Spoiler Alert: Korea wipes the floor with Canada's thoroughly beaten behind.
Here's the story of two very different health care systems. And why I'm glad I was in South Korea for Round 2.
Round 1 - I was meandering through the 3rd year of my BA at the University of Waterloo as a part-time student while I worked full time (Shout out: Parkway Ford!). I came down with one hell of a sore throat in mid-September so I stopped into the student clinic and the lady-Doctor there looked at my throat, took a swab and perscribed me some anti-biotics to kill the infection she assumed to be strep throat (wait time: 45 minutes, consultation time: 10 minutes). It was very painful, and please understand I really hate going to see a doctor unless I'm really ill. If you're from Canada, you know what a waste of time it is. The anti-biotics worked. It went away but came back 6 weeks later with a vengence. I returned to the clinic (wait time: 1 hour) and was checked out by a less friendly and less thorough lady-Doctor. She checked my history, informed me that the swab test for strep came back negative so she wasn't going to perscribe me anything. She told me to rest over the weekend (this was a friday) and come back on Monday *if* I still felt sick for bloodwork. Methinks she suspected me off trying to get out of midterms or get more T3's? Anyways, my throat hurt so badly that I couldn't sleep, at all. Not Friday night, not Saturday night. And by Sunday I couldn't swallow ANYTHING, not even my own saliva. Some said I should just go to the hospital but I felt sure the clinic would help me out. I waited until Sunday night turned into Monday morning. At 9:00am sharp, I walked into the clinic (Wait time: 30 minutes even though the clinic JUST opened) and another Doctor checked me out. He asked why I was there. I told him I wanted the bloodwork done. After a few vials were pulled from me, he asked me with an edge in his voice: "What else do you want me to do for you?" I replied "Can you please prescribe me something to open my throat so I can eat and sleep again?" He prescribed a special mouthwash. Fabulous. The bloodtests were to be done in 24 hours. I knew it meant a 4th night without sleep, but surely the wheels were in motion, I could tough it out for one more day. I waited until 12 noon on Tuesday to call and was informed by peeved nurse that they would call me when the results were ready *if* they showed anything. I was determined to wait and be vindicated by science, even though at this point I was dangerously dehydrated and exhausted. That night, while getting out of the tub, I nearly fainted and since I have never fainted in my entire life, gave in and went to emergency at 11:30 pm. At this point, nearing full Zombification, I was running a fever of 101 and unable to swallow any of the medications in pill or syrup form the nurses tried to give me. I was spitting my saliva into a cup that I carried with me. I was put in an isolation room to avoid a zombi-pocalypse. Around 2am on wednesday I was taken for x-rays, hooked up to an IV and blood work was done. Within AN HOUR the results came back, mononucleosis and tonsilitis. The doctor said I may have to go in for emergency surgery to remove them if I didn't respond to medicine. He wanted to wait for the throat specialist to come in at 8am, until then I would get some morphine injected through my IV so I could sleep. Which sounded awesome, but unfortunately the morphine had no effect on me and thus I waited out my 5th night without sleep until the Throat Specialist lady showed, examined and ordered a miracle concoction of drugs which opened my throat/killed the pain. I feel asleep so quickly and so soundly they had to wheel me up to my room in the bed from the isolation room and I didn't wake up until about 10 hours later. Thankfully, I responded well to the antibiotics and after another 24 hours in the hospital under observation I was sent home on Thursday afternoon. Thanks to my student insurance and Canada's much lauded free universal health care, I walked out of the hospital only having to pay for 40% of my medication. Cost: $60 CDN.
Round 2 - Sore threat/headache/fever symptoms begin a few days ago. I could feel the swelling and hoped it would just pass. But by last night around 2am, I knew what that "shards of glass in your throat everytime you try to swallow" feeling meant. And I was nervous. Everytime I've had a sore throat since 2006 I feel little shreds of panic that I will go back to the land of being really sick and exhausted but none of the medical professionals around me believe that I am. I called in to work. My friend Jodie called a Korean friend who recommended a Throat Specialist clinic conveniently located right beside my apartment complex. Walk: 5 minutes. Wait in reception: 5 minutes. Consultation & Diagnosis with Specialist: 5 minutes. Cost: 3500 Won ($3 CDN). Go to pharmacy with my fresh off the printer prescription: 5 minutes. Prescription pills: 3 200 won (less than $3 CDN). DONE. OVER. (My insurance only covers 50% of doctors visits and doesn't cover medication, so even if I had forgotten my insurance card, my total cost would've been about $10)
(Well I hope, if I'm not ship-shape by Monday, I go back again, but really, it's not hard to THAT over again)
I really don't understand enough about the Korean Healthcare System to understand why is it so cheap and effecient. And I don't care. As far as I'm concerned it was designed by Gandalf and Dumbledore and Santa Claus.
Thursday, December 17, 2009
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
2nd Year in ROK Starts with a Bang!
Ok, ondol's on, cat is fed and cuddled, hot chocolate hot, music on. It's just you and me, Blog. Let's do this.
Well after that fantastic weekend on Jeju island, it was back to the old grindstone. Well not exactly. Midterm exams gave me another week of cancelled classes, thank you Korean public education system. Well actually, now that they have me monitoring exams during these periods, I prefer a regular week of classes. It goes by so much quicker, not to mention it's so much more enjoyable to interact with the students and see some of them making progress. I've really enjoyed this semester so far. I'm in groove with teaching, confident with my lesson planning and have a good repoire with all the students (spent the months of first semester getting the 1st Graders comfortable with me and speaking English in front of their classmates). I had a very successful lesson with my Gr.1's discussing the similarities between Thanksgiving Day in North America and Chuseok in South Korea. Another fun one was doing Fall Acrostic Poems with my Gr. 2's. My students constantly surprise me. (I did post a sampling of the stranger poems I recieved on Facebook and my Google Group, so I won't post them here, if you want me to email them to you let me know).
October was a very busy month for me outside of work. On Facebook, I have a new photo album for every weekend!
The 2nd weekend of October was a social one. My friend Janet, who had been in South Korea for over 3 years, decided rather abruptly that she was ready to return home to San Francisco, so Friday Night we threw her a surprise Party (Appropriately titled "Where in the World is Janet SanFrancisco?"). We played a hilarious game of Shu-ele-Phone and realy enjoyed eachother's company. (Side note: Shu-ele-phone is a group game hybrid of Sherades, Clue, and Telephone that I picked up camping with a bunch of LDS friends in University. The Waygook crowd over here has really taken a liking to it). The next night was Janet's non-surprise farewell night, which she had gone and planned herself. We had a great meal at Outback Steakhouse and then headed out for a last night of Noraebong.
Pics are mostly of me with a bunch of people you probably don't know, but here's the link anyways: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2269408&id=122614903&l=c44a08dfe8
The next weekend was jam-packed with fun! On Saturday, me and my partner in crime Amanda bussed to Busan (SK's 2nd largest city) to see the Busan International Fireworks Festival, held at the end of the Film Festival held the week before. We got there early enough in the day that we were able to take a cable car and then a short hike up to see the south gate of Geumjeongsanseong, the ancient fortress that overlooks the city. It was a beautiful site and made me sad that we didn't have enough time to hike along the wall of the fortress. But we knew we had to get down to the Beach well before the fireworks started if we were to see any of the show. As we left the subway to head for the beach, it became clear that everyone in the city was headed in the same direction. Police and men in Army fatigues were stationed everywhere directing masses. Arriving at the beach, I thought we would have to watch from the street. The beach, km's long, was packed. Somehow we managed to find a spot at the front, alittle too close to the water (Tide was coming in!). The show was 45 minutes long and amazing! I'd never seen anything like it in my life. We weren't in the ideal location for watching it, way off to the side like we were, but it was still spectacular. I will post the video's I took after I get this up. Getting back to the subway turned out to be way more difficult after the show. I've never been in a crowd like that before in my life! (Will post those videos too)
The next day, Amanda and I managed to find the energy for another hike. But first, I went downtown to buy a proper pair of hiking boots! We were planning to hike Jirisan, the 2nd highest peak in South Korea, the next weekend and I wasn't going to be caught without proper footwear this time! Boots aquired, we hopped on a local bus out to Songgwangsa. This temple is considered one of the three "Jewels" of Korean temples. In the gorgeous fall foliage, it was breaktaking. After looking around the temple we hit the trail for 3 hours. This turned out to be one of my favourite hikes of the year. Because we didn't hit the trails until 2pm, we didn't see too many hikers, and for the last hour of the hike we didn't see anyone else at all! It was a great opportunity to really enjoy nature. At the end of the hike we arrived at Seonnamsa, a smaller temple, but we had arrived at the perfect time. The monks had begun their evening drumming, which I'd never witnessed at a temple before. The sounds of the drums seems to go right inside your ribcage and bounce around. And in the classroom was a school of student monks being lectured by a head monk. A winding road lined with paper lanterns led us down to the busstop and as dusk deepend, the lanterns all came on and lit our path.
Now these are some pics you don't want to miss! http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2269416&id=122614903&l=5cb8c8f136
The next weekend was one I had been dreading and looking forward to all month. We were going to hike a small part of the Jirisan mountain range, the trail upto Cheonwangbong which is the highest peak in the range and the 2nd highest peak in Korea (Hallasan on Jeju is #1). This time Amanda and I had some company, Suze and Lindsey were coming with us. We were up early (6:45) in order to get on the trail before 9:00am. The trail we were taking was estimated to run between 7-10 hours and we woul lose the light aroun 6:30, so we would be cutting it close as is. It was a tough hike, but hiking the weekend before and taking the stairs up to my apartment on floor 17 a couple of times during the week helped me a little bit. On top of that, the mountainside boasted such beautiful scenery, I was constantly distracted by it and not thinking too much about my aching muscles. I summitted at 4 hours 20 minutes. Lindsey and Amanda arrived first and picked out a great perch for us to eat lunch on. My canned tuna with cream cheese and crackers was fan-freaking-tastic. After lunch we head west along the ridge to Jaesakbong peak and then headed south back to the trail head. My energy was quite high for the whole hike, but I fell behind the girls because I just couldn't stop taking pictures!
Pics here: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2270119&id=122614903&l=2c2560383c
Of course the following weekend was Halloween. I had felt totally uninspired as to what I should dress up as, and then a few days before Halloween my friends Jodie and Stephen helped me come up with the idea of being a marionnette who had freed herself from her master. Which turned alittle grisly at Stephen's suggestion that I should have severed hands attached to my strings. It was too awesome of an idea not to try it! Stephen even helped me find a craft store to get materials to construct the severed hands. Findind doll-like clothes was easy-peesy since looking like a doll seems to be what most girls are going for with fashion here. All week, I was showing the "Thriller" video to my students and that also really helped me get excited. On Friday, my supervisor from the previous year (Lee Myeong-Sook) gave me a halloween treat bag full of candy to wish me Happy Halloween. And so inspired by my co-worker, I ran out on my lunch and bought a ridiculous amount of Kic-Kers (Kit-Kat's) and delivered them to the teachers room with a big black and orange poster wishing them a Happy Halloween. That night, the Halloween party for the foreigner crowd in Suncheon was held at McCarthy's bar. We had a great time. On Saturday, the actual Halloween, I was happy to stay in with friends and play some games and watch a scary movie. It really was a great month. I can only hope the rest of the year will be half as good!
Check out my costume here: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2271173&id=122614903&l=eacdec29d5
Well after that fantastic weekend on Jeju island, it was back to the old grindstone. Well not exactly. Midterm exams gave me another week of cancelled classes, thank you Korean public education system. Well actually, now that they have me monitoring exams during these periods, I prefer a regular week of classes. It goes by so much quicker, not to mention it's so much more enjoyable to interact with the students and see some of them making progress. I've really enjoyed this semester so far. I'm in groove with teaching, confident with my lesson planning and have a good repoire with all the students (spent the months of first semester getting the 1st Graders comfortable with me and speaking English in front of their classmates). I had a very successful lesson with my Gr.1's discussing the similarities between Thanksgiving Day in North America and Chuseok in South Korea. Another fun one was doing Fall Acrostic Poems with my Gr. 2's. My students constantly surprise me. (I did post a sampling of the stranger poems I recieved on Facebook and my Google Group, so I won't post them here, if you want me to email them to you let me know).
October was a very busy month for me outside of work. On Facebook, I have a new photo album for every weekend!
The 2nd weekend of October was a social one. My friend Janet, who had been in South Korea for over 3 years, decided rather abruptly that she was ready to return home to San Francisco, so Friday Night we threw her a surprise Party (Appropriately titled "Where in the World is Janet SanFrancisco?"). We played a hilarious game of Shu-ele-Phone and realy enjoyed eachother's company. (Side note: Shu-ele-phone is a group game hybrid of Sherades, Clue, and Telephone that I picked up camping with a bunch of LDS friends in University. The Waygook crowd over here has really taken a liking to it). The next night was Janet's non-surprise farewell night, which she had gone and planned herself. We had a great meal at Outback Steakhouse and then headed out for a last night of Noraebong. Pics are mostly of me with a bunch of people you probably don't know, but here's the link anyways: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2269408&id=122614903&l=c44a08dfe8
The next weekend was jam-packed with fun! On Saturday, me and my partner in crime Amanda bussed to Busan (SK's 2nd largest city) to see the Busan International Fireworks Festival, held at the end of the Film Festival held the week before. We got there early enough in the day that we were able to take a cable car and then a short hike up to see the south gate of Geumjeongsanseong, the ancient fortress that overlooks the city. It was a beautiful site and made me sad that we didn't have enough time to hike along the wall of the fortress. But we knew we had to get down to the Beach well before the fireworks started if we were to see any of the show. As we left the subway to head for the beach, it became clear that everyone in the city was headed in the same direction. Police and men in Army fatigues were stationed everywhere directing masses. Arriving at the beach, I thought we would have to watch from the street. The beach, km's long, was packed. Somehow we managed to find a spot at the front, alittle too close to the water (Tide was coming in!). The show was 45 minutes long and amazing! I'd never seen anything like it in my life. We weren't in the ideal location for watching it, way off to the side like we were, but it was still spectacular. I will post the video's I took after I get this up. Getting back to the subway turned out to be way more difficult after the show. I've never been in a crowd like that before in my life! (Will post those videos too)
The next day, Amanda and I managed to find the energy for another hike. But first, I went downtown to buy a proper pair of hiking boots! We were planning to hike Jirisan, the 2nd highest peak in South Korea, the next weekend and I wasn't going to be caught without proper footwear this time! Boots aquired, we hopped on a local bus out to Songgwangsa. This temple is considered one of the three "Jewels" of Korean temples. In the gorgeous fall foliage, it was breaktaking. After looking around the temple we hit the trail for 3 hours. This turned out to be one of my favourite hikes of the year. Because we didn't hit the trails until 2pm, we didn't see too many hikers, and for the last hour of the hike we didn't see anyone else at all! It was a great opportunity to really enjoy nature. At the end of the hike we arrived at Seonnamsa, a smaller temple, but we had arrived at the perfect time. The monks had begun their evening drumming, which I'd never witnessed at a temple before. The sounds of the drums seems to go right inside your ribcage and bounce around. And in the classroom was a school of student monks being lectured by a head monk. A winding road lined with paper lanterns led us down to the busstop and as dusk deepend, the lanterns all came on and lit our path. Now these are some pics you don't want to miss! http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2269416&id=122614903&l=5cb8c8f136
The next weekend was one I had been dreading and looking forward to all month. We were going to hike a small part of the Jirisan mountain range, the trail upto Cheonwangbong which is the highest peak in the range and the 2nd highest peak in Korea (Hallasan on Jeju is #1). This time Amanda and I had some company, Suze and Lindsey were coming with us. We were up early (6:45) in order to get on the trail before 9:00am. The trail we were taking was estimated to run between 7-10 hours and we woul lose the light aroun 6:30, so we would be cutting it close as is. It was a tough hike, but hiking the weekend before and taking the stairs up to my apartment on floor 17 a couple of times during the week helped me a little bit. On top of that, the mountainside boasted such beautiful scenery, I was constantly distracted by it and not thinking too much about my aching muscles. I summitted at 4 hours 20 minutes. Lindsey and Amanda arrived first and picked out a great perch for us to eat lunch on. My canned tuna with cream cheese and crackers was fan-freaking-tastic. After lunch we head west along the ridge to Jaesakbong peak and then headed south back to the trail head. My energy was quite high for the whole hike, but I fell behind the girls because I just couldn't stop taking pictures! Pics here: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2270119&id=122614903&l=2c2560383c
Of course the following weekend was Halloween. I had felt totally uninspired as to what I should dress up as, and then a few days before Halloween my friends Jodie and Stephen helped me come up with the idea of being a marionnette who had freed herself from her master. Which turned alittle grisly at Stephen's suggestion that I should have severed hands attached to my strings. It was too awesome of an idea not to try it! Stephen even helped me find a craft store to get materials to construct the severed hands. Findind doll-like clothes was easy-peesy since looking like a doll seems to be what most girls are going for with fashion here. All week, I was showing the "Thriller" video to my students and that also really helped me get excited. On Friday, my supervisor from the previous year (Lee Myeong-Sook) gave me a halloween treat bag full of candy to wish me Happy Halloween. And so inspired by my co-worker, I ran out on my lunch and bought a ridiculous amount of Kic-Kers (Kit-Kat's) and delivered them to the teachers room with a big black and orange poster wishing them a Happy Halloween. That night, the Halloween party for the foreigner crowd in Suncheon was held at McCarthy's bar. We had a great time. On Saturday, the actual Halloween, I was happy to stay in with friends and play some games and watch a scary movie. It really was a great month. I can only hope the rest of the year will be half as good!Check out my costume here: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2271173&id=122614903&l=eacdec29d5
Monday, October 26, 2009
Happy Anniversary Korea! The End of My First Year as Spent on Jeju Island.
It's always too long before I sit down to this keypad and try to reconnect with you, any of you who read this. It's a great compliment to me that anyone reads it, that anyone follows my life here with me to South Korea.
It's been a fantastic 21 days since I last wrote. I can hardly imagine a better beginning to my 2nd year here. I celebrated my 1 year anniversary on October 1st and I celebrated well. My 1 year anniversary in ROK was spent on Jeju island, a large Island off the southern tip of the peninsula which is often referred to as the "Hawaii of Korea". It's the most popular destination for honeymooners and attracts business men and wealthy golfers (you must be pretty wealthy to play golf in Korea, those courses take up a lot of precious land). I was able to enjoy the weekend with a large group of friends as we all were enjoying a long weekend thanks to Chuseok, a Korean fall harvest holiday, that granted us an extra day off work. We travelled by ferry from Nokdong. We had originally reserved 3rd class tickets, but quickly upgraded to 2nd class when we saw that 3rd class was a noisy open hall with no seats, only floor which you could place a mat (if you'd packed one)and sit or lay on, while children run amuck about you. It was a clear day as we pulled out of the harbour, and I enjoyed spending sometime at the side of the ship, looking for jellyfish in the water.
We arrived mid-afternoon on Friday, and after some debate, Amanda and I split from the group to try to rent scooters. The scooter-rental shops we contact weren't willing to rent scooters to a large group of foreigners, most of whom did not have international licenses, and some of whom (like myself) had never actually driven one. We didn't have any luck in Jeju city renting scooters, but we were determined to see a little of the west coast before the sun went down. We hired a taxi to drive us to Guemnueng Seokbul-won stone garden. Amanda and I were mainly looking for some good photo ops with the Dol-Harubang ("stone grandfather") statues that have become the iconic symbol of the island.
The statues were original carved by the island people for protection and fertility. We certainly got what we were looking for at the garden, and had a great time looking at all the other statues, exploring a cave and a small maze, a replicated folk village and buying a little dol-harubang to take home with us. (check out the pics! link below...)
After the garden, we zipped through the country-side to the south coast of the island, where we would be staying in Seogwipo. In the light of the setting sun, we drove through lush vegetation, Halla mountain rising up on our left and farmers fields lined with lava-rock walls on our right. It was strange to feel that although we were still in South Korea, we were in a foreign place. After we settled into our room, we rented scooters from a shop close to our motel that wasn't nervous about renting to foreigners. It was a bit of rocky start (see, when you don't feel in control you tend to grip hard onto something, which is bad if you're gripping the gas pedal) We grabbed dinner at Mr. Pizza and then picked up some food for the big hike. You see, tomorrow Amanda, Lizzie, Ian and I were going to hike South Koreas highest mountain peak - Hallsan. That night was as early a bedtime as a nighthawk like me could manage.
Our little scooter gang hit the road shortly before 8:00AM and wound our way slowly along the winding mountain highway to the base of our path for the day. I was relieved to see the trailhead started at 700M, so only about 1250 to go instead of the full 1950! The trail we chose was the longest at 19km roundtrip, but it was the easier of the two trails that lead to the peak. We were on our way by 9am. We kept a good steady pace, and stuck together until about the 1500m mark. At this point the trail got noticeably steeper and I started to fall behind the others a bit. At around 1700meters I broke out of the tree line. From then on out, it was a gorgous view already down the mountain to the seaside town and the coast. It was steady stairs all the way up to the peak, where I met up with my co-hikers who had all summitted between 30 and 12 minutes before me. We stopped here for about a 1/2 hour for lunch and to take a few pictures. Did realize it was freaking freezing up there until I'd been sitting for about 5 minutes! We also had the treat of spotting a korean deer, which until this point I didn't really believe existed. The descent turned out to be a lot tougher than the ascent. My thin street sneakers proved to be no match for the constant uneven, jagged lava rocks that are the pathway up Hallasan. My ankles and knees were hurting pretty bad from trying to keep everything stable when my ankles would twist unexpectedly. Still we made it down at 5pm, feeling pretty good. I dropped off my scooter at the shop and Lizzie, Amanda and I treated ourselves to a couple of hours at the Jimjilbong (sauna/public bath house)to relax our weary muscles a bit.
Later that night a few of us headed over to Dongdaemoon beach area to visit Lindsey and John at their swanky hotel that they'd splurged on. We mostly hung out in their room. But at the end of the night, a few peeps wanted to try their luck at blackjack in the casino. After sitting with my cranberry juice and a couple of galpals for few minutes chatting (minimum for playing blackjack was 100 000 won) we decided to throw 10 000 won (less than $10) at the slot machines for fun (sorry Mom!). Lizzie didn't have much luck but Kate did well and walked away with 35 000 won. And wouldn't you know it, beginners luck hit me too: I walked away with 60 000won! Thanks to Kate, who dutifully hit the cash out button when I reached my limit. It was a late night, and needless to say, after that hike I slept like a rock.
That casino money came in handy the next morning when Amanda, Jordaan and I decided to parasailing at 50 000won a pop each. It was a great experience, but at that price we all felt really disappointed that our rides didn't last longer than about 5minutes. Then again, we had a 5 oclock ferry to catch and still lots to do. Next we hopped in a taxi to see Biljarim forest, a protected forest of trees that are all 300 - 800 years old, the oldest of which is the Millenium Nutmeg tree, estimated to be nearly 1000 years old. It was a really beautiful walk, and I truly enjoyed every moment of being in that forest. After Biljarim, it was onto see the giant lava tube that is Manjanggul Cave. Manjanggul is an enormous cave created 100's of 1000's of years ago by lava flowing underground to the surface (I have mentioned that the whole island is the remains of Hallasan spewing her guts for a few centuries a long long time ago right?) One kilometer of the tunnel is open for tourista to walk through, until the lava column which reaches from floor to ceiling and is 13 meters high. The cave is dimly lit to protect the interior of the cave, and in many places water drips from the ceiling. The tunnel itself widened enormously in some places, feeling truly cavernous. It was an atmospheric walk to say the least, made just a little more dank and creepy by the fact that I had managed to drop my glasses case in the back of the taxi that had driven us, so the only thing I had to wear were my perscription sunglasses. In a cave. Well done, Lisa. Well done.
We left the lava tubes shortly before 4 o'clock, panicking just a bit. Jordaan had his ferry leaving the dock in Jeju-si at 4:30, and I was on the phone back and forth with an awesome lady from travel services trying to track down the taxi that I had left my glasses in. (As a side note: I am ridiculously near sighted, if I didn't recover the glasses, I would be teaching in my sunglasses until I could order new ones) Luck was on our side in both cases: We literally dropped Jordaan off at his dock at 4:30 on the button and he did make the boat, but not without making quite a run through the terminal. The kind lady from the tourist help line did manage to track down the taxi that had my glasses and arranged for the driver to meet me at the ferry terminal to retrieve them. The ferry ride home was great, relaxing, dozing and looking over everyones photos of the weekend. I had gone with 11 friends, but because we were such a big group we all split off and did different things throughout the weekend, so we all had different experiences of Jeju Island. Hope you enjoy the pictures, which can be seen here:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2267194&id=122614903&l=94b2e18874
So thats...the first weekend in October. What day is it? November 10th? Crapsticks.
It's been a fantastic 21 days since I last wrote. I can hardly imagine a better beginning to my 2nd year here. I celebrated my 1 year anniversary on October 1st and I celebrated well. My 1 year anniversary in ROK was spent on Jeju island, a large Island off the southern tip of the peninsula which is often referred to as the "Hawaii of Korea". It's the most popular destination for honeymooners and attracts business men and wealthy golfers (you must be pretty wealthy to play golf in Korea, those courses take up a lot of precious land). I was able to enjoy the weekend with a large group of friends as we all were enjoying a long weekend thanks to Chuseok, a Korean fall harvest holiday, that granted us an extra day off work. We travelled by ferry from Nokdong. We had originally reserved 3rd class tickets, but quickly upgraded to 2nd class when we saw that 3rd class was a noisy open hall with no seats, only floor which you could place a mat (if you'd packed one)and sit or lay on, while children run amuck about you. It was a clear day as we pulled out of the harbour, and I enjoyed spending sometime at the side of the ship, looking for jellyfish in the water.
We arrived mid-afternoon on Friday, and after some debate, Amanda and I split from the group to try to rent scooters. The scooter-rental shops we contact weren't willing to rent scooters to a large group of foreigners, most of whom did not have international licenses, and some of whom (like myself) had never actually driven one. We didn't have any luck in Jeju city renting scooters, but we were determined to see a little of the west coast before the sun went down. We hired a taxi to drive us to Guemnueng Seokbul-won stone garden. Amanda and I were mainly looking for some good photo ops with the Dol-Harubang ("stone grandfather") statues that have become the iconic symbol of the island.
The statues were original carved by the island people for protection and fertility. We certainly got what we were looking for at the garden, and had a great time looking at all the other statues, exploring a cave and a small maze, a replicated folk village and buying a little dol-harubang to take home with us. (check out the pics! link below...)After the garden, we zipped through the country-side to the south coast of the island, where we would be staying in Seogwipo. In the light of the setting sun, we drove through lush vegetation, Halla mountain rising up on our left and farmers fields lined with lava-rock walls on our right. It was strange to feel that although we were still in South Korea, we were in a foreign place. After we settled into our room, we rented scooters from a shop close to our motel that wasn't nervous about renting to foreigners. It was a bit of rocky start (see, when you don't feel in control you tend to grip hard onto something, which is bad if you're gripping the gas pedal) We grabbed dinner at Mr. Pizza and then picked up some food for the big hike. You see, tomorrow Amanda, Lizzie, Ian and I were going to hike South Koreas highest mountain peak - Hallsan. That night was as early a bedtime as a nighthawk like me could manage.
Our little scooter gang hit the road shortly before 8:00AM and wound our way slowly along the winding mountain highway to the base of our path for the day. I was relieved to see the trailhead started at 700M, so only about 1250 to go instead of the full 1950! The trail we chose was the longest at 19km roundtrip, but it was the easier of the two trails that lead to the peak. We were on our way by 9am. We kept a good steady pace, and stuck together until about the 1500m mark. At this point the trail got noticeably steeper and I started to fall behind the others a bit. At around 1700meters I broke out of the tree line. From then on out, it was a gorgous view already down the mountain to the seaside town and the coast. It was steady stairs all the way up to the peak, where I met up with my co-hikers who had all summitted between 30 and 12 minutes before me. We stopped here for about a 1/2 hour for lunch and to take a few pictures. Did realize it was freaking freezing up there until I'd been sitting for about 5 minutes! We also had the treat of spotting a korean deer, which until this point I didn't really believe existed. The descent turned out to be a lot tougher than the ascent. My thin street sneakers proved to be no match for the constant uneven, jagged lava rocks that are the pathway up Hallasan. My ankles and knees were hurting pretty bad from trying to keep everything stable when my ankles would twist unexpectedly. Still we made it down at 5pm, feeling pretty good. I dropped off my scooter at the shop and Lizzie, Amanda and I treated ourselves to a couple of hours at the Jimjilbong (sauna/public bath house)to relax our weary muscles a bit.Later that night a few of us headed over to Dongdaemoon beach area to visit Lindsey and John at their swanky hotel that they'd splurged on. We mostly hung out in their room. But at the end of the night, a few peeps wanted to try their luck at blackjack in the casino. After sitting with my cranberry juice and a couple of galpals for few minutes chatting (minimum for playing blackjack was 100 000 won) we decided to throw 10 000 won (less than $10) at the slot machines for fun (sorry Mom!). Lizzie didn't have much luck but Kate did well and walked away with 35 000 won. And wouldn't you know it, beginners luck hit me too: I walked away with 60 000won! Thanks to Kate, who dutifully hit the cash out button when I reached my limit. It was a late night, and needless to say, after that hike I slept like a rock.
That casino money came in handy the next morning when Amanda, Jordaan and I decided to parasailing at 50 000won a pop each. It was a great experience, but at that price we all felt really disappointed that our rides didn't last longer than about 5minutes. Then again, we had a 5 oclock ferry to catch and still lots to do. Next we hopped in a taxi to see Biljarim forest, a protected forest of trees that are all 300 - 800 years old, the oldest of which is the Millenium Nutmeg tree, estimated to be nearly 1000 years old. It was a really beautiful walk, and I truly enjoyed every moment of being in that forest. After Biljarim, it was onto see the giant lava tube that is Manjanggul Cave. Manjanggul is an enormous cave created 100's of 1000's of years ago by lava flowing underground to the surface (I have mentioned that the whole island is the remains of Hallasan spewing her guts for a few centuries a long long time ago right?) One kilometer of the tunnel is open for tourista to walk through, until the lava column which reaches from floor to ceiling and is 13 meters high. The cave is dimly lit to protect the interior of the cave, and in many places water drips from the ceiling. The tunnel itself widened enormously in some places, feeling truly cavernous. It was an atmospheric walk to say the least, made just a little more dank and creepy by the fact that I had managed to drop my glasses case in the back of the taxi that had driven us, so the only thing I had to wear were my perscription sunglasses. In a cave. Well done, Lisa. Well done.
We left the lava tubes shortly before 4 o'clock, panicking just a bit. Jordaan had his ferry leaving the dock in Jeju-si at 4:30, and I was on the phone back and forth with an awesome lady from travel services trying to track down the taxi that I had left my glasses in. (As a side note: I am ridiculously near sighted, if I didn't recover the glasses, I would be teaching in my sunglasses until I could order new ones) Luck was on our side in both cases: We literally dropped Jordaan off at his dock at 4:30 on the button and he did make the boat, but not without making quite a run through the terminal. The kind lady from the tourist help line did manage to track down the taxi that had my glasses and arranged for the driver to meet me at the ferry terminal to retrieve them. The ferry ride home was great, relaxing, dozing and looking over everyones photos of the weekend. I had gone with 11 friends, but because we were such a big group we all split off and did different things throughout the weekend, so we all had different experiences of Jeju Island. Hope you enjoy the pictures, which can be seen here:http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2267194&id=122614903&l=94b2e18874
So thats...the first weekend in October. What day is it? November 10th? Crapsticks.
Monday, October 5, 2009
Catching up...
Let's play catch-up shall we?
I left you in July, but I did forget to mention that second weekend of July, before I went home to Canada for 4 weeks, was spent at the annual Boreyoung Mud Festival. The mud that is found in around this small city is renowned for its cosmetic uses, and every year it attracts thousands of people to come get muddy. We had a really good weekend, despite being in a room far too small for our group of 17 people and despite have sub-tropical storm weather on our second day. We enjoyed romping around in the mudwrestling pits, painting our faces with colored mud and having the press swarm around us like we were celebrities (just celebrities covered in mud).
Of course, after that weekend, I was very fortunate to come home to Canada for four weeks. I had originally thought I would spend 3 weeks in my hometown visiting family and friends, relaxing, having plenty of time to catch up with people before flying to Southern Ont to visit my friends from Uni. Of course things rarely go as planned. I spent about 8 days in Dryden, then 10 days on a holiday within a holiday visiting my little sister and her husband in South Dakota, then 2 more days in Dryden, and then 7 days in Kitchener-Waterloo, which I though was 8 days until I woke up early the day of my flight back to Korea and notice my flight was leaving 12 hours earlier than I thought it was! It was a really amazing trip though, it was so wonderful to see so many people I have missed so much, and really heartwrenching to still have missed seeing so many of you (Parkway crew - I'm so sorry! And Denise! And Roberta! etc etc etc...) Most of you were there for part of that trip so I won't describe it in detail. I'll just give you the link for the photos of the whole thing ( http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2259747&id=122614903&l=0163560f52 ) and jump back into blogging about life in Korea...
When I walked through the arrival gate at Incheon IA, I felt a strange feeling. The thought "It feels good to be home" ran through my head. Don't panic Mom, I'm not a lifer. But, truth is, South Korea doesn't feel like a foreign country to me anymore. Now, this is where I live. I have my cozy little apartment, and my cat, and my great job.They are all here. I have a great group of friends that I was eager to catch up with. I was suprised but how comforting I found the lush, mountainous landscape that raced past me on the bus ride home and eager I was to sleep in "my own bed" again.
Now, I'm not sure how the H1N1 flu is being covered by the Canadian media, but I just don't get the sense from talking with family and friends back home that people are panicking about it. South Korea is. And Canada has had a lot more deaths linked to it than SK, they're not even in the double digits yet. The Korean government has responded to H1N1 by cancelling all major cultural festivals (booo!) and many
schools have delayed opening for the fall semester.Standard procedure by our Provincial Education office mandated that anyone who had travelled internationally needed to stay in "quarantine" for a week. Sounds scary, but really it only meant I wasn't allowed to go in to work and make the school liable if I infected everybody with swineflu. More days off for me, yay! It was also recommended that I stay away from public places (though being away for four weeks, it was necessary to go get groceries!). The extra days off were put to good use. Immediately there were "Welcome Back" dinners in my social crew for everybody coming back from vacation and "Goodbye" get-togethers for those who left in August when their contracts were up. We had to say goodbye to ALOT of great people (You know who you are!!!) which was tough, especially since my trip home hadn't quite cured me of my homesickness. What makes living in Korea so pleasant is the wonderful circle of friends I've found here, and big part of September was just adjusting to having so many of them leave. On the other hand, I really enjoyed getting back to some great Korean cuisine. I ate so much junk while I was in Canada that I think I OD'd. I really craved kimchi, and bibimbap, and cheomchi jiggae, and samgypsal, and haejanguk and samgaejuk etc etc etc. So it was great to have so many opportunities to eat out with great people.
It was alittle tough to get back into the swing of things at school. I had been on vacation for 6 weeks, and the last two weeks of classes were spent watching movies and prepping for exams. What do you mean, I have to plan real lessons again??? It was a well needed kick in the pants. And once the first couple classes were under my belt, it felt really good to be doing something productive with my days. My students were rowdy for the first couple of lessons, and for the first time in a very long time I felt my temper trying to get the best of me. I've got all but one class reigned back in (and that's because the disruptive students are so eager to be part of the lesson that it goes off on wild tangents). At any rate, I've got the classroom decorated for Fall, and am really looking forward to dressing it up for Hallowe'en, Winter and Christmas. I didn't think much of it at the time, but everyone who comes into the classroom (students, teachers, principals) loves it. I'm hoping the added visual stimuli will enrich their learning and help the lower-level students stay interested.
Two weekends ago, I travelled to Gwangju, a great city about an hour from Suncheon to have a "Girls Night Out" with some ladies in and around where I live. We got there in time for lunch at TGI Fridays (I had a REAL chicken burger with cheese and bacon!) and dessert at Cold Stone Creamery (of course). Next, we headed to our favourite Gwangju love-motel, "The Windmill" to drop off our bags, then it was off to do some shopping. First, we headed to the art district as C was visiting from Canada and was looking for authentic Korean art to take home with her. A sudden downpour drove us into a small shop where we each wound up finding something unique for a good price. I bought a beautiful embroidered hanging of Korean blossoms on black material for only 30 000 won. It was made about 50 years ago, and it's one of a kind. On our way back to the central shopping area, we found an underground market and did some shopping there. Soon it was time to meet up with everybody at the delicious Indian restaurant in Gwangju, the only one of its kind in this province. We enjoyed the buffet and then went back to the Windmill to make ourselves up. The evening was a journey starting at Ethnic Bar, an atmospheric basement cafe lit by pillar candles and oil lamps, featuring a small pond and decorated with huge swaths of fabric imported from Thailand and India. It was such a relaxing place, I almost didn't want to go anywhere else. But the reason why we had come to Gwangju was really go out dancing. So after a quick stop at the foreigner bar Speakeasy, our group headed over to Houze. Houze is a big dance club that really delivers what you want to find when you go to a club. Lasers, disco balls, a crowd of energetic people and DJ's who really know how to work the tables. It was truly a great place for dancing. The Korean guys were stoked to see a crew of foreign ladies, and were total gentleman, which was a great change from the kind of guys would've had to deal with had we been in Canada. Plus, they knew how to DANCE!!!
See pics here: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2267190&id=122614903&l=3d970af3e1
Last weekend was Chuseok in South Korea, similar to Thanksgiving in Canada. So I hopped on a ferry to Jeju Island with 10 friends to explore the "Hawaii of Korea". I'll post that entry the week is out!
I left you in July, but I did forget to mention that second weekend of July, before I went home to Canada for 4 weeks, was spent at the annual Boreyoung Mud Festival. The mud that is found in around this small city is renowned for its cosmetic uses, and every year it attracts thousands of people to come get muddy. We had a really good weekend, despite being in a room far too small for our group of 17 people and despite have sub-tropical storm weather on our second day. We enjoyed romping around in the mudwrestling pits, painting our faces with colored mud and having the press swarm around us like we were celebrities (just celebrities covered in mud).
Of course, after that weekend, I was very fortunate to come home to Canada for four weeks. I had originally thought I would spend 3 weeks in my hometown visiting family and friends, relaxing, having plenty of time to catch up with people before flying to Southern Ont to visit my friends from Uni. Of course things rarely go as planned. I spent about 8 days in Dryden, then 10 days on a holiday within a holiday visiting my little sister and her husband in South Dakota, then 2 more days in Dryden, and then 7 days in Kitchener-Waterloo, which I though was 8 days until I woke up early the day of my flight back to Korea and notice my flight was leaving 12 hours earlier than I thought it was! It was a really amazing trip though, it was so wonderful to see so many people I have missed so much, and really heartwrenching to still have missed seeing so many of you (Parkway crew - I'm so sorry! And Denise! And Roberta! etc etc etc...) Most of you were there for part of that trip so I won't describe it in detail. I'll just give you the link for the photos of the whole thing ( http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2259747&id=122614903&l=0163560f52 ) and jump back into blogging about life in Korea...
When I walked through the arrival gate at Incheon IA, I felt a strange feeling. The thought "It feels good to be home" ran through my head. Don't panic Mom, I'm not a lifer. But, truth is, South Korea doesn't feel like a foreign country to me anymore. Now, this is where I live. I have my cozy little apartment, and my cat, and my great job.They are all here. I have a great group of friends that I was eager to catch up with. I was suprised but how comforting I found the lush, mountainous landscape that raced past me on the bus ride home and eager I was to sleep in "my own bed" again.
Now, I'm not sure how the H1N1 flu is being covered by the Canadian media, but I just don't get the sense from talking with family and friends back home that people are panicking about it. South Korea is. And Canada has had a lot more deaths linked to it than SK, they're not even in the double digits yet. The Korean government has responded to H1N1 by cancelling all major cultural festivals (booo!) and many
schools have delayed opening for the fall semester.Standard procedure by our Provincial Education office mandated that anyone who had travelled internationally needed to stay in "quarantine" for a week. Sounds scary, but really it only meant I wasn't allowed to go in to work and make the school liable if I infected everybody with swineflu. More days off for me, yay! It was also recommended that I stay away from public places (though being away for four weeks, it was necessary to go get groceries!). The extra days off were put to good use. Immediately there were "Welcome Back" dinners in my social crew for everybody coming back from vacation and "Goodbye" get-togethers for those who left in August when their contracts were up. We had to say goodbye to ALOT of great people (You know who you are!!!) which was tough, especially since my trip home hadn't quite cured me of my homesickness. What makes living in Korea so pleasant is the wonderful circle of friends I've found here, and big part of September was just adjusting to having so many of them leave. On the other hand, I really enjoyed getting back to some great Korean cuisine. I ate so much junk while I was in Canada that I think I OD'd. I really craved kimchi, and bibimbap, and cheomchi jiggae, and samgypsal, and haejanguk and samgaejuk etc etc etc. So it was great to have so many opportunities to eat out with great people.
It was alittle tough to get back into the swing of things at school. I had been on vacation for 6 weeks, and the last two weeks of classes were spent watching movies and prepping for exams. What do you mean, I have to plan real lessons again??? It was a well needed kick in the pants. And once the first couple classes were under my belt, it felt really good to be doing something productive with my days. My students were rowdy for the first couple of lessons, and for the first time in a very long time I felt my temper trying to get the best of me. I've got all but one class reigned back in (and that's because the disruptive students are so eager to be part of the lesson that it goes off on wild tangents). At any rate, I've got the classroom decorated for Fall, and am really looking forward to dressing it up for Hallowe'en, Winter and Christmas. I didn't think much of it at the time, but everyone who comes into the classroom (students, teachers, principals) loves it. I'm hoping the added visual stimuli will enrich their learning and help the lower-level students stay interested.
Two weekends ago, I travelled to Gwangju, a great city about an hour from Suncheon to have a "Girls Night Out" with some ladies in and around where I live. We got there in time for lunch at TGI Fridays (I had a REAL chicken burger with cheese and bacon!) and dessert at Cold Stone Creamery (of course). Next, we headed to our favourite Gwangju love-motel, "The Windmill" to drop off our bags, then it was off to do some shopping. First, we headed to the art district as C was visiting from Canada and was looking for authentic Korean art to take home with her. A sudden downpour drove us into a small shop where we each wound up finding something unique for a good price. I bought a beautiful embroidered hanging of Korean blossoms on black material for only 30 000 won. It was made about 50 years ago, and it's one of a kind. On our way back to the central shopping area, we found an underground market and did some shopping there. Soon it was time to meet up with everybody at the delicious Indian restaurant in Gwangju, the only one of its kind in this province. We enjoyed the buffet and then went back to the Windmill to make ourselves up. The evening was a journey starting at Ethnic Bar, an atmospheric basement cafe lit by pillar candles and oil lamps, featuring a small pond and decorated with huge swaths of fabric imported from Thailand and India. It was such a relaxing place, I almost didn't want to go anywhere else. But the reason why we had come to Gwangju was really go out dancing. So after a quick stop at the foreigner bar Speakeasy, our group headed over to Houze. Houze is a big dance club that really delivers what you want to find when you go to a club. Lasers, disco balls, a crowd of energetic people and DJ's who really know how to work the tables. It was truly a great place for dancing. The Korean guys were stoked to see a crew of foreign ladies, and were total gentleman, which was a great change from the kind of guys would've had to deal with had we been in Canada. Plus, they knew how to DANCE!!!
See pics here: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2267190&id=122614903&l=3d970af3e1
Last weekend was Chuseok in South Korea, similar to Thanksgiving in Canada. So I hopped on a ferry to Jeju Island with 10 friends to explore the "Hawaii of Korea". I'll post that entry the week is out!
Tuesday, September 22, 2009
Some fun vids....
I wanted to share a couple of vids here for those of you who don't have Facebook. I often post funny music videos from Korea on my facebook page, just to give the folks back home of taste of the popular media over here. Here's a recent ad for Homeplus, SK's Walmart. The men in the video are the hosts of a popular variety show 2 days, 1 night. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nNPLVOk-nj8 The store is celebrating their 10th anniversary.
Here's also a new music video that's been released but the girl group HAM (Heart And Mind, they love acronyms over here): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pt9BOIAxCWs
Hope you enjoy it, it all just seems very normal to me now...
Here's also a new music video that's been released but the girl group HAM (Heart And Mind, they love acronyms over here): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pt9BOIAxCWs
Hope you enjoy it, it all just seems very normal to me now...
Sunday, August 23, 2009
Mountains, Movies, Myeongsashimni, and so Much More!
Breath, relax, let your mind wander away to the recent past...(trying to get caught up, here's a very brief summary of events in May and June and a bit of July.)
Thanks to May hosting Buddha's Birthday, Children's Day, Midterm Exams and the school Field trips, I had an astounding number of days off work. I used the "float" day in my contract to make room for a long-weekend trip to Seoul at the beginning of the month with a bunch of Suncheon friends, intending to take in Buddha's birthday parades and lantern celebrations. Unfortunately, we were there the weekend after all the really big stuff went down (oops) but we still had a great time shopping (English bookstores and Costco!), eating (thin crust pizza, Indian, Coldstone Creamery, Subway...*drools on keyboard*), touring Changdeokgung Palace, and catching the Nanta stage show (think "STOMP" in a kitchen). We even saw a parade, accidentally! And all of the lanterns from the previous weekend were strung up along the streets of Seoul, making for some beautiful late night strolls. Of course, some of the great highlights of the weekend came from just hanging out in our hotel rooms watching hilarious movies, including a very funny adaptation of a popular Korean folk tale about... well ask me if you really want to know.
The next weekend was time for me to pay the price of signing up for the "Fun Run" category of the "King of the Mountain" race, held at Mt Wolchulsan to raise money for the Yeosu orphanage. However, some important details about the course were not included in the event announcement, like "your average Korean mountain hike will feel like a walk in the park compared to this", "make sure you bring 6 litres of water because you'll sweat at least twice that much out" and "if you are not in excellent physical condition you will regret this race for the rest of your life". Look up "contradictory statement", "misnomer", "self-flagellation" or "oxymoron" in the dictionary and you will find "Mt Wolchulsan Fun Run" as a definition. The mountain is a mere 809m tall and we spent the first 3 hours of the hike climbing straight up it. The kindly Korean government did install railings, ladders and stair cases en route so that we weren't scaling the rocks themselves but that hike was the most difficult thing I have ever done physically. It is the first time I have seen KOREANS sweating and panting while hiking a mountain (they're human after all!). At the summit, I gratefully received a hearty round of applause from those who had already arrived. I'd never felt like I deserved applause more in my life. However, now we had a much longer trail to travel that would take us down the other side of the mountain to the finish line. And while the descent had a much less vertical angle to it, it also had less railings and staircases to help you out. Once in a while there was a rope anchored to help you down a large boulder and more than once I used the old butt-scoot to get down in places where I didn't trust my ruined legs to support me if I jumped down. My hike companions, Amanda and Jennifer, were real troopers. Being in better shape than me, they were very patient: they never complained about waiting for me or how many minutes I was adding to our final run time. And against all odds, and the desire to lie down in the brush and die, we finished the hike six and a half hours after we began. Last team to finish, but there was some satisfaction in the fact that not all teams who start the climb completed it. In all seriousness, it was an incredible day and the view from the top was amazing. It's a beautiful place for a hike. FYI - there was an actual "race" category, and the jerk who won it ran up and over that mountain in 2 hours and 15 minutes. The nerve!
At the end of the month, we packed up some gear and headed to Myeongsashimni Beach on the island of Wando. It was a really fun weekend. A large group of foreigners from around the area were there and we all enjoyed being away from our students for a few days. We camped on the beach, played games, cooked samgypsal and tin foil dinners, and had a big bonfire on the beach. Unfortunately, camping so close to the water had the downside of it becoming excessively chilly at night. We wound up shivering the night away in our sleeping bags wearing whatever layers we could find in our packs! Luckily, the next day gave us beautiful weather and plenty of time to nap in the sun.
The first weekend in June was another wonderful getaway, this time to Sangbulsa temple in a small mountain range near Gwangju. Lower on the mountain from where this temple sits, a mountain stream has carved away at the rock for centuries and created a beautiful swimming hole. We gathered there for a swim and a picnic with a few foreigners. The water was fresh, clear and cold. The temple was charming, quiet, and just full of beautiful paintings, new marble statues and wooden carvings. We did get caught in the rain on the way back down the mountain, and had a bit of an adventure finding cabs way out there, but we did make it home eventually.
The next weekend found me on the road again, this time to Gwangju to go to my first pro/semi-pro (?) Korean baseball game. We bought thundersticks on the way in for 1000KRW and a few in a group even in invested in cardboard sun visors when faced with the setting sun. It was a really enjoyable game, even thought the game itself was a little dull. In South Korea, sports are extremely competitive (like the school system) and baseball has become what I've heard referred to as a "pitchers game", meaning if you enjoy the technique of pitching, you'll it. But otherwise it's pretty much a whole lot of strikes and the occasional walk. What was entertaining though, was the enthusiasm of the Gwangju crowd, who regular broke out into song and synchronized thunderstick dance moves. Also entertaining, matching couples and, even better, matching families; pre-schoolers jazz dancing before the game started and an old lady in our section who refused to give up enthusiastically leading cheers even when it was clear that our team was going to get thoroughly beaten. That's quite alright, there's plenty of other reason's to go to Gwangju (a large city 1 hr away from Suncheon by bus). Reason #2: Ethnic Bar - a really cool basement cafe that is almost entirely lit by large pillar candles, is draped floor to ceiling with beautiful iridescent fabrics that must originate from India and Thailand, features a small pond for lack of a better word) in the centre of it all with candles in it, and it's only furniture are low tables and large pillows lining the floors and walls. We went there for drinks and snacks (birgin pina colada juseyo!) and then headed out to Noraebang (of course) before calling it a night and heading back to the Windmill hotel. Reason #3 Great Food - Gwangju is host to the underground grocer (a tiny shop that stocks granola bars, sour cream, Dr Pepper and sharp cheddar!), a delicious authentic Indian food restaurant, and in the bus station alone: Burger King, TGIFridays and Cold Stone Creamery! I really enjoy Korean food, but sometimes you really want a taste of back home. Gwangju delivers the goods.
The NEXT weekend in June (still with me?) was my good friend Kate's birthday bash at String bar in Gwangyang. The theme for the party was "Anything Bought at a Korean Street Market", which we decided to go all out for. We headed into Yo-young-dong shopping district and picked out only the finest Korean attire that Won can buy: Ajumma pants, crazy Konglish tshirts, and sparkly Ajumma visors. String is a great little bar that is dominated by foreigners. So much so that the sweet Korean couple that runs the place let the regulars "work" behind the bar when it gets busy and happily give over control of the dance music. We had a great time celebrating and of course, topped of the night with a good long round of Noraebong.
Pics from all of these events can be found on my facebook page, or by clicking here
Now I do believe the next weekend I stayed at home and relaxed with my cat, she was probably feeling a bit neglected after all that. The first weekend in July though, Amanda A and I were on a bus from Daegu to Cheorwon, in Gangwon-do on weekend tour package from Adventure Korea. On Saturday we enjoyed rafting on the Hantan river, bungee-jumping (no, I didn't *hangs head in shame*) and a midnight tour of the war memorial situated near Odaemi village where we homestayed with a Korean family. This village area was one of the fiercest battle points during the Korean war and today most of its residents and farmers are paid handsomely to live on the land so close to the DeMilitarized Zone (DMZ), only 6 kilometers away, and keep it populated thus protecting it from any North Korean attempts to infiltrate undetected. On the Sunday, we toured the 2nd infiltration tunnel (a tunnel blasted 3.5 kms long by the North to invade ROK), Unification observatory (which overlooks the Iron Triangle Battlefield and was the headquarters and front line of the North Korean Army, through observation goggles you could their outposts), Wolcheongri Station (which shows the remains of the last train that used to run to border, which was bombed out) and the Labor Party Building (a three-story building constructed in 1946 and used as The House of the Labor Party, many people who were here during the anticommunist movement were later tortured and killed, the remains of the building are eerily pockmarked by bullet holes).
The next couple of weeks saw my school semester come to a close on July 14th and then I had a week to relax before getting on plane back to Canada for my home leave! (Well technically a plane to Tokyo, which then sent me to Canada...). I'm going to take a rest here. But I'll do my best to shortly get a summary of my trip home and how things have been since returning to Suncheon posted. Thanks for reading!
Thanks to May hosting Buddha's Birthday, Children's Day, Midterm Exams and the school Field trips, I had an astounding number of days off work. I used the "float" day in my contract to make room for a long-weekend trip to Seoul at the beginning of the month with a bunch of Suncheon friends, intending to take in Buddha's birthday parades and lantern celebrations. Unfortunately, we were there the weekend after all the really big stuff went down (oops) but we still had a great time shopping (English bookstores and Costco!), eating (thin crust pizza, Indian, Coldstone Creamery, Subway...*drools on keyboard*), touring Changdeokgung Palace, and catching the Nanta stage show (think "STOMP" in a kitchen). We even saw a parade, accidentally! And all of the lanterns from the previous weekend were strung up along the streets of Seoul, making for some beautiful late night strolls. Of course, some of the great highlights of the weekend came from just hanging out in our hotel rooms watching hilarious movies, including a very funny adaptation of a popular Korean folk tale about... well ask me if you really want to know.
The next weekend was time for me to pay the price of signing up for the "Fun Run" category of the "King of the Mountain" race, held at Mt Wolchulsan to raise money for the Yeosu orphanage. However, some important details about the course were not included in the event announcement, like "your average Korean mountain hike will feel like a walk in the park compared to this", "make sure you bring 6 litres of water because you'll sweat at least twice that much out" and "if you are not in excellent physical condition you will regret this race for the rest of your life". Look up "contradictory statement", "misnomer", "self-flagellation" or "oxymoron" in the dictionary and you will find "Mt Wolchulsan Fun Run" as a definition. The mountain is a mere 809m tall and we spent the first 3 hours of the hike climbing straight up it. The kindly Korean government did install railings, ladders and stair cases en route so that we weren't scaling the rocks themselves but that hike was the most difficult thing I have ever done physically. It is the first time I have seen KOREANS sweating and panting while hiking a mountain (they're human after all!). At the summit, I gratefully received a hearty round of applause from those who had already arrived. I'd never felt like I deserved applause more in my life. However, now we had a much longer trail to travel that would take us down the other side of the mountain to the finish line. And while the descent had a much less vertical angle to it, it also had less railings and staircases to help you out. Once in a while there was a rope anchored to help you down a large boulder and more than once I used the old butt-scoot to get down in places where I didn't trust my ruined legs to support me if I jumped down. My hike companions, Amanda and Jennifer, were real troopers. Being in better shape than me, they were very patient: they never complained about waiting for me or how many minutes I was adding to our final run time. And against all odds, and the desire to lie down in the brush and die, we finished the hike six and a half hours after we began. Last team to finish, but there was some satisfaction in the fact that not all teams who start the climb completed it. In all seriousness, it was an incredible day and the view from the top was amazing. It's a beautiful place for a hike. FYI - there was an actual "race" category, and the jerk who won it ran up and over that mountain in 2 hours and 15 minutes. The nerve!
At the end of the month, we packed up some gear and headed to Myeongsashimni Beach on the island of Wando. It was a really fun weekend. A large group of foreigners from around the area were there and we all enjoyed being away from our students for a few days. We camped on the beach, played games, cooked samgypsal and tin foil dinners, and had a big bonfire on the beach. Unfortunately, camping so close to the water had the downside of it becoming excessively chilly at night. We wound up shivering the night away in our sleeping bags wearing whatever layers we could find in our packs! Luckily, the next day gave us beautiful weather and plenty of time to nap in the sun.
The first weekend in June was another wonderful getaway, this time to Sangbulsa temple in a small mountain range near Gwangju. Lower on the mountain from where this temple sits, a mountain stream has carved away at the rock for centuries and created a beautiful swimming hole. We gathered there for a swim and a picnic with a few foreigners. The water was fresh, clear and cold. The temple was charming, quiet, and just full of beautiful paintings, new marble statues and wooden carvings. We did get caught in the rain on the way back down the mountain, and had a bit of an adventure finding cabs way out there, but we did make it home eventually.
The next weekend found me on the road again, this time to Gwangju to go to my first pro/semi-pro (?) Korean baseball game. We bought thundersticks on the way in for 1000KRW and a few in a group even in invested in cardboard sun visors when faced with the setting sun. It was a really enjoyable game, even thought the game itself was a little dull. In South Korea, sports are extremely competitive (like the school system) and baseball has become what I've heard referred to as a "pitchers game", meaning if you enjoy the technique of pitching, you'll it. But otherwise it's pretty much a whole lot of strikes and the occasional walk. What was entertaining though, was the enthusiasm of the Gwangju crowd, who regular broke out into song and synchronized thunderstick dance moves. Also entertaining, matching couples and, even better, matching families; pre-schoolers jazz dancing before the game started and an old lady in our section who refused to give up enthusiastically leading cheers even when it was clear that our team was going to get thoroughly beaten. That's quite alright, there's plenty of other reason's to go to Gwangju (a large city 1 hr away from Suncheon by bus). Reason #2: Ethnic Bar - a really cool basement cafe that is almost entirely lit by large pillar candles, is draped floor to ceiling with beautiful iridescent fabrics that must originate from India and Thailand, features a small pond for lack of a better word) in the centre of it all with candles in it, and it's only furniture are low tables and large pillows lining the floors and walls. We went there for drinks and snacks (birgin pina colada juseyo!) and then headed out to Noraebang (of course) before calling it a night and heading back to the Windmill hotel. Reason #3 Great Food - Gwangju is host to the underground grocer (a tiny shop that stocks granola bars, sour cream, Dr Pepper and sharp cheddar!), a delicious authentic Indian food restaurant, and in the bus station alone: Burger King, TGIFridays and Cold Stone Creamery! I really enjoy Korean food, but sometimes you really want a taste of back home. Gwangju delivers the goods.
The NEXT weekend in June (still with me?) was my good friend Kate's birthday bash at String bar in Gwangyang. The theme for the party was "Anything Bought at a Korean Street Market", which we decided to go all out for. We headed into Yo-young-dong shopping district and picked out only the finest Korean attire that Won can buy: Ajumma pants, crazy Konglish tshirts, and sparkly Ajumma visors. String is a great little bar that is dominated by foreigners. So much so that the sweet Korean couple that runs the place let the regulars "work" behind the bar when it gets busy and happily give over control of the dance music. We had a great time celebrating and of course, topped of the night with a good long round of Noraebong.
Pics from all of these events can be found on my facebook page, or by clicking here
Now I do believe the next weekend I stayed at home and relaxed with my cat, she was probably feeling a bit neglected after all that. The first weekend in July though, Amanda A and I were on a bus from Daegu to Cheorwon, in Gangwon-do on weekend tour package from Adventure Korea. On Saturday we enjoyed rafting on the Hantan river, bungee-jumping (no, I didn't *hangs head in shame*) and a midnight tour of the war memorial situated near Odaemi village where we homestayed with a Korean family. This village area was one of the fiercest battle points during the Korean war and today most of its residents and farmers are paid handsomely to live on the land so close to the DeMilitarized Zone (DMZ), only 6 kilometers away, and keep it populated thus protecting it from any North Korean attempts to infiltrate undetected. On the Sunday, we toured the 2nd infiltration tunnel (a tunnel blasted 3.5 kms long by the North to invade ROK), Unification observatory (which overlooks the Iron Triangle Battlefield and was the headquarters and front line of the North Korean Army, through observation goggles you could their outposts), Wolcheongri Station (which shows the remains of the last train that used to run to border, which was bombed out) and the Labor Party Building (a three-story building constructed in 1946 and used as The House of the Labor Party, many people who were here during the anticommunist movement were later tortured and killed, the remains of the building are eerily pockmarked by bullet holes).
The next couple of weeks saw my school semester come to a close on July 14th and then I had a week to relax before getting on plane back to Canada for my home leave! (Well technically a plane to Tokyo, which then sent me to Canada...). I'm going to take a rest here. But I'll do my best to shortly get a summary of my trip home and how things have been since returning to Suncheon posted. Thanks for reading!
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
Thoughts about Spring 2009
Ok, I'm trying to catch up, I really am. Over the next few days/weeks I'll be posting shorter entries about stuff that's happened between March and now. Hope you like...
When I returned to work after my two-month hiatus, I had a hard time getting back into the swing of, you know, working. Plus, my school asked me to start teaching classes on the 3rd day (the nerve!) so I was throwing lesson plans together in record time. I was excited. The first year students I had last year would be returning as second years and I felt I built a comfortable repoire with them. I was a little more nervous about the 1st year students. Whatever impression I made, these are the kids I would stuck with all year, and next year too. I seem to have done ok. All reports I receive from my principal and vice principal are that the students love me. Yeah, I'm pretty rad.
In March, the weather warmed up and brought with it "yellow dust" from China and subsequently I was sick for most of them month with what felt like a stubborn head cold. The drop in the quality of air had the same effect on a lot of the foreigners living here. Apparently it happens every spring. Still, it was an enjoyable month. We celebrated St. Patrick's Day at Elvis bar with our fellow expats (and a number of sleazy sailors, yeesh...). I also took in the Apricot Festival in Hadong with Jennifer. We had a great time walking around, enjoying the blossoms and snacked on Octopus Jeon (potato pancake). Every weekend there were festivals celebrating the arrival of spring and it's many flowers/blossoms.
Near the end of the month, my school held "Student Sports Days" for 3 days, where all of the student classes competed in such physically challenging events as Dodgeball, Tug-o-War, Dance, and Kick Baseball. It was a lot of fun. The weather was hot and sunny for all three days and the students really enjoyed the break from their normal routine. I really enjoyed it too. The students at my school are always enthusiastic about competitions, sunny weather and assemblies, so these sports days sounded like a Big Bang concert non-stop.
My birthday arrived, as it always does, on March 30th. I went out with my friends to dinner at restaurant that specialized in marinated pork and beef dishes. Very delicious, but unfortunately there was a miscommunication about the price of the meal and it was quite a shock to receive the bill afterwards. That weekend, my friend Jodie invited me to her apartment to help her with some baking she promised to do for a friend. So I put on my best sweatpants and headed over to her place with a couple of friends (suspiciously dressed very nicely, but I thought nothing of it). When we walked in, confetti canons exploded and I was shocked to see about 20 friends crammed into the Holmes apartment wearing a "lion" or "lamb" caricature around their neck. They had planned a surprise birthday party for Lindsey (who's Birthday was at the beginning of April) and I, following the old phrase about March: "in like Lion, out like a Lamb." I was a little embarrassed to be so under dressed for the occasion, but very grateful and genuinely surprised. We had a lot of fun!
See pictures of the party and other spring stuff here: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2235464&id=122614903&l=386c8b11ba
This semester, I've been learning a lot more about just how hard high school students work in South Korea. In one class assignment I had the girls completing poems where they write about their past, present and future. More than one student likened their new high school life to prison. The students have to go to school for 8am and remain there until 10 or 11 pm (unless they have a private school to go to in the evening). The competition is intensely fierce for spots at the top Korean Universities. Students don't have part-time jobs, don't go to parties, and rarely (if ever) date. Extra-curricular activities are limited because students fill so much pressure to spend their free time studying. The high school at which I work is an Academic High School, so there are girls who have moved to Suncheon and live in the school dormitory's because their parents believe they will be able to get into a better university if they graduate from this school. Also the students sleep about 4 hours a night, especially before exams. There is actually a Korean rule of thumb here that parents tell their children: If you sleep for more than 4 hours a night (and therefore miss out on time to study), you'll fail. Now that it is close to exam time again, I'm letting my students watch movies during my class. They NEED a break.
When I returned to work after my two-month hiatus, I had a hard time getting back into the swing of, you know, working. Plus, my school asked me to start teaching classes on the 3rd day (the nerve!) so I was throwing lesson plans together in record time. I was excited. The first year students I had last year would be returning as second years and I felt I built a comfortable repoire with them. I was a little more nervous about the 1st year students. Whatever impression I made, these are the kids I would stuck with all year, and next year too. I seem to have done ok. All reports I receive from my principal and vice principal are that the students love me. Yeah, I'm pretty rad.
In March, the weather warmed up and brought with it "yellow dust" from China and subsequently I was sick for most of them month with what felt like a stubborn head cold. The drop in the quality of air had the same effect on a lot of the foreigners living here. Apparently it happens every spring. Still, it was an enjoyable month. We celebrated St. Patrick's Day at Elvis bar with our fellow expats (and a number of sleazy sailors, yeesh...). I also took in the Apricot Festival in Hadong with Jennifer. We had a great time walking around, enjoying the blossoms and snacked on Octopus Jeon (potato pancake). Every weekend there were festivals celebrating the arrival of spring and it's many flowers/blossoms.
Near the end of the month, my school held "Student Sports Days" for 3 days, where all of the student classes competed in such physically challenging events as Dodgeball, Tug-o-War, Dance, and Kick Baseball. It was a lot of fun. The weather was hot and sunny for all three days and the students really enjoyed the break from their normal routine. I really enjoyed it too. The students at my school are always enthusiastic about competitions, sunny weather and assemblies, so these sports days sounded like a Big Bang concert non-stop.
My birthday arrived, as it always does, on March 30th. I went out with my friends to dinner at restaurant that specialized in marinated pork and beef dishes. Very delicious, but unfortunately there was a miscommunication about the price of the meal and it was quite a shock to receive the bill afterwards. That weekend, my friend Jodie invited me to her apartment to help her with some baking she promised to do for a friend. So I put on my best sweatpants and headed over to her place with a couple of friends (suspiciously dressed very nicely, but I thought nothing of it). When we walked in, confetti canons exploded and I was shocked to see about 20 friends crammed into the Holmes apartment wearing a "lion" or "lamb" caricature around their neck. They had planned a surprise birthday party for Lindsey (who's Birthday was at the beginning of April) and I, following the old phrase about March: "in like Lion, out like a Lamb." I was a little embarrassed to be so under dressed for the occasion, but very grateful and genuinely surprised. We had a lot of fun!
See pictures of the party and other spring stuff here: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2235464&id=122614903&l=386c8b11ba
This semester, I've been learning a lot more about just how hard high school students work in South Korea. In one class assignment I had the girls completing poems where they write about their past, present and future. More than one student likened their new high school life to prison. The students have to go to school for 8am and remain there until 10 or 11 pm (unless they have a private school to go to in the evening). The competition is intensely fierce for spots at the top Korean Universities. Students don't have part-time jobs, don't go to parties, and rarely (if ever) date. Extra-curricular activities are limited because students fill so much pressure to spend their free time studying. The high school at which I work is an Academic High School, so there are girls who have moved to Suncheon and live in the school dormitory's because their parents believe they will be able to get into a better university if they graduate from this school. Also the students sleep about 4 hours a night, especially before exams. There is actually a Korean rule of thumb here that parents tell their children: If you sleep for more than 4 hours a night (and therefore miss out on time to study), you'll fail. Now that it is close to exam time again, I'm letting my students watch movies during my class. They NEED a break.
Saturday, May 23, 2009
SE Asia Chapter 6: Vietnam. Fin.
Well here it is finally, the last chapter of my trip across Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam. For those of you just tuning in, I haven't been travelling for the last 4 months, it's just taken me this long to write up the trip in blog form (*insert sigh of frustration and self-loathing*). The trip actually finished on February 26th, 2009. Here's how the last week of it went:
Vietnam
Mui NE
We could feel the end of the trip around the corner and with itchy feet we got on a bus to the Cambodian/Vietnam border. We were on our way to Mui Ne, a coastal fishing town about 3.5 hours away from Ho Chi Minh city, where we would need to end up in a week to catch our flight back to Seoul. We felt gunshy about the journey because of all the hassles we'd gone through to get from Bangkok to Siem Reap. Thankfully, the journey was a smooth one. We had a bit of a wait at the border, but other than that we rode on a comfortable airconditioned bus into Ho Chi Minh, which dropped us off close to a travel office where we booked the next bus to Mui Ne (and it happened to swing by and pick us up within 10 minutes of getting off the previous bus).
When we rolled into Mui Ne, we had no sleeping arrangements and after the recommended guest house was found to be full we hopped on the back of some moto-taxis and stayed at family owned guest house a couple miles down the road with cute, clean rooms. Although it had been a long day of travelling, but we were all too excited to have made it to the beach to go to sleep. Especially in my case; it would be my first time on a saltwater beach. The matron of the place gave us a huge light to take with us to explore the beach that lay just beyond the backyard full of palm trees. And not only did it light our way, but it also warned all the crabs we were coming, so nobody stepped on one as we wandered down the beach to the closest beachside restaurant named cowboys. Their lasagna wasn't great, but it was sure better than the baked kimchi and ddok in red pepper sauce my school sometimes makes as a cruel joke. We toasted our fruit shakes and mohitos over the sound of waves rolling to shore: we'd covered a lot of miles and we'd earned a few days of unscheduled, unstructured bliss.
The next morning we were up pretty early and on bicycles searching for some bungalows on the beach. We stopped at a lot of places, but naturally our first stop turned out to be the best bang for our buck. We stayed at Nhat Quang for $13 bucks a night. Not quite the bamboo huts we were hoping for, but the bungalows were very nice with white linens and mosquito nets. Also, the grounds at this guesthouse were absolutely beautiful, and acted as a buffer against the constant honking of motorists on the road (in Vietnam, it's a law to honk when you pass someone, which motorists have taken to include passing not only autos and motorcycles but bicycles and pedestrians, so it's A LOT of honking). We were also far enough off the road that it also camoflagued the strange organic, musky smell that was inescapable on the main road (and was also present in a big way at our first guesthouse).
side note: The mystery smell turned out to be the scent of Mui Ne's famous fermented fish sauce, which most of the homes and restaurants keep in big clay pots on the roof or in the backyard. We suspected this, and it was confirmed during the first week of school when my school cafeteria served fish in a sauce that instantly brought back waves of memories of Mui Ne.
The next few days are probably better described by pictures than my narrative, so here's the highlights:
- hour long oil massages on the beach for $6
- fantastic sunsets
- watching the cattle be driven across the beach daily
- watching the fishing boats leave the village in the late morning and return in the evening
- hammock naps
- tasty eats like: thin crust pizza, bananna pancakes for breakfast, jackfruit and mango smoothies, panini's, Vietnamese soup
- chasing a cockroach out of Jen's room at night
- getting dressed up for tropical drinks and fire dancers at Wax
- not a single full night's rest, thanks to my summertime insomnia making an early reappearance
Now I had mentioned back in Chapter 2 that I broke my camera at Elephant Nature Park and that it was not the only camera to meet its demise on this trip. Of the five camera's brought with us to SE ASIA, only two made it out alive. Here are the stories of how cameras #2 and #3 bit the dust.
Camera #2 Jennifer's Camera - "If you can't take the heat, stay away from the tail pipe!"
On our 3rd day, Jennifer and I felt adventurous and decided to take our rented bikes for a trip down the highway to see if we could find the red or white sand dunes all the tourist offices boasted about. At a Y intersection of two main roads about a 1/2 hour north of Mui Ne we found a place to rent ATV (4 wheelers) on the sand dunes. We were sold. It was pricey, but we couldn't think of a better way to see the dunes and knew we would we regret it if we didn't do it. After giving us a very quick explanation of where the brakes and gas controls were located, the manager sent us off with our guides, smiling "Don't be afraid, you can't tip them. Go fast, they won't roll over!" Hey buddy, you don't have to tell me twice! Jen and I took to ATVing quite differently. I found myself exuberantly bounding up and over steep dunes blindly following my guide over the edge, while Jen found her herself often stuck in the sand and needing rescue from her guide. She was cautious, you know like a complete newbie should be. It should be noted that after taking a few pictures, Jennifer handed me her camera for safekeeping in my little sling bag. She was ready to call it quits after 10 minutes while I pretended not to hear her and followed my guide down the next dune. He told me in broken English he was impressed with my driving abilities and continued to take me up progressively steeper hills. I even caught air a couple of times. As we travelled down the side of one dune, my guide cut to the left to travel in the ravine of two dunes. I followed his lead, but I cut the corner alittle short and the two left wheels of my ATV caught a ridge of hard ground hidden in the sand. Suddenly I was launched into the air sideways, and braced myself for a broken leg, certain it would be crushed under the ATV that was going to land on me. I landed in the sand, head and right shoulder first like a rag doll, stunned. First, stunned to see my glasses laying only a few feet from me in the sand. Second, stunned that I felt no broken bones. In fact I felt no pain at all! I rolled over and saw the ATV turned on it's side about 5 feet away. I rolled my eyes forward in time to see my guide looked over his shoulder, shout out a shocked "Oh my God!" and make an immediate u-turn. I quickly stood up and started wiping the sand off the right side of my body. "Oh my God! Oh my God!" the guide kept saying. I assured him I was ok, also surprised to find my self completely scatch free. He righted my ATV to find the front fender had sustained a significant crack, but otherwise was still running fine. From here on out, Jen and I experienced a role reversal of sorts. Jennifer found her confidence increasing and began having the time of her life on the dunes. I on the other hand found, after the adrenaline rush passed, that my nerves were completely shredded by the fall, and though I continued to follow my guide, felt terrified everytime we bounded blindly over another dune. Now it was Jennifer hooting as she ascended another cliff of sand and me who was ready to call it quits. For the last 10 minutes of our rented time, one of the guides decided to take me on the ride of my life. He hopped on my machine and I held on for dear life as what was left of my nerves abandoned me completely. As we pulled into the overhang and I got off the ATV on clumsy legs made of jelly, I felt a stab of heat. My small sling bag, which had been hanging safely at my side, had fallen behind the back of the ATV for the duration of my "joyride" with my guide, directly infront of the exhaust pipe. The heat had burned through my bag and melted Jen's camera cover to it. The camera came out like a hot potato - too hot to handle. Jen pulled into the overhang to see us all huddled over her camera. The prognosis grim. The camera was totally melted. I was really upset having destroyed yet another camera, especially one that didn't belong to me. But Jennifer was really wonderful about it. Thankfully, camera wizards in Korea were able to recover the pics on her memory card.
Camera #3 Susan's Camera - The Camera I Did NOT Break
I believe it was our 4th day in Mui Ne when the 5 of us took a walk up the "fairy stream", a gorgeous fresh water stream that met the ocean close to Nhat Quang. We politely refused the children who offered to "guide" us to the waterfall. It was absolutely beautiful: the red sand, the green foliage and the bright blue sky seemed almost too saturated with colour. Again, I'll let the pictures do the talking. We took turns splashing under the small waterfall and then headed back towards our guesthouse. About 2/3rds the way back, Suze realized she didn't have her camera. In fact, none of us did. She and Ali headed back down the stream to look for it. Jen, Amanda and I tried to assure ourselves, "There is no way we can lose 3 cameras on this trip!" Suze and Ali ran into a couple of little "tour guides" who responded excitedly when Suze mimed that she was looking for a camera. Sure enough one of the boys held up a water-logged, grim-looking camera. Filled with relief, Suze generously offered the boys some money as a reward for finding the camera. Ever the opportunists, the boys held on to the camera and tried to extort Suze for more money to get back her broken camera. Thankfully, Suze has good training in handling youngsters as a teacher and was able to get the camera back without being ripped off by some very ballsy 8-year olds.
I spent the last couple of days in Mui Ne relaxing as much as possible. While I didn't break any bones in my ATV accident, I found myself very stiff and sore for the next few days. I also took a gamble and got a $3 dollar haircut at a beauty shop. Let's say, you get what you pay for. (Krissy, you'll find out what I mean when I get back to Dryden in July.) Reluctantly, I got on a bus to Ho Chi Minh after 5 wonderful days in Mui Ne. Exciting and relaxing, it was the perfect way to end a long trip of constant movement.
Ho Chi Minh
Amanda and Suze had gone to HCMC earlier than Jen, Ali and I. Those ambitious gals had plans to some more historical sight-seeing around old Saigon. The idealist in me gave the old lady in me guilt trips about staying on the beach alittle longer. But let's be honest: I was out of steam. I was ready to get on a plane and I was not anxious to be back in the middle of a bustling metropolis, which is exactly what HCMC is. About 80% of its motorists are on motorbikes, and rush hour traffic was like watching densely packed schools of fish travel. Unfortunately for us pedestrians, there are no crosswalks. You just walk very slowly out into traffic and the motos drive around you (I guess one benefit of traffic that dense is that it rarely gets moving over 40 km/h). We reunited with the history buffs at a cafe and got settled into our guesthouse. HCMC is alittle like Bangkok but friendlier, cleaner and the vendors are a lot less pushy.I slept in nice and late the next day. Jennifer and I decided to hit up a local waterpark (her first time at one!) instead of touring the Musuem of American Atrocities. The idealist in me didn't like that decision either, but I assuaged her with a promise to return to HCMC one day and see it properly. Jen and I ran around the waterpark like the rest of the 13 year old's there and had a great time. We had dinner at the fantastic vegetarian restaurant we ate almost all of our meals at while in HCMC and then the five of us met up to see a Vietnamese Water Puppet show. It was really cool to see and, being in the front row, we got a little wet. After the puppet show, it was time to head to the airport and catch our midnight flight back to Korea and back to semi-normal life.
I felt bittersweet boarding the plane. I was ready to go back. I missed my cat. But I felt overwhelming gratitude for having the oppportunity to take a trip like this. I felt stretched and expanded as a person, and more grounded. I felt I was taking so much with me from SE Asia, so many positive things to keep in my life and was leaving behind so much of my own negativity.
Pictures here (minus ATV pics, I'll post them next): http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2236674&id=122614903&l=0ebc4c8a8c
Vietnam
Mui NE
We could feel the end of the trip around the corner and with itchy feet we got on a bus to the Cambodian/Vietnam border. We were on our way to Mui Ne, a coastal fishing town about 3.5 hours away from Ho Chi Minh city, where we would need to end up in a week to catch our flight back to Seoul. We felt gunshy about the journey because of all the hassles we'd gone through to get from Bangkok to Siem Reap. Thankfully, the journey was a smooth one. We had a bit of a wait at the border, but other than that we rode on a comfortable airconditioned bus into Ho Chi Minh, which dropped us off close to a travel office where we booked the next bus to Mui Ne (and it happened to swing by and pick us up within 10 minutes of getting off the previous bus).
When we rolled into Mui Ne, we had no sleeping arrangements and after the recommended guest house was found to be full we hopped on the back of some moto-taxis and stayed at family owned guest house a couple miles down the road with cute, clean rooms. Although it had been a long day of travelling, but we were all too excited to have made it to the beach to go to sleep. Especially in my case; it would be my first time on a saltwater beach. The matron of the place gave us a huge light to take with us to explore the beach that lay just beyond the backyard full of palm trees. And not only did it light our way, but it also warned all the crabs we were coming, so nobody stepped on one as we wandered down the beach to the closest beachside restaurant named cowboys. Their lasagna wasn't great, but it was sure better than the baked kimchi and ddok in red pepper sauce my school sometimes makes as a cruel joke. We toasted our fruit shakes and mohitos over the sound of waves rolling to shore: we'd covered a lot of miles and we'd earned a few days of unscheduled, unstructured bliss.
The next morning we were up pretty early and on bicycles searching for some bungalows on the beach. We stopped at a lot of places, but naturally our first stop turned out to be the best bang for our buck. We stayed at Nhat Quang for $13 bucks a night. Not quite the bamboo huts we were hoping for, but the bungalows were very nice with white linens and mosquito nets. Also, the grounds at this guesthouse were absolutely beautiful, and acted as a buffer against the constant honking of motorists on the road (in Vietnam, it's a law to honk when you pass someone, which motorists have taken to include passing not only autos and motorcycles but bicycles and pedestrians, so it's A LOT of honking). We were also far enough off the road that it also camoflagued the strange organic, musky smell that was inescapable on the main road (and was also present in a big way at our first guesthouse).
side note: The mystery smell turned out to be the scent of Mui Ne's famous fermented fish sauce, which most of the homes and restaurants keep in big clay pots on the roof or in the backyard. We suspected this, and it was confirmed during the first week of school when my school cafeteria served fish in a sauce that instantly brought back waves of memories of Mui Ne.
The next few days are probably better described by pictures than my narrative, so here's the highlights:
- hour long oil massages on the beach for $6
- fantastic sunsets
- watching the cattle be driven across the beach daily
- watching the fishing boats leave the village in the late morning and return in the evening
- hammock naps
- tasty eats like: thin crust pizza, bananna pancakes for breakfast, jackfruit and mango smoothies, panini's, Vietnamese soup
- chasing a cockroach out of Jen's room at night
- getting dressed up for tropical drinks and fire dancers at Wax
- not a single full night's rest, thanks to my summertime insomnia making an early reappearance
Now I had mentioned back in Chapter 2 that I broke my camera at Elephant Nature Park and that it was not the only camera to meet its demise on this trip. Of the five camera's brought with us to SE ASIA, only two made it out alive. Here are the stories of how cameras #2 and #3 bit the dust.
Camera #2 Jennifer's Camera - "If you can't take the heat, stay away from the tail pipe!"
On our 3rd day, Jennifer and I felt adventurous and decided to take our rented bikes for a trip down the highway to see if we could find the red or white sand dunes all the tourist offices boasted about. At a Y intersection of two main roads about a 1/2 hour north of Mui Ne we found a place to rent ATV (4 wheelers) on the sand dunes. We were sold. It was pricey, but we couldn't think of a better way to see the dunes and knew we would we regret it if we didn't do it. After giving us a very quick explanation of where the brakes and gas controls were located, the manager sent us off with our guides, smiling "Don't be afraid, you can't tip them. Go fast, they won't roll over!" Hey buddy, you don't have to tell me twice! Jen and I took to ATVing quite differently. I found myself exuberantly bounding up and over steep dunes blindly following my guide over the edge, while Jen found her herself often stuck in the sand and needing rescue from her guide. She was cautious, you know like a complete newbie should be. It should be noted that after taking a few pictures, Jennifer handed me her camera for safekeeping in my little sling bag. She was ready to call it quits after 10 minutes while I pretended not to hear her and followed my guide down the next dune. He told me in broken English he was impressed with my driving abilities and continued to take me up progressively steeper hills. I even caught air a couple of times. As we travelled down the side of one dune, my guide cut to the left to travel in the ravine of two dunes. I followed his lead, but I cut the corner alittle short and the two left wheels of my ATV caught a ridge of hard ground hidden in the sand. Suddenly I was launched into the air sideways, and braced myself for a broken leg, certain it would be crushed under the ATV that was going to land on me. I landed in the sand, head and right shoulder first like a rag doll, stunned. First, stunned to see my glasses laying only a few feet from me in the sand. Second, stunned that I felt no broken bones. In fact I felt no pain at all! I rolled over and saw the ATV turned on it's side about 5 feet away. I rolled my eyes forward in time to see my guide looked over his shoulder, shout out a shocked "Oh my God!" and make an immediate u-turn. I quickly stood up and started wiping the sand off the right side of my body. "Oh my God! Oh my God!" the guide kept saying. I assured him I was ok, also surprised to find my self completely scatch free. He righted my ATV to find the front fender had sustained a significant crack, but otherwise was still running fine. From here on out, Jen and I experienced a role reversal of sorts. Jennifer found her confidence increasing and began having the time of her life on the dunes. I on the other hand found, after the adrenaline rush passed, that my nerves were completely shredded by the fall, and though I continued to follow my guide, felt terrified everytime we bounded blindly over another dune. Now it was Jennifer hooting as she ascended another cliff of sand and me who was ready to call it quits. For the last 10 minutes of our rented time, one of the guides decided to take me on the ride of my life. He hopped on my machine and I held on for dear life as what was left of my nerves abandoned me completely. As we pulled into the overhang and I got off the ATV on clumsy legs made of jelly, I felt a stab of heat. My small sling bag, which had been hanging safely at my side, had fallen behind the back of the ATV for the duration of my "joyride" with my guide, directly infront of the exhaust pipe. The heat had burned through my bag and melted Jen's camera cover to it. The camera came out like a hot potato - too hot to handle. Jen pulled into the overhang to see us all huddled over her camera. The prognosis grim. The camera was totally melted. I was really upset having destroyed yet another camera, especially one that didn't belong to me. But Jennifer was really wonderful about it. Thankfully, camera wizards in Korea were able to recover the pics on her memory card.
Camera #3 Susan's Camera - The Camera I Did NOT Break
I believe it was our 4th day in Mui Ne when the 5 of us took a walk up the "fairy stream", a gorgeous fresh water stream that met the ocean close to Nhat Quang. We politely refused the children who offered to "guide" us to the waterfall. It was absolutely beautiful: the red sand, the green foliage and the bright blue sky seemed almost too saturated with colour. Again, I'll let the pictures do the talking. We took turns splashing under the small waterfall and then headed back towards our guesthouse. About 2/3rds the way back, Suze realized she didn't have her camera. In fact, none of us did. She and Ali headed back down the stream to look for it. Jen, Amanda and I tried to assure ourselves, "There is no way we can lose 3 cameras on this trip!" Suze and Ali ran into a couple of little "tour guides" who responded excitedly when Suze mimed that she was looking for a camera. Sure enough one of the boys held up a water-logged, grim-looking camera. Filled with relief, Suze generously offered the boys some money as a reward for finding the camera. Ever the opportunists, the boys held on to the camera and tried to extort Suze for more money to get back her broken camera. Thankfully, Suze has good training in handling youngsters as a teacher and was able to get the camera back without being ripped off by some very ballsy 8-year olds.
I spent the last couple of days in Mui Ne relaxing as much as possible. While I didn't break any bones in my ATV accident, I found myself very stiff and sore for the next few days. I also took a gamble and got a $3 dollar haircut at a beauty shop. Let's say, you get what you pay for. (Krissy, you'll find out what I mean when I get back to Dryden in July.) Reluctantly, I got on a bus to Ho Chi Minh after 5 wonderful days in Mui Ne. Exciting and relaxing, it was the perfect way to end a long trip of constant movement.
Ho Chi Minh
Amanda and Suze had gone to HCMC earlier than Jen, Ali and I. Those ambitious gals had plans to some more historical sight-seeing around old Saigon. The idealist in me gave the old lady in me guilt trips about staying on the beach alittle longer. But let's be honest: I was out of steam. I was ready to get on a plane and I was not anxious to be back in the middle of a bustling metropolis, which is exactly what HCMC is. About 80% of its motorists are on motorbikes, and rush hour traffic was like watching densely packed schools of fish travel. Unfortunately for us pedestrians, there are no crosswalks. You just walk very slowly out into traffic and the motos drive around you (I guess one benefit of traffic that dense is that it rarely gets moving over 40 km/h). We reunited with the history buffs at a cafe and got settled into our guesthouse. HCMC is alittle like Bangkok but friendlier, cleaner and the vendors are a lot less pushy.I slept in nice and late the next day. Jennifer and I decided to hit up a local waterpark (her first time at one!) instead of touring the Musuem of American Atrocities. The idealist in me didn't like that decision either, but I assuaged her with a promise to return to HCMC one day and see it properly. Jen and I ran around the waterpark like the rest of the 13 year old's there and had a great time. We had dinner at the fantastic vegetarian restaurant we ate almost all of our meals at while in HCMC and then the five of us met up to see a Vietnamese Water Puppet show. It was really cool to see and, being in the front row, we got a little wet. After the puppet show, it was time to head to the airport and catch our midnight flight back to Korea and back to semi-normal life.
I felt bittersweet boarding the plane. I was ready to go back. I missed my cat. But I felt overwhelming gratitude for having the oppportunity to take a trip like this. I felt stretched and expanded as a person, and more grounded. I felt I was taking so much with me from SE Asia, so many positive things to keep in my life and was leaving behind so much of my own negativity.
Pictures here (minus ATV pics, I'll post them next): http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2236674&id=122614903&l=0ebc4c8a8c
Tuesday, April 7, 2009
SE Asia Chapter 5: Cambodia
When you work as a foreign English teacher in South Korea's public system, every so often you get this unexpected gift. It happens when your co-teacher turns to you at 8:55am and says "Oh, Lisa, you have no class today." If you are me and your school is awesome (shout out to ìˆœì „ ì—¬ê³ !) , this happens a lot. But today, instead of wasting time or planning lessons, I'm going to try to get this monkey off my back, my blog about the rest of my trip in SE Asia. It was 3 months ago, I'd be surprised if anybody actually still cares, but I seem unable to write anything else until I get it out of the way. So without my travel journal, here goes...
We travelled to Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia, by speedboat down the Tonle Sap river. It's more expensive than the bus, but if you want to see the best of the Cambodian landscape, that's the way to do it. At the dock in Phnom Penh, a ravenous throng of Tuk-Tuk drivers waited for us. And followed us for a block as we tried to get some distance and get ourselves organized. We found a room at a great guesthouse recommended by my lonely planet book. I say "great" not only because our room was huge and spotless, and not only because the owner arranged our vietnam tourist visa's and travel arrangements to Ho Chi Minh, but also great because she stocked kettled-cooked potato chips and Crunchie chocolate bars, the likes of which I haven't seen since September 2008. By now the pace of our trip was taking its toll on me. I was eager to get to a beach and do nothing but relax for a few days. We decided to stay in Phnom Penh only two nights, long enough to see the royal palace and the Killing fields. We went to the Royal Palace early in the day, knowing we would need a few hours to get grounded after the Killing Fields. The palace site, including the silver pagoda, was beautiful and much less crowded than the Royal Palace in Bangkok, understandably.
Cambodia
Siem Reap/Angkor Wat
After a day of much needed R&R to recover from our travels from Bangkok to Siem Reap (see Chapter 4), we rented bicycles to make the trip around the Angkor, the ancient city that has made Siem Reap the bustling, wealthy tourist centre of Cambodia that it is. It's home to many famous Khmer temples ("Wats") including Ta Phrom where parts of Tomb Raider and Indian Jones were filmed and the big kahuna: Angkor Wat.
History buffs can your fix here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angkor I'm not writing down everything I know about the place, we haven't got time!
I was happy to get back on a bike after having such a great time touring Ayutthaya on one. Even the most unsteady of ou
r troop felt significantly more bike-confident having had a full night of rest and some great food the day before. And Angkor was definitely worth seeing by bike. The forests were beautiful and gave plenty of roadside shade. We pulled up at the first small temple, Banteay Kdei and I was already enthralled by the beautiful gate to the temple, which featured a large serene face of stone smiling at visitors. After Banteay Kdei, we ate lunch at a roadside stand (fried rice, soup and fresh fruits while children and chickens ran amok around us) and then made our way to Ta Phrom, which was so surreal and beautiful. Wandering through this ancient structure, with enormous trees reclaiming the grounds, it was easy to imagine myself as an explorer or picture the temple as it might have been centuries earlier. After Ta Phrom, our travelmate Amanda ventured off on her own, while the rest of us (Susan, Ali, Jennifer and I) continued on to Angkor Thom (Angkor City). On the way we stopped to climb up Ta Keo and paused outside a couple of other smaller sites for water breaks. The day was already quickly slippi
ng past. We biked through the east gate of Angkor Thom and parked our bikes beside the terrace of the Elephants. On foot we toured Krueng Palace, Baphoun, and (my absolute favourite) Bayon Temple. Bayon temple features hundreds of faces staring out over the city and keeping a watchful eye on its inhabitants. It was the perfect place to watch the shadows grow longer as the afternoon changed from golden to deeper hues of orange and red, matching the dusty ground beneath our feet. As we headed for our bikes we did come across a large group of Korean tourists who were thrilled to find out we were teachers in Korea and knew how to say "Hello" to them (which earns a round of applause apparently). I would have loved to stay at Bayon a little longer, but we needed to hit the road before we lost the light. Cambodian traffic is crazy enough in the daytime; we did not want to be on our bikes (without lights) after dark. As we rode past the magnificient sillouette of Angkor Wat at dusk, I felt, for the first time, excited to be going to see it at sunrise the next morning. We ended our day of biking (about 40km) with dinner in the marketplace and an hour long shiatsu massage by blind masseurs. It was lovely. It did not, however, change the fact that I had a wake-up time of 4:30 am coming around the bend.
r troop felt significantly more bike-confident having had a full night of rest and some great food the day before. And Angkor was definitely worth seeing by bike. The forests were beautiful and gave plenty of roadside shade. We pulled up at the first small temple, Banteay Kdei and I was already enthralled by the beautiful gate to the temple, which featured a large serene face of stone smiling at visitors. After Banteay Kdei, we ate lunch at a roadside stand (fried rice, soup and fresh fruits while children and chickens ran amok around us) and then made our way to Ta Phrom, which was so surreal and beautiful. Wandering through this ancient structure, with enormous trees reclaiming the grounds, it was easy to imagine myself as an explorer or picture the temple as it might have been centuries earlier. After Ta Phrom, our travelmate Amanda ventured off on her own, while the rest of us (Susan, Ali, Jennifer and I) continued on to Angkor Thom (Angkor City). On the way we stopped to climb up Ta Keo and paused outside a couple of other smaller sites for water breaks. The day was already quickly slippi
ng past. We biked through the east gate of Angkor Thom and parked our bikes beside the terrace of the Elephants. On foot we toured Krueng Palace, Baphoun, and (my absolute favourite) Bayon Temple. Bayon temple features hundreds of faces staring out over the city and keeping a watchful eye on its inhabitants. It was the perfect place to watch the shadows grow longer as the afternoon changed from golden to deeper hues of orange and red, matching the dusty ground beneath our feet. As we headed for our bikes we did come across a large group of Korean tourists who were thrilled to find out we were teachers in Korea and knew how to say "Hello" to them (which earns a round of applause apparently). I would have loved to stay at Bayon a little longer, but we needed to hit the road before we lost the light. Cambodian traffic is crazy enough in the daytime; we did not want to be on our bikes (without lights) after dark. As we rode past the magnificient sillouette of Angkor Wat at dusk, I felt, for the first time, excited to be going to see it at sunrise the next morning. We ended our day of biking (about 40km) with dinner in the marketplace and an hour long shiatsu massage by blind masseurs. It was lovely. It did not, however, change the fact that I had a wake-up time of 4:30 am coming around the bend.
Let me be very clear. I am not a morning person. I do not like getting out of bed. In my opionion, it is a process that takes all morning to be done properly anyway. I tend to feel a seething (but thankfully temporary) hatred towards those who disturb my slumber. This is especially true of being awakened before the sun is even up! I warned my travelmates as best I could. Every travel book and visitor to Siem Reap advised, you MUST see Angkor Wat at Sunrise. I'd seen the pictures, I was satisfied. But the girls outvoted me 4 to 1. Even Ali, who usually will happily join me in cursing the morning sun that interrupts a night of rest, was tricked by her love of photography into believing Angkor Wat at sunrise was something that could not be missed. And so it was I found myself posing for a now infamous picture for my photo-pass at 5:15 AM and bumping along a dusty road, squished in the back of a tuk-tuk with four cheery-eyed early birds. The child vendors that mobbed us would recieve no sympathetic looks or "No, thank you's" from this Lisa. Maybe afternoon Lisa, maybe even late-morning Lisa, but not pre-sunrise Lisa (some have referred to pre-sunrise Lisa and afternoon Lisa as a Jekyll & Hyde-like transformation). I will say that Angkor Wat was beautiful, I can't deny it. But I also remember hating it for being so beautiful that I had to be there at 6 am to see it and hating all the pesky tourists buzzing around happily who also had to see it. And especially, hating the shrill-voiced lady at the food stand: "Breakfast! Coppee! Hey Lady! You want breakfast? I sell you cheap!" After the sun had risen, I spent at least an hour wandering around inside Angkor Wat, solitary. It was beautiful, but you know what? Even more enjoyable at 4 in the afterno
on when Susan and I returned that day to see it at Sunset. Bah! We went back to the guesthouse in the late morning, I had a wonderful nap and woke up feeling a hundred million times more cheerful and ready for lunch. We had some fantastic pizza and then Jennifer and I headed out to "The Happy Ranch" horse riding stables for an afternoon look at rural Siem Reap on horseback. As I mentioned, we returned to Angkor Wat for sunset although we missed the cut off for going up to the lookout. That night I enjoyed a deliriously blissful 3-hour spa package that scrubbed and massaged all early morning bitterness out of me for a miniscule $26. Well that is, until I had to get up at 5:30am the next morning to catch the boat to Phnom Penh.
on when Susan and I returned that day to see it at Sunset. Bah! We went back to the guesthouse in the late morning, I had a wonderful nap and woke up feeling a hundred million times more cheerful and ready for lunch. We had some fantastic pizza and then Jennifer and I headed out to "The Happy Ranch" horse riding stables for an afternoon look at rural Siem Reap on horseback. As I mentioned, we returned to Angkor Wat for sunset although we missed the cut off for going up to the lookout. That night I enjoyed a deliriously blissful 3-hour spa package that scrubbed and massaged all early morning bitterness out of me for a miniscule $26. Well that is, until I had to get up at 5:30am the next morning to catch the boat to Phnom Penh. Phnom Penh
We travelled to Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia, by speedboat down the Tonle Sap river. It's more expensive than the bus, but if you want to see the best of the Cambodian landscape, that's the way to do it. At the dock in Phnom Penh, a ravenous throng of Tuk-Tuk drivers waited for us. And followed us for a block as we tried to get some distance and get ourselves organized. We found a room at a great guesthouse recommended by my lonely planet book. I say "great" not only because our room was huge and spotless, and not only because the owner arranged our vietnam tourist visa's and travel arrangements to Ho Chi Minh, but also great because she stocked kettled-cooked potato chips and Crunchie chocolate bars, the likes of which I haven't seen since September 2008. By now the pace of our trip was taking its toll on me. I was eager to get to a beach and do nothing but relax for a few days. We decided to stay in Phnom Penh only two nights, long enough to see the royal palace and the Killing fields. We went to the Royal Palace early in the day, knowing we would need a few hours to get grounded after the Killing Fields. The palace site, including the silver pagoda, was beautiful and much less crowded than the Royal Palace in Bangkok, understandably.Next, our tuk-tuk driver for the day took us to S-21 Toul Sleung Prison, which is now converted into a genocide museum dedicated to the victims of the Khmer Rouge. The Prison itself was once a high school before the Khmer Rouge took power in Cambodia in 1975 and emptied the cities as part of its design to turn Cambodia into a communist agricultural society. In an attempt to achieve this, the Khmer Rouge systematically killed the educated and professional people in the population. Doctors, teachers, lawyer
s, journalist, and anyone dared object the parties policies was killed to stem dissent. The high school was converted into a pris
on where suspected "traitors" were detained and tortured before being sent to Choeung Ek for execution. We walked the halls and holding cells silently, reverenced by the gravity of what happened there. Many of the rooms have been left in the same condition as when they were found. Rusty bed frames, arm and leg shackles and waste boxes are the only objects in the rooms. Some feature black and white photos of the dead who were found here when the Vietnamese took back the city in 1979. Another floor features thousands of pictures of detainees recovered in the Khmer Rouge files and another features artists paintings of the different torture techniques used here, the most savage of human behaviours. Amanda comments on a beautiful flower bush blooming between two of the buildings at S-21, its loveliness standing in stark contrast to its setting. Next, we drive outside the city to Choeung Ek, one of the largest mass graves found after the Khmer Rouge was toppled, and now the site of the Memory Stoupa, which houses the skulls of almost 9000 people, excavated at this site. A tour guide took us around the grounds, describing how Choeung Ek operated and answering our questions. Its hard to put into words the feelings you feel at a place like that. It's estimated that 2 million Cambodians died under the Pol Pot regime.
s, journalist, and anyone dared object the parties policies was killed to stem dissent. The high school was converted into a pris
on where suspected "traitors" were detained and tortured before being sent to Choeung Ek for execution. We walked the halls and holding cells silently, reverenced by the gravity of what happened there. Many of the rooms have been left in the same condition as when they were found. Rusty bed frames, arm and leg shackles and waste boxes are the only objects in the rooms. Some feature black and white photos of the dead who were found here when the Vietnamese took back the city in 1979. Another floor features thousands of pictures of detainees recovered in the Khmer Rouge files and another features artists paintings of the different torture techniques used here, the most savage of human behaviours. Amanda comments on a beautiful flower bush blooming between two of the buildings at S-21, its loveliness standing in stark contrast to its setting. Next, we drive outside the city to Choeung Ek, one of the largest mass graves found after the Khmer Rouge was toppled, and now the site of the Memory Stoupa, which houses the skulls of almost 9000 people, excavated at this site. A tour guide took us around the grounds, describing how Choeung Ek operated and answering our questions. Its hard to put into words the feelings you feel at a place like that. It's estimated that 2 million Cambodians died under the Pol Pot regime. As we drove back into the city, I felt as though I were seeing it for the first time. A bustling metropolitan of people working and living, children playing. People who'd returned to a city they'd been forced to abandon 34 years earlier came back to rebuild it. I am completely amazed by the spirit of the Cambodian people. Despite horrific loss and tragedy, despite the murder of their educators, lawmakers and medical professionals, they are rebuilding their country at an astounding rate. Every single Cambodian we talked to had lost family members in the genocide. It was a day that filled me with tremoundous gratitude for my family and friends and Canada, a country which makes all of its citizens wealthy just by virtue of living there. We take our freedoms and opportunities for granted there.
That evening, we walked a road along the river lined with cafes and shops. But I lost my desire to stay out in the city. In Siem Reap, the poor were evident on every street. In Phnom Penh, they were on every square of pavement. In Siem Reap, I was able to give groceries and baby formula to mothers begging on the sidewalk, their babies asleep in their laps or on the sidewalk beside them. In Phnom Penh, there were too many to count. Of course, they congregated on this street for a reason. It was lined with restaurants, cafes and shops frequented by foreigners. We stopped and ate at a bakery who's proceeds benefitted an city orphanage and then headed back to the guesthouse. Tomorrow we would get on a bus to Vietnam, by tomorrow night I would be on a beach, worlds away from Cambodia. But not forgotten.
Monday, April 6, 2009
SE Asia Chapter 4: The bumpy road to Siem Reap, Cambodia.
I've got tardiness and laziness combining against eachother to get these last couple of entries out as quickly as possible, so I can go back to actually telling you about what I've been up to in South Korea since the new school year began in March. That, and I can't find my travel journal at the moment, so I'll do my best to be accurate and specific, but I make no promises.
We left Bangkok early, determined to make our way to the Cambodian border and on to Siem Reap without getting caught in the all too common "Bus Scam" that local tourist agencies book most land travellers on. What happens is you pay a pretty cheap price and the agency will tell you that you ride is in a comfortable bus that you only get off to go through the border and then it will take to you directly to your guesthouse in about 10-11 hours. What actually happens is they put you on a legitimate bus to the border, then arrange with someone on the other side to pick you up and take you to Siem Reap. Your ride from the border to Siem Reap is more likely to be in the back of a pick-up truck or in an over crowded minivan, and the ride that is supposed to take about 5 hours could take anywhere from 10-15, ensuring that by the time you get to Siem Reap you are too tired and exhausted to complain about the overpriced, shoddy guesthouse they've dropped you off at (the guest pays a commission to the travel agency to have you dropped there).
We walked a block or so away from Kho-San road in order to find an honest taxi driver who took us to the bus station and ta-dah! We were on our way to the Cambodian border. There, that wasn't so bad right? Not so fast, girls. We were dropped off in a small town on the border at a 7-11 and some tuk-tuk drivers agreed to take us to the border. Unfortunately, just because they've got numbered vests doesn't mean they're honest. Instead of taking us directly to the border we were diverted to a station to get our "express" tourist visas for Cambodia. The very friendly gentleman who spoke excellent english explained that if we wanted a regular tourist visa we would have to wait about 6 hours for processing. However if we paid to 200 baht more, he could get the visa's processed in only a few minutes. And naturally, if we needed a ride to Siem Reap from the border he could arrange that too. We saw other tourists arriving and leaving with their visas and their passports, so we agreed to the "express" Visa's and declined the travel arrangements. Within about 10 minutes we were back on the tuk-tuk's and dropped at the border (which inc
identally, we could have walked to from the 7-11 if we'd had a map or something, our guide books made it sound like the distance required motor transportation). As we waited in line a Thai border guard checked our Visa's, and smirked "How much did you pay for these?" We told him and gave a knowing nod, "Next time just come straight here." Ok, ok. It's only 200 baht (approx $6.50), at least we're finally getting into Cambodia! We walk across to the Cambodian guard station and wait in line some more for our stamps (this office had a giant tree growing through it BTW, they just built the office around it!). Our guide book advised us to take the "free goverment run transport bus" that would take us to where we could arrange a bus or taxi to Siem Reap. We're now sweating in the exhausting, dust filled heat with our bags watching tourists get tagged with coloured post-its. These tourists had pre-arranged their travel plans with an agency (or that guy who got us our "express" visas), and we felt pretty smug watching them get corralled and shipped off by eager guides. We had to wait alittle longer but at least we weren't suckers.
identally, we could have walked to from the 7-11 if we'd had a map or something, our guide books made it sound like the distance required motor transportation). As we waited in line a Thai border guard checked our Visa's, and smirked "How much did you pay for these?" We told him and gave a knowing nod, "Next time just come straight here." Ok, ok. It's only 200 baht (approx $6.50), at least we're finally getting into Cambodia! We walk across to the Cambodian guard station and wait in line some more for our stamps (this office had a giant tree growing through it BTW, they just built the office around it!). Our guide book advised us to take the "free goverment run transport bus" that would take us to where we could arrange a bus or taxi to Siem Reap. We're now sweating in the exhausting, dust filled heat with our bags watching tourists get tagged with coloured post-its. These tourists had pre-arranged their travel plans with an agency (or that guy who got us our "express" visas), and we felt pretty smug watching them get corralled and shipped off by eager guides. We had to wait alittle longer but at least we weren't suckers. The government shuttle didn't take too long to arrive and once on board, our guide with his fancy vest and photo-ID told us all about the free-shuttle program and how the government runs it. And oh, by the way, things have changed quite a lot in Cambodia in the last year (you know we have a pretty turbulent history) and, besides boarder towns, no one really accepts US cash like the travelbooks say, so you should exchange your money now before you head further into the country. Maybe you will find a bank that can help you, but maybe you won't. Don't worry, we have conveniently arranged to take you to a currency exchange office before you choose your travel arrangements to Siem Reap. Suddenly, I wasn't feeling so smug. We were not taken to any kind of official bank office or ATM, just a guy in a seedy looking office with a calculator. At least two of the other girls I was travelling with had waited to take money out because our guidebooks assured us we could get money in Cambodia without a problem, all they have was a few thousand Baht leftover from Thailand. I had a small amount of US cash so I exchanged that and it was enough to pay for the other girl's taxi fares.
We arranged two taxis (Del from France, shared one with us) and our friendly guide assured us that our driver would take us directly to our guest house in Siem Reap. Our taxis were 15 year old toyota corollas, but atleast there was air-con. In the car, we finally had a chance to catch our breath and take a look around. Only a few minutes from Thailand, Cambodia feels like a completely different world. The kind of world you (sadly) "expect" from the media and movies you might have seen around the region. There are a few cars, but mostly it's motor cycles and bicycles and these mingle easily with ox-carts and cattle being driven on the side on the side of the road by skinny, shirtless 10 year old boys. The "highway" to Siem Reap from the board was a dirt road constantly under construction and lined by bamboos huts on stilts. Young children in clothing made red by the dust dart in and out of their homes and behind them lush green fields and palm trees stretch out across the country side. No pavement, no familiar trademarks, no street lamps or stop signs.
We were all starving when we stopped for gasoline, and as delicious as that pineapple was, I wasn't too happy to find the prices of course much much higher than you should ever pay. The shop girl was very friendly though and wasn't shy about asking if I had any Canadian money she could look at (the shop being the driveway of someone's hut with a meager spread of snack foods laid out and some soda's on ice). I did have some coins and was happy to give her a quarter and tell her about what a moose is.
We were all starving when we stopped for gasoline, and as delicious as that pineapple was, I wasn't too happy to find the prices of course much much higher than you should ever pay. The shop girl was very friendly though and wasn't shy about asking if I had any Canadian money she could look at (the shop being the driveway of someone's hut with a meager spread of snack foods laid out and some soda's on ice). I did have some coins and was happy to give her a quarter and tell her about what a moose is.
The sun was setting as we drove into Siem Reap. What a difference tourism makes! Suddenly there was smooth pavement under us, street lights lit our way, and beautiful hotels began to appear on the sides of the highway. We were so close to a comfortable bed and some good food, hurray! It was now, as I tried to show our taxi driver where our guest house was, that I realized he spoke no English and didn't care where our guest house was. He dropped us off at a tuk-tuk stand on the outskirts of the city and drove away. Through gritted teeth, we listened to the one guy who could speak any English tell us that if we wanted a ride into the city it would cost 30, 000 riel. Or only 10, 000 riel if we went to a guest house he recommended instead. Or free, if we agreed to hire the same tuk-tuk driver for the day tomorrow. We paid the 30 000. Just get us to guest house, please!
Thankfully, the Red Lodge guest house was a beautiful old house with marble floors and big wooden doors and hammocks in the backyard. We gratefully dropped our bags and raced for the showers. It was an easy walk to the restaurant/market area frequented by foreigners where of course we found tonnes of ATM's and currency exchange banks and menus listed in US prices. Our buddies at the border had given us about 66% of what we should've gotten on the dollar. But even a good meal and a cleansing shower couldn't wash away the stress of the day. We all ended the day bitchy, with frayed nerves and clenched jaws. To avoid taking it out on eachother we made a firm committment to spend the next day doing nothing but resting, eating and relaxing. Angkor Wat could wait.
Monday, March 23, 2009
SE Asia Chapter 3: The Road to Bangkok
Ok, so where did I leave you? Ah yes, the phenomenal week Amanda and I spent at Elephant Nature Park. I should mention that there was one casualty that week: my digital camera. I wish I could say it was lost when we ran to escape a stampeding elephant or was swept away by the river while we were dissembling rafts. But no, there wasn't even a breeze when my clumsy fingers fumbled it and it fell onto the sharp edge of large rock between my feet. So the rest of pictures of the trip belong to my friends Amanda and Ali.
We left the park feeling bittersweet and headed back into Chiang Mai on Sunday evening. We shared a room with a friend from England at Top North Guest house in the old city. We found the Sunday Market more lively than usual as the annual Flower Festival was being celebrated at Tha Pae Gate with a stage full with dancers and a chubby vocalist and substanstial live band all saturated painfully bright colors. We met the other volunteers we'd worked with over the last week at the Rooftop bar (whose decorating scheme had an unmistakable rastafarian influence) across from the market. On monday, Amanda and I headed into the centre of the old city looking for the temples we'd been diverted from seeing with Beer the last time we tried. First we stopped at a post office to ship from things back to Korea and lightened my backpack considerably. We found Ratchadamnoen Rd peppered with temples and shrines (and chickens and dogs and scrap metal sculptures Aliens and Predators!) but Wat Chedi Luang was the big one we were looking for and it didn't disappoint. It's an impressive structure on its own, but we were told by a friendly local that current commotion at the temple that day was due to a prominent Monk's death the previous week. His body was being kept at the temple for buddhist followers to come and pay their respects. Also on the grounds was a tree garden with Buddhist proverbs painted on sign posts. It was a great afternoon of sightseeing and some last minute shopping (Chiang Mai had the BEST markets of our entire trip!), but soon it was time to catch the 6:00PM sleeper train to Lopburi. Lopburi was the first leg of our trip south to Bangkok to meet up with Ali, Susan and Jennifer who'd left ENP on the third day and gone south to enjoy some time on Thailands famous beaches.
We kept entertained during the first few hours playing a make shift game of cribbage, while 3 of the train crew members watched us intently trying to discover the rules of our game. As night fell the crew made up the bunks. Amanda and I headed to bed, as we were scheduled to arrive in Lopburi at 4AM. I had no luck at sleeping though. The rattling and rocking of the train, the passenger snoring in the bunk beneath me, and the blinding light that defeated my curtain kept me tossing and turning until our train arrived in Lopburi at 5:30AM. The sun was not up when we left the station, which sits across the street from some beautiful ruins. A sign near the ruins pointed to a tourist information centre. We got some plastic wrapped breakfast from the 7-11 and, though it was a long shot, decided to see if the tourist building had some kind of map so that we could find our way to Phra Pramg Sam Yod. We didn't have much luck, but we did find a quiet spot to eat our pre-packaged pastries and watch some seniors practice thai-chi in bright pink exercise clothes. As we listened the drone of "hummmm-heeeee...." Amanda spotted something that looked promising: a monkey on a roof top. After a somewhat arbitrary deduction about what direction the city centre might be in, we headed down a main street. We didn't walk further than two blocks before we saw a monkey running along a telephone wire. And then two on a post, and then several more along the windowsills of a hotel's 3rd floor. Soon monkeys were everywhere and we knew we were headed in the right direction. When Phra Prang Sam Yod appeared before us, it was clear that my "lonely planet" had understated. It wasn't merely a "gang" of monkeys, there were hundreds of them! We were the only tourists onsite at 7:00 AM and the friendly gateman gave us a stick to whack away ambitious monkeys. It was a great morning. We were throughly climbed over and investigated by the youngsters. My notepad, M&M's and hand lotion were looted by one monkey who happily took my notepad to the top of the ruin and ripped it to pieces, letting the pages rain down on the other monkeys below, who made it their morning snack.
Across the street we found a temple complex where more monkeys were bouncing on vendor umbrellas like trampolines and picking their way through piles of fruit delivered by the locals. The monkeys are feed by the people and generally left undisturbed because they are considered lucky. I was running low on cash and my Mastercard hadn't been working, so after we'd taken a few hundred pictures with the monkeys, we headed further into the city to find a bank. We hopped aboard a brightly colored bus blaring loud music and hopped off again at a busy looking intersection. We found some goodies at a bakery and then found an internet cafe and was informed that my korean bank card was completely useless outside of Korea. Wonderful. The new mission for the morning was to call Mastercard to find out why I couldn't access those funds. This turned out to be a lot more difficult than expected. Convenience stores everywhere sold plenty of international cards, but none of the cards matched to correct brand of payphones on the streets. I was duped. And becoming very frustrated. By noon, Amanda and I were ready to move on to the quiet city of Ayutthaya, the ancient capital of Thailand and home to some fantastic ruins. I was sure I had enough funds to get to Bangkok and if there was anywhere where I could get connected to Mastercard, it would be there.
Getting off the train a tuk-tuk driver offered to take us to a cheap guest house near the cities priniciple ruins. We felt alittle weary, but we had not made plans ahead of time, and there was no harm in looking at a room. Luck was in our favour. "One Coffee Love" Guesthouse had paid drivers to fish for tourists because there were brand new and so would not be in any listings. The rooms were clean and bright, and directly across the street from Wat Mahathat. We spent the evening at the night market and ate dinner at an italian restaurant. I was feeling guilty about eating pizza in SE Asia, but Amanda reminded me we were on vacation from Korea, not Canada, afterall.
The next day we went bicycles for $1 and toured the major ruins of the city. There were moments that felt really transportative, like you could just imagine what the city had looked like 900 years earlier. We also took our bikes across the river that surrounds the city centre and saw some of the poorer side of town. We also stumbled across a temple being restored that housed a very large reclining buddha. It made us even more excited to head to Bangkok and see the world famous golden reclining buddha there. We stopped at a restaurant for lunch and I had their speciality dish: Joon Zap. It's a delicious soup you make yourself. They bring you a bucket of hot coals and place a large bowl with broth on top, then bring you all the veggies and seasonings on the side along with your meat (I had pork). It was one of the best meals I had all month! We were alittle sad to leave Ayutthaya. We'd found our short time there to be very relaxing and beautiful. But we needed to be in Bangkok to meet the girls at New Joe Guesthouse by 6PM that day, so soon we were back on the train. Despite not having a place to sit, I really enjoyed our times on the train. As I watched the landscape go rolling by I felt exhilerated to be doing more than staying in one place for this trip. And there was still so much more ahead of us!
We arrived in Bangkok and with a girl from Germany we'd met on the train, we got a cab to Kho San Road, the tourist centre of Bangkok, where Suze, Jennifer and Ali were meeting us. Immediately the traffic, noise and concrete of the city engulfed us, and Ayutthaya felt far away. We managed to get a cab driver who would put the meter on for us after a few attempts (tourist scam #1) and arrived at Kho San Road only alittle late. Kho San Road feels abit like a circus and a lot like a pond, where you are the fish and there are alot of hooks in the water. It was overwhelming to wander the market. Tour guides, tuk-tuk drivers, bars, restaurants, guest house owners, masseurs and street vendors all call out to you for your business. The streets are so crowded with people you can't see more than a few feet in front of you. We had been warned, but by the end of the evening I felt claustrophobic. And I had a very difficult time keeping my composure when we came across a street begging baby elephant, fear in his eyes. I had no desire to stay in Bangkok any longer than we had to.
We had a rough plan and we stuck to it. The following day we were up early to see the Royal Palace and Wat Pho, where the golden reclining buddha is housed. At the entrance some very legitimate looking gentle tried to divert us and tell us we could go in that gate. Going to another gate a man invited us to take a boat tour instead and come back when the palace was open (Tourist Scam #2). We went back to the main gate and walked in, ignoring the conmen trying to convince us to turn around. The buildings were absolutely exquisite, take a look at the pictures on the link at the bottom. I can hardly begin to describe it. I'd never seen anything like it in my life. Wat Pho was a short walk from the Royal Palace grounds and was equally breathtaking, even before we entered the main complex housing the reclining buddha. Jennifer had stayed back due to a stomach bug, and we had arranged to meet up with her at one of the largest malls in Bangkok. There I enjoyed some great shopping, including picking up two pairs of jeans that fit! (Finding pants for western women in Korea is a real plight, they just don't make pants for women with hips here!). We decided we would leave early the next day to make our journey to Cambodia, but there was one more thing we felt we needed to do before leaving Bangkok and that was of course: see a Ladyboy cabaret show! Thailand's drag queens are world famous, but I was surprised at just how openly accepted they were by the country itself. In the Thai language, there is actually a third gender included, so that women speak a certain way, men speak another and there is another set of words for the ladyboys to use. We were delivered to a fancy hotel for our show, and though there wasn't any actual singing (all lip-synched), I thoroughly enjoyed the campy show. We had a blast!
The end of the night was a real treat though. The alley in which you could find our guesthouse, was also the address of many massage parlours. I found one still open at quarter to midnight and went in for an hour long oil message. Faaaaantaaastic!
The pics are here: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2233529&id=122614903&l=d9a48d9761
I want to thank you guys for reading with these posts with so much patience, I know I'm very behind! Next Chapter: Cambodia. Coming soon, I promise!
We left the park feeling bittersweet and headed back into Chiang Mai on Sunday evening. We shared a room with a friend from England at Top North Guest house in the old city. We found the Sunday Market more lively than usual as the annual Flower Festival was being celebrated at Tha Pae Gate with a stage full with dancers and a chubby vocalist and substanstial live band all saturated painfully bright colors. We met the other volunteers we'd worked with over the last week at the Rooftop bar (whose decorating scheme had an unmistakable rastafarian influence) across from the market. On monday, Amanda and I headed into the centre of the old city looking for the temples we'd been diverted from seeing with Beer the last time we tried. First we stopped at a post office to ship from things back to Korea and lightened my backpack considerably. We found Ratchadamnoen Rd peppered with temples and shrines (and chickens and dogs and scrap metal sculptures Aliens and Predators!) but Wat Chedi Luang was the big one we were looking for and it didn't disappoint. It's an impressive structure on its own, but we were told by a friendly local that current commotion at the temple that day was due to a prominent Monk's death the previous week. His body was being kept at the temple for buddhist followers to come and pay their respects. Also on the grounds was a tree garden with Buddhist proverbs painted on sign posts. It was a great afternoon of sightseeing and some last minute shopping (Chiang Mai had the BEST markets of our entire trip!), but soon it was time to catch the 6:00PM sleeper train to Lopburi. Lopburi was the first leg of our trip south to Bangkok to meet up with Ali, Susan and Jennifer who'd left ENP on the third day and gone south to enjoy some time on Thailands famous beaches.
We kept entertained during the first few hours playing a make shift game of cribbage, while 3 of the train crew members watched us intently trying to discover the rules of our game. As night fell the crew made up the bunks. Amanda and I headed to bed, as we were scheduled to arrive in Lopburi at 4AM. I had no luck at sleeping though. The rattling and rocking of the train, the passenger snoring in the bunk beneath me, and the blinding light that defeated my curtain kept me tossing and turning until our train arrived in Lopburi at 5:30AM. The sun was not up when we left the station, which sits across the street from some beautiful ruins. A sign near the ruins pointed to a tourist information centre. We got some plastic wrapped breakfast from the 7-11 and, though it was a long shot, decided to see if the tourist building had some kind of map so that we could find our way to Phra Pramg Sam Yod. We didn't have much luck, but we did find a quiet spot to eat our pre-packaged pastries and watch some seniors practice thai-chi in bright pink exercise clothes. As we listened the drone of "hummmm-heeeee...." Amanda spotted something that looked promising: a monkey on a roof top. After a somewhat arbitrary deduction about what direction the city centre might be in, we headed down a main street. We didn't walk further than two blocks before we saw a monkey running along a telephone wire. And then two on a post, and then several more along the windowsills of a hotel's 3rd floor. Soon monkeys were everywhere and we knew we were headed in the right direction. When Phra Prang Sam Yod appeared before us, it was clear that my "lonely planet" had understated. It wasn't merely a "gang" of monkeys, there were hundreds of them! We were the only tourists onsite at 7:00 AM and the friendly gateman gave us a stick to whack away ambitious monkeys. It was a great morning. We were throughly climbed over and investigated by the youngsters. My notepad, M&M's and hand lotion were looted by one monkey who happily took my notepad to the top of the ruin and ripped it to pieces, letting the pages rain down on the other monkeys below, who made it their morning snack.
Across the street we found a temple complex where more monkeys were bouncing on vendor umbrellas like trampolines and picking their way through piles of fruit delivered by the locals. The monkeys are feed by the people and generally left undisturbed because they are considered lucky. I was running low on cash and my Mastercard hadn't been working, so after we'd taken a few hundred pictures with the monkeys, we headed further into the city to find a bank. We hopped aboard a brightly colored bus blaring loud music and hopped off again at a busy looking intersection. We found some goodies at a bakery and then found an internet cafe and was informed that my korean bank card was completely useless outside of Korea. Wonderful. The new mission for the morning was to call Mastercard to find out why I couldn't access those funds. This turned out to be a lot more difficult than expected. Convenience stores everywhere sold plenty of international cards, but none of the cards matched to correct brand of payphones on the streets. I was duped. And becoming very frustrated. By noon, Amanda and I were ready to move on to the quiet city of Ayutthaya, the ancient capital of Thailand and home to some fantastic ruins. I was sure I had enough funds to get to Bangkok and if there was anywhere where I could get connected to Mastercard, it would be there.
Getting off the train a tuk-tuk driver offered to take us to a cheap guest house near the cities priniciple ruins. We felt alittle weary, but we had not made plans ahead of time, and there was no harm in looking at a room. Luck was in our favour. "One Coffee Love" Guesthouse had paid drivers to fish for tourists because there were brand new and so would not be in any listings. The rooms were clean and bright, and directly across the street from Wat Mahathat. We spent the evening at the night market and ate dinner at an italian restaurant. I was feeling guilty about eating pizza in SE Asia, but Amanda reminded me we were on vacation from Korea, not Canada, afterall.
The next day we went bicycles for $1 and toured the major ruins of the city. There were moments that felt really transportative, like you could just imagine what the city had looked like 900 years earlier. We also took our bikes across the river that surrounds the city centre and saw some of the poorer side of town. We also stumbled across a temple being restored that housed a very large reclining buddha. It made us even more excited to head to Bangkok and see the world famous golden reclining buddha there. We stopped at a restaurant for lunch and I had their speciality dish: Joon Zap. It's a delicious soup you make yourself. They bring you a bucket of hot coals and place a large bowl with broth on top, then bring you all the veggies and seasonings on the side along with your meat (I had pork). It was one of the best meals I had all month! We were alittle sad to leave Ayutthaya. We'd found our short time there to be very relaxing and beautiful. But we needed to be in Bangkok to meet the girls at New Joe Guesthouse by 6PM that day, so soon we were back on the train. Despite not having a place to sit, I really enjoyed our times on the train. As I watched the landscape go rolling by I felt exhilerated to be doing more than staying in one place for this trip. And there was still so much more ahead of us!
We arrived in Bangkok and with a girl from Germany we'd met on the train, we got a cab to Kho San Road, the tourist centre of Bangkok, where Suze, Jennifer and Ali were meeting us. Immediately the traffic, noise and concrete of the city engulfed us, and Ayutthaya felt far away. We managed to get a cab driver who would put the meter on for us after a few attempts (tourist scam #1) and arrived at Kho San Road only alittle late. Kho San Road feels abit like a circus and a lot like a pond, where you are the fish and there are alot of hooks in the water. It was overwhelming to wander the market. Tour guides, tuk-tuk drivers, bars, restaurants, guest house owners, masseurs and street vendors all call out to you for your business. The streets are so crowded with people you can't see more than a few feet in front of you. We had been warned, but by the end of the evening I felt claustrophobic. And I had a very difficult time keeping my composure when we came across a street begging baby elephant, fear in his eyes. I had no desire to stay in Bangkok any longer than we had to.
We had a rough plan and we stuck to it. The following day we were up early to see the Royal Palace and Wat Pho, where the golden reclining buddha is housed. At the entrance some very legitimate looking gentle tried to divert us and tell us we could go in that gate. Going to another gate a man invited us to take a boat tour instead and come back when the palace was open (Tourist Scam #2). We went back to the main gate and walked in, ignoring the conmen trying to convince us to turn around. The buildings were absolutely exquisite, take a look at the pictures on the link at the bottom. I can hardly begin to describe it. I'd never seen anything like it in my life. Wat Pho was a short walk from the Royal Palace grounds and was equally breathtaking, even before we entered the main complex housing the reclining buddha. Jennifer had stayed back due to a stomach bug, and we had arranged to meet up with her at one of the largest malls in Bangkok. There I enjoyed some great shopping, including picking up two pairs of jeans that fit! (Finding pants for western women in Korea is a real plight, they just don't make pants for women with hips here!). We decided we would leave early the next day to make our journey to Cambodia, but there was one more thing we felt we needed to do before leaving Bangkok and that was of course: see a Ladyboy cabaret show! Thailand's drag queens are world famous, but I was surprised at just how openly accepted they were by the country itself. In the Thai language, there is actually a third gender included, so that women speak a certain way, men speak another and there is another set of words for the ladyboys to use. We were delivered to a fancy hotel for our show, and though there wasn't any actual singing (all lip-synched), I thoroughly enjoyed the campy show. We had a blast!
The end of the night was a real treat though. The alley in which you could find our guesthouse, was also the address of many massage parlours. I found one still open at quarter to midnight and went in for an hour long oil message. Faaaaantaaastic!
The pics are here: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2233529&id=122614903&l=d9a48d9761
I want to thank you guys for reading with these posts with so much patience, I know I'm very behind! Next Chapter: Cambodia. Coming soon, I promise!
Sunday, March 15, 2009
SE Asia, Chapter Two: Elephant Nature Park
I have no idea how I am going to write about this part of the trip. There are no words or pictures that will do it justice. The experience is lodged in my guts and my bones now. But I will try. I will just preface it by saying, my week at Elephant Nature Park as a volunteer was the best week of my life.
After signing some additional paperwork, donning our free t-shirts and playing with the office puppies, Amanda and I got in a van with about 8 other volunteers and our guide, Brad. Brad does his best to warm us up, but his jokes are stifled by a mix of eagerness and summer-camp-esque self-conciousness from being around new people. Well I speak for myself, Amanda was shaking hands and introducing herself to everyone like a prostar! The 1.5 hour drive to the park went by quickly, I was engrossed by the beautiful scenery of small rolling mountains and lush jungle encroaching on plantations and farmers fields. Imagine how much more beautiful it must be outside of the dry seaon!
As we come around the last bend in the battered road, the park reveals itself like the "Great Valley" at the end of "The Land Before Time": nestled between jungle-covered mountains and a river running through it that reflects the morning sunlight beautifully.
The park's mandate is to promote ethical Elephant Tourism in Thailand, where the wild Asian Ele has dwindled to as little as 1500, and the domestic Ele population has the same legal protection as any livestock: none. The economics of the Ele tourism industry combines with tribal traditions for "taming" the elephant to create conditions that are truly cruel and apalling. An unaware rich tourists create demand for it by going to elephant trekking camps, watching elephant shows, buying elephant paintings or buying food for "street elephants" in the larger cities. The crazy part is that none of these Ele Tourism options offer the level of interaction with these beautiful animals that a visit to ENP does. I won't go into it at great length, but there are some excellents videos worth watching on the subject that feature the work the Park and Lek, ENP's founder. You can see once released by National Geographic here:
http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/0510/feature5/video.html
At the park, the elephants are never forced to perform circus tricks or trek for miles with guests on their backs. Instead, guests and volunteers are involved with basic elephant care by feeding the elephants by hand and bathing them in the river twice daily. And in participating in these activities, guests can get the kind of up close and personal contact they want but would never get on a trek or from watching a show. On my first day, I quite literally hugged an elephant while I scrubbed it's hide in the river, as it calmly lay in the water. At the end of the day, Amanda and I sat up in our bamboo hut, thrilled we'd be there for six more days, and the other girls had extended their stay for another night.
The entire week we ate amazing food, the best food we had the entire time we were in south east Asia. And we learned alot. As volunteers, Amanda and I had signed up for pitching in on chores and projects that the park needed some extra hands for. Our daily tasks included:
1) Participating in an Elephant rescue from a trekking camp just up the road from ENP. Two of the elephants there had fallen very ill from malnutrition and a skin fungus infection. The manager of the camp had asked Lek to care for the sick elephants, as ENP also acts as a free hospital for these gentle giants. Providing free medical care ensures the Eles will get the care they need and creates opportunities for Lek to influence trekking camps and teach them about humane Ele care. As with every elephant that comes to the Park, Lek will try everything to buy the elephant from the owner so that it can stay at the park. Sometimes she is successful and the animal never goes back to work. Sometimes though, the owner knows they can still make money by leasing the elephant to a Tourist camp and won't sell her until she is too old to earn any money. Going to this camp, after spending just a few days at ENP, was heartbreaking. The elephants were kept chained in close quarters when they weren't trekking, babies chained to their mothers and working alongside them. Many of the elephants were underweight, often kept this way so that they are not too fat for riding. Our first rescue, named Golden Leaf, went into the truck without a fuss and we successfully transferred her to the park without a problem. After the vet had a good look at her, we bathed her in the river with medical soap and then rubbed a medicated location on her skin to treat the fungal infection. The next day, the second elephant was brought to the park and both Ele's were docile and subdued as we bathed and treated them. And several of the resident elephants insisted on joining us in the river, in order to meet the newcomers. However, Amanda and I weren't actually there for the second rescue because....
2) We went up to the Elephant Haven overnight. Elephant Haven is where Lek began, with four Elephants she had rescued from tragic circumstances (Two babies and two aunties, three of which accompanied us: Hope, Mae Perm, and Jokia. Another family of four, Mom and two aunties of baby Aura, also went with us.) It is a small bamboo hut nestled in the jungle on a mountain side that is a 2 hour hike from where the park now exists. Here the elephants can roam in the jungle and forage for food naturally. It was surreal enough hiking along with the Ele's, but it was a real treat to go out at night to find Hope with the mahouts, as Hope sometimes wanders too far from the safety of the Haven mountainside at night. We located him fairly quickly, but discovered it was best friends Mae Perm and Jokia (blinded by her previous owners) who had wandered off. No problem. Hope's mahout, Dam, tracked them down within a few minutes, stopping to show us the snapped vegetations and tracks in the ground that led the way. Nothing but moonlight, jungle and a couple of the worlds largest mammals. The mahouts also played music for us after cooking an amazing dinner. That night we slept on the floor, under mosquito nets, listening to Hope's family trumpeting from above us back and forth with Aura's family, who had settled in further down the mountain for the night. On the hike back the next morning, we were given orange scarves blessed by buddhists monks to tie around the trees around the haven to protect them from logging.
Other park highlights:
Album #1 - http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2229057&id=122614903&l=8b5dbaa399
Album #2 - http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2229061&id=122614903&l=89a17a8668
There were so many special moments, I'd be happy to recount them for you at any time. I just need to bring this entry to a close. I know I will return to the park. Being there was like realizing a childhood dream. I hope after I have paid off my school debt, I will be able to stay there and work there for longer than a week.
Stay tuned for Chapter 3: featuring pick pocket monkeys, reclining Buddha's, tourist scams and drag shows!
After signing some additional paperwork, donning our free t-shirts and playing with the office puppies, Amanda and I got in a van with about 8 other volunteers and our guide, Brad. Brad does his best to warm us up, but his jokes are stifled by a mix of eagerness and summer-camp-esque self-conciousness from being around new people. Well I speak for myself, Amanda was shaking hands and introducing herself to everyone like a prostar! The 1.5 hour drive to the park went by quickly, I was engrossed by the beautiful scenery of small rolling mountains and lush jungle encroaching on plantations and farmers fields. Imagine how much more beautiful it must be outside of the dry seaon!
As we come around the last bend in the battered road, the park reveals itself like the "Great Valley" at the end of "The Land Before Time": nestled between jungle-covered mountains and a river running through it that reflects the morning sunlight beautifully.
The park's mandate is to promote ethical Elephant Tourism in Thailand, where the wild Asian Ele has dwindled to as little as 1500, and the domestic Ele population has the same legal protection as any livestock: none. The economics of the Ele tourism industry combines with tribal traditions for "taming" the elephant to create conditions that are truly cruel and apalling. An unaware rich tourists create demand for it by going to elephant trekking camps, watching elephant shows, buying elephant paintings or buying food for "street elephants" in the larger cities. The crazy part is that none of these Ele Tourism options offer the level of interaction with these beautiful animals that a visit to ENP does. I won't go into it at great length, but there are some excellents videos worth watching on the subject that feature the work the Park and Lek, ENP's founder. You can see once released by National Geographic here:
http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/0510/feature5/video.html
At the park, the elephants are never forced to perform circus tricks or trek for miles with guests on their backs. Instead, guests and volunteers are involved with basic elephant care by feeding the elephants by hand and bathing them in the river twice daily. And in participating in these activities, guests can get the kind of up close and personal contact they want but would never get on a trek or from watching a show. On my first day, I quite literally hugged an elephant while I scrubbed it's hide in the river, as it calmly lay in the water. At the end of the day, Amanda and I sat up in our bamboo hut, thrilled we'd be there for six more days, and the other girls had extended their stay for another night.
The entire week we ate amazing food, the best food we had the entire time we were in south east Asia. And we learned alot. As volunteers, Amanda and I had signed up for pitching in on chores and projects that the park needed some extra hands for. Our daily tasks included:
- scooping elephant and buffalo poo and cleaning shelters
- cutting down spent corn fields with machete's for Ele dinner
- working on the fire break (cutting an 8 foot path through brush to stop fires from crossing into park land)
- dismantling bamboo rafts to use as building supplies at the park
- cutting down banana trees (with machete's once again!) for Ele dinner
- hauling rock and reinforcing a water resevoir
- shucking corn in the elephant kitchen
- picking up garbage around the park
- teaching at the nearby village elementary school
1) Participating in an Elephant rescue from a trekking camp just up the road from ENP. Two of the elephants there had fallen very ill from malnutrition and a skin fungus infection. The manager of the camp had asked Lek to care for the sick elephants, as ENP also acts as a free hospital for these gentle giants. Providing free medical care ensures the Eles will get the care they need and creates opportunities for Lek to influence trekking camps and teach them about humane Ele care. As with every elephant that comes to the Park, Lek will try everything to buy the elephant from the owner so that it can stay at the park. Sometimes she is successful and the animal never goes back to work. Sometimes though, the owner knows they can still make money by leasing the elephant to a Tourist camp and won't sell her until she is too old to earn any money. Going to this camp, after spending just a few days at ENP, was heartbreaking. The elephants were kept chained in close quarters when they weren't trekking, babies chained to their mothers and working alongside them. Many of the elephants were underweight, often kept this way so that they are not too fat for riding. Our first rescue, named Golden Leaf, went into the truck without a fuss and we successfully transferred her to the park without a problem. After the vet had a good look at her, we bathed her in the river with medical soap and then rubbed a medicated location on her skin to treat the fungal infection. The next day, the second elephant was brought to the park and both Ele's were docile and subdued as we bathed and treated them. And several of the resident elephants insisted on joining us in the river, in order to meet the newcomers. However, Amanda and I weren't actually there for the second rescue because....
2) We went up to the Elephant Haven overnight. Elephant Haven is where Lek began, with four Elephants she had rescued from tragic circumstances (Two babies and two aunties, three of which accompanied us: Hope, Mae Perm, and Jokia. Another family of four, Mom and two aunties of baby Aura, also went with us.) It is a small bamboo hut nestled in the jungle on a mountain side that is a 2 hour hike from where the park now exists. Here the elephants can roam in the jungle and forage for food naturally. It was surreal enough hiking along with the Ele's, but it was a real treat to go out at night to find Hope with the mahouts, as Hope sometimes wanders too far from the safety of the Haven mountainside at night. We located him fairly quickly, but discovered it was best friends Mae Perm and Jokia (blinded by her previous owners) who had wandered off. No problem. Hope's mahout, Dam, tracked them down within a few minutes, stopping to show us the snapped vegetations and tracks in the ground that led the way. Nothing but moonlight, jungle and a couple of the worlds largest mammals. The mahouts also played music for us after cooking an amazing dinner. That night we slept on the floor, under mosquito nets, listening to Hope's family trumpeting from above us back and forth with Aura's family, who had settled in further down the mountain for the night. On the hike back the next morning, we were given orange scarves blessed by buddhists monks to tie around the trees around the haven to protect them from logging.
Other park highlights:
- traditional Thai massage for $4/hr
- over 50 dogs to hang out with
- cuddles from Mae Keaw and Kha Moon and others
- waking up to the sunrise hitting the Ele shelters behind our hut
- baby elephants checking us out freely on our Park walk around.
- learning the elephant song and legend from Pom, Lek's second in command.
- welcome ceremony including music performed by village teenagers and a blessing from the Shaman.
Album #1 - http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2229057&id=122614903&l=8b5dbaa399
Album #2 - http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2229061&id=122614903&l=89a17a8668
There were so many special moments, I'd be happy to recount them for you at any time. I just need to bring this entry to a close. I know I will return to the park. Being there was like realizing a childhood dream. I hope after I have paid off my school debt, I will be able to stay there and work there for longer than a week.
Stay tuned for Chapter 3: featuring pick pocket monkeys, reclining Buddha's, tourist scams and drag shows!
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