I left home Friday afternoon, even though our flight wasn't until Saturday evening from Seoul. I visited Anne and stayed the night with her host family in Gwangju. Their apartment is beautiful, and nice and big also. That afternoon we took the bus to her piano lessons and I got to meet her crazy piano teacher! Who ALWAYS says "Jinja?" which means "really?" She was cute though, and took us out to dinner. We weren't very hungry though, because we had gotten patbingsu before her piano lesson-- YUM! I love PBS! Saturday morning we woke up (me a little stiff from sleeping on the floor) and headed to E-mart to get some snacks, then had a delicious spaghetti and garlic bread lunch made by her host mom. She was so cute. ^^ Around 1:30 we were off to catch our bus up to the airport in Seoul. I was still in shock that I'd be heading to SE Asia for 2 weeks!!!!
**NOTE: Here is the approximate money conversions. 34 Thailand Baht = $1 USD. 4000 Cambodian Riel = $1USD. 17000 Vietnam Dong = $1USD.
Feb 1 -- Chiang Mai, Thailand
Our flight left at 8pm, and was about 5 and a half hours. I slept fitfully on the plane. I was comfortable, but I kept waking up and some part of my body would be asleep, so I would have to shift. Anyway, we got in around midnight (SE Asia is 2 hours behind Korea). At the baggage claim I ran into a group of teachers from Suncheon! They were on the same flight as us -- how bizarre! We took a taxi (300 Baht) to our hotel, but our hotel's lobby was closed and locked! I was really pissed off, because they had told us they would be open because I told them our flight got in at 12:30am. We waited around for about 20 minutes with our driver and finally we gave up. He took us to another hotel, which ended up being more expensive. But it was nearly 1am at this time, so we didn't have much choice. We slept fitfully again. For some reason I couldn't fall asleep for about an hour, even though I was very exhausted. We were on a very busy and noisy road, so that didn't help either. We finally got out of bed around 8 and out of the door by 9. When we were leaving, the hotel asked us where we were going, and we said to another hotel. The lady looked all sad and asked why? We explained that we already had reservations at another place. So far the people have all been very kind to us. Well, except the dude at our hotel. He wasn't here this morning AGAIN when we arrived. After waiting for a bit I walked to the sister guesthouse which is just a block away. It turns out he was waiting there. He immediately had a bitchy tone and was pissy because he was waiting for us from 1-2:30am last night. I told him we were there at 12:40 and waited like 15 minutes, so he got there right after we gave up. I wasn't about to apologize to him -- he should have been there earlier. He kept bitching about it though, like he wanted an apology. Finally I just said, its bad for you and bad for us, so get over it. I don't understand why the office of our hotel was always locked and he would just sit at the other hotel. ANYWAY, the hotel is pretty nice for $10/night/room. We dropped off our stuff and set out on foot to explore the town of Chiang Mai. We found a smoothie stand nearby and all got banana smoothies for breakfast. Everyone has a very high level of English since tourism is their main industry here. We walked along the canal street and found the Sunday market stalls all opening up for the day. I bought some teal baggy pants (99 Baht), a marionette from Burma (500 B), and a coin purse (10 B) and then we headed back to the hotel to get some water and sunscreen. We hit up a restaurant on the corner near our hotel and got Pad Thai (Thai noodles) with pork and cashew chicken along with a fresh coconut. We didn't really like the coconut juice. After lunch we got a tuk tuk to take us around to the various factories in the city: umbrella, silk, and jewelry. (200 B for the tuk tuk) I bought a painting (350 B) and a set of wooden fish for mom ( 400 B). Then we headed back to the hotel to get out of the heat and take a nap. We were all pretty exhausted from the travel and the heat. It was in the lower 80s probably. We all got matching bracelets near the hotel. It seems that when one of us wants to buy something, all 3 of us end up getting it. It's pretty funny! After our nap we set back out and got another fruit smoothie, and made our way back to the Sunday market, which was now in full swing for the evening. I got some hand painted cards (3 for 90B), a beautiful dress (325 B), an elephant painting (100B), a bamboo basket (130 B), and a string lantern (90B). I've bought so much stuff already!! But the crafts here are so beautiful. For dinner we found a big plaza full of different street food vendors, so we tried a few different things. We headed back to the hotel pretty early and exhausted. Overall, a great first day!
Delicious fruit shake stand!
Setting up the Sunday Market.
A sample of Thai writing -- beautiful! Too bad it doesn't sound so pretty.
Fresh coconut -- not as delicious as I would have thought.
At the umbrella factory!Feb 2 -- Chiang Mai, Thailand
I woke up at 5:30am this morning to a dog howling near our hotel. He kept at it for awhile, so I finally got out of bed to shut the window. If I had had a gun, I probably would have shot him, he was so annoying! So lucky for him that I didn't. I went back to sleep and woke up at 6:45. I sat on the deck reading my book and watching the sunrise until 7:30. After getting dressed, we got smoothies for breakfast again. Today I tried pineapple. Then at 8L30 we were picked up at our hotel for an all day adventure (700B each). We were with 4 Chinese, 2 Swedes, and 1 British girl. The adventure started off with an hour drive through the countryside. I noticed much more open space here in Thailand than in Korea. I saw corn, soybeans, rice, and onions in the fields. Also, lots of cows are out grazing the weeds -- but mostly white colored cows. Gas costs 20B / L, so about $0.65/liter. Our first stop of the day was a tribal village: the Red Karen. About 200 people live there, but all the youth and middle aged people are out working in the fields by day. Their houses are up on stilts. Only a few women and small children were there to sell wares to the tourists. After that we had a 20 minute walk to a nearby waterfall. The water was pretty chilly, so I didn't swim. I would have if we had more time there. After a refreshing Fanta and cookie snack, we walked a tiny path for about 30 minutes to the Hmong village. This was where I hoped to buy my story quilt, but no luck as they only had one color and it was more expensive than last night at the market. The Hmong tribe came down from Southern China and they have a really distinctive style of crafts. After just a brief stop in this village -- I thought we would do more in the 2 villages than just briefly stop and look at/buy their crafts --- it was time for lunch, which was decent but very bland food. We all wanted spicy, authentic Thai food, but I think the tour guides think that tourists can't handle spicy. Next we were off to ride the elephants for an hour. I ended up having one elephant to myself, whereas everyone else was 2 people per elephant. My elephant was slow and stopped to eat a lot, but at least he didn't spray me with snot and water a lot like Anne and YooMin's elephant! :-P It made me a little sad, because it was obvious the elephants weren't happy. They kept flapping their ears and mine even grunted/purred 3 times or so. The guides had sling shots and hooks to prod the elephants along when they were being difficult. Luckily they mainly only used verbal commands and did not have to use the physical "encouragement". The elephants are so tall that you have to get on/off the elephants from a raised one-story platform. Our final stop was bamboo rafting. We were on a long raft with a guide and a Chinese woman who was scared of getting wet, but got soaked anyway. She was a real party pooper. The raft ride was relaxing for me. The guides had fun splashing us with water and pushing the rafts half under water. I slept on the bus ride back to Chiang Mai. We went back to the hotel to shower, and lost power!! I guess the whole city lost it. For dinner, we got spicy chicken curry in coconut milk soup (very authentic and delicious Thai food!), spring rolls, and curry with pork tenderloin, AND (of course) smoothies! Then we headed back to the market because I wanted to get a story quilt and a Hmong style bed spread. Well, they were all over the Sunday market last night and really cheap, but the night market is much smaller and the prices were more expensive. I was kicking myself in the foot for not just buying them last night (but the reason I waited was because I hoped to buy it directly from the village today, but then they didn't really have any). I got both the bedspread and the story quilt for 2800 B. We spent the rest of the night relaxing and reading until Danielle arrived around 9:40pm. She was meeting up with us after spending a week in Bali!
Red Karen traditional village
Hiking through the countryside outside of Chiang Mai.
Hmong village
Riding elephants -- gorgeous animals
YooMin and Anne on their elephantFeb 3 -- Chiang Mai, Thailand
We were awoken bright and early -- again by dogs. After checking out of our hotel, stowing our luggage for the day, and slurping down a banana smoothie, we set off with our (cute) guides for our 4-wheeler/ATV adventure! (1650 B/each) The drive took us 1.5 hours out of the city, to the middle of nowhere. It was a beautiful drive though. I think we even had to pay some bribe money to an old dude to cross a bridge!! Anyway, we had 2 ATVs between the 4 of us. I was with Danielle. After a brief "training" session (where they told us to watch out for dogs and chickens, haha) we set off. First, taking a highway (both of us ran out of momentum going up a steep hill in 5th gear -- they then told us we need to use 3rd for hills, which would have been nice to know before the hill) that led us to a jungle path. Pretty much we zig-zagged through the jungle, along fields and streams and even onto some paved roads. Some guys on a motorcycle popped a wheely because they were so excited to see foreign girls. After 2 hours on the 4-wheeler we were covered in dirt and my throttle hand was completely black! We washed our hands and patted as much dirt off our clothes as we could, then sat down for a lunch of chicken, rice, and veggies, and of course fresh pineapple. We all fell asleep on the hot ride back to Chiang Mai. After arriving, I headed to a post office to mail my purchases home (1100 Baht) by sea mail. We tried mango sticky rice, a famous dish from northern Thailand, but it was just ok. Then we showed Danielle the market. By this time we were all pretty drained, so we caught a taxi to the train station earlier than we needed to. Our train left at 6pm and arrived in Bangkok at 7am the next morning. The compartment was decent -- there was a little man who came around and made our beds for us! The compartments were 2-person, but our compartments had a connecting door which we left open the whole time, so that was awesome! Much better that all 4 of us could talk. We got food on the train (expensive and not that great). We called it a night early (as usual).
Riding ATVs through the jungle!
4 girls!!! ^^
With our guides after the ATV adventure
On the train down to Bangkok.Feb 4 -- Bangkok, Thailand
None of us slept well on the train because it was FREEZING! We woke up around 6am, all feeling dirty from no shower after riding ATVs yesterday and grumpy. We caught a cab (200B) to a guesthouse, but it was full. We tried a couple others, but thought they were overpriced. We finally settled on "My House," only 350B/night for a fan and cold shower. It is far from luxurious, but the price is right! The cold shower was actually really refreshing in the heat and humidity. Bangkok is much more humid than up north! After cleaning up, we set out to walk to the Grand Palace. On the way there we were stopped twice and told it was closed this morning for a special Buddhist holiday (and even that the king and queen would be there that morning). We thought these people were so kind to tell us! Instead, they recommended we check out some other sites and the 2nd guy found us a cheap tuk tuk to take us all around! (only 20B per tuk tuk) Well, it turns out it's all a scam! For some reason its common for these scammers to tell you the palace is closed and then get you in the tuk tuks where they take you to factories on the way to see whatever you want to see. At the factories (jewelry, silk, etc), the tuk tuk driver gets a coupon for gas for bringing tourists there. So for every temple or site we wanted to see, they took us to a factory of some sort, where we had to just get out and look for like 2 minutes. As soon as we said NO MORE FACTORIES (after having gone to 3), they wouldn't take us to any more sites, so they dropped us back off at the hotel. We were told that to visit the temple, we had to be fully covered to the wrists and ankles and no flip flops. After changing and then grabbing lunch, we looked through some markets on the way to the Palace. Again, on the way we were stopped and told it was closed now, but that it had been open that morning and we'd have to come back tomorrow. Now everything was suspicious because people had told us the opposite that morning. We decided to go ahead and try to get in. Of course, it was open and had been all day. This was when we figured out it had been a scam. Lucky for us, there ended up being a free English tour starting 10 minutes after we got there (ticket price 350 B). The tour wasn't amazing, but I think we saw way more of the complex than we would have otherwise. I couldn't believe the opulence and intricate decoration of the buildings! Gold and glass mosaics and flowers, etc. It was overwhelmingly beautiful. Any of those buildings was amazing enough to stand alone, so some of the awe was lost in seeing them all together. We tried to catch a taxi to Siem Square (a shopping district), but they all wanted to do 2 factory stops or else charge an exuberant price to take us there with no stops. We said, screw that!, and walked back to the hotel to rest and read. Bangkok is much bigger, busier, nosier, dirtier, hotter, and more expensive than Chiang Mai. today was in the 90's. I already have a bad tan line from my sandals and my neck got a little sunburned today. After resting we ALL crammed into a tuk tuk to Siam Sq (150 B) and got stuck in a traffic jam. We got there and I wasn't into it at all -- it was just a complex of huge, Western expensive shopping malls. I didn't come to SE Asia for this. We got an expensive dinner at AuBonPan (165B for kiwi juice and fresh mozzarella and tomato sandwich), but it was delicious, I must admit. Then we decided to take a ride on the Sky Train -- the elevated train through the city -- but that wasn't worth it either. Finally, we caught a metered taxi back to our hotel, and it only cost 70B! So the taxi's are ripping off tourists big time. Anyway, after taking a body shower and prepping my overnight bag for the next 2 days, its time for bed!
Our tuk tuk driver.
Giant buddha!
Coin offerings at a Buddhist temple
Grand Palace
Grand PalaceFeb 5 -- Hua Hin & Ratburi
We got up around 7:30, stored our luggage, checked email, ate Museli, and caught a taxi to the bus station. Traffic was pretty bad and the bus station was further than we thought, so we barely made it in time or our bus at 8:30 to Hua Hin (150B -- definitely an inflated price for tourists). I read most of the 3 hour bus ride there. We ate at a delicious pizza restaurant, bought 2 cheap mats for the beach, and headed to the sand. It was divine! Beautiful white sand and most parts weren't crowded at all. Lots of old Europeans there -- in bikinis and speedos, nonetheless. :-P (As Anne said, Americans aren't the only fat ones! Haha) The town has quite a few tourists, but is really cute! It reminded me a bit of one beach I went to in Florida. I read, took a walk along a sandbar, and did a little swimming. Unfortunately, there were big, sharp rocks in the water by our part of the beach, so the swimming wasn't that great. At 3:00 we packed up, stopped and got some AMAZING home-made gelato (chocolate mint and cappuchino for me -- 95B) on the way to the train station. We wanted the 4pm train to Ratburi, a city near where the floating market is. Well, when we got there at 3:30, there were only 3 seats left. :-( The guy at the ticket counter kept laughing at us. We even asked if it was possible to stand, but that just made him laugh even more. As that was the last train there, we headed to the bus station, which the man told us was just over 1km away. Well, the sun was blazing and it was very humid, so we all quickly worked up a sweat. We were all very tired and thirsty by the time we got to the station, which was close to 2km, or even more! Turned out the next bus to Ratburi wasn't until 7pm (106B). So, after sitting in the AC lounge for a bit, we headed back to the beach. Since it was now nearly 5pm, a restaurant let us lay in their loungers for free and kept telling us "See you tomorrow. 50B for all day" We would've if we hadn't been leaving. We got dinner -- I had fried fish (140B-- prices are definitely inflated here since so many rich, older couples come here) - and then got on the bus. They gave us bottled water and a lap blanket!!! We got to Ratburi around 9pm, but they just dropped us off on the side of the highway and it was very dark outside! (Reminded me of my first trip to Japan... ahem, Ike! ) After seeing how confused we looked, the bus driver pointed us to a shopping mall across the street. We went in to look for help, but only found the shops were closing up. We all got almond pretzels and asked the workers for help, but no one spoke enough English. So we left the mall complex, and walked around one corner and luckily found a couple of tuk tuks there. We asked about the floating market, but they said that was 25 km away, too far to go tonight. So they took us to a motel. Well, the first place they took us to was some Western resort that looked super expensive! But the driver told us there were no guesthouses, so we had resigned to having to pay a lot because there was no other option. Well, a bell hop came out and told us they were full. (Thankfully, in the end) So our driver kindly took us to another place (this would have cost more money in the US, but not here!), which was a hotel for locals. Anyway, only 250B/double room and it was clean! A hell of a deal. We showered and hit the sack. I was very relieved that we had a cheap, yet decent, place to stay!
Thai Ronald
Hua Hin on the beach
Reading in the afternoon sun
Feb 6 -- Floating Market & Bangkok
Happy birthday to my little brother! We are the same age now for 9 more days...
I didn't sleep too well last night, mainly because the 1 blanket was too small for both me and Danielle to share! We woke up at 6:15, got ready, and left. We hoped the people at the hotel would help us get a taxi to the market, but they were all asleep, so we left our key at the desk and just headed out. We had no idea where we were, so just started walking in the direction that had slightly more traffic. After a block we were flagged down by a bus driver. We told him where we wanted to go and he said ok. We left 20 minutes later (20B) after having some delicious chocolate milk. After a half hour on the bus, we again got dropped on the side of the highway with a point towards the right direction. We started walking and after a few minutes found a shared taxi that agreed to take us for 20B each. There was a cute old woman on when we got on. On the way, other old women and school children (they wear uniforms here too -- most seem to be blue and white), and a cute old man with a big turtle (~14 inches in length) got on and off. We finally got dropped off at a place where we had to pay 250B/person for a boat to take us through the market. We got there around 8:15 or a little later. We were a little worried bc my guidebook said the Bangkok crowds arrive around 9 (thats why we didn't stay in Bangkok last night in the first place, so we could get there before the crowds), but they didn't show up until we were about ready to leave. We were taken all around the canals and through the market. Lots of women selling fruits and food and all the souvenirs we found in Bangkok. It was really cute to just look at, though. I finally got to try the purple fruit (mangosteens) and it tasted like rhubarb, but mushy texture. I also tried another thing that was similar to an apple -- I think it's called a star apple. I bought an elephant wall hangin (300B), a wooden naked woman for Michael (300B), and a wooden frog (70B) for Jun-eun's birthday present. We did another shared taxi back to the town, waited about a half hour, then caught a bus back to Bankok (64B, 2.5 hours). I slept a lot of the trip. We headed back to the same hotel and got our bags from storage and had a lite lunch (banana shake and mango sticky rice for me!). Next was time for a nap and some reading. Around 5:30 we roused ourselves for dinner. I had Pad Thail and springrolls (50B) from a street vendor and banana chocolate crepe (25B) that was pure deliciousness! Again early to bed as our taxi to the airport is at 5am tomorrow! We head to Cambodia.
Enter man with a giant turtle
Floating market
Floating market
Floating market
Floating marketWhen I think of THAILAND, I think of:
kind, smiling faces
lush green and pink/yellow/red/white flowers
fresh fruit
tuk tuks and motorcycles
hot and humid
stray dogs
tourism
geckos everywhere!
land-based society
individualistic styles (clothing)
helpful
cheap
elephants
good food
driving on the left side of the road (I was surprised by this! British influence runs deep here)
Feb 7 -- Siem Reap, Cambodia
We awoke at 4:30 (ugh) to take a taxi to the airport at 5. We were all exhausted. The airport reminded me a lot of Incheon (Seoul's airport). Our flight was at 8am. They served us a good breakfast on the plane: fruit, yogurt, pastries. We got into Siem Reap an hour later. It's a cute little airport. The weather when we got off the plane was amazing -- not humid at all. We wanted to buy a flight to Sihanoukville on the southern coast, but after being led all around the airport and asking many people, we finally found out the airport in S-Ville is closed. bummer! So, next was getting a cab to downtown. As usual, all 4 of our suitcases (mine is the smallest) didnt' fit into the trunk, so mine went up front with me. Well, about 10 taxi drivers were all standing around trying to figure out hte best way to get my suitcase in with me. It was quite the ordeal! Anyway, our taxi driver was really kind. He told us he has only been in Siem Reap for 6 months. Before that he was a civil servant in the capital, Phnom Pehn. Anyway, he recommended Ancient Angkor Guesthouse, which turned out to be a really great place! It even had a swimming ppool. ($15/night/room) We started off th day by going to the central market and wlaking around. We found lots of stuff we wanted. All the shop owners kept saying "Lady, come inside. Take a look" and "Discount for you. good price. Cheap cheap!" Over and over -- like a broken record. We decided to get lunch nearby. I tried something in the Khmer (Cambodian) section of the menu: stir fry pumpkin and chicken. It was actually really bland, but the banana shake was delicious (never fails me!). We then went back to the market and I bought a ton of stuff (surprise). I got 2 paintings for $25, 3 beautiful tiles with women for $35, and a mataching bowl and plate for $18. We went back to the hotel to swim, relax, and read. It was pretty fabulous. Then we ventured out to get dinner. If lunch was bland, dinner was horendous! Not only did they bring out each dish about 15 minutes apart (we have found that to be common here in SE Asia -- the food never comes all at once), but it aws disgusting. Since dinner was so bad, we crossed the river and got some delicious ice cream to fill us up. On our walk home, we passed a massage parlor. Well, after taking a gander, we all decided to get hour long Thai massages ($15), not knowing exactly what a Thai massage was. Well, they turned out to be really strong! It felt really good everywhere except my upper back, between my shoulders. They were digging in with elbows and putting their entire body weight on us -- granted they were tiny, but still! The next day I had a dull ache everywhere on my body and sharp pain between my shoulder blades. My masseuse was cute and tried to speak English with me. She told me I had good hands (??) and then pointed out my mole. She then touched my mole then touched my groin and said "same same" -- I have no idea what that was supposed to mean, hah! There were lots of elbows involved in the massage, as well as her stepping on me and twisting me in every possible direction. Overall, Siem Reap is a really cute town with French architectural influence, lots of motos, and dirt roads. We went to bed after some reading and relaxing.
Basket weaving
Market
CoconutFeb 8 -- Siem Reap, Cambodia
We got up at 7:30 and headed out to get breakfast. I got scrambled eggs and some crazy hashbrown thing that was like a potato pancake, and a banana shake. Then we headed out in our taxi for the day ($25) off to angkor Wat (entrance pass $20). We saw Angkor Wat first and it was pretty incredible and overwhelming. Built in the 1100's, it is the largest religious building in the world. Next we were off to see the fortified city of Angkor Thom which contains Bayon temple (has tons of faces -- really cool!), the Elephant Terrace (I really liked this), and the Leper King Terrace. By this time it was getting pretty hot out and we were feeling pretty exhausted and sore from the massage last night. The final temple we went to was Ta Prohm. It is currently being restored, as the jungle had not yet been cleared from it. So, there were giant trees growing on and throughout the temple walls. It was really neat to see. After finishing the main 3 temples, we headed back to town. (There are something like 30 or 70 temples in the whole complex). We decided on Mexican food for lunch, and it was AMAZING! I got a strawberry marg and Anne and I split a chimichanga. Both were delicious, and it was the best Mexican food I've had since back home in the States. Then we headed back to the market and I got a painting that I had fallen in love with last night ($45) and a wooden goddess statue ($5) of the goddess that was carved all over Angkor Wat. Exhausted, we headed back to the hotel and I fell asleep reading by the pool. We got pizza for dinner and headed back to the same ice cream place. Then we caught a free Cambodian dance show (well, we had to pay for drinks), then early to bed again!
Angkor Wat
Indiana Jones!
Elephant Terrace!
All 4 of us.
Trees taking back over one of the temples.
Feb 9 -- Phnom Pehn, Cambodia
We were picked up from our hotel around 6:30 for our bus at 7:30 heading to Phnom Pehn. We were told it was a 4 hour ride on the express bus, but really it took 6 hours!!!! The road connecting Siem Reap and Phnom Pehn is relatively new and supposively the best in the country. But, it wasn't great and it was very bumpy! The bus was driving pretty slow. I saw a lot -- too much -- on the bus ride: people riding on top of cars, motorcyclists without helmets and only wearing flip flops, rice and corn fields, 3 car wrecks (the first was a motorcycle completely underneath an SUV and we saw the motodriver -- he was dead. I felt so sad from seeing his bloody face lying there on the road amongst the crowd gathered. Danielle saw a dead child from another wreck. So dangerous!), roaming cows everywhere (super skinny and eating garbage), garbage all over the open land, people sitting around doing nothing, stick fences, wooden and thatched houses up on stilts. Along the way, we stopped at a rest stop and were flooded by children trying to sell us fruit. A 14 year old girl latched on to me. I finallyu bought some pineapple from her when she told me she'd start crying if I didn't (they know what to say to get to you!) and she sang me the ABC's (only missing a couple letters). They all had giant TARANTULAS on their shirts!!! They were selling dead ones to eat. OMG it was so disgusting! I didn't know they had such big spiders here. Yikes. Well, we decided to just get a hotel near the bus drop off area in Phnom Pehn. We found a place that was under construction, but the rooms were nice ($17). We dropped off our bags then headed to an Irish restaurant, where I had a delicious chocolate shake and a bacon chicken sandwich. It was an expensive lunch ($8.75), especialy for SE Asia, but oh well. We ghen got a tuk tuk to take us to the massacre museum. The Khmer Rouge killed more than 2 million Cambodians between 1975-1979. The museum was in a high school complex that had been turned into a prison and tortue camp. It was heart-wrenching. Some of the cells were 0.8 x 2 meters. So tiny! Many of those killed were children, women, and intellectuals. (How can a country recover when all intellectuals and doctors are killed?) After we finished, we headed out to the killing fields that are 15 km out of town. It was a long (and frightful) ride in the tuk tuk. Phnom Pehn has lots of barbed wire and signs saying "No drugs. No guns." We wished we weren't so exposed in the tuk tuk, as we definitely didn't feel as welcome here as we did in Siem Reap. The killing fields are the site where many of the executions took place and many mass graves are. It probably wasn't worth the long ride out there, but it was interesting to see. There is a masoleum with 90,000 skulls in it. So sad to think of what happened. We saw lots of slums on the way out, but also several nicer houses down town. I guess the rich-poor gap is really big here and widening. We got Museli and yogurt and fruit for dinner and headed back to the hotel early, as we didn't exactly feel that this city is safe. We were caught off-guard as we walked into our hotel, as the restaurant part, which had been under construction that afternoon, was bustling and we were bombarded by scantily-clad women. We're pretty sure they must be strippers, as there is a pole down there! As a matter of fact, the whole street our hotel is on is pretty noisy -- probably going to be hard to sleep. Another surprise waited for us in our bathroom sink -- an inch long cockroach!! Luckily, Danielle helped me dispose of it. I used a toothbrush to push it off the sink and she caught it in a basket and then ran and dumped the whole thing out our window onto the balcony. It was pretty hilarious! Anyway, we are all ready to get out of the city and head south to the coast for a couple days.
Tarantula!
Cute girls at the rest stop.
Massacre Museum -- torture room
Massacre Museum
Massacre MuseumFeb 10 -- Sihanoukville, Cambodia
Last night was very loud outside our hotel, so anne and I didn't sleep well. But, I had a delicious pistachio waffle with blueberries and yogurt for breakfast! After watchign Obama's press conference opening on CNN, we got on the 8:30 bus heading south to Sihanoukville. The bus was pretty nice and I was able to sleep a decent amount. At the rest-stop on the way down, we ran into Elizabeth, Anna K, and Olga (3 other ETAs)!!! It was pretty crazy. They were with a tour group and heading North. Anyway, the bus ride passed by gorgeous scenery and landscapes -- mountains, farms, small villages. The road was much less busy, but the driver still used his horn almost constantly. After the 4 hour bus ride, we tried to haggle with the taxi drivers, but they all stuck to the outrageous price of $6 to take us to a hotel on the beach. They convinced us to stay at the budget hotel ($13/night for a 4 person room). Things in Cambodia, especially food, transportation, and crafts are all over priced for tourists. Also, lots of sex tourism here in Cambodia! We see young SE Asian women with middle-aged/old white men all the time. It is pretty disturbing, as most of the men don't look like creepers. It seems like the could/do have a wife and kids back at home. Anyway, we had a mediochre lunch at the hotel and then just layed on the beach all afternoon. The water was pretty nice to swim in, despite all the older men standing around. That night we got pizzas from a restaurant on the beach and they wer absolutely horrible. We went back to the room early and still a little hungry. Some boys on the beach (selling things) came and took the pizza scraps we had left and thanked us for it. It made me feel sorry for them. Many children are selling fruit, bracelets, and small trinkets. When you ask why they're not at school, they say "No school today", but I'm pretty sure that's a lie and that they don't get to go to school. :-( But their English is WAY better than my students'. (I'm going to rub that in their faces next semester :-P ) One little girl said she learned English from a friend. I asked one little booy what he likes to do, and he told me there is nothing he likes. I worry about what the future holds for this country.
Happy Pizza = marijuana apparently
Relaxing on the beach.Feb 11 -- Sihanoukville, Cambodia
We took an 8:30 boat tour out to some of the nearby islands. We did some snorkling, but it wasn't good visibility. A storm acme up out of nowhere when we were lying on the beach. We saw the pouring rain coming across the water. We huddled under a tree for a bit, but then Danielle and I said SCREW IT so we rain into the water. The rain made it cold at the surface, but it was beautiful to watch at eye level the way the rain splashed up (and into our eyes, haha). It stopped after about a half our Then we had a picnic lunch on the beach. We walked to the other side of the island and found the beach to be much cleaner. We did more snorkeling on the way back to shore, and I could see more coral and fish this time. But, YooMin stepped on a spikey black sea urchin!! She got 9 splinters deep in her foot -- very painful. They were so deep we couldn't get them out. I carried her part of the way back to the hotel. Dinner at the hotel again and early to bed. I didn't sleep so well as some crazy woman was yelling "Berlin" over and over for like 10 minutes, then someone blarred their TV, then our neighbor pounded on our wall thinking it was our TV. Argh.
On the boat to the islands
Snorkeling!
And then it started down pouring.
Feb 12 -- Sihanoukville to Phnom Pehn to Hanoi, Vietnam
Lots of traveling today. We were on the "7:30am" bus back up to Phnom Pehn, but it left at least 20 minutes late. Anne and I were crammed into the back row, where we couldn't recline and had no leg room whatsoever. Not fun. But there was a tiny new born bay with her dad in our row -- she was precious but SO SMALL. We have seen lots of teenage mothers here in Cambodia. I wonder if it is their culture to marry early or if there are other problems causing so much teenage pregnancy. Anyway, traffic must have been worse heading back into PP because we didn't get back until 12:30. We were supposed to meet my piano teacher's friend who lives in PP for lunch, but we didn't see her where I told her to meet us. We grabbed lunch and had tuk tuk drivers hovering over us from the moment we got our menus. After lunch we had to haggle pretty hardcore to get the price down to $5/tuk tuk to the airport. The airport was small, but surprisingly modern! It should be, as all tourists have to pay a $25 departure tax, which was on top of our super expensive plane ticket. We left at 3:50pm and had a one hour layover in Laos. We got into Hanoi, Vietnam around 6:30, caught a us into town and then a taxi to Hanoi Backpackers Hostel. It's a really great hostel! We had our own private quad for $8.50/person, including breakfast and internet. After lugging our bags upstairs, we headed to a nice Italian restaurant nearby. i got a glass of red wine and split gnocci with Anne. It was super delicious! After getting back to the room, Danielle started screaming when she saw a huge RAT! It was dead (thankfully) -- electrocuted on an AC wire. someone had opened the window to our room and there was no screen, so I think it just had crawled right in. Gross! Danielle and Yoomin both freaked out big time, heehee. To bed around 11:30pm.
Stop in Laos
Rat in our hostel!!!
Motorcycles everywhere!When I think of CAMBODIA, I think of:
Flip flops on motorcycles
Bad roads
beggars
tuk tuks
temples
civil war
young population
dirt roads
USD = expensive and overpriced
new to tourism
garbage everywhere
skinny cows
exploitation of the environment
coconuts
brick factories
constant honking
bad food
Korean investment
Feb 13 (FRIDAY!!) -- Halong Bay, Vietnam
Up early to have delicious bread and jam and check the email. Then at 8 we were picked up for the 3.5 hour bus ride north to Halong Bay. The bay is beautiful with its Karst landscape. Karst is these huge limestone formations that have pretty sheer drop offs for their walls, caused by shifts in the tectonic plates. (I really wanted to see these in Southern China, but we didn't make it there, so I'm glad I got to see them here!) Once there, we got on a "Junk" boat with about 15 other passengers. We had lunch, went to see "Heaven Cave" -- beautiful cave, but cheesy lighting, and our guide (Linn) rushed us through it. Then we were back on the boat for some cruising around the bay and we settled into our private rooms. Then we went kayaking for 40 minutes in the beautiful late afternoon sunlight. The 4 of us definitely aren't socializing much with the others on the boat. There's nothing wrong with them, but I think we just feel like sticking to ourselves. After dinner at 6:30, we went on top of the deck to see the stars -- it was gorgeous. But, everything was covered in a heavy dew, so we moved to our rooms for some girl talk before heading to bed.
Our boat
Karst landscape
Heaven Cave
Beautiful sunset!Feb 14 -- Halong Bay, Vietnam
Happy Valentines Day! I slept really well in our cute room on the boat. After breakfast, the boat cruised to Cat Ba island, which is actually inhabited. We went hiking in the national park there, and had a gorgeous view of the karst landscape from the look out point at the top of our hike. I climbed a rickety old observation tower to get a better view. It was actually a bit scary up there -- the planks were not fixed to the floor supports, it was windy, and the boards for the last platform were missing!! After coming back down, we were greeted by the ice cream man "Come here, please!" and his tempting treats hit the spot! We then bused to the hotel, which is really nice and has a huge bathroom!!! We had a mediochre lunch (I was disappointed in our meals this trip -- I was hoping to get to have some Vietnamese food, but it all tasted pretty bland and toned down for the foreigners), and then were getting ready to take a walk, but we discovered that the movie Hitch was on TV, so we ended up watching that. Then following that was Titanic, so of course we had to watch that too!! Then we headed out for a walk before dinner time at 6:30, then back to more movies: Becoming Jane, and Mrs. Potter. What better way to spend Valentine's day then having a movie fest with girls and snacking on cookies? :-)
Hiking in the national park on Cat Ba island. I climbed this rickety observation tower.
Hold on tight!
Sausage houses!
The bay.Feb 15 -- Halong Bay & Hanoi, Vietnam
Today was a long day of travelling again. The final day of our trip -- I can't believe it! After breakfast we caught a bus back to meet the boat, the boat back to the port on the mainland, then lunch and wasting an hour waiting for our bus, then a 4 hour bus ride back to Hanoi. Sheesh! In Hanoi we had a few hours of free time before we had to head to the airport. We did some damage shopping -- they hae GORGEOUS laquerware here, so I had to get some neat things of course! Then the girls took me out to dinner for my birthday, and Anne so kindly paid for me! We decided to go back to the delicious Italian restaurant. I got lasagna, and Anne and I decided to split a carafe of red wine, but she didn't drink more than a glass of it, and I had the rest -- which left me feeling quite good! We took a taxi to the airport, and the airport was CRAZY, even though it was around 10pm by this time. Tons of people were there to see other people off. But they weren't just standing on the side out of everyone's way, they were ALL OVER and completely in the way. It was hard to find the line to check in for our flight. But, finally we got all checked in, through immigration, etc. We were all feeling pretty exhausted by this point. Our flight left at 11:50pm, and I fell asleep right away, but then was woken up for breakfast (who knows why they felt the need to serve breakfast in the middle of the night), drinks, headphones, etc. I wish they had just let us sleep instead of disturbing everyone throughout the whole flight. Anyway, the flight was about 3.5 hours, and we got into Seoul around 5:30 Korea time (3:30 SE Asia time). I had planned on staying in Seoul to visit the US Embassy to get more pages added to my passport, but I felt like crap (dirty and tired) and so decided to skip that. We grabbed breakfast from Dunkin' Donuts and then caught the 6:50 bus back to Gwangju, where I transfered to another bus taking me back to Suncheon. It feels strange to think of Suncheon as my home, but I felt relieved to be back. I got some bokgumbap, which I had been craving, and caught a taxi back home. My host brothers and host father were waiting around for me! After chatting with them for a bit, I showered and unpacked and was busy all day -- I feel like I have a lot of stuff I need to do before I head to Japan on Friday! I can't believe the new semester starts in less than 2 weeks.... waah!
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My Korean birthday!
So the night I got back, my host parents gave me my birthday present while we were eating Samgyepsal -- 3 pairs of underwear!! HAHA. They told me not to open it there, since it was underwear. Then they explained to me that in Korea its common for family to give each other underwear, how cute! Today I got a plant from Jun-eun and a blue hankerchief from Jun-ho. What cuties! I also baked a birthday cake today for Jun-eun (his birthday is today) and myself. I made pineapple upside down cake, which is my favorite, and my Grandma always makes it for me on my birthday. Well, Jun-eun helped me and it turned out really well (except a little lumpy because their oven doesn't circulate well). Anyway, my host mom was gone all day today. So at 1pm my host dad says "ok, let's do the birthday candles and sing happy birthday." I guess his plan was to eat my cake for lunch. He told me "To be honest, I don't like bread. But this is good bread!" He kept referring to it as bread, and I repeatedly told him it was cake, not bread! And then he proceded to have 3 HUGE pieces of the cake. (It's a double batch, and he ate nearly 1/4 of it himself -- so that is HALF of a normal cake!) I don't know why he thought that cake would be ok for lunch, but whatever. I'm just happy that it is delicious, even if its going to disappear faster than I had thought.
When I think of VIETNAM, I think of:
rice paddies
cone straw hats
beautiful sunsets
fake flowers
motorcycles EVERYWHERE -- like swarms of locusts!
amazing laquerware
tiny people
Korean and Japanese products
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