Personally I feel a bit of sorrow and disdain for soldiers who go to those places.

I resemble that remark!

People fit in to different places, J. Personally, I liked visiting the nature parks, the malls, Wendy's (of course), but also the local strip joints. I can recall letting the DJ at my most frequented dive in on a little secret. If he ever needed relief from all his beers, all he had to do was play American Pie. That would give him at least 8 minutes to seek comfort in the little unisex john.

Of course there were some extremely low places I considered too "risqué" even for me, but I had no trouble "risking" them a couple times -- for the experience, of course.

Also, the Dunkin’ Donuts had an incredible Belgian cream doughnut. The thing was stuffed to overflowing, and they were stood on edge to keep them from spilling. Delicious!

... there are so many who end up wasting their tour.

True -- and it turns out I was wasted through most of my tour. At the same time, though, my wasted existence was spent pretty much all over the country. I think you'll find that some of the wastrels are of the curious breed and actually do get out to see the place for the SEA gem it truly is. They’ll pick up on the language, and don't seem to mind joking it up with the local merchants.

(Map Source: The CIA Factbook)

Found an interesting place in Taegu, btw. More or less, it was a strip mall. I was at a large, bustling intersection, and noticed stairwells at each of the corners. Curious about a possible subway system, I went down. You know there are shops under the city? The underground walkway went for quite a distance, and the ceiling was within easy reach of my, albeit, relatively long reach, but there were merchant shops of just about every description down there. Fascinating.

Dan (wondering if overhead trucks ever pose a threat to the underground...)