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Mexico City: A Guide

Once up on a time I wrote up a guide to Taipei . I’m gonna do the same for Mexico City as I feel like I’ve been there enough to suggest some things. What makes me qualified? Glad you asked! After a spending month in CDMX in November 2019—mainly to get a tattoo—I fell in love with the city and vowed to return. After wrapping up some stuff back home, I went back to Mexico City at the beginning of 2020 with an apartment rented for two months, and then ended up staying there until July, right in the middle of the pandemic. Since then I’ve also been there with my wife for three weeks in 2022 and then again for a week in 2026. While that isn’t the most time there ever, I do feel like I’ve canvassed the parts I know—aka the expat parts—and have enough advice for a first time trip to Mexico City. In addition, I met some local friends and dated someone there during that extended quarantine time, so have experienced some of that life as well. Overall, Mexico City is my favorite city—outside of A...
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Seoul: Powered by AI

I told Chat GPT to rewrite my Seoul post , in the style of my old Hyperwest blog /voice circa 2000-2010. And look at this beauty. Way better than my actual post right?! We stayed above a subway station named after a bridge we didn’t know was famous. People kept taking photos on it. Once, a small crew set up lights in the middle of the day, like they were filming something no one had told us about. I liked that it stayed unnamed for most of our trip. I liked that the bridge just got to be a bridge. The apartment was larger than we expected—two floors, rooftop access, more space than we knew what to do with. For two weeks it held us, gave our mornings shape. I spent the first few days trying to memorize the view from the windows, like that would help me understand the city better. It didn’t. Seoul was quieter than I’d expected. Or maybe it was just us who were quiet. We’d go out for hours and come back sore, scattered, slightly too full. The streets moved fast but weren’t overwhelming. T...
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Seoul: Two Weeks

Before heading to Korea, I was the most prepped I’d ever been for a trip. For the last few years, my ongoing obsessions have been League of Legends and K-pop, both of which have led me to many activities and friends. I figured that going to the source could only result in an out of body experience. In addition to watching a whole lot of YouTubes about Korean history, doing the usual run through of movies and books and podcasts, I had taken ten weeks of conversational Korean at the local adult school. I was ready! The Birth of Korean Cool: How One Nation Is Conquering the World Through Pop Culture, Euny Hong (2014) Crying in H Mart, Michelle Zauner (2021) Korea’s Place in the Sun, Bruce Cumings (1997) Was it strange that nearly everyone we spoke with said “Two weeks in Seoul? You’re not going anywhere else?” (This was repeated to us often, by taxi drivers there, friends, etc.) Apparently people don’t go to Seoul for two weeks. Frankly, I had pushed for a month there, but was talked down...
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Mexico City: Week Three

For my final week in CDMX, a city I was ready to return to super soon already, I had two friends dropping in from San Diego and Tijuana, for a wedding that weekend. They were to arrive Thursday, so I knew I had to get as much writing done as possible. So on Monday, I laid low and worked, and then emerged to catch my friend at El Pescadito for fish tacos and a walk around the neighborhood. She was sort of working and I ended up following her around as she ran errands. First, to her English school to pay tuition, then we rode the rush hour subway to the end of the line for her to pick up items from a craftsman — he was a no show — before going downtown to Zocolo for a look see and cafe time. Then when it got late, I rode the bus back with her to her neighborhood, so I could see where she lived. The twenty minute ride took us out to an area that was slightly more suburb-y, but definitely still city-like. So that was super fun and simulated exactly what I like to do in cities. The su...
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Mexico City: Week Two

After five days of full on playing I had to get to work, so knowing that, I buckled in for a few days to get some work done. So to begin the week, I only ventured out around Roma for fish tostadas at Marlindo. Everyone kept recommending Contramar for seafood and their tuna tostadas, but when I walked by the other day, it seemed too scene-y and crowded. So Marlindo was the perfect choice and delicious. I sat there, eating and reading, and then eventually wandered over to the movie theater to watch Bi Gan’s Long Day’s Journey Into Night, which is the highest grossing independent movie in Chinese history. It features a one-shot for the last hour or so. The film was quite beautiful and surreal, but I didn’t the entire plot because the audio was in Mandarin (heavily accented) and the subtitles in Spanish. I had to see it because I was scared it would be gone from the theaters, and I had already missed it in the States. Afterward I got some boba and then bought shoes for the upcoming we...
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Mexico City: Five Days, Part 2

Fresh off acquiring data, I sat down on a bench nearby and loaded up all the important messages I’d missed in the past hour. After dealing with many pressing issues that demanded my immediate attention, I looked up and noticed a sign two doors down from me that said "Bubba Tea & Co.” Could it be? I had inadvertently run into the only boba shop in all of Mexico City? I hustled in, put down my sixty pesos and got a "blackcat (té negro),” the first thing on the menu. It must be pointed out that this was the first time I’d ever had boba at a non-Asian owned place. Not only was the inside beautiful and designed like a high end coffee shop, I was so thrilled at my discovery that I didn't realize there was another whole sitting area, and only found out online later how beautiful it was. The quality of the boba itself was wonderful as well, with perfect QQ bounciness. Needless to say, I was more than pleased. As I write this a few days later, I realized that not only h...
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