\n\n\n Lid still on, the river behind. \n \n\nOut of the bag came one clear cup with a lid, full of purple açaí, with some smeared on the inside of the lid. Mango and granola show just underneath. Behind it, blurred: the railing, the river and the buildings across the water.\n\n\n Lid off, the toppings are piled to one side. \n \n\nLid off, the toppings sit piled to one side of the purple açaí: **granola, a yellow cube of mango, coconut chips, chia seeds and a single blueberry.** Under the chia seeds are slices that look like banana. The spoon is white plastic.\n\nThe white paper bag under the cup says **Jamba** in orange script.\n\n## The bike, by the railing\n\n\n The bike parked by the deck railing, its Ttareungyi plate on the basket. \n \n\nI sat on a riverside deck with a red floor. There is a wooden bench, and beyond the metal railing, willows lean out toward the water. The **Ttareungyi** (따릉이) is parked tight against the railing: green wheel rims, the plate on the front of the basket.\n\n\n Willows beyond the railing, and a bridge far off. \n \n\nTurn toward the railing and the river shows between the willow branches, a bridge crossing it far off. Below the deck is a slope of rocks and brush.\n\n## Look up: clouds, edge to edge\n\n\n Small clouds covering the whole sky. \n \n\nWith the açaí bowl nearly at the bottom, I looked up. **Small puffs of cloud were packed across the whole sky**, white light leaking through the gaps: what people call a mackerel sky. Along the very bottom, the apartments across the river stood in silhouette.\n\n## The bottom of the cup\n\n\n The cup says hello sunshine. The sky said otherwise. \n \n\nI held the cup up to the sky. The side reads **hello sunshine**, the inside is streaked with purple, and a little açaí is left at the bottom.\n\n\n The nearly empty cup and spoon on the bag. \n \n\nI set the nearly empty cup and the spoon down on the bag. Just past 12:30. Back on the Ttareungyi, and back I went.\n\n## The lunch route\n\n- 📅 **Date**: Tuesday, October 13, 2026, about fifteen minutes on the riverbank from around 12:20\n- 🥣 **Lunch**: one açaí bowl from Jamba Juice at Yongsan Station I'Park Mall\n- 🚲 **Getting there**: Ttareungyi from Yongsan Station along the river toward Oksu, and back\n- 📍 **Bench**: riverside deck next to Gangbyeon-buk-ro, Bogwang-dong, Yongsan-gu, Seoul (north bank between Banpo Bridge and Hannam Bridge)\n- ☁️ **Weather**: overcast, the whole sky covered in small clouds\n- 🗺️ **Map**: [Open in Google Maps](https://www.google.com/maps/search/?api=1&query=37.524%2C127.0027)\n\n## Jayden's verdict\n\n> An açaí bowl, a riverside bench, and back. When it comes to bikes, it has to be a Ttareungyi!\n\n- **Highlight**: an açaí bowl on a willow-lined riverside deck, under a mackerel sky\n- **Route**: Jamba Juice at Yongsan I'Park Mall → Ttareungyi → riverside bench toward Oksu → back again\n- **Tip**: take it to go from Yongsan I'Park Mall and hop on a Ttareungyi, and you can eat on the riverbank and be back within your lunch break.\n- **Next**: that week I went to the river at lunch on Wednesday and Thursday too.\n"},{"slug":"why-onboarding-matters-in-projects","title":"Why Onboarding Matters in Projects: Decisions Made Without Context Become Risks","description":"People join projects all the time. A PM's look at repeated explanations, slow ramp-up and context-free decisions, and why onboarding is project management work.","topic":"work","tags":["Onboarding","Project Management","PM","New Hires","First Run"],"publishedAt":"2026-10-31T09:00:00+09:00","updatedAt":"2026-10-31T09:00:00+09:00","growthStage":"evergreen","version":"1.0","content":"\nProject teams rarely finish with the same people they started with. A schedule slips and another developer is brought in. A partner swaps out its staff. A planner moves over from another team halfway through. And every time someone new arrives, the project hears the same question again: \"Why did we decide to do it this way?\"\n\nThis series starts from that question. Over three posts, I'll look at why onboarding matters so much in projects, what good onboarding actually looks like, and why play belongs at work. Where all of that thinking led me is [First Run](https://firstrun.fit/en), an onboarding RPG I built for new hires and people joining a project.\n\n\n**At a glance**\n\n- Projects are temporary, so people keep joining them, and each arrival needs onboarding all over again.\n- Weak onboarding costs you in three places: repeated explanations, slow ramp-up and decisions made without context.\n- That makes project onboarding less an HR welcome event and more a PM's job: knowledge transfer and risk management.\n \n\n## Projects are made of people coming and going\n\nWhen I wrote about [what changed at work after the PMP](/en/posts/pmp-what-changed-at-work), I quoted the PMBOK Guide 8th edition's definition of a project: \"a temporary initiative in a unique context undertaken to create value.\" The word I keep connecting to onboarding is **temporary**.\n\nOperational teams build up context by having the same people do the same work for a long time. Projects work differently. You gather people around a goal, the skills you need change from phase to phase, and when it's over everyone disperses. Joining isn't the exception. It's routine. And the people joining aren't all the same:\n\n- **New hires**: new to the company and new to the project.\n- **Mid-project joiners**: they know the company, but not this project's decision history.\n- **Vendors and partners**: great at their craft, unfamiliar with how your organization works.\n- **People changing roles**: they know the people and the company, but not the judgment calls of the new role.\n\nAll four need onboarding. Yet when we say \"onboarding,\" most of us only picture the first group: the welcome deck, account setup, the benefits briefing. The onboarding a project needs is far more specific than that.\n\n## What happens when a new member works without context\n\nPicture this scene. It's a made-up example to illustrate the point, not a real case.\n\n> A developer joins a project three weeks before launch. On day two, the client contact messages them directly: \"Could you add one filter to the product list? It's a small thing.\" Wanting to be helpful, the new developer ships it in half a day. But this project agreed that scope changes go through the PM as change requests, and that one filter expands the QA scope and the UAT scenarios. A week goes by before anyone notices.\n\nDid the new developer do something wrong? I don't think so. Most likely they knew the rule but **didn't realize it applied to this exact situation**, even if the onboarding doc said, in one line, \"Scope changes go through the PM.\"\n\nThat scene contains all three costs of weak onboarding:\n\n| Cost | What it looks like | Through a PM's eyes |\n|---|---|---|\n| Repeated explanations | Every new person gets the same background from scratch | Senior people's and the PM's time drains into work nobody planned for |\n| Slow ramp-up | Long stretches of asking and waiting because nobody knows what comes first | The time until new people are fully productive is missing from the schedule assumptions |\n| Context-free decisions | Well-meant decisions that clash with agreed scope and process | Risks to scope, quality and schedule pile up quietly |\n\nThe first two are visible. The third is the scary one. Repeated explanations only cost time, but decisions made without context **quietly shift the direction of the project** while nobody is looking.\n\n## The numbers say onboarding is hard\n\nThis isn't only a project problem. Across organizations, onboarding is something most people say isn't done well.\n\n- [Gallup](https://www.gallup.com/workplace/235121/why-onboarding-experience-key-retention.aspx) reports that **only 12% of employees** strongly agree their organization does a great job onboarding new employees.\n- According to [SHRM](https://www.shrm.org/topics-tools/topics/onboarding), **only 29% of new hires** felt prepared and supported to excel in their new role.\n\nBoth figures are about new hires in general, not people joining a project midway. Still, if even new employees rarely feel ready, I'd expect someone dropped into a project that's already running to feel it even more.\n\n## Onboarding is project management work\n\nThat's why I see project onboarding not as an HR event but as **something the PM should manage**. Lay a PM's usual responsibilities next to onboarding and the overlap is obvious:\n\n| PM responsibility | What it means for onboarding |\n|---|---|\n| Resource and team management | Plan the ramp-up period along with the start date. Decide who explains what in week one |\n| Knowledge transfer | Keep decision history, what you agreed not to do and lessons learned in a structure, not in one person's head |\n| Stakeholder alignment | On day one, make clear who decides and whom to ask about what |\n| Risk management | Treat a new member's ramp-up period as a risk and plan a response |\n| Change control | Show the change request process through real situations, not just a document |\n\nThe last row is the heart of this post. Explaining a procedure and helping someone recognize when it applies are two different things. What the developer in the scene needed wasn't a list of rules. It was the chance to have already lived through the moment a client says \"it's a small thing\" and asks for something directly.\n\n## 5 things project onboarding should cover\n\nWhen someone new joins a project, these are the five things I'd make sure to cover at a minimum:\n\n1. **Why**: once this project is done, who will be able to do what better.\n2. **How far**: the agreed scope, and what we agreed not to do.\n3. **Who decides**: decision makers, communication channels and when to escalate.\n4. **What happens when things change**: the change request process and the reason behind it.\n5. **How we judge common situations**: what this team does first when the schedule slips, requirements collide or a quality issue shows up.\n\nItems 1 through 4 can be handed over in documents, more or less. Item 5 is different. Judgment sinks in less through reading and more **through making the call yourself**. And I think it's exactly where most onboarding is weakest.\n\n## That's why I built First Run\n\nWhile writing this, I kept coming back to item 5. Judgment doesn't travel well through documents, yet judgment calls are usually what shake a project. So I thought there should be a kind of onboarding where you can practice those calls in advance. That's [First Run](https://firstrun.fit/en).\n\nFirst Run is an onboarding RPG in which new hires and people joining a project experience real workplace situations as quests. You join Make Feelbetter, a fictional IT company, pick one of five roles (developer, PMO, publisher, planner or designer) and make decisions in quests handed out by mentor NPCs. The situations are the kind you meet at work: schedule delays, API issues, requirements, UI decisions and accessibility problems. The PMO role covers risk handling, schedule coordination and change control. The idea was simple: let people live through moments like the scene above inside a game first, instead of on a live project.\n\n\n First Run's share image. Game-based onboarding for new hires and project teams. \n \n\nI designed First Run from my practical experience as a PMP®-certified project manager, and it can be customized for a company or a project. Project onboarding scenarios, internal workflows and common workplace situations can all become quests, so it works for project kickoff training and vendor or partner onboarding as well as for new hires.\n\nIn a project, onboarding starts over every time someone joins. If that start can be an experience instead of an explanation, I believe a new member's first decisions become a lot less risky. That's why I built First Run.\n\n**Try it yourself** — the demo is free and runs in your browser on desktop or mobile, with no sign-up. [Play First Run →](https://firstrun.fit/en)\n\nIn the next post, I'll go one step further: why document-based onboarding doesn't stick, and what good onboarding looks like.\n\n\n**In three lines**: A **birthday dinner for seven** at **Hanwoomul**, a *hanwoo* (Korean beef) course restaurant on Itaewon-ro 16-gil, Yongsan-gu. In a private room: an endive bite, **hanwoo seared in a pan right at your seat**, noodles, pasta, soup, pot rice and **purple ice cream**, more than ten plates in all. **The meat and the owner's service were both excellent.** I'm 100% going back.\n \n\n## Under the HANWOOMOOL canopy and up the stairs\n\n\n HANWOOMOOL on the canopy. Behind the glass door are the stairs. \n \n\nOpen the glass door and the stairs go straight up. A small window by the entrance displays **dried flowers, an antique telephone, a wine bottle and an ornate clock**.\n\nOur private room centres on one long **stainless-steel table**. Its surface has a circular brushed pattern, so the lights spread across it in rings. Each seat has its own **induction hob**.\n\nOn the dark wall hangs a single frame: a painting of two faces clinking glasses of purple wine.\n\n## It starts with one-bite plates\n\n\n An endive leaf used as a cup, with a chopped filling and a slice of radish. \n \n\nThe first plate is **a single endive leaf** used as a little cup for a finely chopped filling, topped with red tomato pieces, a sprig of dill and a paper-thin slice of radish. Olive oil and pepper run down the leaf.\n\n\n Cooked beef under a glossy dark sauce. \n \n\nNext, a beige glazed bowl with **a few slices of cooked beef**, topped with a glossy dark brown sauce, thin rings of green onion and one thick round slice of green onion.\n\n\n Cut the skewered meatball open and there's melted cheese in the middle. \n \n\nThird: **a fried meatball on a bamboo skewer**, snowed under with grated cheese over a bed of tomato sauce. Cut it in half and you get a breadcrumb crust, minced meat, and **melted white cheese** right in the centre.\n\n\n One tomato in a rough ceramic cup. \n \n\nA rough ceramic cup holds **one peeled tomato** with a sprig of dill and a little pale beige liquid at the bottom.\n\nMeanwhile a **shallow two-handled pan** goes onto the induction hob in front of us, and two black plates each get a small pot of seasoning and a mound of wasabi.\n\n## The star: marbled hanwoo\n\n\n Marbled hanwoo, coarse salt, rosemary, asparagus and half a grapefruit. \n \n\nThen the round black plate: several **thick, densely marbled pieces of hanwoo**, sprinkled with coarse salt and topped with rosemary. Behind them, **three asparagus spears** and **half a grapefruit**.\n\nFine white fat spreads like a net through every piece. **The quality of the meat was excellent.**\n\n\n Fries with grated cheese in front of the beef. \n \n\nIn front of the beef: **fries**, cut thin and covered in grated cheese and parsley, with an orange sauce in a steel cup.\n\n## Seared right at your seat\n\n\n Two pieces of beef, half a grapefruit, asparagus and rosemary in the pan. \n \n\nThe beef goes into the pan **two pieces** at a time, with **half a grapefruit**, cut asparagus and a sprig of rosemary on top. On the plate behind, the rest of the beef waits with tongs and scissors.\n\nA few minutes of steam later, the turned beef is **browned on the outside**. The grapefruit half stays cut-side up at one edge of the pan.\n\n## Noodles, pasta and seared cubes\n\n\n Seared beef, pink in the middle, on stir-fried noodles. \n \n\nWhile the beef cooks, a brown striped stoneware bowl arrives: **thick noodles** stir-fried in a dark sauce, topped with a few slices of **seared beef, pink in the centre**. Chunks of onion, chopped chives and a golden crumb topping are scattered over it.\n\n\n Wide pasta, orange sauce, grated cheese. \n \n\nThen **wide flat pasta** in a black bowl, tossed in an orange sauce and covered with grated cheese and parsley. At one end of the table, a **black earthenware pot** with a wooden ladle is set on a wooden stand.\n\nTwo more beef plates follow: on a grey plate, **a single glossy, dark brown piece of beef** beside a ring of salt; on a black plate, **one seared piece topped with wasabi**.\n\n\n Seared cubes with wasabi and a chopped chili sauce. \n \n\nAnd then a black rectangular plate of **seared hanwoo cubes** piled on grilled asparagus, still red in the centre, with a mound of **pale green wasabi** and a small pot of chopped chili and vegetables in oil.\n\n## Soup, pot rice and purple ice cream\n\n\n A doenjang-coloured soup with tofu. \n \n\nTime for the rice course. First, a black bowl of **light broth the colour of *doenjang*** (Korean soybean paste), with tofu, translucent vegetable chunks, chives, light brown pieces and dark bits.\n\n\n Rice mixed in the pot, served with a clear soup. \n \n\nRice from a black pot on a burner is **stirred with a wooden paddle** and served by the bowl: **rice mixed with small bits of meat and chives**, alongside a **clear soup** with sliced green onion.\n\n\n A scoop of deep purple ice cream in a basket-weave glass bowl. \n \n\nLast comes **a scoop of deep purple ice cream** in a basket-weave glass bowl. When we got up, only empty glass bowls, water pitchers, glasses and the induction hob were left on the table.\n\n## The course at a glance\n\n| Order | What came out |\n| --- | --- |\n| 1 | Chopped filling on an endive leaf |\n| 2 | Cooked beef with a dark sauce |\n| 3 | Fried meatball on a skewer (cheese inside) |\n| 4 | Tomato in a cup; pan and seasonings set up |\n| 5 | Raw hanwoo plate (grapefruit, asparagus, rosemary); cheese fries |\n| 6 | Hanwoo seared in the tabletop pan |\n| 7 | Stir-fried noodles topped with seared beef |\n| 8 | Wide flat pasta; earthenware pot |\n| 9 | A glossy dark piece; a seared piece with wasabi; seared hanwoo cubes |\n| 10 | Doenjang-coloured soup with tofu |\n| 11 | Rice mixed in the pot; clear soup |\n| 12 | Purple ice cream |\n\n## Practical info\n\n📍 **Hanwoomul (한우물, HANWOOMOOL)** · 14-4 Itaewon-ro 16-gil, Yongsan-gu, Seoul (Itaewon 1-dong)\n\n- 🗓️ **Visited**: Sunday, July 26, 2026, dinner\n- 🚇 **Getting there**: about 250 m from Itaewon Station (Line 6).\n- 📅 **Booking**: CatchTable (a Korean reservation app). Check before you go.\n- 🗺️ **Map**: [View on Google Maps](https://www.google.com/maps/search/?api=1&query=%ED%95%9C%EC%9A%B0%EB%AC%BC%20%EC%9D%B4%ED%83%9C%EC%9B%90%EB%A1%9C16%EA%B8%B8%2014-4)\n\n\nThe address and booking method are based on online information as of October 2026. Esquire Korea (April 2022) and Harper's Bazaar Korea (April 2023) described the place as a hanwoo omakase serving a single \"Compact Grilling Course.\" I didn't confirm the official name of the course we had or the cuts of beef, and course prices and opening hours differ between sources, so they're not listed.\n \n\n## Jayden's verdict\n\n> The meat and the owner's service were both excellent. 100% going back.\n\n- **Order this**: the marbled hanwoo seared in the pan at your seat.\n- **Who with**: seven of us, a family birthday dinner. The restaurant set us up in a private room.\n- **Going back?**: 100%.\n- **Tip**: first plate to dessert takes about an hour, so keep an hour and a half free. For a big group, ask about a private room in advance.\n"},{"slug":"sinsa-not-bad-coffee-sandwich-hangang","title":"Not Bad Coffee & Sandwich, Sinsa-dong: A Jambon Focaccia and a Seoul Bike Ride Along the Han","description":"After a morning health check-up the weather was gorgeous. A jambon sandwich and coffee to go from NOT BAD COFFEE & SANDWICH, then by bike to the Han River.","topic":"food","tags":["Seoul Food","Sinsa-dong","Jambon Beurre","Han River Picnic","Seoul Bike"],"publishedAt":"2026-10-29T20:00:00+09:00","updatedAt":"2026-10-29T20:00:00+09:00","growthStage":"evergreen","version":"1.0","content":"\nThe morning belonged to my company's annual health check-up.\n\nWhen I walked out afterwards, **the weather was gorgeous.** Suddenly all I wanted was the Han River park.\n\nSo I got a sandwich and a coffee to go, grabbed a public bike and rode to the river. After eating, I kept going along the water **all the way to Nodeul Station**.\n\n\n**In three lines**: **NOT BAD COFFEE & SANDWICH**, on Nonhyeon-ro 163-gil in Sinsa-dong. The menu lists nine focaccia sandwiches at **5,900–8,900 won**. I took a **jambon sandwich (the apricot jambon focaccia) and a coffee** to go, ate on the riverbank near Jamwon, then biked along the Han to Nodeul Station.\n \n\n## A scowling face and a lime-green door\n\n\n A scowling face logo on a white wall, and NOT BAD COFFEE & SANDWICH below it. \n \n\nA white wall juts out from the ground-floor corner of a glass building. On it: a **face with a furrowed brow**, and below it, **NOT BAD COFFEE & SANDWICH**.\n\nThe windows carry the same name in big white hand-drawn letters, ringed with stars and sandwich doodles. The door is lime green, with an OPEN sign hanging on it.\n\n\n A backlit round mirror and stainless steel stools. \n \n\nInside: a tall wooden table, stainless steel stools, round aluminum tables, and a round mirror with light spilling out from behind it.\n\nA convex mirror in the shop carries the line **\"THIS SANDWICH WON'T SAVE THE WORLD!\"** A small card hanging by the menu goes further: **WORK HARD. EAT SMART. LIVE HAPPY. BE NOT BAD!**\n\n## The menu: nine focaccia sandwiches\n\n\n Sandwich names and prices are written by hand on the display glass. \n \n\nA glass case at the counter holds focaccia sandwiches on two shelves. On the glass, in white: **NOT BAD FOCACCIA 6.9**, **APRICOT JAMBON**, **BACON EGG MAYO**, **BBQ PULLED PORK 8.9**. As on many Korean cafe menus, \"6.9\" means 6,900 won.\n\nThe menu next to the counter comes in three groups. Ingredients are as printed on it.\n\n| Group | Sandwich | Price | Ingredients listed |\n| --- | --- | --- | --- |\n| Fresh & Friendly | Not Bad Fresh Focaccia | 5,900 won | Fresh mozzarella, tomato, arugula, lemon olive oil |\n| Fresh & Friendly | Not Bad Focaccia (BEST) | 6,900 won | House jambon ham, basil pesto, tomato, white cheddar, frill ice lettuce |\n| Fresh & Friendly | Apple Peanut Butter Focaccia | 6,900 won | Apple, white cheddar, peanut butter (vegan) |\n| Jambon & Deli | Apple Ricotta Jambon | 7,500 won | Apple, ricotta, honey, house ham, arugula |\n| Jambon & Deli | **Apricot Jambon Focaccia (BEST)** | **7,900 won** | Jambon, butter spread, arugula, apricot jam |\n| Jambon & Deli | Truffle Honey Butter Jambon Focaccia | 7,900 won | Jambon, truffle honey butter, arugula |\n| Meat & Impact | Jalapeño Mushroom Cream Chicken Focaccia | 7,900 won | Chicken thigh, mushrooms, jalapeño, cream sauce, sun-dried tomato, white cheddar |\n| Meat & Impact | Bacon Egg Mayo Focaccia (BEST) | 8,900 won | Bacon, egg mayo, sun-dried tomato, frill ice lettuce, barbecue sauce |\n| Meat & Impact | BBQ Pulled Pork Focaccia (BEST) | 8,900 won | Pulled pork, white cheddar, pickled onion, nachos, chipotle mayo, barbecue sauce |\n\nAbove the menu: **order a drink with your sandwich and take 1,000 won off**. The top line of the drinks screen, an Americano, is 3.5. I added a coffee to my sandwich.\n\n## A jambon sandwich, one tick on the sticker\n\n\n All nine sandwiches on the sticker; the only tick is next to APRICOT JAMBON. \n \n\nMy pick was a **jambon sandwich**: cured ham and butter, the classic French *jambon-beurre* pairing. On this menu it goes by **Apricot Jambon Focaccia**, with arugula and apricot jam added to the jambon and butter spread.\n\nTakeout comes in a kraft box with a clear lid, inside a plastic bag. A pale green sticker on the box lists the nine sandwiches in English, each with a checkbox, and the tick is next to **APRICOT JAMBON**.\n\nIn the bag: a small cup of **pickles**, wet wipes, napkins and a green instruction card. The gist of the card:\n\n- Not eating it right away? **Wrap it, or put it in a zip bag or airtight container, and refrigerate**\n- **Eat it within a day** if you can\n- **1–2 minutes in an air fryer at 200°C** warms it up\n\n## Into the bike basket, off to the river\n\n\n My bag and the coffee in the basket, with the Seoul Bike plate on the front. \n \n\nFrom the shop to the riverbank is **a little over 900 m** in a straight line. On a *Ttareungyi* (따릉이), Seoul's public bike, I was at the water less than twenty minutes after leaving the shop. On the front of the basket, a \"SEOUL BIKE\" plate; inside, my bag and the lidded iced coffee.\n\n## N Seoul Tower across the water\n\n\n N Seoul Tower through the branches, on the far side of the river. \n \n\nI stopped on the **Jamwon Hangang Park** side of the river, right next to the riverside bike path. Stand under the trees and **N Seoul Tower** sits straight ahead on the hill across the water. Blue sky, long streaky clouds: the very reason I had wanted to come.\n\nA week later I ran up that hill at night; the run is in my [Namsan log](/en/topics/mountains/namsan).\n\n## Inside the focaccia\n\n\n Open the box: two pieces of focaccia in baking paper. \n \n\nThe box holds a square focaccia cut into two overlapping pieces. The top of the bread is dimpled all over, and ham and green leaves poke out of the middle.\n\n\n Thin ham, layer on layer. \n \n\nLift a piece and the cross-section is **thin ham, stacked in layers**. A disposable plastic glove on my hand, the sandwich still in its paper. Where I had bitten in, an **orange layer of apricot jam** and green arugula show between the ham.\n\n\n The coffee sleeve reads NOT BAD SUMMER. \n \n\nThe coffee is iced, under a clear domed lid. The sleeve has that scowling face again, **NOT BAD SUMMER**, and a few lines of small English text. Set down on the bare ground, it was about half gone.\n\n## Two friends on a bench\n\n\n Two older men side by side, facing the river. \n \n\nOn two green benches facing the river sat two older men, side by side. A cap each, both looking the same way. They looked like old friends.\n\nFriendship really is a beautiful thing, I thought. To add a spoonful of the humanities, Aristotle is reported to have put it like this:\n\n> \"What is a friend? A single soul dwelling in two bodies.\"\n> — Aristotle, as recorded by Diogenes Laërtius in *Lives of Eminent Philosophers*\n\n\n Green benches facing the river. \n \n\nThe bank is lined with green benches like these, all facing the river, with picnic tables under the trees. Among the trees further back, a few already show red and yellow leaves. Late September.\n\n\n A pigeon in the shade. \n \n\n## And on to Nodeul Station\n\nAfter eating, I got back on the bike. This time I headed west along the river, riding the Han River bike path **all the way to Nodeul Station**. A Monday morning that started with a health check-up stretched out a long way.\n\n## Visitor info\n\n📍 **NOT BAD COFFEE & SANDWICH, Apgujeong branch** · around Nonhyeon-ro 163-gil, Sinsa-dong, Gangnam-gu, Seoul\n\n- 🚇 **Nearest station**: Apgujeong Station (Line 3), a little over 400 m in a straight line\n- 💰 **Prices**: focaccia sandwiches 5,900–8,900 won; 1,000 won off when you add a drink\n- 🥡 **Takeout**: kraft box, pickles, wet wipes and a storage card\n- 🚲 **To the river**: Seoul Bike to the riverbank on the Jamwon Hangang Park side, a little over 900 m in a straight line\n- 🗺️ **Map**: [Open in Google Maps](https://www.google.com/maps/search/?api=1&query=NOT%20BAD%20COFFEE%20%26%20SANDWICH%20%EC%8B%A0%EC%82%AC%EB%8F%99%20%EB%85%BC%ED%98%84%EB%A1%9C163%EA%B8%B8)\n\nAnother stop in the same neighborhood: [Dallat, a Thai restaurant in Sinsa-dong](/en/posts/sinsa-dallat-thai-food).\n\n\nThe menu and prices are from the shop's menu board during my visit in September 2026. I could not confirm the opening hours or the exact street number, so only the neighborhood is listed. Please check a map app before you go.\n \n\n## Jayden's verdict\n\n> Check-up done and the sun is out? Grab a sandwich and head for the Han.\n\n- **Highlight**: a jambon sandwich with N Seoul Tower across the water, and two old friends on a bench\n- **Route**: the shop in Sinsa-dong → Seoul Bike → riverbank near Jamwon → along the Han bike path to Nodeul Station\n- **Tip**: add a drink to your sandwich for 1,000 won off. If you are not eating it right away, the shop's card says to refrigerate it and eat it within a day.\n"},{"slug":"hangang-weekend-run-ride-sunset","title":"Ichon and Oksu, Han River: A Tteokbokki Picnic, a 6 km Run, a 6 km Ride and a 63 Building Sunset","description":"Tennis with a friend, takeout tteokbokki by the Han, a 6 km run to Oksu, pull-ups, a Seoul Bike ride back and a 63 Building sunset. A perfect Saturday.","topic":"diary","tags":["Han River","Running in Seoul","Seoul Bike","Seoul Sunset","Seoul Diary"],"publishedAt":"2026-10-28T20:00:00+09:00","updatedAt":"2026-10-28T20:00:00+09:00","growthStage":"evergreen","version":"1.0","content":"\nSaturday. The weather was **perfect.**\n\nA tennis lesson with a friend, takeout tteokbokki on the Han River, a run to Oksu, a few pull-ups, a bike ride back and a sunset to finish. My watch kept two records.\n\n**A 6.07 km run and a 6.45 km bike ride.**\n\n\n**In three lines**: After a tennis lesson with a friend, I picked up *tteokbokki*, *sundae* and fish cakes to go from **Hot Star** in Sindorim and ate by the river in Ichon. **Seriously good.** Then I ran 6.07 km (5'26\"/km) from Ichon to Oksu, did pull-ups at the Oksu outdoor gym and rode a **Seoul Bike 6.45 km** back. At dusk, **the sun set beside the 63 Building**; dinner was barbecue in Noryangjin.\n \n\n## Morning: a tennis lesson with a friend\n\n\n An indoor court covered in yellow balls. \n \n\nThe weekend started with a tennis lesson with a friend. A red indoor court, yellow balls piled up in front of the net.\n\n## Lunch: Hot Star tteokbokki by the river\n\nAfter the lesson I picked up tteokbokki, sundae and *eomuk* (fish cakes) to go from **Hot Star** (핫스타), a tteokbokki shop in Sindorim, and spread it all out on the Han River bank in Ichon-dong, Yongsan-gu.\n\n\n Hot Star tteokbokki: thick rice cakes and flat fish cakes. \n \n\nA green-striped paper bowl of *tteokbokki* (rice cakes in spicy red sauce), with **thick rice cakes and flat fish cakes** sunk in the sauce. It sits on a black mat on the grass, among black plastic bags.\n\nBottom line: **seriously good.** No exaggeration.\n\n\n Fried snacks, sundae and offal. \n \n\nThe next bag held fried snacks in white paper, and a plastic bag of **sundae** (Korean blood sausage) with slices that look like liver and lung. Tteokbokki, sundae, fish cakes, fried bits: the classic street-snack spread, picnic edition, under a perfectly clear sky.\n\n## A heron at the water's edge\n\n\n A grey heron on a rock by the bank. \n \n\nNear the picnic spot, a **grey heron** stood on a rock in the shallows: a long-necked grey bird just beyond the riverside bushes.\n\n## Ichon to Oksu: about 6 km on foot\n\nFed and ready. At 2:30 p.m. I ran east along the river from Ichon **all the way to Oksu**. My Apple Watch recorded this:\n\n| Item | Record |\n| --- | --- |\n| Recorded | 14:32–15:08 |\n| Distance | **6.07 km** |\n| Workout time / elapsed | 33:01 / 35:56 |\n| Average pace | **5'26\"/km** |\n| Average heart rate | 167 bpm |\n| Active calories (total) | 388 kcal (439 kcal) |\n| Elevation gain | 10 m |\n| Average cadence | 166 spm |\n| Weather | 25°C, 37% humidity |\n\nThe 1 km splits:\n\n| Split | Pace | Heart rate |\n| --- | --- | --- |\n| 1 km | 5'23\" | 149 bpm |\n| 2 km | 5'22\" | 168 bpm |\n| 3 km | 5'21\" | 170 bpm |\n| 4 km | 5'28\" | 170 bpm |\n| 5 km | 5'26\" | 174 bpm |\n| 6 km | 5'39\" | 163 bpm |\n| Final 0.07 km | 5'07\" | - |\n\nEach of the first three splits was a second faster than the last; the slowest was the sixth (5'39\"). Heart rate peaked at 174 bpm in the fifth.\n\n## Catching my breath at Oksu\n\n\n The Hangang Bus pier at Oksu, seen from under the bridge. \n \n\nAt Oksu, the **Hangang Bus Oksu pier** floats on the river below the bridge. The Hangang Bus is Seoul's river-bus service.\n\n\n Powerade poured over ice. \n \n\nA bottle of **Powerade Mountain Blast** on a wooden table, glugged blue into a cup full of ice.\n\n\n A Hangang Bus on the river. \n \n\nA little later a white boat marked **Hangang Bus** on the side and **GO SEOUL** at the back went by.\n\n## Pull-ups at the Oksu outdoor gym\n\n\n Hangang outdoor gym Oksu, under the overpass. \n \n\nUnder the overpass at Oksu is the **Hangang outdoor gym Oksu** (한강헬스장 옥수): big white letters on a blue floor, with bars and outdoor exercise machines behind them. After the run, I knocked out some **pull-ups** here.\n\n## Back to Ichon on a Seoul Bike\n\nFor the way back I took a **Ttareungyi**, Seoul's public bike, from Oksu to Parking Lot 4 at Ichon Hangang Park.\n\n| Item | Record |\n| --- | --- |\n| Recorded | 16:01–16:23 |\n| Distance | **6.45 km** |\n| Workout time | 21:56 |\n| Average speed | **17.6 km/h** |\n| Average heart rate | 162 bpm |\n| Active calories (total) | 138 kcal (167 kcal) |\n| Elevation gain | 6 m |\n\n## Dusk beside the 63 Building\n\n\n A street lamp with a wind turbine. \n \n\nBack in Ichon, the sun was starting to drop. The sky above the apartment blocks across the river turned yellow, and the riverside street lamps carry a small wind turbine and a solar panel on top.\n\n\n Orange spreading under the clouds. \n \n\nAround 5:30 p.m. the undersides of the western clouds turned orange. On the right, the gold **63 Building**, a Yeouido landmark.\n\nThe photo at the top of this post came a few minutes later. The sun dropped between the towers to the left of the 63 Building, and its light stretched across the water below the bridge.\n\n\n The sun from the riverbank. \n \n\nBring the grassy bank into the frame and the sun hangs between buildings, a column of light standing on the river.\n\n\n Pink light after the sun went down. \n \n\nOnce the sun was gone, only pink and purple clouds remained. From the first orange to the last pink, I stayed on the same stretch of bank for more than half an hour.\n\n## Pork barbecue in Noryangjin\n\n\n Pork on a round grill over charcoal. \n \n\nDinner was across the river at a barbecue place in Noryangjin-dong, Dongjak-gu. On a round grill over charcoal: a strip of **pork belly** with visible layers of fat and several chunks of pork, kimchi in a dish at the edge. Rice, *gyeranjjim* (steamed egg) in a stone pot and lettuce came with it.\n\n## The route\n\n- 🎾 **Morning**: indoor tennis lesson with a friend\n- 🧺 **Lunch**: tteokbokki, sundae and fish cakes to go from Hot Star in Sindorim → picnic on the Ichon riverbank\n- 🏃 **Run**: Ichon → Oksu, 6.07 km\n- 💪 **Oksu**: the Hangang Bus pier, pull-ups at Hangang outdoor gym Oksu\n- 🚲 **Seoul Bike**: Oksu → Ichon Hangang Park Parking Lot 4, 6.45 km\n- 🌇 **Dusk**: the 63 Building sunset from the Ichon riverbank\n- 🍖 **Dinner**: barbecue in Noryangjin-dong\n- 🗺️ **Maps**: [Hot Star, Sindorim](https://www.google.com/maps/search/?api=1&query=%EC%8B%A0%EB%8F%84%EB%A6%BC%20%ED%95%AB%EC%8A%A4%ED%83%80%20%EB%96%A1%EB%B3%B6%EC%9D%B4) · [Ichon Hangang Park Parking Lot 4](https://www.google.com/maps/search/?api=1&query=%EC%9D%B4%EC%B4%8C%ED%95%9C%EA%B0%95%EA%B3%B5%EC%9B%90%204%EC%A3%BC%EC%B0%A8%EC%9E%A5) · [Hangang Bus Oksu pier](https://www.google.com/maps/search/?api=1&query=%ED%95%9C%EA%B0%95%EB%B2%84%EC%8A%A4%20%EC%98%A5%EC%88%98%20%EC%84%A0%EC%B0%A9%EC%9E%A5) · [Hangang outdoor gym Oksu](https://www.google.com/maps/search/?api=1&query=%ED%95%9C%EA%B0%95%ED%97%AC%EC%8A%A4%EC%9E%A5%20%EC%98%A5%EC%88%98)\n\n\nThe Hangang Bus pier list (seven piers: Magok, Mangwon, Yeouido, Apgujeong, Oksu, Ttukseom, Jamsil) is based on Seoul Metropolitan Government Mediahub articles as of October 2026. Workout figures are from my Apple Watch.\n \n\n## Jayden's verdict\n\n> Weather, tteokbokki, a run and a sunset. One Saturday had all of it.\n\n- **Highlight**: Hot Star tteokbokki from Sindorim, eaten by the river. Seriously good.\n- **Who with**: a weekend that started with a tennis lesson with a friend.\n- **Route tip**: run about 6 km from Ichon to Oksu, do pull-ups at the Oksu outdoor gym, then ride a Seoul Bike back to Ichon Hangang Park Parking Lot 4.\n- **Sunset tip**: from Ichon, looking west, the 63 Building's silhouette lines up with the sunset. That day the sun dropped between the towers a little after 5:30 p.m.\n"},{"slug":"yaksu-kyoomo-ramen","title":"Kyoomo Ramen, Yaksu-dong: Two Bowls Marked 'きょうも' and a Chashu Rice Bowl","description":"A small ramen counter near Yaksu Station where customers keep coming in: two bowls printed 'きょうも', chashu rice, karaage and a Sapporo. Deep flavour.","topic":"food","tags":["Seoul Food","Kyoomo Ramen","Yaksu","Tori Paitan Ramen","Jung-gu"],"publishedAt":"2026-10-27T20:00:00+09:00","updatedAt":"2026-10-27T20:00:00+09:00","growthStage":"evergreen","version":"1.0","content":"\nFour hiragana characters run along the rim of the bowl: **きょうも** (*kyō mo*). In Japanese it means \"today, too.\"\n\nA Tuesday at the end of July, around 8 p.m. Two of those bowls landed on the counter of a small ramen shop in a side street near Yaksu Station.\n\nBottom line first: **it's really good.** The flavour runs deep.\n\n\n**In three lines**: **Kyoomo Ramen** is a *tori paitan* (creamy chicken broth) ramen shop on **Dasan-ro 8-gil**, near Yaksu Station in central Seoul. It's small, **customers keep coming in**, and the flavour is **deep**. That evening: two bowls of ramen plus a chashu rice bowl, karaage and a bottle of Sapporo.\n \n\n## The first bowl\n\n\n 'きょうも' on the inside rim. The toppings cover almost the whole bowl. \n \n\nThe first bowl has a **cloudy, beige broth** with fine bubbles on the surface, and barely a gap between the toppings.\n\nOn one side, **three** thin, pale pink slices of meat fan out, next to a slice of **chashu** (braised pork) seared until the grain shows. Long strips of **menma** (seasoned bamboo shoots) lean on the rim, a mound of **shredded scallion** sits in the middle, and a light-brown **boiled egg** is dusted with red chili flakes.\n\nThin noodles peek out from under the broth. And the broth itself has **real depth of flavour**.\n\nThe shop is known for making its sauces, toppings, broth and chashu in-house and for **cooking its chicken sous vide**; the three pink slices look like that chicken.\n\n## The second bowl, in orange\n\n\n Same bowl, different colour, with diced red onion and wood ear mushroom added. \n \n\nThe second bowl looks different from the start. The broth is a **creamy, orange-tinged** colour, dusted with chili flakes and black pepper.\n\nThe toppings shift too. The white meat slices, egg, menma and scallion stay, but this one adds **diced red onion** and **shredded wood ear mushroom**. The edge of a seared chashu slice shows at the rim.\n\n\n The orange bowl against grey window frames and a wooden partition. \n \n\nThe soup ramen here comes in four kinds: **shio (salt), shoyu (soy), karai (spicy) and miso paitan**, plus a brothless **abura soba** tossed in sauce. I didn't check the exact menu names of these two bowls.\n\n## Seared chashu, diced, over rice\n\n\n Cubes of chashu piled on rice, with a dab of wasabi on top. \n \n\nOn the side, a **chashu rice bowl**. The chashu is cut into dice-sized cubes, charred dark on the outside and piled on white rice, with scallion tucked in between and a dab of **wasabi** in the centre. It's a much smaller bowl than the ramen.\n\n## Karaage with mayo\n\n\n Two pieces of karaage and a swirl of mayo with a pinch of red pepper. \n \n\nThe **karaage** (Japanese fried chicken) comes as **two big pieces** on a white plate, the coating craggy and uneven, with a swirl of mayonnaise dusted with red powder on the side.\n\n## A bottle of Sapporo and the counter condiments\n\n\n Two Sapporo glasses and a 330 ml bottle. Behind them, bottles labelled 'chili oil' and 'kelp vinegar' in Korean. \n \n\nThe drink was a bottle of **Sapporo Premium Beer** (330 ml, 5.0%), served with two glasses printed with the yellow Sapporo star.\n\nThe shop is **not big**. Seating is a **counter** with green mats under a wooden shelf, and **customers kept coming in** the whole time I was there. Along the shelf: bottles labelled **라유** (*rayu*, chili oil) and **다시마 식초** (kelp vinegar), a glass jar of tongs and stacks of cups. A small label on the shelf edge reads, in Korean, \"Please hand your order sheet to a staff member.\"\n\n## Visit info\n\n📍 **Kyoomo Ramen (쿄오모 라멘)** · 1F, 16 Dasan-ro 8-gil, Jung-gu, Seoul (Yaksu-dong)\n\n- 🚇 **Getting there**: in a side street near **Yaksu Station** (Seoul Subway Lines 3 and 6)\n- 🍜 **Menu line-up**: shio, shoyu, karai and miso paitan, plus abura soba\n- 🪑 **Seating**: counter seats\n- 🗺️ **Map**: [Open in Google Maps](https://www.google.com/maps/search/?api=1&query=%EC%BF%84%EC%98%A4%EB%AA%A8%20%EB%9D%BC%EB%A9%98%20%EC%84%9C%EC%9A%B8%20%EC%A4%91%EA%B5%AC%20%EB%8B%A4%EC%82%B0%EB%A1%9C8%EA%B8%B8%2016)\n\n\nThe shop name, address, menu line-up and the sous-vide chicken detail are based on online information as of October 2026 (a W Korea feature and the place listing site polle). Opening hours and prices are not included; please check before you go.\n \n\n## Jayden's verdict\n\n> There's a reason a shop this small never stops filling up: it's really good, and the broth runs deep.\n\n- **Taste**: really good, with a deep flavour.\n- **The place**: a small counter shop with a steady stream of customers.\n- **Tip**: hand your order sheet to the staff. The menu names are Japanese, so it helps to know that *karai* means \"spicy\" and *abura soba* is ramen without soup.\n"},{"slug":"yongsan-batong-brunch","title":"Bâton, Yongsan: An Egg-Topped Burger and Shrimp Avocado Toast on a Weekday Lunch","description":"Bâton, a meal cafe in a slate-roofed one-story building behind Yongsan Station. A Wednesday lunch: fried-egg burger, shrimp avocado toast, iced tea and juice.","topic":"food","tags":["Seoul Food","Yongsan Brunch","Baton Meal Cafe","Open Toast","Yongsan Office Lunch"],"publishedAt":"2026-10-26T20:00:00+09:00","updatedAt":"2026-10-26T20:00:00+09:00","growthStage":"evergreen","version":"1.0","content":"\nIn a side street behind Yongsan Station there is a low, one-story building with a corrugated slate roof.\n\nThe sign is easy to miss. All you get is a paper menu taped to the wooden door, with **Bâton meal cafe** printed at the bottom.\n\nAnother lunch break as a Yongsan office worker, and this time it's Bâton. Wednesday, a little before noon, I opened that door. Spoiler: **Bâton's club sandwich is seriously good.** I want to go back.\n\n\n**In three lines**: **Bâton (바통)**, a \"meal cafe\" on Hangang-daero 15-gil behind Yongsan Station. My top pick is the **club sandwich**, and it is seriously good. On the table this time: a **burger topped with a fried egg** and an **open toast with shrimp, boiled egg and avocado**. Walking in before noon, **a one-hour lunch break** was plenty.\n \n\n## The name is in the glass case\n\n\n The display by the order counter. The jam labels read with Bâton. \n \n\nNext to the order counter, two jars of jam stand in a glass case. The labels say **with Bâton**; the shelf tags say **Raspberry & Strawberry Jam** and **Passion fruit & Mango Jam**. Beside them are two granola bags with SAMPLE stickers: one almond, oatmeal, sunflower seed and pecan, the other with banana chips and dark chocolate.\n\nThe lower shelf holds a row of brown bottles labeled **THE GREAT BITTER**. On the blue countertop, paper cups are stacked into towers, with spoons and tongs standing in a caddy.\n\n## Iced tea, and a carrot-colored juice\n\n\n The iced tea, packed with ice, came first. \n \n\nThe drinks arrived first. A glass of **iced tea** packed with ice and a straw, with a white paper cup and a napkin beside it. I also ordered a **carrot-colored juice** with a sprig of herb.\n\n## A burger wearing a fried egg like a hat\n\n\n One fried egg on the bun, yolk unbroken. \n \n\nSoon both plates came out together. First, a **burger** on a white plate with a navy rim. A round bun with a cracked, crusty top wears a **sunny-side-up egg with the yolk unbroken**, finished with black pepper.\n\nPink ham, arugula, microgreens and a thin slice of something green poke out between the buns. The egg is wider than the bun, so its edges drape toward the plate.\n\n## Shrimp, egg and avocado open toast\n\n\n Avocado, shrimp, boiled egg and microgreens on a single slice of bread. \n \n\nSecond, on a grey plate, an **open toast**: one big slice of bread with a deeply browned crust, stacked in layers.\n\n- At the bottom, **mashed avocado** and thin green slices\n- On top, several plump **shrimp** and a **pink sauce**\n- In the middle, a **boiled egg** cut in half, yolk almost fully set\n- To finish, **red chili flakes**, black pepper and a thread of olive oil\n- Around the edges, a handful of **microgreens**\n\nThere are so many greens that the bread nearly disappears. A knife and fork wait on the side plate.\n\n## Everything on one table\n\n\n The burger, the toast and a carrot-colored juice with a sprig of herb. \n \n\nTwo plates, two drinks and **two empty side plates**. Even the napkin has **meal cafe** printed on it.\n\nFrom above, another thin green slice is tucked into the burger. If egg-hatted burgers are your thing, the [The Back Food Truck burger in Haebangchon](/en/posts/haebangchon-the-back-food-truck-burger) comes out the same way.\n\nStill, my top pick at Bâton is the **club sandwich**. It is seriously good, and it is the reason I want to go back.\n\n## On the way out, under the slate roof\n\n\n A paper menu on the wooden door, blue ribbon stickers on the glass. \n \n\nI stepped out a little after 12:30. In front of a brick apartment building sits the low **one-story building with a slate roof**. On the left, a wooden door; on the right, a glass front with the blinds half down. The paper menu on the door has **Bâton meal cafe** printed at the bottom, and four blue ribbon-shaped stickers run down the glass door.\n\nA 2020 Marie Claire Korea article introduced Bâton as a **meal cafe opened in a converted one-story house**, noting that some dishes come with a stick-shaped bread called a *bâton*.\n\n## Visitor info\n\n📍 **Bâton (바통)** · 33 Hangang-daero 15-gil, Yongsan-gu, Seoul (Hangangno 3-ga)\n\n- 🚇 **Getting there**: a side street in Hangangno 3-ga, south of Yongsan Station. About 400 m in a straight line from Yongsan Station and about 550 m from Sinyongsan Station (Line 4), so it is an easy walk from either.\n- 🍽️ **What I ordered**: fried-egg burger, shrimp, egg and avocado open toast, iced tea, carrot-colored juice\n- 🗺️ **Map**: [Open in Google Maps](https://www.google.com/maps/search/?api=1&query=%EB%B0%94%ED%86%B5%20%EC%9A%A9%EC%82%B0%EA%B5%AC%20%ED%95%9C%EA%B0%95%EB%8C%80%EB%A1%9C15%EA%B8%B8%2033)\n\n\nThe address is based on a Marie Claire Korea article and the polle place page (checked October 2026). I couldn't confirm current prices or opening hours, so they are left out. Please check before you go.\n \n\n## Jayden's verdict\n\n> Bâton's club sandwich is seriously good. I want to go back.\n\n- **What to order**: the club sandwich\n- **Would I go back?**: Yes.\n- **When I went**: Wednesday, September 23, 2026, a weekday lunch break\n- **Tip**: get there before noon and lunch fits easily into a one-hour break.\n"},{"slug":"chiikawa-pmp-exam","title":"What If Chiikawa Took the PMP Exam? 🐹 | 7 Test-Takers, 7 Answers","description":"Worried Chiikawa, upbeat Hachiware and act-first Usagi sit the PMP exam. Seven study styles and three original situational questions show how PMs make the call.","topic":"work","tags":["Chiikawa","PMP","PMP Exam","PMP Certification","Passing the PMP"],"publishedAt":"2026-10-26T10:00:00+09:00","updatedAt":"2026-10-26T10:00:00+09:00","growthStage":"evergreen","version":"1.0","content":"\n7 test-takers, 7 answers… Is Usagi even reading the questions?\n\n\n Chiikawa and friends gathered for the PMP exam. An unofficial fan-parody image, not a real exam scene. \n \n\n\n※ This is an unofficial fan parody based on the personalities of the Chiikawa characters. It is not affiliated with the original work (Chiikawa © Nagano) or its rights holders. The situational practice questions are original examples written for explanation. They are not official PMI exam questions or answers, and not a prediction of who passes.\n \n\nAnyone who manages projects knows this moment. Someone next to you is crying because the schedule slipped, someone in front of you has started building because \"let's just try it,\" and someone else is smiling to reassure everyone.\n\nWait… isn't this exactly the Chiikawa world?\n\nThen a thought struck me. If worried Chiikawa, upbeat Hachiware and Usagi, whose actions always outrun words, sat the PMP (Project Management Professional) exam, who would pass first?\n\n**They walk into the exam room with cute faces, but the questions are not cute at all. 😭**\n\nI [earned my own PMP on July 3, 2026](/en/posts/pmp-pass-review-part-1). Studying for it and then facing the exam, I came to feel that a PM's job is less about memorizing set answers and more about judging what to look at first in a situation, and who to make the decision with.\n\nSo today I've handed the PMP exam to Chiikawa and friends. Of course, the situational questions and answers below are hypothetical cases I wrote for this blog. They are not official PMI exam questions.\n\n## 📋 Before Entering the Exam Room | What Is the PMP?\n\nThe PMP is a professional project management certification run by PMI (Project Management Institute). It assesses not only planning and execution skills but also the judgment that connects people, process and business value.\n\n[The exam was revised in July 2026](/en/posts/pmp-2026-exam-changes-pmbok-8). According to PMI's current information, it has 180 questions in 240 minutes, weighted People 33%, Process 41% and Business Environment 26%. Alongside predictive, agile and hybrid approaches, it puts more weight on situational judgment that includes AI, sustainability and value delivery.\n\n※ I earned mine on July 3, 2026, just before the revised exam took effect, so please keep my experience separate from the current exam format. For exam details, the most accurate source is PMI's official notice, so check it again before you sit the exam.\n\nOfficial PMI information: [pmi.org/certifications/project-management-pmp/new-exam](https://www.pmi.org/certifications/project-management-pmp/new-exam)\n\n## 🎒 1. How Chiikawa and Friends Prepare for the PMP\n\n### 🐹 Chiikawa | Writes a Risk Register Before the Exam Even Starts\n\n\"Um… what if I run out of time…? What if I hit three questions I don't know in a row…? Waaah!\"\n\nChiikawa's notebook is packed with error patterns, time allocation and confusing terms. Even during practice questions, Chiikawa worries about missing a single small clue. Yet that worry actually turns into risk identification and preparing in advance.\n\n**PM take:** The risk manager. Strength: preparation. Weakness: analyzing so long that decisions get put off. In the exam room, while weighing every possibility, the time to move on to the next question can disappear.\n\n### 🐱 Hachiware | \"It's okay, let's solve it together!\"\n\n\"Chiikawa, it's okay to get it wrong! Let's think together about why you picked that!\"\n\nHachiware sets the mood in the study room, explaining the material and listening to everyone's different approaches all the way through. Those strengths would probably shine on situational questions about interpersonal conflict or team growth.\n\n**PM take:** The servant leader. Strength: listening and removing impediments. Weakness: waiting for everyone to agree, so decisions come late.\n\n### 🐰 Usagi | Already Picked Option 3 Before Reading the Question\n\n\"Uraaa!!!\" (flipping past 30 questions within five minutes of the start)\n\nWhen it comes to drive, Usagi is in a league of their own. When a plan stalls, Usagi moves without hesitation. But on PMP situational questions, skipping past what you should do \"first\" and jumping straight to building, escalating or taking immediate action will get you into trouble.\n\n**PM take:** The doer. Strength: decisiveness and speed. Weakness: moving before checking the impact and the root cause. The study habit Usagi needs most is \"read the question all the way to the end before clicking an option.\"\n\n### 🪽 Momonga | Plans the Passing-Photo Angle Before Studying\n\n\"When I pass, which angle will look the coolest? I'll show you my study plan too!\"\n\nMomonga presents study progress more stylishly than anyone. Momonga may well have a knack for reporting, presenting and handling stakeholder reactions. But good-looking materials don't replace real understanding.\n\n**PM take:** The stakeholder manager. Strength: communication. Weakness: caring more about impressions than results. The PMP isn't looking for the owner of a pretty report. It's looking for someone who uses that information to lead the right decision.\n\n### 🍶 Kurimanju | \"Haa… Let's look at the priorities first.\"\n\nWhile the others spread out every textbook they own, Kurimanju sorts the wrong answers by type. \"Is this a people conflict? A process issue? Is it tied to the business objective?\"\n\n**PM take:** The experience-based judge. Strength: prioritization and a sense of balance. Weakness: leaning too hard on the old ways. \"I've done this before\" and \"Is this right for this situation now?\" are different questions.\n\n### 🦁 Shisa | The Error Log Is Leveling Up\n\n\"Today I'll review change control questions, and tomorrow I'll go over agile situational questions!\"\n\nDiligent Shisa, who learns one step at a time, sets a study goal every day. Instead of just marking a question wrong, Shisa writes down \"why my judgment was different.\"\n\n**PM take:** The growth seeker. Strength: continuous improvement and lessons learned. Weakness: putting off action until the studying feels perfect. Even when preparing for a certification, a fair amount of real practice is a must.\n\n### 🦦 Rakko | Probably Has an Incident Response Plan Even for the Exam\n\n\"If something has gone wrong, start with the facts. Who's affected, and what needs to be decided?\"\n\nRakko stays calm even in a crisis, and would probably be strong on questions about separating an issue's scope of impact and working with the right owners.\n\n**PM take:** The crisis responder. Strength: judgment and composure. Weakness: taking everything on alone because of being so capable. A real leader also needs to know how to let the team solve the problem, rather than always swooping in like a hero.\n\n## 🧠 2. The Exam Begins! Team Chiikawa Takes On Situational Questions\n\n### Question 1 | Three Days Before Launch, the Client Asks for a New Feature\n\n[Hypothetical practice question] The client urgently requests a feature outside the already agreed scope. They say the launch date cannot move. What should the PM do first?\n\n- A. Shout \"Ura!\" like Usagi and start building right away.\n- B. Tell the client \"Of course we can!\" like Momonga.\n- C. Check the purpose of the request and its impact on scope, schedule and quality, then follow the appropriate change process.\n- D. Cry like Chiikawa and stop the project.\n\n🐰 Usagi: \"A!!!\"\n\n🪽 Momonga: \"Wouldn't B be better for client satisfaction?\"\n\n🐹 Chiikawa: \"It's not D… right…?\"\n\n🍶 Kurimanju: \"Haa. Before you accept or refuse anything outright, you have to check the impact.\"\n\n**✅ Recommended answer for this hypothetical case: C — first understand the request and assess the impact of the change.**\n\nIn real work too, what matters more than \"can we do it?\" is \"what impact are we willing to accept, and who will approve it?\" The PMP mindset isn't about mechanically shouting \"no changes.\" It's closer to a judgment call that weighs value against risk.\n\n### Question 2 | Team Members Keep Clashing. What Should the PM Do First?\n\n[Hypothetical practice question] The development team and the design team each blame the other for work delays. The client is anxious and team morale has dropped.\n\n- A. Ignore the conflict and just push development faster.\n- B. Understand both sides' positions and set up a session to discuss a joint solution.\n- C. Immediately reprimand one side in public.\n- D. Stop all work until it's decided who was at fault.\n\n🐱 Hachiware: \"Both sides have something to say. Let's listen first and solve it together!\"\n\n🦁 Shisa: \"I'll also look at how we collaborated on the previous project.\"\n\n🦦 Rakko: \"Let's separate the facts of the problem from the blame game.\"\n\n**✅ Recommended answer for this hypothetical case: B — confirm the facts and resolve the conflict collaboratively.**\n\nA good PM thinks less about who won and more about how the problem gets solved and how the team can get moving again. Of course, this is different from situations that call for a formal response, such as harassment or a serious policy violation.\n\n### Question 3 | On Time and on Budget, but Users Say It's Hard to Use\n\n[Hypothetical practice question] You launched a global brand website on schedule and on budget. But overseas visitors can't find product information and are leaving. How would you approach this?\n\n- A. The project is over, so stop worrying about it.\n- B. Put only \"on schedule\" in big letters in the report.\n- C. Check customer and user feedback and the metrics, and discuss improvements with stakeholders.\n- D. Add one more celebration banner to the home page.\n\n🪽 Momonga: \"First, the success report…\"\n\n🐹 Chiikawa: \"Did what we built… not actually help the customers?\"\n\n🐱 Hachiware: \"Then let's find out together why users are having trouble!\"\n\n🍶 Kurimanju: \"Because finishing and creating value aren't the same thing.\"\n\n**✅ Recommended answer for this hypothetical case: C — look beyond the deliverables to value and outcomes.**\n\nIn the revised 2026 PMP, too, the perspective on value, outcomes and the business environment has become more important. A project doesn't end at \"did we build something?\" We also have to ask \"did we create a meaningful result?\"\n\n## 📈 3. Who Will Pass? My Own Prediction of the Exam Room\n\n- **Chiikawa:** Thorough when reviewing wrong answers, but running out of time is a worry.\n- **Hachiware:** Strong on people-centered questions, but needs decisiveness in urgent situations.\n- **Usagi:** Will get through the questions fast, but must not miss the word \"first.\"\n- **Momonga:** May be strong at stakeholder management, but needs to look after actual execution and verification.\n- **Kurimanju:** Good at judging priorities, but should stay open to learning new approaches.\n- **Shisa:** Steady review and improvement are strengths, but time management under real exam conditions is the key.\n- **Rakko:** Strong in crisis response, but should choose team collaboration over deciding alone.\n\nSo who comes first? I'm not going to pick a winner. Whether you pass the real PMP exam depends on your own ability and preparation, and these characters aren't official candidates anyway.\n\nInstead, I picture a slightly different scene. When Chiikawa worries, Hachiware studies alongside. Kurimanju channels Usagi's drive. Rakko turns Shisa's error log into real-world cases.\n\n**Seven friends who each seemed to fall short on their own learn to make better judgments when they study together.**\n\n## ✍️ 4. Looking Back on Passing the PMP | What the Certification Taught Me\n\nEarning the PMP didn't turn me into someone who can easily solve every problem on a project. Sudden client requests are still hard, and when development and design disagree, I still have to bring them together.\n\nBut studying for it gave me one important perspective. What a PM needs isn't a one-line answer to memorize for every situation. It's the attitude of making responsible choices while weighing people, process and business value together.\n\nChiikawa is scared but sees the risk first. Hachiware smiles but never just walks past someone in trouble. Usagi seems to do whatever Usagi likes, but gets stalled situations moving. Each friend's weaknesses are filled in, little by little, by another friend's strengths.\n\nBorrowing Aristotle's idea of \"practical wisdom,\" good judgment isn't complete just by memorizing rules. It takes practice in seeing what the good choice is in a given situation and then acting on it.\n\n**A certification can show what we have learned. But what kind of colleague we will be is proven by the choices we make every day.**\n\nIf someday, at the end of a project, someone says \"I'd like to work with this team again,\" wouldn't that be another kind of pass, one that no official scorecard shows?\n\nAnd Chiikawa and friends, after the exam:\n\n🐹 Chiikawa: \"Ugh… that was so hard…!\"\n\n🐱 Hachiware: \"But we really gave it our all!\"\n\n🐰 Usagi: \"Uraaa!\" (already searching for the next certification)\n\n🍶 Kurimanju: \"Haa… let's rest for now.\"\n\nCheers to every PM preparing for the PMP or leading projects in the field today. Which kind of Chiikawa PM are you? 🐹\n\n\n**Which Chiikawa are you?** Find out with the quizzes.\n\n- [Which Chiikawa Are You? Quiz](/en/chiikawa)\n- [Which Chiikawa PM Are You? Quiz](/en/chiikawa-pm)\n\nWant more situational practice? Read [How to Prepare for PMP Case-Study Questions](/en/posts/pmp-case-study-questions) too.\n \n"},{"slug":"frieze-seoul-2026-coex-amex-invitation","title":"Frieze Seoul 2026, COEX: Three Hours on Closing Day with a Card-Event VIP Pass","description":"Free entry to Frieze Seoul 2026 via a KB Kookmin Card Amex event. Work left me only closing day, but three hours and Do Ho Suh's thread house were enough.","topic":"diary","tags":["Frieze Seoul","Seoul Art Fair","Do Ho Suh","American Express","Seoul Diary"],"publishedAt":"2026-10-25T20:00:00+09:00","updatedAt":"2026-10-25T20:00:00+09:00","growthStage":"evergreen","version":"1.0","content":"\nSaturday, September 5, 4 p.m. The pass on my phone said this at the top:\n\n**VIP INVITATION | ADMITS ONE.**\n\nI had won it through a KB Kookmin Card Amex (American Express) event, so Frieze Seoul 2026 was **free**. The pass was good for unlimited visits from September 2, but a work project ate my week, and I only made it on **closing day**. Hardly the VIP way to use a VIP pass. Still, those three hours were **wonderful.**\n\n\n**In three lines**: A **Frieze Seoul 2026 VIP invitation** from a KB Kookmin Card Amex event, free entry. A project schedule left me only **three hours** on the afternoon of closing day, but it was more than enough, and the highlight was **Do Ho Suh's house made of thread**. Frieze Seoul **moves to DDP in 2027**, so next year it is Dongdaemun.\n \n\n## Five lines on the pass\n\nThe invitation was a digital pass that opens as a web page (passes.frieze.com). Here is what it said:\n\n- **VIP INVITATION | ADMITS ONE**: a VIP invitation for one person\n- **Unlimited entry from Wednesday Sep 2, 12:00**: unlimited entries from noon on Wednesday, September 2\n- **Admits entry to: Guest of American Express**\n- **SCREENSHOTS / PRINTOUTS NOT ACCEPTED**\n- **LAST ENTRY 18:30 / CLOSING TIME 19:00**\n\nA four-day pass, used for one afternoon. That last line set the plan: get in before 4 p.m. and you have **three hours** until closing. I used every one of them.\n\n## The LG U+ VIP lounge\n\n\n The VIP lounge entrance, with LG U+ named on the banner. \n \n\nRight after going in, I passed a banner washed in purple and green: FRIEZE VIP LOUNGE PRESENTED BY LG U+ (LG U+ is a Korean mobile carrier). Stanchions marked out a queue in front, and the same words appeared again on the wall just inside the door.\n\n## A first hour that started in green\n\n\n Two pots on a green ground. \n \n\nTwo pots of grey plants on a green background, set on a floor of pink and yellow covered in dots. A painting done in big, flat blocks of colour.\n\n\n A carpet pattern hanging on the wall in folds. \n \n\nA few booths on, a **carpet** hung on the wall. A densely patterned teal carpet folds into several wave-like layers, fringe and all.\n\n## The Amex lounge was called \"Jumak\"\n\n\n The sign for the Amex lounge. \n \n\nAmerican Express named its lounge **Modern Korean Lounge Jumak**. The sign reads **September 2-5, COEX**, with the FRIEZE SEOUL and AMEX logos side by side. Behind the lettering, people sit under a thatched roof, pouring drinks and ladling soup from a pot. A *jumak* was a roadside inn in old Korea that sold drinks and meals.\n\nThe bar was built from old timber posts and beams. A gold AMERICAN EXPRESS logo hung on the back wall, *soban* (small traditional dining tables) sat on a shelf, and a white moon jar of dried grasses stood at the end of the counter. Red drinks and paper-cup desserts were lined up along the top.\n\n\n The drink and dessert from the lounge. \n \n\nAround 5 p.m. I got one of each. A **red sparkling drink** in a clear footed cup, with a sprig of rosemary and a blackberry pinned on a bamboo pick. A paper cup of ice cream topped with a **round, powder-coated rice-cake ball**, brown cake crumbs and syrup, two wooden spoons stuck in. Even the plate underneath carries the **AMERICAN EXPRESS** logo.\n\n## Works where the material comes first\n\n\n Water drops covering a canvas. \n \n\nGet close to this canvas and brown blotches spread over a rough cloth ground, with **water drops** of every size covering the surface.\n\n\n A cat lying on a Casio keyboard. \n \n\nSome works sat on the floor. A cat-shaped sculpture painted orange and white stretches across the keys of a wood-panelled **CASIO** keyboard, its power cable running to an adapter on a **Makita 18V battery** by the wall.\n\n## Twenty minutes before closing: Do Ho Suh's house of thread\n\nThe photo at the top of this post is that work. Inside a large frame on a green wall, a beam of thread slants across white paper, and a **hanok** (traditional Korean house) **made of thread** floats in the middle of it. The name on the wall label: Do Ho Suh .\n\nI had only ever seen his work on a screen. In person, it was **captivating.**\n\nDo Ho Suh has spent years making work about home. He is best known for recreating the places he has lived in sheer fabric, rooms that can be folded up and carried from city to city. In his hands a house is less a building fixed to the ground than a memory you take with you.\n\nThe hanok here doesn't touch the ground either. It hangs inside a cascade of thread pouring from above, and the thread keeps falling past it, loosening into strands like hair along the bottom of the paper. A house built not from brick or timber but **from thread**: thin enough to snap, yet running on and on. That is what memory is like.\n\n\n The thread figure in the lower left of the same work. \n \n\nStep in toward the lower left and a small figure is walking away, its body woven from many colours of thread, a few loose strands trailing from its head. To me they looked like threads come loose from the house. People leave home; home follows them like a thread that never quite breaks.\n\n\n Doors and a corridor in coloured thread. \n \n\nOne more thread work, just before closing. Door frames stack inward like a long corridor, and loose ends spread out on all sides. Through one door, another door. Last entry had already passed; there were less than ten minutes to go.\n\n## Notes for next year's Frieze Seoul\n\n- 📍 **New venue**: In August 2026, Frieze announced that Frieze Seoul 2027 will be held at DDP (Dongdaemun Design Plaza) instead of COEX, which hosted all five editions through 2026.\n- 🎟️ **Combined ticket**: In 2026, Frieze and Kiaf SEOUL ran together at COEX. In 2027 they split between DDP and COEX, but a combined ticket covering both is reported to continue.\n- 📱 **Bring the live pass**: Mine said SCREENSHOTS / PRINTOUTS NOT ACCEPTED. Keep enough battery and data to open the web pass at the entrance.\n- 💳 **Card events**: My invitation came from a KB Kookmin Card Amex event, as a Guest of American Express. Amex also ran its own lounge inside the fair.\n- ⏰ **Plan backwards from closing**: Last entry 18:30, closing 19:00. I went in before 4 p.m. and used the full three hours.\n- 🗺️ **Map**: [Open COEX in Google Maps](https://www.google.com/maps/search/?api=1&query=%EC%BD%94%EC%97%91%EC%8A%A4%20%EC%84%9C%EC%9A%B8)\n\n\nFrieze Seoul 2026 dates (September 2–5, COEX), the number of galleries (more than 125 from 30 countries) and the 2027 move to DDP are based on Korean news reports from October 2026 (The Asia Business Daily, Hankyung Money). I have not yet confirmed the 2027 dates. Entry terms and times are from my own invitation and may differ for other tickets.\n \n\n## Jayden's verdict\n\n> I didn't use the VIP pass like a VIP. But three hours on the last day, and one house made of thread, were enough.\n\n- **Highlight**: Do Ho Suh's thread hanok. In person, it is genuinely captivating.\n- **Entry**: free, won through a KB Kookmin Card Amex event.\n- **Regret**: a pass good from September 2, used only on closing day because of a work project.\n- **Tip**: next year it's DDP. If a card event gets you a pass, clear your calendar from day one.\n"},{"slug":"mexico-travel-05-guanajuato-san-miguel-de-allende","title":"Guanajuato Travel 05: An Estudiantina Outside a Church at Night, San Miguel de Allende, and Home","description":"October 8–11, 2025: by bus to Guanajuato, a day trip to San Miguel de Allende, a last day on Mexico City's Calle Bolívar and a 6 a.m. departure.","topic":"travel","tags":["Guanajuato Travel","San Miguel de Allende","Estudiantina","Mexico Itinerary","Mexico Travel"],"publishedAt":"2026-10-24T20:00:00+09:00","updatedAt":"2026-10-24T20:00:00+09:00","growthStage":"evergreen","version":"1.0","content":"\n8:53 p.m., Guanajuato. In front of a church facade crowded with stone carving, men in black stood in a row on the wet paving, playing mandolins and guitars and singing. At the far end, a double bass.\n\nIn [part 4](/en/posts/mexico-travel-04-guadalajara-tequila-tour) I went on a tequila tour from Guadalajara and walked the Centro the next morning. This is the last part.\n\nOn the afternoon of October 8 I took a bus to Guanajuato and stayed two nights. In between I spent a day in San Miguel de Allende, and on the 10th I went back to Mexico City. The ten days ended around 6 a.m. on the 11th, when I left for Canada. At the very end there's one table with the whole route.\n\n\n**In three lines**: On October 8 I took a **bus** from Guadalajara to Guanajuato and saw **Teatro Juárez** and an **estudiantina** outside a church that night. On the 9th I did a day trip to **San Miguel de Allende**: colourful streets, a restaurant with a guitarist, and the town from a hilltop. On the 10th I walked Calle Bolívar in Mexico City, and early on the 11th I left for Canada.\n \n\n## The route in this post\n\n| Date | Where | In a line |\n| --- | --- | --- |\n| Oct 8, afternoon | Guadalajara → Guanajuato | Green fields from the bus window |\n| Oct 8, evening | Guanajuato old town | A pink-walled alley, Teatro Juárez, an estudiantina |\n| Oct 9, afternoon | San Miguel de Allende | A yellow church, a green taxi, a guitar at LOS MILAGROS |\n| Oct 9, night | Back in Guanajuato | Lights filling the valley |\n| Oct 10 | Guanajuato → Mexico City | Cloudy highlands, Calle Bolívar, a pink taxi |\n| Oct 11, early morning | Mexico City → Canada | Left around 6 a.m. |\n\n---\n\n## October 8: By bus from Guadalajara to Guanajuato\n\n\n 1:30 p.m., yogurt in a bus seat. \n \n\nMy walk around the Centro lasted until 11:40 a.m. By 1:30 p.m. I was on the bus: a long-distance coach with luggage racks and air vents overhead and curtains on the windows. In my hand, a cup of pink yogurt topped with granola and a plastic spoon.\n\n\n Outside the window after leaving Guadalajara. \n \n\nOutside, it soon turned to fields. Cornfields ran on behind the grass, and tall cumulus clouds stood over low mountains in the distance. The bus companies list the Guadalajara to Guanajuato trip at about four hours.\n\n## First evening in Guanajuato: a pink-walled alley and Teatro Juárez\n\n\n 6:52 p.m. A stone stair alley beside a pink wall. \n \n\nMy first scene in Guanajuato is an alley at 6:52 p.m. A small name plaque hangs on the corner of a pink building, and beside it a narrow flight of stone steps climbs along a rough stone wall. Only the far end of the alley had a light. Guanajuato's old town clings to the slopes of a ravine, so there are a lot of stepped alleys like this.\n\n\n 7:05 p.m., outside Teatro Juárez. \n \n\nThirteen minutes later I was outside **Teatro Juárez**. Bronze lions sit on either side of the steps in front of the columns, and a row of round glass street lamps was lit. The paving was wet, and the lights spread across it. A man with a backpack and someone pushing a bike passed in front.\n\nConstruction of the theatre began in 1872 and it opened in 1903. In 1988 the historic town of Guanajuato and its adjacent mines became a UNESCO World Heritage Site. In the 18th century it was the world's leading silver-mining centre.\n\n\n Dinner at 8:22 p.m. \n \n\nDinner at 8:22 p.m. was a white instant-noodle cup. Rice went into the orange broth, stirred with chopsticks.\n\n## 8:53 p.m., an estudiantina outside the church\n\n\n The estudiantina in front of the church facade. \n \n\nBack to the opening scene. The band in black is an **estudiantina**: black doublets with round puffed sleeves and black tights, the dress of the old student bands. Behind them the densely carved stone facade of the church was floodlit, and the ground was as wet as before.\n\n\n A double bass at the end of the line. \n \n\nTwo mandolins, several guitars and, at the end, a man on the double bass. They sang in Spanish. When an estudiantina leads people through the alleys at night, singing as they go, it's called a **callejoneada**. It's sold as one of Guanajuato's night activities on plenty of booking sites.\n\n\n 9:32 p.m., clay cups with straws. \n \n\nAt 9:32 p.m. people were gathered on the paving of a dark alley. Some held small clay cups with straws in them. I switched the camera on again at 9:52, and that video runs over seven minutes: a long story told in Spanish under a lamp on a yellow wall.\n\n---\n\n## October 9: A day trip to San Miguel de Allende\n\nThe next day I went from Guanajuato to San Miguel de Allende and back. Most sources put it at around 80 km by road, about an hour and a half by car. My first scene there is from 2:17 p.m.\n\n\n 2:17 p.m. A red corner house and yellow houses. \n \n\nThe street turns at the corner of a red building, number 18. Yellow and red houses line up across the way, and the cobbles were wet. The sky was grey. San Miguel de Allende's historic centre became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2008, together with the sanctuary of Atotonilco 14 km away.\n\n\n 2:47 p.m., the yellow church's bell tower. \n \n\nAt 2:47 p.m. I was in front of a yellow church. A bell tower trimmed in red stone rises over the yellow walls, with another dome behind it. The yellow wall around the church was finished with a wavy top.\n\n\n San Miguel's taxis are green. \n \n\nOn the cobbles in front stood a green-and-white taxi with a TAXI light on its roof. The taxis I saw in Mexico City the next day were pink.\n\n## A guitar at LOS MILAGROS, and tortilla chips\n\n\n 3:28 p.m., tortilla chips on a red table. \n \n\nAt 3:28 p.m. I sat down in a restaurant. A paper-lined basket of tortilla chips came out onto a red table, next to a white square bowl of salsa and an amber drink.\n\n\n A guitarist under the blue heart. \n \n\nOn a white wall hung a blue heart with LOS MILAGROS written on it. Under it a man sat at a microphone, playing guitar and singing. His song carries on in the same video as the basket of chips.\n\n## San Miguel de Allende from a hilltop\n\n\n 5:20 p.m., the town from a hilltop. \n \n\nAt 5:20 p.m. I was on a hill looking down over the town. Below me were trees, red bougainvillea and a brick wall, and beyond them low houses spread flat all the way out. On the horizon sat flat-topped mountains and a faint glint of water. It's a different shape of town from Guanajuato, where the houses are stacked up the sides of a ravine.\n\n## Guanajuato at night again\n\n\n Guanajuato at 10:54 p.m. \n \n\nThat night I was back in Guanajuato. At 10:54 p.m. the valley below was full of lights from every house. In the middle, large floodlit buildings glowed yellow, and smaller lights covered the slopes around them right up the hills.\n\n---\n\n## October 10: Back to Mexico City, the last day\n\n\n Out of the window at 9:10 a.m. \n \n\nAt 9:10 a.m. on October 10 the view from the car was highland under low cloud. Dry grass and shrubs ran on beyond a fence of white posts, with a low mountain and a town in the distance. This was the day I left Guanajuato for Mexico City.\n\n\n 12:51 p.m., TIENDA MIDE. \n \n\nBy 12:51 p.m. I was in Mexico City's historic centre. A building with stone-framed windows had **TIENDA MIDE** lettered on the glass: the shop of MIDE, the economics museum. The museum is in the former Betlemitas convent on Calle Tacuba, between Bolívar and Filomeno Mata. Signs nearby carried street numbers like BOLIVAR Nº 79-B and BOLIVAR 45.\n\n\n Mexico City's taxis are pink and white. \n \n\nA pink-and-white taxi stood in front, with TAXI on the door and CDMX on the back.\n\nThe itinerary's box for the last day says \"last look around town, souvenirs\". The only photos from that day are from around Calle Bolívar. There's no record of what I bought.\n\n## October 11, early morning: to Canada\n\nAround 6 a.m. on October 11 I left Mexico City for Canada, ten days after landing here at about 10:50 p.m. on October 1 and reaching my room at midnight. There are no photos from the day I left.\n\n---\n\n## Where the ten days went\n\nLast, the whole ten-day route in one table.\n\n| Date | Where | What | Part |\n| --- | --- | --- | --- |\n| Oct 1 | Incheon → Vancouver → Mexico City | Landed around 10:50 p.m., at the lodging by midnight | [Part 1](/en/posts/mexico-travel-01-mexico-city-teotihuacan-balloon) |\n| Oct 2 | Teotihuacan | Pre-dawn start, a hot-air balloon | [Part 1](/en/posts/mexico-travel-01-mexico-city-teotihuacan-balloon) |\n| Oct 3–4 | Mexico City | A night taco stand, Chapultepec Castle | [Part 2](/en/posts/mexico-travel-02-mexico-city-tacos-chapultepec) |\n| Oct 5–6 | Puebla · Mexico City | Puebla, Xochimilco at night, Parque México, Guadalupe | [Part 3](/en/posts/mexico-travel-03-puebla-xochimilco-guadalupe) |\n| Oct 7 | Guadalajara | A tequila tour | [Part 4](/en/posts/mexico-travel-04-guadalajara-tequila-tour) |\n| Oct 8 | Guadalajara → Guanajuato | Bus, Teatro Juárez, an estudiantina | Part 5 |\n| Oct 9 | San Miguel de Allende | Day trip, the view from a hilltop | Part 5 |\n| Oct 10 | Guanajuato → Mexico City | Calle Bolívar | Part 5 |\n| Oct 11 | Mexico City → Canada | Left around 6 a.m. | Part 5 |\n\nFive days based in Mexico City, then west to Guadalajara, then back east through Guanajuato and San Miguel de Allende.\n\nI love tacos, and I went to Mexico to eat them. I'd studied some Spanish before going, too. The Spanish of mine that ended up on video is short stuff like \"Hola, buenos días\" and \"Gracias\". I started filming on the morning of October 6 in Parque México, so a good share of the scenes in this part come from that footage.\n\n---\n\n## Visit info\n\nI was there **October 8–11, 2025**. I looked up the practical details below while writing this post, and prices and times varied from source to source. Where I'm not sure, I've marked it \"check official info\".\n\n| Place | Location | Fees · hours | When I was there |\n| --- | --- | --- | --- |\n| Teatro Juárez | Guanajuato old town, by the Jardín de la Unión | Check official info for visits and shows | Oct 8, around 7 p.m. |\n| Callejoneada (estudiantina) | Guanajuato old-town alleys | Varies by operator; check official info | Oct 8, 8:53 p.m., seen outside a church |\n| San Miguel de Allende historic centre | About 80 km by road from Guanajuato | Free to walk around | Oct 9, afternoon |\n| MIDE (economics museum) | Tacuba 17, Mexico City | Check official info | Oct 10, midday, walked past |\n\n**Route**: Guadalajara to Guanajuato by bus, two nights in Guanajuato with a day trip to San Miguel de Allende. Back to Mexico City on the 10th, then away early on the 11th.\n\n📍 **Teatro Juárez** · Guanajuato\n\n- 🏛️ **Facts**: construction began in 1872 and it opened in 1903. It stands by the Jardín de la Unión.\n- 🌙 **When I saw it**: around 7 p.m., with the lamps lit around the lions on the front steps.\n- 🎟️ **Visits and shows**: whether you can tour inside, admission and opening hours: **check official info before visiting.**\n- 🗺️ **Map**: [View on Google Maps](https://www.google.com/maps/search/?api=1&query=Teatro%20Ju%C3%A1rez%20Guanajuato)\n\n📍 **Callejoneada** · Guanajuato old town\n\n- 🎻 **What**: a night walk in which an estudiantina leads people through the alleys, singing. Booking sites mostly list 1 hour 10 minutes to 1 hour 30 minutes.\n- 💳 **Price and what's included**: prices and whether a drink is included varied by site. **Check official info before booking.**\n- 🗺️ **Map**: [Jardín de la Unión](https://www.google.com/maps/search/?api=1&query=Jard%C3%ADn%20de%20la%20Uni%C3%B3n%20Guanajuato)\n\n📍 **San Miguel de Allende** · Guanajuato state\n\n- 🏛️ **Facts**: inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2008, together with the Sanctuary of Jesús Nazareno de Atotonilco.\n- 🚌 **Getting there**: about 80 km by road from Guanajuato. Some sources give the bus at around 1 hour 20 minutes. **Check timetables before you go.**\n- 🔭 **View**: the best-known lookout over town is El Mirador on Salida Real a Querétaro. There's no record of whether that's exactly where I stood at 5:20 p.m.\n- 🗺️ **Map**: [San Miguel de Allende](https://www.google.com/maps/search/?api=1&query=San%20Miguel%20de%20Allende) · [El Mirador](https://www.google.com/maps/search/?api=1&query=El%20Mirador%20San%20Miguel%20de%20Allende)\n\n📍 **MIDE · Calle Bolívar** · Mexico City, Centro Histórico\n\n- 🏛️ **Facts**: MIDE, the economics museum, is in the former Betlemitas convent at Tacuba 17, close to Calle Bolívar.\n- 🎟️ **Admission and opening hours**: they varied by source. **Check official info before visiting.**\n- 🗺️ **Map**: [View on Google Maps](https://www.google.com/maps/search/?api=1&query=MIDE%20Museo%20Interactivo%20de%20Econom%C3%ADa)\n\n## How to get lost a little less\n\n- 🚌 **Guadalajara to Guanajuato is half a day by bus.** Spend the morning in Guadalajara, take an afternoon bus and you can still walk Guanajuato's old town in the evening.\n- 🌙 **Walk Guanajuato at night.** The lamps at Teatro Juárez and the estudiantina outside the church were both after 7 p.m.\n- 👟 **Lots of stone paving and stone steps.** They get slippery when wet after rain. Wear shoes with grippy soles.\n- 🚕 **San Miguel de Allende works as a day trip from Guanajuato.** I walked the town in the afternoon, looked down on it from a hill, and was back by night.\n- ✈️ **If your flight leaves at dawn, be back in Mexico City the day before.** I returned on the 10th and left around 6 a.m. on the 11th.\n\n\nThis is a record of an October 2025 trip. Travel times, prices, what a callejoneada includes and the museum's hours are what I looked up while writing and may change, so please check official information again before you go.\n \n\n## Jayden's verdict\n\n> I love tacos, so this was a trip to Mexico to eat tacos.\n\n- **Highlight**: Guanajuato at night: the lamps outside Teatro Juárez and the estudiantina outside the church. And the next day, San Miguel de Allende from a hilltop.\n- **Tip**: give Guanajuato two days and you can fit in San Miguel de Allende too. If you fly out at dawn, spend the last day in Mexico City.\n\n---\n\nThat's the end of ten days in Mexico for tacos. The whole trip is in the five parts below.\n\n**Mexico for Tacos: 10 Days**\n\n1. [Mexico City arrival and a Teotihuacan balloon](/en/posts/mexico-travel-01-mexico-city-teotihuacan-balloon)\n2. [Mexico City: night tacos and Chapultepec Castle](/en/posts/mexico-travel-02-mexico-city-tacos-chapultepec)\n3. [Puebla, Xochimilco at night and Guadalupe](/en/posts/mexico-travel-03-puebla-xochimilco-guadalupe)\n4. [Guadalajara and a tequila tour](/en/posts/mexico-travel-04-guadalajara-tequila-tour)\n5. **Guanajuato, San Miguel de Allende, and home** (you are here)\n"},{"slug":"mexico-travel-04-guadalajara-tequila-tour","title":"Guadalajara Travel 04: Chewing Agave, Then Out to the Blue Fields on a José Cuervo Tequila Tour","description":"October 7, 2025: a tequila tour from Guadalajara. Chewing agave, blue agave fields, piñas in the José Cuervo distillery yard and the centro at night.","topic":"travel","tags":["Tequila Tour from Guadalajara","José Cuervo","Tequila Jalisco","Guadalajara","Mexico Travel"],"publishedAt":"2026-10-22T20:00:00+09:00","updatedAt":"2026-10-22T20:00:00+09:00","growthStage":"evergreen","version":"1.0","content":"\nAt 11 a.m. I put a light brown piece of something in my mouth. The more I chewed, the more it pulled apart into stringy fibers hanging off my lip. The video I took then has two words on it: **\"It's sweet.\"**\n\nI saw where that piece came from an hour and a half later in a field, and again that afternoon in a distillery yard.\n\n[Part 3](/en/posts/mexico-travel-03-puebla-xochimilco-guadalupe) covered Puebla, Xochimilco at night, the morning I started making videos, and Guadalupe hill. That night I left Mexico City for Guadalajara. This part is one full day there: the **tequila tour**.\n\n\n**In three lines**: On October 7, 2025, I went on a **José Cuervo tequila tour** from Guadalajara. I tasted a piece of agave, walked through **blue agave fields** that ran to the hills, and saw a mound of **piñas**, agave hearts with the leaves cut off, in the distillery yard. In the evening I was back in Guadalajara's centro and walked as far as the purple-lit **Teatro Degollado**.\n \n\n## The route in this post\n\n| When | Where | In a line |\n| --- | --- | --- |\n| Oct 7, morning | Guadalajara lodging | Arched gallery, a courtyard full of plants |\n| Oct 7, 11 a.m. | Tasting on the tour | A piece of agave, \"It's sweet.\" |\n| Oct 7, 12:30 p.m. | Agave fields | Blue-green rows to the foot of the hills |\n| Oct 7, 3 p.m. | José Cuervo distillery | A mound of piñas by a yellow wall, the guide's talk |\n| Oct 7, 7:30–8 p.m. | Guadalajara centro | A church inside, a lit facade, Teatro Degollado |\n| Oct 8, 9:30 a.m. | Guadalajara centro | The cathedral spire, the Rotonda |\n\n---\n\n## Guadalajara lodging: an arched gallery and a courtyard\n\n\n The gallery at 8:38 a.m. \n \n\nIn Guadalajara I stayed two nights, October 6 and 7. The first record of the place is the gallery I filmed at 8:38 on the morning of the tour. Iron lanterns hang from a beamed wooden ceiling, and red terracotta tiles run along the stone-column arches. Every column had a trailing plant in a hanging basket.\n\n\n The courtyard, with tables under rattan lamps. \n \n\nEight minutes later I went down to the courtyard. Palms and potted plants filled it almost to the roof, and round tables stood under rattan lamps shaped like birdcages. A staff member walked between them carrying a plate.\n\n\n Trailing plants on a white wall, and a stone column. \n \n\nAround the corner, trailing plants hung in a row along a white wall, and a black-and-white checked border ran across the floor beside a thick stone column.\n\n\n The lobby, with ornate mirrors and lamps. \n \n\nThe lobby felt different. A gilt-framed mirror hangs on a dark wall, and shaded lamps and white candlesticks line a console. I have no photos of the room, so I can only describe this place by its gallery, courtyard and lobby.\n\n---\n\n## 11 a.m.: a piece of agave\n\n\n Fibers pulling apart into strings. \n \n\nThe tour started in the morning. At 11:03, out under the sky, I was handed a piece of agave to chew. It began as a brown lump and, the more I chewed, split along the grain into a tangle of pale strings. The first thing said in the video is \"It's sweet.\"\n\nIn the next clip, the voice explaining it mentions \"sugar\" and \"fiber.\" Tequila is made from this plant's sugars. Where those sugars are stored comes up again that afternoon at the distillery.\n\nAround 11:30 there is also a clip where I recorded the same lines twice. The video-making I had started in Mexico City the day before carried on through the tour.\n\n---\n\n## 12:30 p.m.: blue agave fields\n\n\n 12:29 p.m., in the middle of the field. \n \n\nAt about 12:30 we got out at the **agave fields**. The video from the field starts with a bit of Spanish: \"Vamos a tomar…\"\n\nI put on sunglasses and took a selfie in the middle of the field. The leaf tips came up to my shoulders, and they are sharp. Dirt paths run between the rows.\n\n\n A dirt path at the edge of the field, and one tree. \n \n\nThe field runs to the low hills on the horizon. A single large tree stands at the end of the dirt path on the right, and someone was walking along it.\n\n\n The field from a path between the rows. \n \n\nThe leaves are less green than blue-green. That is because the variety used for tequila is **blue agave** (Agave tequilana Weber, blue variety). The agave fields and old distilleries around the town of Tequila were inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage site in 2006, as the \"Agave Landscape and Ancient Industrial Facilities of Tequila.\" The site runs from the foothills of the Tequila Volcano to the Río Grande valley.\n\n\n 12:39 p.m., a valley town seen from the car. \n \n\nWe left the field and got back in the car. At 12:39, past the corn stalks by the road, I could look down on a town set in a valley. Behind it stood a large mountain with clouds on top.\n\n---\n\n## 3 p.m.: piñas at the José Cuervo distillery\n\n\n Agave hearts with the leaves cut off: piñas. \n \n\nAt 3:05 p.m. I was in the yard of the **José Cuervo distillery**. Under a yellow wall and stone arches, agave hearts were piled up like a small hill. The round core left after the leaves are cut right back is called a **piña**, Spanish for pineapple, which it resembles. The cut leaf bases show as green and purple stripes.\n\nA guide with a microphone explained it all in English. These are the lines left in the recording:\n\n- \"There are more than 200 classes of agave, but only with this we can make the tequila.\"\n- \"It's important the percentage of sugar it contains, because we only need seven kilograms to make one liter of tequila.\"\n\nIn other words: there are more than 200 kinds of agave, tequila is made only from this one, and its sugar content matters, with seven kilograms going into one liter. Seven kilograms is the figure the guide gave that day. The sweet fibers I chewed in the morning come from these piñas.\n\nThe clips I took at the distillery run until about 3:40.\n\n---\n\n## The way back: agave out of the car window\n\n\n 4:43 p.m., on the way back. \n \n\nBy 4:43 p.m. I was back in the car. Beyond the brush along the road, grey-blue agave fields spread to the foot of the ridges.\n\n---\n\n## Evening: Guadalajara centro\n\n\n Inside a church at 7:30 p.m. \n \n\nBack in Guadalajara, at about 7:30 p.m. I went into a church in the centro. At the end of the aisle between the pews is an altar decorated in white and gold, and a crystal chandelier hangs from the ceiling. The statue at the center of the altar was lit green.\n\n\n 7:50 p.m., the facade lit up. \n \n\nThe clip I took at 7:47 has only one word on it: \"Wow.\" Three minutes later, looking up from outside, the facade glowed a warm yellow under the floodlights. Crenellations run above a semicircular roofline, with a clock on top and three saints standing in the central niche.\n\n\n 8:07 p.m., Teatro Degollado. \n \n\nAt 8:07 I was in front of **Teatro Degollado**. The whole colonnade and pediment were lit purple. The theater opened in September 1866. Sixteen Corinthian columns stand across the front, and the pediment carries a relief on the theme of Apollo and the Muses.\n\nAt about 9:20 p.m. I was sitting in a restaurant with yellow walls and a painting on them. That restaurant is the last clip of the day.\n\n---\n\n## October 8, morning: the cathedral spire and the Rotonda\n\n\n 9:48 a.m., the cathedral spire between the trees. \n \n\nOn the morning I left for Guanajuato, I walked a loop of the centro from 9:40. At the end of a tree-lined street stands the spire of **Guadalajara Cathedral**. It is a pointed spire covered in yellow tiles, so you can pick it out from far away.\n\n\n 9:53 a.m., the Rotonda. \n \n\nNext to the cathedral is the **Rotonda de los Jaliscienses Ilustres**, a ring of stone columns. The stone band on top reads \"JALISCO A SUS HIJOS ESCLARECIDOS,\" Jalisco to its illustrious sons and daughters. It was built in 1952 to honor notable people from Jalisco. In the morning the plaza was empty.\n\nThe walk went on until 11:40, and after that I set off for Guanajuato.\n\n---\n\n## Visitor information\n\nI was there on **October 7–8, 2025**. I looked up the distances and history below while writing this. Tour prices and times differ between sources, so check the official information.\n\n| Place | Location | Entry / price | When I went |\n| --- | --- | --- | --- |\n| Agave fields | Around Tequila | Visited on the tour; check official info before visiting | Oct 7, 12:30 p.m. |\n| José Cuervo distillery | Town of Tequila | Varies by tour; check official info before visiting | Oct 7, 3 p.m. |\n| Teatro Degollado | Guadalajara centro | Check official info for visits and shows | Oct 7, 8 p.m., outside |\n| Cathedral and Rotonda | Guadalajara centro | Check official info | Oct 8, 9:30 a.m. |\n\n**Getting around**: The town of Tequila is about 60 km northwest of Guadalajara, a bit over an hour by car. I left in the morning, was in the car on the way back at 4:43 p.m., and was in the centro by 7:30. The cathedral, the Rotonda and Teatro Degollado are all within walking distance of each other in the centro.\n\n📍 **José Cuervo distillery (La Rojeña, Mundo Cuervo)** · Tequila, Jalisco\n\n- 🏭 **Known facts**: José Cuervo's distillery near the main square of Tequila. According to the company, it was founded in 1812 and is the oldest working distillery in Latin America.\n- 🌵 **Agave**: Tequila is made from blue agave. The guide said one liter of tequila takes seven kilograms of piña.\n- 🎟️ **Tours**: Distillery tour types, prices and times vary by season and seller, and there are several day tours from Guadalajara. **Check official info before visiting.**\n- 🗺️ **Map**: [Open in Google Maps](https://www.google.com/maps/search/?api=1&query=La%20Roje%C3%B1a%20Jose%20Cuervo%20Tequila%20Jalisco)\n\n📍 **Agave Landscape and Ancient Industrial Facilities of Tequila** · UNESCO World Heritage (2006)\n\n- 🌄 **Extent**: The blue agave landscape and distilleries from the foothills of the Tequila Volcano to the Río Grande valley.\n- 🗺️ **Map**: [Town of Tequila](https://www.google.com/maps/search/?api=1&query=Tequila%20Jalisco)\n\n📍 **Teatro Degollado** · Guadalajara Centro\n\n- 🏛️ **Known facts**: Opened in 1866, with sixteen Corinthian columns and a pediment relief on the theme of Apollo and the Muses.\n- 🎭 **Visiting**: For interior visits and the performance schedule, **check official info before visiting.**\n- 🗺️ **Map**: [Open in Google Maps](https://www.google.com/maps/search/?api=1&query=Teatro%20Degollado%20Guadalajara)\n\n📍 **Guadalajara Cathedral · Rotonda de los Jaliscienses Ilustres** · Guadalajara Centro\n\n- 🗺️ **Map**: [Cathedral](https://www.google.com/maps/search/?api=1&query=Catedral%20de%20Guadalajara) · [Rotonda](https://www.google.com/maps/search/?api=1&query=Rotonda%20de%20los%20Jaliscienses%20Ilustres)\n\n📍 **Guadalajara lodging**\n\n- 🏠 **What I saw**: A gallery of stone-column arches, terracotta tiles, a courtyard full of plants with tables, and a lobby with ornate mirrors. Two nights, October 6 and 7.\n- 📝 **Name and price**: I have no record of the hotel's name or price, so they are not in this post.\n\n## Tequila tour: how to get lost a little less\n\n- 🕗 **Keep the whole day free.** I left the hotel in the morning and was only back in the centro at 7:30 p.m.\n- 🕶️ **Bring sunglasses.** An agave field is nothing but dirt paths between rows, with no shade.\n- 🌵 **Stay on the paths in the fields.** Agave leaf tips are sharp.\n- 🎧 **Check the tour language in advance.** The distillery talk I heard was in English.\n- 🌙 **Head to the centro when you get back.** From the church to Teatro Degollado was an easy walk between 7:30 and 8 p.m.\n\n\nThis is a record of an October 2025 visit. I looked up the distillery, theater and World Heritage information while writing this, but tour prices and hours differ between sources, so please check the official information once more before you book or go.\n \n\n## Jayden's verdict\n\n> The tequila tour started with a piece of agave in my mouth, went through the fields and ended at a mound of piñas in a distillery yard.\n\n- **Highlight**: the agave fibers I chewed in the morning, the blue agave fields running to the hills, and the piñas piled by the yellow wall\n- **Tip**: on tour day, come back to the centro in the evening and walk on to Teatro Degollado at night. The next morning, walk the cathedral and the Rotonda together.\n\nThe next part leaves Guadalajara for Guanajuato. From there it goes through San Miguel de Allende and back to Mexico City, and it is the last part, the way home.\n\n---\n\n**Mexico for Tacos: 10 Days**\n\n1. [Mexico City arrival and a Teotihuacan balloon](/en/posts/mexico-travel-01-mexico-city-teotihuacan-balloon)\n2. [Mexico City: night tacos and Chapultepec Castle](/en/posts/mexico-travel-02-mexico-city-tacos-chapultepec)\n3. [Puebla, Xochimilco at night and Guadalupe](/en/posts/mexico-travel-03-puebla-xochimilco-guadalupe)\n4. **Guadalajara and a tequila tour** (you are here)\n5. [Guanajuato, San Miguel de Allende, and home](/en/posts/mexico-travel-05-guanajuato-san-miguel-de-allende)\n"},{"slug":"indonesia-travel-04-bali-kintamani-blue-lagoon-canggu","title":"Bali Travel 04: Blue Lagoon Almost Rained Out, a Kintamani Jeep Sunrise and Canggu Sunset Beers","description":"Bali's last three days, December 2024: a dawn jeep up Mount Batur for sunrise and luwak coffee, Blue Lagoon snorkeling nearly rained out, and Canggu.","topic":"travel","tags":["Mount Batur Jeep Tour","Bali Itinerary","Blue Lagoon Snorkeling","Batu Bolong Beach","Canggu"],"publishedAt":"2026-10-21T20:00:00+09:00","updatedAt":"2026-11-03T20:00:00+09:00","growthStage":"evergreen","version":"1.1","content":"\nA line of jeep lights stood in the dark. It's predawn on a mountain, and it was genuinely cold. Toast, boiled eggs and hot tea in hand, I waited for the sun.\n\nAs the sky brightened, a lake and mountains appeared behind the jeeps parked all over the slope. If I could recommend just one thing in Bali, I'd pick this dawn.\n\nThis is the last part of nine days in Indonesia. In [Part 3](/en/posts/indonesia-travel-03-bali-ubud-remote-work-villa) I worked facing the rice fields of Ubud. This part picks up from there: Bali's last three days.\n\nA dawn jeep up to **Kintamani**, **Blue Lagoon snorkeling** that the rain almost canceled, then tacos and sunset beers in **Canggu**, and brunch on the morning I left.\n\n\n**In three lines**: Bali, December 20–22, 2024. A **Kintamani jeep tour** gets you sunrise, lava fields and luwak coffee in one go, as long as you can handle the predawn cold. **Blue Lagoon snorkeling** was clear underwater even in the rain. **Canggu** meant tacos, sunset beers at Batu Bolong Beach and brunch at CRATE.\n \n\n## The route in this post\n\n| Date | Where | In a line |\n| --- | --- | --- |\n| Dec 20, dawn | Mount Batur, Kintamani → lava fields → luwak coffee plantation | Jeeps, sunrise, cold |\n| Dec 21, morning | Padangbai → Blue Lagoon | Snorkeling that almost got canceled |\n| Dec 21 afternoon–Dec 22 | Canggu streets → Batu Bolong Beach → CRATE | Tacos, sunset, brunch |\n\n---\n\n## Mount Batur jeep tour: sunrise in Kintamani\n\n\n Before sunrise, jeeps on the mountain. \n \n\nWe left before dawn and drove for what felt like about an hour by jeep. Step out of the car and there's a line of jeep lights in the darkness.\n\nFirst, the **cold**. It's predawn and it's a mountain, so it's genuinely cold. Don't pack only T-shirts just because it's Bali.\n\n\n Breakfast while waiting for the sun. \n \n\nWhile waiting for the sun, breakfast was toast, boiled eggs and hot tea. In the cold, the hot tea was very welcome.\n\n\n Lake Batur, once it gets light. \n \n\nAs the sky brightens, a **lake and mountains** appear behind the jeeps. The light spreading through the clouds changes minute by minute.\n\nThe sunrise was so beautiful. Even now, when I think of Bali, this is the first scene that comes to mind.\n\n### Where the volcano passed: the lava fields\n\n\n A shot from atop the jeep, with Mount Batur behind. \n \n\nOnce the sun is up, the jeeps take you down onto the black **lava fields**. I climbed up on the jeep and got a photo too.\n\n\n White lichen on hardened lava. \n \n\nWhite lichen grows on the hardened lava rock, and young trees push up between the stones. It was my first time walking this close to ground a volcano had passed over.\n\n### The luwak coffee plantation: a civet and a tasting\n\n\n A civet in its enclosure at the plantation. \n \n\nOn the way down, you stop at a **luwak coffee plantation**. Luwak coffee is made from coffee beans eaten and passed by civets. You go through it in order, from the civet in its enclosure to the beans at each stage, and this part was pretty fun too.\n\n\n Each basket holds beans at a different stage. \n \n\n\n Small cups of tea and coffee in a row. \n \n\nThe finale is a **tasting**. The coffee was good, but the tea suited me better, so I bought tea.\n\nFair warning, though: like the classic tour that ends at a gift shop, there's a bit of a sales pitch. It isn't pushy; buy if you want to, or don't. Know it's coming and you can enjoy it without any pressure.\n\n---\n\n## Blue Lagoon snorkeling: the rainy-day tour that almost got canceled\n\nLet me give you the answer first. **Even in the rain, it was fine underwater.** And even if it rains, you should absolutely go snorkeling.\n\n\n Padangbai on a heavily overcast morning. \n \n\nWhen I got to **Padangbai beach** in the morning, the sky was heavily overcast. Traditional boats were lined up off the sand, and because of the rain, that day's tour almost got canceled.\n\n\n Running along the cliffs in the rain. \n \n\nStill, the guide got the boat out safely. We ran along the cliffs over a sea dimpled with raindrops. The guide looked after us incredibly well and was kind the whole way.\n\n\n Above the water, it looked like this. \n \n\n\n Fins on, and in we go. \n \n\nI put on the fins and got in. Above the surface it was all gray, but **underwater it was clear.** I'd been snorkeling before, but the sea in Bali is definitely clearer.\n\nI have no underwater photos. It was so much fun that I could almost call this my first real snorkeling.\n\n\n Nasi goreng after getting out of the water. \n \n\nOut of the water, a plate of nasi goreng, topped with a fried egg and krupuk. On the way back, a huge fish was hanging by the harbor.\n\n---\n\n## Canggu: an afternoon that started with tacos\n\nGreat food, pretty cafés, things to do. Everything that comes to mind when you picture Bali, in one place: **Canggu**.\n\n\n A dog lying on the sidewalk. \n \n\nIn the afternoon I left my stay and walked the streets of Canggu. Past a dog lying on the sidewalk, there's a pretty café or restaurant every other door. Just looking at the signs makes the time fly.\n\n\n Tacos from a place I wandered into. \n \n\nThe day began with **tacos** at a place I wandered into: meat, green sauce and a heap of onion on tortillas, with an iced coffee on the side. **These tacos were truly the best.**\n\n## Sunset beer at Batu Bolong Beach\n\n\n Batu Bolong Beach around sunset. \n \n\nAround sunset, head down to **Batu Bolong Beach**. The waves were high, so there were lots of surfers, and the sun sank toward the horizon through the clouds. The wet sand mirrors the colors of the sky.\n\n\n A Singaraja beer. \n \n\nI sat in one of the beanbags spread across the beach and watched the sunset with a **beer**. So good.\n\n\n Dogs by the beanbags. \n \n\nAt my feet, dogs had dug themselves into the sand and were lying there. When you get hungry, you order mie goreng and even pizza right where you are.\n\n\n The sky gone pink. \n \n\nThe sky turned pink, and I didn't get up until it was dark.\n\n## Departure morning: CRATE in the rain\n\nThe next morning it poured. Still, there was no way I was giving up brunch. Even in the rain, **CRATE** was packed.\n\n\n A smoothie over chia seeds. \n \n\n\n Mushroom toast. \n \n\nI ordered a smoothie over chia seeds and toast topped with mushrooms, and this brunch was the best too. **As the last meal on the day I left Bali, it was a really good pick.**\n\n---\n\n## Visiting info: Kintamani, Blue Lagoon and Canggu compared\n\nMy visit was in **December 2024**. The details below were looked up again in **November 2026**, and tour times and prices differ from operator to operator. Where I'm not sure, I've marked it \"check official info\".\n\n| Place | When | Getting there | Bring |\n| --- | --- | --- | --- |\n| Mount Batur jeep tour | Predawn start, sunrise | Tour jeep (about an hour from where I stayed) | A jacket |\n| Blue Lagoon snorkeling | Morning (when I went) | Traditional boat from Padangbai | Towel, a cover-up that can get wet |\n| Canggu, Batu Bolong Beach | Streets in the afternoon, beach at sunset | Within Canggu | Get to the beanbags early |\n\n**Route**: the three stops point in different directions. Kintamani is in the highlands of north-central Bali, Padangbai is on the east coast, and Canggu is on the southwest coast. I gave Kintamani one day, Blue Lagoon and Canggu the next, and left from Canggu the following morning.\n\n📍 **Kintamani · Mount Batur** · Kintamani, Bangli, Bali\n\n- 🌋 **Good to know**: Mount Batur is an active volcano about 1,700 m high (sources give 1,711–1,717 m), last erupting in 2000. Lake Batur sits inside its caldera. The caldera joined the Global Geoparks Network in 2012 and is now a UNESCO Global Geopark.\n- ⏰ **Start time and price**: many tour listings give a start around 3–4 a.m., but it varies by operator and pickup area. Price, whether breakfast is included and whether hotel pickup is included: **check official info before visiting.**\n- ☕ **Luwak coffee plantation**: my tour ended with a tasting and a sales stop. Buying is optional.\n- 🗺️ **Map**: [Open in Google Maps](https://www.google.com/maps/search/?api=1&query=Mount%20Batur%20Kintamani)\n\n📍 **Blue Lagoon Beach** · Padangbai, Karangasem, Bali\n\n- 🌊 **Good to know**: Padangbai is a harbor town with ferries to Lombok and boats to Nusa Penida. Blue Lagoon is a small bay northeast of the harbor; tour listings put it 5–10 minutes from Padangbai by boat.\n- 🌧️ **Weather**: December falls in Bali's wet season (roughly November to March). Sea conditions change daily.\n- 💰 **Tour, gear and boat prices**: these vary by operator. **Check official info before visiting.**\n- 🗺️ **Map**: [Open in Google Maps](https://www.google.com/maps/search/?api=1&query=Blue%20Lagoon%20Beach%20Padangbai)\n\n📍 **Canggu** · Badung, Bali\n\n- 🌅 **Batu Bolong Beach**: named after Pura Batu Bolong, the temple on the rocks at the south end of the beach. Lots of surf schools here. Beanbag rental prices: **check official info before visiting.** [Google Maps](https://www.google.com/maps/search/?api=1&query=Batu%20Bolong%20Beach%20Canggu)\n- 🥑 **CRATE**: many listings say it opens early and closes in the afternoon, but opening hours differ between sources. **Check official info before visiting.** [Google Maps](https://www.google.com/maps/search/?api=1&query=Crate%20Cafe%20Canggu)\n\n## How to get it right\n\n- 🧥 **Start Kintamani with a jacket.** Bali or not, the mountain before dawn is truly cold.\n- 🌧️ **If it rains, ask your tour operator whether the boats are running before you give up.** My day almost got canceled too, but the boat went out. At sea, follow your guide.\n- ☕ **Know the luwak coffee plantation has a sales stop.** Buy if you want to.\n- 🚶 **Canggu: the streets by day → the beach around sunset → brunch the next morning.** Get to Batu Bolong before sunset if you want a beanbag.\n\n\nThe experience is from December 2024; the visiting details were looked up again in November 2026. Tour schedules and prices and café opening information change over time, so check once more before booking or visiting.\n \n\n## Jayden's verdict\n\n> Bali's last three days were all \"you have to do this.\" Even in the cold, even in the rain.\n\n- **Mount Batur jeep tour**: the sunrise was so beautiful. Bali, for me, is that dawn.\n- **Blue Lagoon snorkeling**: clear underwater even in the rain.\n- **Canggu**: tacos, sunset beers, CRATE brunch. A must.\n- **Tip**: a jacket, and on rainy days, ask the operator first.\n\n## Nine days, wrapped up\n\nThat's all nine days in Indonesia, in four posts. In Jakarta I made a guide laugh with 5,000 rupiah, toured offices that never opened, and ate pepper crab. In Bali I worked facing rice fields, waited for the sun on a volcano, and got into a rainy sea.\n\n---\n\n**Indonesia in 9 Days series**\n\n1. [Jakarta's first two days: Istiqlal Mosque and Kota Tua](/en/posts/indonesia-travel-01-jakarta-istiqlal-kota-tua)\n2. [Jakarta business trip: empty offices, pepper crab, two Airbnbs and local food](/en/posts/indonesia-travel-02-jakarta-business-trip-pepper-crab)\n3. [Ubud, Bali: rice terraces, remote work and a rice-field villa](/en/posts/indonesia-travel-03-bali-ubud-remote-work-villa)\n4. **Bali's last three days: Kintamani sunrise, Blue Lagoon and Canggu sunset** (you are here)\n"},{"slug":"mexico-travel-03-puebla-xochimilco-guadalupe","title":"Puebla Travel 03: The Palafoxiana Library, and the Camera I Turned On After a Run","description":"October 5–6, 2025: Puebla's Palafoxiana Library and Talavera streets, Xochimilco at night, a first intro video in Parque México, Guadalupe and the Zócalo.","topic":"travel","tags":["Puebla Travel","Palafoxiana Library","Basilica of Guadalupe","Parque México","Mexico City"],"publishedAt":"2026-10-19T20:00:00+09:00","updatedAt":"2026-10-19T20:00:00+09:00","growthStage":"evergreen","version":"1.0","content":"\nAt 9 a.m. on October 6, I finished a run in a Mexico City park and stood under a wooden roof. I turned the camera toward myself and said hello. **\"Hola, buenos días.\"** I recorded that greeting again and again that morning.\n\n[Part 2](/en/posts/mexico-travel-02-mexico-city-tacos-chapultepec) was Mexico City's night tacos and Chapultepec Castle. This post is the next two days. On October 5 I went to **Puebla**, east of Mexico City, and that night I was out on the canals of Xochimilco. October 6 started in a park, went by Guadalupe hill and the Zócalo, and ended with a night flight.\n\n\n**In three lines**: On the morning of October 5, I saw the wooden bookcases of Puebla's **Palafoxiana Library** run all the way to a gold altarpiece. Around midday I walked through Talavera pottery shops and the **Barrio del Artista**, and the day ended with the Xochimilco canals and a taco. On the morning of October 6, after a run in **Parque México**, I recorded my first video introducing myself, and in the afternoon I saw **Guadalupe hill** and the **Zócalo**.\n \n\n## The route in this post\n\n| Date | Where | In a line |\n| --- | --- | --- |\n| Oct 5, breakfast | A restaurant | One plate, three sauces |\n| Oct 5, morning | Puebla: an exhibition room → Palafoxiana Library | Bookcases leading to a gold altarpiece |\n| Oct 5, midday | Old town of Puebla → Barrio del Artista | Talavera bollards, a pottery shop, the PUEBLA letters |\n| Oct 5, night | Xochimilco canals → tacos | A hut hung with dolls, a taco at 9:56 p.m. |\n| Oct 6, morning | Parque México | \"Hola, buenos días\" after a run |\n| Oct 6, afternoon | Guadalupe hill → Zócalo | Two basilicas, the cathedral under storm clouds |\n| Oct 6, night | Mexico City → Guadalajara | A night flight |\n\n---\n\n## October 5, breakfast: three sauces\n\nThe camera was rolling from 5:43 that morning. Breakfast was at a restaurant around 9.\n\n\n Three stripes of sauce on one plate. \n \n\nThe plate came covered in three stripes of sauce: dark brown with sesame seeds, orange with crushed nuts, pale green with pumpkin seeds. Three brown clay cups sat at the back of the table. Puebla is known as the home of mole poblano. The name of this dish isn't in my notes.\n\n## The Palafoxiana Library in Puebla\n\n\n 10:27 a.m., red, white and green papel picado. \n \n\nAt 10:27 I walked into a courtyard covered with a glass roof. Under the orange arcade, red, white and green paper decorations were laid out in concentric rings. In Mexico this cut-paper decoration is called papel picado.\n\n\n A bishop engraving taller than a person. \n \n\nTwo minutes later I was in an exhibition room with purple walls. An engraving of a bishop, enlarged to more than human height, stood like a gateway, and a gold-framed painting hung on the far wall. The clip has a short \"Gracias\" in it.\n\n\n The gold altarpiece at the end of the stacks. \n \n\nAt 10:43, the **Palafoxiana Library**. Wooden bookcases cover both long walls in three tiers, from the floor to just under the ceiling, packed with leather-bound books. At the far end stands a gold altarpiece with a painting of the Virgin in the middle. The white vaulted ceiling is traced with yellow lines.\n\nThe library began in 1646, when Bishop Juan de Palafox y Mendoza donated his own collection of about 5,000 books. It is described as the first public library in the Americas, and in 2005 it was added to UNESCO's Memory of the World Register.\n\n\n The building model in the corner by the window. \n \n\nIn the corner by the window, a white model of a building sits in a glass case on a round wooden table. The bookcase doors are fitted with fine wire mesh, and behind it are rows of books with faded white spines. Light comes in through a window with its big wooden shutters open.\n\n\n One shot from the middle of the aisle. \n \n\nVisitors walk down the central aisle. The desks in front of the bookcases are roped off, and the patterned stone floor is polished smooth. I stood in the middle of the aisle with the stacks and the altarpiece behind me and took one shot. My library photos run until 10:48.\n\n## Old town Puebla: Talavera bollards and colored streets\n\n\n Stone bollards with a band of blue tile. \n \n\nFrom the library I walked through the old town. Short stone bollards line the edge between road and sidewalk, each with a band of blue zigzag tile. That is Puebla's pottery, Talavera. In 2019 the Talavera craft of Puebla and Tlaxcala was added to UNESCO's Intangible Cultural Heritage list, in a joint file with Spain.\n\n\n Yellow, hot pink, pale pink, and a dome at the end. \n \n\nOn the street at 10:59, yellow, hot pink and pale pink buildings stand wall to wall. Each house has black iron balconies, and yellow paper decorations are strung above the road. A red dome rises at the end of the street.\n\n## Barrio del Artista and a Talavera pottery shop\n\n\n Puebla on every mug. \n \n\nAt 12:33 I went into a pottery shop. Blue and pink patterned plates covered the walls, and the mugs in the front row each had the word Puebla on them. Blouses embroidered with flowers hung near the ceiling. A VISA sticker was stuck on one shelf.\n\n\n The BARRIO DEL ARTISTA sign. \n \n\nThree minutes later it was the **Barrio del Artista**. A red brick building carries a BARRIO DEL ARTISTA sign, and the shop in front hangs striped bags and shawls under a blue awning that reads Azul Cobalto. Right next to it, a tree-shaded pedestrian walkway runs on.\n\n\n 1:24 p.m., in front of the PUEBLA letters. \n \n\nAt 1:24 p.m. I took a selfie in front of the person-height **PUEBLA** letters. The strip under the letters says IMAGINA MÁS. There were a lot of people around the letters. This is close to the last scene I recorded in Puebla.\n\n---\n\n## October 5, night: the Xochimilco canals and a taco\n\n\n 7:33 p.m., a white pyramid at the end of the canal. \n \n\nAt 7:33 p.m. I was on the water in Xochimilco. The sun had set and only a blue glow was left in the sky. Past the bow, the canal ran on between trees with water plants floating on it. Far off, a white pyramid-shaped structure was lit up and reflected in the water.\n\n\n Dolls hanging on a reed wall. \n \n\nIn the 7:40 clip you can hear a guide speaking English: \"It's going to have another creepy story.\" \"We're going to land here.\" The hut I filmed at 7:48 had walls of woven reeds, and old dolls hung on them, upside down and sideways. Most of that night's footage is too dark to make out.\n\n\n 9:56 p.m., heaped with cilantro and onion. \n \n\nAt 9:56 p.m., a taco arrived. Meat piled high with cilantro and chopped onion, with metal bowls of salsa lined up behind it. This was a trip to eat tacos, so the last scene of the day is a taco too.\n\n---\n\n## October 6, morning: the camera I turned on in Parque México\n\n\n 8:39 a.m., people out with their dogs. \n \n\nThe next morning started in **Parque México**, a park in the Condesa area that opened in 1927 on the site of an old racetrack. At 8:39, a dog stands on a bark-covered path under tall trees, and behind it more people come along with their dogs. This is where I went for my run.\n\n\n Under the wooden roof, between takes. \n \n\nAfter the run I stood under a wooden roof in front of a hedge. White jacket over a navy T-shirt, earbuds in. I turned the camera toward myself. I watch a lot of YouTube and Instagram Reels. Every time, I'd thought I wanted to be a creator who makes videos like that too. But I had never actually tried.\n\nHere is what I said in the 9:03 take, word for word: \"After finishing my run today, I felt like making one properly, so I'm leaving this video.\" In the 9:06 take I put it this way: \"I went running during my trip, and suddenly I had this thought, this decision: let's start right now.\"\n\nFrom 9:11 the first words changed. **\"Hola, buenos días.\"** I greeted in the Spanish I had studied, then carried on in Korean. \"Let's make videos like this too. When? Right now!\" At 9:13 and 9:19 I started again with the same greeting. The 9:19 take cut off after nine seconds.\n\nThe last take, at 9:24, ran 50 seconds. It was the first take where I said the plan out loud: **I would do a 30-day challenge.** I asked people to watch with me how the followers grow over those 30 days. Then I closed with a line that had been in the earlier takes too: \"By the way, I love traveling, and I love learning things. Enjoy watching. Thank you.\"\n\nFrom 9:03 to 9:24, just over twenty minutes, in the same spot in the same park.\n\n---\n\n## October 6, afternoon: two basilicas on Guadalupe hill\n\n\n 2:41 p.m., a stone facade with a clock. \n \n\nAt 2:41 p.m. I was at the Guadalupe shrine, looking up at a gray stone facade with a clock at the top. Statues of saints stand in the niches, and a relief is carved in the center. The white jacket from the morning had been swapped for a gray shirt.\n\n\n The yellow dome and the green roof side by side. \n \n\nAt 3 p.m. I climbed the stairs of **Tepeyac hill** behind the churches and looked down. On the left is the old basilica with its yellow tiled dome; on the right, the new basilica under a green roof shaped like a tent. The new basilica was designed by the architect Pedro Ramírez Vázquez and finished in 1976. It has a round plan, built so the image of the Virgin can be seen from anywhere inside.\n\n\n At the stone railing on the hill. \n \n\nOn the landing, a stall selling colorful sombreros had its umbrella up, and people leaned on the railing to look down. I took a few selfies at the stone railing with the two basilicas behind me. I was on the hill until 3:02. The city runs all the way to the mountain ridges on the horizon.\n\n## The Zócalo: the Metropolitan Cathedral under storm clouds\n\n\n 4:42 p.m., the cathedral under storm clouds. \n \n\nAt 4:42 p.m. I was on a high terrace looking down over the **Zócalo**. Across the square stood the bell towers and red dome of the **Metropolitan Cathedral**, and long rows of white tent roofs filled the square. Storm clouds were closing in from above the cathedral.\n\nWork on the Metropolitan Cathedral began in 1573, and its exterior was finished in 1813. It took some 240 years, so Gothic, Baroque and Neoclassical styles sit in one building. The camera stayed on for a long time on that terrace. In the background you can hear an English conversation about a drink, tax and paying in cash.\n\nThen that night I flew to Guadalajara.\n\n---\n\n## Visit info\n\nI went on **October 5–6, 2025**. The history and architecture notes below are what I looked up while writing this. Opening hours and prices differ between sources, so I don't state them as fixed.\n\n| Place | Where | Entry | When I went |\n| --- | --- | --- | --- |\n| Palafoxiana Library | Historic center of Puebla | Paid; fee and free days: check official info before visiting | Oct 5, around 10:45 a.m. |\n| Barrio del Artista | Historic center of Puebla | Street, no entry | Oct 5, around 12:30 p.m. |\n| Parque México | Condesa, Mexico City | Park, no entry | Oct 6, morning |\n| Guadalupe shrine | North Mexico City | Check official info before visiting | Oct 6, around 3 p.m. |\n| Zócalo and Metropolitan Cathedral | Historic center, Mexico City | Square free; cathedral: check official info | Oct 6, around 5 p.m. |\n\n**Route**: Puebla is about 130 km east of Mexico City, and I did it as a day trip. Parque México is in Condesa to the southwest, the Guadalupe shrine is to the north, and the Zócalo is in the historic center between them.\n\n📍 **Palafoxiana Library (Biblioteca Palafoxiana)** · Historic center, Puebla\n\n- 📚 **Known facts**: It began in 1646 when Bishop Juan de Palafox y Mendoza donated about 5,000 books. It is described as the first public library in the Americas and was added to UNESCO's Memory of the World Register in 2005.\n- 🎟️ **Admission and hours**: Sources give different fees, free days and hours. **Check official info before visiting.**\n- 👀 **Visiting**: When I went, the desks by the bookcases were roped off and visitors walked down the central aisle.\n- 🗺️ **Map**: [Open in Google Maps](https://www.google.com/maps/search/?api=1&query=Biblioteca%20Palafoxiana%20Puebla)\n\n📍 **Barrio del Artista** · Historic center, Puebla\n\n- 🏺 **Talavera**: In 2019 the Talavera craft of Puebla and Tlaxcala was inscribed on UNESCO's Intangible Cultural Heritage list together with Talavera de la Reina and El Puente del Arzobispo in Spain.\n- 🛍️ **Shops**: Talavera pottery and craft shops cluster around it. Opening times vary by shop.\n- 🗺️ **Map**: [Open in Google Maps](https://www.google.com/maps/search/?api=1&query=Barrio%20del%20Artista%20Puebla)\n\n📍 **Parque México** · Colonia Hipódromo, Condesa\n\n- 🌳 **Known facts**: Built on the site of an old racetrack and opened in 1927. Its official name is Parque San Martín.\n- 🏃 **Running**: I finished my run before 9 a.m. The shade is deep, and plenty of people were out walking dogs.\n- 🗺️ **Map**: [Open in Google Maps](https://www.google.com/maps/search/?api=1&query=Parque%20M%C3%A9xico%20Condesa)\n\n📍 **Guadalupe shrine (Basílica de Santa María de Guadalupe)** · Gustavo A. Madero, Mexico City\n\n- ⛪ **Known facts**: The new basilica was designed by Pedro Ramírez Vázquez and built in 1974–1976. Stairs behind the old basilica climb Tepeyac hill to the Capilla del Cerrito at the top.\n- 🕰️ **Hours and Mass times**: I couldn't confirm them from the sources I found. **Check official info before visiting.**\n- 🗺️ **Map**: [Open in Google Maps](https://www.google.com/maps/search/?api=1&query=Bas%C3%ADlica%20de%20Guadalupe%20Ciudad%20de%20M%C3%A9xico)\n\n📍 **The Zócalo and the Metropolitan Cathedral** · Centro Histórico, Mexico City\n\n- 🏛️ **Known facts**: The cathedral stands on the north side of the Zócalo (Plaza de la Constitución). Work began in 1573 and the exterior was finished in 1813.\n- 🌆 **The view**: I saw the whole cathedral from a high terrace across the square. Terrace access depends on the business.\n- 🗺️ **Map**: [Zócalo](https://www.google.com/maps/search/?api=1&query=Z%C3%B3calo%20Ciudad%20de%20M%C3%A9xico) · [Metropolitan Cathedral](https://www.google.com/maps/search/?api=1&query=Catedral%20Metropolitana%20Ciudad%20de%20M%C3%A9xico)\n\n## How to get lost a little less\n\n- 📚 **In Puebla, start with the Palafoxiana Library.** I went in around 10 a.m. and came straight out into the old town. You can walk from the library to the Barrio del Artista.\n- 🏺 **You see Talavera on the street first.** Look at the tile bands on the bollards before you go into the shops, and the patterns will feel familiar.\n- 🏃 **For a morning run in Mexico City, try Parque México.** There's a shaded loop path under the trees, and it's busy from early on.\n- ⛪ **At Guadalupe, climb the hill stairs.** The spot where you see the old and new basilicas together is up the stairs.\n- ☁️ **See the Zócalo cathedral from above.** From the square you look up at the towers; from a terrace you see the cathedral and the square together.\n\n\nThis is a record of an October 2025 visit. I looked up the building dates and history while writing this, but opening hours and prices for the Palafoxiana Library and the Guadalupe shrine differ between sources, so check the official information once more before you go.\n \n\n## Jayden's verdict\n\n> I love traveling, and I love learning things. That's what I said to the camera in Parque México on the morning of October 6.\n\n- **Highlight**: the gold altarpiece and bookcases of the Palafoxiana Library, and the camera I turned on for the first time after a run in Parque México\n- **Tip**: in Puebla, start at the library and walk the old town. At Guadalupe, go all the way up the hill stairs.\n\nThe next part is Guadalajara on October 7. It starts at the hotel in the morning and goes out to the agave fields on the José Cuervo tequila tour.\n\n---\n\n**Mexico for Tacos: 10 Days**\n\n1. [Mexico City arrival and a Teotihuacan balloon](/en/posts/mexico-travel-01-mexico-city-teotihuacan-balloon)\n2. [Mexico City: night tacos and Chapultepec Castle](/en/posts/mexico-travel-02-mexico-city-tacos-chapultepec)\n3. **Puebla, Xochimilco at night and Guadalupe** (you are here)\n4. [Guadalajara and a tequila tour](/en/posts/mexico-travel-04-guadalajara-tequila-tour)\n5. [Guanajuato, San Miguel de Allende, and home](/en/posts/mexico-travel-05-guanajuato-san-miguel-de-allende)\n"},{"slug":"indonesia-travel-03-bali-ubud-remote-work-villa","title":"Ubud Travel 03: Best Even in the Rain, a Coconut-Bowl Office and a Rice-Field Villa","description":"Ubud, December 2024: rainy Tegallalang and Saraswati Temple, a workday of meetings over a coconut bowl, and a rice-field villa with a tub and mangosteens.","topic":"travel","tags":["Ubud Travel","Remote Work in Bali","Where to Stay in Ubud","Tegallalang Rice Terrace","Saraswati Temple"],"publishedAt":"2026-10-18T20:00:00+09:00","updatedAt":"2026-11-03T20:00:00+09:00","growthStage":"evergreen","version":"1.1","content":"\n**Ubud was the best, even in the rain.**\n\nThe umbrella came out at the very first stop. There were rice paddies carved in tiers under rain clouds, and raindrops falling on a temple pond. I reached my villa at night; in the morning, rice fields I hadn't been able to see appeared right outside the balcony.\n\nIn [Part 2](/en/posts/indonesia-travel-02-jakarta-business-trip-pepper-crab), I wrapped up the Jakarta business trip with a string of offices that never opened. Then I landed in Bali on a dawn flight. From here on it's **remote work in Bali.** It sounds like a vacation, but the work didn't change.\n\nThis part is two days in Ubud. Day one went straight up from the airport to Tegallalang Rice Terrace and Saraswati Temple. Day two was a workday that started with yoga and ended with nasi goreng. In between sits a villa in north Ubud.\n\n\n**In three lines**: Ubud, Bali, December 18–19, 2024. Rainy **Tegallalang Rice Terrace** was calm and lush. Morning yoga → **meetings with overseas developers over a coconut bowl** → moving neighborhoods during Korea's lunch hour → more meetings at a café. My stay was **Pinggala Villa Ubud**, with rice-field views and a bathtub. If I could pick just one place from this trip to stay again, it would be this one.\n \n\n## The route in this post\n\n| Date | Where | In a line |\n| --- | --- | --- |\n| Dec 18 | Ngurah Rai Airport → Tegallalang → Tis Cafe → Saraswati Temple | A rainy first day in Ubud |\n| Dec 18, night | Pinggala Villa Ubud (north Ubud) | Arrived at night; the rice fields appeared in the morning |\n| Dec 19 | Yoga studio → café → central Ubud | A day of remote work |\n\n---\n\n## Day 1: Tegallalang Rice Terrace and Tis Cafe in the rain\n\n\n The electric taxi from the airport. \n \n\nRight after landing I spotted a taxi running a promotion and jumped in. I don't remember the fare, but it was cheaper than the app average, and above all it was a **brand-new electric car**. A Chinese-made EV, which made me a little curious; the quality turned out to be excellent. We skipped town and headed straight up toward Ubud.\n\n\n Tegallalang Rice Terrace. \n \n\nFirst stop: **Tegallalang Rice Terrace**. Under rain clouds, paddies are carved in tiers down the slope, laid out to follow subak, Bali's traditional irrigation system. On a rainy day the paddies had far more atmosphere than I expected.\n\n\n A fried-duck set. \n \n\nI settled in at **Tis Cafe**, overlooking the paddies. With a beer came a plate of fried duck with rice, condiments and vegetables. My first meal in Bali. It was really good.\n\n\n The infinity pool at Tis Cafe. \n \n\nAfter lunch I wandered around the café a little. An infinity pool stretching toward the paddies, and a giant swing too. If the rain would just stop, you could spend the whole day here.\n\n## Saraswati Temple in Ubud: the pond path and the carved brick\n\n\n The pond path leading to Saraswati Temple. \n \n\nIn the afternoon I went to **Saraswati Temple** (Pura Taman Saraswati) in central Ubud. First comes the pond path leading up to the entrance, lined on both sides with statues and pavilions. Temple roofs layer over the rain-dappled water.\n\nThe temple is dedicated to Saraswati, the Hindu goddess of learning and the arts. It was built in 1951–1952 to a design by I Gusti Nyoman Lempad, a Balinese sculptor and architect.\n\n\n At the entrance to Saraswati Temple. \n \n\nAt the entrance I put on a headband and a cloth wrap, and held up my umbrella.\n\n\n Carvings on the temple gate. \n \n\nWhat I loved most about this temple was **how unfamiliar it felt**. It was nothing like the temples I'd seen in Vietnam or Thailand.\n\nLooking at carvings packed densely into the brick, you really feel that this is a Hindu cultural world, and that it's different. It was more exotic, and this is exactly where it sank in: \"Ah, I'm in Bali.\"\n\n---\n\n## Where to stay in Ubud: Pinggala Villa Ubud, a rice-field villa up north\n\nIf I could pick only one place to stay again from this whole trip, it would be this one. **Pinggala Villa Ubud.** For me, it was a genuine ten-out-of-ten.\n\nIt's north of central Ubud. I arrived at night, so the garden was dark except for the lights. Unlike town, it was quiet.\n\n\n A room at Pinggala Villa Ubud. \n \n\nStep into the room and the painting over the bed, the wooden ceiling and the carved furniture set the mood. Even the washbasin is done in wood and stone.\n\n\n The tub by the big window. \n \n\nAnd what I liked most was the **bathtub**. It sits in front of a big window, so you can soak while looking out at the green garden.\n\n\n Rice fields and palm trees in the morning. \n \n\nCome morning, the paddies you couldn't see at night spread right out past the balcony. The end of the pool runs into the fields and forest.\n\n\n The breakfast table. \n \n\nBreakfast is eaten in front of this view too. A smoothie bowl topped with fruit; on another day, scrambled eggs and toast. Beyond the table, wide rice fields. I opened my laptop right here and started work.\n\n---\n\n## Day 2: remote work in Bali, a workday in Ubud\n\nHere is December 19, a workday in Ubud, hour by hour.\n\n\n Palm trees and jungle past the laptop. \n \n\n### Morning: yoga first\n\nWhen I wake up at the villa, the laptop is the first thing I grab. I'm a PM working with overseas developers, so the work doesn't stop wherever I am.\n\nStill, stopping by a yoga studio early to loosen up first was perfect for a long day at a desk. After yoga, you step out and look down over the railing into the jungle.\n\n\n A yoga studio draped in white curtains. \n \n\n### Late morning: meetings over a coconut bowl\n\n\n The office for the day. \n \n\nThat day's breakfast, and office, was a coconut bowl: a whole coconut split open and filled with fruit, seeds and nuts. I started work with overseas developers while eating it.\n\n### Midday: Korea's lunch hour = my travel time\n\nThe time difference is what makes this possible. Bali is one hour behind Korea. While Korea goes quiet at lunch and the messages slow down, I move to the next neighborhood. When there was a short gap, I also looked around a nearby park and the streets.\n\n### Afternoon: more meetings at a café\n\n\n An afternoon café window. \n \n\nSit down in a café in the new neighborhood and it's back to work. Meetings with overseas developers, requirements coming in from Korean clients on Slack, and, as the PM, organizing them and passing them on. In between, local snacks and drinks.\n\n### Evening: clocking out with nasi goreng\n\n\n Clocking out ends with a plate of nasi goreng. \n \n\n\n Ubud Palace. \n \n\nIn the evening I head into central Ubud for a plate of nasi goreng. On the way back, I passed Ubud Palace with its lights on.\n\n### Night: and that bathtub\n\n\n Mangosteens and bananas by the tub. \n \n\nBack at the villa, once I'd wrapped up the day's work, I put the mangosteens and bananas I'd bought on a plate next to the tub. A drama on the tablet, and **a bubble bath while peeling mangosteens.** As after-work routines go, it was the best.\n\nI didn't work any less in Ubud. What changed was **where I worked**.\n\n---\n\n## Visiting info: the Ubud stops and the villa at a glance\n\nMy visit was in **December 2024**. The details below were looked up again in **November 2026**, and entry fees and opening hours differ from source to source. Where I'm not sure, I've marked it \"check official info\".\n\n| Place | Where | Entry / rates | When I went |\n| --- | --- | --- | --- |\n| Tegallalang Rice Terrace | About 8 km north of Ubud | Varies by source; check official info | Dec 18, midday, rain |\n| Saraswati Temple | Central Ubud | Listed as free and as paid; check official info | Dec 18, afternoon, rain |\n| Pinggala Villa Ubud | Sebatu village, Tegallalang | Varies by season and site; check official info | Two nights from Dec 18 |\n| Ubud Palace | Central Ubud | Check official info | Dec 19, evening |\n\n**Route**: Tegallalang and Pinggala Villa Ubud are north of Ubud; Saraswati Temple and Ubud Palace are in town. I went from the airport up to Tegallalang first, came down into town for the temple, and went back north to the villa at night.\n\n📍 **Tegallalang Rice Terrace & Tis Cafe** · Tegallalang, Gianyar, Bali\n\n- 🌾 **Background**: terraced paddies laid out to follow subak, Bali's traditional irrigation system. Indonesia's official tourism site puts them about 8 km from Ubud, a 15–20 minute drive.\n- 🎟️ **Entry**: the amount differs across 2025–2026 guides, and some describe it as a donation. Many warn about people collecting money away from the official booth. **Check official info before visiting.**\n- 🍽️ **Tis Cafe**: a café-restaurant overlooking the paddies, with an infinity pool and a swing. For pool and swing conditions, **check official info before visiting.**\n- 🗺️ **Map**: [Tegallalang Rice Terrace](https://www.google.com/maps/search/?api=1&query=Tegallalang%20Rice%20Terrace), [Tis Cafe](https://www.google.com/maps/search/?api=1&query=Tis%20Cafe%20Tegallalang)\n\n📍 **Saraswati Temple (Pura Taman Saraswati)** · Ubud, Gianyar, Bali\n\n- 🎟️ **Entry and hours**: some guides list it as free and others as paid, and the hours differ too. Some say only worshippers may enter the inner temple. Many say the evening dance performances need a separate ticket. **Check official info before visiting.**\n- 👘 **Dress**: I put on a headband and a cloth wrap at the entrance. Many guides say a sarong and sash are the norm at Balinese temples.\n- 🗺️ **Map**: [Open in Google Maps](https://www.google.com/maps/search/?api=1&query=Pura%20Taman%20Saraswati%20Ubud)\n\n📍 **Pinggala Villa Ubud** · Tegallalang, Gianyar, Bali (north of central Ubud)\n\n- 📍 **Location**: booking sites place it in Sebatu village, in the Tegallalang area.\n- 🛁 **What I liked**: a rice-field-view balcony, a tub in front of a big window, a pool that runs into the fields, breakfast facing the paddies\n- 🚗 **Downside**: it's away from the town center. Plan your transport along with it.\n- 🧳 **Good for**: anyone who wants to work somewhere quieter than town, looking out at rice fields.\n- 💳 **Rates and rooms**: rates and room setups vary a lot between booking sites. **Check official info before booking.**\n- 🗺️ **Map**: [Open in Google Maps](https://www.google.com/maps/search/?api=1&query=Pinggala%20Villa%20Ubud)\n\n📍 **Ubud Palace** · [Open in Google Maps](https://www.google.com/maps/search/?api=1&query=Ubud%20Palace)\n\n## Tips if you want to try working from Ubud\n\n- 🕛 **Use your home office's lunch hour as travel time.** (For me, that was Korea's lunch hour; Bali is one hour behind Korea.) Switch neighborhoods while messages slow down, and neither the work nor the trip gets interrupted.\n- 🧘 **Do yoga in the morning, before work.** The longer your day at the desk, the more it helps.\n- 📶 **Check the Wi-Fi at your villa and cafés in advance.** It's the precondition for remote work.\n- 🌅 **At a rice-field-view villa, keep your mornings free.** The fields only show in daylight.\n- ☔ **It rains often in Ubud in December.** Pack an umbrella or raincoat and keep the schedule loose.\n- 🚕 **At the airport, compare promo taxis too.** Mine was cheaper than the app average.\n\n\nThe experience is from December 2024; the visiting details were looked up again in November 2026. Villa rates and how temple visits work can change over time, so check once more before booking or visiting.\n \n\n## Jayden's verdict\n\n> Even in the rain, Ubud was the best. If I could pick one place to stay again, Pinggala Villa Ubud.\n\n- **Highlight**: Tegallalang and Saraswati Temple. Atmospheric even in the rain, and the temple feels wonderfully foreign.\n- **Where to stay**: Pinggala Villa Ubud. The rice-field view and the tub alone made two nights feel short.\n- **Remote work in Ubud**: morning yoga, a coconut bowl and evening nasi goreng, and I'd do it again.\n- **Tip**: don't forget an umbrella or a raincoat.\n\nNext up is Bali's last three days: sunrise over Mount Batur in Kintamani, reached by jeep before dawn, snorkeling at Blue Lagoon in pouring rain, and sunset beers at Batu Bolong Beach in Canggu.\n\n---\n\n**Indonesia in 9 Days series**\n\n1. [Jakarta's first two days: Istiqlal Mosque and Kota Tua](/en/posts/indonesia-travel-01-jakarta-istiqlal-kota-tua)\n2. [Jakarta business trip: empty offices, pepper crab, two Airbnbs and local food](/en/posts/indonesia-travel-02-jakarta-business-trip-pepper-crab)\n3. **Ubud, Bali: rice terraces, remote work and a rice-field villa** (you are here)\n4. [Bali's last three days: Kintamani sunrise, Blue Lagoon and Canggu sunset](/en/posts/indonesia-travel-04-bali-kintamani-blue-lagoon-canggu)\n"},{"slug":"mexico-travel-02-mexico-city-tacos-chapultepec","title":"Mexico City Travel 02: Night Tacos Under a Pink Tent, and Siqueiros at Chapultepec Castle","description":"Mexico City, October 3–4, 2025: a night taco stand under a pink tent, the Niños Héroes monument, Chapultepec Castle and its Siqueiros mural, the zoo.","topic":"travel","tags":["Mexico City tacos","Chapultepec Castle","Chapultepec Park","Monument to the Revolution","Mexico City itinerary"],"publishedAt":"2026-10-16T20:00:00+09:00","updatedAt":"2026-10-16T20:00:00+09:00","growthStage":"evergreen","version":"1.0","content":"\nUnder a pink tent, on a red plastic plate, sat **one taco**. A yellow corn tortilla, meat charred at the edges, chopped onion and cilantro, green salsa. At the edge of the plate, half a lime.\n\nI went to Mexico because I love tacos. [Part 1](/en/posts/mexico-travel-01-mexico-city-teotihuacan-balloon) covered arriving in Mexico City and the Teotihuacan balloon. This post is the two days after that. October 3 was a taco stand at night. October 4 was Chapultepec, from morning into the afternoon, and that night I stood in front of the Monument to the Revolution.\n\n\n**In three lines**: On the night of October 3, 2025, at a **street taco stand under a pink tent** in Mexico City, I shot six videos in a little over ten minutes. On the morning of the 4th I passed the **Niños Héroes monument** and went up to **Chapultepec Castle** for Siqueiros's revolution mural and the terrace. In the afternoon, the park zoo and a lane of stalls; at night, the **Monument to the Revolution** lit in teal.\n \n\n## The route in this post\n\n| Date and time | Where | In a line |\n| --- | --- | --- |\n| Oct 3, night | A street taco stand in Mexico City | Pink tent, red plate, six videos |\n| Oct 4, 09:40–10:00 | Chapultepec park → Niños Héroes monument → foot of the hill | Tree-lined path, six white columns, a pink brick building |\n| Oct 4, 10:23–12:00 | Chapultepec Castle (National History Museum) | Uniformed groups, arcades, the Siqueiros mural, the terrace |\n| Oct 4, 14:14–15:11 | The park zoo → a lane of stalls | A Mexican wolf sign, a black squirrel, blue umbrellas |\n| Oct 4, 19:41 | Monument to the Revolution | Teal lights |\n\n---\n\n## The night of October 3: Mexico City tacos under a pink tent\n\nAll that survives of October 3 is the night. My plan had a market for the daytime, but the only place with photos and videos is one taco stand after dark. At that stand I shot **six videos in a little over ten minutes**.\n\n\n A red plate in a plastic bag, a sheet of paper, then the taco. \n \n\nThe plate was a red plastic plate slipped into a plastic bag, with a sheet of paper laid on top. Further up the table was a red pot stuffed with a bunch of cilantro. The taco video starts with the whole plate and moves closer and closer to the tortilla.\n\n\n Green salsa over meat charred at the edges. \n \n\nUp close there are two tortillas, one on top of the other. The meat is chopped small and blackened at the edges. Over it went plenty of white onion and cilantro, then two lines of green salsa.\n\n\n The pink tarp and the white work light. \n \n\nThe stand's roof was a pink tarp tent with a single white work light hanging under it. One of that night's selfie videos runs 2 minutes 45 seconds, and again and again in it I tip my head back to look at the tent and the light.\n\nI went to Mexico to eat tacos, and I ate them wearing a green Mexico soccer jersey. Over it I had an ivory jacket, with a backpack strap on my shoulder.\n\n\n Fingers to the mouth. \n \n\nNear the end of the same video I have my fingers at my mouth.\n\nI had studied Spanish before this trip. The Spanish left in that night's videos is \"Por favor,\" and, in the last video, \"¿Quién es? Buenas noches.\"\n\n\n Out from under the tent: a streetlight and trees. \n \n\nThe last video is 23 seconds long. It starts under the tent, and as I walk out, the pink tarp overhead turns into leaves and an orange streetlight. I was walking with my cheeks puffed out. Neither the stand's name nor its exact location made it into my records.\n\n---\n\n## Morning of October 4: Chapultepec park and the Niños Héroes monument\n\nThe next day was a Saturday. At 9:40 a.m. I walked into Chapultepec park.\n\n\n 9:40 a.m., the path into the park. \n \n\nBig trees line both sides of a wide stone path, with a map sign at the edge. The sky stayed overcast through the daytime.\n\n\n 9:47 a.m., the Niños Héroes monument. \n \n\nA short walk on, white columns rise at the end of a semicircular marble plaza. This is the **Niños Héroes monument**, officially the Altar a la Patria (Altar to the Homeland). It honors six cadets of the Military College who died defending the castle in the Battle of Chapultepec in 1847, which is why there are six columns. It was inaugurated in 1952, the work of architect Enrique Aragón and sculptor Ernesto Tamariz.\n\nEach column is topped with a black bronze figure, and a white marble statue stands in the middle. At the railing in front of the plaza, people were taking turns posing for photos.\n\n\n 10 a.m., a pink brick building below the hill. \n \n\nAt 10 a.m. I passed a pink brick building at the foot of the hill. Its roofline has crenellations like a fortress wall, and its windows are pointed arches. Part of a building shows above the trees on the hill. The castle is on top of that hill.\n\n## Chapultepec Castle: uniformed groups, arcades and the Siqueiros mural\n\n\n 10:23 a.m., khaki uniforms passing in front of the castle. \n \n\nAt 10:23 I was on the plaza in front of **Chapultepec Castle**, at the top of the hill. People in khaki uniforms passed in groups, with Mexican flag patches on their sleeves. In the distance were a flagpole with the Mexican flag and the BBVA tower.\n\n\n A courtyard ringed by gray stone arcades. \n \n\nThe courtyard is ringed by a two-story arcade of gray stone: round arches below, a balustrade lined with planters above. Building began in 1785, and the castle took its present look when Emperor Maximilian and Empress Carlota lived here from 1864 to 1867. Since 1944 it has been the **National History Museum**.\n\n\n 11:09 a.m., Siqueiros's mural wrapping a whole room. \n \n\nAt 11:09 I was in a gallery where the mural wraps right around the corner of the room. Men in sombreros, bandoliers crossed over their chests, hold their rifles upright and look straight out. Beside them come a woman in a red shawl and face after face, all the way to the end of the wall.\n\nThis is David Alfaro Siqueiros's mural **From Porfirism to the Revolution** (Del porfirismo a la Revolución). The museum gives it as 4.46 m high and 76.89 m wide. He began it in 1957; work stopped when Siqueiros was jailed in 1960, and the museum dates the finished work to 1966.\n\n\n 11:57 a.m., the castle terrace. High-rises past the pergola. \n \n\nAt 11:57 I was back outside, walking the terrace garden. A stone path runs along the castle wall, and past a fountain and a columned pergola stands a line of high-rises.\n\n\n An agave spreading over the hedge. \n \n\nIn the middle of the garden a big agave spreads its leaves above a clipped hedge, with cypresses behind it. My time at the castle ran from 10:23 to around noon, a little under two hours.\n\n---\n\n## Afternoon of October 4: a zoo, a black squirrel and a lane of blue umbrellas\n\nMy plan for the day also listed Xochimilco, Coyoacán and UNAM. But every photo and video from that afternoon was taken inside Chapultepec park. Xochimilco came the next night.\n\n\n 2:14 p.m., in front of a sign with a wolf on it. \n \n\nAt 2:14 p.m. I was at a zoo. People were gathered at an enclosure under tall trees, and the sign had a picture of a wolf with the words LOBO MEXICANO (Mexican wolf). Several people wore purple plush hats, and on the right an aloe had sent up red flower spikes.\n\n\n 2:59 p.m., a black squirrel on a railing. \n \n\nAt 2:59 a black squirrel was sitting on a rusty metal railing, holding something orange in both front paws and gnawing at it. Behind it, tall grass grew thick.\n\n\n 3:11 p.m., a lane of stalls with a BOSQUE DE CHAPULTEPEC sign. \n \n\nAt 3:11, stalls under blue umbrellas lined both sides of a stone path through the trees for a long way. Panda toys, plushies in every color and bags of snacks hung from them, and one stall had a BOSQUE DE CHAPULTEPEC sign. The path was packed.\n\n## The night of October 4: the Monument to the Revolution in teal\n\n\n 7:41 p.m., the Monument to the Revolution. \n \n\nAt 6:45 p.m. I was on the move, and at 7:41 I was in front of the **Monument to the Revolution**. The huge arch, a dome on four legs, was lit teal, with blue lights along the base.\n\nIt started out in 1906 as the federal legislative palace. Work stopped with the Revolution, and between 1933 and 1938 the architect Carlos Obregón Santacilia turned the remaining steel frame into a monument. Its height is given as 65 to 67 m depending on the source.\n\n---\n\n## Visiting info\n\nI was there on **October 3–4, 2025**. The history below comes from official or reputable sources; I looked up hours and prices while writing this. Where sources disagree, I've marked it \"check official info before visiting.\"\n\n| Place | Where | Entry | When I went |\n| --- | --- | --- | --- |\n| Niños Héroes monument | Chapultepec park, first section, below the castle hill | Open-air monument; check the park's opening days before visiting | Oct 4, 09:47 |\n| Chapultepec Castle (National History Museum) | On top of Chapultepec hill | Paid; prices differ between sources | Oct 4, 10:23 to about 12:00 |\n| Chapultepec Zoo | Chapultepec park, first section | Many sources say general entry is free | Oct 4, 14:14 |\n| Monument to the Revolution | Plaza de la República | The plaza is open; the viewpoint is paid | Oct 4, 19:41 |\n\n**Route**: The monument, the castle, the zoo and the stalls are all inside the first section of Chapultepec park. I went in at 9:40 a.m. and was still in the park after 3 p.m. The Monument to the Revolution is outside the park, toward downtown.\n\n📍 **Chapultepec Castle · National History Museum (Museo Nacional de Historia)**\n\n- 🏰 **Facts**: Building began in 1785; home of Emperor Maximilian and Empress Carlota from 1864 to 1867; opened as the National History Museum in 1944. Siqueiros's mural From Porfirism to the Revolution is in this museum.\n- 🕘 **Hours**: INAH lists Tuesday to Sunday, 9:00–17:00, closed Mondays. Some sources say Sunday entry is free for Mexican nationals and foreign residents of Mexico. Hours and prices differ between sources, so **check official info before visiting.**\n- 🗺️ **Map**: [Chapultepec Castle](https://www.google.com/maps/search/?api=1&query=Castillo%20de%20Chapultepec)\n\n📍 **Niños Héroes monument (Altar a la Patria)**\n\n- 🏛️ **Facts**: Inaugurated in 1952. It honors six Military College cadets who died in the Battle of Chapultepec in 1847. Architect Enrique Aragón Echegaray, sculptor Ernesto Tamariz.\n- 🗺️ **Map**: [Open in Google Maps](https://www.google.com/maps/search/?api=1&query=Altar%20a%20la%20Patria%20Chapultepec)\n\n📍 **Chapultepec Zoo (Zoológico de Chapultepec)**\n\n- 🐺 **What my photos show**: a LOBO MEXICANO sign. The zoo's name isn't in the shot, but this is the zoo in the park's first section.\n- 🎟️ **Entry and hours**: Many sources say general entry is free, with separate charges for the butterfly house and the reptile house. Most say it closes on Mondays, but the hours vary between sources. **Check official info before visiting.**\n- 🗺️ **Map**: [Open in Google Maps](https://www.google.com/maps/search/?api=1&query=Zool%C3%B3gico%20de%20Chapultepec)\n\n📍 **Monument to the Revolution (Monumento a la Revolución)** · Plaza de la República\n\n- 🏗️ **Facts**: Begun in 1906 as the federal legislative palace; turned into a monument by Carlos Obregón Santacilia in 1933–1938. Its height is given as 65–67 m depending on the source.\n- 🔭 **Viewpoint**: Paid. Prices and hours differ between sources, so **check official info before visiting.**\n- 🗺️ **Map**: [Open in Google Maps](https://www.google.com/maps/search/?api=1&query=Monumento%20a%20la%20Revoluci%C3%B3n)\n\n📍 **The October 3 taco stand**: I have no record of its name or location. All that's left is that it was a street stand under a pink tent with a work light.\n\n## How to get lost a little less in Chapultepec\n\n- 🗓️ **Avoid Mondays.** The castle is closed on Mondays, and many sources say the zoo is too.\n- 🌳 **Monument and castle in the morning, the park in the afternoon.** In that order, I spent the whole day from 9:40 a.m. until after 3 p.m. inside the first section alone.\n- 🖼️ **Inside the castle, find the gallery with the Siqueiros mural.** The mural runs along the walls around the whole room.\n- 🏙️ **On the terrace, face the high-rises.** The city shows past the fountain and the pergola.\n- 🌙 **See the Monument to the Revolution at night.** At 7:41 p.m., when I was there, the teal lights were on.\n\n\nThis is a record of an October 2025 visit. I checked the history against official sources while writing this, but hours and prices for the museum, zoo and viewpoint differ between sources, so check the official information once more before you go.\n \n\n## Jayden's verdict\n\n> The night of October 3 was tacos under a pink tent; October 4 was Chapultepec all day.\n\n- **Highlight**: the taco at the pink-tent stand, the Siqueiros mural in Chapultepec Castle, the black squirrel on the railing\n- **Tip**: Give Chapultepec a whole day, and visit the castle on any day but Monday.\n\nThe next part is Puebla and Xochimilco at night on October 5, then, on the 6th, the camera I first turned on in a park and Guadalupe hill.\n\n---\n\n**Mexico for Tacos: 10 Days**\n\n1. [Mexico City arrival and a Teotihuacan balloon](/en/posts/mexico-travel-01-mexico-city-teotihuacan-balloon)\n2. **Mexico City: night tacos and Chapultepec Castle** (you are here)\n3. [Puebla, Xochimilco at night and Guadalupe](/en/posts/mexico-travel-03-puebla-xochimilco-guadalupe)\n4. [Guadalajara and a tequila tour](/en/posts/mexico-travel-04-guadalajara-tequila-tour)\n5. [Guanajuato, San Miguel de Allende, and home](/en/posts/mexico-travel-05-guanajuato-san-miguel-de-allende)\n"},{"slug":"indonesia-travel-02-jakarta-business-trip-pepper-crab","title":"Jakarta Travel 02: The Office That Never Opened and a Pepper Crab Picked From the Tank","description":"Three days of a Jakarta business trip, December 2024: touring empty offices, pepper crab picked from the tank at Bandar Djakarta, two Airbnbs and local food.","topic":"travel","tags":["Jakarta Business Trip","Jakarta Food","Bandar Djakarta","Pepper Crab","Jakarta Airbnb"],"publishedAt":"2026-10-15T20:00:00+09:00","updatedAt":"2026-11-03T20:00:00+09:00","growthStage":"evergreen","version":"1.1","content":"\n**I opened the door and saw the tanks before any tables.**\n\nBandar Djakarta, a seafood restaurant in Alam Sutera on the west side of Jakarta. I picked a crab at the tank, and a staff member lifted it straight out and dropped it into a basket on the scale. Even on the scale, the crab was still moving its claws.\n\nThat same day, I had been touring empty offices.\n\nThis is the Jakarta business-trip leg of nine days in Indonesia in December 2024. In [Part 1](/en/posts/indonesia-travel-01-jakarta-istiqlal-kota-tua) I went round a rainy Istiqlal Mosque and Kota Tua.\n\nThis part has four threads: the office tour to find a base in Indonesia, dinner at Bandar Djakarta with local colleagues, the two Airbnbs I stayed in, and the local food I ate all through the trip.\n\n\n**In three lines**: A business trip to Jakarta, December 2024. A two-story office, a shophouse with a resident cat, a bare-concrete 25th floor: I toured **offices that never opened**. Dinner was **pepper crab picked straight from the tank at Bandar Djakarta**, recommended by local colleagues. For lodging, **the studio in central Sudirman** beat the two-bedroom in Alam Sutera.\n \n\n## The route in this post\n\n| Date | Where | In a line |\n| --- | --- | --- |\n| Dec 16 | Office tour around BSD City | Two-story office |\n| Dec 16, evening | Bandar Djakarta Alam Sutera | Tanks, scales, pepper crab |\n| Dec 17, afternoon | Office tour around BSD City | Shophouse and cat, panel building, 25th floor |\n| Dec 14–17 | Alam Sutera Airbnb, 3 nights → Sudirman, 1 night | Number of rooms vs location |\n| Throughout | Satay, breakfast boxes, Padang spread, bakso | A country that takes carbs seriously |\n\n---\n\n## Jakarta business trip: two days of office hunting\n\nMy company hires overseas developers directly to run a global development team, and takes on IT projects for companies in Korea and abroad. So the idea came up of setting up a base in Indonesia. This trip was to see the candidates in person.\n\n\n Candidate number one: a two-story office. The sofa still in its plastic wrap. \n \n\nThe first place we walked into was a **two-story (duplex) office**. The sofa still had its plastic wrap on, and the windows ran up the height of both floors. Put desks in and it looked ready to use.\n\n### The shophouse and the cat\n\nThe next afternoon we saw a **shophouse**. The ground floor was an empty space with nothing but walls; up the stairs came rooms, a bathroom and even a small sink. It felt less like viewing an office and more like viewing a home.\n\n\n A tuxedo cat walking toward the camera in an empty room. \n \n\nWhat I remember most clearly from that house is the **cat**. A tuxedo cat was sprawled on the floor of an empty room. It didn't avoid people at all and strode straight toward the camera.\n\n\n A building wrapped entirely in panels. Everything outside is triangles. \n \n\nThe next building was different from the outside in. The whole exterior was wrapped in perforated panels, so from inside, the view was a pattern of triangles. Stylish, yes. But it hides the view by just as much.\n\n### On bare concrete, 25 floors up\n\n\n The 25th floor. Concrete underfoot, pipes exposed overhead. \n \n\nThe last stop was the **25th floor**. Open the door and the floor was bare concrete, the ceiling all exposed pipes. Picturing where the desks would go and where to put the meeting room turned out to be strangely fun.\n\n\n But the view out the window was wide open. \n \n\nOut the window, under the rain clouds, high-rises and low rooftops stretched on and on.\n\n\n On the way back, a motorbike splashes past the BSD City arch. \n \n\nIt rained on the way back. Once the viewings were done, I went back to a meeting room and opened my laptop again.\n\n\n The view after the meeting. \n \n\nAnd the trip didn't achieve its goal. Later, for internal company reasons, the opening was called off. Our sign never went up on any of those offices.\n\n---\n\n## Jakarta food: Bandar Djakarta, seafood picked from the tank\n\nThis was the place the Indonesian developers I work with recommended. On the evening of the first office day, we all went to **Bandar Djakarta Alam Sutera**.\n\n\n The price sign above the tank is per 100 g. \n \n\nAt this restaurant you look at the **tanks** before the menu. You pick your seafood from tanks of crab and lobster.\n\n\n The chosen crabs go straight onto the scale. \n \n\n**Eating seafood that was alive and moving moments ago** is this place's biggest draw.\n\n\n A banana-leaf starter that arrives while you wait for the crab. \n \n\nWhile you wait for the crab, a starter grilled in banana leaf and small dishes of condiments land on the table. Open the leaf and the white filling is grilled golden. The beer on the table wasn't Bintang but **Bali Hai**.\n\n### Pepper crab and clams\n\n\n Pepper crab. The sauce gets into every gap between the legs. \n \n\nThen the **pepper crab**. The shell glistens under a coat of thick sauce. **It was incredibly fresh.** It is still the first plate that comes to mind from the whole trip. I want it again.\n\n\n Clams I remember as much as the pepper crab. \n \n\nWhat I remember as much as the pepper crab is these **clams**. They come heaped in their shells with no sauce smothering them, so there's a real pleasure in prying them open one by one. Another dish I still think about.\n\n\n And razor clams buried in garlic. \n \n\nMeanwhile the table filled up with no gaps left: stir-fried water spinach, huge prawns, razor clams. We sat around one table with local colleagues and shared the seafood we had just picked.\n\n---\n\n## Two Jakarta Airbnbs: similar price, different verdict\n\nOn this trip I stayed at two Airbnbs. The price was similar, but I lost a room. I still liked the smaller one better.\n\n\n Three nights in Alam Sutera. Two bedrooms plus a living room with kitchen. \n \n\nFirst, **three nights in Alam Sutera**. Two bedrooms and a separate living room with kitchen made it a roomy base for a business trip. The building had a gym and a pool too. The pool from the first night in Part 1 is this one.\n\n\n One night in Sudirman. A studio, but a cleaner one. \n \n\n**One night in Sudirman** was a studio: bed, desk and a small kitchen all in one room. It was definitely smaller. But at a similar price, **the place itself was cleaner in Sudirman.**\n\n\n An alley of Korean-language signs inside Jakarta's Lotte Mall. \n \n\nThe reason I liked it was **location**. A department store was close by, so the moment I stepped outside there was something to do. Inside Lotte Mall there was even an alley of Korean-language signs. A curious sight.\n\n\n The city under the moon, from the room window. \n \n\nGo up to the pool at night and you're surrounded by high-rise lights; from the room window, the city spreads out under the moon. One night felt too short.\n\nThere was one mishap on that city night. **I left my AirPods in a taxi.** Luckily I managed to reach the kind driver and got them back safely. I'm still incredibly grateful to him.\n\n| | Alam Sutera | Sudirman |\n| --- | --- | --- |\n| Stay | 3 nights | 1 night |\n| Layout | 2 bedrooms + living room with kitchen | Studio |\n| What I liked | Plenty of space, gym and pool | Cleaner, close to a department store, night view |\n| Best for | Traveling with others, needing space | Wanting to enjoy Jakarta itself |\n\n---\n\n## What I ate on the trip: from satay to bakso\n\nIndonesian food suited me well. Everything I ate on this trip was delicious.\n\n\n Satay and Bintang, spread out at the apartment on arrival night. \n \n\n### Satay and lontong\n\nOn the first night after arriving, **satay** was what I spread out at the apartment. Meat on skewers, grilled and dipped in a sauce like peanut sauce. It's widely said to have started in Java, and one theory says it was influenced by the kebabs brought by Muslim traders. On the side was **lontong**, rice pressed and cooked in banana leaf.\n\n### Breakfast boxes and noodles on rice\n\nThe next morning a breakfast box arrived. Next to a round scoop of rice: thin fried noodles, fried bits, and a pile of **krupuk**, crackers flavored with shrimp or fish.\n\nThe morning after that, it was a bowl with curly noodles piled right on top of rice and cucumber on top. Rice and noodles in one bowl. **This country takes its carbs seriously.**\n\n### A Padang-style lunch\n\n\n A Padang-style lunch, where small plates cover the table the moment you sit down. \n \n\nThe highlight of the trip's meals. Padang food is known as the cooking of the Minangkabau people of West Sumatra, defined by rich coconut curries and fiery spice pastes. The moment you sit down, small plates cover the table without a gap. Yellow curried fish, fish smothered in red chili. The drink was a green juice drizzled with chocolate syrup.\n\nI also ordered satay at the Lotte Mall near Sudirman. Lunch, with stir-fried water spinach. I emptied the plate before taking a photo.\n\n### Bakso Solo\n\n\n Bakso Solo, visited for dinner. \n \n\n\n Big meatballs, yellow noodles, and one fried piece stuck in at an angle. \n \n\nLast up was dinner at **Bakso Solo**. Bakso is Indonesian meatball noodle soup. It's said to come from the food of Chinese immigrants, and today it's a national favorite sold in every neighborhood. Big meatballs and yellow noodles in broth, with one large fried piece stuck in on top at an angle. With it, a cold glass of **Teh Poci**.\n\nAdd the nasi goreng from Kota Tua in Part 1 and my Indonesian food list is complete.\n\n---\n\n## Visiting info: the places from this trip\n\nMy visit was in **December 2024**. The details below were looked up again in **November 2026**. Where I couldn't confirm something from an official source, I've marked it \"check official info before visiting\".\n\n| Place | Area | What I ate | Before you go |\n| --- | --- | --- | --- |\n| Bandar Djakarta | Alam Sutera (South Tangerang) | Pepper crab, clams, razor clams, prawns | Check hours and booking |\n| Lotte Mall | Near Sudirman | Satay, water spinach | — |\n| Bakso Solo | Near Lotte Mall | Bakso, Teh Poci | Check the branch |\n\n📍 **Bandar Djakarta Alam Sutera** · Flavor Bliss, Jl. Alam Sutera Boulevard Kav. 6 No. 3, Tangerang Selatan, Banten\n\n- 🦀 **My visit (December 2024)**: I went with a group of local colleagues, by car. The sign above the tank priced male crab (Kepiting Jantan, L) per 100 g. That was the sign on the day, not today's price.\n- 🍽️ **About the restaurant**: the booking site Chope lists it as a seafood and Indonesian restaurant with a fish-market concept where you pick live seafood, and as halal.\n- ⏰ **Hours**: daily 10:00–22:00, per Chope. **Check official info before visiting.**\n- 💰 **Price range**: Rp 100,000–250,000 per person, per Chope. Seafood is priced from the tank sign on the day. **Check official info before visiting.**\n- 📞 **Reservations**: Chope says the restaurant doesn't take bookings through Chope and to contact it directly. Another guide suggests booking by phone or WhatsApp the day before for weekends. **Check official info before visiting.**\n- 🗺️ **Map**: [Open in Google Maps](https://www.google.com/maps/search/?api=1&query=Bandar%20Djakarta%20Alam%20Sutera)\n\n📍 **BSD City** · Serpong, Tangerang Selatan, Banten\n\n- 🏙️ A planned township in South Tangerang, west of Jakarta, developed by Sinar Mas Land. The office candidates I saw were in this area.\n\n📍 **Bakso Solo (Bakso Solo Samrat)**\n\n- 🍜 **My visit**: the sign read \"Bakso Solo Samrat\". It's a chain with several branches, and local media mention one close to Lotte Shopping Avenue in Kuningan. Whether that's the one I went to: **check official info before visiting.**\n- 🗺️ **Map**: [Find it on Google Maps](https://www.google.com/maps/search/?api=1&query=Bakso%20Solo%20Samrat)\n\n## Tips for business travelers\n\n- 🏢 **If you're scouting a local office**, look at shophouses, duplex offices and empty high-rise floors together. Even within one area, the options vary this much. Empty high-rise floors may come without finished floors or ceilings, so budget for the fit-out too.\n- 🦀 **Go to Bandar Djakarta in a group.** You need a crab or two plus clams, prawns and vegetables to really enjoy this place.\n- 🏨 **At the same price point, location beats room count.** Evenings were far easier in the city center.\n- 🚕 **Check your belongings once more before getting out of a taxi.** I left my AirPods behind.\n- 🌶️ **Sambal varies by restaurant and region.** Taste a little first, then adjust.\n- ☔ **December is rainy season in Jakarta.** If you're moving between buildings, an umbrella is a must.\n\n\nThe experience is from December 2024; the visiting details were looked up again in November 2026. Restaurant hours, prices and booking can change, so check once more before you go. There are several theories about where these dishes come from, so read those parts for fun.\n \n\n## Jayden's verdict\n\n> The office never opened. I still think about the pepper crab at Bandar Djakarta.\n\n- **Highlight**: the pepper crab and clams at Bandar Djakarta. If I go back, these two first, no question.\n- **Where to stay**: the Sudirman Airbnb. One room fewer, much easier evenings.\n- **Local Indonesian food**: satay and sambal, plus fried rice.\n- **Office tour**: zero for results, full marks for fun.\n\nNext up is Bali: a dawn flight from Jakarta and straight on to Ubud. Rainy Tegallalang Rice Terraces and Saraswati Temple, a remote-work day that ran from yoga to café meetings, and a villa with rice-field views and a bathtub.\n\n---\n\n**Indonesia in 9 Days series**\n\n1. [Jakarta's first two days: Istiqlal Mosque and Kota Tua](/en/posts/indonesia-travel-01-jakarta-istiqlal-kota-tua)\n2. **Jakarta business trip: empty offices, pepper crab, two Airbnbs and local food** (you are here)\n3. [Ubud, Bali: rice terraces, remote work and a rice-field villa](/en/posts/indonesia-travel-03-bali-ubud-remote-work-villa)\n4. [Bali's last three days: Kintamani sunrise, Blue Lagoon and Canggu sunset](/en/posts/indonesia-travel-04-bali-kintamani-blue-lagoon-canggu)\n"},{"slug":"mexico-travel-01-mexico-city-teotihuacan-balloon","title":"Mexico City Travel 01: Midnight Check-in, Then a 4:40 a.m. Teotihuacan Balloon","description":"October 1–2, 2025: Air Canada via Vancouver, Mexico City at 10:50 p.m., check-in at midnight, then a dawn Teotihuacan balloon and the Pyramid of the Moon.","topic":"travel","tags":["Teotihuacan hot air balloon","Mexico City travel","Mexico itinerary","Air Canada via Vancouver","Pyramid of the Moon"],"publishedAt":"2026-10-13T20:00:00+09:00","updatedAt":"2026-10-13T20:00:00+09:00","growthStage":"evergreen","version":"1.0","content":"\n**\"Day one, Teotihuacan. Heading out at 4:40 a.m. For the record, I got to the hotel at midnight.\"**\n\nThat is what I said into the camera, standing in front of the mirror in my Mexico City room. It was 4:39 a.m. I had been in the room for less than five hours, and the Teotihuacan tour I'd booked on Airbnb hadn't picked me up yet.\n\nIn October 2025 I spent ten days in Mexico. There was one reason. **I love tacos, so I went to Mexico to eat tacos.** I left Incheon on October 1, changed planes in Vancouver, landed in Mexico City that night, and flew out to Canada early on October 11. In between I went through Mexico City, Puebla, Guadalajara, Guanajuato and San Miguel de Allende.\n\nThis post covers the first two days: October 1, two flights and a midnight check-in, and October 2, out before dawn to fly over Teotihuacan in a balloon and climb the Pyramid of the Moon.\n\n\n**In three lines**: On October 1, 2025 I flew **Air Canada** from Incheon via **Vancouver**, landed in Mexico City around 10:50 p.m. and checked in at midnight. The next morning I left at 4:40 for a **Teotihuacan hot air balloon** ride, and the sun came up through the clouds. After breakfast in a cave restaurant I climbed the **Pyramid of the Moon**, looked across at the Pyramid of the Sun, and spent the afternoon in Coyoacán.\n \n\n## The route in this post\n\n| Date and time | Where | In one line |\n| --- | --- | --- |\n| Oct 1, evening (Korea time) | Incheon Airport | A rain-soaked runway, Air Canada |\n| Oct 1, midday (local) | Vancouver Airport | Waiting out the connection in the Maple Leaf Lounge |\n| Oct 1, night | Mexico City Airport → hotel in Juárez | Landed around 10:50 p.m., checked in at midnight |\n| Oct 2, 4:39 a.m. | Hotel → Teotihuacan | A late pickup, the Korean shop next door, a dark highway |\n| Oct 2, 6:15 a.m. | Over Teotihuacan | Inflating the balloon, takeoff at 6:30 |\n| Oct 2, 8:17 a.m. | Cave restaurant | Chilaquiles or a ham and cheese omelette |\n| Oct 2, 9:29 a.m. | Pyramid of the Moon | The Pyramid of the Sun straight ahead |\n| Oct 2, afternoon | Lunch, Coyoacán | Tortillas on a griddle, a stone church |\n\n---\n\n## October 1: Incheon to Vancouver\n\nAt 6:15 p.m. on October 1 the runway at Incheon was wet with rain. The airline was **Air Canada**, and the first leg went to Vancouver: instead of a direct flight to Mexico City, a route with one stop in Canada.\n\n\n The meal out of Incheon. The pack on the far left is kimchi. \n \n\nThe first meal tray held meat in sauce with vegetables, mashed potato, a bread roll and water. On the far left sat a 45 g pack of Jongga sliced cabbage kimchi. To drink, I had a can of Molson Canadian.\n\n## Connecting in Vancouver: the Maple Leaf Lounge\n\nAfter crossing the date line I landed in Vancouver and it was midday on October 1 again. I filmed a short selfie video by the terminal windows, then spent the connection in the lounge.\n\n\n The lounge entrance: the Maple Leaf Lounge and the Signature Suite share one sign. \n \n\nUnder AIR CANADA the sign lists both the **MAPLE LEAF LOUNGE** and the **SIGNATURE SUITE**, with the French name SALON FEUILLE D'ERABLE alongside. Strings of silver ball lights hang over the reception desk. In the lounge I sat down with a plate of salad and a glass of something red.\n\n\n Just after leaving Vancouver: a river, a bridge and a white-roofed building. \n \n\nWe left Vancouver in the afternoon. Below the window were a river, a bridge and a long white-roofed building, with low cloud lying over the sea in the distance.\n\n---\n\n## Vancouver to Mexico City: the second flight\n\nOn the second leg my seat was in business class. On the window-seat table I set a red cocktail with a lemon slice, a bowl of nuts and my tablet.\n\n\n Vancouver to Mexico City. On the tablet, giant skull-faced figures. \n \n\nThe tablet showed a row of giant figures with skull faces. The seat-back screen was still showing only a \"please wait\" message. Outside was blue sky above the clouds.\n\n\n Dinner on the second flight. \n \n\nDinner was chicken in a dark glaze with white rice sprinkled with black sesame and edamame, all on one plate, with a salad, bread and a slice of cheesecake alongside.\n\n\n Clamato on board. \n \n\nAfter the meal I had a glass of **Clamato**, tomato juice mixed with clam broth. In Canada it's mixed with vodka into a cocktail called the Caesar.\n\n\n 9:18 p.m., Mexico City time. \n \n\nIn the dark outside, the lights of some city spread wide across the ground. There was still an hour and a half to go before landing.\n\n## The night of October 1: past Cuauhtémoc station to a midnight check-in\n\nI landed at **Mexico City airport** around 10:50 p.m., went through immigration and took a taxi toward my hotel in **Juárez**.\n\n\n Cuauhtémoc station from the taxi, with the eagle head to the left of the name. \n \n\nA **CUAUHTEMOC 1** sign slid past the window: Cuauhtémoc station on Metro Line 1. To the left of the name is an eagle's head. Cuauhtémoc means \"descending eagle\" in Nahuatl, and it was the name of the last Aztec ruler. Every station on the Mexico City Metro has its own picture icon like this one.\n\n\n Pandora Hotel: geometric wallpaper and a yellow headboard. \n \n\nThe hotel was the **Pandora Hotel** at Nápoles 35 in Juárez. The room had dark grey walls, geometric wallpaper, a bed with a yellow headboard and a wall lamp on each side. I walked in just after midnight, and the first day ended there.\n\n---\n\n## October 2, 4:39 a.m.: the pickup is late\n\n\n 4:39 a.m., in front of the hotel mirror. \n \n\nBack to that mirror. In a white jacket, holding a small camera, I announced \"day one, Teotihuacan.\" The clip ends with \"fighting, let's go, vamos!\" I studied Spanish, and the only Spanish in that dawn clip is that one word: vamos, \"let's go.\"\n\nAt 4:53 I was still waiting. I had booked the tour on **Airbnb**, and a message came saying the car was running a bit late and I should wait at the hotel. While I waited, I pointed the camera at the shop right next door.\n\n\n The Korean food shop next to the hotel. The pink neon reads \"I love Korean food\" in Korean. \n \n\nRight next to the hotel is a Korean food shop. Under a blue **I ♥ K-food** sign, pink neon spells out \"I love Korean food\" in Korean. I'd come to Mexico for tacos, and the sign next door was in Hangul.\n\n\n 5:14 a.m., on the road to Teotihuacan. \n \n\nBy 5:14 I was in the car. A white van ran ahead of us, and house lights and power pylons lined the hillside on the right. The sky was still black.\n\n---\n\n## Teotihuacan hot air balloon: inflating at 6:15, takeoff at 6:30\n\n\n 6:15 a.m., filling the balloon on the field. \n \n\nAt 6:15 a red balloon lay on its side in a field, half full. The sky was turning a pale blue, and people walked back and forth in front of it getting ready.\n\n\n Looking up from the basket at the envelope and the burner. \n \n\nTakeoff at 6:30. From inside the basket the red envelope fills the sky above you, and below it the silver burner shoots out flame. My face only just made it into the bottom of the frame.\n\n\n The sun comes up between the clouds. \n \n\nA little higher, a thin band of orange spread between the grey layers of cloud. The sun was rising above them. The ground below was still blurred by haze.\n\n\n Teotihuacan, right below. \n \n\nThe ruins of **Teotihuacan** passed beneath us: a rectangular walled enclosure and a straight path between dry fields.\n\n\n The patterned balloon and the low stone ruins below it. \n \n\nA balloon patterned in pink, green and purple drifted past us. Below it, low broken stone platforms sat in the fields. A rainbow-striped balloon and lots of smaller ones dotted the sky.\n\n---\n\n## Breakfast in a cave restaurant\n\n\n 8:17 a.m., a restaurant under a rock ceiling. \n \n\nBack on the ground, breakfast was in a **cave restaurant**. Tables with pink cloths stand in rows under a rock ceiling, with vines and lights strung along the walls. On the back wall is a large pink panel with a painted design.\n\nAt 8:17 the clip I shot in the restaurant caught one word from me: \"Gracias.\"\n\nThere were two choices: **chilaquiles** or a **ham and cheese omelette**. Chilaquiles are fried tortilla pieces with salsa poured over them, a Mexican breakfast.\n\n## Climbing the Pyramid of the Moon to see the Pyramid of the Sun\n\nAfter breakfast we went back into the site, on foot this time. When the guide talked about sacrifice, someone asked if there was evidence, and the guide said bones had been found.\n\nA little later the guide talked about codices: books that fold like an accordion and hold stories, legends and history. The one at the National Museum of Anthropology, the guide said, is special because it tells the legend of the Aztecs' origins. I get to that museum in part 3.\n\n\n 9:29 a.m., the Pyramid of the Moon from the plaza. \n \n\nAt 9:29 the **Pyramid of the Moon** rose at the end of the plaza. The ruins I'd looked down on from the balloon, I was now looking up at. A lower platform is built onto the front of the stepped body, and smaller stone platforms line both sides of the plaza.\n\nThe stairs are rough underfoot: black and red volcanic stone held together with mortar, small pebbles pressed into the mortar.\n\n\n From the Pyramid of the Moon. Beyond the plaza is the Pyramid of the Sun. \n \n\nFrom up on the Pyramid of the Moon, the **Pyramid of the Sun** sits straight ahead beyond the plaza. Low mountains stretch behind it, and people are scattered across the plaza like dots.\n\n---\n\n## Afternoon: tortillas on a griddle, then Coyoacán\n\n\n 1:49 p.m., lunch. Tortillas on the griddle. \n \n\nAt 1:49 p.m., where I had lunch, yellow corn tortillas were cooking on a wide black griddle, with a filling frying next to them. The taco story proper starts in the next part.\n\n\n 2:16 p.m., a church in Coyoacán. \n \n\nBy 2:16 I was in **Coyoacán**. Through the branches I could look up at the grey stone front of a church, small spires rising from the top. Along the side ran a yellow wall with dark stone corners.\n\n---\n\n## Visiting info\n\nMy visit was on **October 1–2, 2025**. The practical details below are what I looked up while writing this post. Prices and hours differ from source to source, so anything I couldn't pin down is marked \"check official info before visiting.\"\n\n| Place | When I went | Known facts | What changes |\n| --- | --- | --- | --- |\n| Teotihuacan balloon | Oct 2, inflating at 6:15, takeoff at 6:30 | Booked as an Airbnb Experience | Price and pickup time: check official info before visiting |\n| Teotihuacan archaeological site | Oct 2, morning | UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1987 | Admission, hours, climbing: check official info before visiting |\n| Pandora Hotel | Oct 1, midnight check-in | Juárez, Nápoles 35 | Rates and rooms: check official info before booking |\n\n📍 **Teotihuacan hot air balloon** · fields around the Teotihuacan site\n\n- 🎈 **My ride**: Booked as an Airbnb Experience. The pickup ran late, so I waited at the hotel, and we took off at 6:30. A cave-restaurant breakfast and a guided walk followed.\n- ⏰ **What's known**: Operators vary, but most say flights leave around sunrise and last 30 minutes to an hour, depending on the weather.\n- 💳 **What changes**: Price, pickup time and whether breakfast and site entry are included differ by tour. **Check official info before visiting.**\n- 🗺️ **Map**: [Search for Teotihuacan balloon launch sites](https://www.google.com/maps/search/?api=1&query=Teotihuacan%20hot%20air%20balloon)\n\n📍 **Teotihuacan (Zona Arqueológica de Teotihuacan)** · northeast of Mexico City, State of Mexico\n\n- 🏛️ **Known facts**: A UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1987. The Pyramid of the Sun is usually given as about 65 m high, though figures vary.\n- 🧗 **Climbing**: Mexico's INAH reopened the Pyramid of the Moon on May 19, 2025, up to its first level, while the Pyramid of the Sun and the Temple of Quetzalcóatl stayed closed to climbing for conservation. On April 20, 2026 there was a shooting on the Pyramid of the Moon; the site reopened on the 22nd, but news reports said the pyramid itself stayed closed. **Check official info before visiting.**\n- 🎟️ **Admission and hours**: Many 2025 listings give 100 pesos general admission and 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., but sources differ. **Check INAH's official info before visiting.**\n- 🗺️ **Map**: [Teotihuacan](https://www.google.com/maps/search/?api=1&query=Teotihuacan%20Zona%20Arqueologica) · [Pyramid of the Moon](https://www.google.com/maps/search/?api=1&query=Piramide%20de%20la%20Luna%20Teotihuacan)\n\n📍 **Pandora Hotel** · Nápoles 35, Juárez, Mexico City\n\n- 🍜 **Next door**: The Korean food shop with the I ♥ K-food sign.\n- 💳 **Rates and rooms**: The name and price differ between booking sites. **Check official info before booking.**\n- 🗺️ **Map**: [View on Google Maps](https://www.google.com/maps/search/?api=1&query=Pandora%20Hotel%20Napoles%2035%20Juarez%20Ciudad%20de%20Mexico)\n\n📍 **Entry · money · SIM · safety**\n\n- 🛂 **Entry (checked, for Korean passports)**: According to the Korean embassy in Mexico, Korean passport holders can stay up to 180 days visa-free for tourism. The immigration officer decides the actual length, which can be shorter. Many sources say the airport entry form is now a digital FMM. Other passports have their own rules. **Check official info before visiting.**\n- 🕐 **Time difference (checked)**: Mexico City dropped daylight saving time in 2022 and is 15 hours behind Korea.\n- 💵 **Money (not checked)**: The currency is the Mexican peso (MXN). Cards work in many places, but guides commonly say street stalls and markets need cash. Check exchange options and fees yourself.\n- 📶 **SIM (not checked)**: Guides say both local SIMs and eSIMs work. Plans vary by carrier, so compare before you fly.\n- 🛡️ **Safety**: Check your government's travel advisory for regional levels. Guides commonly advise keeping your passport and phone out of sight. I took a taxi from the airport to the hotel at night.\n\n## How to get lost a little less\n\n- 🌙 **A dawn tour the morning after a midnight arrival works, but you'll get under five hours of sleep.** I checked in at midnight and left at 4:40.\n- 📱 **If the pickup is late, you'll get a message.** Mine told me to wait at the hotel. Have mobile data working from the day you land.\n- 🧥 **Leaving before 5 a.m. means leaving in the dark.** I went out in a white jacket.\n- 🔺 **See it from the balloon, then again from the ground.** From the Pyramid of the Moon the Pyramid of the Sun sits straight ahead. Check first whether you can climb it now.\n\n\nThis is a record of my visit on October 1–2, 2025. I looked up balloon prices, Teotihuacan admission, whether the pyramids can be climbed and the entry paperwork while writing this post, but these change often, so please check the official information again before you go.\n \n\n## Jayden's verdict\n\n> I went because I love tacos. The first two days were two flights, a midnight check-in and a 4:40 a.m. balloon.\n\n- **Highlights**: The sun rising between the clouds with Teotihuacan below, and the Pyramid of the Sun seen from the Pyramid of the Moon\n- **Tip**: When you book a balloon, check whether breakfast and a site guide are included. On mine, a cave-restaurant breakfast and a guided walk followed the flight.\n\nThe next part covers Mexico City on October 3–4: a night taco stand and Chapultepec Castle.\n\n---\n\n**Mexico for Tacos: 10 Days**\n\n1. **Mexico City arrival and a Teotihuacan balloon** (you are here)\n2. [Mexico City: night tacos and Chapultepec Castle](/en/posts/mexico-travel-02-mexico-city-tacos-chapultepec)\n3. [Puebla, Xochimilco at night and Guadalupe](/en/posts/mexico-travel-03-puebla-xochimilco-guadalupe)\n4. [Guadalajara and a tequila tour](/en/posts/mexico-travel-04-guadalajara-tequila-tour)\n5. [Guanajuato, San Miguel de Allende, and home](/en/posts/mexico-travel-05-guanajuato-san-miguel-de-allende)\n"},{"slug":"indonesia-travel-01-jakarta-istiqlal-kota-tua","title":"Jakarta Travel 01: A 5,000-Rupiah Twist, Istiqlal Mosque and Kota Tua","description":"Two days in Jakarta, December 2024: offering 5,000 rupiah at Istiqlal Mosque and getting a laugh, Jakarta Cathedral, Monas, and satay in rainy Kota Tua.","topic":"travel","tags":["Jakarta Travel","Jakarta Itinerary","Istiqlal Mosque","Kota Tua","Jakarta Food"],"publishedAt":"2026-10-12T20:00:00+09:00","updatedAt":"2026-11-03T20:00:00+09:00","growthStage":"evergreen","version":"1.1","content":"\n**\"I'll give you 5,000 rupiah if you let me in.\"**\n\nThat's what I said to a guide at the entrance of Istiqlal Mosque in Jakarta. What came back was a belly laugh. But after that laugh, things went somewhere I never expected.\n\nThis is the story of nine days in Indonesia in December 2024: a business trip in Jakarta, then remote work in Bali. I meant to write it up as soon as I got home, and put it off for almost two years. I'm writing it now.\n\nThis first part covers two days. Day one is getting from Incheon to Jakarta; day two is a rainy Jakarta itinerary, from Istiqlal Mosque past Jakarta Cathedral and Monas, ending with satay in Kota Tua.\n\n\n**In three lines**: December 14–15, 2024, Incheon to Jakarta. Arriving late in a downpour at **Istiqlal Mosque**, I offered a guide 5,000 rupiah, got a laugh, and because of it got a tour I never expected. Dinner was **satay and nasi goreng in rainy Kota Tua**. Satay and sambal were the best combo of the trip.\n \n\n## The route in this post\n\n| Date | Where | In a line |\n| --- | --- | --- |\n| Dec 14 | Incheon Airport → Soekarno-Hatta Airport → Alam Sutera | Currency, gukbap, gomoku |\n| Dec 15 | Istiqlal Mosque → Jakarta Cathedral → Monas | 90 minutes in the rain, 5,000 rupiah |\n| Dec 15, evening | Kota Tua (the old town) | Bajaj, museums, satay |\n\n---\n\n## Day 1: From Incheon Airport to Jakarta\n\n\n A backpack stacked on the suitcase. Business-trip luggage, plus everything I needed to work from Bali. \n \n\nThe trip started at the airport bus stop in my neighborhood. With business-trip luggage plus my gear for working in Bali, changing subway lines was out of the question.\n\nAt the airport, the first thing I did was pick up my currency. I had ordered it online and collected it at the KB Kookmin Bank counter. The rupiah had so many zeros on it that I had no feel at all for how much it was worth. I didn't work it out. **That becomes a problem the next day.**\n\n\n My last Korean meal before departure. \n \n\nI can't give up the pleasure of eating when I travel, so I don't skip meals even at the airport. Before departure, a bowl of milky gukbap, the Korean soup of rice and long-simmered broth. My last Korean meal for a while.\n\n\n The Asiana jet outside the gate window. \n \n\n### The in-flight meal, and gomoku\n\n\n Penne with meat and broccoli. \n \n\nThe in-flight meal was penne with meat and broccoli. During the flight I played **gomoku** on the seatback screen (five-in-a-row, the board game Koreans call omok). I played the computer until the scoreboard hit double digits.\n\n\n 10 to 8. You win! \n \n\nFinal score: **10 to 8, my win.**\n\n### Jakarta by night, the first place to stay\n\n\n The skytrain (Kalayang) station at Soekarno-Hatta Airport. \n \n\nBy the time I landed at Soekarno-Hatta Airport, it was already night. A skytrain runs between the terminals.\n\n\n The pool at my first building, at night. \n \n\nMy first stay was a high-rise in Alam Sutera, on the west side of Jakarta. In the pool, the lights of the buildings on either side spread across the water. Day one was all travel.\n\n---\n\n## Day 2: Ninety minutes in a downpour, already too late for Istiqlal Mosque\n\n\n Brake lights ahead, through a rain-streaked windshield. \n \n\nDecember is rainy season in Jakarta. It rained hard that day. The taxi into the city took almost **an hour and a half**. Traffic was jammed, and I was already past the time I was supposed to get into Istiqlal Mosque.\n\n\n The visitor tour schedule on the glass door at the entrance. \n \n\nA visitor tour schedule was posted at the entrance. I was late, so I couldn't get in.\n\nBut after ninety minutes on the road, turning straight back felt like a waste. So I struck up a conversation with a local guide. That's the line at the top of this post.\n\n## 5,000 rupiah, then 50,000 rupiah\n\nWhat I got back was a belly laugh. 5,000 rupiah is a few hundred won, a few cents.\n\nI asked again whether that wouldn't work. He said, **\"Take a tuk-tuk with that,\"** and waved me toward the exit. That came from not doing the rupiah math at the airport the day before.\n\nSo I added a zero. \"How about 50,000 rupiah?\"\n\n\n Following the guide down paths tourists rarely take. \n \n\nWith that, the guide showed me around himself, taking me down paths ordinary tourists don't usually go. Ten times the offer, and it became a **VIP tour**.\n\nThe 50,000 rupiah wasn't an official entrance fee. It was money I handed the guide on the spot, after showing up late for the tour.\n\n\n The main hall from the upper gallery. The people on the carpet look like dots. \n \n\nLooking down into the main hall from the upper gallery, the first thing that hits you is the **scale**. The people sitting on the red carpet below the railing looked as small as dots, and silver pillars held up a green dome.\n\n**The dome is 45 meters across, for 1945, the year Indonesia declared independence**, and there are 12 pillars.\n\n\n The dome's lattice and the lights around its rim, up close. \n \n\n\n The guide put a cap on me and took this photo. \n \n\nThe guide even put a cap on my head and took my picture. Raincoat, bare feet, a cap and a V sign.\n\n## Cross the road for Jakarta Cathedral, walk a little more for Monas\n\n\n Cross one road from the mosque and you're at Jakarta Cathedral. \n \n\nLeave the mosque, cross the road, and you're right at **Jakarta Cathedral**. Right after the green dome, two pointed spires and a rose window. Indonesia's largest mosque and a Catholic cathedral stand facing each other across one street. And **Friedrich Silaban, the architect who designed Istiqlal Mosque, was a Christian.**\n\n\n Rain-soaked Monas square. The carriage horses are covered in plastic. \n \n\nWalk a bit further and you reach rain-soaked **Monas square** (Monas is Jakarta's National Monument). Out front were carriage horses draped in plastic and vendors under umbrellas. The locals were genuinely kind, and English got me reasonably far.\n\nNext stop: Kota Tua, in the \"tuk-tuk\" the guide had told me to take.\n\n---\n\n## Day 2, evening: To Kota Tua by Bajaj\n\n\n The Bajaj, a three-wheeled taxi with a roof. This is the \"tuk-tuk\" the guide meant. \n \n\nMy ride to Kota Tua was a **Bajaj**, a three-wheeled taxi with a roof. Through the rain on the windshield, the traffic lights blurred.\n\n\n The Bank Indonesia Museum. I got there late, so only the outside this time. \n \n\nThe first thing I saw was the **Bank Indonesia Museum**. I arrived late in the afternoon, so I only saw the outside that day. The museum closes early in the afternoon, so come during the day if you want to go in.\n\nThe alley next to it is lined with street stalls: stall lights on the wet ground, and drink and snack stalls in a long row.\n\n\n The Jakarta History Museum, lit up. \n \n\nCome out of the alley into the square at the end and there's the **Jakarta History Museum** (Fatahillah Museum), a white two-story building. The square carries the marks of the Dutch colonial era. On a rainy night it wasn't crowded, so I could take it in calmly, and in front of one wall stood a street performer painted gold from head to toe.\n\n## Kota Tua food: satay and sambal, then nasi goreng\n\nTo get out of the rain I ducked into **Kedai Seni Djakarte**, a restaurant that keeps its old building just as it was. The walls tell the story of the place, and lights hang down over the staircase.\n\n\n Ayam satay, sambal and mie goreng. \n \n\nHere I had **mie goreng and ayam (chicken) satay**. Satay is grilled meat on skewers served with sauce, and sambal is an Indonesian condiment built on chili.\n\nI've always loved grilled skewers, and **the combo I rank number one from this whole trip is exactly this: satay and sambal.** This trip was also when I first learned that sambal is different from region to region. After that, the first thing I looked at in every restaurant was the sambal.\n\nOne place didn't feel like enough, so I also stopped by **Kedai Kota Toea** nearby.\n\n\n Nasi goreng at Kedai Kota Toea. A plate for a rainy evening. \n \n\nHere it was a plate of fried tofu, a deep-pink juice and **nasi goreng**. Nasi goreng was my favorite food of the entire trip.\n\n\n The Kota Tua street after dinner. \n \n\nWhen I came out after dinner, the whole street was soaked. An old building nearby had Christmas decorations up. Istiqlal, the cathedral, Monas, Kota Tua, and a day that ended on satay.\n\n---\n\n## Visiting info: four stops on a Jakarta itinerary, compared\n\nMy visit was in **December 2024**. The details below were looked up again in **November 2026**, and many of them differ from source to source. Where I'm not sure, I've marked it \"check official info\".\n\n| Place | Nearest station | Entry | Best time |\n| --- | --- | --- | --- |\n| Istiqlal Mosque | KRL Juanda | Listed as free to visit | Match the tour schedule |\n| Jakarta Cathedral | KRL Juanda | Avoid Mass times | Pair it with the mosque |\n| Monas | Between Juanda and Gambir | Check official info | Daytime (observation deck) |\n| Kota Tua | KRL Jakarta Kota | Paid, per museum | Museums by day, dinner at night |\n\n**Route**: Istiqlal Mosque and Jakarta Cathedral are one street apart, and Monas is within walking distance. Kota Tua sits farther north, so I took a Bajaj. If you want to see the museums inside, flip the order: **Kota Tua first (daytime), then the mosque and Monas.**\n\n📍 **Istiqlal Mosque** · Jl. Taman Wijaya Kusuma, Pasar Baru, Sawah Besar, Jakarta Pusat\n\n- 🎟️ **Entry**: listed as free in many guides. Non-Muslim visitors register near the entrance and go around with a guide. You look down into the main hall from the upper gallery.\n- ⏰ **Times**: a visitor tour schedule is posted at the entrance. Opening hours differ from source to source and change with prayer times and events. **Check official info before visiting.**\n- 👟 **Note**: shoes come off at the door. Clothing that covers you is the norm. On rainy days, think ahead about where to put wet shoes.\n- 🗺️ **Map**: [Open in Google Maps](https://www.google.com/maps/search/?api=1&query=Istiqlal%20Mosque%20Jakarta)\n\n📍 **Jakarta Cathedral** · across from Istiqlal Mosque\n\n- ⏰ **Times**: visiting hours for tourists differ from source to source. During Mass, the cathedral is a place of worship. **Check official info before visiting.**\n- 🗺️ **Map**: [Open in Google Maps](https://www.google.com/maps/search/?api=1&query=Jakarta%20Cathedral)\n\n📍 **Monas (National Monument)** · Merdeka Square\n\n- ⏰ **Times**: per 2025 news reports, the square opens at 6:00 and the tower at 8:00. Hours change on holidays and during events. For fees and closing days, **check official info before visiting.**\n- 🗺️ **Map**: [Open in Google Maps](https://www.google.com/maps/search/?api=1&query=Monas%20Jakarta)\n\n📍 **Kota Tua (Jakarta's old town)** · Pinangsia, Taman Sari, Jakarta Barat\n\n- 🏛️ **Jakarta History Museum**: per 2024–2025 sources, Tue–Sun 9:00–15:00, closed Mondays, 5,000 rupiah for adults. **Check official info before visiting.**\n- 🏛️ **Bank Indonesia Museum**: Tue–Sun, closes early in the afternoon (15:00 or 15:30, depending on the source). **Check official info before visiting.**\n- 🍢 **Where I ate**: [Kedai Seni Djakarte](https://www.google.com/maps/search/?api=1&query=Kedai%20Seni%20Djakarte) (satay, mie goreng), [Kedai Kota Toea](https://www.google.com/maps/search/?api=1&query=Kedai%20Kota%20Toea) (nasi goreng)\n- 🗺️ **Map**: [Open in Google Maps](https://www.google.com/maps/search/?api=1&query=Kota%20Tua%20Jakarta)\n\n## How to get lost a little less\n\n- 💱 **Work out the rupiah exchange rate once before you leave.** The numbers are so big that you really have no feel for them on the spot.\n- 🌧️ **December is rainy season in Jakarta.** When it rains, traffic jams badly. It took me 90 minutes to get into the city.\n- 🕐 **At Istiqlal, check the schedule first.** If you're late, it's hard to get in.\n- 🍽️ **Plan to stay in Kota Tua through dinner.** Order satay, sambal, nasi goreng and mie goreng, one of each, and share.\n\n\nThe experience is from December 2024; the visiting details were looked up again in November 2026. They can change with prayer times, events and seasons, so check once more before you go.\n \n\n## Jayden's verdict\n\n> Skipping the exchange-rate math made me a VIP. Next time I'll do the math, show up on schedule, and eat satay again.\n\n- **Highlight**: the dome and pillars of Istiqlal Mosque. The scale alone makes it worth going in.\n- **Kota Tua**: museums by day, satay by night.\n- **Two days in one line**: rain, laughter, and sambal.\n- **Tip**: work out the rupiah exchange rate before you leave.\n\nNext up is the Jakarta business trip. The offices I went to see never opened; what I came away with was a pepper crab picked from a tank and a run of local meals.\n\n---\n\n**Indonesia in 9 Days series**\n\n1. **Jakarta's first two days: Istiqlal Mosque and Kota Tua** (you are here)\n2. [Jakarta business trip: empty offices, pepper crab, two Airbnbs and local food](/en/posts/indonesia-travel-02-jakarta-business-trip-pepper-crab)\n3. [Ubud, Bali: rice terraces, remote work and a rice-field villa](/en/posts/indonesia-travel-03-bali-ubud-remote-work-villa)\n4. [Bali's last three days: Kintamani sunrise, Blue Lagoon and Canggu sunset](/en/posts/indonesia-travel-04-bali-kintamani-blue-lagoon-canggu)\n"},{"slug":"europe-travel-08-rome-italian-food-going-home","title":"Rome Travel 08: Rome Again, Everything I Ate in Italy, and Home via Taipei","description":"The final part of my 19 days after quitting: a rainy last night in Rome after Egypt, every Italian dish from Milan to the airport, and wonton noodles in Taipei.","topic":"travel","tags":["Italy Travel","Rome","Italian Food","Taipei Layover","Solo Travel"],"publishedAt":"2026-10-10T20:00:00+09:00","updatedAt":"2026-11-03T20:00:00+09:00","growthStage":"evergreen","version":"1.1","content":"\nAfter the hard blue skies of Sharm El Sheikh, Rome was still grey. Raindrops beaded on the window.\n\nIn [part 7](/en/posts/europe-travel-07-sharm-el-sheikh-egypt) I escaped Rome's rain to Sharm El Sheikh in Egypt. This is the last part.\n\nThis last part holds three things: my final night in Rome, a round-up of everything I ate in Italy, and the trip home via Taipei. At the very end, a few moments from the 19 days that stayed with me.\n\n\n**In three lines**: Back from Egypt, I spent **my last night in Rome** around Termini and the Spanish Steps. From canal-side beer snacks in Milan to **burrata pizza** at Rome's airport, every Italian city had its own colour on the plate. The last bowl was **wonton noodles in Taipei**. **Italy was the best, and I want to go back.**\n \n\n## The route in this post\n\n| Date | Where | In a line |\n| --- | --- | --- |\n| Apr 18, evening | Egypt → Roma Termini → near the Spanish Steps | Rain on the window, the Column of the Immaculate Conception, LE RÊVE DE NAIM |\n| Apr 19, morning | Termini → past the Colosseum → Rome airport | T.A.M. bus, burrata pizza, China Airlines CI 76 |\n| Apr 20 | Taipei → Taoyuan Airport → Incheon | Wonton noodles at 三味香, a sea of scooters, home |\n| (Round-up) | Milan · Venice · Florence · the south · Rome | Everything I ate in Italy |\n\n---\n\n## Back in Rome, starting with raindrops\n\n\n Heading back into Rome from Egypt. Raindrops on the window. \n \n\nOn the afternoon of April 18, back from Egypt, I was heading into Rome again. Raindrops beaded on the window and the overhead wires rolled past. The day before, I'd been under the Red Sea's blue sky.\n\n\n 6:04 p.m., Roma Termini. \n \n\nI reached the platform at Termini at 6:04 p.m. I'd been staying in Rome before the Egypt detour, so this was my second time arriving. The station name was a welcome sight.\n\n\n Wet stone under the street lamps. \n \n\nBy dusk the rain near Termini had stopped and only the sky was still blue. As the street lamps came on, the wet stone floor under a long run of arches caught the yellow light. Rome after rain was even prettier.\n\n## Near the Spanish Steps, a last Roman night\n\n\n The Column of the Immaculate Conception. At night, even the statues at the base stand out. \n \n\nMy last Roman night of the trip was spent near the Spanish Steps. Under its floodlights, the **Column of the Immaculate Conception** glowed white right down to the statues at its base, every detail clear.\n\n\n LE RÊVE DE NAIM: two rows of bottles under wooden beams. \n \n\nI ended the day nearby at **LE RÊVE DE NAIM**, a bar with bare wooden beams overhead and two long rows of bottles.\n\n\n Breads with white, black and purple spreads. \n \n\nA stone board came out with breads in three alternating spreads: white, black and purple. I have no record of what was on them.\n\n\n 7:21 the next morning, a T.A.M. bus. \n \n\nAt 7:21 the next morning, near Termini, I took a photo of a T.A.M. bus. It was the day I left Rome.\n\n\n The Colosseum through a window, and a blue sky. \n \n\nThen the Colosseum went past the window of the car. The rain had stopped, and the morning sky was blue.\n\n---\n\n## Everything I ate in Italy\n\nBefore leaving Rome, I wanted to gather everything I ate in Italy in one place. Here is everything from April 9 to 19, in city order. **Milan was beer snacks by the canal, Venice was squid ink and seafood, Florence was café desserts and meat, the south was lemons.** Each city had its own colour on the plate.\n\n### Milan: a first evening by the canal\n\n\n An evening on the Naviglio: six wedges of flatbread in front of an Amarcord beer. \n \n\nThe first city, Milan, starts with an evening table on the Naviglio canal: six wedges of grilled flatbread arranged in a circle in front of a bottle of Amarcord beer, charred in spots and topped with shellfish, mayonnaise and a dusting of red powder.\n\n### Venice: pizza by the slice, squid ink, cannoli\n\n\n Pizza from FARINI, made for eating on the move. \n \n\nVenice begins on the afternoon of April 10 with paper printed with the FARINI logo: a crust charred black at the edges, cheese browned on top, dark leafy greens and cherry tomatoes. A slice made for eating as you walk.\n\n\n Squid ink pasta on a white plate. \n \n\nThe blackest thing in my Venice food photos is squid ink pasta: thick noodles speckled with ink, pieces of squid stained by the sauce underneath. Served on a wide white plate, the black stands out even more. On top, parsley and a few pink sprouts.\n\n\n A handwritten CANNOLI sign: FRAGOLA, CIOCCOLATO. \n \n\nBack in Venice that evening, I stopped in front of a handwritten CANNOLI sign. As promised by FRAGOLA and CIOCCOLATO, the cannoli were bursting with pink and chocolate cream and studded with chocolate chips, with cream-filled pastry tubes stacked beside them.\n\n\n A scallop and an orange drink at Rosticceria GISLON. \n \n\nOn the morning I left Venice, **Rosticceria GISLON** served a scallop in its shell: golden seared meat sitting in a green sauce still pocked with bubbles, the orange part left intact. Beside it, a glass of an orange drink.\n\n\n Seafood pasta on the day I left. \n \n\nThe leaving-day seafood pasta is the most loaded plate of my two Venice days: a big prawn perched on top of the spaghetti, squid rings and mussels poking out from the noodles, and a single dark green leaf to finish.\n\n### Milan again: the asterisk on the menu\n\n\n GRIGLIATA DI PESCE, €48 for two. There was an asterisk next to the name. \n \n\nBack in Milan, I ordered the **GRIGLIATA DI PESCE** from a menu near the Duomo: €48.00 for two (on that menu at the time), listing swordfish, salmon, scampi and squid. The thing to notice is the **asterisk** next to the name. The edge of the menu also carried a \"frozen product\" note, so I read it as meaning frozen ingredients. If you're eating at a restaurant right on a main square, that asterisk is worth looking for.\n\n### Florence, the south, and Rome the night before Egypt\n\nIn Florence there was Caffè Gilli's yellow drink and cocoa cream dessert, and DALL'OSTE's steak, dark outside and pink inside. In Pompeii, tomato spaghetti and fried squid and prawns outside the ruins. In Positano, a dessert served in a real lemon. Those plates, with photos, are all in [part 6](/en/posts/europe-travel-06-florence-pompeii-positano).\n\n\n Dinner in Rome before leaving for Egypt: pasta, steak, fried bites. \n \n\nDinner in Rome before flying to Egypt: thick pasta served in the pan, a steak with rocket, and a basket of fried bites. Night flight or not, I had a proper dinner.\n\n### The last slice: burrata at the airport\n\n\n April 19, Rome airport. My last slice in Italy. \n \n\nOn April 19, at Rome's airport on my way out of Italy, my last pick was **pizza topped with two pieces of burrata**, with halved cherry tomatoes crowded over the sauce. Cheese to the very end.\n\nI travelled through several countries, but **for food, and above all cheese, nowhere came close to Italy.**\n\n---\n\n## Going home: Rome to Taipei\n\n\n China Airlines CI 76 to Taipei, 11:30. \n \n\nThe gate screen read **China Airlines CI 76 to Taipei, departing 11:30.** The way home went through Taiwan.\n\n\n The coast off Rome just after take-off. \n \n\nRight after take-off, the coastline off Rome stretched out under the wing. It was my last look at the Mediterranean I had first seen in Nice.\n\n## The bowl that closed the trip: wonton noodles\n\n\n Wonton noodles at 三味香 in Taipei: clear broth, thin noodles, bok choy and spring onion. \n \n\nOn the morning of April 20 I stopped at **三味香**, a small noodle shop in central Taipei. The walls were plastered with photos of customers, newspaper clippings and a poster for a new chilli-oil dan dan noodle. I had wonton noodles in clear broth with thin noodles, bok choy and spring onion, plus a dumpling on the side.\n\n\n Skins thin enough to see the prawn through. One of the very last photos of the trip. \n \n\nOn the spoon, the wonton skins were so thin you could see the prawn inside. After more than two weeks of bread and pasta in Europe, the clear broth was welcome. The last bowl of the trip was neither Italian nor Egyptian, but wonton noodles.\n\n\n Outside the shop, a wet intersection full of scooters. \n \n\nOutside, dozens of scooters were waiting at a rain-slicked intersection. My photos put me back at Taoyuan Airport that afternoon and in Incheon by evening.\n\n---\n\n## Closing the 19 days\n\nTo end, here are the moments from the 19 days that stayed with me.\n\n**The first souvenir was a KitKat wrapper.** The KitKat I got on the plane said **\"#mybreak\"**. I got it on my way out, right after quitting my job.\n\n**The view just before landing in Dubai.** Straight orange roads cutting through a black city: the first foreign lights I looked down on this trip. It was also my first time flying Emirates, and I liked it a lot.\n\n**Max in Bournemouth.** I went back to the house where I'd done a homestay in 2019, four years later, and when I count the photos from that house, Max the dog wins by a mile. The English I use today started in that house, which is why Bournemouth is **a second hometown for my heart**, and I still keep in touch with my host family.\n\n**A huge grin in front of Big Ben**, at 4:17 p.m. I love the UK, and in front of Big Ben I grinned like this.\n\n**Peixes in Nice, three times.** All three evenings in Nice ended at the same restaurant. A plate scattered with pomegranate seeds and finely chopped vegetables on a fish-painted dish stands in for all three. On the first day I went back to the same pebble beach three times, and the Promenade du Paillon's mirror pool I passed in between reflected the sky. **Nice had the best weather of the trip**, and someday I want to go back just to swim in that sea.\n\n**Four people sitting on the water's edge in Venice.** The first thing I photographed in Venice wasn't a gondola but four people sitting side by side by the water. Over the next two days I spent a lot of time sitting the same way, looking out at the Grand Canal.\n\n**A Guinness on Piazzale Michelangelo.** A bottle of Irish beer, looking down on Florence after sunset.\n\n**The visa sign at Sharm El Sheikh airport.** A sheet taped to a pillar listed the visa fee: 25 dollars. I'd flown there to escape the rain with zero preparation and didn't even know I'd have to pay a visa fee on arrival.\n\n**A yellow parachute over the Red Sea.** The last one is parasailing. I don't have a single shot from the sky, only shots of the yellow canopy taken from the boat below.\n\n## So, which place was the best?\n\nItaly. No contest.\n\nThe Milan canals, the Venetian waterside, Florence under four skies, rain-soaked Pompeii and Positano, and Rome, twice. Even with all that rain, it was wonderful. Above all, **no other country came anywhere near it for food and cheese.** I definitely want to go back to Italy.\n\nNineteen days, with a plane ticket bought on the day, right after quitting, now written up in eight parts. The \"#mybreak\" on that KitKat wrapper turned out to be exactly right.\n\n---\n\n## Visiting info\n\n📍 **Column of the Immaculate Conception** · Piazza Mignanelli, Rome (by the Spanish Steps)\n\n- 🌙 **Best time**: after the night lighting comes on, when even the statues at the base glow white.\n- 🍸 **LE RÊVE DE NAIM**: a bar nearby. [Google Maps](https://www.google.com/maps/search/?api=1&query=Le%20R%C3%AAve%20de%20Naim%20Roma)\n- 🗺️ **Map**: [Open in Google Maps](https://www.google.com/maps/search/?api=1&query=Column%20of%20the%20Immaculate%20Conception%20Rome)\n\n📍 **Rome Fiumicino Airport, Terminal 1** → **Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport**\n\n- ✈️ **My flight**: China Airlines CI 76, departing 11:30 (as of April 2023)\n- 🍕 **Last meal at the airport**: a slice of burrata pizza\n- 🗺️ **Map**: [Open in Google Maps](https://www.google.com/maps/search/?api=1&query=Fiumicino%20Airport%20Terminal%201)\n\n📍 **三味香麵店** · central Taipei\n\n- 🥟 **What I had**: wonton noodles and a dumpling\n- 🗺️ **Map**: [Open in Google Maps](https://www.google.com/maps/search/?api=1&query=%E4%B8%89%E5%91%B3%E9%A6%99%E9%BA%B5%E5%BA%97%20%E5%8F%B0%E5%8C%97)\n\n## How to get lost a little less\n\n- 🧳 **If you do side trips or a neighbouring country from Rome, keep your last night in Rome.** Even coming back from Egypt, I could head straight to the airport the next morning.\n- ⭐ **At restaurants on the main squares, look for asterisks on the menu.** They can mean frozen ingredients.\n- 🍕 **In Venice, food you carry can be a whole meal.** Pizza by the slice, cannoli.\n- 🛂 **If you leave the airport on a layover,** check entry rules, luggage storage and the airport rail timetable before you fly.\n- 🛵 **Taipei's morning streets are full of scooters.** Even after the light changes, look once more before you cross.\n\n\nThis is a record of an April 2023 trip. Flight numbers, times and menu prices are as they were then and may have changed. Check layover entry requirements again before you travel.\n \n\n## Jayden's verdict\n\n> I fled the rain, came back to a rainy Rome, and ended with wonton noodles. Still, the best country was Italy. I'd go back for the cheese alone.\n\n- **Highlight**: the last night in Rome after the rain, and everything I ate in Italy from Milan to Rome's airport. Nothing comes close for food and cheese.\n- **Would I go back?**: Yes. I'm definitely going back to Italy.\n- **Tip**: if you're making a side trip from Rome, keep your last night in Rome. On a Taipei layover, a bowl of wonton noodles in clear broth is a good way to end a trip.\n\n---\n\n**19 Days After Quitting series**\n\n1. [The UK, part 1: via Dubai, back to my Bournemouth homestay](/en/posts/europe-travel-01-bournemouth-homestay-dubai)\n2. [The UK, part 2: a day in London, from Big Ben to a Soho pub](/en/posts/europe-travel-02-london-big-ben-soho)\n3. [France: Nice and Saint-Paul-de-Vence](/en/posts/europe-travel-03-nice-saint-paul-de-vence)\n4. [Italy, part 1: Milan's Duomo and San Siro](/en/posts/europe-travel-04-milan-duomo-san-siro)\n5. [Italy, part 2: Venice, San Giorgio and Burano](/en/posts/europe-travel-05-venice-san-giorgio-burano)\n6. [Italy, part 3: Florence, Pompeii and Positano](/en/posts/europe-travel-06-florence-pompeii-positano)\n7. [Egypt: Escaping the rain to Sharm El Sheikh](/en/posts/europe-travel-07-sharm-el-sheikh-egypt)\n8. **Rome again: Italian food and the way home** (you are here)\n"},{"slug":"europe-travel-07-sharm-el-sheikh-egypt","title":"Sharm El Sheikh Travel 07: Escaping Rome's Rain to the Red Sea, With Zero Research","description":"A week of rain forecast in Rome. One search for a country with no rain, a flight to Sharm El Sheikh. A surprise visa fee, an ATM wad, the Red Sea, the desert.","topic":"travel","tags":["Sharm El Sheikh","Egypt Travel","Red Sea","Egypt Visa on Arrival","Europe Travel"],"publishedAt":"2026-10-08T20:00:00+09:00","updatedAt":"2026-11-03T20:00:00+09:00","growthStage":"evergreen","version":"1.1","content":"\nPompeii and Positano had already soaked me through in the [last post](/en/posts/europe-travel-06-florence-pompeii-positano). Back in Rome, the forecast was **heavy rain, all week.**\n\nSo I typed **countries with no rain** into the search bar. Not sights, not restaurants. Just somewhere it wasn't raining. What I picked was **Sharm El Sheikh**, on Egypt's Red Sea coast. And I really did get on the plane without looking anything up.\n\n\n**In three lines**: Escaping Rome's rain, I **picked Sharm El Sheikh off a single search.** Only at the airport did I learn there was a visa fee, and not knowing the currency, I pulled **a thick wad of cash** out of an ATM. A Red Sea resort, parasailing, a sunrise desert tour. It's a European honeymoon spot, and **it was genuinely great.**\n \n\n## The route in this post\n\n| Date | Where | In a line |\n| --- | --- | --- |\n| Apr 16, night | Rome | A week of rain, a search for \"no rain,\" a last Italian dinner |\n| Apr 17, before dawn | Rome airport → Sharm El Sheikh International Airport | Wizz Air at 04:45, a surprise visa fee, an ATM wad |\n| Apr 17, day to night | Parrotel Beach Resort → Shark's Bay | The pool, parasailing, a Red Sea sunset, the buffet |\n| Apr 18, dawn | Sinai desert → resort | Quad bikes, a Bedouin tent, a camel |\n\n---\n\n## A last dinner in Rome, and a 4:45 a.m. flight\n\n\n The last dinner in Rome: pasta in the pan, a steak, fried things. \n \n\nI was leaving to escape the rain, but I still had a proper dinner in Italy. At a Roman restaurant whose sign read LA LVPA, I ordered thick pasta served in the pan, a steak topped with rocket and a basket of fried things.\n\n\n The last bite of Italy, at the airport: a croissant and a Baladin. \n \n\nThe last bite of Italy was at the airport: a croissant with green cream squeezing out of the end, and a bottle of Baladin beer. The table card says \"Are you still thirsty?\" It was 2:45 in the morning.\n\n\n Wizz Air to Sharm El Sheikh, departing 04:45. \n \n\nThe gate screen: Wizz Air, Sharm El Sheikh, departing 4:45. At that point, everything I knew about Sharm El Sheikh was on that screen.\n\n\n Out of the plane window, everything is the color of sand. \n \n\nWhen it got light outside the window, everything below was the color of sand. A lake sat dark among patterns like contour lines. Nothing like the European green of the past few days.\n\n## What I learned at the airport: there's a visa fee\n\nI hadn't looked anything up, so the airport taught me a lot. First, the visa. **You pay for an Egyptian visa at the airport.** I didn't even know that.\n\n\n A sheet of paper on a pillar: \"Visa here just 25$\". \n \n\nAfter landing, you follow the Visa & Banks signs. The banks and the visa counter are in the same direction. On the pillar by the sign was a single sheet of paper: **\"Visa here just 25$.\"** The visa sticker I got in April 2023 also said \"ENTRY VISA FEE EGYPT\" and 25 dollars, and I picked up a pink arrival card along with it. That photo has too much personal information on it, so it stays out.\n\n\n A long line in the arrivals hall. No visa yet? Read the signs first. \n \n\nThe hall already had a long line of people standing with their suitcases. A blue sign splits the way: Passport control to the left, Banks and Visa Stamp to the right. If you don't have a visa yet, read the signs before joining a queue.\n\n## A wad of cash from the ATM\n\nSecond, the ATM. I stood in front of the machine with no feel at all for what Egyptian money was worth and pressed one of the amounts on the screen. **It was not the amount I thought it was.** What came out was a stack of cash too thick for my wallet.\n\nSadly, no photo of that wad survives. About a year and a half later, in Indonesia, I'd skip the exchange-rate math again and make a mosque guide laugh.\n\n\n 9:51, outside the airport. Bright welcome sculptures and blue sky. \n \n\nThe sign photo is from 8:44 and the first photo outside is from 9:51. I spent a little over an hour inside the airport. Not an exact wait time, but useful when planning. Out the door: colorful welcome sculptures and blue sky. Exactly what I'd searched for, a country with no rain.\n\n---\n\n## Parrotel Beach Resort: a pool ringed with man-made rocks\n\n\n Parrotel Beach Resort, in the Nabq area not far from the airport. \n \n\nI stayed at **Parrotel Beach Resort**. It's in the Nabq area, facing Tiran Island, not far from the airport. A red welcome drink was set down on the marble at reception, and that became my first food photo in Egypt.\n\n\n The pool at midday. The rocks and the hill are man-made. \n \n\nAt midday the pool is lined with straw parasols, and a wooden bridge arches over the water channel. The boulders around the pool and the hill behind the cactus garden are sculptures, ripple patterns and all. The real desert is right next door, and the resort built its own rocky hill anyway.\n\n## Afternoon: up over the Red Sea at Shark's Bay\n\nThat afternoon I headed out to sea.\n\n\n 3:05 p.m., the entrance to Shark's Bay Oasis. \n \n\nThe starting point was **Shark's Bay Oasis**. April 17, 3:05 p.m.: a big animal face juts out of the fortress-like entrance building.\n\n\n Parasols, loungers, pier and boats in one frame. \n \n\nDown on the beach it's all in one place: straw parasols and loungers, a wooden pier stretching into the sea, a banana boat. No need to go looking for where the boats leave from. The water off the pier is so clear you can see the pattern of the seabed.\n\n\n The metal frame at the back of the deck, and the yellow canopy. \n \n\n**Parasailing** launches from the metal frame at the back of the deck. Up close, the canopy is bigger than I expected.\n\n\n Let out the line and the canopy shrinks fast against the town and mountains. \n \n\nWhen the line is let out, that big canopy quickly shrinks against the town and the mountains. In the video, two people hang side by side under one canopy as it comes down. If you want the canopy and the riders in one shot, the moments of takeoff and landing are best.\n\n\n On the way back: the beach and the cliff, seen from the water. \n \n\nOn the way back I saw the beach from the water. The whole cliff and the buildings on top, which you can't see from land, come into view along with the line of parasols. This beach is worth a second look from the sea.\n\n## A Red Sea evening and the buffet\n\n\n One pink cloud over the horizon. \n \n\nAround sunset I walked out to the sea in front of the resort. The water was calm, and only one pink cloud was left above the horizon. On the way back, gazebo roofs and palm trees had turned into silhouettes, and lights were on along the steps between the rocks.\n\n\n A burger, chicken, rice, tomato and fries on one plate. \n \n\nDinner was a buffet. A burger, chicken, rice and tomato, thick fries, all on one plate, with what looks like a beer beside it. The next plate was strawberries, oranges, melon, guava and chocolate cake, and the drink glasses went up to three. The bread station took up an entire wall.\n\n---\n\n## April 18, 5:22 a.m.: the Sinai desert\n\nThe next day's first photo is from 5:22 a.m., in the Sinai desert. The afternoon before, I'd been on a boat on the Red Sea.\n\n\n 5:22 a.m. Quad bikes lined up toward the sunrise. \n \n\nThe quad bikes were lined up facing the rising sun. Most were red, with dried mud caked on every wheel.\n\n\n Face wrapped in a scarf, on the quad bike. \n \n\nI wrapped my face in a scarf and climbed on. In the desert, a piece of cloth to cover your face really comes in handy.\n\n\n Forced perspective: holding up the big rock in front. \n \n\nI also took the forced-perspective shot you take in a desert: arms up, pretending to lift the big rock in front of the lens. I used the same rock again from the camel.\n\n## A Bedouin tent and a camel\n\n\n A Bedouin-style tent shelter below the rocks, a saddled camel waiting. \n \n\nWhere we parked the quads was a Bedouin-style tent shelter at the foot of a rocky mountain. Low seats with striped cushions and spots for shisha ring the space, and in the middle stands a camel with its saddle on. It was the hour when only the top of the mountain catches the sun and turns red.\n\n\n A striped saddle, and a blue Pepsi crate beside the camel. \n \n\nThe saddle is several layers of striped blankets that look woven from scraps of cloth. Next to the kneeling camel sits a blue plastic Pepsi crate that looks like a step for climbing on.\n\n\n Forced perspective again, from the camel. \n \n\nOnce on the camel, I took another forced-perspective shot, this time holding up the rock with one hand.\n\n\n 8:09 a.m. The sea out front, calm enough to see the bottom. \n \n\nThe photo back at the resort is from 7:23. At 8:09 the sea out front was calm enough to see the seabed. By breakfast time, the desert tour was already over. That's the good thing about a dawn tour.\n\n---\n\n## I went knowing nothing, and I'd tell everyone to go\n\nI found out once I was there: Sharm El Sheikh is **where Europeans go for honeymoons and holidays.** Resorts, sea and desert are all within half a day of each other. I picked it with one search just to escape the rain, and **it was genuinely great. I'd recommend everyone go at least once.**\n\nThere's one thing I regret. Sharm El Sheikh has **a bar said to have been the inspiration for Aladdin.** I wanted to go, but walking in alone felt a little awkward, so in the end I didn't. **One day, I want to go.**\n\n---\n\n## Visitor information\n\n📍 **Sharm El Sheikh International Airport** · Sharm El Sheikh, South Sinai, Egypt\n\n- 🛂 **Visa on arrival**: after landing, follow the Visa & Banks signs; the banks and the visa counter are in the same direction. In April 2023 I paid 25 dollars.\n- 💵 **The fee may be different now**: sources I checked while writing this disagree. A December 2025 report quoted Egypt's tourism ministry saying it stayed at 25 dollars; a March 2026 report said it rose to 30 dollars from the first of that month. A September 2026 report says it goes up to 33 dollars from January 2027, after a Cabinet decision in August. There's also information about a free entry stamp for visitors staying only in Sinai, but I couldn't confirm who it applies to, so check the rules for your own passport.\n- 📝 **Arrival card**: there are boxes for your flight number and departure city, so keep your boarding pass handy.\n- 🗺️ **Map**: [Open in Google Maps](https://www.google.com/maps/search/?api=1&query=Sharm%20El%20Sheikh%20International%20Airport)\n\n📍 **Parrotel Beach Resort** · Nabq Bay, Sharm El Sheikh\n\n- 🏖️ **Location**: in Nabq, facing Tiran Island, not far from the airport.\n- 🗺️ **Map**: [Open in Google Maps](https://www.google.com/maps/search/?api=1&query=Parrotel%20Beach%20Resort%20Sharm%20El%20Sheikh)\n\n📍 **Shark's Bay Oasis** · Sharks Bay, Sharm El Sheikh\n\n- 🪂 **Parasailing**: packages I found while writing this ran roughly 19 to 52 dollars, depending on flight time and whether hotel pickup is included.\n- 🏜️ **Desert tour**: sunrise quad bike tours are booked through online tour sellers or local operators. Some include hotel pickup.\n- 🗺️ **Map**: [Open in Google Maps](https://www.google.com/maps/search/?api=1&query=Sharks%20Bay%20Oasis%20Sharm%20El%20Sheikh)\n\n## How not to do it like me\n\n- 💳 **The visa fee is paid at the airport.** Check the price and how to pay before you leave. I found out on arrival.\n- 💱 **Learn the currency and exchange rate before you board.** Do the math for the first time at the ATM screen and you, too, may walk out holding a wad.\n- 📸 **For parasailing photos**, you need someone on deck to take them.\n- 🧣 **Bring a scarf and a windbreaker for the desert tour.** A piece of cloth to cover your face is genuinely useful.\n- ⚠️ **Check your government's travel advisory for the Sinai region** before you go.\n\n\nThis is a record of an April 2023 visit. I looked up the visa fee and tour prices again while writing this, but sources disagreed. Confirm operators, prices, pickup and entry requirements with official information once more before you book and travel.\n \n\n## Jayden's verdict\n\n> I searched for a country with no rain, and it was genuinely great. I'd recommend it to everyone. The Aladdin bar, one day.\n\n- **Highlight**: parasailing at Shark's Bay, and quad bikes and a camel in the Sinai desert at sunrise\n- **Would I go back?**: Yes. I want to go to the Aladdin bar I skipped because I was alone.\n- **Tip**: check the visa fee and the currency before you fly. A dawn desert tour is over by about breakfast time.\n\n---\n\nThe next post is the last one. Back to Rome, where I sum up, through food, why Italy is my \"best country\" of this trip, and then head home.\n\n**19 Days After Quitting series**\n\n1. [The UK, part 1: via Dubai, back to my Bournemouth homestay](/en/posts/europe-travel-01-bournemouth-homestay-dubai)\n2. [The UK, part 2: a day in London, from Big Ben to a Soho pub](/en/posts/europe-travel-02-london-big-ben-soho)\n3. [France: Nice and Saint-Paul-de-Vence](/en/posts/europe-travel-03-nice-saint-paul-de-vence)\n4. [Italy, part 1: Milan's Duomo and San Siro](/en/posts/europe-travel-04-milan-duomo-san-siro)\n5. [Italy, part 2: Venice, San Giorgio and Burano](/en/posts/europe-travel-05-venice-san-giorgio-burano)\n6. [Italy, part 3: Florence, Pompeii and Positano](/en/posts/europe-travel-06-florence-pompeii-positano)\n7. **Egypt: escaping the rain to Sharm El Sheikh** (you are here)\n8. [Rome again: Italian food and the way home](/en/posts/europe-travel-08-rome-italian-food-going-home)"},{"slug":"ansan-qingdao-malatang-yangkkochi","title":"Qingdao Malatang Yangkkochi, Ansan: Thick Lamb Skewers After Hoamsan","description":"From a night hike on Hoamsan straight to Qingdao Malatang Yangkkochi in Wongok-dong, Ansan. Thick, fresh lamb skewers, numbing mapo tofu rice, hearty onmyeon.","topic":"food","tags":["Korea Food","Lamb Skewers","Ansan","Wongok-dong","Mapo Tofu"],"publishedAt":"2026-10-07T00:50:00+09:00","updatedAt":"2026-10-07T00:50:00+09:00","growthStage":"evergreen","version":"1.0","content":"\nCome down a mountain and your body knows exactly what it wants: **fire, meat and something that makes your tongue tingle.**\n\nThat evening I climbed [Hoamsan](/en/topics/mountains/hoamsan) at sunset, looked down at Seoul's lights from the summit rocks, and came down past Hoapsa temple. Then I headed straight to Wongok-dong in Ansan, to a place with a big red sign: **Qingdao Malatang Yangkkochi** (칭다오 마라탕 양꼬치). Short version: everything I ate that night was good.\n\n\n**In three lines**: **the lamb skewers are thick and fresh.** The mapo tofu rice is numbingly good, and the onmyeon is seriously hearty. After a hike, it all tastes twice as good.\n \n\n## A red sign in Wongok-dong\n\n\n Qingdao in red, malatang yangkkochi in yellow. You can spot it from down the street. \n \n\nWongok-dong in Ansan is the neighborhood where restaurants from all over the world sit side by side. On its streets, **칭다오** (Qingdao) hangs in big red letters and **마라탕 양꼬치** (malatang, lamb skewers) in yellow. A small plate next to it reads \"칭다오양꼬치 별관\": the Qingdao Yangkkochi annex.\n\n\n An exhaust duct over every table. Grill away, no smoke in your face. \n \n\n## Side dishes, then the skewers\n\n\n Bean sprouts, peanuts and pickles to keep your hands busy while you wait. \n \n\nSit down and out come bean sprouts, roasted peanuts and pickles. Then the skewers arrive.\n\n\n Before the grill. The size of the meat says it all. \n \n\nMy first thought on seeing them: **thick.** These aren't thin scraps threaded on a stick. Each piece is chunky and brightly colored. You can see the meat is fresh.\n\n## Skewers that turn themselves over charcoal\n\n\n A self-turning grill over charcoal. The skewers do the work. \n \n\nHang the skewers on the table's charcoal grill and **they rotate on their own.** You don't lift a finger and every side cooks evenly. Watching fat drip onto the glowing coals while the meat turns golden is enough to make you hungry.\n\n\n A row of skewers cooking under the duct. \n \n\n\n The lamb skewer's best friend: cumin spice mix. \n \n\nDip a finished skewer in the **cumin spice mix** and take a bite. The outside is smoky and savory, the inside thick enough to stay juicy. The meat is fresh, so it tastes clean. That is the whole secret of the lamb here: **thick and fresh.**\n\n## Numbing mapo tofu rice\n\n\n Fiery red mapo tofu. Your tongue starts tingling from the first bite. \n \n\nSkewers alone would be a shame. The **mapo tofu rice** makes your tongue **tingle** from the first spoonful, then the softness of the tofu and the depth of the sauce follow. It is spicy and numbing, and you still can't put the spoon down. A spoonful between skewers is the perfect rhythm.\n\n## A seriously hearty onmyeon\n\n\n Noodles and bok choy in red broth. Called onmyeon, tastes substantial. \n \n\nLast came the **onmyeon**, a hot noodle soup: noodles and bok choy in a red broth. Lift the noodles and they're bouncy; the broth is rich. In a word, **seriously hearty.** After all that grilled meat, a hot broth to finish leaves you properly full.\n\n## After the mountain, lamb skewers\n\nHonestly, the hike probably made it taste even better. A rocky climb at sunset, then charcoal lamb skewers, numbing mapo tofu and hot noodles. The day started on a mountain and was **completed with lamb skewers.**\n\n## Menu and prices\n\nFrom the menu. It notes that **skewers are ordered for two people or more.**\n\n| Menu | Price |\n| --- | --- |\n| **Lamb skewers** (yangkkochi) | **8,000 won (5) / 15,000 won (10)** |\n| Mala skewers | 9,000 won (5) / 17,000 won (10) |\n| Lamb rib meat · Beef rib meat skewers | 9,000 won (5) / 18,000 won (10) each |\n| Mala rib skewers | 9,000 won (5) / 18,000 won (10) |\n| Skewer set | 30,000 won |\n| **Corn noodle soup (温面)** · Spicy corn noodles · Cold corn noodles | 7,000 won each |\n| Egg fried rice · Eggplant fried rice | 7,000 won each |\n| Egg fried noodles | 8,000 won |\n| Sundae (blood sausage) | 12,000 won |\n| Premium lamb ribs | 30,000 won |\n| Boneless lamb ribs · Lamb rack (500 g) | 40,000 won each |\n| Roast leg of lamb | 85,000 won |\n\nThe **onmyeon** I had is listed on the menu as **corn noodle soup (옥수수면, 温面)**. There is also a long list of other skewers, from shrimp, squid and chicken wings to king oyster mushroom and dried tofu, plus grilled sides like eggplant and toast.\n\n## Visitor info\n\n📍 **Qingdao Malatang Yangkkochi** (칭다오 마라탕 양꼬치) · Wongok-dong, Danwon-gu, Ansan, Gyeonggi-do\n\n- ☎️ **Phone**: 031-493-9671 (the number on the \"Qingdao Yangkkochi annex\" sign)\n- 🍢 **Order**: lamb skewers, mapo tofu rice, onmyeon\n- 🔥 **Highlight**: a self-turning charcoal grill at every table\n- 🗺️ **Map**: [Open in Google Maps](https://www.google.com/maps/search/?api=1&query=37.33213%2C126.786805)\n- ⛰️ **Pair it with**: [my Hoamsan hike](/en/topics/mountains/hoamsan)\n\n\nPrices are from the menu during my visit in October 2026. Please call ahead to check opening hours.\n \n\n## Jayden's verdict\n\n> After the mountain, lamb skewers. One thick, fresh skewer and the whole descent melts away.\n\n- **Lamb skewers**: ★★★★★\n- **Mapo tofu rice**: ★★★★★\n- **Onmyeon**: ★★★★★\n- **Would I go back?**: Yes. This is where the next post-hike dinner happens.\n"},{"slug":"namdaemun-dakjinmi-gangwonjip-dakgomtang","title":"Dakjinmi Gangwonjip, Namdaemun Market: Chicken Soup Since 1962, and My Go-To Since 2015","description":"Deep in Namdaemun Market's hairtail alley, a dakgomtang shop with a SINCE 1962 sign. Clear broth, hand-pulled chicken, 10,000 won a bowl. At lunch, you queue.","topic":"food","tags":["Seoul Food","Namdaemun Market","Dakgomtang","Korean Chicken Soup","Jung-gu"],"publishedAt":"2026-10-06T21:00:00+09:00","updatedAt":"2026-10-06T21:00:00+09:00","growthStage":"evergreen","version":"1.0","content":"\nIf you see a line of people in a Namdaemun Market alley, there is a good chance this sign is at the end of it.\n\n**SINCE 1962. 닭곰탕 (dakgomtang).**\n\nI first found this place in 2015. Since then, whenever I have anything to do near Namdaemun, I invent an excuse to stop by. Trendy restaurants come and go within a few years, but this one has been simmering the same broth in the same alley for more than sixty years. Eleven years of visits have taught me one thing: **the broth here never changes.**\n\n\n**In three lines**: **Dakjinmi** (formerly Gangwonjip), a Namdaemun Market chicken soup institution since 1962. Clear, deep broth and hand-pulled chicken, **10,000 won a bowl**. A lunchtime queue is standard, so **go early.**\n \n\n## An orange sign in the hairtail alley\n\n\n An alley lined with hairtail-stew signs, and an orange dakgomtang sign among them. \n \n\nWalk into Namdaemun Market's narrow *galchi jorim* (braised hairtail) alley and, between the red fish signs, you will spot one orange sign. In big letters, **닭곰탕**, chicken soup. Underneath, in small letters, **닭진미 (舊 강원집)**: Dakjinmi, formerly Gangwonjip. That is why people still call it Gangwonjip; the old name is right there on the sign.\n\nThe alley is narrow enough that you brush shoulders with strangers. Around lunchtime, a line for chicken soup forms right in it. First-timers are surprised. Regulars know: **queuing here is part of the deal.**\n\n\n The dining room through the glass door. Tables fill up fast. \n \n\n## A mountain of chicken\n\n\n Hand-pulled chicken piled up like a small mountain on the counter. \n \n\nBy the entrance, boiled chicken pulled apart by hand is piled up like a small mountain. A gloved hand keeps tearing meat, filling aluminum pots and ladling broth over it. Picture that motion repeated for more than sixty years and the bowl in front of you starts to look a little different.\n\n## The table\n\n\n Broth, rice, a plate of chicken, kimchi and kkakdugi. Nothing extra. \n \n\nThe setup is simple. Broth in an aluminum pot, a bowl of rice and chicken on its own plate. The sides are **kimchi, kkakdugi (radish kimchi), soy sauce with scallion and chili, raw garlic and a dab of red chili paste.** Nothing flashy, and that simplicity is exactly why you trust it.\n\n\n Kimchi, kkakdugi, raw garlic and soy dipping sauce: the standard dakgomtang lineup. \n \n\n## First spoonful: clear, yet deep\n\n\n Clear broth with sliced scallions. Taste the first spoonful plain. \n \n\nThe broth is clear rather than milky, with sliced scallions floating on top and no slick of grease. Taste the first spoonful plain. It is clear but not thin, rich but not heavy, the kind of **clean savory depth** that only comes from chicken simmered for a long time. Salt and pepper come after, to your taste.\n\n## Chicken in soy sauce, and a piece of skin on the side\n\n\n A drumstick and generous pulled meat. On its own plate, it is made for dipping. \n \n\nThe chicken on the plate comes in big pieces: a drumstick plus a generous heap of meat pulled along the grain. If you expect dry chicken, you are wrong. It keeps its texture and has a pleasant chew. **Dip it in the soy sauce with scallion and chili**, and that is the right answer here.\n\n\n A piece of chicken skin. Chewy, and a treat of its own. \n \n\nThen there is the skin. Some people come here just for these chewy, savory pieces. A bit of skin, a cube of kkakdugi, a spoonful of broth. Once that loop starts, it is hard to stop.\n\n## Finish by tipping in the rice\n\n\n Rice in, a shake of pepper. The happiest moment in this restaurant. \n \n\nHalfway through, tip the whole bowl of rice into the broth. A shake of black pepper, a piece of kimchi on top, one spoonful. The broth soaks into every grain. This is the real reason I keep coming back to this alley, eleven years on.\n\n\n A pot emptied to the bottom. \n \n\nThe result is the same every time: **a pot emptied to the bottom.**\n\n## Menu and prices\n\n\n The menu board, picture menus in other languages, and a framed SBS TV appearance above. \n \n\n| Menu | Price |\n| --- | --- |\n| **Dakgomtang** (signature chicken soup) | **10,000 won** |\n| Gogi baekban (chicken set meal) | 12,000 won |\n| Dakgogi (chicken plate) | 11,000 won |\n| Whole chicken (Korean-raised) | 23,000 won |\n| Soju · Beer | 5,000 won |\n| Chungha | 6,000 won |\n| Baekseju | 8,000 won |\n| Makgeolli | 4,000 won |\n\nThere are picture menus on the wall in English, Japanese and Chinese, so it is an easy place to bring friends who don't read Korean. Above them hangs a framed photo from an SBS TV food show (맛있는 집 멋있는 집), proof of how long this place has been loved.\n\n## Queue tips: early is the answer\n\n\n 8 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. Closed on Sundays. \n \n\n**A lunchtime wait is standard** here. If you show up around noon, just assume there is a line in the alley. So my advice is simple.\n\n- ⏰ **Arrive before 11:30.** Dodge the lunch peak and the wait drops dramatically.\n- 🌅 **It opens at 8 a.m.** A breakfast bowl or an early lunch is the most relaxed way to go.\n- 🗓️ **Closed on Sundays.** For a weekend market trip, go on Saturday.\n\n## Visitor info\n\n📍 **Dakjinmi (formerly Gangwonjip)** · 22-20 Namdaemunsijang-gil, Jung-gu, Seoul (inside the hairtail alley of Namdaemun Market)\n\n- 🚇 **Getting there**: about a 5-minute walk from Exit 5 of Hoehyeon Station (Line 4) toward Namdaemun Market, deep in the hairtail alley.\n- 🕐 **Hours**: 08:00–20:30, **closed Sundays**\n- 💰 **Prices**: dakgomtang 10,000 won, gogi baekban 12,000 won\n- 💳 **Payment**: cards accepted\n- ☎️ **Phone**: 02-753-9063\n- 🗺️ **Map**: [Open in Google Maps](https://www.google.com/maps/search/?api=1&query=%EB%8B%AD%EC%A7%84%EB%AF%B8%20%EA%B0%95%EC%9B%90%EC%A7%91%20%EB%82%A8%EB%8C%80%EB%AC%B8%EC%8B%9C%EC%9E%A5)\n\n\n After the soup, the rest of Namdaemun Market is right outside. \n \n\n\nPrices and hours are from the menu board and the notice on the door during my visit in October 2026. They may change over Korean holidays, so check before you go.\n \n\n## Jayden's verdict\n\n> Trends pass; the broth stays. The same taste in 2015 and in 2026.\n\n- **Broth**: ★★★★★\n- **Chicken & skin**: ★★★★★\n- **Value**: ★★★★★ (all this for 10,000 won)\n- **Would I go back?**: I have been going back for eleven years. Next time, early again.\n"},{"slug":"pmp-kit-bundle-7-week-plan","title":"A 7-Week PMP Study Plan You Can Follow Day by Day: Jayden's PMP Kit","description":"The order I followed to prepare for the PMP in 7 weeks, rebuilt as a day-by-day calendar around four books. The four-book kit is $24.99 instead of $31.96.","topic":"work","tags":["PMP","PMP Study Plan","PMP in 7 Weeks","PMP Study Tips","PMBOK 8"],"publishedAt":"2026-10-04T13:00:00+09:00","updatedAt":"2026-10-04T13:00:00+09:00","growthStage":"maintained","version":"1.0","revisions":[{"version":"1.0","date":"2026-10-04","summary":"Launch post for the four-book kit with a 7-week calendar plan.","changes":["Why I made the kit, and the study method behind it","A day-by-day 7-week calendar and the kit price"]}],"relationships":[{"type":"expands","slug":"pmp-pass-review-part-1"},{"type":"references","slug":"pmp-kit-master-vocabulary"},{"type":"references","slug":"pmp-kit-pmbok-8-study-notes"},{"type":"references","slug":"pmp-kit-final-week-cram-book"},{"type":"references","slug":"pmp-kit-cheat-sheets"}],"content":"\nI passed the PMP on July 3, 2026. I prepared for about 7 weeks, and my Study Hall Full Mock scores were 66% and 65%. It wasn't a high-scoring pass. But over those 7 weeks, I learned firsthand what to do and in what order.\n\nThe whole time, I kept thinking the same thing: **if I'd had the right materials from the start, I'd have wasted far less time.** A word list with the right move, not just the definition. Notes that showed the structure of the 8th edition on one page. A cram book for the last two days. Sheets that put the formulas and tables in one place. After I passed, I made those four myself, with everything I built up while studying and everything I learned from getting things wrong.\n\nThis post introduces the four as one kit and gives you a **day-by-day calendar** that rebuilds my 7 weeks around them.\n\n**In three lines** — Jayden's PMP Kit is four books: a vocabulary, study notes, a cram book and cheat sheets. The 7-week calendar below fits them into the order I actually prepared in (course → Study Hall → Full Mock → error log). Bought separately, the four come to $31.96. The kit is $24.99.\n\n## What each book does\n\n| Book | What it does | When | Price |\n|---|---|---|---|\n| [PMP Master Vocabulary](/en/posts/pmp-kit-master-vocabulary) | The right move and the trap answer for each term | Weeks 1–6, 5 minutes a day | $5.99 |\n| [PMBOK 8 Study Notes for the PMP](/en/posts/pmp-kit-pmbok-8-study-notes) | A map of the principles, domains and processes | Weeks 1–5 | $9.99 |\n| [PMP Final-Week Cram Book](/en/posts/pmp-kit-final-week-cram-book) | Keyword patterns and a decision order | Weeks 5–7 | $8.99 |\n| [Jayden's PMP Cheat Sheets](/en/posts/pmp-kit-cheat-sheets) | Formulas, tables and rules, one page each | Weeks 2–7 | $6.99 |\n\nI made the four books to fit together, with the same terms and the same basis (PMBOK 8 and the 2026 ECO). The domain chapters in the study notes list vocabulary card numbers, and the cram book's decision order and the cheat sheets' \"How to pick the right answer\" sheet use the same Mindset.\n\n## The method behind the plan: four principles\n\nBefore the calendar, here are the four principles to stick to for the 7 weeks. I did all of them myself.\n\n1. **Cut down the days you don't study.** I'm not someone who can sit for hours after work. Instead of hitting a daily quota, I focused on having no days where I didn't look at the PMP at all. So weekdays are short, and weekends are for questions and review.\n2. **Recall instead of rereading.** Cover the meaning on a vocabulary card and say it. Cover a box on a cheat sheet and say it. Pulling something from memory sticks longer than reading it again.\n3. **Log every miss by its reason.** Did you not know the concept, misread the question, or pick an action that was too strong? How to keep an error log, with a free template, is in [Part 6](/en/posts/pmp-error-log-method).\n4. **The last two days are error log and Mindset only.** Don't add anything new right before the exam. That's what I did, and it helped the most.\n\n\n**Jayden's PMP Mindset** — Understand the situation → find the cause → work with the team → analyze the impact → act through the process. It isn't a formula that fits every question, but under pressure it keeps you from picking an action that's too strong.\n \n\n## The 7-week calendar\n\nI planned around 30 to 60 minutes on weekdays and 1 to 3 hours on weekends. Any course is fine. I used an online course for the big picture and PMI Study Hall for questions. If your exam isn't on a Sunday, just pull the last week forward to match your exam date.\n\n\nOn the last day of each week, count the misses in your error log by reason. If the same reason keeps coming up, start the next week with the vocabulary cards and cheat sheets tied to it.\n \n\n## The four-book kit\n\n\nIn the 7-week plan, from week 2 you look at the matching sheet once on the day you study its topic. In the final week, you go through all 16 over three days.\n \n\n## Cheat sheet preview\n\n\nThe rules in this book are my exam-focused reading of PMI's official documents. They aren't laws that fit every question mechanically. If one of the options breaks ethics, compliance or authority, that condition outranks any keyword.\n \n\n## Cram book preview\n\n\nThe notes don't copy PMI's text. Only the words that need to match the exam screen, like 8th edition process names and ECO task names, stay in the original English. Everything else is in my own words.\n \n\n## Study notes preview\n\n\nOne 5-minute loop covers three or four cards. Two loops a day is enough to see all 36 ★★★ cards twice in two weeks.\n \n\n## Built on PMBOK 8, and an honest note\n\nThe cards follow the 6 principles, 7 performance domains and 40 processes of PMBOK 8, and the exam that changed in July 2026 (ECO 2026). Topics that carry more weight in the 8th edition and the new ECO, such as finance, compliance, sustainability and AI, have their own cards.\n\nThat said, the PMP isn't written from any single book. Use this as a tool for picking up the exam's language quickly, not as a replacement for the exam scope. I cover what changed in [Part 5: Everything that changed in the 2026 PMP exam](/en/posts/pmp-2026-exam-changes-pmbok-8).\n\n## Vocabulary preview\n\nBelow are three real cards and a few inside pages, exactly as they appear in the book.\n\n\n**In three lines**: In Florence you can **start at 5 p.m. and still make Piazzale Michelangelo for the night view**. In Pompeii I saw the **Alexander Mosaic** under pooled rainwater, and in Positano, instead of a blue sea, **a dessert served in a real lemon and a lemon candy sign written in Korean**. Rome's forecast was rain all week.\n \n\n## The route in this post\n\n| Date | Where | In a line |\n| --- | --- | --- |\n| Apr 13, afternoon | Florence: San Lorenzo → Duomo → Piazza della Repubblica | Old print shop, marble, Caffè Gilli |\n| Apr 13, evening | The Arno → Piazzale Michelangelo → DALL'OSTE | Golden riverside, Guinness, David, steak |\n| Apr 16, morning | Pompeii Archaeological Park | Puddles, \"beware of the dog\", the Alexander Mosaic |\n| Apr 16, afternoon | Positano | Grey beach, lemon dessert, a Korean candy sign |\n| After that | Rome | Heavy rain forecast for the whole week |\n\n---\n\n## Florence: an old print shop on the way to the Duomo\n\n\n An old print shop on the way to the Duomo, its window packed with antique maps and engravings. \n \n\nI started walking Florence at 5 p.m. near San Lorenzo. A late start, but the city's highlights sit on one easy line. The Duomo is about ten minutes away, and in those ten minutes I got stopped by a shop with gold lettering reading **LIBRI e STAMPE**, books and prints, its window crammed with old maps and copperplate engravings.\n\n## The Duomo, 600 years in one building\n\n\n White, green and pink marble, spilling out of the frame. \n \n\nWalk into the square and the white, green and pink marble walls don't fit in one frame. Under the dark clouds, the marble looked even brighter. **Santa Maria del Fiore** had its first stone laid in 1296. Brunelleschi's dome went up between 1420 and 1436. Yet the ornate facade in front of you wasn't finished until 1887. That's roughly six centuries in one building, so it's worth looking at the dome and the facade separately.\n\nWhen the sun slipped under the dome for a moment, I got my own photo in. A street artist's easel behind me was displaying a Mr. Bean caricature. Walk around the back and you get a completely different curve (part of it was under scaffolding that day), and to fit in **Giotto's bell tower**, listed at 85 metres, you have to back up to the far edge of the square. Give the loop fifteen minutes.\n\n## Caffè Gilli, an hour with a carousel\n\n\n Marble table, yellow drink, cocoa-dusted cream dessert. Beyond the glass: Piazza della Repubblica. \n \n\nA few minutes south of the Duomo along the shopping streets is **Piazza della Repubblica**, with its carousel and a huge arch inscribed MDCCCXCV, 1895. I sat down at **Caffè Gilli**, a café said to have been started by the Swiss Gilli family in 1733.\n\nWith a yellow drink and a cocoa-dusted cream dessert in front of me, I watched the carousel turn beyond the glass railing while the sky switched to cumulus. I spent over an hour around here.\n\n## 7:22 p.m., the Arno turns gold\n\n\n The Arno at 7:22 p.m., the far bank in gold. \n \n\nPast Piazza della Signoria and the Ponte Vecchio, at 7:22 p.m., I reached the Arno and the sky was a different colour again. Follow the river along the brick wall of the Galileo Museum and the buildings on the far bank are dipped in gold. It was the richest colour I saw that day.\n\n## A Guinness on Piazzale Michelangelo\n\n\n A bottle of Guinness raised as the city lights came on. \n \n\nI reached Piazzale Michelangelo after sunset and raised a bottle as the city's lights came on one by one. Guinness in Italy, because I love the UK.\n\n\n Palazzo Vecchio, the Duomo and Santa Croce in one row. \n \n\nAs it got darker, the Palazzo Vecchio tower, the Duomo and Santa Croce all fell into one line. The dome I had been looking up at a few hours earlier was now the size of my palm. A day in Florence ends with this view.\n\n\n David in the middle of the square. Not the original: a bronze copy. \n \n\nIn the middle of the square, David stands looking over the city. It's not the original but the bronze copy installed when the piazzale was laid out in 1869. I was facing the night view, so my David photos are mostly from behind.\n\nThere are three ways up: bus, on foot, or the stairs (details in the info section below). In mid-April the sky was already deep blue after 8 p.m., so **if you're after the sunset, go up earlier.**\n\n## DALL'OSTE and a steak\n\n\n Charred outside, pink inside, with salt crystals on top. \n \n\nDinner was at a place with **DALL'OSTE** printed on the tablecloths. The walls are covered in wooden wine-crate panels printed with winery names. The steak was charred dark on the outside and pink inside, with grains of salt on top.\n\n\n 11:19 p.m., the lit dome above the rooftops. \n \n\nAt 11:19 p.m., only the lit top of the dome showed over the rooftops. That was my day in Florence.\n\n---\n\n## Pompeii: ruins in the rain\n\n\n Stones worn by cart wheels. At the end of the street, Vesuvius fades into the clouds. \n \n\nPompeii on April 16 was full of puddles from the rain: in front of the Forum's columns, beside a 2,000-year-old bar counter, even on top of Alexander the Great's battle scene. This is the city Vesuvius buried in AD 79, and the mountain shows faintly under the clouds at the end of the street.\n\n\n The bronze centaur in the Forum looks ancient but is a modern sculpture. \n \n\nIn the **Forum**, once the city's main square, stands a bronze centaur. It looks like an ancient find, but it's by the Polish sculptor Igor Mitoraj and arrived for a 2016 exhibition. Nearby, brick columns reflected in the puddles so you see each one twice.\n\n## A Roman snack bar and \"beware of the dog\"\n\nThe counter made of pieced-together stone is a **thermopolium**, an ancient street-food shop. Jars set into the counter held food and drink.\n\n\n The entrance of the House of the Tragic Poet. CAVE CANEM: beware of the dog. \n \n\nBehind glass on the floor, a dog guards the entrance to the **House of the Tragic Poet**: a chained mosaic dog baring its teeth, and below it **CAVE CANEM**, \"beware of the dog\".\n\n## Alexander under the rain\n\n\n Water pooled over the battle against Darius III. \n \n\nAt the **House of the Faun**, the bronze statue that gives the house its name stands in a basin full of rainwater. The **Alexander Mosaic** on the floor inside was even more dramatic: water had pooled over the battle against Darius III, and the horses and soldiers glistened, soaking wet.\n\nThe statue and mosaic in the house today are copies; both originals are in the **National Archaeological Museum of Naples**.\n\nThere's also a millstone carved from volcanic rock. Pompeii had at least 31 bakeries with ovens and mills.\n\n## Plaster casts and the Stabian Baths\n\n\n A person from that day, recovered by pouring plaster into the hollow left in the ash. \n \n\nA plaster cast in a glass case: plaster poured into the hollow a body left in the ash, bringing a person from that day back into view. The method was devised by Giuseppe Fiorelli in 1863. The arm drawn up toward the face is still there. What I had been walking through was somebody's neighbourhood.\n\n\n Look up first in the Stabian Baths: the 2,000-year-old octagonal pattern is still there. \n \n\nIn the **Stabian Baths**, look at the ceiling first. The octagonal stucco pattern from two millennia ago is still there, and the walls are lined with niches. In the next room, with its floor lifted away, hot air once circulated between stacks of brick to heat the space. It's counted among the earliest surviving examples of underfloor heating in the Roman world.\n\nOutside the colonnade, pink and blue raincoats filed past. I made it as far as the stone seats of the Large Theatre, but a whole morning of walking covered only part of the site. Lunch was outside the ruins: spaghetti in tomato sauce, then fried squid and prawns with a lettuce salad.\n\n---\n\n## Positano: grey and lemon instead of blue\n\n\n The coastline before Positano, under low cloud. \n \n\nSay \"Positano\" and most people picture a blue sea. Positano that same afternoon was **grey**. Even the coastal viewpoint on the way in was under low cloud. The village itself is all stairs and clothing shops, and the steps beside a shop full of lemon-yellow dresses still show the raindrops. Outside one souvenir shop hung a **South Korean flag**.\n\n\n Boats pulled up where the parasols should be. \n \n\nThe beach was dark grey sand, with boats pulled ashore where the parasols should be. With nobody around, you can see better how the village clings to the cliff. The terrace chairs sat empty and wet.\n\n## The star of the day: a dessert in a lemon\n\n\n The bowl is a real lemon peel; the lid is its cut-off top. \n \n\nThe star of the day was this dessert. A real lemon peel is the bowl, its sliced-off top perched on like a hat, with a pale filling peeking out underneath. The glass next to it held an amber drink with lemon slices floating between the ice cubes.\n\nRight above the beach, the **Church of Santa Maria Assunta** has the majolica dome you see in every Positano photo, but I stood so close to the facade that the dome didn't make it into my shots. Inside, white walls and gold decoration glow, and the small painting above the altar is the Black Madonna, said to be in 13th-century Byzantine style. It's a good place to shelter from the rain, too.\n\n## A lemon candy \"you won't find at Olive Young\"\n\n\n \"A 'new' lemon candy you won't find at Olive Young.\" Complete with a heart and a \"Cuty!\" signature. \n \n\nThe funniest thing that day was a candy shop. On a heap of lemon candy bags sits a handwritten sign in Korean: **\"A 'new' lemon candy you won't find at Olive Young,\"** then \"It's really good,\" a heart, and a \"Cuty!\" signature. (Olive Young is Korea's ubiquitous health-and-beauty chain.) They must get a lot of Korean customers.\n\nOn the shelf next to it, limoncello bottles labelled Saluti da Positano stand in rows. Positano is part of the Amalfi Coast lemon-growing area that received a protected geographical indication (IGP) in 2001, which is why the souvenirs here are all yellow.\n\n\n VIA CRISTOFORO COLOMBO, a rain-soaked brick street. \n \n\nUnder the VIA CRISTOFORO COLOMBO sign, the rain-soaked brick street gleamed the same red as the wall. When I left Positano, the clouds hung halfway down the mountains. I never saw a blue Positano.\n\n---\n\n## And then Rome, with a week of rain\n\nI spent a full day getting soaked in Pompeii and Positano. Italy was still great. **Italy was the best country of the whole trip.**\n\nThe problem came next. I got to Rome, opened the forecast, and saw **heavy rain for the entire week.** I couldn't spend the rest of the trip in the rain.\n\nSo, sitting in Rome, I searched for **a country with no rain at all**. I'd just quit my job, so the itinerary was mine to change. Where I went is the next part.\n\n---\n\n## Visiting info\n\n📍 **Florence Cathedral (Santa Maria del Fiore)** · Piazza del Duomo, Florence\n\n- 📸 **Photos**: to get the facade, the curved back and Giotto's bell tower (listed at 85 m), allow 15 minutes for a full loop.\n- ☕ **Caffè Gilli**: on Piazza della Repubblica. The seats by the glass railing look out on the carousel. [Google Maps](https://www.google.com/maps/search/?api=1&query=Caff%C3%A8%20Gilli%20Firenze)\n- 🗺️ **Map**: [Open in Google Maps](https://www.google.com/maps/search/?api=1&query=Florence%20Cathedral)\n\n📍 **Piazzale Michelangelo** · Florence\n\n- 🚌 **Bus**: lines 12 and 13. Line 13 is listed as leaving from Lungarno degli Archibusieri by the Uffizi, about 15 minutes, every 20 minutes. Check stops and last buses again before you ride.\n- 🚶 **On foot**: listed as 20–30 minutes from the centre, though some say 45 from the Ponte Vecchio. It's uphill all the way.\n- 🪜 **Stairs**: the **Rampe del Poggi** from Piazza Poggi, designed by Giuseppe Poggi in the late 19th century, climbing past fountains and an artificial grotto.\n- 🗺️ **Map**: [Open in Google Maps](https://www.google.com/maps/search/?api=1&query=Piazzale%20Michelangelo)\n\n📍 **Pompeii Archaeological Park** · Porta Marina entrance, Pompei (near Naples)\n\n- 🚆 **Getting there**: **Pompei Scavi – Villa dei Misteri** station on the Circumvesuviana line, closest to the Porta Marina entrance.\n- ⏰ **Hours**: 9:00–19:00 (last entry 17:30); in winter 9:00–17:00 (last entry 15:30). Sources disagree on the season dates, so check the official site. Closed January 1 and December 25.\n- 🎟️ **Tickets**: €20–22 depending on the source; confirm on the official site before you go.\n- 🏛️ **For the originals**: the House of the Faun's bronze and the Alexander Mosaic are in the National Archaeological Museum of Naples.\n- 🗺️ **Map**: [Open in Google Maps](https://www.google.com/maps/search/?api=1&query=Pompeii%20Archaeological%20Park%20Porta%20Marina)\n\n📍 **Positano** · Province of Salerno, Amalfi Coast\n\n- 🚌 **Getting there**: no train station in the village. Take the train to Sorrento, then a SITA bus or a ferry.\n- 🚗 **Driving**: parking is scarce, and many guides advise against driving.\n- ⛪ **Santa Maria Assunta**: to get the majolica dome in the shot, step well back from the facade. I couldn't confirm the church's opening hours.\n- 🗺️ **Map**: [Open in Google Maps](https://www.google.com/maps/search/?api=1&query=Positano)\n\n## How to stay a little drier\n\n- 🌅 **Shoot Piazzale Michelangelo twice.** Dusk and full dark look completely different.\n- 👟 **Wear waterproof shoes in Pompeii and Positano.** Pompeii's streets collect puddles everywhere, and Positano's many steps get slick in the rain.\n- 🕔 **You can start Florence late.** I set off at 5 p.m. and reached Piazzale Michelangelo around 8.\n\n\nThis is a record of an April 2023 visit. I rechecked hours, ticket prices and bus routes while writing this against Wikipedia, Florence's official tourism site and local bus notices, but they can change, so check once more before you go.\n \n\n## Jayden's verdict\n\n> Florence under four skies, Pompeii and Positano wet all day. Italy was great even in the rain. I want to go again.\n\n- **Highlight**: Florence at night from Piazzale Michelangelo, the Alexander Mosaic under rainwater in Pompeii, and the lemon-peel dessert in Positano\n- **Would I go back?**: Yes. Italy is the country I want to go back to.\n- **Tip**: in Florence, a 5 p.m. start still gets you from the Duomo to the night view. Wear waterproof shoes for Pompeii and Positano.\n- **Pair it with**: the National Archaeological Museum of Naples, home of Pompeii's original mosaic and bronze\n\nThe next part is Sharm El Sheikh in Egypt, where I flew to get away from Rome's week of rain.\n\n---\n\n**19 Days After Quitting series**\n\n1. [The UK, part 1: via Dubai, back to my Bournemouth homestay](/en/posts/europe-travel-01-bournemouth-homestay-dubai)\n2. [The UK, part 2: a day in London, from Big Ben to a Soho pub](/en/posts/europe-travel-02-london-big-ben-soho)\n3. [France: Nice and Saint-Paul-de-Vence](/en/posts/europe-travel-03-nice-saint-paul-de-vence)\n4. [Italy, part 1: Milan's Duomo and San Siro](/en/posts/europe-travel-04-milan-duomo-san-siro)\n5. [Italy, part 2: Venice, San Giorgio and Burano](/en/posts/europe-travel-05-venice-san-giorgio-burano)\n6. **Italy, part 3: Florence, Pompeii and Positano** (you are here)\n7. [Egypt: Escaping the rain to Sharm El Sheikh](/en/posts/europe-travel-07-sharm-el-sheikh-egypt)\n8. [Rome again: Italian food and the way home](/en/posts/europe-travel-08-rome-italian-food-going-home)"},{"slug":"pmi-korea-chapter-education-committee","title":"From Reading Other People's PMP Stories to the PMI Korea Chapter's Education Committee","description":"For seven weeks I only read other people's PMP stories. Three months after passing, I joined the PMI Korea Chapter's education committee. Here's what it does.","topic":"work","tags":["PMP","PMI Korea Chapter","PMI Education Committee","PMP Study Group","PDU"],"publishedAt":"2026-10-02T09:00:00+09:00","updatedAt":"2026-10-04T09:00:00+09:00","growthStage":"maintained","version":"1.1","revisions":[{"version":"1.0","date":"2026-10-02","summary":"Season finale: volunteering on the PMI Korea Chapter education committee.","changes":["Explained the chapter, the education committee and how readers can get involved"]},{"version":"1.1","date":"2026-10-04","summary":"Reframed around joining the education committee as a member","changes":["New title, opening and summary","Reworked the hopes and gives-back sections; added a FAQ on the committee"]}],"relationships":[{"type":"continues","slug":"is-pmp-worth-it-salary-benefits"}],"content":"\nFor seven weeks, all I did was read other people's pass stories. Korean PMP communities, Reddit's r/PMP — I leaned on write-ups from people I'd never met.\n\nThree months after passing, I started a new role: **member of the PMI Korea Chapter's education committee**. This time, I'm the one helping other people study.\n\n**In three lines** — Three months after passing the PMP, I joined the education committee of the PMI Korea Chapter (PMI 한국챕터). The committee reviews and approves the chapter's study groups and research communities, supports them with free Zoom and member recruiting, and issues activity certificates and some PDUs. I studied alone with a lot of help from other people's posts; now I want to give that back by helping people study together.\n\nIn [Part 14](/en/posts/is-pmp-worth-it-salary-benefits), I looked at what the PMP means for work, pay and hiring. There's one more thing that's hard to put a number on: getting connected with people on the same path. This post is about that, and it's also the last post of the PMP Roadmap's first season.\n\n## Seven weeks of only taking\n\nI prepared for the PMP on my own: online lectures, Study Hall questions, an error log, and review with ChatGPT and NotebookLM. I didn't have study partners, but someone's post was always open next to me.\n\nWhen my two Study Hall full mocks came back at 66% and 65% and I kept asking myself, \"Can I really sit the exam with these scores?\", I went looking for reviews from people who had passed with similar scores. They helped me more than I can say. That's why, when I wrote my own pass review in [Part 1](/en/posts/pmp-pass-review-part-1), I said I hoped it would be a small map for someone, and this whole series grew out of that.\n\nBut there are things a post can't do. Work through questions with you, talk over your scores, steady you when you start to wobble. Study alone, and that seat stays empty.\n\n## What the PMI Korea Chapter is\n\nThe PMI Korea Chapter ([pmikorea.kr](https://pmikorea.kr)) is listed by PMI as the \"South Korea Chapter.\" It's part of the Asia Pacific region, was chartered in 2012, and is run by volunteers.\n\nHere's what the chapter does:\n\n- Monthly seminars (with PDUs)\n- An online \"PM Column Seminar\" (PM 칼럼 세미나) every two months, free for members and with PDUs\n- Study groups and research communities\n- Networking for practitioners\n- A project competition for university students\n\n## What the education committee does\n\nThe chapter has six committees, and the education committee (교육위원회) is one of them. Its community-support guide, dated 1 September 2025, spells out the role clearly:\n\n- It administers the chapter's study and research activities.\n- It reviews and interviews people who want to open a study group or research community, and approves them.\n- It keeps an eye on running groups and can revoke approval if needed.\n- It provides free Zoom and helps recruit members.\n- It issues activity certificates and some PDUs.\n\nIn short, it's the group that keeps the chapter's study-together spaces running well.\n\n## Starting as a committee member: what I hope to do\n\nI'm now a member of this committee. Rather than make big promises, I'll put what I want to do in one line: **help study groups run well**.\n\nHaving prepared alone, I know where people wobble: when your score won't move, when you keep getting questions wrong for the same reason, when you can't decide whether to book the exam. Having others preparing for the same exam beside you at those moments would make it much easier. I want to help build spaces where Korean candidates can study together instead of alone.\n\n## What the committee role gives back\n\nChapter committee work is volunteer work. Still, to be honest, I get something out of it too.\n\nFirst, PDUs. Volunteering for the chapter counts as Giving Back toward PMP renewal. The three-year plan I shared in [Part 11](/en/posts/pmp-60-pdu-renewal-plan) includes 12 PDUs from my education committee work.\n\nSecond, people. You get to meet practitioners who lead projects at other companies and in other industries. People I only knew through their posts while I was studying are people I can now actually connect with.\n\n## How to get involved\n\nIf you're preparing for the PMP, or already have it and need PDUs, the chapter is a good place to start.\n\n- **Join the chapter.** Chapter dues are about $22 in the PMI store.\n- **Attend seminars.** Both the monthly seminars and the online PM Column Seminar come with PDUs, and the PM Column Seminar is free for members.\n- **Join or start a study group.** You can join an open group, or, if you want to run one, go through the education committee's review and get free Zoom and help recruiting members.\n\nSeminar schedules and announcements are on [pmikorea.kr](https://pmikorea.kr).\n\n## Closing season one\n\n\nLet me state my position up front. I haven't taken my PMP to the job market yet. So you won't find \"I got a raise\" or \"I got an offer\" in this post. I'll test for myself how well the PMP actually sells, and update this post with whatever I find.\n \n\n## My take first: it clearly helps experienced hires\n\nI passed in July, so it hasn't even been three months. I can't prove anything with my own results yet, but I'm fairly confident about two things.\n\nFirst, it clearly helps experienced hires. A recruiter has to size up a stranger's experience in very little time. The PMP is a summary that says: \"This person has led projects for at least a few years, reported that experience to PMI's standard, and passed the exam.\" Three letters at the top of a résumé do that explaining for you.\n\nSecond, in Korea, project management is only now settling in as a profession of its own, at least as I see it. So in places that need an objective way to show PM capability, the PMP gets used as a preferred certificate or even an application requirement. The job postings below show exactly that.\n\n## At work: shared language, structure, credibility\n\nI wrote about this in detail in [Part 12](/en/posts/pmp-what-changed-at-work) and [Part 13](/en/posts/pmp-for-non-project-managers), so here's the short version.\n\n- **Shared language**: you start using scope, change request, risk versus issue and acceptance criteria to mean the same things. The more countries and companies you work across, the bigger the difference.\n- **Structure**: you assess before acting on an issue, take changes in writing, and have a basis for choosing where predictive or agile fits.\n- **Credibility**: with global clients and vendors, the PMP is a standard that needs no explanation. At a first meeting, it signals \"this person works from the same framework.\"\n- **Even more for non-PMs**: developers, designers and marketers start speaking the language decision-makers use.\n\nThese benefits are hard to prove with numbers, though. I call them \"certain, but hard to measure.\" So let's move to the part we can measure: salary.\n\n## Salary: what the numbers say, and what they don't\n\nPMI publishes a project management salary survey called Earning Power. The latest, the 14th edition, came out in November 2025, based on 14,628 respondents in 21 countries surveyed in March and April 2025.\n\n| Item | PMI Earning Power, 14th edition |\n|---|---|\n| PMP holders vs non-certified | PMP holders report a 17% higher median salary |\n| US: PMP holders / non-certified | $135,000 / $109,157 |\n| US: certified 10+ years / under 5 years | $173,000 / $123,000 |\n\nThe numbers look attractive. But keep three things in mind when you read them.\n\n- **These are self-reported salaries.** They're what survey respondents said, not a collection of payslips.\n- **PMP holders already have experience, by definition.** You need at least 36 months of leading projects (with a bachelor's degree) just to sit the exam. So 17% doesn't mean \"the PMP raises your salary by 17%.\" It means \"the group of PMP holders has a 17% higher median salary.\"\n- **The same goes for 10+ years versus under 5.** People who have held the certificate longer also have longer careers. You can't credit the gap to time-with-the-certificate alone.\n\nBy the way, the \"PMP holders earn 33% more\" figure that still circulates online comes from an older edition. The number to quote now is the 14th edition's 17%.\n\n### What about Korea? No published PMP premium\n\nThe 14th edition's detailed country data is for PMI members only. Among publicly available sources, the edition with Korea figures is the 13th, published in 2023.\n\n| Item | PMI Earning Power, 13th edition (2023), South Korea |\n|---|---|\n| Korean respondents | 130 |\n| Overall median salary | US$65,363 |\n| PMP holders' median salary | US$66,857 |\n| Non-PMP median salary | Too few respondents; not published |\n\nDon't call the gap between the overall median and the PMP holders' median a \"Korean PMP premium.\" The overall median includes PMP holders, and the figure you'd actually need to compare against, the non-PMP median, was never published.\n\nIn short, there's no published evidence yet that the PMP raises salaries in Korea by any particular percentage. If you see such a number, check the source first.\n\n## Hiring: how Korean job postings use the PMP\n\nMore practical than salary averages are actual job postings. In Korea, postings usually list required qualifications and \"preferred\" ones (우대 사항), and some public institutions also score certificates during document screening. When I checked Korean postings, the same \"PMP preferred\" carried very different weight. It falls into three tiers:\n\n1. **Application requirement**: without this certificate (or one from a list), you can't apply.\n2. **Scored certificate**: it counts directly toward your document-screening score.\n3. **Preferred qualification**: it appears on the list of nice-to-haves.\n\nHere are the cases I could verify:\n\n| Organization | Posting | How the PMP was used |\n|---|---|---|\n| Government Employees Pension Service (공무원연금공단) | 2025 new hires, IT track (전산직), Sept 1–15, 2025 | One of the certificates that qualify you to apply; worth 20 of 100 points under project management (사업관리) in the certificate score |\n| Korea Asset Management Corporation (KAMCO, 한국자산관리공사) | 2024 entry-level grade 5, IT | Holding one IT certificate from a list that includes the PMP was required to apply |\n| kt cloud (KT Group) | 2024 H2 experienced hires, Cloud proposal consulting | Preferred: holders of IT/cloud certificates (PMP/PMBOK/…) |\n| kt cloud (KT Group) | 2024 H2 experienced hires, Cloud delivery management | Preferred: domestic or international CSP qualifications (PMP/PMBOK/…) |\n| Academy of Korean Studies (한국학중앙연구원) | 2025 professional staff (IT), March 2025 | Preferred: PMP, IT-PMP, TOPCIT level 3 or higher, or Professional Engineer Information Management |\n\nKOTRA's 2021 posting for an experienced software architect also listed \"PMP·CISA\" as preferred, but it's old, so take it as a footnote.\n\nNotice the pattern? They're all roles that manage IT work: computing, IT, and cloud proposal or delivery management. And at public institutions, the PMP can go beyond \"preferred\" to become an application requirement or a scored item.\n\n### What about IBK and KT?\n\nTo be honest, I'd also heard that the Industrial Bank of Korea (IBK) and KT give the PMP preference. But when I checked the postings myself, I couldn't find any evidence.\n\n- **IBK (IBK기업은행)**: the certificate bonus list for its 2026 H2 new-graduate hiring (applications August 28 to September 14, 2026; 175 hires) doesn't include the PMP. Neither did the 2024 H2 list. There was a 2026 contract posting for an \"IT project management (PMO) specialist,\" but I couldn't confirm its preferred qualifications.\n- **KT**: I found no KT Corporation posting that mentions the PMP. The only ones I could confirm came from kt cloud, a KT Group company.\n\nThis is how \"I heard company X prefers it\" spreads. If you believed it too, open the original posting of the company you're applying to. Focus on experienced-hire, PMO, IT project management and public-institution IT postings. Even within the same group or company, it varies by role and by year. In Korea, public-institution postings can be searched on job portals such as ALIO (잡알리오).\n\n## Cost versus benefit: what I actually spent\n\nTo judge the payoff, you have to look at the cost too. Here's what I spent, going by my receipts. My seven weeks of studying are in [Part 1](/en/posts/pmp-pass-review-part-1).\n\n| Item | Amount | Notes |\n|---|---|---|\n| PMI Study Hall Essentials (3-month subscription) | $53.90 | $49 + $4.90 tax, paid June 1, 2026 (now $59 per 3 months) |\n| PMP exam fee (member price) | $445.50 | $405 + $40.50 tax, paid June 12, 2026 |\n| Total | $499.40 | PMI membership and online course not included |\n\n\n\n*The order email for my PMP exam fee, received June 12, 2026. I covered the order number.*\n\nPMI membership costs extra: the current list price in the Korea store is $139. Joining still pays off for a simple reason. The exam costs $655 for non-members and $405 for members, a $250 gap that's bigger than the membership fee. Members also pay $100 less for a retake ($275 versus $375) and $90 less for renewal three years later.\n\n### Keeping it: $60 and 60 PDUs every three years\n\nThe PMP isn't one-and-done. Every three years, you need 60 PDUs and a renewal fee: $60 for members, $150 for non-members. Since free webinars, eLearning and chapter activities can cover PDUs, it's less about money and more about time and habit. My first PDU claim, 1.00 PDU, was approved on September 3.\n\n\n\n*My first approved PDU claim, September 3, 2026: 1.00 PDU for a PMI webinar I watched on August 31. I covered my PMI ID and the claim ID.*\n\nMy plan for earning PDUs over three years is in [Part 11](/en/posts/pmp-60-pdu-renewal-plan).\n\nAll in, getting to the exam cost me about $500 plus membership and a course, and seven weeks of evenings after work and weekends. For that to be worth it, I think at least one of two things has to be true: you're actually going after roles that ask for the PMP, or you use the mindset at work every day.\n\n## Verdict: who it clearly pays off for, and who should wait\n\n### It clearly pays off if you…\n\n- have led projects for three years or more (with a bachelor's degree) and are preparing for an experienced-hire move or a PM or PMO role\n- are targeting roles where postings actually mention the PMP, such as public-institution IT jobs, IT project management, or cloud proposal and delivery management\n- work with global clients, vendors or overseas teams and need a shared language\n- have plenty of experience but need a framework to explain it\n\n### It may not be the right time if you…\n\n- **don't have enough project-leading experience yet**: you won't meet the eligibility rules. The CAPM route I compared in [Part 10](/en/posts/pmp-vs-capm-vs-pmi-acp) comes first.\n- **only want a raise**: there's no published evidence of how much the PMP raises salaries in Korea.\n- **never see the PMP in postings for your target companies and roles**: that money and time may be better spent on core skills for the role.\n- **have no plans to earn 60 PDUs every three years**: the credential only means something while it's active.\n\n## Wrapping up: I'll test it on the market and report back\n\nHere's my conclusion. The PMP clearly changed how I work, and it's a certificate that public-institution IT postings and IT project management roles really use. What doesn't exist yet is Korean evidence that it raises salaries by any particular percentage. As for how well the PMP actually sells on the job market, I'll find out for myself and update this post.\n\nThe next post is the last in the series: how I joined the PMI Korea Chapter's education committee. Chapter volunteering also counts toward the Giving Back category of PDUs.\n\n**Next:** [From Reading Other People's PMP Stories to the PMI Korea Chapter's Education Committee](/en/posts/pmi-korea-chapter-education-committee)\n\n\nThe scenes below aren't about real people. They're made-up examples to illustrate the point.\n \n\n### Developers: don't silently absorb it; raise it as a change request\n\nMid-sprint, someone asks: \"Can you just add this one field?\" The nice developer quietly takes it on. They cover it with late nights, testing gets squeezed, and the schedule risk piles up where nobody can see it.\n\nA developer with a PM's lens answers the same request like this:\n\n```text\nBefore we add the \"delivery note\" field, here's the impact:\n- Scope: changes the checkout form, the admin screen and how order data is stored\n- Schedule: if it goes into this sprint, payment testing slips\n- Risk: it touches the payment flow, so we need regression testing\n- Options: (A) include in this release (B) move to the next sprint (C) reduce scope\nWhich way should we go?\n```\n\nThe moment they send that message, the developer stops being \"the person pushing back on work\" and becomes \"the person helping us decide.\" It's a change request with an impact analysis attached, which is exactly the order the PMP exam rewards.\n\n### Designers: explain options by value and risk, not taste\n\n\"Option A looks nicer\" is taste, not persuasion. The same mockups land very differently when explained like this:\n\n> Option A cuts the number of steps a new customer goes through before their first purchase. It needs a new component, though, so the development scope grows. Option B reuses existing components, so the schedule risk is lower. If this quarter's goal is converting new customers, I'd go with A; if the launch date comes first, B.\n\nPut the options side by side in terms of value and risk, and propose the decision criteria too. When designers talk like this, a design review shifts from \"whose taste wins\" to \"what do we gain, and what do we accept.\"\n\n### Marketers: treat a campaign as a project\n\nPMBOK 8 defines a project as \"a temporary initiative in a unique context undertaken to create value.\" It has a start and an end, the conditions are different every time, and it leaves something behind. That's a campaign, exactly.\n\nSee a campaign as a project, and your questions change. If the landing page depends on a dev release, what happens to the ad budget already spent when the release slips? If orders spike, are customer service and logistics ready? What does \"done\" mean for the landing page? And is success for this campaign measured in impressions, revenue or repeat purchases?\n\nA marketer who asks these questions before launch becomes the colleague that dev, customer service and logistics all want to work with.\n\n### Ops people: write a one-page risk register first\n\nOps people remember \"this happened last year, too\" better than anyone. Take that memory out of your head and put it into a single table, and you have a risk register.\n\n| Risk | Likelihood | Impact | Response | Owner |\n|---|---|---|---|---|\n| Orders spike right before a major holiday and shipping slips | Medium | High | Announce shipping cutoffs early, line up extra staff | Logistics |\n| The payment provider's scheduled maintenance overlaps a promotion | Low | High | Check the maintenance calendar early, move the promotion window | Operations |\n| Inventory sync lags and sold-out items keep selling | Medium | Medium | Monitor the sync, agree on how to handle sold-out items | Systems |\n\nWith that table on the screen, a meeting moves from \"worrying\" to \"deciding.\" And a risk register written by the person closest to the work is likely to be more accurate than one a PM writes at a desk.\n\n## My own path made the case\n\nI'm confident about this mostly because of my own path. I didn't start out as a PM.\n\n- **University**: a dual major in business administration and software engineering at Sungkonghoe University in Seoul (2014–2021). One side taught me the language of money and customers; the other, the language of systems.\n- **Founder**: in October 2020, I started FeelBetter, a small e-commerce business of my own. It did about KRW 50 million in sales within four months.\n- **Online business manager**: in January 2021, I joined iCOOP (Natural Dream) as a PM and online business manager, launching on the Naver and Coupang marketplaces, two of the biggest online shopping channels in Korea. I coordinated sales, customer service, SCM, WMS, design and IT, and ran SEO, campaigns and ESG campaigns such as No Plastic.\n- **PM**: from April 2023, I was a Software Development PM at Hyperhire, working with developers in five countries. Since March 2025, I've been a Global Tech PM at Concentrix.\n\nMy titles kept changing, but what helped in every role wasn't the title. It was the PM's lens. When you run a small business, deciding what to sell and what not to sell is your scope. A marketplace launch was a project with six strands of work, from sales to IT, tangled together. Looking back, I was always doing projects, whatever my title said.\n\nThe PMP gave that lens a name and an order. That's why I see it less as \"the certificate for becoming a PM\" and more as \"a textbook for thinking like one.\"\n\n## A realistic path for non-PMs\n\nTo turn this into more than an idea, start from where you are now.\n\n### 1. Check your PMP eligibility first\n\nThe PMP requires experience before you can sit the exam. Under the 2026 Exam Content Outline (ECO), the requirements look like this:\n\n| Highest education | Project-leading experience required |\n|---|---|\n| Secondary school diploma | 60 months |\n| Associate or vocational degree (EQF level 5, new in 2026) | 48 months |\n| Bachelor's degree | 36 months |\n| Degree from a PMI GAC-accredited program | 24 months |\n\nIn every case, the experience must fall within the last 10 years, and you need 35 hours of project management training. When I applied, the window was still 8 years, and I went through the bachelor's route with 36 months.\n\n\n\n*PMI's PMP page viewed from Korea. Right under the title: \"3+ years of experience leading projects.\"*\n\nIf you're not a PM, the word to notice is \"leading.\" What PMI looks for in your experience entries is how you led the project. For each project, you describe its aim, the dates, how you led, whom you worked with, which activities you directed, and the outcome. Routine operational work and administrative tasks don't count, and overlapping months count only once.\n\nSo even if your title isn't PM, it's worth looking into if you can clearly explain what you led on a project. I go into how to write your experience in [Part 4](/en/posts/pmp-experience-application-audit).\n\n\nThe 35-hour training rule is about to change. From December 1, 2026, live classes count only if they come from a PMI Authorized Training Partner (ATP), a China REP or an accredited higher-education program. Self-paced online courses from any provider still count, and books or practice exams alone never do. An active CAPM waives the 35-hour requirement entirely.\n \n\n### 2. Not enough experience yet? Look at the CAPM\n\nYou don't have to just wait until you have enough experience. The CAPM, PMI's entry-level certification, requires no work experience at all. You need a secondary school diploma, 23 hours of project management education, and to be at least 18. The exam has 150 questions (135 scored, 15 unscored), takes 3 hours with one break, and costs $225 for members or $300 for non-members.\n\nThe CAPM's real advantage shows up in the next step. If your CAPM is active when you later apply for the PMP, the 35-hour training requirement is waived. What you study now becomes the next rung of the ladder. I compare the PMP, CAPM and PMI-ACP side by side in [Part 10](/en/posts/pmp-vs-capm-vs-pmi-acp).\n\n### 3. No exam plans? Start with PMBOK 8's principles\n\nEven if you have no intention of taking an exam, there's something worth reading: the six principles of the PMBOK Guide 8th edition, published in November 2025.\n\n- Holistic view\n- Focus on value\n- Embed quality\n- Accountable leadership\n- Integrate sustainability\n- Empowered culture\n\nThey're just six lines, but a developer or a designer can map each one onto their own work right away. PMI members can download the 8th edition PDF for free. I covered how it differs from the 7th edition in [Part 5](/en/posts/pmp-2026-exam-changes-pmbok-8).\n\nThere's also something you can try today. Before your next meeting, write the five questions from the top of this post at the top of your notes: scope, stakeholders, risk, change, value. Bring up just one of them in the meeting, and the conversation will start to feel different.\n\n## Wrapping up\n\nThe PMP is a certification for project managers, but the PM's lens can belong to anyone. In fact, the difference is bigger when someone who isn't a PM picks it up. I felt that every time my title changed.\n\nNext up is the most practical question of all: does the PMP actually help with salary and hiring? I went through PMI's salary survey and real Korean job postings to find out.\n\n**Next:** [Is the PMP Worth It? An Honest Look at Work, Salary and Hiring](/en/posts/is-pmp-worth-it-salary-benefits)\n\n\n**In three lines**: On the first evening I watched the Grand Canal turn gold in the low sun from the **Rialto Bridge**. The next morning I climbed the **bell tower of San Giorgio Maggiore** and saw **the main island with St Mark's Campanile in it**. In the afternoon I went through Murano to **Burano**, where every house is a different color.\n \n\n## The route in this post\n\n| Date | Where | In a line |\n| --- | --- | --- |\n| Apr 10, afternoon | Across from San Simeone Piccolo → side canals → Rialto Bridge | Four people by the water, gold at 6 p.m. |\n| Apr 10, night | A bell tower | 9:48 p.m., a streak of light |\n| Apr 11, early morning | Cannaregio → Grand Canal → Accademia Bridge → Gesuati | Cloudy green, wisteria, the Salute dome |\n| Apr 11, late morning | San Giorgio Maggiore church and bell tower | The main island from 63 m, a maze garden, a gull |\n| Apr 11, afternoon | Murano → Burano | A leaning tower, laundry, a glass shop, a green bench |\n\n---\n\n## April 10: Four people sitting by the water\n\n\n My first scene in Venice: people sitting by the water, looking at the Grand Canal. \n \n\nThe first scene is the waterfront across from **San Simeone Piccolo**. The steps were packed with people sitting, while water taxis and gondolas passed in front of them at the same time. If you're choosing where to see the Grand Canal for the first time, I'd suggest this spot: there's somewhere to sit, and boats never stop going by.\n\n## One canal in from the Grand Canal\n\n\n At the end of an alley of water, Ca' Pesaro across the Grand Canal hangs like a framed picture. \n \n\nStep one canal in from the Grand Canal and the waterways are as narrow as alleys. A wooden boat slips out of one, leaving a white wake, and at the far end Ca' Pesaro, across the Grand Canal, hangs like a picture in a frame. The walls have lost their paint from the waterline up, exposing the brick.\n\nA little farther on, three gondolas glided into one canal at once. There's no footpath, so wooden boards have been fitted outside the doors, and the sky ripples on the water. I spent longer in these narrow waterways than on the Grand Canal itself.\n\n## 6 p.m. on the Rialto Bridge\n\n\n The Rialto around 6 p.m. The low sun painted only the buildings on the right gold. \n \n\nStand on the **Rialto Bridge** around 6 p.m. and you finally get the whole Grand Canal laid out below you. People on a wooden boat were holding up their phones to take pictures. The low sun lit only the buildings on the right in gold. If I had to pick one scene from these two days, it would be this one. Go to the Rialto in the evening, when the sun is low.\n\n\n A bell tower at 9:48 p.m. \n \n\nThe first day ended with a bell tower at 9:48 p.m. A streak of light caught in the lens runs up into the sky.\n\n---\n\n## April 11, morning: Same water, different face\n\nAt 7:44 the next morning, the deep blue sky of the day before was gone, replaced by low cloud. On a canal in Cannaregio stood a red awning and a newspaper kiosk. It looked more like a neighborhood where people live than a tourist sight.\n\n\n Up close on a cloudy day, the water is deep green. Purple wisteria over the wall. \n \n\nLater in the morning I met the Grand Canal again, this time at water level. Up close on a cloudy day the water is deep green, and behind polished wooden boats and blue mooring poles, purple wisteria spills over a garden wall.\n\n\n The Accademia Bridge, wooden down to the steps and railings. The spot to get the Grand Canal and the Salute dome in one frame. \n \n\nThe **Accademia Bridge** is wooden all the way, steps and railings included. From the top, the dome of **Santa Maria della Salute** sits right at the end of the Grand Canal. If you want the canal and the dome in a single shot, this bridge is the surest place. Come down to the waterside and the same dome retreats to the far right, and in the middle stands a Gothic palace hung with black-and-white LEE MILLER · MAN RAY banners between its windows. Just note that it's a bridge with steps, so crossing with a big suitcase is a hassle.\n\n\n The waterfront by the Gesuati church, rippled clouds overhead. \n \n\nWalk past the Gesuati church to the waterfront and the view suddenly opens up, wide water stretching all the way across to Giudecca. Rippled clouds covered the sky.\n\n\n The front of the church I'd only seen side-on from the alleys, from a vaporetto. \n \n\nFrom a green seat at the back of a vaporetto, the church I'd only seen side-on from the alleys appeared whole across the water, façade and all. In Venice, it's worth seeing a building once on foot and once from a boat.\n\n---\n\n## April 11, late morning: San Giorgio Maggiore, the island across the water\n\n**Climb St Mark's Campanile and St Mark's Campanile won't be in your photos.** So that morning I crossed to the small island that faces it head-on: **San Giorgio Maggiore**. It's a separate island opposite the main one, so you take vaporetto line 2 and get off at San Giorgio. A long white wake trails behind the boat.\n\nAt the altar of the church stand a large dark painting and marble columns with a wave-like grain. The wall above has paint peeling here and there, and in front of it sit two angels holding palm fronds.\n\n\n At the top of the tower, the window frame becomes a picture frame. \n \n\nThe bell tower in its current form dates from 1791 and stands 63 meters tall. You go up by elevator. The top level is pierced with windows framed in brick and white stone, so each window frame becomes a picture frame. I stood in one with my small camera and shot toward the water.\n\n\n The church dome right below, with the bronze figure on top. \n \n\nDirectly below is the church's grey dome. On top stands a bronze figure holding a spear. Behind it, Giudecca stretches away in a long curve.\n\n\n St Mark's Campanile and the Doge's Palace in one line. \n \n\nThis window is why I crossed over. Across jade water, the face of the main island unrolls sideways, from the Dogana at the far left to the red brick **St Mark's Campanile** and the white-lace **Doge's Palace**. At 98.6 meters, St Mark's Campanile is taller than this tower. The waterfront in front of the Doge's Palace looks like a black band, probably a line of people.\n\n\n The window on the other side is green: a maze garden, cloisters, and the lagoon beyond. \n \n\nThe window on the other side looks out on green. A maze garden of clipped boxwood, rows of cypress, a cloister courtyard ringed with arches, and beyond them woods and lines of mooring posts in the lagoon. You can see the dense main island and this green side just one window apart. That's why I recommend this viewpoint.\n\n\n The choir behind the altar, and me with my head tipped back. \n \n\nBack down, the floor catches your eye: cubes pieced together from red, black and white marble, so the flat floor looks three-dimensional. Behind the altar is the choir. Dark wooden stalls thick with carvings curve in a semicircle, and inside a red rope a geometric floor spreads out.\n\n\n A young gull on a waterside rock, St Mark's Campanile and the Doge's Palace behind. \n \n\nOutside, a small white lighthouse with a pavilion-like top stands at the tip of the island, and a yacht named Istria, with PULA written on it, was tied up beside it. On a waterside rock sat a young gull still speckled with brown, with St Mark's Campanile and the Doge's Palace blurred behind it.\n\n\n San Giorgio Maggiore from the main island's waterfront, a round halo over it. \n \n\nBack on the main island's waterfront, I turned around. The tower I'd been standing in a moment ago looked small across the water, a gondolier passed in front of it, and a circular halo hung in the sky over the island. **You get both the view from the top and the view from across the water.** That's this viewpoint's biggest plus.\n\n---\n\n## April 11, afternoon: Through Murano to Burano, 235 shots in two hours\n\nIn Burano I took 250 photos that still have location data, and 235 of them between 4 and 6 p.m. It's a village where the color changes with every house.\n\n\n A canal in Murano. \n \n\nBefore Burano, I stopped in **Murano**. Shops under ANTICA MURANO awnings line the water, and a crane stands behind a brick bridge. The houses are a calm pink and orange. If you have the time, I'd pair the two islands.\n\n\n Straighten the photo all you like; only the tower stays crooked. \n \n\nWalk into the square in **Burano** and the first thing you see isn't color but a **leaning bell tower**. It belongs to the church of San Martino, and even when you level the photo, the tower alone tilts. Below it run red, blue and yellow houses, with dresses set out in front of the EMILIA shop. The square isn't large; most of what there is to see is along the lanes and canals.\n\n\n A peeling wall, a lime-green house, and the leaning tower at the end of the canal. \n \n\nAlong the canal, every house is a different color. Next to a magenta house is a deep blue one, and next to that a russet one, so **finding two neighbors in the same color is the harder task.** The story goes that fishermen painted their houses so they could find home even in fog. It's only a legend.\n\nFrom the bridge, the wall on the left has peeled into layers of pink, orange and grey, lime houses and clothes shops line the right, and the leaning tower reappears at the end of the canal. I found the tower worked better shot like this from a bridge, with the houses, than from the square.\n\n\n White sheets on a wall of red, lilac and deep blue houses. \n \n\nWhite sheets hang on a wall of red, lilac and deep blue houses. The walls tourists line up to photograph are homes where someone hangs out their washing. To me this house is the most Burano of all. You'll be taking a lot of photos in front of walls, so be careful not to block anyone's front door.\n\n\n A different striped curtain on every door. \n \n\nEach door has a striped curtain. A pink-striped one over the coral house's entrance, deep green next door, bright yellow after that. Don't just look at the walls; look at the door curtains as well.\n\n\n Vetro di Murano, €2.50 apiece. That's me inside, picking through glass. \n \n\nThere's also a glass shop with sky-blue shutters thrown wide, the left panel listing glass color names like Nero and Rosato, and inside it's me, picking through pieces of glass in a basket. The sign reads Vetro di Murano, **€2.50 each, or a bundle of six for €10 or €14**. An old bicycle is parked below the window.\n\n\n Three people crouched in front of a lilac house. I'm on the far right. \n \n\nThree people crouched side by side in front of a lilac house, each hiding their face behind a phone or camera. The light blue hood on the far right is me. Instead of standing in front of a wall, try a shot like this.\n\n\n A green bench by a magenta house, an Easter wreath woven with eggs on the door. \n \n\nLast is the green bench in front of a magenta house. An Easter wreath woven with eggs hangs on the door and a pot of bright pink flowers sits in the window. It was April, around Easter. Even sitting on that bench, I was photographing something with my phone.\n\nThat same night I also climbed **St Mark's Campanile** across the water, but that's not in this post. The next day I went back to Milan and spent the night at San Siro (previous post), and the day after that I headed down to Florence.\n\n---\n\n## Visiting info\n\n📍 **Grand Canal walk (San Simeone Piccolo → Rialto → Accademia)**\n\n- 👀 **First look**: The waterfront across from San Simeone Piccolo. There's somewhere to sit and boats pass constantly.\n- 🌇 **Rialto Bridge**: The light on the buildings was best in the evening as the sun dropped, around 6 p.m. going by my photos.\n- 🗺️ **Map**: [Rialto Bridge](https://www.google.com/maps/search/?api=1&query=Ponte%20di%20Rialto) · [Accademia Bridge](https://www.google.com/maps/search/?api=1&query=Ponte%20dell%27Accademia)\n\n📍 **San Giorgio Maggiore church and bell tower** · The island opposite St Mark's Square\n\n- ⛴️ **Getting there**: Vaporetto line 2, San Giorgio stop.\n- 🎟️ **Price and hours**: The church is free; the tower goes up by elevator and costs €6–8 depending on the source. Hours also vary between sources, so check the official information.\n- 🗺️ **Map**: [Open in Google Maps](https://www.google.com/maps/search/?api=1&query=San%20Giorgio%20Maggiore%20Venice)\n\n📍 **Murano · Burano** · Northern Venetian Lagoon\n\n- ⛴️ **Getting there**: Vaporetto line 12, Burano stop. Check boat times and fares with ACTV.\n- 🚶 **The village**: No entry fee, and no cars.\n- 🗺️ **Map**: [Burano](https://www.google.com/maps/search/?api=1&query=Burano) · [Murano](https://www.google.com/maps/search/?api=1&query=Murano)\n\n## How to get lost a little less\n\n- 🛬 **Leave your arrival day free to wander the Grand Canal with no plan.** Just following the water is plenty.\n- 🧳 **The Accademia is a wooden bridge with steps.** Dragging a big suitcase over it is a hassle.\n- 🔭 **After the San Giorgio Maggiore tower, cross back to the main island's waterfront** and get a shot looking back at the island.\n- 🏠 **Burano's walls are real homes.** Keep doorways clear when you shoot.\n\n\nThis is a record of an April 2023 visit. I rechecked building dates, heights and visitor information while writing this, but tower prices and hours differ between sources, so check the official information once more before you go.\n \n\n## Jayden's verdict\n\n> I saw Venice once on foot, once from a boat and once from the tower across the water. I want to go to Italy again.\n\n- **Highlight**: the Grand Canal from the Rialto Bridge at 6 p.m., St Mark's Campanile and the Doge's Palace from the San Giorgio Maggiore tower, and Burano's colored houses\n- **Would I go back?**: Yes. Italy is the country I want to go back to.\n- **Tip**: for the main island with St Mark's Campanile in it, go up the San Giorgio Maggiore tower across the water. Pair Burano with Murano.\n\nThe next part starts in Florence on April 13: the Duomo and Piazzale Michelangelo, then Pompeii and Positano in the rain three days later.\n\n---\n\n**19 Days After Quitting series**\n\n1. [The UK, part 1: via Dubai, back to my Bournemouth homestay](/en/posts/europe-travel-01-bournemouth-homestay-dubai)\n2. [The UK, part 2: a day in London, from Big Ben to a Soho pub](/en/posts/europe-travel-02-london-big-ben-soho)\n3. [France: Nice and Saint-Paul-de-Vence](/en/posts/europe-travel-03-nice-saint-paul-de-vence)\n4. [Italy, part 1: Milan's Duomo and San Siro](/en/posts/europe-travel-04-milan-duomo-san-siro)\n5. **Italy, part 2: Venice, San Giorgio and Burano** (you are here)\n6. [Italy, part 3: Florence, Pompeii and Positano](/en/posts/europe-travel-06-florence-pompeii-positano)\n7. [Egypt: Escaping the rain to Sharm El Sheikh](/en/posts/europe-travel-07-sharm-el-sheikh-egypt)\n8. [Rome again: Italian food and the way home](/en/posts/europe-travel-08-rome-italian-food-going-home)"},{"slug":"pmp-what-changed-at-work","title":"What Changed at Work After the PMP: Not My Title, but How I Talk","description":"The work habits the PMP changed for a Global Tech PM: shared vocabulary, assessing before acting, change control, value over deliverables and tailoring.","topic":"work","tags":["PMP","PMP at Work","Global Project Management","Project Management","PMP Review"],"publishedAt":"2026-09-28T09:00:00+09:00","updatedAt":"2026-09-28T09:00:00+09:00","growthStage":"maintained","version":"1.0","revisions":[{"version":"1.0","date":"2026-09-28","summary":"First version: the work habits that changed after passing the PMP","changes":["Six changes: shared terms, assessing before acting, change control, value, servant leadership, tailoring","What the letters on a résumé signal, and what they don't do"]}],"relationships":[{"type":"continues","slug":"pmp-60-pdu-renewal-plan"}],"content":"\nIn [the last post](/en/posts/pmp-60-pdu-renewal-plan), I planned how to keep my PMP active for three years with 60 PDUs. Which raises the obvious question: is it worth keeping? This post covers half of the answer, the half about work.\n\n**In three lines** — The PMP changed the order in which I do things more than how much I know. I now use the same words to mean the same things, assess before I act on an issue, take changes in writing, and ask about value rather than deliverables. That said, I passed less than three months ago, and a certificate doesn't do the work for you.\n\n\nYou won't find client names or play-by-play meeting stories here. Partly that's about protecting client information, but mostly I wanted to write about how I work now, not about what happened on a particular day. The examples below are made-up scenarios that illustrate the point.\n \n\n## Where I work\n\nI'm a Global Tech PM at Concentrix. I run Shopify and Magento implementations and enhancements for enterprise clients: setting priorities, managing risk, running UAT (user acceptance testing), shipping releases and stabilizing things after launch.\n\nThe people I work with sit in client HQ teams, local business units in different countries, global vendors and overseas technical teams. To give you a sense of scale: I took on the enhancement and global rollout of a PDP (product detail page) generator SaaS for a global beauty group, across 5 brands and 27 e-commerce sites. One decision ripples across several brands and countries at once.\n\nBefore that, I was a Software Development PM at Hyperhire, running web, app, SaaS and blockchain projects. The developers I worked with were in India, Pakistan, Indonesia, Nigeria and Ethiopia. Five countries, and time zones all over the map.\n\nIn setups like these, I think projects go sideways because of words more often than because of skills. So most of what the PMP changed for me is about words and order.\n\nAnd for the record, I was doing all of this work before the PMP. The certificate didn't change my job. It slowly changed how I do it.\n\n## The first thing that changed: my vocabulary\n\nI've used words like scope, change request and risk for as long as I've been a PM. Studying for the PMP drew much sharper lines around them. These are the five terms I now deliberately keep apart in global meetings and emails:\n\n| Term | What I mean by it | Why I keep it precise |\n|---|---|---|\n| Scope | What we agreed to deliver, and what we agreed not to | Writing down the \"not\" part prevents crossed wires later |\n| Change request | A formal request to change agreed scope, schedule or cost | Even a small change needs a decision owner if it has an impact |\n| Risk | Something uncertain that hasn't happened yet but could | You can plan a response in advance |\n| Issue | Something that has already happened and is affecting you now | It needs fixing and reporting, not a plan |\n| Acceptance criteria | The conditions under which a deliverable counts as \"done\" | Separates \"looks done\" from \"is done\" in UAT |\n\nThe risk-versus-issue distinction has been the most useful one for me. \"This is a risk\" and \"this is an issue\" send completely different signals. The first says \"let's prepare.\" The second says \"let's act now.\" Mix them up, and people don't know how worried to be.\n\nWhen people with different native languages work together in English, one precise word can replace a whole paragraph. And since the PMP is the same exam worldwide, these terms are about as close to a shared language as project work gets.\n\n## Issues and changes: assess first, write it down first\n\nHonestly, my on-the-job instinct is \"just fix it.\" It showed in my [error log](/en/posts/pmp-error-log-method), too. The mistakes I kept repeating were picking a solution before finding the cause, and acting before analyzing the impact.\n\nThe Korean audio overviews I generated in NotebookLM while studying tell the same story. Two of the titles contain the phrase \"실무 본능\" (on-the-job instinct), and two more contain \"PM도 틀리는\" (that even PMs get wrong). What I listened to on my commute was, in the end, all about the gap between a practitioner's instinct and the PMP answer. I explain how I made and used those audio overviews in [Part 7](/en/posts/pmp-gpt-notebooklm-study).\n\n\n\n*The Korean audio overviews I made in NotebookLM while studying for the PMP in June 2026. Two titles mention \"on-the-job instinct,\" and two mention mistakes \"even PMs\" make.*\n\n### When an issue hits\n\nIn e-commerce, issues show up unannounced. Say error reports start coming in from the checkout step right after a release. My instinct is to fire off \"can you check this?\" to the dev team.\n\nThese days, before I send that message, I write down three things:\n\n1. **Impact**: who's affected, where, and how badly. Every country, or one payment method?\n2. **Nature**: is this an issue that's already happening, or a risk that might?\n3. **Who needs to know, and who decides**: who should be informed, and who should make the call?\n\nIt takes a few minutes. Those minutes keep the developers from digging in the wrong place, and they put the client and me in front of the same picture.\n\nThere are exceptions, of course. If checkout is down everywhere, recovery comes before analysis. As I wrote in [Part 1](/en/posts/pmp-pass-review-part-1), the PMP mindset has its own exceptions, like urgent risks, that call for immediate action. But the more urgent things get, the harder I try to hold on to \"how far, and why.\"\n\n### When a change request comes in\n\nE-commerce enhancement work brings a steady stream of small requests: one button label, one filter, one more country. Each looks tiny, but quite a few of them touch QA, translations and per-country UAT.\n\nChange management was also one of the areas I kept getting wrong while studying. The list above even includes an overview titled \"현업 PM도 틀리는 PMP 변경관리 함정\" (the PMP change-management trap that even working PMs fall into, 23:34). As the title says, it's an area where on-the-job instinct easily leads you to the wrong answer.\n\nSo now, the smaller the request, the less likely I am to just say \"sure\" out loud. At minimum, I try to capture these five lines:\n\n```text\n[Change request] e.g., add a shipping-info banner to the product detail page\n1. Request: who asked, and why\n2. Impact: schedule / cost / scope / quality (QA and UAT reruns) / risk\n3. Options: include in this release / move to the next release / don't do it\n4. Decision owner: who approves\n5. Decision: what was decided, and when\n```\n\nThat's the same order the PMP exam rewards: analyze the impact, get approval through the formal process, then update the plan and tell people. It can feel a bit pedantic at first. But once there's a record, the client's own contact has a much easier time explaining the change inside their organization. A change request protects the PM, and it protects the person on the client side too.\n\n## Asking about value, not just deliverables\n\nAnother title in my audio list is \"버그 없는 프로젝트가 인수를 거절당한 이유,\" which translates to \"why a bug-free project was rejected at acceptance.\" The title is a question in itself. Here's the answer I read into it: the team built what it said it would, but didn't give the client what they actually wanted out of it.\n\nIn PM work, it's easy to blur outputs and outcomes. \"We shipped the release\" and \"the feature is live\" are outputs. The reason the client paid comes after that: operations get easier, customers buy more easily, sites across countries run on the same standard.\n\nSo when I take requirements now, I add one more question:\n\n> Once this goes live, who gets better at what? And how will we know?\n\nThen I check whether the answer made it into the UAT acceptance criteria. A UAT that only checks whether a feature works is different from one that checks whether the intended outcome showed up.\n\nPMI has been moving in the same direction. The 2026 PMP Exam Content Outline (ECO) uses the PMBOK Guide 8th edition's definition of a project: \"a temporary initiative in a unique context undertaken to create value.\" It also adds a new Process task, \"Help ensure value-based delivery,\" and Business Environment grew from 8% to 26% of the exam. I covered all the changes in [Part 5](/en/posts/pmp-2026-exam-changes-pmbok-8).\n\n## Vendors and offshore teams: support over control\n\nConfession: my People result on the exam was Below Target, the lowest of my three domains. Writing a section about how I now work with people feels a little awkward.\n\nStill, the pattern behind my People mistakes was clear. I'd escalate before talking to the team, or try to replace someone before understanding the cause. PMI wanted the opposite. A PM isn't there to control the team but to support it and clear the way.\n\nThat lens matters even more with teams that sit in different organizations and time zones. The global vendors I work with now aren't my direct reports. They work for other companies, under other contracts. At Hyperhire, my developers were spread across five countries and very different time zones. Before asking \"why is this late?\", I think servant leadership starts with \"what's blocking you?\"\n\nThe blockers a PM can clear are surprisingly concrete:\n\n- **Vague requirements**: answer questions before they sit for a full day, or connect the person who can.\n- **Pending decisions**: get client-side approvals sorted before the other team's workday starts.\n- **Access and environments**: permissions, test data, staging. Things a developer can't fix alone.\n- **Shifting priorities**: boil \"what comes first\" down to one line and share it.\n\nSupporting a team doesn't mean lowering the bar. If anything, clear acceptance criteria up front are the biggest support you can give a vendor. Few things are more draining than working without knowing what \"done\" looks like.\n\n## Choosing between predictive and agile\n\nThe enterprise e-commerce projects I've worked on are hybrid by nature. Launch dates and budgets are often approved and fixed in advance, and UAT and releases have to pass defined gates. Meanwhile, post-launch enhancement requests and the operational backlog keep reshuffling priorities.\n\nWhat the PMP gave me is a way of seeing hybrid not as \"a bit of both\" but as a deliberate choice about what goes where. For an e-commerce project, the split might look like this:\n\n| Manage predictively | Run with agile |\n|---|---|\n| Launch date, budget, contracted scope | Enhancement backlog and priorities |\n| UAT schedule, acceptance criteria, release approval | Sprint-based development and demos |\n| Country rollout sequence | Post-launch stabilization issues |\n\nThe 2026 PMP exam itself is now about 40% predictive and 60% adaptive or hybrid. In PMBOK 8, tailoring is no longer on the list of principles, but the tailoring guidance is still there. I read that as: tailoring isn't a slogan. It's a judgment call you make every day.\n\n## One line on my résumé changed\n\nAfter the PMP, I changed the top line of my résumé to \"PMP® | Global Project Manager.\"\n\n\n\n*The \"you earned your PMP\" email from PMI, which landed in the early hours of July 4, 2026 (Korea time). It says a Credly digital badge follows by email within one to two weeks.*\n\nIn global work, I think those three letters act as a short introduction. To an HQ contact or an overseas vendor meeting you for the first time, PMP can read as:\n\n- You've led projects for a while (36 months with a bachelor's degree, and PMI randomly audits applications)\n- You've studied the same vocabulary and decision framework PMI defines\n- You keep learning, because the credential lapses without 60 PDUs every three years\n\nBut let me be honest: it's early. I passed in July, so as I write this, it hasn't even been three months. That's why there isn't a single \"thanks to the certificate\" story in this post. Three months is too short to tell one.\n\nAnd a certificate doesn't do the work for you. The numbers on my résumé, like a global consumer-electronics client's operational backlog dropping from 104 to 48 items and issue-resolution lead time falling by 27%, weren't produced by three letters. They came from the work itself. The PMP just gave me more precise language for describing that kind of work.\n\nThe letters start the conversation. The work is what keeps it going.\n\nNext, I want to make a slightly provocative case: that this way of thinking matters even more for people who aren't project managers, like developers, designers and marketers. And if you're curious about salaries and hiring, [Part 14](/en/posts/is-pmp-worth-it-salary-benefits) covers that with numbers and real Korean job postings.\n\n**Next:** [The PMP May Matter Most for Non-PMs](/en/posts/pmp-for-non-project-managers)\n\n\n\n*My first PDU approval email, received on 3 September 2026: the webinar I watched on 31 August counted as 1.00 PDU. My PMI ID and the claim ID are covered.*\n\nThe email shows that one webinar was split across all three areas: Ways of Working 0.25, Power Skills 0.25 and Business Acumen 0.50, for 1.00 PDU in total. That's how the 8-per-area minimums fill up, a little at a time.\n\n### The learning doesn't stop after the exam\n\nHere's what struck me after that first PDU. PMI keeps you learning long after it hands you the certificate. Many of its webinars and courses are free for members, so keeping up with them becomes ongoing care for your certification and ongoing education at the same time. Some count as PDUs automatically; others just need a quick claim.\n\nIt isn't the grit-your-teeth kind of studying I did for the exam, which is exactly why I think I can keep it up for three years.\n\n## My 3-year plan: 42 Education + 20 Giving Back = 62\n\nMy cycle runs three years from when I earned the PMP in July 2026, so until around July 2029. Aiming for exactly 60 leaves no room for a slip at the end, so I built in a buffer of 2 and planned for 62.\n\n| | Year 1 (Jul 2026–Jul 2027) | Year 2 (Jul 2027–Jul 2028) | Year 3 (Jul 2028–Jul 2029) | Total |\n|---|---|---|---|---|\n| Ways of Working | 4 | 4 | 4 | 12 |\n| Power Skills | 5 | 5 | 5 | 15 |\n| Business Acumen | 5 | 5 | 5 | 15 |\n| **Education subtotal** | 14 | 14 | 14 | 42 |\n| Giving Back: education committee work | 4 | 4 | 4 | 12 |\n| Giving Back: working as a practitioner | – | – | 8 | 8 |\n| **Giving Back subtotal** | 4 | 4 | 12 | 20 |\n| **Total** | 18 | 18 | 26 | 62 |\n\nYear 1 already includes the 1.00 PDU I've earned (Ways of Working 0.25, Power Skills 0.25, Business Acumen 0.50).\n\nChecking the math against the rules:\n\n- Education 42: meets the minimum of 35\n- Ways of Working 12, Power Skills 15, Business Acumen 15: all at least 8\n- Giving Back 20: under the cap of 25, with working as a practitioner at exactly its cap of 8\n- Total 62: above 60\n\nA few choices behind the numbers:\n\n- **Extra Power Skills.** People was my Below Target domain on the exam, so I'm putting a little more into people skills.\n- **Only 20 in Giving Back.** Up to 25 would count, but I don't want to cut back on the learning side.\n- **Working as a practitioner in year 3.** It can only be claimed once per cycle, so I'll claim it in one go in the final year.\n\n### Where the PDUs will come from\n\n| Source | Category | 3-year target |\n|---|---|---|\n| PMI member webinars and eLearning | Education | 18 |\n| ProjectManagement.com | Education | 12 |\n| PMI Korea Chapter monthly seminars and PM Column Seminars | Education | 12 |\n| PMI Korea Chapter education committee work | Giving Back | 12 |\n| Working as a practitioner | Giving Back | 8 |\n| Total | | 62 |\n\n- **PMI member webinars and eLearning.** Some are free for members. Six PDUs a year is about one webinar every two months.\n- **ProjectManagement.com.** Once your account is linked to PMI, the PDUs report automatically.\n- **PMI Korea Chapter seminars.** Chapter events count as Education. The monthly seminars come with PDUs, and the online \"PM Column Seminar\" (PM 칼럼 세미나), held every two months, is free for members.\n- **Education committee work.** Volunteer roles in the chapter, like committee work, count as Giving Back. I'll write about the PMI Korea Chapter's education committee separately in [Part 15](/en/posts/pmi-korea-chapter-education-committee).\n- **Working as a practitioner.** Simply working in a role related to the PMP counts as Giving Back, up to 8 PDUs, claimed once per cycle.\n\n## Claiming PDUs and keeping proof\n\n### Where: CCRS\n\nYou report PDUs in PMI's CCRS (Continuing Certification Renewal System), which you reach from your myPMI dashboard. Some sources, like ProjectManagement.com, report on their own once your accounts are linked. Others, like my first webinar, need a claim that PMI then approves.\n\n### What: keep your evidence\n\nPMI can audit any certification holder, even after they've earned the credential. So for every PDU, I plan to keep:\n\n- The approval email (like my first one above)\n- A screenshot of the completion or attendance confirmation\n- The date, title, provider and number of PDUs\n- Two or three lines on what I learned\n- For volunteering, a note of what I did and when\n\n### When: don't leave it to the last minute\n\nSpread over 36 months, 60 PDUs is under 2 a month (about 1.7). Leave it all to the final year and it's 5 a month. So I'll build steadily in years 1 and 2, then wrap up year 3 by claiming working as a practitioner and paying the renewal fee. PDUs above 60 earned in the last 12 months carry over to the next cycle, up to 20, so a little extra at the end isn't wasted.\n\n\nMake a \"PMP PDU\" folder in your inbox and drop every approval email and completion screenshot into it. Three years from now, you won't have to dig for proof when it's time to renew.\n \n\n## Wrapping up\n\nGetting the PMP took me seven weeks. Keeping it runs in three-year cycles. Those seven weeks were short and intense; this time, I'm going for slow and steady. If you'd like to start from the beginning, [Part 1](/en/posts/pmp-pass-review-part-1) is the place.\n\nIn the next post, I'll talk about what has actually changed at work since I got the PMP.\n\n**Next:** [What changed at work after the PMP](/en/posts/pmp-what-changed-at-work)\n\n\n**The short version** — This gopchang house's beef offal soup (₩13,000) comes up **loaded with gop on every single spoonful.** A spoon of the perilla powder on the table doubles the nuttiness. And the service was genuinely warm, even past 10 p.m.\n \n\n## A 30-second glossary\n\n- **Gopchang** — beef small intestine. The prize is the *gop*: the rich, milky fat inside. More gop means better gopchang.\n- **Naejangtang** — a spicy soup of beef offal (intestines, tripe and more) with greens and glass noodles. Korea's late-night comfort food.\n- **Deulkkae-garu** — ground perilla seeds. Nutty, earthy, and the secret weapon sitting on every table here.\n\n## Why a gopchang house makes the better offal soup\n\nA gukbap (soup-and-rice) shop and a gopchang house start from different places. A gopchang house cleans and prepares intestines every single day, so a soup made in that kitchen is never going to be stingy with the good stuff. Even Naver's one-line summary for this place reads, roughly, **\"fresh gopchang with zero gamey smell.\"**\n\nThe menu doesn't hide what this place really is, either.\n\n\n
\n The menu board. The star is obviously gopchang. \n \n
\n A whole poster on \"the best way to enjoy mixed gopchang.\" They take this seriously. \n \n
\n It arrives bubbling. So far, a normal-looking naejangtang. \n \n\nThe pot arrives still bubbling: red chili oil on top, green onions, soft greens and glass noodles tangled underneath. So far, the naejangtang you'd expect.\n\nThen the spoon goes in.\n\n\n One spoonful: intestine packed with gop, plus tripe. This is the default setting. \n \n\nOne spoonful, and up comes **intestine packed with gop**, plus tripe for good measure. Second spoonful, same. Third, same. With most offal soups you go digging for the good bits. Here, getting a spoonful of *just* broth is the hard part.\n\nThe gop is the real deal: rich and savory, melting into the broth, while the greens and noodles soak all of it up. Your bowl of rice disappears fast.\n\n## The upgrade: one spoon of perilla\n\n\n
\n Perilla powder, on every table. \n \n
\n A big spoon of perilla, a crack of pepper. Round two. \n \n
\n Kkakdugi, cabbage kimchi, soy-pickled vegetables, and a soy dipping sauce. \n \n\nCubed radish kimchi (kkakdugi), cabbage kimchi, soy-pickled radish, onion and chili, and a soy sauce for dipping. A bite of the tangy pickles between spoonfuls resets your palate. Try dipping a piece of gopchang in the soy sauce, too.\n\n## A restaurant whose walls are the reviews\n\n\n
\n The back room. The whole wall is a guestbook. \n \n
\n Steel tables and drum stools: classic gopchang-house style. \n \n
\nPrices and hours are from the menu board and Naver Place as of September 2026. Double-check before you go.\n \n\n## Jayden's verdict\n\n> I came looking for gop. I left buried in it.\n\n- **Gop density**: ★★★★★\n- **Service**: ★★★★★\n- **Coming back?** Yes. Next time I'm trying the mixed gopchang the poster keeps bragging about.\n"},{"slug":"europe-travel-04-milan-duomo-san-siro","title":"Milan Travel 04: From the Duomo on Easter Morning to 74,742 Fans at San Siro, Visited Twice","description":"April 2023, where the Italy stretch begins: the Duomo on Easter Sunday, Sforza Castle, aperitivo on the Navigli, and AC Milan vs Napoli at San Siro.","topic":"travel","tags":["Italy Travel","Milan","Milan Duomo","Navigli","San Siro"],"publishedAt":"2026-09-25T20:00:00+09:00","updatedAt":"2026-09-25T20:00:00+09:00","growthStage":"evergreen","version":"1.0","content":"\nLet me get the verdict out of the way first. **The best country on this whole trip was Italy.**\n\nFor food and cheese, no other country came close. Italy is also the country I want to go back to.\n\nMilan is where the Italy stretch begins. And I actually went to Milan **twice**. I spent Easter Sunday, April 9, walking the city, then two days in Venice, then came back on April 12 to see the Duomo once more and spend the night at San Siro. Strictly by date, Venice belongs in the middle, but this post bundles both Milan days together. The Venice days in between get the next post.\n\n\n**In three lines**: On Easter Sunday morning, **Mass was underway at the Duomo**. In the afternoon I went past **Sforza Castle** and the needle sculpture in Piazzale Cadorna to the **Navigli canals** for aperitivo. Back in Milan three days later, I watched AC Milan vs Napoli at **San Siro**. Attendance was 74,742, and before kickoff the stands spelled out **THIS IS MILAN**.\n \n\n## The route in this post\n\n| Date | Where | In a line |\n| --- | --- | --- |\n| Apr 9, morning | Duomo → Galleria → Cordusio | Easter Mass, the bull mosaic, Starbucks Reserve |\n| Apr 9, afternoon | Sforza Castle → Piazzale Cadorna → Naviglio Grande | Grass moat, the needle sculpture, canal-side aperitivo |\n| Apr 10–11 | Venice (next post) | Grand Canal, San Giorgio Maggiore, Burano |\n| Apr 12 | The Duomo again → a pizzeria off the square | Spires under a grey sky, a seafood grill |\n| Apr 12, night | San Siro | AC Milan vs Napoli, Champions League quarter-final, first leg |\n\n---\n\n## April 9: The Duomo on Easter Sunday\n\nMy first day was Easter Sunday 2023, and Mass was underway inside the Duomo. Tourists or not, it is still a church where Mass is said. So with the Duomo, think about **when** before *where*. Construction began in 1386 and ran until the last door went on in 1965, and it is the largest church within the Italian Republic.\n\n## Within 400 meters of the Duomo: the Galleria and Cordusio\n\nFrom the Duomo through the Galleria to Cordusio is a little over 400 meters as the crow flies, an easy half-day loop. I walked this stretch on both visits. The Cordusio photos, with their bright blue sky, are probably from day one.\n\nThe **Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II** is an arcade designed by Mengoni and finished in 1877, linking the Duomo and La Scala. Tradition says spinning three times on the bull mosaic in the floor brings luck, and so many people have done it that the spot wore into a hole and had to be restored again in 2017.\n\n\n The Parini statue just past the Galleria, a pigeon on his head. \n \n\nHead out toward Cordusio and there is the statue of Parini, with a pigeon perched on his head.\n\n\n DEDICATO A MILANO, carved into the copper wall. \n \n\nAt Cordusio I spent about an hour in the **Starbucks Reserve Roastery**. It opened in September 2018 inside a 1901 building that once housed the stock exchange and post office. A line carved into the wall begins DEDICATO A MILANO, \"dedicated to Milan.\" It's well placed for a break between walks.\n\n---\n\n## April 9, afternoon: Sforza Castle and its waterless moat\n\nIn the afternoon I went from Sforza Castle to the Navigli canals.\n\n\n Grass instead of water, in the moat and the courtyard alike. \n \n\nLook down into the moat of **Sforza Castle** and you see grass where the water should be. On the courtyard lawn people were sitting or lying on their stomachs, and there were even strollers. On Easter afternoon, the ground below the gun slits was being used as a park.\n\n\n The roughly 70-meter Filarete Tower. What you see today was rebuilt in 1900–1905 from the old plans. \n \n\nLook up from the middle of the courtyard and there is the **Filarete Tower**. It's about 70 meters tall, and its current form was rebuilt between 1900 and 1905 based on the old plans. The blue serpent crest on a white panel high on the wall stands out from far away, and people stream nonstop through the arch at its base.\n\n\n A grey stone tower at the corner of the red brick walls. \n \n\nWalk around the outside of the walls and, at the end of the red brick, the round corner tower switches to grey stone, every block jutting out so the surface is all bumps. This texture stayed with me longer than the tower in the courtyard. I spent over an hour just around the castle. Inside are the civic museums, including Michelangelo's Rondanini Pietà and the Sala delle Asse with its ceiling painting that Leonardo had a hand in.\n\n## A needle stuck in the square\n\n\n \"Needle, Thread and Knot.\" The thread colors are Milan's metro line colors. \n \n\nLeave the castle for Piazzale Cadorna and you find a giant needle stuck in the ground. It's Oldenburg and van Bruggen's sculpture **\"Needle, Thread and Knot\"**, unveiled in February 2000. The red, green and yellow of the thread are the metro line colors, and the idea is that the thread passes through the needle, runs underground and comes back up as a knot on the far side of the square. Shared bikes stand in a row at its foot. From here I took the green line, metro M2, down to the canals.\n\n## An afternoon on the Naviglio Grande\n\n\n People and umbrellas along both banks. \n \n\nThe **Naviglio Grande** is a straight canal running between yellow and pink buildings. Both banks were packed solid with people and umbrellas.\n\n\n A NAVIGAMI tour boat on the canal. \n \n\nUnder a bridge railing covered in graffiti, stickers and a bundle of padlocks, a NAVIGAMI tour boat slid past. But the original job of this waterway, begun in the 12th century, was hauling cargo, and the Duomo's marble is said to have come in through a dock here.\n\n\n The Village Cafe board: unlimited buffet with a drink for €12. \n \n\nThe canal-side bars had their boards out in time for aperitivo. Aperitivo is the Italian ritual of a drink and some snacks before dinner, and the Village Cafe board read **unlimited buffet plus a drink for €12, second drink €5**. Everyone was at the outdoor tables, except a few who stood with their backs to the food, watching football on the TV inside.\n\n## A courtyard and a church by the canal\n\n\n The sign at the passage: \"Come see the second courtyard too.\" \n \n\nBetween the canal-side buildings there is a passage. A sign for the Associazione del Naviglio Grande says \"visitate il secondo cortile,\" come see the second courtyard. Step inside and wisteria covers red walls, with flowerpots hanging from every railing. ENTRATA LIBERA: free to enter. It is quieter in here than on the canal.\n\n\n Easter Sunday, white flowers beneath the altar. \n \n\nWalking along the canal, I ducked into **Santa Maria delle Grazie al Naviglio**, a relatively young church designed by Cesare Nava in 1899 and consecrated in 1909. White Easter flowers sat beneath the altar, and stained-glass light spilled across the brick-patterned walls. Easter Mass at the Duomo in the morning, Easter flowers in a canal-side church in the afternoon.\n\n## One aperitivo plate and the 7:36 p.m. tram\n\n\n Amarcord beer and six pieces of grilled flatbread. \n \n\nDinner was at an outdoor table on the west side of the canal. In front of a bottle of Amarcord beer came six pieces of grilled flatbread in a circle, charred here and there, topped with shellfish and mayo and a sprinkle of red powder.\n\n\n 7:36 p.m., the sky still bright and a yellow tram filling the street. \n \n\nAt 7:36 p.m. the sky was still bright as a yellow tram squeezed down a narrow street. Milan was more of an **outdoor city** than I'd expected. The next two days were Venice, which is the next post. Here, we skip straight ahead three days.\n\n---\n\n## April 12: A second Duomo under a grey sky\n\n\n On my second visit the sky was grey, and somehow every spire looked sharper. \n \n\nBack from Venice, I stood in front of the Duomo again. This time the sky was grey, and the white marble façade actually shows every single spire more clearly on a day like that. No need to wait for sunshine. To fit the whole front in one shot you have to back up a long way, and that spot was crowded with pigeons and tourists.\n\n## A pizzeria off the square, and the asterisk on the menu\n\n\n An Italian beer and a Dutch beer at the same table. \n \n\nThat day's meal was under a PIZZERIA awning next to the Duomo. A Heineken glass and a Poretti glass sat side by side on an orange tablecloth. The Duomo was printed on the menu cover too.\n\n\n GRIGLIATA DI PESCE, €48 for two. \n \n\nI ordered the **GRIGLIATA DI PESCE**, a mixed seafood grill: €48 for two (per the menu at the time), listing swordfish, salmon, scampi and squid. It arrived as fish and salmon with sharp grill marks and halved scampi on a bed of arugula. The thing worth noticing is the **asterisk** next to the dish name. The edge of the menu carried a \"frozen product\" note, which I read as meaning frozen ingredients. If you eat right on the square, look for that asterisk.\n\n---\n\n## April 12, night: San Siro, one of 74,742\n\n\n A half-and-half scarf with the stadium name and the date, 12/04/2023. \n \n\nThat night's destination was **San Siro**, for AC Milan vs Napoli in the **Champions League quarter-final, first leg**. Outside the stadium I held up a **half-and-half scarf** with the date printed on it. It joins Milan's red and black to Napoli's blue, half and half. The stalls outside had even teddy bears in Milan kits, and about the only thing in the away team's colors was this scarf.\n\n\n Outside the stadium, scarf Napoli side out. \n \n\nBefore going in, I had a bottle of Poretti BOCK ROSSA in hand and wore the scarf Napoli side out. The whole forecourt was red and black.\n\n\n Gate 13. The spiral towers on either side carry the weight of the third tier. \n \n\nUp close, the first thing you see at San Siro is its coiled concrete spiral towers. They went up when the third tier was added for the 1990 World Cup, and 11 of them hold up that weight. Past the STEWARD vests at gate 13, you're in.\n\n\n The round windows of the top concourse double as shelves overlooking the pitch. \n \n\nI set a Pepsi cup and a beer on the sill of a round window in the top-tier concourse. Below it are the pitch and the stands.\n\n## How empty seats turned into words\n\n\n 1 hour, 21 minutes and 49 seconds to kickoff. Plenty of empty seats at this point. \n \n\nStep into the stands and the steel roof spreads overhead like a net, with Milan's high-rises visible past the red trusses. When the countdown read 01:21:49, there were still gaps all over. By the warm-ups every empty seat had filled. From the top tier I could see the whole formation laid out like a map rather than the players' faces.\n\n\n The same seats that had been empty became cards, and THIS IS MILAN appeared. \n \n\nThe highlight of the night came **before kickoff**. Those same seats that had been empty turned into cards, and THIS IS MILAN rose out of the stands. The red plastic blocking my view was one piece of the picture, held up from the top tier. In the middle of the pitch, a Champions League ball banner was spread out.\n\n\n 74,742 on the board. WE THE MANY above, GRAZIE ROSSONERI below. \n \n\nThe scoreboard flashed **74,742**, with WE THE MANY above and GRAZIE ROSSONERI below. I was one of them.\n\nThe match ended **1-0 to AC Milan**. Bennacer's goal in the 40th minute was the winner, and Napoli finished with ten men after Anguissa was sent off for a second yellow in the 74th. It was a rematch ten days after Milan had won 4-0 in the league, and after the second leg on April 18, Milan went through to the semi-finals 2-1 on aggregate.\n\n\n 11:37 p.m., San Siro lit up. \n \n\nAt 11:37 p.m., the road outside was still full of cars. That's it for my two visits to Milan.\n\n---\n\n## Visiting info\n\n📍 **Milan Duomo** · Piazza del Duomo, Milano\n\n- 🚇 **Getting there**: Duomo station (M1, M3). You come up right in the square.\n- 🎟️ **Entry**: Ticket required. Rooftop terrace access and hours change by season, so go by the official website.\n- 🗺️ **Map**: [Open in Google Maps](https://www.google.com/maps/search/?api=1&query=Duomo%20di%20Milano)\n\n📍 **Sforza Castle · Naviglio Grande**\n\n- 🏰 **Route**: Cordusio → Sforza Castle → the needle sculpture in Piazzale Cadorna right next door → M2 → the Navigli. One afternoon.\n- 🗺️ **Map**: [Sforza Castle](https://www.google.com/maps/search/?api=1&query=Castello%20Sforzesco) · [Naviglio Grande](https://www.google.com/maps/search/?api=1&query=Naviglio%20Grande%20Milano)\n\n📍 **San Siro** · Piazzale Angelo Moratti, Milano\n\n- 🚇 **Getting there**: San Siro Stadio station (M5) is right in front of the stadium.\n- 🎟️ **Tickets**: Through the club's official sellers; check fixtures on the club's official schedule.\n- 🗺️ **Map**: [Open in Google Maps](https://www.google.com/maps/search/?api=1&query=San%20Siro%20Stadium)\n\n## How to get lost a little less\n\n- ⛪ **With the Duomo, start with \"when.\"** On Sundays and holy days, Mass may be underway.\n- 📸 **On the Navigli, take your bridge photos before sunset.** In early April, around 6 p.m., the light fell nicely on the façades. If it's too crowded, slip into the courtyard passage or the canal-side church.\n- ⭐ **On menus right by the square, look for an asterisk (*) and a \"frozen product\" note.**\n- 🏟️ **San Siro's card display happens just before kickoff.** The seats were still patchy 1 hour 20 minutes out, but you need to be in yours before it starts.\n- 🎫 **Check your tier/color zone (like \"3 BLU\") and gate number** on your ticket first. If you post a ticket photo, cover the QR code, seat and personal details.\n- 🚗 **After the match, the roads were still jammed past 11:30 p.m.** Sort out your way back beforehand.\n\n\nThis is a record of an April 2023 visit. I rechecked the match result, attendance and building dates against AC Milan's official match records and other sources while writing this. Tickets, hours and prices can change, so check the official information once more before you go.\n \n\n## Jayden's verdict\n\n> Italy was the best. Nowhere beats it for food and cheese. I want to go again.\n\n- **Highlight**: Easter Mass at the Duomo, aperitivo on the Navigli, and the THIS IS MILAN card display before kickoff at San Siro\n- **Would I go back?**: Yes. Italy is the country I want to go back to.\n- **Tip**: check Mass times before the Duomo, and be in your seat at San Siro before kickoff.\n- **Pair it with**: the courtyard passage between the canal-side buildings and Santa Maria delle Grazie al Naviglio\n\n---\n\nNext up is the two days in Venice between my two Milan visits: evening light on the Rialto Bridge, the bell tower of San Giorgio Maggiore, and Burano by way of Murano.\n\n**19 Days After Quitting series**\n\n1. [The UK, part 1: via Dubai, back to my Bournemouth homestay](/en/posts/europe-travel-01-bournemouth-homestay-dubai)\n2. [The UK, part 2: a day in London, from Big Ben to a Soho pub](/en/posts/europe-travel-02-london-big-ben-soho)\n3. [France: Nice and Saint-Paul-de-Vence](/en/posts/europe-travel-03-nice-saint-paul-de-vence)\n4. **Italy, part 1: Milan's Duomo and San Siro** (you are here)\n5. [Italy, part 2: Venice, San Giorgio and Burano](/en/posts/europe-travel-05-venice-san-giorgio-burano)\n6. [Italy, part 3: Florence, Pompeii and Positano](/en/posts/europe-travel-06-florence-pompeii-positano)\n7. [Egypt: Escaping the rain to Sharm El Sheikh](/en/posts/europe-travel-07-sharm-el-sheikh-egypt)\n8. [Rome again: Italian food and the way home](/en/posts/europe-travel-08-rome-italian-food-going-home)"},{"slug":"pmp-vs-capm-vs-pmi-acp","title":"PMP vs CAPM vs PMI-ACP: Which One Fits You? (2026 Comparison)","description":"PMP, CAPM and PMI-ACP compared for 2026: eligibility, exam format, member and non-member fees, retakes, PDUs and recent changes, plus which one fits you.","topic":"work","tags":["PMP","CAPM","PMI-ACP","PMP Eligibility","PMI Certifications"],"publishedAt":"2026-09-24T09:00:00+09:00","updatedAt":"2026-09-24T09:00:00+09:00","growthStage":"maintained","version":"1.0","revisions":[{"version":"1.0","date":"2026-09-24","summary":"Compared PMP, CAPM and PMI-ACP for 2026 with a decision guide.","changes":["Added a full comparison table, a decision guide and why I chose the PMP"]}],"relationships":[{"type":"continues","slug":"pmp-case-study-questions"}],"content":"\nFor nine posts, this series has been about one thing: getting the PMP. But spend any time on PMI's site and two other names keep showing up, the CAPM and the PMI-ACP. Here are all three side by side, and who each one is really for.\n\n**In three lines** — If you've led projects for three years or more (with a bachelor's degree), go for the PMP; if you're just starting out or switching careers, start with the CAPM; if you're a product owner or scrum master on an agile team, look at the PMI-ACP. From Korea, the PMP costs $405 for PMI members and $655 for everyone else, and keeping it takes 60 PDUs every three years. An active CAPM waives the PMP's 35 training hours, and an active PMP covers the PMI-ACP's experience requirement.\n\n\nThe prices and requirements below come from PMI's official pages and store as of 2026. Both can change, so check the official [PMP](https://www.pmi.org/certifications/project-management-pmp), [CAPM](https://www.pmi.org/certifications/certified-associate-capm) and [PMI-ACP](https://www.pmi.org/certifications/agile-acp) pages before you pay.\n \n\n## The comparison table (2026)\n\n| | PMP | CAPM | PMI-ACP |\n|---|---|---|---|\n| Who it's for | Experienced project leads | Entry level, no experience needed | Agile practitioners |\n| Eligibility | 24–60 months of experience (depending on education) + 35 hours of training | Secondary school diploma + 23 hours of PM education; age 18+ | Secondary school diploma + 21 hours of agile training + 2 years of agile work in the last 5 (alternatives exist) |\n| Exam | 180 questions (170 scored + 10 unscored), 240 minutes, 2 breaks | 150 questions (135 scored + 15 unscored), 3 hours, 1 break | 120 questions (100 scored + 20 unscored), 3 hours, 1 break |\n| Fee (member / non-member) | Korea $405 / $655; US $425 / $675 | $225 / $300 | $435 / $495 |\n| Retake (member / non-member) | $275 / $375 | $150 / $200 | $335 / $395 |\n| To keep it (every 3 years) | 60 PDUs | 15 PDUs | 30 PDUs |\n| Latest update | New exam since 9 July 2026 | Exam content outline from 2023 | New exam since 8 November 2024 |\n\nOn paper the numbers look similar, but the three are aimed at quite different people. The PMP is for people who have led projects, the CAPM for people just getting started, and the PMI-ACP for people who work in agile teams. Let's take them one at a time.\n\n## PMP: for people who have led projects\n\nThis is the one I hold, so it's the one I can say the most about. As I wrote in [Part 1](/en/posts/pmp-pass-review-part-1), it isn't tied to a single industry or methodology. It tests whether you can lead a project while juggling people, process and business priorities.\n\n### Eligibility depends on your education\n\n| Highest education | Project leadership experience needed |\n|---|---|\n| Secondary school | 60 months |\n| Associate degree or vocational qualification (EQF level 5, new in 2026) | 48 months |\n| Bachelor's degree | 36 months |\n| PMI GAC-accredited degree | 24 months |\n\nThe experience has to fall within the last 10 years, and you also need 35 hours of project management training. An active CAPM waives those 35 hours.\n\nThe training rules get a little stricter soon. From 1 December 2026, live classes only count if they come from a PMI Authorized Training Partner (ATP), a China REP or an accredited higher-education program. Self-paced courses from any provider still count. Books and practice exams on their own never do.\n\nHow to write up your experience, and what happens if you're audited, is covered in [Part 4](/en/posts/pmp-experience-application-audit).\n\n### The exam: new since 9 July 2026\n\nThe new PMP exam is 180 questions (170 scored, 10 unscored) in 240 minutes, with two 10-minute breaks. The domains are People 33%, Process 41% and Business Environment 26%. Roughly 40% of the questions are predictive and 60% are agile or hybrid. [Part 5](/en/posts/pmp-2026-exam-changes-pmbok-8) goes through everything that changed.\n\nFor the record, I took the old version (180 questions, 230 minutes) on 3 July, just before the switch.\n\n### Fees: $405 / $655 from Korea\n\n\n\n*PMI's PMP page as seen from Korea: member price $405, full price $655.*\n\nPMI's store prices vary by region. The same exam costs $425 for members and $675 for non-members in the US store. I paid the $405 member price on 12 June 2026, plus $40.50 tax, so **$445.50** in total. The whole process from payment to booking at Pearson VUE is in [Part 3](/en/posts/pmp-application-pearson-vue-booking).\n\nA retake costs $275 for members and $375 for non-members. And once you pass, you need 60 PDUs every three years. I'll show you my actual plan for that in the [next post](/en/posts/pmp-60-pdu-renewal-plan).\n\n\n**Is PMI membership worth it?** For the PMP, it's an easy yes. From Korea, the gap between the member and non-member exam price is $250, and membership costs $139, so the exam discount alone pays for it with $111 to spare. Members also pay $100 less for a retake and $90 less to renew, and they get the PMBOK Guide 8th edition PDF free. For the CAPM ($75 off) and PMI-ACP ($60 off), the exam discount alone doesn't cover the membership fee, so weigh up the other benefits first.\n \n\n## CAPM: the entry-level option\n\nThe CAPM (Certified Associate in Project Management) is the one you can take with no experience at all. You need a secondary school diploma, 23 hours of project management education, and to be at least 18.\n\nThe exam is 150 questions (135 scored, 15 unscored) in three hours, with one break, and it's based on a 2023 exam content outline. It costs $225 for members and $300 for non-members, retakes are $150 and $200, and you keep it with 15 PDUs every three years.\n\nTo me, the CAPM's real value is as a bridge to the PMP. **An active CAPM waives the PMP's 35 hours of training.** If you don't have the experience yet but want the PMP someday, getting the CAPM first and building experience along the way is a perfectly good route.\n\nIt's a good fit if you are:\n\n- A student or a new graduate starting out\n- Moving into project management from another role\n- Already working on projects, but not yet at the PMP's experience bar (36 months with a bachelor's degree, for example)\n\n## PMI-ACP: for people on agile teams\n\nThe PMI-ACP (PMI Agile Certified Practitioner) is for agile practitioners. Think scrum masters, product owners and agile team members.\n\nTo apply, you need a secondary school diploma, 21 hours of agile training, and two years of agile work experience within the last five years. The experience part can be replaced by one of these:\n\n- One year of agile experience plus a PMI GAC-accredited degree\n- One year of agile experience plus an agile certification from another body\n- An active PMP\n\nThe exam changed on 8 November 2024. It's 120 questions (100 scored, 20 unscored) in three hours, with one break. The domains are Mindset 28%, Leadership 25%, Product 19% and Delivery 28%, so mindset and leadership together make up more than half. It costs $435 for members and $495 for non-members, retakes are $335 and $395, and it takes 30 PDUs every three years to keep.\n\nThe detail worth noticing is the last line of that list. **An active PMP covers the PMI-ACP's experience requirement.** If you want to go deeper into agile after the PMP, it's a natural next step.\n\n## Which one should you pick?\n\nNo need to overthink it. Start from where you are right now.\n\n| Where you are now | Pick | Why |\n|---|---|---|\n| You've led projects for 3+ years (with a bachelor's degree) | PMP | Covers predictive, agile and hybrid work, and it's widely recognized |\n| You're a student, a new graduate or changing careers | CAPM | No experience needed; waives the PMP's 35 training hours later |\n| You have some experience, but not enough for the PMP | CAPM | Build the basics while your experience catches up |\n| You're a product owner, scrum master or agile team member | PMI-ACP | Focused on agile mindset, leadership, product and delivery |\n| You already hold the PMP and want to go deeper into agile | PMI-ACP | An active PMP covers the experience requirement |\n\nOne thing to remember: the three-year figure assumes a bachelor's degree. With a secondary school diploma, the PMP asks for 60 months, or five years.\n\n### If you're in between\n\nIf you work on an agile team and have also led projects for more than three years, either one works. Choose the PMP if you want the broad, widely recognized credential, or the PMI-ACP if you want to show agile expertise specifically. And since the PMP takes care of the PMI-ACP's experience requirement, doing the PMP first isn't a bad order.\n\nThe three can also line up like this:\n\n> **CAPM** (while you build experience) → **PMP** (35 training hours waived) → **PMI-ACP** (experience requirement covered)\n\n## Why I chose the PMP\n\nMy reasons were simple. I had been leading projects in e-commerce and global software delivery for more than five years, so the experience requirement wasn't an issue. And I wanted something broad, not tied to one methodology, that people recognize anywhere in the world. That was the PMP.\n\nIf you lead projects without a \"project manager\" title, I'll cover why the PMP can matter even more for you in [Part 13](/en/posts/pmp-for-non-project-managers).\n\n## Up next: the three years after you pass\n\nIt took me seven weeks to get the PMP, but keeping it runs in three-year cycles. The PMP needs 60 PDUs every three years, the PMI-ACP 30 and the CAPM 15. In the next post, I'll share my first PDU approval email and my plan for earning 60 PDUs over three years.\n\n**Next:** [My 3-Year, 60-PDU Plan to Keep the PMP](/en/posts/pmp-60-pdu-renewal-plan)\n\n\nFor the full picture of the 2026 update (question count, time, domain weights), see [Part 5: Everything That Changed in the 2026 PMP Exam](/en/posts/pmp-2026-exam-changes-pmbok-8). This post covers only the case-study and graphic-based questions.\n \n\n## What PMI Has Published About Case Studies\n\n| Item | What PMI says |\n|---|---|\n| Format | A detailed scenario (it may include graphs or charts) followed by a series of questions on it |\n| Position | The first section of the exam |\n| Number of questions | Not published; it may vary by exam form |\n| New alongside it | Graphic-based questions: you read a chart, graph or other visual and answer from it |\n| Delivery | At test centers and online |\n| Breaks | The first 10-minute break comes right after the case-study section; once you start it, you can't return to that section |\n| Overall time | 180 questions in 240 minutes, about 1 minute 20 seconds per question |\n\nIn short, PMI has published the format, the position and the break rules, but not the number of questions. Some prep sites say each case has 2–5 questions, but that's not a number PMI has confirmed.\n\nThe question-type section of the 2026 Exam Content Outline (ECO) PDF includes example screens of a case question and a graphic-based question. Look at them at least once before exam day.\n\nOne more tip if you test in a translated language, as I did in Korean: each question has an exhibit button that shows the English original. The two languages aren't shown side by side; you open the original separately. When a sentence in a long scenario reads ambiguously in translation, check the original.\n\n## How to Read a Long Scenario\n\nMost questions on the old exam were scenarios too. As I wrote in [PMP Pass Review Part 2](/en/posts/pmp-pass-review-part-2), I'd read the question in the last sentence before the setup, then cross out the clearly wrong options. Stretched to fit a case study, that becomes four steps.\n\n### Step 1: Read the Question First\n\nBefore you read the scenario closely, check what the current question is asking. On the old exam, once I'd seen whether the last sentence asked what to do \"first\" or \"next,\" the focus of the question got clearer. Case-study scenarios are longer, so I expect this habit to pay off even more.\n\n### Step 2: Pick Out Four Things in the Scenario\n\n| Look for | Clues | Why it matters |\n|---|---|---|\n| Approach | Sprints, backlog, product owner, retrospectives mean agile. Baselines, a change control board (CCB), a WBS mean predictive. Both means hybrid | It decides which process the right answer has to follow |\n| Stakeholders and power | Sponsor, customer, regulator, anyone with a lot of influence, anyone pushing back | It tells you whom to talk to first |\n| Constraints and numbers | Deadlines, budget, regulations, trends in tables and charts | They're the evidence for graphic-based questions and for impact analysis |\n| Question type | `FIRST`, `NEXT`, `BEST`, `EXCEPT` | The same situation can have different answers |\n\nSeveral questions hang off the same scenario. If you pick out these four things on the first question, you won't have to reread the whole scenario for the next one. Watch `EXCEPT` in particular: you're looking for the action that doesn't fit, so flip your usual thinking.\n\n### Step 3: Choose with the PMI Mindset\n\nWhen two options are left, go back to the Mindset I summarized in [PMP Pass Review Part 1](/en/posts/pmp-pass-review-part-1). Three rules look especially useful for case studies:\n\n- **Assess before you act.** Choosing the strongest action without knowing the cause and impact was often wrong.\n- **Collaborate before you escalate.** Talk to the team and the stakeholders first.\n- **Follow the agreed process.** Agile work goes through the product owner and the backlog; predictive work goes through change control.\n\nThere are exceptions. As I noted in Part 1, ethics, legal, safety and urgent-risk issues can call for immediate action.\n\n### Step 4: Log Every Miss in Your Error Log\n\nCase-study misses go on the same error-log cards from [Part 6](/en/posts/pmp-error-log-method). Tag the cause with C, R, M, S, A or T as usual, but for case questions I'd add one line: what you missed in the scenario. Missed the approach clues? That's A. Missed a condition in the question? R. Guessed because time ran short? T. If you keep missing the same kind of information, your reading order needs fixing.\n\n## Try It: A Practice Case\n\n\nThe case below is an original example I wrote for this post. It isn't a real PMP exam question or a Study Hall question, and the real exam screens and format may differ.\n \n\n### Scenario: Moving Three Country Sites to a New Platform\n\nYou're the PM on a consumer-goods company's project to move its e-commerce sites for Countries A, B and C onto a new platform.\n\n- The in-house Scrum team (six developers) builds the site screens and features in two-week sprints. The product owner sits in the HQ e-commerce team.\n- An external vendor is migrating the existing order and member data. Its scope, schedule and budget are managed against an approved baseline, and any baseline change needs approval from the change control board (CCB).\n- Launch is set for the end of Sprint 8. The sponsor, the head of commerce, has already reported that date to the executive team.\n- The Country B managing director is highly influential and insists the Country B site must go live before the year-end promotion.\n\n**Table 1. Sprint progress** (backlog of 240 story points at the start)\n\n| Sprint | Planned | Completed | Backlog remaining |\n|---|---|---|---|\n| 1 | 40 | 38 | 202 |\n| 2 | 40 | 35 | 167 |\n| 3 | 40 | 30 | 137 |\n| 4 | 40 | 24 | 113 |\n\n**Table 2. Data migration status** (end of Sprint 4)\n\n| Measure | Amount |\n|---|---|\n| Planned value (PV) | $500,000 |\n| Earned value (EV) | $450,000 |\n| Actual cost (AC) | $520,000 |\n\n### Question 1\n\nIn Sprint 5 planning, the product owner says, \"To protect the launch date, we need to plan 40 points again this sprint.\" What should the project manager do `FIRST`?\n\n- A. Confirm the 40-point plan as is to protect the launch date.\n- B. Ask the sponsor for more developers.\n- C. Work with the team to find out why velocity has dropped for three sprints in a row.\n- D. Move the launch two sprints later and rebuild the schedule.\n\n### Question 2 (Graphic-Based)\n\nBased on Table 2, which statement `BEST` describes the data migration work?\n\n- A. It is ahead of schedule and under budget.\n- B. It is behind schedule and over budget.\n- C. It is behind schedule but under budget.\n- D. It is on schedule but over budget.\n\n### Question 3\n\nDuring Sprint 6, the legal team reports that a new privacy regulation in Country B takes effect before the planned launch. Once it does, the sign-up screen must include a separate consent step. The Country B managing director says, \"The schedule comes first. Let's launch and fix it afterwards.\" What should the project manager do `NEXT`?\n\n- A. Launch as planned because the Country B managing director is influential, and handle the regulation after launch.\n- B. Stop the current sprint and tell the developers to build the consent feature first.\n- C. Hand the situation to the sponsor and wait for a decision.\n- D. Analyze the regulation's impact on scope and schedule with the legal team, and help the product owner reflect the required work in the backlog priorities.\n\n## Answers and Explanations\n\nTry the questions first, then scroll down.\n\n### Question 1: C\n\nTable 1 shows completed points falling three sprints in a row: 38, 35, 30, 24. Finishing the remaining 113 points in four sprints needs about 28 points per sprint (113 ÷ 4 ≈ 28), and recent velocity is 24. Without knowing the cause, you can't know which fix is right. The first step is to work out with the team what's dragging velocity down: impediments, unplanned work, technical debt or something else.\n\n- A ignores the team's actual velocity. The team decides how much to take into a sprint based on its own capacity.\n- B escalates without knowing the cause, and adding people doesn't raise velocity right away anyway.\n- D changes the schedule baseline without impact analysis or stakeholder agreement. That launch date is also a commitment the sponsor made to the executive team.\n\n### Question 2: B\n\n- SPI = EV ÷ PV = 450,000 ÷ 500,000 = 0.90. Below 1, so the work is behind schedule.\n- CPI = EV ÷ AC = 450,000 ÷ 520,000 ≈ 0.87. Below 1, so it's over budget.\n\nThe variances say the same thing: SV (EV − PV) is −$50,000 and CV (EV − AC) is −$70,000, both negative. On graphic-based questions, mistakes usually come from putting a number in the wrong place, not from the arithmetic. Remember that EV is the numerator in both SPI and CPI, and you're halfway there.\n\n### Question 3: D\n\nCompliance isn't negotiable. But jumping straight to telling developers what to build isn't the answer either. You first need to analyze exactly what the regulation requires and how it affects scope and schedule; that analysis decides the next move.\n\nThis is a hybrid project, so there are two paths. The consent screen built by the Scrum team goes into the backlog, prioritized by the product owner. If a baseline like the launch date has to change, it goes through the CCB's change control process. Share the analysis with the sponsor and the Country B managing director to reset expectations.\n\n- A accepts a regulatory breach because an influential stakeholder wants it, so it's wrong.\n- B bypasses the product owner and pushes work into a running sprint, and it skips the impact analysis.\n- C is passive escalation without the analysis the PM can do. Even if it goes to the sponsor, it should go with an impact analysis and options.\n\nIn Part 1 I called legal and safety issues exceptions that need immediate action. Here, though, the regulation isn't in force yet, so there's time to analyze its impact. That's why analyzing first and then acting through the agreed process is the right order.\n\n## A Time Plan for the New Exam\n\n180 questions in 240 minutes is about 1 minute 20 seconds per question. In blocks of 60, that's exactly 80 minutes.\n\n| Questions done | Exam time used (average pace) |\n|---|---|\n| 60 | About 80 minutes |\n| 120 | About 160 minutes |\n| 180 | 240 minutes |\n\nThat 80 means something to me. On the old exam, I spent about 80 minutes on the first 60 questions, and at the first break I worried I'd run out of time. With 230 minutes for 180 questions, the average back then was about 77 minutes per 60. On the new exam, the same 80 minutes is exactly average pace.\n\nHere's how I'd run the case-study section:\n\n- You can't know in advance how many questions it has, so manage the pace per question (about 1 minute 20 seconds) rather than by section.\n- Reading time naturally piles up on the first question of a scenario. You win it back on the next questions about the same scenario, so don't panic if the first one runs long.\n- Before you finish the section, sort out anything you want to revisit. Once you start the break, you can't come back.\n- The 10-minute break goes faster than you'd think. As I wrote in Part 2, I went slightly over 10 minutes on my first one.\n\n## Practice Resources\n\n- **PMI Study Hall:** The product page lists \"Case Studies\" among its contents and says it's built for the new exam launched on July 9, 2026. Essentials currently costs $59 per three months (renewing quarterly) and includes 2 full practice exams (180 questions each), 10 mini exams and 330 extra questions; Plus is $79 per quarter with 3 full exams. Members and non-members pay the same, and it's English only. I used the pre-change version, so I can't judge the new case studies myself. My Study Hall experience is in [PMP Pass Review Part 1](/en/posts/pmp-pass-review-part-1).\n- **The 2026 ECO PDF:** It includes example screens of case and graphic-based questions. It's free and the most accurate way to see the format.\n- **Make your own practice:** Even old-format questions work. Pick long scenario questions and read them with the four steps above. You can also ask GPT to write scenario-style practice questions, but always check its answers and explanations against official sources. How I used GPT and NotebookLM is in [Part 7](/en/posts/pmp-gpt-notebooklm-study).\n\n## Wrapping Up\n\nCase studies are a new format, but I think they ask the same old question: are you a PM who understands the situation first, works with the team and stakeholders, and follows the agreed process? With longer scenarios, whoever has decided their reading order in advance has the edge.\n\nIn Part 10, I compare the PMP, CAPM and PMI-ACP. It's for anyone who doesn't have enough experience yet, or who's curious about the agile certification.\n\n**Next:** [Part 10: PMP vs CAPM vs PMI-ACP](/en/posts/pmp-vs-capm-vs-pmi-acp)\n\n**Start from the beginning:** [PMP Pass Review Part 1](/en/posts/pmp-pass-review-part-1)\n\n\nYou don't need a separate word list. Collect the terms from your error-log cards tagged C, and you have a vocabulary list of your own.\n \n\n## The vocabulary list I put together\n\nThe list below collects the terms that actually helped me while I studied for the PMP. It is now a Word vocabulary book (105 term clusters, four languages) with the right move and the trap on every card, and the original 172-term PDF comes with it. You can see part of it in the preview below; it is $5.99 on Gumroad. The full introduction is in [PMP Master Vocabulary](/en/posts/pmp-kit-master-vocabulary). Everything above works without it, so pick it up only if it's useful to you.\n\n\n**In three lines**: I left Luton on a dawn easyJet flight and, **on the day I landed in Nice, went to the Mediterranean's pebble beach three times.** The next day, in the hilltop walled village of **Saint-Paul-de-Vence, I found Chagall's grave.** The best weather of the trip was in Nice. Next time I want to go for a swim.\n \n\n## The route in this post\n\n| Date | Where | In a line |\n| --- | --- | --- |\n| Apr 6, morning | London Luton Airport → Nice Côte d'Azur Airport | Dawn easyJet, mountains out the window |\n| Apr 6, daytime | Place Masséna → Promenade des Anglais → pebble beach → Notre-Dame de Nice | First meal, a piano on wheels, pigeons |\n| Apr 6, night | Seafront → Place Masséna | The blue chair, statues lit up |\n| Apr 7 | Saint-Paul-de-Vence | Ramparts, a terrace lunch, Chagall's grave, views from outside the village |\n\n---\n\n## April 6: a dawn easyJet, and an airport between the mountains\n\nDeparture was London Luton at 06:36. The sky was still bluish, more dawn than morning, when I climbed the easyJet stairs. Most of the photos after takeoff are of the orange engine cowling outside the window.\n\n\n Nice airport, 10:33. The mountains showed up before the sea did. \n \n\nAt 10:33 I photographed an AIR FRANCE jet through the window at Nice airport. It's a seaside city, so I looked for the sea, but what ended up in the frame was the line of mountains behind. Nice sits between the sea and the mountains.\n\n\n Orange walls, yellow arches, green shutters. \n \n\nThe 12:07 photo from the city center is a different color altogether. Orange walls, yellow arches, pale green shutters. Under the blue sky, it all works.\n\n## The first meal in a new country\n\nWhen I land in a new country, I never skip the first meal. First came a gold-rimmed GRIMBERGEN beer glass, then a red cast-iron pot.\n\n\n A hunk of meat on mashed potatoes. \n \n\nIt was mashed potatoes topped with a hunk of meat that looked as if it had been cooked on the bone. A heavy lunch for the day of a dawn flight.\n\n## Place Masséna: an afternoon on a checkerboard\n\n\n 14:03, Place Masséna. A bike taxi rolls across the checkerboard. \n \n\nAt 14:03 I was standing in **Place Masséna**. A CityTour bike taxi rolled across the black and white checkerboard paving. Even within one square, the walls aren't all the same color: one side is orange, the fountain side is redder.\n\n\n The white statue on the fountain, red buildings behind. \n \n\nA white statue stands on top of the fountain. I photographed it again that afternoon.\n\n## A pianist on the promenade, and the pebble beach\n\n\n A man playing a piano on wheels on the Promenade des Anglais. \n \n\nDown by the water at 14:10, on the **Promenade des Anglais**, a man was playing a piano near the BEAU RIVAGE sign. The piano had wheels. The poster propped in front advertised a concert on 14/04/2023.\n\n\n My first Mediterranean. A pigeon at the water's edge. \n \n\nAnd then, the Mediterranean. **Nice's beach is all pebbles, not sand.** The water gets deeper in color the further it is from shore. At the water's edge, bottom left, a pigeon.\n\nMy first thought looking at this sea was \"I want to get in there.\" That day I only took pictures. I still want to get in.\n\n## Back to Place Masséna, and Notre-Dame de Nice\n\n\n 16:08. A pigeon on top of the statue's head. \n \n\nAt 16:08 I was back in the square, photographing the fountain from behind. Zoom in and there's a pigeon sitting on top of the statue's head.\n\n\n The off-white facade and rose window of Notre-Dame de Nice. \n \n\nAt 16:25 I was in front of the **Basilica of Notre-Dame de Nice**, tipping my head right back to fit it all in. It's only a few blocks from the orange square, and the church is off-white.\n\n## The third beach visit, and a blue chair at night\n\n\n 19:19, the same beach for the third time. Heavy clouds had come down. \n \n\nAt 19:19, on my third visit, heavy clouds had come down over the beach, and most of the daytime turquoise was gone. The same sea, a different color depending on the sky.\n\n\n La chaise de SAB. Too high for anyone to sit on. \n \n\nComing out of dinner at 21:02, there was a huge blue chair on the seafront. The sign says La chaise de SAB. It leans at an angle and stands on a white plinth, too high for anyone to sit on.\n\n\n 21:10, Place Masséna. The figures on top of the poles glow pink and blue. \n \n\nWalking back at 21:10, Place Masséna looked nothing like it had in the afternoon. The figures sitting on top of the tall poles were lit up pink and blue. I hadn't even noticed them in my daytime photos.\n\n---\n\n## April 7: Saint-Paul-de-Vence, the walled village on the hill\n\nThe next day I went to **Saint-Paul-de-Vence**, just outside Nice. It's a walled village on a hill. I only saw the whole village once I'd left it.\n\n\n 11:50, a white chapel and a stone statue at the entrance. \n \n\nAt 11:50, at the entrance, there was a small white chapel with a stone statue in front of it. It's a round shape that looks like faces stacked on top of each other. The sky behind was dark, but the statue was in the sun.\n\n\n A few steps from the entrance, the valley opens up beyond the wall. \n \n\nA few steps from the entrance, the view opens up over the stone wall. The 11:59 photo fits the houses down the slope and the distant valley into a single frame. Blue sky came and went between the clouds.\n\n\n LES REMPARTS: French for \"the ramparts.\" \n \n\nAt 12:01, a metal plaque on an ivy-draped stone wall read LES REMPARTS, French for \"the ramparts.\" The old stone walls are still standing.\n\n## A slow lunch on a stone-walled terrace\n\n\n The valley starts right past the wall. \n \n\nLunch was on a stone-walled terrace. Chairs with pale blue cushions, and the valley right on the other side of the wall. On the 12:32 table: a glass bottle of evian and a pink water glass. The terrace photo from 12:13 and the view from 13:40 were taken around the same spot, so lunch was a slow one.\n\n\n 14:01. Big clouds behind me. \n \n\nAt 14:01 I sat on the stone wall in front of that view myself. Big clouds were spread out behind me.\n\n## Chagall's grave, covered in pebbles\n\n\n MARC CHAGALL 1887 1985. No railing, just heaps of pebbles. \n \n\nAt 14:06 I went to the cemetery at the edge of the village. Look closely at the low gravestone under the pebbles and you can read MARC CHAGALL 1887 1985, and below it VAVA CHAGALL 1905 1993. The painter **Marc Chagall** lived in this village from 1966 to 1985 and is buried in its cemetery.\n\nSmall stones left by visitors cover the slab, and there's a heart-shaped dish holding coins. No railing, just a pile of pebbles. It's a modest grave.\n\n\n 14:21, beside a round tower. Right outside the stone wall, the hillside drops away. \n \n\nAt 14:21, I looked down from beside a round tower on the ramparts. Right outside the rough stone wall is a hillside dotted with cypresses and houses.\n\n## To really see the village, you have to leave it\n\n\n 14:28. Saint-Paul-de-Vence on top of its hill. \n \n\nOn the way out, I looked back. At 14:28 the village sat on top of a distant hill, with the church tower in the middle. For the first time I could see the whole thing: houses stacked in layers on top of the ramparts. You can't see it like that from inside.\n\n\n 14:47. The hilltop village behind me. \n \n\nAt 14:47 I sat on a wooden fence with the village at my back and took one more. The blue sky came out, and dandelions were blooming at my feet.\n\n\n 15:06. The village between the cypresses. \n \n\nAt 15:06 the village shows small between the cypresses lined up along the road. Each tree leans a little differently. At the far right, a sliver of horizon.\n\n\n 16:00, the train platform. A cypress and palm trees across the tracks. \n \n\nThe 16:00 photo is a train platform. Behind the 2A sign stand a big cypress and some palm trees. The sky stayed blue to the end.\n\n---\n\n## Visitor information\n\n📍 **Place Masséna · Promenade des Anglais** · Nice, France\n\n- 🚶 **Getting around**: the beach is a short walk from Place Masséna. My photos have the square at 14:03 and the beach at 14:12, so pair them up.\n- 🌙 **Timing**: Place Masséna looks completely different by day and by night. If you can, go twice.\n- 🗺️ **Maps**: [Place Masséna](https://www.google.com/maps/search/?api=1&query=Place%20Mass%C3%A9na%20Nice), [Promenade des Anglais](https://www.google.com/maps/search/?api=1&query=Promenade%20des%20Anglais%20Nice), [Notre-Dame de Nice](https://www.google.com/maps/search/?api=1&query=Basilique%20Notre-Dame%20de%20Nice)\n\n📍 **Saint-Paul-de-Vence** · Saint-Paul-de-Vence, France\n\n- 🪦 **Chagall's grave**: in the cemetery at the far end of the village. The slab is so covered in stones that you have to get close to read the names.\n- 🍽️ **Lunch**: look for the stone-walled terraces. The valley view starts right past your table.\n- 🗺️ **Maps**: [Saint-Paul-de-Vence](https://www.google.com/maps/search/?api=1&query=Saint-Paul-de-Vence), [Saint-Paul-de-Vence cemetery](https://www.google.com/maps/search/?api=1&query=Cimeti%C3%A8re%20de%20Saint-Paul-de-Vence)\n\n## How to get lost a little less\n\n- 🪨 **Nice's beach is pebbles, not sand.** Know that going in if you plan to walk barefoot or lie down.\n- 📸 **You see Saint-Paul-de-Vence as a whole from outside it.** Build the views from the road out into your plan.\n- ⏳ **Give Saint-Paul-de-Vence time.** There are so many viewpoints on the walls and along the road that you'll stop more often than you expect.\n- 🗓️ **Staying three days or more in Nice? Give one to Saint-Paul-de-Vence.** It's close enough to do in half a day.\n\n\nThis is a record of an April 2023 visit. I rechecked when Chagall lived in Saint-Paul-de-Vence and where the cemetery is against local tourist information while writing, but practical details can change, so check once more before you go.\n \n\n## Jayden's verdict\n\n> The best weather of the whole trip was in Nice. Next time I'm going to swim, not just take pictures.\n\n- **Nice**: from anywhere in town, the sea is a few blocks away.\n- **Saint-Paul-de-Vence**: the lanes inside and the views outside, good twice over.\n- **Would I go back?**: Yes. Next time I want to swim in the sea at Nice.\n- **Tip**: Nice's beach is pebbles. In Saint-Paul-de-Vence, look back at the village on your way out.\n\n---\n\nNext up, I cross the border into Italy: Milan's Duomo and San Siro. Italy was the best country of this trip.\n\n**19 Days After Quitting series**\n\n1. [The UK, part 1: via Dubai, back to my Bournemouth homestay](/en/posts/europe-travel-01-bournemouth-homestay-dubai)\n2. [The UK, part 2: a day in London, from Big Ben to a Soho pub](/en/posts/europe-travel-02-london-big-ben-soho)\n3. **France: Nice and Saint-Paul-de-Vence** (you are here)\n4. [Italy, part 1: Milan's Duomo and San Siro](/en/posts/europe-travel-04-milan-duomo-san-siro)\n5. [Italy, part 2: Venice, San Giorgio and Burano](/en/posts/europe-travel-05-venice-san-giorgio-burano)\n6. [Italy, part 3: Florence, Pompeii and Positano](/en/posts/europe-travel-06-florence-pompeii-positano)\n7. [Egypt: Escaping the rain to Sharm El Sheikh](/en/posts/europe-travel-07-sharm-el-sheikh-egypt)\n8. [Rome again: Italian food and the way home](/en/posts/europe-travel-08-rome-italian-food-going-home)\n"},{"slug":"pmp-gpt-notebooklm-study","title":"GPT for Concepts, NotebookLM Audio for the Commute: My PMP AI Study Routine","description":"How I used a ChatGPT project to re-check concepts and a 155-source NotebookLM notebook to make audio reviews for my commute, with prompts and setup steps.","topic":"work","tags":["PMP","PMP Study Tips","ChatGPT","NotebookLM","AI for Studying"],"publishedAt":"2026-09-19T09:00:00+09:00","updatedAt":"2026-09-19T09:00:00+09:00","growthStage":"maintained","version":"1.0","revisions":[{"version":"1.0","date":"2026-09-19","summary":"ChatGPT and NotebookLM study routine with prompts and audio setup.","changes":["ChatGPT project chats, recommended prompts and verification caveats","NotebookLM notebook, Korean audio overviews and setup steps"]}],"relationships":[{"type":"continues","slug":"pmp-error-log-method"}],"content":"\nSay \"I used AI to study for the PMP\" and people tend to picture an AI answering the questions for you. Mine was close to the opposite. I asked GPT whether my understanding was right, not what the answer was, and I turned NotebookLM into audio lessons I listened to on my commute.\n\n**In three lines** — I kept my ChatGPT chats in one project, \"PMP 시험공부\" (PMP exam study), and used them to diagnose my prep, clean up my error log and make sense of Study Hall results. In NotebookLM (now called Gemini Notebook) I collected 155 sources, generated 12- to 24-minute audio reviews in Korean and listened to them on my commute. AI can be wrong with total confidence, so my final reference was always the ECO, the PMBOK Guide and the Study Hall explanations.\n\n## My AI study loop at a glance\n\nIn [Part 1](/en/posts/pmp-pass-review-part-1) I briefly listed what I used GPT and NotebookLM for. This time I'll go a level deeper, with real screenshots. First, the whole loop:\n\n> Study Hall → wrong answers → GPT to explain and verify → error log → new sources in NotebookLM → audio on the commute\n\n1. Do questions in **Study Hall** and pull out the misses and the lucky guesses.\n2. Ask **GPT** to explain the concepts and options that tripped me up, and check whether my understanding holds.\n3. Write what I confirmed into my **error log** as a cause tag and an \"If ___, first ___\" rule. How to keep one is in [Part 6](/en/posts/pmp-error-log-method).\n4. Add the cleaned-up notes and reference material to my **NotebookLM** notebook as sources.\n5. Generate an **Audio Overview** per topic and listen on the commute.\n\nGPT was for checking my understanding. NotebookLM turned travel time into review time.\n\n## ChatGPT: one project for everything PMP\n\nInstead of scattering PMP chats across my history, I kept them in one ChatGPT project called \"PMP 시험공부.\" With a project, everything PMP sits in one place, so finding an old conversation is easy.\n\n\n\n*The chat list in my ChatGPT project \"PMP 시험공부.\" Three private items (two chats and another project) are pixelated.*\n\nThe chat titles alone show what I used it for:\n\n| Chat (Korean title) | What it was for |\n|---|---|\n| PMP 시험 준비 상황 (where my prep stands) | Checking how far along I was |\n| PMP 시험 준비 진단 (prep diagnosis) | Diagnosing my prep (\"Do I memorize the PMP Mindset?\") |\n| 오답노트 (정리) (error log cleanup) | Sorting misses by cause and tidying up rules |\n| 첫 Study Hall 분석 (first Study Hall analysis) | Going over my first Study Hall results |\n| Percentile Rank 해석 (reading Percentile Rank) | Understanding Study Hall's Percentile Rank |\n\nStudy Hall's Percentile Rank is your position relative to everyone else using the same Study Hall product. My scores made me nervous every time I checked them, so I asked separately what that number actually meant.\n\nThe prep-diagnosis chat still shows me wondering whether I had to memorize the Mindset. My answer is the one I gave in Part 1: the Mindset isn't a formula you apply blindly. It's a judgment order you use while knowing the exceptions, like ethics, legal, safety and urgent risks.\n\nHow I used GPT is also what I described in Part 1: to check my understanding, not to pick answers for me. Pasting in a Study Hall question and just looking at the AI's pick is something I don't recommend, as I said in Part 1 and [Part 2](/en/posts/pmp-pass-review-part-2).\n\n## What to ask GPT\n\nThe prompts below aren't copied from my chats. They're rewritten as what I'd recommend asking if you use GPT for the PMP, grouped into four uses that don't repeat the example in Part 1.\n\n### 1. Explain a concept in your own words first, and ask only for the gaps\n\nIf you get a full explanation handed to you, you read it and that's it. If you explain first and only get your mistakes pointed out, those gaps become the C (Concept) tags in your error log.\n\n```text\nLet me explain \"Validate Scope\" in my own words:\n\"The customer or sponsor formally accepting deliverables that have already been verified in Control Quality.\"\nPoint out only what's wrong or missing. Don't rewrite the explanation for me.\n```\n\n### 2. Ask it to compare the right answer with the runner-up\n\nThe hard part of the PMP is the gap between the right answer and a plausible second-best. Rather than pasting a whole question, sum up the situation in one line and ask about just the two options you were torn between. Writing the summary is half the review already.\n\n```text\nSituation: two developers on an agile team keep clashing over a technical approach. What does the PM do first?\nOption 1: Report it to the functional manager and ask for a decision.\nOption 2: Bring both together and help them reach an agreement.\nBoth are things a PM might do. If the question asks what to do FIRST, which comes first from PMI's point of view,\nand under what conditions would the other one be the right answer?\n```\n\n### 3. Ask for counter-examples that break your rule\n\nA rule gets sturdy once you know its exceptions. Trust \"conflict means talk first\" too much and you'll pick a conversation even when the situation calls for immediate action.\n\n```text\nMy error-log rule: \"If the team is in conflict, first help the people involved talk it through.\"\nGive me three situations where applying this rule as-is would be wrong.\nInclude cases that need immediate action, like an ethics violation or a safety issue.\n```\n\n### 4. Ask it to quiz you on your own rules\n\nPaste in the \"Read the night before: my 10 rules\" list from the Part 6 template. The point is to make yourself state your reasoning before you see the answer.\n\n```text\nBelow are my 10 error-log rules. Write one situational question for each.\nFour options, all plausible. When I answer, don't grade it right away:\nfirst ask me why I picked it, then grade it.\n```\n\n\nAI says wrong things with total confidence. The PMBOK Guide is organized differently from edition to edition (the 7th has 12 principles, the 8th has 6), so you may get explanations that mix them up. When GPT disagrees with a Study Hall explanation, go back to the Study Hall explanation, the [ECO](https://www.pmi.org/-/media/pmi/documents/public/pdf/certifications/new-pmp-examination-content-outline-2026.pdf) and the [PMBOK Guide](https://www.pmi.org/standards/pmbok).\n \n\n## NotebookLM: a notebook filled to the source limit\n\nFirst, the name. On July 16, 2026, NotebookLM was renamed Gemini Notebook. Same product. It was still NotebookLM when I was studying, so that's what I'll call it here. The disclaimer at the bottom of my screenshot already shows the new name.\n\n\n\n*My NotebookLM notebook, created June 8, 2026. Top left: the notice that it has hit the source limit. Right: the Studio panel with my Korean audio overviews. The disclaimer at the bottom already says Gemini Notebook.*\n\nAlongside my own notes, the sources include:\n\n- Exam-prep threads from Reddit's r/PMP\n- The YouTube video \"ALL the A.I. in the New PMBOK 8th Edition\"\n- Guides on telling agile questions from predictive ones\n\nThe more sources you add, the harder it is to tell what the AI is basing its answer on. Treat what comes from Reddit threads or YouTube videos as background, and keep official material and the Study Hall explanations as your yardstick.\n\n## The Korean deep dives I listened to on my commute\n\nThe heart of the notebook was the Audio Overview in the Studio panel. It turns your sources into a podcast-style episode; in the default Deep Dive format, two AI hosts talk it through. I made Korean Deep Dives by topic and listened to them on my commute.\n\n\n\n*The audio list in the Studio panel. Almost all are Korean Deep Dives, running from 12:27 to 23:34.*\n\n| Episode title (Korean) | Roughly | Length |\n|---|---|---|\n| 실무 본능이 PMP 사람 영역에서 오답인 이유 | Why your on-the-job instincts are wrong answers in the People domain | 17:57 |\n| PMP 규정 준수 문제 정답 패턴 정리 | Answer patterns for PMP compliance questions | 12:27 |\n| 프로젝트의 명확한 울타리를 치는 범위 관리 | Scope management: putting a clear fence around the project | 21:57 |\n| PMP 일정 관리 정답은 크리티컬 패스에 있다 | In PMP schedule questions, the answer is in the critical path | 23:18 |\n| PMP 리스크와 조달 정답 판단 공식 | A formula for PMP risk and procurement answers | 14:44 |\n| 경력직 PM도 틀리는 PMP 정답 논리 | The answer logic even experienced PMs get wrong | 20:32 |\n| PMP 애자일 하이브리드 정답 마인드셋 공식 | The mindset formula for agile and hybrid answers | 20:30 |\n| 현업 PM도 틀리는 PMP 변경관리 함정 | The change-management traps working PMs fall into | 23:34 |\n| 버그 없는 프로젝트가 인수를 거절당한 이유 | Why a bug-free project was rejected at acceptance | 23:05 |\n\nThe titles have something in common. \"Answer patterns,\" \"formula,\" \"traps\": they all dig into places where what's right at work is wrong on the exam. Definitions are faster to read with your eyes, but judgment logic, the \"why does this come first,\" works well as a story you listen to.\n\nWith People at Below Target on my result sheet, \"Why your on-the-job instincts are wrong answers in the People domain\" stings a little just from the title. And \"Why a bug-free project was rejected at acceptance\" brings to mind the difference between verify and validate. I break that pair down in [Part 8](/en/posts/pmp-commute-study-vocabulary).\n\n## How to set up an Audio Overview\n\nHere's how it works according to Google's help page:\n\n1. Open a notebook and add your sources.\n2. In the Studio panel, choose Audio Overview.\n3. In the customization options, pick the format, language and length, and write a prompt for what to focus on.\n\n| Setting | Options | Good to know |\n|---|---|---|\n| Format | Deep Dive (default), Brief, Critique, Debate | Deep Dive is two hosts in conversation; Brief is one speaker, under two minutes |\n| Language | 80+ languages | Korean included |\n| Length | Shorter, Default, Longer | Longer is English only |\n| Focus prompt | Free text | Set the topics to cover or the level of expertise |\n\nThere's also an interactive mode where you can jump into the hosts' conversation and ask questions, but for now it only works in English.\n\nHere's the kind of focus prompt I'd write. The key is one topic per episode; my own list splits into scope, schedule, risk and procurement, change management, and agile and hybrid.\n\n```text\nThis is for a candidate preparing for situational questions on the PMP exam.\nFocus on change management: where everyday work habits and PMI's answer part ways.\nExplain \"in this situation, what do you do first?\" with examples,\nand compare how the first action differs in predictive and agile projects.\n```\n\n\nAudio Overviews are AI-generated, so they can contain mistakes. Google's help page says so, and the line under my notebook reads, in Korean, \"Gemini Notebook can make mistakes, so double-check it.\" When something you hear sounds off, jot it down and check it against official material.\n \n\n## Wrapping up\n\nAI didn't study for me. What it did was give me more time and more places to study. GPT checked my understanding, and audio let me hear the same topics again while I was on the move.\n\nIn the next post, I'll cover how I used that commute, and why terminology deserves its own attention, especially if you take the exam in a translated language. I'll also share the vocabulary list I put together.\n\n**Next:** [PMP Study on Your Commute: Short, Frequent Sessions (+ My PMP Vocabulary List)](/en/posts/pmp-commute-study-vocabulary)\n\n**Previous:** [PMP Error Log: 6 Steps to Turn Wrong Answers into Judgment Rules](/en/posts/pmp-error-log-method)\n\n\nYou can get the template free [below](#template), in Korean, English, Spanish or Japanese.\n \n\n## A PMP error log fixes judgment, not memory\n\nMost PMP questions don't test what you know. They drop you into a project situation and ask what the project manager should do first, or next.\n\nHere's the catch: most of the options aren't wrong. Reporting up, calling a meeting, updating the plan: at work you'd do all of them at some point. What separates the right answer from the rest is **order and priority**, not knowledge.\n\nThat's why the classic error log, where you copy the question and the answer, doesn't do much for the PMP. As I wrote in [Part 1](/en/posts/pmp-pass-review-part-1), when I memorized answer sentences, I got the question wrong again as soon as a few words changed. What you want to keep isn't the question. It's a rule: \"Next time I'm in a situation like this, what do I do first?\"\n\nMy Study Hall full mocks came in at 66% and 65%, and my overall average was about 62%. High-score pass stories made me nervous every time I read one. What I trusted more than the score was a different signal: I was missing fewer questions for the same reason. The error log is what let me actually see it.\n\n## Six steps from a wrong answer to a judgment rule\n\nThe method is the six lines on the first page of the template. Each error card has room for a one-line situation, my answer and the correct one, why the correct one is the best, the trap I fell into, cause tags, a rule for next time, and review boxes.\n\n\n\n*Pages 1 and 2 of the template: how to use it and the cause tags on the left, the worked example and \"Good rules, bad rules\" on the right.*\n\n### Step 1: Log every miss, and every lucky guess\n\nIf you only log the questions you got wrong, you miss half the picture. If you picked between two options on a hunch and it happened to be right, that's a miss that got lucky. Nothing guarantees the luck shows up again on exam day.\n\nSo every card has a confidence box: Sure, Unsure or Guessed. If you got it right but were unsure or guessed, it goes in the log. You don't need to log the ones you knew cold, though. That time is better spent taking another look at your misses.\n\n### Step 2: Don't copy the question. Sum up the situation in one line\n\nCopying a whole question takes forever, and you end up memorizing sentences. Instead, boil it down to who, what's happening, and what's being asked.\n\n> Two devs on an agile team keep clashing over a technical approach; stand-ups have turned tense. What does the PM do first?\n\nSqueezing it into one line forces you to find the core, so writing the summary is already review. Tick the domain (People, Process, Business Environment) and the approach (predictive, agile, hybrid) as well. After a few weeks, patterns pop out, like \"I keep missing People questions set in agile teams.\"\n\nOn the new exam, Business Environment went from 8% to 26% of the questions, so don't skip the domain box. I covered what changed in [Part 5: Everything that changed in the 2026 PMP exam](/en/posts/pmp-2026-exam-changes-pmbok-8).\n\n### Step 3: Write your answer, the correct one, and why it's the BEST\n\nPut your answer and the correct answer side by side, then fill in the box that matters most. Not \"why is this correct?\" but \"why is this the **best**?\"\n\nOn the PMP, the answer you picked is usually a reasonable thing to do. So you need to be able to explain, in a sentence or two and from PMI's point of view, why this answer comes first and yours doesn't. If you can't, you haven't really got it yet.\n\nRight below that, write why yours was wrong: the trap you fell into. Keep it short, like \"escalated too early\" or \"missed the word FIRST.\"\n\n### Step 4: Tag the cause with C·R·M·S·A·T\n\nOnce you sort the causes, your score stops being a report card and becomes a prescription. The template uses six tags.\n\n| Tag | When | How to fix it |\n|---|---|---|\n| C Concept | You didn't know the term or process | Define it in one line, in your own words, with one example |\n| R Misread | You missed a condition like FIRST, NEXT, BEST or EXCEPT | Read the last sentence of the question first |\n| M Mindset | You understood the situation but not PMI's priority | Ask: \"What would PMI do first?\" |\n| S Sequence | Right action, wrong order (assess → plan → act) | Separate what comes first from what comes next |\n| A Approach | You mixed up the agile, predictive and hybrid context | Mark the clues: sprint, backlog, change control |\n| T Time | You ran out of time and guessed | Track your average time per question |\n\nOne question can get more than one tag. The worked example below has both M and R.\n\nWhen I reread the mistake lists in Part 1 and [Part 2](/en/posts/pmp-pass-review-part-2), almost every item fits one of these six boxes. Handing things straight to the sponsor: M. Not telling FIRST from NEXT: R. Acting before analyzing a change's impact: S. Mixing up predictive and agile situations: A. And spending about 80 minutes on the first 60 questions on exam day was a T warning.\n\n### Step 5: Turn it into a rule: \"If ___, first ___.\"\n\nThis one line is what the whole log produces. Every other box on the card is raw material for it.\n\nA rule has to come back to you within three seconds in the exam room. Two habits make that happen:\n\n- Make the situation specific: \"team members in conflict,\" not just \"conflict.\"\n- Name exactly one first action.\n\nWrite every rule in that same \"If ___, first ___\" shape and both habits take care of themselves.\n\n### Step 6: Review on day 1, 7 and 21, and count your tags weekly\n\nA log you never reopen turns into a drawer full of paper. Every card has three review boxes: Day 1, Day 7 and Day 21. The next day, a week later and three weeks later, look only at the situation line, make the call again, then tick \"Got it\" or \"Missed again.\" Spacing reviews out like this sticks far better than cramming them into one sitting.\n\nOnce a week, count the tags you used. The template's weekly review sheet has columns for questions solved, wrong answers, accuracy, a count for each of C·R·M·S·A·T, and \"Focus next week.\" The biggest number is next week's homework. Lots of M? Go back over the mindset. Lots of R? Practice reading the last sentence first. Lots of T? Do timed sets.\n\nAs the exam gets close, fill in \"Rules I keep breaking — top 3\" and \"Read the night before: my 10 rules.\" As I wrote in Part 2, from two days before the exam I went over my error log instead of doing new questions. At that point, what you need isn't the whole stack of cards. It's that short list.\n\n## Worked example: a team conflict where \"report it\" looks right\n\nHere's the worked example from page 2 of the template, box by box. It isn't a real exam question; it's built from a pattern that comes up a lot.\n\n| Box | What's written |\n|---|---|\n| Source · Domain · Approach | Mock exam · People · Agile |\n| The situation in one line | Two developers on an agile team keep clashing over a technical approach, and the daily stand-up has turned tense. What should the project manager do first? |\n| My answer | B. Report it to the functional manager and ask for a decision |\n| Correct answer | C. Bring both developers together, hear each side, and help them reach an agreement |\n| Confidence | Unsure |\n| Why the correct answer is the BEST | Conflict is handled first between the people involved, through collaboration and problem-solving. In a self-organizing team the PM facilitates the conversation as a servant leader instead of making the call. |\n| Why mine was wrong (the trap) | Escalation is the last resort, for when the team can't solve it. I missed the word FIRST. |\n| Cause | M Mindset, R Misread |\n| My rule for next time | If the team is in conflict, first help the people involved talk it through. Escalate last. |\n| Review | Day 1 done |\n\nB is tempting because at work it looks like the responsible move. Two people are butting heads, so you tell someone above you and get a decision. Fast and safe. But on the PMP, the project manager is the person who helps the team solve its own problems. Pushing something upward that the team could have handled is the wrong answer.\n\nThat doesn't mean escalation is always wrong. If talking it through fails, you can take it up a level. That's why the rule ends with \"Escalate last.\" That little tail keeps you from memorizing \"escalation is always wrong.\"\n\nThis pattern was on my own mistake list in Part 1. Given that People came back Below Target on my result sheet, I think it stayed homework right to the end.\n\n## Good rules, bad rules\n\nFirst rules tend to come out like New Year's resolutions: \"Be careful with conflict.\" Not wrong, but in the exam room that sentence tells you nothing. Careful about what? And what do you do first?\n\n| Bad rule | Good rule |\n|---|---|\n| Be careful with conflict | If the team is in conflict, first help the people involved talk it through. |\n| Review change management | In a predictive project, when a scope change comes in, first analyze the impact, then submit a change request. |\n| Don't mix up agile | If a new request arrives mid-sprint, first have the product owner prioritize it in the backlog. |\n| Be thorough with risks | When an identified risk occurs, first carry out the planned risk response. |\n\nGood rules share three things: a specific situation, a single first action, and short enough to recall in three seconds.\n\nThe last page of the template lists 12 judgment patterns that come up again and again on the exam, one line each. A few of them:\n\n- When something goes wrong, assess and analyze first. Don't jump straight to reporting or acting.\n- In predictive projects, scope, schedule and cost changes go through integrated change control.\n- In agile, the product owner prioritizes the backlog.\n- Quality comes from prevention, not inspection.\n- For a team member's performance problem, talk one-on-one and find the cause first.\n\nIt isn't a list to memorize. Put it next to your own rules and check which line each of your rules is a more specific version of. As I said in Part 1, some situations call for immediate action, like ethics, legal, safety and urgent risks.\n\n## A separate \"error log\" chat in ChatGPT\n\nI used ChatGPT on my error log, too. Inside a ChatGPT project called \"PMP 시험공부\" (PMP exam study), I kept a separate chat named \"오답노트 (정리)\", which is roughly \"error log (cleanup).\"\n\n\n\n*The chat list in my ChatGPT project \"PMP 시험공부.\" Three private items are pixelated.*\n\nI had GPT sort my mistakes by cause, and I'd walk it through my reasoning and ask it to point out the assumptions I'd skipped. The final rule, though, I always wrote in my own words. That's the version that comes back to you in the exam room.\n\nWhat to ask GPT, and how, is in [Part 7](/en/posts/pmp-gpt-notebooklm-study), with example prompts.\n\n## The free PMP error log template (Word)\n\nI put everything in this post into a Word file. It's 9 pages:\n\n- Page 1: the six steps and the cause tags (C·R·M·S·A·T)\n- Page 2: the worked example, plus good rules vs. bad rules\n- Pages 3–7: 10 blank error cards\n- Page 8: the weekly review sheet, \"Rules I keep breaking — top 3\" and \"Read the night before: my 10 rules\"\n- Page 9: 12 one-line PMP mindset rules\n\nIt comes in Korean, English, Spanish and Japanese, and you pick the file language when you request it. Leave your email below and agree to the newsletter, and I'll email you the download link.\n\n\n**In three lines**: On April 5, I walked **The Laughing Halibut fish and chip shop → St James's Park → Big Ben and Parliament** by day. In the evening: **Outernet London, Chinatown and Soho.** It ended with **a lager at a Samuel Smith's pub**, with a label on the glass.\n \n\n## The route in this post\n\n| Time | Where | In a line |\n| --- | --- | --- |\n| 12:01–12:30 | Red phone boxes → The Laughing Halibut | Three phone boxes, a laughing halibut |\n| 13:22–15:28 | St James's Park | A Jack and Coke can, Buckingham Palace, a napping swan, blossom |\n| 15:33–16:17 | Big Ben → Parliament Square → across the Thames | The English Tea Bus, Churchill, 3:52 |\n| 17:10–19:06 | Outernet London → dinner → Chinatown → Palace Theatre | An LED room, New Year and Ramadan greetings |\n| 21:15–22:12 | The White Horse, Soho | Taddy Lager with its own label |\n\n---\n\n## 12:01: Three red phone boxes\n\n\n Three red phone boxes with crowns, beside a white building. \n \n\nAt 12:01, next to a white building, stood **three** red phone boxes with crowns on top, in a row. I'd have photographed one. There were three.\n\n\n The Laughing Halibut. \n \n\nAt 12:30 I stopped again, this time for a sign: **THE LAUGHING HALIBUT.** Underneath, it says \"THE BEST TRADITIONAL BRITISH FISH & CHIPS.\"\n\n\n Under the yellow menu board, a handwritten \"Cheesy Chips £5.50\". \n \n\nInside, the first thing I photographed was the yellow menu board. As of April 2023: **cod £9.00 / £10.50, haddock £9.50 / £10.50.** Taped underneath, handwritten: **Cheesy Chips £5.50.**\n\n---\n\n## St James's Park: a can, a palace, a swan and blossom\n\n\n A Jack and Coke can on the grass in St James's Park, blossom blurred behind. \n \n\nAt 1:22 p.m., on the grass in St James's Park, I took a photo of the can in my hand. **Jack Daniel's and Coca-Cola, in one can.** On the plane I'd mixed my own; in London it came ready-made. Cherry blossom blurs behind it.\n\n\n From the bridge over the lake, Buckingham Palace sits straight ahead at the end of the water. \n \n\nWhen I photographed the lake again later, the sky had clouded over, but it was still worth it. White daffodils lined the banks, and beyond the willows, Buckingham Palace and a gilded statue appeared small in the distance. From **the bridge over the lake**, the palace sits straight ahead at the end of the water.\n\n\n A swan asleep on the gravel by the lake, a pigeon beside it. \n \n\nOn the gravel by the lake, a **swan** slept with its head tucked into its back. Next to it, a pigeon.\n\n\n 3:28, a pale pink cherry tree alone on the lawn. \n \n\nAt 3:28 I photographed a pale pink cherry tree standing alone on the lawn. Petals had started to fall, and people were sitting on the benches. In early April, the cherry trees in London were in bloom.\n\n---\n\n## 3:33 p.m.: Big Ben\n\n\n A red phone box in front, Big Ben at the end of the street. \n \n\nFive minutes after the cherry tree, at 3:33, Big Ben came into view. Phone box in front, clock tower behind: everyone takes this shot, and so did I. The \"TELEPHONE\" lettering and the crown came out big enough to almost hide Big Ben.\n\n\n THE ENGLISH TEA BUS, in pink, passing Big Ben. \n \n\nThree minutes later, a pink double-decker drove past the square: **THE ENGLISH TEA BUS.** Beside it, a silver taxi. Scenes like this are why I love the UK.\n\n\n The Churchill statue, from below. \n \n\n**Parliament Square** had metal fencing around the lawn, so you couldn't go in and sit down. Statues stand around the edge of the square facing Parliament. The one I shot from below has **CHURCHILL** carved into its plinth. In a long coat, leaning on a stick, he suited the grey sky.\n\n\n The clock tower said 3:52. So did my phone. \n \n\nI got one of myself in front of Big Ben too. The clock reads 3:52, and a red number 148 double-decker passes behind me. Checking the photo's timestamp later, my phone said **3:52** as well.\n\n\n A muddy-brown Thames and an ochre Parliament. \n \n\nTowards the bridge, you see Parliament's river front. I caught the moment the sun hung right above a spire through the clouds. The Thames is muddy brown; the building is ochre.\n\n\n 4:17, across the river. The spot where all of Parliament and Big Ben fit in one frame. \n \n\nThe last daytime photo: 4:17, from across the river, where the whole of Parliament and Big Ben fit into one frame. The finger of whoever took it crept into the bottom right. In the photo I'm grinning. **The grey sky was no problem at all.**\n\n---\n\n## 5:10 p.m.: Outernet London\n\n\n \"THE SPACES IN-BETWEEN\" at Outernet London. Walls and ceiling are all LED screens. \n \n\nThe evening began at 5:10 p.m. at **Outernet London.** The walls and ceiling are all LED screens, and inside a piece called \"THE SPACES IN-BETWEEN,\" shards of red and purple light burst in every direction. Even the photo I took looking up makes me dizzy.\n\n\n Yellow sauce, flatbread and sesame-coated fried chicken. \n \n\n5:41 p.m., dinner. A yellow sauce dish in an earthenware bowl sprinkled with green herbs, a heap of flatbread strips, and glossy fried chicken coated in sesame. Bread for dipping in the sauce.\n\n## A New Year greeting in April, and a Ramadan one\n\nAt 6:49 I came out at a crossroads to find a dragon ornament hanging off the corner of a London brick building. Beneath it, \"KUNG FU NOODLE\"; across the road, \"LEON.\" Further down the street, red lanterns were strung in rows.\n\n\n \"KUNG HEI FAT CHOY\" under the red lanterns. It was April. \n \n\nThe lantern street has so many lanterns that the sky barely shows. The gate read \"**KUNG HEI FAT CHOY**\" and \"**新春快樂**,\" Lunar New Year greetings. It was April, and the New Year greetings were still up.\n\n\n Red brick, glass, green tiles. \n \n\nAt the other end, a **green-tiled gate** is wedged between a red-brick building and an all-glass one.\n\n\n \"Happy Ramadan\" lights next to a SHAKE SHACK, with a tour bus ticket booth below. \n \n\nA few minutes later, **\"Happy Ramadan\"** lights hung across the sky. Crescent moons and stars, the green neon of a SHAKE SHACK burger sign, and below, a tour bus booth with \"Buy Your Tickets Here!\" I saw a New Year greeting and a Ramadan greeting on the same evening.\n\n\n Blurry, but I kept it. On the side of the bus: TRAVEL IS BACK. \n \n\nBy now the pavement was wet and umbrellas had appeared. Lit-up brick buildings reflected on the wet ground, and my photos came out shaky. The passing red bus was blurry too, but I kept it. The advert on its side read **\"TRAVEL IS BACK.\"** It was spring 2023, and I had just left my job.\n\n\n The Palace Theatre, glowing red under the lights. On the marquee: Harry Potter. \n \n\nAt 7:06, the thing glowing reddest in the grey evening was **the Palace Theatre.** Lights washed up its brick front, and over the entrance hung \"Harry Potter AND THE CURSED CHILD.\" Crowds with umbrellas stood outside, and I took the photo from across the road.\n\n---\n\n## 9:15 p.m.: The White Horse, Soho\n\n\n A label on the glass itself: INSIST ON SEEING THE LABEL. \n \n\nAt 9:15 p.m., at **The White Horse**, a pub in Soho, I got a **Samuel Smith's Taddy Lager.** The glass has its own label, and on it: \"INSIST ON SEEING THE LABEL.\" The 4.5% VOL. is printed on the glass too.\n\nWhen I went to the bar and photographed the taps, every one next to the brass handles, Double Four Lager and Pure Brewed Organic Lager included, carried the Samuel Smith name. **Every beer in this pub is Samuel Smith's.**\n\n\n 10:12 p.m. Upside-down bottles, a gold ceiling, a dark wooden bar. \n \n\nThe last photo, at 10:12, shows the inside of the pub. Bottles hanging upside down, a gold ceiling, a dark wooden bar. At the bar, a customer in a flat cap and checked scarf. A \"TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD\" poster reflects through the window, and an \"ARCHER STREET W1\" sign hangs on the wall. A pub in the middle of theatreland.\n\nThe day started with three phone boxes and ended with a labelled lager. With this glass, the UK part of the trip was over.\n\n---\n\n## Visitor info\n\n📍 **St James's Park → Big Ben → Parliament Square** · Westminster, London\n\n- 🚶 **Route**: they're close on the map, so they're easy to do as one walk. Going by my photo timestamps, my first Big Ben shot was five minutes after the cherry tree in the park.\n- 📸 **Do Big Ben twice**: once from the square, once from across the Thames. You only get the whole of Parliament in one frame from across the river.\n- 🏰 **Buckingham Palace head-on**: from the bridge over the lake in St James's Park.\n- 🗺️ **Maps**: [St James's Park](https://www.google.com/maps/search/?api=1&query=St%20James%27s%20Park%20London), [Big Ben](https://www.google.com/maps/search/?api=1&query=Big%20Ben%20London)\n\n📍 **Soho and Chinatown** · West End, London\n\n- 🐟 **The Laughing Halibut**: prices above are from my April 2023 photo. [Google Maps](https://www.google.com/maps/search/?api=1&query=The%20Laughing%20Halibut%20London)\n- 💡 **Outernet London**: the artworks change over time. [Google Maps](https://www.google.com/maps/search/?api=1&query=Outernet%20London)\n- 🏮 **Chinatown gate**: photos from the gate end and the far end look completely different. Walk both ends.\n- 🍺 **The White Horse (a Samuel Smith's pub)**: every tap is from this one brewery, so just choose between lager and stout. [Google Maps](https://www.google.com/maps/search/?api=1&query=The%20White%20Horse%20Archer%20Street%20Soho)\n\n## How to get lost a little less\n\n- ⏱️ **Only one day in London? Westminster by day, Soho by night.** It all connects on foot and fits a day perfectly.\n- 🌧️ **On the day I went, the sky clouded over in the afternoon and the pavements were wet by evening.** Pack a folding umbrella in London.\n- 🌸 **In early April, St James's Park was full of cherry blossom and daffodils.** Give the park plenty of time.\n\n\nThis is a record of an April 2023 visit. Menu prices, the artworks at Outernet and how the pubs operate may have changed since, so check official information before you go.\n \n\n## Jayden's verdict\n\n> The sky was grey, and it didn't matter. A full day in the country I love.\n\n- **St James's Park**: a palace, swans and blossom, for free.\n- **Big Ben and Parliament**: see them once more from across the river.\n- **A night in Soho**: New Year greetings, Ramadan greetings and a labelled lager.\n- **Tip**: with one day, do Westminster by day and Soho by night. It all connects on foot.\n\n---\n\nNext up is Nice in the south of France, the city with the best weather of the whole trip.\n\n**19 Days After Quitting series**\n\n1. [The UK, part 1: via Dubai, back to my Bournemouth homestay](/en/posts/europe-travel-01-bournemouth-homestay-dubai)\n2. **UK, part 2: A day in London, from Big Ben to a Soho pub** (you are here)\n3. [France: Nice and Saint-Paul-de-Vence](/en/posts/europe-travel-03-nice-saint-paul-de-vence)\n4. [Italy, part 1: Milan's Duomo and San Siro](/en/posts/europe-travel-04-milan-duomo-san-siro)\n5. [Italy, part 2: Venice, San Giorgio and Burano](/en/posts/europe-travel-05-venice-san-giorgio-burano)\n6. [Italy, part 3: Florence, Pompeii and Positano](/en/posts/europe-travel-06-florence-pompeii-positano)\n7. [Egypt: Escaping the rain to Sharm El Sheikh](/en/posts/europe-travel-07-sharm-el-sheikh-egypt)\n8. [Rome again: Italian food and the way home](/en/posts/europe-travel-08-rome-italian-food-going-home)\n"},{"slug":"pmp-2026-exam-changes-pmbok-8","title":"Everything That Changed in the 2026 PMP Exam, Plus PMBOK 7th vs 8th Edition","description":"The PMP exam that launched July 9, 2026, compared with the old one: questions, time, breaks, domain weights, eligibility, PMBOK 7 vs 8 and the AI Standard.","topic":"work","tags":["PMP","PMP Exam Changes","PMBOK 8th Edition","PMP ECO","PMI AI Standard"],"publishedAt":"2026-09-15T09:00:00+09:00","updatedAt":"2026-09-15T09:00:00+09:00","growthStage":"maintained","version":"1.0","revisions":[{"version":"1.0","date":"2026-09-15","summary":"The 2026 PMP exam changes compared with the old exam, plus PMBOK 7th vs 8th edition.","changes":["Old-vs-new exam table and what each change means for studying","Eligibility changes, PMBOK 7 vs 8 table and the PMI AI Standard"]}],"relationships":[{"type":"continues","slug":"pmp-experience-application-audit"}],"content":"\nYesterday (September 14), a member email from PMI landed in my inbox. The subject: \"Your member access: PMI's AI Standard.\" Members can now read PMI's standard on AI in project management for free.\n\n\n\n*The PMI member email I received on September 14, 2026. It mentions the standard's eight guiding principles and calls it the first and only ANSI-approved AI standard for the project profession.*\n\nThat email says a lot about where PMI is heading: setting principles for how AI gets used, judging projects by the value they create, and building sustainability in. The PMP exam moved the same way on July 9, 2026.\n\nI passed the old exam on July 3, six days before the switch. So this isn't a review of the new exam. Instead, I've gone through PMI's official documents (the 2026 Exam Content Outline, the Certification Handbook and the PMBOK Guide page) to lay out what changed and how studying should change with it.\n\n**In three lines** — Since July 9, 2026, the PMP has 180 questions (170 scored + 10 unscored) in 240 minutes, and it opens with a case-study section. The biggest shift is Business Environment, which more than tripled from 8% to 26% of the exam. The PMBOK Guide was also reshaped in its 8th edition (6 principles, 7 performance domains), but the exam isn't based on any single book.\n\n## Old vs New at a Glance\n\n| Item | Old exam (the one I took) | New exam (from July 9, 2026) |\n|---|---|---|\n| Questions | 180 (175 scored + 5 pretest) | 180 (170 scored + 10 unscored) |\n| Time | 230 minutes | 240 minutes |\n| Breaks | Two 10-minute breaks (after Q60 and Q120) | Two 10-minute breaks (after the case-study section, and about halfway through the independent questions) |\n| New question types | — | Case/scenario questions, graphic-based questions |\n| Domain weights | People 42% · Process 50% · Business Environment 8% | People 33% · Process 41% · Business Environment 26% |\n| Tasks | 35 | 26 (People 8 · Process 10 · Business Environment 8) |\n| Approach | About 50% predictive · 50% agile/hybrid | About 40% predictive · 60% agile/hybrid |\n| Experience window | Last 8 years | Last 10 years |\n| Education routes | 60 months (secondary), 36 months (bachelor's), and so on | New 48-month route for associate degrees and similar (EQF level 5) |\n| 35 training hours | Live classes from any provider | From Dec 1, 2026, live classes count only from an ATP, a China REP or an accredited higher-education program |\n| Identity check | — | Persona check (selfie plus government ID) before payment |\n| Exam fee (Korea, PMI member) | $405 (my June receipt) | $405 (PMI store, October 3, 2026) |\n\nThe question count is still 180. What changed is the split: scored questions went from 175 to 170, and unscored ones from 5 to 10. Exam time grew by 10 minutes, to 240.\n\nFor reference, my Pearson VUE appointment was 270 minutes long: the 230-minute exam plus the tutorial, the agreement and the survey. I go through that booking email in [PMP Pass Review Part 2](/en/posts/pmp-pass-review-part-2).\n\nThe new case/scenario and graphic-based questions appear both at test centers and online. Some other formats, like matching, hotspot and pull-down questions, only appear at test centers.\n\n## Six Ways Studying Changes\n\nHere's what the numbers in that table mean for how you study.\n\n### 1. Business Environment Jumps from 8% to 26%\n\nThis is the big one. On the exam I took, Business Environment was a small slice, 8% of the questions. Now it's roughly one question in four.\n\nMy result sheet showed Above Target for Business Environment, but back then it carried little weight in the overall result. If you're preparing now, you can't treat it as an afterthought. It even has as many tasks as People: eight.\n\n### 2. Agile and Hybrid Make Up 60%\n\nThe predictive-to-agile/hybrid split moved from roughly 50:50 to 40:60. The more hybrid scenarios there are, the more it matters to tell which part of a project runs predictively and which part runs agile.\n\nOne of the repeat mistakes I listed in [PMP Pass Review Part 2](/en/posts/pmp-pass-review-part-2) was mixing up predictive and agile situations. On the new exam, assume you'll be tested on that distinction more often.\n\n### 3. Value-Based Delivery Becomes a Task\n\nThe Process domain has a new task: \"Help ensure value-based delivery.\" I read it as a signal that hitting the schedule and budget isn't enough; the exam also cares whether the result created value. That lines up with the PMBOK Guide 8th edition, which defines a project by the value it's meant to create.\n\n### 4. Sustainability Sits Inside Four Tasks\n\nSustainability isn't a task of its own. It's written into the enablers (illustrative examples of the work) of four tasks: planning, quality, compliance and risk. Rather than memorizing it as a separate chapter, get used to weighing it whenever you think about planning or risk.\n\n### 5. AI Lives Inside Scenarios, Not in Its Own Domain\n\nThere's no AI domain and no AI task. AI and sustainability were inputs to the job analysis that sets the exam's scope, and on the exam AI shows up as context within scenarios. If you read that the PMP added an AI domain, that's not accurate.\n\n### 6. Case Studies Come First\n\nThe new exam opens with the case-study section: one scenario followed by a series of questions. When the section ends, you get your first break, and once you start that break you can't go back. I cover how to read these scenarios and pace yourself in [Part 9: How to Prepare for PMP Case-Study Questions](/en/posts/pmp-case-study-questions).\n\n## Eligibility Changed Too\n\nIt's not just the exam. The application rules moved as well.\n\n- **Experience window:** up from the last 8 years to the last 10. When I applied in June, the 8-year rule still applied.\n- **New 48-month route:** associate degrees and similar EQF level 5 qualifications now need 48 months of experience. Bachelor's degrees still need 36, secondary school 60, and GAC-accredited degrees 24.\n- **35 training hours:** from December 1, 2026, live classes count only if they come from a PMI Authorized Training Partner (ATP), a China Registered Education Provider (REP) or an accredited higher-education program. Self-paced courses count from any provider, and books or practice exams alone never count. An active CAPM waives the 35 hours.\n- **Identity check:** the application now includes \"enhanced verification,\" and before you pay, Persona checks a selfie against your government-issued ID.\n\nHow to write up your experience, and what happens if you're audited, is in [Part 4: Writing Up Your PMP Experience and Handling an Audit](/en/posts/pmp-experience-application-audit).\n\n## PMBOK Guide: 7th vs 8th Edition\n\nYou can't talk about the PMP without the PMBOK Guide. The 8th edition came out in November 2025 (the launch was announced on November 13). It runs 408 pages, and PMI says it draws on more than 48,000 data points. PMI members get the PDF for free.\n\n| | PMBOK Guide 7th edition | PMBOK Guide 8th edition |\n|---|---|---|\n| Released | August 1, 2021 | November 2025 (launch announced November 13) |\n| Principles | 12: stewardship, team, stakeholders, value, systems thinking, leadership, tailoring, quality, complexity, risk, adaptability and resiliency, change | 6: holistic view, focus on value, embed quality, accountable leadership, integrate sustainability, empowered culture |\n| Performance domains | 8: stakeholders, team, development approach and life cycle, planning, project work, delivery, measurement, uncertainty | 7: governance, scope, schedule, finance, stakeholders, resources, risk |\n| Processes | Removed from the Guide; moved to PMIstandards+ and a separate Process Groups practice guide (2022, 49 processes) | 40 non-prescriptive processes are back in the book, with the five process groups returning as five Focus Areas (initiating, planning, executing, monitoring and controlling, closing) |\n| Tailoring | One of the principles, plus its own section | No longer a principle, but the guidance stays |\n| Other content | Models, methods and artifacts section | Tools and techniques section; expanded coverage of AI, PMOs and procurement |\n\n### What Stands Out, Having Studied with the 8th Edition\n\nAs I wrote in Part 1, I started out planning for the new exam and studied with the PMBOK Guide 8th edition, then took the old exam because the timing worked. From that seat, three differences stand out.\n\n- **The return of processes is a practical change.** The 7th edition moved processes out of the book (to PMIstandards+ and a separate guide). The 8th edition brings 40 of them back and groups them into Focus Areas from initiating to closing. For predictive questions, I think that makes it easier to follow \"which stage of the work is this?\" within a single book.\n- **The 8th edition's principles echo the new outline's vocabulary.** \"Focus on value\" pairs with the value-based delivery task, and \"integrate sustainability\" with the sustainability enablers in four tasks. Reading the 8th edition makes the new exam's language feel familiar.\n- **Governance and finance are now performance domains.** I read that as moving in the same direction as Business Environment's bigger share of the exam.\n\nThe 8th edition also covers AI in more depth. One of the sources in my NotebookLM notebook is a YouTube video called \"ALL the A.I. in the New PMBOK 8th Edition.\" Still, as above, AI has no task of its own on the exam.\n\n### The Exam Still Isn't Based on One Book\n\nPMI is clear that the PMP exam isn't written from any single text. Its top-10 reference list is the PMBOK Guide and the Agile Practice Guide plus eight books from other publishers. So \"the new exam is based on PMBOK 8\" isn't accurate.\n\nThere is a link, though. The 2026 Exam Content Outline uses the PMBOK Guide 8th edition's definition of a project: \"a temporary initiative in a unique context undertaken to create value.\" That's why I'd treat the 8th edition less as the exam's syllabus and more as **the language the exam speaks**.\n\n## What Is PMI's AI Standard?\n\nBack to yesterday's email. The full name is The Standard for Artificial Intelligence in Portfolio, Program, and Project Management.\n\n| Item | Details |\n|---|---|\n| Released | June 9, 2026 |\n| Length | 275 pages |\n| Price | Free for PMI members; $74.95 digital for non-members |\n| 8 guiding principles | Strategic value, risk, governance, people, ethics, stakeholders, optimization, data quality |\n| 5 performance domains | Stakeholder expectations, scope, architecture, strategy execution, risk |\n| Notable | Human-in-the-loop; ties to the EU AI Act and ISO 42001 |\n\nThe email introduces it as the world's first and only ANSI-approved AI standard for the project profession.\n\nThat doesn't make the AI Standard a new part of the PMP exam. In the new outline, AI has no task of its own and appears as context inside scenarios. But if you're a member and your job involves rolling out AI, it's free and worth a skim.\n\n## If You're Starting Now\n\nIn Part 1, I wrote that you should check the outline for your exam date before worrying about which textbook edition you have. After the update, that matters even more. Here's the order I'd suggest:\n\n1. Read the 2026 ECO PDF yourself. The tasks and enablers in each domain are your study list.\n2. Check that your course, question bank and practice exams reflect the July 2026 update.\n3. Spend more time on Business Environment and on agile and hybrid scenarios.\n4. Practice case-study and graphic-based questions on their own. My approach is in [Part 9](/en/posts/pmp-case-study-questions).\n5. Log the questions you miss, by reason. My method and a template are in [Part 6](/en/posts/pmp-error-log-method).\n6. If you haven't applied yet, check the new experience rules first. They're in [Part 4](/en/posts/pmp-experience-application-audit).\n\n## Wrapping Up\n\nIf I had to sum up the update in one line: the PMP now asks you to see projects through the lens of value and the business context around them. The question count didn't change, but the PM the exam has in mind did.\n\nPart 6 is about the error log, which I called the most useful thing in the days right before my exam in Part 2. I'll show how I kept it and share a Word template.\n\n**Next:** [Part 6: How to Keep a PMP Error Log](/en/posts/pmp-error-log-method)\n\n**Start from the beginning:** [PMP Pass Review Part 1](/en/posts/pmp-pass-review-part-1)\n\n\nI applied in June 2026 under the pre-change rules. Eligibility changed along with the July 2026 exam update, so the requirements below reflect the current rules (checked in October 2026). Double-check the [official PMP page](https://www.pmi.org/certifications/project-management-pmp) right before you apply.\n \n\n## Eligibility: Experience by Education, Plus 35 Hours of Training\n\nBefore you can sit the exam, PMI checks whether you're eligible. It looks at two things: your experience leading projects, and 35 hours of project management training.\n\n| Education | Experience required (last 10 years, non-overlapping) |\n|---|---|\n| Secondary school (high school) | 60 months (5 years) |\n| Associate degree or vocational program (EQF level 5, new) | 48 months (4 years) |\n| Bachelor's degree or higher | 36 months (3 years) |\n| Degree from a PMI GAC-accredited program | 24 months (2 years) |\n\nI have a bachelor's degree (a double major in business administration and software engineering), so I was on the 36-month route. When I applied in June, only experience from the last eight years counted. Since the 2026 update, the window is ten years, and there's a brand-new 48-month route for associate degree holders.\n\n### 35 Hours of Training, and the December 1 Rule\n\nOn top of experience, you need 35 hours of project management training. An active CAPM certification waives it.\n\n- **Self-paced online courses:** count, whoever the provider is.\n- **Live classes:** from December 1, 2026, instructor-led classes (in person or live online) count only if they're delivered by a PMI Authorized Training Partner (ATP), a China Registered Education Provider (REP), or an accredited higher-education program.\n- **Books and practice exams:** never count on their own.\n\nIf you plan to cover the 35 hours with live classes, check that the provider is an ATP first. Everything else that changed in 2026, including the exam format, is in [Part 5: Everything That Changed in the 2026 PMP Exam](/en/posts/pmp-2026-exam-changes-pmbok-8).\n\n## My Career, Mapped to PMP Criteria\n\nA PMP application isn't a résumé. Instead of companies and job titles, you list the projects you led, one entry at a time. So rather than copying your CV, it pays to unfold it into projects first.\n\nHere's my own career laid out that way. Company names are real; client names are anonymized.\n\n| Period | Company · Role | What counts from a PMP angle |\n|---|---|---|\n| Mar 2025 – present | Concentrix Services Korea · Global Tech PM | Shopify and Magento implementations and enhancements for enterprise clients (priorities, risks, UAT, releases, launch stabilization). For a global consumer-electronics client: operational backlog cut from 104 to 48 (−54%) and issue-resolution lead time down 27%. For a global beauty group: enhancement and global rollout of a PDP generator SaaS across 5 brands and 27 e-commerce sites |\n| Apr 2023 – Feb 2025 | Hyperhire · Software Development PM | Web, app, SaaS and blockchain projects with distributed teams, including developers in India, Pakistan, Indonesia, Nigeria and Ethiopia; requirements, backlog, milestones, QA and release planning. A private-blockchain phase-2 project, an NFT reward app (wallet features, reward logic), and client apps for visa services, stays and bookings, fashion commerce and a local-currency coin |\n| Jan 2021 – Apr 2023 | iCOOP (Natural Dream) · PM / Online Business Manager | Store launches on the Korean marketplaces Naver and Coupang, coordinating sales, CS, SCM, WMS, design and IT; SEO and campaigns; ESG campaigns (No Plastic) |\n| Oct 2020 – Apr 2023 | FeelBetter · Founder | My own e-commerce business; about KRW 50 million in sales within four months |\n\nJust adding up the periods clears 36 months comfortably. But PMI counts the months you spent leading projects, not the months you were on a payroll, and overlapping months count once.\n\n### Overlapping Months Count Once: My Own Example\n\nMy timeline is a neat example. The 28 months I worked at iCOOP, from January 2021 to April 2023, sit entirely inside the period I ran FeelBetter (October 2020 to April 2023). Even if you list both, those 28 months count once. April 2023, the month I joined Hyperhire, overlaps too, so it's still just one month.\n\n### Be Careful with Operations and Founder Experience\n\nGood numbers don't automatically make a valid entry. PMI doesn't accept routine, operational or administrative work as project experience.\n\nRunning your own business is a similar trap. \"About KRW 50 million in four months\" stands out, but day-to-day operations are mixed into that kind of work. If you include it, carve out only the pieces with a clear start, end and goal, and describe those as projects.\n\n## What PMI Says an Entry Should Cover\n\nIn a blog post on August 28, 2026, PMI listed what each experience entry should explain:\n\n1. The project's aim\n2. The dates\n3. How you led\n4. Whom you worked with\n5. Which activities you directed\n6. The outcome\n\nAdd three rules that come up again and again in PMI's guidance, and you have most of the standard:\n\n- **List each project separately.** Don't bundle several projects into one entry.\n- **Professional work only.** Leave out routine, operational and administrative tasks.\n- **Overlapping months count once.**\n\n### How Long Should It Be?\n\nPMI doesn't publish an official word or character limit. Prep sites say the old form asked for 200–500-word project descriptions and the 2026 form for a 100–500-word \"Role Summary,\" but that's unofficial. Rather than chasing a word count, make sure all six points above are in there.\n\n### Tips\n\n- Keep the aim and the outcome to one sentence each. A reviewer should see what the project was right away.\n- Prefer \"led\" and \"coordinated\" over \"participated in.\" PMI wants to know how you led and what you directed.\n- Walk through initiating, planning, executing, monitoring and controlling, and closing in order, and any gaps jump out.\n- Put numbers in the outcome when you have them, like \"backlog 104 → 48 (−54%).\"\n- Use PMP vocabulary (stakeholders, risks, UAT, releases) instead of in-house jargon.\n\n## Sample Entry: Outline First, Then the Form Text\n\nBelow is a sample built from one of my Concentrix projects, for the global beauty group client. It isn't a copy of what I typed into my application; it's my résumé content rewritten in PMI's format. Fill in details like the dates from your own records.\n\n### Step 1: The Outline\n\nIf English isn't your first language, sketch the outline in your own language first. It keeps you focused on what you actually did. Here's the outline, in English:\n\n| Field | Notes |\n|---|---|\n| Project title | Global beauty group client: PDP generator SaaS enhancement and global rollout |\n| Dates | Start month – end month |\n| Aim | Enhance the PDP (product detail page) generator SaaS so the client's 27 e-commerce sites across 5 brands can use it, and roll it out globally |\n| Role | PM accountable for priorities, schedule and risks across HQ teams, local business units, global vendors and overseas technical teams |\n| Initiating | Agree objectives and priorities with HQ and local teams; map key stakeholders |\n| Planning | Rollout plan by brand and site, risk register, UAT criteria |\n| Executing | Coordinate development and deployment schedules with global vendors and overseas technical teams |\n| Monitoring and controlling | Track risks and priority changes; manage fixes from UAT results |\n| Closing | Lead releases and launch stabilization; confirm results with stakeholders |\n| Outcome | Rolled out to 5 brands and 27 e-commerce sites |\n\n### Step 2: The Text for the Form\n\n```text\nProject title: PDP generator SaaS enhancement and global rollout\nDates: [start month/year] - [end month/year]\n\nObjective: Enhance a product detail page (PDP) generator SaaS and roll it\nout to a global beauty group client's 5 brands and 27 e-commerce sites.\n\nRole: Project manager accountable for priorities, schedule and risks\nacross the client's HQ teams, local business units, global vendors\nand overseas technical teams.\n\nWhat I led:\n- Initiating: Aligned objectives and priorities with HQ teams and local\n business units; identified key stakeholders.\n- Planning: Built the rollout plan by brand and site, the risk register\n and UAT criteria.\n- Executing: Coordinated development and deployment schedules with\n global vendors and overseas technical teams.\n- Monitoring and controlling: Tracked risks and priority changes;\n managed fixes based on UAT results.\n- Closing: Led releases and launch stabilization; confirmed results\n with stakeholders.\n\nOutcome: Rolled out to 5 brands and 27 e-commerce sites.\n```\n\nThat's about 140 words. It sits inside the range prep sites mention, and, more importantly, it covers all six points PMI lists: aim, dates, how I led, whom I worked with, what I directed and the outcome.\n\nYour supervisor may read and confirm this text if you're audited, so plain facts beat polished phrasing.\n\n## The Audit: Who, When and What to Submit\n\nAfter you submit, PMI reviews your application and selects some for an audit, a check of your supporting documents. Here's what PMI's Certification Handbook and official guidance say:\n\n| Item | Details |\n|---|---|\n| Who | Random selection, but PMI can audit anyone at any time (even after certification), and it audits every application from PMI employees and volunteers |\n| When you find out | By email, before you pay the exam fee |\n| Documents | A copy of your diploma or degree, sign-off from a supervisor or manager for each experience entry, certificates for your 35 training hours |\n| How | Online: an audit package on your mypmi.org dashboard, supervisors confirm via DocuSign, documents are uploaded |\n| Deadline | 90 days |\n| Review time | About 5–7 business days once everything is in |\n| If you pass | Your one-year eligibility period starts that day |\n| If you don't comply or fail | A one-year suspension |\n\nNothing goes in a sealed envelope by post; it's all online. The audit notice arrives before payment, and your one year of eligibility counts from the day you pass.\n\n### My Case: Approved in Eight Days, No Audit\n\nAt 2:51 p.m. on June 1, the confirmation email arrived. Its last line reads: \"Applicants may be selected randomly for audit during the application process.\"\n\n\n\n*The confirmation I received on June 1, 2026, right after applying. The last line is the random-audit notice.*\n\nThen, at 11 p.m. on June 9, the approval came, about eight days after I applied, so roughly a week. There was no audit notice, just the next step: paying the exam fee.\n\n\n\n*The approval email from the night of June 9, 2026, pointing to the next step: the exam fee.*\n\n\n**In three lines**: On a same-day ticket after quitting, I flew **Emirates via Dubai to London Heathrow**. Instead of heading into London, I caught a Megabus to **the Bournemouth house where I did a homestay in 2019**. Max the dog, a croquet lawn, chopsticks on the dinner table, a beach under a clear blue sky. **The second hometown where my English began** hadn't changed in four years.\n \n\n## The route in this post\n\n| Date | Where | In a line |\n| --- | --- | --- |\n| Apr 2, night | Incheon Airport → Dubai | Same-day ticket, first Emirates flight, a #mybreak KitKat |\n| Apr 3 | Dubai transfer → London Heathrow → Megabus → Bournemouth | A full English breakfast on the plane |\n| Apr 3–4 | The homestay house in Bournemouth | Max the dog, a croquet lawn, home cooking, a caravan |\n| Apr 4 | Bournemouth beach → pier → town centre | Beach huts, The Brass Haus pub, blue sky |\n| Apr 5, morning | Bournemouth → off to London | One last English breakfast |\n\n---\n\n## April 2: Ticket bought, gone by night\n\n\n Incheon Airport on the night of April 2. A long row of red Emirates signs. \n \n\nIt started at Incheon Airport on the night of April 2. A long line of red Emirates signs ran under the steel-truss ceiling, so the counter was easy to find. London wasn't the destination yet. One flight to Dubai, a change, and another flight to London. Two planes to get there.\n\nIt was my first time on Emirates, and it was genuinely good. As I sat down, the seat screen showed \"Welcome\" over a photo of elephants, with \"EK323 Seoul to Dubai\" above it. For a ticket bought that same day, I was happy with the seat, and there was an amenity kit with an eye mask, socks, a toothbrush and toothpaste. **Next time, I want to try the upper deck.**\n\n## The first meal, and #mybreak\n\n\n A main under a gold lid, bread, dessert and red wine. A KitKat in between. \n \n\nI photographed the whole tray the moment the first meal arrived. A main under a gold-patterned lid, bread, a prawn salad, a dessert cup and a glass of red wine. I can't recall the menu, but I enjoyed it. In between was a KitKat whose wrapper read **#mybreak.** I had just quit my job.\n\n\n \"Korean Kimchi\" in the corner of the tray. You get this on a flight out of Seoul. \n \n\nIn the corner of the tray was a little tub. The lid said \"김치 Korean Kimchi,\" and inside were a few pieces of cabbage in red seasoning. You get that on a flight out of Seoul.\n\n## April 3: Via Dubai to London\n\nJust before we landed in Dubai, I looked out of the window. Straight orange roads cut through the dark city.\n\nWhile I waited for my connection, the sky brightened, and Emirates tail fins lined up beyond the glass. The airport I had landed in at night looked like a different place by day.\n\n\n The first plate on the London flight. Sausage, baked beans, scrambled egg, roasted tomato. \n \n\nOn the connecting flight to Heathrow, I ate a meal and a half. The first plate: sausage, baked beans, scrambled egg and roasted cherry tomatoes. A full English breakfast, on the plane. The other half-meal was mashed potato with a red stew.\n\nI'm bad at sleeping on planes, so I mixed myself a Jack and Coke and closed my eyes. When I opened them, the little plane on the seat map had nearly reached London.\n\n## Landing at Heathrow, and heading to Bournemouth instead\n\n\n Next to an A as tall as the wall. My first photo of the UK in four years. \n \n\nAnd then, Heathrow. This photo, next to an A as tall as the wall, is **my first photo of the UK in four years.** The sun was out.\n\nI didn't go into London. I went straight to catch **the Megabus to Bournemouth.** My bus didn't seem to be on the timetable, which threw me for a moment, but I got on without any trouble.\n\nBournemouth is a small seaside town on England's south coast. **It's where I did a homestay in 2019, and it's where the English I speak today began.** That's why I call Bournemouth **my second hometown.** On a trip I took after quitting my job, of course the first stop was this house, not London.\n\n---\n\n## Back after four years, this time as a guest\n\n\n Max, chin on a grey blanket, eyes looking up. \n \n\nBack at the homestay house after four years. The family has a dog, **Max**, and he is ridiculously cute. Most of that day's photos are of Max.\n\nI photographed him pressed against a car window, and my own reflection, phone in hand, showed up on the glass. In the garden, instead of sitting on a sun lounger, I followed Max around. Then I got this one up close: chin on the blanket, only the eyes looking up.\n\n\n Mint walls, a paisley duvet, a red floral rug. \n \n\nThe room has a lot of colour. Mint walls with a fan ornament, a paisley duvet, a red floral rug. The chair at the desk looks like a tractor seat. Not a hotel; someone's home. Unpacking in this room was when it sank in that I was back.\n\n\n Sun loungers, a parasol and croquet hoops in the grass. \n \n\nIn front of the room is the back garden. Two green sun loungers, a yellow parasol and small hoops stuck in the grass. With a peg standing there as well, it was **croquet.** A game I'd only met in English novels, in a family's back garden.\n\n\n A Hanju soju box and a red ginseng box on an English family's shelf. \n \n\nThe thing I least expected in the house was Korean writing on a shelf: a box of Hanju soju next to a box of red ginseng. The box says \"Alc. 25% / 400mL.\"\n\n## An English dinner table, with chopsticks\n\n\n A thermometer in a drumstick to check it's cooked. \n \n\nI photographed that evening's dinner from the cooking stage. The seasoned chicken got turned with red tongs, and at the oven a digital thermometer went into a drumstick to check it was done. You don't see that in a restaurant, and I enjoyed watching it.\n\n\n Beyond the sesame buns, a pair of chopsticks beside the floral placemat. \n \n\nSesame buns and steamed broccoli made it to the table. And **a pair of chopsticks lay next to a floral placemat.** Chopsticks, beside buns and drumsticks on an English table. That's my favourite part of this picture.\n\n## Breakfast at the table of \"The Best GRANDAD\"\n\n\n A fruit bowl, cereal boxes and a \"The Best GRANDAD In The WORLD\" mug. \n \n\nThe next morning, the breakfast table had a fruit bowl, cereal boxes and a **\"The Best GRANDAD In The WORLD\"** mug. I picked up a small pear and took a photo of it. Nothing fancy on the menu. After four years, I was sitting at this breakfast table again.\n\n\n Lift the wooden lid: a hob and a sink, with a fridge underneath. \n \n\nWe pulled back the green cover on the caravan in the drive and had a look inside. Lift a wooden lid and there's a two-ring hob and a sink, with a small fridge underneath. **A little kitchen on wheels.**\n\n\n White and pink towels on the washing line under a blue sky. \n \n\nThe last photo I took at the house was of the washing line: white and **pink towels** under a blue sky. Ordinary scenes like this are why I love this house. And to this day, **I still keep in touch with the host family.** A 2019 homestay became a 2023 return visit, and it's still going three years later.\n\n---\n\n## April 4: Bournemouth under a blue sky\n\n\n Beach huts in a long row below a hillside of yellow flowers. \n \n\nOn April 4, the sky over Bournemouth was deep blue all day.\n\nThe day began with **the beach huts.** Little huts painted white, blue and green stand in a long row below a hillside of yellow flowers. Huts on one side of the promenade, sand on the other.\n\n\n Two-thirds sky. The rest is waves and Bournemouth Pier. \n \n\nWalking along the promenade, **Bournemouth Pier** gets closer. Two-thirds of the photo is sky, the rest waves and pier. In England, nobody promises you a sky like this tomorrow, so I took as much of it as I could. The beach is wide, and people were sitting here and there. It was early April, so nobody was in the water.\n\nA Ferris wheel stands in the square in front of the pier, and behind it are **the Lower Gardens**, a park with a rock garden and palm trees. The walk up from the beach to the town centre goes through this park.\n\n## A late lunch at The Brass Haus\n\nA late lunch was at **The Brass Haus**: brick walls hung with greenery and a patterned tile floor. The clock on the wall-mounted TV said \"2.01 pm Tuesday,\" the screen was trailing that night's game, \"CHELSEA LIVERPOOL Tonight 7pm,\" and the ticker below ran \"Graham Potter sacked on Sunday evening.\"\n\n\n Max stretched out on a section of green leather bench. \n \n\nOn one section of the green leather bench, Max lay with his chin resting down. This is my favourite photo of the day. **You bring the dog into the pub and have lunch together.** That's one of the reasons I love the UK.\n\n\n Steak, egg, sausages, tomatoes and peas. The chips in a metal cup. \n \n\nOn the table: a meat plate and a salad plate. Steak topped with a fried egg, two sausages, grilled tomatoes and peas, with the chips standing up in a hammered metal cup. The salad came topped with fried chicken.\n\n\n The entrance to The Arcade, with its fan-shaped window. \n \n\nAfter lunch, I walked slowly through town. Past the entrance to **The Arcade**, a red-brick Gothic-style building has a LUSH on the ground floor. The buildings in town are worth a look, not just the beach.\n\nDinner was back at the house. Prawns and vegetables stir-fried and mixed into rice for two bowls, and in another pan, something with kidney beans.\n\n## April 5: The morning I left for London\n\n\n Leaving-day breakfast. Toast, egg, bacon, mushrooms, and an OLD SPECKLED HEN coaster. \n \n\nOn the morning I left: toast, a fried egg, bacon and mushrooms. There was an **OLD SPECKLED HEN** beer coaster on the table.\n\n\n Max in his own back-seat bed. Off to London. \n \n\nOn the back seat, Max sits in his own bed and looks out of the window. Time to leave the house and head up to London. I had spent three days as a guest in the house I used to live in.\n\n---\n\n## Visitor info\n\n📍 **Bournemouth** · south coast of England (the homestay is a private home, so I'm not sharing where it is)\n\n- 🚌 **Getting there**: I took a Megabus straight from Heathrow Airport, no need to go through central London.\n- 🏖️ **Beach huts → pier**: one long seafront promenade.\n- 🌴 **Pier → town centre**: go through the Lower Gardens in front of the pier and up to the shopping streets.\n- 🍺 **Where I ate**: [The Brass Haus](https://www.google.com/maps/search/?api=1&query=The%20Brass%20Haus%20Bournemouth) (late lunch; we went in with Max)\n- 🗺️ **Map**: [Bournemouth Pier on Google Maps](https://www.google.com/maps/search/?api=1&query=Bournemouth%20Pier)\n\n## How to get lost a little less\n\n- 🚌 **The Megabus from Heathrow to Bournemouth can be hard to spot on the timetable.** Screenshot your booking details in advance.\n- ☀️ **Go to Bournemouth beach on a clear day.** Save the beach for whichever day the forecast shows sun.\n- ✈️ **I flew EK323 (Incheon → Dubai) in April 2023.** Flight numbers and times change, so always check your own ticket.\n\n\nThis is a record of an April 2023 trip. Flights, bus routes and how places operate may have changed since, so check again before you go.\n \n\n## Jayden's verdict\n\n> The first stop of a trip on a same-day ticket was my Bournemouth homestay, where my English began.\n\n- **Highlight**: going back to the homestay house after four years. My second hometown hadn't changed.\n- **Emirates**: happy from the first flight. Upper deck next time.\n- **Bournemouth beach**: I arrived fully armed with English-weather complaints and never got to fire one. Blue sky, all day.\n- **Tip**: the Megabus from Heathrow takes you straight to Bournemouth without going through central London.\n\n---\n\nNext up is London. Under a grey sky, the day starts at 12:01 with three red phone boxes.\n\n**19 Days After Quitting series**\n\n1. **UK, part 1: Via Dubai, and back to my Bournemouth homestay** (you are here)\n2. [The UK, part 2: a day in London, from Big Ben to a Soho pub](/en/posts/europe-travel-02-london-big-ben-soho)\n3. [France: Nice and Saint-Paul-de-Vence](/en/posts/europe-travel-03-nice-saint-paul-de-vence)\n4. [Italy, part 1: Milan's Duomo and San Siro](/en/posts/europe-travel-04-milan-duomo-san-siro)\n5. [Italy, part 2: Venice, San Giorgio and Burano](/en/posts/europe-travel-05-venice-san-giorgio-burano)\n6. [Italy, part 3: Florence, Pompeii and Positano](/en/posts/europe-travel-06-florence-pompeii-positano)\n7. [Egypt: Escaping the rain to Sharm El Sheikh](/en/posts/europe-travel-07-sharm-el-sheikh-egypt)\n8. [Rome again: Italian food and the way home](/en/posts/europe-travel-08-rome-italian-food-going-home)\n"},{"slug":"pmp-application-pearson-vue-booking","title":"From PMP Application to Pearson VUE Booking: Applied June 1, Booked June 13 (Real Emails)","description":"It took me 12 days to go from PMP application to a booked Pearson VUE exam. Here is every step, from PMI membership to booking, shown with my real emails.","topic":"work","tags":["PMP","PMP Application","Pearson VUE","PMP Exam Booking","PMI Membership"],"publishedAt":"2026-09-11T09:00:00+09:00","updatedAt":"2026-09-11T09:00:00+09:00","growthStage":"maintained","version":"1.0","revisions":[{"version":"1.0","date":"2026-09-11","summary":"The PMP application and Pearson VUE booking, step by step with real emails.","changes":["Covered seven steps: membership, application, approval, exam fee, eligibility, booking and confirmation","Added the reschedule and cancellation rules, tips for translated exams and a pre-application checklist"]}],"relationships":[{"type":"continues","slug":"pmp-pass-review-part-2"}],"content":"\nThe confusing part of the PMP often isn't the studying. It's the admin. When do you join PMI? When do you pay? Do you book the exam with PMI or with Pearson VUE? If it's your first time, even the order of steps feels unfamiliar.\n\nI submitted my application on June 1 and had my exam booked in the early hours of June 13. Here are the emails I got from PMI and Pearson VUE over those 12 days, in order. The application and scheduling screens sit behind a login and aren't public, so this post shows the process through PMI's and Pearson VUE's public pages and the emails I actually received.\n\n**In three lines** — The order is: join PMI, submit the application, get approved, pay the exam fee, receive your eligibility email, book with Pearson VUE. I applied on June 1, was approved on June 9 (no audit), paid on June 12 and finished booking at 12:56 a.m. on June 13. Thanks to the member price, my exam fee came to $445.50 with tax, and you can move your date for free as long as you do it more than 30 days before the exam.\n\n## Application to booking at a glance\n\nAll times below are Korea time (KST).\n\n\n\n*The PMI membership welcome email I received on June 1, 2026.*\n\nViewed from Korea, PMI's site lists the PMP exam at $405 for members and $655 at full price. That's a **$250** difference, while membership currently costs $139 in PMI's Korea store. Even after paying for membership, you're $111 ahead on a single attempt. The $405 member price I paid in June hasn't changed.\n\n\n\n*PMI's PMP page viewed from Korea: member price $405 next to the full price of $655.*\n\nMembership also gets you:\n\n- Retakes: $275 for members vs. $375 for non-members\n- Renewal every three years: $60 vs. $150\n- A free PDF of the PMBOK Guide 8th edition\n- A free PDF of PMI's AI standard (The Standard for Artificial Intelligence in Portfolio, Program and Project Management)\n\nPrices vary by region. In PMI's US store, for example, the exam is $425 for members and $675 for non-members, and membership is $164. Check the prices PMI shows you where you live.\n\n## Steps 2 and 3: Submit the application and get approved\n\n### What the application asks for\n\nYou fill in the application online on PMI's site. It covers three main areas:\n\n- **Education**: How much project experience you need depends on your education: 60 months with a secondary-school diploma, 48 with an associate or vocational degree (a newly added category), 36 with a bachelor's degree, and 24 with a GAC-accredited degree.\n- **35 hours of project management training**: List the courses you took and the hours. An active CAPM certification waives this requirement.\n- **Project experience**: For each project separately, describe its aim and dates, how you led it, who you worked with, which activities you directed, and the outcome.\n\nOnly experience from the last 10 years counts. When I applied it was 8 years; it has since been extended to 10. The application now also includes an \"enhanced verification\" step: before you pay, you confirm your identity through a service called Persona with a selfie and a government-issued ID.\n\nThe rules for the 35 training hours change on December 1, 2026. From then on, live classes only count if they come from a PMI Authorized Training Partner (ATP) or an accredited higher-education program. Self-paced online courses from any provider still count. Books or practice exams alone never count.\n\nWriting up your experience and preparing for a possible audit deserves its own post, so I cover it in [Part 4: Writing up your PMP experience and handling an audit](/en/posts/pmp-experience-application-audit).\n\n### June 1: Application received\n\nRight after I submitted, at 2:51 p.m. on June 1, the receipt email arrived.\n\n\n\n*The application receipt email, June 1, 2026. The last line says applicants may be selected randomly for audit.*\n\nThat last line sticks with you: you may be selected at random for an audit. If you are, you'll need a copy of your diploma or degree, a supervisor's sign-off for each experience entry, and your training certificates. PMI tells you by email before you pay, and you have 90 days to submit everything online.\n\n### June 9: Approved\n\nAt 11 p.m. on June 9, the approval email arrived: 8 days after I applied, roughly a week. No audit.\n\n\n\n*The approval email, June 9, 2026. It says the next step is paying the exam fee, and a banner at the top advertises member pricing.*\n\nThe message is simple: congratulations, your next step is to pay, and once you've paid you can schedule your exam.\n\nPMI's 2021 documentation said review took about five calendar days without an audit, but current documents don't give a timeframe. Mine took a little over a week, so leave yourself some slack when you think about exam dates.\n\n## Steps 4 and 5: Pay the fee and get your eligibility email\n\n### June 12: Paying $445.50\n\nThree days after approval, on June 12, I paid the exam fee: the $405 member price plus $40.50 tax, $445.50 in total.\n\n\n\n*The exam fee order email, June 12, 2026: $405 plus $40.50 tax, $445.50 in total. Order number hidden.*\n\nIf your plans change after paying, you have an option: you can request a refund within 30 days of purchase, as long as you haven't scheduled and taken the exam in that time.\n\n### June 13, 12:23 a.m.: Eligibility email\n\nJust after midnight, at 12:23 a.m. on June 13, an email titled \"You are eligible to take the PMP® exam\" arrived. It contains everything you need to book.\n\n\n\n*The eligibility email I received at 12:23 a.m. on June 13, 2026. Eligibility runs until June 6, 2027, and the delivery mode is Center-Based Testing (CBT). Eligibility ID hidden.*\n\nFour things to check in this email:\n\n- **Your name**: The name under \"Name exactly as it appears on your identification\" must match the ID you'll bring on exam day exactly.\n- **Eligibility period**: Mine ran until June 6, 2027. You get one year of eligibility and up to three attempts within it.\n- **Delivery mode**: Mine said Center-Based Testing (CBT), meaning a test center.\n- **The US$70 rule**: Rescheduling or cancelling within 30 days of your appointment costs US$70. More than 30 days out, it's free.\n\nThe email also recommends booking as soon as you know your date, because seats are first come, first served. I took that advice literally.\n\n## Step 6: Book your exam with Pearson VUE\n\n### It starts at PMI and ends at Pearson VUE\n\nYou book the exam with Pearson VUE, but you start at PMI. The flow:\n\n1. In your PMI dashboard (myPMI), click **Schedule Exam**.\n2. You're handed over to Pearson VUE.\n3. Choose the PMP from your pre-approved exams.\n4. Pick a test center or an online proctored exam (OnVUE).\n5. Choose the exam language. I chose Korean.\n6. Choose a test center, then a date and time.\n7. Review your appointment and submit the order at checkout to confirm it.\n\nDon't panic if the exam doesn't show up in Pearson VUE right after you pay. According to PMI, it can take up to 24 hours for your eligibility to appear there.\n\n\n\n*Pearson VUE's PMI page. Scheduling, rescheduling and cancelling all start by logging in, which sends you over to PMI's site.*\n\n### Look up test centers in advance\n\nPearson VUE's \"Find a test center\" search lets you look up centers that deliver PMI exams before you're eligible. As the note on the page says, though, it won't show opening hours or availability. You only see those after PMI makes you eligible and you log in to book. Not every center delivers every PMI exam, and the PMP is only available at some of them.\n\n\n\n*The note on Pearson VUE's \"Find a test center\" page: hours and availability are only visible after PMI makes you eligible.*\n\nSearching for the address where I took my exam puts Pearson Professional Centers-Seoul (6F The Exchange Seoul, 21 Mugyo-ro, Jung-gu) at the top. Elsewhere in Korea, the search also lists LEXIS EXAM CENTRE Seoul (Gangnam-daero 53-gil, Seocho-gu) and LEXIS EXAM CENTRE Busan. Results can change, and appearing in the list doesn't guarantee a center offers the PMP, so confirm on the booking screen once you're eligible.\n\n\n\n*Search results for \"21 Mugyo-ro, Jung-gu, Seoul.\" Number 1 is Pearson Professional Centers-Seoul, where I took my exam.*\n\n### Booked 33 minutes after the eligibility email\n\nMy booking confirmation arrived at 12:56 a.m. on June 13, 33 minutes after the eligibility email. The exam was set for Friday, July 3 at 10:15 a.m., about three weeks out, in Korean, at Pearson Professional Center Seoul on Mugyo-ro.\n\n## Step 7: The confirmation email and the reschedule rules\n\n### Booking confirmation\n\nOnce you book, Pearson VUE emails a confirmation. Mine came in Korean.\n\n\n\n*My Pearson VUE confirmation email, June 13, 2026. Order number, PMI ID and registration ID hidden.*\n\nThe appointment was 270 minutes because the 230-minute exam (the pre-change format) came with a tutorial and agreement beforehand and a survey afterward. The email also lists the exam-day rules: arrive 30 minutes early; if you're more than 15 minutes late you may be turned away and lose the fee; bring an original government-issued ID with your name, photo and signature. I describe exam day itself in [Part 2](/en/posts/pmp-pass-review-part-2).\n\n### Rescheduling and cancellation rules\n\n| When you change | Reschedule or cancel |\n|---|---|\n| More than 30 days before the exam | Free |\n| Within 30 days of the exam | US$70 + tax |\n| Within 48 hours of the exam | Not allowed; a no-show forfeits the whole fee |\n\nLike booking, rescheduling and cancelling start at PMI and happen in Pearson VUE. I booked about three weeks out, which means I was inside the 30-day window from day one: any change would have cost me US$70. Pick your date carefully.\n\n### If you take the exam in Korean (or another language)\n\n- **Seeing the English original**: In a translated exam, the questions and screens appear in your chosen language, and each question has an exhibit button that shows the English original. The two aren't displayed side by side.\n- **The language is locked once booked**: You can't change the language of a booked appointment. To switch, you have to cancel and book again, and the fees above may apply depending on timing. Double-check the language before checkout.\n- **Online exams in Korea**: If you take the exam online in Korean from Korea, it's proctored by ATA, not Pearson VUE.\n\n## Checklist before you apply\n\nGather these before you open the application and you'll get through it much faster:\n\n- **Education details**: school, degree, graduation date. If you're audited, you'll need a copy of your diploma.\n- **Training records for the 35 hours**: course names, providers, hours, certificates\n- **Project experience**: for each project in the last 10 years, the dates, aim, your role, the activities you led, and the outcome\n- **Someone who can confirm your experience**: an audit requires a supervisor's sign-off for each entry.\n- **Your name in English**: the name on your application and the ID you bring on exam day must match exactly. Matching your passport is the safest bet.\n- **A card that can pay in US dollars**: membership and the exam fee are both charged in dollars.\n- **Exam language and format**: which language, and test center or online. The language can't be changed after booking.\n- **A realistic exam date**: eligibility lasts a year, but seats are first come, first served, and changes within 30 days cost a fee.\n\n## Wrapping up\n\nOnce you know the order, the PMP application comes down to six emails: membership, receipt, approval, payment, eligibility and booking confirmation. Twelve days after submitting my application, I had my exam date.\n\nIn Part 4, I cover the most time-consuming part of the application: writing up your experience and preparing for an audit. If you'd rather see how the exam itself has changed before applying, read [Part 5: Everything that changed in the 2026 PMP exam](/en/posts/pmp-2026-exam-changes-pmbok-8) first.\n\n**Next:** [Writing up your PMP experience and handling an audit](/en/posts/pmp-experience-application-audit)\n\n**Start from the beginning:** [PMP Pass Review Part 1: 7 Weeks of Prep, Study Hall Scores in the 60s, and a PASS](/en/posts/pmp-pass-review-part-1)\n\n\n**The short version** — The jjamppong is generous with seafood, and the ganjjajang is the textbook version, fried egg and all. But the real kicker is the **cucumber salad (oi-muchim)**. Skip it and you will regret it. Add staff who are genuinely kind, and calling this one of Yangjae's best is an easy call.\n \n\n## A 30-second glossary\n\n- **Korean-Chinese food** — Chinese cooking as it evolved in Korea. It's its own cuisine, with its own classics.\n- **Jjamppong** — a fiery red noodle soup loaded with seafood and vegetables.\n- **Ganjjajang** — the \"dry\" take on jjajangmyeon (noodles in black bean sauce). The sauce is stir-fried to order without added water and served on the side.\n- **Samseon** — literally \"three delicacies.\" On a menu, it means the seafood-upgraded version.\n- **Oi-muchim** — seasoned cucumber. Here it's the Chinese-style version, tossed in chili oil with wood ear mushrooms.\n- **Danmuji & jacai** — yellow pickled radish and Sichuan pickled mustard stem, the standard free sides on a Korean-Chinese table.\n\n## Open the door and it's more \"restaurant\" than you'd think\n\n\n Wood ceiling, dark paneled walls. Way too dressed up for a neighborhood Chinese joint. \n \n\nWalk in expecting a neighborhood Chinese joint and you'll be a little thrown. Wood ceiling, dark gray paneled walls, neat rows of tables under the lights. It's a big place spread across three floors, so group dinners are no problem. Two of the top Naver keywords sit side by side here, reading roughly **\"spacious\"** (3,351 people) and **\"great interior\"** (3,347), and one step inside, you get why.\n\n## Round 1: Jjamppong\n\n\n Shrimp, squid, mussels, wood ear mushrooms. The seafood says hello before the broth does. \n \n\nWhen the jjamppong lands, you see the seafood before you see the broth. Plump shrimp, scored squid, mussels, and wood ear mushrooms. And the broth isn't just heat: there's a sweetness underneath, drawn out of the vegetables and seafood, that keeps the spoon moving. It's the kind of jjamppong where you finish the noodles and still go back for a few more spoonfuls of soup.\n\n## Round 2: Ganjjajang\n\n\n
\n Fried egg on the noodles, sauce on the side. Textbook ganjjajang. \n \n
\n Jjamppong and ganjjajang. Ordering both is the correct answer. \n \n
\n Today's MVP. Chunky-cut cucumber and wood ear mushrooms in a chili oil dressing. \n \n\nAnd then this showed up. Chinese-style cucumber salad: chunky-cut cucumber and wood ear mushrooms tossed in a **chili oil dressing**. On the first bite, the crisp cucumber washes your mouth clean, and the spicy, tangy dressing kicks in right behind it.\n\nWhy is this the kicker? Because **it resets your palate between the jjamppong and the ganjjajang.** A bite of jjamppong, a bite of cucumber, a bite of ganjjajang, back to the cucumber. Get into that loop and neither bowl gets old before it's empty. Only one conclusion: **the cucumber salad is mandatory.**\n\n\n The free sides are danmuji and jacai. A clean start. \n \n\n## What I remember as much as the food: the people\n\nFood isn't the only reason I want to go back. **The staff are kind.** I came at dinnertime, and from the moment I walked in to the moment I left, the service was warm and consistent. The bigger a restaurant gets, the easier it is for service to turn mechanical. Guryonggak was the opposite.\n\n## What other diners say\n\nThis place's record is too impressive to ask you to trust my taste buds alone. Here are the numbers from Naver Place (Korea's go-to map and review app) as of September 2026, with the keyword labels translated, roughly:\n\n- ⭐ **Visitor rating 4.83** · **7,918 reviews** (6,779 of them with photos)\n- 🥇 Most-picked keywords: **\"The food is delicious\"** 7,520 people, **\"Fresh ingredients\"** 4,153\n- 🙂 **\"Friendly staff\"** 2,393, **\"Great value for money\"** 2,321\n- 📝 Most-mentioned topics in reviews: taste (6,073) > satisfaction (3,328) > service (1,195)\n\nHolding a rating in the 4.8s across nearly 8,000 reviews means this isn't a place that got lucky once or twice. It wasn't just me.\n\n## Menu and prices\n\n| Menu | Price |\n| --- | --- |\n| Value jjajangmyeon (*gatseongbi*, the budget pick) | ₩8,000 |\n| Value jjamppong (*gatseongbi*) | ₩10,000 |\n| **Guryong samseon ganjjajang — seafood ganjjajang** | **₩11,000** |\n| **Guryong samseon jjamppong — seafood jjamppong** | **₩12,000** |\n| Guryong chadol jjamppong — with beef brisket | ₩13,000 |\n| Samseon bokkeumbap — seafood fried rice | ₩11,000 |\n| Guryong tangsuyuk — sweet and sour pork (small / medium) | ₩21,000 / ₩34,000 |\n| Yurinji — fried chicken in a tangy soy dressing (small / medium) | ₩32,000 / ₩42,000 |\n\nThey're also running a corkage-free promotion, so it works well for a get-together over a few dishes.\n\n## How to order (even with zero Korean)\n\n- Point at 짬뽕 and 간짜장 on the menu, or say **\"Jjamppong hana, ganjjajang hana juseyo\"** — one jjamppong and one ganjjajang, please.\n- Then add **\"Oi-muchim do juseyo\"** — the cucumber salad too, please. Do not skip this step.\n- The ganjjajang sauce comes on the side. Pour it over the noodles and mix before you dig in.\n- Mind the break time: the restaurant pauses from 15:00 to 17:00.\n\n## Visit info\n\n📍 **Guryonggak Yangjae (구룡각 양재동점)** · 61 Nonhyeon-ro, Seocho-gu, Seoul (floors 1–3)\n\n- 🚇 **Getting there**: Yangjae Citizen's Forest Station (Sinbundang Line), Exit 2, about a 14-minute walk (roughly 950 m)\n- 🕐 **Hours**: daily 11:10–22:00, **break time 15:00–17:00**\n- 💰 **Price**: jjamppong from ₩10,000, ganjjajang ₩11,000\n- ✅ **Good to know**: parking and valet parking, reservations, group seating, high chairs, waiting area, Wi-Fi\n- 🗺️ **Maps**: [Google Maps](https://www.google.com/maps/search/?api=1&query=37.4755842%2C127.0463507) · [Naver Map](https://map.naver.com/p/entry/place/1695355269) — Google Maps finds the spot and handles subway routes in Korea, but for walking directions Naver Map is more reliable.\n\nLooking for one more meal in Yangjae? [Oneuldo Bossam Kalguksu Yangjae](/en/posts/yangjae-oneuldo-bossam-kalguksu) is a 2-minute walk away, and I recommend it too.\n\n\nPrices and hours are from Naver Place as of September 2026. Check the cucumber salad's price at the restaurant, and double-check everything before you go.\n \n\n## Jayden's verdict\n\n> The jjamppong and ganjjajang kept their promises. The cucumber salad betrayed my expectations. In the best way.\n\n- **Jjamppong & ganjjajang**: ★★★★★\n- **Cucumber salad**: ★★★★★ (mandatory)\n- **Friendliness**: ★★★★★\n- **Coming back?** Yes. When I'm craving Korean-Chinese in Yangjae, this is where I go, no second thoughts.\n"},{"slug":"anyang-ureong-ssambap-igane","title":"Ureong Ssambap Igane, Anyang: What 'Loaded with Snails' Really Means","description":"A clay pot of gang-doenjang that's half snails, half doenjang. A basket of leafy greens, with spicy pork and bulgogi on the table too. At this ssambap house in Seoksu-dong, Anyang, the snails are the real deal. Just go.","topic":"food","tags":["Korean Food","Ssambap","Snail Doenjang","Anyang","Gyeonggi-do","Gwanaksan"],"publishedAt":"2026-09-09T20:00:00+09:00","updatedAt":"2026-09-09T20:00:00+09:00","growthStage":"evergreen","version":"1.0","content":"\nOrder snail doenjang at a ssambap place and here's what usually happens. You stir the pot with your spoon, **hunting for snails.** Find one and you're pleased. Find two and it's your lucky day.\n\nAt **Ureong Ssambap Igane** in Seoksu-dong, Anyang, that game doesn't exist. There's nothing to hunt for. The top of the pot is already covered in snails.\n\n\n**The short version** — The snail gang-doenjang pot is **genuinely loaded with snails.** Add a pile of leafy greens plus spicy pork and bulgogi, and the whole spread is a feast. It's seriously good, so if you're anywhere nearby, go. Just go.\n \n\n## A 30-second glossary\n\n- **Ssambap** — \"wrap rice.\" You wrap rice, meat and sauce in lettuce and other leafy greens and eat it in one big bite. *Ssam* means wrap.\n- **Ureong** — freshwater snails. Small, dark and chewy.\n- **Gang-doenjang** — a thick, concentrated soybean paste stew. Less soup, more sauce: it's made for spooning onto rice and wraps.\n- **Doenjang jjigae** — the everyday, soupier soybean paste stew.\n- **Jeyuk bokkeum** — pork stir-fried in a spicy red chili sauce.\n- **Bulgogi** — thin slices of sweet soy-marinated meat.\n\n## A spread that outgrows the table\n\n\n Sizzling jeyuk, bulgogi heavy on the sesame, two clay pots. The table fills up fast. \n \n\nSaturday lunch. Sit down, order, and the table runs out of room fast. **Red jeyuk bokkeum** sizzling on an iron plate, **bulgogi** showered in sesame seeds, two clay pots, and a whole basket of leafy greens. Banchan plates fill every gap in between.\n\n## The star is inside the pot\n\n\n Every dark nugget in the pot on the left is a snail. You see the snails before the doenjang. \n \n\nAll those dark little nuggets in the pot? Every single one is a **snail**. It was my first gang-doenjang where the snails show up before the doenjang does. One spoonful brings up three or four chewy snails at once, with salty doenjang filling the gaps.\n\n**The snails here are the real deal.** Every bite has that bouncy little pop, so the gang-doenjang feels less like a side and more like a main dish. A doenjang jjigae with tofu comes separately, so here's the system: gang-doenjang goes on your wraps, jjigae goes on your rice.\n\n## How to build the perfect wrap\n\n\n Greens in abundance, with fresh green chilies on the side. \n \n\n1. Open up one big leaf.\n2. Add a little rice and a piece of jeyuk or bulgogi.\n3. Finish with **a heaped spoonful of snail gang-doenjang**.\n4. Chase it with a bite of green chili.\n\nThe sweetness of the meat, then the chew of the snails, then the salty doenjang, all stacked in one bite. Taste it once and you'll understand why ssambap places give snail gang-doenjang its own name on the menu.\n\n## What other diners say\n\nHere are the numbers from Naver Place (Korea's go-to map and review app) as of September 2026, with the keyword labels translated, roughly:\n\n- ⭐ **Visitor rating 4.23** · **570 reviews**\n- 🥇 **\"The food is delicious\"** 242 people, **\"Fresh ingredients\"** 134\n- 🍚 **\"Generous portions\"** 82, **\"Great value for money\"** 64\n- 📝 Most-mentioned topics in reviews: taste (128) > satisfaction (86) > portion size (28)\n\nNaver's one-line summary reads, roughly, **\"a dream pairing of fresh ssam greens and snail doenjang.\"** Taste, freshness, portions: the three things I noticed, right there in the numbers.\n\n## Menu and prices\n\n| Menu | Price |\n| --- | --- |\n| **Ureong ssambap jeongsik — snail ssambap set meal** | **₩17,000** |\n| Jumulleok ureong ssambap — with marinated meat | ₩15,000 |\n| Chomuchim ureong ssambap — with a spicy-sour chomuchim salad | ₩15,000 |\n| Samgyeopsal ureong ssambap — with pork belly | ₩20,000 |\n| Bulgogi ureong ssambap — with bulgogi | ₩20,000 |\n| Chadol ureong doenjang jjigae — brisket & snail soybean stew | ₩8,000 |\n| Ttukbaegi neungi bulgogi — bulgogi with neungi mushrooms in a clay pot | ₩10,000 |\n| Ureong chomuchim — snails in a spicy-sour dressing (medium / large) | ₩20,000 / ₩30,000 |\n| Neungi beoseot ureong jeongol — neungi mushroom & snail hot pot (large) | ₩40,000 |\n\n## How to order (even with zero Korean)\n\n- Point at 우렁쌈밥정식 on the menu, or say **\"Ureong ssambap jeongsik hana juseyo\"** — one snail ssambap set meal, please. Two of you? Swap *hana* (one) for *dul* (two).\n- The other ssambap options are named for what comes with them: *jumulleok* (marinated meat), *samgyeopsal* (pork belly), *bulgogi*.\n- Once the food lands, follow the four wrap steps above.\n- Closed Thursdays, and the last order is at 20:00, so don't cut it close if you're coming down from a late hike.\n\n## Visit info\n\n📍 **Ureong Ssambap Igane (우렁쌈밥이가네)** · 47 Sammak-ro, Manan-gu, Anyang, Gyeonggi-do (Seoksu-dong)\n\n- 🚇 **Getting there**: Gwanak Station (Line 1), Exit 2, about a 14-minute walk (roughly 780 m). It sits at the start of Sammak-ro, the road up to Sammaksa Temple, so it's perfect **before or after a hike on Gwanaksan or Samseongsan**.\n- 🕐 **Hours**: 11:00–21:00 (last order 20:00), **closed Thursdays**\n- 💰 **Price**: snail ssambap set ₩17,000, other ssambap options ₩15,000–20,000\n- ✅ **Good to know**: parking available\n- 🗺️ **Maps**: [Google Maps](https://www.google.com/maps/search/?api=1&query=37.4237003%2C126.9125037) · [Naver Map](https://map.naver.com/p/entry/place/31051666) — Google Maps finds the spot and handles subway routes in Korea, but for walking directions Naver Map is more reliable.\n\nIf this snail ssambap won you over, save [Dongmakgol Sikdang's jjukkumi bokkeum and snail ssambap](/en/posts/hongcheon-dongmakgol-jjukkumi-ureong-ssambap) in Hongcheon, Gangwon-do, too.\n\n\nPrices and hours are from Naver Place as of September 2026. Double-check before you go.\n \n\n## Jayden's verdict\n\n> I dipped my spoon in to find the snails. The snails found me first.\n\n- **Snail density**: ★★★★★\n- **Generosity**: ★★★★★\n- **Coming back?** Yes. Any day I hike the mountain, this is where I'm coming down to.\n"},{"slug":"haebangchon-the-back-food-truck-burger","title":"The Back Food Truck, Haebangchon: A Fried-Egg Burger After Namsan, View Included","description":"Walking under N Seoul Tower, I found a burger joint at the top of the Haebangchon hill. A tall burger crowned with a fried egg, and a terrace that takes in the whole city. Seriously good.","topic":"food","tags":["Seoul Food","Burgers","Haebangchon","Itaewon","Namsan","Yongsan-gu"],"publishedAt":"2026-09-08T20:00:00+09:00","updatedAt":"2026-09-08T20:00:00+09:00","growthStage":"evergreen","version":"1.0","content":"\nNobody climbs a hill for a burger. At least, that's what I thought.\n\nThat day I was walking the Namsan trail. The sky was blue, and N Seoul Tower looked close enough to touch. Somewhere along the way I got hungry, and at the top of the Haebangchon hill, there it was: **The Back Food Truck**.\n\nVerdict up front: the hill was worth it.\n\n\n**The short version** — A handmade burger joint in Haebangchon, the hillside neighborhood next to Itaewon. The tall burger topped with a fried egg is **really, really good.** The terrace takes in the whole city, so pair it with a walk on Namsan.\n \n\n## A 30-second glossary\n\n- **Haebangchon** — literally \"liberation village.\" A hillside neighborhood right below Namsan, between Itaewon and Yongsan: narrow alleys, stairs, and a lot of uphill.\n- **Namsan & N Seoul Tower** — the mountain in the middle of Seoul and the tower on top of it. Locals just call it Namsan Tower.\n- **Maeul bus** — a \"village bus,\" a small local bus that runs short routes into neighborhoods the subway doesn't reach.\n- **Suje beogeo** — \"handmade burger,\" the Korean term for a craft burger joint.\n- **Break time** — many Korean restaurants close between lunch and dinner. Here it's 15:00–17:00.\n\n## The walk is part of the meal\n\n\n
\n N Seoul Tower, looking up on the way there. The sky did all the work that day. \n \n
\n Even through the window, the green of Namsan's slopes comes in. \n \n
\n A fried egg with the yolk still intact. One skewer is barely holding the whole thing up. \n \n\nThe burger arrives wearing a **fried egg** like a hat. The yolk is plump and intact, the edges fried crispy. A single skewer runs straight through the middle, and without it, this thing looks like it would topple.\n\n\n Cut it in half and this is what you get. Egg, cheese, tomato, and a thick patty. \n \n\nCut it in half and the cross-section introduces itself: egg, melted cheese, tomato, greens, and a **thick patty**. Take a bite and the yolk runs down and mixes with the juices from the patty. Messy hands are a small price to pay. **It's really, really good.**\n\n## The secret menu item: the view\n\n\n
\n Step onto the terrace and Seoul spreads out below you. \n \n
\n Past Haebangchon's rooftops, Yongsan's forest of towers. \n \n
\nPrices and hours are from Naver Place as of September 2026. Double-check before you go.\n \n\n## Jayden's verdict\n\n> Who climbs a hill just for a burger? Me, apparently. And I'll climb it again.\n\n- **Burger**: ★★★★★\n- **View**: ★★★★★\n- **Coming back?** Yes. Next time I'm aiming for a terrace seat around sunset.\n"},{"slug":"sinsa-dallat-thai-food","title":"Dallat, Sinsa-dong: A Tower of Pork Bones and the Thai Spot to Hit Near Garosu-gil","description":"Dallat means 'market' in Thai. Under purple neon: pork backbones stacked into a tower (leng saap), shrimp pad thai, and basil stir-fry topped with a fried egg. A 4.89-rated Thai restaurant in Sinsa-dong.","topic":"food","tags":["Seoul Food","Thai Food","Leng Saap","Sinsa-dong","Garosu-gil","Gangnam-gu"],"publishedAt":"2026-09-07T20:00:00+09:00","updatedAt":"2026-09-07T20:00:00+09:00","growthStage":"evergreen","version":"1.0","content":"\n**Dallat (ตลาด)** means \"market\" in Thai.\n\nKnow the name and the interior makes sense. Purple neon, stainless-steel tables, folding chairs, tin signs on the walls. It feels like sitting in the middle of a Bangkok night market. And before long, a **tower** goes up on your table.\n\n\n**The short version** — The **leng saap**, pork backbones stacked like a tower, is this place's signature from the looks to the taste. The basics, like pad thai and basil stir-fry, are solid too. If you're anywhere near Garosu-gil or Apgujeong Rodeo, this is **the Sinsa-dong spot you have to hit.**\n \n\n## A 30-second glossary\n\n- **Leng saap (เล้งแซ่บ)** — a Bangkok-style dish of pork backbones simmered until tender, served in a clear broth and buried under a spicy, sour sauce of green chili, garlic, lime and cilantro.\n- **Pad kaprao** — a spicy Thai basil stir-fry, often served over rice with a fried egg on top. In Korean it goes by 바질볶음 (*bajil bokkeum*), \"basil stir-fry.\"\n- **Khao kha moo** — braised pork leg over rice. Dallat's menu lists it as 족발 덮밥 (*jokbal deopbap*), after Korea's own braised pork trotters.\n- **Garosu-gil & Apgujeong Rodeo** — two trendy shopping and café streets around Sinsa-dong, close enough to walk between.\n\n## Teleported to a Bangkok night market\n\n\n
\n Purple neon and stainless tables. Night-market vibes, straight up. \n \n
\n A \"Travel to Thailand\" tin sign, even a red car door. Every prop is fully committed. \n \n
\n You know it's not a single serving, and it still overwhelms you. Enter the leng saap. \n \n\n**Leng saap** is pork backbone simmered until tender, set in a clear broth and drowned in a sauce of green chili, garlic, lime and cilantro. It's a Bangkok-style dish, and Dallat's version arrives with the bones **stacked high like a tower**. The moment it hits the table, every phone comes out.\n\nThe meat tucked between the bones slides right off at the touch of a chopstick. The sour, spicy sauce cuts cleanly through the rich meat, and the broth underneath gets more refreshing the more you sip. It's ₩35,000, but the portion is huge, so think of it as **a main to share between two or three people**.\n\n## The basics are solid, too\n\n\n
\n Pad thai with whole shrimp. Peanuts and lime, to taste. \n \n
\n Basil stir-fry over rice with a fried egg. Break the yolk and mix. \n \n
\n Spread out at least this much and you can say you did Dallat properly. \n \n\n## What other diners say\n\nHere are the numbers from Naver Place (Korea's go-to map and review app) as of September 2026, with the keyword labels translated, roughly. Even among the 10 restaurants in this series, it's one of the standout report cards.\n\n- ⭐ **Visitor rating 4.89** · **1,710 reviews**\n- 🥇 **\"The food is delicious\"** 1,579 people\n- 🇹🇭 **\"Close to the real local taste\"** 690\n- 🍜 **\"Fresh ingredients\"** 669, **\"Generous portions\"** 579\n- 📝 Most-mentioned topics in reviews: taste (1,211) > satisfaction (683) > service (124)\n\nThe key detail: \"close to the real local taste\" is the second most-picked keyword. For a Thai restaurant, there's no clearer compliment than that.\n\n## Menu and prices\n\n| Menu | Price |\n| --- | --- |\n| **Leng saap** (signature) | **₩35,000** |\n| Tom yum goong (signature) | ₩22,000 |\n| **Original pad thai** (signature) | **₩13,000** |\n| Khao kha moo — braised pork leg over rice (signature) | ₩13,000 |\n| Beef shank rice noodle soup (signature) | ₩12,000 |\n| Goong pad pong curry — shrimp stir-fried in curry | ₩25,000 |\n| Gai yang — Thai grilled chicken | ₩24,000 |\n| Kor moo yang — Thai grilled pork jowl | ₩22,000 |\n| Makchang basil stir-fry (makchang pad kaprao moo saap) | ₩18,000 |\n| Tom yum seafood rice noodle soup | ₩14,000 |\n\n## How to order (even with zero Korean)\n\n- The Thai dish names are simply written in Korean letters, so they sound close to the Thai. Point at 랭쌥 on the menu, or say **\"Raengssaep hana juseyo\"** — one leng saap, please.\n- Adding pad thai? **\"Pat-tai do juseyo\"** — pad thai too, please.\n- The leng saap is sized for two or three people, so share it and add a rice or noodle dish or two on the side.\n- Reservations are available, and it's closed on Mondays.\n\n## Visit info\n\n📍 **Dallat (딸랏)** · 2F, 22 Apgujeong-ro 50-gil, Gangnam-gu, Seoul (Sinsa-dong)\n\n- 🚇 **Getting there**: Apgujeong Rodeo Station (Suin-Bundang Line), Exit 6, about a 5-minute walk (roughly 330 m). Easy to fit into a walk from Garosu-gil over to Rodeo.\n- 🕐 **Hours**: Tue–Sun 11:30–22:00 (last order 21:30), **closed Mondays**\n- 💰 **Price**: pad thai and rice noodles ₩12,000–14,000, leng saap ₩35,000\n- ✅ **Good to know**: reservations, takeout, group seating, high chairs, Wi-Fi, mobile payments\n- 🗺️ **Maps**: [Google Maps](https://www.google.com/maps/search/?api=1&query=37.5268676%2C127.0377153) · [Naver Map](https://map.naver.com/p/entry/place/1879588862) — Google Maps finds the spot and handles subway routes in Korea, but for walking directions Naver Map is more reliable.\n\n\nPrices and hours are from Naver Place as of September 2026. Double-check before you go.\n \n\n## Jayden's verdict\n\n> In the middle of Sinsa-dong, I toppled a Bangkok night-market tower of bones. If you're headed to Garosu-gil, topple this one at least once.\n\n- **Leng saap**: ★★★★★\n- **Local feel**: ★★★★★\n- **Coming back?** Yes. Tom yum goong and khao kha moo are next.\n"},{"slug":"hongdae-ppulnan-hwangso-gopchang","title":"Ppulnan Hwangso Gopchang, Hongdae: One Pan of Mixed Gopchang, One Word: Best","description":"Four minutes from Hongik Univ. Station, 5,000 reviews and a 4.84 rating. Gopchang, daechang and more on one pan, fried rice under a mountain of seaweed, and ramyeon to finish. The mixed gopchang is the best.","topic":"food","tags":["Seoul Food","Gopchang","Korean BBQ","Hongdae","Mapo-gu"],"publishedAt":"2026-09-06T20:00:00+09:00","updatedAt":"2026-09-06T20:00:00+09:00","growthStage":"evergreen","version":"1.0","content":"\nFriday night in Hongdae. There's no shortage of gopchang places. There are too many. That's the problem.\n\nAfter some deliberation, I walked into **Ppulnan Hwangso Gopchang**. *Ppulnan hwangso* means, roughly, \"angry bull.\" The name is furious. The gopchang was not. If anything, it was downright gentle. Not a trace of gamey smell.\n\n\n**The short version** — The **mixed gopchang**, with gopchang, daechang and more cuts all on one pan, **is the best.** Nutty, packed with gop, and zero gamey smell. Close it out with fried rice under a pile of seaweed flakes, and the course is complete.\n \n\n## A 30-second glossary\n\n- **Gopchang** — beef small intestine, grilled. The prize is the *gop*: the rich, milky fat inside.\n- **Daechang** — beef large intestine. Fattier and richer than gopchang.\n- **Modeum** — \"assorted.\" Modeum gopchang puts several cuts on one pan.\n- **Bokkeumbap** — fried rice, made at the end of the meal in the same pan, with everything the gopchang left behind.\n- **Gim-garu** — crumbled roasted seaweed, showered over the fried rice.\n\n## Everything on one pan: mixed gopchang\n\n\n Gopchang and daechang, plus sweet potato and rice cakes. Tonight's dinner, all inside one circle. \n \n\nGopchang and daechang arrive in a ring on a round iron pan. Around the edge: sweet potato, rice cakes, garlic chives and kimchi. Order just the mixed platter and you get **a side-by-side tasting of every cut at once**, which makes it the right answer for gopchang rookies and veterans alike.\n\n\n Golden brown means it's time. Give the daechang a little longer. \n \n\nPick up a piece of golden gopchang and it's **packed with gop.** The nuttiness spreads the more you chew, and the thing you worry about most at any gopchang place, the gamey smell, just isn't there. Let the daechang go a little longer until it's crispy, and its rich, fatty sweetness explodes. The grilled sweet potato and rice cakes are the supporting cast, giving your mouth a break between bites of gopchang.\n\nMy honest review comes down to one word. **Best.**\n\n## The law of the gopchang house: finish with fried rice\n\n\n
\n Fried in the fat left on the pan, then buried in seaweed flakes and sesame. \n \n
\n Still not done? Ramyeon, with clams and scallops. \n \n
\nPrices and hours are from Naver Place as of September 2026. Check the fried rice and ramyeon prices at the restaurant, and double-check everything before you go.\n \n\n## Jayden's verdict\n\n> The name says angry bull. The guy walking out was all smiles.\n\n- **Mixed gopchang**: ★★★★★\n- **Zero gamey smell**: ★★★★★\n- **Coming back?** Yes. When I'm craving gopchang in Hongdae, there's no other option.\n"},{"slug":"jegidong-sakaya-myeongran-gyeranjjim","title":"Sakaya, Jegi-dong: The Pollock Roe Steamed Egg Is No Joke","description":"An izakaya under a ceiling of cherry blossoms, open until 2 a.m. The skewers are good, but the real kicker is a fluffy steamed egg topped with a whole chunk of pollock roe. Two visits in one month, and here's why.","topic":"food","tags":["Seoul Food","Izakaya","Gyeranjjim","Yakitori","Jegi-dong","Dongdaemun-gu"],"publishedAt":"2026-09-05T20:00:00+09:00","updatedAt":"2026-09-05T20:00:00+09:00","growthStage":"evergreen","version":"1.0","content":"\nTwo visits to the same izakaya in one month. Both times, well past midnight.\n\nThere's only one reason: **myeongran gyeranjjim.** I couldn't stop thinking about it after the first time, so I walked right back through the door. The place is **Sakaya**, an izakaya right by Jegi-dong Station with cherry blossoms covering the ceiling.\n\n\n**The short version** — Sakaya is all about **skewers and steamed egg**. And the steamed egg with a chunk of pollock roe on top, **the myeongran gyeranjjim, is the kicker.** It's genuinely no joke. Open until 2 a.m., so it's perfect for a late second round.\n \n\n## A 30-second glossary\n\n- **Gyeranjjim** — Korean steamed egg: eggs whisked and steamed in a hot earthenware pot until they puff up soft and fluffy.\n- **Myeongran** — pollock roe, cured with salt. Japan's version is *mentaiko*. Salty, briny, and it pops.\n- **Kkochi** — skewers. Here that means yakitori-style grilled skewers.\n- **Karaage** — Japanese-style fried chicken, crisp and made for beer.\n- **2-cha** — literally \"round two\": the second stop of a night out in Korea. Late-night izakayas live on it.\n\n## Open the door, and it's cherry blossom season\n\n\n
\n Cherry blossoms across the whole ceiling, red lanterns below. \n \n
\n A shelf crammed with sake and bottles. Half the fun is choosing. \n \n
\n
\n A red paper parasol and a wave painting. The props alone keep you busy. \n \n
\n A navy banner printed with sake names, and a bamboo window seat. \n \n
\n Fluffy, puffed-up steamed egg with a chunk of pollock roe in the middle. This is the kicker. \n \n\nInside the hot earthenware pot, the egg has puffed up into soft, cloud-like folds, and right in the center sits **a whole chunk of red pollock roe**. Break the roe apart a little with your spoon and scoop it up together with the egg.\n\nThe moment that **salty, popping roe** hits the soft, fluffy egg, you understand why it's the kicker. The roe lifts the mild egg, and the egg wraps the saltiness of the roe in something gentle. A spoonful, a sip, another spoonful. You can't stop.\n\n**The myeongran gyeranjjim really is the kicker. No joke.** If you go to Sakaya, this is the one thing you have to order.\n\n## Skewers: the basics, done right\n\n\n
\n Whole shrimp, meat with green onion, bacon-wrapped cherry tomatoes. Even a wedge of lemon. \n \n
\n Golden bacon-wrapped skewers. You end up eating the cabbage underneath too. \n \n
\n Crispy karaage. It calls for beer. \n \n\nThe crisp-fried **karaage** is a perfect beer snack, too.\n\n## What other diners say\n\nNaver Place, as of September 2026. The review count is still small, which also means this is **a neighborhood izakaya that only people in the know know about**. Naver's review keywords, roughly translated:\n\n- ⭐ **Visitor rating 4.23** · **100 reviews**\n- 🥇 **\"The food is delicious\"** — 56 people\n- 🙂 **\"Friendly service\"** — 22\n- 🍶 **\"Great drink selection\"** — 14, **\"Good for conversation\"** — 13, **\"Stylish interior\"** — 12\n\nNaver Place sums the place up as, roughly, **\"Kansai oden-tang: the essence of upscale oden soup.\"** Skewers and steamed egg were plenty for me, but on visit number three I'm ordering the oden soup too.\n\n## How to order (even with zero Korean)\n\n- Say **\"Myeongran gyeranjjim hana juseyo\"** (명란계란찜 하나 주세요) — one pollock roe steamed egg, please. Non-negotiable.\n- For skewers, point at what you want on the menu. Naver Place lists yakitori at ₩4,000 a skewer.\n- Treat it as your *2-cha*. It opens at 5:30 p.m. and stays open until 2 a.m., Monday to Saturday.\n\n## Visit info\n\n📍 **Sakaya (사까야)** · 32 Muhak-ro 36-gil, Dongdaemun-gu, Seoul (1F)\n\n- 🚇 **Getting there**: Jegi-dong Station (Line 1), Exit 6, about a 2-minute walk (around 150 m)\n- 🕐 **Hours**: Mon–Sat 17:30–02:00, **closed Sundays**\n- 💰 **Price**: Naver Place lists yakitori at ₩4,000 per skewer. Check the menu in the store for the myeongran gyeranjjim and everything else.\n- ✅ **Vibe**: a late second round, or a quiet conversation for two\n- 🗺️ **Maps**: [Google Maps](https://www.google.com/maps/search/?api=1&query=37.5774683%2C127.0323611) · [Naver Map](https://map.naver.com/p/entry/place/1675368341) — Google Maps finds the spot and handles subway routes in Korea, but for walking directions Naver Map is more reliable.\n\n\nHours and prices are from Naver Place as of September 2026. Double-check before you go.\n \n\n## Jayden's verdict\n\n> I went for the skewers. I went back for the steamed egg.\n\n- **Myeongran gyeranjjim**: ★★★★★ (the kicker)\n- **Skewers**: ★★★★★\n- **Atmosphere**: ★★★★★\n- **Coming back?** Already been twice. Next time, the oden soup too.\n"},{"slug":"hongcheon-dongmakgol-jjukkumi-ureong-ssambap","title":"Dongmakgol Sikdang, Hongcheon: The Post-Ocean World Meal You Actually Need","description":"After a day at Vivaldi Park's Ocean World, your stomach is basically touching your spine. This is where you go: spicy stir-fried baby octopus, wrapped in lettuce with a spoonful of snail doenjang, at Dongmakgol Sikdang in Hongcheon.","topic":"food","tags":["Korean Food","Gangwon-do","Hongcheon","Jjukkumi","Ssambap","Vivaldi Park"],"publishedAt":"2026-09-04T20:00:00+09:00","updatedAt":"2026-09-04T20:00:00+09:00","growthStage":"evergreen","version":"1.0","content":"\nSpend half a day at a water park and your body starts talking. **\"Food. Now. Lots.\"**\n\nIf that water park was **Ocean World** at Vivaldi Park in Hongcheon, the answer to that signal is already decided: spicy stir-fried baby octopus, wrapped in lettuce with a spoonful of snail doenjang. The place is **Dongmakgol Sikdang** in Seo-myeon, Hongcheon.\n\n\n**The short version** — The signature **jjukkumi bokkeum + ureong ssambap** (₩16,000) is everything this place is about, and it's the right order. The wrap greens are generous and the snail doenjang is packed. Been to Ocean World? You have to eat this.\n \n\n## A 30-second glossary\n\n- **Jjukkumi** — webfoot octopus: a small, chewy octopus, usually stir-fried (*bokkeum*) in a fiery red sauce.\n- **Ureong** — freshwater snails. Chewy, mild, and at home in doenjang.\n- **Gang-doenjang** — a thick, concentrated soybean paste stew, made for spooning onto rice and wraps.\n- **Ssam / ssambap** — *ssam* means \"wrap\": lettuce and other leaves filled with rice (*bap*) and whatever's on the table.\n- **Kkaennip** — perilla leaves. Herby and fragrant, a cousin of Japanese shiso.\n- **Ocean World** — the water park at Vivaldi Park resort in Hongcheon, Gangwon-do.\n\n## Here's how the table looks\n\n\n Two plates of jjukkumi, a pile of wrap greens, and the snail doenjang. \n \n\nSit down and the red **jjukkumi bokkeum** arrives on black plates. Next to it: a heap of lettuce, perilla leaves, green chilies and garlic, and a small earthenware pot of **snail gang-doenjang**. Once the side dishes land, there isn't an empty inch on the table.\n\n## Star #1: jjukkumi bokkeum\n\n\n Glossy stir-fried jjukkumi, loaded with chewy tentacles. \n \n\nThe jjukkumi comes stir-fried red with onion and green onion, with chopped scallions scattered on top. The sauce is glossy, and **the octopus is satisfyingly chewy.** The heat hits hard up front, but that's not the end of it: a sweetness underneath keeps pulling you back for more.\n\n## Star #2: ureong ssambap\n\n\n
\n They don't hold back on the wrap greens. \n \n
\n Kimchi, seasoned greens, green chilies. Plenty of side dishes, too. \n \n
\nPrices and hours are from Naver Place as of September 2026. They may change during peak season, so double-check before you go.\n \n\n## Jayden's verdict\n\n> Ocean World gave me a mouthful of water. Dongmakgol gave me a mouthful of rice. The second was the real highlight of the day.\n\n- **Jjukkumi bokkeum**: ★★★★★\n- **Snail doenjang wraps**: ★★★★★\n- **Coming back?** Yes. Any trip to Hongcheon, it goes on the itinerary.\n"},{"slug":"yangjae-oneuldo-bossam-kalguksu","title":"Oneuldo Bossam Kalguksu, Yangjae: Self-Serve Barley Rice and Kimchi Stew After Dark","description":"A bossam-and-noodle house that still serves kimchi jjigae at dinner. Barley rice is self-serve and unlimited, every side dish is made in-house, and it's rated 4.85 on Naver. The Yangjae branch is the best!","topic":"food","tags":["Seoul Food","Kimchi Jjigae","Bossam","Kalguksu","Yangjae","Seocho-gu"],"publishedAt":"2026-09-03T20:00:00+09:00","updatedAt":"2026-09-03T20:00:00+09:00","growthStage":"evergreen","version":"1.0","content":"\nSome days you just need kimchi jjigae. The problem is when that day turns into **dinner**.\n\nAt lunch, kimchi jjigae is everywhere. At dinner, it strangely vanishes, because so many places switch to grilled meat and drinking food for the evening. But **Oneuldo Bossam Kalguksu** in Yangjae-dong keeps the kimchi jjigae coming at dinner, too. And the barley rice? **Self-serve.**\n\n\n**The short version** — It's a bossam-and-kalguksu house, but **you can still get kimchi jjigae at dinner.** **Barley rice is self-serve** and unlimited, and every side dish is made in-house. Oneuldo Bossam Kalguksu, Yangjae branch: the best!\n \n\n## A 30-second glossary\n\n- **Kimchi jjigae** — kimchi stew: well-fermented kimchi simmered with meat into a sour, spicy broth. Korean comfort food at its most everyday.\n- **Boribap** — rice cooked with barley. Here you mix it bibimbap-style with side dishes, gochujang and sesame oil.\n- **Bossam** — boiled pork, sliced and eaten wrapped with kimchi and other fixings. *Gabri* refers to *gabrisal*, a pork cut from where the shoulder meets the loin.\n- **Kalguksu** — \"knife-cut noodles\" in a hot broth. Here it's made with *dongjuk*, a small clam.\n- **Banchan** — the side dishes that come with a Korean meal.\n- **Dadaegi** — a spicy seasoning paste you stir in to make a soup hotter.\n\n## Kimchi jjigae at 7:50 p.m.\n\n\n Well-fermented napa cabbage kimchi and meat. Even at dinner, this pot is on. \n \n\nThe kimchi jjigae comes bubbling in its own pot. Big pieces of well-fermented **napa cabbage kimchi**, with meat peeking out through the broth. The broth is sour and sharply spicy, and the longer it simmers, the deeper it gets, until the kimchi goes meltingly soft. At dinnertime, this was exactly what I wanted.\n\n## The secret weapon: self-serve barley rice\n\n\n
\n Barley rice at the self-serve bar. Scoop as much as you like. \n \n
\n \"All side dishes are made right here in the restaurant.\" \n \n
\n Every table has a \"how to enjoy it\" sign. \n \n\nThe sign on the table even walks you through the barley rice: **add yeolmu kimchi (young radish kimchi), bean sprouts, gochujang and sesame oil, then mix everything evenly.** Follow along and you've made your own bibimbap. A spoonful of kimchi jjigae broth on the side goes great with it, too.\n\n\n The side dishes they make in-house. They double as bibimbap toppings. \n \n\n## The real specialty: bossam and kalguksu\n\nAs the name says, the main event here is actually **bossam and kalguksu**. Remember the kalguksu tip from the table sign, too: **when the clams open, fish them out and eat them first; once the broth is at a rolling boil, add the noodles and cook for about 6 minutes.** If you want it spicier, just ask for dadaegi.\n\nAt lunch there are specials at ₩10,000 each: the **gabri bossam set** and the **dongjuk kalguksu set**. Value at lunch, kimchi jjigae and bossam at dinner. This place earns its keep all day.\n\n## What other diners say\n\nNaver Place, as of September 2026. Portions and value score especially high. Naver's review keywords, roughly translated:\n\n- ⭐ **Visitor rating 4.85** · **2,219 reviews**\n- 🥇 **\"The food is delicious\"** — 2,098 people\n- 🥬 **\"Fresh ingredients\"** — 1,150\n- 🍚 **\"Generous portions\"** — 1,012, **\"Great value for money\"** — 788\n- 🪑 **\"Spacious\"** — 774, **\"Friendly service\"** — 538\n\nNaver Place's one-line summary reads, roughly, **\"heartfelt food made with fresh ingredients.\"** It lines up exactly with that sign about making every side dish in-house.\n\n## Menu and prices\n\n| Menu | Price |\n| --- | --- |\n| Lunch special: gabri bossam set | ₩10,000 |\n| Lunch special: dongjuk kalguksu set | ₩10,000 |\n| Sandeomi (\"mountain-high\") dongjuk kalguksu + boribap | ₩10,000 |\n| **Gabri bossam** (S / M / L) | **₩41,000 / ₩49,000 / ₩58,000** |\n| Basak haemul twijeon (crispy fried seafood pancake) | ₩20,000 |\n| Gwamegi (semi-dried fish) bossam samhap · Tongyeong oyster bossam · jjukkumi bossam (seasonal) | ₩50,000–₩58,000 |\n\n## How to order (even with zero Korean)\n\n- Say **\"Kimchi-jjigae juseyo\"** (김치찌개 주세요) — kimchi jjigae, please. Yes, even at dinner.\n- The barley rice and side dishes are self-serve: head to the self-serve bar and help yourself.\n- Ordering kalguksu and want it spicier? Ask **\"Dadaegi juseyo\"** (다대기 주세요).\n- At lunch, look for the two ₩10,000 specials: gabri bossam set and dongjuk kalguksu set.\n\n## Visit info\n\n📍 **Oneuldo Bossam Kalguksu, Yangjae branch (오늘도보쌈칼국수 양재점)** · 58 Mabang-ro 10-gil, Seocho-gu, Seoul (1F)\n\n- 🚇 **Getting there**: Yangjae Citizen's Forest Station (Sinbundang Line), Exit 2, about a 13-minute walk (around 830 m)\n- 🕐 **Hours**: 11:00–22:00, weekday **break time 15:00–17:00** (last orders 14:30 / 21:30), no break on weekends\n- 💰 **Price**: lunch specials ₩10,000, gabri bossam from ₩41,000\n- ✅ **Good to know**: parking, reservations, group seating, takeout, delivery, high chairs, Wi-Fi, mobile payment\n- 🗺️ **Maps**: [Google Maps](https://www.google.com/maps/search/?api=1&query=37.475095%2C127.0451299) · [Naver Map](https://map.naver.com/p/entry/place/2003637016) — Google Maps finds the spot and handles subway routes in Korea, but for walking directions Naver Map is more reliable.\n\nTwo minutes away on foot is [Guryonggak](/en/posts/yangjae-guryonggak-jjamppong-ganjjajang), great for jjamppong, ganjjajang and oi-muchim (cucumber salad). Save them both as a Yangjae double-header.\n\n\nPrices and hours are from Naver Place as of September 2026 and may change over major holidays like Seollal and Chuseok. Check the kimchi jjigae price at the restaurant.\n \n\n## Jayden's verdict\n\n> A place that serves kimchi jjigae at dinner is rare. One that also lets you help yourself to barley rice is a treasure.\n\n- **Kimchi jjigae**: ★★★★★\n- **Self-serve barley rice**: ★★★★★\n- **Coming back?** Yes. Next time I'm setting a 6-minute timer for the kalguksu.\n"},{"slug":"mullae-cheolsanjang-pyongyang-naengmyeon","title":"Cheolsanjang, Mullae: In Seoul's Steel District, the Broth Never Lets You Down","description":"In Mullae-dong, Seoul's old metalworking neighborhood, a restaurant with 'iron' in its name gets everything right: Pyongyang naengmyeon, bibim naengmyeon, suyuk, dumplings. Over 2,500 reviews and still rated 4.9.","topic":"food","tags":["Seoul Food","Pyongyang Naengmyeon","Naengmyeon","Suyuk","Mullae-dong","Yeongdeungpo-gu"],"publishedAt":"2026-09-02T20:00:00+09:00","updatedAt":"2026-09-02T20:00:00+09:00","growthStage":"evergreen","version":"1.0","content":"\nI have an old restaurant theory.\n\n**\"In neighborhoods that work with iron, the broth is always good.\"**\n\nPeople who spend their day around molten metal and machine oil want a hearty, hot bowl, and a cold one that cools them right down. A restaurant in that kind of neighborhood can't survive on lazy broth. Mullae-dong, famous for its metalworking alleys, and **Cheolsanjang**, a restaurant with *cheol* (鐵, iron) right in its name, proved the theory perfectly.\n\n\n**The short version** — **Pyongyang naengmyeon, bibim naengmyeon, suyuk**: all delicious. A clear, deep broth is the foundation here. Over 2,500 reviews and still **rated 4.9**, the highest score of the 10 restaurants in this round of reviews.\n \n\n## A 30-second glossary\n\n- **Naengmyeon** — cold noodles. Two classic styles below.\n- **Pyongyang naengmyeon** — buckwheat noodles in a clear, chilled meat broth, named for the North Korean capital. Famously subtle.\n- **Bibim naengmyeon** — buckwheat noodles tossed in a sweet-spicy red sauce instead of broth.\n- **Suyuk** — boiled meat, thinly sliced. Here it's *satae*, beef shank.\n- **Mandu** — dumplings. The Pyongyang style runs big.\n- **Cheol (철)** — iron. A fitting name in Mullae-dong, a neighborhood of metalworking shops.\n\n## Bowl #1: Pyongyang naengmyeon\n\n\n Clear broth, buckwheat noodles, sliced meat. Pyongyang naengmyeon starts this quietly. \n \n\nClear broth sloshes in a stainless-steel bowl. On top: buckwheat noodles, sliced meat, a soft-boiled egg, cucumber. People say the first sip of Pyongyang naengmyeon tastes bland. But by the second and third, **the deep flavor of the meat broth** creeps up on you. The noodles have that short, snappy bite that only buckwheat gives you.\n\nNew to Pyongyang naengmyeon? Remember just one thing: **hold off on the vinegar and mustard, and take three sips of broth first.**\n\n## Bowl #2: bibim naengmyeon\n\n\n Bright red bibim naengmyeon. Alternate it with the Pyongyang bowl and it never ends. \n \n\nIf Pyongyang naengmyeon is the far end of subtle, bibim naengmyeon is the opposite end. A soft-boiled egg and sesame seeds sit on a bright red sauce. The sweet-spicy sauce clings to the buckwheat noodles, and if you alternate, **one bite of Pyongyang, one bite of bibim**, you're stuck in an endless spicy-then-cool loop. Going as two? Order one of each and share. That's the correct answer.\n\n## Plate #3: suyuk and mandu\n\n\n Thin-sliced suyuk and big Pyongyang dumplings. This is where a naengmyeon house shows its skill. \n \n\nA naengmyeon house shows its real skill in the side dishes, because a place that makes broth is, in the end, a place that boils meat. The **suyuk** comes thinly sliced, tender and moist, and it's great alternated with sips of the cold broth. The big **Pyongyang mandu** are packed full, and you can order a half plate (₩6,000), so they're an easy add-on.\n\nPyongyang naengmyeon, bibim naengmyeon, suyuk, mandu. Of everything on the table that day, **there wasn't a single miss.**\n\n## What other diners say\n\nNaver Place, as of September 2026. It has **the highest rating** of the 10 places in this round. Naver's review keywords, roughly translated:\n\n- ⭐ **Visitor rating 4.9** · **2,589 reviews**\n- 🥇 **\"The food is delicious\"** — 2,444 people\n- 🏛️ **\"Stylish interior\"** — 1,391, **\"Spacious\"** — 1,114\n- 🙂 **\"Friendly service\"** — 937\n- ✨ **\"Unique menu items\"** — 841, **\"High-quality meat\"** — 768\n- 📝 Most-mentioned topics in reviews: taste (2,063) > satisfaction (1,368) > service (519)\n\nNaver Place's one-line summary reads, roughly, **\"a harmonious meeting of mulgalbi and naengmyeon\"** (mulgalbi being galbi cooked in broth). In other words, the meat dishes, like the pork galbi and the gopchang hot pot, have a following of their own. They went straight onto my list for next time.\n\n## Menu and prices\n\n| Menu | Price |\n| --- | --- |\n| **Pyongyang naengmyeon** (signature) | **₩12,000** |\n| **Bibim naengmyeon** | **₩12,000** |\n| Deulgireum naengmyeon (perilla oil cold noodles) | ₩12,000 |\n| Onraeng manduguk (dumpling soup) | ₩12,000 |\n| Pyongyang mandu (full plate / half plate) | ₩12,000 / ₩6,000 |\n| **Satae suyuk** — boiled beef shank (full plate / half plate) | **₩32,000 / ₩16,000** |\n| Dwaeji jeyuk — sliced pork (full plate / half plate) | ₩22,000 / ₩12,000 |\n| Handon pork galbi (Korean pork, 300 g, signature) | ₩19,900 |\n| Gopchang jeongol — offal hot pot (signature) | ₩52,000 |\n\nA **bigger portion of noodles is free**. On a hungry day, be sure to ask when you order.\n\n## How to order (even with zero Korean)\n\n- Say **\"Pyongyang naengmyeon hana, bibim naengmyeon hana juseyo\"** (평양냉면 하나, 비빔냉면 하나 주세요) — one of each, please. The perfect order for two.\n- Hungry? Add **\"Yang mani juseyo\"** (양 많이 주세요) — a bigger portion, please. Extra noodles cost nothing.\n- For a side, ask for a half plate: **\"Suyuk ban jeopsi juseyo\"** (수육 반 접시 주세요) for half a plate of suyuk, or swap in *mandu* for dumplings.\n- When the naengmyeon arrives: three sips of broth before you touch the vinegar and mustard.\n\n## Visit info\n\n📍 **Cheolsanjang (철산장)** · 12 Gyeongin-ro 77ga-gil, Yeongdeungpo-gu, Seoul (1F, Mullae-dong)\n\n- 🚇 **Getting there**: Sindorim Station (Line 1 & Line 2), Exit 6, about an 8-minute walk (around 380 m). Pairs nicely with a stroll around Mullae Arts Village.\n- 🕐 **Hours**: 11:00–22:30 (last order 21:30), weekday **break time 15:00–17:00**, no break on weekends\n- 💰 **Price**: naengmyeon ₩12,000, half plate of suyuk ₩16,000\n- ✅ **Good to know**: parking, reservations, group seating, high chairs, Wi-Fi, mobile payment\n- 🗺️ **Maps**: [Google Maps](https://www.google.com/maps/search/?api=1&query=37.511927%2C126.8923209) · [Naver Map](https://map.naver.com/p/entry/place/2090672889) — Google Maps finds the spot and handles subway routes in Korea, but for walking directions Naver Map is more reliable.\n\n\nPrices and hours are from Naver Place as of September 2026 and may change over major holidays like Seollal and Chuseok. Double-check before you go.\n \n\n## Jayden's verdict\n\n> In the steel district, the broth doesn't betray you. Theory: proven.\n\n- **Pyongyang naengmyeon**: ★★★★★\n- **Bibim naengmyeon**: ★★★★★\n- **Suyuk & mandu**: ★★★★★\n- **Coming back?** Yes. Next time I'm checking out that mulgalbi-and-naengmyeon combo.\n"},{"slug":"itaewon-petra-hummus","title":"PETRA, Itaewon: My No. 1 Middle Eastern Spot, Settled by One Plate of Hummus","description":"Tear off warm bread, drag it through hummus pooled with olive oil, and the Itaewon Middle Eastern rankings sort themselves out. PETRA: 5 minutes from Noksapyeong Station, with spices gentle enough for first-timers.","topic":"food","tags":["Seoul Food","Middle Eastern Food","Hummus","Itaewon","Yongsan-gu"],"publishedAt":"2026-09-01T20:00:00+09:00","updatedAt":"2026-09-01T20:00:00+09:00","growthStage":"evergreen","version":"1.0","content":"\n**Petra** is the name of an ancient city carved out of red rock in the middle of the Jordanian desert.\n\nItaewon has a restaurant with the same name. It's a 5-minute walk from Noksapyeong Station, on the second floor of a building. And it's where I settled my Itaewon Middle Eastern food rankings. **No. 1: PETRA.** The deciding blow was the **hummus**.\n\n\n**The short version** — For Middle Eastern food, this is No. 1. **Get the hummus.** Tear the warm bread, plunge it into hummus pooled with olive oil, and it's game over. The spices never overpower, so it's an easy start even if Middle Eastern food is new to you.\n \n\n## A 30-second glossary\n\n- **Hummus (홈무스 / 후무스)** — boiled chickpeas blended smooth with tahini, lemon juice, olive oil and garlic. The Middle East's national dip. On Korean menus you'll see it as *hommuseu* or *humuseu*.\n- **Tahini** — sesame paste, the backbone of hummus.\n- **Baba ganoush** — a roasted eggplant dip.\n- **Labneh** — strained yogurt thick enough to call cheese, served as a dip.\n- **Noksapyeong** — the Line 6 station one stop from Itaewon, and the closest station to PETRA.\n\n## Hummus first\n\n\n Olive oil pooled between the swirls. This one plate explains the whole restaurant. \n \n\nPETRA's hummus comes spread across the plate in a swirl. Golden **olive oil** pools in every groove, chopped parsley sits in the center, and red paprika is dusted over the top. Take a bite and it's **remarkably smooth and creamy.** Behind the nutty chickpea flavor comes a fresh lift of lemon, so it never gets heavy, however much you eat.\n\n## Hummus's partner: bread\n\n\n
\n Flatbread baked with herbs. Tear it and dive into the hummus. \n \n
\n Bread, rice, hummus. With this combo, two people leave full. \n \n
\n Fragrant yellow rice topped with fried onions and herbs. \n \n\nOnce the hummus and bread have woken up your appetite, it's time for rice to fill you up. Yellow rice comes piled with **crispy fried onions and chopped herbs**. There's a gentle waft of spice, but nothing overpowering, so even Middle Eastern food first-timers can dig in comfortably.\n\n## What other diners say\n\nNaver Place, as of September 2026. Naver's review keywords, roughly translated:\n\n- ⭐ **Visitor rating 4.64** · **705 reviews**\n- 🥇 **\"The food is delicious\"** — 427 people\n- ✨ **\"Unique menu items\"** — 315\n- 🙂 **\"Friendly service\"** — 152, **\"Generous portions\"** — 117, **\"Fresh ingredients\"** — 116\n- 📝 Most-mentioned topics in reviews: taste (320) > satisfaction (219) > service (90)\n\nNaver Place's one-line summary reads, roughly, **\"Korean-style Middle Eastern food, easy on the spices.\"** That's exactly how it felt to me. There's no better place to start with Middle Eastern food.\n\n## Menu and prices\n\n| Menu | Price |\n| --- | --- |\n| **Hummus** | **₩9,000** |\n| Baba ganoush (roasted eggplant dip) | ₩9,000 |\n| Labneh (yogurt cheese dip) | ₩9,000 |\n| Falafel | ₩8,000–₩12,000 |\n| Miza (미자) | ₩11,000 |\n| Tabbouleh salad / olive salad | ₩9,000 |\n| Tahini salad | ₩12,000 |\n| Pita (bread) | ₩2,000–₩4,000 |\n| Jasmine rice / saffron rice / couscous | ₩5,000 |\n\nOrder two or three dips (hummus, baba ganoush, labneh) with bread on the side, and you've got a Middle Eastern spread for the whole table to share.\n\n## How to order (even with zero Korean)\n\n- Hummus is **홈무스** on the menu. Say **\"Hommuseu hana-rang pita juseyo\"** (홈무스 하나랑 피타 주세요) — one hummus and pita, please.\n- With a group, go for two or three dips plus bread, then add rice or couscous (₩5,000) to fill up.\n- Eat it the right way: tear the bread, find the olive oil pools, scoop.\n\n## Visit info\n\n📍 **PETRA (페트라)** · 33 Noksapyeong-daero 40-gil, Yongsan-gu, Seoul (2F)\n\n- 🚇 **Getting there**: Noksapyeong Station (Line 6), Exit 1, about a 5-minute walk (around 180 m); or Itaewon Station (Line 6), Exit 1, about a 9-minute walk\n- 🕐 **Hours**: daily 11:30–21:00\n- 💰 **Price**: dips ₩9,000, rice and couscous ₩5,000, bread from ₩2,000\n- ✅ **Good to know**: Wi-Fi\n- 🗺️ **Maps**: [Google Maps](https://www.google.com/maps/search/?api=1&query=37.5346857%2C126.9877129) · [Naver Map](https://map.naver.com/p/entry/place/11701020) — Google Maps finds the spot and handles subway routes in Korea, but for walking directions Naver Map is more reliable.\n\nLooking for one more meal around Itaewon? Up the hill in Haebangchon, there's [The Back Food Truck](/en/posts/haebangchon-the-back-food-truck-burger).\n\n\nPrices and hours are from Naver Place as of September 2026. Double-check before you go.\n \n\n## Jayden's verdict\n\n> A piece of bread, a scoop of hummus. Funny that a restaurant named after a desert city is where I learned what *luscious* means.\n\n- **Hummus**: ★★★★★\n- **Bread**: ★★★★★\n- **Coming back?** Yes. Next time, the full spread with baba ganoush and falafel.\n"},{"slug":"ai-changed-how-i-learn","title":"AI Didn't Help Me Pass PMP. It Changed How I Learn","description":"How I shifted from using AI as an answer machine to a cognitive partner, building a robust learning feedback loop for the PMP exam and future knowledge systems.","topic":"work","tags":["PMP Prep","AI Learning System","Feedback Loop","Systems Thinking","Knowledge Management","Retrospective"],"publishedAt":"2026-07-20T22:47:00+09:00","updatedAt":"2026-07-20T22:47:00+09:00","growthStage":"evergreen","version":"1.0","revisions":[{"version":"1.0","date":"2026-07-20","summary":"Initial publication of PMP learning workflow and system reflections.","changes":["Structured the post to emphasize the cognitive workflow and system-building for future reference"]}],"content":"\nWhen people found out that I passed the PMP (Project Management Professional) exam, one question came up repeatedly:\n\n> **\"What prompts did you use?\"**\n\nAt first, I smiled because I knew they were asking the wrong question. It wasn't a specific set of prompts that made the difference. The **workflow** was. \n\nThat realization completely changed the way I study—not just for the PMP, but for everything I want to learn going forward. This post serves as a personal guide for my future self, outlining a structured learning system that I can deploy whenever I face new, complex domains.\n\n---\n\n## Most People Use AI as Google\n\nI almost made the same mistake. The standard approach goes like this:\n\n1. Ask a question when stuck.\n2. Read the answer.\n3. Move on, feeling productive.\n\nWhile this feels efficient, very little actually stays in your long-term memory. When you get answers too easily, your brain stops putting in the effort to retain them. \n\nEventually, I realized that AI becomes far more valuable when it doesn't give you the answers immediately, but instead **challenges you to ask better questions**. I needed a thinking partner, not a search engine.\n\n---\n\n## My Learning Feedback Loop\n\nInstead of treating AI as a search engine, I built a feedback loop to convert mistakes into reusable knowledge assets.\n\n```\n[Question & Practice] \n ↓\n [Own Attempt] \n ↓\n [Wrong Answer] \n ↓\n [AI Dissection] \n ↓\n [Reflection] \n ↓\n [Personal Notes] \n ↓\n [Flashcards] \n ↓\n [Re-attempt]\n```\n\nIt is not about the volume of questions solved; it is about how effectively every incorrect answer triggers a corrective loop in the system.\n\n---\n\n## 5 Principles of Using AI as a Cognitive Partner\n\nHere are the five operational rules I established for my learning workflow, which I must follow in future studies:\n\n### 1. Dissect Every Incorrect Option\nMost people ask, *\"Why is A correct?\"* True learning, however, lies in understanding the incorrect options. I frequently asked the AI:\n\n> *\"I know A is the correct answer in this scenario. But explain exactly why B, C, and D are incorrect. What assumptions or conditions make them wrong?\"*\n\nUnderstanding why something is incorrect often teaches you more than simply knowing the correct answer. This single habit dramatically improved my understanding of PMI's specific mindset and logic.\n\n### 2. Compare Boundaries of Mental Models\nWhenever I struggled to differentiate between Predictive, Agile, and Hybrid approaches, I resisted asking, *\"Which one is correct here?\"* Instead, I prompted:\n\n> *\"I have Predictive, Agile, and Hybrid models. In this specific situation, what are the exact failure modes of each approach? Where do they break down?\"*\n\nBy focusing on **where models fail**, I gained a clear, boundary-defined understanding of when to apply each model.\n\n### 3. Force AI to Challenge My Logic\nTo prevent confirmation bias, I deliberately asked the AI to play the devil's advocate. This forced active metacognition:\n\n```markdown\nRoleplay setup:\n\"Pretend you are a highly critical, skeptical PMP instructor. \nFind the logical flaws in the conclusion I just drew, challenge my reasoning, \nand try to convince me why I am wrong.\"\n```\n\nDefending my thoughts and refining my arguments against the AI's critiques forced me to organize my knowledge and solidified my understanding.\n\n### 4. Build Structured Assets from Mistakes\nEvery incorrect answer had to be converted into a reusable asset:\n* A **flashcard** (using spaced repetition like Anki) for core concept reviews.\n* A **personal note** detailing why I fell for the distractor choice.\n* A **one-sentence summary** explaining the concept to a complete beginner.\n\nBy systematically converting mistakes into assets, my weakest areas gradually transformed into my strongest domains.\n\n### 5. Aggregate Error Patterns\nThe biggest advantage of AI wasn't that it knew the facts; it was its ability to detect patterns across my data.\n\nI periodically fed my error logs and notes to the AI and asked:\n* What recurring logical fallacies do you notice in my thinking?\n* What concepts am I consistently misunderstanding?\n* Where am I exhibiting overconfidence or bias?\n\nInstead of studying the entire curriculum blindly, this analysis allowed me to surgically target the exact concepts that needed improvement.\n\n---\n\n## Looking Back\n\nPassing the PMP exam wasn't the most valuable outcome. Learning how to build a scalable learning system was. \n\nAfter sharing my PMP journey on LinkedIn, the post reached over 21,000 impressions. Yet, almost all follow-up conversations focused on the \"shortcuts\"—specifically, the prompts. \n\nIt reminded me of an important truth: people often search for short-term shortcuts. But sustainable growth comes from **improving the underlying systems, not collecting better prompts**.\n\nPrompts and models will change, but the core human feedback loop of mistake, reflection, and adjustment remains constant.\n\n## Key Takeaways for My Future Self\n\n* AI is a **thinking partner**, not a knowledge vending machine.\n* Prioritize **decomposing incorrect paths** over memorizing correct answers.\n* Convert every error into a **structured, reusable learning asset**.\n* Motivation fluctuates; a robust **feedback loop** is what guarantees improvement.\n* The quality of your growth is determined by the quality of your questions. The most important question I ever asked was: **\"Why am I wrong?\"**\n\nThis system will shape how I approach project management, language learning, building products, and writing for years to come. Whenever I need to master a new skill, this feedback loop is the first thing I will run.\n"},{"slug":"building-products-alone-with-ai","title":"How I Build Products Alone with AI: From Idea to Launch","description":"A practical process for using AI across research, planning, development, testing, and launch while keeping product judgment and responsibility human.","topic":"work","tags":["AI product development","solo developer","MVP","AI coding","product launch"],"publishedAt":"2026-07-15T09:00:00+09:00","updatedAt":"2026-07-15T09:00:00+09:00","growthStage":"growing","version":"1.0","revisions":[{"version":"1.0","date":"2026-07-15","summary":"Seven-step guide for solo product building with AI.","changes":["Published idea-to-launch process"]}],"relationships":[{"type":"expands","slug":"how-i-built-three-products-faster-with-ai"},{"type":"references","slug":"every-pm-should-learn-ai-automation"}],"content":"\nBuilding a product once required several people with different specialties. AI now lets one person move quickly between customer research, planning, design, development, testing, and documentation. That does not mean AI replaces an entire team. It means the solo builder carries more judgment—and more responsibility.\n\nFor me, the value of **building a product alone with AI** is not simply generating code faster. It is narrowing the problem, removing work that does not matter, and shortening the distance between an idea and a real user. This is the process I follow from the first problem statement to an MVP launch and the first useful feedback.\n\n\nAI can increase speed, but it cannot choose the direction. A human still decides what to build, who it serves, and when to stop.\n \n\n## AI is an accelerator, not a co-founder\n\nAsk an AI tool for startup ideas and it will produce a polished list in seconds. The problem is that the list does not know my experience, the users I can reach, the time I have, or the risks I can afford.\n\nI do not treat AI as a co-founder. I use it as several assistants with narrow roles.\n\n- **Research assistant:** maps a market and groups competing approaches.\n- **Product assistant:** organizes requirements and questions missing assumptions.\n- **Development assistant:** implements small changes and explains the code.\n- **Testing assistant:** proposes failure cases and test scenarios.\n- **Editorial assistant:** improves onboarding, landing-page copy, and documentation.\n\nI keep the final decision with me. Without that boundary, output accelerates while the product quietly expands in the wrong direction.\n\n## 1. Define the problem in one sentence\n\nBefore I build anything, I complete this sentence:\n\n> **Help [a specific person] reduce [a concrete problem] in [a real situation] by [a clear approach].**\n\n“Build an AI task manager” describes a solution, not a problem. “Help solo business owners running several projects choose today’s essential work in five minutes” gives me a user, a situation, and an outcome.\n\nAt this stage, I do not ask AI to invent the answer. I ask it to attack the gaps in my sentence.\n\n- Does this problem happen frequently?\n- How does the user solve it today?\n- Is the pain strong enough to justify changing behavior?\n- Can I define a narrower first user?\n- Which assumption can I test without building a product?\n\nA strong starting point is not an idea with many answers. It is an idea with clear questions.\n\n## 2. Research with AI, then verify with people\n\nAI is fast during early research. It can group competitors, outline user segments, and draft interview questions. But its summary should never be mistaken for market evidence.\n\nI separate findings into three layers:\n\n1. **AI-generated hypotheses** — useful possibilities that remain unverified\n2. **Directly checked sources** — product pages, pricing, reviews, and public documentation\n3. **User experience** — interviews, observation, and actual behavior\n\nProduct direction becomes more reliable as it moves toward the third layer. When possible, I ask five potential users about the same problem. “How did you handle this the last time it happened?” is more useful than “Would you use this feature?” Past behavior is stronger evidence than future intent.\n\n## 3. Write a one-page product brief\n\nAfter research, I create a one-page product brief instead of a long specification. It contains only what I need to make the next decision.\n\n| Field | What to write |\n|---|---|\n| User | The single type of user this version serves |\n| Problem | A concrete, recurring source of friction |\n| Promise | The one outcome that changes after use |\n| Core flow | The actions from entry to useful result |\n| Non-goals | Features this version will not include |\n| Success signal | A behavior or number to check after launch |\n| Risks | Privacy, cost, accuracy, and operational burden |\n\nAI is useful for finding contradictions, missing edge cases, and vague language in this brief. The most important section is often **non-goals**. Solo products stall more often from excessive scope than from a lack of features.\n\n\n\n*AI connects the stages faster, but the builder still decides when the product is ready to move forward.*\n\n## 4. Build the shortest useful MVP flow\n\nAn MVP is not a low-quality final product. It is the smallest product that can test the most important assumption. I usually limit the first version to four steps.\n\n1. The user arrives.\n2. The user provides the minimum input.\n3. The product creates its core result.\n4. The user saves the result or takes the next action.\n\nAccount settings, dashboards, notifications, billing, and admin tools can wait unless they are part of the core hypothesis. A clickable prototype or a manual service may be enough. Sometimes producing the result by hand for five users teaches more than writing the first thousand lines of code.\n\nAI makes adding features easier. That is precisely why I need a stronger deletion rule. I do not ask, “Can I build this?” I ask, “Can I test the hypothesis without it?”\n\n## 5. Give AI small, reviewable development tasks\n\n“Build the whole app” may generate a lot of code quickly, but it also creates a system that is difficult to review. I divide the work into one screen, one user action, or one data flow at a time.\n\nEvery implementation request includes four parts:\n\n```text\nGoal: Let a user sign in with an email address.\nCurrent state: Explain the framework and relevant files.\nConstraints: List the architecture, security rules, and files that must not change.\nDone: Define the success path, failure path, and tests to run.\n```\n\nWhen code is generated, I do not immediately move to the next feature. I read the changed files, run the product, and inspect the failure paths. Code I cannot explain is code I cannot maintain. If the explanation is weak or the tests are unstable, I reduce the task further.\n\n### My AI-assisted development sequence\n\n1. Give AI the current structure and the goal.\n2. Ask for an implementation plan and file list first.\n3. Apply one small change at a time.\n4. Run type checks, linting, tests, and the production build.\n5. Verify the real user flow in a browser.\n6. Record why the change was made and what remains risky.\n\nThis process shifts my time away from rewriting generated code and toward review, product judgment, and validation.\n\n## 6. Do not delegate testing and security\n\nAI can propose tests and spot suspicious code, but “I found no problems” is not a guarantee. Authentication, payments, personal data, file uploads, and third-party APIs require deliberate human review.\n\nBefore launch, I check at least the following:\n\n- Test empty input, invalid values, duplicate requests, and failure states.\n- Confirm that secrets and personal information do not appear in the browser or logs.\n- Verify that one user cannot access another user’s data.\n- Design the experience for a wrong or unavailable AI response.\n- Set usage limits and cost ceilings before demand grows.\n- Check mobile layouts, slower networks, and basic accessibility.\n\n\nBefore sending private user data or proprietary code to an external AI service, verify the service’s data-retention policy and confirm that you have permission to share it.\n \n\n## 7. Launch small and record real behavior\n\nLaunch is not the end of the process. It is the beginning of the most reliable research. I start with a small group of people who already experience the problem instead of broadcasting to everyone.\n\nFor an early launch, I care more about these behaviors than page views:\n\n- Can users complete the core flow without an explanation?\n- Do they reuse the output or share it with someone else?\n- Where do they stop?\n- Would they be disappointed if the product disappeared?\n- Does willingness to pay appear in behavior, not only words?\n\nAI can group interview notes and logs to reveal recurring patterns. I still avoid forcing different user opinions into one convenient conclusion. The next change should address the issue closest to the product’s central promise.\n\n## A seven-day solo product loop\n\nA small experiment can fit into a one-week cycle.\n\n| Day | Work | Deliverable |\n|---|---|---|\n| 1 | Narrow the problem and user | One-sentence problem statement |\n| 2 | Research and talk to users | Three core hypotheses |\n| 3 | Define the flow and non-goals | One-page product brief |\n| 4–5 | Build the core flow with AI | Working MVP |\n| 6 | Test quality, privacy, and security | Launch checklist |\n| 7 | Release to a small group | Observations and next decision |\n\nA good product will not be complete in seven days. But I can collect enough evidence to decide whether it deserves another week. That faster learning cycle is the most practical reason to use AI.\n\n## What AI can do—and what remains my job\n\n### Work I delegate actively\n\n- First-pass classification and summarization\n- Question lists and document drafts\n- Repetitive code and test scaffolding\n- Explanations of errors and debugging hypotheses\n- Copy variations and translation drafts\n- Organization of interview and meeting notes\n\n### Work I remain responsible for\n\n- Choosing the problem worth solving\n- Interpreting user words in context\n- Setting quality, privacy, and security standards\n- Verifying generated information and code\n- Deciding what to remove and when to launch\n- Owning the cost of failure and its impact on users\n\n## Frequently asked questions\n\n### Can a non-developer build a product with AI?\n\nAI can help a non-developer create a prototype or operate a simple manual service. A production product that stores user data or accepts payments still requires an understanding of architecture, security, and operations. When the risk exceeds your knowledge, reduce the scope or ask a qualified person to review it.\n\n### Which AI tool should I choose first?\n\nChoose the task before the tool. Identify the slowest part of your current process—research, writing, design, coding, or testing—and start with one tool that improves that step. A repeatable workflow matters more than connecting many tools.\n\n### Can I ship AI-generated code without changing it?\n\nNo. Review its behavior, dependencies, licensing, security, and error handling. Run the project’s checks and production build. Code you cannot explain becomes product debt, even when it appears to work today.\n\n### What is the most important metric for a solo product?\n\nEarly on, the number of people who solve the core problem matters more than total sign-ups. Look for users who complete the key action, return, share the result, or pay for the outcome.\n\n## The human still builds the product\n\nAI gives a solo builder faster hands. It reduces the distance between research and implementation and makes unfamiliar roles easier to begin. It does not automatically create direction, user understanding, or the courage to launch.\n\nThe best solo product is not the one with the most AI features. It is the one that **selects a small problem precisely, reaches a real user quickly, and turns what it learns into the next version**.\n\nI [treat life as an ongoing project](/en/posts/built-slowly-updated-daily). Product building works the same way: release a small version, record the result, and make the next decision instead of waiting for a perfect plan. AI does not own that project. It simply helps me run the cycle faster.\n"},{"slug":"principles-of-maintaining-code-quality-with-ai","title":"How to Trust AI-Generated Code: 8 Verification Rules for Solo Builders","description":"Facing hidden mocks, duplicate components, and silent database drops while building AttractiveWebAI and Shopify apps. Here are 8 hands-on verification principles for AI coding.","topic":"work","tags":["AI coding principles","code quality","tech debt","solo developer","QA"],"publishedAt":"2026-07-13T09:00:00+09:00","updatedAt":"2026-07-13T09:00:00+09:00","growthStage":"growing","version":"1.0","revisions":[{"version":"1.0","date":"2026-07-13","summary":"Eight verification principles from Shopify and AttractiveWebAI builds.","changes":["Published AI code quality checklist"]}],"relationships":[{"type":"expands","slug":"building-products-alone-with-ai"},{"type":"references","slug":"how-i-built-three-products-faster-with-ai"}],"content":"\n#### The Illusion of the Working Screen\n\nWhen the first demo build of my Shopify membership app finally compiled without errors, I was ecstatic. A clean, responsive dashboard lit up the browser. Toggle buttons switched on and off seamlessly, and the point-allocation forms updated dynamically. Every click triggered a satisfying UI transition. It had taken me just two days of feeding high-level prompts into an AI coding assistant. At this rate, I thought I could publish it to the Shopify App Store by next week.\n\nThe excitement evaporated the moment I ran a real transaction. Using a test account to purchase a membership plan and accrue points did absolutely nothing. Digging into the source files revealed a sobering reality: the numbers displayed on the shiny dashboard were dummy values hardcoded into the component. The actual billing API integrations, webhook handlers, and discount triggers did not exist. Not a single line of functional backend logic had been written. It was a beautiful, hollow shell.\n\nI am not a trained software engineer. I work as an IT Project Manager, and in my spare time, I act as a solo builder, launching side projects with the help of AI agents like Gemini, Claude, and Codex. Over the past year, I have built a web analytics SaaS called AttractiveWebAI, Shopify merchant plugins, and a macOS window preview utility. \n\nEarly on, I was intoxicated by the velocity. I would describe a feature, and within seconds, a wall of code would appear. But as the applications grew and subsystems began to interact, the debt hidden beneath the surface came due all at once.\n\n---\n\n#### 10 Ways AI Quietly Broke My App\n\nMy shipping log is filled with painful, highly specific failures that compiler checks missed completely:\n\n1. **The Ghost Database**: The UI happily threw a \"Saved successfully\" toast message, but the data never reached the Supabase tables; it simply lived and died in local client memory.\n2. **Disconnected Endpoints**: Frontend buttons and forms were fully rendered, but the corresponding API call functions were omitted entirely.\n3. **Forgotten Mocks**: Placeholder arrays and Mock API responses introduced during early testing remained active in production mode.\n4. **Redundant Implementations**: Lacking global context of the codebase, the AI would re-generate existing helper functions or React components under slightly different names, bloat-charging the repo.\n5. **Regression Loops**: Fixing a minor layout issue on one page silently broke critical state management logic on an unrelated route.\n6. **The Build Pass Trap**: Running `npm run build` compiled flawlessly, yet the app crashed into a blank white screen during runtime due to an unhandled edge case.\n7. **The Stub Out**: The assistant proudly declared a task \"complete,\" but looking at the file, the business logic was replaced with a single comment: `// TODO: Implement actual billing logic here`.\n8. **Stale Schema Migrations**: Moving from a staging Supabase instance to a production one, the environment variables were updated, but the SQL tables, schema relationships, and DB triggers were left behind.\n9. **Invisible Business Logic**: On the Shopify merchant app, the layout was complete, but Billing API webhooks and discount coupon generation APIs were completely unlinked.\n10. **OS Permissions Failures**: On the macOS preview utility, system panels showed screen recording and accessibility permissions as \"granted,\" but the app’s runtime code failed to register the authorization, causing a silent crash.\n\nStaying up late resolving these issues taught me a vital lesson: the real bottleneck in AI-assisted development is not writing the code. **It is the human verification process—proving that a change is actually complete and safe.** Without this discipline, your codebase degrades into an unmaintainable swamp.\n\nHere are the 8 verification rules I live by to keep my code quality intact.\n\n---\n\n#### Rule 1: Write a Definition of Done Before You Ask\n\nAsking an AI to \"build a login system\" is an open invitation for lazy defaults. Instead, I write a specific list of acceptance criteria directly into the prompt:\n\n```markdown\n[Definition of Done]\n1. Users must be able to log in using Google OAuth.\n2. Session cookies must persist across page refreshes and browser restarts.\n3. Clicking \"Log Out\" must clear the session and redirect the browser to the homepage.\n4. Unauthenticated requests to private API endpoints must return a 401 Unauthorized status.\n5. Database RLS policies must restrict data access to the owner's session token only.\n6. Passwords and sensitive tokens must not be stored in plain text in local storage.\n```\n\nBy presenting clear boundaries, the AI is forced to write robust exception handling and validation code from the start.\n\n#### Rule 2: Never Accept \"Complete\" at Face Value\n\nWhen an AI agent announces that a feature is done, that is when you should be most suspicious. I always follow up by demanding a detailed breakdown:\n\n* List all modified or newly created files.\n* Describe the exact changes made to each file and the reasoning behind them.\n* Identify any mock data, stubs, or placeholders left behind.\n* Show the exact locations of `TODO` comments or `console.log` statements.\n* Outline any edge cases that were skipped due to API limitations.\n\nForcing the AI to explain its output regularly reveals hidden shortcuts or prompts it to rewrite unfinished blocks.\n\n#### Rule 3: Separate Build Success from Functional Success\n\nPassing a linter check or getting a successful build output is merely the baseline. Once the build finishes, I manually run a verification checklist:\n\n* **Persistence check**: Input data, save it, force-refresh the tab, and confirm the data is pulled correctly from the live database.\n* **Input torture**: Submit empty forms, double-click action buttons rapidly, and input invalid characters to test stability.\n* **Permissions test**: Log out, try to access dashboard routes directly, and ensure no unauthorized data leaks.\n* **Console audit**: Keep the browser Inspector open during testing to catch any silent warnings or 404 resource errors.\n\n#### Rule 4: Shrink the Surface Area of Requests\n\nAsking for a \"dashboard page with analytics integration\" in one go leads to messy code and missed requirements. I break implementation down into sequential micro-tasks:\n\n1. Define the DB table schemas and migrate them.\n2. Write and test the API endpoint independently.\n3. Build the UI layout with mock values.\n4. Bind the real API endpoints to the UI components.\n5. Write error-boundary components to handle network drops.\n6. Verify behavior on staging and refactor.\n\n#### Rule 5: Keep Creator and Reviewer AIs Separate\n\nAn AI model has a natural cognitive bias toward its own generated code in the same session. \n\nTo bypass this, copy the generated code, open a completely fresh session (or use a different model), and prompt it with a critical persona:\n\n> \"You are a senior systems engineer and an aggressive QA specialist. Review this code for potential security flaws, edge-case failures, unhandled exceptions, and performance leaks. Be brutal.\"\n\nThis split-brain approach gives me the benefit of an excellent code-review partner at my side, even when I am working alone.\n\n#### Rule 6: Track Feature States via a Granular Matrix\n\nSaying a feature is \"working\" is too vague. To keep myself honest, I maintain a simple feature status matrix in my notes:\n\n* [ ] **Unimplemented**: Planned, no code written yet.\n* [ ] **UI Only**: Visual components rendered, no backend connection.\n* [ ] **Mocked**: Interactive elements run on local dummy data.\n* [ ] **API Connected**: Communicates with local backend services.\n* [ ] **DB Persisted**: Writes to and reads from a persistent database.\n* [ ] **QA Verified**: Tested for error paths and edge cases.\n* [ ] **Prod Verified**: Verified on the live production environment.\n\nThis matrix prevents me from assuming an application is complete just because the landing page looks polished.\n\n#### Rule 7: Force Context Analysis Before Any Code Mod\n\nDo not drop a file into a chat and say \"fix this.\" The AI will often throw ad-hoc solutions that violate the existing architecture. Instruct it to analyze first:\n\n> \"I want to modify this file. Before writing any code, analyze the existing design patterns, the data flow, and how this file interacts with other parts of the application. List the functions that might be affected by changes.\"\n\nOnly after the AI successfully maps the dependencies do I allow it to write the refactored code.\n\n#### Rule 8: Document Tech Debt Openly\n\nTaking a shortcut to hit a launch deadline is sometimes necessary. The danger lies in forgetting where those shortcuts are. I keep a dedicated `tech-debt.md` file in the root of my repositories:\n\n```markdown\n## Active Technical Debt\n\n* [AttractiveWebAI] Dashboard chart uses temporary mock data (must connect the BigQuery API pipeline before public launch).\n* [Shopify App] Missing webhook validation for billing updates (major security risk; address before app store submission).\n* [macOS Utility] Hardcoded 3-second delay used for permission polling (replace with system event listener).\n```\n\nKeeping the debt visible guarantees that my next development sprint has a clear list of priorities.\n\n---\n\n#### Shipping Software That Actually Works\n\nAI coding makes development feel light and effortless. Watching lines of code materialize out of simple sentences creates a false sense of control.\n\nBut a reliable product is not measured by the lines of code generated. It is defined by the exceptions handled, the edge cases tested, and the dummy mocks successfully removed. A product built on unchecked AI assumptions collapses the moment real users interact with it.\n\nAI is an exceptional assistant and an incredibly fast typist. But the responsibility for setting boundaries and verifying quality belongs entirely to the human builder. Investigating the silent logs, checking the database states, and verifying raw code is the real work of engineering in the AI era.\n"},{"slug":"pmp-pass-review-part-2","title":"PMP Pass Review Part 2: Time Management on Exam Day and Final Tips for Passing","description":"My PMP exam day in Korean at a Pearson VUE center in Seoul: the booking email, ID rules, 80 minutes on the first 60 questions, the breaks and my final review.","topic":"work","tags":["PMP","PMP Exam Review","Pearson VUE","PMP Exam Day","PMP Time Management"],"publishedAt":"2026-07-05T09:00:00+09:00","updatedAt":"2026-10-03T09:00:00+09:00","growthStage":"maintained","version":"1.1","revisions":[{"version":"1.0","date":"2026-07-05","summary":"Exam-day companion to Part 1: time management and prep tips.","changes":["Added Pearson VUE day-of tactics"]},{"version":"1.1","date":"2026-10-03","summary":"Added the booking confirmation, test-center rules and a comparison with the new exam.","changes":["Added the Pearson VUE confirmation email (Korean-language exam, July 3 at 10:15, 270-minute appointment, Seoul center)","Summarized arrival, ID, locker, calculator and English-original rules for test day","Compared the pre-change exam with the format used since July 9, 2026","Added FAQ and sources"]}],"relationships":[{"type":"continues","slug":"pmp-pass-review-part-1"}],"content":"\nIn [Part 1](/en/posts/pmp-pass-review-part-1), I covered my seven weeks of study, what the PMP actually cost me, and my Study Hall scores.\n\nThis part follows exam day in order, from walking into the test center to holding the PASS result sheet. It's something I couldn't fully appreciate while studying: **on the day, stamina, time management and how you use your breaks matter as much as knowledge.**\n\n**In three lines** — I took the PMP in Korean at 10:15 a.m. on July 3, 2026, at the Pearson VUE center on Mugyo-ro in central Seoul. I spent 80 minutes on the first 60 questions and got rattled, but after changing tactics at the break, I finished the last section with a little time to spare. On the day, arrive 30 minutes early and bring an original government-issued ID whose name matches your booking exactly.\n\n\n**The exam I took and today's exam are structured differently.**\n\n- My exam (July 3, 2026, before the change): 180 questions (175 scored + 5 pretest), 230 minutes, with a 10-minute break after question 60 and after question 120\n- Today's exam (since July 9, 2026): 180 questions (170 scored + 10 unscored), 240 minutes. The case-study section comes first; one break follows the case studies, and another comes about halfway through the remaining questions. Once you take a break, you can't go back to earlier questions.\n\nThe time-management story below is from the old format. For everything that changed, see [Part 5: Everything that changed in the 2026 PMP exam](/en/posts/pmp-2026-exam-changes-pmbok-8), and for case studies, [Part 9: How to prepare for PMP case-study questions](/en/posts/pmp-case-study-questions).\n \n\n## Exam day at a glance\n\n| Item | My experience |\n|---|---|\n| Date and time | Friday, July 3, 2026, 10:15 a.m. |\n| Test center | Pearson Professional Center Seoul (6F The Exchange Seoul, 21 Mugyo-ro, Jung-gu) |\n| Exam language | Korean |\n| Appointment length | 270 minutes (the 230-minute exam plus tutorial, agreement and survey) |\n| Exam format at the time | 180 questions (175 scored + 5 pretest), 230 minutes |\n| Sections | Three sections of 60 questions |\n| Breaks | Two 10-minute breaks between sections |\n| Time on the first 60 questions | About 80 minutes |\n| Snacks | Chocolate bars, walnuts, almonds |\n| Result | PASS |\n\nOn paper it sounds simple: three rounds of 60 questions. In reality, reading and judging one scenario question after another for nearly four hours was far more tiring than I expected.\n\n## What the booking confirmation told me\n\nWhen I finished booking in the early hours of June 13, Pearson VUE sent a confirmation email. Mine came in Korean, and it had almost everything I needed for exam day.\n\n\n\n*My Pearson VUE confirmation email, June 13, 2026. Order number, PMI ID and registration ID hidden.*\n\n- Exam: PMP-CBT, Korean (KOR)\n- Date and time: Friday, July 3, 2026, 10:15 a.m. (local time at the center)\n- Appointment length: 270 minutes\n- Location: Pearson Professional Center Seoul, 6F The Exchange Seoul, 21 Mugyo-ro, Jung-gu\n\nThe exam itself was 230 minutes, but the appointment was 270. That's because the slot also covers the tutorial and agreement before the exam and a short survey afterward. Today's exam runs 240 minutes on its own, so check the appointment length in your own email.\n\nI walk through the application, payment and choosing a date and center in Pearson VUE, with the real emails, in [Part 3: From PMP application to Pearson VUE booking](/en/posts/pmp-application-pearson-vue-booking).\n\n## Test-center rules: arrive early, bring the right ID\n\nHere are the rules from my confirmation email and PMI's Certification Handbook. Details can vary by center, so read your own email too.\n\n- **Arrival**: Check in 30 minutes before your appointment. If you're more than 15 minutes late, you may be turned away, and the exam fee isn't refunded.\n- **ID**: Bring an original, valid, government-issued ID with your name, photo and signature. The name must match your booking exactly. My booking listed my name in English, and a passport is the safest choice because it leaves no doubt about the match.\n- **Lockers**: Your belongings go in a locker. About the only things you keep on you are your ID and the locker key.\n- **Calculator**: There's one built into the exam screen.\n- **Translated exams**: In a Korean-language exam, the questions and screens are in Korean, and each question has an exhibit button that shows the English original. The two languages aren't displayed side by side.\n\nI also double-checked that my name in English and my ID details matched the booking. Getting turned away over an ID problem would make all those weeks of study feel wasted.\n\n### Walking in on the day\n\nI'd done Full Mocks and thought I was reasonably ready, but the test center felt completely different.\n\nFrom the ID check to putting away my things to sitting down at the workstation, the nerves kept building. When the first question appeared, I read every sentence longer than usual and kept second-guessing even the easy options.\n\n## The exam itself: 80 minutes on the first 60 questions\n\n### It felt harder than I expected\n\nHonestly, the real exam felt harder than I'd expected. I'd seen plenty of similar questions in Study Hall, but under exam pressure, small differences between options felt huge.\n\nThe same thoughts came back with almost every question:\n\n- Both answers sound right, so which one comes first?\n- Is this an analyze-first situation or an act-first one?\n- Is it time to escalate?\n- Is this agile or predictive?\n- Is the question asking for `FIRST` or `NEXT`?\n\nQuestions where I was torn between two options drained far more energy than questions I simply didn't know. Chasing total certainty on every question made time vanish.\n\n### I spent 80 minutes on the first 60 questions\n\nThe first section of 60 questions took me about 80 minutes. When I came out for the first break, I thought: \"At this pace, won't I run out of time later?\"\n\nThe reasons were simple:\n\n- Nerves made me reread questions.\n- I re-checked answers I was already sure about.\n- I couldn't let go of hard questions.\n- I focused on the question in front of me instead of the overall clock.\n\nDuring the first break, I deliberately didn't think about scores or tough questions. I drank water, ate a bit of chocolate and some nuts, and stretched my neck and shoulders. Stepping fully away from the screen, even briefly, helped.\n\nWhen I went back in, I changed tactics:\n\n> **If you clearly know it, don't reread it. Don't let one hard question steal time from the easy ones later.**\n\nFrom then on, I checked first whether the question asked for `FIRST`, `NEXT` or `BEST`, eliminated the clearly wrong options, and decided. Thanks to that, I had a little time left in the final section.\n\n### The time-management approach that worked for me\n\nIf I took the exam again, I wouldn't split time perfectly evenly across questions. Instead, I'd check my remaining time every 60 questions and cut down the moments where I get stuck.\n\n1. **Check what the question is asking you to do.** Before reading the scenario, look at the last sentence to see whether the PM should act \"first,\" \"next\" or \"how.\" The focus of the question gets clearer.\n2. **Finish clear questions in one go.** Rereading an answer you're sure of, just because you're nervous, adds up. I tried to separate questions that genuinely needed review from ones I doubted only out of nerves.\n3. **Give hard questions a time limit.** If two options kept surviving, I checked the key words and the PMP Mindset once more, then committed. Finishing the whole exam mattered more than perfect certainty on one question.\n4. **Check the clock before each section ends.** Looking at the clock after every question breaks your focus. Checking at regular intervals and before the end of each section worked better for me.\n\n## The 10-minute break goes by fast\n\nIf you test at a Pearson VUE center, keep an eye on the break clock yourself. **Ten minutes disappears much faster than you'd think.**\n\nA restroom trip, a snack, and the ID and security check to get back in add up quickly. I went slightly over 10 minutes on my first break.\n\nCheck the time at the center entrance or wherever staff point you to before you move. You may not be allowed to use your phone, so don't count on it to tell the time. Follow your center's exact procedure.\n\n### What I actually did on my breaks\n\n1. Drank water.\n2. Ate a little chocolate and some nuts.\n3. Stretched my neck, shoulders and back.\n4. Didn't replay earlier questions.\n5. Checked only my remaining time and the plan for the next section.\n\nReplaying questions during a break only feeds anxiety about a section you can't change. Clearing my head and moving my body worked much better for me.\n\n### What I was glad I brought\n\nAssuming you check your center's rules first, these helped me:\n\n- A valid ID that matches your booking\n- A quick snack like a chocolate bar\n- Nuts such as walnuts or almonds\n- Water\n- Comfortable layers you can adjust to the room temperature\n- A note with the center's location and your arrival time\n\nA small top-up of sugar and energy during breaks worked better than eating a lot. Loosening my neck, shoulders and back also helped me refocus for the next section.\n\n## What to do before exam day\n\n### Sit one four-hour mock from start to finish\n\nScoring well on short question sets and making good calls for nearly four hours are completely different experiences. A full mock tells you more than what you know:\n\n- In which section does your focus drop the most?\n- Are you taking too long on the first 60 questions?\n- How long does it take to refocus after a break?\n- How much water and food keeps you comfortable?\n- How do your neck and back feel after sitting that long?\n\nIf you can, make it realistic: phone out of reach, timer on, and only the scheduled breaks. Every surprise you remove before exam day is one less thing to deal with on it.\n\n### From two days out, only the error log\n\nThe most useful thing right before the exam wasn't rereading the book. It was going back over the questions I'd missed and **explaining in my own words why I got them wrong**. From two days before the exam, instead of adding new material, I repeated just two things: my error log and the Mindset.\n\nIn the error log, I looked at the mistakes I kept repeating rather than the right answers:\n\n- I didn't read the question to the end.\n- I didn't distinguish `FIRST` from `NEXT`.\n- I escalated before talking to the team.\n- I picked a solution before finding the cause.\n- I acted on a change before analyzing its impact.\n- I mixed up predictive and agile situations.\n\nMy error-log format and a free Word template are in [Part 6: PMP error log](/en/posts/pmp-error-log-method).\n\n### Keep the PMP Mindset short\n\nRight before the exam, I reviewed the basic order of judgment rather than long lists of processes:\n\n> **Understand the situation → Find the cause → Work with the team → Analyze the impact → Act through the proper process**\n\nIt doesn't fit every question the same way. But under pressure, it kept me from grabbing the most drastic option too quickly.\n\n### AI was a review partner, not an answer key\n\nChatGPT and NotebookLM helped me organize my error log, review the Mindset and compare confusing concepts. Right before the exam, they were especially useful for turning scattered notes into short questions and summaries.\n\nBut I don't recommend pasting PMP questions into an AI tool and checking only the option it picks. AI can misread subtle differences between options and confidently defend a wrong answer with a plausible explanation. Even with AI, do these steps yourself:\n\n1. Write down why you chose your answer first.\n2. Check the official explanation and sources.\n3. Ask the AI about gaps in your reasoning, not for the answer.\n4. If explanations conflict, go back to official material.\n5. Finish with a one-line principle in your own words.\n\nHow to ask ChatGPT good questions and how I set up NotebookLM are in [Part 7: GPT for concepts, NotebookLM audio for the commute](/en/posts/pmp-gpt-notebooklm-study).\n\n## When I got my result sheet\n\nWhen the exam ended and I saw PASS, the first thing I felt was relief. During prep, every low score and hard question shook me. In the end, those wrong answers were exactly what made me stop and think one more time in the exam room.\n\nBy domain, People was Below Target, Process was Target, and Business Environment was Above Target. One domain was Below Target and I still passed overall. That's just my result, though, and it doesn't mean you can calculate PMI's passing standard from the domain ratings.\n\nMy Study Hall scores were 66% and 65% on the Full Mocks, with an overall average of about 62%. I passed with those scores, but I won't tell you \"60% means a guaranteed pass.\" Instead, ask yourself whether you can explain your mistakes in your own words, whether you've stopped repeating the same ones, whether you can finish a Full Mock within the real time limit, and whether you can apply PMI’s order of judgment without memorizing answers. Everyone’s practice, depth of error analysis and exam-day condition are different. Those answers told me more about my readiness than any single score. I go deeper into scores in [Part 1](/en/posts/pmp-pass-review-part-1).\n\n## Final words\n\nWhen you get a question wrong, try not to think \"maybe I can't do this.\" Think of it as \"this is one I'm now more likely to get right on the real exam.\" Some questions are a gift to get wrong before exam day.\n\nWhat mattered wasn't the score itself, but using my mistakes to **find out exactly how my judgment goes wrong**.\n\nIf you're preparing now, spend your time turning what you've already studied into your own decision rules rather than piling on new material. And before the exam, actually sit for about four hours. When knowledge, stamina and time management are ready together, you'll answer with far more composure.\n\nI'm rooting for everyone preparing right now. You've got this! 💪🍀\n\n**Next:** [From PMP Application to Pearson VUE Booking: Applied June 1, Booked June 13](/en/posts/pmp-application-pearson-vue-booking)\n\n**Start from the beginning:** [PMP Pass Review Part 1: 7 Weeks of Prep, Study Hall Scores in the 60s, and a PASS](/en/posts/pmp-pass-review-part-1)\n\n\n**This review is based on the old exam.** I sat the pre-change exam on July 3: 180 questions (175 scored + 5 pretest) in 230 minutes. The new PMP exam, live since July 9, 2026, looks like this:\n\n- 180 questions = 170 scored + 10 unscored, 240 minutes\n- A case-study section comes first: one longer scenario followed by a series of questions\n- Domain weights: People 33%, Process 41%, Business Environment 26% (previously 42%, 50% and 8%)\n\nThose are big shifts, so check the current format in [Part 5: Everything that changed in the 2026 PMP exam](/en/posts/pmp-2026-exam-changes-pmbok-8). I cover case-study prep separately in [Part 9](/en/posts/pmp-case-study-questions).\n \n\n## My PMP journey at a glance\n\nFrom the day I applied to my first PDU, here are the dates straight from my inbox.\n\n\n\n*Order email for Study Hall Essentials, June 1, 2026: $49 plus $4.90 tax, $53.90 in total. Order number hidden.*\n\n\n\n*Order email for the PMP exam fee, June 12, 2026: member price $405 plus $40.50 tax, $445.50 in total. Order number hidden.*\n\n### Membership is extra, and it pays for itself\n\nThat table leaves out PMI membership. I joined on June 1. Today (October 2026) the list price in PMI's store for Korea is $139. That's the current price, not the amount on my receipt.\n\nThe math still favors joining:\n\n- Exam: $405 for members vs. $655 for non-members in Korea. That's **$250 off** a single attempt, so even after $139 for membership you're $111 ahead.\n- Retake: $275 vs. $375, another $100.\n- Renewal every three years: $60 vs. $150.\n- The PMBOK Guide 8th edition PDF is free for members.\n\nPrices vary by region. In PMI's US store, for example, the exam is $425 for members and $675 for non-members, and membership is $164. I show PMI's price screen and the order I did things in [Part 3](/en/posts/pmp-application-pearson-vue-booking).\n\n## Study Hall Essentials was the only question bank I needed\n\nSooner or later, every PMP candidate wonders how many question banks to buy. My answer: one. I used PMI's own **Study Hall Essentials** on a three-month subscription, and it was enough.\n\nWhen I subscribed, Essentials included two full-length practice exams (Full Mocks), 15 mini exams and 200 extra questions. Taking both Full Mocks under timed conditions and turning every miss into an error-log entry is plenty of work on its own. Because PMI writes the questions, the format is close to the real exam. That said, as I explain in [Part 2](/en/posts/pmp-pass-review-part-2), the real thing felt a lot harder on the day.\n\nI paid for three months on June 1 and sat the exam on July 3, so I used roughly a third of the subscription. The rest simply ran out, and it expired on September 1.\n\n\n\n*The \"Your Online Tools\" page in myPMI. The three-month Study Hall Essentials subscription I bought on June 1 expired on September 1, 2026.*\n\n### If you're buying Study Hall now\n\nPrices and contents have changed a little since then (as of October 2026):\n\n| Plan | Price | What you get |\n|---|---|---|\n| Essentials | $59 per 3 months | 2 full practice exams (180 questions each), 10 mini exams, 330 extra questions |\n| Plus | $79 per 3 months | 3 full practice exams |\n\nMembers and non-members pay the same, and Study Hall is English only. If you need a translation, PMI points you to the Google Translate browser extension. I still think Essentials is enough. Two mocks done properly and reviewed carefully beat a bigger pile of practice exams.\n\n## Scores in the 60s can still pass\n\nMy Study Hall scores: 66% on Full Mock 1, 65% on Full Mock 2, and an overall average of about 62%. The result: PASS.\n\nHonestly, those numbers didn't reassure me at all while I was studying. The more high-score pass stories I read, the louder the question got: \"Should I really sit the exam with these scores?\" So if you're in the same spot, let me say this first. **You can pass with scores in the 60s.** I did.\n\n\n\n*The result sheet I received at the Pearson VUE center right after the exam. Overall: PASS. By domain: People Below Target, Process Target, Business Environment Above Target.*\n\nPeople came back Below Target, and I still passed overall. That's just my result, though. It doesn't mean you can work out PMI's passing line from the domain ratings.\n\n### Three things that mattered more than the score\n\nLooking back, what mattered most wasn't the number. It was **figuring out which habits of thinking kept making me pick the wrong answer**. These three questions told me more about my readiness than any score did:\n\n- Am I missing fewer questions for the same reason?\n- Can I explain my reasoning without memorizing answers?\n- Can I stay focused for the full length of the exam?\n\nOf course, my scores aren't a passing standard for anyone else. The link between Study Hall scores and real results differs from person to person. Still, a number in the low-to-mid 60s is no reason to write off all your preparation.\n\nA wrong answer isn't a verdict that you're not ready. It's **a question you now get one more chance to answer correctly before the real exam**.\n\n## How I studied in seven weeks\n\nMy preparation fell into four stages. First, a quick word on what kind of exam the PMP is and why I chose to sit the old version.\n\n### What kind of exam is the PMP?\n\nThe PMP (Project Management Professional) is a project management certification run by PMI (Project Management Institute). It isn't tied to one industry or one methodology. It tests whether you can handle **people, processes and business priorities** while leading a project.\n\nIt's not a test of how much of the PMBOK Guide you've memorized. Most questions describe a situation that could easily happen on a real project and ask what the project manager should do **first** or **next**. So learning the order in which to look at a problem, and the attitude PMI expects from a PM, mattered far more than memorizing terms.\n\nTo apply, you need a set amount of project experience depending on your education (36 months with a bachelor's degree) plus 35 hours of project management training. I cover eligibility and how to write up your experience in [Part 4](/en/posts/pmp-experience-application-audit), and how the PMP compares with CAPM and PMI-ACP in [Part 10: PMP vs CAPM vs PMI-ACP](/en/posts/pmp-vs-capm-vs-pmi-acp).\n\n### Why I sat the old exam after seven weeks\n\nI started out planning to take the new exam, so I took my time, and I studied with the PMBOK Guide 8th edition.\n\nThen I finished my online course faster than expected, and there were still dates available before the switch. The core principles I'd learned carried over to the old exam just fine, so instead of stretching out my prep, I decided to focus and sit the exam that was live at the time.\n\nThe key wasn't that I'd read the newest book. It was that **I checked my study against the Exam Content Outline (ECO) and question types of the exam I was actually going to take**. Don't decide based on which edition your textbook is. Check the official outline that applies on your exam date first. I also compare the 7th and 8th editions of the PMBOK Guide in [Part 5](/en/posts/pmp-2026-exam-changes-pmbok-8).\n\n### Stage 1: Get the big picture from an online course\n\nI didn't try to memorize every detail of the PMBOK Guide at the start. Through an online course, I got the big picture first: how predictive, agile and hybrid approaches differ, and what role the PM plays in each situation.\n\nOn weekdays, I listened to at least a little after work. On days with energy to spare, I binged several lessons; on tiring days, I finished just one short section. Weekends were for reviewing the week's lessons or doing questions.\n\nI've never been someone who can sit and study for hours after work. So instead of hitting a perfect daily target, I focused on **having fewer days where I did nothing at all**.\n\nAn online course was enough for me. At first I wondered whether I needed an expensive in-person class, but building the framework online and then working through Study Hall questions and analyzing my mistakes suited me well. Finishing a course didn't teach me to pick the right option under exam conditions. I got better in the hours I spent **answering questions, getting them wrong, and rethinking how I'd decided**.\n\nOne heads-up for anyone applying soon: from December 1, 2026, the rules for the 35 training hours change. Live classes will only count if they come from a PMI Authorized Training Partner (ATP) or an accredited higher-education program, while self-paced online courses from any provider still count. Books or practice exams alone never count.\n\n### Stage 2: Learn PMI's way of judging with Study Hall\n\nAfter the basic course, Study Hall was what I used most. Each question showed me right away whether I didn't know a concept, had misread the question, or was escalating too quickly.\n\nAt first I only counted correct answers. A low score meant I hadn't studied enough, and reading high-score reviews only made me more anxious. But the more questions I did, the clearer it became that the same score could hide very different information:\n\n- Questions I missed because I didn't know the concept\n- Questions where I missed the point of `FIRST`, `NEXT` or `BEST`\n- Questions where I assumed things the question never said\n- Questions where I went straight to the sponsor or senior management\n- Questions where I tried to replace someone before talking to the team\n- Questions where I acted on a change before analyzing its impact\n\nOnce I sorted my mistakes like this, my score stopped being a report card and became a guide to what to study next.\n\n### Stage 3: Survive four hours with a Full Mock\n\nMy Full Mock scores were 66% and 65%, as above. But I didn't treat the Full Mocks only as a way to predict whether I'd pass. I used them to check whether I could stay focused for that long, where my pace dropped, and whether I could get back into the questions after a break.\n\nThe PMP tests stamina and time management as much as knowledge. If you only ever do short question sets, the exam is the first time you'll feel that kind of fatigue. Before the real thing, time yourself and take a Full Mock from start to finish at least once. I describe spending 80 minutes on the first 60 questions in [Part 2](/en/posts/pmp-pass-review-part-2).\n\n### Stage 4: Error log over new questions\n\nAs the exam got closer, I stopped adding many new questions. Instead, I went back over the ones I'd missed and tried to answer two questions:\n\n> \"Why did I choose this option?\"\n\n> \"Why is this answer better than the others from PMI's point of view?\"\n\nWhen I memorized the right answer, I got it wrong again as soon as a similar question used slightly different words. When I could explain my reasoning, I could apply the same principle to questions I'd never seen. This made the biggest difference of anything I did. My error-log format and a free Word template are in [Part 6: PMP error log](/en/posts/pmp-error-log-method).\n\n### GPT and NotebookLM: study partners, not answer keys\n\nI also used ChatGPT and NotebookLM a lot. Rather than letting AI pick answers for me, I used it as a review partner that explained and compared what I thought I understood. In ChatGPT, I set up a separate project called \"PMP 시험공부\" (PMP exam study) to keep my error notes and concept questions in one place.\n\n- Comparing two confusing concepts in a table\n- Explaining the reasoning behind my answer and having it question my hidden assumptions\n- Sorting my mistakes into concept gaps, misreading and Mindset errors\n- Having complex concepts re-explained with real project examples\n- Turning my notes into short review questions\n\nInstead of asking for the right answer, I asked things like this:\n\n```text\nI decided the PM should report to the sponsor immediately in this situation.\nFind the assumptions hidden in my reasoning,\nand ask me what I should check first from PMI's point of view.\nDon't give me the answer; help me decide again on my own.\n```\n\nIn NotebookLM, I collected my error notes and review material and used it to find themes that kept coming up. My notebook grew to 155 sources and hit the source limit. The Korean audio overviews (Deep Dives) it generated ran about 12 to 24 minutes each, a good length for one episode per commute. NotebookLM has since been renamed Gemini Notebook (July 2026).\n\nWhat I mostly used it for:\n\n- Summarizing only the mindset points I kept missing\n- Reviewing agile and predictive situations separately\n- Comparing confusing topics, like change management vs. conflict management\n- Making a short checklist to review right before the exam\n\nWhen sources pile up, it gets harder to tell what the AI based its answer on. So I kept official material with clear sources and notes I'd checked myself at the center. My ChatGPT setup and NotebookLM notebook are in [Part 7](/en/posts/pmp-gpt-notebooklm-study), and commute study plus a vocabulary list in [Part 8](/en/posts/pmp-commute-study-vocabulary).\n\n\nI don't recommend pasting Study Hall questions into an AI tool and checking only the answer it picks. PMP questions turn on subtle differences between options and on context, and AI explanations can be wrong. Always verify against official material and the explanations provided.\n \n\n## The PMP Mindset that helped on exam day\n\nI didn't treat the PMP Mindset as a formula that always applies. Ethics, legal issues, safety and urgent risks can call for immediate action. But in everyday conflict or change scenarios, this order helped me decide:\n\n1. **Understand the situation and the cause before acting.**\n2. **If the team can solve it, talk to the team first.**\n3. **Don't escalate or hand it to the sponsor right away.**\n4. **Try coaching, collaboration and conflict resolution before replacing anyone.**\n5. **Look for the root cause, not just the symptoms.**\n6. **Handle change requests through the formal process after analyzing the impact.**\n7. **Support the team and remove obstacles rather than controlling them.**\n\nOn the real exam, several options often looked reasonable. In those moments, the answer that \"understands the situation and helps the team solve it\" usually beat the answer that \"takes the strongest action right now.\"\n\n## After the PASS\n\nThe day after the exam, July 4, at 3:33 a.m. Korean time, PMI's email confirming my PMP arrived. I already knew from the result sheet, but this was PMI's first official congratulations.\n\n\n\n*The certification email I received on July 4, 2026. It says the Credly digital badge will arrive separately within one to two weeks.*\n\nThe PMP has to be renewed every three years, which means earning 60 PDUs per cycle. On August 31, I watched the PMI webinar \"Why Some Projects Fail: The Sponsor's Role,\" and my first PDU claim, 1.00 PDU, was approved on September 3. My plan for reaching 60 PDUs is in [Part 11: My 3-year, 60-PDU plan](/en/posts/pmp-60-pdu-renewal-plan).\n\nThe story continues after the exam, too. I write about what actually changed in my day-to-day work in [Part 12](/en/posts/pmp-what-changed-at-work), why I think the PMP is even more powerful for people who aren't PMs in [Part 13](/en/posts/pmp-for-non-project-managers), and whether the PMP is worth it, salary and hiring included, in [Part 14](/en/posts/is-pmp-worth-it-salary-benefits). These days I'm also a member of the PMI Korea Chapter's education committee; that story is in [Part 15](/en/posts/pmi-korea-chapter-education-committee).\n\n## The full series\n\nThe PMP Roadmap covers everything from application to passing and beyond in 15 parts. Feel free to jump to whatever you need.\n\n**My pass story and the application**\n\n1. PMP Pass Review Part 1: 7 Weeks of Prep, Study Hall Scores in the 60s, and a PASS (you're here)\n2. [PMP Pass Review Part 2: Time Management on Exam Day and Final Tips for Passing](/en/posts/pmp-pass-review-part-2)\n3. [From PMP Application to Pearson VUE Booking: Applied June 1, Booked June 13 (Real Emails)](/en/posts/pmp-application-pearson-vue-booking)\n4. [Writing Up Your PMP Experience and Handling an Audit: Applied June 1, Approved June 9](/en/posts/pmp-experience-application-audit)\n\n**Understanding the exam and how to study**\n\n5. [Everything That Changed in the 2026 PMP Exam, Plus PMBOK 7th vs 8th Edition](/en/posts/pmp-2026-exam-changes-pmbok-8)\n6. [PMP Error Log: 6 Steps to Turn Wrong Answers into Judgment Rules (+ Free Word Template)](/en/posts/pmp-error-log-method)\n7. [GPT for Concepts, NotebookLM Audio for the Commute: My PMP AI Study Routine](/en/posts/pmp-gpt-notebooklm-study)\n8. [PMP Study on Your Commute: Short, Frequent Sessions (+ My PMP Vocabulary List)](/en/posts/pmp-commute-study-vocabulary)\n9. [How to Prepare for PMP Case-Study Questions: Reading and Solving the New 2026 Format](/en/posts/pmp-case-study-questions)\n\n**Choosing and keeping the certification**\n\n10. [PMP vs CAPM vs PMI-ACP: Which One Fits You? (2026 Comparison)](/en/posts/pmp-vs-capm-vs-pmi-acp)\n11. [My 3-Year, 60-PDU Plan to Keep the PMP, Starting with My First Approved PDU](/en/posts/pmp-60-pdu-renewal-plan)\n\n**After the PMP**\n\n12. [What Changed at Work After the PMP: Not My Title, but How I Talk](/en/posts/pmp-what-changed-at-work)\n13. [The PMP May Matter Most for Non-PMs: When Developers and Designers Think Like PMs](/en/posts/pmp-for-non-project-managers)\n14. [Is the PMP Worth It? An Honest Look at Work, Salary and Hiring](/en/posts/is-pmp-worth-it-salary-benefits)\n15. [From Reading Other People's PMP Stories to the PMI Korea Chapter's Education Committee](/en/posts/pmi-korea-chapter-education-committee)\n\n## Closing Part 1\n\nOver those seven weeks, what changed most wasn't how much I'd memorized. It was the order in which I looked at a problem. Check the situation before acting, talk before replacing people, analyze the impact before changing anything: little by little, it became a habit.\n\nIn the next post, I go from the moment I walked into the Pearson VUE center to the 80 minutes I spent on the first 60 questions (and the wobble that came with it), the 10-minute breaks, snacks and stretching, and how I managed time in the final section.\n\n**Keep reading:** [PMP Pass Review Part 2: Time Management on Exam Day and Final Tips for Passing](/en/posts/pmp-pass-review-part-2)\n\n;\n\n// Example execution function representing a structured node\nasync function analyzeTicket(ticketBody: string): Promise {\n // Rather than writing prompt instructions to output JSON format,\n // we pass the schema directly to the model configuration.\n const response = await aiClient.chat.completions.create({\n model: \"gpt-4o-2026-05-10\",\n messages: [\n { role: \"system\", content: \"Analyze the customer ticket.\" },\n { role: \"user\", content: ticketBody }\n ],\n response_format: {\n type: \"json_object\",\n schema: TicketAnalysisSchema, // Enforced at the API level\n }\n });\n\n return TicketAnalysisSchema.parse(JSON.parse(response.choices[0].message.content));\n}\n```\n\nBy enforcing schema conformance at the API level, the prompt itself becomes trivial. We no longer write paragraphs instructing the model \"Do not include markdown tags, do not start with 'Sure, here is...', output only valid JSON.\" The model's output tokens are forced to match the state machine of the parser.\n\n---\n\n## Actionable Prompt-to-System Guidelines\n\nIf you are still writing long, complex system prompts, it is time to refactor. Use these rules to transition your applications from prompt engineering to system engineering:\n\n* **Deconstruct Complexity**: If your prompt is longer than 500 words, it is doing too many things. Split it into multiple sequential LLM calls or tool loops.\n* **Assert Schemas Everywhere**: Use tools like Zod, Pydantic, or native JSON schemas to validate all structured inputs and outputs between model stages.\n* **Code over Text**: If you can write a task as a simple regex, a database query, or a clean utility function, **do not use an LLM for it**. Keep LLM reasoning focused strictly on semantic analysis and synthesis.\n* **Version Control Prompts**: Treat system instructions like code. Store them in version control (git), run automated regression evaluations on updates, and test them across multiple model endpoints.\n\n---\n\n## Future Outlook: Prompts as Intermediate Representation (IR)\n\n{/* \nINLINE IMAGE 2 SPECIFICATION\nImage File Name: \"/images/posts/end-of-prompts/compiler-analogy.webp\"\nImage Prompt: \"A high-tech digital compiler diagram showing code compiling into structured prompt tokens, minimal vector artwork, deep purple and neon green colors, dark aesthetic.\"\nAlt text: \"Diagram showing prompt instructions generated automatically by compilers and frameworks rather than handwritten.\"\nCaption: \"The compiler analogy: prompts becoming an intermediate compiler target rather than human-written text.\"\nPosition: before \"What changed my perspective\"\n*/}\n\nAs agent frameworks evolve, humans will write fewer prompts. Prompts will become an Intermediate Representation (IR)—a low-level instruction set generated automatically by compilers and frameworks.\n\nSystems like DSPy (Declarative Self-Improving Language Programs) already prove this concept. Instead of writing prompts by hand, you define a program structure (inputs, outputs, and modules) and provide a small set of training examples. The framework then compiles the program, automatically generating, testing, and optimizing the prompts for your specific model using constraint optimization.\n\nIn this future, writing prompts by hand will feel like writing assembly language by hand. It will still be useful for low-level debugging or performance tuning, but most developers will write high-level logic, schemas, and assertions, leaving the instruction compilation to the frameworks.\n\n---\n\n## Internal Links\n* To see how standardized interfaces support modular system architecture, read [MCP Will Become the USB-C of AI Applications](/en/posts/mcp-usb-c-of-ai-applications).\n* For advice on maintaining test coverage and validation during AI-assisted development, review [Principles of Maintaining Code Quality with AI](/en/posts/principles-of-maintaining-code-quality-with-ai).\n* Learn about the practical tools that are reshaping developer experience in [Claude Code vs Cursor: A Builder's Deep Dive](/en/posts/claude-code-vs-cursor).\n\n## External References\n* Explore structured schemas and prompt management on the [OpenAI Developer Blog](https://openai.com/blog).\n* Read about self-improving prompt compilers and research papers on [Stanford NLP Group](https://nlp.stanford.edu/).\n* Review developer patterns for robust agent construction on the [Vercel AI SDK Docs](https://sdk.vercel.ai/).\n\n---\n\n## What changed my perspective\n\nIn 2024, I spent two weeks optimizing a system prompt for a classification feature in our product. I tweaked adjectives, added few-shot examples, and even tried telling the model that \"my job depends on this output.\" The performance hit 92% accuracy, and I felt like a genius.\n\nA month later, the provider updated the model. Our accuracy dropped to 78%, and our JSON parser began throwing syntax errors because the model suddenly added polite introductory text. \n\nThat was the moment I realized prompt engineering was an illusion. I had spent weeks tuning parameters of a chaotic black box rather than building robust software. \n\nWe threw away the monolithic prompt and replaced it with a simple three-step state machine using schema enforcement and strict input parsing. The code grew by a few dozen lines, but the prompt shrank to a single sentence. The accuracy went to 98% and stayed there, even when we updated the model. I realized that **the solution to model instability is never a better prompt; it is a better architecture**.\n"},{"slug":"mcp-usb-c-of-ai-applications","title":"MCP Will Become the USB-C of AI Applications","description":"In the fragmented landscape of LLM integrations, the Model Context Protocol (MCP) is emerging as the unifying open standard that links models to data sources and tools.","topic":"work","tags":["MCP","AI Architecture","LLM Integration","Developer Experience","AI Agents"],"publishedAt":"2026-05-08T09:00:00+09:00","updatedAt":"2026-05-08T09:00:00+09:00","growthStage":"evergreen","version":"1.0","revisions":[{"version":"1.0","date":"2026-05-08","summary":"Introduced MCP as the USB-C of AI application integrations.","changes":["Published MCP architecture overview"]}],"relationships":[{"type":"references","slug":"the-end-of-prompt-engineering"}],"content":"\n{/* \nSEO METADATA\nSEO Title: MCP: The USB-C Standard for AI Applications and Tool Integration\nSEO Description: Explore why Anthropic's Model Context Protocol (MCP) is becoming the industry standard, connecting AI models to filesystems, databases, and enterprise APIs.\nKeywords: Model Context Protocol, MCP, LLM integration, AI architecture, Anthropic MCP, AI tool call, developer experience\nCanonical URL: https://www.dailysay.me/en/posts/mcp-usb-c-of-ai-applications\nOpenGraph Title: MCP: The USB-C Standard for AI Applications and Tool Integration\nOpenGraph Description: Explore why Anthropic's Model Context Protocol (MCP) is becoming the industry standard, connecting AI models to filesystems, databases, and enterprise APIs.\nTwitter Title: MCP: The USB-C Standard for AI Applications\nTwitter Description: How Model Context Protocol (MCP) is standardizing LLM connections to data and tools.\n*/}\n\n{/* \nHERO IMAGE SPECIFICATION\nImage Prompt: \"A minimal, modern editorial illustration of multiple glowing data conduits merging into a single sleek, metallic interface port, clean background, technical styling, premium product feel, 16:9 aspect ratio.\"\ncoverAlt: \"Abstract illustration of multiple diverse data nodes cleanly plugging into a central glowing, circular protocol adapter representing Model Context Protocol.\"\n*/}\n\nFor years, the developer experience of building AI applications has felt like the early days of mobile electronics. Every LLM provider, agent framework, and developer environment came with its own proprietary way of connecting models to data. If you wanted to feed a local directory of source code into Claude, you had to write a script. If you wanted to connect GPT-4o to your Postgres database, you built a custom API connector. If you switched your underlying framework from LangChain to LlamaIndex, you rewrote half your data-loading pipelines. \n\nWe were drowning in custom adapters. We had no standard, unifying port.\n\nThat is why the Model Context Protocol (MCP) is the most critical architectural shift in AI engineering since the introduction of function calling. Originally open-sourced by Anthropic, MCP is rapidly establishing itself as the \"USB-C of AI\"—a clean, open, and bidirectional standard that abstracts how LLMs connect to data sources, filesystems, and tools.\n\nInstead of writing $N \\times M$ integrations between $N$ different models and $M$ different developer environments, MCP enables a clean, plug-and-play architecture where models act as clients that speak to standardized MCP servers.\n\n---\n\n## The Integration Bottleneck in AI Development\n\nBefore we look at the protocol itself, it is worth detailing the problem it solves. In the early wave of building LLM applications, developers encountered a massive hurdle: models are isolated. An LLM on its own has no concept of your code repository, your database schemas, or your team’s Slack history.\n\nTo bridge this gap, we built custom pipelines. We set up RAG (Retrieval-Augmented Generation) systems, constructed API gateways, and defined custom tool sets. But every integration was custom-tailored:\n\n```\n +--------------+ +-------------+\n | AI Model / | ----(Custom)-->| Postgres DB |\n | Framework | +-------------+\n | | +-------------+\n | (LangChain/ | ----(Custom)-->| GitHub API |\n | LlamaIndex) | +-------------+\n | | +-------------+\n | | ----(Custom)-->| Local Files |\n +--------------+ +-------------+\n```\n\nThis model-centric integration pattern created major issues. First, security was incredibly difficult to audit because every connection was implemented as ad-hoc code. Second, it limited the reuse of tools. If you spent days building a robust Slack connector for a LangChain agent, you couldn't easily port it to a developer tool like Cursor or a terminal editor like Claude Code without rewriting the integration wrapper.\n\nWe needed a separation of concerns. We needed a boundary between *how data is retrieved* and *how the model reasons about it*.\n\n---\n\n## The Core Concept of MCP\n\nModel Context Protocol separates the system into two distinct components:\n1. **MCP Clients**: Development applications, IDEs, or agent environments (like Cursor, VS Code, or Claude Desktop) that require access to tools and data.\n2. **MCP Servers**: Lightweight, modular programs that expose specific data sources or capabilities through the standard protocol.\n\n```mermaid\ngraph LR\n subgraph Clients [MCP Clients]\n IDE[VS Code / Cursor]\n Term[Claude Code CLI]\n App[Custom Agent App]\n end\n\n subgraph Protocol [Model Context Protocol]\n direction TB\n JSON[JSON-RPC 2.0 over SSE or Stdpipe]\n end\n\n subgraph Servers [MCP Servers]\n GitSrv[GitHub Server]\n DbSrv[Postgres Server]\n FsSrv[Local File Server]\n end\n\n Clients --> Protocol\n Protocol --> Servers\n```\n\nThe communication between the client and the server happens over JSON-RPC 2.0. By using standard input/output (stdio) for local servers and Server-Sent Events (SSE) for remote services, MCP makes it simple to run adapters locally or host them in the cloud.\n\nThe protocol defines three core types of capabilities:\n* **Resources**: Readable data sources. This could be local files, database tables, or API outputs.\n* **Prompts**: Standardized templates that help the model build structured instructions (e.g., a code review prompt).\n* **Tools**: Executable functions that allow the model to make changes in the outside world (e.g., executing a command or writing a file).\n\n---\n\n## Under the Hood: Building a Simple MCP Server\n\n{/* \nINLINE IMAGE 1 SPECIFICATION\nImage File Name: \"/images/posts/mcp-usb-c/mcp-server-schema.webp\"\nImage Prompt: \"A clean, modern software diagram showing the JSON-RPC message flow between an MCP Client and an MCP Server, minimal flat vector style, dark background, blue and teal accents.\"\nAlt text: \"JSON-RPC sequence diagram showing resource list and read requests between MCP Client and local MCP Server.\"\nCaption: \"Communication protocol flow between client and server using JSON-RPC over stdio.\"\nPosition: after \"Under the Hood: Building a Simple MCP Server\"\n*/}\n\nTo understand how simple and elegant this is, let's look at how to implement a basic MCP server in Node.js. Suppose we want to expose our local database table structures so that any AI model running in our editor can understand our schemas without us copy-pasting them.\n\nHere is a simple local MCP server using the official TypeScript SDK:\n\n```typescript\nimport { Server } from \"@modelcontextprotocol/sdk/server/index.js\";\nimport { StdioServerTransport } from \"@modelcontextprotocol/sdk/server/stdio.js\";\nimport {\n ListResourcesRequestSchema,\n ReadResourceRequestSchema,\n} from \"@modelcontextprotocol/sdk/types.js\";\n\n// Initialize the MCP server\nconst server = new Server(\n {\n name: \"schema-inspector\",\n version: \"1.0.0\",\n },\n {\n capabilities: {\n resources: {},\n },\n }\n);\n\n// Define available resources\nconst SCHEMAS = {\n \"users\": \"CREATE TABLE users (id SERIAL PRIMARY KEY, email VARCHAR(255), created_at TIMESTAMP);\",\n \"posts\": \"CREATE TABLE posts (id SERIAL PRIMARY KEY, title TEXT, author_id INT REFERENCES users(id));\"\n};\n\n// 1. Register resource list handler\nserver.setRequestHandler(ListResourcesRequestSchema, async () => {\n return {\n resources: Object.keys(SCHEMAS).map((name) => ({\n uri: `db://schema/${name}`,\n name: `${name} table schema`,\n mimeType: \"text/plain\",\n description: `DDL schema statement for the ${name} table`\n })),\n };\n});\n\n// 2. Register resource read handler\nserver.setRequestHandler(ReadResourceRequestSchema, async (request) => {\n const uri = new URL(request.params.uri);\n const tableName = uri.pathname.split(\"/\").pop();\n\n if (!tableName || !(tableName in SCHEMAS)) {\n throw new Error(`Resource not found: ${request.params.uri}`);\n }\n\n return {\n contents: [\n {\n uri: request.params.uri,\n mimeType: \"text/plain\",\n text: SCHEMAS[tableName as keyof typeof SCHEMAS],\n },\n ],\n };\n});\n\n// Connect to transport\nconst transport = new StdioServerTransport();\nawait server.connect(transport);\nconsole.error(\"Schema Inspector MCP Server running on stdio\");\n```\n\nTo run this server in an editor like Cursor or Claude Desktop, you simply add its command configuration to your client configuration file:\n\n```json\n{\n \"mcpServers\": {\n \"schema-inspector\": {\n \"command\": \"node\",\n \"args\": [\"/path/to/server.js\"]\n }\n }\n}\n```\n\nOnce loaded, the client (e.g. Cursor) automatically asks the server what resources are available. When you write a prompt like \"Help me write a query to join users and posts,\" Cursor reads the resources `db://schema/users` and `db://schema/posts` behind the scenes and injects the DDL schemas directly into the prompt context.\n\n---\n\n## Actionable Integration Strategies\n\nIf you are developing AI agents or building developer tools, you should stop writing custom API clients immediately. Instead, adapt your data layers to MCP. Here are three strategies to start implementing today:\n\n1. **Standardize Internal APIs**: Instead of building internal dashboard APIs for your team’s custom AI tools, wrap those endpoints in an MCP server. This allows any engineer on the team to query databases, trigger builds, or access documentation directly inside their IDE.\n2. **Utilize Community Servers**: Before building a server from scratch, check the growing list of open-source MCP servers. There are already highly optimized servers for GitHub, Slack, Postgres, Jira, Google Maps, and local terminals.\n3. **Decouple Tool Permissions**: By keeping tool execution logic inside the MCP server, you can control access control and write logs at the transport level. An agent cannot access a database unless the server explicitly grants read/write permissions.\n\n---\n\n## Future Outlook: The Universal Interface\n\n{/* \nINLINE IMAGE 2 SPECIFICATION\nImage File Name: \"/images/posts/mcp-usb-c/mcp-future-architecture.webp\"\nImage Prompt: \"A high-tech digital ecosystem diagram showing multiple AI models seamlessly switching between cloud databases, local workspace files, and external APIs via a clean central layer labeled MCP, neon green and purple vector elements, dark premium style.\"\nAlt text: \"Architectural schematic showing MCP as the universal abstraction layer between models and real-world tools.\"\nCaption: \"The future state of AI application architecture: MCP as the unified middleware layer.\"\nPosition: before \"What changed my perspective\"\n*/}\n\nIn the near future, the boundary of what defines an \"application\" will change. Today, we interact with software through graphical user interfaces (GUIs). Tomorrow, AI agents will navigate resources and tools using standard application schemas.\n\nIf every SaaS company, cloud database provider, and local device OS exposes its capabilities via MCP, the complexity of integration drops to near zero. A developer will no longer write API integrations; instead, they will simply spin up the database's official MCP server, and their coding agent will instantly know how to write tables, read schemas, and run migrations.\n\nMCP is not just another API format; it is the universal middleware that will power the era of autonomous software agents.\n\n---\n\n## Internal Links\n* To see how agentic coding environments compare when built on top of standardized protocols, check out [Claude Code vs Cursor: A Builder's Deep Dive](/en/posts/claude-code-vs-cursor).\n* To maintain structural integrity while building these integrations, review [Principles of Maintaining Code Quality with AI](/en/posts/principles-of-maintaining-code-quality-with-ai).\n* For a wider view on how AI workflows are evolving from simple auto-completion to autonomous terminal interactions, read [Beyond Copilots: Why AI Agents Changed My Daily Workflow](/en/posts/ai-agents-workflow-evolution).\n\n## External References\n* Learn more about the open-source announcement from the [Anthropic MCP Blog](https://www.anthropic.com/news/model-context-protocol).\n* Explore the official protocol specification and documentation on the [Model Context Protocol Website](https://modelcontextprotocol.io/).\n* Read about developer tools using standardized architectures on the [Vercel Developer Blog](https://vercel.com/blog).\n\n---\n\n## What changed my perspective\n\nFor a long time, I believed that the future of LLM integrations lay in smarter models. I assumed that as context windows expanded to millions of tokens, we would simply dump all documentation, database dumps, and repository code directly into the model's prompt window. \n\nBut building production agents taught me that context size is not the bottleneck; **noise and access control are**. Dumping raw logs and tables into a prompt degrades reasoning efficiency, raises token costs, and introduces security vulnerabilities. \n\nMCP forced me to realize that LLMs are not databases; they are CPUs. Like traditional microprocessors, they require clean memory caches and strict device drivers. MCP provides those drivers. The moment I connected my editor to a Postgres database via a local MCP server and watched the model reason about the schemas cleanly without lag, I realized we had crossed a point of no return. We finally had our USB-C.\n"},{"slug":"built-slowly-updated-daily","title":"My Way of Logging Life\n","description":"I document work, projects, travel, food, and my thoughts. This blog is a personal project notebook to organize past experiences and mistakes, helping to make the next choices slightly better.\n","topic":"diary","tags":["Life Logging","Project Manager","Retrospective","Personal Blog","Growth Log"],"publishedAt":"Sat Feb 07 2026 00:00:00 GMT+0000 (Coordinated Universal Time)","updatedAt":"2026-11-09T15:30:00+09:00","growthStage":"evergreen","version":"1.1","revisions":[{"version":"1.1","date":"2026-11-09","summary":"2026-11: added links to the topic hubs and the services I built","changes":["2026-11: added links to the topic hubs and the services I built"]},{"version":"1.0","date":"2026-02-07","summary":"Initial publication of the DailySay life-logging manifesto.","changes":["Published personal project notebook framing"]}],"content":"\n## How a project manager keeps records\n\nI work as a Project Manager.\n\nMy job involves organizing schedules, spotting issues, and aligning different opinions to produce a single result. Perhaps because of this, I often find myself thinking in a similar way during my daily life.\n\nI write down what I want to do, and then I execute it. If the results differ from expectations, I look back at the reasons and think about what to change next time. Many days don't go as planned, but through that process, I am gradually building my own standards.\n\nI started this blog to capture those experiences.\n\nI share what I learn while working, the trial and error I go through during projects, and the things I deliberate on while building new services. I also document more personal stories, like places I discover during trips, food that left an impression, and thoughts that came to mind on those days.\n\nEach topic may seem different, but in the end, they are all things I have experienced firsthand.\n\n## The process, not the success story\n\nI don't want to only leave neat success stories. I want to honestly log why plans fell through, the parts that were harder than expected, and choices that seemed like the best at the time but turned out to be regrettable later.\n\nLogging experiences ensures they don't simply fade away.\n\nIt allows me to look back on what decisions I made under which circumstances, and helps me make slightly better judgments when facing similar problems. If my thoughts change over time, that evolution itself becomes another record.\n\n## Where I want to go\n\nIn the long run, my goal is to run a company I started myself and grow it into a business valued at over $1 million.\n\nIt's still in the beginning stages, and there are many details to define. So rather than just showing a finished outcome, I plan to leave the process of heading toward the goal. I will consistently document what I tried, what went wrong, and what I changed next.\n\nThis blog is not a space for grand success stories.\n\nIt is closer to a personal project notebook to avoid forgetting the things I experienced in work and life. It is enough if it is a record that lets me understand my thoughts and choices when I read it again later.\n\nRather than starting after being perfectly prepared, I plan to record things one by one starting now.\n\n## What has piled up since (November 2026)\n\nWhen I wrote this in February, it was the only post on the blog. Since then I've passed the PMP, and posts about travel, restaurants and lunch breaks by the Han River have piled up. They're now gathered into topic hubs, so start wherever interests you.\n\n- [PMP & Project Management](/en/hubs/project-management): how I passed the PMP in seven weeks, from the application to PDUs afterwards\n- [Working and Building with AI](/en/hubs/ai): what a PM learned building products with AI coding tools\n- [Career & Onboarding](/en/hubs/career): the onboarding series, and the day a scholarship student became a mentor\n- [Travel](/en/hubs/travel): Europe 2023, Jakarta and Bali 2024, Mexico 2025\n- [Where I Eat](/en/hubs/food): from Yongsan lunches to old market spots\n- [Seoul Days & Running](/en/hubs/seoul-life): lunch breaks by the river, night runs on Namsan\n\n## Things I built\n\nI said I'd write about “building new services”. Those services are live, and you can try them.\n\n- [First Run](https://www.firstrun.fit/en): an onboarding RPG that turns a new hire's first weeks into quests. Why I built it is in [the onboarding series](/en/posts/why-onboarding-matters-in-projects).\n- [AttractiveWebAI](https://www.attractiveweb.site): paste a URL and get the site's structure as an IA spreadsheet. What building it taught me is in [how to doubt the quality of AI-written code](/en/posts/principles-of-maintaining-code-quality-with-ai).\n- [Which Chiikawa character are you?](/en/chiikawa) and the [Chiikawa PM-type quiz](/en/chiikawa-pm): three-minute personality quizzes.\n"}],"projects":[{"slug":"first-run","name":"First Run","timeline":"June 2026 - Present","status":"active","techStack":["Next.js","TypeScript","Zustand","Static export","KO · EN · JA · ES"],"links":{"demo":"https://www.firstrun.fit"},"gallery":["/images/posts/why-onboarding-matters-in-projects/firstrun-ko.jpg"],"relatedPosts":["why-onboarding-matters-in-projects","onboarding-is-an-experience","homo-ludens-gamification-at-work"],"description":"An onboarding RPG for new hires and people joining a project. You join Make Feelbetter, a fictional IT company, pick one of five roles (developer, PMO, publisher, planner, designer) and make real work decisions in quests given by mentor NPCs. Free to play in the browser, no sign-up.","lessonsLearned":"Judgement is what onboarding documents carry worst, and it is what shakes a project. So every answer is graded Excellent, Good, Risky or Poor with the reason and a learning point, and the run ends with a report of strengths, gaps and quests to review. The story spans seven chapters, from day one to someone else’s first run."},{"slug":"attractive-web-ai","name":"AttractiveWebAI","timeline":"March 2026 - Present","status":"active","techStack":["Next.js 15","TypeScript","Supabase","Lighthouse","Cheerio"],"links":{"demo":"https://www.attractiveweb.site"},"gallery":[],"relatedPosts":["principles-of-maintaining-code-quality-with-ai"],"description":"A website analysis tool: paste one URL and it reads the page’s metadata, links, structure, images and technology stack, then turns them into an IA (information architecture) spreadsheet you can hand to a client. DeepAnalyzer crawls several pages to map a whole site. Free to try without signing up.","lessonsLearned":"Built with AI coding tools, it taught me the “UI illusion”: screens that look finished while the data behind them is still mock data. The eight checks I now run before trusting AI-written code came out of this project."}],"series":[{"id":"yongsan-lunch-by-the-han","title":"Lunch Breaks by the Han River","count":3,"total":3,"posts":[{"slug":"yongsan-office-lunch-bike-ride","title":"Lunch Break by Seoul Bike: A Jamba Juice Açaí Bowl on a Riverside Deck by the Han","description":"Part 1 of my Yongsan lunch breaks by the Han. An açaí bowl from Jamba Juice at Yongsan I'Park Mall, a public bike toward Oksu, a riverside bench, and back.","topic":"diary","tags":["Yongsan Office Lunch","Seoul Diary","Han River","Seoul Bike","Açaí Bowl"],"publishedAt":"2026-10-31T20:00:00+09:00","updatedAt":"2026-10-31T20:00:00+09:00","coverImage":"/images/posts/yongsan-office-lunch-bike-ride/cover.jpg","coverAlt":"A purple açaí bowl topped with granola, mango and coconut chips on a white paper bag printed with the Jamba logo","seoTitle":"Lunch Break on the Han River by Seoul Bike: Jamba Juice Açaí Bowl on the Bogwang-dong Riverside, Yongsan","seoDescription":"Part 1 of a Yongsan office worker's lunch breaks by the Han: an açaí bowl from Jamba Juice at Yongsan Station I'Park Mall, a Ttareungyi ride to the north bank in Bogwang-dong and a sky packed with small clouds.","translationGroupId":"yongsan-office-lunch-bike-ride","status":"published","locale":"en","content":"\nTuesday lunch. I was not at my desk; I was on a bench in front of the Han River.\n\nI picked up an açaí bowl at the **Jamba Juice** in Yongsan Station's I'Park Mall, then rode along the river **toward Oksu Station**. Eat on a bench, ride back. That was the plan, and that was lunch.\n\nWhen it comes to bikes, it has to be a **Ttareungyi**.\n\n\n**In three lines**: Lunch on Tuesday, October 13, 2026. An **açaí bowl** from Jamba Juice at Yongsan Station I'Park Mall (granola, mango, coconut chips, chia seeds), carried by **Ttareungyi** (Seoul's public bike) to the riverbank toward Oksu. On a bench on a riverside deck in Bogwang-dong I finished it in about fifteen minutes, under a sky **packed with small clouds**.\n \n\n## A wall of apartments across the water\n\n\n High-rise apartments line the opposite bank. \n \n\nThe river opens up in front of the bench. The water is calm, and on the far bank high-rise apartments stand shoulder to shoulder like a wall. The sky is grey cloud from end to end.\n\nMy bench: **the riverbank next to Gangbyeon-buk-ro (the north-bank expressway) in Bogwang-dong, Yongsan-gu**, between Banpo Bridge and Hannam Bridge, on the north-bank stretch heading toward Oksu.\n\n## What came out of the Jamba bag\n\n\n Lid still on, the river behind. \n \n\nOut of the bag came one clear cup with a lid, full of purple açaí, with some smeared on the inside of the lid. Mango and granola show just underneath. Behind it, blurred: the railing, the river and the buildings across the water.\n\n\n Lid off, the toppings are piled to one side. \n \n\nLid off, the toppings sit piled to one side of the purple açaí: **granola, a yellow cube of mango, coconut chips, chia seeds and a single blueberry.** Under the chia seeds are slices that look like banana. The spoon is white plastic.\n\nThe white paper bag under the cup says **Jamba** in orange script.\n\n## The bike, by the railing\n\n\n The bike parked by the deck railing, its Ttareungyi plate on the basket. \n \n\nI sat on a riverside deck with a red floor. There is a wooden bench, and beyond the metal railing, willows lean out toward the water. The **Ttareungyi** (따릉이) is parked tight against the railing: green wheel rims, the plate on the front of the basket.\n\n\n Willows beyond the railing, and a bridge far off. \n \n\nTurn toward the railing and the river shows between the willow branches, a bridge crossing it far off. Below the deck is a slope of rocks and brush.\n\n## Look up: clouds, edge to edge\n\n\n Small clouds covering the whole sky. \n \n\nWith the açaí bowl nearly at the bottom, I looked up. **Small puffs of cloud were packed across the whole sky**, white light leaking through the gaps: what people call a mackerel sky. Along the very bottom, the apartments across the river stood in silhouette.\n\n## The bottom of the cup\n\n\n The cup says hello sunshine. The sky said otherwise. \n \n\nI held the cup up to the sky. The side reads **hello sunshine**, the inside is streaked with purple, and a little açaí is left at the bottom.\n\n\n The nearly empty cup and spoon on the bag. \n \n\nI set the nearly empty cup and the spoon down on the bag. Just past 12:30. Back on the Ttareungyi, and back I went.\n\n## The lunch route\n\n- 📅 **Date**: Tuesday, October 13, 2026, about fifteen minutes on the riverbank from around 12:20\n- 🥣 **Lunch**: one açaí bowl from Jamba Juice at Yongsan Station I'Park Mall\n- 🚲 **Getting there**: Ttareungyi from Yongsan Station along the river toward Oksu, and back\n- 📍 **Bench**: riverside deck next to Gangbyeon-buk-ro, Bogwang-dong, Yongsan-gu, Seoul (north bank between Banpo Bridge and Hannam Bridge)\n- ☁️ **Weather**: overcast, the whole sky covered in small clouds\n- 🗺️ **Map**: [Open in Google Maps](https://www.google.com/maps/search/?api=1&query=37.524%2C127.0027)\n\n## Jayden's verdict\n\n> An açaí bowl, a riverside bench, and back. When it comes to bikes, it has to be a Ttareungyi!\n\n- **Highlight**: an açaí bowl on a willow-lined riverside deck, under a mackerel sky\n- **Route**: Jamba Juice at Yongsan I'Park Mall → Ttareungyi → riverside bench toward Oksu → back again\n- **Tip**: take it to go from Yongsan I'Park Mall and hop on a Ttareungyi, and you can eat on the riverbank and be back within your lunch break.\n- **Next**: that week I went to the river at lunch on Wednesday and Thursday too.\n","readingTime":5,"series":{"id":"yongsan-lunch-by-the-han","title":"Lunch Breaks by the Han River","part":1,"total":3},"growthStage":"evergreen","version":"1.0","updateCount":0},{"slug":"yongsan-office-lunch-nodeul-island","title":"A Packed Lunch on Nodeul Island: A Cool Breeze, the 63 Building and a Cup of Black Tea","description":"Part 2 of my lunch breaks by the Han. A packed lunch on Nodeul Island under a cloudless sky, a cool breeze, a freshly renovated island and a cup of black tea.","topic":"diary","tags":["Yongsan Office Lunch","Nodeul Island","Han River","Packed Lunch","Seoul Diary"],"publishedAt":"2026-11-02T20:00:00+09:00","updatedAt":"2026-11-02T20:00:00+09:00","coverImage":"/images/posts/yongsan-office-lunch-nodeul-island/cover.jpg","coverAlt":"The green truss Hangang Railway Bridge under a clear blue sky, with the 63 Building and Yeouido towers behind it","seoTitle":"Packed Lunch Picnic on Nodeul Island, Seoul: Lunch Break by the Han River, Part 2","seoDescription":"A Yongsan office worker's lunch break on Nodeul Island: views of the Hangang Railway Bridge and 63 Building, what was in the lunch box, black tea from a tumbler, flower beds and silver grass.","translationGroupId":"yongsan-office-lunch-nodeul-island","status":"published","locale":"en","content":"\nThe day before, the sky had been packed with small clouds.\n\nThe next day, Wednesday, the sky over Nodeul Island had **not a single cloud in it.** The breeze was cool.\n\nIn [Part 1](/en/posts/yongsan-office-lunch-bike-ride), I took a public bike to a riverside deck and finished an açaí bowl. The second lunch is on Nodeul Island, an island in the middle of the Han. This time I went with a **packed lunch box**, and a flask of black tea.\n\n\n**In three lines**: Lunch on Wednesday, October 14, 2026, a lunch-box outing to **Nodeul Island**. On a stone bench facing the Hangang Railway Bridge and the 63 Building, I opened a **thermal lunch box** (multigrain rice, soup, rolled omelette, kimchi) and poured a cup of the **black tea** I had brought. The freshly renovated island looked lovely, and **I want to go back.**\n \n\n## The 63 Building beyond a green bridge\n\nStand on the island's west bank and past the grass is the river, crossed by the **green truss Hangang Railway Bridge**. Behind it rise the towers of Yeouido, and the tallest, with the Hanwha logo at the top, is the **63 Building**. The sky is blue from top to bottom.\n\nNodeul Island sits in the Han River with Hangang Bridge running across its middle; it belongs to Yongsan-gu. Freshly renovated, the island looked lovely.\n\n\n Apartments across the river, seen through willow branches. \n \n\nA few steps on, willows line the riverside path. Their branches hang almost to the ground and sway in the cool breeze. Through them: apartment blocks and a riverside road on the far bank.\n\n\n Tall, thin trees over the lawn. \n \n\nOver the lawn, a few tall, thin trees point straight at the sky. One of them has already lost about half its leaves.\n\n## A thermal lunch box on a stone bench\n\n\n Lunch on a stone bench, the railway bridge and the 63 Building behind. \n \n\nA little after noon I opened lunch, on a **grey stone bench** at the edge of the lawn. The same railway bridge and 63 Building are right there behind it. I laid a napkin on the stone and set out the black thermal containers one by one.\n\n\n Multigrain rice, soup, rolled omelette and kimchi: four containers. \n \n\nWhat I packed:\n\n- **Rice**: white rice mixed with red grains\n- **Soup**: a clear soup with what looks like napa cabbage and scallion\n- **Rolled omelette** (*gyeran-mari*): yellow, studded with scallion and bits of carrot, cut into thick slices\n- **Kimchi**: leafy-green kimchi with chunks of radish in a small tub; the empty tub beside it holds only streaks of red seasoning\n\nThe rice, soup and omelette are in matching black thermal containers; the kimchi is in small plastic tubs. A stainless steel thermos stands beside them.\n\n## A cup of black tea\n\n\n The tag on the tumbler: Twinings Lady Grey. \n \n\nAfter lunch came the **black tea**. A **Twinings Lady Grey** tea bag tag hangs from the stainless tumbler, and the tea in the white ceramic mug is a light brown. A larger thermos stands next to it.\n\nA cup of black tea, outdoors. **I loved it.**\n\n## A loop through the flower beds\n\n\n A magpie on the sloping lawn. \n \n\nToward the end of the lunch break I walked the paths inside the island. On a sloping lawn stands **a magpie**, with dry grasses and shrubs along the edge and a small wooden birdhouse-like structure on the grass.\n\n\n Willows and the river beyond a bed of pink flowers. \n \n\nThe beds on the river side are full of low **pink and white flowers**, with name labels tucked among them. Beyond them, a willow, a pier at the water's edge and apartments on a hill across the river all fit in one frame. The water glittered in the sun.\n\n## Through the silver grass\n\n\n Silver grass and one of the island's buildings. \n \n\nA roadside bed is thick with **silver grass** (*eoksae*), its plumes leaning in the wind, and one of the island's low buildings sits behind it. Nearly 1 p.m.; I had spent a little over fifty minutes on the island.\n\n## The lunch route\n\n- 📅 **Date**: Wednesday, October 14, 2026, a little over fifty minutes around noon\n- 📍 **Place**: Nodeul Island, Yongsan-gu, Seoul (the island in the Han crossed by Hangang Bridge)\n- 👀 **The view**: the Hangang Railway Bridge, the 63 Building and Yeouido's towers to the west\n- 🍱 **Lunch**: a packed thermal lunch box (multigrain rice, soup, rolled omelette, kimchi)\n- ☕ **Tea**: Twinings Lady Grey black tea from a tumbler, a mug and a thermos\n- ☀️ **Weather**: clear, not a cloud, cool breeze\n- 🗺️ **Map**: [Nodeul Island on Google Maps](https://www.google.com/maps/search/?api=1&query=Nodeul%20Island%20Seoul)\n\n## Jayden's verdict\n\n> A packed lunch, a cool breeze and a cup of black tea. I want to go back to Nodeul Island.\n\n- **Highlight**: a lunch box facing the Hangang Railway Bridge and the 63 Building, and a cup of black tea outdoors\n- **Would I go back?**: Yes. The renovated island looked lovely.\n- **Tip**: sit on the stone benches at the edge of the lawn and the railway bridge and the 63 Building are straight ahead. The next day's lunch was on Nodeul Island too. [Part 1](/en/posts/yongsan-office-lunch-bike-ride) was a Seoul Bike and an açaí bowl.\n","readingTime":6,"series":{"id":"yongsan-lunch-by-the-han","title":"Lunch Breaks by the Han River","part":2,"total":3},"growthStage":"evergreen","version":"1.0","updateCount":0},{"slug":"yongsan-office-lunch-nodeul-tea-picnic","title":"Nodeul Island, Round Two: Takeout Burgers, Then a Coworker's Tea Ceremony by the Han","description":"The last of my lunch breaks by the Han. Back on Nodeul Island: takeout lunch, then a coworker brought out a tea set. A little chilly, and all the better.","topic":"diary","tags":["Yongsan Office Lunch","Nodeul Island","Han River Picnic","Korean Tea Ceremony","Seoul Diary"],"publishedAt":"2026-11-05T20:00:00+09:00","updatedAt":"2026-11-05T20:00:00+09:00","coverImage":"/images/posts/yongsan-office-lunch-nodeul-tea-picnic/cover.jpg","coverAlt":"A celadon side-handle teapot and two cups of pale green tea with leaf flecks on a stainless wire rack","seoTitle":"Lunch Picnic on Nodeul Island, Seoul: Burgers and a Korean Tea Ceremony (Lunch Breaks by the Han, Part 3)","seoDescription":"The last part of a Yongsan office worker's lunch breaks by the Han: Shake Shack and Mom's Touch takeout, crinkle-cut fries, a windy riverbank, a coworker's celadon tea set and a three-day recap.","translationGroupId":"yongsan-office-lunch-nodeul-tea-picnic","status":"published","locale":"en","content":"\nTuesday was a public bike and an açaí bowl. Wednesday was Nodeul Island and a packed lunch.\n\nAt lunch on Thursday I was **back on Nodeul Island**, two days in a row. I brought lunch to go again, but the star of the day was something else. Once we had finished eating, **a coworker brought out a tea set.**\n\nIt was a bit windy. But that slight chill in the air? **I loved it.**\n\n\n**In three lines**: Thursday, October 15, 2026, my second lunch on Nodeul Island. On a black table over a rainbow-print picnic mat: **takeout burgers, fries and coleslaw**. After the meal, a coworker served tea, *dado*-style (the Korean way of tea), from a **celadon tea set** they had brought. Windy, a little chilly, all the better, and a lot of fun.\n \n\nThis is the last part of the series. The first two: [Part 1: an açaí bowl on a riverside deck, by public bike](/en/posts/yongsan-office-lunch-bike-ride) and [Part 2: a thermal lunch box on a stone bench on Nodeul Island](/en/posts/yongsan-office-lunch-nodeul-island).\n\n## A full table\n\n\n One grey box, several yellow MOM'S TOUCH wrappers and a tub of coleslaw. \n \n\nOn the way to the island I was carrying a paper bag printed with **SHAKE SHACK**. Around noon on Nodeul Island, the black table we set on a rainbow-print picnic mat filled up with takeout:\n\n- **A grey paper box**: a paper boat of **crinkle-cut fries** and a burger wrapped in white paper\n- **MOM'S TOUCH wrappers** (a Korean burger chain): several wrapped burgers with the yellow logo, and thin fries dusted with seasoning\n- **Coleslaw**: shredded cabbage and carrot in a clear tub, with a wooden spoon stuck in it\n- A **drink cup** in a paper carrier beside the table\n\n\n Crinkle-cut fries, and tomato and lettuce peeking out of the paper. \n \n\nUp close, the grey box holds a heap of wavy-cut fries in a paper boat, and the burger beside it is half-wrapped in white paper. Lettuce, two thick slices of tomato and something red that looks like bacon stick out of the wrapper.\n\n\n A wrapper with yellow drawings, and grass and river behind. \n \n\nI held one of the wrapped items up toward the river: behind it, dry grass, the riverside path and a grey Han River, all blurred.\n\n## The burger from the side\n\n\n Lettuce, tomato, melted cheese and a patty between the buns. \n \n\nHeld up and seen from the side: lettuce, a big slice of tomato, melted yellow cheese and a patty between golden buns. The crinkle-cut fries behind it now have ketchup on them. A few bites in, the burger was shrinking from one side.\n\n## A windy riverbank\n\n\n Sunlight breaking on the water, a white arch bridge on the left. \n \n\nLook up and there is the river. Not as clear as the day before, with a thin layer of cloud. The wind was up and the air a little chilly, and honestly, **that was the best part.** Where the sun got through, the water glittered. On the left, a **white arch bridge** (by its position, Hangang Bridge); across the river, a riverside road and buildings on a hill.\n\nWe were almost exactly where I had walked under the willows the day before, on the island's west bank.\n\n## After lunch, a coworker's tea ceremony\n\n\n The tea set on the tray, and an open thermos in front. \n \n\nOnce we had finished eating, my coworker brought out a **tea set** for *dado* (다도), the Korean way of preparing and serving tea. A **stainless steel tray** went on the table with a wire rack on top, and on the rack a **celadon teapot** and matching cups. The teapot has a handle on its side, and the glaze is covered in a net of fine crackle. In front: an open stainless thermos and a small lid rest with a brown clay base.\n\n\n Pale green tea in each cup. \n \n\nMy coworker filled every cup with **pale green tea**, tiny bits of leaf floating on top. The thermos spout tilted in, and the teapot lid came to rest on its stand. Celadon cups after burgers and fries. Tea served by the river in the wind was **so much fun.**\n\n## Three lunches in one table\n\n| Part | Date | Place | Lunch | Sky |\n| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |\n| [Part 1](/en/posts/yongsan-office-lunch-bike-ride) | Tue, Oct 13 | Riverside deck, Bogwang-dong | Jamba Juice açaí bowl | Packed with small clouds |\n| [Part 2](/en/posts/yongsan-office-lunch-nodeul-island) | Wed, Oct 14 | Nodeul Island | Packed thermal lunch box, black tea | Cloudless, cool breeze |\n| Part 3 | Thu, Oct 15 | Nodeul Island | Takeout burgers, fries, coleslaw; a coworker's tea ceremony | Thin cloud, windy |\n\nTuesday, Wednesday, Thursday: three lunch breaks in a row by the Han, anywhere from about fifteen to a little over fifty minutes by the water.\n\n## The lunch route\n\n- 📅 **Date**: Thursday, October 15, 2026, around noon\n- 📍 **Place**: the lawn on the west bank of Nodeul Island, Yongsan-gu, Seoul\n- 🍔 **Lunch**: takeout Shake Shack burger, crinkle-cut fries and drink; MOM'S TOUCH burgers and fries; coleslaw\n- 🍵 **Tea**: a coworker's tea set (celadon teapot and cups, stainless tray with a wire rack, thermos)\n- 🌬️ **Weather**: thin cloud, a bit windy and slightly chilly\n- 🗺️ **Map**: [Nodeul Island on Google Maps](https://www.google.com/maps/search/?api=1&query=Nodeul%20Island%20Seoul)\n\n## Jayden's verdict\n\n> It was a bit windy, but the slight chill made it even better. So much fun!\n\n- **Highlight**: after the burgers, a cup of tea poured by my coworker right by the river\n- **Who with**: coworkers. The tea set was my coworker's.\n- **Tip**: from the lawn on Nodeul Island's west bank you get the river and the white arch bridge in one view. On a windy day like this one, it gets a little chilly by the water.\n","readingTime":7,"series":{"id":"yongsan-lunch-by-the-han","title":"Lunch Breaks by the Han River","part":3,"total":3},"growthStage":"evergreen","version":"1.0","updateCount":0}]},{"id":"onboarding-first-run","title":"Onboarding, Played","count":3,"total":3,"posts":[{"slug":"why-onboarding-matters-in-projects","title":"Why Onboarding Matters in Projects: Decisions Made Without Context Become Risks","description":"People join projects all the time. A PM's look at repeated explanations, slow ramp-up and context-free decisions, and why onboarding is project management work.","topic":"work","tags":["Onboarding","Project Management","PM","New Hires","First Run"],"publishedAt":"2026-10-31T09:00:00+09:00","updatedAt":"2026-10-31T09:00:00+09:00","coverImage":"/images/posts/why-onboarding-matters-in-projects/cover-en.jpg","coverAlt":"Onboarding, Played part 1 cover: the title Why onboarding matters in projects on cream, with a pixel-art block staircase","seoTitle":"Why Project Onboarding Matters: 5 Things Every PM Should Cover","seoDescription":"Why onboarding mid-project joiners, vendors and partners is a PM's job: repeated explanations, slow ramp-up, context-free decisions, and 5 things to cover.","translationGroupId":"why-onboarding-matters-in-projects","status":"published","locale":"en","content":"\nProject teams rarely finish with the same people they started with. A schedule slips and another developer is brought in. A partner swaps out its staff. A planner moves over from another team halfway through. And every time someone new arrives, the project hears the same question again: \"Why did we decide to do it this way?\"\n\nThis series starts from that question. Over three posts, I'll look at why onboarding matters so much in projects, what good onboarding actually looks like, and why play belongs at work. Where all of that thinking led me is [First Run](https://firstrun.fit/en), an onboarding RPG I built for new hires and people joining a project.\n\n\n**At a glance**\n\n- Projects are temporary, so people keep joining them, and each arrival needs onboarding all over again.\n- Weak onboarding costs you in three places: repeated explanations, slow ramp-up and decisions made without context.\n- That makes project onboarding less an HR welcome event and more a PM's job: knowledge transfer and risk management.\n \n\n## Projects are made of people coming and going\n\nWhen I wrote about [what changed at work after the PMP](/en/posts/pmp-what-changed-at-work), I quoted the PMBOK Guide 8th edition's definition of a project: \"a temporary initiative in a unique context undertaken to create value.\" The word I keep connecting to onboarding is **temporary**.\n\nOperational teams build up context by having the same people do the same work for a long time. Projects work differently. You gather people around a goal, the skills you need change from phase to phase, and when it's over everyone disperses. Joining isn't the exception. It's routine. And the people joining aren't all the same:\n\n- **New hires**: new to the company and new to the project.\n- **Mid-project joiners**: they know the company, but not this project's decision history.\n- **Vendors and partners**: great at their craft, unfamiliar with how your organization works.\n- **People changing roles**: they know the people and the company, but not the judgment calls of the new role.\n\nAll four need onboarding. Yet when we say \"onboarding,\" most of us only picture the first group: the welcome deck, account setup, the benefits briefing. The onboarding a project needs is far more specific than that.\n\n## What happens when a new member works without context\n\nPicture this scene. It's a made-up example to illustrate the point, not a real case.\n\n> A developer joins a project three weeks before launch. On day two, the client contact messages them directly: \"Could you add one filter to the product list? It's a small thing.\" Wanting to be helpful, the new developer ships it in half a day. But this project agreed that scope changes go through the PM as change requests, and that one filter expands the QA scope and the UAT scenarios. A week goes by before anyone notices.\n\nDid the new developer do something wrong? I don't think so. Most likely they knew the rule but **didn't realize it applied to this exact situation**, even if the onboarding doc said, in one line, \"Scope changes go through the PM.\"\n\nThat scene contains all three costs of weak onboarding:\n\n| Cost | What it looks like | Through a PM's eyes |\n|---|---|---|\n| Repeated explanations | Every new person gets the same background from scratch | Senior people's and the PM's time drains into work nobody planned for |\n| Slow ramp-up | Long stretches of asking and waiting because nobody knows what comes first | The time until new people are fully productive is missing from the schedule assumptions |\n| Context-free decisions | Well-meant decisions that clash with agreed scope and process | Risks to scope, quality and schedule pile up quietly |\n\nThe first two are visible. The third is the scary one. Repeated explanations only cost time, but decisions made without context **quietly shift the direction of the project** while nobody is looking.\n\n## The numbers say onboarding is hard\n\nThis isn't only a project problem. Across organizations, onboarding is something most people say isn't done well.\n\n- [Gallup](https://www.gallup.com/workplace/235121/why-onboarding-experience-key-retention.aspx) reports that **only 12% of employees** strongly agree their organization does a great job onboarding new employees.\n- According to [SHRM](https://www.shrm.org/topics-tools/topics/onboarding), **only 29% of new hires** felt prepared and supported to excel in their new role.\n\nBoth figures are about new hires in general, not people joining a project midway. Still, if even new employees rarely feel ready, I'd expect someone dropped into a project that's already running to feel it even more.\n\n## Onboarding is project management work\n\nThat's why I see project onboarding not as an HR event but as **something the PM should manage**. Lay a PM's usual responsibilities next to onboarding and the overlap is obvious:\n\n| PM responsibility | What it means for onboarding |\n|---|---|\n| Resource and team management | Plan the ramp-up period along with the start date. Decide who explains what in week one |\n| Knowledge transfer | Keep decision history, what you agreed not to do and lessons learned in a structure, not in one person's head |\n| Stakeholder alignment | On day one, make clear who decides and whom to ask about what |\n| Risk management | Treat a new member's ramp-up period as a risk and plan a response |\n| Change control | Show the change request process through real situations, not just a document |\n\nThe last row is the heart of this post. Explaining a procedure and helping someone recognize when it applies are two different things. What the developer in the scene needed wasn't a list of rules. It was the chance to have already lived through the moment a client says \"it's a small thing\" and asks for something directly.\n\n## 5 things project onboarding should cover\n\nWhen someone new joins a project, these are the five things I'd make sure to cover at a minimum:\n\n1. **Why**: once this project is done, who will be able to do what better.\n2. **How far**: the agreed scope, and what we agreed not to do.\n3. **Who decides**: decision makers, communication channels and when to escalate.\n4. **What happens when things change**: the change request process and the reason behind it.\n5. **How we judge common situations**: what this team does first when the schedule slips, requirements collide or a quality issue shows up.\n\nItems 1 through 4 can be handed over in documents, more or less. Item 5 is different. Judgment sinks in less through reading and more **through making the call yourself**. And I think it's exactly where most onboarding is weakest.\n\n## That's why I built First Run\n\nWhile writing this, I kept coming back to item 5. Judgment doesn't travel well through documents, yet judgment calls are usually what shake a project. So I thought there should be a kind of onboarding where you can practice those calls in advance. That's [First Run](https://firstrun.fit/en).\n\nFirst Run is an onboarding RPG in which new hires and people joining a project experience real workplace situations as quests. You join Make Feelbetter, a fictional IT company, pick one of five roles (developer, PMO, publisher, planner or designer) and make decisions in quests handed out by mentor NPCs. The situations are the kind you meet at work: schedule delays, API issues, requirements, UI decisions and accessibility problems. The PMO role covers risk handling, schedule coordination and change control. The idea was simple: let people live through moments like the scene above inside a game first, instead of on a live project.\n\n\n First Run's share image. Game-based onboarding for new hires and project teams. \n \n\nI designed First Run from my practical experience as a PMP®-certified project manager, and it can be customized for a company or a project. Project onboarding scenarios, internal workflows and common workplace situations can all become quests, so it works for project kickoff training and vendor or partner onboarding as well as for new hires.\n\nIn a project, onboarding starts over every time someone joins. If that start can be an experience instead of an explanation, I believe a new member's first decisions become a lot less risky. That's why I built First Run.\n\n**Try it yourself** — the demo is free and runs in your browser on desktop or mobile, with no sign-up. [Play First Run →](https://firstrun.fit/en)\n\nIn the next post, I'll go one step further: why document-based onboarding doesn't stick, and what good onboarding looks like.\n\n\n**At a glance**\n\n- Documents tell you what the rules are. They're much less good at telling you what to do first in the situation in front of you.\n- Good onboarding has four things: decisions in realistic situations, role-based paths, feedback with reasons, and a safe place to be wrong.\n- In one sentence: onboarding should be something you experience, not something you read.\n \n\n## Plenty of onboarding material, and people still get lost\n\nA lot of onboarding looks the same. A few wiki links, a company intro deck, some process docs and a friendly \"Ask me anything.\" The [First Run](https://firstrun.fit/en) site lists four reasons this kind of onboarding often fails:\n\n| Problem | What happens |\n|---|---|\n| Repeated explanations | The team explains the same company and project context to every newcomer |\n| Documents that go unread | There's plenty of material, but it's hard to finish or remember |\n| Slow ramp-up | Until people face real situations, they don't know how to act |\n| Role-specific standards | Developers, PMOs, planners, designers and publishers each need different things |\n\nThe one I think sits underneath the others is the third. Even people who have read every document get stuck, because **knowing a rule and recognizing the moment it applies are different skills**.\n\nSay the onboarding doc reads: \"Scope changes must come in as change requests.\" Everyone nods. But the real moment doesn't arrive wearing a \"change request\" label. It arrives on a Friday afternoon two days before launch, when a friendly client contact messages you: \"Could you just tweak this one line of copy?\" Recognizing that message as a change request is not a skill you get from reading the doc one more time.\n\n## Four conditions of good onboarding\n\nSo where does that instinct come from? I think good onboarding needs four things.\n\n### 1. You make decisions in situations that resemble real work\n\nThis matters most. It means changing the basic unit of onboarding from **a document to read** to **a situation to judge**. A situation has context, it has options, and each choice has consequences.\n\nI went through the same thing studying for the PMP. Most PMP questions don't test facts directly. They describe a project situation and ask what the PM should do first. As I wrote in [Part 1 of my PMP review](/en/posts/pmp-pass-review-part-1), when I memorized answer sentences, I got the question wrong again as soon as a few words changed. So in my [error log](/en/posts/pmp-error-log-method) I stopped copying questions and started collecting judgment rules: \"If ___, first ___.\" Onboarding works the same way, I think. What should stick isn't a list of rules. It's judgment in context.\n\n### 2. Each role has its own path\n\nA developer and a designer can join the same project and face completely different situations in week one. The developer has to make calls on API errors and debugging, the planner on conflicting requirements, the designer on design system rules and usability reviews. Onboarding that shows everyone the same slides fits nobody.\n\nThat doesn't mean you only need to know your own role, though. Projects run on collaboration, and conversations get much easier when you understand what keeps the people next to you up at night. **A path that starts with your role and then widens to the roles around you** is the second condition.\n\n### 3. You get reasons, not just right or wrong\n\n\"Correct\" and \"Incorrect\" don't teach much on their own. At work, choices are rarely simply right or wrong. They're **better or riskier**. One option is the best move, another is fine but not ideal, and another looks harmless now but carries real risk. That's why feedback needs both a grade and a reason.\n\n\nThe quest below is an example I wrote for this post. It is not an actual First Run quest.\n \n\n> **Situation** — Friday afternoon, two days before launch. The client contact messages you: \"Could you change the text on the checkout button? It's a quick one.\" You're a developer who joined the project this week. What do you do first?\n\n| Choice | Grade | Why |\n|---|---|---|\n| Share the request with the PM and let them decide whether it becomes a change request | Excellent | A change right before launch can affect QA, translation and UAT, so the decision belongs to the decision maker |\n| Ask the client about the impact first, then summarize it for the PM | Good | The direction is right, but negotiating on your own before a decision can set expectations |\n| It's small, so fix it now and tell the PM after it's deployed | Risky | Well meant, but it skips the agreed process and adds regression risk right before launch |\n| Say you're busy, suggest Monday, and don't write it down | Poor | The request disappears and comes back after launch as a bigger issue |\n\nCompare Risky and Poor. Neither is a good choice, but for different reasons. Risky is the danger that comes from trying too hard. Poor is the problem that comes from letting something slip. Hearing that difference, with the reasoning, is what changes your call the next time a similar situation comes up.\n\n### 4. There's a safe place to be wrong\n\nPick the Risky option on a real project and you pay for it after launch. Onboarding is one of the few times you can be wrong without paying that price. For that to work, it has to be clearly OK to get things wrong, and you need a way to go back and try again. Not a test you fail once and move on from, but a practice ground where you see why you missed and take another shot.\n\n\n The four conditions drawn as one loop: a situation, a decision, the reason, and another try. \n \n\n## Document-based vs. experiential onboarding\n\nPut the four conditions side by side and the difference is clear:\n\n| | Document-based onboarding | Experiential onboarding |\n|---|---|---|\n| Basic unit | A document to read | A situation to judge |\n| Path | The same material for everyone | A path per role, widening to other roles later |\n| Feedback | None, or right/wrong | A grade, the reasoning and a learning point |\n| Mistakes | Made for the first time on real work | Made in practice first, then retried |\n| Done when | You've read it all | You can make the call |\n\nTo be clear, I'm not saying documents are useless. For information you need to look up, like goals, scope and decision makers, documents are the best tool. But onboarding that ends with documents leaves out the hardest part for a new member: the first moment they have to make a call on their own.\n\n## That's why I built First Run\n\nWhen I asked myself what format could hold all four conditions at once, my answer was an RPG. That's why I built [First Run](https://firstrun.fit/en). Here's where the four conditions live in it:\n\n- **Judgment in context**: quests built from real work situations ask what you'd do first. They're judgment questions, not facts to memorize.\n- **Role-based paths**: there are quests and mentor NPCs for five roles (developer, PMO, publisher, planner and designer), and from level 3 you can take on other roles' quests too.\n- **Feedback with reasons**: every answer is graded Excellent, Good, Risky or Poor, with the reasoning and a learning point.\n- **Safe failure**: missed quests can be retried on the Review Board, and at the end a result report lists your strengths, areas to work on and recommended review quests.\n\nAll of it can be customized for a company or a project. Quests can be built from your real work scenarios and project rules, with NPCs modeled on your mentors, your office map and your branding. In other words, a scene like the example quest above can be filled with your own team's real situations.\n\nOnboarding documents aren't going anywhere. But where the documents end, the moment a new member first has to decide alone begins. I wanted people to live through that moment safely, before it happens on a real project. That's why I built First Run.\n\n**Try it yourself** — the demo is free in your browser, with no sign-up, in Korean, English, Japanese and Spanish. [Play First Run →](https://firstrun.fit/en)\n\nThe next post tackles the last question in this series: why a game, of all things, and why play matters at work. I'll look for the answer in Johan Huizinga's *Homo Ludens*.\n\n\n**At a glance**\n\n- In *Homo Ludens* (1938), Johan Huizinga argued that civilization arises and unfolds in and as play.\n- The play he described has freedom, a time and place set apart from ordinary life, order and rules, and tension. Those features look a lot like the conditions of good onboarding.\n- Good gamification isn't about sticking points on top of work. It's about putting the judgment at the heart of the work into the form of play.\n \n\n## *Homo Ludens*: man the player\n\nThe Dutch historian Johan Huizinga (1872–1945) published *Homo Ludens* in Dutch in 1938. The English edition, which came out in 1949, carries the subtitle *A Study of the Play-Element in Culture*. *Homo ludens* is Latin for \"man the player,\" or the playing human.\n\nThe book's central claim fits in one line:\n\n> Civilization arises and unfolds in and as play.\n>\n> — Johan Huizinga, *Homo Ludens*\n\nHuizinga isn't saying that play later turned into culture. He's saying culture emerged in the form of play from the very beginning, and never fully left it. That's why he treated play not as one branch of culture but as something that comes before it. Early in the book he notes that play is older than culture, since animals never waited for humans to teach them how to play. From there, he goes looking for the play-element in law, war, poetry, philosophy and art.\n\n## Play, as Huizinga saw it\n\nIn the first chapter, Huizinga sets out the formal features of play. Four of them matter most for this post:\n\n- **Freedom**: play is voluntary. In the English translation's words, \"play to order is no longer play\"; at best it's a forced imitation.\n- **A separate time and place**: play happens apart from ordinary life, for a set stretch of time. Huizinga grouped the arena, the card table, the stage and the court of justice together as playgrounds, and the magic circle is on that same list. Decades later, Katie Salen and Eric Zimmerman popularized the term in *Rules of Play* (2003) as shorthand for the special space you step into when a game begins.\n- **Order and rules**: Huizinga wrote that play creates order, and is order. The rules inside a game bind everyone, and whoever breaks them spoils the game itself.\n- **Tension**: the uncertainty of an outcome not yet decided, and the urge to resolve it through your own effort. Huizinga thought this tension plays a particularly important part in play.\n\nThere's one more. Huizinga also said play is connected with no material interest. I'll come back to that fifth feature later.\n\n## Laying play over onboarding\n\nPut those four features next to the conditions of good onboarding from [part 2](/en/posts/onboarding-is-an-experience) and they overlap more than you might expect:\n\n| Feature of play | Carried into onboarding |\n|---|---|\n| Freedom | Room to choose what to explore first and which options to try |\n| A separate time and place | A practice ground that doesn't touch the real project. Mistakes made here stay here |\n| Order and rules | The criteria for a good decision are visible and apply to everyone equally |\n| Tension | You make a choice without knowing the outcome, then see the result and the reasoning right away |\n\nI want to underline the second row. In part 2, one condition of good onboarding was a safe place to be wrong. In Huizinga's terms, that's exactly the playground set apart from ordinary life. Because everyday rules are suspended there for a while, you can try the choices you'd hesitate to make on a real project, and fail at them.\n\n\n Four features of play as Huizinga described them, and what they look like as onboarding design. \n \n\n## Good gamification and shallow gamification\n\nGamification is usually defined as the use of game design elements in non-game contexts, a definition proposed by Sebastian Deterding and colleagues in 2011. The trouble is how broad that is. The same game element can produce completely different results depending on how you use it.\n\n| | Shallow gamification | Gamification done well |\n|---|---|---|\n| Core | Points, badges and leaderboards stuck on top of existing content | Making the call at work becomes the core action of the game |\n| Rewards | Given for logging in, clicking and getting to the end | Given for good decisions, together with the reasoning |\n| Failure | You lose points or drop down the leaderboard | A chance to learn why and try again |\n| Participation | Pushed with leaderboards and reminders | You open the next quest because you're curious |\n\nBy Huizinga's standards, shallow gamification isn't play. Leave a dull document as it is and bolt points onto it, and people tend to learn how to collect points before they learn the content. Pressure people into joining through a leaderboard, and the freedom is gone. **It borrows the look of play while stripping out what makes play work**.\n\nIn gamification done well, rewards follow judgment. Levels and badges aren't the goal. They're a record that says, \"I can now make calls like these.\"\n\n## Work isn't play, and yet\n\nThere's something I should be honest about. Huizinga said play has no material interest. Work does. We're paid for it, and it has real consequences. You can't turn work into play wholesale, and I don't think you should. You can't treat a real production incident like a game.\n\nBut **the time when you're learning the work** is different. Onboarding is time set aside to practice judgment, a step removed from real consequences. It's the most natural place for Huizinga's separate playground to exist. For the stretch when someone is first learning how a company works, I think there's every reason to borrow the form of play.\n\nOne more thing. Onboarding is usually mandatory, which seems to clash with freedom. Here's how I resolve that tension: **what you need to learn can be fixed, while how you walk that path stays your choice**. Which mentor to meet first, which option to try, when to retry the ones you missed. Even that much freedom moves onboarding a little closer from something you have to do to something you want to do.\n\n## That's why I built First Run\n\nIf, as Huizinga argued, human culture arose in play, then onboarding, the first time someone meets a company's culture, can start in play too. That's why I built [First Run](https://firstrun.fit/en). The conditions of play from this post are all in it:\n\n- **A separate space**: the campus of Make Feelbetter, a fictional IT company. Decisions made there don't affect any real project.\n- **Order and rules**: every answer is graded Excellent, Good, Risky or Poor, with the reasoning and a learning point.\n- **Tension**: you choose what to do first in real work situations and see the outcome right away. There are answer combos, too.\n- **Freedom**: you pick one of five roles to start, and from level 3 you can take on other roles' quests. Missed quests can be retried on the Review Board.\n- **Rewards as a record**: a seven-chapter story from prologue to epilogue, levels, badges, area unlocks and 12 achievements, and at the end a result report with your strengths, areas to work on and recommended review quests.\n\nStill, the center of First Run is judgment, not points. The project context from part 1, onboarding as an experience from part 2, and play from this post: I wanted to bring all three together in one place. Turning onboarding you read into onboarding you decide and experience. That's why I built First Run.\n\n**Try it yourself** — the demo is free in your browser on desktop or mobile, with no sign-up, in Korean, English, Japanese and Spanish. If you're curious about a version built for your company or project, you can request a custom build on the site. [Play First Run →](https://firstrun.fit/en)\n\nThat's the end of the *Onboarding, Played* series. Thanks for reading all the way through.\n\n\n Chiikawa and friends gathered for the PMP exam. An unofficial fan-parody image, not a real exam scene. \n \n\n\n※ This is an unofficial fan parody based on the personalities of the Chiikawa characters. It is not affiliated with the original work (Chiikawa © Nagano) or its rights holders. The situational practice questions are original examples written for explanation. They are not official PMI exam questions or answers, and not a prediction of who passes.\n \n\nAnyone who manages projects knows this moment. Someone next to you is crying because the schedule slipped, someone in front of you has started building because \"let's just try it,\" and someone else is smiling to reassure everyone.\n\nWait… isn't this exactly the Chiikawa world?\n\nThen a thought struck me. If worried Chiikawa, upbeat Hachiware and Usagi, whose actions always outrun words, sat the PMP (Project Management Professional) exam, who would pass first?\n\n**They walk into the exam room with cute faces, but the questions are not cute at all. 😭**\n\nI [earned my own PMP on July 3, 2026](/en/posts/pmp-pass-review-part-1). Studying for it and then facing the exam, I came to feel that a PM's job is less about memorizing set answers and more about judging what to look at first in a situation, and who to make the decision with.\n\nSo today I've handed the PMP exam to Chiikawa and friends. Of course, the situational questions and answers below are hypothetical cases I wrote for this blog. They are not official PMI exam questions.\n\n## 📋 Before Entering the Exam Room | What Is the PMP?\n\nThe PMP is a professional project management certification run by PMI (Project Management Institute). It assesses not only planning and execution skills but also the judgment that connects people, process and business value.\n\n[The exam was revised in July 2026](/en/posts/pmp-2026-exam-changes-pmbok-8). According to PMI's current information, it has 180 questions in 240 minutes, weighted People 33%, Process 41% and Business Environment 26%. Alongside predictive, agile and hybrid approaches, it puts more weight on situational judgment that includes AI, sustainability and value delivery.\n\n※ I earned mine on July 3, 2026, just before the revised exam took effect, so please keep my experience separate from the current exam format. For exam details, the most accurate source is PMI's official notice, so check it again before you sit the exam.\n\nOfficial PMI information: [pmi.org/certifications/project-management-pmp/new-exam](https://www.pmi.org/certifications/project-management-pmp/new-exam)\n\n## 🎒 1. How Chiikawa and Friends Prepare for the PMP\n\n### 🐹 Chiikawa | Writes a Risk Register Before the Exam Even Starts\n\n\"Um… what if I run out of time…? What if I hit three questions I don't know in a row…? Waaah!\"\n\nChiikawa's notebook is packed with error patterns, time allocation and confusing terms. Even during practice questions, Chiikawa worries about missing a single small clue. Yet that worry actually turns into risk identification and preparing in advance.\n\n**PM take:** The risk manager. Strength: preparation. Weakness: analyzing so long that decisions get put off. In the exam room, while weighing every possibility, the time to move on to the next question can disappear.\n\n### 🐱 Hachiware | \"It's okay, let's solve it together!\"\n\n\"Chiikawa, it's okay to get it wrong! Let's think together about why you picked that!\"\n\nHachiware sets the mood in the study room, explaining the material and listening to everyone's different approaches all the way through. Those strengths would probably shine on situational questions about interpersonal conflict or team growth.\n\n**PM take:** The servant leader. Strength: listening and removing impediments. Weakness: waiting for everyone to agree, so decisions come late.\n\n### 🐰 Usagi | Already Picked Option 3 Before Reading the Question\n\n\"Uraaa!!!\" (flipping past 30 questions within five minutes of the start)\n\nWhen it comes to drive, Usagi is in a league of their own. When a plan stalls, Usagi moves without hesitation. But on PMP situational questions, skipping past what you should do \"first\" and jumping straight to building, escalating or taking immediate action will get you into trouble.\n\n**PM take:** The doer. Strength: decisiveness and speed. Weakness: moving before checking the impact and the root cause. The study habit Usagi needs most is \"read the question all the way to the end before clicking an option.\"\n\n### 🪽 Momonga | Plans the Passing-Photo Angle Before Studying\n\n\"When I pass, which angle will look the coolest? I'll show you my study plan too!\"\n\nMomonga presents study progress more stylishly than anyone. Momonga may well have a knack for reporting, presenting and handling stakeholder reactions. But good-looking materials don't replace real understanding.\n\n**PM take:** The stakeholder manager. Strength: communication. Weakness: caring more about impressions than results. The PMP isn't looking for the owner of a pretty report. It's looking for someone who uses that information to lead the right decision.\n\n### 🍶 Kurimanju | \"Haa… Let's look at the priorities first.\"\n\nWhile the others spread out every textbook they own, Kurimanju sorts the wrong answers by type. \"Is this a people conflict? A process issue? Is it tied to the business objective?\"\n\n**PM take:** The experience-based judge. Strength: prioritization and a sense of balance. Weakness: leaning too hard on the old ways. \"I've done this before\" and \"Is this right for this situation now?\" are different questions.\n\n### 🦁 Shisa | The Error Log Is Leveling Up\n\n\"Today I'll review change control questions, and tomorrow I'll go over agile situational questions!\"\n\nDiligent Shisa, who learns one step at a time, sets a study goal every day. Instead of just marking a question wrong, Shisa writes down \"why my judgment was different.\"\n\n**PM take:** The growth seeker. Strength: continuous improvement and lessons learned. Weakness: putting off action until the studying feels perfect. Even when preparing for a certification, a fair amount of real practice is a must.\n\n### 🦦 Rakko | Probably Has an Incident Response Plan Even for the Exam\n\n\"If something has gone wrong, start with the facts. Who's affected, and what needs to be decided?\"\n\nRakko stays calm even in a crisis, and would probably be strong on questions about separating an issue's scope of impact and working with the right owners.\n\n**PM take:** The crisis responder. Strength: judgment and composure. Weakness: taking everything on alone because of being so capable. A real leader also needs to know how to let the team solve the problem, rather than always swooping in like a hero.\n\n## 🧠 2. The Exam Begins! Team Chiikawa Takes On Situational Questions\n\n### Question 1 | Three Days Before Launch, the Client Asks for a New Feature\n\n[Hypothetical practice question] The client urgently requests a feature outside the already agreed scope. They say the launch date cannot move. What should the PM do first?\n\n- A. Shout \"Ura!\" like Usagi and start building right away.\n- B. Tell the client \"Of course we can!\" like Momonga.\n- C. Check the purpose of the request and its impact on scope, schedule and quality, then follow the appropriate change process.\n- D. Cry like Chiikawa and stop the project.\n\n🐰 Usagi: \"A!!!\"\n\n🪽 Momonga: \"Wouldn't B be better for client satisfaction?\"\n\n🐹 Chiikawa: \"It's not D… right…?\"\n\n🍶 Kurimanju: \"Haa. Before you accept or refuse anything outright, you have to check the impact.\"\n\n**✅ Recommended answer for this hypothetical case: C — first understand the request and assess the impact of the change.**\n\nIn real work too, what matters more than \"can we do it?\" is \"what impact are we willing to accept, and who will approve it?\" The PMP mindset isn't about mechanically shouting \"no changes.\" It's closer to a judgment call that weighs value against risk.\n\n### Question 2 | Team Members Keep Clashing. What Should the PM Do First?\n\n[Hypothetical practice question] The development team and the design team each blame the other for work delays. The client is anxious and team morale has dropped.\n\n- A. Ignore the conflict and just push development faster.\n- B. Understand both sides' positions and set up a session to discuss a joint solution.\n- C. Immediately reprimand one side in public.\n- D. Stop all work until it's decided who was at fault.\n\n🐱 Hachiware: \"Both sides have something to say. Let's listen first and solve it together!\"\n\n🦁 Shisa: \"I'll also look at how we collaborated on the previous project.\"\n\n🦦 Rakko: \"Let's separate the facts of the problem from the blame game.\"\n\n**✅ Recommended answer for this hypothetical case: B — confirm the facts and resolve the conflict collaboratively.**\n\nA good PM thinks less about who won and more about how the problem gets solved and how the team can get moving again. Of course, this is different from situations that call for a formal response, such as harassment or a serious policy violation.\n\n### Question 3 | On Time and on Budget, but Users Say It's Hard to Use\n\n[Hypothetical practice question] You launched a global brand website on schedule and on budget. But overseas visitors can't find product information and are leaving. How would you approach this?\n\n- A. The project is over, so stop worrying about it.\n- B. Put only \"on schedule\" in big letters in the report.\n- C. Check customer and user feedback and the metrics, and discuss improvements with stakeholders.\n- D. Add one more celebration banner to the home page.\n\n🪽 Momonga: \"First, the success report…\"\n\n🐹 Chiikawa: \"Did what we built… not actually help the customers?\"\n\n🐱 Hachiware: \"Then let's find out together why users are having trouble!\"\n\n🍶 Kurimanju: \"Because finishing and creating value aren't the same thing.\"\n\n**✅ Recommended answer for this hypothetical case: C — look beyond the deliverables to value and outcomes.**\n\nIn the revised 2026 PMP, too, the perspective on value, outcomes and the business environment has become more important. A project doesn't end at \"did we build something?\" We also have to ask \"did we create a meaningful result?\"\n\n## 📈 3. Who Will Pass? My Own Prediction of the Exam Room\n\n- **Chiikawa:** Thorough when reviewing wrong answers, but running out of time is a worry.\n- **Hachiware:** Strong on people-centered questions, but needs decisiveness in urgent situations.\n- **Usagi:** Will get through the questions fast, but must not miss the word \"first.\"\n- **Momonga:** May be strong at stakeholder management, but needs to look after actual execution and verification.\n- **Kurimanju:** Good at judging priorities, but should stay open to learning new approaches.\n- **Shisa:** Steady review and improvement are strengths, but time management under real exam conditions is the key.\n- **Rakko:** Strong in crisis response, but should choose team collaboration over deciding alone.\n\nSo who comes first? I'm not going to pick a winner. Whether you pass the real PMP exam depends on your own ability and preparation, and these characters aren't official candidates anyway.\n\nInstead, I picture a slightly different scene. When Chiikawa worries, Hachiware studies alongside. Kurimanju channels Usagi's drive. Rakko turns Shisa's error log into real-world cases.\n\n**Seven friends who each seemed to fall short on their own learn to make better judgments when they study together.**\n\n## ✍️ 4. Looking Back on Passing the PMP | What the Certification Taught Me\n\nEarning the PMP didn't turn me into someone who can easily solve every problem on a project. Sudden client requests are still hard, and when development and design disagree, I still have to bring them together.\n\nBut studying for it gave me one important perspective. What a PM needs isn't a one-line answer to memorize for every situation. It's the attitude of making responsible choices while weighing people, process and business value together.\n\nChiikawa is scared but sees the risk first. Hachiware smiles but never just walks past someone in trouble. Usagi seems to do whatever Usagi likes, but gets stalled situations moving. Each friend's weaknesses are filled in, little by little, by another friend's strengths.\n\nBorrowing Aristotle's idea of \"practical wisdom,\" good judgment isn't complete just by memorizing rules. It takes practice in seeing what the good choice is in a given situation and then acting on it.\n\n**A certification can show what we have learned. But what kind of colleague we will be is proven by the choices we make every day.**\n\nIf someday, at the end of a project, someone says \"I'd like to work with this team again,\" wouldn't that be another kind of pass, one that no official scorecard shows?\n\nAnd Chiikawa and friends, after the exam:\n\n🐹 Chiikawa: \"Ugh… that was so hard…!\"\n\n🐱 Hachiware: \"But we really gave it our all!\"\n\n🐰 Usagi: \"Uraaa!\" (already searching for the next certification)\n\n🍶 Kurimanju: \"Haa… let's rest for now.\"\n\nCheers to every PM preparing for the PMP or leading projects in the field today. Which kind of Chiikawa PM are you? 🐹\n\n\n**Which Chiikawa are you?** Find out with the quizzes.\n\n- [Which Chiikawa Are You? Quiz](/en/chiikawa)\n- [Which Chiikawa PM Are You? Quiz](/en/chiikawa-pm)\n\nWant more situational practice? Read [How to Prepare for PMP Case-Study Questions](/en/posts/pmp-case-study-questions) too.\n \n","readingTime":12,"series":{"id":"pm-playground","title":"PM Playground","part":1,"total":1},"growthStage":"evergreen","version":"1.0","updateCount":0}]},{"id":"2025-mexico-travel-diary","title":"Mexico for Tacos: 10 Days","count":5,"total":5,"posts":[{"slug":"mexico-travel-01-mexico-city-teotihuacan-balloon","title":"Mexico City Travel 01: Midnight Check-in, Then a 4:40 a.m. Teotihuacan Balloon","description":"October 1–2, 2025: Air Canada via Vancouver, Mexico City at 10:50 p.m., check-in at midnight, then a dawn Teotihuacan balloon and the Pyramid of the Moon.","topic":"travel","tags":["Teotihuacan hot air balloon","Mexico City travel","Mexico itinerary","Air Canada via Vancouver","Pyramid of the Moon"],"publishedAt":"2026-10-13T20:00:00+09:00","updatedAt":"2026-10-13T20:00:00+09:00","coverImage":"/images/posts/mexico-travel-01-mexico-city-teotihuacan-balloon/cover.jpg","coverAlt":"A patterned balloon and a rainbow-striped one over the fields of Teotihuacan, small balloons scattered in a cloudy dawn sky","seoTitle":"Teotihuacan Hot Air Balloon Ride | Mexico City Arrival via Vancouver, Cave Breakfast, Pyramid of the Moon","seoDescription":"A Teotihuacan hot air balloon ride after a midnight arrival in Mexico City: Air Canada via Vancouver, a cave breakfast, the Pyramid of the Moon and entry tips.","translationGroupId":"mexico-travel-01-mexico-city-teotihuacan-balloon","status":"published","locale":"en","content":"\n**\"Day one, Teotihuacan. Heading out at 4:40 a.m. For the record, I got to the hotel at midnight.\"**\n\nThat is what I said into the camera, standing in front of the mirror in my Mexico City room. It was 4:39 a.m. I had been in the room for less than five hours, and the Teotihuacan tour I'd booked on Airbnb hadn't picked me up yet.\n\nIn October 2025 I spent ten days in Mexico. There was one reason. **I love tacos, so I went to Mexico to eat tacos.** I left Incheon on October 1, changed planes in Vancouver, landed in Mexico City that night, and flew out to Canada early on October 11. In between I went through Mexico City, Puebla, Guadalajara, Guanajuato and San Miguel de Allende.\n\nThis post covers the first two days: October 1, two flights and a midnight check-in, and October 2, out before dawn to fly over Teotihuacan in a balloon and climb the Pyramid of the Moon.\n\n\n**In three lines**: On October 1, 2025 I flew **Air Canada** from Incheon via **Vancouver**, landed in Mexico City around 10:50 p.m. and checked in at midnight. The next morning I left at 4:40 for a **Teotihuacan hot air balloon** ride, and the sun came up through the clouds. After breakfast in a cave restaurant I climbed the **Pyramid of the Moon**, looked across at the Pyramid of the Sun, and spent the afternoon in Coyoacán.\n \n\n## The route in this post\n\n| Date and time | Where | In one line |\n| --- | --- | --- |\n| Oct 1, evening (Korea time) | Incheon Airport | A rain-soaked runway, Air Canada |\n| Oct 1, midday (local) | Vancouver Airport | Waiting out the connection in the Maple Leaf Lounge |\n| Oct 1, night | Mexico City Airport → hotel in Juárez | Landed around 10:50 p.m., checked in at midnight |\n| Oct 2, 4:39 a.m. | Hotel → Teotihuacan | A late pickup, the Korean shop next door, a dark highway |\n| Oct 2, 6:15 a.m. | Over Teotihuacan | Inflating the balloon, takeoff at 6:30 |\n| Oct 2, 8:17 a.m. | Cave restaurant | Chilaquiles or a ham and cheese omelette |\n| Oct 2, 9:29 a.m. | Pyramid of the Moon | The Pyramid of the Sun straight ahead |\n| Oct 2, afternoon | Lunch, Coyoacán | Tortillas on a griddle, a stone church |\n\n---\n\n## October 1: Incheon to Vancouver\n\nAt 6:15 p.m. on October 1 the runway at Incheon was wet with rain. The airline was **Air Canada**, and the first leg went to Vancouver: instead of a direct flight to Mexico City, a route with one stop in Canada.\n\n\n The meal out of Incheon. The pack on the far left is kimchi. \n \n\nThe first meal tray held meat in sauce with vegetables, mashed potato, a bread roll and water. On the far left sat a 45 g pack of Jongga sliced cabbage kimchi. To drink, I had a can of Molson Canadian.\n\n## Connecting in Vancouver: the Maple Leaf Lounge\n\nAfter crossing the date line I landed in Vancouver and it was midday on October 1 again. I filmed a short selfie video by the terminal windows, then spent the connection in the lounge.\n\n\n The lounge entrance: the Maple Leaf Lounge and the Signature Suite share one sign. \n \n\nUnder AIR CANADA the sign lists both the **MAPLE LEAF LOUNGE** and the **SIGNATURE SUITE**, with the French name SALON FEUILLE D'ERABLE alongside. Strings of silver ball lights hang over the reception desk. In the lounge I sat down with a plate of salad and a glass of something red.\n\n\n Just after leaving Vancouver: a river, a bridge and a white-roofed building. \n \n\nWe left Vancouver in the afternoon. Below the window were a river, a bridge and a long white-roofed building, with low cloud lying over the sea in the distance.\n\n---\n\n## Vancouver to Mexico City: the second flight\n\nOn the second leg my seat was in business class. On the window-seat table I set a red cocktail with a lemon slice, a bowl of nuts and my tablet.\n\n\n Vancouver to Mexico City. On the tablet, giant skull-faced figures. \n \n\nThe tablet showed a row of giant figures with skull faces. The seat-back screen was still showing only a \"please wait\" message. Outside was blue sky above the clouds.\n\n\n Dinner on the second flight. \n \n\nDinner was chicken in a dark glaze with white rice sprinkled with black sesame and edamame, all on one plate, with a salad, bread and a slice of cheesecake alongside.\n\n\n Clamato on board. \n \n\nAfter the meal I had a glass of **Clamato**, tomato juice mixed with clam broth. In Canada it's mixed with vodka into a cocktail called the Caesar.\n\n\n 9:18 p.m., Mexico City time. \n \n\nIn the dark outside, the lights of some city spread wide across the ground. There was still an hour and a half to go before landing.\n\n## The night of October 1: past Cuauhtémoc station to a midnight check-in\n\nI landed at **Mexico City airport** around 10:50 p.m., went through immigration and took a taxi toward my hotel in **Juárez**.\n\n\n Cuauhtémoc station from the taxi, with the eagle head to the left of the name. \n \n\nA **CUAUHTEMOC 1** sign slid past the window: Cuauhtémoc station on Metro Line 1. To the left of the name is an eagle's head. Cuauhtémoc means \"descending eagle\" in Nahuatl, and it was the name of the last Aztec ruler. Every station on the Mexico City Metro has its own picture icon like this one.\n\n\n Pandora Hotel: geometric wallpaper and a yellow headboard. \n \n\nThe hotel was the **Pandora Hotel** at Nápoles 35 in Juárez. The room had dark grey walls, geometric wallpaper, a bed with a yellow headboard and a wall lamp on each side. I walked in just after midnight, and the first day ended there.\n\n---\n\n## October 2, 4:39 a.m.: the pickup is late\n\n\n 4:39 a.m., in front of the hotel mirror. \n \n\nBack to that mirror. In a white jacket, holding a small camera, I announced \"day one, Teotihuacan.\" The clip ends with \"fighting, let's go, vamos!\" I studied Spanish, and the only Spanish in that dawn clip is that one word: vamos, \"let's go.\"\n\nAt 4:53 I was still waiting. I had booked the tour on **Airbnb**, and a message came saying the car was running a bit late and I should wait at the hotel. While I waited, I pointed the camera at the shop right next door.\n\n\n The Korean food shop next to the hotel. The pink neon reads \"I love Korean food\" in Korean. \n \n\nRight next to the hotel is a Korean food shop. Under a blue **I ♥ K-food** sign, pink neon spells out \"I love Korean food\" in Korean. I'd come to Mexico for tacos, and the sign next door was in Hangul.\n\n\n 5:14 a.m., on the road to Teotihuacan. \n \n\nBy 5:14 I was in the car. A white van ran ahead of us, and house lights and power pylons lined the hillside on the right. The sky was still black.\n\n---\n\n## Teotihuacan hot air balloon: inflating at 6:15, takeoff at 6:30\n\n\n 6:15 a.m., filling the balloon on the field. \n \n\nAt 6:15 a red balloon lay on its side in a field, half full. The sky was turning a pale blue, and people walked back and forth in front of it getting ready.\n\n\n Looking up from the basket at the envelope and the burner. \n \n\nTakeoff at 6:30. From inside the basket the red envelope fills the sky above you, and below it the silver burner shoots out flame. My face only just made it into the bottom of the frame.\n\n\n The sun comes up between the clouds. \n \n\nA little higher, a thin band of orange spread between the grey layers of cloud. The sun was rising above them. The ground below was still blurred by haze.\n\n\n Teotihuacan, right below. \n \n\nThe ruins of **Teotihuacan** passed beneath us: a rectangular walled enclosure and a straight path between dry fields.\n\n\n The patterned balloon and the low stone ruins below it. \n \n\nA balloon patterned in pink, green and purple drifted past us. Below it, low broken stone platforms sat in the fields. A rainbow-striped balloon and lots of smaller ones dotted the sky.\n\n---\n\n## Breakfast in a cave restaurant\n\n\n 8:17 a.m., a restaurant under a rock ceiling. \n \n\nBack on the ground, breakfast was in a **cave restaurant**. Tables with pink cloths stand in rows under a rock ceiling, with vines and lights strung along the walls. On the back wall is a large pink panel with a painted design.\n\nAt 8:17 the clip I shot in the restaurant caught one word from me: \"Gracias.\"\n\nThere were two choices: **chilaquiles** or a **ham and cheese omelette**. Chilaquiles are fried tortilla pieces with salsa poured over them, a Mexican breakfast.\n\n## Climbing the Pyramid of the Moon to see the Pyramid of the Sun\n\nAfter breakfast we went back into the site, on foot this time. When the guide talked about sacrifice, someone asked if there was evidence, and the guide said bones had been found.\n\nA little later the guide talked about codices: books that fold like an accordion and hold stories, legends and history. The one at the National Museum of Anthropology, the guide said, is special because it tells the legend of the Aztecs' origins. I get to that museum in part 3.\n\n\n 9:29 a.m., the Pyramid of the Moon from the plaza. \n \n\nAt 9:29 the **Pyramid of the Moon** rose at the end of the plaza. The ruins I'd looked down on from the balloon, I was now looking up at. A lower platform is built onto the front of the stepped body, and smaller stone platforms line both sides of the plaza.\n\nThe stairs are rough underfoot: black and red volcanic stone held together with mortar, small pebbles pressed into the mortar.\n\n\n From the Pyramid of the Moon. Beyond the plaza is the Pyramid of the Sun. \n \n\nFrom up on the Pyramid of the Moon, the **Pyramid of the Sun** sits straight ahead beyond the plaza. Low mountains stretch behind it, and people are scattered across the plaza like dots.\n\n---\n\n## Afternoon: tortillas on a griddle, then Coyoacán\n\n\n 1:49 p.m., lunch. Tortillas on the griddle. \n \n\nAt 1:49 p.m., where I had lunch, yellow corn tortillas were cooking on a wide black griddle, with a filling frying next to them. The taco story proper starts in the next part.\n\n\n 2:16 p.m., a church in Coyoacán. \n \n\nBy 2:16 I was in **Coyoacán**. Through the branches I could look up at the grey stone front of a church, small spires rising from the top. Along the side ran a yellow wall with dark stone corners.\n\n---\n\n## Visiting info\n\nMy visit was on **October 1–2, 2025**. The practical details below are what I looked up while writing this post. Prices and hours differ from source to source, so anything I couldn't pin down is marked \"check official info before visiting.\"\n\n| Place | When I went | Known facts | What changes |\n| --- | --- | --- | --- |\n| Teotihuacan balloon | Oct 2, inflating at 6:15, takeoff at 6:30 | Booked as an Airbnb Experience | Price and pickup time: check official info before visiting |\n| Teotihuacan archaeological site | Oct 2, morning | UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1987 | Admission, hours, climbing: check official info before visiting |\n| Pandora Hotel | Oct 1, midnight check-in | Juárez, Nápoles 35 | Rates and rooms: check official info before booking |\n\n📍 **Teotihuacan hot air balloon** · fields around the Teotihuacan site\n\n- 🎈 **My ride**: Booked as an Airbnb Experience. The pickup ran late, so I waited at the hotel, and we took off at 6:30. A cave-restaurant breakfast and a guided walk followed.\n- ⏰ **What's known**: Operators vary, but most say flights leave around sunrise and last 30 minutes to an hour, depending on the weather.\n- 💳 **What changes**: Price, pickup time and whether breakfast and site entry are included differ by tour. **Check official info before visiting.**\n- 🗺️ **Map**: [Search for Teotihuacan balloon launch sites](https://www.google.com/maps/search/?api=1&query=Teotihuacan%20hot%20air%20balloon)\n\n📍 **Teotihuacan (Zona Arqueológica de Teotihuacan)** · northeast of Mexico City, State of Mexico\n\n- 🏛️ **Known facts**: A UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1987. The Pyramid of the Sun is usually given as about 65 m high, though figures vary.\n- 🧗 **Climbing**: Mexico's INAH reopened the Pyramid of the Moon on May 19, 2025, up to its first level, while the Pyramid of the Sun and the Temple of Quetzalcóatl stayed closed to climbing for conservation. On April 20, 2026 there was a shooting on the Pyramid of the Moon; the site reopened on the 22nd, but news reports said the pyramid itself stayed closed. **Check official info before visiting.**\n- 🎟️ **Admission and hours**: Many 2025 listings give 100 pesos general admission and 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., but sources differ. **Check INAH's official info before visiting.**\n- 🗺️ **Map**: [Teotihuacan](https://www.google.com/maps/search/?api=1&query=Teotihuacan%20Zona%20Arqueologica) · [Pyramid of the Moon](https://www.google.com/maps/search/?api=1&query=Piramide%20de%20la%20Luna%20Teotihuacan)\n\n📍 **Pandora Hotel** · Nápoles 35, Juárez, Mexico City\n\n- 🍜 **Next door**: The Korean food shop with the I ♥ K-food sign.\n- 💳 **Rates and rooms**: The name and price differ between booking sites. **Check official info before booking.**\n- 🗺️ **Map**: [View on Google Maps](https://www.google.com/maps/search/?api=1&query=Pandora%20Hotel%20Napoles%2035%20Juarez%20Ciudad%20de%20Mexico)\n\n📍 **Entry · money · SIM · safety**\n\n- 🛂 **Entry (checked, for Korean passports)**: According to the Korean embassy in Mexico, Korean passport holders can stay up to 180 days visa-free for tourism. The immigration officer decides the actual length, which can be shorter. Many sources say the airport entry form is now a digital FMM. Other passports have their own rules. **Check official info before visiting.**\n- 🕐 **Time difference (checked)**: Mexico City dropped daylight saving time in 2022 and is 15 hours behind Korea.\n- 💵 **Money (not checked)**: The currency is the Mexican peso (MXN). Cards work in many places, but guides commonly say street stalls and markets need cash. Check exchange options and fees yourself.\n- 📶 **SIM (not checked)**: Guides say both local SIMs and eSIMs work. Plans vary by carrier, so compare before you fly.\n- 🛡️ **Safety**: Check your government's travel advisory for regional levels. Guides commonly advise keeping your passport and phone out of sight. I took a taxi from the airport to the hotel at night.\n\n## How to get lost a little less\n\n- 🌙 **A dawn tour the morning after a midnight arrival works, but you'll get under five hours of sleep.** I checked in at midnight and left at 4:40.\n- 📱 **If the pickup is late, you'll get a message.** Mine told me to wait at the hotel. Have mobile data working from the day you land.\n- 🧥 **Leaving before 5 a.m. means leaving in the dark.** I went out in a white jacket.\n- 🔺 **See it from the balloon, then again from the ground.** From the Pyramid of the Moon the Pyramid of the Sun sits straight ahead. Check first whether you can climb it now.\n\n\nThis is a record of my visit on October 1–2, 2025. I looked up balloon prices, Teotihuacan admission, whether the pyramids can be climbed and the entry paperwork while writing this post, but these change often, so please check the official information again before you go.\n \n\n## Jayden's verdict\n\n> I went because I love tacos. The first two days were two flights, a midnight check-in and a 4:40 a.m. balloon.\n\n- **Highlights**: The sun rising between the clouds with Teotihuacan below, and the Pyramid of the Sun seen from the Pyramid of the Moon\n- **Tip**: When you book a balloon, check whether breakfast and a site guide are included. On mine, a cave-restaurant breakfast and a guided walk followed the flight.\n\nThe next part covers Mexico City on October 3–4: a night taco stand and Chapultepec Castle.\n\n---\n\n**Mexico for Tacos: 10 Days**\n\n1. **Mexico City arrival and a Teotihuacan balloon** (you are here)\n2. [Mexico City: night tacos and Chapultepec Castle](/en/posts/mexico-travel-02-mexico-city-tacos-chapultepec)\n3. [Puebla, Xochimilco at night and Guadalupe](/en/posts/mexico-travel-03-puebla-xochimilco-guadalupe)\n4. [Guadalajara and a tequila tour](/en/posts/mexico-travel-04-guadalajara-tequila-tour)\n5. [Guanajuato, San Miguel de Allende, and home](/en/posts/mexico-travel-05-guanajuato-san-miguel-de-allende)\n","readingTime":17,"series":{"id":"2025-mexico-travel-diary","title":"Mexico for Tacos: 10 Days","part":1,"total":5},"country":"mx","growthStage":"evergreen","version":"1.0","updateCount":0},{"slug":"mexico-travel-02-mexico-city-tacos-chapultepec","title":"Mexico City Travel 02: Night Tacos Under a Pink Tent, and Siqueiros at Chapultepec Castle","description":"Mexico City, October 3–4, 2025: a night taco stand under a pink tent, the Niños Héroes monument, Chapultepec Castle and its Siqueiros mural, the zoo.","topic":"travel","tags":["Mexico City tacos","Chapultepec Castle","Chapultepec Park","Monument to the Revolution","Mexico City itinerary"],"publishedAt":"2026-10-16T20:00:00+09:00","updatedAt":"2026-10-16T20:00:00+09:00","coverImage":"/images/posts/mexico-travel-02-mexico-city-tacos-chapultepec/cover.jpg","coverAlt":"A taco on a red plate: charred meat, chopped onion, cilantro and green salsa on a corn tortilla, with half a lime","seoTitle":"Mexico City Tacos and Chapultepec Castle | Street Tacos, Niños Héroes, Siqueiros Mural, Monument to the Revolution","seoDescription":"A night at a Mexico City street taco stand, then a day in Chapultepec: Niños Héroes, the castle and its Siqueiros mural, the zoo, the stalls, and visiting info.","translationGroupId":"mexico-travel-02-mexico-city-tacos-chapultepec","status":"published","locale":"en","content":"\nUnder a pink tent, on a red plastic plate, sat **one taco**. A yellow corn tortilla, meat charred at the edges, chopped onion and cilantro, green salsa. At the edge of the plate, half a lime.\n\nI went to Mexico because I love tacos. [Part 1](/en/posts/mexico-travel-01-mexico-city-teotihuacan-balloon) covered arriving in Mexico City and the Teotihuacan balloon. This post is the two days after that. October 3 was a taco stand at night. October 4 was Chapultepec, from morning into the afternoon, and that night I stood in front of the Monument to the Revolution.\n\n\n**In three lines**: On the night of October 3, 2025, at a **street taco stand under a pink tent** in Mexico City, I shot six videos in a little over ten minutes. On the morning of the 4th I passed the **Niños Héroes monument** and went up to **Chapultepec Castle** for Siqueiros's revolution mural and the terrace. In the afternoon, the park zoo and a lane of stalls; at night, the **Monument to the Revolution** lit in teal.\n \n\n## The route in this post\n\n| Date and time | Where | In a line |\n| --- | --- | --- |\n| Oct 3, night | A street taco stand in Mexico City | Pink tent, red plate, six videos |\n| Oct 4, 09:40–10:00 | Chapultepec park → Niños Héroes monument → foot of the hill | Tree-lined path, six white columns, a pink brick building |\n| Oct 4, 10:23–12:00 | Chapultepec Castle (National History Museum) | Uniformed groups, arcades, the Siqueiros mural, the terrace |\n| Oct 4, 14:14–15:11 | The park zoo → a lane of stalls | A Mexican wolf sign, a black squirrel, blue umbrellas |\n| Oct 4, 19:41 | Monument to the Revolution | Teal lights |\n\n---\n\n## The night of October 3: Mexico City tacos under a pink tent\n\nAll that survives of October 3 is the night. My plan had a market for the daytime, but the only place with photos and videos is one taco stand after dark. At that stand I shot **six videos in a little over ten minutes**.\n\n\n A red plate in a plastic bag, a sheet of paper, then the taco. \n \n\nThe plate was a red plastic plate slipped into a plastic bag, with a sheet of paper laid on top. Further up the table was a red pot stuffed with a bunch of cilantro. The taco video starts with the whole plate and moves closer and closer to the tortilla.\n\n\n Green salsa over meat charred at the edges. \n \n\nUp close there are two tortillas, one on top of the other. The meat is chopped small and blackened at the edges. Over it went plenty of white onion and cilantro, then two lines of green salsa.\n\n\n The pink tarp and the white work light. \n \n\nThe stand's roof was a pink tarp tent with a single white work light hanging under it. One of that night's selfie videos runs 2 minutes 45 seconds, and again and again in it I tip my head back to look at the tent and the light.\n\nI went to Mexico to eat tacos, and I ate them wearing a green Mexico soccer jersey. Over it I had an ivory jacket, with a backpack strap on my shoulder.\n\n\n Fingers to the mouth. \n \n\nNear the end of the same video I have my fingers at my mouth.\n\nI had studied Spanish before this trip. The Spanish left in that night's videos is \"Por favor,\" and, in the last video, \"¿Quién es? Buenas noches.\"\n\n\n Out from under the tent: a streetlight and trees. \n \n\nThe last video is 23 seconds long. It starts under the tent, and as I walk out, the pink tarp overhead turns into leaves and an orange streetlight. I was walking with my cheeks puffed out. Neither the stand's name nor its exact location made it into my records.\n\n---\n\n## Morning of October 4: Chapultepec park and the Niños Héroes monument\n\nThe next day was a Saturday. At 9:40 a.m. I walked into Chapultepec park.\n\n\n 9:40 a.m., the path into the park. \n \n\nBig trees line both sides of a wide stone path, with a map sign at the edge. The sky stayed overcast through the daytime.\n\n\n 9:47 a.m., the Niños Héroes monument. \n \n\nA short walk on, white columns rise at the end of a semicircular marble plaza. This is the **Niños Héroes monument**, officially the Altar a la Patria (Altar to the Homeland). It honors six cadets of the Military College who died defending the castle in the Battle of Chapultepec in 1847, which is why there are six columns. It was inaugurated in 1952, the work of architect Enrique Aragón and sculptor Ernesto Tamariz.\n\nEach column is topped with a black bronze figure, and a white marble statue stands in the middle. At the railing in front of the plaza, people were taking turns posing for photos.\n\n\n 10 a.m., a pink brick building below the hill. \n \n\nAt 10 a.m. I passed a pink brick building at the foot of the hill. Its roofline has crenellations like a fortress wall, and its windows are pointed arches. Part of a building shows above the trees on the hill. The castle is on top of that hill.\n\n## Chapultepec Castle: uniformed groups, arcades and the Siqueiros mural\n\n\n 10:23 a.m., khaki uniforms passing in front of the castle. \n \n\nAt 10:23 I was on the plaza in front of **Chapultepec Castle**, at the top of the hill. People in khaki uniforms passed in groups, with Mexican flag patches on their sleeves. In the distance were a flagpole with the Mexican flag and the BBVA tower.\n\n\n A courtyard ringed by gray stone arcades. \n \n\nThe courtyard is ringed by a two-story arcade of gray stone: round arches below, a balustrade lined with planters above. Building began in 1785, and the castle took its present look when Emperor Maximilian and Empress Carlota lived here from 1864 to 1867. Since 1944 it has been the **National History Museum**.\n\n\n 11:09 a.m., Siqueiros's mural wrapping a whole room. \n \n\nAt 11:09 I was in a gallery where the mural wraps right around the corner of the room. Men in sombreros, bandoliers crossed over their chests, hold their rifles upright and look straight out. Beside them come a woman in a red shawl and face after face, all the way to the end of the wall.\n\nThis is David Alfaro Siqueiros's mural **From Porfirism to the Revolution** (Del porfirismo a la Revolución). The museum gives it as 4.46 m high and 76.89 m wide. He began it in 1957; work stopped when Siqueiros was jailed in 1960, and the museum dates the finished work to 1966.\n\n\n 11:57 a.m., the castle terrace. High-rises past the pergola. \n \n\nAt 11:57 I was back outside, walking the terrace garden. A stone path runs along the castle wall, and past a fountain and a columned pergola stands a line of high-rises.\n\n\n An agave spreading over the hedge. \n \n\nIn the middle of the garden a big agave spreads its leaves above a clipped hedge, with cypresses behind it. My time at the castle ran from 10:23 to around noon, a little under two hours.\n\n---\n\n## Afternoon of October 4: a zoo, a black squirrel and a lane of blue umbrellas\n\nMy plan for the day also listed Xochimilco, Coyoacán and UNAM. But every photo and video from that afternoon was taken inside Chapultepec park. Xochimilco came the next night.\n\n\n 2:14 p.m., in front of a sign with a wolf on it. \n \n\nAt 2:14 p.m. I was at a zoo. People were gathered at an enclosure under tall trees, and the sign had a picture of a wolf with the words LOBO MEXICANO (Mexican wolf). Several people wore purple plush hats, and on the right an aloe had sent up red flower spikes.\n\n\n 2:59 p.m., a black squirrel on a railing. \n \n\nAt 2:59 a black squirrel was sitting on a rusty metal railing, holding something orange in both front paws and gnawing at it. Behind it, tall grass grew thick.\n\n\n 3:11 p.m., a lane of stalls with a BOSQUE DE CHAPULTEPEC sign. \n \n\nAt 3:11, stalls under blue umbrellas lined both sides of a stone path through the trees for a long way. Panda toys, plushies in every color and bags of snacks hung from them, and one stall had a BOSQUE DE CHAPULTEPEC sign. The path was packed.\n\n## The night of October 4: the Monument to the Revolution in teal\n\n\n 7:41 p.m., the Monument to the Revolution. \n \n\nAt 6:45 p.m. I was on the move, and at 7:41 I was in front of the **Monument to the Revolution**. The huge arch, a dome on four legs, was lit teal, with blue lights along the base.\n\nIt started out in 1906 as the federal legislative palace. Work stopped with the Revolution, and between 1933 and 1938 the architect Carlos Obregón Santacilia turned the remaining steel frame into a monument. Its height is given as 65 to 67 m depending on the source.\n\n---\n\n## Visiting info\n\nI was there on **October 3–4, 2025**. The history below comes from official or reputable sources; I looked up hours and prices while writing this. Where sources disagree, I've marked it \"check official info before visiting.\"\n\n| Place | Where | Entry | When I went |\n| --- | --- | --- | --- |\n| Niños Héroes monument | Chapultepec park, first section, below the castle hill | Open-air monument; check the park's opening days before visiting | Oct 4, 09:47 |\n| Chapultepec Castle (National History Museum) | On top of Chapultepec hill | Paid; prices differ between sources | Oct 4, 10:23 to about 12:00 |\n| Chapultepec Zoo | Chapultepec park, first section | Many sources say general entry is free | Oct 4, 14:14 |\n| Monument to the Revolution | Plaza de la República | The plaza is open; the viewpoint is paid | Oct 4, 19:41 |\n\n**Route**: The monument, the castle, the zoo and the stalls are all inside the first section of Chapultepec park. I went in at 9:40 a.m. and was still in the park after 3 p.m. The Monument to the Revolution is outside the park, toward downtown.\n\n📍 **Chapultepec Castle · National History Museum (Museo Nacional de Historia)**\n\n- 🏰 **Facts**: Building began in 1785; home of Emperor Maximilian and Empress Carlota from 1864 to 1867; opened as the National History Museum in 1944. Siqueiros's mural From Porfirism to the Revolution is in this museum.\n- 🕘 **Hours**: INAH lists Tuesday to Sunday, 9:00–17:00, closed Mondays. Some sources say Sunday entry is free for Mexican nationals and foreign residents of Mexico. Hours and prices differ between sources, so **check official info before visiting.**\n- 🗺️ **Map**: [Chapultepec Castle](https://www.google.com/maps/search/?api=1&query=Castillo%20de%20Chapultepec)\n\n📍 **Niños Héroes monument (Altar a la Patria)**\n\n- 🏛️ **Facts**: Inaugurated in 1952. It honors six Military College cadets who died in the Battle of Chapultepec in 1847. Architect Enrique Aragón Echegaray, sculptor Ernesto Tamariz.\n- 🗺️ **Map**: [Open in Google Maps](https://www.google.com/maps/search/?api=1&query=Altar%20a%20la%20Patria%20Chapultepec)\n\n📍 **Chapultepec Zoo (Zoológico de Chapultepec)**\n\n- 🐺 **What my photos show**: a LOBO MEXICANO sign. The zoo's name isn't in the shot, but this is the zoo in the park's first section.\n- 🎟️ **Entry and hours**: Many sources say general entry is free, with separate charges for the butterfly house and the reptile house. Most say it closes on Mondays, but the hours vary between sources. **Check official info before visiting.**\n- 🗺️ **Map**: [Open in Google Maps](https://www.google.com/maps/search/?api=1&query=Zool%C3%B3gico%20de%20Chapultepec)\n\n📍 **Monument to the Revolution (Monumento a la Revolución)** · Plaza de la República\n\n- 🏗️ **Facts**: Begun in 1906 as the federal legislative palace; turned into a monument by Carlos Obregón Santacilia in 1933–1938. Its height is given as 65–67 m depending on the source.\n- 🔭 **Viewpoint**: Paid. Prices and hours differ between sources, so **check official info before visiting.**\n- 🗺️ **Map**: [Open in Google Maps](https://www.google.com/maps/search/?api=1&query=Monumento%20a%20la%20Revoluci%C3%B3n)\n\n📍 **The October 3 taco stand**: I have no record of its name or location. All that's left is that it was a street stand under a pink tent with a work light.\n\n## How to get lost a little less in Chapultepec\n\n- 🗓️ **Avoid Mondays.** The castle is closed on Mondays, and many sources say the zoo is too.\n- 🌳 **Monument and castle in the morning, the park in the afternoon.** In that order, I spent the whole day from 9:40 a.m. until after 3 p.m. inside the first section alone.\n- 🖼️ **Inside the castle, find the gallery with the Siqueiros mural.** The mural runs along the walls around the whole room.\n- 🏙️ **On the terrace, face the high-rises.** The city shows past the fountain and the pergola.\n- 🌙 **See the Monument to the Revolution at night.** At 7:41 p.m., when I was there, the teal lights were on.\n\n\nThis is a record of an October 2025 visit. I checked the history against official sources while writing this, but hours and prices for the museum, zoo and viewpoint differ between sources, so check the official information once more before you go.\n \n\n## Jayden's verdict\n\n> The night of October 3 was tacos under a pink tent; October 4 was Chapultepec all day.\n\n- **Highlight**: the taco at the pink-tent stand, the Siqueiros mural in Chapultepec Castle, the black squirrel on the railing\n- **Tip**: Give Chapultepec a whole day, and visit the castle on any day but Monday.\n\nThe next part is Puebla and Xochimilco at night on October 5, then, on the 6th, the camera I first turned on in a park and Guadalupe hill.\n\n---\n\n**Mexico for Tacos: 10 Days**\n\n1. [Mexico City arrival and a Teotihuacan balloon](/en/posts/mexico-travel-01-mexico-city-teotihuacan-balloon)\n2. **Mexico City: night tacos and Chapultepec Castle** (you are here)\n3. [Puebla, Xochimilco at night and Guadalupe](/en/posts/mexico-travel-03-puebla-xochimilco-guadalupe)\n4. [Guadalajara and a tequila tour](/en/posts/mexico-travel-04-guadalajara-tequila-tour)\n5. [Guanajuato, San Miguel de Allende, and home](/en/posts/mexico-travel-05-guanajuato-san-miguel-de-allende)\n","readingTime":14,"series":{"id":"2025-mexico-travel-diary","title":"Mexico for Tacos: 10 Days","part":2,"total":5},"country":"mx","growthStage":"evergreen","version":"1.0","updateCount":0},{"slug":"mexico-travel-03-puebla-xochimilco-guadalupe","title":"Puebla Travel 03: The Palafoxiana Library, and the Camera I Turned On After a Run","description":"October 5–6, 2025: Puebla's Palafoxiana Library and Talavera streets, Xochimilco at night, a first intro video in Parque México, Guadalupe and the Zócalo.","topic":"travel","tags":["Puebla Travel","Palafoxiana Library","Basilica of Guadalupe","Parque México","Mexico City"],"publishedAt":"2026-10-19T20:00:00+09:00","updatedAt":"2026-10-19T20:00:00+09:00","coverImage":"/images/posts/mexico-travel-03-puebla-xochimilco-guadalupe/cover.jpg","coverAlt":"Inside the Palafoxiana Library, three-tier wooden bookcases on both sides leading to a gold altarpiece","seoTitle":"Puebla Travel | Palafoxiana Library, Barrio del Artista, Basilica of Guadalupe, Parque México and the Zócalo","seoDescription":"A day in Puebla: the Palafoxiana Library, Talavera streets and Barrio del Artista, then a run in Parque México, the Basilica of Guadalupe and the Zócalo.","translationGroupId":"mexico-travel-03-puebla-xochimilco-guadalupe","status":"published","locale":"en","content":"\nAt 9 a.m. on October 6, I finished a run in a Mexico City park and stood under a wooden roof. I turned the camera toward myself and said hello. **\"Hola, buenos días.\"** I recorded that greeting again and again that morning.\n\n[Part 2](/en/posts/mexico-travel-02-mexico-city-tacos-chapultepec) was Mexico City's night tacos and Chapultepec Castle. This post is the next two days. On October 5 I went to **Puebla**, east of Mexico City, and that night I was out on the canals of Xochimilco. October 6 started in a park, went by Guadalupe hill and the Zócalo, and ended with a night flight.\n\n\n**In three lines**: On the morning of October 5, I saw the wooden bookcases of Puebla's **Palafoxiana Library** run all the way to a gold altarpiece. Around midday I walked through Talavera pottery shops and the **Barrio del Artista**, and the day ended with the Xochimilco canals and a taco. On the morning of October 6, after a run in **Parque México**, I recorded my first video introducing myself, and in the afternoon I saw **Guadalupe hill** and the **Zócalo**.\n \n\n## The route in this post\n\n| Date | Where | In a line |\n| --- | --- | --- |\n| Oct 5, breakfast | A restaurant | One plate, three sauces |\n| Oct 5, morning | Puebla: an exhibition room → Palafoxiana Library | Bookcases leading to a gold altarpiece |\n| Oct 5, midday | Old town of Puebla → Barrio del Artista | Talavera bollards, a pottery shop, the PUEBLA letters |\n| Oct 5, night | Xochimilco canals → tacos | A hut hung with dolls, a taco at 9:56 p.m. |\n| Oct 6, morning | Parque México | \"Hola, buenos días\" after a run |\n| Oct 6, afternoon | Guadalupe hill → Zócalo | Two basilicas, the cathedral under storm clouds |\n| Oct 6, night | Mexico City → Guadalajara | A night flight |\n\n---\n\n## October 5, breakfast: three sauces\n\nThe camera was rolling from 5:43 that morning. Breakfast was at a restaurant around 9.\n\n\n Three stripes of sauce on one plate. \n \n\nThe plate came covered in three stripes of sauce: dark brown with sesame seeds, orange with crushed nuts, pale green with pumpkin seeds. Three brown clay cups sat at the back of the table. Puebla is known as the home of mole poblano. The name of this dish isn't in my notes.\n\n## The Palafoxiana Library in Puebla\n\n\n 10:27 a.m., red, white and green papel picado. \n \n\nAt 10:27 I walked into a courtyard covered with a glass roof. Under the orange arcade, red, white and green paper decorations were laid out in concentric rings. In Mexico this cut-paper decoration is called papel picado.\n\n\n A bishop engraving taller than a person. \n \n\nTwo minutes later I was in an exhibition room with purple walls. An engraving of a bishop, enlarged to more than human height, stood like a gateway, and a gold-framed painting hung on the far wall. The clip has a short \"Gracias\" in it.\n\n\n The gold altarpiece at the end of the stacks. \n \n\nAt 10:43, the **Palafoxiana Library**. Wooden bookcases cover both long walls in three tiers, from the floor to just under the ceiling, packed with leather-bound books. At the far end stands a gold altarpiece with a painting of the Virgin in the middle. The white vaulted ceiling is traced with yellow lines.\n\nThe library began in 1646, when Bishop Juan de Palafox y Mendoza donated his own collection of about 5,000 books. It is described as the first public library in the Americas, and in 2005 it was added to UNESCO's Memory of the World Register.\n\n\n The building model in the corner by the window. \n \n\nIn the corner by the window, a white model of a building sits in a glass case on a round wooden table. The bookcase doors are fitted with fine wire mesh, and behind it are rows of books with faded white spines. Light comes in through a window with its big wooden shutters open.\n\n\n One shot from the middle of the aisle. \n \n\nVisitors walk down the central aisle. The desks in front of the bookcases are roped off, and the patterned stone floor is polished smooth. I stood in the middle of the aisle with the stacks and the altarpiece behind me and took one shot. My library photos run until 10:48.\n\n## Old town Puebla: Talavera bollards and colored streets\n\n\n Stone bollards with a band of blue tile. \n \n\nFrom the library I walked through the old town. Short stone bollards line the edge between road and sidewalk, each with a band of blue zigzag tile. That is Puebla's pottery, Talavera. In 2019 the Talavera craft of Puebla and Tlaxcala was added to UNESCO's Intangible Cultural Heritage list, in a joint file with Spain.\n\n\n Yellow, hot pink, pale pink, and a dome at the end. \n \n\nOn the street at 10:59, yellow, hot pink and pale pink buildings stand wall to wall. Each house has black iron balconies, and yellow paper decorations are strung above the road. A red dome rises at the end of the street.\n\n## Barrio del Artista and a Talavera pottery shop\n\n\n Puebla on every mug. \n \n\nAt 12:33 I went into a pottery shop. Blue and pink patterned plates covered the walls, and the mugs in the front row each had the word Puebla on them. Blouses embroidered with flowers hung near the ceiling. A VISA sticker was stuck on one shelf.\n\n\n The BARRIO DEL ARTISTA sign. \n \n\nThree minutes later it was the **Barrio del Artista**. A red brick building carries a BARRIO DEL ARTISTA sign, and the shop in front hangs striped bags and shawls under a blue awning that reads Azul Cobalto. Right next to it, a tree-shaded pedestrian walkway runs on.\n\n\n 1:24 p.m., in front of the PUEBLA letters. \n \n\nAt 1:24 p.m. I took a selfie in front of the person-height **PUEBLA** letters. The strip under the letters says IMAGINA MÁS. There were a lot of people around the letters. This is close to the last scene I recorded in Puebla.\n\n---\n\n## October 5, night: the Xochimilco canals and a taco\n\n\n 7:33 p.m., a white pyramid at the end of the canal. \n \n\nAt 7:33 p.m. I was on the water in Xochimilco. The sun had set and only a blue glow was left in the sky. Past the bow, the canal ran on between trees with water plants floating on it. Far off, a white pyramid-shaped structure was lit up and reflected in the water.\n\n\n Dolls hanging on a reed wall. \n \n\nIn the 7:40 clip you can hear a guide speaking English: \"It's going to have another creepy story.\" \"We're going to land here.\" The hut I filmed at 7:48 had walls of woven reeds, and old dolls hung on them, upside down and sideways. Most of that night's footage is too dark to make out.\n\n\n 9:56 p.m., heaped with cilantro and onion. \n \n\nAt 9:56 p.m., a taco arrived. Meat piled high with cilantro and chopped onion, with metal bowls of salsa lined up behind it. This was a trip to eat tacos, so the last scene of the day is a taco too.\n\n---\n\n## October 6, morning: the camera I turned on in Parque México\n\n\n 8:39 a.m., people out with their dogs. \n \n\nThe next morning started in **Parque México**, a park in the Condesa area that opened in 1927 on the site of an old racetrack. At 8:39, a dog stands on a bark-covered path under tall trees, and behind it more people come along with their dogs. This is where I went for my run.\n\n\n Under the wooden roof, between takes. \n \n\nAfter the run I stood under a wooden roof in front of a hedge. White jacket over a navy T-shirt, earbuds in. I turned the camera toward myself. I watch a lot of YouTube and Instagram Reels. Every time, I'd thought I wanted to be a creator who makes videos like that too. But I had never actually tried.\n\nHere is what I said in the 9:03 take, word for word: \"After finishing my run today, I felt like making one properly, so I'm leaving this video.\" In the 9:06 take I put it this way: \"I went running during my trip, and suddenly I had this thought, this decision: let's start right now.\"\n\nFrom 9:11 the first words changed. **\"Hola, buenos días.\"** I greeted in the Spanish I had studied, then carried on in Korean. \"Let's make videos like this too. When? Right now!\" At 9:13 and 9:19 I started again with the same greeting. The 9:19 take cut off after nine seconds.\n\nThe last take, at 9:24, ran 50 seconds. It was the first take where I said the plan out loud: **I would do a 30-day challenge.** I asked people to watch with me how the followers grow over those 30 days. Then I closed with a line that had been in the earlier takes too: \"By the way, I love traveling, and I love learning things. Enjoy watching. Thank you.\"\n\nFrom 9:03 to 9:24, just over twenty minutes, in the same spot in the same park.\n\n---\n\n## October 6, afternoon: two basilicas on Guadalupe hill\n\n\n 2:41 p.m., a stone facade with a clock. \n \n\nAt 2:41 p.m. I was at the Guadalupe shrine, looking up at a gray stone facade with a clock at the top. Statues of saints stand in the niches, and a relief is carved in the center. The white jacket from the morning had been swapped for a gray shirt.\n\n\n The yellow dome and the green roof side by side. \n \n\nAt 3 p.m. I climbed the stairs of **Tepeyac hill** behind the churches and looked down. On the left is the old basilica with its yellow tiled dome; on the right, the new basilica under a green roof shaped like a tent. The new basilica was designed by the architect Pedro Ramírez Vázquez and finished in 1976. It has a round plan, built so the image of the Virgin can be seen from anywhere inside.\n\n\n At the stone railing on the hill. \n \n\nOn the landing, a stall selling colorful sombreros had its umbrella up, and people leaned on the railing to look down. I took a few selfies at the stone railing with the two basilicas behind me. I was on the hill until 3:02. The city runs all the way to the mountain ridges on the horizon.\n\n## The Zócalo: the Metropolitan Cathedral under storm clouds\n\n\n 4:42 p.m., the cathedral under storm clouds. \n \n\nAt 4:42 p.m. I was on a high terrace looking down over the **Zócalo**. Across the square stood the bell towers and red dome of the **Metropolitan Cathedral**, and long rows of white tent roofs filled the square. Storm clouds were closing in from above the cathedral.\n\nWork on the Metropolitan Cathedral began in 1573, and its exterior was finished in 1813. It took some 240 years, so Gothic, Baroque and Neoclassical styles sit in one building. The camera stayed on for a long time on that terrace. In the background you can hear an English conversation about a drink, tax and paying in cash.\n\nThen that night I flew to Guadalajara.\n\n---\n\n## Visit info\n\nI went on **October 5–6, 2025**. The history and architecture notes below are what I looked up while writing this. Opening hours and prices differ between sources, so I don't state them as fixed.\n\n| Place | Where | Entry | When I went |\n| --- | --- | --- | --- |\n| Palafoxiana Library | Historic center of Puebla | Paid; fee and free days: check official info before visiting | Oct 5, around 10:45 a.m. |\n| Barrio del Artista | Historic center of Puebla | Street, no entry | Oct 5, around 12:30 p.m. |\n| Parque México | Condesa, Mexico City | Park, no entry | Oct 6, morning |\n| Guadalupe shrine | North Mexico City | Check official info before visiting | Oct 6, around 3 p.m. |\n| Zócalo and Metropolitan Cathedral | Historic center, Mexico City | Square free; cathedral: check official info | Oct 6, around 5 p.m. |\n\n**Route**: Puebla is about 130 km east of Mexico City, and I did it as a day trip. Parque México is in Condesa to the southwest, the Guadalupe shrine is to the north, and the Zócalo is in the historic center between them.\n\n📍 **Palafoxiana Library (Biblioteca Palafoxiana)** · Historic center, Puebla\n\n- 📚 **Known facts**: It began in 1646 when Bishop Juan de Palafox y Mendoza donated about 5,000 books. It is described as the first public library in the Americas and was added to UNESCO's Memory of the World Register in 2005.\n- 🎟️ **Admission and hours**: Sources give different fees, free days and hours. **Check official info before visiting.**\n- 👀 **Visiting**: When I went, the desks by the bookcases were roped off and visitors walked down the central aisle.\n- 🗺️ **Map**: [Open in Google Maps](https://www.google.com/maps/search/?api=1&query=Biblioteca%20Palafoxiana%20Puebla)\n\n📍 **Barrio del Artista** · Historic center, Puebla\n\n- 🏺 **Talavera**: In 2019 the Talavera craft of Puebla and Tlaxcala was inscribed on UNESCO's Intangible Cultural Heritage list together with Talavera de la Reina and El Puente del Arzobispo in Spain.\n- 🛍️ **Shops**: Talavera pottery and craft shops cluster around it. Opening times vary by shop.\n- 🗺️ **Map**: [Open in Google Maps](https://www.google.com/maps/search/?api=1&query=Barrio%20del%20Artista%20Puebla)\n\n📍 **Parque México** · Colonia Hipódromo, Condesa\n\n- 🌳 **Known facts**: Built on the site of an old racetrack and opened in 1927. Its official name is Parque San Martín.\n- 🏃 **Running**: I finished my run before 9 a.m. The shade is deep, and plenty of people were out walking dogs.\n- 🗺️ **Map**: [Open in Google Maps](https://www.google.com/maps/search/?api=1&query=Parque%20M%C3%A9xico%20Condesa)\n\n📍 **Guadalupe shrine (Basílica de Santa María de Guadalupe)** · Gustavo A. Madero, Mexico City\n\n- ⛪ **Known facts**: The new basilica was designed by Pedro Ramírez Vázquez and built in 1974–1976. Stairs behind the old basilica climb Tepeyac hill to the Capilla del Cerrito at the top.\n- 🕰️ **Hours and Mass times**: I couldn't confirm them from the sources I found. **Check official info before visiting.**\n- 🗺️ **Map**: [Open in Google Maps](https://www.google.com/maps/search/?api=1&query=Bas%C3%ADlica%20de%20Guadalupe%20Ciudad%20de%20M%C3%A9xico)\n\n📍 **The Zócalo and the Metropolitan Cathedral** · Centro Histórico, Mexico City\n\n- 🏛️ **Known facts**: The cathedral stands on the north side of the Zócalo (Plaza de la Constitución). Work began in 1573 and the exterior was finished in 1813.\n- 🌆 **The view**: I saw the whole cathedral from a high terrace across the square. Terrace access depends on the business.\n- 🗺️ **Map**: [Zócalo](https://www.google.com/maps/search/?api=1&query=Z%C3%B3calo%20Ciudad%20de%20M%C3%A9xico) · [Metropolitan Cathedral](https://www.google.com/maps/search/?api=1&query=Catedral%20Metropolitana%20Ciudad%20de%20M%C3%A9xico)\n\n## How to get lost a little less\n\n- 📚 **In Puebla, start with the Palafoxiana Library.** I went in around 10 a.m. and came straight out into the old town. You can walk from the library to the Barrio del Artista.\n- 🏺 **You see Talavera on the street first.** Look at the tile bands on the bollards before you go into the shops, and the patterns will feel familiar.\n- 🏃 **For a morning run in Mexico City, try Parque México.** There's a shaded loop path under the trees, and it's busy from early on.\n- ⛪ **At Guadalupe, climb the hill stairs.** The spot where you see the old and new basilicas together is up the stairs.\n- ☁️ **See the Zócalo cathedral from above.** From the square you look up at the towers; from a terrace you see the cathedral and the square together.\n\n\nThis is a record of an October 2025 visit. I looked up the building dates and history while writing this, but opening hours and prices for the Palafoxiana Library and the Guadalupe shrine differ between sources, so check the official information once more before you go.\n \n\n## Jayden's verdict\n\n> I love traveling, and I love learning things. That's what I said to the camera in Parque México on the morning of October 6.\n\n- **Highlight**: the gold altarpiece and bookcases of the Palafoxiana Library, and the camera I turned on for the first time after a run in Parque México\n- **Tip**: in Puebla, start at the library and walk the old town. At Guadalupe, go all the way up the hill stairs.\n\nThe next part is Guadalajara on October 7. It starts at the hotel in the morning and goes out to the agave fields on the José Cuervo tequila tour.\n\n---\n\n**Mexico for Tacos: 10 Days**\n\n1. [Mexico City arrival and a Teotihuacan balloon](/en/posts/mexico-travel-01-mexico-city-teotihuacan-balloon)\n2. [Mexico City: night tacos and Chapultepec Castle](/en/posts/mexico-travel-02-mexico-city-tacos-chapultepec)\n3. **Puebla, Xochimilco at night and Guadalupe** (you are here)\n4. [Guadalajara and a tequila tour](/en/posts/mexico-travel-04-guadalajara-tequila-tour)\n5. [Guanajuato, San Miguel de Allende, and home](/en/posts/mexico-travel-05-guanajuato-san-miguel-de-allende)\n","readingTime":17,"series":{"id":"2025-mexico-travel-diary","title":"Mexico for Tacos: 10 Days","part":3,"total":5},"country":"mx","growthStage":"evergreen","version":"1.0","updateCount":0},{"slug":"mexico-travel-04-guadalajara-tequila-tour","title":"Guadalajara Travel 04: Chewing Agave, Then Out to the Blue Fields on a José Cuervo Tequila Tour","description":"October 7, 2025: a tequila tour from Guadalajara. Chewing agave, blue agave fields, piñas in the José Cuervo distillery yard and the centro at night.","topic":"travel","tags":["Tequila Tour from Guadalajara","José Cuervo","Tequila Jalisco","Guadalajara","Mexico Travel"],"publishedAt":"2026-10-22T20:00:00+09:00","updatedAt":"2026-10-22T20:00:00+09:00","coverImage":"/images/posts/mexico-travel-04-guadalajara-tequila-tour/cover.jpg","coverAlt":"Rows of blue-green agave on both sides of a dirt path, with heaped white clouds above","seoTitle":"Tequila Tour from Guadalajara | José Cuervo Agave Fields and Distillery, Guadalajara Centro at Night","seoDescription":"A tequila tour from Guadalajara: blue agave fields, an agave tasting, piñas at the José Cuervo distillery, Teatro Degollado at night and the cathedral.","translationGroupId":"mexico-travel-04-guadalajara-tequila-tour","status":"published","locale":"en","content":"\nAt 11 a.m. I put a light brown piece of something in my mouth. The more I chewed, the more it pulled apart into stringy fibers hanging off my lip. The video I took then has two words on it: **\"It's sweet.\"**\n\nI saw where that piece came from an hour and a half later in a field, and again that afternoon in a distillery yard.\n\n[Part 3](/en/posts/mexico-travel-03-puebla-xochimilco-guadalupe) covered Puebla, Xochimilco at night, the morning I started making videos, and Guadalupe hill. That night I left Mexico City for Guadalajara. This part is one full day there: the **tequila tour**.\n\n\n**In three lines**: On October 7, 2025, I went on a **José Cuervo tequila tour** from Guadalajara. I tasted a piece of agave, walked through **blue agave fields** that ran to the hills, and saw a mound of **piñas**, agave hearts with the leaves cut off, in the distillery yard. In the evening I was back in Guadalajara's centro and walked as far as the purple-lit **Teatro Degollado**.\n \n\n## The route in this post\n\n| When | Where | In a line |\n| --- | --- | --- |\n| Oct 7, morning | Guadalajara lodging | Arched gallery, a courtyard full of plants |\n| Oct 7, 11 a.m. | Tasting on the tour | A piece of agave, \"It's sweet.\" |\n| Oct 7, 12:30 p.m. | Agave fields | Blue-green rows to the foot of the hills |\n| Oct 7, 3 p.m. | José Cuervo distillery | A mound of piñas by a yellow wall, the guide's talk |\n| Oct 7, 7:30–8 p.m. | Guadalajara centro | A church inside, a lit facade, Teatro Degollado |\n| Oct 8, 9:30 a.m. | Guadalajara centro | The cathedral spire, the Rotonda |\n\n---\n\n## Guadalajara lodging: an arched gallery and a courtyard\n\n\n The gallery at 8:38 a.m. \n \n\nIn Guadalajara I stayed two nights, October 6 and 7. The first record of the place is the gallery I filmed at 8:38 on the morning of the tour. Iron lanterns hang from a beamed wooden ceiling, and red terracotta tiles run along the stone-column arches. Every column had a trailing plant in a hanging basket.\n\n\n The courtyard, with tables under rattan lamps. \n \n\nEight minutes later I went down to the courtyard. Palms and potted plants filled it almost to the roof, and round tables stood under rattan lamps shaped like birdcages. A staff member walked between them carrying a plate.\n\n\n Trailing plants on a white wall, and a stone column. \n \n\nAround the corner, trailing plants hung in a row along a white wall, and a black-and-white checked border ran across the floor beside a thick stone column.\n\n\n The lobby, with ornate mirrors and lamps. \n \n\nThe lobby felt different. A gilt-framed mirror hangs on a dark wall, and shaded lamps and white candlesticks line a console. I have no photos of the room, so I can only describe this place by its gallery, courtyard and lobby.\n\n---\n\n## 11 a.m.: a piece of agave\n\n\n Fibers pulling apart into strings. \n \n\nThe tour started in the morning. At 11:03, out under the sky, I was handed a piece of agave to chew. It began as a brown lump and, the more I chewed, split along the grain into a tangle of pale strings. The first thing said in the video is \"It's sweet.\"\n\nIn the next clip, the voice explaining it mentions \"sugar\" and \"fiber.\" Tequila is made from this plant's sugars. Where those sugars are stored comes up again that afternoon at the distillery.\n\nAround 11:30 there is also a clip where I recorded the same lines twice. The video-making I had started in Mexico City the day before carried on through the tour.\n\n---\n\n## 12:30 p.m.: blue agave fields\n\n\n 12:29 p.m., in the middle of the field. \n \n\nAt about 12:30 we got out at the **agave fields**. The video from the field starts with a bit of Spanish: \"Vamos a tomar…\"\n\nI put on sunglasses and took a selfie in the middle of the field. The leaf tips came up to my shoulders, and they are sharp. Dirt paths run between the rows.\n\n\n A dirt path at the edge of the field, and one tree. \n \n\nThe field runs to the low hills on the horizon. A single large tree stands at the end of the dirt path on the right, and someone was walking along it.\n\n\n The field from a path between the rows. \n \n\nThe leaves are less green than blue-green. That is because the variety used for tequila is **blue agave** (Agave tequilana Weber, blue variety). The agave fields and old distilleries around the town of Tequila were inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage site in 2006, as the \"Agave Landscape and Ancient Industrial Facilities of Tequila.\" The site runs from the foothills of the Tequila Volcano to the Río Grande valley.\n\n\n 12:39 p.m., a valley town seen from the car. \n \n\nWe left the field and got back in the car. At 12:39, past the corn stalks by the road, I could look down on a town set in a valley. Behind it stood a large mountain with clouds on top.\n\n---\n\n## 3 p.m.: piñas at the José Cuervo distillery\n\n\n Agave hearts with the leaves cut off: piñas. \n \n\nAt 3:05 p.m. I was in the yard of the **José Cuervo distillery**. Under a yellow wall and stone arches, agave hearts were piled up like a small hill. The round core left after the leaves are cut right back is called a **piña**, Spanish for pineapple, which it resembles. The cut leaf bases show as green and purple stripes.\n\nA guide with a microphone explained it all in English. These are the lines left in the recording:\n\n- \"There are more than 200 classes of agave, but only with this we can make the tequila.\"\n- \"It's important the percentage of sugar it contains, because we only need seven kilograms to make one liter of tequila.\"\n\nIn other words: there are more than 200 kinds of agave, tequila is made only from this one, and its sugar content matters, with seven kilograms going into one liter. Seven kilograms is the figure the guide gave that day. The sweet fibers I chewed in the morning come from these piñas.\n\nThe clips I took at the distillery run until about 3:40.\n\n---\n\n## The way back: agave out of the car window\n\n\n 4:43 p.m., on the way back. \n \n\nBy 4:43 p.m. I was back in the car. Beyond the brush along the road, grey-blue agave fields spread to the foot of the ridges.\n\n---\n\n## Evening: Guadalajara centro\n\n\n Inside a church at 7:30 p.m. \n \n\nBack in Guadalajara, at about 7:30 p.m. I went into a church in the centro. At the end of the aisle between the pews is an altar decorated in white and gold, and a crystal chandelier hangs from the ceiling. The statue at the center of the altar was lit green.\n\n\n 7:50 p.m., the facade lit up. \n \n\nThe clip I took at 7:47 has only one word on it: \"Wow.\" Three minutes later, looking up from outside, the facade glowed a warm yellow under the floodlights. Crenellations run above a semicircular roofline, with a clock on top and three saints standing in the central niche.\n\n\n 8:07 p.m., Teatro Degollado. \n \n\nAt 8:07 I was in front of **Teatro Degollado**. The whole colonnade and pediment were lit purple. The theater opened in September 1866. Sixteen Corinthian columns stand across the front, and the pediment carries a relief on the theme of Apollo and the Muses.\n\nAt about 9:20 p.m. I was sitting in a restaurant with yellow walls and a painting on them. That restaurant is the last clip of the day.\n\n---\n\n## October 8, morning: the cathedral spire and the Rotonda\n\n\n 9:48 a.m., the cathedral spire between the trees. \n \n\nOn the morning I left for Guanajuato, I walked a loop of the centro from 9:40. At the end of a tree-lined street stands the spire of **Guadalajara Cathedral**. It is a pointed spire covered in yellow tiles, so you can pick it out from far away.\n\n\n 9:53 a.m., the Rotonda. \n \n\nNext to the cathedral is the **Rotonda de los Jaliscienses Ilustres**, a ring of stone columns. The stone band on top reads \"JALISCO A SUS HIJOS ESCLARECIDOS,\" Jalisco to its illustrious sons and daughters. It was built in 1952 to honor notable people from Jalisco. In the morning the plaza was empty.\n\nThe walk went on until 11:40, and after that I set off for Guanajuato.\n\n---\n\n## Visitor information\n\nI was there on **October 7–8, 2025**. I looked up the distances and history below while writing this. Tour prices and times differ between sources, so check the official information.\n\n| Place | Location | Entry / price | When I went |\n| --- | --- | --- | --- |\n| Agave fields | Around Tequila | Visited on the tour; check official info before visiting | Oct 7, 12:30 p.m. |\n| José Cuervo distillery | Town of Tequila | Varies by tour; check official info before visiting | Oct 7, 3 p.m. |\n| Teatro Degollado | Guadalajara centro | Check official info for visits and shows | Oct 7, 8 p.m., outside |\n| Cathedral and Rotonda | Guadalajara centro | Check official info | Oct 8, 9:30 a.m. |\n\n**Getting around**: The town of Tequila is about 60 km northwest of Guadalajara, a bit over an hour by car. I left in the morning, was in the car on the way back at 4:43 p.m., and was in the centro by 7:30. The cathedral, the Rotonda and Teatro Degollado are all within walking distance of each other in the centro.\n\n📍 **José Cuervo distillery (La Rojeña, Mundo Cuervo)** · Tequila, Jalisco\n\n- 🏭 **Known facts**: José Cuervo's distillery near the main square of Tequila. According to the company, it was founded in 1812 and is the oldest working distillery in Latin America.\n- 🌵 **Agave**: Tequila is made from blue agave. The guide said one liter of tequila takes seven kilograms of piña.\n- 🎟️ **Tours**: Distillery tour types, prices and times vary by season and seller, and there are several day tours from Guadalajara. **Check official info before visiting.**\n- 🗺️ **Map**: [Open in Google Maps](https://www.google.com/maps/search/?api=1&query=La%20Roje%C3%B1a%20Jose%20Cuervo%20Tequila%20Jalisco)\n\n📍 **Agave Landscape and Ancient Industrial Facilities of Tequila** · UNESCO World Heritage (2006)\n\n- 🌄 **Extent**: The blue agave landscape and distilleries from the foothills of the Tequila Volcano to the Río Grande valley.\n- 🗺️ **Map**: [Town of Tequila](https://www.google.com/maps/search/?api=1&query=Tequila%20Jalisco)\n\n📍 **Teatro Degollado** · Guadalajara Centro\n\n- 🏛️ **Known facts**: Opened in 1866, with sixteen Corinthian columns and a pediment relief on the theme of Apollo and the Muses.\n- 🎭 **Visiting**: For interior visits and the performance schedule, **check official info before visiting.**\n- 🗺️ **Map**: [Open in Google Maps](https://www.google.com/maps/search/?api=1&query=Teatro%20Degollado%20Guadalajara)\n\n📍 **Guadalajara Cathedral · Rotonda de los Jaliscienses Ilustres** · Guadalajara Centro\n\n- 🗺️ **Map**: [Cathedral](https://www.google.com/maps/search/?api=1&query=Catedral%20de%20Guadalajara) · [Rotonda](https://www.google.com/maps/search/?api=1&query=Rotonda%20de%20los%20Jaliscienses%20Ilustres)\n\n📍 **Guadalajara lodging**\n\n- 🏠 **What I saw**: A gallery of stone-column arches, terracotta tiles, a courtyard full of plants with tables, and a lobby with ornate mirrors. Two nights, October 6 and 7.\n- 📝 **Name and price**: I have no record of the hotel's name or price, so they are not in this post.\n\n## Tequila tour: how to get lost a little less\n\n- 🕗 **Keep the whole day free.** I left the hotel in the morning and was only back in the centro at 7:30 p.m.\n- 🕶️ **Bring sunglasses.** An agave field is nothing but dirt paths between rows, with no shade.\n- 🌵 **Stay on the paths in the fields.** Agave leaf tips are sharp.\n- 🎧 **Check the tour language in advance.** The distillery talk I heard was in English.\n- 🌙 **Head to the centro when you get back.** From the church to Teatro Degollado was an easy walk between 7:30 and 8 p.m.\n\n\nThis is a record of an October 2025 visit. I looked up the distillery, theater and World Heritage information while writing this, but tour prices and hours differ between sources, so please check the official information once more before you book or go.\n \n\n## Jayden's verdict\n\n> The tequila tour started with a piece of agave in my mouth, went through the fields and ended at a mound of piñas in a distillery yard.\n\n- **Highlight**: the agave fibers I chewed in the morning, the blue agave fields running to the hills, and the piñas piled by the yellow wall\n- **Tip**: on tour day, come back to the centro in the evening and walk on to Teatro Degollado at night. The next morning, walk the cathedral and the Rotonda together.\n\nThe next part leaves Guadalajara for Guanajuato. From there it goes through San Miguel de Allende and back to Mexico City, and it is the last part, the way home.\n\n---\n\n**Mexico for Tacos: 10 Days**\n\n1. [Mexico City arrival and a Teotihuacan balloon](/en/posts/mexico-travel-01-mexico-city-teotihuacan-balloon)\n2. [Mexico City: night tacos and Chapultepec Castle](/en/posts/mexico-travel-02-mexico-city-tacos-chapultepec)\n3. [Puebla, Xochimilco at night and Guadalupe](/en/posts/mexico-travel-03-puebla-xochimilco-guadalupe)\n4. **Guadalajara and a tequila tour** (you are here)\n5. [Guanajuato, San Miguel de Allende, and home](/en/posts/mexico-travel-05-guanajuato-san-miguel-de-allende)\n","readingTime":14,"series":{"id":"2025-mexico-travel-diary","title":"Mexico for Tacos: 10 Days","part":4,"total":5},"country":"mx","growthStage":"evergreen","version":"1.0","updateCount":0},{"slug":"mexico-travel-05-guanajuato-san-miguel-de-allende","title":"Guanajuato Travel 05: An Estudiantina Outside a Church at Night, San Miguel de Allende, and Home","description":"October 8–11, 2025: by bus to Guanajuato, a day trip to San Miguel de Allende, a last day on Mexico City's Calle Bolívar and a 6 a.m. departure.","topic":"travel","tags":["Guanajuato Travel","San Miguel de Allende","Estudiantina","Mexico Itinerary","Mexico Travel"],"publishedAt":"2026-10-24T20:00:00+09:00","updatedAt":"2026-10-24T20:00:00+09:00","coverImage":"/images/posts/mexico-travel-05-guanajuato-san-miguel-de-allende/cover.jpg","coverAlt":"Guanajuato at night from above, the lights of houses filling the valley and lit buildings in the middle","seoTitle":"Guanajuato Travel | Teatro Juárez, an Estudiantina, a San Miguel de Allende Day Trip and Leaving Mexico City","seoDescription":"Guanajuato by bus from Guadalajara: Teatro Juárez at night, an estudiantina outside a church, a San Miguel de Allende day trip and my 10-day Mexico route.","translationGroupId":"mexico-travel-05-guanajuato-san-miguel-de-allende","status":"published","locale":"en","content":"\n8:53 p.m., Guanajuato. In front of a church facade crowded with stone carving, men in black stood in a row on the wet paving, playing mandolins and guitars and singing. At the far end, a double bass.\n\nIn [part 4](/en/posts/mexico-travel-04-guadalajara-tequila-tour) I went on a tequila tour from Guadalajara and walked the Centro the next morning. This is the last part.\n\nOn the afternoon of October 8 I took a bus to Guanajuato and stayed two nights. In between I spent a day in San Miguel de Allende, and on the 10th I went back to Mexico City. The ten days ended around 6 a.m. on the 11th, when I left for Canada. At the very end there's one table with the whole route.\n\n\n**In three lines**: On October 8 I took a **bus** from Guadalajara to Guanajuato and saw **Teatro Juárez** and an **estudiantina** outside a church that night. On the 9th I did a day trip to **San Miguel de Allende**: colourful streets, a restaurant with a guitarist, and the town from a hilltop. On the 10th I walked Calle Bolívar in Mexico City, and early on the 11th I left for Canada.\n \n\n## The route in this post\n\n| Date | Where | In a line |\n| --- | --- | --- |\n| Oct 8, afternoon | Guadalajara → Guanajuato | Green fields from the bus window |\n| Oct 8, evening | Guanajuato old town | A pink-walled alley, Teatro Juárez, an estudiantina |\n| Oct 9, afternoon | San Miguel de Allende | A yellow church, a green taxi, a guitar at LOS MILAGROS |\n| Oct 9, night | Back in Guanajuato | Lights filling the valley |\n| Oct 10 | Guanajuato → Mexico City | Cloudy highlands, Calle Bolívar, a pink taxi |\n| Oct 11, early morning | Mexico City → Canada | Left around 6 a.m. |\n\n---\n\n## October 8: By bus from Guadalajara to Guanajuato\n\n\n 1:30 p.m., yogurt in a bus seat. \n \n\nMy walk around the Centro lasted until 11:40 a.m. By 1:30 p.m. I was on the bus: a long-distance coach with luggage racks and air vents overhead and curtains on the windows. In my hand, a cup of pink yogurt topped with granola and a plastic spoon.\n\n\n Outside the window after leaving Guadalajara. \n \n\nOutside, it soon turned to fields. Cornfields ran on behind the grass, and tall cumulus clouds stood over low mountains in the distance. The bus companies list the Guadalajara to Guanajuato trip at about four hours.\n\n## First evening in Guanajuato: a pink-walled alley and Teatro Juárez\n\n\n 6:52 p.m. A stone stair alley beside a pink wall. \n \n\nMy first scene in Guanajuato is an alley at 6:52 p.m. A small name plaque hangs on the corner of a pink building, and beside it a narrow flight of stone steps climbs along a rough stone wall. Only the far end of the alley had a light. Guanajuato's old town clings to the slopes of a ravine, so there are a lot of stepped alleys like this.\n\n\n 7:05 p.m., outside Teatro Juárez. \n \n\nThirteen minutes later I was outside **Teatro Juárez**. Bronze lions sit on either side of the steps in front of the columns, and a row of round glass street lamps was lit. The paving was wet, and the lights spread across it. A man with a backpack and someone pushing a bike passed in front.\n\nConstruction of the theatre began in 1872 and it opened in 1903. In 1988 the historic town of Guanajuato and its adjacent mines became a UNESCO World Heritage Site. In the 18th century it was the world's leading silver-mining centre.\n\n\n Dinner at 8:22 p.m. \n \n\nDinner at 8:22 p.m. was a white instant-noodle cup. Rice went into the orange broth, stirred with chopsticks.\n\n## 8:53 p.m., an estudiantina outside the church\n\n\n The estudiantina in front of the church facade. \n \n\nBack to the opening scene. The band in black is an **estudiantina**: black doublets with round puffed sleeves and black tights, the dress of the old student bands. Behind them the densely carved stone facade of the church was floodlit, and the ground was as wet as before.\n\n\n A double bass at the end of the line. \n \n\nTwo mandolins, several guitars and, at the end, a man on the double bass. They sang in Spanish. When an estudiantina leads people through the alleys at night, singing as they go, it's called a **callejoneada**. It's sold as one of Guanajuato's night activities on plenty of booking sites.\n\n\n 9:32 p.m., clay cups with straws. \n \n\nAt 9:32 p.m. people were gathered on the paving of a dark alley. Some held small clay cups with straws in them. I switched the camera on again at 9:52, and that video runs over seven minutes: a long story told in Spanish under a lamp on a yellow wall.\n\n---\n\n## October 9: A day trip to San Miguel de Allende\n\nThe next day I went from Guanajuato to San Miguel de Allende and back. Most sources put it at around 80 km by road, about an hour and a half by car. My first scene there is from 2:17 p.m.\n\n\n 2:17 p.m. A red corner house and yellow houses. \n \n\nThe street turns at the corner of a red building, number 18. Yellow and red houses line up across the way, and the cobbles were wet. The sky was grey. San Miguel de Allende's historic centre became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2008, together with the sanctuary of Atotonilco 14 km away.\n\n\n 2:47 p.m., the yellow church's bell tower. \n \n\nAt 2:47 p.m. I was in front of a yellow church. A bell tower trimmed in red stone rises over the yellow walls, with another dome behind it. The yellow wall around the church was finished with a wavy top.\n\n\n San Miguel's taxis are green. \n \n\nOn the cobbles in front stood a green-and-white taxi with a TAXI light on its roof. The taxis I saw in Mexico City the next day were pink.\n\n## A guitar at LOS MILAGROS, and tortilla chips\n\n\n 3:28 p.m., tortilla chips on a red table. \n \n\nAt 3:28 p.m. I sat down in a restaurant. A paper-lined basket of tortilla chips came out onto a red table, next to a white square bowl of salsa and an amber drink.\n\n\n A guitarist under the blue heart. \n \n\nOn a white wall hung a blue heart with LOS MILAGROS written on it. Under it a man sat at a microphone, playing guitar and singing. His song carries on in the same video as the basket of chips.\n\n## San Miguel de Allende from a hilltop\n\n\n 5:20 p.m., the town from a hilltop. \n \n\nAt 5:20 p.m. I was on a hill looking down over the town. Below me were trees, red bougainvillea and a brick wall, and beyond them low houses spread flat all the way out. On the horizon sat flat-topped mountains and a faint glint of water. It's a different shape of town from Guanajuato, where the houses are stacked up the sides of a ravine.\n\n## Guanajuato at night again\n\n\n Guanajuato at 10:54 p.m. \n \n\nThat night I was back in Guanajuato. At 10:54 p.m. the valley below was full of lights from every house. In the middle, large floodlit buildings glowed yellow, and smaller lights covered the slopes around them right up the hills.\n\n---\n\n## October 10: Back to Mexico City, the last day\n\n\n Out of the window at 9:10 a.m. \n \n\nAt 9:10 a.m. on October 10 the view from the car was highland under low cloud. Dry grass and shrubs ran on beyond a fence of white posts, with a low mountain and a town in the distance. This was the day I left Guanajuato for Mexico City.\n\n\n 12:51 p.m., TIENDA MIDE. \n \n\nBy 12:51 p.m. I was in Mexico City's historic centre. A building with stone-framed windows had **TIENDA MIDE** lettered on the glass: the shop of MIDE, the economics museum. The museum is in the former Betlemitas convent on Calle Tacuba, between Bolívar and Filomeno Mata. Signs nearby carried street numbers like BOLIVAR Nº 79-B and BOLIVAR 45.\n\n\n Mexico City's taxis are pink and white. \n \n\nA pink-and-white taxi stood in front, with TAXI on the door and CDMX on the back.\n\nThe itinerary's box for the last day says \"last look around town, souvenirs\". The only photos from that day are from around Calle Bolívar. There's no record of what I bought.\n\n## October 11, early morning: to Canada\n\nAround 6 a.m. on October 11 I left Mexico City for Canada, ten days after landing here at about 10:50 p.m. on October 1 and reaching my room at midnight. There are no photos from the day I left.\n\n---\n\n## Where the ten days went\n\nLast, the whole ten-day route in one table.\n\n| Date | Where | What | Part |\n| --- | --- | --- | --- |\n| Oct 1 | Incheon → Vancouver → Mexico City | Landed around 10:50 p.m., at the lodging by midnight | [Part 1](/en/posts/mexico-travel-01-mexico-city-teotihuacan-balloon) |\n| Oct 2 | Teotihuacan | Pre-dawn start, a hot-air balloon | [Part 1](/en/posts/mexico-travel-01-mexico-city-teotihuacan-balloon) |\n| Oct 3–4 | Mexico City | A night taco stand, Chapultepec Castle | [Part 2](/en/posts/mexico-travel-02-mexico-city-tacos-chapultepec) |\n| Oct 5–6 | Puebla · Mexico City | Puebla, Xochimilco at night, Parque México, Guadalupe | [Part 3](/en/posts/mexico-travel-03-puebla-xochimilco-guadalupe) |\n| Oct 7 | Guadalajara | A tequila tour | [Part 4](/en/posts/mexico-travel-04-guadalajara-tequila-tour) |\n| Oct 8 | Guadalajara → Guanajuato | Bus, Teatro Juárez, an estudiantina | Part 5 |\n| Oct 9 | San Miguel de Allende | Day trip, the view from a hilltop | Part 5 |\n| Oct 10 | Guanajuato → Mexico City | Calle Bolívar | Part 5 |\n| Oct 11 | Mexico City → Canada | Left around 6 a.m. | Part 5 |\n\nFive days based in Mexico City, then west to Guadalajara, then back east through Guanajuato and San Miguel de Allende.\n\nI love tacos, and I went to Mexico to eat them. I'd studied some Spanish before going, too. The Spanish of mine that ended up on video is short stuff like \"Hola, buenos días\" and \"Gracias\". I started filming on the morning of October 6 in Parque México, so a good share of the scenes in this part come from that footage.\n\n---\n\n## Visit info\n\nI was there **October 8–11, 2025**. I looked up the practical details below while writing this post, and prices and times varied from source to source. Where I'm not sure, I've marked it \"check official info\".\n\n| Place | Location | Fees · hours | When I was there |\n| --- | --- | --- | --- |\n| Teatro Juárez | Guanajuato old town, by the Jardín de la Unión | Check official info for visits and shows | Oct 8, around 7 p.m. |\n| Callejoneada (estudiantina) | Guanajuato old-town alleys | Varies by operator; check official info | Oct 8, 8:53 p.m., seen outside a church |\n| San Miguel de Allende historic centre | About 80 km by road from Guanajuato | Free to walk around | Oct 9, afternoon |\n| MIDE (economics museum) | Tacuba 17, Mexico City | Check official info | Oct 10, midday, walked past |\n\n**Route**: Guadalajara to Guanajuato by bus, two nights in Guanajuato with a day trip to San Miguel de Allende. Back to Mexico City on the 10th, then away early on the 11th.\n\n📍 **Teatro Juárez** · Guanajuato\n\n- 🏛️ **Facts**: construction began in 1872 and it opened in 1903. It stands by the Jardín de la Unión.\n- 🌙 **When I saw it**: around 7 p.m., with the lamps lit around the lions on the front steps.\n- 🎟️ **Visits and shows**: whether you can tour inside, admission and opening hours: **check official info before visiting.**\n- 🗺️ **Map**: [View on Google Maps](https://www.google.com/maps/search/?api=1&query=Teatro%20Ju%C3%A1rez%20Guanajuato)\n\n📍 **Callejoneada** · Guanajuato old town\n\n- 🎻 **What**: a night walk in which an estudiantina leads people through the alleys, singing. Booking sites mostly list 1 hour 10 minutes to 1 hour 30 minutes.\n- 💳 **Price and what's included**: prices and whether a drink is included varied by site. **Check official info before booking.**\n- 🗺️ **Map**: [Jardín de la Unión](https://www.google.com/maps/search/?api=1&query=Jard%C3%ADn%20de%20la%20Uni%C3%B3n%20Guanajuato)\n\n📍 **San Miguel de Allende** · Guanajuato state\n\n- 🏛️ **Facts**: inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2008, together with the Sanctuary of Jesús Nazareno de Atotonilco.\n- 🚌 **Getting there**: about 80 km by road from Guanajuato. Some sources give the bus at around 1 hour 20 minutes. **Check timetables before you go.**\n- 🔭 **View**: the best-known lookout over town is El Mirador on Salida Real a Querétaro. There's no record of whether that's exactly where I stood at 5:20 p.m.\n- 🗺️ **Map**: [San Miguel de Allende](https://www.google.com/maps/search/?api=1&query=San%20Miguel%20de%20Allende) · [El Mirador](https://www.google.com/maps/search/?api=1&query=El%20Mirador%20San%20Miguel%20de%20Allende)\n\n📍 **MIDE · Calle Bolívar** · Mexico City, Centro Histórico\n\n- 🏛️ **Facts**: MIDE, the economics museum, is in the former Betlemitas convent at Tacuba 17, close to Calle Bolívar.\n- 🎟️ **Admission and opening hours**: they varied by source. **Check official info before visiting.**\n- 🗺️ **Map**: [View on Google Maps](https://www.google.com/maps/search/?api=1&query=MIDE%20Museo%20Interactivo%20de%20Econom%C3%ADa)\n\n## How to get lost a little less\n\n- 🚌 **Guadalajara to Guanajuato is half a day by bus.** Spend the morning in Guadalajara, take an afternoon bus and you can still walk Guanajuato's old town in the evening.\n- 🌙 **Walk Guanajuato at night.** The lamps at Teatro Juárez and the estudiantina outside the church were both after 7 p.m.\n- 👟 **Lots of stone paving and stone steps.** They get slippery when wet after rain. Wear shoes with grippy soles.\n- 🚕 **San Miguel de Allende works as a day trip from Guanajuato.** I walked the town in the afternoon, looked down on it from a hill, and was back by night.\n- ✈️ **If your flight leaves at dawn, be back in Mexico City the day before.** I returned on the 10th and left around 6 a.m. on the 11th.\n\n\nThis is a record of an October 2025 trip. Travel times, prices, what a callejoneada includes and the museum's hours are what I looked up while writing and may change, so please check official information again before you go.\n \n\n## Jayden's verdict\n\n> I love tacos, so this was a trip to Mexico to eat tacos.\n\n- **Highlight**: Guanajuato at night: the lamps outside Teatro Juárez and the estudiantina outside the church. And the next day, San Miguel de Allende from a hilltop.\n- **Tip**: give Guanajuato two days and you can fit in San Miguel de Allende too. If you fly out at dawn, spend the last day in Mexico City.\n\n---\n\nThat's the end of ten days in Mexico for tacos. The whole trip is in the five parts below.\n\n**Mexico for Tacos: 10 Days**\n\n1. [Mexico City arrival and a Teotihuacan balloon](/en/posts/mexico-travel-01-mexico-city-teotihuacan-balloon)\n2. [Mexico City: night tacos and Chapultepec Castle](/en/posts/mexico-travel-02-mexico-city-tacos-chapultepec)\n3. [Puebla, Xochimilco at night and Guadalupe](/en/posts/mexico-travel-03-puebla-xochimilco-guadalupe)\n4. [Guadalajara and a tequila tour](/en/posts/mexico-travel-04-guadalajara-tequila-tour)\n5. **Guanajuato, San Miguel de Allende, and home** (you are here)\n","readingTime":15,"series":{"id":"2025-mexico-travel-diary","title":"Mexico for Tacos: 10 Days","part":5,"total":5},"country":"mx","growthStage":"evergreen","version":"1.0","updateCount":0}]},{"id":"indonesia-2024-jakarta-bali","title":"Indonesia in 9 Days: A Jakarta Business Trip and Remote Work in Bali","count":4,"total":4,"posts":[{"slug":"indonesia-travel-01-jakarta-istiqlal-kota-tua","title":"Jakarta Travel 01: A 5,000-Rupiah Twist, Istiqlal Mosque and Kota Tua","description":"Two days in Jakarta, December 2024: offering 5,000 rupiah at Istiqlal Mosque and getting a laugh, Jakarta Cathedral, Monas, and satay in rainy Kota Tua.","topic":"travel","tags":["Jakarta Travel","Jakarta Itinerary","Istiqlal Mosque","Kota Tua","Jakarta Food"],"publishedAt":"2026-10-12T20:00:00+09:00","updatedAt":"2026-11-03T20:00:00+09:00","coverImage":"/images/posts/indonesia-travel-01-jakarta-istiqlal-kota-tua/cover.jpg","coverAlt":"The main prayer hall of Istiqlal Mosque seen from the upper gallery: silver pillars and a green dome over red carpet","seoTitle":"Jakarta Travel Itinerary: Istiqlal Mosque, Jakarta Cathedral, Monas and Kota Tua Food","seoDescription":"A rainy December Jakarta itinerary: Istiqlal Mosque visitor tour, Jakarta Cathedral and Monas, satay in Kota Tua, and a four-stop comparison table with tips.","translationGroupId":"indonesia-travel-01-jakarta-istiqlal-kota-tua","status":"published","locale":"en","content":"\n**\"I'll give you 5,000 rupiah if you let me in.\"**\n\nThat's what I said to a guide at the entrance of Istiqlal Mosque in Jakarta. What came back was a belly laugh. But after that laugh, things went somewhere I never expected.\n\nThis is the story of nine days in Indonesia in December 2024: a business trip in Jakarta, then remote work in Bali. I meant to write it up as soon as I got home, and put it off for almost two years. I'm writing it now.\n\nThis first part covers two days. Day one is getting from Incheon to Jakarta; day two is a rainy Jakarta itinerary, from Istiqlal Mosque past Jakarta Cathedral and Monas, ending with satay in Kota Tua.\n\n\n**In three lines**: December 14–15, 2024, Incheon to Jakarta. Arriving late in a downpour at **Istiqlal Mosque**, I offered a guide 5,000 rupiah, got a laugh, and because of it got a tour I never expected. Dinner was **satay and nasi goreng in rainy Kota Tua**. Satay and sambal were the best combo of the trip.\n \n\n## The route in this post\n\n| Date | Where | In a line |\n| --- | --- | --- |\n| Dec 14 | Incheon Airport → Soekarno-Hatta Airport → Alam Sutera | Currency, gukbap, gomoku |\n| Dec 15 | Istiqlal Mosque → Jakarta Cathedral → Monas | 90 minutes in the rain, 5,000 rupiah |\n| Dec 15, evening | Kota Tua (the old town) | Bajaj, museums, satay |\n\n---\n\n## Day 1: From Incheon Airport to Jakarta\n\n\n A backpack stacked on the suitcase. Business-trip luggage, plus everything I needed to work from Bali. \n \n\nThe trip started at the airport bus stop in my neighborhood. With business-trip luggage plus my gear for working in Bali, changing subway lines was out of the question.\n\nAt the airport, the first thing I did was pick up my currency. I had ordered it online and collected it at the KB Kookmin Bank counter. The rupiah had so many zeros on it that I had no feel at all for how much it was worth. I didn't work it out. **That becomes a problem the next day.**\n\n\n My last Korean meal before departure. \n \n\nI can't give up the pleasure of eating when I travel, so I don't skip meals even at the airport. Before departure, a bowl of milky gukbap, the Korean soup of rice and long-simmered broth. My last Korean meal for a while.\n\n\n The Asiana jet outside the gate window. \n \n\n### The in-flight meal, and gomoku\n\n\n Penne with meat and broccoli. \n \n\nThe in-flight meal was penne with meat and broccoli. During the flight I played **gomoku** on the seatback screen (five-in-a-row, the board game Koreans call omok). I played the computer until the scoreboard hit double digits.\n\n\n 10 to 8. You win! \n \n\nFinal score: **10 to 8, my win.**\n\n### Jakarta by night, the first place to stay\n\n\n The skytrain (Kalayang) station at Soekarno-Hatta Airport. \n \n\nBy the time I landed at Soekarno-Hatta Airport, it was already night. A skytrain runs between the terminals.\n\n\n The pool at my first building, at night. \n \n\nMy first stay was a high-rise in Alam Sutera, on the west side of Jakarta. In the pool, the lights of the buildings on either side spread across the water. Day one was all travel.\n\n---\n\n## Day 2: Ninety minutes in a downpour, already too late for Istiqlal Mosque\n\n\n Brake lights ahead, through a rain-streaked windshield. \n \n\nDecember is rainy season in Jakarta. It rained hard that day. The taxi into the city took almost **an hour and a half**. Traffic was jammed, and I was already past the time I was supposed to get into Istiqlal Mosque.\n\n\n The visitor tour schedule on the glass door at the entrance. \n \n\nA visitor tour schedule was posted at the entrance. I was late, so I couldn't get in.\n\nBut after ninety minutes on the road, turning straight back felt like a waste. So I struck up a conversation with a local guide. That's the line at the top of this post.\n\n## 5,000 rupiah, then 50,000 rupiah\n\nWhat I got back was a belly laugh. 5,000 rupiah is a few hundred won, a few cents.\n\nI asked again whether that wouldn't work. He said, **\"Take a tuk-tuk with that,\"** and waved me toward the exit. That came from not doing the rupiah math at the airport the day before.\n\nSo I added a zero. \"How about 50,000 rupiah?\"\n\n\n Following the guide down paths tourists rarely take. \n \n\nWith that, the guide showed me around himself, taking me down paths ordinary tourists don't usually go. Ten times the offer, and it became a **VIP tour**.\n\nThe 50,000 rupiah wasn't an official entrance fee. It was money I handed the guide on the spot, after showing up late for the tour.\n\n\n The main hall from the upper gallery. The people on the carpet look like dots. \n \n\nLooking down into the main hall from the upper gallery, the first thing that hits you is the **scale**. The people sitting on the red carpet below the railing looked as small as dots, and silver pillars held up a green dome.\n\n**The dome is 45 meters across, for 1945, the year Indonesia declared independence**, and there are 12 pillars.\n\n\n The dome's lattice and the lights around its rim, up close. \n \n\n\n The guide put a cap on me and took this photo. \n \n\nThe guide even put a cap on my head and took my picture. Raincoat, bare feet, a cap and a V sign.\n\n## Cross the road for Jakarta Cathedral, walk a little more for Monas\n\n\n Cross one road from the mosque and you're at Jakarta Cathedral. \n \n\nLeave the mosque, cross the road, and you're right at **Jakarta Cathedral**. Right after the green dome, two pointed spires and a rose window. Indonesia's largest mosque and a Catholic cathedral stand facing each other across one street. And **Friedrich Silaban, the architect who designed Istiqlal Mosque, was a Christian.**\n\n\n Rain-soaked Monas square. The carriage horses are covered in plastic. \n \n\nWalk a bit further and you reach rain-soaked **Monas square** (Monas is Jakarta's National Monument). Out front were carriage horses draped in plastic and vendors under umbrellas. The locals were genuinely kind, and English got me reasonably far.\n\nNext stop: Kota Tua, in the \"tuk-tuk\" the guide had told me to take.\n\n---\n\n## Day 2, evening: To Kota Tua by Bajaj\n\n\n The Bajaj, a three-wheeled taxi with a roof. This is the \"tuk-tuk\" the guide meant. \n \n\nMy ride to Kota Tua was a **Bajaj**, a three-wheeled taxi with a roof. Through the rain on the windshield, the traffic lights blurred.\n\n\n The Bank Indonesia Museum. I got there late, so only the outside this time. \n \n\nThe first thing I saw was the **Bank Indonesia Museum**. I arrived late in the afternoon, so I only saw the outside that day. The museum closes early in the afternoon, so come during the day if you want to go in.\n\nThe alley next to it is lined with street stalls: stall lights on the wet ground, and drink and snack stalls in a long row.\n\n\n The Jakarta History Museum, lit up. \n \n\nCome out of the alley into the square at the end and there's the **Jakarta History Museum** (Fatahillah Museum), a white two-story building. The square carries the marks of the Dutch colonial era. On a rainy night it wasn't crowded, so I could take it in calmly, and in front of one wall stood a street performer painted gold from head to toe.\n\n## Kota Tua food: satay and sambal, then nasi goreng\n\nTo get out of the rain I ducked into **Kedai Seni Djakarte**, a restaurant that keeps its old building just as it was. The walls tell the story of the place, and lights hang down over the staircase.\n\n\n Ayam satay, sambal and mie goreng. \n \n\nHere I had **mie goreng and ayam (chicken) satay**. Satay is grilled meat on skewers served with sauce, and sambal is an Indonesian condiment built on chili.\n\nI've always loved grilled skewers, and **the combo I rank number one from this whole trip is exactly this: satay and sambal.** This trip was also when I first learned that sambal is different from region to region. After that, the first thing I looked at in every restaurant was the sambal.\n\nOne place didn't feel like enough, so I also stopped by **Kedai Kota Toea** nearby.\n\n\n Nasi goreng at Kedai Kota Toea. A plate for a rainy evening. \n \n\nHere it was a plate of fried tofu, a deep-pink juice and **nasi goreng**. Nasi goreng was my favorite food of the entire trip.\n\n\n The Kota Tua street after dinner. \n \n\nWhen I came out after dinner, the whole street was soaked. An old building nearby had Christmas decorations up. Istiqlal, the cathedral, Monas, Kota Tua, and a day that ended on satay.\n\n---\n\n## Visiting info: four stops on a Jakarta itinerary, compared\n\nMy visit was in **December 2024**. The details below were looked up again in **November 2026**, and many of them differ from source to source. Where I'm not sure, I've marked it \"check official info\".\n\n| Place | Nearest station | Entry | Best time |\n| --- | --- | --- | --- |\n| Istiqlal Mosque | KRL Juanda | Listed as free to visit | Match the tour schedule |\n| Jakarta Cathedral | KRL Juanda | Avoid Mass times | Pair it with the mosque |\n| Monas | Between Juanda and Gambir | Check official info | Daytime (observation deck) |\n| Kota Tua | KRL Jakarta Kota | Paid, per museum | Museums by day, dinner at night |\n\n**Route**: Istiqlal Mosque and Jakarta Cathedral are one street apart, and Monas is within walking distance. Kota Tua sits farther north, so I took a Bajaj. If you want to see the museums inside, flip the order: **Kota Tua first (daytime), then the mosque and Monas.**\n\n📍 **Istiqlal Mosque** · Jl. Taman Wijaya Kusuma, Pasar Baru, Sawah Besar, Jakarta Pusat\n\n- 🎟️ **Entry**: listed as free in many guides. Non-Muslim visitors register near the entrance and go around with a guide. You look down into the main hall from the upper gallery.\n- ⏰ **Times**: a visitor tour schedule is posted at the entrance. Opening hours differ from source to source and change with prayer times and events. **Check official info before visiting.**\n- 👟 **Note**: shoes come off at the door. Clothing that covers you is the norm. On rainy days, think ahead about where to put wet shoes.\n- 🗺️ **Map**: [Open in Google Maps](https://www.google.com/maps/search/?api=1&query=Istiqlal%20Mosque%20Jakarta)\n\n📍 **Jakarta Cathedral** · across from Istiqlal Mosque\n\n- ⏰ **Times**: visiting hours for tourists differ from source to source. During Mass, the cathedral is a place of worship. **Check official info before visiting.**\n- 🗺️ **Map**: [Open in Google Maps](https://www.google.com/maps/search/?api=1&query=Jakarta%20Cathedral)\n\n📍 **Monas (National Monument)** · Merdeka Square\n\n- ⏰ **Times**: per 2025 news reports, the square opens at 6:00 and the tower at 8:00. Hours change on holidays and during events. For fees and closing days, **check official info before visiting.**\n- 🗺️ **Map**: [Open in Google Maps](https://www.google.com/maps/search/?api=1&query=Monas%20Jakarta)\n\n📍 **Kota Tua (Jakarta's old town)** · Pinangsia, Taman Sari, Jakarta Barat\n\n- 🏛️ **Jakarta History Museum**: per 2024–2025 sources, Tue–Sun 9:00–15:00, closed Mondays, 5,000 rupiah for adults. **Check official info before visiting.**\n- 🏛️ **Bank Indonesia Museum**: Tue–Sun, closes early in the afternoon (15:00 or 15:30, depending on the source). **Check official info before visiting.**\n- 🍢 **Where I ate**: [Kedai Seni Djakarte](https://www.google.com/maps/search/?api=1&query=Kedai%20Seni%20Djakarte) (satay, mie goreng), [Kedai Kota Toea](https://www.google.com/maps/search/?api=1&query=Kedai%20Kota%20Toea) (nasi goreng)\n- 🗺️ **Map**: [Open in Google Maps](https://www.google.com/maps/search/?api=1&query=Kota%20Tua%20Jakarta)\n\n## How to get lost a little less\n\n- 💱 **Work out the rupiah exchange rate once before you leave.** The numbers are so big that you really have no feel for them on the spot.\n- 🌧️ **December is rainy season in Jakarta.** When it rains, traffic jams badly. It took me 90 minutes to get into the city.\n- 🕐 **At Istiqlal, check the schedule first.** If you're late, it's hard to get in.\n- 🍽️ **Plan to stay in Kota Tua through dinner.** Order satay, sambal, nasi goreng and mie goreng, one of each, and share.\n\n\nThe experience is from December 2024; the visiting details were looked up again in November 2026. They can change with prayer times, events and seasons, so check once more before you go.\n \n\n## Jayden's verdict\n\n> Skipping the exchange-rate math made me a VIP. Next time I'll do the math, show up on schedule, and eat satay again.\n\n- **Highlight**: the dome and pillars of Istiqlal Mosque. The scale alone makes it worth going in.\n- **Kota Tua**: museums by day, satay by night.\n- **Two days in one line**: rain, laughter, and sambal.\n- **Tip**: work out the rupiah exchange rate before you leave.\n\nNext up is the Jakarta business trip. The offices I went to see never opened; what I came away with was a pepper crab picked from a tank and a run of local meals.\n\n---\n\n**Indonesia in 9 Days series**\n\n1. **Jakarta's first two days: Istiqlal Mosque and Kota Tua** (you are here)\n2. [Jakarta business trip: empty offices, pepper crab, two Airbnbs and local food](/en/posts/indonesia-travel-02-jakarta-business-trip-pepper-crab)\n3. [Ubud, Bali: rice terraces, remote work and a rice-field villa](/en/posts/indonesia-travel-03-bali-ubud-remote-work-villa)\n4. [Bali's last three days: Kintamani sunrise, Blue Lagoon and Canggu sunset](/en/posts/indonesia-travel-04-bali-kintamani-blue-lagoon-canggu)\n","readingTime":14,"series":{"id":"indonesia-2024-jakarta-bali","title":"Indonesia in 9 Days: A Jakarta Business Trip and Remote Work in Bali","part":1,"total":4},"country":"id","growthStage":"evergreen","version":"1.1","updateCount":1},{"slug":"indonesia-travel-02-jakarta-business-trip-pepper-crab","title":"Jakarta Travel 02: The Office That Never Opened and a Pepper Crab Picked From the Tank","description":"Three days of a Jakarta business trip, December 2024: touring empty offices, pepper crab picked from the tank at Bandar Djakarta, two Airbnbs and local food.","topic":"travel","tags":["Jakarta Business Trip","Jakarta Food","Bandar Djakarta","Pepper Crab","Jakarta Airbnb"],"publishedAt":"2026-10-15T20:00:00+09:00","updatedAt":"2026-11-03T20:00:00+09:00","coverImage":"/images/posts/indonesia-travel-02-jakarta-business-trip-pepper-crab/cover.jpg","coverAlt":"A crab coated in sauce flecked with black pepper, a dish of dipping sauce beside it and another crab plate behind","seoTitle":"Jakarta Business Trip: Pepper Crab at Bandar Djakarta, BSD City Office Tour and Two Airbnbs","seoDescription":"A Jakarta business trip, December 2024: BSD City office tour, pepper crab picked from the tank at Bandar Djakarta, two Airbnbs compared, Padang food and bakso.","translationGroupId":"indonesia-travel-02-jakarta-business-trip-pepper-crab","status":"published","locale":"en","content":"\n**I opened the door and saw the tanks before any tables.**\n\nBandar Djakarta, a seafood restaurant in Alam Sutera on the west side of Jakarta. I picked a crab at the tank, and a staff member lifted it straight out and dropped it into a basket on the scale. Even on the scale, the crab was still moving its claws.\n\nThat same day, I had been touring empty offices.\n\nThis is the Jakarta business-trip leg of nine days in Indonesia in December 2024. In [Part 1](/en/posts/indonesia-travel-01-jakarta-istiqlal-kota-tua) I went round a rainy Istiqlal Mosque and Kota Tua.\n\nThis part has four threads: the office tour to find a base in Indonesia, dinner at Bandar Djakarta with local colleagues, the two Airbnbs I stayed in, and the local food I ate all through the trip.\n\n\n**In three lines**: A business trip to Jakarta, December 2024. A two-story office, a shophouse with a resident cat, a bare-concrete 25th floor: I toured **offices that never opened**. Dinner was **pepper crab picked straight from the tank at Bandar Djakarta**, recommended by local colleagues. For lodging, **the studio in central Sudirman** beat the two-bedroom in Alam Sutera.\n \n\n## The route in this post\n\n| Date | Where | In a line |\n| --- | --- | --- |\n| Dec 16 | Office tour around BSD City | Two-story office |\n| Dec 16, evening | Bandar Djakarta Alam Sutera | Tanks, scales, pepper crab |\n| Dec 17, afternoon | Office tour around BSD City | Shophouse and cat, panel building, 25th floor |\n| Dec 14–17 | Alam Sutera Airbnb, 3 nights → Sudirman, 1 night | Number of rooms vs location |\n| Throughout | Satay, breakfast boxes, Padang spread, bakso | A country that takes carbs seriously |\n\n---\n\n## Jakarta business trip: two days of office hunting\n\nMy company hires overseas developers directly to run a global development team, and takes on IT projects for companies in Korea and abroad. So the idea came up of setting up a base in Indonesia. This trip was to see the candidates in person.\n\n\n Candidate number one: a two-story office. The sofa still in its plastic wrap. \n \n\nThe first place we walked into was a **two-story (duplex) office**. The sofa still had its plastic wrap on, and the windows ran up the height of both floors. Put desks in and it looked ready to use.\n\n### The shophouse and the cat\n\nThe next afternoon we saw a **shophouse**. The ground floor was an empty space with nothing but walls; up the stairs came rooms, a bathroom and even a small sink. It felt less like viewing an office and more like viewing a home.\n\n\n A tuxedo cat walking toward the camera in an empty room. \n \n\nWhat I remember most clearly from that house is the **cat**. A tuxedo cat was sprawled on the floor of an empty room. It didn't avoid people at all and strode straight toward the camera.\n\n\n A building wrapped entirely in panels. Everything outside is triangles. \n \n\nThe next building was different from the outside in. The whole exterior was wrapped in perforated panels, so from inside, the view was a pattern of triangles. Stylish, yes. But it hides the view by just as much.\n\n### On bare concrete, 25 floors up\n\n\n The 25th floor. Concrete underfoot, pipes exposed overhead. \n \n\nThe last stop was the **25th floor**. Open the door and the floor was bare concrete, the ceiling all exposed pipes. Picturing where the desks would go and where to put the meeting room turned out to be strangely fun.\n\n\n But the view out the window was wide open. \n \n\nOut the window, under the rain clouds, high-rises and low rooftops stretched on and on.\n\n\n On the way back, a motorbike splashes past the BSD City arch. \n \n\nIt rained on the way back. Once the viewings were done, I went back to a meeting room and opened my laptop again.\n\n\n The view after the meeting. \n \n\nAnd the trip didn't achieve its goal. Later, for internal company reasons, the opening was called off. Our sign never went up on any of those offices.\n\n---\n\n## Jakarta food: Bandar Djakarta, seafood picked from the tank\n\nThis was the place the Indonesian developers I work with recommended. On the evening of the first office day, we all went to **Bandar Djakarta Alam Sutera**.\n\n\n The price sign above the tank is per 100 g. \n \n\nAt this restaurant you look at the **tanks** before the menu. You pick your seafood from tanks of crab and lobster.\n\n\n The chosen crabs go straight onto the scale. \n \n\n**Eating seafood that was alive and moving moments ago** is this place's biggest draw.\n\n\n A banana-leaf starter that arrives while you wait for the crab. \n \n\nWhile you wait for the crab, a starter grilled in banana leaf and small dishes of condiments land on the table. Open the leaf and the white filling is grilled golden. The beer on the table wasn't Bintang but **Bali Hai**.\n\n### Pepper crab and clams\n\n\n Pepper crab. The sauce gets into every gap between the legs. \n \n\nThen the **pepper crab**. The shell glistens under a coat of thick sauce. **It was incredibly fresh.** It is still the first plate that comes to mind from the whole trip. I want it again.\n\n\n Clams I remember as much as the pepper crab. \n \n\nWhat I remember as much as the pepper crab is these **clams**. They come heaped in their shells with no sauce smothering them, so there's a real pleasure in prying them open one by one. Another dish I still think about.\n\n\n And razor clams buried in garlic. \n \n\nMeanwhile the table filled up with no gaps left: stir-fried water spinach, huge prawns, razor clams. We sat around one table with local colleagues and shared the seafood we had just picked.\n\n---\n\n## Two Jakarta Airbnbs: similar price, different verdict\n\nOn this trip I stayed at two Airbnbs. The price was similar, but I lost a room. I still liked the smaller one better.\n\n\n Three nights in Alam Sutera. Two bedrooms plus a living room with kitchen. \n \n\nFirst, **three nights in Alam Sutera**. Two bedrooms and a separate living room with kitchen made it a roomy base for a business trip. The building had a gym and a pool too. The pool from the first night in Part 1 is this one.\n\n\n One night in Sudirman. A studio, but a cleaner one. \n \n\n**One night in Sudirman** was a studio: bed, desk and a small kitchen all in one room. It was definitely smaller. But at a similar price, **the place itself was cleaner in Sudirman.**\n\n\n An alley of Korean-language signs inside Jakarta's Lotte Mall. \n \n\nThe reason I liked it was **location**. A department store was close by, so the moment I stepped outside there was something to do. Inside Lotte Mall there was even an alley of Korean-language signs. A curious sight.\n\n\n The city under the moon, from the room window. \n \n\nGo up to the pool at night and you're surrounded by high-rise lights; from the room window, the city spreads out under the moon. One night felt too short.\n\nThere was one mishap on that city night. **I left my AirPods in a taxi.** Luckily I managed to reach the kind driver and got them back safely. I'm still incredibly grateful to him.\n\n| | Alam Sutera | Sudirman |\n| --- | --- | --- |\n| Stay | 3 nights | 1 night |\n| Layout | 2 bedrooms + living room with kitchen | Studio |\n| What I liked | Plenty of space, gym and pool | Cleaner, close to a department store, night view |\n| Best for | Traveling with others, needing space | Wanting to enjoy Jakarta itself |\n\n---\n\n## What I ate on the trip: from satay to bakso\n\nIndonesian food suited me well. Everything I ate on this trip was delicious.\n\n\n Satay and Bintang, spread out at the apartment on arrival night. \n \n\n### Satay and lontong\n\nOn the first night after arriving, **satay** was what I spread out at the apartment. Meat on skewers, grilled and dipped in a sauce like peanut sauce. It's widely said to have started in Java, and one theory says it was influenced by the kebabs brought by Muslim traders. On the side was **lontong**, rice pressed and cooked in banana leaf.\n\n### Breakfast boxes and noodles on rice\n\nThe next morning a breakfast box arrived. Next to a round scoop of rice: thin fried noodles, fried bits, and a pile of **krupuk**, crackers flavored with shrimp or fish.\n\nThe morning after that, it was a bowl with curly noodles piled right on top of rice and cucumber on top. Rice and noodles in one bowl. **This country takes its carbs seriously.**\n\n### A Padang-style lunch\n\n\n A Padang-style lunch, where small plates cover the table the moment you sit down. \n \n\nThe highlight of the trip's meals. Padang food is known as the cooking of the Minangkabau people of West Sumatra, defined by rich coconut curries and fiery spice pastes. The moment you sit down, small plates cover the table without a gap. Yellow curried fish, fish smothered in red chili. The drink was a green juice drizzled with chocolate syrup.\n\nI also ordered satay at the Lotte Mall near Sudirman. Lunch, with stir-fried water spinach. I emptied the plate before taking a photo.\n\n### Bakso Solo\n\n\n Bakso Solo, visited for dinner. \n \n\n\n Big meatballs, yellow noodles, and one fried piece stuck in at an angle. \n \n\nLast up was dinner at **Bakso Solo**. Bakso is Indonesian meatball noodle soup. It's said to come from the food of Chinese immigrants, and today it's a national favorite sold in every neighborhood. Big meatballs and yellow noodles in broth, with one large fried piece stuck in on top at an angle. With it, a cold glass of **Teh Poci**.\n\nAdd the nasi goreng from Kota Tua in Part 1 and my Indonesian food list is complete.\n\n---\n\n## Visiting info: the places from this trip\n\nMy visit was in **December 2024**. The details below were looked up again in **November 2026**. Where I couldn't confirm something from an official source, I've marked it \"check official info before visiting\".\n\n| Place | Area | What I ate | Before you go |\n| --- | --- | --- | --- |\n| Bandar Djakarta | Alam Sutera (South Tangerang) | Pepper crab, clams, razor clams, prawns | Check hours and booking |\n| Lotte Mall | Near Sudirman | Satay, water spinach | — |\n| Bakso Solo | Near Lotte Mall | Bakso, Teh Poci | Check the branch |\n\n📍 **Bandar Djakarta Alam Sutera** · Flavor Bliss, Jl. Alam Sutera Boulevard Kav. 6 No. 3, Tangerang Selatan, Banten\n\n- 🦀 **My visit (December 2024)**: I went with a group of local colleagues, by car. The sign above the tank priced male crab (Kepiting Jantan, L) per 100 g. That was the sign on the day, not today's price.\n- 🍽️ **About the restaurant**: the booking site Chope lists it as a seafood and Indonesian restaurant with a fish-market concept where you pick live seafood, and as halal.\n- ⏰ **Hours**: daily 10:00–22:00, per Chope. **Check official info before visiting.**\n- 💰 **Price range**: Rp 100,000–250,000 per person, per Chope. Seafood is priced from the tank sign on the day. **Check official info before visiting.**\n- 📞 **Reservations**: Chope says the restaurant doesn't take bookings through Chope and to contact it directly. Another guide suggests booking by phone or WhatsApp the day before for weekends. **Check official info before visiting.**\n- 🗺️ **Map**: [Open in Google Maps](https://www.google.com/maps/search/?api=1&query=Bandar%20Djakarta%20Alam%20Sutera)\n\n📍 **BSD City** · Serpong, Tangerang Selatan, Banten\n\n- 🏙️ A planned township in South Tangerang, west of Jakarta, developed by Sinar Mas Land. The office candidates I saw were in this area.\n\n📍 **Bakso Solo (Bakso Solo Samrat)**\n\n- 🍜 **My visit**: the sign read \"Bakso Solo Samrat\". It's a chain with several branches, and local media mention one close to Lotte Shopping Avenue in Kuningan. Whether that's the one I went to: **check official info before visiting.**\n- 🗺️ **Map**: [Find it on Google Maps](https://www.google.com/maps/search/?api=1&query=Bakso%20Solo%20Samrat)\n\n## Tips for business travelers\n\n- 🏢 **If you're scouting a local office**, look at shophouses, duplex offices and empty high-rise floors together. Even within one area, the options vary this much. Empty high-rise floors may come without finished floors or ceilings, so budget for the fit-out too.\n- 🦀 **Go to Bandar Djakarta in a group.** You need a crab or two plus clams, prawns and vegetables to really enjoy this place.\n- 🏨 **At the same price point, location beats room count.** Evenings were far easier in the city center.\n- 🚕 **Check your belongings once more before getting out of a taxi.** I left my AirPods behind.\n- 🌶️ **Sambal varies by restaurant and region.** Taste a little first, then adjust.\n- ☔ **December is rainy season in Jakarta.** If you're moving between buildings, an umbrella is a must.\n\n\nThe experience is from December 2024; the visiting details were looked up again in November 2026. Restaurant hours, prices and booking can change, so check once more before you go. There are several theories about where these dishes come from, so read those parts for fun.\n \n\n## Jayden's verdict\n\n> The office never opened. I still think about the pepper crab at Bandar Djakarta.\n\n- **Highlight**: the pepper crab and clams at Bandar Djakarta. If I go back, these two first, no question.\n- **Where to stay**: the Sudirman Airbnb. One room fewer, much easier evenings.\n- **Local Indonesian food**: satay and sambal, plus fried rice.\n- **Office tour**: zero for results, full marks for fun.\n\nNext up is Bali: a dawn flight from Jakarta and straight on to Ubud. Rainy Tegallalang Rice Terraces and Saraswati Temple, a remote-work day that ran from yoga to café meetings, and a villa with rice-field views and a bathtub.\n\n---\n\n**Indonesia in 9 Days series**\n\n1. [Jakarta's first two days: Istiqlal Mosque and Kota Tua](/en/posts/indonesia-travel-01-jakarta-istiqlal-kota-tua)\n2. **Jakarta business trip: empty offices, pepper crab, two Airbnbs and local food** (you are here)\n3. [Ubud, Bali: rice terraces, remote work and a rice-field villa](/en/posts/indonesia-travel-03-bali-ubud-remote-work-villa)\n4. [Bali's last three days: Kintamani sunrise, Blue Lagoon and Canggu sunset](/en/posts/indonesia-travel-04-bali-kintamani-blue-lagoon-canggu)\n","readingTime":15,"series":{"id":"indonesia-2024-jakarta-bali","title":"Indonesia in 9 Days: A Jakarta Business Trip and Remote Work in Bali","part":2,"total":4},"country":"id","growthStage":"evergreen","version":"1.1","updateCount":1},{"slug":"indonesia-travel-03-bali-ubud-remote-work-villa","title":"Ubud Travel 03: Best Even in the Rain, a Coconut-Bowl Office and a Rice-Field Villa","description":"Ubud, December 2024: rainy Tegallalang and Saraswati Temple, a workday of meetings over a coconut bowl, and a rice-field villa with a tub and mangosteens.","topic":"travel","tags":["Ubud Travel","Remote Work in Bali","Where to Stay in Ubud","Tegallalang Rice Terrace","Saraswati Temple"],"publishedAt":"2026-10-18T20:00:00+09:00","updatedAt":"2026-11-03T20:00:00+09:00","coverImage":"/images/posts/indonesia-travel-03-bali-ubud-remote-work-villa/cover.jpg","coverAlt":"The infinity pool and stone statue of a north Ubud villa, opening onto palm trees and jungle","seoTitle":"Ubud Travel: Tegallalang, Saraswati Temple, a Remote-Work Day and a Rice-Field Villa Review","seoDescription":"Ubud travel in rainy December: Tegallalang Rice Terrace, Saraswati Temple, a remote-work day of yoga and café meetings, and a review of Pinggala Villa Ubud.","translationGroupId":"indonesia-travel-03-bali-ubud-remote-work-villa","status":"published","locale":"en","content":"\n**Ubud was the best, even in the rain.**\n\nThe umbrella came out at the very first stop. There were rice paddies carved in tiers under rain clouds, and raindrops falling on a temple pond. I reached my villa at night; in the morning, rice fields I hadn't been able to see appeared right outside the balcony.\n\nIn [Part 2](/en/posts/indonesia-travel-02-jakarta-business-trip-pepper-crab), I wrapped up the Jakarta business trip with a string of offices that never opened. Then I landed in Bali on a dawn flight. From here on it's **remote work in Bali.** It sounds like a vacation, but the work didn't change.\n\nThis part is two days in Ubud. Day one went straight up from the airport to Tegallalang Rice Terrace and Saraswati Temple. Day two was a workday that started with yoga and ended with nasi goreng. In between sits a villa in north Ubud.\n\n\n**In three lines**: Ubud, Bali, December 18–19, 2024. Rainy **Tegallalang Rice Terrace** was calm and lush. Morning yoga → **meetings with overseas developers over a coconut bowl** → moving neighborhoods during Korea's lunch hour → more meetings at a café. My stay was **Pinggala Villa Ubud**, with rice-field views and a bathtub. If I could pick just one place from this trip to stay again, it would be this one.\n \n\n## The route in this post\n\n| Date | Where | In a line |\n| --- | --- | --- |\n| Dec 18 | Ngurah Rai Airport → Tegallalang → Tis Cafe → Saraswati Temple | A rainy first day in Ubud |\n| Dec 18, night | Pinggala Villa Ubud (north Ubud) | Arrived at night; the rice fields appeared in the morning |\n| Dec 19 | Yoga studio → café → central Ubud | A day of remote work |\n\n---\n\n## Day 1: Tegallalang Rice Terrace and Tis Cafe in the rain\n\n\n The electric taxi from the airport. \n \n\nRight after landing I spotted a taxi running a promotion and jumped in. I don't remember the fare, but it was cheaper than the app average, and above all it was a **brand-new electric car**. A Chinese-made EV, which made me a little curious; the quality turned out to be excellent. We skipped town and headed straight up toward Ubud.\n\n\n Tegallalang Rice Terrace. \n \n\nFirst stop: **Tegallalang Rice Terrace**. Under rain clouds, paddies are carved in tiers down the slope, laid out to follow subak, Bali's traditional irrigation system. On a rainy day the paddies had far more atmosphere than I expected.\n\n\n A fried-duck set. \n \n\nI settled in at **Tis Cafe**, overlooking the paddies. With a beer came a plate of fried duck with rice, condiments and vegetables. My first meal in Bali. It was really good.\n\n\n The infinity pool at Tis Cafe. \n \n\nAfter lunch I wandered around the café a little. An infinity pool stretching toward the paddies, and a giant swing too. If the rain would just stop, you could spend the whole day here.\n\n## Saraswati Temple in Ubud: the pond path and the carved brick\n\n\n The pond path leading to Saraswati Temple. \n \n\nIn the afternoon I went to **Saraswati Temple** (Pura Taman Saraswati) in central Ubud. First comes the pond path leading up to the entrance, lined on both sides with statues and pavilions. Temple roofs layer over the rain-dappled water.\n\nThe temple is dedicated to Saraswati, the Hindu goddess of learning and the arts. It was built in 1951–1952 to a design by I Gusti Nyoman Lempad, a Balinese sculptor and architect.\n\n\n At the entrance to Saraswati Temple. \n \n\nAt the entrance I put on a headband and a cloth wrap, and held up my umbrella.\n\n\n Carvings on the temple gate. \n \n\nWhat I loved most about this temple was **how unfamiliar it felt**. It was nothing like the temples I'd seen in Vietnam or Thailand.\n\nLooking at carvings packed densely into the brick, you really feel that this is a Hindu cultural world, and that it's different. It was more exotic, and this is exactly where it sank in: \"Ah, I'm in Bali.\"\n\n---\n\n## Where to stay in Ubud: Pinggala Villa Ubud, a rice-field villa up north\n\nIf I could pick only one place to stay again from this whole trip, it would be this one. **Pinggala Villa Ubud.** For me, it was a genuine ten-out-of-ten.\n\nIt's north of central Ubud. I arrived at night, so the garden was dark except for the lights. Unlike town, it was quiet.\n\n\n A room at Pinggala Villa Ubud. \n \n\nStep into the room and the painting over the bed, the wooden ceiling and the carved furniture set the mood. Even the washbasin is done in wood and stone.\n\n\n The tub by the big window. \n \n\nAnd what I liked most was the **bathtub**. It sits in front of a big window, so you can soak while looking out at the green garden.\n\n\n Rice fields and palm trees in the morning. \n \n\nCome morning, the paddies you couldn't see at night spread right out past the balcony. The end of the pool runs into the fields and forest.\n\n\n The breakfast table. \n \n\nBreakfast is eaten in front of this view too. A smoothie bowl topped with fruit; on another day, scrambled eggs and toast. Beyond the table, wide rice fields. I opened my laptop right here and started work.\n\n---\n\n## Day 2: remote work in Bali, a workday in Ubud\n\nHere is December 19, a workday in Ubud, hour by hour.\n\n\n Palm trees and jungle past the laptop. \n \n\n### Morning: yoga first\n\nWhen I wake up at the villa, the laptop is the first thing I grab. I'm a PM working with overseas developers, so the work doesn't stop wherever I am.\n\nStill, stopping by a yoga studio early to loosen up first was perfect for a long day at a desk. After yoga, you step out and look down over the railing into the jungle.\n\n\n A yoga studio draped in white curtains. \n \n\n### Late morning: meetings over a coconut bowl\n\n\n The office for the day. \n \n\nThat day's breakfast, and office, was a coconut bowl: a whole coconut split open and filled with fruit, seeds and nuts. I started work with overseas developers while eating it.\n\n### Midday: Korea's lunch hour = my travel time\n\nThe time difference is what makes this possible. Bali is one hour behind Korea. While Korea goes quiet at lunch and the messages slow down, I move to the next neighborhood. When there was a short gap, I also looked around a nearby park and the streets.\n\n### Afternoon: more meetings at a café\n\n\n An afternoon café window. \n \n\nSit down in a café in the new neighborhood and it's back to work. Meetings with overseas developers, requirements coming in from Korean clients on Slack, and, as the PM, organizing them and passing them on. In between, local snacks and drinks.\n\n### Evening: clocking out with nasi goreng\n\n\n Clocking out ends with a plate of nasi goreng. \n \n\n\n Ubud Palace. \n \n\nIn the evening I head into central Ubud for a plate of nasi goreng. On the way back, I passed Ubud Palace with its lights on.\n\n### Night: and that bathtub\n\n\n Mangosteens and bananas by the tub. \n \n\nBack at the villa, once I'd wrapped up the day's work, I put the mangosteens and bananas I'd bought on a plate next to the tub. A drama on the tablet, and **a bubble bath while peeling mangosteens.** As after-work routines go, it was the best.\n\nI didn't work any less in Ubud. What changed was **where I worked**.\n\n---\n\n## Visiting info: the Ubud stops and the villa at a glance\n\nMy visit was in **December 2024**. The details below were looked up again in **November 2026**, and entry fees and opening hours differ from source to source. Where I'm not sure, I've marked it \"check official info\".\n\n| Place | Where | Entry / rates | When I went |\n| --- | --- | --- | --- |\n| Tegallalang Rice Terrace | About 8 km north of Ubud | Varies by source; check official info | Dec 18, midday, rain |\n| Saraswati Temple | Central Ubud | Listed as free and as paid; check official info | Dec 18, afternoon, rain |\n| Pinggala Villa Ubud | Sebatu village, Tegallalang | Varies by season and site; check official info | Two nights from Dec 18 |\n| Ubud Palace | Central Ubud | Check official info | Dec 19, evening |\n\n**Route**: Tegallalang and Pinggala Villa Ubud are north of Ubud; Saraswati Temple and Ubud Palace are in town. I went from the airport up to Tegallalang first, came down into town for the temple, and went back north to the villa at night.\n\n📍 **Tegallalang Rice Terrace & Tis Cafe** · Tegallalang, Gianyar, Bali\n\n- 🌾 **Background**: terraced paddies laid out to follow subak, Bali's traditional irrigation system. Indonesia's official tourism site puts them about 8 km from Ubud, a 15–20 minute drive.\n- 🎟️ **Entry**: the amount differs across 2025–2026 guides, and some describe it as a donation. Many warn about people collecting money away from the official booth. **Check official info before visiting.**\n- 🍽️ **Tis Cafe**: a café-restaurant overlooking the paddies, with an infinity pool and a swing. For pool and swing conditions, **check official info before visiting.**\n- 🗺️ **Map**: [Tegallalang Rice Terrace](https://www.google.com/maps/search/?api=1&query=Tegallalang%20Rice%20Terrace), [Tis Cafe](https://www.google.com/maps/search/?api=1&query=Tis%20Cafe%20Tegallalang)\n\n📍 **Saraswati Temple (Pura Taman Saraswati)** · Ubud, Gianyar, Bali\n\n- 🎟️ **Entry and hours**: some guides list it as free and others as paid, and the hours differ too. Some say only worshippers may enter the inner temple. Many say the evening dance performances need a separate ticket. **Check official info before visiting.**\n- 👘 **Dress**: I put on a headband and a cloth wrap at the entrance. Many guides say a sarong and sash are the norm at Balinese temples.\n- 🗺️ **Map**: [Open in Google Maps](https://www.google.com/maps/search/?api=1&query=Pura%20Taman%20Saraswati%20Ubud)\n\n📍 **Pinggala Villa Ubud** · Tegallalang, Gianyar, Bali (north of central Ubud)\n\n- 📍 **Location**: booking sites place it in Sebatu village, in the Tegallalang area.\n- 🛁 **What I liked**: a rice-field-view balcony, a tub in front of a big window, a pool that runs into the fields, breakfast facing the paddies\n- 🚗 **Downside**: it's away from the town center. Plan your transport along with it.\n- 🧳 **Good for**: anyone who wants to work somewhere quieter than town, looking out at rice fields.\n- 💳 **Rates and rooms**: rates and room setups vary a lot between booking sites. **Check official info before booking.**\n- 🗺️ **Map**: [Open in Google Maps](https://www.google.com/maps/search/?api=1&query=Pinggala%20Villa%20Ubud)\n\n📍 **Ubud Palace** · [Open in Google Maps](https://www.google.com/maps/search/?api=1&query=Ubud%20Palace)\n\n## Tips if you want to try working from Ubud\n\n- 🕛 **Use your home office's lunch hour as travel time.** (For me, that was Korea's lunch hour; Bali is one hour behind Korea.) Switch neighborhoods while messages slow down, and neither the work nor the trip gets interrupted.\n- 🧘 **Do yoga in the morning, before work.** The longer your day at the desk, the more it helps.\n- 📶 **Check the Wi-Fi at your villa and cafés in advance.** It's the precondition for remote work.\n- 🌅 **At a rice-field-view villa, keep your mornings free.** The fields only show in daylight.\n- ☔ **It rains often in Ubud in December.** Pack an umbrella or raincoat and keep the schedule loose.\n- 🚕 **At the airport, compare promo taxis too.** Mine was cheaper than the app average.\n\n\nThe experience is from December 2024; the visiting details were looked up again in November 2026. Villa rates and how temple visits work can change over time, so check once more before booking or visiting.\n \n\n## Jayden's verdict\n\n> Even in the rain, Ubud was the best. If I could pick one place to stay again, Pinggala Villa Ubud.\n\n- **Highlight**: Tegallalang and Saraswati Temple. Atmospheric even in the rain, and the temple feels wonderfully foreign.\n- **Where to stay**: Pinggala Villa Ubud. The rice-field view and the tub alone made two nights feel short.\n- **Remote work in Ubud**: morning yoga, a coconut bowl and evening nasi goreng, and I'd do it again.\n- **Tip**: don't forget an umbrella or a raincoat.\n\nNext up is Bali's last three days: sunrise over Mount Batur in Kintamani, reached by jeep before dawn, snorkeling at Blue Lagoon in pouring rain, and sunset beers at Batu Bolong Beach in Canggu.\n\n---\n\n**Indonesia in 9 Days series**\n\n1. [Jakarta's first two days: Istiqlal Mosque and Kota Tua](/en/posts/indonesia-travel-01-jakarta-istiqlal-kota-tua)\n2. [Jakarta business trip: empty offices, pepper crab, two Airbnbs and local food](/en/posts/indonesia-travel-02-jakarta-business-trip-pepper-crab)\n3. **Ubud, Bali: rice terraces, remote work and a rice-field villa** (you are here)\n4. [Bali's last three days: Kintamani sunrise, Blue Lagoon and Canggu sunset](/en/posts/indonesia-travel-04-bali-kintamani-blue-lagoon-canggu)\n","readingTime":13,"series":{"id":"indonesia-2024-jakarta-bali","title":"Indonesia in 9 Days: A Jakarta Business Trip and Remote Work in Bali","part":3,"total":4},"country":"id","growthStage":"evergreen","version":"1.1","updateCount":1},{"slug":"indonesia-travel-04-bali-kintamani-blue-lagoon-canggu","title":"Bali Travel 04: Blue Lagoon Almost Rained Out, a Kintamani Jeep Sunrise and Canggu Sunset Beers","description":"Bali's last three days, December 2024: a dawn jeep up Mount Batur for sunrise and luwak coffee, Blue Lagoon snorkeling nearly rained out, and Canggu.","topic":"travel","tags":["Mount Batur Jeep Tour","Bali Itinerary","Blue Lagoon Snorkeling","Batu Bolong Beach","Canggu"],"publishedAt":"2026-10-21T20:00:00+09:00","updatedAt":"2026-11-03T20:00:00+09:00","coverImage":"/images/posts/indonesia-travel-04-bali-kintamani-blue-lagoon-canggu/cover.jpg","coverAlt":"Jeeps filling the slope of Mount Batur at dawn, with people waiting for the sunrise","seoTitle":"Mount Batur Jeep Tour at Sunrise, Blue Lagoon Snorkeling and Canggu: A Bali Itinerary","seoDescription":"A Mount Batur sunrise jeep tour from Kintamani, Blue Lagoon snorkeling in the rain, and sunset beers at Batu Bolong Beach, with a three-stop table and tips.","translationGroupId":"indonesia-travel-04-bali-kintamani-blue-lagoon-canggu","status":"published","locale":"en","content":"\nA line of jeep lights stood in the dark. It's predawn on a mountain, and it was genuinely cold. Toast, boiled eggs and hot tea in hand, I waited for the sun.\n\nAs the sky brightened, a lake and mountains appeared behind the jeeps parked all over the slope. If I could recommend just one thing in Bali, I'd pick this dawn.\n\nThis is the last part of nine days in Indonesia. In [Part 3](/en/posts/indonesia-travel-03-bali-ubud-remote-work-villa) I worked facing the rice fields of Ubud. This part picks up from there: Bali's last three days.\n\nA dawn jeep up to **Kintamani**, **Blue Lagoon snorkeling** that the rain almost canceled, then tacos and sunset beers in **Canggu**, and brunch on the morning I left.\n\n\n**In three lines**: Bali, December 20–22, 2024. A **Kintamani jeep tour** gets you sunrise, lava fields and luwak coffee in one go, as long as you can handle the predawn cold. **Blue Lagoon snorkeling** was clear underwater even in the rain. **Canggu** meant tacos, sunset beers at Batu Bolong Beach and brunch at CRATE.\n \n\n## The route in this post\n\n| Date | Where | In a line |\n| --- | --- | --- |\n| Dec 20, dawn | Mount Batur, Kintamani → lava fields → luwak coffee plantation | Jeeps, sunrise, cold |\n| Dec 21, morning | Padangbai → Blue Lagoon | Snorkeling that almost got canceled |\n| Dec 21 afternoon–Dec 22 | Canggu streets → Batu Bolong Beach → CRATE | Tacos, sunset, brunch |\n\n---\n\n## Mount Batur jeep tour: sunrise in Kintamani\n\n\n Before sunrise, jeeps on the mountain. \n \n\nWe left before dawn and drove for what felt like about an hour by jeep. Step out of the car and there's a line of jeep lights in the darkness.\n\nFirst, the **cold**. It's predawn and it's a mountain, so it's genuinely cold. Don't pack only T-shirts just because it's Bali.\n\n\n Breakfast while waiting for the sun. \n \n\nWhile waiting for the sun, breakfast was toast, boiled eggs and hot tea. In the cold, the hot tea was very welcome.\n\n\n Lake Batur, once it gets light. \n \n\nAs the sky brightens, a **lake and mountains** appear behind the jeeps. The light spreading through the clouds changes minute by minute.\n\nThe sunrise was so beautiful. Even now, when I think of Bali, this is the first scene that comes to mind.\n\n### Where the volcano passed: the lava fields\n\n\n A shot from atop the jeep, with Mount Batur behind. \n \n\nOnce the sun is up, the jeeps take you down onto the black **lava fields**. I climbed up on the jeep and got a photo too.\n\n\n White lichen on hardened lava. \n \n\nWhite lichen grows on the hardened lava rock, and young trees push up between the stones. It was my first time walking this close to ground a volcano had passed over.\n\n### The luwak coffee plantation: a civet and a tasting\n\n\n A civet in its enclosure at the plantation. \n \n\nOn the way down, you stop at a **luwak coffee plantation**. Luwak coffee is made from coffee beans eaten and passed by civets. You go through it in order, from the civet in its enclosure to the beans at each stage, and this part was pretty fun too.\n\n\n Each basket holds beans at a different stage. \n \n\n\n Small cups of tea and coffee in a row. \n \n\nThe finale is a **tasting**. The coffee was good, but the tea suited me better, so I bought tea.\n\nFair warning, though: like the classic tour that ends at a gift shop, there's a bit of a sales pitch. It isn't pushy; buy if you want to, or don't. Know it's coming and you can enjoy it without any pressure.\n\n---\n\n## Blue Lagoon snorkeling: the rainy-day tour that almost got canceled\n\nLet me give you the answer first. **Even in the rain, it was fine underwater.** And even if it rains, you should absolutely go snorkeling.\n\n\n Padangbai on a heavily overcast morning. \n \n\nWhen I got to **Padangbai beach** in the morning, the sky was heavily overcast. Traditional boats were lined up off the sand, and because of the rain, that day's tour almost got canceled.\n\n\n Running along the cliffs in the rain. \n \n\nStill, the guide got the boat out safely. We ran along the cliffs over a sea dimpled with raindrops. The guide looked after us incredibly well and was kind the whole way.\n\n\n Above the water, it looked like this. \n \n\n\n Fins on, and in we go. \n \n\nI put on the fins and got in. Above the surface it was all gray, but **underwater it was clear.** I'd been snorkeling before, but the sea in Bali is definitely clearer.\n\nI have no underwater photos. It was so much fun that I could almost call this my first real snorkeling.\n\n\n Nasi goreng after getting out of the water. \n \n\nOut of the water, a plate of nasi goreng, topped with a fried egg and krupuk. On the way back, a huge fish was hanging by the harbor.\n\n---\n\n## Canggu: an afternoon that started with tacos\n\nGreat food, pretty cafés, things to do. Everything that comes to mind when you picture Bali, in one place: **Canggu**.\n\n\n A dog lying on the sidewalk. \n \n\nIn the afternoon I left my stay and walked the streets of Canggu. Past a dog lying on the sidewalk, there's a pretty café or restaurant every other door. Just looking at the signs makes the time fly.\n\n\n Tacos from a place I wandered into. \n \n\nThe day began with **tacos** at a place I wandered into: meat, green sauce and a heap of onion on tortillas, with an iced coffee on the side. **These tacos were truly the best.**\n\n## Sunset beer at Batu Bolong Beach\n\n\n Batu Bolong Beach around sunset. \n \n\nAround sunset, head down to **Batu Bolong Beach**. The waves were high, so there were lots of surfers, and the sun sank toward the horizon through the clouds. The wet sand mirrors the colors of the sky.\n\n\n A Singaraja beer. \n \n\nI sat in one of the beanbags spread across the beach and watched the sunset with a **beer**. So good.\n\n\n Dogs by the beanbags. \n \n\nAt my feet, dogs had dug themselves into the sand and were lying there. When you get hungry, you order mie goreng and even pizza right where you are.\n\n\n The sky gone pink. \n \n\nThe sky turned pink, and I didn't get up until it was dark.\n\n## Departure morning: CRATE in the rain\n\nThe next morning it poured. Still, there was no way I was giving up brunch. Even in the rain, **CRATE** was packed.\n\n\n A smoothie over chia seeds. \n \n\n\n Mushroom toast. \n \n\nI ordered a smoothie over chia seeds and toast topped with mushrooms, and this brunch was the best too. **As the last meal on the day I left Bali, it was a really good pick.**\n\n---\n\n## Visiting info: Kintamani, Blue Lagoon and Canggu compared\n\nMy visit was in **December 2024**. The details below were looked up again in **November 2026**, and tour times and prices differ from operator to operator. Where I'm not sure, I've marked it \"check official info\".\n\n| Place | When | Getting there | Bring |\n| --- | --- | --- | --- |\n| Mount Batur jeep tour | Predawn start, sunrise | Tour jeep (about an hour from where I stayed) | A jacket |\n| Blue Lagoon snorkeling | Morning (when I went) | Traditional boat from Padangbai | Towel, a cover-up that can get wet |\n| Canggu, Batu Bolong Beach | Streets in the afternoon, beach at sunset | Within Canggu | Get to the beanbags early |\n\n**Route**: the three stops point in different directions. Kintamani is in the highlands of north-central Bali, Padangbai is on the east coast, and Canggu is on the southwest coast. I gave Kintamani one day, Blue Lagoon and Canggu the next, and left from Canggu the following morning.\n\n📍 **Kintamani · Mount Batur** · Kintamani, Bangli, Bali\n\n- 🌋 **Good to know**: Mount Batur is an active volcano about 1,700 m high (sources give 1,711–1,717 m), last erupting in 2000. Lake Batur sits inside its caldera. The caldera joined the Global Geoparks Network in 2012 and is now a UNESCO Global Geopark.\n- ⏰ **Start time and price**: many tour listings give a start around 3–4 a.m., but it varies by operator and pickup area. Price, whether breakfast is included and whether hotel pickup is included: **check official info before visiting.**\n- ☕ **Luwak coffee plantation**: my tour ended with a tasting and a sales stop. Buying is optional.\n- 🗺️ **Map**: [Open in Google Maps](https://www.google.com/maps/search/?api=1&query=Mount%20Batur%20Kintamani)\n\n📍 **Blue Lagoon Beach** · Padangbai, Karangasem, Bali\n\n- 🌊 **Good to know**: Padangbai is a harbor town with ferries to Lombok and boats to Nusa Penida. Blue Lagoon is a small bay northeast of the harbor; tour listings put it 5–10 minutes from Padangbai by boat.\n- 🌧️ **Weather**: December falls in Bali's wet season (roughly November to March). Sea conditions change daily.\n- 💰 **Tour, gear and boat prices**: these vary by operator. **Check official info before visiting.**\n- 🗺️ **Map**: [Open in Google Maps](https://www.google.com/maps/search/?api=1&query=Blue%20Lagoon%20Beach%20Padangbai)\n\n📍 **Canggu** · Badung, Bali\n\n- 🌅 **Batu Bolong Beach**: named after Pura Batu Bolong, the temple on the rocks at the south end of the beach. Lots of surf schools here. Beanbag rental prices: **check official info before visiting.** [Google Maps](https://www.google.com/maps/search/?api=1&query=Batu%20Bolong%20Beach%20Canggu)\n- 🥑 **CRATE**: many listings say it opens early and closes in the afternoon, but opening hours differ between sources. **Check official info before visiting.** [Google Maps](https://www.google.com/maps/search/?api=1&query=Crate%20Cafe%20Canggu)\n\n## How to get it right\n\n- 🧥 **Start Kintamani with a jacket.** Bali or not, the mountain before dawn is truly cold.\n- 🌧️ **If it rains, ask your tour operator whether the boats are running before you give up.** My day almost got canceled too, but the boat went out. At sea, follow your guide.\n- ☕ **Know the luwak coffee plantation has a sales stop.** Buy if you want to.\n- 🚶 **Canggu: the streets by day → the beach around sunset → brunch the next morning.** Get to Batu Bolong before sunset if you want a beanbag.\n\n\nThe experience is from December 2024; the visiting details were looked up again in November 2026. Tour schedules and prices and café opening information change over time, so check once more before booking or visiting.\n \n\n## Jayden's verdict\n\n> Bali's last three days were all \"you have to do this.\" Even in the cold, even in the rain.\n\n- **Mount Batur jeep tour**: the sunrise was so beautiful. Bali, for me, is that dawn.\n- **Blue Lagoon snorkeling**: clear underwater even in the rain.\n- **Canggu**: tacos, sunset beers, CRATE brunch. A must.\n- **Tip**: a jacket, and on rainy days, ask the operator first.\n\n## Nine days, wrapped up\n\nThat's all nine days in Indonesia, in four posts. In Jakarta I made a guide laugh with 5,000 rupiah, toured offices that never opened, and ate pepper crab. In Bali I worked facing rice fields, waited for the sun on a volcano, and got into a rainy sea.\n\n---\n\n**Indonesia in 9 Days series**\n\n1. [Jakarta's first two days: Istiqlal Mosque and Kota Tua](/en/posts/indonesia-travel-01-jakarta-istiqlal-kota-tua)\n2. [Jakarta business trip: empty offices, pepper crab, two Airbnbs and local food](/en/posts/indonesia-travel-02-jakarta-business-trip-pepper-crab)\n3. [Ubud, Bali: rice terraces, remote work and a rice-field villa](/en/posts/indonesia-travel-03-bali-ubud-remote-work-villa)\n4. **Bali's last three days: Kintamani sunrise, Blue Lagoon and Canggu sunset** (you are here)\n","readingTime":12,"series":{"id":"indonesia-2024-jakarta-bali","title":"Indonesia in 9 Days: A Jakarta Business Trip and Remote Work in Bali","part":4,"total":4},"country":"id","growthStage":"evergreen","version":"1.1","updateCount":1}]},{"id":"europe-2023-uk-italy-egypt","title":"19 Days After Quitting: The UK, France, Italy and Egypt","count":8,"total":8,"posts":[{"slug":"europe-travel-01-bournemouth-homestay-dubai","title":"Bournemouth Travel 01: A Same-Day Ticket via Dubai, and Back to My Old Homestay","description":"April 2023: I quit my job, bought a ticket that day and flew that night. Emirates via Dubai, a Megabus, and the homestay where my English began.","topic":"travel","tags":["UK Travel","Bournemouth","Homestay","Emirates","Europe Travel"],"publishedAt":"2026-09-12T20:00:00+09:00","updatedAt":"2026-11-03T20:00:00+09:00","coverImage":"/images/posts/europe-travel-01-bournemouth-homestay-dubai/cover.jpg","coverAlt":"Bournemouth's seafront promenade under a deep blue sky, colourful beach huts on the left, sand and sea on the right","seoTitle":"UK Travel: Emirates via Dubai to London, Then Back to My Bournemouth Homestay | Europe After Quitting, Part 1","seoDescription":"Incheon to Heathrow on Emirates EK323 via Dubai, the Megabus to Bournemouth, my 2019 homestay revisited, and a day of beach huts, the pier and a pub.","translationGroupId":"europe-travel-01-bournemouth-homestay-dubai","status":"published","locale":"en","content":"\n**I bought the plane ticket on the day I flew.** Ticket on April 2, on a plane that same night.\n\nApril 2023: I left my job and went straight off on a nineteen-day trip. It started in the UK, ran through France and Italy, took an unplanned detour to Egypt, and came back to Rome.\n\nI meant to write it up as soon as I got home. I put it off for more than three years. Here it is now, two or three places per post.\n\nPart one is that night flight, and three days back at **the homestay house in Bournemouth, England**, where my English began and which I still think of as a second hometown. I went back after four years.\n\n\n**In three lines**: On a same-day ticket after quitting, I flew **Emirates via Dubai to London Heathrow**. Instead of heading into London, I caught a Megabus to **the Bournemouth house where I did a homestay in 2019**. Max the dog, a croquet lawn, chopsticks on the dinner table, a beach under a clear blue sky. **The second hometown where my English began** hadn't changed in four years.\n \n\n## The route in this post\n\n| Date | Where | In a line |\n| --- | --- | --- |\n| Apr 2, night | Incheon Airport → Dubai | Same-day ticket, first Emirates flight, a #mybreak KitKat |\n| Apr 3 | Dubai transfer → London Heathrow → Megabus → Bournemouth | A full English breakfast on the plane |\n| Apr 3–4 | The homestay house in Bournemouth | Max the dog, a croquet lawn, home cooking, a caravan |\n| Apr 4 | Bournemouth beach → pier → town centre | Beach huts, The Brass Haus pub, blue sky |\n| Apr 5, morning | Bournemouth → off to London | One last English breakfast |\n\n---\n\n## April 2: Ticket bought, gone by night\n\n\n Incheon Airport on the night of April 2. A long row of red Emirates signs. \n \n\nIt started at Incheon Airport on the night of April 2. A long line of red Emirates signs ran under the steel-truss ceiling, so the counter was easy to find. London wasn't the destination yet. One flight to Dubai, a change, and another flight to London. Two planes to get there.\n\nIt was my first time on Emirates, and it was genuinely good. As I sat down, the seat screen showed \"Welcome\" over a photo of elephants, with \"EK323 Seoul to Dubai\" above it. For a ticket bought that same day, I was happy with the seat, and there was an amenity kit with an eye mask, socks, a toothbrush and toothpaste. **Next time, I want to try the upper deck.**\n\n## The first meal, and #mybreak\n\n\n A main under a gold lid, bread, dessert and red wine. A KitKat in between. \n \n\nI photographed the whole tray the moment the first meal arrived. A main under a gold-patterned lid, bread, a prawn salad, a dessert cup and a glass of red wine. I can't recall the menu, but I enjoyed it. In between was a KitKat whose wrapper read **#mybreak.** I had just quit my job.\n\n\n \"Korean Kimchi\" in the corner of the tray. You get this on a flight out of Seoul. \n \n\nIn the corner of the tray was a little tub. The lid said \"김치 Korean Kimchi,\" and inside were a few pieces of cabbage in red seasoning. You get that on a flight out of Seoul.\n\n## April 3: Via Dubai to London\n\nJust before we landed in Dubai, I looked out of the window. Straight orange roads cut through the dark city.\n\nWhile I waited for my connection, the sky brightened, and Emirates tail fins lined up beyond the glass. The airport I had landed in at night looked like a different place by day.\n\n\n The first plate on the London flight. Sausage, baked beans, scrambled egg, roasted tomato. \n \n\nOn the connecting flight to Heathrow, I ate a meal and a half. The first plate: sausage, baked beans, scrambled egg and roasted cherry tomatoes. A full English breakfast, on the plane. The other half-meal was mashed potato with a red stew.\n\nI'm bad at sleeping on planes, so I mixed myself a Jack and Coke and closed my eyes. When I opened them, the little plane on the seat map had nearly reached London.\n\n## Landing at Heathrow, and heading to Bournemouth instead\n\n\n Next to an A as tall as the wall. My first photo of the UK in four years. \n \n\nAnd then, Heathrow. This photo, next to an A as tall as the wall, is **my first photo of the UK in four years.** The sun was out.\n\nI didn't go into London. I went straight to catch **the Megabus to Bournemouth.** My bus didn't seem to be on the timetable, which threw me for a moment, but I got on without any trouble.\n\nBournemouth is a small seaside town on England's south coast. **It's where I did a homestay in 2019, and it's where the English I speak today began.** That's why I call Bournemouth **my second hometown.** On a trip I took after quitting my job, of course the first stop was this house, not London.\n\n---\n\n## Back after four years, this time as a guest\n\n\n Max, chin on a grey blanket, eyes looking up. \n \n\nBack at the homestay house after four years. The family has a dog, **Max**, and he is ridiculously cute. Most of that day's photos are of Max.\n\nI photographed him pressed against a car window, and my own reflection, phone in hand, showed up on the glass. In the garden, instead of sitting on a sun lounger, I followed Max around. Then I got this one up close: chin on the blanket, only the eyes looking up.\n\n\n Mint walls, a paisley duvet, a red floral rug. \n \n\nThe room has a lot of colour. Mint walls with a fan ornament, a paisley duvet, a red floral rug. The chair at the desk looks like a tractor seat. Not a hotel; someone's home. Unpacking in this room was when it sank in that I was back.\n\n\n Sun loungers, a parasol and croquet hoops in the grass. \n \n\nIn front of the room is the back garden. Two green sun loungers, a yellow parasol and small hoops stuck in the grass. With a peg standing there as well, it was **croquet.** A game I'd only met in English novels, in a family's back garden.\n\n\n A Hanju soju box and a red ginseng box on an English family's shelf. \n \n\nThe thing I least expected in the house was Korean writing on a shelf: a box of Hanju soju next to a box of red ginseng. The box says \"Alc. 25% / 400mL.\"\n\n## An English dinner table, with chopsticks\n\n\n A thermometer in a drumstick to check it's cooked. \n \n\nI photographed that evening's dinner from the cooking stage. The seasoned chicken got turned with red tongs, and at the oven a digital thermometer went into a drumstick to check it was done. You don't see that in a restaurant, and I enjoyed watching it.\n\n\n Beyond the sesame buns, a pair of chopsticks beside the floral placemat. \n \n\nSesame buns and steamed broccoli made it to the table. And **a pair of chopsticks lay next to a floral placemat.** Chopsticks, beside buns and drumsticks on an English table. That's my favourite part of this picture.\n\n## Breakfast at the table of \"The Best GRANDAD\"\n\n\n A fruit bowl, cereal boxes and a \"The Best GRANDAD In The WORLD\" mug. \n \n\nThe next morning, the breakfast table had a fruit bowl, cereal boxes and a **\"The Best GRANDAD In The WORLD\"** mug. I picked up a small pear and took a photo of it. Nothing fancy on the menu. After four years, I was sitting at this breakfast table again.\n\n\n Lift the wooden lid: a hob and a sink, with a fridge underneath. \n \n\nWe pulled back the green cover on the caravan in the drive and had a look inside. Lift a wooden lid and there's a two-ring hob and a sink, with a small fridge underneath. **A little kitchen on wheels.**\n\n\n White and pink towels on the washing line under a blue sky. \n \n\nThe last photo I took at the house was of the washing line: white and **pink towels** under a blue sky. Ordinary scenes like this are why I love this house. And to this day, **I still keep in touch with the host family.** A 2019 homestay became a 2023 return visit, and it's still going three years later.\n\n---\n\n## April 4: Bournemouth under a blue sky\n\n\n Beach huts in a long row below a hillside of yellow flowers. \n \n\nOn April 4, the sky over Bournemouth was deep blue all day.\n\nThe day began with **the beach huts.** Little huts painted white, blue and green stand in a long row below a hillside of yellow flowers. Huts on one side of the promenade, sand on the other.\n\n\n Two-thirds sky. The rest is waves and Bournemouth Pier. \n \n\nWalking along the promenade, **Bournemouth Pier** gets closer. Two-thirds of the photo is sky, the rest waves and pier. In England, nobody promises you a sky like this tomorrow, so I took as much of it as I could. The beach is wide, and people were sitting here and there. It was early April, so nobody was in the water.\n\nA Ferris wheel stands in the square in front of the pier, and behind it are **the Lower Gardens**, a park with a rock garden and palm trees. The walk up from the beach to the town centre goes through this park.\n\n## A late lunch at The Brass Haus\n\nA late lunch was at **The Brass Haus**: brick walls hung with greenery and a patterned tile floor. The clock on the wall-mounted TV said \"2.01 pm Tuesday,\" the screen was trailing that night's game, \"CHELSEA LIVERPOOL Tonight 7pm,\" and the ticker below ran \"Graham Potter sacked on Sunday evening.\"\n\n\n Max stretched out on a section of green leather bench. \n \n\nOn one section of the green leather bench, Max lay with his chin resting down. This is my favourite photo of the day. **You bring the dog into the pub and have lunch together.** That's one of the reasons I love the UK.\n\n\n Steak, egg, sausages, tomatoes and peas. The chips in a metal cup. \n \n\nOn the table: a meat plate and a salad plate. Steak topped with a fried egg, two sausages, grilled tomatoes and peas, with the chips standing up in a hammered metal cup. The salad came topped with fried chicken.\n\n\n The entrance to The Arcade, with its fan-shaped window. \n \n\nAfter lunch, I walked slowly through town. Past the entrance to **The Arcade**, a red-brick Gothic-style building has a LUSH on the ground floor. The buildings in town are worth a look, not just the beach.\n\nDinner was back at the house. Prawns and vegetables stir-fried and mixed into rice for two bowls, and in another pan, something with kidney beans.\n\n## April 5: The morning I left for London\n\n\n Leaving-day breakfast. Toast, egg, bacon, mushrooms, and an OLD SPECKLED HEN coaster. \n \n\nOn the morning I left: toast, a fried egg, bacon and mushrooms. There was an **OLD SPECKLED HEN** beer coaster on the table.\n\n\n Max in his own back-seat bed. Off to London. \n \n\nOn the back seat, Max sits in his own bed and looks out of the window. Time to leave the house and head up to London. I had spent three days as a guest in the house I used to live in.\n\n---\n\n## Visitor info\n\n📍 **Bournemouth** · south coast of England (the homestay is a private home, so I'm not sharing where it is)\n\n- 🚌 **Getting there**: I took a Megabus straight from Heathrow Airport, no need to go through central London.\n- 🏖️ **Beach huts → pier**: one long seafront promenade.\n- 🌴 **Pier → town centre**: go through the Lower Gardens in front of the pier and up to the shopping streets.\n- 🍺 **Where I ate**: [The Brass Haus](https://www.google.com/maps/search/?api=1&query=The%20Brass%20Haus%20Bournemouth) (late lunch; we went in with Max)\n- 🗺️ **Map**: [Bournemouth Pier on Google Maps](https://www.google.com/maps/search/?api=1&query=Bournemouth%20Pier)\n\n## How to get lost a little less\n\n- 🚌 **The Megabus from Heathrow to Bournemouth can be hard to spot on the timetable.** Screenshot your booking details in advance.\n- ☀️ **Go to Bournemouth beach on a clear day.** Save the beach for whichever day the forecast shows sun.\n- ✈️ **I flew EK323 (Incheon → Dubai) in April 2023.** Flight numbers and times change, so always check your own ticket.\n\n\nThis is a record of an April 2023 trip. Flights, bus routes and how places operate may have changed since, so check again before you go.\n \n\n## Jayden's verdict\n\n> The first stop of a trip on a same-day ticket was my Bournemouth homestay, where my English began.\n\n- **Highlight**: going back to the homestay house after four years. My second hometown hadn't changed.\n- **Emirates**: happy from the first flight. Upper deck next time.\n- **Bournemouth beach**: I arrived fully armed with English-weather complaints and never got to fire one. Blue sky, all day.\n- **Tip**: the Megabus from Heathrow takes you straight to Bournemouth without going through central London.\n\n---\n\nNext up is London. Under a grey sky, the day starts at 12:01 with three red phone boxes.\n\n**19 Days After Quitting series**\n\n1. **UK, part 1: Via Dubai, and back to my Bournemouth homestay** (you are here)\n2. [The UK, part 2: a day in London, from Big Ben to a Soho pub](/en/posts/europe-travel-02-london-big-ben-soho)\n3. [France: Nice and Saint-Paul-de-Vence](/en/posts/europe-travel-03-nice-saint-paul-de-vence)\n4. [Italy, part 1: Milan's Duomo and San Siro](/en/posts/europe-travel-04-milan-duomo-san-siro)\n5. [Italy, part 2: Venice, San Giorgio and Burano](/en/posts/europe-travel-05-venice-san-giorgio-burano)\n6. [Italy, part 3: Florence, Pompeii and Positano](/en/posts/europe-travel-06-florence-pompeii-positano)\n7. [Egypt: Escaping the rain to Sharm El Sheikh](/en/posts/europe-travel-07-sharm-el-sheikh-egypt)\n8. [Rome again: Italian food and the way home](/en/posts/europe-travel-08-rome-italian-food-going-home)\n","readingTime":15,"series":{"id":"europe-2023-uk-italy-egypt","title":"19 Days After Quitting: The UK, France, Italy and Egypt","part":1,"total":8},"country":"gb","growthStage":"evergreen","version":"1.1","updateCount":1},{"slug":"europe-travel-02-london-big-ben-soho","title":"London Travel 02: One Packed Day, from Red Phone Boxes to Big Ben and a Soho Pub","description":"April 5, up from Bournemouth to London after four years: a laughing halibut, swans and blossom in St James's Park, Big Ben, then Chinatown and a Soho pub.","topic":"travel","tags":["London Travel","Big Ben","St James's Park","Soho","British Pubs"],"publishedAt":"2026-09-16T20:00:00+09:00","updatedAt":"2026-11-03T20:00:00+09:00","coverImage":"/images/posts/europe-travel-02-london-big-ben-soho/cover.jpg","coverAlt":"Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament under a grey sky, with a pink English Tea Bus and a London taxi passing in front","seoTitle":"London Travel in One Day | St James's Park, Big Ben, Parliament, Chinatown and a Soho Pub","seoDescription":"One day in London: fish and chips, Buckingham Palace from St James's Park, Big Ben and Parliament Square, then Chinatown and a Taddy Lager at a Soho pub.","translationGroupId":"europe-travel-02-london-big-ben-soho","status":"published","locale":"en","content":"\nOn April 5, up from Bournemouth, the sky over London was grey. The day started at 12:01 with red phone boxes, and the daytime part ended at 4:17 p.m. across the Thames from Big Ben. As the light went, I moved on to Soho and was still sitting in a pub after 10 p.m.\n\nIn [part 1](/en/posts/europe-travel-01-bournemouth-homestay-dubai) I flew via Dubai and went back to my Bournemouth homestay. Part two is one day in London.\n\nIf Bournemouth is the second hometown where my English began, the UK as a whole is simply **the country I love.** This is my day in London after four years away, in the order it happened.\n\n\n**In three lines**: On April 5, I walked **The Laughing Halibut fish and chip shop → St James's Park → Big Ben and Parliament** by day. In the evening: **Outernet London, Chinatown and Soho.** It ended with **a lager at a Samuel Smith's pub**, with a label on the glass.\n \n\n## The route in this post\n\n| Time | Where | In a line |\n| --- | --- | --- |\n| 12:01–12:30 | Red phone boxes → The Laughing Halibut | Three phone boxes, a laughing halibut |\n| 13:22–15:28 | St James's Park | A Jack and Coke can, Buckingham Palace, a napping swan, blossom |\n| 15:33–16:17 | Big Ben → Parliament Square → across the Thames | The English Tea Bus, Churchill, 3:52 |\n| 17:10–19:06 | Outernet London → dinner → Chinatown → Palace Theatre | An LED room, New Year and Ramadan greetings |\n| 21:15–22:12 | The White Horse, Soho | Taddy Lager with its own label |\n\n---\n\n## 12:01: Three red phone boxes\n\n\n Three red phone boxes with crowns, beside a white building. \n \n\nAt 12:01, next to a white building, stood **three** red phone boxes with crowns on top, in a row. I'd have photographed one. There were three.\n\n\n The Laughing Halibut. \n \n\nAt 12:30 I stopped again, this time for a sign: **THE LAUGHING HALIBUT.** Underneath, it says \"THE BEST TRADITIONAL BRITISH FISH & CHIPS.\"\n\n\n Under the yellow menu board, a handwritten \"Cheesy Chips £5.50\". \n \n\nInside, the first thing I photographed was the yellow menu board. As of April 2023: **cod £9.00 / £10.50, haddock £9.50 / £10.50.** Taped underneath, handwritten: **Cheesy Chips £5.50.**\n\n---\n\n## St James's Park: a can, a palace, a swan and blossom\n\n\n A Jack and Coke can on the grass in St James's Park, blossom blurred behind. \n \n\nAt 1:22 p.m., on the grass in St James's Park, I took a photo of the can in my hand. **Jack Daniel's and Coca-Cola, in one can.** On the plane I'd mixed my own; in London it came ready-made. Cherry blossom blurs behind it.\n\n\n From the bridge over the lake, Buckingham Palace sits straight ahead at the end of the water. \n \n\nWhen I photographed the lake again later, the sky had clouded over, but it was still worth it. White daffodils lined the banks, and beyond the willows, Buckingham Palace and a gilded statue appeared small in the distance. From **the bridge over the lake**, the palace sits straight ahead at the end of the water.\n\n\n A swan asleep on the gravel by the lake, a pigeon beside it. \n \n\nOn the gravel by the lake, a **swan** slept with its head tucked into its back. Next to it, a pigeon.\n\n\n 3:28, a pale pink cherry tree alone on the lawn. \n \n\nAt 3:28 I photographed a pale pink cherry tree standing alone on the lawn. Petals had started to fall, and people were sitting on the benches. In early April, the cherry trees in London were in bloom.\n\n---\n\n## 3:33 p.m.: Big Ben\n\n\n A red phone box in front, Big Ben at the end of the street. \n \n\nFive minutes after the cherry tree, at 3:33, Big Ben came into view. Phone box in front, clock tower behind: everyone takes this shot, and so did I. The \"TELEPHONE\" lettering and the crown came out big enough to almost hide Big Ben.\n\n\n THE ENGLISH TEA BUS, in pink, passing Big Ben. \n \n\nThree minutes later, a pink double-decker drove past the square: **THE ENGLISH TEA BUS.** Beside it, a silver taxi. Scenes like this are why I love the UK.\n\n\n The Churchill statue, from below. \n \n\n**Parliament Square** had metal fencing around the lawn, so you couldn't go in and sit down. Statues stand around the edge of the square facing Parliament. The one I shot from below has **CHURCHILL** carved into its plinth. In a long coat, leaning on a stick, he suited the grey sky.\n\n\n The clock tower said 3:52. So did my phone. \n \n\nI got one of myself in front of Big Ben too. The clock reads 3:52, and a red number 148 double-decker passes behind me. Checking the photo's timestamp later, my phone said **3:52** as well.\n\n\n A muddy-brown Thames and an ochre Parliament. \n \n\nTowards the bridge, you see Parliament's river front. I caught the moment the sun hung right above a spire through the clouds. The Thames is muddy brown; the building is ochre.\n\n\n 4:17, across the river. The spot where all of Parliament and Big Ben fit in one frame. \n \n\nThe last daytime photo: 4:17, from across the river, where the whole of Parliament and Big Ben fit into one frame. The finger of whoever took it crept into the bottom right. In the photo I'm grinning. **The grey sky was no problem at all.**\n\n---\n\n## 5:10 p.m.: Outernet London\n\n\n \"THE SPACES IN-BETWEEN\" at Outernet London. Walls and ceiling are all LED screens. \n \n\nThe evening began at 5:10 p.m. at **Outernet London.** The walls and ceiling are all LED screens, and inside a piece called \"THE SPACES IN-BETWEEN,\" shards of red and purple light burst in every direction. Even the photo I took looking up makes me dizzy.\n\n\n Yellow sauce, flatbread and sesame-coated fried chicken. \n \n\n5:41 p.m., dinner. A yellow sauce dish in an earthenware bowl sprinkled with green herbs, a heap of flatbread strips, and glossy fried chicken coated in sesame. Bread for dipping in the sauce.\n\n## A New Year greeting in April, and a Ramadan one\n\nAt 6:49 I came out at a crossroads to find a dragon ornament hanging off the corner of a London brick building. Beneath it, \"KUNG FU NOODLE\"; across the road, \"LEON.\" Further down the street, red lanterns were strung in rows.\n\n\n \"KUNG HEI FAT CHOY\" under the red lanterns. It was April. \n \n\nThe lantern street has so many lanterns that the sky barely shows. The gate read \"**KUNG HEI FAT CHOY**\" and \"**新春快樂**,\" Lunar New Year greetings. It was April, and the New Year greetings were still up.\n\n\n Red brick, glass, green tiles. \n \n\nAt the other end, a **green-tiled gate** is wedged between a red-brick building and an all-glass one.\n\n\n \"Happy Ramadan\" lights next to a SHAKE SHACK, with a tour bus ticket booth below. \n \n\nA few minutes later, **\"Happy Ramadan\"** lights hung across the sky. Crescent moons and stars, the green neon of a SHAKE SHACK burger sign, and below, a tour bus booth with \"Buy Your Tickets Here!\" I saw a New Year greeting and a Ramadan greeting on the same evening.\n\n\n Blurry, but I kept it. On the side of the bus: TRAVEL IS BACK. \n \n\nBy now the pavement was wet and umbrellas had appeared. Lit-up brick buildings reflected on the wet ground, and my photos came out shaky. The passing red bus was blurry too, but I kept it. The advert on its side read **\"TRAVEL IS BACK.\"** It was spring 2023, and I had just left my job.\n\n\n The Palace Theatre, glowing red under the lights. On the marquee: Harry Potter. \n \n\nAt 7:06, the thing glowing reddest in the grey evening was **the Palace Theatre.** Lights washed up its brick front, and over the entrance hung \"Harry Potter AND THE CURSED CHILD.\" Crowds with umbrellas stood outside, and I took the photo from across the road.\n\n---\n\n## 9:15 p.m.: The White Horse, Soho\n\n\n A label on the glass itself: INSIST ON SEEING THE LABEL. \n \n\nAt 9:15 p.m., at **The White Horse**, a pub in Soho, I got a **Samuel Smith's Taddy Lager.** The glass has its own label, and on it: \"INSIST ON SEEING THE LABEL.\" The 4.5% VOL. is printed on the glass too.\n\nWhen I went to the bar and photographed the taps, every one next to the brass handles, Double Four Lager and Pure Brewed Organic Lager included, carried the Samuel Smith name. **Every beer in this pub is Samuel Smith's.**\n\n\n 10:12 p.m. Upside-down bottles, a gold ceiling, a dark wooden bar. \n \n\nThe last photo, at 10:12, shows the inside of the pub. Bottles hanging upside down, a gold ceiling, a dark wooden bar. At the bar, a customer in a flat cap and checked scarf. A \"TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD\" poster reflects through the window, and an \"ARCHER STREET W1\" sign hangs on the wall. A pub in the middle of theatreland.\n\nThe day started with three phone boxes and ended with a labelled lager. With this glass, the UK part of the trip was over.\n\n---\n\n## Visitor info\n\n📍 **St James's Park → Big Ben → Parliament Square** · Westminster, London\n\n- 🚶 **Route**: they're close on the map, so they're easy to do as one walk. Going by my photo timestamps, my first Big Ben shot was five minutes after the cherry tree in the park.\n- 📸 **Do Big Ben twice**: once from the square, once from across the Thames. You only get the whole of Parliament in one frame from across the river.\n- 🏰 **Buckingham Palace head-on**: from the bridge over the lake in St James's Park.\n- 🗺️ **Maps**: [St James's Park](https://www.google.com/maps/search/?api=1&query=St%20James%27s%20Park%20London), [Big Ben](https://www.google.com/maps/search/?api=1&query=Big%20Ben%20London)\n\n📍 **Soho and Chinatown** · West End, London\n\n- 🐟 **The Laughing Halibut**: prices above are from my April 2023 photo. [Google Maps](https://www.google.com/maps/search/?api=1&query=The%20Laughing%20Halibut%20London)\n- 💡 **Outernet London**: the artworks change over time. [Google Maps](https://www.google.com/maps/search/?api=1&query=Outernet%20London)\n- 🏮 **Chinatown gate**: photos from the gate end and the far end look completely different. Walk both ends.\n- 🍺 **The White Horse (a Samuel Smith's pub)**: every tap is from this one brewery, so just choose between lager and stout. [Google Maps](https://www.google.com/maps/search/?api=1&query=The%20White%20Horse%20Archer%20Street%20Soho)\n\n## How to get lost a little less\n\n- ⏱️ **Only one day in London? Westminster by day, Soho by night.** It all connects on foot and fits a day perfectly.\n- 🌧️ **On the day I went, the sky clouded over in the afternoon and the pavements were wet by evening.** Pack a folding umbrella in London.\n- 🌸 **In early April, St James's Park was full of cherry blossom and daffodils.** Give the park plenty of time.\n\n\nThis is a record of an April 2023 visit. Menu prices, the artworks at Outernet and how the pubs operate may have changed since, so check official information before you go.\n \n\n## Jayden's verdict\n\n> The sky was grey, and it didn't matter. A full day in the country I love.\n\n- **St James's Park**: a palace, swans and blossom, for free.\n- **Big Ben and Parliament**: see them once more from across the river.\n- **A night in Soho**: New Year greetings, Ramadan greetings and a labelled lager.\n- **Tip**: with one day, do Westminster by day and Soho by night. It all connects on foot.\n\n---\n\nNext up is Nice in the south of France, the city with the best weather of the whole trip.\n\n**19 Days After Quitting series**\n\n1. [The UK, part 1: via Dubai, back to my Bournemouth homestay](/en/posts/europe-travel-01-bournemouth-homestay-dubai)\n2. **UK, part 2: A day in London, from Big Ben to a Soho pub** (you are here)\n3. [France: Nice and Saint-Paul-de-Vence](/en/posts/europe-travel-03-nice-saint-paul-de-vence)\n4. [Italy, part 1: Milan's Duomo and San Siro](/en/posts/europe-travel-04-milan-duomo-san-siro)\n5. [Italy, part 2: Venice, San Giorgio and Burano](/en/posts/europe-travel-05-venice-san-giorgio-burano)\n6. [Italy, part 3: Florence, Pompeii and Positano](/en/posts/europe-travel-06-florence-pompeii-positano)\n7. [Egypt: Escaping the rain to Sharm El Sheikh](/en/posts/europe-travel-07-sharm-el-sheikh-egypt)\n8. [Rome again: Italian food and the way home](/en/posts/europe-travel-08-rome-italian-food-going-home)\n","readingTime":13,"series":{"id":"europe-2023-uk-italy-egypt","title":"19 Days After Quitting: The UK, France, Italy and Egypt","part":2,"total":8},"country":"gb","growthStage":"evergreen","version":"1.1","updateCount":1},{"slug":"europe-travel-03-nice-saint-paul-de-vence","title":"Nice, France Travel 03: Three Trips to the Same Beach, and Chagall's Saint-Paul-de-Vence","description":"April 2023, my first look at the Mediterranean. A first day in Nice spent bouncing between a pebble beach and Place Masséna, then Chagall's hilltop village.","topic":"travel","tags":["Nice","Saint-Paul-de-Vence","French Riviera","Mediterranean","Europe Travel"],"publishedAt":"2026-09-20T20:00:00+09:00","updatedAt":"2026-11-03T20:00:00+09:00","coverImage":"/images/posts/europe-travel-03-nice-saint-paul-de-vence/cover.jpg","coverAlt":"Nice's pebble beach and curving shoreline under an evening sky full of clouds, with hillside buildings in the distance","seoTitle":"Nice and a Day Trip to Saint-Paul-de-Vence | Place Masséna, Promenade des Anglais, Chagall's Grave","seoDescription":"easyJet from Luton to Nice, Place Masséna, the Promenade des Anglais and the pebble beach, then Saint-Paul-de-Vence: the ramparts, Chagall's grave and views.","translationGroupId":"europe-travel-03-nice-saint-paul-de-vence","status":"published","locale":"en","content":"\nOn my first day in Nice, I went to the same pebble beach three times: at 14:12, 15:56 and 19:19. None of it was planned. Wherever I walked in town, the sea was only a few blocks downhill.\n\nIn [part 2](/en/posts/europe-travel-02-london-big-ben-soho) I spent a day in London. Part three is the south of France: Nice and Saint-Paul-de-Vence.\n\n**Nice had the best weather of the whole trip.** If I go back, I don't want to just photograph that sea. I want to swim in it.\n\n\n**In three lines**: I left Luton on a dawn easyJet flight and, **on the day I landed in Nice, went to the Mediterranean's pebble beach three times.** The next day, in the hilltop walled village of **Saint-Paul-de-Vence, I found Chagall's grave.** The best weather of the trip was in Nice. Next time I want to go for a swim.\n \n\n## The route in this post\n\n| Date | Where | In a line |\n| --- | --- | --- |\n| Apr 6, morning | London Luton Airport → Nice Côte d'Azur Airport | Dawn easyJet, mountains out the window |\n| Apr 6, daytime | Place Masséna → Promenade des Anglais → pebble beach → Notre-Dame de Nice | First meal, a piano on wheels, pigeons |\n| Apr 6, night | Seafront → Place Masséna | The blue chair, statues lit up |\n| Apr 7 | Saint-Paul-de-Vence | Ramparts, a terrace lunch, Chagall's grave, views from outside the village |\n\n---\n\n## April 6: a dawn easyJet, and an airport between the mountains\n\nDeparture was London Luton at 06:36. The sky was still bluish, more dawn than morning, when I climbed the easyJet stairs. Most of the photos after takeoff are of the orange engine cowling outside the window.\n\n\n Nice airport, 10:33. The mountains showed up before the sea did. \n \n\nAt 10:33 I photographed an AIR FRANCE jet through the window at Nice airport. It's a seaside city, so I looked for the sea, but what ended up in the frame was the line of mountains behind. Nice sits between the sea and the mountains.\n\n\n Orange walls, yellow arches, green shutters. \n \n\nThe 12:07 photo from the city center is a different color altogether. Orange walls, yellow arches, pale green shutters. Under the blue sky, it all works.\n\n## The first meal in a new country\n\nWhen I land in a new country, I never skip the first meal. First came a gold-rimmed GRIMBERGEN beer glass, then a red cast-iron pot.\n\n\n A hunk of meat on mashed potatoes. \n \n\nIt was mashed potatoes topped with a hunk of meat that looked as if it had been cooked on the bone. A heavy lunch for the day of a dawn flight.\n\n## Place Masséna: an afternoon on a checkerboard\n\n\n 14:03, Place Masséna. A bike taxi rolls across the checkerboard. \n \n\nAt 14:03 I was standing in **Place Masséna**. A CityTour bike taxi rolled across the black and white checkerboard paving. Even within one square, the walls aren't all the same color: one side is orange, the fountain side is redder.\n\n\n The white statue on the fountain, red buildings behind. \n \n\nA white statue stands on top of the fountain. I photographed it again that afternoon.\n\n## A pianist on the promenade, and the pebble beach\n\n\n A man playing a piano on wheels on the Promenade des Anglais. \n \n\nDown by the water at 14:10, on the **Promenade des Anglais**, a man was playing a piano near the BEAU RIVAGE sign. The piano had wheels. The poster propped in front advertised a concert on 14/04/2023.\n\n\n My first Mediterranean. A pigeon at the water's edge. \n \n\nAnd then, the Mediterranean. **Nice's beach is all pebbles, not sand.** The water gets deeper in color the further it is from shore. At the water's edge, bottom left, a pigeon.\n\nMy first thought looking at this sea was \"I want to get in there.\" That day I only took pictures. I still want to get in.\n\n## Back to Place Masséna, and Notre-Dame de Nice\n\n\n 16:08. A pigeon on top of the statue's head. \n \n\nAt 16:08 I was back in the square, photographing the fountain from behind. Zoom in and there's a pigeon sitting on top of the statue's head.\n\n\n The off-white facade and rose window of Notre-Dame de Nice. \n \n\nAt 16:25 I was in front of the **Basilica of Notre-Dame de Nice**, tipping my head right back to fit it all in. It's only a few blocks from the orange square, and the church is off-white.\n\n## The third beach visit, and a blue chair at night\n\n\n 19:19, the same beach for the third time. Heavy clouds had come down. \n \n\nAt 19:19, on my third visit, heavy clouds had come down over the beach, and most of the daytime turquoise was gone. The same sea, a different color depending on the sky.\n\n\n La chaise de SAB. Too high for anyone to sit on. \n \n\nComing out of dinner at 21:02, there was a huge blue chair on the seafront. The sign says La chaise de SAB. It leans at an angle and stands on a white plinth, too high for anyone to sit on.\n\n\n 21:10, Place Masséna. The figures on top of the poles glow pink and blue. \n \n\nWalking back at 21:10, Place Masséna looked nothing like it had in the afternoon. The figures sitting on top of the tall poles were lit up pink and blue. I hadn't even noticed them in my daytime photos.\n\n---\n\n## April 7: Saint-Paul-de-Vence, the walled village on the hill\n\nThe next day I went to **Saint-Paul-de-Vence**, just outside Nice. It's a walled village on a hill. I only saw the whole village once I'd left it.\n\n\n 11:50, a white chapel and a stone statue at the entrance. \n \n\nAt 11:50, at the entrance, there was a small white chapel with a stone statue in front of it. It's a round shape that looks like faces stacked on top of each other. The sky behind was dark, but the statue was in the sun.\n\n\n A few steps from the entrance, the valley opens up beyond the wall. \n \n\nA few steps from the entrance, the view opens up over the stone wall. The 11:59 photo fits the houses down the slope and the distant valley into a single frame. Blue sky came and went between the clouds.\n\n\n LES REMPARTS: French for \"the ramparts.\" \n \n\nAt 12:01, a metal plaque on an ivy-draped stone wall read LES REMPARTS, French for \"the ramparts.\" The old stone walls are still standing.\n\n## A slow lunch on a stone-walled terrace\n\n\n The valley starts right past the wall. \n \n\nLunch was on a stone-walled terrace. Chairs with pale blue cushions, and the valley right on the other side of the wall. On the 12:32 table: a glass bottle of evian and a pink water glass. The terrace photo from 12:13 and the view from 13:40 were taken around the same spot, so lunch was a slow one.\n\n\n 14:01. Big clouds behind me. \n \n\nAt 14:01 I sat on the stone wall in front of that view myself. Big clouds were spread out behind me.\n\n## Chagall's grave, covered in pebbles\n\n\n MARC CHAGALL 1887 1985. No railing, just heaps of pebbles. \n \n\nAt 14:06 I went to the cemetery at the edge of the village. Look closely at the low gravestone under the pebbles and you can read MARC CHAGALL 1887 1985, and below it VAVA CHAGALL 1905 1993. The painter **Marc Chagall** lived in this village from 1966 to 1985 and is buried in its cemetery.\n\nSmall stones left by visitors cover the slab, and there's a heart-shaped dish holding coins. No railing, just a pile of pebbles. It's a modest grave.\n\n\n 14:21, beside a round tower. Right outside the stone wall, the hillside drops away. \n \n\nAt 14:21, I looked down from beside a round tower on the ramparts. Right outside the rough stone wall is a hillside dotted with cypresses and houses.\n\n## To really see the village, you have to leave it\n\n\n 14:28. Saint-Paul-de-Vence on top of its hill. \n \n\nOn the way out, I looked back. At 14:28 the village sat on top of a distant hill, with the church tower in the middle. For the first time I could see the whole thing: houses stacked in layers on top of the ramparts. You can't see it like that from inside.\n\n\n 14:47. The hilltop village behind me. \n \n\nAt 14:47 I sat on a wooden fence with the village at my back and took one more. The blue sky came out, and dandelions were blooming at my feet.\n\n\n 15:06. The village between the cypresses. \n \n\nAt 15:06 the village shows small between the cypresses lined up along the road. Each tree leans a little differently. At the far right, a sliver of horizon.\n\n\n 16:00, the train platform. A cypress and palm trees across the tracks. \n \n\nThe 16:00 photo is a train platform. Behind the 2A sign stand a big cypress and some palm trees. The sky stayed blue to the end.\n\n---\n\n## Visitor information\n\n📍 **Place Masséna · Promenade des Anglais** · Nice, France\n\n- 🚶 **Getting around**: the beach is a short walk from Place Masséna. My photos have the square at 14:03 and the beach at 14:12, so pair them up.\n- 🌙 **Timing**: Place Masséna looks completely different by day and by night. If you can, go twice.\n- 🗺️ **Maps**: [Place Masséna](https://www.google.com/maps/search/?api=1&query=Place%20Mass%C3%A9na%20Nice), [Promenade des Anglais](https://www.google.com/maps/search/?api=1&query=Promenade%20des%20Anglais%20Nice), [Notre-Dame de Nice](https://www.google.com/maps/search/?api=1&query=Basilique%20Notre-Dame%20de%20Nice)\n\n📍 **Saint-Paul-de-Vence** · Saint-Paul-de-Vence, France\n\n- 🪦 **Chagall's grave**: in the cemetery at the far end of the village. The slab is so covered in stones that you have to get close to read the names.\n- 🍽️ **Lunch**: look for the stone-walled terraces. The valley view starts right past your table.\n- 🗺️ **Maps**: [Saint-Paul-de-Vence](https://www.google.com/maps/search/?api=1&query=Saint-Paul-de-Vence), [Saint-Paul-de-Vence cemetery](https://www.google.com/maps/search/?api=1&query=Cimeti%C3%A8re%20de%20Saint-Paul-de-Vence)\n\n## How to get lost a little less\n\n- 🪨 **Nice's beach is pebbles, not sand.** Know that going in if you plan to walk barefoot or lie down.\n- 📸 **You see Saint-Paul-de-Vence as a whole from outside it.** Build the views from the road out into your plan.\n- ⏳ **Give Saint-Paul-de-Vence time.** There are so many viewpoints on the walls and along the road that you'll stop more often than you expect.\n- 🗓️ **Staying three days or more in Nice? Give one to Saint-Paul-de-Vence.** It's close enough to do in half a day.\n\n\nThis is a record of an April 2023 visit. I rechecked when Chagall lived in Saint-Paul-de-Vence and where the cemetery is against local tourist information while writing, but practical details can change, so check once more before you go.\n \n\n## Jayden's verdict\n\n> The best weather of the whole trip was in Nice. Next time I'm going to swim, not just take pictures.\n\n- **Nice**: from anywhere in town, the sea is a few blocks away.\n- **Saint-Paul-de-Vence**: the lanes inside and the views outside, good twice over.\n- **Would I go back?**: Yes. Next time I want to swim in the sea at Nice.\n- **Tip**: Nice's beach is pebbles. In Saint-Paul-de-Vence, look back at the village on your way out.\n\n---\n\nNext up, I cross the border into Italy: Milan's Duomo and San Siro. Italy was the best country of this trip.\n\n**19 Days After Quitting series**\n\n1. [The UK, part 1: via Dubai, back to my Bournemouth homestay](/en/posts/europe-travel-01-bournemouth-homestay-dubai)\n2. [The UK, part 2: a day in London, from Big Ben to a Soho pub](/en/posts/europe-travel-02-london-big-ben-soho)\n3. **France: Nice and Saint-Paul-de-Vence** (you are here)\n4. [Italy, part 1: Milan's Duomo and San Siro](/en/posts/europe-travel-04-milan-duomo-san-siro)\n5. [Italy, part 2: Venice, San Giorgio and Burano](/en/posts/europe-travel-05-venice-san-giorgio-burano)\n6. [Italy, part 3: Florence, Pompeii and Positano](/en/posts/europe-travel-06-florence-pompeii-positano)\n7. [Egypt: Escaping the rain to Sharm El Sheikh](/en/posts/europe-travel-07-sharm-el-sheikh-egypt)\n8. [Rome again: Italian food and the way home](/en/posts/europe-travel-08-rome-italian-food-going-home)\n","readingTime":13,"series":{"id":"europe-2023-uk-italy-egypt","title":"19 Days After Quitting: The UK, France, Italy and Egypt","part":3,"total":8},"country":"fr","growthStage":"evergreen","version":"1.1","updateCount":1},{"slug":"europe-travel-04-milan-duomo-san-siro","title":"Milan Travel 04: From the Duomo on Easter Morning to 74,742 Fans at San Siro, Visited Twice","description":"April 2023, where the Italy stretch begins: the Duomo on Easter Sunday, Sforza Castle, aperitivo on the Navigli, and AC Milan vs Napoli at San Siro.","topic":"travel","tags":["Italy Travel","Milan","Milan Duomo","Navigli","San Siro"],"publishedAt":"2026-09-25T20:00:00+09:00","updatedAt":"2026-09-25T20:00:00+09:00","coverImage":"/images/posts/europe-travel-04-milan-duomo-san-siro/cover.jpg","coverAlt":"San Siro seen from the top tier, the stands' card display spelling out THIS IS MILAN","seoTitle":"Italy Travel | Milan Itinerary: Duomo, Sforza Castle, Navigli Canals and a Champions League Night at San Siro","seoDescription":"Milan's Duomo on Easter Sunday, the Galleria, Sforza Castle and 'Needle, Thread and Knot', aperitivo on the Naviglio Grande, and AC Milan vs Napoli at San Siro.","translationGroupId":"europe-travel-04-milan-duomo-san-siro","status":"published","locale":"en","content":"\nLet me get the verdict out of the way first. **The best country on this whole trip was Italy.**\n\nFor food and cheese, no other country came close. Italy is also the country I want to go back to.\n\nMilan is where the Italy stretch begins. And I actually went to Milan **twice**. I spent Easter Sunday, April 9, walking the city, then two days in Venice, then came back on April 12 to see the Duomo once more and spend the night at San Siro. Strictly by date, Venice belongs in the middle, but this post bundles both Milan days together. The Venice days in between get the next post.\n\n\n**In three lines**: On Easter Sunday morning, **Mass was underway at the Duomo**. In the afternoon I went past **Sforza Castle** and the needle sculpture in Piazzale Cadorna to the **Navigli canals** for aperitivo. Back in Milan three days later, I watched AC Milan vs Napoli at **San Siro**. Attendance was 74,742, and before kickoff the stands spelled out **THIS IS MILAN**.\n \n\n## The route in this post\n\n| Date | Where | In a line |\n| --- | --- | --- |\n| Apr 9, morning | Duomo → Galleria → Cordusio | Easter Mass, the bull mosaic, Starbucks Reserve |\n| Apr 9, afternoon | Sforza Castle → Piazzale Cadorna → Naviglio Grande | Grass moat, the needle sculpture, canal-side aperitivo |\n| Apr 10–11 | Venice (next post) | Grand Canal, San Giorgio Maggiore, Burano |\n| Apr 12 | The Duomo again → a pizzeria off the square | Spires under a grey sky, a seafood grill |\n| Apr 12, night | San Siro | AC Milan vs Napoli, Champions League quarter-final, first leg |\n\n---\n\n## April 9: The Duomo on Easter Sunday\n\nMy first day was Easter Sunday 2023, and Mass was underway inside the Duomo. Tourists or not, it is still a church where Mass is said. So with the Duomo, think about **when** before *where*. Construction began in 1386 and ran until the last door went on in 1965, and it is the largest church within the Italian Republic.\n\n## Within 400 meters of the Duomo: the Galleria and Cordusio\n\nFrom the Duomo through the Galleria to Cordusio is a little over 400 meters as the crow flies, an easy half-day loop. I walked this stretch on both visits. The Cordusio photos, with their bright blue sky, are probably from day one.\n\nThe **Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II** is an arcade designed by Mengoni and finished in 1877, linking the Duomo and La Scala. Tradition says spinning three times on the bull mosaic in the floor brings luck, and so many people have done it that the spot wore into a hole and had to be restored again in 2017.\n\n\n The Parini statue just past the Galleria, a pigeon on his head. \n \n\nHead out toward Cordusio and there is the statue of Parini, with a pigeon perched on his head.\n\n\n DEDICATO A MILANO, carved into the copper wall. \n \n\nAt Cordusio I spent about an hour in the **Starbucks Reserve Roastery**. It opened in September 2018 inside a 1901 building that once housed the stock exchange and post office. A line carved into the wall begins DEDICATO A MILANO, \"dedicated to Milan.\" It's well placed for a break between walks.\n\n---\n\n## April 9, afternoon: Sforza Castle and its waterless moat\n\nIn the afternoon I went from Sforza Castle to the Navigli canals.\n\n\n Grass instead of water, in the moat and the courtyard alike. \n \n\nLook down into the moat of **Sforza Castle** and you see grass where the water should be. On the courtyard lawn people were sitting or lying on their stomachs, and there were even strollers. On Easter afternoon, the ground below the gun slits was being used as a park.\n\n\n The roughly 70-meter Filarete Tower. What you see today was rebuilt in 1900–1905 from the old plans. \n \n\nLook up from the middle of the courtyard and there is the **Filarete Tower**. It's about 70 meters tall, and its current form was rebuilt between 1900 and 1905 based on the old plans. The blue serpent crest on a white panel high on the wall stands out from far away, and people stream nonstop through the arch at its base.\n\n\n A grey stone tower at the corner of the red brick walls. \n \n\nWalk around the outside of the walls and, at the end of the red brick, the round corner tower switches to grey stone, every block jutting out so the surface is all bumps. This texture stayed with me longer than the tower in the courtyard. I spent over an hour just around the castle. Inside are the civic museums, including Michelangelo's Rondanini Pietà and the Sala delle Asse with its ceiling painting that Leonardo had a hand in.\n\n## A needle stuck in the square\n\n\n \"Needle, Thread and Knot.\" The thread colors are Milan's metro line colors. \n \n\nLeave the castle for Piazzale Cadorna and you find a giant needle stuck in the ground. It's Oldenburg and van Bruggen's sculpture **\"Needle, Thread and Knot\"**, unveiled in February 2000. The red, green and yellow of the thread are the metro line colors, and the idea is that the thread passes through the needle, runs underground and comes back up as a knot on the far side of the square. Shared bikes stand in a row at its foot. From here I took the green line, metro M2, down to the canals.\n\n## An afternoon on the Naviglio Grande\n\n\n People and umbrellas along both banks. \n \n\nThe **Naviglio Grande** is a straight canal running between yellow and pink buildings. Both banks were packed solid with people and umbrellas.\n\n\n A NAVIGAMI tour boat on the canal. \n \n\nUnder a bridge railing covered in graffiti, stickers and a bundle of padlocks, a NAVIGAMI tour boat slid past. But the original job of this waterway, begun in the 12th century, was hauling cargo, and the Duomo's marble is said to have come in through a dock here.\n\n\n The Village Cafe board: unlimited buffet with a drink for €12. \n \n\nThe canal-side bars had their boards out in time for aperitivo. Aperitivo is the Italian ritual of a drink and some snacks before dinner, and the Village Cafe board read **unlimited buffet plus a drink for €12, second drink €5**. Everyone was at the outdoor tables, except a few who stood with their backs to the food, watching football on the TV inside.\n\n## A courtyard and a church by the canal\n\n\n The sign at the passage: \"Come see the second courtyard too.\" \n \n\nBetween the canal-side buildings there is a passage. A sign for the Associazione del Naviglio Grande says \"visitate il secondo cortile,\" come see the second courtyard. Step inside and wisteria covers red walls, with flowerpots hanging from every railing. ENTRATA LIBERA: free to enter. It is quieter in here than on the canal.\n\n\n Easter Sunday, white flowers beneath the altar. \n \n\nWalking along the canal, I ducked into **Santa Maria delle Grazie al Naviglio**, a relatively young church designed by Cesare Nava in 1899 and consecrated in 1909. White Easter flowers sat beneath the altar, and stained-glass light spilled across the brick-patterned walls. Easter Mass at the Duomo in the morning, Easter flowers in a canal-side church in the afternoon.\n\n## One aperitivo plate and the 7:36 p.m. tram\n\n\n Amarcord beer and six pieces of grilled flatbread. \n \n\nDinner was at an outdoor table on the west side of the canal. In front of a bottle of Amarcord beer came six pieces of grilled flatbread in a circle, charred here and there, topped with shellfish and mayo and a sprinkle of red powder.\n\n\n 7:36 p.m., the sky still bright and a yellow tram filling the street. \n \n\nAt 7:36 p.m. the sky was still bright as a yellow tram squeezed down a narrow street. Milan was more of an **outdoor city** than I'd expected. The next two days were Venice, which is the next post. Here, we skip straight ahead three days.\n\n---\n\n## April 12: A second Duomo under a grey sky\n\n\n On my second visit the sky was grey, and somehow every spire looked sharper. \n \n\nBack from Venice, I stood in front of the Duomo again. This time the sky was grey, and the white marble façade actually shows every single spire more clearly on a day like that. No need to wait for sunshine. To fit the whole front in one shot you have to back up a long way, and that spot was crowded with pigeons and tourists.\n\n## A pizzeria off the square, and the asterisk on the menu\n\n\n An Italian beer and a Dutch beer at the same table. \n \n\nThat day's meal was under a PIZZERIA awning next to the Duomo. A Heineken glass and a Poretti glass sat side by side on an orange tablecloth. The Duomo was printed on the menu cover too.\n\n\n GRIGLIATA DI PESCE, €48 for two. \n \n\nI ordered the **GRIGLIATA DI PESCE**, a mixed seafood grill: €48 for two (per the menu at the time), listing swordfish, salmon, scampi and squid. It arrived as fish and salmon with sharp grill marks and halved scampi on a bed of arugula. The thing worth noticing is the **asterisk** next to the dish name. The edge of the menu carried a \"frozen product\" note, which I read as meaning frozen ingredients. If you eat right on the square, look for that asterisk.\n\n---\n\n## April 12, night: San Siro, one of 74,742\n\n\n A half-and-half scarf with the stadium name and the date, 12/04/2023. \n \n\nThat night's destination was **San Siro**, for AC Milan vs Napoli in the **Champions League quarter-final, first leg**. Outside the stadium I held up a **half-and-half scarf** with the date printed on it. It joins Milan's red and black to Napoli's blue, half and half. The stalls outside had even teddy bears in Milan kits, and about the only thing in the away team's colors was this scarf.\n\n\n Outside the stadium, scarf Napoli side out. \n \n\nBefore going in, I had a bottle of Poretti BOCK ROSSA in hand and wore the scarf Napoli side out. The whole forecourt was red and black.\n\n\n Gate 13. The spiral towers on either side carry the weight of the third tier. \n \n\nUp close, the first thing you see at San Siro is its coiled concrete spiral towers. They went up when the third tier was added for the 1990 World Cup, and 11 of them hold up that weight. Past the STEWARD vests at gate 13, you're in.\n\n\n The round windows of the top concourse double as shelves overlooking the pitch. \n \n\nI set a Pepsi cup and a beer on the sill of a round window in the top-tier concourse. Below it are the pitch and the stands.\n\n## How empty seats turned into words\n\n\n 1 hour, 21 minutes and 49 seconds to kickoff. Plenty of empty seats at this point. \n \n\nStep into the stands and the steel roof spreads overhead like a net, with Milan's high-rises visible past the red trusses. When the countdown read 01:21:49, there were still gaps all over. By the warm-ups every empty seat had filled. From the top tier I could see the whole formation laid out like a map rather than the players' faces.\n\n\n The same seats that had been empty became cards, and THIS IS MILAN appeared. \n \n\nThe highlight of the night came **before kickoff**. Those same seats that had been empty turned into cards, and THIS IS MILAN rose out of the stands. The red plastic blocking my view was one piece of the picture, held up from the top tier. In the middle of the pitch, a Champions League ball banner was spread out.\n\n\n 74,742 on the board. WE THE MANY above, GRAZIE ROSSONERI below. \n \n\nThe scoreboard flashed **74,742**, with WE THE MANY above and GRAZIE ROSSONERI below. I was one of them.\n\nThe match ended **1-0 to AC Milan**. Bennacer's goal in the 40th minute was the winner, and Napoli finished with ten men after Anguissa was sent off for a second yellow in the 74th. It was a rematch ten days after Milan had won 4-0 in the league, and after the second leg on April 18, Milan went through to the semi-finals 2-1 on aggregate.\n\n\n 11:37 p.m., San Siro lit up. \n \n\nAt 11:37 p.m., the road outside was still full of cars. That's it for my two visits to Milan.\n\n---\n\n## Visiting info\n\n📍 **Milan Duomo** · Piazza del Duomo, Milano\n\n- 🚇 **Getting there**: Duomo station (M1, M3). You come up right in the square.\n- 🎟️ **Entry**: Ticket required. Rooftop terrace access and hours change by season, so go by the official website.\n- 🗺️ **Map**: [Open in Google Maps](https://www.google.com/maps/search/?api=1&query=Duomo%20di%20Milano)\n\n📍 **Sforza Castle · Naviglio Grande**\n\n- 🏰 **Route**: Cordusio → Sforza Castle → the needle sculpture in Piazzale Cadorna right next door → M2 → the Navigli. One afternoon.\n- 🗺️ **Map**: [Sforza Castle](https://www.google.com/maps/search/?api=1&query=Castello%20Sforzesco) · [Naviglio Grande](https://www.google.com/maps/search/?api=1&query=Naviglio%20Grande%20Milano)\n\n📍 **San Siro** · Piazzale Angelo Moratti, Milano\n\n- 🚇 **Getting there**: San Siro Stadio station (M5) is right in front of the stadium.\n- 🎟️ **Tickets**: Through the club's official sellers; check fixtures on the club's official schedule.\n- 🗺️ **Map**: [Open in Google Maps](https://www.google.com/maps/search/?api=1&query=San%20Siro%20Stadium)\n\n## How to get lost a little less\n\n- ⛪ **With the Duomo, start with \"when.\"** On Sundays and holy days, Mass may be underway.\n- 📸 **On the Navigli, take your bridge photos before sunset.** In early April, around 6 p.m., the light fell nicely on the façades. If it's too crowded, slip into the courtyard passage or the canal-side church.\n- ⭐ **On menus right by the square, look for an asterisk (*) and a \"frozen product\" note.**\n- 🏟️ **San Siro's card display happens just before kickoff.** The seats were still patchy 1 hour 20 minutes out, but you need to be in yours before it starts.\n- 🎫 **Check your tier/color zone (like \"3 BLU\") and gate number** on your ticket first. If you post a ticket photo, cover the QR code, seat and personal details.\n- 🚗 **After the match, the roads were still jammed past 11:30 p.m.** Sort out your way back beforehand.\n\n\nThis is a record of an April 2023 visit. I rechecked the match result, attendance and building dates against AC Milan's official match records and other sources while writing this. Tickets, hours and prices can change, so check the official information once more before you go.\n \n\n## Jayden's verdict\n\n> Italy was the best. Nowhere beats it for food and cheese. I want to go again.\n\n- **Highlight**: Easter Mass at the Duomo, aperitivo on the Navigli, and the THIS IS MILAN card display before kickoff at San Siro\n- **Would I go back?**: Yes. Italy is the country I want to go back to.\n- **Tip**: check Mass times before the Duomo, and be in your seat at San Siro before kickoff.\n- **Pair it with**: the courtyard passage between the canal-side buildings and Santa Maria delle Grazie al Naviglio\n\n---\n\nNext up is the two days in Venice between my two Milan visits: evening light on the Rialto Bridge, the bell tower of San Giorgio Maggiore, and Burano by way of Murano.\n\n**19 Days After Quitting series**\n\n1. [The UK, part 1: via Dubai, back to my Bournemouth homestay](/en/posts/europe-travel-01-bournemouth-homestay-dubai)\n2. [The UK, part 2: a day in London, from Big Ben to a Soho pub](/en/posts/europe-travel-02-london-big-ben-soho)\n3. [France: Nice and Saint-Paul-de-Vence](/en/posts/europe-travel-03-nice-saint-paul-de-vence)\n4. **Italy, part 1: Milan's Duomo and San Siro** (you are here)\n5. [Italy, part 2: Venice, San Giorgio and Burano](/en/posts/europe-travel-05-venice-san-giorgio-burano)\n6. [Italy, part 3: Florence, Pompeii and Positano](/en/posts/europe-travel-06-florence-pompeii-positano)\n7. [Egypt: Escaping the rain to Sharm El Sheikh](/en/posts/europe-travel-07-sharm-el-sheikh-egypt)\n8. [Rome again: Italian food and the way home](/en/posts/europe-travel-08-rome-italian-food-going-home)","readingTime":17,"series":{"id":"europe-2023-uk-italy-egypt","title":"19 Days After Quitting: The UK, France, Italy and Egypt","part":4,"total":8},"country":"it","growthStage":"evergreen","version":"1.0","updateCount":0},{"slug":"europe-travel-05-venice-san-giorgio-burano","title":"Venice Travel 05: Walking the Grand Canal, Climbing the Tower Opposite, 235 Shots in Burano","description":"Venice, April 10–11, 2023: evening light on the Rialto Bridge, the view from San Giorgio Maggiore's bell tower, then Murano and color-switching Burano.","topic":"travel","tags":["Italy Travel","Venice","San Giorgio Maggiore","Burano","Rialto Bridge"],"publishedAt":"2026-09-29T20:00:00+09:00","updatedAt":"2026-09-29T20:00:00+09:00","coverImage":"/images/posts/europe-travel-05-venice-san-giorgio-burano/cover.jpg","coverAlt":"A Burano canal seen from a bridge, orange, green and yellow houses on both sides and a leaning bell tower at the end","seoTitle":"Italy Travel: Two Days in Venice | Grand Canal, Rialto and Accademia, San Giorgio Maggiore Bell Tower, Murano and Burano","seoDescription":"Venice in two days: the Grand Canal, evening light at Rialto, the Accademia Bridge, the San Giorgio Maggiore bell tower view and a Murano–Burano photo route.","translationGroupId":"europe-travel-05-venice-san-giorgio-burano","status":"published","locale":"en","content":"\nThe first thing I saw in Venice was **four people seen from behind**, sitting side by side on the water's edge. They were all just looking at the Grand Canal.\n\n[Part 4](/en/posts/europe-travel-04-milan-duomo-san-siro) put both of my Milan visits together. This post is the two days in Venice in between. From the afternoon of April 10 to the evening of the next day, I walked along the water. The first day was clear and the second was cloudy. On the second day I crossed to two more islands.\n\n\n**In three lines**: On the first evening I watched the Grand Canal turn gold in the low sun from the **Rialto Bridge**. The next morning I climbed the **bell tower of San Giorgio Maggiore** and saw **the main island with St Mark's Campanile in it**. In the afternoon I went through Murano to **Burano**, where every house is a different color.\n \n\n## The route in this post\n\n| Date | Where | In a line |\n| --- | --- | --- |\n| Apr 10, afternoon | Across from San Simeone Piccolo → side canals → Rialto Bridge | Four people by the water, gold at 6 p.m. |\n| Apr 10, night | A bell tower | 9:48 p.m., a streak of light |\n| Apr 11, early morning | Cannaregio → Grand Canal → Accademia Bridge → Gesuati | Cloudy green, wisteria, the Salute dome |\n| Apr 11, late morning | San Giorgio Maggiore church and bell tower | The main island from 63 m, a maze garden, a gull |\n| Apr 11, afternoon | Murano → Burano | A leaning tower, laundry, a glass shop, a green bench |\n\n---\n\n## April 10: Four people sitting by the water\n\n\n My first scene in Venice: people sitting by the water, looking at the Grand Canal. \n \n\nThe first scene is the waterfront across from **San Simeone Piccolo**. The steps were packed with people sitting, while water taxis and gondolas passed in front of them at the same time. If you're choosing where to see the Grand Canal for the first time, I'd suggest this spot: there's somewhere to sit, and boats never stop going by.\n\n## One canal in from the Grand Canal\n\n\n At the end of an alley of water, Ca' Pesaro across the Grand Canal hangs like a framed picture. \n \n\nStep one canal in from the Grand Canal and the waterways are as narrow as alleys. A wooden boat slips out of one, leaving a white wake, and at the far end Ca' Pesaro, across the Grand Canal, hangs like a picture in a frame. The walls have lost their paint from the waterline up, exposing the brick.\n\nA little farther on, three gondolas glided into one canal at once. There's no footpath, so wooden boards have been fitted outside the doors, and the sky ripples on the water. I spent longer in these narrow waterways than on the Grand Canal itself.\n\n## 6 p.m. on the Rialto Bridge\n\n\n The Rialto around 6 p.m. The low sun painted only the buildings on the right gold. \n \n\nStand on the **Rialto Bridge** around 6 p.m. and you finally get the whole Grand Canal laid out below you. People on a wooden boat were holding up their phones to take pictures. The low sun lit only the buildings on the right in gold. If I had to pick one scene from these two days, it would be this one. Go to the Rialto in the evening, when the sun is low.\n\n\n A bell tower at 9:48 p.m. \n \n\nThe first day ended with a bell tower at 9:48 p.m. A streak of light caught in the lens runs up into the sky.\n\n---\n\n## April 11, morning: Same water, different face\n\nAt 7:44 the next morning, the deep blue sky of the day before was gone, replaced by low cloud. On a canal in Cannaregio stood a red awning and a newspaper kiosk. It looked more like a neighborhood where people live than a tourist sight.\n\n\n Up close on a cloudy day, the water is deep green. Purple wisteria over the wall. \n \n\nLater in the morning I met the Grand Canal again, this time at water level. Up close on a cloudy day the water is deep green, and behind polished wooden boats and blue mooring poles, purple wisteria spills over a garden wall.\n\n\n The Accademia Bridge, wooden down to the steps and railings. The spot to get the Grand Canal and the Salute dome in one frame. \n \n\nThe **Accademia Bridge** is wooden all the way, steps and railings included. From the top, the dome of **Santa Maria della Salute** sits right at the end of the Grand Canal. If you want the canal and the dome in a single shot, this bridge is the surest place. Come down to the waterside and the same dome retreats to the far right, and in the middle stands a Gothic palace hung with black-and-white LEE MILLER · MAN RAY banners between its windows. Just note that it's a bridge with steps, so crossing with a big suitcase is a hassle.\n\n\n The waterfront by the Gesuati church, rippled clouds overhead. \n \n\nWalk past the Gesuati church to the waterfront and the view suddenly opens up, wide water stretching all the way across to Giudecca. Rippled clouds covered the sky.\n\n\n The front of the church I'd only seen side-on from the alleys, from a vaporetto. \n \n\nFrom a green seat at the back of a vaporetto, the church I'd only seen side-on from the alleys appeared whole across the water, façade and all. In Venice, it's worth seeing a building once on foot and once from a boat.\n\n---\n\n## April 11, late morning: San Giorgio Maggiore, the island across the water\n\n**Climb St Mark's Campanile and St Mark's Campanile won't be in your photos.** So that morning I crossed to the small island that faces it head-on: **San Giorgio Maggiore**. It's a separate island opposite the main one, so you take vaporetto line 2 and get off at San Giorgio. A long white wake trails behind the boat.\n\nAt the altar of the church stand a large dark painting and marble columns with a wave-like grain. The wall above has paint peeling here and there, and in front of it sit two angels holding palm fronds.\n\n\n At the top of the tower, the window frame becomes a picture frame. \n \n\nThe bell tower in its current form dates from 1791 and stands 63 meters tall. You go up by elevator. The top level is pierced with windows framed in brick and white stone, so each window frame becomes a picture frame. I stood in one with my small camera and shot toward the water.\n\n\n The church dome right below, with the bronze figure on top. \n \n\nDirectly below is the church's grey dome. On top stands a bronze figure holding a spear. Behind it, Giudecca stretches away in a long curve.\n\n\n St Mark's Campanile and the Doge's Palace in one line. \n \n\nThis window is why I crossed over. Across jade water, the face of the main island unrolls sideways, from the Dogana at the far left to the red brick **St Mark's Campanile** and the white-lace **Doge's Palace**. At 98.6 meters, St Mark's Campanile is taller than this tower. The waterfront in front of the Doge's Palace looks like a black band, probably a line of people.\n\n\n The window on the other side is green: a maze garden, cloisters, and the lagoon beyond. \n \n\nThe window on the other side looks out on green. A maze garden of clipped boxwood, rows of cypress, a cloister courtyard ringed with arches, and beyond them woods and lines of mooring posts in the lagoon. You can see the dense main island and this green side just one window apart. That's why I recommend this viewpoint.\n\n\n The choir behind the altar, and me with my head tipped back. \n \n\nBack down, the floor catches your eye: cubes pieced together from red, black and white marble, so the flat floor looks three-dimensional. Behind the altar is the choir. Dark wooden stalls thick with carvings curve in a semicircle, and inside a red rope a geometric floor spreads out.\n\n\n A young gull on a waterside rock, St Mark's Campanile and the Doge's Palace behind. \n \n\nOutside, a small white lighthouse with a pavilion-like top stands at the tip of the island, and a yacht named Istria, with PULA written on it, was tied up beside it. On a waterside rock sat a young gull still speckled with brown, with St Mark's Campanile and the Doge's Palace blurred behind it.\n\n\n San Giorgio Maggiore from the main island's waterfront, a round halo over it. \n \n\nBack on the main island's waterfront, I turned around. The tower I'd been standing in a moment ago looked small across the water, a gondolier passed in front of it, and a circular halo hung in the sky over the island. **You get both the view from the top and the view from across the water.** That's this viewpoint's biggest plus.\n\n---\n\n## April 11, afternoon: Through Murano to Burano, 235 shots in two hours\n\nIn Burano I took 250 photos that still have location data, and 235 of them between 4 and 6 p.m. It's a village where the color changes with every house.\n\n\n A canal in Murano. \n \n\nBefore Burano, I stopped in **Murano**. Shops under ANTICA MURANO awnings line the water, and a crane stands behind a brick bridge. The houses are a calm pink and orange. If you have the time, I'd pair the two islands.\n\n\n Straighten the photo all you like; only the tower stays crooked. \n \n\nWalk into the square in **Burano** and the first thing you see isn't color but a **leaning bell tower**. It belongs to the church of San Martino, and even when you level the photo, the tower alone tilts. Below it run red, blue and yellow houses, with dresses set out in front of the EMILIA shop. The square isn't large; most of what there is to see is along the lanes and canals.\n\n\n A peeling wall, a lime-green house, and the leaning tower at the end of the canal. \n \n\nAlong the canal, every house is a different color. Next to a magenta house is a deep blue one, and next to that a russet one, so **finding two neighbors in the same color is the harder task.** The story goes that fishermen painted their houses so they could find home even in fog. It's only a legend.\n\nFrom the bridge, the wall on the left has peeled into layers of pink, orange and grey, lime houses and clothes shops line the right, and the leaning tower reappears at the end of the canal. I found the tower worked better shot like this from a bridge, with the houses, than from the square.\n\n\n White sheets on a wall of red, lilac and deep blue houses. \n \n\nWhite sheets hang on a wall of red, lilac and deep blue houses. The walls tourists line up to photograph are homes where someone hangs out their washing. To me this house is the most Burano of all. You'll be taking a lot of photos in front of walls, so be careful not to block anyone's front door.\n\n\n A different striped curtain on every door. \n \n\nEach door has a striped curtain. A pink-striped one over the coral house's entrance, deep green next door, bright yellow after that. Don't just look at the walls; look at the door curtains as well.\n\n\n Vetro di Murano, €2.50 apiece. That's me inside, picking through glass. \n \n\nThere's also a glass shop with sky-blue shutters thrown wide, the left panel listing glass color names like Nero and Rosato, and inside it's me, picking through pieces of glass in a basket. The sign reads Vetro di Murano, **€2.50 each, or a bundle of six for €10 or €14**. An old bicycle is parked below the window.\n\n\n Three people crouched in front of a lilac house. I'm on the far right. \n \n\nThree people crouched side by side in front of a lilac house, each hiding their face behind a phone or camera. The light blue hood on the far right is me. Instead of standing in front of a wall, try a shot like this.\n\n\n A green bench by a magenta house, an Easter wreath woven with eggs on the door. \n \n\nLast is the green bench in front of a magenta house. An Easter wreath woven with eggs hangs on the door and a pot of bright pink flowers sits in the window. It was April, around Easter. Even sitting on that bench, I was photographing something with my phone.\n\nThat same night I also climbed **St Mark's Campanile** across the water, but that's not in this post. The next day I went back to Milan and spent the night at San Siro (previous post), and the day after that I headed down to Florence.\n\n---\n\n## Visiting info\n\n📍 **Grand Canal walk (San Simeone Piccolo → Rialto → Accademia)**\n\n- 👀 **First look**: The waterfront across from San Simeone Piccolo. There's somewhere to sit and boats pass constantly.\n- 🌇 **Rialto Bridge**: The light on the buildings was best in the evening as the sun dropped, around 6 p.m. going by my photos.\n- 🗺️ **Map**: [Rialto Bridge](https://www.google.com/maps/search/?api=1&query=Ponte%20di%20Rialto) · [Accademia Bridge](https://www.google.com/maps/search/?api=1&query=Ponte%20dell%27Accademia)\n\n📍 **San Giorgio Maggiore church and bell tower** · The island opposite St Mark's Square\n\n- ⛴️ **Getting there**: Vaporetto line 2, San Giorgio stop.\n- 🎟️ **Price and hours**: The church is free; the tower goes up by elevator and costs €6–8 depending on the source. Hours also vary between sources, so check the official information.\n- 🗺️ **Map**: [Open in Google Maps](https://www.google.com/maps/search/?api=1&query=San%20Giorgio%20Maggiore%20Venice)\n\n📍 **Murano · Burano** · Northern Venetian Lagoon\n\n- ⛴️ **Getting there**: Vaporetto line 12, Burano stop. Check boat times and fares with ACTV.\n- 🚶 **The village**: No entry fee, and no cars.\n- 🗺️ **Map**: [Burano](https://www.google.com/maps/search/?api=1&query=Burano) · [Murano](https://www.google.com/maps/search/?api=1&query=Murano)\n\n## How to get lost a little less\n\n- 🛬 **Leave your arrival day free to wander the Grand Canal with no plan.** Just following the water is plenty.\n- 🧳 **The Accademia is a wooden bridge with steps.** Dragging a big suitcase over it is a hassle.\n- 🔭 **After the San Giorgio Maggiore tower, cross back to the main island's waterfront** and get a shot looking back at the island.\n- 🏠 **Burano's walls are real homes.** Keep doorways clear when you shoot.\n\n\nThis is a record of an April 2023 visit. I rechecked building dates, heights and visitor information while writing this, but tower prices and hours differ between sources, so check the official information once more before you go.\n \n\n## Jayden's verdict\n\n> I saw Venice once on foot, once from a boat and once from the tower across the water. I want to go to Italy again.\n\n- **Highlight**: the Grand Canal from the Rialto Bridge at 6 p.m., St Mark's Campanile and the Doge's Palace from the San Giorgio Maggiore tower, and Burano's colored houses\n- **Would I go back?**: Yes. Italy is the country I want to go back to.\n- **Tip**: for the main island with St Mark's Campanile in it, go up the San Giorgio Maggiore tower across the water. Pair Burano with Murano.\n\nThe next part starts in Florence on April 13: the Duomo and Piazzale Michelangelo, then Pompeii and Positano in the rain three days later.\n\n---\n\n**19 Days After Quitting series**\n\n1. [The UK, part 1: via Dubai, back to my Bournemouth homestay](/en/posts/europe-travel-01-bournemouth-homestay-dubai)\n2. [The UK, part 2: a day in London, from Big Ben to a Soho pub](/en/posts/europe-travel-02-london-big-ben-soho)\n3. [France: Nice and Saint-Paul-de-Vence](/en/posts/europe-travel-03-nice-saint-paul-de-vence)\n4. [Italy, part 1: Milan's Duomo and San Siro](/en/posts/europe-travel-04-milan-duomo-san-siro)\n5. **Italy, part 2: Venice, San Giorgio and Burano** (you are here)\n6. [Italy, part 3: Florence, Pompeii and Positano](/en/posts/europe-travel-06-florence-pompeii-positano)\n7. [Egypt: Escaping the rain to Sharm El Sheikh](/en/posts/europe-travel-07-sharm-el-sheikh-egypt)\n8. [Rome again: Italian food and the way home](/en/posts/europe-travel-08-rome-italian-food-going-home)","readingTime":17,"series":{"id":"europe-2023-uk-italy-egypt","title":"19 Days After Quitting: The UK, France, Italy and Egypt","part":5,"total":8},"country":"it","growthStage":"evergreen","version":"1.0","updateCount":0},{"slug":"europe-travel-06-florence-pompeii-positano","title":"Florence Travel 06: Four Skies in One Day, and a Rain-Soaked Pompeii and Positano","description":"April 2023, the second half of Italy: from Florence's Duomo to a Guinness on Piazzale Michelangelo, a flooded Alexander Mosaic in Pompeii and a grey Positano.","topic":"travel","tags":["Italy Travel","Florence","Piazzale Michelangelo","Pompeii","Positano"],"publishedAt":"2026-10-03T20:00:00+09:00","updatedAt":"2026-10-03T20:00:00+09:00","coverImage":"/images/posts/europe-travel-06-florence-pompeii-positano/cover.jpg","coverAlt":"The Arno riverside in Florence at golden hour: buildings across the water glowing under a bright blue sky","seoTitle":"Italy Travel: Florence in an Afternoon, Pompeii and Positano in the Rain | Duomo, Piazzale Michelangelo and Tips","seoDescription":"Florence's Duomo and Caffè Gilli, Piazzale Michelangelo at night and how to get there, Pompeii's ruins in the rain and a lemon dessert in Positano, April 2023.","translationGroupId":"europe-travel-06-florence-pompeii-positano","status":"published","locale":"en","content":"\nAfter Venice in [Part 5](/en/posts/europe-travel-05-venice-san-giorgio-burano) and a night at San Siro in Milan, I headed down to Florence on April 13. In one day in Florence, **the sky changed four times**: storm clouds over the Duomo, fluffy cumulus outside the café, clean blue over the Arno, deep navy up on the hill.\n\nThree days later, Pompeii and Positano were rain from start to finish. That rain changed the direction of the trip; more on that at the end.\n\n\n**In three lines**: In Florence you can **start at 5 p.m. and still make Piazzale Michelangelo for the night view**. In Pompeii I saw the **Alexander Mosaic** under pooled rainwater, and in Positano, instead of a blue sea, **a dessert served in a real lemon and a lemon candy sign written in Korean**. Rome's forecast was rain all week.\n \n\n## The route in this post\n\n| Date | Where | In a line |\n| --- | --- | --- |\n| Apr 13, afternoon | Florence: San Lorenzo → Duomo → Piazza della Repubblica | Old print shop, marble, Caffè Gilli |\n| Apr 13, evening | The Arno → Piazzale Michelangelo → DALL'OSTE | Golden riverside, Guinness, David, steak |\n| Apr 16, morning | Pompeii Archaeological Park | Puddles, \"beware of the dog\", the Alexander Mosaic |\n| Apr 16, afternoon | Positano | Grey beach, lemon dessert, a Korean candy sign |\n| After that | Rome | Heavy rain forecast for the whole week |\n\n---\n\n## Florence: an old print shop on the way to the Duomo\n\n\n An old print shop on the way to the Duomo, its window packed with antique maps and engravings. \n \n\nI started walking Florence at 5 p.m. near San Lorenzo. A late start, but the city's highlights sit on one easy line. The Duomo is about ten minutes away, and in those ten minutes I got stopped by a shop with gold lettering reading **LIBRI e STAMPE**, books and prints, its window crammed with old maps and copperplate engravings.\n\n## The Duomo, 600 years in one building\n\n\n White, green and pink marble, spilling out of the frame. \n \n\nWalk into the square and the white, green and pink marble walls don't fit in one frame. Under the dark clouds, the marble looked even brighter. **Santa Maria del Fiore** had its first stone laid in 1296. Brunelleschi's dome went up between 1420 and 1436. Yet the ornate facade in front of you wasn't finished until 1887. That's roughly six centuries in one building, so it's worth looking at the dome and the facade separately.\n\nWhen the sun slipped under the dome for a moment, I got my own photo in. A street artist's easel behind me was displaying a Mr. Bean caricature. Walk around the back and you get a completely different curve (part of it was under scaffolding that day), and to fit in **Giotto's bell tower**, listed at 85 metres, you have to back up to the far edge of the square. Give the loop fifteen minutes.\n\n## Caffè Gilli, an hour with a carousel\n\n\n Marble table, yellow drink, cocoa-dusted cream dessert. Beyond the glass: Piazza della Repubblica. \n \n\nA few minutes south of the Duomo along the shopping streets is **Piazza della Repubblica**, with its carousel and a huge arch inscribed MDCCCXCV, 1895. I sat down at **Caffè Gilli**, a café said to have been started by the Swiss Gilli family in 1733.\n\nWith a yellow drink and a cocoa-dusted cream dessert in front of me, I watched the carousel turn beyond the glass railing while the sky switched to cumulus. I spent over an hour around here.\n\n## 7:22 p.m., the Arno turns gold\n\n\n The Arno at 7:22 p.m., the far bank in gold. \n \n\nPast Piazza della Signoria and the Ponte Vecchio, at 7:22 p.m., I reached the Arno and the sky was a different colour again. Follow the river along the brick wall of the Galileo Museum and the buildings on the far bank are dipped in gold. It was the richest colour I saw that day.\n\n## A Guinness on Piazzale Michelangelo\n\n\n A bottle of Guinness raised as the city lights came on. \n \n\nI reached Piazzale Michelangelo after sunset and raised a bottle as the city's lights came on one by one. Guinness in Italy, because I love the UK.\n\n\n Palazzo Vecchio, the Duomo and Santa Croce in one row. \n \n\nAs it got darker, the Palazzo Vecchio tower, the Duomo and Santa Croce all fell into one line. The dome I had been looking up at a few hours earlier was now the size of my palm. A day in Florence ends with this view.\n\n\n David in the middle of the square. Not the original: a bronze copy. \n \n\nIn the middle of the square, David stands looking over the city. It's not the original but the bronze copy installed when the piazzale was laid out in 1869. I was facing the night view, so my David photos are mostly from behind.\n\nThere are three ways up: bus, on foot, or the stairs (details in the info section below). In mid-April the sky was already deep blue after 8 p.m., so **if you're after the sunset, go up earlier.**\n\n## DALL'OSTE and a steak\n\n\n Charred outside, pink inside, with salt crystals on top. \n \n\nDinner was at a place with **DALL'OSTE** printed on the tablecloths. The walls are covered in wooden wine-crate panels printed with winery names. The steak was charred dark on the outside and pink inside, with grains of salt on top.\n\n\n 11:19 p.m., the lit dome above the rooftops. \n \n\nAt 11:19 p.m., only the lit top of the dome showed over the rooftops. That was my day in Florence.\n\n---\n\n## Pompeii: ruins in the rain\n\n\n Stones worn by cart wheels. At the end of the street, Vesuvius fades into the clouds. \n \n\nPompeii on April 16 was full of puddles from the rain: in front of the Forum's columns, beside a 2,000-year-old bar counter, even on top of Alexander the Great's battle scene. This is the city Vesuvius buried in AD 79, and the mountain shows faintly under the clouds at the end of the street.\n\n\n The bronze centaur in the Forum looks ancient but is a modern sculpture. \n \n\nIn the **Forum**, once the city's main square, stands a bronze centaur. It looks like an ancient find, but it's by the Polish sculptor Igor Mitoraj and arrived for a 2016 exhibition. Nearby, brick columns reflected in the puddles so you see each one twice.\n\n## A Roman snack bar and \"beware of the dog\"\n\nThe counter made of pieced-together stone is a **thermopolium**, an ancient street-food shop. Jars set into the counter held food and drink.\n\n\n The entrance of the House of the Tragic Poet. CAVE CANEM: beware of the dog. \n \n\nBehind glass on the floor, a dog guards the entrance to the **House of the Tragic Poet**: a chained mosaic dog baring its teeth, and below it **CAVE CANEM**, \"beware of the dog\".\n\n## Alexander under the rain\n\n\n Water pooled over the battle against Darius III. \n \n\nAt the **House of the Faun**, the bronze statue that gives the house its name stands in a basin full of rainwater. The **Alexander Mosaic** on the floor inside was even more dramatic: water had pooled over the battle against Darius III, and the horses and soldiers glistened, soaking wet.\n\nThe statue and mosaic in the house today are copies; both originals are in the **National Archaeological Museum of Naples**.\n\nThere's also a millstone carved from volcanic rock. Pompeii had at least 31 bakeries with ovens and mills.\n\n## Plaster casts and the Stabian Baths\n\n\n A person from that day, recovered by pouring plaster into the hollow left in the ash. \n \n\nA plaster cast in a glass case: plaster poured into the hollow a body left in the ash, bringing a person from that day back into view. The method was devised by Giuseppe Fiorelli in 1863. The arm drawn up toward the face is still there. What I had been walking through was somebody's neighbourhood.\n\n\n Look up first in the Stabian Baths: the 2,000-year-old octagonal pattern is still there. \n \n\nIn the **Stabian Baths**, look at the ceiling first. The octagonal stucco pattern from two millennia ago is still there, and the walls are lined with niches. In the next room, with its floor lifted away, hot air once circulated between stacks of brick to heat the space. It's counted among the earliest surviving examples of underfloor heating in the Roman world.\n\nOutside the colonnade, pink and blue raincoats filed past. I made it as far as the stone seats of the Large Theatre, but a whole morning of walking covered only part of the site. Lunch was outside the ruins: spaghetti in tomato sauce, then fried squid and prawns with a lettuce salad.\n\n---\n\n## Positano: grey and lemon instead of blue\n\n\n The coastline before Positano, under low cloud. \n \n\nSay \"Positano\" and most people picture a blue sea. Positano that same afternoon was **grey**. Even the coastal viewpoint on the way in was under low cloud. The village itself is all stairs and clothing shops, and the steps beside a shop full of lemon-yellow dresses still show the raindrops. Outside one souvenir shop hung a **South Korean flag**.\n\n\n Boats pulled up where the parasols should be. \n \n\nThe beach was dark grey sand, with boats pulled ashore where the parasols should be. With nobody around, you can see better how the village clings to the cliff. The terrace chairs sat empty and wet.\n\n## The star of the day: a dessert in a lemon\n\n\n The bowl is a real lemon peel; the lid is its cut-off top. \n \n\nThe star of the day was this dessert. A real lemon peel is the bowl, its sliced-off top perched on like a hat, with a pale filling peeking out underneath. The glass next to it held an amber drink with lemon slices floating between the ice cubes.\n\nRight above the beach, the **Church of Santa Maria Assunta** has the majolica dome you see in every Positano photo, but I stood so close to the facade that the dome didn't make it into my shots. Inside, white walls and gold decoration glow, and the small painting above the altar is the Black Madonna, said to be in 13th-century Byzantine style. It's a good place to shelter from the rain, too.\n\n## A lemon candy \"you won't find at Olive Young\"\n\n\n \"A 'new' lemon candy you won't find at Olive Young.\" Complete with a heart and a \"Cuty!\" signature. \n \n\nThe funniest thing that day was a candy shop. On a heap of lemon candy bags sits a handwritten sign in Korean: **\"A 'new' lemon candy you won't find at Olive Young,\"** then \"It's really good,\" a heart, and a \"Cuty!\" signature. (Olive Young is Korea's ubiquitous health-and-beauty chain.) They must get a lot of Korean customers.\n\nOn the shelf next to it, limoncello bottles labelled Saluti da Positano stand in rows. Positano is part of the Amalfi Coast lemon-growing area that received a protected geographical indication (IGP) in 2001, which is why the souvenirs here are all yellow.\n\n\n VIA CRISTOFORO COLOMBO, a rain-soaked brick street. \n \n\nUnder the VIA CRISTOFORO COLOMBO sign, the rain-soaked brick street gleamed the same red as the wall. When I left Positano, the clouds hung halfway down the mountains. I never saw a blue Positano.\n\n---\n\n## And then Rome, with a week of rain\n\nI spent a full day getting soaked in Pompeii and Positano. Italy was still great. **Italy was the best country of the whole trip.**\n\nThe problem came next. I got to Rome, opened the forecast, and saw **heavy rain for the entire week.** I couldn't spend the rest of the trip in the rain.\n\nSo, sitting in Rome, I searched for **a country with no rain at all**. I'd just quit my job, so the itinerary was mine to change. Where I went is the next part.\n\n---\n\n## Visiting info\n\n📍 **Florence Cathedral (Santa Maria del Fiore)** · Piazza del Duomo, Florence\n\n- 📸 **Photos**: to get the facade, the curved back and Giotto's bell tower (listed at 85 m), allow 15 minutes for a full loop.\n- ☕ **Caffè Gilli**: on Piazza della Repubblica. The seats by the glass railing look out on the carousel. [Google Maps](https://www.google.com/maps/search/?api=1&query=Caff%C3%A8%20Gilli%20Firenze)\n- 🗺️ **Map**: [Open in Google Maps](https://www.google.com/maps/search/?api=1&query=Florence%20Cathedral)\n\n📍 **Piazzale Michelangelo** · Florence\n\n- 🚌 **Bus**: lines 12 and 13. Line 13 is listed as leaving from Lungarno degli Archibusieri by the Uffizi, about 15 minutes, every 20 minutes. Check stops and last buses again before you ride.\n- 🚶 **On foot**: listed as 20–30 minutes from the centre, though some say 45 from the Ponte Vecchio. It's uphill all the way.\n- 🪜 **Stairs**: the **Rampe del Poggi** from Piazza Poggi, designed by Giuseppe Poggi in the late 19th century, climbing past fountains and an artificial grotto.\n- 🗺️ **Map**: [Open in Google Maps](https://www.google.com/maps/search/?api=1&query=Piazzale%20Michelangelo)\n\n📍 **Pompeii Archaeological Park** · Porta Marina entrance, Pompei (near Naples)\n\n- 🚆 **Getting there**: **Pompei Scavi – Villa dei Misteri** station on the Circumvesuviana line, closest to the Porta Marina entrance.\n- ⏰ **Hours**: 9:00–19:00 (last entry 17:30); in winter 9:00–17:00 (last entry 15:30). Sources disagree on the season dates, so check the official site. Closed January 1 and December 25.\n- 🎟️ **Tickets**: €20–22 depending on the source; confirm on the official site before you go.\n- 🏛️ **For the originals**: the House of the Faun's bronze and the Alexander Mosaic are in the National Archaeological Museum of Naples.\n- 🗺️ **Map**: [Open in Google Maps](https://www.google.com/maps/search/?api=1&query=Pompeii%20Archaeological%20Park%20Porta%20Marina)\n\n📍 **Positano** · Province of Salerno, Amalfi Coast\n\n- 🚌 **Getting there**: no train station in the village. Take the train to Sorrento, then a SITA bus or a ferry.\n- 🚗 **Driving**: parking is scarce, and many guides advise against driving.\n- ⛪ **Santa Maria Assunta**: to get the majolica dome in the shot, step well back from the facade. I couldn't confirm the church's opening hours.\n- 🗺️ **Map**: [Open in Google Maps](https://www.google.com/maps/search/?api=1&query=Positano)\n\n## How to stay a little drier\n\n- 🌅 **Shoot Piazzale Michelangelo twice.** Dusk and full dark look completely different.\n- 👟 **Wear waterproof shoes in Pompeii and Positano.** Pompeii's streets collect puddles everywhere, and Positano's many steps get slick in the rain.\n- 🕔 **You can start Florence late.** I set off at 5 p.m. and reached Piazzale Michelangelo around 8.\n\n\nThis is a record of an April 2023 visit. I rechecked hours, ticket prices and bus routes while writing this against Wikipedia, Florence's official tourism site and local bus notices, but they can change, so check once more before you go.\n \n\n## Jayden's verdict\n\n> Florence under four skies, Pompeii and Positano wet all day. Italy was great even in the rain. I want to go again.\n\n- **Highlight**: Florence at night from Piazzale Michelangelo, the Alexander Mosaic under rainwater in Pompeii, and the lemon-peel dessert in Positano\n- **Would I go back?**: Yes. Italy is the country I want to go back to.\n- **Tip**: in Florence, a 5 p.m. start still gets you from the Duomo to the night view. Wear waterproof shoes for Pompeii and Positano.\n- **Pair it with**: the National Archaeological Museum of Naples, home of Pompeii's original mosaic and bronze\n\nThe next part is Sharm El Sheikh in Egypt, where I flew to get away from Rome's week of rain.\n\n---\n\n**19 Days After Quitting series**\n\n1. [The UK, part 1: via Dubai, back to my Bournemouth homestay](/en/posts/europe-travel-01-bournemouth-homestay-dubai)\n2. [The UK, part 2: a day in London, from Big Ben to a Soho pub](/en/posts/europe-travel-02-london-big-ben-soho)\n3. [France: Nice and Saint-Paul-de-Vence](/en/posts/europe-travel-03-nice-saint-paul-de-vence)\n4. [Italy, part 1: Milan's Duomo and San Siro](/en/posts/europe-travel-04-milan-duomo-san-siro)\n5. [Italy, part 2: Venice, San Giorgio and Burano](/en/posts/europe-travel-05-venice-san-giorgio-burano)\n6. **Italy, part 3: Florence, Pompeii and Positano** (you are here)\n7. [Egypt: Escaping the rain to Sharm El Sheikh](/en/posts/europe-travel-07-sharm-el-sheikh-egypt)\n8. [Rome again: Italian food and the way home](/en/posts/europe-travel-08-rome-italian-food-going-home)","readingTime":16,"series":{"id":"europe-2023-uk-italy-egypt","title":"19 Days After Quitting: The UK, France, Italy and Egypt","part":6,"total":8},"country":"it","growthStage":"evergreen","version":"1.0","updateCount":0},{"slug":"europe-travel-07-sharm-el-sheikh-egypt","title":"Sharm El Sheikh Travel 07: Escaping Rome's Rain to the Red Sea, With Zero Research","description":"A week of rain forecast in Rome. One search for a country with no rain, a flight to Sharm El Sheikh. A surprise visa fee, an ATM wad, the Red Sea, the desert.","topic":"travel","tags":["Sharm El Sheikh","Egypt Travel","Red Sea","Egypt Visa on Arrival","Europe Travel"],"publishedAt":"2026-10-08T20:00:00+09:00","updatedAt":"2026-11-03T20:00:00+09:00","coverImage":"/images/posts/europe-travel-07-sharm-el-sheikh-egypt/cover.jpg","coverAlt":"Straw parasols and sun loungers on a Sharm El Sheikh beach, a wooden pier running into the Red Sea, boats moored","seoTitle":"Sharm El Sheikh Trip | Visa on Arrival, Parrotel Beach Resort, Red Sea Parasailing, Sinai Quad Biking","seoDescription":"Rome to Sharm El Sheikh on Wizz Air, the airport visa fee, an ATM mistake, Parrotel Beach Resort, Shark's Bay parasailing and a sunrise Sinai quad bike tour.","translationGroupId":"europe-travel-07-sharm-el-sheikh-egypt","status":"published","locale":"en","content":"\nPompeii and Positano had already soaked me through in the [last post](/en/posts/europe-travel-06-florence-pompeii-positano). Back in Rome, the forecast was **heavy rain, all week.**\n\nSo I typed **countries with no rain** into the search bar. Not sights, not restaurants. Just somewhere it wasn't raining. What I picked was **Sharm El Sheikh**, on Egypt's Red Sea coast. And I really did get on the plane without looking anything up.\n\n\n**In three lines**: Escaping Rome's rain, I **picked Sharm El Sheikh off a single search.** Only at the airport did I learn there was a visa fee, and not knowing the currency, I pulled **a thick wad of cash** out of an ATM. A Red Sea resort, parasailing, a sunrise desert tour. It's a European honeymoon spot, and **it was genuinely great.**\n \n\n## The route in this post\n\n| Date | Where | In a line |\n| --- | --- | --- |\n| Apr 16, night | Rome | A week of rain, a search for \"no rain,\" a last Italian dinner |\n| Apr 17, before dawn | Rome airport → Sharm El Sheikh International Airport | Wizz Air at 04:45, a surprise visa fee, an ATM wad |\n| Apr 17, day to night | Parrotel Beach Resort → Shark's Bay | The pool, parasailing, a Red Sea sunset, the buffet |\n| Apr 18, dawn | Sinai desert → resort | Quad bikes, a Bedouin tent, a camel |\n\n---\n\n## A last dinner in Rome, and a 4:45 a.m. flight\n\n\n The last dinner in Rome: pasta in the pan, a steak, fried things. \n \n\nI was leaving to escape the rain, but I still had a proper dinner in Italy. At a Roman restaurant whose sign read LA LVPA, I ordered thick pasta served in the pan, a steak topped with rocket and a basket of fried things.\n\n\n The last bite of Italy, at the airport: a croissant and a Baladin. \n \n\nThe last bite of Italy was at the airport: a croissant with green cream squeezing out of the end, and a bottle of Baladin beer. The table card says \"Are you still thirsty?\" It was 2:45 in the morning.\n\n\n Wizz Air to Sharm El Sheikh, departing 04:45. \n \n\nThe gate screen: Wizz Air, Sharm El Sheikh, departing 4:45. At that point, everything I knew about Sharm El Sheikh was on that screen.\n\n\n Out of the plane window, everything is the color of sand. \n \n\nWhen it got light outside the window, everything below was the color of sand. A lake sat dark among patterns like contour lines. Nothing like the European green of the past few days.\n\n## What I learned at the airport: there's a visa fee\n\nI hadn't looked anything up, so the airport taught me a lot. First, the visa. **You pay for an Egyptian visa at the airport.** I didn't even know that.\n\n\n A sheet of paper on a pillar: \"Visa here just 25$\". \n \n\nAfter landing, you follow the Visa & Banks signs. The banks and the visa counter are in the same direction. On the pillar by the sign was a single sheet of paper: **\"Visa here just 25$.\"** The visa sticker I got in April 2023 also said \"ENTRY VISA FEE EGYPT\" and 25 dollars, and I picked up a pink arrival card along with it. That photo has too much personal information on it, so it stays out.\n\n\n A long line in the arrivals hall. No visa yet? Read the signs first. \n \n\nThe hall already had a long line of people standing with their suitcases. A blue sign splits the way: Passport control to the left, Banks and Visa Stamp to the right. If you don't have a visa yet, read the signs before joining a queue.\n\n## A wad of cash from the ATM\n\nSecond, the ATM. I stood in front of the machine with no feel at all for what Egyptian money was worth and pressed one of the amounts on the screen. **It was not the amount I thought it was.** What came out was a stack of cash too thick for my wallet.\n\nSadly, no photo of that wad survives. About a year and a half later, in Indonesia, I'd skip the exchange-rate math again and make a mosque guide laugh.\n\n\n 9:51, outside the airport. Bright welcome sculptures and blue sky. \n \n\nThe sign photo is from 8:44 and the first photo outside is from 9:51. I spent a little over an hour inside the airport. Not an exact wait time, but useful when planning. Out the door: colorful welcome sculptures and blue sky. Exactly what I'd searched for, a country with no rain.\n\n---\n\n## Parrotel Beach Resort: a pool ringed with man-made rocks\n\n\n Parrotel Beach Resort, in the Nabq area not far from the airport. \n \n\nI stayed at **Parrotel Beach Resort**. It's in the Nabq area, facing Tiran Island, not far from the airport. A red welcome drink was set down on the marble at reception, and that became my first food photo in Egypt.\n\n\n The pool at midday. The rocks and the hill are man-made. \n \n\nAt midday the pool is lined with straw parasols, and a wooden bridge arches over the water channel. The boulders around the pool and the hill behind the cactus garden are sculptures, ripple patterns and all. The real desert is right next door, and the resort built its own rocky hill anyway.\n\n## Afternoon: up over the Red Sea at Shark's Bay\n\nThat afternoon I headed out to sea.\n\n\n 3:05 p.m., the entrance to Shark's Bay Oasis. \n \n\nThe starting point was **Shark's Bay Oasis**. April 17, 3:05 p.m.: a big animal face juts out of the fortress-like entrance building.\n\n\n Parasols, loungers, pier and boats in one frame. \n \n\nDown on the beach it's all in one place: straw parasols and loungers, a wooden pier stretching into the sea, a banana boat. No need to go looking for where the boats leave from. The water off the pier is so clear you can see the pattern of the seabed.\n\n\n The metal frame at the back of the deck, and the yellow canopy. \n \n\n**Parasailing** launches from the metal frame at the back of the deck. Up close, the canopy is bigger than I expected.\n\n\n Let out the line and the canopy shrinks fast against the town and mountains. \n \n\nWhen the line is let out, that big canopy quickly shrinks against the town and the mountains. In the video, two people hang side by side under one canopy as it comes down. If you want the canopy and the riders in one shot, the moments of takeoff and landing are best.\n\n\n On the way back: the beach and the cliff, seen from the water. \n \n\nOn the way back I saw the beach from the water. The whole cliff and the buildings on top, which you can't see from land, come into view along with the line of parasols. This beach is worth a second look from the sea.\n\n## A Red Sea evening and the buffet\n\n\n One pink cloud over the horizon. \n \n\nAround sunset I walked out to the sea in front of the resort. The water was calm, and only one pink cloud was left above the horizon. On the way back, gazebo roofs and palm trees had turned into silhouettes, and lights were on along the steps between the rocks.\n\n\n A burger, chicken, rice, tomato and fries on one plate. \n \n\nDinner was a buffet. A burger, chicken, rice and tomato, thick fries, all on one plate, with what looks like a beer beside it. The next plate was strawberries, oranges, melon, guava and chocolate cake, and the drink glasses went up to three. The bread station took up an entire wall.\n\n---\n\n## April 18, 5:22 a.m.: the Sinai desert\n\nThe next day's first photo is from 5:22 a.m., in the Sinai desert. The afternoon before, I'd been on a boat on the Red Sea.\n\n\n 5:22 a.m. Quad bikes lined up toward the sunrise. \n \n\nThe quad bikes were lined up facing the rising sun. Most were red, with dried mud caked on every wheel.\n\n\n Face wrapped in a scarf, on the quad bike. \n \n\nI wrapped my face in a scarf and climbed on. In the desert, a piece of cloth to cover your face really comes in handy.\n\n\n Forced perspective: holding up the big rock in front. \n \n\nI also took the forced-perspective shot you take in a desert: arms up, pretending to lift the big rock in front of the lens. I used the same rock again from the camel.\n\n## A Bedouin tent and a camel\n\n\n A Bedouin-style tent shelter below the rocks, a saddled camel waiting. \n \n\nWhere we parked the quads was a Bedouin-style tent shelter at the foot of a rocky mountain. Low seats with striped cushions and spots for shisha ring the space, and in the middle stands a camel with its saddle on. It was the hour when only the top of the mountain catches the sun and turns red.\n\n\n A striped saddle, and a blue Pepsi crate beside the camel. \n \n\nThe saddle is several layers of striped blankets that look woven from scraps of cloth. Next to the kneeling camel sits a blue plastic Pepsi crate that looks like a step for climbing on.\n\n\n Forced perspective again, from the camel. \n \n\nOnce on the camel, I took another forced-perspective shot, this time holding up the rock with one hand.\n\n\n 8:09 a.m. The sea out front, calm enough to see the bottom. \n \n\nThe photo back at the resort is from 7:23. At 8:09 the sea out front was calm enough to see the seabed. By breakfast time, the desert tour was already over. That's the good thing about a dawn tour.\n\n---\n\n## I went knowing nothing, and I'd tell everyone to go\n\nI found out once I was there: Sharm El Sheikh is **where Europeans go for honeymoons and holidays.** Resorts, sea and desert are all within half a day of each other. I picked it with one search just to escape the rain, and **it was genuinely great. I'd recommend everyone go at least once.**\n\nThere's one thing I regret. Sharm El Sheikh has **a bar said to have been the inspiration for Aladdin.** I wanted to go, but walking in alone felt a little awkward, so in the end I didn't. **One day, I want to go.**\n\n---\n\n## Visitor information\n\n📍 **Sharm El Sheikh International Airport** · Sharm El Sheikh, South Sinai, Egypt\n\n- 🛂 **Visa on arrival**: after landing, follow the Visa & Banks signs; the banks and the visa counter are in the same direction. In April 2023 I paid 25 dollars.\n- 💵 **The fee may be different now**: sources I checked while writing this disagree. A December 2025 report quoted Egypt's tourism ministry saying it stayed at 25 dollars; a March 2026 report said it rose to 30 dollars from the first of that month. A September 2026 report says it goes up to 33 dollars from January 2027, after a Cabinet decision in August. There's also information about a free entry stamp for visitors staying only in Sinai, but I couldn't confirm who it applies to, so check the rules for your own passport.\n- 📝 **Arrival card**: there are boxes for your flight number and departure city, so keep your boarding pass handy.\n- 🗺️ **Map**: [Open in Google Maps](https://www.google.com/maps/search/?api=1&query=Sharm%20El%20Sheikh%20International%20Airport)\n\n📍 **Parrotel Beach Resort** · Nabq Bay, Sharm El Sheikh\n\n- 🏖️ **Location**: in Nabq, facing Tiran Island, not far from the airport.\n- 🗺️ **Map**: [Open in Google Maps](https://www.google.com/maps/search/?api=1&query=Parrotel%20Beach%20Resort%20Sharm%20El%20Sheikh)\n\n📍 **Shark's Bay Oasis** · Sharks Bay, Sharm El Sheikh\n\n- 🪂 **Parasailing**: packages I found while writing this ran roughly 19 to 52 dollars, depending on flight time and whether hotel pickup is included.\n- 🏜️ **Desert tour**: sunrise quad bike tours are booked through online tour sellers or local operators. Some include hotel pickup.\n- 🗺️ **Map**: [Open in Google Maps](https://www.google.com/maps/search/?api=1&query=Sharks%20Bay%20Oasis%20Sharm%20El%20Sheikh)\n\n## How not to do it like me\n\n- 💳 **The visa fee is paid at the airport.** Check the price and how to pay before you leave. I found out on arrival.\n- 💱 **Learn the currency and exchange rate before you board.** Do the math for the first time at the ATM screen and you, too, may walk out holding a wad.\n- 📸 **For parasailing photos**, you need someone on deck to take them.\n- 🧣 **Bring a scarf and a windbreaker for the desert tour.** A piece of cloth to cover your face is genuinely useful.\n- ⚠️ **Check your government's travel advisory for the Sinai region** before you go.\n\n\nThis is a record of an April 2023 visit. I looked up the visa fee and tour prices again while writing this, but sources disagreed. Confirm operators, prices, pickup and entry requirements with official information once more before you book and travel.\n \n\n## Jayden's verdict\n\n> I searched for a country with no rain, and it was genuinely great. I'd recommend it to everyone. The Aladdin bar, one day.\n\n- **Highlight**: parasailing at Shark's Bay, and quad bikes and a camel in the Sinai desert at sunrise\n- **Would I go back?**: Yes. I want to go to the Aladdin bar I skipped because I was alone.\n- **Tip**: check the visa fee and the currency before you fly. A dawn desert tour is over by about breakfast time.\n\n---\n\nThe next post is the last one. Back to Rome, where I sum up, through food, why Italy is my \"best country\" of this trip, and then head home.\n\n**19 Days After Quitting series**\n\n1. [The UK, part 1: via Dubai, back to my Bournemouth homestay](/en/posts/europe-travel-01-bournemouth-homestay-dubai)\n2. [The UK, part 2: a day in London, from Big Ben to a Soho pub](/en/posts/europe-travel-02-london-big-ben-soho)\n3. [France: Nice and Saint-Paul-de-Vence](/en/posts/europe-travel-03-nice-saint-paul-de-vence)\n4. [Italy, part 1: Milan's Duomo and San Siro](/en/posts/europe-travel-04-milan-duomo-san-siro)\n5. [Italy, part 2: Venice, San Giorgio and Burano](/en/posts/europe-travel-05-venice-san-giorgio-burano)\n6. [Italy, part 3: Florence, Pompeii and Positano](/en/posts/europe-travel-06-florence-pompeii-positano)\n7. **Egypt: escaping the rain to Sharm El Sheikh** (you are here)\n8. [Rome again: Italian food and the way home](/en/posts/europe-travel-08-rome-italian-food-going-home)","readingTime":15,"series":{"id":"europe-2023-uk-italy-egypt","title":"19 Days After Quitting: The UK, France, Italy and Egypt","part":7,"total":8},"country":"eg","growthStage":"evergreen","version":"1.1","updateCount":1},{"slug":"europe-travel-08-rome-italian-food-going-home","title":"Rome Travel 08: Rome Again, Everything I Ate in Italy, and Home via Taipei","description":"The final part of my 19 days after quitting: a rainy last night in Rome after Egypt, every Italian dish from Milan to the airport, and wonton noodles in Taipei.","topic":"travel","tags":["Italy Travel","Rome","Italian Food","Taipei Layover","Solo Travel"],"publishedAt":"2026-10-10T20:00:00+09:00","updatedAt":"2026-11-03T20:00:00+09:00","coverImage":"/images/posts/europe-travel-08-rome-italian-food-going-home/cover.jpg","coverAlt":"The arches of the Colosseum in Rome seen through a vehicle window, blue sky and a cypress beside it","seoTitle":"Italy Travel: Last Night in Rome and an Italian Food Round-Up | Termini, Spanish Steps and a Taipei Layover","seoDescription":"Back in Rome from Egypt: a night near the Spanish Steps, everything I ate in Italy, airport burrata pizza and wonton noodles on a Taipei layover. April 2023.","translationGroupId":"europe-travel-08-rome-italian-food-going-home","status":"published","locale":"en","content":"\nAfter the hard blue skies of Sharm El Sheikh, Rome was still grey. Raindrops beaded on the window.\n\nIn [part 7](/en/posts/europe-travel-07-sharm-el-sheikh-egypt) I escaped Rome's rain to Sharm El Sheikh in Egypt. This is the last part.\n\nThis last part holds three things: my final night in Rome, a round-up of everything I ate in Italy, and the trip home via Taipei. At the very end, a few moments from the 19 days that stayed with me.\n\n\n**In three lines**: Back from Egypt, I spent **my last night in Rome** around Termini and the Spanish Steps. From canal-side beer snacks in Milan to **burrata pizza** at Rome's airport, every Italian city had its own colour on the plate. The last bowl was **wonton noodles in Taipei**. **Italy was the best, and I want to go back.**\n \n\n## The route in this post\n\n| Date | Where | In a line |\n| --- | --- | --- |\n| Apr 18, evening | Egypt → Roma Termini → near the Spanish Steps | Rain on the window, the Column of the Immaculate Conception, LE RÊVE DE NAIM |\n| Apr 19, morning | Termini → past the Colosseum → Rome airport | T.A.M. bus, burrata pizza, China Airlines CI 76 |\n| Apr 20 | Taipei → Taoyuan Airport → Incheon | Wonton noodles at 三味香, a sea of scooters, home |\n| (Round-up) | Milan · Venice · Florence · the south · Rome | Everything I ate in Italy |\n\n---\n\n## Back in Rome, starting with raindrops\n\n\n Heading back into Rome from Egypt. Raindrops on the window. \n \n\nOn the afternoon of April 18, back from Egypt, I was heading into Rome again. Raindrops beaded on the window and the overhead wires rolled past. The day before, I'd been under the Red Sea's blue sky.\n\n\n 6:04 p.m., Roma Termini. \n \n\nI reached the platform at Termini at 6:04 p.m. I'd been staying in Rome before the Egypt detour, so this was my second time arriving. The station name was a welcome sight.\n\n\n Wet stone under the street lamps. \n \n\nBy dusk the rain near Termini had stopped and only the sky was still blue. As the street lamps came on, the wet stone floor under a long run of arches caught the yellow light. Rome after rain was even prettier.\n\n## Near the Spanish Steps, a last Roman night\n\n\n The Column of the Immaculate Conception. At night, even the statues at the base stand out. \n \n\nMy last Roman night of the trip was spent near the Spanish Steps. Under its floodlights, the **Column of the Immaculate Conception** glowed white right down to the statues at its base, every detail clear.\n\n\n LE RÊVE DE NAIM: two rows of bottles under wooden beams. \n \n\nI ended the day nearby at **LE RÊVE DE NAIM**, a bar with bare wooden beams overhead and two long rows of bottles.\n\n\n Breads with white, black and purple spreads. \n \n\nA stone board came out with breads in three alternating spreads: white, black and purple. I have no record of what was on them.\n\n\n 7:21 the next morning, a T.A.M. bus. \n \n\nAt 7:21 the next morning, near Termini, I took a photo of a T.A.M. bus. It was the day I left Rome.\n\n\n The Colosseum through a window, and a blue sky. \n \n\nThen the Colosseum went past the window of the car. The rain had stopped, and the morning sky was blue.\n\n---\n\n## Everything I ate in Italy\n\nBefore leaving Rome, I wanted to gather everything I ate in Italy in one place. Here is everything from April 9 to 19, in city order. **Milan was beer snacks by the canal, Venice was squid ink and seafood, Florence was café desserts and meat, the south was lemons.** Each city had its own colour on the plate.\n\n### Milan: a first evening by the canal\n\n\n An evening on the Naviglio: six wedges of flatbread in front of an Amarcord beer. \n \n\nThe first city, Milan, starts with an evening table on the Naviglio canal: six wedges of grilled flatbread arranged in a circle in front of a bottle of Amarcord beer, charred in spots and topped with shellfish, mayonnaise and a dusting of red powder.\n\n### Venice: pizza by the slice, squid ink, cannoli\n\n\n Pizza from FARINI, made for eating on the move. \n \n\nVenice begins on the afternoon of April 10 with paper printed with the FARINI logo: a crust charred black at the edges, cheese browned on top, dark leafy greens and cherry tomatoes. A slice made for eating as you walk.\n\n\n Squid ink pasta on a white plate. \n \n\nThe blackest thing in my Venice food photos is squid ink pasta: thick noodles speckled with ink, pieces of squid stained by the sauce underneath. Served on a wide white plate, the black stands out even more. On top, parsley and a few pink sprouts.\n\n\n A handwritten CANNOLI sign: FRAGOLA, CIOCCOLATO. \n \n\nBack in Venice that evening, I stopped in front of a handwritten CANNOLI sign. As promised by FRAGOLA and CIOCCOLATO, the cannoli were bursting with pink and chocolate cream and studded with chocolate chips, with cream-filled pastry tubes stacked beside them.\n\n\n A scallop and an orange drink at Rosticceria GISLON. \n \n\nOn the morning I left Venice, **Rosticceria GISLON** served a scallop in its shell: golden seared meat sitting in a green sauce still pocked with bubbles, the orange part left intact. Beside it, a glass of an orange drink.\n\n\n Seafood pasta on the day I left. \n \n\nThe leaving-day seafood pasta is the most loaded plate of my two Venice days: a big prawn perched on top of the spaghetti, squid rings and mussels poking out from the noodles, and a single dark green leaf to finish.\n\n### Milan again: the asterisk on the menu\n\n\n GRIGLIATA DI PESCE, €48 for two. There was an asterisk next to the name. \n \n\nBack in Milan, I ordered the **GRIGLIATA DI PESCE** from a menu near the Duomo: €48.00 for two (on that menu at the time), listing swordfish, salmon, scampi and squid. The thing to notice is the **asterisk** next to the name. The edge of the menu also carried a \"frozen product\" note, so I read it as meaning frozen ingredients. If you're eating at a restaurant right on a main square, that asterisk is worth looking for.\n\n### Florence, the south, and Rome the night before Egypt\n\nIn Florence there was Caffè Gilli's yellow drink and cocoa cream dessert, and DALL'OSTE's steak, dark outside and pink inside. In Pompeii, tomato spaghetti and fried squid and prawns outside the ruins. In Positano, a dessert served in a real lemon. Those plates, with photos, are all in [part 6](/en/posts/europe-travel-06-florence-pompeii-positano).\n\n\n Dinner in Rome before leaving for Egypt: pasta, steak, fried bites. \n \n\nDinner in Rome before flying to Egypt: thick pasta served in the pan, a steak with rocket, and a basket of fried bites. Night flight or not, I had a proper dinner.\n\n### The last slice: burrata at the airport\n\n\n April 19, Rome airport. My last slice in Italy. \n \n\nOn April 19, at Rome's airport on my way out of Italy, my last pick was **pizza topped with two pieces of burrata**, with halved cherry tomatoes crowded over the sauce. Cheese to the very end.\n\nI travelled through several countries, but **for food, and above all cheese, nowhere came close to Italy.**\n\n---\n\n## Going home: Rome to Taipei\n\n\n China Airlines CI 76 to Taipei, 11:30. \n \n\nThe gate screen read **China Airlines CI 76 to Taipei, departing 11:30.** The way home went through Taiwan.\n\n\n The coast off Rome just after take-off. \n \n\nRight after take-off, the coastline off Rome stretched out under the wing. It was my last look at the Mediterranean I had first seen in Nice.\n\n## The bowl that closed the trip: wonton noodles\n\n\n Wonton noodles at 三味香 in Taipei: clear broth, thin noodles, bok choy and spring onion. \n \n\nOn the morning of April 20 I stopped at **三味香**, a small noodle shop in central Taipei. The walls were plastered with photos of customers, newspaper clippings and a poster for a new chilli-oil dan dan noodle. I had wonton noodles in clear broth with thin noodles, bok choy and spring onion, plus a dumpling on the side.\n\n\n Skins thin enough to see the prawn through. One of the very last photos of the trip. \n \n\nOn the spoon, the wonton skins were so thin you could see the prawn inside. After more than two weeks of bread and pasta in Europe, the clear broth was welcome. The last bowl of the trip was neither Italian nor Egyptian, but wonton noodles.\n\n\n Outside the shop, a wet intersection full of scooters. \n \n\nOutside, dozens of scooters were waiting at a rain-slicked intersection. My photos put me back at Taoyuan Airport that afternoon and in Incheon by evening.\n\n---\n\n## Closing the 19 days\n\nTo end, here are the moments from the 19 days that stayed with me.\n\n**The first souvenir was a KitKat wrapper.** The KitKat I got on the plane said **\"#mybreak\"**. I got it on my way out, right after quitting my job.\n\n**The view just before landing in Dubai.** Straight orange roads cutting through a black city: the first foreign lights I looked down on this trip. It was also my first time flying Emirates, and I liked it a lot.\n\n**Max in Bournemouth.** I went back to the house where I'd done a homestay in 2019, four years later, and when I count the photos from that house, Max the dog wins by a mile. The English I use today started in that house, which is why Bournemouth is **a second hometown for my heart**, and I still keep in touch with my host family.\n\n**A huge grin in front of Big Ben**, at 4:17 p.m. I love the UK, and in front of Big Ben I grinned like this.\n\n**Peixes in Nice, three times.** All three evenings in Nice ended at the same restaurant. A plate scattered with pomegranate seeds and finely chopped vegetables on a fish-painted dish stands in for all three. On the first day I went back to the same pebble beach three times, and the Promenade du Paillon's mirror pool I passed in between reflected the sky. **Nice had the best weather of the trip**, and someday I want to go back just to swim in that sea.\n\n**Four people sitting on the water's edge in Venice.** The first thing I photographed in Venice wasn't a gondola but four people sitting side by side by the water. Over the next two days I spent a lot of time sitting the same way, looking out at the Grand Canal.\n\n**A Guinness on Piazzale Michelangelo.** A bottle of Irish beer, looking down on Florence after sunset.\n\n**The visa sign at Sharm El Sheikh airport.** A sheet taped to a pillar listed the visa fee: 25 dollars. I'd flown there to escape the rain with zero preparation and didn't even know I'd have to pay a visa fee on arrival.\n\n**A yellow parachute over the Red Sea.** The last one is parasailing. I don't have a single shot from the sky, only shots of the yellow canopy taken from the boat below.\n\n## So, which place was the best?\n\nItaly. No contest.\n\nThe Milan canals, the Venetian waterside, Florence under four skies, rain-soaked Pompeii and Positano, and Rome, twice. Even with all that rain, it was wonderful. Above all, **no other country came anywhere near it for food and cheese.** I definitely want to go back to Italy.\n\nNineteen days, with a plane ticket bought on the day, right after quitting, now written up in eight parts. The \"#mybreak\" on that KitKat wrapper turned out to be exactly right.\n\n---\n\n## Visiting info\n\n📍 **Column of the Immaculate Conception** · Piazza Mignanelli, Rome (by the Spanish Steps)\n\n- 🌙 **Best time**: after the night lighting comes on, when even the statues at the base glow white.\n- 🍸 **LE RÊVE DE NAIM**: a bar nearby. [Google Maps](https://www.google.com/maps/search/?api=1&query=Le%20R%C3%AAve%20de%20Naim%20Roma)\n- 🗺️ **Map**: [Open in Google Maps](https://www.google.com/maps/search/?api=1&query=Column%20of%20the%20Immaculate%20Conception%20Rome)\n\n📍 **Rome Fiumicino Airport, Terminal 1** → **Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport**\n\n- ✈️ **My flight**: China Airlines CI 76, departing 11:30 (as of April 2023)\n- 🍕 **Last meal at the airport**: a slice of burrata pizza\n- 🗺️ **Map**: [Open in Google Maps](https://www.google.com/maps/search/?api=1&query=Fiumicino%20Airport%20Terminal%201)\n\n📍 **三味香麵店** · central Taipei\n\n- 🥟 **What I had**: wonton noodles and a dumpling\n- 🗺️ **Map**: [Open in Google Maps](https://www.google.com/maps/search/?api=1&query=%E4%B8%89%E5%91%B3%E9%A6%99%E9%BA%B5%E5%BA%97%20%E5%8F%B0%E5%8C%97)\n\n## How to get lost a little less\n\n- 🧳 **If you do side trips or a neighbouring country from Rome, keep your last night in Rome.** Even coming back from Egypt, I could head straight to the airport the next morning.\n- ⭐ **At restaurants on the main squares, look for asterisks on the menu.** They can mean frozen ingredients.\n- 🍕 **In Venice, food you carry can be a whole meal.** Pizza by the slice, cannoli.\n- 🛂 **If you leave the airport on a layover,** check entry rules, luggage storage and the airport rail timetable before you fly.\n- 🛵 **Taipei's morning streets are full of scooters.** Even after the light changes, look once more before you cross.\n\n\nThis is a record of an April 2023 trip. Flight numbers, times and menu prices are as they were then and may have changed. Check layover entry requirements again before you travel.\n \n\n## Jayden's verdict\n\n> I fled the rain, came back to a rainy Rome, and ended with wonton noodles. Still, the best country was Italy. I'd go back for the cheese alone.\n\n- **Highlight**: the last night in Rome after the rain, and everything I ate in Italy from Milan to Rome's airport. Nothing comes close for food and cheese.\n- **Would I go back?**: Yes. I'm definitely going back to Italy.\n- **Tip**: if you're making a side trip from Rome, keep your last night in Rome. On a Taipei layover, a bowl of wonton noodles in clear broth is a good way to end a trip.\n\n---\n\n**19 Days After Quitting series**\n\n1. [The UK, part 1: via Dubai, back to my Bournemouth homestay](/en/posts/europe-travel-01-bournemouth-homestay-dubai)\n2. [The UK, part 2: a day in London, from Big Ben to a Soho pub](/en/posts/europe-travel-02-london-big-ben-soho)\n3. [France: Nice and Saint-Paul-de-Vence](/en/posts/europe-travel-03-nice-saint-paul-de-vence)\n4. [Italy, part 1: Milan's Duomo and San Siro](/en/posts/europe-travel-04-milan-duomo-san-siro)\n5. [Italy, part 2: Venice, San Giorgio and Burano](/en/posts/europe-travel-05-venice-san-giorgio-burano)\n6. [Italy, part 3: Florence, Pompeii and Positano](/en/posts/europe-travel-06-florence-pompeii-positano)\n7. [Egypt: Escaping the rain to Sharm El Sheikh](/en/posts/europe-travel-07-sharm-el-sheikh-egypt)\n8. **Rome again: Italian food and the way home** (you are here)\n","readingTime":15,"series":{"id":"europe-2023-uk-italy-egypt","title":"19 Days After Quitting: The UK, France, Italy and Egypt","part":8,"total":8},"country":"it","growthStage":"evergreen","version":"1.1","updateCount":1}]},{"id":"pmp-roadmap","title":"PMP Roadmap","count":15,"total":15,"posts":[{"slug":"pmp-pass-review-part-1","title":"PMP Pass Review Part 1: 7 Weeks of Prep, Study Hall Scores in the 60s, and a PASS","description":"How I passed the PMP on July 3, 2026 after seven weeks: the full timeline, the $499.40 I paid for Study Hall and the exam, and mock scores of 66% and 65%.","topic":"work","tags":["PMP","PMP Pass Review","PMP Study Plan","PMI Study Hall","PMP Cost"],"publishedAt":"2026-07-03T09:00:00+09:00","updatedAt":"2026-10-03T09:00:00+09:00","coverImage":"/images/posts/pmp-pass-2026/pmp-pass-result-cover.webp","coverAlt":"PMP exam result sheet showing a PASS, received at a Pearson VUE test center on July 3, 2026","seoTitle":"PMP Pass Review: 7-Week Plan, Real Costs, Study Hall Scores","seoDescription":"I passed the PMP using only Study Hall Essentials, with mock scores of 66% and 65%. Real receipts, member pricing, my full timeline and the 2026 exam changes.","translationGroupId":"pmp-pass-review-part-1","status":"published","locale":"en","content":"\nHello! **On Friday, July 3, 2026, I took the PMP exam and passed.**\n\nWhile I was preparing, I read pass stories from Korean PMP communities and [Reddit r/PMP](https://www.reddit.com/r/pmp/) almost every day. Did people with Study Hall scores like mine pass? How hard was the real exam? What should I bring on the day? Those posts helped me more than I can say.\n\nAfter months of reading other people's stories, writing my own feels a little strange, and very good. Three months after the exam, I went back through my inbox, pulled out every receipt and email, and rebuilt this post from scratch. If you're worried about your scores or not sure where to start, I hope it works as a small map.\n\n**In three lines** — I prepared for about seven weeks and passed on July 3, 2026, 32 days after submitting my application. All I paid was $53.90 for Study Hall and $445.50 for the exam (PMI membership not included), and Study Hall Essentials was the only question bank I needed. My mock exams came in at 66% and 65%, with an overall average of about 62%, and I still passed.\n\n\n**This review is based on the old exam.** I sat the pre-change exam on July 3: 180 questions (175 scored + 5 pretest) in 230 minutes. The new PMP exam, live since July 9, 2026, looks like this:\n\n- 180 questions = 170 scored + 10 unscored, 240 minutes\n- A case-study section comes first: one longer scenario followed by a series of questions\n- Domain weights: People 33%, Process 41%, Business Environment 26% (previously 42%, 50% and 8%)\n\nThose are big shifts, so check the current format in [Part 5: Everything that changed in the 2026 PMP exam](/en/posts/pmp-2026-exam-changes-pmbok-8). I cover case-study prep separately in [Part 9](/en/posts/pmp-case-study-questions).\n \n\n## My PMP journey at a glance\n\nFrom the day I applied to my first PDU, here are the dates straight from my inbox.\n\n\n\n*Order email for Study Hall Essentials, June 1, 2026: $49 plus $4.90 tax, $53.90 in total. Order number hidden.*\n\n\n\n*Order email for the PMP exam fee, June 12, 2026: member price $405 plus $40.50 tax, $445.50 in total. Order number hidden.*\n\n### Membership is extra, and it pays for itself\n\nThat table leaves out PMI membership. I joined on June 1. Today (October 2026) the list price in PMI's store for Korea is $139. That's the current price, not the amount on my receipt.\n\nThe math still favors joining:\n\n- Exam: $405 for members vs. $655 for non-members in Korea. That's **$250 off** a single attempt, so even after $139 for membership you're $111 ahead.\n- Retake: $275 vs. $375, another $100.\n- Renewal every three years: $60 vs. $150.\n- The PMBOK Guide 8th edition PDF is free for members.\n\nPrices vary by region. In PMI's US store, for example, the exam is $425 for members and $675 for non-members, and membership is $164. I show PMI's price screen and the order I did things in [Part 3](/en/posts/pmp-application-pearson-vue-booking).\n\n## Study Hall Essentials was the only question bank I needed\n\nSooner or later, every PMP candidate wonders how many question banks to buy. My answer: one. I used PMI's own **Study Hall Essentials** on a three-month subscription, and it was enough.\n\nWhen I subscribed, Essentials included two full-length practice exams (Full Mocks), 15 mini exams and 200 extra questions. Taking both Full Mocks under timed conditions and turning every miss into an error-log entry is plenty of work on its own. Because PMI writes the questions, the format is close to the real exam. That said, as I explain in [Part 2](/en/posts/pmp-pass-review-part-2), the real thing felt a lot harder on the day.\n\nI paid for three months on June 1 and sat the exam on July 3, so I used roughly a third of the subscription. The rest simply ran out, and it expired on September 1.\n\n\n\n*The \"Your Online Tools\" page in myPMI. The three-month Study Hall Essentials subscription I bought on June 1 expired on September 1, 2026.*\n\n### If you're buying Study Hall now\n\nPrices and contents have changed a little since then (as of October 2026):\n\n| Plan | Price | What you get |\n|---|---|---|\n| Essentials | $59 per 3 months | 2 full practice exams (180 questions each), 10 mini exams, 330 extra questions |\n| Plus | $79 per 3 months | 3 full practice exams |\n\nMembers and non-members pay the same, and Study Hall is English only. If you need a translation, PMI points you to the Google Translate browser extension. I still think Essentials is enough. Two mocks done properly and reviewed carefully beat a bigger pile of practice exams.\n\n## Scores in the 60s can still pass\n\nMy Study Hall scores: 66% on Full Mock 1, 65% on Full Mock 2, and an overall average of about 62%. The result: PASS.\n\nHonestly, those numbers didn't reassure me at all while I was studying. The more high-score pass stories I read, the louder the question got: \"Should I really sit the exam with these scores?\" So if you're in the same spot, let me say this first. **You can pass with scores in the 60s.** I did.\n\n\n\n*The result sheet I received at the Pearson VUE center right after the exam. Overall: PASS. By domain: People Below Target, Process Target, Business Environment Above Target.*\n\nPeople came back Below Target, and I still passed overall. That's just my result, though. It doesn't mean you can work out PMI's passing line from the domain ratings.\n\n### Three things that mattered more than the score\n\nLooking back, what mattered most wasn't the number. It was **figuring out which habits of thinking kept making me pick the wrong answer**. These three questions told me more about my readiness than any score did:\n\n- Am I missing fewer questions for the same reason?\n- Can I explain my reasoning without memorizing answers?\n- Can I stay focused for the full length of the exam?\n\nOf course, my scores aren't a passing standard for anyone else. The link between Study Hall scores and real results differs from person to person. Still, a number in the low-to-mid 60s is no reason to write off all your preparation.\n\nA wrong answer isn't a verdict that you're not ready. It's **a question you now get one more chance to answer correctly before the real exam**.\n\n## How I studied in seven weeks\n\nMy preparation fell into four stages. First, a quick word on what kind of exam the PMP is and why I chose to sit the old version.\n\n### What kind of exam is the PMP?\n\nThe PMP (Project Management Professional) is a project management certification run by PMI (Project Management Institute). It isn't tied to one industry or one methodology. It tests whether you can handle **people, processes and business priorities** while leading a project.\n\nIt's not a test of how much of the PMBOK Guide you've memorized. Most questions describe a situation that could easily happen on a real project and ask what the project manager should do **first** or **next**. So learning the order in which to look at a problem, and the attitude PMI expects from a PM, mattered far more than memorizing terms.\n\nTo apply, you need a set amount of project experience depending on your education (36 months with a bachelor's degree) plus 35 hours of project management training. I cover eligibility and how to write up your experience in [Part 4](/en/posts/pmp-experience-application-audit), and how the PMP compares with CAPM and PMI-ACP in [Part 10: PMP vs CAPM vs PMI-ACP](/en/posts/pmp-vs-capm-vs-pmi-acp).\n\n### Why I sat the old exam after seven weeks\n\nI started out planning to take the new exam, so I took my time, and I studied with the PMBOK Guide 8th edition.\n\nThen I finished my online course faster than expected, and there were still dates available before the switch. The core principles I'd learned carried over to the old exam just fine, so instead of stretching out my prep, I decided to focus and sit the exam that was live at the time.\n\nThe key wasn't that I'd read the newest book. It was that **I checked my study against the Exam Content Outline (ECO) and question types of the exam I was actually going to take**. Don't decide based on which edition your textbook is. Check the official outline that applies on your exam date first. I also compare the 7th and 8th editions of the PMBOK Guide in [Part 5](/en/posts/pmp-2026-exam-changes-pmbok-8).\n\n### Stage 1: Get the big picture from an online course\n\nI didn't try to memorize every detail of the PMBOK Guide at the start. Through an online course, I got the big picture first: how predictive, agile and hybrid approaches differ, and what role the PM plays in each situation.\n\nOn weekdays, I listened to at least a little after work. On days with energy to spare, I binged several lessons; on tiring days, I finished just one short section. Weekends were for reviewing the week's lessons or doing questions.\n\nI've never been someone who can sit and study for hours after work. So instead of hitting a perfect daily target, I focused on **having fewer days where I did nothing at all**.\n\nAn online course was enough for me. At first I wondered whether I needed an expensive in-person class, but building the framework online and then working through Study Hall questions and analyzing my mistakes suited me well. Finishing a course didn't teach me to pick the right option under exam conditions. I got better in the hours I spent **answering questions, getting them wrong, and rethinking how I'd decided**.\n\nOne heads-up for anyone applying soon: from December 1, 2026, the rules for the 35 training hours change. Live classes will only count if they come from a PMI Authorized Training Partner (ATP) or an accredited higher-education program, while self-paced online courses from any provider still count. Books or practice exams alone never count.\n\n### Stage 2: Learn PMI's way of judging with Study Hall\n\nAfter the basic course, Study Hall was what I used most. Each question showed me right away whether I didn't know a concept, had misread the question, or was escalating too quickly.\n\nAt first I only counted correct answers. A low score meant I hadn't studied enough, and reading high-score reviews only made me more anxious. But the more questions I did, the clearer it became that the same score could hide very different information:\n\n- Questions I missed because I didn't know the concept\n- Questions where I missed the point of `FIRST`, `NEXT` or `BEST`\n- Questions where I assumed things the question never said\n- Questions where I went straight to the sponsor or senior management\n- Questions where I tried to replace someone before talking to the team\n- Questions where I acted on a change before analyzing its impact\n\nOnce I sorted my mistakes like this, my score stopped being a report card and became a guide to what to study next.\n\n### Stage 3: Survive four hours with a Full Mock\n\nMy Full Mock scores were 66% and 65%, as above. But I didn't treat the Full Mocks only as a way to predict whether I'd pass. I used them to check whether I could stay focused for that long, where my pace dropped, and whether I could get back into the questions after a break.\n\nThe PMP tests stamina and time management as much as knowledge. If you only ever do short question sets, the exam is the first time you'll feel that kind of fatigue. Before the real thing, time yourself and take a Full Mock from start to finish at least once. I describe spending 80 minutes on the first 60 questions in [Part 2](/en/posts/pmp-pass-review-part-2).\n\n### Stage 4: Error log over new questions\n\nAs the exam got closer, I stopped adding many new questions. Instead, I went back over the ones I'd missed and tried to answer two questions:\n\n> \"Why did I choose this option?\"\n\n> \"Why is this answer better than the others from PMI's point of view?\"\n\nWhen I memorized the right answer, I got it wrong again as soon as a similar question used slightly different words. When I could explain my reasoning, I could apply the same principle to questions I'd never seen. This made the biggest difference of anything I did. My error-log format and a free Word template are in [Part 6: PMP error log](/en/posts/pmp-error-log-method).\n\n### GPT and NotebookLM: study partners, not answer keys\n\nI also used ChatGPT and NotebookLM a lot. Rather than letting AI pick answers for me, I used it as a review partner that explained and compared what I thought I understood. In ChatGPT, I set up a separate project called \"PMP 시험공부\" (PMP exam study) to keep my error notes and concept questions in one place.\n\n- Comparing two confusing concepts in a table\n- Explaining the reasoning behind my answer and having it question my hidden assumptions\n- Sorting my mistakes into concept gaps, misreading and Mindset errors\n- Having complex concepts re-explained with real project examples\n- Turning my notes into short review questions\n\nInstead of asking for the right answer, I asked things like this:\n\n```text\nI decided the PM should report to the sponsor immediately in this situation.\nFind the assumptions hidden in my reasoning,\nand ask me what I should check first from PMI's point of view.\nDon't give me the answer; help me decide again on my own.\n```\n\nIn NotebookLM, I collected my error notes and review material and used it to find themes that kept coming up. My notebook grew to 155 sources and hit the source limit. The Korean audio overviews (Deep Dives) it generated ran about 12 to 24 minutes each, a good length for one episode per commute. NotebookLM has since been renamed Gemini Notebook (July 2026).\n\nWhat I mostly used it for:\n\n- Summarizing only the mindset points I kept missing\n- Reviewing agile and predictive situations separately\n- Comparing confusing topics, like change management vs. conflict management\n- Making a short checklist to review right before the exam\n\nWhen sources pile up, it gets harder to tell what the AI based its answer on. So I kept official material with clear sources and notes I'd checked myself at the center. My ChatGPT setup and NotebookLM notebook are in [Part 7](/en/posts/pmp-gpt-notebooklm-study), and commute study plus a vocabulary list in [Part 8](/en/posts/pmp-commute-study-vocabulary).\n\n\nI don't recommend pasting Study Hall questions into an AI tool and checking only the answer it picks. PMP questions turn on subtle differences between options and on context, and AI explanations can be wrong. Always verify against official material and the explanations provided.\n \n\n## The PMP Mindset that helped on exam day\n\nI didn't treat the PMP Mindset as a formula that always applies. Ethics, legal issues, safety and urgent risks can call for immediate action. But in everyday conflict or change scenarios, this order helped me decide:\n\n1. **Understand the situation and the cause before acting.**\n2. **If the team can solve it, talk to the team first.**\n3. **Don't escalate or hand it to the sponsor right away.**\n4. **Try coaching, collaboration and conflict resolution before replacing anyone.**\n5. **Look for the root cause, not just the symptoms.**\n6. **Handle change requests through the formal process after analyzing the impact.**\n7. **Support the team and remove obstacles rather than controlling them.**\n\nOn the real exam, several options often looked reasonable. In those moments, the answer that \"understands the situation and helps the team solve it\" usually beat the answer that \"takes the strongest action right now.\"\n\n## After the PASS\n\nThe day after the exam, July 4, at 3:33 a.m. Korean time, PMI's email confirming my PMP arrived. I already knew from the result sheet, but this was PMI's first official congratulations.\n\n\n\n*The certification email I received on July 4, 2026. It says the Credly digital badge will arrive separately within one to two weeks.*\n\nThe PMP has to be renewed every three years, which means earning 60 PDUs per cycle. On August 31, I watched the PMI webinar \"Why Some Projects Fail: The Sponsor's Role,\" and my first PDU claim, 1.00 PDU, was approved on September 3. My plan for reaching 60 PDUs is in [Part 11: My 3-year, 60-PDU plan](/en/posts/pmp-60-pdu-renewal-plan).\n\nThe story continues after the exam, too. I write about what actually changed in my day-to-day work in [Part 12](/en/posts/pmp-what-changed-at-work), why I think the PMP is even more powerful for people who aren't PMs in [Part 13](/en/posts/pmp-for-non-project-managers), and whether the PMP is worth it, salary and hiring included, in [Part 14](/en/posts/is-pmp-worth-it-salary-benefits). These days I'm also a member of the PMI Korea Chapter's education committee; that story is in [Part 15](/en/posts/pmi-korea-chapter-education-committee).\n\n## The full series\n\nThe PMP Roadmap covers everything from application to passing and beyond in 15 parts. Feel free to jump to whatever you need.\n\n**My pass story and the application**\n\n1. PMP Pass Review Part 1: 7 Weeks of Prep, Study Hall Scores in the 60s, and a PASS (you're here)\n2. [PMP Pass Review Part 2: Time Management on Exam Day and Final Tips for Passing](/en/posts/pmp-pass-review-part-2)\n3. [From PMP Application to Pearson VUE Booking: Applied June 1, Booked June 13 (Real Emails)](/en/posts/pmp-application-pearson-vue-booking)\n4. [Writing Up Your PMP Experience and Handling an Audit: Applied June 1, Approved June 9](/en/posts/pmp-experience-application-audit)\n\n**Understanding the exam and how to study**\n\n5. [Everything That Changed in the 2026 PMP Exam, Plus PMBOK 7th vs 8th Edition](/en/posts/pmp-2026-exam-changes-pmbok-8)\n6. [PMP Error Log: 6 Steps to Turn Wrong Answers into Judgment Rules (+ Free Word Template)](/en/posts/pmp-error-log-method)\n7. [GPT for Concepts, NotebookLM Audio for the Commute: My PMP AI Study Routine](/en/posts/pmp-gpt-notebooklm-study)\n8. [PMP Study on Your Commute: Short, Frequent Sessions (+ My PMP Vocabulary List)](/en/posts/pmp-commute-study-vocabulary)\n9. [How to Prepare for PMP Case-Study Questions: Reading and Solving the New 2026 Format](/en/posts/pmp-case-study-questions)\n\n**Choosing and keeping the certification**\n\n10. [PMP vs CAPM vs PMI-ACP: Which One Fits You? (2026 Comparison)](/en/posts/pmp-vs-capm-vs-pmi-acp)\n11. [My 3-Year, 60-PDU Plan to Keep the PMP, Starting with My First Approved PDU](/en/posts/pmp-60-pdu-renewal-plan)\n\n**After the PMP**\n\n12. [What Changed at Work After the PMP: Not My Title, but How I Talk](/en/posts/pmp-what-changed-at-work)\n13. [The PMP May Matter Most for Non-PMs: When Developers and Designers Think Like PMs](/en/posts/pmp-for-non-project-managers)\n14. [Is the PMP Worth It? An Honest Look at Work, Salary and Hiring](/en/posts/is-pmp-worth-it-salary-benefits)\n15. [From Reading Other People's PMP Stories to the PMI Korea Chapter's Education Committee](/en/posts/pmi-korea-chapter-education-committee)\n\n## Closing Part 1\n\nOver those seven weeks, what changed most wasn't how much I'd memorized. It was the order in which I looked at a problem. Check the situation before acting, talk before replacing people, analyze the impact before changing anything: little by little, it became a habit.\n\nIn the next post, I go from the moment I walked into the Pearson VUE center to the 80 minutes I spent on the first 60 questions (and the wobble that came with it), the 10-minute breaks, snacks and stretching, and how I managed time in the final section.\n\n**Keep reading:** [PMP Pass Review Part 2: Time Management on Exam Day and Final Tips for Passing](/en/posts/pmp-pass-review-part-2)\n\n\n**The exam I took and today's exam are structured differently.**\n\n- My exam (July 3, 2026, before the change): 180 questions (175 scored + 5 pretest), 230 minutes, with a 10-minute break after question 60 and after question 120\n- Today's exam (since July 9, 2026): 180 questions (170 scored + 10 unscored), 240 minutes. The case-study section comes first; one break follows the case studies, and another comes about halfway through the remaining questions. Once you take a break, you can't go back to earlier questions.\n\nThe time-management story below is from the old format. For everything that changed, see [Part 5: Everything that changed in the 2026 PMP exam](/en/posts/pmp-2026-exam-changes-pmbok-8), and for case studies, [Part 9: How to prepare for PMP case-study questions](/en/posts/pmp-case-study-questions).\n \n\n## Exam day at a glance\n\n| Item | My experience |\n|---|---|\n| Date and time | Friday, July 3, 2026, 10:15 a.m. |\n| Test center | Pearson Professional Center Seoul (6F The Exchange Seoul, 21 Mugyo-ro, Jung-gu) |\n| Exam language | Korean |\n| Appointment length | 270 minutes (the 230-minute exam plus tutorial, agreement and survey) |\n| Exam format at the time | 180 questions (175 scored + 5 pretest), 230 minutes |\n| Sections | Three sections of 60 questions |\n| Breaks | Two 10-minute breaks between sections |\n| Time on the first 60 questions | About 80 minutes |\n| Snacks | Chocolate bars, walnuts, almonds |\n| Result | PASS |\n\nOn paper it sounds simple: three rounds of 60 questions. In reality, reading and judging one scenario question after another for nearly four hours was far more tiring than I expected.\n\n## What the booking confirmation told me\n\nWhen I finished booking in the early hours of June 13, Pearson VUE sent a confirmation email. Mine came in Korean, and it had almost everything I needed for exam day.\n\n\n\n*My Pearson VUE confirmation email, June 13, 2026. Order number, PMI ID and registration ID hidden.*\n\n- Exam: PMP-CBT, Korean (KOR)\n- Date and time: Friday, July 3, 2026, 10:15 a.m. (local time at the center)\n- Appointment length: 270 minutes\n- Location: Pearson Professional Center Seoul, 6F The Exchange Seoul, 21 Mugyo-ro, Jung-gu\n\nThe exam itself was 230 minutes, but the appointment was 270. That's because the slot also covers the tutorial and agreement before the exam and a short survey afterward. Today's exam runs 240 minutes on its own, so check the appointment length in your own email.\n\nI walk through the application, payment and choosing a date and center in Pearson VUE, with the real emails, in [Part 3: From PMP application to Pearson VUE booking](/en/posts/pmp-application-pearson-vue-booking).\n\n## Test-center rules: arrive early, bring the right ID\n\nHere are the rules from my confirmation email and PMI's Certification Handbook. Details can vary by center, so read your own email too.\n\n- **Arrival**: Check in 30 minutes before your appointment. If you're more than 15 minutes late, you may be turned away, and the exam fee isn't refunded.\n- **ID**: Bring an original, valid, government-issued ID with your name, photo and signature. The name must match your booking exactly. My booking listed my name in English, and a passport is the safest choice because it leaves no doubt about the match.\n- **Lockers**: Your belongings go in a locker. About the only things you keep on you are your ID and the locker key.\n- **Calculator**: There's one built into the exam screen.\n- **Translated exams**: In a Korean-language exam, the questions and screens are in Korean, and each question has an exhibit button that shows the English original. The two languages aren't displayed side by side.\n\nI also double-checked that my name in English and my ID details matched the booking. Getting turned away over an ID problem would make all those weeks of study feel wasted.\n\n### Walking in on the day\n\nI'd done Full Mocks and thought I was reasonably ready, but the test center felt completely different.\n\nFrom the ID check to putting away my things to sitting down at the workstation, the nerves kept building. When the first question appeared, I read every sentence longer than usual and kept second-guessing even the easy options.\n\n## The exam itself: 80 minutes on the first 60 questions\n\n### It felt harder than I expected\n\nHonestly, the real exam felt harder than I'd expected. I'd seen plenty of similar questions in Study Hall, but under exam pressure, small differences between options felt huge.\n\nThe same thoughts came back with almost every question:\n\n- Both answers sound right, so which one comes first?\n- Is this an analyze-first situation or an act-first one?\n- Is it time to escalate?\n- Is this agile or predictive?\n- Is the question asking for `FIRST` or `NEXT`?\n\nQuestions where I was torn between two options drained far more energy than questions I simply didn't know. Chasing total certainty on every question made time vanish.\n\n### I spent 80 minutes on the first 60 questions\n\nThe first section of 60 questions took me about 80 minutes. When I came out for the first break, I thought: \"At this pace, won't I run out of time later?\"\n\nThe reasons were simple:\n\n- Nerves made me reread questions.\n- I re-checked answers I was already sure about.\n- I couldn't let go of hard questions.\n- I focused on the question in front of me instead of the overall clock.\n\nDuring the first break, I deliberately didn't think about scores or tough questions. I drank water, ate a bit of chocolate and some nuts, and stretched my neck and shoulders. Stepping fully away from the screen, even briefly, helped.\n\nWhen I went back in, I changed tactics:\n\n> **If you clearly know it, don't reread it. Don't let one hard question steal time from the easy ones later.**\n\nFrom then on, I checked first whether the question asked for `FIRST`, `NEXT` or `BEST`, eliminated the clearly wrong options, and decided. Thanks to that, I had a little time left in the final section.\n\n### The time-management approach that worked for me\n\nIf I took the exam again, I wouldn't split time perfectly evenly across questions. Instead, I'd check my remaining time every 60 questions and cut down the moments where I get stuck.\n\n1. **Check what the question is asking you to do.** Before reading the scenario, look at the last sentence to see whether the PM should act \"first,\" \"next\" or \"how.\" The focus of the question gets clearer.\n2. **Finish clear questions in one go.** Rereading an answer you're sure of, just because you're nervous, adds up. I tried to separate questions that genuinely needed review from ones I doubted only out of nerves.\n3. **Give hard questions a time limit.** If two options kept surviving, I checked the key words and the PMP Mindset once more, then committed. Finishing the whole exam mattered more than perfect certainty on one question.\n4. **Check the clock before each section ends.** Looking at the clock after every question breaks your focus. Checking at regular intervals and before the end of each section worked better for me.\n\n## The 10-minute break goes by fast\n\nIf you test at a Pearson VUE center, keep an eye on the break clock yourself. **Ten minutes disappears much faster than you'd think.**\n\nA restroom trip, a snack, and the ID and security check to get back in add up quickly. I went slightly over 10 minutes on my first break.\n\nCheck the time at the center entrance or wherever staff point you to before you move. You may not be allowed to use your phone, so don't count on it to tell the time. Follow your center's exact procedure.\n\n### What I actually did on my breaks\n\n1. Drank water.\n2. Ate a little chocolate and some nuts.\n3. Stretched my neck, shoulders and back.\n4. Didn't replay earlier questions.\n5. Checked only my remaining time and the plan for the next section.\n\nReplaying questions during a break only feeds anxiety about a section you can't change. Clearing my head and moving my body worked much better for me.\n\n### What I was glad I brought\n\nAssuming you check your center's rules first, these helped me:\n\n- A valid ID that matches your booking\n- A quick snack like a chocolate bar\n- Nuts such as walnuts or almonds\n- Water\n- Comfortable layers you can adjust to the room temperature\n- A note with the center's location and your arrival time\n\nA small top-up of sugar and energy during breaks worked better than eating a lot. Loosening my neck, shoulders and back also helped me refocus for the next section.\n\n## What to do before exam day\n\n### Sit one four-hour mock from start to finish\n\nScoring well on short question sets and making good calls for nearly four hours are completely different experiences. A full mock tells you more than what you know:\n\n- In which section does your focus drop the most?\n- Are you taking too long on the first 60 questions?\n- How long does it take to refocus after a break?\n- How much water and food keeps you comfortable?\n- How do your neck and back feel after sitting that long?\n\nIf you can, make it realistic: phone out of reach, timer on, and only the scheduled breaks. Every surprise you remove before exam day is one less thing to deal with on it.\n\n### From two days out, only the error log\n\nThe most useful thing right before the exam wasn't rereading the book. It was going back over the questions I'd missed and **explaining in my own words why I got them wrong**. From two days before the exam, instead of adding new material, I repeated just two things: my error log and the Mindset.\n\nIn the error log, I looked at the mistakes I kept repeating rather than the right answers:\n\n- I didn't read the question to the end.\n- I didn't distinguish `FIRST` from `NEXT`.\n- I escalated before talking to the team.\n- I picked a solution before finding the cause.\n- I acted on a change before analyzing its impact.\n- I mixed up predictive and agile situations.\n\nMy error-log format and a free Word template are in [Part 6: PMP error log](/en/posts/pmp-error-log-method).\n\n### Keep the PMP Mindset short\n\nRight before the exam, I reviewed the basic order of judgment rather than long lists of processes:\n\n> **Understand the situation → Find the cause → Work with the team → Analyze the impact → Act through the proper process**\n\nIt doesn't fit every question the same way. But under pressure, it kept me from grabbing the most drastic option too quickly.\n\n### AI was a review partner, not an answer key\n\nChatGPT and NotebookLM helped me organize my error log, review the Mindset and compare confusing concepts. Right before the exam, they were especially useful for turning scattered notes into short questions and summaries.\n\nBut I don't recommend pasting PMP questions into an AI tool and checking only the option it picks. AI can misread subtle differences between options and confidently defend a wrong answer with a plausible explanation. Even with AI, do these steps yourself:\n\n1. Write down why you chose your answer first.\n2. Check the official explanation and sources.\n3. Ask the AI about gaps in your reasoning, not for the answer.\n4. If explanations conflict, go back to official material.\n5. Finish with a one-line principle in your own words.\n\nHow to ask ChatGPT good questions and how I set up NotebookLM are in [Part 7: GPT for concepts, NotebookLM audio for the commute](/en/posts/pmp-gpt-notebooklm-study).\n\n## When I got my result sheet\n\nWhen the exam ended and I saw PASS, the first thing I felt was relief. During prep, every low score and hard question shook me. In the end, those wrong answers were exactly what made me stop and think one more time in the exam room.\n\nBy domain, People was Below Target, Process was Target, and Business Environment was Above Target. One domain was Below Target and I still passed overall. That's just my result, though, and it doesn't mean you can calculate PMI's passing standard from the domain ratings.\n\nMy Study Hall scores were 66% and 65% on the Full Mocks, with an overall average of about 62%. I passed with those scores, but I won't tell you \"60% means a guaranteed pass.\" Instead, ask yourself whether you can explain your mistakes in your own words, whether you've stopped repeating the same ones, whether you can finish a Full Mock within the real time limit, and whether you can apply PMI’s order of judgment without memorizing answers. Everyone’s practice, depth of error analysis and exam-day condition are different. Those answers told me more about my readiness than any single score. I go deeper into scores in [Part 1](/en/posts/pmp-pass-review-part-1).\n\n## Final words\n\nWhen you get a question wrong, try not to think \"maybe I can't do this.\" Think of it as \"this is one I'm now more likely to get right on the real exam.\" Some questions are a gift to get wrong before exam day.\n\nWhat mattered wasn't the score itself, but using my mistakes to **find out exactly how my judgment goes wrong**.\n\nIf you're preparing now, spend your time turning what you've already studied into your own decision rules rather than piling on new material. And before the exam, actually sit for about four hours. When knowledge, stamina and time management are ready together, you'll answer with far more composure.\n\nI'm rooting for everyone preparing right now. You've got this! 💪🍀\n\n**Next:** [From PMP Application to Pearson VUE Booking: Applied June 1, Booked June 13](/en/posts/pmp-application-pearson-vue-booking)\n\n**Start from the beginning:** [PMP Pass Review Part 1: 7 Weeks of Prep, Study Hall Scores in the 60s, and a PASS](/en/posts/pmp-pass-review-part-1)\n\n\n\n*The PMI membership welcome email I received on June 1, 2026.*\n\nViewed from Korea, PMI's site lists the PMP exam at $405 for members and $655 at full price. That's a **$250** difference, while membership currently costs $139 in PMI's Korea store. Even after paying for membership, you're $111 ahead on a single attempt. The $405 member price I paid in June hasn't changed.\n\n\n\n*PMI's PMP page viewed from Korea: member price $405 next to the full price of $655.*\n\nMembership also gets you:\n\n- Retakes: $275 for members vs. $375 for non-members\n- Renewal every three years: $60 vs. $150\n- A free PDF of the PMBOK Guide 8th edition\n- A free PDF of PMI's AI standard (The Standard for Artificial Intelligence in Portfolio, Program and Project Management)\n\nPrices vary by region. In PMI's US store, for example, the exam is $425 for members and $675 for non-members, and membership is $164. Check the prices PMI shows you where you live.\n\n## Steps 2 and 3: Submit the application and get approved\n\n### What the application asks for\n\nYou fill in the application online on PMI's site. It covers three main areas:\n\n- **Education**: How much project experience you need depends on your education: 60 months with a secondary-school diploma, 48 with an associate or vocational degree (a newly added category), 36 with a bachelor's degree, and 24 with a GAC-accredited degree.\n- **35 hours of project management training**: List the courses you took and the hours. An active CAPM certification waives this requirement.\n- **Project experience**: For each project separately, describe its aim and dates, how you led it, who you worked with, which activities you directed, and the outcome.\n\nOnly experience from the last 10 years counts. When I applied it was 8 years; it has since been extended to 10. The application now also includes an \"enhanced verification\" step: before you pay, you confirm your identity through a service called Persona with a selfie and a government-issued ID.\n\nThe rules for the 35 training hours change on December 1, 2026. From then on, live classes only count if they come from a PMI Authorized Training Partner (ATP) or an accredited higher-education program. Self-paced online courses from any provider still count. Books or practice exams alone never count.\n\nWriting up your experience and preparing for a possible audit deserves its own post, so I cover it in [Part 4: Writing up your PMP experience and handling an audit](/en/posts/pmp-experience-application-audit).\n\n### June 1: Application received\n\nRight after I submitted, at 2:51 p.m. on June 1, the receipt email arrived.\n\n\n\n*The application receipt email, June 1, 2026. The last line says applicants may be selected randomly for audit.*\n\nThat last line sticks with you: you may be selected at random for an audit. If you are, you'll need a copy of your diploma or degree, a supervisor's sign-off for each experience entry, and your training certificates. PMI tells you by email before you pay, and you have 90 days to submit everything online.\n\n### June 9: Approved\n\nAt 11 p.m. on June 9, the approval email arrived: 8 days after I applied, roughly a week. No audit.\n\n\n\n*The approval email, June 9, 2026. It says the next step is paying the exam fee, and a banner at the top advertises member pricing.*\n\nThe message is simple: congratulations, your next step is to pay, and once you've paid you can schedule your exam.\n\nPMI's 2021 documentation said review took about five calendar days without an audit, but current documents don't give a timeframe. Mine took a little over a week, so leave yourself some slack when you think about exam dates.\n\n## Steps 4 and 5: Pay the fee and get your eligibility email\n\n### June 12: Paying $445.50\n\nThree days after approval, on June 12, I paid the exam fee: the $405 member price plus $40.50 tax, $445.50 in total.\n\n\n\n*The exam fee order email, June 12, 2026: $405 plus $40.50 tax, $445.50 in total. Order number hidden.*\n\nIf your plans change after paying, you have an option: you can request a refund within 30 days of purchase, as long as you haven't scheduled and taken the exam in that time.\n\n### June 13, 12:23 a.m.: Eligibility email\n\nJust after midnight, at 12:23 a.m. on June 13, an email titled \"You are eligible to take the PMP® exam\" arrived. It contains everything you need to book.\n\n\n\n*The eligibility email I received at 12:23 a.m. on June 13, 2026. Eligibility runs until June 6, 2027, and the delivery mode is Center-Based Testing (CBT). Eligibility ID hidden.*\n\nFour things to check in this email:\n\n- **Your name**: The name under \"Name exactly as it appears on your identification\" must match the ID you'll bring on exam day exactly.\n- **Eligibility period**: Mine ran until June 6, 2027. You get one year of eligibility and up to three attempts within it.\n- **Delivery mode**: Mine said Center-Based Testing (CBT), meaning a test center.\n- **The US$70 rule**: Rescheduling or cancelling within 30 days of your appointment costs US$70. More than 30 days out, it's free.\n\nThe email also recommends booking as soon as you know your date, because seats are first come, first served. I took that advice literally.\n\n## Step 6: Book your exam with Pearson VUE\n\n### It starts at PMI and ends at Pearson VUE\n\nYou book the exam with Pearson VUE, but you start at PMI. The flow:\n\n1. In your PMI dashboard (myPMI), click **Schedule Exam**.\n2. You're handed over to Pearson VUE.\n3. Choose the PMP from your pre-approved exams.\n4. Pick a test center or an online proctored exam (OnVUE).\n5. Choose the exam language. I chose Korean.\n6. Choose a test center, then a date and time.\n7. Review your appointment and submit the order at checkout to confirm it.\n\nDon't panic if the exam doesn't show up in Pearson VUE right after you pay. According to PMI, it can take up to 24 hours for your eligibility to appear there.\n\n\n\n*Pearson VUE's PMI page. Scheduling, rescheduling and cancelling all start by logging in, which sends you over to PMI's site.*\n\n### Look up test centers in advance\n\nPearson VUE's \"Find a test center\" search lets you look up centers that deliver PMI exams before you're eligible. As the note on the page says, though, it won't show opening hours or availability. You only see those after PMI makes you eligible and you log in to book. Not every center delivers every PMI exam, and the PMP is only available at some of them.\n\n\n\n*The note on Pearson VUE's \"Find a test center\" page: hours and availability are only visible after PMI makes you eligible.*\n\nSearching for the address where I took my exam puts Pearson Professional Centers-Seoul (6F The Exchange Seoul, 21 Mugyo-ro, Jung-gu) at the top. Elsewhere in Korea, the search also lists LEXIS EXAM CENTRE Seoul (Gangnam-daero 53-gil, Seocho-gu) and LEXIS EXAM CENTRE Busan. Results can change, and appearing in the list doesn't guarantee a center offers the PMP, so confirm on the booking screen once you're eligible.\n\n\n\n*Search results for \"21 Mugyo-ro, Jung-gu, Seoul.\" Number 1 is Pearson Professional Centers-Seoul, where I took my exam.*\n\n### Booked 33 minutes after the eligibility email\n\nMy booking confirmation arrived at 12:56 a.m. on June 13, 33 minutes after the eligibility email. The exam was set for Friday, July 3 at 10:15 a.m., about three weeks out, in Korean, at Pearson Professional Center Seoul on Mugyo-ro.\n\n## Step 7: The confirmation email and the reschedule rules\n\n### Booking confirmation\n\nOnce you book, Pearson VUE emails a confirmation. Mine came in Korean.\n\n\n\n*My Pearson VUE confirmation email, June 13, 2026. Order number, PMI ID and registration ID hidden.*\n\nThe appointment was 270 minutes because the 230-minute exam (the pre-change format) came with a tutorial and agreement beforehand and a survey afterward. The email also lists the exam-day rules: arrive 30 minutes early; if you're more than 15 minutes late you may be turned away and lose the fee; bring an original government-issued ID with your name, photo and signature. I describe exam day itself in [Part 2](/en/posts/pmp-pass-review-part-2).\n\n### Rescheduling and cancellation rules\n\n| When you change | Reschedule or cancel |\n|---|---|\n| More than 30 days before the exam | Free |\n| Within 30 days of the exam | US$70 + tax |\n| Within 48 hours of the exam | Not allowed; a no-show forfeits the whole fee |\n\nLike booking, rescheduling and cancelling start at PMI and happen in Pearson VUE. I booked about three weeks out, which means I was inside the 30-day window from day one: any change would have cost me US$70. Pick your date carefully.\n\n### If you take the exam in Korean (or another language)\n\n- **Seeing the English original**: In a translated exam, the questions and screens appear in your chosen language, and each question has an exhibit button that shows the English original. The two aren't displayed side by side.\n- **The language is locked once booked**: You can't change the language of a booked appointment. To switch, you have to cancel and book again, and the fees above may apply depending on timing. Double-check the language before checkout.\n- **Online exams in Korea**: If you take the exam online in Korean from Korea, it's proctored by ATA, not Pearson VUE.\n\n## Checklist before you apply\n\nGather these before you open the application and you'll get through it much faster:\n\n- **Education details**: school, degree, graduation date. If you're audited, you'll need a copy of your diploma.\n- **Training records for the 35 hours**: course names, providers, hours, certificates\n- **Project experience**: for each project in the last 10 years, the dates, aim, your role, the activities you led, and the outcome\n- **Someone who can confirm your experience**: an audit requires a supervisor's sign-off for each entry.\n- **Your name in English**: the name on your application and the ID you bring on exam day must match exactly. Matching your passport is the safest bet.\n- **A card that can pay in US dollars**: membership and the exam fee are both charged in dollars.\n- **Exam language and format**: which language, and test center or online. The language can't be changed after booking.\n- **A realistic exam date**: eligibility lasts a year, but seats are first come, first served, and changes within 30 days cost a fee.\n\n## Wrapping up\n\nOnce you know the order, the PMP application comes down to six emails: membership, receipt, approval, payment, eligibility and booking confirmation. Twelve days after submitting my application, I had my exam date.\n\nIn Part 4, I cover the most time-consuming part of the application: writing up your experience and preparing for an audit. If you'd rather see how the exam itself has changed before applying, read [Part 5: Everything that changed in the 2026 PMP exam](/en/posts/pmp-2026-exam-changes-pmbok-8) first.\n\n**Next:** [Writing up your PMP experience and handling an audit](/en/posts/pmp-experience-application-audit)\n\n**Start from the beginning:** [PMP Pass Review Part 1: 7 Weeks of Prep, Study Hall Scores in the 60s, and a PASS](/en/posts/pmp-pass-review-part-1)\n\n\nI applied in June 2026 under the pre-change rules. Eligibility changed along with the July 2026 exam update, so the requirements below reflect the current rules (checked in October 2026). Double-check the [official PMP page](https://www.pmi.org/certifications/project-management-pmp) right before you apply.\n \n\n## Eligibility: Experience by Education, Plus 35 Hours of Training\n\nBefore you can sit the exam, PMI checks whether you're eligible. It looks at two things: your experience leading projects, and 35 hours of project management training.\n\n| Education | Experience required (last 10 years, non-overlapping) |\n|---|---|\n| Secondary school (high school) | 60 months (5 years) |\n| Associate degree or vocational program (EQF level 5, new) | 48 months (4 years) |\n| Bachelor's degree or higher | 36 months (3 years) |\n| Degree from a PMI GAC-accredited program | 24 months (2 years) |\n\nI have a bachelor's degree (a double major in business administration and software engineering), so I was on the 36-month route. When I applied in June, only experience from the last eight years counted. Since the 2026 update, the window is ten years, and there's a brand-new 48-month route for associate degree holders.\n\n### 35 Hours of Training, and the December 1 Rule\n\nOn top of experience, you need 35 hours of project management training. An active CAPM certification waives it.\n\n- **Self-paced online courses:** count, whoever the provider is.\n- **Live classes:** from December 1, 2026, instructor-led classes (in person or live online) count only if they're delivered by a PMI Authorized Training Partner (ATP), a China Registered Education Provider (REP), or an accredited higher-education program.\n- **Books and practice exams:** never count on their own.\n\nIf you plan to cover the 35 hours with live classes, check that the provider is an ATP first. Everything else that changed in 2026, including the exam format, is in [Part 5: Everything That Changed in the 2026 PMP Exam](/en/posts/pmp-2026-exam-changes-pmbok-8).\n\n## My Career, Mapped to PMP Criteria\n\nA PMP application isn't a résumé. Instead of companies and job titles, you list the projects you led, one entry at a time. So rather than copying your CV, it pays to unfold it into projects first.\n\nHere's my own career laid out that way. Company names are real; client names are anonymized.\n\n| Period | Company · Role | What counts from a PMP angle |\n|---|---|---|\n| Mar 2025 – present | Concentrix Services Korea · Global Tech PM | Shopify and Magento implementations and enhancements for enterprise clients (priorities, risks, UAT, releases, launch stabilization). For a global consumer-electronics client: operational backlog cut from 104 to 48 (−54%) and issue-resolution lead time down 27%. For a global beauty group: enhancement and global rollout of a PDP generator SaaS across 5 brands and 27 e-commerce sites |\n| Apr 2023 – Feb 2025 | Hyperhire · Software Development PM | Web, app, SaaS and blockchain projects with distributed teams, including developers in India, Pakistan, Indonesia, Nigeria and Ethiopia; requirements, backlog, milestones, QA and release planning. A private-blockchain phase-2 project, an NFT reward app (wallet features, reward logic), and client apps for visa services, stays and bookings, fashion commerce and a local-currency coin |\n| Jan 2021 – Apr 2023 | iCOOP (Natural Dream) · PM / Online Business Manager | Store launches on the Korean marketplaces Naver and Coupang, coordinating sales, CS, SCM, WMS, design and IT; SEO and campaigns; ESG campaigns (No Plastic) |\n| Oct 2020 – Apr 2023 | FeelBetter · Founder | My own e-commerce business; about KRW 50 million in sales within four months |\n\nJust adding up the periods clears 36 months comfortably. But PMI counts the months you spent leading projects, not the months you were on a payroll, and overlapping months count once.\n\n### Overlapping Months Count Once: My Own Example\n\nMy timeline is a neat example. The 28 months I worked at iCOOP, from January 2021 to April 2023, sit entirely inside the period I ran FeelBetter (October 2020 to April 2023). Even if you list both, those 28 months count once. April 2023, the month I joined Hyperhire, overlaps too, so it's still just one month.\n\n### Be Careful with Operations and Founder Experience\n\nGood numbers don't automatically make a valid entry. PMI doesn't accept routine, operational or administrative work as project experience.\n\nRunning your own business is a similar trap. \"About KRW 50 million in four months\" stands out, but day-to-day operations are mixed into that kind of work. If you include it, carve out only the pieces with a clear start, end and goal, and describe those as projects.\n\n## What PMI Says an Entry Should Cover\n\nIn a blog post on August 28, 2026, PMI listed what each experience entry should explain:\n\n1. The project's aim\n2. The dates\n3. How you led\n4. Whom you worked with\n5. Which activities you directed\n6. The outcome\n\nAdd three rules that come up again and again in PMI's guidance, and you have most of the standard:\n\n- **List each project separately.** Don't bundle several projects into one entry.\n- **Professional work only.** Leave out routine, operational and administrative tasks.\n- **Overlapping months count once.**\n\n### How Long Should It Be?\n\nPMI doesn't publish an official word or character limit. Prep sites say the old form asked for 200–500-word project descriptions and the 2026 form for a 100–500-word \"Role Summary,\" but that's unofficial. Rather than chasing a word count, make sure all six points above are in there.\n\n### Tips\n\n- Keep the aim and the outcome to one sentence each. A reviewer should see what the project was right away.\n- Prefer \"led\" and \"coordinated\" over \"participated in.\" PMI wants to know how you led and what you directed.\n- Walk through initiating, planning, executing, monitoring and controlling, and closing in order, and any gaps jump out.\n- Put numbers in the outcome when you have them, like \"backlog 104 → 48 (−54%).\"\n- Use PMP vocabulary (stakeholders, risks, UAT, releases) instead of in-house jargon.\n\n## Sample Entry: Outline First, Then the Form Text\n\nBelow is a sample built from one of my Concentrix projects, for the global beauty group client. It isn't a copy of what I typed into my application; it's my résumé content rewritten in PMI's format. Fill in details like the dates from your own records.\n\n### Step 1: The Outline\n\nIf English isn't your first language, sketch the outline in your own language first. It keeps you focused on what you actually did. Here's the outline, in English:\n\n| Field | Notes |\n|---|---|\n| Project title | Global beauty group client: PDP generator SaaS enhancement and global rollout |\n| Dates | Start month – end month |\n| Aim | Enhance the PDP (product detail page) generator SaaS so the client's 27 e-commerce sites across 5 brands can use it, and roll it out globally |\n| Role | PM accountable for priorities, schedule and risks across HQ teams, local business units, global vendors and overseas technical teams |\n| Initiating | Agree objectives and priorities with HQ and local teams; map key stakeholders |\n| Planning | Rollout plan by brand and site, risk register, UAT criteria |\n| Executing | Coordinate development and deployment schedules with global vendors and overseas technical teams |\n| Monitoring and controlling | Track risks and priority changes; manage fixes from UAT results |\n| Closing | Lead releases and launch stabilization; confirm results with stakeholders |\n| Outcome | Rolled out to 5 brands and 27 e-commerce sites |\n\n### Step 2: The Text for the Form\n\n```text\nProject title: PDP generator SaaS enhancement and global rollout\nDates: [start month/year] - [end month/year]\n\nObjective: Enhance a product detail page (PDP) generator SaaS and roll it\nout to a global beauty group client's 5 brands and 27 e-commerce sites.\n\nRole: Project manager accountable for priorities, schedule and risks\nacross the client's HQ teams, local business units, global vendors\nand overseas technical teams.\n\nWhat I led:\n- Initiating: Aligned objectives and priorities with HQ teams and local\n business units; identified key stakeholders.\n- Planning: Built the rollout plan by brand and site, the risk register\n and UAT criteria.\n- Executing: Coordinated development and deployment schedules with\n global vendors and overseas technical teams.\n- Monitoring and controlling: Tracked risks and priority changes;\n managed fixes based on UAT results.\n- Closing: Led releases and launch stabilization; confirmed results\n with stakeholders.\n\nOutcome: Rolled out to 5 brands and 27 e-commerce sites.\n```\n\nThat's about 140 words. It sits inside the range prep sites mention, and, more importantly, it covers all six points PMI lists: aim, dates, how I led, whom I worked with, what I directed and the outcome.\n\nYour supervisor may read and confirm this text if you're audited, so plain facts beat polished phrasing.\n\n## The Audit: Who, When and What to Submit\n\nAfter you submit, PMI reviews your application and selects some for an audit, a check of your supporting documents. Here's what PMI's Certification Handbook and official guidance say:\n\n| Item | Details |\n|---|---|\n| Who | Random selection, but PMI can audit anyone at any time (even after certification), and it audits every application from PMI employees and volunteers |\n| When you find out | By email, before you pay the exam fee |\n| Documents | A copy of your diploma or degree, sign-off from a supervisor or manager for each experience entry, certificates for your 35 training hours |\n| How | Online: an audit package on your mypmi.org dashboard, supervisors confirm via DocuSign, documents are uploaded |\n| Deadline | 90 days |\n| Review time | About 5–7 business days once everything is in |\n| If you pass | Your one-year eligibility period starts that day |\n| If you don't comply or fail | A one-year suspension |\n\nNothing goes in a sealed envelope by post; it's all online. The audit notice arrives before payment, and your one year of eligibility counts from the day you pass.\n\n### My Case: Approved in Eight Days, No Audit\n\nAt 2:51 p.m. on June 1, the confirmation email arrived. Its last line reads: \"Applicants may be selected randomly for audit during the application process.\"\n\n\n\n*The confirmation I received on June 1, 2026, right after applying. The last line is the random-audit notice.*\n\nThen, at 11 p.m. on June 9, the approval came, about eight days after I applied, so roughly a week. There was no audit notice, just the next step: paying the exam fee.\n\n\n\n*The approval email from the night of June 9, 2026, pointing to the next step: the exam fee.*\n\n\n\n*The PMI member email I received on September 14, 2026. It mentions the standard's eight guiding principles and calls it the first and only ANSI-approved AI standard for the project profession.*\n\nThat email says a lot about where PMI is heading: setting principles for how AI gets used, judging projects by the value they create, and building sustainability in. The PMP exam moved the same way on July 9, 2026.\n\nI passed the old exam on July 3, six days before the switch. So this isn't a review of the new exam. Instead, I've gone through PMI's official documents (the 2026 Exam Content Outline, the Certification Handbook and the PMBOK Guide page) to lay out what changed and how studying should change with it.\n\n**In three lines** — Since July 9, 2026, the PMP has 180 questions (170 scored + 10 unscored) in 240 minutes, and it opens with a case-study section. The biggest shift is Business Environment, which more than tripled from 8% to 26% of the exam. The PMBOK Guide was also reshaped in its 8th edition (6 principles, 7 performance domains), but the exam isn't based on any single book.\n\n## Old vs New at a Glance\n\n| Item | Old exam (the one I took) | New exam (from July 9, 2026) |\n|---|---|---|\n| Questions | 180 (175 scored + 5 pretest) | 180 (170 scored + 10 unscored) |\n| Time | 230 minutes | 240 minutes |\n| Breaks | Two 10-minute breaks (after Q60 and Q120) | Two 10-minute breaks (after the case-study section, and about halfway through the independent questions) |\n| New question types | — | Case/scenario questions, graphic-based questions |\n| Domain weights | People 42% · Process 50% · Business Environment 8% | People 33% · Process 41% · Business Environment 26% |\n| Tasks | 35 | 26 (People 8 · Process 10 · Business Environment 8) |\n| Approach | About 50% predictive · 50% agile/hybrid | About 40% predictive · 60% agile/hybrid |\n| Experience window | Last 8 years | Last 10 years |\n| Education routes | 60 months (secondary), 36 months (bachelor's), and so on | New 48-month route for associate degrees and similar (EQF level 5) |\n| 35 training hours | Live classes from any provider | From Dec 1, 2026, live classes count only from an ATP, a China REP or an accredited higher-education program |\n| Identity check | — | Persona check (selfie plus government ID) before payment |\n| Exam fee (Korea, PMI member) | $405 (my June receipt) | $405 (PMI store, October 3, 2026) |\n\nThe question count is still 180. What changed is the split: scored questions went from 175 to 170, and unscored ones from 5 to 10. Exam time grew by 10 minutes, to 240.\n\nFor reference, my Pearson VUE appointment was 270 minutes long: the 230-minute exam plus the tutorial, the agreement and the survey. I go through that booking email in [PMP Pass Review Part 2](/en/posts/pmp-pass-review-part-2).\n\nThe new case/scenario and graphic-based questions appear both at test centers and online. Some other formats, like matching, hotspot and pull-down questions, only appear at test centers.\n\n## Six Ways Studying Changes\n\nHere's what the numbers in that table mean for how you study.\n\n### 1. Business Environment Jumps from 8% to 26%\n\nThis is the big one. On the exam I took, Business Environment was a small slice, 8% of the questions. Now it's roughly one question in four.\n\nMy result sheet showed Above Target for Business Environment, but back then it carried little weight in the overall result. If you're preparing now, you can't treat it as an afterthought. It even has as many tasks as People: eight.\n\n### 2. Agile and Hybrid Make Up 60%\n\nThe predictive-to-agile/hybrid split moved from roughly 50:50 to 40:60. The more hybrid scenarios there are, the more it matters to tell which part of a project runs predictively and which part runs agile.\n\nOne of the repeat mistakes I listed in [PMP Pass Review Part 2](/en/posts/pmp-pass-review-part-2) was mixing up predictive and agile situations. On the new exam, assume you'll be tested on that distinction more often.\n\n### 3. Value-Based Delivery Becomes a Task\n\nThe Process domain has a new task: \"Help ensure value-based delivery.\" I read it as a signal that hitting the schedule and budget isn't enough; the exam also cares whether the result created value. That lines up with the PMBOK Guide 8th edition, which defines a project by the value it's meant to create.\n\n### 4. Sustainability Sits Inside Four Tasks\n\nSustainability isn't a task of its own. It's written into the enablers (illustrative examples of the work) of four tasks: planning, quality, compliance and risk. Rather than memorizing it as a separate chapter, get used to weighing it whenever you think about planning or risk.\n\n### 5. AI Lives Inside Scenarios, Not in Its Own Domain\n\nThere's no AI domain and no AI task. AI and sustainability were inputs to the job analysis that sets the exam's scope, and on the exam AI shows up as context within scenarios. If you read that the PMP added an AI domain, that's not accurate.\n\n### 6. Case Studies Come First\n\nThe new exam opens with the case-study section: one scenario followed by a series of questions. When the section ends, you get your first break, and once you start that break you can't go back. I cover how to read these scenarios and pace yourself in [Part 9: How to Prepare for PMP Case-Study Questions](/en/posts/pmp-case-study-questions).\n\n## Eligibility Changed Too\n\nIt's not just the exam. The application rules moved as well.\n\n- **Experience window:** up from the last 8 years to the last 10. When I applied in June, the 8-year rule still applied.\n- **New 48-month route:** associate degrees and similar EQF level 5 qualifications now need 48 months of experience. Bachelor's degrees still need 36, secondary school 60, and GAC-accredited degrees 24.\n- **35 training hours:** from December 1, 2026, live classes count only if they come from a PMI Authorized Training Partner (ATP), a China Registered Education Provider (REP) or an accredited higher-education program. Self-paced courses count from any provider, and books or practice exams alone never count. An active CAPM waives the 35 hours.\n- **Identity check:** the application now includes \"enhanced verification,\" and before you pay, Persona checks a selfie against your government-issued ID.\n\nHow to write up your experience, and what happens if you're audited, is in [Part 4: Writing Up Your PMP Experience and Handling an Audit](/en/posts/pmp-experience-application-audit).\n\n## PMBOK Guide: 7th vs 8th Edition\n\nYou can't talk about the PMP without the PMBOK Guide. The 8th edition came out in November 2025 (the launch was announced on November 13). It runs 408 pages, and PMI says it draws on more than 48,000 data points. PMI members get the PDF for free.\n\n| | PMBOK Guide 7th edition | PMBOK Guide 8th edition |\n|---|---|---|\n| Released | August 1, 2021 | November 2025 (launch announced November 13) |\n| Principles | 12: stewardship, team, stakeholders, value, systems thinking, leadership, tailoring, quality, complexity, risk, adaptability and resiliency, change | 6: holistic view, focus on value, embed quality, accountable leadership, integrate sustainability, empowered culture |\n| Performance domains | 8: stakeholders, team, development approach and life cycle, planning, project work, delivery, measurement, uncertainty | 7: governance, scope, schedule, finance, stakeholders, resources, risk |\n| Processes | Removed from the Guide; moved to PMIstandards+ and a separate Process Groups practice guide (2022, 49 processes) | 40 non-prescriptive processes are back in the book, with the five process groups returning as five Focus Areas (initiating, planning, executing, monitoring and controlling, closing) |\n| Tailoring | One of the principles, plus its own section | No longer a principle, but the guidance stays |\n| Other content | Models, methods and artifacts section | Tools and techniques section; expanded coverage of AI, PMOs and procurement |\n\n### What Stands Out, Having Studied with the 8th Edition\n\nAs I wrote in Part 1, I started out planning for the new exam and studied with the PMBOK Guide 8th edition, then took the old exam because the timing worked. From that seat, three differences stand out.\n\n- **The return of processes is a practical change.** The 7th edition moved processes out of the book (to PMIstandards+ and a separate guide). The 8th edition brings 40 of them back and groups them into Focus Areas from initiating to closing. For predictive questions, I think that makes it easier to follow \"which stage of the work is this?\" within a single book.\n- **The 8th edition's principles echo the new outline's vocabulary.** \"Focus on value\" pairs with the value-based delivery task, and \"integrate sustainability\" with the sustainability enablers in four tasks. Reading the 8th edition makes the new exam's language feel familiar.\n- **Governance and finance are now performance domains.** I read that as moving in the same direction as Business Environment's bigger share of the exam.\n\nThe 8th edition also covers AI in more depth. One of the sources in my NotebookLM notebook is a YouTube video called \"ALL the A.I. in the New PMBOK 8th Edition.\" Still, as above, AI has no task of its own on the exam.\n\n### The Exam Still Isn't Based on One Book\n\nPMI is clear that the PMP exam isn't written from any single text. Its top-10 reference list is the PMBOK Guide and the Agile Practice Guide plus eight books from other publishers. So \"the new exam is based on PMBOK 8\" isn't accurate.\n\nThere is a link, though. The 2026 Exam Content Outline uses the PMBOK Guide 8th edition's definition of a project: \"a temporary initiative in a unique context undertaken to create value.\" That's why I'd treat the 8th edition less as the exam's syllabus and more as **the language the exam speaks**.\n\n## What Is PMI's AI Standard?\n\nBack to yesterday's email. The full name is The Standard for Artificial Intelligence in Portfolio, Program, and Project Management.\n\n| Item | Details |\n|---|---|\n| Released | June 9, 2026 |\n| Length | 275 pages |\n| Price | Free for PMI members; $74.95 digital for non-members |\n| 8 guiding principles | Strategic value, risk, governance, people, ethics, stakeholders, optimization, data quality |\n| 5 performance domains | Stakeholder expectations, scope, architecture, strategy execution, risk |\n| Notable | Human-in-the-loop; ties to the EU AI Act and ISO 42001 |\n\nThe email introduces it as the world's first and only ANSI-approved AI standard for the project profession.\n\nThat doesn't make the AI Standard a new part of the PMP exam. In the new outline, AI has no task of its own and appears as context inside scenarios. But if you're a member and your job involves rolling out AI, it's free and worth a skim.\n\n## If You're Starting Now\n\nIn Part 1, I wrote that you should check the outline for your exam date before worrying about which textbook edition you have. After the update, that matters even more. Here's the order I'd suggest:\n\n1. Read the 2026 ECO PDF yourself. The tasks and enablers in each domain are your study list.\n2. Check that your course, question bank and practice exams reflect the July 2026 update.\n3. Spend more time on Business Environment and on agile and hybrid scenarios.\n4. Practice case-study and graphic-based questions on their own. My approach is in [Part 9](/en/posts/pmp-case-study-questions).\n5. Log the questions you miss, by reason. My method and a template are in [Part 6](/en/posts/pmp-error-log-method).\n6. If you haven't applied yet, check the new experience rules first. They're in [Part 4](/en/posts/pmp-experience-application-audit).\n\n## Wrapping Up\n\nIf I had to sum up the update in one line: the PMP now asks you to see projects through the lens of value and the business context around them. The question count didn't change, but the PM the exam has in mind did.\n\nPart 6 is about the error log, which I called the most useful thing in the days right before my exam in Part 2. I'll show how I kept it and share a Word template.\n\n**Next:** [Part 6: How to Keep a PMP Error Log](/en/posts/pmp-error-log-method)\n\n**Start from the beginning:** [PMP Pass Review Part 1](/en/posts/pmp-pass-review-part-1)\n\n\nYou can get the template free [below](#template), in Korean, English, Spanish or Japanese.\n \n\n## A PMP error log fixes judgment, not memory\n\nMost PMP questions don't test what you know. They drop you into a project situation and ask what the project manager should do first, or next.\n\nHere's the catch: most of the options aren't wrong. Reporting up, calling a meeting, updating the plan: at work you'd do all of them at some point. What separates the right answer from the rest is **order and priority**, not knowledge.\n\nThat's why the classic error log, where you copy the question and the answer, doesn't do much for the PMP. As I wrote in [Part 1](/en/posts/pmp-pass-review-part-1), when I memorized answer sentences, I got the question wrong again as soon as a few words changed. What you want to keep isn't the question. It's a rule: \"Next time I'm in a situation like this, what do I do first?\"\n\nMy Study Hall full mocks came in at 66% and 65%, and my overall average was about 62%. High-score pass stories made me nervous every time I read one. What I trusted more than the score was a different signal: I was missing fewer questions for the same reason. The error log is what let me actually see it.\n\n## Six steps from a wrong answer to a judgment rule\n\nThe method is the six lines on the first page of the template. Each error card has room for a one-line situation, my answer and the correct one, why the correct one is the best, the trap I fell into, cause tags, a rule for next time, and review boxes.\n\n\n\n*Pages 1 and 2 of the template: how to use it and the cause tags on the left, the worked example and \"Good rules, bad rules\" on the right.*\n\n### Step 1: Log every miss, and every lucky guess\n\nIf you only log the questions you got wrong, you miss half the picture. If you picked between two options on a hunch and it happened to be right, that's a miss that got lucky. Nothing guarantees the luck shows up again on exam day.\n\nSo every card has a confidence box: Sure, Unsure or Guessed. If you got it right but were unsure or guessed, it goes in the log. You don't need to log the ones you knew cold, though. That time is better spent taking another look at your misses.\n\n### Step 2: Don't copy the question. Sum up the situation in one line\n\nCopying a whole question takes forever, and you end up memorizing sentences. Instead, boil it down to who, what's happening, and what's being asked.\n\n> Two devs on an agile team keep clashing over a technical approach; stand-ups have turned tense. What does the PM do first?\n\nSqueezing it into one line forces you to find the core, so writing the summary is already review. Tick the domain (People, Process, Business Environment) and the approach (predictive, agile, hybrid) as well. After a few weeks, patterns pop out, like \"I keep missing People questions set in agile teams.\"\n\nOn the new exam, Business Environment went from 8% to 26% of the questions, so don't skip the domain box. I covered what changed in [Part 5: Everything that changed in the 2026 PMP exam](/en/posts/pmp-2026-exam-changes-pmbok-8).\n\n### Step 3: Write your answer, the correct one, and why it's the BEST\n\nPut your answer and the correct answer side by side, then fill in the box that matters most. Not \"why is this correct?\" but \"why is this the **best**?\"\n\nOn the PMP, the answer you picked is usually a reasonable thing to do. So you need to be able to explain, in a sentence or two and from PMI's point of view, why this answer comes first and yours doesn't. If you can't, you haven't really got it yet.\n\nRight below that, write why yours was wrong: the trap you fell into. Keep it short, like \"escalated too early\" or \"missed the word FIRST.\"\n\n### Step 4: Tag the cause with C·R·M·S·A·T\n\nOnce you sort the causes, your score stops being a report card and becomes a prescription. The template uses six tags.\n\n| Tag | When | How to fix it |\n|---|---|---|\n| C Concept | You didn't know the term or process | Define it in one line, in your own words, with one example |\n| R Misread | You missed a condition like FIRST, NEXT, BEST or EXCEPT | Read the last sentence of the question first |\n| M Mindset | You understood the situation but not PMI's priority | Ask: \"What would PMI do first?\" |\n| S Sequence | Right action, wrong order (assess → plan → act) | Separate what comes first from what comes next |\n| A Approach | You mixed up the agile, predictive and hybrid context | Mark the clues: sprint, backlog, change control |\n| T Time | You ran out of time and guessed | Track your average time per question |\n\nOne question can get more than one tag. The worked example below has both M and R.\n\nWhen I reread the mistake lists in Part 1 and [Part 2](/en/posts/pmp-pass-review-part-2), almost every item fits one of these six boxes. Handing things straight to the sponsor: M. Not telling FIRST from NEXT: R. Acting before analyzing a change's impact: S. Mixing up predictive and agile situations: A. And spending about 80 minutes on the first 60 questions on exam day was a T warning.\n\n### Step 5: Turn it into a rule: \"If ___, first ___.\"\n\nThis one line is what the whole log produces. Every other box on the card is raw material for it.\n\nA rule has to come back to you within three seconds in the exam room. Two habits make that happen:\n\n- Make the situation specific: \"team members in conflict,\" not just \"conflict.\"\n- Name exactly one first action.\n\nWrite every rule in that same \"If ___, first ___\" shape and both habits take care of themselves.\n\n### Step 6: Review on day 1, 7 and 21, and count your tags weekly\n\nA log you never reopen turns into a drawer full of paper. Every card has three review boxes: Day 1, Day 7 and Day 21. The next day, a week later and three weeks later, look only at the situation line, make the call again, then tick \"Got it\" or \"Missed again.\" Spacing reviews out like this sticks far better than cramming them into one sitting.\n\nOnce a week, count the tags you used. The template's weekly review sheet has columns for questions solved, wrong answers, accuracy, a count for each of C·R·M·S·A·T, and \"Focus next week.\" The biggest number is next week's homework. Lots of M? Go back over the mindset. Lots of R? Practice reading the last sentence first. Lots of T? Do timed sets.\n\nAs the exam gets close, fill in \"Rules I keep breaking — top 3\" and \"Read the night before: my 10 rules.\" As I wrote in Part 2, from two days before the exam I went over my error log instead of doing new questions. At that point, what you need isn't the whole stack of cards. It's that short list.\n\n## Worked example: a team conflict where \"report it\" looks right\n\nHere's the worked example from page 2 of the template, box by box. It isn't a real exam question; it's built from a pattern that comes up a lot.\n\n| Box | What's written |\n|---|---|\n| Source · Domain · Approach | Mock exam · People · Agile |\n| The situation in one line | Two developers on an agile team keep clashing over a technical approach, and the daily stand-up has turned tense. What should the project manager do first? |\n| My answer | B. Report it to the functional manager and ask for a decision |\n| Correct answer | C. Bring both developers together, hear each side, and help them reach an agreement |\n| Confidence | Unsure |\n| Why the correct answer is the BEST | Conflict is handled first between the people involved, through collaboration and problem-solving. In a self-organizing team the PM facilitates the conversation as a servant leader instead of making the call. |\n| Why mine was wrong (the trap) | Escalation is the last resort, for when the team can't solve it. I missed the word FIRST. |\n| Cause | M Mindset, R Misread |\n| My rule for next time | If the team is in conflict, first help the people involved talk it through. Escalate last. |\n| Review | Day 1 done |\n\nB is tempting because at work it looks like the responsible move. Two people are butting heads, so you tell someone above you and get a decision. Fast and safe. But on the PMP, the project manager is the person who helps the team solve its own problems. Pushing something upward that the team could have handled is the wrong answer.\n\nThat doesn't mean escalation is always wrong. If talking it through fails, you can take it up a level. That's why the rule ends with \"Escalate last.\" That little tail keeps you from memorizing \"escalation is always wrong.\"\n\nThis pattern was on my own mistake list in Part 1. Given that People came back Below Target on my result sheet, I think it stayed homework right to the end.\n\n## Good rules, bad rules\n\nFirst rules tend to come out like New Year's resolutions: \"Be careful with conflict.\" Not wrong, but in the exam room that sentence tells you nothing. Careful about what? And what do you do first?\n\n| Bad rule | Good rule |\n|---|---|\n| Be careful with conflict | If the team is in conflict, first help the people involved talk it through. |\n| Review change management | In a predictive project, when a scope change comes in, first analyze the impact, then submit a change request. |\n| Don't mix up agile | If a new request arrives mid-sprint, first have the product owner prioritize it in the backlog. |\n| Be thorough with risks | When an identified risk occurs, first carry out the planned risk response. |\n\nGood rules share three things: a specific situation, a single first action, and short enough to recall in three seconds.\n\nThe last page of the template lists 12 judgment patterns that come up again and again on the exam, one line each. A few of them:\n\n- When something goes wrong, assess and analyze first. Don't jump straight to reporting or acting.\n- In predictive projects, scope, schedule and cost changes go through integrated change control.\n- In agile, the product owner prioritizes the backlog.\n- Quality comes from prevention, not inspection.\n- For a team member's performance problem, talk one-on-one and find the cause first.\n\nIt isn't a list to memorize. Put it next to your own rules and check which line each of your rules is a more specific version of. As I said in Part 1, some situations call for immediate action, like ethics, legal, safety and urgent risks.\n\n## A separate \"error log\" chat in ChatGPT\n\nI used ChatGPT on my error log, too. Inside a ChatGPT project called \"PMP 시험공부\" (PMP exam study), I kept a separate chat named \"오답노트 (정리)\", which is roughly \"error log (cleanup).\"\n\n\n\n*The chat list in my ChatGPT project \"PMP 시험공부.\" Three private items are pixelated.*\n\nI had GPT sort my mistakes by cause, and I'd walk it through my reasoning and ask it to point out the assumptions I'd skipped. The final rule, though, I always wrote in my own words. That's the version that comes back to you in the exam room.\n\nWhat to ask GPT, and how, is in [Part 7](/en/posts/pmp-gpt-notebooklm-study), with example prompts.\n\n## The free PMP error log template (Word)\n\nI put everything in this post into a Word file. It's 9 pages:\n\n- Page 1: the six steps and the cause tags (C·R·M·S·A·T)\n- Page 2: the worked example, plus good rules vs. bad rules\n- Pages 3–7: 10 blank error cards\n- Page 8: the weekly review sheet, \"Rules I keep breaking — top 3\" and \"Read the night before: my 10 rules\"\n- Page 9: 12 one-line PMP mindset rules\n\nIt comes in Korean, English, Spanish and Japanese, and you pick the file language when you request it. Leave your email below and agree to the newsletter, and I'll email you the download link.\n\n\n\n*The chat list in my ChatGPT project \"PMP 시험공부.\" Three private items (two chats and another project) are pixelated.*\n\nThe chat titles alone show what I used it for:\n\n| Chat (Korean title) | What it was for |\n|---|---|\n| PMP 시험 준비 상황 (where my prep stands) | Checking how far along I was |\n| PMP 시험 준비 진단 (prep diagnosis) | Diagnosing my prep (\"Do I memorize the PMP Mindset?\") |\n| 오답노트 (정리) (error log cleanup) | Sorting misses by cause and tidying up rules |\n| 첫 Study Hall 분석 (first Study Hall analysis) | Going over my first Study Hall results |\n| Percentile Rank 해석 (reading Percentile Rank) | Understanding Study Hall's Percentile Rank |\n\nStudy Hall's Percentile Rank is your position relative to everyone else using the same Study Hall product. My scores made me nervous every time I checked them, so I asked separately what that number actually meant.\n\nThe prep-diagnosis chat still shows me wondering whether I had to memorize the Mindset. My answer is the one I gave in Part 1: the Mindset isn't a formula you apply blindly. It's a judgment order you use while knowing the exceptions, like ethics, legal, safety and urgent risks.\n\nHow I used GPT is also what I described in Part 1: to check my understanding, not to pick answers for me. Pasting in a Study Hall question and just looking at the AI's pick is something I don't recommend, as I said in Part 1 and [Part 2](/en/posts/pmp-pass-review-part-2).\n\n## What to ask GPT\n\nThe prompts below aren't copied from my chats. They're rewritten as what I'd recommend asking if you use GPT for the PMP, grouped into four uses that don't repeat the example in Part 1.\n\n### 1. Explain a concept in your own words first, and ask only for the gaps\n\nIf you get a full explanation handed to you, you read it and that's it. If you explain first and only get your mistakes pointed out, those gaps become the C (Concept) tags in your error log.\n\n```text\nLet me explain \"Validate Scope\" in my own words:\n\"The customer or sponsor formally accepting deliverables that have already been verified in Control Quality.\"\nPoint out only what's wrong or missing. Don't rewrite the explanation for me.\n```\n\n### 2. Ask it to compare the right answer with the runner-up\n\nThe hard part of the PMP is the gap between the right answer and a plausible second-best. Rather than pasting a whole question, sum up the situation in one line and ask about just the two options you were torn between. Writing the summary is half the review already.\n\n```text\nSituation: two developers on an agile team keep clashing over a technical approach. What does the PM do first?\nOption 1: Report it to the functional manager and ask for a decision.\nOption 2: Bring both together and help them reach an agreement.\nBoth are things a PM might do. If the question asks what to do FIRST, which comes first from PMI's point of view,\nand under what conditions would the other one be the right answer?\n```\n\n### 3. Ask for counter-examples that break your rule\n\nA rule gets sturdy once you know its exceptions. Trust \"conflict means talk first\" too much and you'll pick a conversation even when the situation calls for immediate action.\n\n```text\nMy error-log rule: \"If the team is in conflict, first help the people involved talk it through.\"\nGive me three situations where applying this rule as-is would be wrong.\nInclude cases that need immediate action, like an ethics violation or a safety issue.\n```\n\n### 4. Ask it to quiz you on your own rules\n\nPaste in the \"Read the night before: my 10 rules\" list from the Part 6 template. The point is to make yourself state your reasoning before you see the answer.\n\n```text\nBelow are my 10 error-log rules. Write one situational question for each.\nFour options, all plausible. When I answer, don't grade it right away:\nfirst ask me why I picked it, then grade it.\n```\n\n\nAI says wrong things with total confidence. The PMBOK Guide is organized differently from edition to edition (the 7th has 12 principles, the 8th has 6), so you may get explanations that mix them up. When GPT disagrees with a Study Hall explanation, go back to the Study Hall explanation, the [ECO](https://www.pmi.org/-/media/pmi/documents/public/pdf/certifications/new-pmp-examination-content-outline-2026.pdf) and the [PMBOK Guide](https://www.pmi.org/standards/pmbok).\n \n\n## NotebookLM: a notebook filled to the source limit\n\nFirst, the name. On July 16, 2026, NotebookLM was renamed Gemini Notebook. Same product. It was still NotebookLM when I was studying, so that's what I'll call it here. The disclaimer at the bottom of my screenshot already shows the new name.\n\n\n\n*My NotebookLM notebook, created June 8, 2026. Top left: the notice that it has hit the source limit. Right: the Studio panel with my Korean audio overviews. The disclaimer at the bottom already says Gemini Notebook.*\n\nAlongside my own notes, the sources include:\n\n- Exam-prep threads from Reddit's r/PMP\n- The YouTube video \"ALL the A.I. in the New PMBOK 8th Edition\"\n- Guides on telling agile questions from predictive ones\n\nThe more sources you add, the harder it is to tell what the AI is basing its answer on. Treat what comes from Reddit threads or YouTube videos as background, and keep official material and the Study Hall explanations as your yardstick.\n\n## The Korean deep dives I listened to on my commute\n\nThe heart of the notebook was the Audio Overview in the Studio panel. It turns your sources into a podcast-style episode; in the default Deep Dive format, two AI hosts talk it through. I made Korean Deep Dives by topic and listened to them on my commute.\n\n\n\n*The audio list in the Studio panel. Almost all are Korean Deep Dives, running from 12:27 to 23:34.*\n\n| Episode title (Korean) | Roughly | Length |\n|---|---|---|\n| 실무 본능이 PMP 사람 영역에서 오답인 이유 | Why your on-the-job instincts are wrong answers in the People domain | 17:57 |\n| PMP 규정 준수 문제 정답 패턴 정리 | Answer patterns for PMP compliance questions | 12:27 |\n| 프로젝트의 명확한 울타리를 치는 범위 관리 | Scope management: putting a clear fence around the project | 21:57 |\n| PMP 일정 관리 정답은 크리티컬 패스에 있다 | In PMP schedule questions, the answer is in the critical path | 23:18 |\n| PMP 리스크와 조달 정답 판단 공식 | A formula for PMP risk and procurement answers | 14:44 |\n| 경력직 PM도 틀리는 PMP 정답 논리 | The answer logic even experienced PMs get wrong | 20:32 |\n| PMP 애자일 하이브리드 정답 마인드셋 공식 | The mindset formula for agile and hybrid answers | 20:30 |\n| 현업 PM도 틀리는 PMP 변경관리 함정 | The change-management traps working PMs fall into | 23:34 |\n| 버그 없는 프로젝트가 인수를 거절당한 이유 | Why a bug-free project was rejected at acceptance | 23:05 |\n\nThe titles have something in common. \"Answer patterns,\" \"formula,\" \"traps\": they all dig into places where what's right at work is wrong on the exam. Definitions are faster to read with your eyes, but judgment logic, the \"why does this come first,\" works well as a story you listen to.\n\nWith People at Below Target on my result sheet, \"Why your on-the-job instincts are wrong answers in the People domain\" stings a little just from the title. And \"Why a bug-free project was rejected at acceptance\" brings to mind the difference between verify and validate. I break that pair down in [Part 8](/en/posts/pmp-commute-study-vocabulary).\n\n## How to set up an Audio Overview\n\nHere's how it works according to Google's help page:\n\n1. Open a notebook and add your sources.\n2. In the Studio panel, choose Audio Overview.\n3. In the customization options, pick the format, language and length, and write a prompt for what to focus on.\n\n| Setting | Options | Good to know |\n|---|---|---|\n| Format | Deep Dive (default), Brief, Critique, Debate | Deep Dive is two hosts in conversation; Brief is one speaker, under two minutes |\n| Language | 80+ languages | Korean included |\n| Length | Shorter, Default, Longer | Longer is English only |\n| Focus prompt | Free text | Set the topics to cover or the level of expertise |\n\nThere's also an interactive mode where you can jump into the hosts' conversation and ask questions, but for now it only works in English.\n\nHere's the kind of focus prompt I'd write. The key is one topic per episode; my own list splits into scope, schedule, risk and procurement, change management, and agile and hybrid.\n\n```text\nThis is for a candidate preparing for situational questions on the PMP exam.\nFocus on change management: where everyday work habits and PMI's answer part ways.\nExplain \"in this situation, what do you do first?\" with examples,\nand compare how the first action differs in predictive and agile projects.\n```\n\n\nAudio Overviews are AI-generated, so they can contain mistakes. Google's help page says so, and the line under my notebook reads, in Korean, \"Gemini Notebook can make mistakes, so double-check it.\" When something you hear sounds off, jot it down and check it against official material.\n \n\n## Wrapping up\n\nAI didn't study for me. What it did was give me more time and more places to study. GPT checked my understanding, and audio let me hear the same topics again while I was on the move.\n\nIn the next post, I'll cover how I used that commute, and why terminology deserves its own attention, especially if you take the exam in a translated language. I'll also share the vocabulary list I put together.\n\n**Next:** [PMP Study on Your Commute: Short, Frequent Sessions (+ My PMP Vocabulary List)](/en/posts/pmp-commute-study-vocabulary)\n\n**Previous:** [PMP Error Log: 6 Steps to Turn Wrong Answers into Judgment Rules](/en/posts/pmp-error-log-method)\n\n\nYou don't need a separate word list. Collect the terms from your error-log cards tagged C, and you have a vocabulary list of your own.\n \n\n## The vocabulary list I put together\n\nThe list below collects the terms that actually helped me while I studied for the PMP. It is now a Word vocabulary book (105 term clusters, four languages) with the right move and the trap on every card, and the original 172-term PDF comes with it. You can see part of it in the preview below; it is $5.99 on Gumroad. The full introduction is in [PMP Master Vocabulary](/en/posts/pmp-kit-master-vocabulary). Everything above works without it, so pick it up only if it's useful to you.\n\n\nFor the full picture of the 2026 update (question count, time, domain weights), see [Part 5: Everything That Changed in the 2026 PMP Exam](/en/posts/pmp-2026-exam-changes-pmbok-8). This post covers only the case-study and graphic-based questions.\n \n\n## What PMI Has Published About Case Studies\n\n| Item | What PMI says |\n|---|---|\n| Format | A detailed scenario (it may include graphs or charts) followed by a series of questions on it |\n| Position | The first section of the exam |\n| Number of questions | Not published; it may vary by exam form |\n| New alongside it | Graphic-based questions: you read a chart, graph or other visual and answer from it |\n| Delivery | At test centers and online |\n| Breaks | The first 10-minute break comes right after the case-study section; once you start it, you can't return to that section |\n| Overall time | 180 questions in 240 minutes, about 1 minute 20 seconds per question |\n\nIn short, PMI has published the format, the position and the break rules, but not the number of questions. Some prep sites say each case has 2–5 questions, but that's not a number PMI has confirmed.\n\nThe question-type section of the 2026 Exam Content Outline (ECO) PDF includes example screens of a case question and a graphic-based question. Look at them at least once before exam day.\n\nOne more tip if you test in a translated language, as I did in Korean: each question has an exhibit button that shows the English original. The two languages aren't shown side by side; you open the original separately. When a sentence in a long scenario reads ambiguously in translation, check the original.\n\n## How to Read a Long Scenario\n\nMost questions on the old exam were scenarios too. As I wrote in [PMP Pass Review Part 2](/en/posts/pmp-pass-review-part-2), I'd read the question in the last sentence before the setup, then cross out the clearly wrong options. Stretched to fit a case study, that becomes four steps.\n\n### Step 1: Read the Question First\n\nBefore you read the scenario closely, check what the current question is asking. On the old exam, once I'd seen whether the last sentence asked what to do \"first\" or \"next,\" the focus of the question got clearer. Case-study scenarios are longer, so I expect this habit to pay off even more.\n\n### Step 2: Pick Out Four Things in the Scenario\n\n| Look for | Clues | Why it matters |\n|---|---|---|\n| Approach | Sprints, backlog, product owner, retrospectives mean agile. Baselines, a change control board (CCB), a WBS mean predictive. Both means hybrid | It decides which process the right answer has to follow |\n| Stakeholders and power | Sponsor, customer, regulator, anyone with a lot of influence, anyone pushing back | It tells you whom to talk to first |\n| Constraints and numbers | Deadlines, budget, regulations, trends in tables and charts | They're the evidence for graphic-based questions and for impact analysis |\n| Question type | `FIRST`, `NEXT`, `BEST`, `EXCEPT` | The same situation can have different answers |\n\nSeveral questions hang off the same scenario. If you pick out these four things on the first question, you won't have to reread the whole scenario for the next one. Watch `EXCEPT` in particular: you're looking for the action that doesn't fit, so flip your usual thinking.\n\n### Step 3: Choose with the PMI Mindset\n\nWhen two options are left, go back to the Mindset I summarized in [PMP Pass Review Part 1](/en/posts/pmp-pass-review-part-1). Three rules look especially useful for case studies:\n\n- **Assess before you act.** Choosing the strongest action without knowing the cause and impact was often wrong.\n- **Collaborate before you escalate.** Talk to the team and the stakeholders first.\n- **Follow the agreed process.** Agile work goes through the product owner and the backlog; predictive work goes through change control.\n\nThere are exceptions. As I noted in Part 1, ethics, legal, safety and urgent-risk issues can call for immediate action.\n\n### Step 4: Log Every Miss in Your Error Log\n\nCase-study misses go on the same error-log cards from [Part 6](/en/posts/pmp-error-log-method). Tag the cause with C, R, M, S, A or T as usual, but for case questions I'd add one line: what you missed in the scenario. Missed the approach clues? That's A. Missed a condition in the question? R. Guessed because time ran short? T. If you keep missing the same kind of information, your reading order needs fixing.\n\n## Try It: A Practice Case\n\n\nThe case below is an original example I wrote for this post. It isn't a real PMP exam question or a Study Hall question, and the real exam screens and format may differ.\n \n\n### Scenario: Moving Three Country Sites to a New Platform\n\nYou're the PM on a consumer-goods company's project to move its e-commerce sites for Countries A, B and C onto a new platform.\n\n- The in-house Scrum team (six developers) builds the site screens and features in two-week sprints. The product owner sits in the HQ e-commerce team.\n- An external vendor is migrating the existing order and member data. Its scope, schedule and budget are managed against an approved baseline, and any baseline change needs approval from the change control board (CCB).\n- Launch is set for the end of Sprint 8. The sponsor, the head of commerce, has already reported that date to the executive team.\n- The Country B managing director is highly influential and insists the Country B site must go live before the year-end promotion.\n\n**Table 1. Sprint progress** (backlog of 240 story points at the start)\n\n| Sprint | Planned | Completed | Backlog remaining |\n|---|---|---|---|\n| 1 | 40 | 38 | 202 |\n| 2 | 40 | 35 | 167 |\n| 3 | 40 | 30 | 137 |\n| 4 | 40 | 24 | 113 |\n\n**Table 2. Data migration status** (end of Sprint 4)\n\n| Measure | Amount |\n|---|---|\n| Planned value (PV) | $500,000 |\n| Earned value (EV) | $450,000 |\n| Actual cost (AC) | $520,000 |\n\n### Question 1\n\nIn Sprint 5 planning, the product owner says, \"To protect the launch date, we need to plan 40 points again this sprint.\" What should the project manager do `FIRST`?\n\n- A. Confirm the 40-point plan as is to protect the launch date.\n- B. Ask the sponsor for more developers.\n- C. Work with the team to find out why velocity has dropped for three sprints in a row.\n- D. Move the launch two sprints later and rebuild the schedule.\n\n### Question 2 (Graphic-Based)\n\nBased on Table 2, which statement `BEST` describes the data migration work?\n\n- A. It is ahead of schedule and under budget.\n- B. It is behind schedule and over budget.\n- C. It is behind schedule but under budget.\n- D. It is on schedule but over budget.\n\n### Question 3\n\nDuring Sprint 6, the legal team reports that a new privacy regulation in Country B takes effect before the planned launch. Once it does, the sign-up screen must include a separate consent step. The Country B managing director says, \"The schedule comes first. Let's launch and fix it afterwards.\" What should the project manager do `NEXT`?\n\n- A. Launch as planned because the Country B managing director is influential, and handle the regulation after launch.\n- B. Stop the current sprint and tell the developers to build the consent feature first.\n- C. Hand the situation to the sponsor and wait for a decision.\n- D. Analyze the regulation's impact on scope and schedule with the legal team, and help the product owner reflect the required work in the backlog priorities.\n\n## Answers and Explanations\n\nTry the questions first, then scroll down.\n\n### Question 1: C\n\nTable 1 shows completed points falling three sprints in a row: 38, 35, 30, 24. Finishing the remaining 113 points in four sprints needs about 28 points per sprint (113 ÷ 4 ≈ 28), and recent velocity is 24. Without knowing the cause, you can't know which fix is right. The first step is to work out with the team what's dragging velocity down: impediments, unplanned work, technical debt or something else.\n\n- A ignores the team's actual velocity. The team decides how much to take into a sprint based on its own capacity.\n- B escalates without knowing the cause, and adding people doesn't raise velocity right away anyway.\n- D changes the schedule baseline without impact analysis or stakeholder agreement. That launch date is also a commitment the sponsor made to the executive team.\n\n### Question 2: B\n\n- SPI = EV ÷ PV = 450,000 ÷ 500,000 = 0.90. Below 1, so the work is behind schedule.\n- CPI = EV ÷ AC = 450,000 ÷ 520,000 ≈ 0.87. Below 1, so it's over budget.\n\nThe variances say the same thing: SV (EV − PV) is −$50,000 and CV (EV − AC) is −$70,000, both negative. On graphic-based questions, mistakes usually come from putting a number in the wrong place, not from the arithmetic. Remember that EV is the numerator in both SPI and CPI, and you're halfway there.\n\n### Question 3: D\n\nCompliance isn't negotiable. But jumping straight to telling developers what to build isn't the answer either. You first need to analyze exactly what the regulation requires and how it affects scope and schedule; that analysis decides the next move.\n\nThis is a hybrid project, so there are two paths. The consent screen built by the Scrum team goes into the backlog, prioritized by the product owner. If a baseline like the launch date has to change, it goes through the CCB's change control process. Share the analysis with the sponsor and the Country B managing director to reset expectations.\n\n- A accepts a regulatory breach because an influential stakeholder wants it, so it's wrong.\n- B bypasses the product owner and pushes work into a running sprint, and it skips the impact analysis.\n- C is passive escalation without the analysis the PM can do. Even if it goes to the sponsor, it should go with an impact analysis and options.\n\nIn Part 1 I called legal and safety issues exceptions that need immediate action. Here, though, the regulation isn't in force yet, so there's time to analyze its impact. That's why analyzing first and then acting through the agreed process is the right order.\n\n## A Time Plan for the New Exam\n\n180 questions in 240 minutes is about 1 minute 20 seconds per question. In blocks of 60, that's exactly 80 minutes.\n\n| Questions done | Exam time used (average pace) |\n|---|---|\n| 60 | About 80 minutes |\n| 120 | About 160 minutes |\n| 180 | 240 minutes |\n\nThat 80 means something to me. On the old exam, I spent about 80 minutes on the first 60 questions, and at the first break I worried I'd run out of time. With 230 minutes for 180 questions, the average back then was about 77 minutes per 60. On the new exam, the same 80 minutes is exactly average pace.\n\nHere's how I'd run the case-study section:\n\n- You can't know in advance how many questions it has, so manage the pace per question (about 1 minute 20 seconds) rather than by section.\n- Reading time naturally piles up on the first question of a scenario. You win it back on the next questions about the same scenario, so don't panic if the first one runs long.\n- Before you finish the section, sort out anything you want to revisit. Once you start the break, you can't come back.\n- The 10-minute break goes faster than you'd think. As I wrote in Part 2, I went slightly over 10 minutes on my first one.\n\n## Practice Resources\n\n- **PMI Study Hall:** The product page lists \"Case Studies\" among its contents and says it's built for the new exam launched on July 9, 2026. Essentials currently costs $59 per three months (renewing quarterly) and includes 2 full practice exams (180 questions each), 10 mini exams and 330 extra questions; Plus is $79 per quarter with 3 full exams. Members and non-members pay the same, and it's English only. I used the pre-change version, so I can't judge the new case studies myself. My Study Hall experience is in [PMP Pass Review Part 1](/en/posts/pmp-pass-review-part-1).\n- **The 2026 ECO PDF:** It includes example screens of case and graphic-based questions. It's free and the most accurate way to see the format.\n- **Make your own practice:** Even old-format questions work. Pick long scenario questions and read them with the four steps above. You can also ask GPT to write scenario-style practice questions, but always check its answers and explanations against official sources. How I used GPT and NotebookLM is in [Part 7](/en/posts/pmp-gpt-notebooklm-study).\n\n## Wrapping Up\n\nCase studies are a new format, but I think they ask the same old question: are you a PM who understands the situation first, works with the team and stakeholders, and follows the agreed process? With longer scenarios, whoever has decided their reading order in advance has the edge.\n\nIn Part 10, I compare the PMP, CAPM and PMI-ACP. It's for anyone who doesn't have enough experience yet, or who's curious about the agile certification.\n\n**Next:** [Part 10: PMP vs CAPM vs PMI-ACP](/en/posts/pmp-vs-capm-vs-pmi-acp)\n\n**Start from the beginning:** [PMP Pass Review Part 1](/en/posts/pmp-pass-review-part-1)\n\n\nThe prices and requirements below come from PMI's official pages and store as of 2026. Both can change, so check the official [PMP](https://www.pmi.org/certifications/project-management-pmp), [CAPM](https://www.pmi.org/certifications/certified-associate-capm) and [PMI-ACP](https://www.pmi.org/certifications/agile-acp) pages before you pay.\n \n\n## The comparison table (2026)\n\n| | PMP | CAPM | PMI-ACP |\n|---|---|---|---|\n| Who it's for | Experienced project leads | Entry level, no experience needed | Agile practitioners |\n| Eligibility | 24–60 months of experience (depending on education) + 35 hours of training | Secondary school diploma + 23 hours of PM education; age 18+ | Secondary school diploma + 21 hours of agile training + 2 years of agile work in the last 5 (alternatives exist) |\n| Exam | 180 questions (170 scored + 10 unscored), 240 minutes, 2 breaks | 150 questions (135 scored + 15 unscored), 3 hours, 1 break | 120 questions (100 scored + 20 unscored), 3 hours, 1 break |\n| Fee (member / non-member) | Korea $405 / $655; US $425 / $675 | $225 / $300 | $435 / $495 |\n| Retake (member / non-member) | $275 / $375 | $150 / $200 | $335 / $395 |\n| To keep it (every 3 years) | 60 PDUs | 15 PDUs | 30 PDUs |\n| Latest update | New exam since 9 July 2026 | Exam content outline from 2023 | New exam since 8 November 2024 |\n\nOn paper the numbers look similar, but the three are aimed at quite different people. The PMP is for people who have led projects, the CAPM for people just getting started, and the PMI-ACP for people who work in agile teams. Let's take them one at a time.\n\n## PMP: for people who have led projects\n\nThis is the one I hold, so it's the one I can say the most about. As I wrote in [Part 1](/en/posts/pmp-pass-review-part-1), it isn't tied to a single industry or methodology. It tests whether you can lead a project while juggling people, process and business priorities.\n\n### Eligibility depends on your education\n\n| Highest education | Project leadership experience needed |\n|---|---|\n| Secondary school | 60 months |\n| Associate degree or vocational qualification (EQF level 5, new in 2026) | 48 months |\n| Bachelor's degree | 36 months |\n| PMI GAC-accredited degree | 24 months |\n\nThe experience has to fall within the last 10 years, and you also need 35 hours of project management training. An active CAPM waives those 35 hours.\n\nThe training rules get a little stricter soon. From 1 December 2026, live classes only count if they come from a PMI Authorized Training Partner (ATP), a China REP or an accredited higher-education program. Self-paced courses from any provider still count. Books and practice exams on their own never do.\n\nHow to write up your experience, and what happens if you're audited, is covered in [Part 4](/en/posts/pmp-experience-application-audit).\n\n### The exam: new since 9 July 2026\n\nThe new PMP exam is 180 questions (170 scored, 10 unscored) in 240 minutes, with two 10-minute breaks. The domains are People 33%, Process 41% and Business Environment 26%. Roughly 40% of the questions are predictive and 60% are agile or hybrid. [Part 5](/en/posts/pmp-2026-exam-changes-pmbok-8) goes through everything that changed.\n\nFor the record, I took the old version (180 questions, 230 minutes) on 3 July, just before the switch.\n\n### Fees: $405 / $655 from Korea\n\n\n\n*PMI's PMP page as seen from Korea: member price $405, full price $655.*\n\nPMI's store prices vary by region. The same exam costs $425 for members and $675 for non-members in the US store. I paid the $405 member price on 12 June 2026, plus $40.50 tax, so **$445.50** in total. The whole process from payment to booking at Pearson VUE is in [Part 3](/en/posts/pmp-application-pearson-vue-booking).\n\nA retake costs $275 for members and $375 for non-members. And once you pass, you need 60 PDUs every three years. I'll show you my actual plan for that in the [next post](/en/posts/pmp-60-pdu-renewal-plan).\n\n\n**Is PMI membership worth it?** For the PMP, it's an easy yes. From Korea, the gap between the member and non-member exam price is $250, and membership costs $139, so the exam discount alone pays for it with $111 to spare. Members also pay $100 less for a retake and $90 less to renew, and they get the PMBOK Guide 8th edition PDF free. For the CAPM ($75 off) and PMI-ACP ($60 off), the exam discount alone doesn't cover the membership fee, so weigh up the other benefits first.\n \n\n## CAPM: the entry-level option\n\nThe CAPM (Certified Associate in Project Management) is the one you can take with no experience at all. You need a secondary school diploma, 23 hours of project management education, and to be at least 18.\n\nThe exam is 150 questions (135 scored, 15 unscored) in three hours, with one break, and it's based on a 2023 exam content outline. It costs $225 for members and $300 for non-members, retakes are $150 and $200, and you keep it with 15 PDUs every three years.\n\nTo me, the CAPM's real value is as a bridge to the PMP. **An active CAPM waives the PMP's 35 hours of training.** If you don't have the experience yet but want the PMP someday, getting the CAPM first and building experience along the way is a perfectly good route.\n\nIt's a good fit if you are:\n\n- A student or a new graduate starting out\n- Moving into project management from another role\n- Already working on projects, but not yet at the PMP's experience bar (36 months with a bachelor's degree, for example)\n\n## PMI-ACP: for people on agile teams\n\nThe PMI-ACP (PMI Agile Certified Practitioner) is for agile practitioners. Think scrum masters, product owners and agile team members.\n\nTo apply, you need a secondary school diploma, 21 hours of agile training, and two years of agile work experience within the last five years. The experience part can be replaced by one of these:\n\n- One year of agile experience plus a PMI GAC-accredited degree\n- One year of agile experience plus an agile certification from another body\n- An active PMP\n\nThe exam changed on 8 November 2024. It's 120 questions (100 scored, 20 unscored) in three hours, with one break. The domains are Mindset 28%, Leadership 25%, Product 19% and Delivery 28%, so mindset and leadership together make up more than half. It costs $435 for members and $495 for non-members, retakes are $335 and $395, and it takes 30 PDUs every three years to keep.\n\nThe detail worth noticing is the last line of that list. **An active PMP covers the PMI-ACP's experience requirement.** If you want to go deeper into agile after the PMP, it's a natural next step.\n\n## Which one should you pick?\n\nNo need to overthink it. Start from where you are right now.\n\n| Where you are now | Pick | Why |\n|---|---|---|\n| You've led projects for 3+ years (with a bachelor's degree) | PMP | Covers predictive, agile and hybrid work, and it's widely recognized |\n| You're a student, a new graduate or changing careers | CAPM | No experience needed; waives the PMP's 35 training hours later |\n| You have some experience, but not enough for the PMP | CAPM | Build the basics while your experience catches up |\n| You're a product owner, scrum master or agile team member | PMI-ACP | Focused on agile mindset, leadership, product and delivery |\n| You already hold the PMP and want to go deeper into agile | PMI-ACP | An active PMP covers the experience requirement |\n\nOne thing to remember: the three-year figure assumes a bachelor's degree. With a secondary school diploma, the PMP asks for 60 months, or five years.\n\n### If you're in between\n\nIf you work on an agile team and have also led projects for more than three years, either one works. Choose the PMP if you want the broad, widely recognized credential, or the PMI-ACP if you want to show agile expertise specifically. And since the PMP takes care of the PMI-ACP's experience requirement, doing the PMP first isn't a bad order.\n\nThe three can also line up like this:\n\n> **CAPM** (while you build experience) → **PMP** (35 training hours waived) → **PMI-ACP** (experience requirement covered)\n\n## Why I chose the PMP\n\nMy reasons were simple. I had been leading projects in e-commerce and global software delivery for more than five years, so the experience requirement wasn't an issue. And I wanted something broad, not tied to one methodology, that people recognize anywhere in the world. That was the PMP.\n\nIf you lead projects without a \"project manager\" title, I'll cover why the PMP can matter even more for you in [Part 13](/en/posts/pmp-for-non-project-managers).\n\n## Up next: the three years after you pass\n\nIt took me seven weeks to get the PMP, but keeping it runs in three-year cycles. The PMP needs 60 PDUs every three years, the PMI-ACP 30 and the CAPM 15. In the next post, I'll share my first PDU approval email and my plan for earning 60 PDUs over three years.\n\n**Next:** [My 3-Year, 60-PDU Plan to Keep the PMP](/en/posts/pmp-60-pdu-renewal-plan)\n\n\n\n*My first PDU approval email, received on 3 September 2026: the webinar I watched on 31 August counted as 1.00 PDU. My PMI ID and the claim ID are covered.*\n\nThe email shows that one webinar was split across all three areas: Ways of Working 0.25, Power Skills 0.25 and Business Acumen 0.50, for 1.00 PDU in total. That's how the 8-per-area minimums fill up, a little at a time.\n\n### The learning doesn't stop after the exam\n\nHere's what struck me after that first PDU. PMI keeps you learning long after it hands you the certificate. Many of its webinars and courses are free for members, so keeping up with them becomes ongoing care for your certification and ongoing education at the same time. Some count as PDUs automatically; others just need a quick claim.\n\nIt isn't the grit-your-teeth kind of studying I did for the exam, which is exactly why I think I can keep it up for three years.\n\n## My 3-year plan: 42 Education + 20 Giving Back = 62\n\nMy cycle runs three years from when I earned the PMP in July 2026, so until around July 2029. Aiming for exactly 60 leaves no room for a slip at the end, so I built in a buffer of 2 and planned for 62.\n\n| | Year 1 (Jul 2026–Jul 2027) | Year 2 (Jul 2027–Jul 2028) | Year 3 (Jul 2028–Jul 2029) | Total |\n|---|---|---|---|---|\n| Ways of Working | 4 | 4 | 4 | 12 |\n| Power Skills | 5 | 5 | 5 | 15 |\n| Business Acumen | 5 | 5 | 5 | 15 |\n| **Education subtotal** | 14 | 14 | 14 | 42 |\n| Giving Back: education committee work | 4 | 4 | 4 | 12 |\n| Giving Back: working as a practitioner | – | – | 8 | 8 |\n| **Giving Back subtotal** | 4 | 4 | 12 | 20 |\n| **Total** | 18 | 18 | 26 | 62 |\n\nYear 1 already includes the 1.00 PDU I've earned (Ways of Working 0.25, Power Skills 0.25, Business Acumen 0.50).\n\nChecking the math against the rules:\n\n- Education 42: meets the minimum of 35\n- Ways of Working 12, Power Skills 15, Business Acumen 15: all at least 8\n- Giving Back 20: under the cap of 25, with working as a practitioner at exactly its cap of 8\n- Total 62: above 60\n\nA few choices behind the numbers:\n\n- **Extra Power Skills.** People was my Below Target domain on the exam, so I'm putting a little more into people skills.\n- **Only 20 in Giving Back.** Up to 25 would count, but I don't want to cut back on the learning side.\n- **Working as a practitioner in year 3.** It can only be claimed once per cycle, so I'll claim it in one go in the final year.\n\n### Where the PDUs will come from\n\n| Source | Category | 3-year target |\n|---|---|---|\n| PMI member webinars and eLearning | Education | 18 |\n| ProjectManagement.com | Education | 12 |\n| PMI Korea Chapter monthly seminars and PM Column Seminars | Education | 12 |\n| PMI Korea Chapter education committee work | Giving Back | 12 |\n| Working as a practitioner | Giving Back | 8 |\n| Total | | 62 |\n\n- **PMI member webinars and eLearning.** Some are free for members. Six PDUs a year is about one webinar every two months.\n- **ProjectManagement.com.** Once your account is linked to PMI, the PDUs report automatically.\n- **PMI Korea Chapter seminars.** Chapter events count as Education. The monthly seminars come with PDUs, and the online \"PM Column Seminar\" (PM 칼럼 세미나), held every two months, is free for members.\n- **Education committee work.** Volunteer roles in the chapter, like committee work, count as Giving Back. I'll write about the PMI Korea Chapter's education committee separately in [Part 15](/en/posts/pmi-korea-chapter-education-committee).\n- **Working as a practitioner.** Simply working in a role related to the PMP counts as Giving Back, up to 8 PDUs, claimed once per cycle.\n\n## Claiming PDUs and keeping proof\n\n### Where: CCRS\n\nYou report PDUs in PMI's CCRS (Continuing Certification Renewal System), which you reach from your myPMI dashboard. Some sources, like ProjectManagement.com, report on their own once your accounts are linked. Others, like my first webinar, need a claim that PMI then approves.\n\n### What: keep your evidence\n\nPMI can audit any certification holder, even after they've earned the credential. So for every PDU, I plan to keep:\n\n- The approval email (like my first one above)\n- A screenshot of the completion or attendance confirmation\n- The date, title, provider and number of PDUs\n- Two or three lines on what I learned\n- For volunteering, a note of what I did and when\n\n### When: don't leave it to the last minute\n\nSpread over 36 months, 60 PDUs is under 2 a month (about 1.7). Leave it all to the final year and it's 5 a month. So I'll build steadily in years 1 and 2, then wrap up year 3 by claiming working as a practitioner and paying the renewal fee. PDUs above 60 earned in the last 12 months carry over to the next cycle, up to 20, so a little extra at the end isn't wasted.\n\n\nMake a \"PMP PDU\" folder in your inbox and drop every approval email and completion screenshot into it. Three years from now, you won't have to dig for proof when it's time to renew.\n \n\n## Wrapping up\n\nGetting the PMP took me seven weeks. Keeping it runs in three-year cycles. Those seven weeks were short and intense; this time, I'm going for slow and steady. If you'd like to start from the beginning, [Part 1](/en/posts/pmp-pass-review-part-1) is the place.\n\nIn the next post, I'll talk about what has actually changed at work since I got the PMP.\n\n**Next:** [What changed at work after the PMP](/en/posts/pmp-what-changed-at-work)\n\n\nYou won't find client names or play-by-play meeting stories here. Partly that's about protecting client information, but mostly I wanted to write about how I work now, not about what happened on a particular day. The examples below are made-up scenarios that illustrate the point.\n \n\n## Where I work\n\nI'm a Global Tech PM at Concentrix. I run Shopify and Magento implementations and enhancements for enterprise clients: setting priorities, managing risk, running UAT (user acceptance testing), shipping releases and stabilizing things after launch.\n\nThe people I work with sit in client HQ teams, local business units in different countries, global vendors and overseas technical teams. To give you a sense of scale: I took on the enhancement and global rollout of a PDP (product detail page) generator SaaS for a global beauty group, across 5 brands and 27 e-commerce sites. One decision ripples across several brands and countries at once.\n\nBefore that, I was a Software Development PM at Hyperhire, running web, app, SaaS and blockchain projects. The developers I worked with were in India, Pakistan, Indonesia, Nigeria and Ethiopia. Five countries, and time zones all over the map.\n\nIn setups like these, I think projects go sideways because of words more often than because of skills. So most of what the PMP changed for me is about words and order.\n\nAnd for the record, I was doing all of this work before the PMP. The certificate didn't change my job. It slowly changed how I do it.\n\n## The first thing that changed: my vocabulary\n\nI've used words like scope, change request and risk for as long as I've been a PM. Studying for the PMP drew much sharper lines around them. These are the five terms I now deliberately keep apart in global meetings and emails:\n\n| Term | What I mean by it | Why I keep it precise |\n|---|---|---|\n| Scope | What we agreed to deliver, and what we agreed not to | Writing down the \"not\" part prevents crossed wires later |\n| Change request | A formal request to change agreed scope, schedule or cost | Even a small change needs a decision owner if it has an impact |\n| Risk | Something uncertain that hasn't happened yet but could | You can plan a response in advance |\n| Issue | Something that has already happened and is affecting you now | It needs fixing and reporting, not a plan |\n| Acceptance criteria | The conditions under which a deliverable counts as \"done\" | Separates \"looks done\" from \"is done\" in UAT |\n\nThe risk-versus-issue distinction has been the most useful one for me. \"This is a risk\" and \"this is an issue\" send completely different signals. The first says \"let's prepare.\" The second says \"let's act now.\" Mix them up, and people don't know how worried to be.\n\nWhen people with different native languages work together in English, one precise word can replace a whole paragraph. And since the PMP is the same exam worldwide, these terms are about as close to a shared language as project work gets.\n\n## Issues and changes: assess first, write it down first\n\nHonestly, my on-the-job instinct is \"just fix it.\" It showed in my [error log](/en/posts/pmp-error-log-method), too. The mistakes I kept repeating were picking a solution before finding the cause, and acting before analyzing the impact.\n\nThe Korean audio overviews I generated in NotebookLM while studying tell the same story. Two of the titles contain the phrase \"실무 본능\" (on-the-job instinct), and two more contain \"PM도 틀리는\" (that even PMs get wrong). What I listened to on my commute was, in the end, all about the gap between a practitioner's instinct and the PMP answer. I explain how I made and used those audio overviews in [Part 7](/en/posts/pmp-gpt-notebooklm-study).\n\n\n\n*The Korean audio overviews I made in NotebookLM while studying for the PMP in June 2026. Two titles mention \"on-the-job instinct,\" and two mention mistakes \"even PMs\" make.*\n\n### When an issue hits\n\nIn e-commerce, issues show up unannounced. Say error reports start coming in from the checkout step right after a release. My instinct is to fire off \"can you check this?\" to the dev team.\n\nThese days, before I send that message, I write down three things:\n\n1. **Impact**: who's affected, where, and how badly. Every country, or one payment method?\n2. **Nature**: is this an issue that's already happening, or a risk that might?\n3. **Who needs to know, and who decides**: who should be informed, and who should make the call?\n\nIt takes a few minutes. Those minutes keep the developers from digging in the wrong place, and they put the client and me in front of the same picture.\n\nThere are exceptions, of course. If checkout is down everywhere, recovery comes before analysis. As I wrote in [Part 1](/en/posts/pmp-pass-review-part-1), the PMP mindset has its own exceptions, like urgent risks, that call for immediate action. But the more urgent things get, the harder I try to hold on to \"how far, and why.\"\n\n### When a change request comes in\n\nE-commerce enhancement work brings a steady stream of small requests: one button label, one filter, one more country. Each looks tiny, but quite a few of them touch QA, translations and per-country UAT.\n\nChange management was also one of the areas I kept getting wrong while studying. The list above even includes an overview titled \"현업 PM도 틀리는 PMP 변경관리 함정\" (the PMP change-management trap that even working PMs fall into, 23:34). As the title says, it's an area where on-the-job instinct easily leads you to the wrong answer.\n\nSo now, the smaller the request, the less likely I am to just say \"sure\" out loud. At minimum, I try to capture these five lines:\n\n```text\n[Change request] e.g., add a shipping-info banner to the product detail page\n1. Request: who asked, and why\n2. Impact: schedule / cost / scope / quality (QA and UAT reruns) / risk\n3. Options: include in this release / move to the next release / don't do it\n4. Decision owner: who approves\n5. Decision: what was decided, and when\n```\n\nThat's the same order the PMP exam rewards: analyze the impact, get approval through the formal process, then update the plan and tell people. It can feel a bit pedantic at first. But once there's a record, the client's own contact has a much easier time explaining the change inside their organization. A change request protects the PM, and it protects the person on the client side too.\n\n## Asking about value, not just deliverables\n\nAnother title in my audio list is \"버그 없는 프로젝트가 인수를 거절당한 이유,\" which translates to \"why a bug-free project was rejected at acceptance.\" The title is a question in itself. Here's the answer I read into it: the team built what it said it would, but didn't give the client what they actually wanted out of it.\n\nIn PM work, it's easy to blur outputs and outcomes. \"We shipped the release\" and \"the feature is live\" are outputs. The reason the client paid comes after that: operations get easier, customers buy more easily, sites across countries run on the same standard.\n\nSo when I take requirements now, I add one more question:\n\n> Once this goes live, who gets better at what? And how will we know?\n\nThen I check whether the answer made it into the UAT acceptance criteria. A UAT that only checks whether a feature works is different from one that checks whether the intended outcome showed up.\n\nPMI has been moving in the same direction. The 2026 PMP Exam Content Outline (ECO) uses the PMBOK Guide 8th edition's definition of a project: \"a temporary initiative in a unique context undertaken to create value.\" It also adds a new Process task, \"Help ensure value-based delivery,\" and Business Environment grew from 8% to 26% of the exam. I covered all the changes in [Part 5](/en/posts/pmp-2026-exam-changes-pmbok-8).\n\n## Vendors and offshore teams: support over control\n\nConfession: my People result on the exam was Below Target, the lowest of my three domains. Writing a section about how I now work with people feels a little awkward.\n\nStill, the pattern behind my People mistakes was clear. I'd escalate before talking to the team, or try to replace someone before understanding the cause. PMI wanted the opposite. A PM isn't there to control the team but to support it and clear the way.\n\nThat lens matters even more with teams that sit in different organizations and time zones. The global vendors I work with now aren't my direct reports. They work for other companies, under other contracts. At Hyperhire, my developers were spread across five countries and very different time zones. Before asking \"why is this late?\", I think servant leadership starts with \"what's blocking you?\"\n\nThe blockers a PM can clear are surprisingly concrete:\n\n- **Vague requirements**: answer questions before they sit for a full day, or connect the person who can.\n- **Pending decisions**: get client-side approvals sorted before the other team's workday starts.\n- **Access and environments**: permissions, test data, staging. Things a developer can't fix alone.\n- **Shifting priorities**: boil \"what comes first\" down to one line and share it.\n\nSupporting a team doesn't mean lowering the bar. If anything, clear acceptance criteria up front are the biggest support you can give a vendor. Few things are more draining than working without knowing what \"done\" looks like.\n\n## Choosing between predictive and agile\n\nThe enterprise e-commerce projects I've worked on are hybrid by nature. Launch dates and budgets are often approved and fixed in advance, and UAT and releases have to pass defined gates. Meanwhile, post-launch enhancement requests and the operational backlog keep reshuffling priorities.\n\nWhat the PMP gave me is a way of seeing hybrid not as \"a bit of both\" but as a deliberate choice about what goes where. For an e-commerce project, the split might look like this:\n\n| Manage predictively | Run with agile |\n|---|---|\n| Launch date, budget, contracted scope | Enhancement backlog and priorities |\n| UAT schedule, acceptance criteria, release approval | Sprint-based development and demos |\n| Country rollout sequence | Post-launch stabilization issues |\n\nThe 2026 PMP exam itself is now about 40% predictive and 60% adaptive or hybrid. In PMBOK 8, tailoring is no longer on the list of principles, but the tailoring guidance is still there. I read that as: tailoring isn't a slogan. It's a judgment call you make every day.\n\n## One line on my résumé changed\n\nAfter the PMP, I changed the top line of my résumé to \"PMP® | Global Project Manager.\"\n\n\n\n*The \"you earned your PMP\" email from PMI, which landed in the early hours of July 4, 2026 (Korea time). It says a Credly digital badge follows by email within one to two weeks.*\n\nIn global work, I think those three letters act as a short introduction. To an HQ contact or an overseas vendor meeting you for the first time, PMP can read as:\n\n- You've led projects for a while (36 months with a bachelor's degree, and PMI randomly audits applications)\n- You've studied the same vocabulary and decision framework PMI defines\n- You keep learning, because the credential lapses without 60 PDUs every three years\n\nBut let me be honest: it's early. I passed in July, so as I write this, it hasn't even been three months. That's why there isn't a single \"thanks to the certificate\" story in this post. Three months is too short to tell one.\n\nAnd a certificate doesn't do the work for you. The numbers on my résumé, like a global consumer-electronics client's operational backlog dropping from 104 to 48 items and issue-resolution lead time falling by 27%, weren't produced by three letters. They came from the work itself. The PMP just gave me more precise language for describing that kind of work.\n\nThe letters start the conversation. The work is what keeps it going.\n\nNext, I want to make a slightly provocative case: that this way of thinking matters even more for people who aren't project managers, like developers, designers and marketers. And if you're curious about salaries and hiring, [Part 14](/en/posts/is-pmp-worth-it-salary-benefits) covers that with numbers and real Korean job postings.\n\n**Next:** [The PMP May Matter Most for Non-PMs](/en/posts/pmp-for-non-project-managers)\n\n\nThe scenes below aren't about real people. They're made-up examples to illustrate the point.\n \n\n### Developers: don't silently absorb it; raise it as a change request\n\nMid-sprint, someone asks: \"Can you just add this one field?\" The nice developer quietly takes it on. They cover it with late nights, testing gets squeezed, and the schedule risk piles up where nobody can see it.\n\nA developer with a PM's lens answers the same request like this:\n\n```text\nBefore we add the \"delivery note\" field, here's the impact:\n- Scope: changes the checkout form, the admin screen and how order data is stored\n- Schedule: if it goes into this sprint, payment testing slips\n- Risk: it touches the payment flow, so we need regression testing\n- Options: (A) include in this release (B) move to the next sprint (C) reduce scope\nWhich way should we go?\n```\n\nThe moment they send that message, the developer stops being \"the person pushing back on work\" and becomes \"the person helping us decide.\" It's a change request with an impact analysis attached, which is exactly the order the PMP exam rewards.\n\n### Designers: explain options by value and risk, not taste\n\n\"Option A looks nicer\" is taste, not persuasion. The same mockups land very differently when explained like this:\n\n> Option A cuts the number of steps a new customer goes through before their first purchase. It needs a new component, though, so the development scope grows. Option B reuses existing components, so the schedule risk is lower. If this quarter's goal is converting new customers, I'd go with A; if the launch date comes first, B.\n\nPut the options side by side in terms of value and risk, and propose the decision criteria too. When designers talk like this, a design review shifts from \"whose taste wins\" to \"what do we gain, and what do we accept.\"\n\n### Marketers: treat a campaign as a project\n\nPMBOK 8 defines a project as \"a temporary initiative in a unique context undertaken to create value.\" It has a start and an end, the conditions are different every time, and it leaves something behind. That's a campaign, exactly.\n\nSee a campaign as a project, and your questions change. If the landing page depends on a dev release, what happens to the ad budget already spent when the release slips? If orders spike, are customer service and logistics ready? What does \"done\" mean for the landing page? And is success for this campaign measured in impressions, revenue or repeat purchases?\n\nA marketer who asks these questions before launch becomes the colleague that dev, customer service and logistics all want to work with.\n\n### Ops people: write a one-page risk register first\n\nOps people remember \"this happened last year, too\" better than anyone. Take that memory out of your head and put it into a single table, and you have a risk register.\n\n| Risk | Likelihood | Impact | Response | Owner |\n|---|---|---|---|---|\n| Orders spike right before a major holiday and shipping slips | Medium | High | Announce shipping cutoffs early, line up extra staff | Logistics |\n| The payment provider's scheduled maintenance overlaps a promotion | Low | High | Check the maintenance calendar early, move the promotion window | Operations |\n| Inventory sync lags and sold-out items keep selling | Medium | Medium | Monitor the sync, agree on how to handle sold-out items | Systems |\n\nWith that table on the screen, a meeting moves from \"worrying\" to \"deciding.\" And a risk register written by the person closest to the work is likely to be more accurate than one a PM writes at a desk.\n\n## My own path made the case\n\nI'm confident about this mostly because of my own path. I didn't start out as a PM.\n\n- **University**: a dual major in business administration and software engineering at Sungkonghoe University in Seoul (2014–2021). One side taught me the language of money and customers; the other, the language of systems.\n- **Founder**: in October 2020, I started FeelBetter, a small e-commerce business of my own. It did about KRW 50 million in sales within four months.\n- **Online business manager**: in January 2021, I joined iCOOP (Natural Dream) as a PM and online business manager, launching on the Naver and Coupang marketplaces, two of the biggest online shopping channels in Korea. I coordinated sales, customer service, SCM, WMS, design and IT, and ran SEO, campaigns and ESG campaigns such as No Plastic.\n- **PM**: from April 2023, I was a Software Development PM at Hyperhire, working with developers in five countries. Since March 2025, I've been a Global Tech PM at Concentrix.\n\nMy titles kept changing, but what helped in every role wasn't the title. It was the PM's lens. When you run a small business, deciding what to sell and what not to sell is your scope. A marketplace launch was a project with six strands of work, from sales to IT, tangled together. Looking back, I was always doing projects, whatever my title said.\n\nThe PMP gave that lens a name and an order. That's why I see it less as \"the certificate for becoming a PM\" and more as \"a textbook for thinking like one.\"\n\n## A realistic path for non-PMs\n\nTo turn this into more than an idea, start from where you are now.\n\n### 1. Check your PMP eligibility first\n\nThe PMP requires experience before you can sit the exam. Under the 2026 Exam Content Outline (ECO), the requirements look like this:\n\n| Highest education | Project-leading experience required |\n|---|---|\n| Secondary school diploma | 60 months |\n| Associate or vocational degree (EQF level 5, new in 2026) | 48 months |\n| Bachelor's degree | 36 months |\n| Degree from a PMI GAC-accredited program | 24 months |\n\nIn every case, the experience must fall within the last 10 years, and you need 35 hours of project management training. When I applied, the window was still 8 years, and I went through the bachelor's route with 36 months.\n\n\n\n*PMI's PMP page viewed from Korea. Right under the title: \"3+ years of experience leading projects.\"*\n\nIf you're not a PM, the word to notice is \"leading.\" What PMI looks for in your experience entries is how you led the project. For each project, you describe its aim, the dates, how you led, whom you worked with, which activities you directed, and the outcome. Routine operational work and administrative tasks don't count, and overlapping months count only once.\n\nSo even if your title isn't PM, it's worth looking into if you can clearly explain what you led on a project. I go into how to write your experience in [Part 4](/en/posts/pmp-experience-application-audit).\n\n\nThe 35-hour training rule is about to change. From December 1, 2026, live classes count only if they come from a PMI Authorized Training Partner (ATP), a China REP or an accredited higher-education program. Self-paced online courses from any provider still count, and books or practice exams alone never do. An active CAPM waives the 35-hour requirement entirely.\n \n\n### 2. Not enough experience yet? Look at the CAPM\n\nYou don't have to just wait until you have enough experience. The CAPM, PMI's entry-level certification, requires no work experience at all. You need a secondary school diploma, 23 hours of project management education, and to be at least 18. The exam has 150 questions (135 scored, 15 unscored), takes 3 hours with one break, and costs $225 for members or $300 for non-members.\n\nThe CAPM's real advantage shows up in the next step. If your CAPM is active when you later apply for the PMP, the 35-hour training requirement is waived. What you study now becomes the next rung of the ladder. I compare the PMP, CAPM and PMI-ACP side by side in [Part 10](/en/posts/pmp-vs-capm-vs-pmi-acp).\n\n### 3. No exam plans? Start with PMBOK 8's principles\n\nEven if you have no intention of taking an exam, there's something worth reading: the six principles of the PMBOK Guide 8th edition, published in November 2025.\n\n- Holistic view\n- Focus on value\n- Embed quality\n- Accountable leadership\n- Integrate sustainability\n- Empowered culture\n\nThey're just six lines, but a developer or a designer can map each one onto their own work right away. PMI members can download the 8th edition PDF for free. I covered how it differs from the 7th edition in [Part 5](/en/posts/pmp-2026-exam-changes-pmbok-8).\n\nThere's also something you can try today. Before your next meeting, write the five questions from the top of this post at the top of your notes: scope, stakeholders, risk, change, value. Bring up just one of them in the meeting, and the conversation will start to feel different.\n\n## Wrapping up\n\nThe PMP is a certification for project managers, but the PM's lens can belong to anyone. In fact, the difference is bigger when someone who isn't a PM picks it up. I felt that every time my title changed.\n\nNext up is the most practical question of all: does the PMP actually help with salary and hiring? I went through PMI's salary survey and real Korean job postings to find out.\n\n**Next:** [Is the PMP Worth It? An Honest Look at Work, Salary and Hiring](/en/posts/is-pmp-worth-it-salary-benefits)\n\n\nLet me state my position up front. I haven't taken my PMP to the job market yet. So you won't find \"I got a raise\" or \"I got an offer\" in this post. I'll test for myself how well the PMP actually sells, and update this post with whatever I find.\n \n\n## My take first: it clearly helps experienced hires\n\nI passed in July, so it hasn't even been three months. I can't prove anything with my own results yet, but I'm fairly confident about two things.\n\nFirst, it clearly helps experienced hires. A recruiter has to size up a stranger's experience in very little time. The PMP is a summary that says: \"This person has led projects for at least a few years, reported that experience to PMI's standard, and passed the exam.\" Three letters at the top of a résumé do that explaining for you.\n\nSecond, in Korea, project management is only now settling in as a profession of its own, at least as I see it. So in places that need an objective way to show PM capability, the PMP gets used as a preferred certificate or even an application requirement. The job postings below show exactly that.\n\n## At work: shared language, structure, credibility\n\nI wrote about this in detail in [Part 12](/en/posts/pmp-what-changed-at-work) and [Part 13](/en/posts/pmp-for-non-project-managers), so here's the short version.\n\n- **Shared language**: you start using scope, change request, risk versus issue and acceptance criteria to mean the same things. The more countries and companies you work across, the bigger the difference.\n- **Structure**: you assess before acting on an issue, take changes in writing, and have a basis for choosing where predictive or agile fits.\n- **Credibility**: with global clients and vendors, the PMP is a standard that needs no explanation. At a first meeting, it signals \"this person works from the same framework.\"\n- **Even more for non-PMs**: developers, designers and marketers start speaking the language decision-makers use.\n\nThese benefits are hard to prove with numbers, though. I call them \"certain, but hard to measure.\" So let's move to the part we can measure: salary.\n\n## Salary: what the numbers say, and what they don't\n\nPMI publishes a project management salary survey called Earning Power. The latest, the 14th edition, came out in November 2025, based on 14,628 respondents in 21 countries surveyed in March and April 2025.\n\n| Item | PMI Earning Power, 14th edition |\n|---|---|\n| PMP holders vs non-certified | PMP holders report a 17% higher median salary |\n| US: PMP holders / non-certified | $135,000 / $109,157 |\n| US: certified 10+ years / under 5 years | $173,000 / $123,000 |\n\nThe numbers look attractive. But keep three things in mind when you read them.\n\n- **These are self-reported salaries.** They're what survey respondents said, not a collection of payslips.\n- **PMP holders already have experience, by definition.** You need at least 36 months of leading projects (with a bachelor's degree) just to sit the exam. So 17% doesn't mean \"the PMP raises your salary by 17%.\" It means \"the group of PMP holders has a 17% higher median salary.\"\n- **The same goes for 10+ years versus under 5.** People who have held the certificate longer also have longer careers. You can't credit the gap to time-with-the-certificate alone.\n\nBy the way, the \"PMP holders earn 33% more\" figure that still circulates online comes from an older edition. The number to quote now is the 14th edition's 17%.\n\n### What about Korea? No published PMP premium\n\nThe 14th edition's detailed country data is for PMI members only. Among publicly available sources, the edition with Korea figures is the 13th, published in 2023.\n\n| Item | PMI Earning Power, 13th edition (2023), South Korea |\n|---|---|\n| Korean respondents | 130 |\n| Overall median salary | US$65,363 |\n| PMP holders' median salary | US$66,857 |\n| Non-PMP median salary | Too few respondents; not published |\n\nDon't call the gap between the overall median and the PMP holders' median a \"Korean PMP premium.\" The overall median includes PMP holders, and the figure you'd actually need to compare against, the non-PMP median, was never published.\n\nIn short, there's no published evidence yet that the PMP raises salaries in Korea by any particular percentage. If you see such a number, check the source first.\n\n## Hiring: how Korean job postings use the PMP\n\nMore practical than salary averages are actual job postings. In Korea, postings usually list required qualifications and \"preferred\" ones (우대 사항), and some public institutions also score certificates during document screening. When I checked Korean postings, the same \"PMP preferred\" carried very different weight. It falls into three tiers:\n\n1. **Application requirement**: without this certificate (or one from a list), you can't apply.\n2. **Scored certificate**: it counts directly toward your document-screening score.\n3. **Preferred qualification**: it appears on the list of nice-to-haves.\n\nHere are the cases I could verify:\n\n| Organization | Posting | How the PMP was used |\n|---|---|---|\n| Government Employees Pension Service (공무원연금공단) | 2025 new hires, IT track (전산직), Sept 1–15, 2025 | One of the certificates that qualify you to apply; worth 20 of 100 points under project management (사업관리) in the certificate score |\n| Korea Asset Management Corporation (KAMCO, 한국자산관리공사) | 2024 entry-level grade 5, IT | Holding one IT certificate from a list that includes the PMP was required to apply |\n| kt cloud (KT Group) | 2024 H2 experienced hires, Cloud proposal consulting | Preferred: holders of IT/cloud certificates (PMP/PMBOK/…) |\n| kt cloud (KT Group) | 2024 H2 experienced hires, Cloud delivery management | Preferred: domestic or international CSP qualifications (PMP/PMBOK/…) |\n| Academy of Korean Studies (한국학중앙연구원) | 2025 professional staff (IT), March 2025 | Preferred: PMP, IT-PMP, TOPCIT level 3 or higher, or Professional Engineer Information Management |\n\nKOTRA's 2021 posting for an experienced software architect also listed \"PMP·CISA\" as preferred, but it's old, so take it as a footnote.\n\nNotice the pattern? They're all roles that manage IT work: computing, IT, and cloud proposal or delivery management. And at public institutions, the PMP can go beyond \"preferred\" to become an application requirement or a scored item.\n\n### What about IBK and KT?\n\nTo be honest, I'd also heard that the Industrial Bank of Korea (IBK) and KT give the PMP preference. But when I checked the postings myself, I couldn't find any evidence.\n\n- **IBK (IBK기업은행)**: the certificate bonus list for its 2026 H2 new-graduate hiring (applications August 28 to September 14, 2026; 175 hires) doesn't include the PMP. Neither did the 2024 H2 list. There was a 2026 contract posting for an \"IT project management (PMO) specialist,\" but I couldn't confirm its preferred qualifications.\n- **KT**: I found no KT Corporation posting that mentions the PMP. The only ones I could confirm came from kt cloud, a KT Group company.\n\nThis is how \"I heard company X prefers it\" spreads. If you believed it too, open the original posting of the company you're applying to. Focus on experienced-hire, PMO, IT project management and public-institution IT postings. Even within the same group or company, it varies by role and by year. In Korea, public-institution postings can be searched on job portals such as ALIO (잡알리오).\n\n## Cost versus benefit: what I actually spent\n\nTo judge the payoff, you have to look at the cost too. Here's what I spent, going by my receipts. My seven weeks of studying are in [Part 1](/en/posts/pmp-pass-review-part-1).\n\n| Item | Amount | Notes |\n|---|---|---|\n| PMI Study Hall Essentials (3-month subscription) | $53.90 | $49 + $4.90 tax, paid June 1, 2026 (now $59 per 3 months) |\n| PMP exam fee (member price) | $445.50 | $405 + $40.50 tax, paid June 12, 2026 |\n| Total | $499.40 | PMI membership and online course not included |\n\n\n\n*The order email for my PMP exam fee, received June 12, 2026. I covered the order number.*\n\nPMI membership costs extra: the current list price in the Korea store is $139. Joining still pays off for a simple reason. The exam costs $655 for non-members and $405 for members, a $250 gap that's bigger than the membership fee. Members also pay $100 less for a retake ($275 versus $375) and $90 less for renewal three years later.\n\n### Keeping it: $60 and 60 PDUs every three years\n\nThe PMP isn't one-and-done. Every three years, you need 60 PDUs and a renewal fee: $60 for members, $150 for non-members. Since free webinars, eLearning and chapter activities can cover PDUs, it's less about money and more about time and habit. My first PDU claim, 1.00 PDU, was approved on September 3.\n\n\n\n*My first approved PDU claim, September 3, 2026: 1.00 PDU for a PMI webinar I watched on August 31. I covered my PMI ID and the claim ID.*\n\nMy plan for earning PDUs over three years is in [Part 11](/en/posts/pmp-60-pdu-renewal-plan).\n\nAll in, getting to the exam cost me about $500 plus membership and a course, and seven weeks of evenings after work and weekends. For that to be worth it, I think at least one of two things has to be true: you're actually going after roles that ask for the PMP, or you use the mindset at work every day.\n\n## Verdict: who it clearly pays off for, and who should wait\n\n### It clearly pays off if you…\n\n- have led projects for three years or more (with a bachelor's degree) and are preparing for an experienced-hire move or a PM or PMO role\n- are targeting roles where postings actually mention the PMP, such as public-institution IT jobs, IT project management, or cloud proposal and delivery management\n- work with global clients, vendors or overseas teams and need a shared language\n- have plenty of experience but need a framework to explain it\n\n### It may not be the right time if you…\n\n- **don't have enough project-leading experience yet**: you won't meet the eligibility rules. The CAPM route I compared in [Part 10](/en/posts/pmp-vs-capm-vs-pmi-acp) comes first.\n- **only want a raise**: there's no published evidence of how much the PMP raises salaries in Korea.\n- **never see the PMP in postings for your target companies and roles**: that money and time may be better spent on core skills for the role.\n- **have no plans to earn 60 PDUs every three years**: the credential only means something while it's active.\n\n## Wrapping up: I'll test it on the market and report back\n\nHere's my conclusion. The PMP clearly changed how I work, and it's a certificate that public-institution IT postings and IT project management roles really use. What doesn't exist yet is Korean evidence that it raises salaries by any particular percentage. As for how well the PMP actually sells on the job market, I'll find out for myself and update this post.\n\nThe next post is the last in the series: how I joined the PMI Korea Chapter's education committee. Chapter volunteering also counts toward the Giving Back category of PDUs.\n\n**Next:** [From Reading Other People's PMP Stories to the PMI Korea Chapter's Education Committee](/en/posts/pmi-korea-chapter-education-committee)\n\n ![\"A](\"/images/posts/sindang-hurricane-park-dakbal/storefront-sign.jpg\")
\n ![\"Puffed](\"/images/posts/sindang-hurricane-park-dakbal/gyeranjjim.jpg\")
\n ![\"A](\"/images/posts/sindang-hurricane-park-dakbal/dakbal-on-burner.jpg\")
\n ![\"Yellow](\"/images/posts/sindang-hurricane-park-dakbal/noodles-in-pan.jpg\")
\n ![\"A](\"/images/posts/sindang-hurricane-park-dakbal/bean-sprouts.jpg\")
\n ![\"Fried](\"/images/posts/sindang-hurricane-park-dakbal/fried-rice.jpg\")
\n ![\"Red](\"/images/posts/sindang-hurricane-park-dakbal/revisit-october.jpg\")
\n ![\"A](\"/images/posts/volun-career-birdhouse-mentoring/banner.jpg\")
\n ![\"A](\"/images/posts/volun-career-birdhouse-mentoring/boards.jpg\")
\n ![\"The](\"/images/posts/volun-career-birdhouse-mentoring/birdhouse.jpg\")
\n ![\"A](\"/images/posts/volun-career-birdhouse-mentoring/lunch.jpg\")
\n ![\"A](\"/images/posts/volun-career-birdhouse-mentoring/slide.jpg\")
\n ![\"A](\"/images/posts/volun-career-birdhouse-mentoring/group.jpg\")
\n ![\"Three](\"/images/posts/sinyongsan-pancone-italian-lunch/focaccia.jpg\")
\n ![\"A](\"/images/posts/sinyongsan-pancone-italian-lunch/burrata.jpg\")
\n ![\"A](\"/images/posts/sinyongsan-pancone-italian-lunch/salad.jpg\")
\n ![\"Brown](\"/images/posts/sinyongsan-pancone-italian-lunch/risotto.jpg\")
\n ![\"A](\"/images/posts/sinyongsan-pancone-italian-lunch/gnocchi-gratin.jpg\")
\n ![\"Tomato-sauce](\"/images/posts/sinyongsan-pancone-italian-lunch/tomato-spaghetti.jpg\")
\n ![\"Linguine](\"/images/posts/sinyongsan-pancone-italian-lunch/vongole.jpg\")
\n ![\"Spaghetti](\"/images/posts/sinyongsan-pancone-italian-lunch/carbonara.jpg\")
\n ![\"Four](\"/images/posts/sinyongsan-pancone-italian-lunch/rack.jpg\")
\n ![\"A](\"/images/posts/sinyongsan-pancone-italian-lunch/gelato.jpg\")
\n ![\"A](\"/images/posts/hongcheon-weekend74-cafe/sidecar.jpg\")
\n ![\"The](\"/images/posts/hongcheon-weekend74-cafe/convertible-front.jpg\")
\n ![\"A](\"/images/posts/hongcheon-weekend74-cafe/unimog-truck.jpg\")
\n ![\"White](\"/images/posts/hongcheon-weekend74-cafe/pine-grove.jpg\")
\n ![\"A](\"/images/posts/hongcheon-weekend74-cafe/a-frame-fire-pit.jpg\")
\n ![\"A](\"/images/posts/hongcheon-weekend74-cafe/counter-planter.jpg\")
\n ![\"Round](\"/images/posts/hongcheon-weekend74-cafe/window-seats.jpg\")
\n ![\"Grey](\"/images/posts/hongcheon-weekend74-cafe/mezzanine.jpg\")
\n ![\"A](\"/images/posts/hongcheon-weekend74-cafe/entrance-sign.jpg\")
\n ![\"Dark](\"/images/posts/hongcheon-weekend74-cafe/cabins.jpg\")
\n ![\"A](\"/images/posts/hongcheon-weekend74-cafe/dongmakgol-lunch.jpg\")
\n ![\"A](\"/images/posts/yongsan-lau-pa-sat-singapore-food/mural.jpg\")
\n ![\"Noodles](\"/images/posts/yongsan-lau-pa-sat-singapore-food/laksa.jpg\")
\n ![\"A](\"/images/posts/yongsan-lau-pa-sat-singapore-food/laksa-side.jpg\")
\n ![\"Large](\"/images/posts/yongsan-lau-pa-sat-singapore-food/satay-prawns.jpg\")
\n ![\"A](\"/images/posts/yongsan-lau-pa-sat-singapore-food/commcomm-sign.jpg\")
\n ![\"A](\"/images/posts/yongsan-lau-pa-sat-singapore-food/wellness-table-poster.jpg\")
\n ![\"Framed](\"/images/posts/yongsan-lau-pa-sat-singapore-food/pumpkin-prints.jpg\")
\n ![\"Three](\"/images/posts/yongsan-lau-pa-sat-singapore-food/takeout-boxes.jpg\")
\n ![\"Three](\"/images/posts/yongsan-lau-pa-sat-singapore-food/desserts.jpg\")
\n ![\"A](\"/images/posts/yongsan-lau-pa-sat-singapore-food/bear-mousse.jpg\")
\n ![\"A](\"/images/posts/yongsan-office-lunch-nodeul-tea-picnic/picnic-table-spread.jpg\")
\n ![\"A](\"/images/posts/yongsan-office-lunch-nodeul-tea-picnic/crinkle-fries-box.jpg\")
\n ![\"A](\"/images/posts/yongsan-office-lunch-nodeul-tea-picnic/wrapped-burger-river.jpg\")
\n ![\"A](\"/images/posts/yongsan-office-lunch-nodeul-tea-picnic/burger-cross-section.jpg\")
\n ![\"The](\"/images/posts/yongsan-office-lunch-nodeul-tea-picnic/river-arch-bridge.jpg\")
\n ![\"A](\"/images/posts/yongsan-office-lunch-nodeul-tea-picnic/tea-tray-thermos.jpg\")
\n ![\"Two](\"/images/posts/yongsan-office-lunch-nodeul-tea-picnic/tea-poured.jpg\")
\n ![\"Shopfront](\"/images/posts/sangdo-nakji-hanmari-sujebi/storefront.jpg\")
\n ![\"Interior](\"/images/posts/sangdo-nakji-hanmari-sujebi/interior.jpg\")
\n ![\"Orange-bordered](\"/images/posts/sangdo-nakji-hanmari-sujebi/menu.jpg\")
\n ![\"A](\"/images/posts/sangdo-nakji-hanmari-sujebi/boribap.jpg\")
\n ![\"Clear](\"/images/posts/sangdo-nakji-hanmari-sujebi/sujebi.jpg\")
\n ![\"Octopus](\"/images/posts/sangdo-nakji-hanmari-sujebi/sujebi-bowl.jpg\")
\n ![\"Left,](\"/images/posts/sangdo-nakji-hanmari-sujebi/table.jpg\")
\n ![\"Udon](\"/images/posts/guui-chamchinara-tuna-omakase/udon.jpg\")
\n ![\"A](\"/images/posts/guui-chamchinara-tuna-omakase/chungha.jpg\")
\n ![\"A](\"/images/posts/guui-chamchinara-tuna-omakase/first-plate.jpg\")
\n ![\"A](\"/images/posts/guui-chamchinara-tuna-omakase/side-trio.jpg\")
\n ![\"Thick](\"/images/posts/guui-chamchinara-tuna-omakase/thick-cut-tuna.jpg\")
\n ![\"Browned](\"/images/posts/guui-chamchinara-tuna-omakase/grilled-plate.jpg\")
\n ![\"Thin](\"/images/posts/guui-chamchinara-tuna-omakase/abalone.jpg\")
\n ![\"Long](\"/images/posts/guui-chamchinara-tuna-omakase/tuna-round.jpg\")
\n ![\"Four](\"/images/posts/guui-chamchinara-tuna-omakase/seaweed-rice.jpg\")
\n ![\"Four](\"/images/posts/guui-chamchinara-tuna-omakase/pajeon.jpg\")
\n ![\"Ramyeon](\"/images/posts/guui-chamchinara-tuna-omakase/ramyeon.jpg\")
\n ![\"A](\"/images/posts/guui-chamchinara-tuna-omakase/storefront.jpg\")
\n ![\"Six](\"/images/posts/yongsan-crystal-jade-jjamppong/xiaolongbao.jpg\")
\n ![\"Two](\"/images/posts/yongsan-crystal-jade-jjamppong/dipping-sauce.jpg\")
\n ![\"Orange-red](\"/images/posts/yongsan-crystal-jade-jjamppong/jjamppong.jpg\")
\n ![\"A](\"/images/posts/yongsan-crystal-jade-jjamppong/jjamppong-noodles.jpg\")
\n ![\"Jajangmyeon](\"/images/posts/yongsan-crystal-jade-jjamppong/jajangmyeon.jpg\")
\n ![\"Golden,](\"/images/posts/yongsan-crystal-jade-jjamppong/scallion-pancake.jpg\")
\n ![\"A](\"/images/posts/yongsan-crystal-jade-jjamppong/spread.jpg\")
\n ![\"Amber](\"/images/posts/yongsan-crystal-jade-jjamppong/tea.jpg\")
\n ![\"Long](\"/images/posts/yongsan-office-lunch-nodeul-island/willow-riverside.jpg\")
\n ![\"A](\"/images/posts/yongsan-office-lunch-nodeul-island/poplar-lawn.jpg\")
\n ![\"Black](\"/images/posts/yongsan-office-lunch-nodeul-island/lunchbox-with-view.jpg\")
\n ![\"White](\"/images/posts/yongsan-office-lunch-nodeul-island/lunchbox-closeup.jpg\")
\n ![\"A](\"/images/posts/yongsan-office-lunch-nodeul-island/tea-mug-tumbler.jpg\")
\n ![\"A](\"/images/posts/yongsan-office-lunch-nodeul-island/magpie-lawn.jpg\")
\n ![\"A](\"/images/posts/yongsan-office-lunch-nodeul-island/flower-garden-willow.jpg\")
\n ![\"A](\"/images/posts/yongsan-office-lunch-nodeul-island/silver-grass.jpg\")
\n ![\"Diagram:](\"/images/posts/homo-ludens-gamification-at-work/play-en.jpg\")
\n ![\"A](\"/images/posts/apgujeong-auckland-pie-garage/storefront.jpg\")
\n ![\"Coffee](\"/images/posts/apgujeong-auckland-pie-garage/coffee.jpg\")
\n ![\"A](\"/images/posts/apgujeong-auckland-pie-garage/kiwi-brekkie.jpg\")
\n ![\"Fried](\"/images/posts/apgujeong-auckland-pie-garage/fish-and-chips.jpg\")
\n ![\"Sliced](\"/images/posts/apgujeong-auckland-pie-garage/minute-steak.jpg\")
\n ![\"Spaghetti](\"/images/posts/apgujeong-auckland-pie-garage/fishermans-pasta.jpg\")
\n ![\"Diagram](\"/images/posts/onboarding-is-an-experience/loop-en.jpg\")
\n ![\"The](\"/images/posts/yongsan-office-lunch-bike-ride/river-south-bank.jpg\")
\n ![\"A](\"/images/posts/yongsan-office-lunch-bike-ride/smoothie-bowl-lid.jpg\")
\n ![\"An](\"/images/posts/yongsan-office-lunch-bike-ride/smoothie-bowl-toppings.jpg\")
\n ![\"A](\"/images/posts/yongsan-office-lunch-bike-ride/seoul-bike-deck.jpg\")
\n ![\"Willow](\"/images/posts/yongsan-office-lunch-bike-ride/willow-railing.jpg\")
\n ![\"Small](\"/images/posts/yongsan-office-lunch-bike-ride/cloud-sky.jpg\")
\n ![\"A](\"/images/posts/yongsan-office-lunch-bike-ride/empty-cup-sky.jpg\"){kind=spacer}
\n ![\"An](\"/images/posts/yongsan-office-lunch-bike-ride/empty-bowl-bag.jpg\"){kind=spacer}
\n ![\"First](\"/images/posts/why-onboarding-matters-in-projects/firstrun-en.jpg\")
\n ![\"A](\"/images/posts/itaewon-hanwoomul-hanwoo-course/entrance.jpg\")
\n ![\"A](\"/images/posts/itaewon-hanwoomul-hanwoo-course/endive.jpg\")
\n ![\"A](\"/images/posts/itaewon-hanwoomul-hanwoo-course/beef-slices.jpg\")
\n ![\"A](\"/images/posts/itaewon-hanwoomul-hanwoo-course/meatball.jpg\")
\n ![\"A](\"/images/posts/itaewon-hanwoomul-hanwoo-course/tomato-cup.jpg\")
\n ![\"Thick,](\"/images/posts/itaewon-hanwoomul-hanwoo-course/raw-hanwoo.jpg\")
\n ![\"Thin](\"/images/posts/itaewon-hanwoomul-hanwoo-course/fries.jpg\")
\n ![\"Two](\"/images/posts/itaewon-hanwoomul-hanwoo-course/pan-sear.jpg\")
\n ![\"Thick](\"/images/posts/itaewon-hanwoomul-hanwoo-course/steak-noodles.jpg\")
\n ![\"Wide](\"/images/posts/itaewon-hanwoomul-hanwoo-course/pasta.jpg\")
\n ![\"Cubes](\"/images/posts/itaewon-hanwoomul-hanwoo-course/seared-cubes.jpg\")
\n ![\"A](\"/images/posts/itaewon-hanwoomul-hanwoo-course/soup.jpg\")
\n ![\"A](\"/images/posts/itaewon-hanwoomul-hanwoo-course/rice-and-soup.jpg\")
\n ![\"A](\"/images/posts/itaewon-hanwoomul-hanwoo-course/ice-cream.jpg\")
\n ![\"A](\"/images/posts/sinsa-not-bad-coffee-sandwich-hangang/storefront.jpg\")
\n ![\"Inside](\"/images/posts/sinsa-not-bad-coffee-sandwich-hangang/interior.jpg\")
\n ![\"Focaccia](\"/images/posts/sinsa-not-bad-coffee-sandwich-hangang/display-case.jpg\")
\n ![\"A](\"/images/posts/sinsa-not-bad-coffee-sandwich-hangang/sandwich-box-sticker.jpg\")
\n ![\"A](\"/images/posts/sinsa-not-bad-coffee-sandwich-hangang/seoul-bike-basket.jpg\")
\n ![\"Under](\"/images/posts/sinsa-not-bad-coffee-sandwich-hangang/namsan-tower-view.jpg\")
\n ![\"Two](\"/images/posts/sinsa-not-bad-coffee-sandwich-hangang/sandwich-in-box.jpg\")
\n ![\"A](\"/images/posts/sinsa-not-bad-coffee-sandwich-hangang/sandwich-cross-section.jpg\")
\n ![\"An](\"/images/posts/sinsa-not-bad-coffee-sandwich-hangang/iced-drink.jpg\")
\n ![\"Two](\"/images/posts/sinsa-not-bad-coffee-sandwich-hangang/friends-on-bench.jpg\")
\n ![\"Two](\"/images/posts/sinsa-not-bad-coffee-sandwich-hangang/riverside-benches.jpg\")
\n ![\"A](\"/images/posts/sinsa-not-bad-coffee-sandwich-hangang/pigeon-tree-shade.jpg\")
\n ![\"An](\"/images/posts/hangang-weekend-run-ride-sunset/tennis-court.jpg\")
\n ![\"Tteokbokki](\"/images/posts/hangang-weekend-run-ride-sunset/tteokbokki.jpg\")
\n ![\"Fried](\"/images/posts/hangang-weekend-run-ride-sunset/twigim-sundae.jpg\")
\n ![\"A](\"/images/posts/hangang-weekend-run-ride-sunset/grey-heron.jpg\")
\n ![\"A](\"/images/posts/hangang-weekend-run-ride-sunset/oksu-pier.jpg\")
\n ![\"A](\"/images/posts/hangang-weekend-run-ride-sunset/powerade.jpg\")
\n ![\"A](\"/images/posts/hangang-weekend-run-ride-sunset/hangang-bus.jpg\")
\n ![\"White](\"/images/posts/hangang-weekend-run-ride-sunset/outdoor-gym.jpg\")
\n ![\"Apartment](\"/images/posts/hangang-weekend-run-ride-sunset/riverside-evening.jpg\")
\n ![\"Orange](\"/images/posts/hangang-weekend-run-ride-sunset/sunset-clouds.jpg\")
\n ![\"The](\"/images/posts/hangang-weekend-run-ride-sunset/sunset-sun-low.jpg\")
\n ![\"Pink](\"/images/posts/hangang-weekend-run-ride-sunset/afterglow.jpg\")
\n ![\"A](\"/images/posts/hangang-weekend-run-ride-sunset/pork-bbq.jpg\")
\n ![\"A](\"/images/posts/yaksu-kyoomo-ramen/beige-ramen.jpg\")
\n ![\"Ramen](\"/images/posts/yaksu-kyoomo-ramen/orange-ramen.jpg\")
\n ![\"The](\"/images/posts/yaksu-kyoomo-ramen/ramen-by-window.jpg\")
\n ![\"A](\"/images/posts/yaksu-kyoomo-ramen/chashu-rice.jpg\")
\n ![\"Two](\"/images/posts/yaksu-kyoomo-ramen/karaage.jpg\")
\n ![\"Two](\"/images/posts/yaksu-kyoomo-ramen/sapporo-beer.jpg\")
\n ![\"A](\"/images/posts/yongsan-batong-brunch/counter.jpg\")
\n ![\"A](\"/images/posts/yongsan-batong-brunch/iced-tea.jpg\")
\n ![\"A](\"/images/posts/yongsan-batong-brunch/egg-burger.jpg\")
\n ![\"A](\"/images/posts/yongsan-batong-brunch/shrimp-avocado-toast.jpg\")
\n ![\"The](\"/images/posts/yongsan-batong-brunch/burger-and-juice.jpg\")
\n ![\"A](\"/images/posts/yongsan-batong-brunch/storefront.jpg\")
\n ![\"Cover](\"/images/posts/chiikawa-pmp-exam/pmp-exam-room-en.jpg\")
\n ![\"A](\"/images/posts/frieze-seoul-2026-coex-amex-invitation/vip-lounge-sign.jpg\")
\n ![\"A](\"/images/posts/frieze-seoul-2026-coex-amex-invitation/green-still-life.jpg\")
\n ![\"A](\"/images/posts/frieze-seoul-2026-coex-amex-invitation/carpet-relief.jpg\")
\n ![\"A](\"/images/posts/frieze-seoul-2026-coex-amex-invitation/jumak-lounge-sign.jpg\")
\n ![\"A](\"/images/posts/frieze-seoul-2026-coex-amex-invitation/lounge-drink-dessert.jpg\")
\n ![\"A](\"/images/posts/frieze-seoul-2026-coex-amex-invitation/water-drops-painting.jpg\")
\n ![\"An](\"/images/posts/frieze-seoul-2026-coex-amex-invitation/cat-on-synth.jpg\")
\n ![\"A](\"/images/posts/frieze-seoul-2026-coex-amex-invitation/thread-figure.jpg\")
\n ![\"A](\"/images/posts/frieze-seoul-2026-coex-amex-invitation/thread-corridor.jpg\")
\n ![\"Jayden](\"/images/posts/mexico-travel-05-guanajuato-san-miguel-de-allende/bus-yogurt-selfie.jpg\")
\n ![\"Grass](\"/images/posts/mexico-travel-05-guanajuato-san-miguel-de-allende/bus-window-fields.jpg\")
\n ![\"A](\"/images/posts/mexico-travel-05-guanajuato-san-miguel-de-allende/guanajuato-pink-wall-alley.jpg\")
\n ![\"Teatro](\"/images/posts/mexico-travel-05-guanajuato-san-miguel-de-allende/teatro-juarez-night.jpg\")
\n ![\"A](\"/images/posts/mexico-travel-05-guanajuato-san-miguel-de-allende/cup-noodle-rice.jpg\")
\n ![\"Musicians](\"/images/posts/mexico-travel-05-guanajuato-san-miguel-de-allende/estudiantina-church-facade.jpg\")
\n ![\"Players](\"/images/posts/mexico-travel-05-guanajuato-san-miguel-de-allende/estudiantina-double-bass.jpg\")
\n ![\"People](\"/images/posts/mexico-travel-05-guanajuato-san-miguel-de-allende/callejoneada-jarritos.jpg\")
\n ![\"A](\"/images/posts/mexico-travel-05-guanajuato-san-miguel-de-allende/san-miguel-red-corner-street.jpg\")
\n ![\"A](\"/images/posts/mexico-travel-05-guanajuato-san-miguel-de-allende/san-miguel-yellow-church-tower.jpg\")
\n ![\"A](\"/images/posts/mexico-travel-05-guanajuato-san-miguel-de-allende/san-miguel-green-taxi.jpg\")
\n ![\"Tortilla](\"/images/posts/mexico-travel-05-guanajuato-san-miguel-de-allende/san-miguel-tortilla-chips.jpg\")
\n ![\"A](\"/images/posts/mexico-travel-05-guanajuato-san-miguel-de-allende/san-miguel-los-milagros-guitarist.jpg\")
\n ![\"San](\"/images/posts/mexico-travel-05-guanajuato-san-miguel-de-allende/san-miguel-hilltop-view.jpg\")
\n ![\"Guanajuato](\"/images/posts/mexico-travel-05-guanajuato-san-miguel-de-allende/guanajuato-night-view.jpg\")
\n ![\"Wide](\"/images/posts/mexico-travel-05-guanajuato-san-miguel-de-allende/road-to-mexico-city.jpg\")
\n ![\"People](\"/images/posts/mexico-travel-05-guanajuato-san-miguel-de-allende/tienda-mide-bolivar.jpg\")
\n ![\"A](\"/images/posts/mexico-travel-05-guanajuato-san-miguel-de-allende/mexico-city-pink-taxi.jpg\")
\n ![\"A](\"/images/posts/mexico-travel-04-guadalajara-tequila-tour/hotel-arcade-terracotta.jpg\")
\n ![\"A](\"/images/posts/mexico-travel-04-guadalajara-tequila-tour/hotel-courtyard-plants.jpg\")
\n ![\"A](\"/images/posts/mexico-travel-04-guadalajara-tequila-tour/hotel-courtyard-column.jpg\")
\n ![\"A](\"/images/posts/mexico-travel-04-guadalajara-tequila-tour/hotel-lobby-mirrors.jpg\")
\n ![\"Jayden](\"/images/posts/mexico-travel-04-guadalajara-tequila-tour/agave-tasting.jpg\")
\n ![\"Jayden](\"/images/posts/mexico-travel-04-guadalajara-tequila-tour/agave-field-selfie.jpg\")
\n ![\"An](\"/images/posts/mexico-travel-04-guadalajara-tequila-tour/agave-field-tree.jpg\")
\n ![\"Rows](\"/images/posts/mexico-travel-04-guadalajara-tequila-tour/agave-field-wide.jpg\")
\n ![\"A](\"/images/posts/mexico-travel-04-guadalajara-tequila-tour/valley-view-from-road.jpg\")
\n ![\"A](\"/images/posts/mexico-travel-04-guadalajara-tequila-tour/distillery-agave-pinas.jpg\")
\n ![\"Grey-blue](\"/images/posts/mexico-travel-04-guadalajara-tequila-tour/roadside-agave-afternoon.jpg\")
\n ![\"Inside](\"/images/posts/mexico-travel-04-guadalajara-tequila-tour/church-interior-evening.jpg\")
\n ![\"A](\"/images/posts/mexico-travel-04-guadalajara-tequila-tour/church-facade-night.jpg\")
\n ![\"Corinthian](\"/images/posts/mexico-travel-04-guadalajara-tequila-tour/teatro-degollado-night.jpg\")
\n ![\"The](\"/images/posts/mexico-travel-04-guadalajara-tequila-tour/cathedral-spire-morning.jpg\")
\n ![\"A](\"/images/posts/mexico-travel-04-guadalajara-tequila-tour/rotonda-jaliscienses.jpg\")
\n ![\"Jeeps](\"/images/posts/indonesia-travel-04-bali-kintamani-blue-lagoon-canggu/jeeps-dawn.jpg\")
\n ![\"Sliced](\"/images/posts/indonesia-travel-04-bali-kintamani-blue-lagoon-canggu/dawn-breakfast.jpg\")
\n ![\"Lake](\"/images/posts/indonesia-travel-04-bali-kintamani-blue-lagoon-canggu/lake-batur.jpg\")
\n ![\"Jayden](\"/images/posts/indonesia-travel-04-bali-kintamani-blue-lagoon-canggu/me-on-jeep.jpg\")
\n ![\"White](\"/images/posts/indonesia-travel-04-bali-kintamani-blue-lagoon-canggu/lava-field.jpg\")
\n ![\"A](\"/images/posts/indonesia-travel-04-bali-kintamani-blue-lagoon-canggu/luwak.jpg\")
\n ![\"Coffee](\"/images/posts/indonesia-travel-04-bali-kintamani-blue-lagoon-canggu/coffee-beans.jpg\")
\n ![\"Tasting](\"/images/posts/indonesia-travel-04-bali-kintamani-blue-lagoon-canggu/tasting.jpg\")
\n ![\"Gray](\"/images/posts/indonesia-travel-04-bali-kintamani-blue-lagoon-canggu/padangbai.jpg\")
\n ![\"Spray](\"/images/posts/indonesia-travel-04-bali-kintamani-blue-lagoon-canggu/boat-cliff.jpg\")
\n ![\"A](\"/images/posts/indonesia-travel-04-bali-kintamani-blue-lagoon-canggu/rain-sea.jpg\")
\n ![\"Black](\"/images/posts/indonesia-travel-04-bali-kintamani-blue-lagoon-canggu/fins.jpg\")
\n ![\"Nasi](\"/images/posts/indonesia-travel-04-bali-kintamani-blue-lagoon-canggu/lagoon-nasi-goreng.jpg\")
\n ![\"A](\"/images/posts/indonesia-travel-04-bali-kintamani-blue-lagoon-canggu/canggu-dog.jpg\")
\n ![\"Two](\"/images/posts/indonesia-travel-04-bali-kintamani-blue-lagoon-canggu/tacos.jpg\")
\n ![\"Batu](\"/images/posts/indonesia-travel-04-bali-kintamani-blue-lagoon-canggu/batu-bolong-sunset.jpg\")
\n ![\"A](\"/images/posts/indonesia-travel-04-bali-kintamani-blue-lagoon-canggu/singaraja-beer.jpg\")
\n ![\"Two](\"/images/posts/indonesia-travel-04-bali-kintamani-blue-lagoon-canggu/beanbag-dog.jpg\")
\n ![\"Pink-tinged](\"/images/posts/indonesia-travel-04-bali-kintamani-blue-lagoon-canggu/pink-sky.jpg\")
\n ![\"A](\"/images/posts/indonesia-travel-04-bali-kintamani-blue-lagoon-canggu/crate-smoothie.jpg\")
\n ![\"Toast](\"/images/posts/indonesia-travel-04-bali-kintamani-blue-lagoon-canggu/crate-toast.jpg\")
\n ![\"A](\"/images/posts/mexico-travel-03-puebla-xochimilco-guadalupe/puebla-breakfast-three-sauces.jpg\")
\n ![\"An](\"/images/posts/mexico-travel-03-puebla-xochimilco-guadalupe/courtyard-papel-picado.jpg\")
\n ![\"A](\"/images/posts/mexico-travel-03-puebla-xochimilco-guadalupe/bishop-engraving-exhibit.jpg\")
\n ![\"A](\"/images/posts/mexico-travel-03-puebla-xochimilco-guadalupe/palafoxiana-golden-altarpiece.jpg\")
\n ![\"A](\"/images/posts/mexico-travel-03-puebla-xochimilco-guadalupe/palafoxiana-model-and-window.jpg\")
\n ![\"Jayden](\"/images/posts/mexico-travel-03-puebla-xochimilco-guadalupe/palafoxiana-selfie.jpg\")
\n ![\"Stone](\"/images/posts/mexico-travel-03-puebla-xochimilco-guadalupe/puebla-talavera-bollards.jpg\")
\n ![\"A](\"/images/posts/mexico-travel-03-puebla-xochimilco-guadalupe/puebla-colorful-street.jpg\")
\n ![\"Walls](\"/images/posts/mexico-travel-03-puebla-xochimilco-guadalupe/talavera-pottery-shop.jpg\")
\n ![\"Bags](\"/images/posts/mexico-travel-03-puebla-xochimilco-guadalupe/barrio-del-artista-azul-cobalto.jpg\")
\n ![\"Jayden](\"/images/posts/mexico-travel-03-puebla-xochimilco-guadalupe/puebla-sign-selfie.jpg\")
\n ![\"A](\"/images/posts/mexico-travel-03-puebla-xochimilco-guadalupe/xochimilco-night-canal.jpg\")
\n ![\"Old](\"/images/posts/mexico-travel-03-puebla-xochimilco-guadalupe/xochimilco-doll-hut.jpg\")
\n ![\"Close-up](\"/images/posts/mexico-travel-03-puebla-xochimilco-guadalupe/night-taco-cilantro-onion.jpg\")
\n ![\"A](\"/images/posts/mexico-travel-03-puebla-xochimilco-guadalupe/parque-mexico-dog-path.jpg\")
\n ![\"Jayden](\"/images/posts/mexico-travel-03-puebla-xochimilco-guadalupe/parque-mexico-intro-take.jpg\")
\n ![\"A](\"/images/posts/mexico-travel-03-puebla-xochimilco-guadalupe/guadalupe-stone-facade.jpg\")
\n ![\"From](\"/images/posts/mexico-travel-03-puebla-xochimilco-guadalupe/guadalupe-old-and-new-basilica.jpg\")
\n ![\"Jayden](\"/images/posts/mexico-travel-03-puebla-xochimilco-guadalupe/guadalupe-hill-selfie.jpg\")
\n ![\"A](\"/images/posts/mexico-travel-03-puebla-xochimilco-guadalupe/zocalo-cathedral-storm-clouds.jpg\")
\n ![\"Inside](\"/images/posts/indonesia-travel-03-bali-ubud-remote-work-villa/ev-taxi.jpg\")
\n ![\"Green](\"/images/posts/indonesia-travel-03-bali-ubud-remote-work-villa/tegallalang.jpg\")
\n ![\"A](\"/images/posts/indonesia-travel-03-bali-ubud-remote-work-villa/tis-cafe-duck.jpg\")
\n ![\"The](\"/images/posts/indonesia-travel-03-bali-ubud-remote-work-villa/tis-cafe-pool.jpg\")
\n ![\"The](\"/images/posts/indonesia-travel-03-bali-ubud-remote-work-villa/saraswati-pond.jpg\")
\n ![\"Jayden](\"/images/posts/indonesia-travel-03-bali-ubud-remote-work-villa/me-at-saraswati.jpg\")
\n ![\"A](\"/images/posts/indonesia-travel-03-bali-ubud-remote-work-villa/temple-gate.jpg\")
\n ![\"A](\"/images/posts/indonesia-travel-03-bali-ubud-remote-work-villa/villa-room.jpg\")
\n ![\"Palm](\"/images/posts/indonesia-travel-03-bali-ubud-remote-work-villa/bathtub-view.jpg\")
\n ![\"Green](\"/images/posts/indonesia-travel-03-bali-ubud-remote-work-villa/rice-field.jpg\")
\n ![\"A](\"/images/posts/indonesia-travel-03-bali-ubud-remote-work-villa/smoothie-bowl.jpg\")
\n ![\"A](\"/images/posts/indonesia-travel-03-bali-ubud-remote-work-villa/laptop-jungle.jpg\")
\n ![\"A](\"/images/posts/indonesia-travel-03-bali-ubud-remote-work-villa/yoga-studio.jpg\")
\n ![\"A](\"/images/posts/indonesia-travel-03-bali-ubud-remote-work-villa/coconut-bowl.jpg\")
\n ![\"An](\"/images/posts/indonesia-travel-03-bali-ubud-remote-work-villa/cafe-drinks.jpg\")
\n ![\"A](\"/images/posts/indonesia-travel-03-bali-ubud-remote-work-villa/ubud-nasi-goreng.jpg\")
\n ![\"The](\"/images/posts/indonesia-travel-03-bali-ubud-remote-work-villa/ubud-palace.jpg\")
\n ![\"Mangosteens](\"/images/posts/indonesia-travel-03-bali-ubud-remote-work-villa/mangosteen-bath.jpg\")
\n ![\"A](\"/images/posts/mexico-travel-02-mexico-city-tacos-chapultepec/street-taco-red-plate.jpg\")
\n ![\"Close-up](\"/images/posts/mexico-travel-02-mexico-city-tacos-chapultepec/street-taco-close-up.jpg\")
\n ![\"Jayden](\"/images/posts/mexico-travel-02-mexico-city-tacos-chapultepec/pink-tent-led-light.jpg\")
\n ![\"Jayden](\"/images/posts/mexico-travel-02-mexico-city-tacos-chapultepec/eating-under-pink-tent.jpg\")
\n ![\"Jayden](\"/images/posts/mexico-travel-02-mexico-city-tacos-chapultepec/leaving-taco-stand-night.jpg\")
\n ![\"A](\"/images/posts/mexico-travel-02-mexico-city-tacos-chapultepec/chapultepec-forest-path.jpg\")
\n ![\"White](\"/images/posts/mexico-travel-02-mexico-city-tacos-chapultepec/ninos-heroes-monument.jpg\")
\n ![\"A](\"/images/posts/mexico-travel-02-mexico-city-tacos-chapultepec/pink-building-below-chapultepec-hill.jpg\")
\n ![\"People](\"/images/posts/mexico-travel-02-mexico-city-tacos-chapultepec/cadets-castle-terrace.jpg\")
\n ![\"A](\"/images/posts/mexico-travel-02-mexico-city-tacos-chapultepec/castle-courtyard-arches.jpg\")
\n ![\"A](\"/images/posts/mexico-travel-02-mexico-city-tacos-chapultepec/siqueiros-mural-castle.jpg\")
\n ![\"A](\"/images/posts/mexico-travel-02-mexico-city-tacos-chapultepec/castle-terrace-skyline.jpg\")
\n ![\"A](\"/images/posts/mexico-travel-02-mexico-city-tacos-chapultepec/castle-garden-agave.jpg\")
\n ![\"People](\"/images/posts/mexico-travel-02-mexico-city-tacos-chapultepec/zoo-mexican-wolf-sign.jpg\")
\n ![\"A](\"/images/posts/mexico-travel-02-mexico-city-tacos-chapultepec/black-squirrel-railing.jpg\")
\n ![\"Blue-umbrella](\"/images/posts/mexico-travel-02-mexico-city-tacos-chapultepec/chapultepec-blue-umbrella-stalls.jpg\")
\n ![\"The](\"/images/posts/mexico-travel-02-mexico-city-tacos-chapultepec/monumento-revolucion-night.jpg\")
\n ![\"A](\"/images/posts/indonesia-travel-02-jakarta-business-trip-pepper-crab/office-duplex.jpg\")
\n ![\"A](\"/images/posts/indonesia-travel-02-jakarta-business-trip-pepper-crab/shophouse-cat.jpg\")
\n ![\"An](\"/images/posts/indonesia-travel-02-jakarta-business-trip-pepper-crab/panel-building.jpg\")
\n ![\"An](\"/images/posts/indonesia-travel-02-jakarta-business-trip-pepper-crab/empty-floor.jpg\"){kind=spacer}
\n ![\"View](\"/images/posts/indonesia-travel-02-jakarta-business-trip-pepper-crab/floor-view.jpg\")
\n ![\"A](\"/images/posts/indonesia-travel-02-jakarta-business-trip-pepper-crab/bsd-arch.jpg\")
\n ![\"An](\"/images/posts/indonesia-travel-02-jakarta-business-trip-pepper-crab/office-sunset.jpg\")
\n ![\"Mud](\"/images/posts/indonesia-travel-02-jakarta-business-trip-pepper-crab/crab-tank.jpg\")
\n ![\"A](\"/images/posts/indonesia-travel-02-jakarta-business-trip-pepper-crab/crab-scale.jpg\")
\n ![\"A](\"/images/posts/indonesia-travel-02-jakarta-business-trip-pepper-crab/banana-leaf.jpg\")
\n ![\"A](\"/images/posts/indonesia-travel-02-jakarta-business-trip-pepper-crab/pepper-crab.jpg\")
\n ![\"A](\"/images/posts/indonesia-travel-02-jakarta-business-trip-pepper-crab/blood-clams.jpg\")
\n ![\"A](\"/images/posts/indonesia-travel-02-jakarta-business-trip-pepper-crab/razor-clams.jpg\")
\n ![\"A](\"/images/posts/indonesia-travel-02-jakarta-business-trip-pepper-crab/airbnb-alam-sutera.jpg\")
\n ![\"A](\"/images/posts/indonesia-travel-02-jakarta-business-trip-pepper-crab/airbnb-sudirman.jpg\")
\n ![\"Korean-language](\"/images/posts/indonesia-travel-02-jakarta-business-trip-pepper-crab/lotte-alley.jpg\")
\n ![\"Jakarta](\"/images/posts/indonesia-travel-02-jakarta-business-trip-pepper-crab/sudirman-night.jpg\")
\n ![\"Satay](\"/images/posts/indonesia-travel-02-jakarta-business-trip-pepper-crab/arrival-satay.jpg\")
\n ![\"A](\"/images/posts/indonesia-travel-02-jakarta-business-trip-pepper-crab/padang-table.jpg\")
\n ![\"The](\"/images/posts/indonesia-travel-02-jakarta-business-trip-pepper-crab/bakso-solo.jpg\")
\n ![\"A](\"/images/posts/indonesia-travel-02-jakarta-business-trip-pepper-crab/bakso.jpg\")
\n ![\"An](\"/images/posts/mexico-travel-01-mexico-city-teotihuacan-balloon/air-canada-meal-kimchi.jpg\")
\n ![\"Air](\"/images/posts/mexico-travel-01-mexico-city-teotihuacan-balloon/maple-leaf-lounge-signature-suite.jpg\")
\n ![\"Vancouver](\"/images/posts/mexico-travel-01-mexico-city-teotihuacan-balloon/vancouver-takeoff-aerial.jpg\")
\n ![\"Window-seat](\"/images/posts/mexico-travel-01-mexico-city-teotihuacan-balloon/business-seat-tablet.jpg\")
\n ![\"Glazed](\"/images/posts/mexico-travel-01-mexico-city-teotihuacan-balloon/inflight-dinner-chicken-rice.jpg\")
\n ![\"A](\"/images/posts/mexico-travel-01-mexico-city-teotihuacan-balloon/clamato-glass.jpg\")
\n ![\"City](\"/images/posts/mexico-travel-01-mexico-city-teotihuacan-balloon/city-lights-before-landing.jpg\")
\n ![\"Blurred](\"/images/posts/mexico-travel-01-mexico-city-teotihuacan-balloon/metro-cuauhtemoc-from-taxi.jpg\")
\n ![\"A](\"/images/posts/mexico-travel-01-mexico-city-teotihuacan-balloon/pandora-hotel-room.jpg\")
\n ![\"Jayden](\"/images/posts/mexico-travel-01-mexico-city-teotihuacan-balloon/mirror-before-dawn.jpg\")
\n ![\"A](\"/images/posts/mexico-travel-01-mexico-city-teotihuacan-balloon/korean-shop-next-door.jpg\")
\n ![\"A](\"/images/posts/mexico-travel-01-mexico-city-teotihuacan-balloon/highway-before-dawn.jpg\")
\n ![\"A](\"/images/posts/mexico-travel-01-mexico-city-teotihuacan-balloon/balloon-inflating.jpg\")
\n ![\"Looking](\"/images/posts/mexico-travel-01-mexico-city-teotihuacan-balloon/under-the-balloon.jpg\")
\n ![\"A](\"/images/posts/mexico-travel-01-mexico-city-teotihuacan-balloon/sunrise-above-clouds.jpg\")
\n ![\"Teotihuacan](\"/images/posts/mexico-travel-01-mexico-city-teotihuacan-balloon/teotihuacan-from-balloon.jpg\")
\n ![\"A](\"/images/posts/mexico-travel-01-mexico-city-teotihuacan-balloon/balloon-over-ruins.jpg\")
\n ![\"A](\"/images/posts/mexico-travel-01-mexico-city-teotihuacan-balloon/cave-restaurant.jpg\")
\n ![\"The](\"/images/posts/mexico-travel-01-mexico-city-teotihuacan-balloon/pyramid-of-the-moon.jpg\")
\n ![\"From](\"/images/posts/mexico-travel-01-mexico-city-teotihuacan-balloon/sun-pyramid-from-moon-pyramid.jpg\")
\n ![\"Yellow](\"/images/posts/mexico-travel-01-mexico-city-teotihuacan-balloon/tortillas-on-comal.jpg\")
\n ![\"Looking](\"/images/posts/mexico-travel-01-mexico-city-teotihuacan-balloon/coyoacan-church.jpg\")
\n ![\"A](\"/images/posts/indonesia-travel-01-jakarta-istiqlal-kota-tua/airport-bus.jpg\")
\n ![\"Milky](\"/images/posts/indonesia-travel-01-jakarta-istiqlal-kota-tua/gukbap.jpg\")
\n ![\"The](\"/images/posts/indonesia-travel-01-jakarta-istiqlal-kota-tua/plane.jpg\")
\n ![\"An](\"/images/posts/indonesia-travel-01-jakarta-istiqlal-kota-tua/inflight-meal.jpg\")
\n ![\"A](\"/images/posts/indonesia-travel-01-jakarta-istiqlal-kota-tua/gomoku.jpg\")
\n ![\"The](\"/images/posts/indonesia-travel-01-jakarta-istiqlal-kota-tua/skytrain.jpg\")
\n ![\"A](\"/images/posts/indonesia-travel-01-jakarta-istiqlal-kota-tua/first-night-pool.jpg\")
\n ![\"Red](\"/images/posts/indonesia-travel-01-jakarta-istiqlal-kota-tua/rain-taxi.jpg\")
\n ![\"The](\"/images/posts/indonesia-travel-01-jakarta-istiqlal-kota-tua/tour-schedule.jpg\")
\n ![\"A](\"/images/posts/indonesia-travel-01-jakarta-istiqlal-kota-tua/guide.jpg\")
\n ![\"The](\"/images/posts/indonesia-travel-01-jakarta-istiqlal-kota-tua/dome-pillars.jpg\")
\n ![\"Looking](\"/images/posts/indonesia-travel-01-jakarta-istiqlal-kota-tua/dome-close.jpg\")
\n ![\"Jayden](\"/images/posts/indonesia-travel-01-jakarta-istiqlal-kota-tua/me-at-istiqlal.jpg\")
\n ![\"Jakarta](\"/images/posts/indonesia-travel-01-jakarta-istiqlal-kota-tua/cathedral.jpg\")
\n ![\"Rainy](\"/images/posts/indonesia-travel-01-jakarta-istiqlal-kota-tua/monas-horse.jpg\")
\n ![\"A](\"/images/posts/indonesia-travel-01-jakarta-istiqlal-kota-tua/bajaj.jpg\")
\n ![\"Kota](\"/images/posts/indonesia-travel-01-jakarta-istiqlal-kota-tua/bank-museum.jpg\")
\n ![\"The](\"/images/posts/indonesia-travel-01-jakarta-istiqlal-kota-tua/history-museum.jpg\")
\n ![\"Chicken](\"/images/posts/indonesia-travel-01-jakarta-istiqlal-kota-tua/satay-mie-goreng.jpg\")
\n ![\"A](\"/images/posts/indonesia-travel-01-jakarta-istiqlal-kota-tua/nasi-goreng.jpg\")
\n ![\"A](\"/images/posts/indonesia-travel-01-jakarta-istiqlal-kota-tua/wet-street.jpg\")
\n ![\"Raindrops](\"/images/posts/europe-travel-08-rome-italian-food-going-home/rome-train-rain-window.jpg\")
\n ![\"A](\"/images/posts/europe-travel-08-rome-italian-food-going-home/termini-platform.jpg\")
\n ![\"A](\"/images/posts/europe-travel-08-rome-italian-food-going-home/rome-arcade-night.jpg\")
\n ![\"The](\"/images/posts/europe-travel-08-rome-italian-food-going-home/column-immaculate-conception.jpg\")
\n ![\"Gold](\"/images/posts/europe-travel-08-rome-italian-food-going-home/le-reve-de-naim-bar.jpg\")
\n ![\"Round](\"/images/posts/europe-travel-08-rome-italian-food-going-home/bar-spread-flatbreads.jpg\")
\n ![\"The](\"/images/posts/europe-travel-08-rome-italian-food-going-home/tam-bus-morning.jpg\")
\n ![\"The](\"/images/posts/europe-travel-08-rome-italian-food-going-home/colosseum-from-window.jpg\")
\n ![\"Six](\"/images/posts/europe-travel-08-rome-italian-food-going-home/milan-naviglio-flatbread.jpg\")
\n ![\"Pizza](\"/images/posts/europe-travel-08-rome-italian-food-going-home/venice-farini-pizza.jpg\")
\n ![\"Squid](\"/images/posts/europe-travel-08-rome-italian-food-going-home/venice-squid-ink-pasta.jpg\")
\n ![\"Chocolate-chip](\"/images/posts/europe-travel-08-rome-italian-food-going-home/venice-cannoli.jpg\")
\n ![\"A](\"/images/posts/europe-travel-08-rome-italian-food-going-home/gislon-scallop.jpg\")
\n ![\"Tomato](\"/images/posts/europe-travel-08-rome-italian-food-going-home/venice-seafood-pasta.jpg\")
\n ![\"Grilled](\"/images/posts/europe-travel-08-rome-italian-food-going-home/milan-grigliata-di-pesce.jpg\")
\n ![\"Thick](\"/images/posts/europe-travel-08-rome-italian-food-going-home/rome-dinner-before-egypt.jpg\")
\n ![\"A](\"/images/posts/europe-travel-08-rome-italian-food-going-home/fiumicino-burrata-pizza.jpg\")
\n ![\"Gate](\"/images/posts/europe-travel-08-rome-italian-food-going-home/taipei-flight-gate.jpg\")
\n ![\"The](\"/images/posts/europe-travel-08-rome-italian-food-going-home/takeoff-rome-coast.jpg\")
\n ![\"Wonton](\"/images/posts/europe-travel-08-rome-italian-food-going-home/taipei-wonton-noodles.jpg\")
\n ![\"A](\"/images/posts/europe-travel-08-rome-italian-food-going-home/wonton-on-spoon.jpg\")
\n ![\"Dozens](\"/images/posts/europe-travel-08-rome-italian-food-going-home/taipei-scooters-rain.jpg\")
\n ![\"A](\"/images/posts/europe-travel-07-sharm-el-sheikh-egypt/rome-dinner-la-lupa.jpg\")
\n ![\"A](\"/images/posts/europe-travel-07-sharm-el-sheikh-egypt/croissant-baladin-beer.jpg\")
\n ![\"Gate](\"/images/posts/europe-travel-07-sharm-el-sheikh-egypt/wizz-air-departure-board.jpg\")
\n ![\"Sand-colored](\"/images/posts/europe-travel-07-sharm-el-sheikh-egypt/desert-from-plane.jpg\")
\n ![\"A](\"/images/posts/europe-travel-07-sharm-el-sheikh-egypt/visa-and-banks-sign.jpg\")
\n ![\"Travelers](\"/images/posts/europe-travel-07-sharm-el-sheikh-egypt/arrivals-hall-queue.jpg\")
\n ![\"A](\"/images/posts/europe-travel-07-sharm-el-sheikh-egypt/welcome-to-sharm.jpg\")
\n ![\"The](\"/images/posts/europe-travel-07-sharm-el-sheikh-egypt/parrotel-entrance.jpg\")
\n ![\"A](\"/images/posts/europe-travel-07-sharm-el-sheikh-egypt/resort-pool-bridge.jpg\")
\n ![\"A](\"/images/posts/europe-travel-07-sharm-el-sheikh-egypt/sharks-bay-entrance.jpg\")
\n ![\"A](\"/images/posts/europe-travel-07-sharm-el-sheikh-egypt/sharks-bay-beach-pier.jpg\")
\n ![\"A](\"/images/posts/europe-travel-07-sharm-el-sheikh-egypt/parachute-close-up.jpg\")
\n ![\"The](\"/images/posts/europe-travel-07-sharm-el-sheikh-egypt/parasailing-from-boat.jpg\")
\n ![\"Buildings](\"/images/posts/europe-travel-07-sharm-el-sheikh-egypt/cliff-beach-from-water.jpg\")
\n ![\"The](\"/images/posts/europe-travel-07-sharm-el-sheikh-egypt/red-sea-sunset.jpg\")
\n ![\"A](\"/images/posts/europe-travel-07-sharm-el-sheikh-egypt/buffet-dinner-plate.jpg\")
\n ![\"Red](\"/images/posts/europe-travel-07-sharm-el-sheikh-egypt/quad-bikes-sunrise.jpg\")
\n ![\"Jayden](\"/images/posts/europe-travel-07-sharm-el-sheikh-egypt/me-on-quad-bike.jpg\")
\n ![\"A](\"/images/posts/europe-travel-07-sharm-el-sheikh-egypt/holding-up-a-rock.jpg\")
\n ![\"A](\"/images/posts/europe-travel-07-sharm-el-sheikh-egypt/bedouin-camp-camel.jpg\")
\n ![\"A](\"/images/posts/europe-travel-07-sharm-el-sheikh-egypt/camel-saddle-pepsi-crate.jpg\")
\n ![\"Jayden](\"/images/posts/europe-travel-07-sharm-el-sheikh-egypt/me-on-camel.jpg\")
\n ![\"The](\"/images/posts/europe-travel-07-sharm-el-sheikh-egypt/calm-morning-sea.jpg\")
\n ![\"The](\"/images/posts/ansan-qingdao-malatang-yangkkochi/storefront.jpg\")
\n ![\"A](\"/images/posts/ansan-qingdao-malatang-yangkkochi/interior.jpg\")
\n ![\"Bean](\"/images/posts/ansan-qingdao-malatang-yangkkochi/side-dishes.jpg\")
\n ![\"A](\"/images/posts/ansan-qingdao-malatang-yangkkochi/skewers-raw.jpg\")
\n ![\"Lamb](\"/images/posts/ansan-qingdao-malatang-yangkkochi/skewers-grill.jpg\")
\n ![\"A](\"/images/posts/ansan-qingdao-malatang-yangkkochi/skewers-turning.jpg\")
\n ![\"A](\"/images/posts/ansan-qingdao-malatang-yangkkochi/cumin.jpg\")
\n ![\"Red](\"/images/posts/ansan-qingdao-malatang-yangkkochi/mapo-tofu.jpg\")
\n ![\"A](\"/images/posts/ansan-qingdao-malatang-yangkkochi/onmyeon.jpg\")
\n ![\"An](\"/images/posts/namdaemun-dakjinmi-gangwonjip-dakgomtang/alley-sign.jpg\")
\n ![\"The](\"/images/posts/namdaemun-dakjinmi-gangwonjip-dakgomtang/entrance.jpg\")
\n ![\"A](\"/images/posts/namdaemun-dakjinmi-gangwonjip-dakgomtang/kitchen.jpg\")
\n ![\"A](\"/images/posts/namdaemun-dakjinmi-gangwonjip-dakgomtang/table.jpg\")
\n ![\"Kimchi,](\"/images/posts/namdaemun-dakjinmi-gangwonjip-dakgomtang/side-dishes.jpg\")
\n ![\"Clear](\"/images/posts/namdaemun-dakjinmi-gangwonjip-dakgomtang/broth.jpg\")
\n ![\"A](\"/images/posts/namdaemun-dakjinmi-gangwonjip-dakgomtang/chicken-plate.jpg\")
\n ![\"A](\"/images/posts/namdaemun-dakjinmi-gangwonjip-dakgomtang/chicken-skin.jpg\")
\n ![\"Rice](\"/images/posts/namdaemun-dakjinmi-gangwonjip-dakgomtang/rice-in-broth.jpg\")
\n ![\"An](\"/images/posts/namdaemun-dakjinmi-gangwonjip-dakgomtang/empty-pot.jpg\"){kind=spacer}
\n ![\"The](\"/images/posts/namdaemun-dakjinmi-gangwonjip-dakgomtang/menu.jpg\")
\n ![\"The](\"/images/posts/namdaemun-dakjinmi-gangwonjip-dakgomtang/hours.jpg\")
\n ![\"Crowds](\"/images/posts/namdaemun-dakjinmi-gangwonjip-dakgomtang/namdaemun-market.jpg\")
\n ![\"Jayden](\"/images/posts/europe-travel-06-florence-pompeii-positano/florence-old-print-shop.jpg\")
\n ![\"The](\"/images/posts/europe-travel-06-florence-pompeii-positano/duomo-facade.jpg\")
\n ![\"A](\"/images/posts/europe-travel-06-florence-pompeii-positano/caffe-gilli-table.jpg\")
\n ![\"A](\"/images/posts/europe-travel-06-florence-pompeii-positano/arno-evening.jpg\")
\n ![\"A](\"/images/posts/europe-travel-06-florence-pompeii-positano/michelangelo-guinness.jpg\")
\n ![\"Florence](\"/images/posts/europe-travel-06-florence-pompeii-positano/michelangelo-night-view.jpg\")
\n ![\"The](\"/images/posts/europe-travel-06-florence-pompeii-positano/piazzale-david.jpg\")
\n ![\"A](\"/images/posts/europe-travel-06-florence-pompeii-positano/dall-oste-steak.jpg\")
\n ![\"Only](\"/images/posts/europe-travel-06-florence-pompeii-positano/duomo-dome-night.jpg\")
\n ![\"A](\"/images/posts/europe-travel-06-florence-pompeii-positano/pompeii-street-vesuvius.jpg\")
\n ![\"A](\"/images/posts/europe-travel-06-florence-pompeii-positano/pompeii-forum-centaur.jpg\")
\n ![\"A](\"/images/posts/europe-travel-06-florence-pompeii-positano/cave-canem-mosaic.jpg\")
\n ![\"The](\"/images/posts/europe-travel-06-florence-pompeii-positano/alexander-mosaic-rain.jpg\")
\n ![\"A](\"/images/posts/europe-travel-06-florence-pompeii-positano/pompeii-plaster-cast.jpg\")
\n ![\"The](\"/images/posts/europe-travel-06-florence-pompeii-positano/stabian-baths-ceiling.jpg\")
\n ![\"The](\"/images/posts/europe-travel-06-florence-pompeii-positano/positano-coast-view.jpg\")
\n ![\"Positano's](\"/images/posts/europe-travel-06-florence-pompeii-positano/positano-beach-grey.jpg\")
\n ![\"A](\"/images/posts/europe-travel-06-florence-pompeii-positano/positano-lemon-dessert.jpg\")
\n ![\"A](\"/images/posts/europe-travel-06-florence-pompeii-positano/olive-young-lemon-candy.jpg\")
\n ![\"A](\"/images/posts/europe-travel-06-florence-pompeii-positano/positano-red-wall-street.jpg\")
\n ![\"Four](\"/images/posts/europe-travel-05-venice-san-giorgio-burano/san-simeone-steps.jpg\")
\n ![\"A](\"/images/posts/europe-travel-05-venice-san-giorgio-burano/side-canal-boat.jpg\")
\n ![\"The](\"/images/posts/europe-travel-05-venice-san-giorgio-burano/rialto-golden-hour.jpg\")
\n ![\"A](\"/images/posts/europe-travel-05-venice-san-giorgio-burano/bell-tower-night.jpg\")
\n ![\"The](\"/images/posts/europe-travel-05-venice-san-giorgio-burano/grand-canal-water-level.jpg\")
\n ![\"Jayden](\"/images/posts/europe-travel-05-venice-san-giorgio-burano/accademia-bridge.jpg\")
\n ![\"Wide](\"/images/posts/europe-travel-05-venice-san-giorgio-burano/giudecca-wide-water.jpg\")
\n ![\"Jayden](\"/images/posts/europe-travel-05-venice-san-giorgio-burano/vaporetto-seat.jpg\")
\n ![\"Jayden](\"/images/posts/europe-travel-05-venice-san-giorgio-burano/tower-window-camera.jpg\")
\n ![\"The](\"/images/posts/europe-travel-05-venice-san-giorgio-burano/san-giorgio-dome-from-tower.jpg\")
\n ![\"Venice's](\"/images/posts/europe-travel-05-venice-san-giorgio-burano/san-marco-panorama.jpg\")
\n ![\"From](\"/images/posts/europe-travel-05-venice-san-giorgio-burano/maze-garden-cloister.jpg\")
\n ![\"Dark](\"/images/posts/europe-travel-05-venice-san-giorgio-burano/choir-stalls.jpg\")
\n ![\"A](\"/images/posts/europe-travel-05-venice-san-giorgio-burano/seagull-san-marco.jpg\")
\n ![\"San](\"/images/posts/europe-travel-05-venice-san-giorgio-burano/halo-over-san-giorgio.jpg\")
\n ![\"Pink](\"/images/posts/europe-travel-05-venice-san-giorgio-burano/murano-canal.jpg\")
\n ![\"The](\"/images/posts/europe-travel-05-venice-san-giorgio-burano/burano-leaning-tower.jpg\")
\n ![\"A](\"/images/posts/europe-travel-05-venice-san-giorgio-burano/burano-canal-from-bridge.jpg\")
\n ![\"White](\"/images/posts/europe-travel-05-venice-san-giorgio-burano/burano-laundry.jpg\")
\n ![\"A](\"/images/posts/europe-travel-05-venice-san-giorgio-burano/burano-striped-curtain.jpg\")
\n ![\"A](\"/images/posts/europe-travel-05-venice-san-giorgio-burano/murano-glass-window.jpg\")
\n ![\"Three](\"/images/posts/europe-travel-05-venice-san-giorgio-burano/burano-three-photographers.jpg\")
\n ![\"Jayden](\"/images/posts/europe-travel-05-venice-san-giorgio-burano/burano-green-bench.jpg\")
\n ![\"Wang](\"/images/posts/nakseongdae-wang-gopchang-naejangtang/menu-board.jpg\")
\n ![\"A](\"/images/posts/nakseongdae-wang-gopchang-naejangtang/gopchang-guide.jpg\")
\n ![\"Bubbling](\"/images/posts/nakseongdae-wang-gopchang-naejangtang/naejangtang.jpg\")
\n ![\"A](\"/images/posts/nakseongdae-wang-gopchang-naejangtang/gop-spoon.jpg\")
\n ![\"A](\"/images/posts/nakseongdae-wang-gopchang-naejangtang/perilla-jar.jpg\")
\n ![\"A](\"/images/posts/nakseongdae-wang-gopchang-naejangtang/perilla-topping.jpg\")
\n ![\"Kkakdugi,](\"/images/posts/nakseongdae-wang-gopchang-naejangtang/banchan.jpg\")
\n ![\"A](\"/images/posts/nakseongdae-wang-gopchang-naejangtang/graffiti-room.jpg\")
\n ![\"Round](\"/images/posts/nakseongdae-wang-gopchang-naejangtang/interior.jpg\")
\n ![\"A](\"/images/posts/europe-travel-04-milan-duomo-san-siro/parini-statue-cordusio.jpg\")
\n ![\"The](\"/images/posts/europe-travel-04-milan-duomo-san-siro/starbucks-reserve-wall.jpg\")
\n ![\"A](\"/images/posts/europe-travel-04-milan-duomo-san-siro/sforzesco-moat-lawn.jpg\")
\n ![\"The](\"/images/posts/europe-travel-04-milan-duomo-san-siro/filarete-tower.jpg\")
\n ![\"A](\"/images/posts/europe-travel-04-milan-duomo-san-siro/sforzesco-round-tower.jpg\")
\n ![\"A](\"/images/posts/europe-travel-04-milan-duomo-san-siro/needle-thread-knot.jpg\")
\n ![\"The](\"/images/posts/europe-travel-04-milan-duomo-san-siro/naviglio-grande-banks.jpg\")
\n ![\"A](\"/images/posts/europe-travel-04-milan-duomo-san-siro/navigami-boat.jpg\")
\n ![\"A](\"/images/posts/europe-travel-04-milan-duomo-san-siro/village-cafe-happy-hour.jpg\")
\n ![\"A](\"/images/posts/europe-travel-04-milan-duomo-san-siro/naviglio-courtyard-passage.jpg\")
\n ![\"Inside](\"/images/posts/europe-travel-04-milan-duomo-san-siro/naviglio-church-altar.jpg\")
\n ![\"Six](\"/images/posts/europe-travel-04-milan-duomo-san-siro/aperitivo-flatbread.jpg\")
\n ![\"A](\"/images/posts/europe-travel-04-milan-duomo-san-siro/yellow-tram-evening.jpg\")
\n ![\"The](\"/images/posts/europe-travel-04-milan-duomo-san-siro/duomo-grey-sky.jpg\")
\n ![\"An](\"/images/posts/europe-travel-04-milan-duomo-san-siro/poretti-heineken.jpg\")
\n ![\"Grilled](\"/images/posts/europe-travel-04-milan-duomo-san-siro/grigliata-di-pesce.jpg\")
\n ![\"A](\"/images/posts/europe-travel-04-milan-duomo-san-siro/derby-scarf-milan-napoli.jpg\")
\n ![\"Jayden](\"/images/posts/europe-travel-04-milan-duomo-san-siro/bock-rossa-san-siro.jpg\")
\n ![\"Stewards](\"/images/posts/europe-travel-04-milan-duomo-san-siro/san-siro-gate-13.jpg\")
\n ![\"A](\"/images/posts/europe-travel-04-milan-duomo-san-siro/san-siro-window-drinks.jpg\")
\n ![\"A](\"/images/posts/europe-travel-04-milan-duomo-san-siro/kickoff-countdown.jpg\")
\n ![\"The](\"/images/posts/europe-travel-04-milan-duomo-san-siro/this-is-milan-tifo.jpg\")
\n ![\"A](\"/images/posts/europe-travel-04-milan-duomo-san-siro/attendance-74742.jpg\")
\n ![\"Outside](\"/images/posts/europe-travel-04-milan-duomo-san-siro/san-siro-night.jpg\")
\n ![\"An](\"/images/posts/europe-travel-03-nice-saint-paul-de-vence/nice-airport-air-france.jpg\")
\n ![\"A](\"/images/posts/europe-travel-03-nice-saint-paul-de-vence/orange-arcade-yellow-arches.jpg\")
\n ![\"A](\"/images/posts/europe-travel-03-nice-saint-paul-de-vence/cocotte-mashed-potato.jpg\")
\n ![\"Place](\"/images/posts/europe-travel-03-nice-saint-paul-de-vence/place-massena-checkerboard.jpg\")
\n ![\"The](\"/images/posts/europe-travel-03-nice-saint-paul-de-vence/place-massena-fountain.jpg\")
\n ![\"A](\"/images/posts/europe-travel-03-nice-saint-paul-de-vence/piano-on-wheels-promenade.jpg\")
\n ![\"Nice's](\"/images/posts/europe-travel-03-nice-saint-paul-de-vence/pebble-beach-pigeon.jpg\")
\n ![\"The](\"/images/posts/europe-travel-03-nice-saint-paul-de-vence/fountain-statue-pigeon.jpg\")
\n ![\"The](\"/images/posts/europe-travel-03-nice-saint-paul-de-vence/notre-dame-de-nice.jpg\")
\n ![\"Nice's](\"/images/posts/europe-travel-03-nice-saint-paul-de-vence/evening-beach-clouds.jpg\")
\n ![\"A](\"/images/posts/europe-travel-03-nice-saint-paul-de-vence/blue-chair-night.jpg\")
\n ![\"Place](\"/images/posts/europe-travel-03-nice-saint-paul-de-vence/place-massena-night.jpg\")
\n ![\"A](\"/images/posts/europe-travel-03-nice-saint-paul-de-vence/saint-paul-chapel-statue.jpg\")
\n ![\"A](\"/images/posts/europe-travel-03-nice-saint-paul-de-vence/saint-paul-valley-view.jpg\")
\n ![\"A](\"/images/posts/europe-travel-03-nice-saint-paul-de-vence/les-remparts-wall.jpg\")
\n ![\"Tables](\"/images/posts/europe-travel-03-nice-saint-paul-de-vence/terrace-lunch-view.jpg\")
\n ![\"Jayden](\"/images/posts/europe-travel-03-nice-saint-paul-de-vence/me-on-stone-wall.jpg\")
\n ![\"A](\"/images/posts/europe-travel-03-nice-saint-paul-de-vence/chagall-grave.jpg\")
\n ![\"A](\"/images/posts/europe-travel-03-nice-saint-paul-de-vence/rampart-tower-view.jpg\")
\n ![\"Saint-Paul-de-Vence](\"/images/posts/europe-travel-03-nice-saint-paul-de-vence/village-on-the-hill.jpg\")
\n ![\"Jayden](\"/images/posts/europe-travel-03-nice-saint-paul-de-vence/me-on-fence-village.jpg\")
\n ![\"A](\"/images/posts/europe-travel-03-nice-saint-paul-de-vence/cypress-road-village.jpg\")
\n ![\"A](\"/images/posts/europe-travel-03-nice-saint-paul-de-vence/train-platform-cypress.jpg\")
\n ![\"Three](\"/images/posts/europe-travel-02-london-big-ben-soho/red-phone-boxes.jpg\")
\n ![\"Shopfront](\"/images/posts/europe-travel-02-london-big-ben-soho/laughing-halibut.jpg\")
\n ![\"A](\"/images/posts/europe-travel-02-london-big-ben-soho/fish-chips-menu.jpg\")
\n ![\"A](\"/images/posts/europe-travel-02-london-big-ben-soho/jack-coke-can.jpg\")
\n ![\"The](\"/images/posts/europe-travel-02-london-big-ben-soho/st-james-lake-palace.jpg\")
\n ![\"A](\"/images/posts/europe-travel-02-london-big-ben-soho/sleeping-swan.jpg\")
\n ![\"A](\"/images/posts/europe-travel-02-london-big-ben-soho/st-james-blossom.jpg\")
\n ![\"A](\"/images/posts/europe-travel-02-london-big-ben-soho/phone-box-big-ben.jpg\")
\n ![\"A](\"/images/posts/europe-travel-02-london-big-ben-soho/parliament-square-bus.jpg\")
\n ![\"The](\"/images/posts/europe-travel-02-london-big-ben-soho/churchill-statue.jpg\")
\n ![\"Jayden](\"/images/posts/europe-travel-02-london-big-ben-soho/me-big-ben.jpg\")
\n ![\"The](\"/images/posts/europe-travel-02-london-big-ben-soho/parliament-riverside.jpg\")
\n ![\"Jayden](\"/images/posts/europe-travel-02-london-big-ben-soho/me-across-thames.jpg\")
\n ![\"A](\"/images/posts/europe-travel-02-london-big-ben-soho/outernet-led-room.jpg\")
\n ![\"On](\"/images/posts/europe-travel-02-london-big-ben-soho/soho-dinner.jpg\")
\n ![\"A](\"/images/posts/europe-travel-02-london-big-ben-soho/chinatown-lanterns.jpg\")
\n ![\"Chinatown's](\"/images/posts/europe-travel-02-london-big-ben-soho/chinatown-gate.jpg\")
\n ![\"Happy](\"/images/posts/europe-travel-02-london-big-ben-soho/happy-ramadan-lights.jpg\")
\n ![\"Blurred](\"/images/posts/europe-travel-02-london-big-ben-soho/travel-is-back-bus.jpg\")
\n ![\"The](\"/images/posts/europe-travel-02-london-big-ben-soho/palace-theatre.jpg\")
\n ![\"A](\"/images/posts/europe-travel-02-london-big-ben-soho/taddy-lager.jpg\")
\n ![\"A](\"/images/posts/europe-travel-02-london-big-ben-soho/white-horse-bar.jpg\")
\n ![\"Incheon](\"/images/posts/europe-travel-01-bournemouth-homestay-dubai/incheon-emirates-counter.jpg\")
\n ![\"Emirates](\"/images/posts/europe-travel-01-bournemouth-homestay-dubai/emirates-first-meal.jpg\")
\n ![\"A](\"/images/posts/europe-travel-01-bournemouth-homestay-dubai/inflight-kimchi.jpg\")
\n ![\"In-flight](\"/images/posts/europe-travel-01-bournemouth-homestay-dubai/london-flight-breakfast.jpg\")
\n ![\"A](\"/images/posts/europe-travel-01-bournemouth-homestay-dubai/heathrow-terminal-a.jpg\")
\n ![\"Close-up](\"/images/posts/europe-travel-01-bournemouth-homestay-dubai/homestay-dog-closeup.jpg\")
\n ![\"Homestay](\"/images/posts/europe-travel-01-bournemouth-homestay-dubai/homestay-room.jpg\")
\n ![\"Sunny](\"/images/posts/europe-travel-01-bournemouth-homestay-dubai/back-garden-croquet.jpg\")
\n ![\"On](\"/images/posts/europe-travel-01-bournemouth-homestay-dubai/korean-boxes-shelf.jpg\")
\n ![\"A](\"/images/posts/europe-travel-01-bournemouth-homestay-dubai/chicken-thermometer.jpg\")
\n ![\"Four](\"/images/posts/europe-travel-01-bournemouth-homestay-dubai/sesame-buns-chopsticks.jpg\")
\n ![\"Sunny](\"/images/posts/europe-travel-01-bournemouth-homestay-dubai/grandad-mug-breakfast.jpg\")
\n ![\"Inside](\"/images/posts/europe-travel-01-bournemouth-homestay-dubai/caravan-kitchen.jpg\")
\n ![\"White](\"/images/posts/europe-travel-01-bournemouth-homestay-dubai/washing-line.jpg\")
\n ![\"White,](\"/images/posts/europe-travel-01-bournemouth-homestay-dubai/beach-huts.jpg\")
\n ![\"Beach](\"/images/posts/europe-travel-01-bournemouth-homestay-dubai/bournemouth-pier.jpg\")
\n ![\"A](\"/images/posts/europe-travel-01-bournemouth-homestay-dubai/pub-dog-sofa.jpg\")
\n ![\"Steak](\"/images/posts/europe-travel-01-bournemouth-homestay-dubai/pub-steak-chips.jpg\")
\n ![\"Entrance](\"/images/posts/europe-travel-01-bournemouth-homestay-dubai/the-arcade.jpg\")
\n ![\"An](\"/images/posts/europe-travel-01-bournemouth-homestay-dubai/farewell-breakfast.jpg\")
\n ![\"The](\"/images/posts/europe-travel-01-bournemouth-homestay-dubai/dog-car-seat.jpg\")
\n ![\"A](\"/images/posts/yangjae-guryonggak-jjamppong-ganjjajang/interior.jpg\")
\n ![\"Red](\"/images/posts/yangjae-guryonggak-jjamppong-ganjjajang/jjamppong.jpg\")
\n ![\"Noodles](\"/images/posts/yangjae-guryonggak-jjamppong-ganjjajang/ganjjajang.jpg\")
\n ![\"Overhead](\"/images/posts/yangjae-guryonggak-jjamppong-ganjjajang/spread.jpg\")
\n ![\"Chunky](\"/images/posts/yangjae-guryonggak-jjamppong-ganjjajang/oi-muchim.jpg\")
\n ![\"Danmuji](\"/images/posts/yangjae-guryonggak-jjamppong-ganjjajang/banchan.jpg\")
\n ![\"Red](\"/images/posts/anyang-ureong-ssambap-igane/bulgogi-jeyuk.jpg\")
\n ![\"A](\"/images/posts/anyang-ureong-ssambap-igane/ureong-doenjang.jpg\")
\n ![\"Lettuce](\"/images/posts/anyang-ureong-ssambap-igane/ssam-table.jpg\")
\n ![\"N](\"/images/posts/haebangchon-the-back-food-truck-burger/namsan-tower.jpg\")
\n ![\"Green](\"/images/posts/haebangchon-the-back-food-truck-burger/window.jpg\")
\n ![\"A](\"/images/posts/haebangchon-the-back-food-truck-burger/egg-burger.jpg\")
\n ![\"A](\"/images/posts/haebangchon-the-back-food-truck-burger/burger-cut.jpg\")
\n ![\"Panoramic](\"/images/posts/haebangchon-the-back-food-truck-burger/terrace-view.jpg\")
\n ![\"Rooftops](\"/images/posts/haebangchon-the-back-food-truck-burger/city-view.jpg\")
\n ![\"Dallat's](\"/images/posts/sinsa-dallat-thai-food/interior.jpg\")
\n ![\"A](\"/images/posts/sinsa-dallat-thai-food/decor.jpg\")
\n ![\"Pork](\"/images/posts/sinsa-dallat-thai-food/leng-saap.jpg\")
\n ![\"Pad](\"/images/posts/sinsa-dallat-thai-food/pad-thai.jpg\")
\n ![\"A](\"/images/posts/sinsa-dallat-thai-food/kaphrao.jpg\")
\n ![\"Overhead](\"/images/posts/sinsa-dallat-thai-food/spread.jpg\")
\n ![\"Mixed](\"/images/posts/hongdae-ppulnan-hwangso-gopchang/moeum-gopchang.jpg\")
\n ![\"Close-up](\"/images/posts/hongdae-ppulnan-hwangso-gopchang/gopchang-closeup.jpg\")
\n ![\"Red](\"/images/posts/hongdae-ppulnan-hwangso-gopchang/bokkeumbap.jpg\")
\n ![\"Red](\"/images/posts/hongdae-ppulnan-hwangso-gopchang/ramyeon.jpg\")
\n ![\"An](\"/images/posts/jegidong-sakaya-myeongran-gyeranjjim/sakura-ceiling.jpg\")
\n ![\"Shelves](\"/images/posts/jegidong-sakaya-myeongran-gyeranjjim/sake-shelf.jpg\")
\n ![\"A](\"/images/posts/jegidong-sakaya-myeongran-gyeranjjim/parasol.jpg\")
\n ![\"A](\"/images/posts/jegidong-sakaya-myeongran-gyeranjjim/banner.jpg\")
\n ![\"Fluffy](\"/images/posts/jegidong-sakaya-myeongran-gyeranjjim/myeongran-gyeranjjim.jpg\")
\n ![\"A](\"/images/posts/jegidong-sakaya-myeongran-gyeranjjim/kkochi-shrimp-bacon.jpg\")
\n ![\"Golden](\"/images/posts/jegidong-sakaya-myeongran-gyeranjjim/kkochi.jpg\")
\n ![\"Crispy](\"/images/posts/jegidong-sakaya-myeongran-gyeranjjim/karaage.jpg\")
\n ![\"Overhead](\"/images/posts/hongcheon-dongmakgol-jjukkumi-ureong-ssambap/spread.jpg\")
\n ![\"Jjukkumi](\"/images/posts/hongcheon-dongmakgol-jjukkumi-ureong-ssambap/jjukkumi.jpg\")
\n ![\"Stir-fried](\"/images/posts/hongcheon-dongmakgol-jjukkumi-ureong-ssambap/ssam.jpg\")
\n ![\"Side](\"/images/posts/hongcheon-dongmakgol-jjukkumi-ureong-ssambap/banchan.jpg\")
\n ![\"Red](\"/images/posts/yangjae-oneuldo-bossam-kalguksu/kimchi-jjigae.jpg\")
\n ![\"Barley](\"/images/posts/yangjae-oneuldo-bossam-kalguksu/boribap.jpg\")
\n ![\"A](\"/images/posts/yangjae-oneuldo-bossam-kalguksu/self-bar-notice.jpg\")
\n ![\"A](\"/images/posts/yangjae-oneuldo-bossam-kalguksu/how-to-eat.jpg\")
\n ![\"Plates](\"/images/posts/yangjae-oneuldo-bossam-kalguksu/banchan.jpg\")
\n ![\"Pyongyang](\"/images/posts/mullae-cheolsanjang-pyongyang-naengmyeon/pyongyang-naengmyeon.jpg\")
\n ![\"Bibim](\"/images/posts/mullae-cheolsanjang-pyongyang-naengmyeon/bibim-naengmyeon.jpg\")
\n ![\"Thinly](\"/images/posts/mullae-cheolsanjang-pyongyang-naengmyeon/suyuk-mandu.jpg\")
\n ![\"Hummus](\"/images/posts/itaewon-petra-hummus/hummus.jpg\")
\n ![\"Two](\"/images/posts/itaewon-petra-hummus/bread.jpg\")
\n ![\"A](\"/images/posts/itaewon-petra-hummus/table.jpg\")
\n ![\"Yellow](\"/images/posts/itaewon-petra-hummus/rice.jpg\")
\n