Putong Putong : An Invitation to Travel

I am a traveller, I love discovering new cultures, new people and learning new languages. The bonds I make during my trips are very precious to me and are certainly the biggest motive for me to travel. So today I want to tell you about a tourism video that made my heart beat.
I think my travel to Asia is the most precious memory I have in my heart. It has been two years now since I went to Japan and South Korea, and each year around November and December I feel really nostalgic because it was during that time that I was there.My travel to Asia is the most precious memory I have in my heart because it reminds me of the people, the culture, the tastes and different ways of thinking I found there. Since I went to Japan and South Korea, I developed a real love for this continent since being in guesthouses enabled me to meet people from every country in Asia. So since then I have added some countries to visit to my list, and here there are :
 - Taiwan because of the food I kept seeing in their dramas. Food is one of the huge motivation  that usually brings me to travel.- China because I am curious, I heard so much bad things about this country but I can't help but being curious.  The aesthetic in their movies are so charming that their culture certainly must be very interesting to explore. - Macao because I've heard it's the Venice of Asia.- Mongolia because when I was younger I read Gengis Khan adventures and he fascinated me. My other motive is linked to South Korea as it seems that korean people come from this country. So I would go there to dig in their history by myself instead of only reading books on the subject.
But what really makes my heart beat is the bonds I created. If I didn't go to Korea I would have never met my travelmate, Chul. We met during my first trip to South Korea, and I'll always remember when he said to me : "I'll be back during winter in South Korea, come back so we can travel together !". Obviously it is something easier said than done, that is why when I get back to Europe, I found a job and spared money to be able to go back during winter. I went back on November and since this trip we always try to travel together when possible. No wonder this video moved me (though it's not in english the images speak by themselves) as it embodies what travel is for me :

Putong putong is the title of this mini serie created by the Taiwanese tourism bureau starring the new talented korean actor Jo Jung Seok and the taiwanese actress Ivy Chen. It was my first time seeing such a tourism advert, so I was pleasantly surprised as it depicts the way I consider travels : visiting a country alone enables you to create bonds (be it friendship or love) and to discover it in an other way. Putong putong (in chinese), dugun dugun (in korean) are the onomatopeia to mimic the sound of the heart beating and I find it so very cute that the mini serie is called like that as Jo Jung Seok says all the time that when he arrived in Taiwan his heart started making this sound : "dugun dugun" (understand here putong putong).
I like the way we are introduced to the two characters and how they met. Actually I was more interested by their meeting because it is exactly how it was for me when I was in Asia, though I am curious of the places, what I like the most is meeting people. You meet someone that you don't know, get lost and have to ask for your way. Then you try to communicate but it's not like english can be used easily so you try speaking with your hands or try explaining with drawings (seems like for me I should not try ANYMORE the 2nd option). Here Ivy Chen is trying to say to him that he is heading to the wrong direction but they are unable to communicate well so as a consequence Jo Jung Seok doesn't know he has taken the wrong path. But this also shows what a travel is : to get lost and the pleasure there is in it. Sometimes we panick when we get lost in an unknown country which language we don't speak, but in this video "it doesn't seem to matter because it is Taiwan" as Ivy Chen is saying when she realizes Jo Jung Seok lost his way. As for him, he really seems to enjoy his time on this island, and that is something which is constantly recalled in the video as he kept saying that Taiwan makes his heart beat, a point that is reinforced when he is on the train and writes on its window "Putong Putong Taiwan". I feel like the Taiwanese tourism bureau did really well by naming this campaign like it did because it perfectly depicts the sensation a traveler has when he arrives in a new place : that his/her heart is beating and racing for the new things and people he/she will discover.
The tourism campaigns I usually see on TV always point on the must-see, grouped travels (like Club Med), the most common things about a place but they never tell you to get lost and to wander to be able to appreciate more a country AND they never tell you to create bonds with the locals. For me it is like doing window shopping without really going inside the shop. You know like you have visited a country but only saw it superficially. With Putong Putong I don't have this feeling at all, it is so unlike that if I could I would fly away to Taiwan right now !
For me who want to visit Taiwan, this video totally convinced me that this country will be my next destination in Asia.
 And you what are the things that make your  heart beat when travelling and where would you want to go ?