From as early as I can remember, I have always wanted to travel and see the world. I dreamed of experiencing other cultures, seeing the sights, tasting the food, smelling the air. Growing up as a girl in Korea, I would spend hours on the Internet investigating my travelling options and planning trips and tours. So when I turned 18, I started living my passion. As soon as I graduated high school, I packed a backpack and headed abroad, to work and travel, explore and fuck. My mom kissed my goodbye with a loving message: "Be safe Kim and visit often."
Over the next ten years I crisscrossed the globe as a solo traveller visiting every continent. I would find a base and stay for a few months, waitressing while I saved funds, then I would travel for months at a time, staying in hostels while I tried to experience the local culture. Every couple of years, I would trek back home and see my family, and I was surprised each time at how foreign the Korean culture had become to me.
Eventually I made a first and overdue visit to India. I began by touring the Northern states during a brutally cold winter, and over a few months I made my way to the resort state of Goa. As a single female traveller, I had experienced all sorts of receptions from locals in different parts of the world. My lifestyle was often met with surprise, that a young and attractive Asian female would be travelling the world alone. Usually people would exhibit empathy and all sorts of offers of assistance - I received plenty of free accommodation, personal tours of cities and meals in family homes. Other times the motives were more sinister but I'd never really fallen into any serious personal danger. And sometimes the encounters would blossom into romantic encounters, or maybe just some satisfying casual sex.
But in Goa I unexpectedly encountered some of the most misogynistic attitudes of all. I checked into a small but comfortable hostel near the center of Panaji City to stay for a week or so. As usual, I elected for mixed dormitory arrangements, but since it was low season (and a friendly receptionist) I was the only person assigned to the six-bunk dorm. My first excursion was a trip to the famed beaches of Goa, where the local men leered at my body and made lewd propositions in Portuguese, English, Hindi and Konkani. I put it out of my mind and decided that I would revert to a favoured pastime, visiting the museums and temples of the region.
I returned to the hostel that afternoon and dressed for an evening at the bars and clubs. While it was not a bad night out, I didn't meet anyone special and felt an underlying current of resentment toward North Asian foreigners. I tried an upper class bar and came across a good looking Indian guy sitting alone and sipping on a beer. He was well educated, apparently wealthy and spoke good English. But when he talked of his world, backward attitudes were apparent and all I felt was disappointment.
Essentially, his view was that women belonged in the home, under bindings of marriage, and would only achieve fulfilment by maintaining the family, rearing children and satisfying their husbands. I had seen the subservient life of my mother and there was no way that I would follow that road. When I conveyed my life of travel, I read disapproval in his face, and the concept of sleeping in mixed dorms met with contempt. At the end of our drinks, he still made a sexual proposition to me, but I declined and returned to the hostel.
But as we say in Korea, at the end of hardship comes happiness. Reception had closed for the night, but I let myself into the dorm to discover that a new body had taken up residence, and was fast asleep in a bunk. I made a closer inspection and discovered that there were actually two bodies in the bunk, and in the dim light, I made out two female forms snuggled closely together under the blankets.
At first light I woke and slipped downstairs for a traditional Indian breakfast. The receptionist approached me and told me that she had placed the two late arrivals in my dorm. "You will be so happy," she smiled. "You have two compatriots to share your travels!" It was interesting, I thought, because throughout my travels I had actually not encountered many fellow Koreans living my lifestyle.
I returned to the dorm to discover the pair in a state of partial undress. As they turned their slim bodies toward me, I let out a gasp as I saw their cocks swing against their bodies, before they hurriedly turned and pulled on their clothes. I backed out of the room as they apologised profusely in Korean in a state of utter embarrassment.
I waited in the common room and eventually the two of them trundled down the stairs, dressed in an unmistakable style. The K-Pop phenomenon did not really exist when I left home, but in the intervening years, it had exploded in popularity. The two young men emulated the style exactly, with the effeminate makeup, hairstyle and attire of the pop stars.
"I am Kim," I introduced myself.
In turn they introduced themselves as Hyeon and Byong-ho, again offering apologies. As they ate breakfast, we talked, and I learned that they were both 19, having just finished school, and they were in no rush to complete their military service. Instead they were setting out to travel the world together just as I had done all those years ago. Goa was their first destination.
They looked similar to each other already, but considering they wore identical outfits and hairstyles, the slight height difference was all that set them apart. They both wore dark fitted pants, sneakers and tight white tee shirts which accentuated their thin frames. They had a light base of pale foundation on their faces and a fringe of flowing black hair draped across their forehead and across one eye. They both wore a dangling earring on the left and a collection of gold chains around their necks.
"Are you gay?" I asked, suspecting the answer was true, so I was surprised when they replied that they were straight. They informed me that Korean girls back home loved their K-Pop style, but when I pressed further they both sheepishly admitted to me that they were still virgins.
I asked them about their plans in Goa but they were hopeless! Even I was not so naive when I started out travelling. So I invited them to join me to tour the local attractions.
We headed out and used a combination of buses and walking to get around. If I thought that my bikini at Miramar beach attracted a lot of attention, it was nothing compared to the looks that the locals gave us as we traversed the city. It was definitely not the norm in Goa for a confident and attractive woman to be leading the way around town, in charge of two subservient men dressed in K-Pop attire!
Towards the end of the day we arrived at a famous monument near the middle of the city. As usual, I bought the three entry tickets as my companions remained shy and their English was limited. We were assigned an overweight middle-aged guide who greeted us enthusiastically, and we walked into the dim interior while the guide chattered away in heavily accented English, delivering historical facts.