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..

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...