Surreal Shanghai Story #1: Nanjing Road (March 3, 2011)

I would like to share a story about my experience in Shanghai between February 27, 2011 and March 4, 2011. During the course of the week, Shanghai went from intriguing to very annoying in just only five days. I'll save the other two stories for another blog post, but I will tell you the weirdest story first. While visiting Nanjing Road at night, you can see various stores, movie theaters, and restaurants that are lit up at night with various colored lights. It's quite the scene. And because of that, many tourists flock there to take pictures and to capture all of the photographic eye candy. Unfortunately, it also attracts scammers of all sorts because they know that's where many tourists will be.

While I was walking from West Nanjing Road to East Nanjing alone at night, a total of about 17 different people approached me in less than an hour. This is not an exaggeration. A few people were guys that were trying to lure me in get a "massage" somewhere. The flyer they showed to me seemed to imply that the massages were sexual in nature and I moved along rather quickly.

But here's the weirdest part. Of those 17 people that approached me, 14 of them were women asking if I could have a drink with them. I was on guard and very careful because on my first day, I got sucked into the notorious Tea Ceremony Scam, which I will share in my next post. Because I was so careful, I even rejected a very beautiful woman who supposedly just wanted to get to know me and have a drink. I was an average looking guy and out of the blue this gorgeous woman approaches me. It was so suspicious it was hilarious. Even on a couple occasions two women approached me at the same time and asked if I wanted to have a drink with them.

However, the curiosity was starting to get to me. The last girl to approach me seemed to be your cute, but somewhat average looking Chinese girl. She asked me if I wanted to go to a cafe and have a drink with her. I asked her, "Who's going to pay for it?" She replied, "You can pay for your drink and I can pay for mine. I just want to practice my English." Thinking that she seemed normal, I accepted the offer and we headed to a cafe. As we get there, we sit down. We both look at the menu, the server takes our orders. I order a cafe mocha and she orders something, but she ordered in Chinese. I ask her what she ordered. She tells me that she ordered coffee and juice. Then a red flag pops up in my head. I thought to myself, "Who orders two drinks at the same time?" I ask her "Who's going to pay for it?" She says "I thought we could share." Immediately, I get the impression that she was going to make me pay for her drinks and I rush over to the server to cancel the order. The girl asks me "What's wrong?" I say "You said you were going to pay for your drink and I would pay for mine?" She responds, "Well it's just one drink." (another lie). I retort, "No. You ordered two drinks." Then she didn't know what to say except "Sorry." Then I say "Me too. This could have been a nice experience but I need to go." And that was that. I heard about "Shanghai girls" and I experienced it firsthand.

Scott Worden (The L.A./Seoul Guy)

Instagram: l.a.seoulguy

Hoi An, Vietnam (Part 2): Ancient Town During the Day

Our hotel, the Tropical Hoi An Resort gave us free rides to and from Ancient Town until 9:00pm. Ancient Town was about a 10- minute drive from our resort.

What is Ancient Town? (Source: Vietnamtravel.org)


It's a port in Hoi An that was very active between the 15th and the 19th centuries. It was first settled by the Champa people who were Malay-Indonesian people from Java. They settled in Hoi An in 200 BC. The Cham people had a strong Kingdom but had conflicts with the Viet people in the north, the Khmer people in Cambodia, and in the 13th century Kublai Khan invaded the Champa Kingdom. The leader of the Cham people Che Bong Nga ("The Red King") reunited his people once again. However the Viet people overpowered the Cham people in the 15th Century.

During the 16th and 17th centuries, Hoi An, which was called Hai Pho ("seaside town") at that time, became a very important port city in Southeast Asia. The Japanese built a settlement on one end of the town. Various merchants from different countries came to do global trade before the term even existed. They included the Chinese, Indian, and Dutch. Hoi An was an important stop along Silk Road as it exported ceramics all over even as far as Egypt.

However, during the Nguyen Dynasty, open trade was slowed down in order to stop the influence of foreigners, which hurt Vietnam for the next two centuries. In turn, this brought stagnation to Hoi An. By the time the lords changed their mind, it had already damaged Hoi An's economy permanently. The French started to rapidly influence Danang making it the most important port in Vietnam. Also, stronger trading vessels were being constructed, which required a deeper port. This officially eliminated Hoi An as an international trading port city once and for all. However, there is a positive thing to look at here. Danang became influenced by the culture, style, and wealth of Europe while Hoi An kept its mainly Vietnamese roots and kept its Asian heritage and traditions in tact.

Today, Hoi An welcomes many backpackers with bars, restaurants, and internet cafes. You can also find many craft shops, stores that cater to Vietnamese fabric, and stores that sell Vietnamese ceramics. It became a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1999 and is not yet overrun with tourists.

The distinct conical hat in Vietnam (see two pictures below), is called the Non La, and it can be seen everywhere. It is used to prevent people from getting wet during the rain, shade themselves when it's hot and sunny, and even used as a basket to put fruit and vegetables in. The origin of this hat began from a legend and you can read about it in this article.

I loved the unique style of some of the buildings. This style was influenced by the French.

Japanese Bridge

A guy relaxing on a hot day with many motor bikes lined up down an alley

A cafe with French style exterior

Vietnamese fashion

We stopped by a local foreigner bar to see if we could get some food.

We had good but not the best Pho that I have ever had...The best Pho I had was in Ho Chi Minh City.

Banana Pancakes

Here is it for just $1. Mmmm...Delicious!

Overall: It's very quiet during the day but can be a bit overwhelming at night. The tourists come to see the lanterns and take a lot of pictures of them. You'll see a lot of Chinese tourists, backpackers, and Vietnamese people from other regions. Be aware of pickpockets as you cross the Japanese Bridge since it's the most crowded area at night.

However I enjoyed Ancient Town. I enjoyed the atmosphere, the food and got some Vietnamese coffee. It's a vibrant and an enjoyable area of Hoi An!

Scott Worden (The L.A./Seoul Guy)

Instagram: l.a.saeoulguy

A Tribute to a Wonderful Friend

On July 23, 2018 at approximately 2:00am, my friend and brother in Christ, Benjamin Coyner passed away from cancer. Before I go into what happened, let me tell you how I met him:

I met Ben at a church (New Harvest Ministry) retreat at Nami Island in Gangwondo, South Korea. From there, I found out a few things we had in common. First, we had both lived in similar areas. Ben lived in Orange County, California during his middle school and high school days and I was born and raised in Los Angeles. Secondly, we both had passion for baseball. He actually started off an Angels fan but got converted when the Dodgers won the World Series in 1988. I have always been an Angels fan because my grandma took me to their games when I was a kid. Finally, New Harvest Ministry was the first church we both went to when we came to Seoul.

But despite all of those things we had in common, only one thing stood out the most. Ben was a caring and positive person. He always listened to you and he was great at sharing his opinions on everything. He would call me after his small group was finished and see what I was doing. One time I said I was at Popeye's eating chicken and he came and stopped by. One other time, I told him I was at Kyobo Bookstore and he met me there after he was done with small group. Ben loved fellowship and he loved being around people, playing games, reading the Word, and just enjoying other's company.

We knew each other for 13 years and had many of the same mutual friends: Jonathan Greener, Erik Turkelson, Justin Barbaree, Tanya Huggett, Edward Vanorder, Evan Bloom, Sam Kim, Joon Hyun, and many others....

So what happened?

Two years ago, Ben had a cyst in his tooth but didn't think it was serious and let it go. Later on that cyst developed into stage four tongue cancer. From that point on, it was an uphill battle. He went through bouts of chemotherapy and had one major surgery because the cancer spread to his neck. When he had his first surgery, he dealt with extreme fatigue but he was recovering. Before he had cancer, he was on the choir and when he thought he beat his first battle, he gave a wonderful testimony on stage at church which you can see here:

Ben Coyner's Testimony

He even sang on stage and we were all cheering him on and giving praise to God. Unfortunately, the battle hadn't been won yet. The doctors didn't see a cluster of cancer cells that were in a small clump in his neck. This lead to his cancer spreading to his lungs.

Jon Greener, our close mutual friend and coworker at the time, texted me one day and said that Ben was having trouble breathing and they feared that they lost him. I sent a text to Ben to find out what happened and he said that Jon was exaggerating and that it was more of a choking feeling than anything else. Ben was positive despite serious circumstances. 

Just to let you know how serious things had gotten, Ben texted me three weeks later that his cancer was incurable. It was one of the worst things you could read from a friend. Our mutual friends and myself were all in shock and disbelief. I went to visit him a couple of times at his home and I could see his health deteriorate very quickly. He couldn't speak at all and his face got swollen. He also had many experience of having difficulty breathing. This wasn't the Ben I was used to seeing and it was especially hard on his parents who took care of him every hour, every minute, and every second. I just can't imagine the horror of them having to see their son's health decline rapidly and not being able to do anything about it.

Yet Ben was still positive and remained strong. He knew that God was his comfort and that eternity was more important than this temporary life on Earth. That's not to say that it was easy for him. During his last two weeks on Earth, he had some fear of passing away yet he still fought cancer like a champion. 

I had never met Ben parents until this year but I am certain that they did a great job of raising Ben. They are to be commended with how much care and love they poured out to Ben before he passed away. On the flip side Ben influenced Tom and Yeri Coyner. I'm sure they will realize that Ben was amazing because he truly followed Jesus’s two most important commandments: to love the Lord with all of his heart, soul, and mind and to love his neighbor as himself (Matthew 22:35-40 and Mark 12:28-35). 

I love you Ben and see you when I get to Heaven bro!

Scott Worden

Instagram: l.a.seoulguy

Hoi An, Vietnam (Part 1): The Hoi An Tropical Resort

As I mentioned in a previous blog post, my wife and I spent 6 days in Vietnam last month. In that blog post I talked about our last stop in Vietnam, which was Halong Bay. Today, I'm going to begin Part 1 of our first stop in Vietnam: Hoi An. I'm going to specifically talk about the Hoi An Tropical Resort.

My friend Stephen Keen recommended me to visit Hoi An because he said it was his favorite city in Vietnam. My wife and I tried to choose a resort carefully because knew that we could find a really nice resort at a reasonable price. After combing through booking.com, we made a very solid choice in the form of the Hoi An Tropical Resort. Unfortunately we had a limited time constraint due to wanting to see Hanoi and Hoi An. Therefore, we could only stayed for two days, which sped by faster than Halley's Comet. Although the time at the Hoi An Tropical Resort was short, it was very sweet.

Let me give you details of our arrival. When we arrived in Danang, someone from the hotel picked us up and drove us to the city of Hoi An. The trip was about 40 minutes and it was a steamy, wet day! After my wife and I checked in, the staff was nice enough to escort us to our rooms via golf cart. I was pleasantly surprised by the wonderful customer service. Here's a picture of what the rooms look like:

They are very clean inside. We got free water, toothbrushes, toothpaste, and towels of course. After we dropped off our suitcases we headed to the restaurant, which was near the pool and about 30 feet from the beach!

Hoi An Tropical Resort pool on a steamy day

Another view of the pool

My first meal was noodles with meat and vegetables. It cost about $4 at this very nice four-star resort and I was quite satisfied! We also ate breakfast and one more dinner here because the dishes were much better than we expected. The price of the food was inexpensive and the quality of it was outstanding. 

Not a bad first choice for dinner! Here's mine!

Here's my wife's. Yes, the theme was noodles!

If you would like to know how breakfast is, it's even better than dinner. For breakfast you can get an omelette, pho, waffles, potatoes, sausage, vegetables, passion fruit juice, orange juice, coffee, etc. The layout was fantastic. You can see me eating breakfast here:

Breakfast during the next morning

While we were eating dinner on our first night, it poured off and on. We knew we were in the midst of rainy season, but we were hoping to get at least two or three days of sun while we were there.

After dinner, we walked around the grounds and took a look at how close we were to the beach. There was a cool swing that my wife got on. You can tell that they take care of this hotel well by how trimmed the grass is.

The next day we had postcard resort weather. It was unbelievably beautiful and looked a lot closer to the pictures we saw on booking.com.

The next day was much sunnier!

We also got a massage at this hotel in a separate building on the premises of the resort. The staff in that building accepted us quickly despite us not making a reservation. They even had us picked up by golf cart to take us back to our room. When we finished our massage, they had umbrellas waiting for us, so that we could get onto the golf carts without getting wet. That was V.I.P. service to the max. 

And here's the best part about this hotel. We reserved a Deluxe Double Room with Ocean View for a price of $175.50 (USD). My wife and I loved the experience so much that I don't mind advertising for them on my blog. Thank you to the Hoi An Tropical Resort in Hoi An, Vietnam!

Scott Worden (The L.A./Seoul Guy)

Instagram: l.a.seoulguy

Sermon: A Real King's Banquet (July 8, 2018) by Pastor Andrew Gu

Mark 6:30-44

There are only two miracles that are covered in all five of the gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John): The Resurrection and the feeding of the 5,000. If that's the case, then the feeding of the 5,000 must be pretty significant. It's also not an accident that the story came after King Herod's banquet in the book of Mark.

In verses 30-44,  we know that the disciples were tired and wanted rest despite the crowds continuing to seek after Jesus. Jesus's disciples were annoyed and didn't want to deal with the crowds. However, Jesus wasn't annoyed and he showed compassion, patience, and affection towards them. The way we view people shows how we should respond. The disciples saw it as a disadvantage. They were thinking that if they have that many people, how could they feed them? Jesus saw them as people that needed guidance and love. Maybe that's why you're here today. You've heard of Jesus and want to know more about Him.

Jesus never gets tired of meeting our needs. Jesus's compassion has no end. Jesus was tired but still taught them. When Jesus teaches us, he refreshes our spirits.

In verses 35-44, we see Jesus continuing to teach, but dinner time is approaching and everyone is hungry. The disciples quickly forgot and said that they should send the crowds away. They thought it would be an impossible task to feed them. The disciples saw Jesus do many miracles, so you would think that they would have the attitude that Jesus was going to take care of it. But they're humans. They quickly forgot and panicked. On the other hand, Jesus  was in control and focused on what they had and not on what they didn't have. Jesus told them "You lack nothing". Jesus + Nothing = Everything.

What they don't realize is that they're about to have a feast (vs. 39). They're in the wilderness but Jesus tells them to sit on the green grass. There's a lot of imagery here. Green tells us that it was spring time. This story reflects a picture of life and abundance. In the English version, it says Jesus told the people to sit down. But in Greek, he actually said "recline". He's using banquet language. A banquet is a festive celebration and there's plenty to eat.

Who was invited to Herod's banquet (Mark 6:14-29)? Only the elite and most important. It's invite only. Jesus's banquet is in the open field and everyone is invited. Herod's main event was for his own self-indulgence and provocative dancing. Beautiful women would parade in front of him to please his own desires and no one else's. Jesus's banquet focused on all of his guests and he made sure everyone was taken care of. He saw them as sheep without a shepherd. Jesus did whatever he could for the benefit of his sheep. Power corrupted Herod and killed a righteous man (John the Baptist). Herod used his power in a wicked way. Jesus is all-powerful but he isn't corrupt. You can trust Him because he uses his power for the good of his people.

A true shepherd (1) provides, (2) guides, and (3) protects his sheep. Herod fails in all of these. In Jesus's banquet, a righteous man eventually dies. The person that dies is the host of the banquet and by his own choice. He did this so that others could partake in the banquet. In Jesus's banquet, they all ate and were satisfied. Jesus always gives us what we need. We are all invited to Jesus's banquet. His nails in his hands show how much he loves us. See Isaiah 25:6-8. You can also read how much Jesus has to offer you in Psalm 23. Will you join in his banquet?

Scott Worden (The L.A./Seoul Guy)

Instagram: l.a.seoulguy