i flew back to new zealand after my trip with hana in australia...only a quick 3 hour flight from sydney to auckland..dan and i had been talking a lot by email and we both thought we'd had a connection during the holidays at the bach...we'd even had a few phone calls, not something i normally do..we wanted to find out if that connection was more than a holiday connection, or just three fun days..
i remember being super nervous as i walked out of the airport; i was terrified i wouldn't even recognize dan..but almost immediately i spotted him, and things were okay..we were both nervous because neither of us knew what was going to happen..after all, we'd only had three days to get to know each other over the holiday, which isn't much time at all, especially when there are tons of other people around all the time..
anywho, we went to dinner that night, it was fabulous..he took me to a place with a german name, and i had the most amazing asian beef salad..and more important than the food, we knew we had something..
the next day was sunday, easter sunday..normally i wouldn't have mentioned a religious holiday, but in both new zealand and australia, easter is a HUGE holiday..it's a religious holiday, but down in this part of the world, it's secular too..anytime you walk into a dairy you see huge displays of easter lollies..government offices are closed on good friday and the following monday...nearly everyone takes a four day weekend..during the day dan's dad texted that he was coming over to dan's flat with easter pressies..(presents)..we both knew it was mainly because he wanted to see who i was..dan had been talking about me, and his family wanted to know who was coming to visit him after just three days together..his dad is a musician at heart, and works at a hospital for patients with mental disabilities..after his dad left, i suggested going to the golf course..i already knew dan was really into golf, and i remember thinking that i should just get it over with..i wanted to walk the course once, so i could say that i had done it, and from then on he was welcome to go anytime he liked..little did i know what the future held..that day, i had a good time, even though i realized i knew absolutely nothing about the sport..the first time he teed off that day, i had no idea where the ball went!! after golf we went to a nearby beach, called bethells..its a west coast beach, which means it's pretty wild..not a place you go for calm swimming..we laid out our towels, and were hanging out with someone came over and said hi to dan..turned out it was his sister!! we hadn't known she would be there, at least i didn't know..dan drives his company truck, so when he's somewhere, anyone who knows that truck knows he's there..when his sister saw his truck parked there she knew he was probably there with me, so of course she wanted to meet me as well..she seemed nice enough..as we were leaving the beach that day dan talked to one of jess' friends about cricket..the conversation only went on for about 5 minutes, but they might as well have been speaking swahili for all i understood..i recognized words like the, and and, but that was about it..there was nothing familiar in that conversation, despite the fact that every cricket fan i know says it's quite similar to baseball..(it's NOT!!)..at that point i realized i needed to learn about the sport..at least the basics..
the following week i met dan's mum at work..he works with his family everyday, they all are part owners of the company..she was nice too..they're NOTHING like my family..NOTHING..
at the end of that first full week, dan and i took off on a holiday..we took his dad's car, and drove up north, to northland, the "winterless" area of new zealand..when dan was just out of high school (the last two years of which they call college here, which is strange to me) he moved up north and worked for a little over a year in a resort in paihia..we stayed in a bach owned by the parents of one of dan's friends, in taupo bay..(not to be confused with taupo, near lake taupo)..during those first few days we used that as a base to "explore" the northern area of the north island of new zealand..we went swimming with the dolphins on dan's birthday..we slid down the sand dunes near cape reinga..we went out to the tip of cape reinga..that's where the tasman sea and the pacific ocean meet, and on clear days its said that you can see the line in the water where the two bodies of water meet..we definitely didn't see that, as it was foggy and somewhat rainy..one day we went walking on a boardwalk trail through a kauri forest..kauri trees are BIG..not that i've seen them, but i think they're along the lines of the redwood trees in california..maoris here consider it bad luck to have kauri furniture inside your home, but white folks and foreigners don't usually pay much attention to that..kauri stuff is expensive, but it sells..dan took me to a couple beaches on the east coast up there, they were completely empty, and awesome..one had squeaky sand, it was great fun to walk around in that..the other was out in the middle of nowhere..no people, no buildings, nothing..AWESOME..(a beach in new zealand is crowded if there are 5 other people on it)..we drove by carrington golf club one day, and as it looked pretty flash, dan wanted to see what it was all about..the next day we went back and played it..that was the first time i had walked 18 holes, and i remember thinking that it would be difficult to support him playing 18 holes all the time..it took just under 5 hrs to walk that course..it was looooong..the lady at the reception desk said that most people hired carts there, but we ignored her advice..that's the one time we should've hired a cart!! (later, after playing 18 holes on other courses, i learned that dan usually takes about 3 hours on his own to play 18, just under 4 hours if he's playing in a group)..it was a nice course, and relatively new..
for the last two days of our holiday, we stayed at a nice hotel in waitangi..waitangi is where the treaty of waitangi was signed, back in 1840..that's the treaty that established new zealand as it is now, the modern state..there are plenty of arguments over that treaty, whether it was valid, and most people will agree that the british tricked the maoris..issues from that are still being debated today..we went to the historical area, there is a big flagpole put up on the exact spot where the treaty was signed, and there are a few other buildings you can walk around..there is a copy of the treaty there, the original is kept in the national archives down in wellington..we also walked the golf course at waitangi, it was the first golf course dan ever played, it's where he got hooked on the game..it was a nice course, though it had just been cored (sp?) so that took some of the enjoyment out of it..
at the end of our holiday we drove back to auckland, then had dinner that night with his family to celebrate his birthday..he and i had been on our holiday during his birthday, so they waited until we came back to do the family thing..
the next few weeks were pretty plain..he'd go to work, i'd kill time during the day, and when he was done we'd go play golf, or have some other activity during the evening..i got to know his flattie, lota, a little..sometimes i went to his work for lunch, since it was just down the road..
at one point i realized i needed to be doing a little more during my time..so i decided to go visit three other cities in new zealand..wellington, christchurch, and queenstown..
visited paihia, keri keri, cape reinga, the puketi forest, taupo bay, auckland, queenstown, christchurch, wellington, and probably more...
got to hang out with amy and ivan, got to know dan and his family...
heartbroken to leave
left 21 may...
01 May 2008
22 March 2008
australia
the blue mountains: walking around mostly...i think there are some longer hikes, but we didn't have time for any of those...we did see the three sisters rocks, which can be nifty in the right light...
canberra with the family hana worked for:
canberra with the family hana worked for:
- amazing war memorial...we could've spent the entire day there...there is a LOT of information, and it's presented well...wars that i don't know anything about because the US wasn't involved in them, and the US rarely acknowledges wars in which it wasn't involved
- great national museum...again we didn't have nearly enough time...good displays on a number of different topics...i most enjoyed the aussie invented stuff...
- super cute...sometimes really hard to see...they dont move much, so you have to spot them properly...you can stare at them for ages though, they don't get scared and run off...we spent a lot of time walking around staring upward hoping for a koala
- they're tiny...only a foot tall
- they come out of the water just after dusk, when it's safest
- there are stands built along the shore, so people pay and sit and watch them come out
- it's quite a drama to watch them all come out...if they get scared, they go running back into the water
- photography isn't allowed, and you're repeatedly told to sit down and be quiet
- after they come out, you can walk along the boardwalk and see them try to find their burrows...
- not much to actually see
- lots of shopping to be done
- koko black...YUMMY CAFE
- it's a social city, not one with a lot of sights...we wanted to see the old gaol, but they don't have an option of just walking through it...you have to purchase a ticket that involves being "locked up" and since we had no desire to do that, we ended up walking away...disappointing...why don't they have a basic ticket like that? it's expensive enough as is!!
- hired a car to drive to uluru...around 450km each way...through the desert...red desert with some brush...like nothing i've ever seen...
- maybe the biggest city in the outback? mostly populated with aboriginals, it's a very poor city...flat as all get out, except for one hill
- and on that hill is a lions club monument to something or other...
- other people in the hostel loud and obnoxious till all hours
- there is a nice "dry" garden on the edge of town...i enjoyed seeing the kangaroos before they hopped away:)
- big rocks in the ground...HUGE rocks in the ground...they change colour with the change of the sun angle
- met jenn, another american, on leave from her posting in bahrain
- took breakfast tour around uluru, learning some of the ancient stories and myths
- the climb is closed after a certain hour if its too hot...which is most every day from spring all the way through fall...
- locals ask that you don't climb it anymore, out of respect for what it is to them
- walked around kata tjuta on our own...worst flies EVER...i felt like i did nothing but shoo them away for 7km!!
- smelly hostel b/c of humidity...nothing dried properly
- arranged boat out to great barrier reef....hana very sick on the way out...hana did intro scuba dive, and got stung by fire coral...b/c of my asthma, i could only snorkel...best snorkeling i've ever done...sunburnt by the end of the day...
- cairns was at the end of a super rainy season...lots of areas were flooded along the road, and the water was quite rough from all the rain...
- walked through the canopied boardwalk...learned a lot about animals/birds/trees in the forest
- stayed under cover one entire day because of pouring rain
- school group from canada also there...spoiled kids!!
- feet blistered because the straps on my chacos never dried...
- stayed at a hostel named after me:)
- loved walking around...lots to see and do...
- celebrated hana's birthday by going to an opera in the famous opera house
- we took the manly ferry to manly and walked along the beach...
- fantastic chocolate mousse...and liquid chocolate in which to dip strawberries...it's a good thing we shared, because it was super rich
- didn't climb the harbour bridge, because it costs a fortune!!!!!!!!!!
02 January 2008
nz vol 1. iss. 1
i arrived in auckland 22 december...i came to visit amy, a swimming friend of mine since middle school..she married a guy named ivan, whom she met when she had an overseas internship while in uni..the day i arrived amy was at a hens do, so ivan picked me up at the airport, and drove me through auckland..he asked what i wanted to see, but since i knew absolutely nothing about the city (or the country for that matter,) i had no answers..at one point we drove through a very picturesque area, filled with what he called lifestyle homes..people who want to be farmers, sortof..they have a bit of land, but don't really do much with it..hard to explain..he also took me to a beach called muriwai..it's on the west coast (auckland has two coasts) which is basically the "wild" coast...the beaches on the west coast have waves and currents and such, the beaches on the east coast are quite calm)..i got to have my very first fish and chips, YUMMY..it was served in what i would call a "proper" way..that is, wrapped in newspaper with the grease coming through..ivan asked what kind of fish was available, but of course i had no idea what either of the answers meant..we drove onto the beach, since he has a land rover, and it was awesome..he said it was a typical west coast beach..that is, wild and beautiful..i only found out months later what he meant, but he was right..amy arrived home not too long after we got back to their house, both ivan and i were asleep napping at the time..she laughed..i spent one night with amy and ivan at their house in auckland, and woke up pretty late the next morning..(time zone change)..amy and i went to the local dairy to pick up coffee, hot chocolate and turnovers..YUM..already, i loved new zealand! that day we drove to their bach on the east cape...i slept through bits of the trip, but i'm pretty sure we stopped in tauranga, and i know we stopped in paeroa...i had my picture taken with the ridiculously huge bottle of L&P...it's a drink similar to sprite or fanta, or a combination of the two...it's an 8 or 9 hour trip, we arrived at the bach early afternoon, and everyone got acquainted...during the trip amy gave me quick lessons on pronouncing many of the words i was seeing on signs..most of the words are maori words, and there are rules for pronunciation, i was having fun guessing how to say everything..hana had arrived a little earlier, having met up with jill (amy's mom) and howard (jill's partner) as well as two german friends of theirs in rotorua..since hana was living in canberra she took two weeks off for the holidays, and flew into christchurch, then drove up and saw bits and pieces of new zealand before the two of us got together...it was the first time i had seen hana in 2.5 yrs or so...
amy and ivan's bach is at onepoto, which translated means little beach..original, right? hee hee...anywho, there were about 10 houses, and when we arrived, the area was quiet..it's not exactly the easiest place to get to, it's a commitment to go there for a weekend..(the fact that it's out there is one of the reasons amy and ivan like it so much, and i can understand why)..there isn't anything but the houses there, you have to go somewhere else to get petrol and just about anything else..the water is spring fed, so you have to be careful about how much you use..
over the next 10 days, i explored the area, mostly with ivan and amy and hana, and met lots of new people...one day trip we went to an old station area, needing ivan's land rover to get there..while there we had a picnic lunch, and made our way to a small waterfall..before the country was the country it is now, this station area is one of the places sheep and other animals were kept while breaking from transport accross the country..it's really in the middle of nowhere, it must've been a very lonely place to live, even with family..but it's still beautiful, as is all of new zealand that i've seen..
since amy and ivan have explored the area quite a bit in their previous stays at the bach, so they know what to see, and where to go..one day we walked to a couple nearby waterfalls, saying hello to the cows along the way..
one day amy and ivan and i went to the little "town" just around the corner and hung out on the pier..ivan was fishing, i was laying out..it was pretty windy, and at one point my skirt flew into the water..my only option for getting it back was to go in after it, so i jumped in...COLD!!! it was so sunny and reasonably warm i guess i sortof expected the water to be warm enough as well..but believe me, it wasn't..i was shocked when i jumped in..hee hee...
we saw the easternmost lighthouse in the country, which is about an hour away by car..by that point several others had arrived, including dan..the night i first arrived in auckland amy had told me about dan, a schoolmate of ivan's..apparently dan was single, and amy thought we'd be a good match..nevermind that i have life commitments for the next while..first i have to go back to korea to finish a contract, then i'm traveling with hana..and later i'm traveling with layna..there is no room for a guy in that!! but when he and i met (as hana and i were sitting and reading around the remains of the previous night's campfire) there was definitely a connection..go figure, as we were driving to the lighthouse, i fell asleep..great first impression, eh? dan was the first to the top of the climb to the lighthouse, apparently he's like that all the time...the rest of us made it up not too long after..it was a beautiful day (as usual) and the views were expansive..we were able to look out over the water all the way to white island, which is the most volcanically active part of new zealand..dan and i argued over the length of the swim in an ironman triathlon, and i was wrong..oops..
as amy loves to play games, (both board games and card games and Wii type games) we had a couple nights of game time..one night dan and i were partners, and we would've won the game, if either one of us were artistically inclined..but we're not..at all...oops..another night i watched hana and amy play speed..funny to see how into the game each of them was..i enjoy watching others play games, but i'm not usually into games myself..
i saw lots of pohutakawas, which are also called the new zealand christmas tree...they're quite pretty, i love 'em!! they bloom right around this time of year, and are really red..gorgeous..the biggest one in the country is in a town really close to the bach...none that i saw were in full bloom, but they were all starting to bloom, and the colour is amazing..i'm pretty sure the trees are indigenous to new zealand, which means you likely haven't seen one unless you've been there, and unless you were there around the holidays or just after, you probably didn't know that you were seeing such an awesome tree..
amy and ivan had invited their entire group of friends to their bach for new years, so they all showed up in the days previous...two of the couples have little kids, it was fun to play with them...kade is the perfect two year old, he can amuse himself for hours, and he's pretty quiet, and tolerant of new people..the kids of the other family have a bit more energy, i liked them too..all the people invited knew each other, but some hadn't seen each other in yonks, so there was a lot of catching up going on...this was when hana and i felt a little left out, simply b/c we didn't know anyone other than amy and ivan..
one of the days after most everyone had arrived the boys used to go fishing...i think eight of them went out on the boat? they came back with a LOT of fish..none of them had caught the full amount they are allowed to catch by law, yet there was sooooooooo much fish...which meant that every meal from there on out involved fish in some way...baked fish, grilled fish, lemon juice cooked fish, etc...it was all tasty, but there was soooo much of it...everyone else knew the names of the fish, i was clueless...
new years eve was pretty tame..everyone gathered wood, and we used it to make a fire..from the time the fire was lit until late into the night, people sat around, stood around, ate, drank and were merry...it was a nice new years, and rather tame..just after the clock struck midnight, the boys set off some firecrackers..one guy in the neighborhood came out of his house to complain about the noise they were making? who does that? who complains about noise at midnight on that day of the year? argh..anywho, i think everyone had a good time..hana and i were the first of anyone we knew to celebrate the new year, simply due to time zones:)..i think i went to bed at 0200 or so?
the morning of new years day we had to get up REALLY EARLY (up at 0430) to make the drive to gisborne in time for our flight to auckland...dan, amy, hana and i all got in the car, none of us feeling very good...the roads were curvy, and i get motion sickness easily...hana wasn't feeling well, dan was feeling as badly as i was, though i don't know why...only amy felt slightly normal...it was nearly three hours of misery that none of us could avoid...ugh...hana and i were both booked onto that flight, (at 0630) then we took separate flights out of auckland...i was sad to go back to korea after such a fantastic holiday...how often do you get to relax so much that you completely forget what day it is? that actually happened during this holiday! im looking forward to going back to nz, to figure things out with dan, if there is something worth figuring out, and to see more of the country...i love new zealand...
i arrived back in korea 2 january after a loooooong flight...ugh...back to the land of pushy people who pay no attention to what is going on around them
amy and ivan's bach is at onepoto, which translated means little beach..original, right? hee hee...anywho, there were about 10 houses, and when we arrived, the area was quiet..it's not exactly the easiest place to get to, it's a commitment to go there for a weekend..(the fact that it's out there is one of the reasons amy and ivan like it so much, and i can understand why)..there isn't anything but the houses there, you have to go somewhere else to get petrol and just about anything else..the water is spring fed, so you have to be careful about how much you use..
over the next 10 days, i explored the area, mostly with ivan and amy and hana, and met lots of new people...one day trip we went to an old station area, needing ivan's land rover to get there..while there we had a picnic lunch, and made our way to a small waterfall..before the country was the country it is now, this station area is one of the places sheep and other animals were kept while breaking from transport accross the country..it's really in the middle of nowhere, it must've been a very lonely place to live, even with family..but it's still beautiful, as is all of new zealand that i've seen..
since amy and ivan have explored the area quite a bit in their previous stays at the bach, so they know what to see, and where to go..one day we walked to a couple nearby waterfalls, saying hello to the cows along the way..
one day amy and ivan and i went to the little "town" just around the corner and hung out on the pier..ivan was fishing, i was laying out..it was pretty windy, and at one point my skirt flew into the water..my only option for getting it back was to go in after it, so i jumped in...COLD!!! it was so sunny and reasonably warm i guess i sortof expected the water to be warm enough as well..but believe me, it wasn't..i was shocked when i jumped in..hee hee...
we saw the easternmost lighthouse in the country, which is about an hour away by car..by that point several others had arrived, including dan..the night i first arrived in auckland amy had told me about dan, a schoolmate of ivan's..apparently dan was single, and amy thought we'd be a good match..nevermind that i have life commitments for the next while..first i have to go back to korea to finish a contract, then i'm traveling with hana..and later i'm traveling with layna..there is no room for a guy in that!! but when he and i met (as hana and i were sitting and reading around the remains of the previous night's campfire) there was definitely a connection..go figure, as we were driving to the lighthouse, i fell asleep..great first impression, eh? dan was the first to the top of the climb to the lighthouse, apparently he's like that all the time...the rest of us made it up not too long after..it was a beautiful day (as usual) and the views were expansive..we were able to look out over the water all the way to white island, which is the most volcanically active part of new zealand..dan and i argued over the length of the swim in an ironman triathlon, and i was wrong..oops..
as amy loves to play games, (both board games and card games and Wii type games) we had a couple nights of game time..one night dan and i were partners, and we would've won the game, if either one of us were artistically inclined..but we're not..at all...oops..another night i watched hana and amy play speed..funny to see how into the game each of them was..i enjoy watching others play games, but i'm not usually into games myself..
i saw lots of pohutakawas, which are also called the new zealand christmas tree...they're quite pretty, i love 'em!! they bloom right around this time of year, and are really red..gorgeous..the biggest one in the country is in a town really close to the bach...none that i saw were in full bloom, but they were all starting to bloom, and the colour is amazing..i'm pretty sure the trees are indigenous to new zealand, which means you likely haven't seen one unless you've been there, and unless you were there around the holidays or just after, you probably didn't know that you were seeing such an awesome tree..
amy and ivan had invited their entire group of friends to their bach for new years, so they all showed up in the days previous...two of the couples have little kids, it was fun to play with them...kade is the perfect two year old, he can amuse himself for hours, and he's pretty quiet, and tolerant of new people..the kids of the other family have a bit more energy, i liked them too..all the people invited knew each other, but some hadn't seen each other in yonks, so there was a lot of catching up going on...this was when hana and i felt a little left out, simply b/c we didn't know anyone other than amy and ivan..
one of the days after most everyone had arrived the boys used to go fishing...i think eight of them went out on the boat? they came back with a LOT of fish..none of them had caught the full amount they are allowed to catch by law, yet there was sooooooooo much fish...which meant that every meal from there on out involved fish in some way...baked fish, grilled fish, lemon juice cooked fish, etc...it was all tasty, but there was soooo much of it...everyone else knew the names of the fish, i was clueless...
new years eve was pretty tame..everyone gathered wood, and we used it to make a fire..from the time the fire was lit until late into the night, people sat around, stood around, ate, drank and were merry...it was a nice new years, and rather tame..just after the clock struck midnight, the boys set off some firecrackers..one guy in the neighborhood came out of his house to complain about the noise they were making? who does that? who complains about noise at midnight on that day of the year? argh..anywho, i think everyone had a good time..hana and i were the first of anyone we knew to celebrate the new year, simply due to time zones:)..i think i went to bed at 0200 or so?
the morning of new years day we had to get up REALLY EARLY (up at 0430) to make the drive to gisborne in time for our flight to auckland...dan, amy, hana and i all got in the car, none of us feeling very good...the roads were curvy, and i get motion sickness easily...hana wasn't feeling well, dan was feeling as badly as i was, though i don't know why...only amy felt slightly normal...it was nearly three hours of misery that none of us could avoid...ugh...hana and i were both booked onto that flight, (at 0630) then we took separate flights out of auckland...i was sad to go back to korea after such a fantastic holiday...how often do you get to relax so much that you completely forget what day it is? that actually happened during this holiday! im looking forward to going back to nz, to figure things out with dan, if there is something worth figuring out, and to see more of the country...i love new zealand...
i arrived back in korea 2 january after a loooooong flight...ugh...back to the land of pushy people who pay no attention to what is going on around them
27 September 2007
a proper rugby tour
part of being on a rugby team is touring..just about any trip out of your city is called a tour, so our trip to yeongwol was technically called a tour, even though it was just one night, and we only played one game..anywho, that's beside the point..
for chuseok, a tour to thailand had been put together..
i took the subway to the airport, as i feared traffic would be awful, with the whole country having the days off for the holiday..(chuseok is another lunar holiday, basically the korean version of thanksgiving)..it took longer, but at least i got there..the team checked in, a guide named elvis leading us..our flight was delayed an hour, but none of us cared..not surprisingly, we were shushed, and a young family was even moved so that we'd all be near each other and not disturb so many people..(i don't think that idea worked, but oh well)..our arrival at the airport in bangkok was the first time many of us had gone through that airport, as it's relatively new, and as such, it was a bit confusing..anywho..we met up with jr and ty who had arrived separately, as well as shauna, who had arrived several days earlier..
the team hopped onto our arranged bus to hua hin, not too far from bangkok..the town grew in popularity when thai royalty started to vacation there, but it's never become a backpacker spot..i don't know why, but we had to wait for checkin..so we went to the beach and played around with frisbees and just relaxed..it wasn't particularly sunny, which was a disappointment..after checking in, we tried to decide what to do, and as is typical with larger groups, it took foreva to decide for anyone..i went back to the beach with others..lunch was at a thai restaurant with angie, and shauna..thai food is great! and sooo cheap! more time at the beach in the afternoon, mostly just hanging out..no laying out:(..dinner i had with angie, shauna, katherine, este and char..again, we were all indecisive about evening plans after dinner..someone figured out details of thai boxing, so some of us attended..i enjoyed it for the most part, but i dont think i'm a big fan of the really young kids performing..particularly when they walk around after their fight, collecting more money..that ended fairly late, so we just went back to the hotel and crashed..at least, that's what i did..
the next morning we got a wakeup call at 0800, i'm not sure why it was that early..by the time we had all eaten breakfast, it was 1000..everyone went to a nearby scooter hire spot, and filled out all the forms..there was no insurance involved, and the guy didn't even want to give all of us helmets..sketchy, to say the least..it turns out, keeping a group of 8 girls on 5 scooters together isn't the easiest thing to do, even when we all know where we're going..we stopped at a wat, simply because we kept seeing signs for it..it was nice looking, but nothing super exciting..
after the temple, we all got back on our scooters, and that's when things got interesting..our group got separated, three bikes ended up ahead, shauna and i ended up behind..as i went around one curve, i laid the bike down..whoops..thankfully shauna was just behind me, saw what happened, and stopped..i was able to stand up and dust myself off, pick up the bike, and start up again..as we got going, shauna felt something off..she asked me to watch as she drove, and it was quickly apparent to me that she had a flat tire...between the blood streaming down one of my knees, and her flat tire, but being out in the middle of nowhere, we had no choice but to keep going, albeit slowly..at some point, a truck drove past us, and realized shauna had a flat tire..they put shauna's bike in the bed of the truck, and she got a ride in the cab..i followed..eventually, angie and ali, who had been in the group ahead came back to find out where we were..since my knee was tightening up, angie drove me on my bike, continuing to follow the truck with shauna and her bike..the truck stopped at a repair garage, and they replaced the tube in shauna's tire, and wouldn't let her pay!! they also brought out some stuff to help me clean up my knee, and wouldn't let me pay either!! thais are amazing..
after shauna's repair, and my clean knee, we all got back on our bikes and continued down the road..we were heading for a waterfall, which was supposed to be amazing..it turned out to be a series of shorter waterfalls, not one bigger, more spectacular one..i used one of the areas with flowing water to help get some of the remaining road guck out of my knee..the cuts from my fall were pretty deep..we didn't go to all the levels of the waterfall, but we enjoyed what we did see..after getting back to our bikes, we started on our way back to the hotel..while driving we passed a local market and decided to stop..yummy food/snacks!
as we continued back to hua hin, it started to rain..not so fun..thankfully angie was still driving, i'm not sure i would've been okay with driving in the rain..when we all got back to the hotel, we found natalie, our team captain..(she denies the title, but that's basically what she is)..oooooops..it turned out she had been the only with not with us during the day..how any of us didn't notice, i don't know..i think she was hurt, and rightfully so..she had gone to have a fitting for suits she was having made, and when she got back to the hotel, we were all gone..after apologizing profusely, dinner plans were made..but before dinner, several of us went to get pedicures and foot massages..HEAVEN:)
dinner was nice, then most of us investigated a night market, which was full of stuff for tourists..since i was just learning about rugby, i went with a few others to an irish pub, where we watched the nz/scotland game...nz won, but i only found out the score afterward, as i fell asleep during the game..lol..
we all got another wakeup call the next morning at 0830..a bus took us to bangkok, stopping along the way for lunch..upon arrival in bangkok, the bus took us to the temple of the emerald buddha, probably the most well known sight in the entire country..the buddha in the temple isn't made of emerald, it's made of jade, and it's 'costume' is changed for each season..despite all the tourists, and the expense, it's still awesome..it's a great place to take pictures as well..after walking around for a while, we walked down the street and took a cruise on the river..probably the best part of the cruise was when we fed the fish in the river..they've gotten so used to tourists feeding them that they ALL show up when food is tossed into the river..they were practically jumping out of the water..kinda gross, but fascinating as well..
dinner that night was in the hotel, a buffet..there was a night market semi close to the hotel, again filled with stuff for tourists..i ended up buying a skirt, i think most people bought at least one thing..after that, i went back to the hotel..a few of the girls went to the pat pong district to see a ping pong show..i knwo it's a fact of life that sex shows happen here, but i had no desire to participate, or encourage the industry in any way..women don't learn to perform in those sorts of shows because they want to, they do it because they can earn far more money that way than in having a "normal" job..i am not a fan of the industry as a whole..the sex industry in thailand is waaaayyyyy to big, and much of it isn't legal, but that's a soapbox topic for me, one i will stop talking about now..
the next morning, my roommate hilary and i missed breakfast, we didn't know what time it closed..as the team was checking out of the hotel, a few more girls showed up, they had been on holiday in another part of thailand..i'm not sure why they weren't with us for the entire tour..the bus drove us to the rugby pitch, and the weather was HOT HOT HOT and HUMID HUMID HUMID..jr taped up my knee so i could play, and he did a fantastic job..it didn't move during the entire game..the thai girls won the games, they ran faster than us..we were bigger, and often it took 5 of them to tackle just one of us..they were also (obviously) used to the heat and humidity..we weren't..they were a national team...we weren't..it was a learning experience..on the bus ride back to the hotel, the driver had the air conditioning cranked so high that all of us were cold..not a fun way to feel after roasting all afternoon..
we had saved three rooms in the hotel so we could all shower and clean up, then we had dinner again..after dinner we had a court session, the charges were of course, entertaining..i'm slowly learning all the rules involved:)..of course, there was a lot of drinking as well..
the bus ride to the airport had some drunk people..check in took foreva, and at one point they tried to say that este couldn't get on the plane because she didn't have the right visa..she didn't need a visa, as she was going back as a tourist, but it took a while to get that sorted..waiting at the gate was interesting, as one of our group was highly intoxicated..she ended up vomiting everywhere, and though you could smell the alcohol, we told the airline that she had food poisoning from dinner..airlines won't let someone they know to be drunk on the plane..it was obvious, but it worked out..as soon as the lights went out on the plane, nearly everyone fell asleep..
immigration upon return was really fast, that's one thing incheon airport is really good about..i took a bus back to my flat, and that was the end of my first real rugby tour..:)
except the ear infection i somehow ended up having..the last two days of the trip my right ear plugged up, and i couldn't hear properly..i was able to go to the doctor the next day, and after a round of antibiotics, it cleared up..annoying though, as it was from water that had gotten in my ear..how, i don't know..oh well..
for chuseok, a tour to thailand had been put together..
i took the subway to the airport, as i feared traffic would be awful, with the whole country having the days off for the holiday..(chuseok is another lunar holiday, basically the korean version of thanksgiving)..it took longer, but at least i got there..the team checked in, a guide named elvis leading us..our flight was delayed an hour, but none of us cared..not surprisingly, we were shushed, and a young family was even moved so that we'd all be near each other and not disturb so many people..(i don't think that idea worked, but oh well)..our arrival at the airport in bangkok was the first time many of us had gone through that airport, as it's relatively new, and as such, it was a bit confusing..anywho..we met up with jr and ty who had arrived separately, as well as shauna, who had arrived several days earlier..
the team hopped onto our arranged bus to hua hin, not too far from bangkok..the town grew in popularity when thai royalty started to vacation there, but it's never become a backpacker spot..i don't know why, but we had to wait for checkin..so we went to the beach and played around with frisbees and just relaxed..it wasn't particularly sunny, which was a disappointment..after checking in, we tried to decide what to do, and as is typical with larger groups, it took foreva to decide for anyone..i went back to the beach with others..lunch was at a thai restaurant with angie, and shauna..thai food is great! and sooo cheap! more time at the beach in the afternoon, mostly just hanging out..no laying out:(..dinner i had with angie, shauna, katherine, este and char..again, we were all indecisive about evening plans after dinner..someone figured out details of thai boxing, so some of us attended..i enjoyed it for the most part, but i dont think i'm a big fan of the really young kids performing..particularly when they walk around after their fight, collecting more money..that ended fairly late, so we just went back to the hotel and crashed..at least, that's what i did..
the next morning we got a wakeup call at 0800, i'm not sure why it was that early..by the time we had all eaten breakfast, it was 1000..everyone went to a nearby scooter hire spot, and filled out all the forms..there was no insurance involved, and the guy didn't even want to give all of us helmets..sketchy, to say the least..it turns out, keeping a group of 8 girls on 5 scooters together isn't the easiest thing to do, even when we all know where we're going..we stopped at a wat, simply because we kept seeing signs for it..it was nice looking, but nothing super exciting..
after the temple, we all got back on our scooters, and that's when things got interesting..our group got separated, three bikes ended up ahead, shauna and i ended up behind..as i went around one curve, i laid the bike down..whoops..thankfully shauna was just behind me, saw what happened, and stopped..i was able to stand up and dust myself off, pick up the bike, and start up again..as we got going, shauna felt something off..she asked me to watch as she drove, and it was quickly apparent to me that she had a flat tire...between the blood streaming down one of my knees, and her flat tire, but being out in the middle of nowhere, we had no choice but to keep going, albeit slowly..at some point, a truck drove past us, and realized shauna had a flat tire..they put shauna's bike in the bed of the truck, and she got a ride in the cab..i followed..eventually, angie and ali, who had been in the group ahead came back to find out where we were..since my knee was tightening up, angie drove me on my bike, continuing to follow the truck with shauna and her bike..the truck stopped at a repair garage, and they replaced the tube in shauna's tire, and wouldn't let her pay!! they also brought out some stuff to help me clean up my knee, and wouldn't let me pay either!! thais are amazing..
after shauna's repair, and my clean knee, we all got back on our bikes and continued down the road..we were heading for a waterfall, which was supposed to be amazing..it turned out to be a series of shorter waterfalls, not one bigger, more spectacular one..i used one of the areas with flowing water to help get some of the remaining road guck out of my knee..the cuts from my fall were pretty deep..we didn't go to all the levels of the waterfall, but we enjoyed what we did see..after getting back to our bikes, we started on our way back to the hotel..while driving we passed a local market and decided to stop..yummy food/snacks!
as we continued back to hua hin, it started to rain..not so fun..thankfully angie was still driving, i'm not sure i would've been okay with driving in the rain..when we all got back to the hotel, we found natalie, our team captain..(she denies the title, but that's basically what she is)..oooooops..it turned out she had been the only with not with us during the day..how any of us didn't notice, i don't know..i think she was hurt, and rightfully so..she had gone to have a fitting for suits she was having made, and when she got back to the hotel, we were all gone..after apologizing profusely, dinner plans were made..but before dinner, several of us went to get pedicures and foot massages..HEAVEN:)
dinner was nice, then most of us investigated a night market, which was full of stuff for tourists..since i was just learning about rugby, i went with a few others to an irish pub, where we watched the nz/scotland game...nz won, but i only found out the score afterward, as i fell asleep during the game..lol..
we all got another wakeup call the next morning at 0830..a bus took us to bangkok, stopping along the way for lunch..upon arrival in bangkok, the bus took us to the temple of the emerald buddha, probably the most well known sight in the entire country..the buddha in the temple isn't made of emerald, it's made of jade, and it's 'costume' is changed for each season..despite all the tourists, and the expense, it's still awesome..it's a great place to take pictures as well..after walking around for a while, we walked down the street and took a cruise on the river..probably the best part of the cruise was when we fed the fish in the river..they've gotten so used to tourists feeding them that they ALL show up when food is tossed into the river..they were practically jumping out of the water..kinda gross, but fascinating as well..
dinner that night was in the hotel, a buffet..there was a night market semi close to the hotel, again filled with stuff for tourists..i ended up buying a skirt, i think most people bought at least one thing..after that, i went back to the hotel..a few of the girls went to the pat pong district to see a ping pong show..i knwo it's a fact of life that sex shows happen here, but i had no desire to participate, or encourage the industry in any way..women don't learn to perform in those sorts of shows because they want to, they do it because they can earn far more money that way than in having a "normal" job..i am not a fan of the industry as a whole..the sex industry in thailand is waaaayyyyy to big, and much of it isn't legal, but that's a soapbox topic for me, one i will stop talking about now..
the next morning, my roommate hilary and i missed breakfast, we didn't know what time it closed..as the team was checking out of the hotel, a few more girls showed up, they had been on holiday in another part of thailand..i'm not sure why they weren't with us for the entire tour..the bus drove us to the rugby pitch, and the weather was HOT HOT HOT and HUMID HUMID HUMID..jr taped up my knee so i could play, and he did a fantastic job..it didn't move during the entire game..the thai girls won the games, they ran faster than us..we were bigger, and often it took 5 of them to tackle just one of us..they were also (obviously) used to the heat and humidity..we weren't..they were a national team...we weren't..it was a learning experience..on the bus ride back to the hotel, the driver had the air conditioning cranked so high that all of us were cold..not a fun way to feel after roasting all afternoon..
we had saved three rooms in the hotel so we could all shower and clean up, then we had dinner again..after dinner we had a court session, the charges were of course, entertaining..i'm slowly learning all the rules involved:)..of course, there was a lot of drinking as well..
the bus ride to the airport had some drunk people..check in took foreva, and at one point they tried to say that este couldn't get on the plane because she didn't have the right visa..she didn't need a visa, as she was going back as a tourist, but it took a while to get that sorted..waiting at the gate was interesting, as one of our group was highly intoxicated..she ended up vomiting everywhere, and though you could smell the alcohol, we told the airline that she had food poisoning from dinner..airlines won't let someone they know to be drunk on the plane..it was obvious, but it worked out..as soon as the lights went out on the plane, nearly everyone fell asleep..
immigration upon return was really fast, that's one thing incheon airport is really good about..i took a bus back to my flat, and that was the end of my first real rugby tour..:)
except the ear infection i somehow ended up having..the last two days of the trip my right ear plugged up, and i couldn't hear properly..i was able to go to the doctor the next day, and after a round of antibiotics, it cleared up..annoying though, as it was from water that had gotten in my ear..how, i don't know..oh well..
03 September 2007
MACAU, SPECIAL ADMINISTRATIVE REGION
i took the first weekend in september to visit my friend esther in macau...i met esther while she still lived in seoul...she's a philippina, she married a korean, and now they have two sons...both her sons speak tagalog, korean, as well as a fair amount of english...esther is a lawyer, and her work is somewhat transportable...anywho, her husband was offered what seemed like a good job, so the family moved not too long ago...
macau is making itself out to be the vegas of asia...there are quite a few large casinos there already, and they're constantly building more...macau is similar to hong kong in that until not very long ago it was administered by another country, not china...macau received it's "independence" from portugal in 1999, two years after hong kong...so now the official languages are chinese and portuguese...but you don't see much portuguese, you see and hear mostly chinese with a bit of english...signage is in all three languages...most of the people who live there now are of chinese descent...
i got to the seoul airport before anything was open, which meant i was starving for a while...i wasn't planning to check any baggage, but it turned out my toothpaste was too big, so i made a stink and they let me go back through to the check in counters and i was able to check my bag...the security lady who said it was too big seemed surprised that i wanted to check my bag...did she think i was going to put the toothaste in a ziploc bag and check just that? anywho...
esther picked me up at the airport, and i could immediately tell the difference in weather...macau is a lot warmer and a lot more humid at this time of year than seoul is...(and seoul is plenty warm and humid right now)...she took me to her flat, which is how pretty much everyone in macau lives...it's like hong kong in that the population density is really high...i got to meet her kids, johann and joseph...then we took the bus to hac sa beach, and walked around for a while...it's a black sand beach, and we visited at high tide...there are lots of picnic tables around, it was nice to see families out enjoying themselves...we took the bus back to the main square, where you can still see a lot of portuguese architecture...the ruins of st paul are particularly picturesque, though it's only the front of the church that's there anymore...it was originally a church, but has also been used as army barracks...we ate dinner at a portuguese restaurant, and that night got a little dressed up to go to the venetian casino...it has the same themes as it's sister casino in vegas, but it's bigger...in fact, it's the biggest casino in the world, and had opened just a few days before i arrived...it's not completed yet, i have no idea when it will be completely done...i didn't do any gambling myself, but it was fun to wander around and watch people...i've never been in a proper casino before...esther's flat is only a 15 minute walk from the venetian!
the next day we took a bus to the border with china...on the chinese side of the border is a free economic zone, which means CHEAP shopping...we explored the area with esther's friend joe, and ate lunch in a revolving restaurant...fun...after coming back we explored another area of macau, the waterfront...there is a statue there, i can't remember the name of who it is...a goddess of something...the macau tower is also right there, and you can jump off it, (safety precautions are taken, of course) and we did see one person jump...
i went to the airport late that night, and got back to korea, though a few hours later than i had anticipated, and was late to work as a result...oh well...
macau is making itself out to be the vegas of asia...there are quite a few large casinos there already, and they're constantly building more...macau is similar to hong kong in that until not very long ago it was administered by another country, not china...macau received it's "independence" from portugal in 1999, two years after hong kong...so now the official languages are chinese and portuguese...but you don't see much portuguese, you see and hear mostly chinese with a bit of english...signage is in all three languages...most of the people who live there now are of chinese descent...
i got to the seoul airport before anything was open, which meant i was starving for a while...i wasn't planning to check any baggage, but it turned out my toothpaste was too big, so i made a stink and they let me go back through to the check in counters and i was able to check my bag...the security lady who said it was too big seemed surprised that i wanted to check my bag...did she think i was going to put the toothaste in a ziploc bag and check just that? anywho...
esther picked me up at the airport, and i could immediately tell the difference in weather...macau is a lot warmer and a lot more humid at this time of year than seoul is...(and seoul is plenty warm and humid right now)...she took me to her flat, which is how pretty much everyone in macau lives...it's like hong kong in that the population density is really high...i got to meet her kids, johann and joseph...then we took the bus to hac sa beach, and walked around for a while...it's a black sand beach, and we visited at high tide...there are lots of picnic tables around, it was nice to see families out enjoying themselves...we took the bus back to the main square, where you can still see a lot of portuguese architecture...the ruins of st paul are particularly picturesque, though it's only the front of the church that's there anymore...it was originally a church, but has also been used as army barracks...we ate dinner at a portuguese restaurant, and that night got a little dressed up to go to the venetian casino...it has the same themes as it's sister casino in vegas, but it's bigger...in fact, it's the biggest casino in the world, and had opened just a few days before i arrived...it's not completed yet, i have no idea when it will be completely done...i didn't do any gambling myself, but it was fun to wander around and watch people...i've never been in a proper casino before...esther's flat is only a 15 minute walk from the venetian!
the next day we took a bus to the border with china...on the chinese side of the border is a free economic zone, which means CHEAP shopping...we explored the area with esther's friend joe, and ate lunch in a revolving restaurant...fun...after coming back we explored another area of macau, the waterfront...there is a statue there, i can't remember the name of who it is...a goddess of something...the macau tower is also right there, and you can jump off it, (safety precautions are taken, of course) and we did see one person jump...
i went to the airport late that night, and got back to korea, though a few hours later than i had anticipated, and was late to work as a result...oh well...
13 August 2007
korean rugby nationals
i went to a birthday party back in june, and there met a girl who played rugby..we got to chatting, and when she asked what i was doing the following saturday, i gave my standard response of "ask me friday"...she then told me that i was going to rugby practice...i've been interested in rugby (that is, interested in playing, not the world sport) since high school, so i was definitely excited..the following saturday ended up with not so great weather, and she told me practice had been cancelled (i'm not so sure it was, but that's beside the point) but we agreed to try again the following weekend..the next weekend rolled around and i went to my first ever rugby practice..it was awesome, even though i had absolutely no idea what i was doing most of the time..it was great to run around, and all the girls seemed fun..
i continued going to practice each weekend, and in august, the women's team was invited to put on an exhibition game at the korean rugby championships in yeongwol..i don't know who, but someone arranged the bus for the men's and women's teams to ride together from seoul..we all showed up saturday morning and boarded the bus..people showed up in various condition, from the very hungover, to the still drunk, to the wide awake and chipper like me..(or maybe i was the only one who was wide awake..it was saturday morning, after all)..an hour and a half later the bus stopped at one of the many rest stops on korean highways..there seems to be a rule in korea that you don't get to go all the way to your destination w/out stopping..even though our trip was only three hours, we stopped halfway through..and these rest stops are huge, with restaurants and toilets and convenience stores, etc..for those who were hungover, or starting to become hungover, the chance for hot food was great:)..an hour and a half later we arrived at yeongwol..
the tourney had already started, there were quite a few teams there..the boys got changed, as their first game was scheduled to start soon..they played, and won..dan (our coach) played, but not surprisingly hurt his already bad knee, and had to come out..after their game was over, we went to one area of the track and had our own practice..for me, it was the first time i ever learned how to tackle properly..(i had only had 3 previous practices to attend)..as it was the middle of the day, it was HOT, and by the end of the practice we all felt faint, even though it wasn't long..we sat around for quite a while, and watched whateva games were going, and someone was on their phone figuring out possibilities for whitewater rafting..(this province in korea has a lot of outdoor activities)..just after noon everyone took part in the opening ceremony..(why it was after several games had already been played i don't know)..everyone had on their team shirts, there was even a girls high school marching band! they wore capes, skirts, and high white leather/plastic boots..the ceremony was in korean, which none of us really understood, but apparently we weren't the only ones who were bored, as other teams started to sit down on the field..so we followed suit..after the ceremony was (finally) over each team picked up it's case of soju, case of gatorade, and case of gochujang..yay for favors!!
our whitewater rafting had been arranged, so we (the girls, and one of the boys..other guys had expressed interest, but it wasn't guaranteed that we'd make it back before the guys game, so they backed out, this guy was new and clearly not that into rugby) all piled into a van that has definitely seen better days..with all of us in there, it was super crowded..the van arrived at the tour company office, and we paid..someone didn't pay, we all thought it was the guy, but we couldn't be sure, as the money collection was rather haphazard..(typical korean situation)..we got our lifejackets and helmets and got back in the van, and drove to the put it spot..they split us up, 5 girls going with 5 koreans..my boat was fun, there was a lot of kanglish going on..the guides spoke some english, and everyone (in our boat) was ready to have fun..at the first opportunity to do so, angie and i jumped out of our boat..we're both good swimmers, and weren't afraid..our guides liked to have fun and we "attacked" other boats..lol..toward the end of the ride i realized i was really dehydrated, as i had a massive headache..the sun exposure didn't help..
we didnt make it back in time for the start of the men's game, so the guy didn't get to play..we did howeva watch most of it, and watched the masters game that followed..great to see 60 yr old men running around playing a game they love..it was a lot slower, strategy was clearly more important..hee hee..after the games we drove to our hotel, checked in and got cleaned up for dinner..my room had 4 girls total, and we were all ready to go in 40 minutes..the other room was a lot slower..
dinner was galbi with the KRU folks..one of the few times i've actually been glad i don't drink, as the alcohol was flowing freely from the start of dinner..lots of soju and beer...LOTS..
after dinner there was a lot of discussion as to what people wanted to do..it took 45 minutes to decide..one group ended up going to a casino, the other group went back to the hotel..the casino sounded good, but it was an hour away, and w/out independent transport back, i opted to skip it and go back to the hotel..there were people hanging out in the gardens, a good chance for me to get to know some of the other girls..i was the first in my room to go to bed, the other girls came into the room at various times of the night..it didn't matter much to me, i slept through it all..
the next morning we all got up, and got dressed in our team kit..after fantasizing about the breakfasts each of us wanted, we realized we didn't have time for such things, and our breakfasts consisted of what we were able to grab in a 10 minute run through a small grocery store..(which must've thrown the cashiers there for a loop..12 girls hopping out of a bus quickly, running through the store, lining up quickly to pay, and getting out of there fast)..not long after arriving back at the stadium, we took the field for our exhibition match..we played against each other, and from what i understood, no one in the stands expected us to hit hard, as everyone knew that most of us were new to the sport..but that definitely wasn't the case..i don't know why i remember this, but i remember the first tackle..it was hard, and you could hear it..you could also hear the collective intake of breath in the crowd, as they realized we were going full stop..awesome..i know my team lost, but i didn't care..i loved being out there..when the game was over, (during which maria broke her foot) we took a team picture and people clapped..with the way most korean women behave (like a princess) getting women's rugby started in korea won't be easy, but people are interested in making it happen..
we watched the championship game, which the boys lost, but it was still fun..then we all took showers, which were in community shower facilities..with COLD water..everyone hopped on the bus cleaned up, and the ride home started..during the ride home there was a court session, which is apparently one of the traditions of rugby..nearly everyone was brought up on "charges" for something, and some of the charges were more entertaining than others..lots of rugby songs were sung on the way, and then someone put on a cd, and the rest of the ride back was just being social..good times..most people were drinking, of course..when we got back to itaewon, several trash bags worth of rubbish were taken out of the bus..
my first rugby game, and i loved every minute of it..i can't wait to do it again!!
i continued going to practice each weekend, and in august, the women's team was invited to put on an exhibition game at the korean rugby championships in yeongwol..i don't know who, but someone arranged the bus for the men's and women's teams to ride together from seoul..we all showed up saturday morning and boarded the bus..people showed up in various condition, from the very hungover, to the still drunk, to the wide awake and chipper like me..(or maybe i was the only one who was wide awake..it was saturday morning, after all)..an hour and a half later the bus stopped at one of the many rest stops on korean highways..there seems to be a rule in korea that you don't get to go all the way to your destination w/out stopping..even though our trip was only three hours, we stopped halfway through..and these rest stops are huge, with restaurants and toilets and convenience stores, etc..for those who were hungover, or starting to become hungover, the chance for hot food was great:)..an hour and a half later we arrived at yeongwol..
the tourney had already started, there were quite a few teams there..the boys got changed, as their first game was scheduled to start soon..they played, and won..dan (our coach) played, but not surprisingly hurt his already bad knee, and had to come out..after their game was over, we went to one area of the track and had our own practice..for me, it was the first time i ever learned how to tackle properly..(i had only had 3 previous practices to attend)..as it was the middle of the day, it was HOT, and by the end of the practice we all felt faint, even though it wasn't long..we sat around for quite a while, and watched whateva games were going, and someone was on their phone figuring out possibilities for whitewater rafting..(this province in korea has a lot of outdoor activities)..just after noon everyone took part in the opening ceremony..(why it was after several games had already been played i don't know)..everyone had on their team shirts, there was even a girls high school marching band! they wore capes, skirts, and high white leather/plastic boots..the ceremony was in korean, which none of us really understood, but apparently we weren't the only ones who were bored, as other teams started to sit down on the field..so we followed suit..after the ceremony was (finally) over each team picked up it's case of soju, case of gatorade, and case of gochujang..yay for favors!!
our whitewater rafting had been arranged, so we (the girls, and one of the boys..other guys had expressed interest, but it wasn't guaranteed that we'd make it back before the guys game, so they backed out, this guy was new and clearly not that into rugby) all piled into a van that has definitely seen better days..with all of us in there, it was super crowded..the van arrived at the tour company office, and we paid..someone didn't pay, we all thought it was the guy, but we couldn't be sure, as the money collection was rather haphazard..(typical korean situation)..we got our lifejackets and helmets and got back in the van, and drove to the put it spot..they split us up, 5 girls going with 5 koreans..my boat was fun, there was a lot of kanglish going on..the guides spoke some english, and everyone (in our boat) was ready to have fun..at the first opportunity to do so, angie and i jumped out of our boat..we're both good swimmers, and weren't afraid..our guides liked to have fun and we "attacked" other boats..lol..toward the end of the ride i realized i was really dehydrated, as i had a massive headache..the sun exposure didn't help..
we didnt make it back in time for the start of the men's game, so the guy didn't get to play..we did howeva watch most of it, and watched the masters game that followed..great to see 60 yr old men running around playing a game they love..it was a lot slower, strategy was clearly more important..hee hee..after the games we drove to our hotel, checked in and got cleaned up for dinner..my room had 4 girls total, and we were all ready to go in 40 minutes..the other room was a lot slower..
dinner was galbi with the KRU folks..one of the few times i've actually been glad i don't drink, as the alcohol was flowing freely from the start of dinner..lots of soju and beer...LOTS..
after dinner there was a lot of discussion as to what people wanted to do..it took 45 minutes to decide..one group ended up going to a casino, the other group went back to the hotel..the casino sounded good, but it was an hour away, and w/out independent transport back, i opted to skip it and go back to the hotel..there were people hanging out in the gardens, a good chance for me to get to know some of the other girls..i was the first in my room to go to bed, the other girls came into the room at various times of the night..it didn't matter much to me, i slept through it all..
the next morning we all got up, and got dressed in our team kit..after fantasizing about the breakfasts each of us wanted, we realized we didn't have time for such things, and our breakfasts consisted of what we were able to grab in a 10 minute run through a small grocery store..(which must've thrown the cashiers there for a loop..12 girls hopping out of a bus quickly, running through the store, lining up quickly to pay, and getting out of there fast)..not long after arriving back at the stadium, we took the field for our exhibition match..we played against each other, and from what i understood, no one in the stands expected us to hit hard, as everyone knew that most of us were new to the sport..but that definitely wasn't the case..i don't know why i remember this, but i remember the first tackle..it was hard, and you could hear it..you could also hear the collective intake of breath in the crowd, as they realized we were going full stop..awesome..i know my team lost, but i didn't care..i loved being out there..when the game was over, (during which maria broke her foot) we took a team picture and people clapped..with the way most korean women behave (like a princess) getting women's rugby started in korea won't be easy, but people are interested in making it happen..
we watched the championship game, which the boys lost, but it was still fun..then we all took showers, which were in community shower facilities..with COLD water..everyone hopped on the bus cleaned up, and the ride home started..during the ride home there was a court session, which is apparently one of the traditions of rugby..nearly everyone was brought up on "charges" for something, and some of the charges were more entertaining than others..lots of rugby songs were sung on the way, and then someone put on a cd, and the rest of the ride back was just being social..good times..most people were drinking, of course..when we got back to itaewon, several trash bags worth of rubbish were taken out of the bus..
my first rugby game, and i loved every minute of it..i can't wait to do it again!!
01 August 2007
kuta, ubud and sanur, bali, indonesia
For my school vacation, I decided to go to bali, one of the most well known islands of Indonesia…we had 11 days off, which is a couple days more than most schools had, so I consider myself lucky…w/out knowing it, 5 of the teachers at my school had all booked the same flight to bali…the flight was a straight shot, 7 hours…we arrived at ngurah rai (sp?) international airport after 11pm, ugh…fortunately, the town three of us were staying in at least the first night was really close, and just about everything in bali is dirt cheap, so it was no problem to take a taxi from the aiport…the taxi dropped me off at the same place I stayed at the last time I was in bali, almost exactly two years ago…I'm not sure if they remembered me at the surf doggie, or just assumed that anyone walking in at that hour (it's not on the tourist strip at all, and the gates were closed) must've stayed there before, because she said something to the effect of "I remember you"…howeva, she did put me in the same room I was in last time, so I don't know…
The next three days were all pretty much the same…I woke up, read and had breakfast, read some more, went to the beach for a couple hours, enjoyed watching all the surfers, both beginning and advanced…avoided all the people trying to sell me things…when I'm laying down with my eyes closed, do you really think I want to buy a ring? Or have a massage? Or rent a boogie board or surfboard? I don't think so…after the beach I'd head back to my room, change, then mosey back to a random place and get a foot massage…shop for a little while, then meet up with darryl and shelena for dinner…we ate at cheap places, not spending more than $2.50 per meal…well, the main part of the meal was usually $1.50, then we'd go somewhere else and have ice cream, which was more expensive, but still fun…I'd go back to my room, read, and turn out the light when I felt like it…I don't know what time I went to sleep any of the nights during the vacation…
The fourth full day, I got on a 6 am bus, and went to ubud…ubud is the cultural capital of bali…it's known for it's many temples, art galleries, spas, locals who still wear traditional clothing, and performances of traditional Balinese dance…I went to the place I stayed the last time I was in ubud, and was again put in the same room as last time…though this time I know that was pure chance, as they didn't recognize me…the first morning I checked out a number of temples, including a few I didn't see last time…maybe it was the time of day, or something else, but all except one of the temples were totally deserted as I walked through…they seem much more spiritual when there aren't people EVERYWHERE…ubud palace, saraswati temple, and others…the afternoon was spent at a spa, getting the royal treatment…an hour massage, body exfoliation, a bath in flowered water, and intensive hair treatment…all for $16, and 3 hours…soooo nice…dinner at one of the local places...(why spend $3 for the same meal you can get it for 50cents at a local place?)…a performance of traditional Balinese dance that night…the costumes are amazing, as is the makeup…and the dance itself is like nothing you'll ever see in the western world…the music is from a gamelon orchestra…a gamelon is somewhat similar to a xylophone, but it struck with something that looks very much like a hammer…and the sound is different, though it's hard to describe how…there are many different sizes of gamelon, and one of the players is sortof the conductor, though that's not obvious if you aren't looking for it…(I was only looking for it since I played in an orchestra for so long)…each time a dancer in a new costume came out, the crowd got out the cameras and hand phones again…I did so as well, but I was nice enough to turn off the flash…that must be incredibly distracting to the dancers…
the next morning I woke up and went walking…it was a route described in my lonely planet guidebook that seemed easy enough in terms of where to go…(I'm really good at getting lost, and didn't feel like doing that in the middle of nowhere)…it was indeed easy to follow, but I felt like I was still doing some exploring…as I walked through several small villages, the locals all watched me, so I got the feeling not many foreigners did the walk…one little boy walked up to me and said "photo?" and struck a pose…hands down the coolest kid ever…I showed it to him after I took it, he liked it…hee hee…I took lots of pictures of the rica paddy fields, I think they're really pretty, though I have no idea why…that afternoon I rented a motorbike, after realizing that the next thing I wanted to see would take me more than an hour of walking to get to, and I didn't have that kind of time…now, a few things to remember: 1. I hadn't been in control of a motorized vehicle since before I moved to korea. and 2. they drive on the left side of the rode in indonesia…so as I got on the motorbike and drove, I was terrified, both for myself and anyone else I might inadvertently hit/run over…somehow or another, I ended up where I wanted to be w/out falling/hitting anyone/wrecking…it was fun to be driving again, and I got more and more comfortable the farther I went…though I was still considerably slower than all the locals, who weave in and out of traffic all the time…I walked around the elephant cave area…it's unknown why it's called the elephant cave, since it doesn't look like an elephant at all…it is a manmade cave carved into a rock wall, and the face carved on the outside is pretty cool…the inside of the cave is just one corridor, with different niches to place offerings…according to the guidebook and locals who try to get you to hire them as guides, the cave is still used for religious ceremonies…it was a bit eerie go to in, as the air doesn't move at all, and it's not a good place to go if you are claustrophobic…I went in, looked around (it's dark except for the like from the entranceway) and got out…there is also a fountain that was originally used by balinese royalty to clean off…now of course, tourists wash their hands and faces and have their pictures taken…I don't know how the water system is set up, but it's pretty impressive…back on the bike, back into town w/out getting hurt or hurting anyone else, dropped it off, and made my way to another spa…(ubud is full of spas, from the cheapt ones to the expensive ones…simple massages all the way to all day pampering)…more dinner, and another dance performance…this one was a kecak dance, which has no instruments to provide the music…the dancers are also a chorus, and since the music…it's impressive…at one point, a man did a fire dance…he walked through/kick a pile of burning coconut husks…I saw the bottoms of his feet after the performance, and they were quite black, though I'm guessing that was from soot as much as anything else…the last morning I got up and walked out to the ubud botanical gardens…they're pretty impressive, or at least I think they would be if everything is blooming…howeva, when I walked through, many flowers had just been planted, so they weren't yet blooming…there were two aspects that I really liked though…one was the quietness/stillness of the entire area, and the other was the maze…(for those of you who are wondering, yes, I did get lost in there…rather unnerving)…walked back to town, rented a motorboke again, and drove out to tegallalung village, about 10km outside ubud…by this time I felt a whole lot more comfortable on the bike, and even passed a few cars…the entire way to the village was on a road with nothing but art galleries and shops where the locals make all the stuff they sell…I know if I had gotten off the bike and started looking around, I never would've gotten back on the bike w/out buying something…the village I was going to is known for one thing, some very impressive rice paddy terraces…they're really cool to see…the down side to them is all the vendors who are set up on the other side, and these vendors are really persistent…they approach you as soon as you get off your bike/out of your car…and they don't go away nearly as easily as other vendors I've seen in bali…I'm not good at saying no, so it was hard…but really, I don't want any more sarongs, or any boxes, or any purses, or anything else…I looked at the terraces for a while, then hopped back on the bike and drove to the last sight I wanted to see, something called yeh pulu…it's a wall with scenes carved into it…it was only discovered in the 80's, they don't know for sure when all the scenes were carved…I met a girl who was traveling with her aunt and friend, she and I compared life stories…(amazing how you can do that with a total stranger)…she was just about to finish her nursing program at chico state, I am still somewhat of a clueless teacher…anywho, back to town, dropped off the bike, dinner and my last performance…this one was in yet another location (the two previous nights had been outdoor performances, this was indoors) and sortof a combination of the two other performances…a smaller gamelon orchestra, and the characters singing/speaking many lines…overall, I think I liked this performance the best…though maybe that was b/c it was easier for me to figure out the good guys and bad guys, and figure out the story line…most of these performances are based on stories from hinduism, and a lot have to do with 'good' winning the battle over 'bad'…
the next morning I got on another bus, and headed to the beach town of sanur…according to the guidebook, it is sometimes given the nickname of 'snore"…it's a beach town, and the beach is great, but it's nothing like the party towns over on the west coast…there are a lot more all inclusive resorts in sanur, and there is no party scene in town…there is also a reef that protects the beaches, so there aren't waves coming up to shore in nearly the strength level as there are in kuta and others…I laid out on a chair, and kept expecting someone to come up and charge me for using the chair, but it never happened…I still don't know if the chairs belong to the resorts, or locals out to make a buck…my two days in sanur consisted of very little…laying out on the beach, reading and talking to the other folks staying at my hostel…there were a couple french couples, and they let me join them in conversation…which meant that it was mostly in english, but I used what french I know, and I was able to follow a decent amount of what they were saying when they were totally in french…there was also a dutch family, traveling through indonesia on a 6 week trip…their son does tae kwon doe back in holland, and when he found out I live in korea, he proceeded to count to ten for me in korean…very cute…another bus back to kuta for my last two days…more time on the beach, foot massages, relaxing and a whole lot of shopping…I hadn't been buying much during the trip unless I knew I couldn't get it anywhere else, cause I didn't want to have to haul it around the whole time…I didn't buy much though, my biggest (combined) purchase throughout the trip was all my postcards…
the last night was kinda sad…we knew we had to fly back to korea, and we didn't want to go…no one ever wants to go back to the real world after a good vacation…we had a night flight, so we had all day to do whateva we wanted before heading to the airport…the line to check in at the airport was the slowest line I've ever been in…amazingly slow…there were four counters open for this one flight, and none of them seemed to move…ugh…after chekcing in, you have to pay the airport "passenger service fee" which is really an exit fee…I wonder what happens if someone doesn't have money when they get to the airport…when I am traveling I often try to end up with no money, and I would've been w/out money if I hadn't remembered my previous trip, and known that there is an exit fee…it didn't even look like they took credit cards, though I'm sure they would if it was necessary…it's about $10 a person, which ends up being a LOT of money when you think about all the people who go through that airport…I wonder who gets the money, and what is done with it…that part was esay, as was emmigration, and whateva else…we took off late, (not that I noticed, I was asleep long before the plane took off) and landed in seoul 7 hours later, back in the real world…
but at least I got a tan:)
The next three days were all pretty much the same…I woke up, read and had breakfast, read some more, went to the beach for a couple hours, enjoyed watching all the surfers, both beginning and advanced…avoided all the people trying to sell me things…when I'm laying down with my eyes closed, do you really think I want to buy a ring? Or have a massage? Or rent a boogie board or surfboard? I don't think so…after the beach I'd head back to my room, change, then mosey back to a random place and get a foot massage…shop for a little while, then meet up with darryl and shelena for dinner…we ate at cheap places, not spending more than $2.50 per meal…well, the main part of the meal was usually $1.50, then we'd go somewhere else and have ice cream, which was more expensive, but still fun…I'd go back to my room, read, and turn out the light when I felt like it…I don't know what time I went to sleep any of the nights during the vacation…
The fourth full day, I got on a 6 am bus, and went to ubud…ubud is the cultural capital of bali…it's known for it's many temples, art galleries, spas, locals who still wear traditional clothing, and performances of traditional Balinese dance…I went to the place I stayed the last time I was in ubud, and was again put in the same room as last time…though this time I know that was pure chance, as they didn't recognize me…the first morning I checked out a number of temples, including a few I didn't see last time…maybe it was the time of day, or something else, but all except one of the temples were totally deserted as I walked through…they seem much more spiritual when there aren't people EVERYWHERE…ubud palace, saraswati temple, and others…the afternoon was spent at a spa, getting the royal treatment…an hour massage, body exfoliation, a bath in flowered water, and intensive hair treatment…all for $16, and 3 hours…soooo nice…dinner at one of the local places...(why spend $3 for the same meal you can get it for 50cents at a local place?)…a performance of traditional Balinese dance that night…the costumes are amazing, as is the makeup…and the dance itself is like nothing you'll ever see in the western world…the music is from a gamelon orchestra…a gamelon is somewhat similar to a xylophone, but it struck with something that looks very much like a hammer…and the sound is different, though it's hard to describe how…there are many different sizes of gamelon, and one of the players is sortof the conductor, though that's not obvious if you aren't looking for it…(I was only looking for it since I played in an orchestra for so long)…each time a dancer in a new costume came out, the crowd got out the cameras and hand phones again…I did so as well, but I was nice enough to turn off the flash…that must be incredibly distracting to the dancers…
the next morning I woke up and went walking…it was a route described in my lonely planet guidebook that seemed easy enough in terms of where to go…(I'm really good at getting lost, and didn't feel like doing that in the middle of nowhere)…it was indeed easy to follow, but I felt like I was still doing some exploring…as I walked through several small villages, the locals all watched me, so I got the feeling not many foreigners did the walk…one little boy walked up to me and said "photo?" and struck a pose…hands down the coolest kid ever…I showed it to him after I took it, he liked it…hee hee…I took lots of pictures of the rica paddy fields, I think they're really pretty, though I have no idea why…that afternoon I rented a motorbike, after realizing that the next thing I wanted to see would take me more than an hour of walking to get to, and I didn't have that kind of time…now, a few things to remember: 1. I hadn't been in control of a motorized vehicle since before I moved to korea. and 2. they drive on the left side of the rode in indonesia…so as I got on the motorbike and drove, I was terrified, both for myself and anyone else I might inadvertently hit/run over…somehow or another, I ended up where I wanted to be w/out falling/hitting anyone/wrecking…it was fun to be driving again, and I got more and more comfortable the farther I went…though I was still considerably slower than all the locals, who weave in and out of traffic all the time…I walked around the elephant cave area…it's unknown why it's called the elephant cave, since it doesn't look like an elephant at all…it is a manmade cave carved into a rock wall, and the face carved on the outside is pretty cool…the inside of the cave is just one corridor, with different niches to place offerings…according to the guidebook and locals who try to get you to hire them as guides, the cave is still used for religious ceremonies…it was a bit eerie go to in, as the air doesn't move at all, and it's not a good place to go if you are claustrophobic…I went in, looked around (it's dark except for the like from the entranceway) and got out…there is also a fountain that was originally used by balinese royalty to clean off…now of course, tourists wash their hands and faces and have their pictures taken…I don't know how the water system is set up, but it's pretty impressive…back on the bike, back into town w/out getting hurt or hurting anyone else, dropped it off, and made my way to another spa…(ubud is full of spas, from the cheapt ones to the expensive ones…simple massages all the way to all day pampering)…more dinner, and another dance performance…this one was a kecak dance, which has no instruments to provide the music…the dancers are also a chorus, and since the music…it's impressive…at one point, a man did a fire dance…he walked through/kick a pile of burning coconut husks…I saw the bottoms of his feet after the performance, and they were quite black, though I'm guessing that was from soot as much as anything else…the last morning I got up and walked out to the ubud botanical gardens…they're pretty impressive, or at least I think they would be if everything is blooming…howeva, when I walked through, many flowers had just been planted, so they weren't yet blooming…there were two aspects that I really liked though…one was the quietness/stillness of the entire area, and the other was the maze…(for those of you who are wondering, yes, I did get lost in there…rather unnerving)…walked back to town, rented a motorboke again, and drove out to tegallalung village, about 10km outside ubud…by this time I felt a whole lot more comfortable on the bike, and even passed a few cars…the entire way to the village was on a road with nothing but art galleries and shops where the locals make all the stuff they sell…I know if I had gotten off the bike and started looking around, I never would've gotten back on the bike w/out buying something…the village I was going to is known for one thing, some very impressive rice paddy terraces…they're really cool to see…the down side to them is all the vendors who are set up on the other side, and these vendors are really persistent…they approach you as soon as you get off your bike/out of your car…and they don't go away nearly as easily as other vendors I've seen in bali…I'm not good at saying no, so it was hard…but really, I don't want any more sarongs, or any boxes, or any purses, or anything else…I looked at the terraces for a while, then hopped back on the bike and drove to the last sight I wanted to see, something called yeh pulu…it's a wall with scenes carved into it…it was only discovered in the 80's, they don't know for sure when all the scenes were carved…I met a girl who was traveling with her aunt and friend, she and I compared life stories…(amazing how you can do that with a total stranger)…she was just about to finish her nursing program at chico state, I am still somewhat of a clueless teacher…anywho, back to town, dropped off the bike, dinner and my last performance…this one was in yet another location (the two previous nights had been outdoor performances, this was indoors) and sortof a combination of the two other performances…a smaller gamelon orchestra, and the characters singing/speaking many lines…overall, I think I liked this performance the best…though maybe that was b/c it was easier for me to figure out the good guys and bad guys, and figure out the story line…most of these performances are based on stories from hinduism, and a lot have to do with 'good' winning the battle over 'bad'…
the next morning I got on another bus, and headed to the beach town of sanur…according to the guidebook, it is sometimes given the nickname of 'snore"…it's a beach town, and the beach is great, but it's nothing like the party towns over on the west coast…there are a lot more all inclusive resorts in sanur, and there is no party scene in town…there is also a reef that protects the beaches, so there aren't waves coming up to shore in nearly the strength level as there are in kuta and others…I laid out on a chair, and kept expecting someone to come up and charge me for using the chair, but it never happened…I still don't know if the chairs belong to the resorts, or locals out to make a buck…my two days in sanur consisted of very little…laying out on the beach, reading and talking to the other folks staying at my hostel…there were a couple french couples, and they let me join them in conversation…which meant that it was mostly in english, but I used what french I know, and I was able to follow a decent amount of what they were saying when they were totally in french…there was also a dutch family, traveling through indonesia on a 6 week trip…their son does tae kwon doe back in holland, and when he found out I live in korea, he proceeded to count to ten for me in korean…very cute…another bus back to kuta for my last two days…more time on the beach, foot massages, relaxing and a whole lot of shopping…I hadn't been buying much during the trip unless I knew I couldn't get it anywhere else, cause I didn't want to have to haul it around the whole time…I didn't buy much though, my biggest (combined) purchase throughout the trip was all my postcards…
the last night was kinda sad…we knew we had to fly back to korea, and we didn't want to go…no one ever wants to go back to the real world after a good vacation…we had a night flight, so we had all day to do whateva we wanted before heading to the airport…the line to check in at the airport was the slowest line I've ever been in…amazingly slow…there were four counters open for this one flight, and none of them seemed to move…ugh…after chekcing in, you have to pay the airport "passenger service fee" which is really an exit fee…I wonder what happens if someone doesn't have money when they get to the airport…when I am traveling I often try to end up with no money, and I would've been w/out money if I hadn't remembered my previous trip, and known that there is an exit fee…it didn't even look like they took credit cards, though I'm sure they would if it was necessary…it's about $10 a person, which ends up being a LOT of money when you think about all the people who go through that airport…I wonder who gets the money, and what is done with it…that part was esay, as was emmigration, and whateva else…we took off late, (not that I noticed, I was asleep long before the plane took off) and landed in seoul 7 hours later, back in the real world…
but at least I got a tan:)
21 February 2007
garmisch, DE; kaprun, AT; corvara, IT
Back in february I traveled to europe…it was the first time I had gone back since I left germany, back in march of 2004…I was super excited to go back, for what was supposed to be a ski trip…I traveled with my friend josh (who, since he is no longer speaking/communicating to me, is no longer my friend) and said that if we're going all the way there, we HAVE to start with a couple days in garmisch, germany…I really wanted to show someone new how awesome that town is, how great the people are, how much i loved my life there…
our trip started with a flight from seoul to hong kong…then hong kong to london…(a really expensive airport, by the way)…then london to munich…when we got to munich, we found out that josh's ski bag didn't make the entire trip with us…after giving an address for the airline to deliver the bag, we took off for the hauptbahnhof (main train station in munich) and from there to garmisch…I'm sure I had the biggest grin on my face as we stepped off the train in garmisch…it's a beautiful town, in a valley in the alps…for those of you who haven't been there, I highly recommend going anywhere to see the alps…gorgeous mountains…go figure, this was one of the worst winters in years, at least for people who are into snow sports…it hardly snowed…we checked into haus lilly, which should sound familiar to all of you gappers…her prices have gone up over the years, but in general, she's still got a good place…
the first night in garmisch, we went to one of the best places in town…(at least, most afrc'ers would say it is)…zirbel…we met up with the girl I'll be traveling with next year, she and I got caught up on all the gossip…I'm sure josh was rather confused most of the time…it was great to see her, and I can't wait for our upcoming trip…josh and I had intended to watch the superbowl at a local bar, but with the time difference/jet lag, ended up crashing at 2200…(which I guess is a perfect time to go to sleep if you are trying to adjust to local time that is 8 hours different from where you started)…the next morning I dragged josh to the px…for most people, going to a regular grocery store isn't an exciting experience…but if you've been living in korea, with no access to many american products, it's quite exciting…do you know how long it's been since I've been in a commissary? ages and ages…and a sports store with clothes that fit me? even longer…we ran into quite a few people I remembered from my time in garmisch, it was great to see them all again…I didn't think I knew that many people still, but I had forgotten that garmisch has a way of sucking people in, and they stick around for far longer than they originally intended…next up was a tour of edelweiss…it was only half built when I left garmisch, so I'd only seen pictures of the completed hotel…we walked over, and walked in…saw more people I hadn't seen in years…I surprised mike beard by running across the lobby to him…of course he proceeded to give me a lecture on informing friends when I plan to come visit…hee hee…anywho, he gave us a tour of the new hotel (I guess it's not that new anymore,) both front of the house and back of the house…it's quite impressive…though I will always refuse to stay there, just out of principal…(anyone who has ever worked for that company will understand)…we set up plans for the evening, and went back to take a nap…we (i) had intended to eat dinner at my favorite place in town, bei marcus, but it was closed…it wasn't the ruhetag, I never did figure out why it was closed…oh well…after dinner (at la baita) we headed up to the cure, and met up with chaffin and beard…soooo good to see the two of them again…lots of stories to rehash, lots of gossip to catch up on…I hadn't seen them for three years, but the conversation never stopped…graham even remembered me, which was shocking…it had been years since he had seen me, and he didn't even know i was in town until i walked in the door and he greeted me by name!!...(a good bartender always remembers his customers, I suppose)…after a few drinks at the cure, we went down to the heisman…(now called the underground, as christof owns it, but I still think of it as the heisman)…more people I was super happy to see…smitty, bobo, jen price, tripp…smitty is awesome, as anyone who has ever known him will agree…he knows how to live life…josh and I were tired, and hadn't intended to stay long, but we left as christop closed the bar at 0100…
the next morning we got a call from the hotel that josh's ski bag had finally been delivered, which made him happy…we walked up to the kaserne to rent a car, and happily discovered that jake worked there part time…as we took care of all the paperwork, he and I caught up on life…drove back to haus lilly to check out and grab our stuff, then over the edelweiss to get josh's skis, then over to the hausberg to rent skis for me…I got to talk to lynne (one of my former bosses) and looked for shred, but he wasn't there…(go figure)…
anywho, after collecting everything, we hopped back in the car, on our way to kaprun, austria…we drove through the fernpass, which is absolutely beautiful…josh must be a halfway decent driver, cause I didn't end up carsick, despite all the windy roads…at some point I fell asleep, and while I was asleep josh missed the turnoff…whoops…so basically we went a wee bit farther than we wanted, but oh well, it's a beautiful area, we didn't mind too much…we finally made it where we wanted to go, and after quite a bit of searching found a hotel…too expensive, but we decided we'd suck it up for a night, then find somewhere else the next morning…josh spent the evening waxing his skis…the next morning we put all our stuff in the car, checked into a different hotel, then put on all our ski gear, hopped onto the ski bus (free)…it'd been ages since I had worn ski boots, so I was definitely feeling it and my balance was awful…(not that that is anything out of the ordinary)…josh had never skied a glacier before, so that was where we went the first day…kitzsteinhorn glacier…I'm not experienced enough to notice, but josh noticed a difference in the quality of the snow between korea and austria…hee hee…josh is a much more experienced/qualified skier than I am, so I was surprised when he stayed with me most of the day…I wiped out numerous times, but that was expected, and I didn't get hurt, so it didn't matter…a totally excellent first day on the slopes in three years…I was dead tired, but had that high you get at the end of a great day…the hotel we had checked into included half board, so we didn't have to go anywhere for dinner…great food…the first night was fondue, and there was a bayerisch band playing traditional music…our room was split into two areas, a living room and bedroom, and the bathroom had heated floors…and a bathtub!!! I know that for most of you that doesn't sound exciting, but most apartments/houses in korea don't have bathtubs, and you don't realize how much you like them until you don't have them…
the second day of skiing was the most adventurous day…we went to a different lift area, in a town just outside kaprun, called zell am see…our ski pass covered this area as well, it was an area with runs all the way down to the valley…(though with the crappy winter, the bottoms of the runs were crap)…it was the first time I had skied two days in a row in I don't know how long…I realized how out of shape I was when I had trouble making easy turns right from the start…but I kept going…we took a few pictures, and then halfway down the fourth run, I fell…at first I thought it was just like any of my other falls, and started checking my body as I slid to a stop…my face was okay, as were my arms and legs…or so I thought…I realized that my left wrist wasn't feeling quite right, and that closing my left hand didn't feel so good…then the pain hit…I lost both of my skis in the fall (don't ask how I fell, because I have no memory of the fall itself, other than i know i was by myself, no one else was involved) so those had to be found and brought to me…fortunately, josh wasn't too far ahead of me when I fell, and he happened to look back up for me not too long after I fell…he told me later he realized that something really bad had happened when he saw me sitting there with my gloves off…(I hadn't taken anything off in my previous falls)…then he saw my wrist which was at a bit of a funny angle, with a large bump in a place bumps aren't supposed to be…a ski instructor got to me before josh, and balled up some snow to put on the wrist…josh got there and helped me get all my stuff, then we pizza wedged all the way down to the lift…all I had to do was show the lifties my wrist (I was crying too hard to be very coherent) and they knew I needed to go to the hospital, so they called an ambulance to meet us at the bottom…the ambulance ride was only 25€!!! waayyyy cheaper than in the states!! I arrived at the hospital, then the waiting began…quickly enough they ushered me into an exam room, and there I sat for what seemed like foreva…I really don't know how long it was, as I didn't have a watch…and since my wrist was in constant pain, time seemed interminable…they took x-rays, which (surprise surprise) said that I had a broken wrist, as well as a dislocation…fun fun fun…after the x-rays, there was more waiting…a whole lot of it…yet again, my ability to tell time wasn't so good at that point…they moved me into another room, put my arm into some sort of contraption, shot me up with a very nice painkiller (it didn't just kill the pain, I felt absolutely NOTHING, I couldn't even tell I had a wrist) and proceeded to pull until the dislocation popped back into place…then they set the broken bone, and put me into an open cast…gave me a prescription for painkillers (which didn't do anything, as I unhappily found out later that evening,) had me sit around some more just for good measure, then finally let me go…paying for all of this wasn't so fun, but I'm too much of a goody two shoes to skip out on such things…while I was going through all of this, josh had taken a cab back to the hotel, gotten shoes for me (we were both in ski boots) and driven back to the hospital…I felt bad for him, as it was basically a lost day of skiing…drove back to the hotel, and I started whining…(at that point, I was a big baby, and felt I was entirely justified in whining about anything)…I was mad that my wrist was broken, in a lot of pain, and mad that I wasn't going to be able to do much of anything for the rest of the trip…zipping my coat ended up being a huge challenge, there was no way skiing was going to happen again…dinner that night introduced me to the fact that being one armed SUCKS…I couldn't hold my plate and put food on it at the same time…I couldn't cut my food…getting dressed before dinner was awful…tying my shoes, putting on my pants, brushing my hair, putting on a shirt, you get the idea…try doing all of this w/out using one arm, and you'll know how I felt…I don't like being helpless…josh had to do everything for me…and to his eternal credit, he was a total gentleman about all of it…(he teased me, but it was funny, not mean)…for the rest of the trip, wheneva we ate in a restaurant, people around us would ask what happened, and I would tell them I fell while skiing, and they'd feel sorry for me, while laughing and applauding josh for cutting my food…
the next day josh went skiing, I stayed in the hotel room (what else was I going to do??) watching tv and reading and trying to keep my mind off the pain…(it didn't work well, I'm glad I was alone, as I was a complete baby)…fortunately, the world ski championships were going on in are, Sweden at the time, so there was something for me to watch on eurosport…the welsh open for snooker was also taking place…lets just say I watched a whole lot of both of those for the rest of the trip…josh had fun skiing, I did a lot of reading…after josh's day on the slopes w/out me, we decided to drive back to garmisch and drop off my equipment, since I obviously wasn't about to be using it again…saw more people, they all said "don't you know you aren't supposed to fall?"…hee hee…we had dinner that night with helmut and Jamie, two more fabulous people…the following morning at breakfast, someone asked us in the breakfast room where we were planning to go…we didn't really know where we should go, so we asked him what he thought…(turned out he was a guy who was a volunteer each weekend in garmisch)…he suggested corvara, italy, so off we went…first to an internet café to get directions…guess what, there are four towns named corvara in italy…and go figure, we printed off directions to the smallest (and wrong) one…after going over the windiest mountain pass ever, we arrived in corvara (the wrong one) only to realize our mistake…apparently this mistake has been made before, b/c a lady in a guesthouse knew where we really wanted to go, and quickly gave us directions…after more driving through some beautiful vineyards and such, we finally arrived in corvara (the right one)…walked into information about 5 minutes before it closed, and were able to get info on where we could find a room…corvara is a ski town…nothing but guesthouses, restaurants, and a few sport shops…nothing else…we found a guesthouse, got dinner somewhere, and settled in for the night…the next three days, josh went skiing during the day, while I watched tv…(snooker and skiing anyone??)…at some point during each day I made my way through town, checking the daily menus for many of the restaurants, and deciding where we'd eat each night…corvara is in northern italy, german is still used as much as Italian and ladin, so I had no problem being understood…it was great for me to discover throughout the trip that I remembered more german than I thought I would, and was actually able to communicate w/out much English…corvara was cute, josh had fun skiing for 3 days…
on josh's last day on the slopes, I went to the doctor in town to have my wrist x-rayed to make sure everything was okay…(the doctors at the hospital told me I needed to do this)…go figure, everything was NOT okay…according to the x-rays, my wrist hadn't been set properly…the doctor told me that I'd have to have it reset if I wanted to be sure to have my full range of motion when it healed…definitely NOT what I wanted to hear…howeva, he said that I would be flying very soon, he didn't think it would be a good idea for me to have it done that day…or at all before I flew back to korea…ugh…so he wrote a note saying that I was okay to travel (apparently some airports don't want you getting on a plane with a hard cast) and put it in all the paperwork I was collecting…
the next day we drove out of town, all the way up to Frankfurt germany, from which we were flying home…flew out a day and a half later…a couple layovers, and there we were, back in the land of the "not quite right"…
okay, that's the end of the trip…despite the broken wrist, I loved it…I loved being back in Europe, I loved speaking german again, I loved seeing some of my old friends again…I like my life in korea, but I loved it in Europe…
we arrived back in korea during the lunar new year, which means that just about everything is closed…only the emergency rooms of hospitals would be open…so I had to wait two days to get to a doctor…I went to an international clinic, and they took x-rays again…told me that yes, it should be reset, but they were afraid it might have already started to fuse again…I said I'd have them attempt the reset anywho…they gave me a painkiller, but it did nothing…as soon as they started working on the wrist (two doctors) I started kicking…IT HURT…the volunteer translator guy held down my legs while the nurse held my head and other hand…I have never screamed that loudly…it was the worst four minutes of my life…horrible horrible horrible…I yelled/screamed/cried the entire time, and it was another two solid hours of crying before the pain subsided enough to be tolerable…I'm pretty sure I've never been that miserable…
to make a long story only a wee bit shorter, the cast came off two months later, and I'm totally fine now…I want to go skiing again, but I'm still a wee bit scared, ya know?
our trip started with a flight from seoul to hong kong…then hong kong to london…(a really expensive airport, by the way)…then london to munich…when we got to munich, we found out that josh's ski bag didn't make the entire trip with us…after giving an address for the airline to deliver the bag, we took off for the hauptbahnhof (main train station in munich) and from there to garmisch…I'm sure I had the biggest grin on my face as we stepped off the train in garmisch…it's a beautiful town, in a valley in the alps…for those of you who haven't been there, I highly recommend going anywhere to see the alps…gorgeous mountains…go figure, this was one of the worst winters in years, at least for people who are into snow sports…it hardly snowed…we checked into haus lilly, which should sound familiar to all of you gappers…her prices have gone up over the years, but in general, she's still got a good place…
the first night in garmisch, we went to one of the best places in town…(at least, most afrc'ers would say it is)…zirbel…we met up with the girl I'll be traveling with next year, she and I got caught up on all the gossip…I'm sure josh was rather confused most of the time…it was great to see her, and I can't wait for our upcoming trip…josh and I had intended to watch the superbowl at a local bar, but with the time difference/jet lag, ended up crashing at 2200…(which I guess is a perfect time to go to sleep if you are trying to adjust to local time that is 8 hours different from where you started)…the next morning I dragged josh to the px…for most people, going to a regular grocery store isn't an exciting experience…but if you've been living in korea, with no access to many american products, it's quite exciting…do you know how long it's been since I've been in a commissary? ages and ages…and a sports store with clothes that fit me? even longer…we ran into quite a few people I remembered from my time in garmisch, it was great to see them all again…I didn't think I knew that many people still, but I had forgotten that garmisch has a way of sucking people in, and they stick around for far longer than they originally intended…next up was a tour of edelweiss…it was only half built when I left garmisch, so I'd only seen pictures of the completed hotel…we walked over, and walked in…saw more people I hadn't seen in years…I surprised mike beard by running across the lobby to him…of course he proceeded to give me a lecture on informing friends when I plan to come visit…hee hee…anywho, he gave us a tour of the new hotel (I guess it's not that new anymore,) both front of the house and back of the house…it's quite impressive…though I will always refuse to stay there, just out of principal…(anyone who has ever worked for that company will understand)…we set up plans for the evening, and went back to take a nap…we (i) had intended to eat dinner at my favorite place in town, bei marcus, but it was closed…it wasn't the ruhetag, I never did figure out why it was closed…oh well…after dinner (at la baita) we headed up to the cure, and met up with chaffin and beard…soooo good to see the two of them again…lots of stories to rehash, lots of gossip to catch up on…I hadn't seen them for three years, but the conversation never stopped…graham even remembered me, which was shocking…it had been years since he had seen me, and he didn't even know i was in town until i walked in the door and he greeted me by name!!...(a good bartender always remembers his customers, I suppose)…after a few drinks at the cure, we went down to the heisman…(now called the underground, as christof owns it, but I still think of it as the heisman)…more people I was super happy to see…smitty, bobo, jen price, tripp…smitty is awesome, as anyone who has ever known him will agree…he knows how to live life…josh and I were tired, and hadn't intended to stay long, but we left as christop closed the bar at 0100…
the next morning we got a call from the hotel that josh's ski bag had finally been delivered, which made him happy…we walked up to the kaserne to rent a car, and happily discovered that jake worked there part time…as we took care of all the paperwork, he and I caught up on life…drove back to haus lilly to check out and grab our stuff, then over the edelweiss to get josh's skis, then over to the hausberg to rent skis for me…I got to talk to lynne (one of my former bosses) and looked for shred, but he wasn't there…(go figure)…
anywho, after collecting everything, we hopped back in the car, on our way to kaprun, austria…we drove through the fernpass, which is absolutely beautiful…josh must be a halfway decent driver, cause I didn't end up carsick, despite all the windy roads…at some point I fell asleep, and while I was asleep josh missed the turnoff…whoops…so basically we went a wee bit farther than we wanted, but oh well, it's a beautiful area, we didn't mind too much…we finally made it where we wanted to go, and after quite a bit of searching found a hotel…too expensive, but we decided we'd suck it up for a night, then find somewhere else the next morning…josh spent the evening waxing his skis…the next morning we put all our stuff in the car, checked into a different hotel, then put on all our ski gear, hopped onto the ski bus (free)…it'd been ages since I had worn ski boots, so I was definitely feeling it and my balance was awful…(not that that is anything out of the ordinary)…josh had never skied a glacier before, so that was where we went the first day…kitzsteinhorn glacier…I'm not experienced enough to notice, but josh noticed a difference in the quality of the snow between korea and austria…hee hee…josh is a much more experienced/qualified skier than I am, so I was surprised when he stayed with me most of the day…I wiped out numerous times, but that was expected, and I didn't get hurt, so it didn't matter…a totally excellent first day on the slopes in three years…I was dead tired, but had that high you get at the end of a great day…the hotel we had checked into included half board, so we didn't have to go anywhere for dinner…great food…the first night was fondue, and there was a bayerisch band playing traditional music…our room was split into two areas, a living room and bedroom, and the bathroom had heated floors…and a bathtub!!! I know that for most of you that doesn't sound exciting, but most apartments/houses in korea don't have bathtubs, and you don't realize how much you like them until you don't have them…
the second day of skiing was the most adventurous day…we went to a different lift area, in a town just outside kaprun, called zell am see…our ski pass covered this area as well, it was an area with runs all the way down to the valley…(though with the crappy winter, the bottoms of the runs were crap)…it was the first time I had skied two days in a row in I don't know how long…I realized how out of shape I was when I had trouble making easy turns right from the start…but I kept going…we took a few pictures, and then halfway down the fourth run, I fell…at first I thought it was just like any of my other falls, and started checking my body as I slid to a stop…my face was okay, as were my arms and legs…or so I thought…I realized that my left wrist wasn't feeling quite right, and that closing my left hand didn't feel so good…then the pain hit…I lost both of my skis in the fall (don't ask how I fell, because I have no memory of the fall itself, other than i know i was by myself, no one else was involved) so those had to be found and brought to me…fortunately, josh wasn't too far ahead of me when I fell, and he happened to look back up for me not too long after I fell…he told me later he realized that something really bad had happened when he saw me sitting there with my gloves off…(I hadn't taken anything off in my previous falls)…then he saw my wrist which was at a bit of a funny angle, with a large bump in a place bumps aren't supposed to be…a ski instructor got to me before josh, and balled up some snow to put on the wrist…josh got there and helped me get all my stuff, then we pizza wedged all the way down to the lift…all I had to do was show the lifties my wrist (I was crying too hard to be very coherent) and they knew I needed to go to the hospital, so they called an ambulance to meet us at the bottom…the ambulance ride was only 25€!!! waayyyy cheaper than in the states!! I arrived at the hospital, then the waiting began…quickly enough they ushered me into an exam room, and there I sat for what seemed like foreva…I really don't know how long it was, as I didn't have a watch…and since my wrist was in constant pain, time seemed interminable…they took x-rays, which (surprise surprise) said that I had a broken wrist, as well as a dislocation…fun fun fun…after the x-rays, there was more waiting…a whole lot of it…yet again, my ability to tell time wasn't so good at that point…they moved me into another room, put my arm into some sort of contraption, shot me up with a very nice painkiller (it didn't just kill the pain, I felt absolutely NOTHING, I couldn't even tell I had a wrist) and proceeded to pull until the dislocation popped back into place…then they set the broken bone, and put me into an open cast…gave me a prescription for painkillers (which didn't do anything, as I unhappily found out later that evening,) had me sit around some more just for good measure, then finally let me go…paying for all of this wasn't so fun, but I'm too much of a goody two shoes to skip out on such things…while I was going through all of this, josh had taken a cab back to the hotel, gotten shoes for me (we were both in ski boots) and driven back to the hospital…I felt bad for him, as it was basically a lost day of skiing…drove back to the hotel, and I started whining…(at that point, I was a big baby, and felt I was entirely justified in whining about anything)…I was mad that my wrist was broken, in a lot of pain, and mad that I wasn't going to be able to do much of anything for the rest of the trip…zipping my coat ended up being a huge challenge, there was no way skiing was going to happen again…dinner that night introduced me to the fact that being one armed SUCKS…I couldn't hold my plate and put food on it at the same time…I couldn't cut my food…getting dressed before dinner was awful…tying my shoes, putting on my pants, brushing my hair, putting on a shirt, you get the idea…try doing all of this w/out using one arm, and you'll know how I felt…I don't like being helpless…josh had to do everything for me…and to his eternal credit, he was a total gentleman about all of it…(he teased me, but it was funny, not mean)…for the rest of the trip, wheneva we ate in a restaurant, people around us would ask what happened, and I would tell them I fell while skiing, and they'd feel sorry for me, while laughing and applauding josh for cutting my food…
the next day josh went skiing, I stayed in the hotel room (what else was I going to do??) watching tv and reading and trying to keep my mind off the pain…(it didn't work well, I'm glad I was alone, as I was a complete baby)…fortunately, the world ski championships were going on in are, Sweden at the time, so there was something for me to watch on eurosport…the welsh open for snooker was also taking place…lets just say I watched a whole lot of both of those for the rest of the trip…josh had fun skiing, I did a lot of reading…after josh's day on the slopes w/out me, we decided to drive back to garmisch and drop off my equipment, since I obviously wasn't about to be using it again…saw more people, they all said "don't you know you aren't supposed to fall?"…hee hee…we had dinner that night with helmut and Jamie, two more fabulous people…the following morning at breakfast, someone asked us in the breakfast room where we were planning to go…we didn't really know where we should go, so we asked him what he thought…(turned out he was a guy who was a volunteer each weekend in garmisch)…he suggested corvara, italy, so off we went…first to an internet café to get directions…guess what, there are four towns named corvara in italy…and go figure, we printed off directions to the smallest (and wrong) one…after going over the windiest mountain pass ever, we arrived in corvara (the wrong one) only to realize our mistake…apparently this mistake has been made before, b/c a lady in a guesthouse knew where we really wanted to go, and quickly gave us directions…after more driving through some beautiful vineyards and such, we finally arrived in corvara (the right one)…walked into information about 5 minutes before it closed, and were able to get info on where we could find a room…corvara is a ski town…nothing but guesthouses, restaurants, and a few sport shops…nothing else…we found a guesthouse, got dinner somewhere, and settled in for the night…the next three days, josh went skiing during the day, while I watched tv…(snooker and skiing anyone??)…at some point during each day I made my way through town, checking the daily menus for many of the restaurants, and deciding where we'd eat each night…corvara is in northern italy, german is still used as much as Italian and ladin, so I had no problem being understood…it was great for me to discover throughout the trip that I remembered more german than I thought I would, and was actually able to communicate w/out much English…corvara was cute, josh had fun skiing for 3 days…
on josh's last day on the slopes, I went to the doctor in town to have my wrist x-rayed to make sure everything was okay…(the doctors at the hospital told me I needed to do this)…go figure, everything was NOT okay…according to the x-rays, my wrist hadn't been set properly…the doctor told me that I'd have to have it reset if I wanted to be sure to have my full range of motion when it healed…definitely NOT what I wanted to hear…howeva, he said that I would be flying very soon, he didn't think it would be a good idea for me to have it done that day…or at all before I flew back to korea…ugh…so he wrote a note saying that I was okay to travel (apparently some airports don't want you getting on a plane with a hard cast) and put it in all the paperwork I was collecting…
the next day we drove out of town, all the way up to Frankfurt germany, from which we were flying home…flew out a day and a half later…a couple layovers, and there we were, back in the land of the "not quite right"…
okay, that's the end of the trip…despite the broken wrist, I loved it…I loved being back in Europe, I loved speaking german again, I loved seeing some of my old friends again…I like my life in korea, but I loved it in Europe…
we arrived back in korea during the lunar new year, which means that just about everything is closed…only the emergency rooms of hospitals would be open…so I had to wait two days to get to a doctor…I went to an international clinic, and they took x-rays again…told me that yes, it should be reset, but they were afraid it might have already started to fuse again…I said I'd have them attempt the reset anywho…they gave me a painkiller, but it did nothing…as soon as they started working on the wrist (two doctors) I started kicking…IT HURT…the volunteer translator guy held down my legs while the nurse held my head and other hand…I have never screamed that loudly…it was the worst four minutes of my life…horrible horrible horrible…I yelled/screamed/cried the entire time, and it was another two solid hours of crying before the pain subsided enough to be tolerable…I'm pretty sure I've never been that miserable…
to make a long story only a wee bit shorter, the cast came off two months later, and I'm totally fine now…I want to go skiing again, but I'm still a wee bit scared, ya know?
31 December 2006
HONG KONG, SPECIAL ADMINISTRATIVE REGION, CHINA
Sunday, December 31, 2006
HONG KONG, SPECIAL ADMINISTRATIVE REGION, CHINA
The Hong Kong part of my winter vacation was completely mellow…Ivan and I flew from Beijing to Hong Kong, which actually ended up being the longest flight of the vacation…3.5 hours…not too shabby…the Hong Kong airport is a lot nicer and more modern than the Beijing airport…MUCH more modern…the oddest part of the flight was checking in at the Beijing airport…you have to go through customs before you check in…very strange…getting off the airplane in Hong Kong was nice…it was a LOT warmer, so we didn't need 67 layers of clothes anymore…we hopped into a cab, and found the hostel where I had made reservations…it was in chungking mansions, which is basically one GIANT building…filled with many hostels, stands to buy just about anything, a few places to surf the internet, Indian restaurants, money exchangers, etc…and tons of touts…Beijing was nothing compared to the number of people who are trying to sell stuff or get us to go to their hostel/restaurant…I'm glad we had reservations ahead of time…we checked into our room, which was tiny…newer than the Beijing hostel, and with a TV…we found it had the wonders of bbc, one of the best news channels ever…
Since we had a few hours, we decided to go to the peak, to see Victoria harbor at night…I'm glad we did, even though it was pretty windy and chilly up at the top…after taking the subway/bus and walking a bit, we found the bottom tram station…the tram ride up is really steep…enough so that they build the steps in the middle of the tram at an angle for those who end up standing…the view at the top of the peak is great…at night, when all the buildings are lit up, it's amazing…many of the buildings are supposedly coordinated together in a light show, but we didn't really see that…there are definitely buildings with changing lights, but they didn't seem coordinated…Ivan is much more a photographer than I am, but I think the two of us took equal numbers of pictures…I played around with the settings on my camera for the first time ever, and found all sorts of good ways to take pictures…black and white, sepia toned, adjusting the shutter speed, etc…fun times…
The next day we didn't set an alarm…didn't even bother to think about what we wanted to see until after getting ready for the day…we walked for what seemed like ages to find breakfast, but we didn't see anything…annoying, so we ended up settling on a convenience store breakfast…ice cream, chocolate and chocolate milk for me, a sandwich for Ivan…we decided to check out Hong Kong park…it's built in the middle of Hong Kong, an 8 hectare park…it's not a huge park, but they have managed to cram a number of areas into it…a fountain plaza, conservatory, Olympic square, viewing tower, museum and aviary…it's a bit odd to see the contrast in photographs, with the park surrounded by skyscrapers…the aviary is nice to walk through, according to the signs, it is home to 600 birds of 90 different species…we did howeva, skip the museum of tea ware…we figured we didn't need to see a museum full of antique tea ware…bowls, teaspoons, brewing trays, sniffing cups and teapots…how exciting does that sound??? Not very…after wandering around, we had lunch at a small sandwich type of place…I guess it was later than lunch, but not really dinner yet…after that came the Hong Kong space museum…it's shaped like a ginormous golf ball…there is a lot about Chinese space history, some of the legends of space, and some hands on exhibits illustrating the laws of physics…you get to see a lump of moon rock, and the 1962 space capsule from Mercury…some of the exhibits were outdated…for instance, Pluto is still listed as a planet, and at least one globe showed Yugoslavia as a country…there is also an IMAX theater…Ivan and I each picked a 'movie' we wanted to see, and agreed to come back the next night…dinner was at Murphy's pub, an Irish pub…they had street signs from a few places in Ireland…one of them was from Ivan's hometown, and a town very close to his…what a small world…
The next morning was the morning Saddam Hussein was executed…since it was pretty much the only thing on the news, it prompted an interesting discussion between Ivan and I about the death penalty…it's always interesting to hear the reasons people have for the way they feel…or the lack of reasons…we ended up getting moving late again, and after breakfast at the Irish pub again, we got on the subway to see the chi lin nunnery…it's a Buddhist nunnery…it's not as large as other temple complexes…but it still has plenty of gates, as I've come to expect…it's like Hong Kong park, in that it's very peaceful…until you look up and see the skyscrapers close by…(also like Hong Kong park)…we didn't actually see any nuns while we were there, but we did see a number of buddhas…after coming back, we walked along the wharf, seeing all the buildings as they slowly lit up for the night…it was pretty hazy, though we weren't sure whether that was due to pollution or just not so clear weather…(the pollution is one of the worst things about Hong Kong)…either way, it wasn't as clear as we would've liked…we went to the Irish pub for one last dinner, before heading up to our room to pack up…over to the space theater again to watch our two movies…Ivan chose one about the exploration of the moon, I chose one about speed…(movement, not the drug)…both were good…howeva, I got really really motion sick during parts of the movie about speed…who would've thought I could feel that sick from just a movie?? Ugh…a quick walk back to the hostel, a taxi ride to the airport, and hop on our flight back to Seoul…arriving back in the land of cold and wind…but it's home, at least for now…
HONG KONG, SPECIAL ADMINISTRATIVE REGION, CHINA
The Hong Kong part of my winter vacation was completely mellow…Ivan and I flew from Beijing to Hong Kong, which actually ended up being the longest flight of the vacation…3.5 hours…not too shabby…the Hong Kong airport is a lot nicer and more modern than the Beijing airport…MUCH more modern…the oddest part of the flight was checking in at the Beijing airport…you have to go through customs before you check in…very strange…getting off the airplane in Hong Kong was nice…it was a LOT warmer, so we didn't need 67 layers of clothes anymore…we hopped into a cab, and found the hostel where I had made reservations…it was in chungking mansions, which is basically one GIANT building…filled with many hostels, stands to buy just about anything, a few places to surf the internet, Indian restaurants, money exchangers, etc…and tons of touts…Beijing was nothing compared to the number of people who are trying to sell stuff or get us to go to their hostel/restaurant…I'm glad we had reservations ahead of time…we checked into our room, which was tiny…newer than the Beijing hostel, and with a TV…we found it had the wonders of bbc, one of the best news channels ever…
Since we had a few hours, we decided to go to the peak, to see Victoria harbor at night…I'm glad we did, even though it was pretty windy and chilly up at the top…after taking the subway/bus and walking a bit, we found the bottom tram station…the tram ride up is really steep…enough so that they build the steps in the middle of the tram at an angle for those who end up standing…the view at the top of the peak is great…at night, when all the buildings are lit up, it's amazing…many of the buildings are supposedly coordinated together in a light show, but we didn't really see that…there are definitely buildings with changing lights, but they didn't seem coordinated…Ivan is much more a photographer than I am, but I think the two of us took equal numbers of pictures…I played around with the settings on my camera for the first time ever, and found all sorts of good ways to take pictures…black and white, sepia toned, adjusting the shutter speed, etc…fun times…
The next day we didn't set an alarm…didn't even bother to think about what we wanted to see until after getting ready for the day…we walked for what seemed like ages to find breakfast, but we didn't see anything…annoying, so we ended up settling on a convenience store breakfast…ice cream, chocolate and chocolate milk for me, a sandwich for Ivan…we decided to check out Hong Kong park…it's built in the middle of Hong Kong, an 8 hectare park…it's not a huge park, but they have managed to cram a number of areas into it…a fountain plaza, conservatory, Olympic square, viewing tower, museum and aviary…it's a bit odd to see the contrast in photographs, with the park surrounded by skyscrapers…the aviary is nice to walk through, according to the signs, it is home to 600 birds of 90 different species…we did howeva, skip the museum of tea ware…we figured we didn't need to see a museum full of antique tea ware…bowls, teaspoons, brewing trays, sniffing cups and teapots…how exciting does that sound??? Not very…after wandering around, we had lunch at a small sandwich type of place…I guess it was later than lunch, but not really dinner yet…after that came the Hong Kong space museum…it's shaped like a ginormous golf ball…there is a lot about Chinese space history, some of the legends of space, and some hands on exhibits illustrating the laws of physics…you get to see a lump of moon rock, and the 1962 space capsule from Mercury…some of the exhibits were outdated…for instance, Pluto is still listed as a planet, and at least one globe showed Yugoslavia as a country…there is also an IMAX theater…Ivan and I each picked a 'movie' we wanted to see, and agreed to come back the next night…dinner was at Murphy's pub, an Irish pub…they had street signs from a few places in Ireland…one of them was from Ivan's hometown, and a town very close to his…what a small world…
The next morning was the morning Saddam Hussein was executed…since it was pretty much the only thing on the news, it prompted an interesting discussion between Ivan and I about the death penalty…it's always interesting to hear the reasons people have for the way they feel…or the lack of reasons…we ended up getting moving late again, and after breakfast at the Irish pub again, we got on the subway to see the chi lin nunnery…it's a Buddhist nunnery…it's not as large as other temple complexes…but it still has plenty of gates, as I've come to expect…it's like Hong Kong park, in that it's very peaceful…until you look up and see the skyscrapers close by…(also like Hong Kong park)…we didn't actually see any nuns while we were there, but we did see a number of buddhas…after coming back, we walked along the wharf, seeing all the buildings as they slowly lit up for the night…it was pretty hazy, though we weren't sure whether that was due to pollution or just not so clear weather…(the pollution is one of the worst things about Hong Kong)…either way, it wasn't as clear as we would've liked…we went to the Irish pub for one last dinner, before heading up to our room to pack up…over to the space theater again to watch our two movies…Ivan chose one about the exploration of the moon, I chose one about speed…(movement, not the drug)…both were good…howeva, I got really really motion sick during parts of the movie about speed…who would've thought I could feel that sick from just a movie?? Ugh…a quick walk back to the hostel, a taxi ride to the airport, and hop on our flight back to Seoul…arriving back in the land of cold and wind…but it's home, at least for now…
28 December 2006
BEIJING, CHINA 2006
Thursday, December 28, 2006
BEIJING, CHINA
This year Christmas fell on a Monday, which means that New Years Day was also on a Monday…which meant that the winter break given to most teachers at hogwans was just over a week…most of us finished sometime on Friday, 22 December, and had to return to school Tuesday, 2 January…much nicer than the break I got stuck with last year, which was only four days in total…this year I made travel plans before switching schools, so I traveled with teachers at my old school…we had all traveled together previously to Vietnam, so I knew it would be a good time again…
We took off on Saturday, 23 December, to Beijing, the capital of China…landing at the airport, we got off the plane and onto a bus which took us to one of the terminals…it was definitely not what I expected at an airport that will be part of the Olympics in a year and a half…I expected something more modern and up to date…I don't know if they'll be doing anything to the airport (expansion, renovation, etc) before the games…as we exited the building, we were greeted by the usual taxi touts, who want you to take an "official" taxi somewhere…usually at a price that is at least double what a metered taxi would cost…having been warned against taking these, we took a regular metered taxi…the driver knew where to go, (and didn't take us a roundabout way) which is no small feat in a city the size of Beijing…I had previously made reservations at a hostel, which turned out to be fantastic (except that the common area was chilly nearly all the time)…we arrived early evening the first day, so we didn't do much except eat dinner and talk about what we wanted to see and do over the next few days…we signed ourselves up to go see an acrobatic show, a kung fu show, and the opera…we also figured out transportation to one section of the great wall…our hostel ended up being awesome in regards to information in general, especially transportation around the city to see everything…
The first full day we all met for breakfast in the common area…the hostel also offered food, including western breakfasts…I love banana pancakes, so those were a staple for me…ivan consistently got toast, eggs, French fries and bacon…paul and correne mixed it up…after eating, we got on the city bus (the number, where to get on, where to get off, and cost were all information the guesthouse helped us with) on our way to tiennamen square and the forbidden city…the bus cost a whopping 2 yuan…which is equivalent to about 25 cents…practically nothing…and that was an expensive bus that was air conditioned during the summer…other buses were only 1 yuan…we got off, and immediately started taking pictures…at one end of tiennamen square there are a couple huge gates…not gates in the standard western sense, but gates as in you have to go through a tunnel in the middle to get through it…huge, ornate, impressive…at one end of tiennamen square is the end of the forbidden city…well, one of the gates anywho…(can you tell that Chinese culture has traditionally built a lot of gates?)…this gate is the famous one with the picture of mao…(who is still very much revered in china)…it's called the gate of heavenly peace…it was from this gate that Mao declared the people's republic of china…there are 5 doors through the gate, and social hierarchy determined who got to use which one back when…only the emperor got to use the middle one…we took a lot of pictures, as were all the other tourists…through that gate into a "courtyard where you can buy tickets for the forbidden city…the area was full of tourists, and touts…the touts come up to everyone, offering everything from special tours of the city, to tours of other sights, to knick knacks for sale, etc…at first you don't mind so much, but after a while, it wears on you, and you start being rude to all of them…since this is how they make a living, some of the touts are very persistant, which can be incredibly annoying…finding the correct line to buy tickets wasn't so easy…the proper tickets are for the palace museum, but of course that wasn't stated anywhere…anywho, after buying the tickets we walked through the next gate, prepared to be wowed…unfortunately, as soon as we walked through that area, we saw that one of the major buildings, the library, is under renovation…(the whole city is undergoing a LOT of renovation in preparation for the 2008 summer Olympic games)…definitely a disappointment…howeva, that wasn't too much of a disappointment, because the 'city' is HUGE…no one is kidding when they say you need to allow at least half a day to see the area…lots and lots and lots of art…lots and lots and lots of temples…a beautiful garden that is probably way better looking in summer…lots of pavilions…lots of mini gates…there is a starbucks somewhere in there, though we didn't see it…this particular starbucks is currently the center of some controversy, as many Chinese people want it gone from the 'city'…I can't say I blame them…an American icon in the middle of a cultural relic of another country…I'm not the most patriotic of people, but I'm pretty sure I wouldn't want a Samsung store in the middle of ellis island…(please don't tell me there is anything like that there?)…the downfall of not having vendors in such a large place is that we were really really hungry by the time we left the city…hunger probably contributed to us leaving a little earlier than we normally would've…howeva, we were there for a good four hours…(the cold contributed as well, I'm sure)…on the way home we ended up on the most crowded bus I've ever been on…very very very crowded…but I got the impression that that was normal for locals…there are a zillion of them, and only so many public buses…evening entertainment was an acrobatic show…while not as good as what we saw in north korea, it was still great…I don't know what the acrobats put on their resumes, but they are really good at what they do…being that flexible is amazing…after the show, we took a taxi back (feeling more than a little carsick by the time we finally got back to the guesthouse) and all slept soundly…
The next morning was the same morning routine, though a whole lot earlier…the four of us, as well as two other girls staying at the same place, were all going to the great wall…we chose a section of the wall that isn't as highly touristed, and the tour isn't combined with any other tour…(the section of the wall at badaling is often combined with a tour to the ming tombs)…our drive there was less than two hours, and quite scenic after we got out of the middle of the city…knowing how cold it might be, we had all bundled up, big time…I had five layers on, two t-shirts, a long sleeve shirt, two sweaters, and a coat…I guess that makes six layers…the others were all the same…when we got to the wall, the driver said he'd be back in four hours to pick us up…we were excited that we could do whateva we wanted…at this particular section of the wall, you have two choices to get up…take a cable car (ski lift chair) or hike up…then on the way down you have three choices…hike, cable car, or toboggan ride…we took the toboggan ride down, which was great…back to the wall…it's an amazing sight…it covers half the country, and was never militarily breached…(the Mongols did get through, but that's cause the commander of one area let them through, thinking that the Mongols would help quell the internal unrest in the country)…it's a fantastic engineering feat, over 1500 years old…lots of stairs, lots of ups and downs…lots of great views…it is said that it is one of only a few man made things that can be seen from space…I don't know about that, but some people swear by it…we got there early enough that there were very few people, and we were able to get lots of good pictures…you don't think all the stairs are a big deal until you look back and see what you climbed…(and the next day when your calves are ready to fall off)…I think we could've walked all day, just to see how far we could go…amazing…since the wall is so well touristed in general (even our section, which wasn't as heavily visited as other sections, still draws quite a number of visitors) there are lots of vendor stalls set up…no food, but LOTS of souvenirs…silk robes, t-shirts for $1, purses, wood carvings, etc…anything you could want…when you walk by each stall, the vendor tries to get you to look at his/her stuff…the vendors are VERY aggressive…if you are good at bargaining, you can find stuff and get it down to cheap prices…I'm not so good at bargaining…in fact, I'm terrible…and I know it, so I don't buy the stuff at all…after all my fellow travelers exercised their formidable bargaining skills (they really are good at it) we got back in the van and drove back to the city…as this happened to be Christmas day, and our little group was in the holiday spirit, we decided to splurge on dinner…after finding a tony roma's listed in the guidebook, we hopped in a cab…the restaurant was supposed to be in a fairly upscale mall…(the mall included a store that sold bmw clothing, as part of the bmw lifestyle…the mall also had a little jewelry kiosk called eva jewelry…obviously my fame has extended to asia!)…it turned out that tony roma's was no longer there…but there was a sizzler…being very very hungry by that point, we decided to go for it…for those of you who don't know, sizzler proclaims itself to be a steakhouse…that it is, but not a high class place…every meal comes with the buffet bar, which can also be ordered as a meal itself…it's not bad, but not great either…(very little option for dessert, and we all know that I remember restaurants by their dessertsJ)…the steak is not the best available, but we still had a good time…and, more importantly, the restaurant was HOT…we all shed our coats, as well as two or three layers of clothing…since our guesthouse wasn't all that warm, it was great to be comfortable, even a little roasty…a good meal, good conversation, and then back to the guesthouse, the end of day 2…
Waking up day three, of course I had to take a shower…on my way to the shower, I stubbed my toe…BADLY…blood everywhere (part of the nail fell off) and quite painful…I felt like the biggest idiot, as I was walking rather oddly for the next couple of days...on this day we had decided to go see the temple of heavenly peace…as with all temples, it's not just one building, but a large area, with gardens and several actual temples, all dedicated to something different…we took a bus again from close to our hostel, but this time when we got off, we had no idea which direction we were supposed to go…the bus stop was not in an open area, (the day we went to tiennamen square it was easy to figure out where to go, as the monuments were tall) so we had no clue…I don't remember if we asked a passerby, or if someone asked us if we needed help, but the result was the same: we figured out which direction to go…a five minute walk later, we were next to one of the gates (the west gate) of the temple…after paying for the entrance ticket we walked in to find ourselves at the end of a huge park area…this temple is situated on a north-south axis, with buildings/monuments to see in all four directions…the main paths going east-west were wide and lined with trees, and somewhat reminded me of European gardens…all of the temples in this area are round, with square bases…this is based on an ancient chinese belief that heaven is round, while the earth is square…we visited all the areas of interest in the temple…one of the temples was where the emperor would go a couple times a year (for less than 4 hours each time) to pray for a good harvest…called the hall of prayer for good harvests…(what else would you call it?)…another spot is the echo wall…it actually works, if you stand in the right places…one person on one side (east or west) says something, and the person on the other side actually can here it…the wall is perfectly round (I've forgotten the correct word) so the sound travels well…it travels so well that we could even tell who was talking! Of course, with so many people trying to do the same thing, it got really confusing, really fast…the wall is 65 meters in diameter, it's not small…this wall goes around the imperial vault of heaven, which used to contain tablets of the emperors ancestors, to be used in the winter solstice ceremonies…this vault isn't so impressive to look in after you've seen so many other temples/vaults/etc…we also went to the southern end to see the round altar…it's 5 meters high, in three levels…the top tier, according to the Chinese, is supposed to symbolize heaven…supposedly, if you stand in the middle of this and say something, the sound waves bounce off the marble, which is supposed to make your voice louder…due to the group of Chinese men all (slowly) taking turns, we didn't get our turn to try...on our way out of the temple complex, we stopped by the garden of seven stones…they were placed there to represent the peaks of one particular mountain area…but there are actually eight stones in the garden…the manchus wanted to feel that they were part of everything, so when they invaded, they added an eighth stone to symbolize their part in the world…(who wants to be represented by a rock?)…almost across the street from the temple of heaven is the pearl market…it's a 5 story market, that obviously sells pearls, but also sells just about anything else you might want…if you are good at bargaining, it's awesome…electronics, tea, t-shirts, silk, shoes, knick-knacks, etc…sooooooo much stuff…since it's all fake, the prices they tell you at the start are absolutely ridiculous…we felt as though we were able to get better deals than summer visitors, simply because there weren't as many shoppers, and the vendors were less likely to turn down our offers…we ended up spending a lot more time in there than we had anticipated, but it was fun…when you walk through markets like that one, there are all sorts of things that all of a sudden, you "need"…on our way home, we had picked out another restaurant to go to for an early supper…but, due to all the construction and what not, the address at which it was listed, was no longer in existence…we're sure the restaurant was probably moved to a new location, but we didn't have that information…definitely a disappointment, but hey, what are you gonna do? We ended up taking a bus back to the hostel (again, another supremely crowded bus…the Chinese pack a whole lot more people onto a bus than the Koreans) and ate dinner there, before heading off to the kung fu show…(which we almost didn't get tickets for, though we never really did figure out that entire story)…the show was fantastic…not what any of us thought we were going to see…I think all of us thought we were going to see demonstrations of skill…but it was a story instead, which, in the end, turned out to be awesome…the acting was good, there was a lot of work being done by the stage crew…we walked out of there feeling like we had seen something really really good…it wasn't all just acting out a story, there were demonstrations of kung fu skill…wow…
For our last full day in Beijing, we decided to go to the summer palace, which is in the opposite direction of any of the other sights in the city…again, our hostel provided us with excellent directions on where to catch the bus, and, for the third time, we got off at the last stop…we purchased the entrance tickets, and as we walked through the first gate, one of the very first buildings turned out to be under renovation, and was completely covered…howeva, as with all the other areas we had seen, the summer palace wasn't what most of us would think of as a "palace"…it consists of temples, gardens, and pavilions, that all go around a lake…some of them are connected by a long corridor, others are not…the lake has always been there, but was expanded and deepened by emperoror quianlong in the 18th century…the summer palace has been burned down a couple times, only to be rebuilt years later…we walked through the entire length of the corridor, around most of the lake…saw many of the temples, climbed many of the stairs…it's such a peaceful area…at the end of the day, we all had decided that this was our favorite sight, except for the great wall, just because it's the great wall…there is a marble boat at one end of the corridor, (which is technically a hallway, though there are no walls on the side, only a ceiling of sorts) it's huge…along this corridor there are 8000 paintings, they're all very intricate…amazing…since it was so cold, the lake was nearly completely frozen…as we walked around, we could see people walking across the lake, and other ice skating…ivan (the irish guy in our little group) had never seen a frozen lake (does it not get that cold in Ireland?) so he was determined to go out on the ice…we stayed there for over three hours, and still felt as though we had missed parts of the palace…finding the bus to get back to the hostel was easy, and for once, VERY WARM…I knew it must've been roasting for everyone else if I was warm…dinner this night wasn't at the hostel…instead we went to a restaurant very near the hostel, so ivan could have peking duck…there was only one English menu, and it seemed as though none of the servers understood a word of English…which lead to a lot of pantomiming…ivan's duck was good, as was paul's sweet and sour pork…my spicy chicken was good, as were correne's egg rolls…none of this sounds very fancy, but the way it was presented was very aesthetically appealing…after dinner we walked back to the guesthouse (correne and I stopped along the way for another treat from dairy queen) and got in the van that took us to the opera…we had been told that the peking opera was world famous…after the show, we weren't quite sure what it was famous for…it was a series of three small skits of sorts…the first one went for quite some time, and there was no sound involved, just a pantomimed fight on the stage…the choreography was good, but it left something to be desired in terms of outcome…the second chapter involved a lady "singing"…I put that in quotation marks, because to our ears, it sounded more like a cat singing…maybe that's the way opera is done there, but wow, it wasn't all that pleasant…the third chapter was more of the same…while the performance itself wasn't anything we would like to see again, the costumes and choreography were really really good…even now, after having time to think about it, I'm still not sure how it became 'famous'…an easy taxi ride back to the hostel, hanging out for a little while, then off to sleep…
the last morning our group didn't see much of each other…correne and paul were going back to seoul, ivan and I were continuing on to hong kong…
BEIJING, CHINA
This year Christmas fell on a Monday, which means that New Years Day was also on a Monday…which meant that the winter break given to most teachers at hogwans was just over a week…most of us finished sometime on Friday, 22 December, and had to return to school Tuesday, 2 January…much nicer than the break I got stuck with last year, which was only four days in total…this year I made travel plans before switching schools, so I traveled with teachers at my old school…we had all traveled together previously to Vietnam, so I knew it would be a good time again…
We took off on Saturday, 23 December, to Beijing, the capital of China…landing at the airport, we got off the plane and onto a bus which took us to one of the terminals…it was definitely not what I expected at an airport that will be part of the Olympics in a year and a half…I expected something more modern and up to date…I don't know if they'll be doing anything to the airport (expansion, renovation, etc) before the games…as we exited the building, we were greeted by the usual taxi touts, who want you to take an "official" taxi somewhere…usually at a price that is at least double what a metered taxi would cost…having been warned against taking these, we took a regular metered taxi…the driver knew where to go, (and didn't take us a roundabout way) which is no small feat in a city the size of Beijing…I had previously made reservations at a hostel, which turned out to be fantastic (except that the common area was chilly nearly all the time)…we arrived early evening the first day, so we didn't do much except eat dinner and talk about what we wanted to see and do over the next few days…we signed ourselves up to go see an acrobatic show, a kung fu show, and the opera…we also figured out transportation to one section of the great wall…our hostel ended up being awesome in regards to information in general, especially transportation around the city to see everything…
The first full day we all met for breakfast in the common area…the hostel also offered food, including western breakfasts…I love banana pancakes, so those were a staple for me…ivan consistently got toast, eggs, French fries and bacon…paul and correne mixed it up…after eating, we got on the city bus (the number, where to get on, where to get off, and cost were all information the guesthouse helped us with) on our way to tiennamen square and the forbidden city…the bus cost a whopping 2 yuan…which is equivalent to about 25 cents…practically nothing…and that was an expensive bus that was air conditioned during the summer…other buses were only 1 yuan…we got off, and immediately started taking pictures…at one end of tiennamen square there are a couple huge gates…not gates in the standard western sense, but gates as in you have to go through a tunnel in the middle to get through it…huge, ornate, impressive…at one end of tiennamen square is the end of the forbidden city…well, one of the gates anywho…(can you tell that Chinese culture has traditionally built a lot of gates?)…this gate is the famous one with the picture of mao…(who is still very much revered in china)…it's called the gate of heavenly peace…it was from this gate that Mao declared the people's republic of china…there are 5 doors through the gate, and social hierarchy determined who got to use which one back when…only the emperor got to use the middle one…we took a lot of pictures, as were all the other tourists…through that gate into a "courtyard where you can buy tickets for the forbidden city…the area was full of tourists, and touts…the touts come up to everyone, offering everything from special tours of the city, to tours of other sights, to knick knacks for sale, etc…at first you don't mind so much, but after a while, it wears on you, and you start being rude to all of them…since this is how they make a living, some of the touts are very persistant, which can be incredibly annoying…finding the correct line to buy tickets wasn't so easy…the proper tickets are for the palace museum, but of course that wasn't stated anywhere…anywho, after buying the tickets we walked through the next gate, prepared to be wowed…unfortunately, as soon as we walked through that area, we saw that one of the major buildings, the library, is under renovation…(the whole city is undergoing a LOT of renovation in preparation for the 2008 summer Olympic games)…definitely a disappointment…howeva, that wasn't too much of a disappointment, because the 'city' is HUGE…no one is kidding when they say you need to allow at least half a day to see the area…lots and lots and lots of art…lots and lots and lots of temples…a beautiful garden that is probably way better looking in summer…lots of pavilions…lots of mini gates…there is a starbucks somewhere in there, though we didn't see it…this particular starbucks is currently the center of some controversy, as many Chinese people want it gone from the 'city'…I can't say I blame them…an American icon in the middle of a cultural relic of another country…I'm not the most patriotic of people, but I'm pretty sure I wouldn't want a Samsung store in the middle of ellis island…(please don't tell me there is anything like that there?)…the downfall of not having vendors in such a large place is that we were really really hungry by the time we left the city…hunger probably contributed to us leaving a little earlier than we normally would've…howeva, we were there for a good four hours…(the cold contributed as well, I'm sure)…on the way home we ended up on the most crowded bus I've ever been on…very very very crowded…but I got the impression that that was normal for locals…there are a zillion of them, and only so many public buses…evening entertainment was an acrobatic show…while not as good as what we saw in north korea, it was still great…I don't know what the acrobats put on their resumes, but they are really good at what they do…being that flexible is amazing…after the show, we took a taxi back (feeling more than a little carsick by the time we finally got back to the guesthouse) and all slept soundly…
The next morning was the same morning routine, though a whole lot earlier…the four of us, as well as two other girls staying at the same place, were all going to the great wall…we chose a section of the wall that isn't as highly touristed, and the tour isn't combined with any other tour…(the section of the wall at badaling is often combined with a tour to the ming tombs)…our drive there was less than two hours, and quite scenic after we got out of the middle of the city…knowing how cold it might be, we had all bundled up, big time…I had five layers on, two t-shirts, a long sleeve shirt, two sweaters, and a coat…I guess that makes six layers…the others were all the same…when we got to the wall, the driver said he'd be back in four hours to pick us up…we were excited that we could do whateva we wanted…at this particular section of the wall, you have two choices to get up…take a cable car (ski lift chair) or hike up…then on the way down you have three choices…hike, cable car, or toboggan ride…we took the toboggan ride down, which was great…back to the wall…it's an amazing sight…it covers half the country, and was never militarily breached…(the Mongols did get through, but that's cause the commander of one area let them through, thinking that the Mongols would help quell the internal unrest in the country)…it's a fantastic engineering feat, over 1500 years old…lots of stairs, lots of ups and downs…lots of great views…it is said that it is one of only a few man made things that can be seen from space…I don't know about that, but some people swear by it…we got there early enough that there were very few people, and we were able to get lots of good pictures…you don't think all the stairs are a big deal until you look back and see what you climbed…(and the next day when your calves are ready to fall off)…I think we could've walked all day, just to see how far we could go…amazing…since the wall is so well touristed in general (even our section, which wasn't as heavily visited as other sections, still draws quite a number of visitors) there are lots of vendor stalls set up…no food, but LOTS of souvenirs…silk robes, t-shirts for $1, purses, wood carvings, etc…anything you could want…when you walk by each stall, the vendor tries to get you to look at his/her stuff…the vendors are VERY aggressive…if you are good at bargaining, you can find stuff and get it down to cheap prices…I'm not so good at bargaining…in fact, I'm terrible…and I know it, so I don't buy the stuff at all…after all my fellow travelers exercised their formidable bargaining skills (they really are good at it) we got back in the van and drove back to the city…as this happened to be Christmas day, and our little group was in the holiday spirit, we decided to splurge on dinner…after finding a tony roma's listed in the guidebook, we hopped in a cab…the restaurant was supposed to be in a fairly upscale mall…(the mall included a store that sold bmw clothing, as part of the bmw lifestyle…the mall also had a little jewelry kiosk called eva jewelry…obviously my fame has extended to asia!)…it turned out that tony roma's was no longer there…but there was a sizzler…being very very hungry by that point, we decided to go for it…for those of you who don't know, sizzler proclaims itself to be a steakhouse…that it is, but not a high class place…every meal comes with the buffet bar, which can also be ordered as a meal itself…it's not bad, but not great either…(very little option for dessert, and we all know that I remember restaurants by their dessertsJ)…the steak is not the best available, but we still had a good time…and, more importantly, the restaurant was HOT…we all shed our coats, as well as two or three layers of clothing…since our guesthouse wasn't all that warm, it was great to be comfortable, even a little roasty…a good meal, good conversation, and then back to the guesthouse, the end of day 2…
Waking up day three, of course I had to take a shower…on my way to the shower, I stubbed my toe…BADLY…blood everywhere (part of the nail fell off) and quite painful…I felt like the biggest idiot, as I was walking rather oddly for the next couple of days...on this day we had decided to go see the temple of heavenly peace…as with all temples, it's not just one building, but a large area, with gardens and several actual temples, all dedicated to something different…we took a bus again from close to our hostel, but this time when we got off, we had no idea which direction we were supposed to go…the bus stop was not in an open area, (the day we went to tiennamen square it was easy to figure out where to go, as the monuments were tall) so we had no clue…I don't remember if we asked a passerby, or if someone asked us if we needed help, but the result was the same: we figured out which direction to go…a five minute walk later, we were next to one of the gates (the west gate) of the temple…after paying for the entrance ticket we walked in to find ourselves at the end of a huge park area…this temple is situated on a north-south axis, with buildings/monuments to see in all four directions…the main paths going east-west were wide and lined with trees, and somewhat reminded me of European gardens…all of the temples in this area are round, with square bases…this is based on an ancient chinese belief that heaven is round, while the earth is square…we visited all the areas of interest in the temple…one of the temples was where the emperor would go a couple times a year (for less than 4 hours each time) to pray for a good harvest…called the hall of prayer for good harvests…(what else would you call it?)…another spot is the echo wall…it actually works, if you stand in the right places…one person on one side (east or west) says something, and the person on the other side actually can here it…the wall is perfectly round (I've forgotten the correct word) so the sound travels well…it travels so well that we could even tell who was talking! Of course, with so many people trying to do the same thing, it got really confusing, really fast…the wall is 65 meters in diameter, it's not small…this wall goes around the imperial vault of heaven, which used to contain tablets of the emperors ancestors, to be used in the winter solstice ceremonies…this vault isn't so impressive to look in after you've seen so many other temples/vaults/etc…we also went to the southern end to see the round altar…it's 5 meters high, in three levels…the top tier, according to the Chinese, is supposed to symbolize heaven…supposedly, if you stand in the middle of this and say something, the sound waves bounce off the marble, which is supposed to make your voice louder…due to the group of Chinese men all (slowly) taking turns, we didn't get our turn to try...on our way out of the temple complex, we stopped by the garden of seven stones…they were placed there to represent the peaks of one particular mountain area…but there are actually eight stones in the garden…the manchus wanted to feel that they were part of everything, so when they invaded, they added an eighth stone to symbolize their part in the world…(who wants to be represented by a rock?)…almost across the street from the temple of heaven is the pearl market…it's a 5 story market, that obviously sells pearls, but also sells just about anything else you might want…if you are good at bargaining, it's awesome…electronics, tea, t-shirts, silk, shoes, knick-knacks, etc…sooooooo much stuff…since it's all fake, the prices they tell you at the start are absolutely ridiculous…we felt as though we were able to get better deals than summer visitors, simply because there weren't as many shoppers, and the vendors were less likely to turn down our offers…we ended up spending a lot more time in there than we had anticipated, but it was fun…when you walk through markets like that one, there are all sorts of things that all of a sudden, you "need"…on our way home, we had picked out another restaurant to go to for an early supper…but, due to all the construction and what not, the address at which it was listed, was no longer in existence…we're sure the restaurant was probably moved to a new location, but we didn't have that information…definitely a disappointment, but hey, what are you gonna do? We ended up taking a bus back to the hostel (again, another supremely crowded bus…the Chinese pack a whole lot more people onto a bus than the Koreans) and ate dinner there, before heading off to the kung fu show…(which we almost didn't get tickets for, though we never really did figure out that entire story)…the show was fantastic…not what any of us thought we were going to see…I think all of us thought we were going to see demonstrations of skill…but it was a story instead, which, in the end, turned out to be awesome…the acting was good, there was a lot of work being done by the stage crew…we walked out of there feeling like we had seen something really really good…it wasn't all just acting out a story, there were demonstrations of kung fu skill…wow…
For our last full day in Beijing, we decided to go to the summer palace, which is in the opposite direction of any of the other sights in the city…again, our hostel provided us with excellent directions on where to catch the bus, and, for the third time, we got off at the last stop…we purchased the entrance tickets, and as we walked through the first gate, one of the very first buildings turned out to be under renovation, and was completely covered…howeva, as with all the other areas we had seen, the summer palace wasn't what most of us would think of as a "palace"…it consists of temples, gardens, and pavilions, that all go around a lake…some of them are connected by a long corridor, others are not…the lake has always been there, but was expanded and deepened by emperoror quianlong in the 18th century…the summer palace has been burned down a couple times, only to be rebuilt years later…we walked through the entire length of the corridor, around most of the lake…saw many of the temples, climbed many of the stairs…it's such a peaceful area…at the end of the day, we all had decided that this was our favorite sight, except for the great wall, just because it's the great wall…there is a marble boat at one end of the corridor, (which is technically a hallway, though there are no walls on the side, only a ceiling of sorts) it's huge…along this corridor there are 8000 paintings, they're all very intricate…amazing…since it was so cold, the lake was nearly completely frozen…as we walked around, we could see people walking across the lake, and other ice skating…ivan (the irish guy in our little group) had never seen a frozen lake (does it not get that cold in Ireland?) so he was determined to go out on the ice…we stayed there for over three hours, and still felt as though we had missed parts of the palace…finding the bus to get back to the hostel was easy, and for once, VERY WARM…I knew it must've been roasting for everyone else if I was warm…dinner this night wasn't at the hostel…instead we went to a restaurant very near the hostel, so ivan could have peking duck…there was only one English menu, and it seemed as though none of the servers understood a word of English…which lead to a lot of pantomiming…ivan's duck was good, as was paul's sweet and sour pork…my spicy chicken was good, as were correne's egg rolls…none of this sounds very fancy, but the way it was presented was very aesthetically appealing…after dinner we walked back to the guesthouse (correne and I stopped along the way for another treat from dairy queen) and got in the van that took us to the opera…we had been told that the peking opera was world famous…after the show, we weren't quite sure what it was famous for…it was a series of three small skits of sorts…the first one went for quite some time, and there was no sound involved, just a pantomimed fight on the stage…the choreography was good, but it left something to be desired in terms of outcome…the second chapter involved a lady "singing"…I put that in quotation marks, because to our ears, it sounded more like a cat singing…maybe that's the way opera is done there, but wow, it wasn't all that pleasant…the third chapter was more of the same…while the performance itself wasn't anything we would like to see again, the costumes and choreography were really really good…even now, after having time to think about it, I'm still not sure how it became 'famous'…an easy taxi ride back to the hostel, hanging out for a little while, then off to sleep…
the last morning our group didn't see much of each other…correne and paul were going back to seoul, ivan and I were continuing on to hong kong…
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