South Korea!

Blogging as the sun sets in Incheon International Airport near Seoul, Korea. I'm riding out the last hour of a twelve hour layover here. I'm completely exhausted and days are running together in my mind, but I'm actually pretty happy with my extra long layover as it meant that I got a brief look at South Korea. My airlines, Asiana, offers a tour of Seoul free of charge.



I don't think we went anywhere that I would have wanted to go to if I had done it alone and our tour guide, though nice, acted like she would really rather be any where else. We (the twenty people in the tour) were absurdly underdressed for the 30º F weather as well, but hey! I got out of the airport!

Here is what we did:

1) Drove past (very quickly) the "Blue House" where the President lives.



We also saw the "Grey House" where visiting dignitaries stay.


In the same area, we visited the Cheongwadee Sarangchae Museum which is devoted to teaching tourists about contemporary Korean history. I wizzed through the whole museum in twenty minutes but I did leave with some pictures of me as the president of Korea and sitting at a mock G-20 table.





2) Visited a temple I do not know the name of. Our guide said it is unique because it is the only temple inside of downtown Seoul.



I loved the smiling baby Buddha and the really colorful interior of the temple.



It was interesting for me to observe the differences of Thai style and Korean style temples. Also, they pray differently. Koreans stand up and kneel down repeatedly while the Thais kneel and bow.



The monks also dress in a manner appropriate for Korean weather. In Thailand they wear orange robes.

3) Had lunch at a restaurant called "Traditional Korean Food." I tried several types of Kimchi!



The main course was Korean barbecue-- beef and vegetables with broth grilled on communal barbecues. I think the Korean name for it is Bulgogi.




4) Wandered around a "prime shopping district" called Itaewon. This is no shopping district I would ever shop in, as it was either wholesale shops, souvenir shops, or tailors. There were a few shoe stores and sporting goods places as well. We were forbidden to leave one side of this main road as our guide worried that she would lose us. Naturally, I wandered away from the main road and found a couple steep streets that seemed to have some cute restaurants on them.



Although I feel like I hardly got to see it, I really enjoyed visiting Seoul. It is so different from Hanoi and Bangkok, the two other cities I've been to over here. Everything is modern and shiny clean. There are many examples of interesting traditional and modern Korean architecture that caught my eye. Surprisingly, it reminded me of Seattle more than anything else. It's rather hilly and surrounded by beautiful mountains and water. The modern architecture in Seattle also is quite similar. Lastly, the streets reminded me of home. They drive on the right side of the road, the streets have lots of interesting angles, AND they actually follow traffic laws. I mean, they drive in their lanes. No motorcycles weaving or incessant honking.



I'm racing against my computer battery at this point. Next stop, home for the holidays! I don't plan on posting again until I return to Thailand in the new year. Happy Holidays!

Andaman Adventures

Way early on in the year I took stock of the limited amount of three day weekends I have. In Thailand we actually get a pretty decent number of extra days off, but they often will not reserve the day next to a weekend. Back in October I bought myself tickets to Phuket. After Bangkok, the other two major vacation destinations in Thailand are Chiang Mai and Phuket. Chiang Mai is a city in the northern mountains, while Phuket is an island with beautiful beaches in the south. Phuket seemed like the perfect place to spend the first weekend in December, I would be able to get one last blast of beach and sun before returning to the states for the holidays.



We ultimately decided to spend the majority of our weekend on Koh Phi Phi, a little island a two hour boat ride from Phuket Town. Like Phuket, in the past few decades Koh Phi Phi has steadily been growing in popularity. Koh Phi Phi was rapidly being built up with little regard to preserving the natural beauty of the island with a hodge podge of resorts, dive shops, and restaurants. Then, in December 2004 Koh Phi Phi was wiped out by the tsunami. 40% of the people on the island died and the entire infrastructure was destroyed. I've read that since the tsunami a little more care has been taken while rebuilding island. The main town on the island is bustling today, crammed with all those restaurants, dive shops, and hostels that were there before.



While we ventured into the main town several times to shop and eat, we actually ended up staying on a quiet beach called Long Beach. Our resort was made up of a bunch of bungalows of varying degrees of luxury. We chose the least classy option but were still really happy. The weather was actually rather cloudy and even rained (poured) while we were there, but we still spent a decent amount of time lying on the beach or in hammocks and swimming in the clear blue water.



On our second morning we rented a longtail boat for about $12 a piece to take a trip to the nearby island (uninhabited) of Koh Phi Phi Le.



Koh Phi Phi Le has been a popular day trip location since "The Beach" with Leonardo Di Caprio was shot there. We circled the island slowly, going into inlets and passing by caves. I've posted a clip from the boat in the entry below this one. We were able to jump out of the boat twice to go snorkeling. I haven't been snorkeling in about 15 years so I found this to be very exciting. So many colorful fish swimming were around in the coral! Maybe next time I'll do the shark watch snorkeling trip...



We also stopped by "The Beach" where the movie was filmed. It was incredibly crowded with people, speed boats, long tails, dive boats, and cruisers with upwards of 300 people aboard. Yuck.



We had intended on heading back early on our third morning to Phuket, but decided that Koh Phi Phi was not to be rushed. We took the afternoon boat back and hit Kata beach around 6 pm when the sky was darkening with rain. So all I got of Phuket was some terrible Mexican food and this beach shot:

Riding to Koh Phi Phi Le

Riding to Koh Phi Phi Le, originally uploaded by AnnaRae.

Relaxing on the Beach

Relaxing on the Beach, originally uploaded by AnnaRae.

Koh Phi Phi

Sunset Swing, originally uploaded by AnnaRae.

I got back early this morning from a fantastic long weekend on the idyllic Island of Koh Phi Phi on the Andaman Sea. I'll write about it in the coming days. Until then, feel free to click here to look at pictures.

In Which I Eat the Traditional Thanksgiving Chicken

Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays, which is why I have made it a priority to celebrate even while living abroad. This was actually my third Thanksgiving not spent in the US-- and my very first without a turkey at all. You see, turkeys actually are available in Thailand. Yet even the smallest Butterball is over $30 US. And yes, I know that turkeys are just that expensive in the states, but when the rest of your meal can be purchased for less than the price of a turkey, it just seems outrageous to spend so much.

Of course, Thanksgiving is not a holiday here, which meant that I had to work. My kids (with a lot of help on my part) made some adorable turkey headbands and I tried to explain to them that we eat these birds in the US on this day. I'm not sure that point got across, but they really looked darling. After work, my American coworkers and I went out for dinner at a creole restaurant that we had a 50% off coupon for. There are many big, expensive, all-American buffets on Thanksgiving in Bangkok, including one at the restaurant I was at, but we bypassed it for this cheap deal. I ended up eating a delicious dinner of roasted creole chicken, mashed potatoes, and veggies. It was just enough like Thanksgiving dinner to make me happy.



On Sunday, we (the American teachers and a friend) had our feast. My roommates made stuffing, mashed potatoes, gravy, and an apple crumble. I made a Kentucky Pecan Pie (with homemade crust), my famous cauliflower with sage salt, roasted carrots, a watermelon-feta cheese salad, and a roasted chicken. The whole spread was really delicious and we had a great time celebrating together. I was just really pleased to have an excuse to cook! The only thing that could have made the day better was football. And a turkey.

Loy Kratong

Two weeks ago we celebrated Loy Kratong, a Thai festival where people make wishes and set free little boats, called Kratongs, into the waterways. We first celebrated the holiday at school with our kids. They came to school that day dressed in traditional Thai outfits-- absolutely adorable. In class, we "made" kratongs with them. This pretty much involved them stuffing a handful of flowers onto the top of kratongs that the Thai teachers had constructed beforehand. All the kids took their kratongs and floated them in the kiddie pool out in the yard.

This is probably the first big Thai festival that I've been really eager to celebrate, so I made a point of finding a way to experience it as "authentically" as I possibly could. I'm fortunate enough to have made some wonderful Thai friends through playing frisbee, one of whom hosted a Loy Kratong party.

My friend has an apartment near to the central docks on the Chao Phraya river. We had to push through massive crowds in her neighborhood in order to find our way to her place. Once at her building we joined the other party-goers on the rooftop. Although you can't quite see the river from her roof, the view was pretty spectacular. Fireworks going off randomly, giant lanterns floating through the sky, people milling about on the streets.



My Thai friends taught me how to properly make a kratong. Walking through the streets of Bangkok that night I observed many kratong vendors and learned that there is really no one way of making them- I even saw some made of bread. It is really just critical that they float. After all, the "Loy" in Loy Kratong means float. We used discs of banana palm as our base. Onto that, we nailed folded banana leaves. You then stick a candle and three sticks of incense on top. Last you cover the kratong with the flowers of your choice. Marigolds seem to be the most popular, I put a handful on mine and also added some orchids. My kratong may not have been the most complex or beautifully executed one floated that night, but I was pretty satisfied.





After watching a firework show from the rooftop we hit the streets. We weaved through massive crowds and street vendor stalls to get down to the river. I had expected to see the river filled with bobbing candle-lit kratongs... no such luck. I hadn't counted on the Chao Phraya being so swift. Once a kratong dropped in, it was whisked away quickly. We were told we could pay a few baht to take a boat out to the middle of the river to dump our kratongs if we wanted. We opted to stay on land and dropped them awkwardly off the side of the pier. This wasn't easy, our kratongs were rather small and dropping it from a few feet up meant that there was a high probability that they wouldn't land on their bottoms in the water. A few of my friend's kratongs hit the water candle-first. Mine went in a little lopsided but managed to float downstream for quite a while before the candle went out. I hope there is no correlation between the chance of my wish coming true and the length of time it took for the candle to go out.

Adding Banana Leaves

Adding Banana Leaves, originally uploaded by AnnaRae.

I've tried, unsuccessfully, to post about Loy Kratong for the past two weeks. It's coming, soon. I promise. Also to come: celebrating Thanksgiving in Thailand!

Another Year Older!

Happy Birthday!, originally uploaded by AnnaRae.

I was spoiled rotten on my birthday this year! At work, my bosses took my coworkers and I out for an enormous lunch. My birthday actually fell on an inservice day so we had no students in the building. This meant I was able to have a really leisurely lunch and a pretty relaxing day in general. That afternoon as I was working the lights in the hallway went out. Unbeknownst to me, my roommates had managed to buy a cake and hide in in our fridge overnight. It's a small fridge. I'm surprised I didn't see it. After work, I got what is possibly the best pedicure of all time. It was an expensive one-- 500 baht (or around $15) but completely worth it. They spent over an hour massaging and working on my feet before they actually put on polish. It was incredibly relaxing. Naturally, I managed to smudge them later that night. After the pedicure, I went to a nearby Mexican restaurant for a birthday dinner. This restaurant has free margaritas for women on Thursday nights so it seemed like an ideal venue for a party. About twenty of my friends from work, frisbee, and assorted other things met me for dinner. It was so nice to have (nearly) all the people I have become friends with here in Bangkok with me to celebrate.

This past weekend we made a little trip to Ko Samet to get out of the city and onto the beach. Not really much exciting to report and I took no pictures. I've been there once, I just wanted to enjoy it this time! I was happy to meet up with my Danish travel buddy from my trip to Mai Chau in Vietnam!

I'd like to thank everyone back in the states for all of the birthday wishes. It really made my day to get so much love sent my way. It was especially lovely to have a little stack of birthday cards from family and friends to open up that morning.

Monks in Wat Saket

Monks in Wat Saket, originally uploaded by AnnaRae.

On Saturday afternoon we visited the Golden Mount and Wat Saket. We passed by these monks as they were praying in the Wat.

Wat Saket

Wat Saket, originally uploaded by AnnaRae.

Wat Saket at dusk with the Golden Mount in the background.

Vietnam, Part 4: Mai Chau Valley

I had been hoping to take a train up to Sapa in the mountains near the Chinese border to spend some time in rural Vietnam. I wanted to see hill tribes and hike in beautiful mountains and along rice paddies... but unfortunately a seven day trip doesn't really leave enough time for that sort of thing. My roommates wanted to go to Ho Chi Minh, so we parted ways and I teamed up with a friend I met in Halong Bay to explore the North. I ultimately decided to go to a valley populated by hill tribes much closer to Hanoi-- only 135 km away. Though honestly, when 135km takes 4+ hours on a public bus, I might as well been on the other side of the country!



Driving down into the valley was unreal. Steep mountains, covered with green forests and shrouded with fog were on all sides of us. Most other vehicles on the road were motorcycles, the most common form of transport in these areas. The roads are either rough or non-existent and most houses don't really have space for a car. After a quick lunch of pho at a street stall we accepted a ride from a man offering a homestay and went further into the Valley to see his home.



We stayed in a beautiful one-room stilt house owned by couple named How and Bing in a White Thai village named Lac. The stilt house is one room, divided into three sections by curtains at night. The cooking is done on a hotplate in the house and there is one TV and an armoire-- but other than that, no furniture. At night, mats, comforters, and mosquito nets are set up for sleeping. I was worried about being uncomfortable sleeping on the bamboo-slat floor, but I slept like a baby. It seems like a lot of daily life goes on underneath the house. There are tables for socializing and eating and the fridge/freezer is plugged in down there. The bathroom is an outhouse with the cleanest squat toilet I have ever seen. There is no hot water, but they do have a shower and a tap. Most houses would have a small garden, a few animals in pens, and a pond for fish and other seafood. The valley is filled with lush green rice paddies that belong to the families. Both husband and wife have spent their entire lives in this town. They've seen electricity and tourism come to the area, but other than that their lives and the lives of their neighbors and family really have remained the same for hundreds of years.





We spent our afternoon hiking through villages with Bing. It seemed like she knew every person that we crossed paths with, several of whom were actually her relatives. We saw the house she grew up in, the brick forge, schools, and rice paddy upon rice paddy. We learned how to separate the rice from the stalk (?) and how to weave on a traditional loom. Her English is not great, but this woman had the most wonderful laughter I have ever heard. Her smile just lit up the room.



At night our dinner was cooked by their 16 year-old daughter. I don't know if I have ever eaten so locally. We had sauteed cucumbers from the mountains, rice from the valley, local chicken, and some sort of fried sea creature from the ponds. It was simple and delicious. After dinner we spied on some traditional dancing through the windows of a neighbors house and then went to bed early.



The next day was a few more hours of wandering the valley before we had to head back to Hanoi. Bing pointed into the mountains and showed us that people live up there-- but there there are no roads so they are completely inaccessible by car or motorcycle. A little further on there are some Hmong villages. Had we stayed longer, we could have hiked during the day and stayed at different villages in the mountains each night. Mai Chau was incredibly relaxing, I would really love to do another homestay before I return to the states-- maybe in Thailand next time?

Vietnam, Part 3: Perfume Pagoda

The fifth day of our vacation was a day trip to the Perfume Pagoda. This is another one of those adventures that you really need a tour for... twisty turny bumpy roads all the way. After an hour or so, our van ended up at a dock 70 km south east of Hanoi. We were herded off the van and into small boats. Each boat sat six people and a rower. The next hour was spent gliding slowly down the river. The riverbanks were fascinating, every now and then we saw a tiny house or a temple. It seemed like the middle of nowhere to me-- but there were certainly people who called it home. The further down the river we went the taller the mountains grew. Unfortunately, the day was quite hazy so it was impossible for us to fully see the mountains. This did make for a slightly mysterious landscape. Once we reached the second dock we had a quick lunch before hiking up the mountain. The hike was less beautiful than it could have been-- the path was lined with stalls for selling souvenirs and snacks. The majority of them were empty but they were still there blocking our view.





After a sweaty 40 minute hike we reached our destination, a set of stairs dropping down into a majestic cave. The cave that the Perfume Pagoda was located in was so much more alive than the one we saw in Halong Bay. Water was dripping, wind was moving through the trees, the scent of perfume was in the air. The place was almost deserted as well-- only our tour group, a few others, and two monks. One of these monks was chanting beautifully and hitting a bell. It was one of the most peaceful places I've ever visited and was well worth the exhausting trip.






As a sidenote, we also visited the gorgeous Thien Tru Pagoda at the base of the mountain.

Vietnam, Part 2: Halong Bay

I've never been one for packaged tours. I'm not a fan of spending lots of money for obnoxious tour guide and a group of people you may or may not like... it's also just nice to have the freedom to be spontaneous when you travel. However, it's quite difficult to take a trip to Halong Bay without a tour. Most people who come to Halong Bay spend a night or two on a junk-- and if you are going to pay for the boat ride, it might as well include someone picking you up at the door of your hotel in Hanoi!



Halong Bay is one of the most beautiful places I've ever been to. Thousands of limestone cliffs rise out of crystal clear turquoise water for miles around. There are tons of dramatic caves carved by the water into the cliffs, some are underwater or hard to reach but others are accessible to tourists. When I got up close to one of these impressive cliffs (in a kayak) I was fascinated by the tropical plants growing all over it. Big, leafy plants manage to grow out of the tiniest crevices in the rock.



Our boat was superb. Of course, our guides said that it was one of the nicest in the bay, but I don't really trust them to tell the truth about something like that. It seems to me that all of the many, many one night/two day junk tours that depart each day are exactly the same. They offer the same tours, the same activities, anchor in the same bays... the only difference is the quality of the boat and the price. These tours are really an example of price discrimination at it's best. We paid $60 while other people on the boat paid up to $150. Our tour guide told us that night over drinks that the company has three boats of varying levels of comfort. After all the bookings are made, people from the budget boats are sometimes moved up to the luxury boat to fill up the rooms. I'm pretty sure that is what happened to us.

Our boat tour brought us to a really spectacular cave called Sung Sot Cave. I think that this is the first time that I've ever been in a cave, so I was really fascinated. We climbed up some steep stairs that led into one large cave... that led into a much larger cave, that led into an absolutely enormous cave. I'm not sure how big it was, but I feel that a football field could have fit inside it comfortably. As cool as the cave was, the experience of visiting it really wasn't all that great. Did I mention the billions of tours that leave each day? Well, we were all there at the same time. This meant that there were literally hundreds of other people in the cave, pushing in front of other peoples photos, stopping in the middle of the path, and generally making it impossible to enjoy the place at your own pace. I would have much preferred to see a cave that was half the size with no other groups.



The rest of the day was spent relaxing. We were fed both lunch and dinner on the boat, good, fresh seafood. In the afternoon we relaxed on the upper deck in the sun and then jumped off the top several times into the water below (terrifying at first, then exhilarating). At night we pushed several tables together and relaxed and chatted over drinks with a group of about ten other passengers. This is probably the nicest thing about going on a tour-- the opportunity to meet other people. Some were just ending a short vacation, others were somewhere in the middle of an epic backpacking trip, all had great stories about what they had seen and what they were planning to do.



The next morning I woke up early to see the sunrise and enjoy the bay at it's most peaceful. It was really pleasant to be the only one up on the deck, watching the other boats gradually wake up. Later that morning we went for an hour-long kayak ride through the bay. I loved having the opportunity to explore the rock formations a little closer up. I wish now that I had brought my camera with me on the kayak trip. I was worried it would get wet. After that, it was back to land and onto the bus back to Hanoi! Many of the people on the boat opted for a three day tour... I wish we had been able to to that, but our vacation was just too short to spend so much time in one place.

Next post: Perfume Pagoda