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:)

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?

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…

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…

FUKUOKA, JAPAN

Friday, December 08, 2006
FUKUOKA, JAPAN
Before any description of the trip itself, here is some basic information about Fukuoka…it's the biggest city on Kyushu, the southernmost of Japan's main islands…also located on Kyushu is Nagasaki, the sight of the second atomic bomb blast during WWII…among Japanese, Fukuoka is known for food, especially a particular type of ramen (noodle soup)…for visitors to Kyushu, the international airport in Fukuoka is where planes, trains and buses will arrive…Fukuoka was originally two cities, (Fukuoka and Hakata) that merged in 1889…the differences in personalities of each area are much like the differences between Garmisch and Partenkirchen, for those of you who have been to Germany…they may officially be one town, but locals refer to them as distinctly different places…the airport is in Fukuoka, the train station is in Hakata…Fukuoka has recently emerged as the cheapest place to fly to and get a Korean work visa…as Fukuoka is very well aware of it's proximity to other cities in Asia (it only takes an hour to fly to Fukuoka from Seoul, as compared to 2.5 hours to Tokyo from Seoul) it has become increasingly international…a number of Asian countries have consulates set up in Fukuoka, and Fukuoka has recently emerged as the cheapest place to fly to and get a Korean work visa…
Which is the whole reason for my trip…since I didn't fly home in between jobs in Korea, I had to do what is usually called a visa run…this trip used to be done in one day…they used to send you on an early flight, make you get to the consulate as soon as you land, then wait a few hours to get the visa processed, then fly home that same day…thankfully, that has changed…now the rules require you to stay one night…which still means you take an early flight, and get to the consulate as soon as you land…howeva, instead of waiting around for a few hours, you have the whole rest of the day to get out and see/do stuff…my flight left Incheon (where the international airport close to Seoul is located) at 830am…which meant I had to take the earliest possible shuttle bus to get to the airport…I'm a morning person, but still, getting up at 430am to make that bus is NOT my idea of fun…the bus ride and flight went smoothly…arriving in Fukuoka was easy…they have several terminals, you can take a free shuttle bus from terminal to terminal…since I landed at the international terminal, I took the shuttle bus to one of the domestic terminals, from which I was able to catch the subway into town…as I said before, the first stop was the Korean consulate, to turn in my passport, money and paperwork for the visa…I was glad I had gotten directions from a coworker, as the directions my school had printed for me didn't make a lot of sense…after that stop, I had the adventure of finding my hotel…as many of you know, addresses in many Asian countries aren't nearly so easy to understand as addresses in the west…luckily, the hotel my school had reserved for me was really close to a subway stop…the bed in the room was a western bed, single size…the room was tiny…there was a desk, but I couldn't pull out the chair from the desk and sit in it…there wasn't enough room…there was a TV, but everything was in Japanese…(not surprisingly)…I had my own bathroom, it even had a tub!!! (not at all common in ..:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" />Korea or Japan)
After getting settled, I set out to see the town…first on the list was Tochoji…a temple in which the largest wooden Buddha in Japan was located…it's a big big Buddha…the temple itself is small, (and very convenient to find, just outside a subway stop) and you have to go up a set of stairs to see the Buddha…it was basically one large (meaning tall, not long) room…while I was there, only one other visitor was in the room…there was a lady in a little side booth selling knick knacks, nothing I couldn't find anywhere else…I stood quietly (there was a monk praying as well) and admired the Buddha, and on my way out, paid for and lit a couple sticks of incense and a candle…while Tochoji was easy to find, the next temple, Shofukuji, wasn't so easy to find…I had to wander around a bit, and come back to where I started a couple times…after half an hour, I did find it…Shofukuji was the first Zen Buddhist temple in Japan…(founded in 1195)…founded by Eisai, who brought tea and Zen to Japan…the big stone from the emperor stating this fact is still at the entrance to the temple area…one of the temples inside the complex was under renovation, but there was a nice garden area to walk around…at one end of the garden area, there were a number of artists, all painting slightly different views of the main temple…I didn't find it to be that amazing, but it seems to be very popular among locals to paint…
Another quick subway ride (there are two subway lines in Fukuoka, I only rode one) and I was able to walk along a canal into Maizuru park…it's a large park area that goes all around the remains of what used to be the castle of Fukuoka…inside the park are several smaller parks/gardens…one I visited was called the peony garden…while I'm sure this is beautiful in spring and summer (for those of you who don't know, the state flower of Indiana is the peony, so most of us Hoosiers have seen plenty of peonies) it isn't much to look at now…just small mounds of dirt where everything was planted to come alive in the spring…the ruins of the castle itself are almost nonexistent…just one wall is left…howeva, the sight where the castle was located is on a hilltop, on which there is a platform conveniently built to take panoramic type pictures of the city…it's not that great of a skyline, so I didn't try to take shots that could later be glued together…but it's still nice to look out over the city, and it was great weather to do so…one of the more interesting images in the park was that of makeshift shelters…I got the impression that homeless people have created these shelters, but I don't know for sure if they live in them or not…they appeared to be made of that blue tarp that is often used to keep out rain…certainly large enough for several people to be inside…piles of different types of recyclables were neatly arranged outside each shelter…after wandering around the gardens and parks for a while, (several hours) I went back to the subway, back into the center of town…
While perusing the guidebook, I had decided to get dinner at a restaurant in canal city…canal city is actually one gigantic mall made up of six buildings…there are a couple hotels, a 13 screen movie complex, and tons of stores and restaurants…in the middle, there is a man made canal, hence the name…each building is totally different architecturally, and reading the maps to figure out where you are isn't the easiest thing to do…they all connect in different ways…the stores I saw were for the most part upper middle class stores…Disney, north face, gap, etc…bigger stores that don't have cheap stuff…while I enjoyed wandering and thinking about buying stuff, I didn't actually do so…I ended up getting ramen noodles for dinner…this is not exactly breathtaking news, but the restaurant at which I got them lets you order them exactly to your specifications…how much green onion do you want? How many eggs? Do you want pork? How fatty do you want it to be? How spicy do you want it? How tender do you want your noodles? All sorts of questions, with several different levels to choose from for each item…very cool…I ended up wishing I had gone for a higher level of spice, but was otherwise very happy…a nice walk back to my hotel room, where I fell asleep watching an NBA game…since the commentary was in Japanese, it was more for the background sound than anything else…
The next morning I was up early, and headed downstairs to eat breakfast (included in the nightly price of the hotel)…breakfast was most definitely in the Japanese style…rice, fish, and some other stuff I didn't recognize…I'm glad I don't find breakfast to be absolutely necessary…I only ate what I recognized…I'm glad I walked around a lot the first day, because this second day kept me wet…it just rained and rained and rained…I showed up at the consulate 30 minutes before the official time to start handing out the visas that had been applied for the previous day…fortunately, they already had mine done…I got out, and hopped back onto the subway, out to the airport…a quick change of flights, and I arrived back in Korea 7 hours earlier than my original itinerary had planned…
Even though this trip was short, it did give me the chance to see a new city and new sites, and I did get a chance to practice what little Japanese I know:)

KUMGANSAN, KOREA (AGAIN)

Monday, November 06, 2006
NORTH KOREA (AGAIN)
i'm sure that most of you reading this think i'm completely crazy for doing it, but i went back to north korea...the same program i did back in march, but i did different hikes this time around...
i'm not going to rewrite the first part of the trip, (the bus from seoul, picking up IDs and visas, going through south korean customs, going through north korean customs,) as it was essentially the same (only a few minor differences) as last time...
after going through north korea customs, we got back on the bus, and drove to our hotel...we didn't get to check in, but we did get to drop off our bags, which was nice...it meant we didn't have to find them on a bus later in the day after hiking...this time we stayed in hotel oekumgang...a new hotel, it opened in august...it's staffed by chinese mostly...they speak korean, (i don't know how well, but enough to run the hotel) but if you look at them, it's not difficult to see that they aren't korean...my travel partner later discovered that they are hired to come for two years at a time...we decided that would be crazy boring...it's not like there is much of anything to do outside of work...they can't just go hiking on their own, and night life is nonexistant...after dropping off our bags, we got back on the bus for the 30 second ride (we later found out we could walk it, as it was so close, unlike the hotel last time, where walking was NOT an option) to the shopping area...we bought tickets for lunch and the acrobats, and after only a little discussion, dinner tickets so we could eat north korean food...more on that later...
after the ticket purchases, we got back on the bus and headed toward the hike for the first day...it was the same hike as the last trip, so i'll spare you most of the details...howeva, this time the weather was very different...beautiful fall weather...the leaves were all sorts of colors, it was beautiful...it was nice to have secure footing too, instead of slipping quite a bit on ice and snow...we hiked up to the temple, same as last time...howeva, on the way down there was a little turnoff that i didn't get to do last time...(after hiking it, i know why...it would've been fairly dangerous with the ice and snow last time)...not knowing what we were getting ourselves into, we decided to do it...we saw some steps going up, but figured "how hard can it be?"...20-25 minutes later, after going continually UP, we finally got to the top...absolutely beautiful, and we got to take a couple pictures that were the same view seen on a couple of the postcards available...awesome...after coming down all of that, both of us ate some of the food we had brought along...let me tell you, i've never had an apple taste so good...
lunch was the same lunch we had the last time...bibimbap as the main course with a number of side dishes...
after lunch, we got back on the bus, and went back to the shopping area...we decided to go see the lake (samilpo) as that was an option we hadn't had last time...it was pretty, and this time there were two north korean ladies (at different spots) talking about the lake, it's history and all that...one of them sang a couple songs, they were neat to hear...i really wish i had been able to understand what they were saying...after the walk around the lake, it was back on the busses for the ride back to the shopping platz...when we got back, we even had time to go to the hotel, check in, and "freshen up"...(brush our teeth, take off sweaty undergarments, revel in the fact that we got to stay in a suite!!!!!!!!!)...
we went to the acrobatic performance, which was slightly different this time...i suppose they have to mix it up, since they do the same thing every day...they didn't drop any of the trapeze artists this time, it was impressive...
dinner that night was at the hotel we stayed in the first time...we thought we were buying tickets for a buffet...but it didn't work out quite that way...we were seated, and they started bringing out food...small plates with just a bit of everything, so it didn't seem like a lot...but it just kept coming...by the time they brought out the soup and rice, we were both stuffed...tofu, a roll with meat in the middle, rootlike veggies to put into lettuce leaves, acorn jelly, fish nuggets, sweet potato, rice, chicken soup, little meatballs, mandu, and finally, tea to finish the meal...after eating, we wandered outside, and i looked at the mural that was in front of the hotel...the last time we were in north korea, it was a picture of kim il sung on a park bench, reading to kids...(or something like that)...they had changed it...this time, it was a picture of father and son...kim il-sung and kim jong-il...(kim jr was painted to look a lot more slim than he is in real life)...though i don't know if i was supposed to, of course i took a picture...
back to the hotel, just chilling and relaxing, watching a little tv...(a luxury most north koreans don't have...if they do have it, they don't get to watch the channels our hotel has, like cnn)...i ended up falling asleep around 9pm...my traveling partner wanted to see the bar in the hotel, called the sky lounge...it was on the 12th floor, and apparently was almost the entire floor...i fell asleep long before he got home...the next morning, when we got up, i asked him about it...turned out he was the only guest up there, and hadn't gotten back to the room until midnight...this was when he found out that the staff is mostly chinese, not south korean...even though he and the staff didn't really have any language in common, they communicated as well as possible...ivan asking details of their work, them asking him about his life...
the next morning our alarms (and wake up call) went off at 630am...so early...same deal as last time, checking out at 730am...only this time, instead of doing the walk around the lake and the seashore, we chose to do the hike called manmulsang...the bus ride to the starting point was 11 km, mostly switchbacks for the last 10km...i've gotta give credit to the bus driver...normally i get very carsick on those sorts of drives, but i didn't feel a darn thing...we got out, and started the hike, with all the craziness that comes from people sorting themselves out...the people who mosey...the people who want to do the hike in world record time...the older ladies who hike in dress flats...(i saw several women who fit this description)...this hike was much like the second part of the previous day's hike...going up up up...only it went on for a lot longer...great views though...going up could basically be divided into two halves...the second half was rather windy...in a couple pictures ivan took, my hair is nearly straight up over my head...i did have some fear of being blown off the mountain...howeva, when we got to the top of manyeongdae (a cliff) we were able to see the shore in the distance...it would've been even better if there hadn't been any haze...definitely worth all the wind and steps...going down ended up being tougher for me than all the going up...my legs just weren't used to supporting me going down down down down...a lot of the way down was uneven, making my footing not so good...ivan was great at it though, he didn't seem to have any problems getting all the way down...
after the hike, the routine was the same as the last trip...shop a bit, kill time for several hours, then do everything backwards...north korean customs, south korean customs, then the bus ride back to seoul...
another great trip, even though it was short and i didn't understand nearly everything that was said by anyone other than ivan...the next time i go back to north korea (and i really hope there is a next time) i want to go to a different area, see another part of the country...here's hoping that works out sometime:)

saigon and the mekong river delta

SAIGON, VIETNAM
korea has two types of holidays...those that fall on the same day every year, and those that follow the lunar calendar, meaning that they change a bit every year...most of the holidays follow a lunar calendar, which means some years have a lot of days off from work, and others have very few..this year, chusok (the korean equivalent to thanksgiving...one of the BIGGEST holidays of the year) fell on thursday, friday and saturday of a week when there was already a holiday on that tuesday...many businesses closed for the whole week, and some were open just on monday...regardless, nearly everyone got a nice vacation...like many other english teachers, i left the country...
the flight to saigon (officially known as ho chi minh city, but still called saigon by locals and southerners in general) was 5 hours...we flew asiana airlines, which seemed pretty nice...each seat had a tv in the back of it, and the person watching the tv got to control it...the passenger got to decide what to watch, and when to start/stop it...i ended up watching two movies, though i can't for the life of me remember what they were...we touched down late late evening, and customs didn't take all that long...we had put some thought into the process, and had made sure we had our visas ahead of time...i wonder what happens when someone shows up w/out a visa? we arrived so late that all we did was take a taxi to the hostel, check in a go to sleep...saigon is two hours behind seoul, so we knew that the time difference would work in our favor and we'd wake up early enough...and sure enough, we did...
coming down to breakfast the next morning was a pleasant surprise...it turned out our hostel provided breakfast free of charge...no major gourmet fare mind you, but decent, nonetheless...baguettes (they're still found all over the country, courtesy of the french colonial influence,) eggs and fruit...after eating, we all pulled out the guidebooks to get an idea of what we wanted to do...ended up deciding to do a walking tour of the city...stepping out on the street was like going back to the seoul summer...very very humid...VERY VERY humid...we started walking, and soon enough came upon our first destination...the war museum...(i don't think that's the exact name, but it escapes me as well)...throughout it's history, vietnam has been invaded countless times...the mongols, the chinese, the french, and others...much to their credit, the vietnamese have always driven back the invaders...the war that so many of us refer to as the vietnam war is referred to in vietnam as the american war...history has always been written by the winners, and in vietnam, america wasn't the winner...(america withdrew, and left the south vietnamese to fight for themselves, which resulted in the north winning the war; as well as the creation of the dream of ho chi minh, a single, united country of vietnam)...many of the captions of the pictures displayed in the museum refer to the american imperialists...during the war, america used chemicals extensively...one of the ways americans tried to make the vietcong easier to find was to defoliate large areas of jungle/forest...the countryside is still recovering from this...the chemicals used to do this were used in massive quantities, (and while no study has conclusively proved this,) and many vietnamese have deformities and other health problems as a result of the chemicals...the pictures in the museum are rather graphic in their displays...also "in" (actually, on the grounds outside the actual building) the museum are several tanks, a plane, and some of the bombs left behind...the tonnage of bombs dropped on vietnam during the war is several times the effect of the nuclear bombs dropped on hiroshima and nagasaki during WWII...a small museum, but pretty interesting to see...it started raining while we were there, so we all took shelter for a little while, and waited until it wasn't a total downpour...the next stop was a church called notre dame...it's a pretty church, (in the style of so many churches in europe) but it's very unusual in that it has no stained glass windows...(the glass that was originally there was all broken during the bombing of WWII) there are windows of course, but they are designs in stone...combined with the rainy weather, it made for a bleak sort of atmosphere...across the street from the church is the main post office...it's big, and has traditional french architecture..we stepped inside and saw that the inside is just as grand as the outside...on the far end was a large portrait of ho chi minh...the man is everywhere...though he had been dead for a few years by the time the war was over he is still very much revered by many vietnamese, (definitely by the government) and is looked upon as the father of the country...next up was the saigon zoo and botanical gardens...we stumbled upon them, and figured "why not?"...tigers, a lion, crocodiles, a FAT hippo, birds, monkeys, rabbits, etc...sadly though, it didn't look as though the animals were cared for in the best manner possible...other than the hippo, they looked too skinny...next to the entrance of the zoo/botanical garden was the history museum (our original destination when we found the zoo)...we walked through, but to be honest, it was all a bit confusing...none of us had made a real effort to study any vietnamese history before the trip, so seeing the entire history of the country in one viewing was a bit much...keeping track of the different dynasties, invading peoples, etc was a bit overwhelming...checking our watches, we decided to try to fit in one more site before heading back to the hostel...i know this sounds like we didn't see much, but keep in mind that we had been moving nonstop for more than 6 hours by this point...we walked toward where we thought a jade pagoda was located...notice that i said "where we thought"...we must've checked the map 20 times...circled an area numerous times...looking at the map it seemed perfectly obvious, but it most certainly was not...anywho, we nearly gave up before finding someone who pointed us in the right direction...for all our searching, it didn't end up being that impressive...quite small, and rather hidden...after finally seeing it, we headed back to the hostel...we tried to figure out how far we had actually walked, but gave up on that, and just figured we had been on the move for way too long...
as one of my traveling companions is vegetarian, (in vietnam this isn't so much of a concern...not like in seoul where it means she basically has to feed herself, since koreans use meat all the time) we found a vegetarian restaurant...i felt like i ordered a lot, and ate a ton, but when the bill came, i owed a whopping $3...i love that!!
after dinner we went to one of the zillion travel/tour agents located around the backpacker area where we were staying...they offer tours to/of all sorts of places...we wanted to go see the tunnels at cu chi, so we signed up...the tour we signed up for was a full day tour, that also included a cao dai temple...
the next day we had to show up at the travel place at 8am for the tour...as is typical just about anywhere in southeast asia, they were running late...we got on the bus, and rode for way too long...we got to the cao dai temple around 1130, just one bus among many...from what we were told, there are several services at this temple during the day, but the noontime service is the most popular for tourists to see...we walked up the stairs, and observed the service...i think our little group was pretty quiet, and didn't take any pictures inside the church, but it seemed like most tourists weren't that polite...i saw many a camera being pulled out and people clicking away...the cao dai temple itself is very very colorful...the service wasn't in a language we understood, so watching the service was more of a way to watch people...
after the service, we hopped back on the bus, and drove to cu chi...cu chi was a small hamlet (wee little village) during the war...the area in which cu chi is located has a LOT of tunnels...these tunnels were built by the north vietnamese during the war, and the north vietnamese soldiers who used them often seemed like ghosts to the american troops...there are many entrances to the tunnels, each one 30 meters from the next...there are tons of entrances, but they were all hidden well, and american troops had a very difficult time finding them...some troops had the job known as being a 'tunnel rat'...that is, they went into the tunnels to find out where they went, and to find the north vietnamese soldiers...death rates for the tunnel rats were really high...some of the entrances were absolutely tiny, i don't know how they got in and out of them so easily...at one point, we were given the opportunity to go through 50 meters of one of the tunnels...our guide warned us that if we went in, we could not turn back and go back out again...the tunnel was too small for turning around...i though that 50 meters wouldn't be so bad...i'm not particularly claustrophobic, but geesh...50 meters is only half a football field...there were no bugs or anything, but moving wasnt so comfortable...we couldn't stand up, but crawling was rough on the knees...some of the soldiers who fought in the war for both sides spent a LOT of time in those tunnels...after my short experience (which probably wasn't nearly as long as it felt) i had a whole new respect, those soldiers were tough...also in this area we saw some of the traps built by the soldiers, they were vicious...camoflaged (sp?) pits with sharpened bamboo poles sticking up from the bottom, doors booby trapped so that when they were opened, bamboo poles swung down and stabbed the entrant...just plain mean...on one end of the area where you get to see the tunnels, there is a shooting range...at this shooting range, they allow you to purchase bullets to use in your choice of their weapons, which include an AK-47 (a weapon produced by the russians, admired by nearly every military person worldwide...they work well and easily, and rarely jam or otherwise break) and an M16...they hand you the bullets and you take them to the area with the guns...standing next to you as you shoot is a vietnamese soldier...though the weapons are held down to some degree, they don't want you making any effort to turn them around and shoot people...after the tunnels and the traps and shooting range, we watched a video, which naturally referred to the american imperialists...interesting to see so much which made americans out to be the bad guys after growing up in the states...after the video it was back on the bus, back to town...dinner in another restaurant, this time a nice thai place...considerably upscale from where we ate the day before, but still comparatively cheap...
the next day was another tour, this time to the mekong delta...after having had our fill of time on a bus the day before, we chose a tour where we got to spend time on several different boats...we rode a bus to my tho, a town on the mekong river, and from there got onto a boat that took us to unicorn island...population 6000, there isn't much there...just people living, no real support services...our guide told us that the people have to go to my tho to get medical services, grocery shop, etc...the people on the island mostly live off the profits made by their bee farms...they sell the honey, and of course the usual assortment of other souvenir gadgets...we saw one of the beehives, and of course the bees were very docile...are they always like that? after trying honey tea (my other companions also go to try rice wine and banana whiskey, and the men in the group were invited to try a snake whiskey...ewwww) we got into canoes, where locals paddled us down the creek, where we switched boats again...back to our first boat, we rode it through a maze of waterways to a little coconut candy factory...we got to see the process of making the candy...very labor intensive...wow...tasty stuff, i think nearly everyone in the group bought some of it...i got the kind that was half coconut, half chocolate...(it was either that or half coconut, half green tea flavor, which has never floated my boat)...after the 'factory' we got back on the boat, and rode it to a little resort, where we ate lunch...typical vietnamese fare, rice, veggies and a piece of meat...(pork)...nothing special, nothing horrid...after lunch we had some free time, so ivan and i rode bikes for a while...i don't think many people in that village see foreigners much, as we were stared at quite a bit...but it was fun, and we had an adventure trying to find our way back...we weren't lost exactly, just missed the turnoff...anywho, after the bikes, we changed boats, this time to a speedboat, which took us all the way back to saigon...a long boat ride, that's for sure...it started raining after a while, so we put the flaps down on the boat...which meant it got a bit more muggy, and we didn't get to see the riverside...but at least it wasn't another bus ride...by the time we got back, paul was feeling really sick...he was really really cold, and nauseous...not good...at dinner that night he ate almost nothing, and left fairly quickly, instead of sitting around and chatting...
the next morning paul was still feeling like crap, so correne, ivan and i figured out our daily plan in an effort to keep him involved...we had already decided to stay in the city...our first stop was a propaganda poster shop we had noticed the previous night...it was full of posters from all the way back to the 1950s...slogans from fighting in the war, to uniting together as one country, to how fabulous communism is, etc...way cool...after the shop, we went back to the hostel to check on paul...he came with us to our next spot, a huge market...correne's birthday was the following monday, so paul wanted to shop, and ivan, correne and i wanted to look around...the market was big, and had just about anything we could want or need...there is a saying: if you can't find it in saigon, then you don't need or want it...in the market we visited, we saw clothes, accessories, food, and a whole lot more...after an hour, paul was feeling worse again, so he went back to the hostel to sleep some more...correne, ivan and i went to a restaurant to eat one of the most traditional vietnamese meals, a bowl of pho...(you could describe it as chicken noodle soup, but way better than campbell's)...yummy stuff, i wish i had been able to eat more...after eating, it was off to the reunification palace...it was at this palace that the republic of vietnam (south vietnam) surrendered to the people's republic of vietnam (north vietnam) at the end of the war...they still use the palace for higher ranking meetings that don't have to be in the capital city of hanoi...we also saw the bunkers underground that had been built to sustain extended bombing, back during the war...i wouldn't not have wanted to spend time down there, it felt like the air wasn't circulating at all...parked in one of the bunkers was one of the cars used by the old south vietnamese president...a mercedes, of course...
after the palace it was back to the hostel, and out for one more dinner...then the usual ritual of packing, getting ready to travel, etc...when we got to the airport we saw notices saying that we wouldn't be allowed to have any liquids in our carryon luggage, much like what the restrictions are in the states in the moment...we conveniently ignored those, and nothing came of it...i have no idea if they are really trying to enforce that policy, or if it was only there for show...who knows...we also ran into the area where you get to pay the airport "service fee"...while it's called a service fee, it's basically an exit fee...$14 per person...it would've been nice had someone mentioned that to us earlier...i'm sure the vietnamese government is raking in the money from that fee...they take US dollars, vietnamese dong, and credit cards...i wonder what happens if you don't have any money or credit cards with you...
a simple flight back, a bus from the airport back to seoul, and resting all day sunday...
fun facts for those of you who have read this far: 1. the vietnamese currency is called dong...$1 is approximately 16,000 dong...it makes you feel rich to have so many zeroes on all the money you are carrying...until you remember that they aren't worth much at all...
2. traffic in saigon is absolutely insane...there are motorbikes everywhere...and traffic never really seems to stop...i can't remember all the streets we crossed weaving in and out of cars/motorbikes/bikes...it made seoul traffic look like a walk in the park...
3. saigon is the largest city in the country, with 10 million people...by contrast, the capital city of hanoi has only 4 million or so...
4. it's easy to tell that there aren't a lot of native english speakers teaching english in vietnam...the guides we had for both our tours spoke very differently from anything i've heard before...it wasn't that it didn't make sense...more like their cadence of speaking was different, and the way they accented the words made it difficult to understand...my traveling partners and i found that if we weren't concentrating on what was being said, then we didn't understand...
5. normally i'm not one for doing tours through a company while traveling...howeva, this time we did two of them simply because what we wanted to see would've been difficult to get to without the prearranged tours...we only had four days total, and we didn't want to spend too much time getting to out of the way places...
anymore i could say? probably, but it's not coming to me at the moment...

TOKYO, YOKOHAMA and KYOTO, JAPAN

vacation from my school, only a week...not nearly long enough, but i'll take what i can get...before the story, a few impressions: japan is expensive...they drive on the left side of the rode, which is a bit unnerving when you are in a car and you turn left on red...they get on the public buses at the back, and pay when they get off at the front of the bus...the trip started with the flight to tokyo narita...only 2 hours, not too bad...my stress level went way up when i landed, got through customs, and found that no one was meeting me at the airport...i had arranged to stay with a friend, and i didn't have an adress or a phone number...eeeeek...fortunately, i was able to check email and while in flight i had received a phone number...i was able to meet my friend in a couple hours, and after a total of 3.5 hours on trains, we got to my friends apartment...he had mentioned it was fairly large, but i think that was a bit of an understatement...it had three bedrooms, one of which was a tatami mat room, with sliding paper doors...that's where i slept...those doors opened up into the living room, which had windows all along one side...across the street was a beach and the ocean!!!!!!!! not the best beach i've ever seen, but i felt like a queen nevertheless...the first night was just chillin, grilling steaks (with yellow mustard in the marinade, SO GOOD) and catching up on life...the next day we went up to tokyo (about an hour on the train) and headed first to the akihabara area...for those of you who know seoul, akihabara is like technomart...a large area FULL of electronic stores/stalls...basically, if there is anything electronic that you want, you can find it there...i think seoul is a bit cheaper...after poking around for a while, we got back on the train and went to the shinjuku area of tokyo...this area is full of young and trendy japanese, all out basically so they can be seen...there are tons of shops/department stores...we went into a few, but didnt really find anything interesting...we also checked out tiffany's...anyone reading this will be glad to know that i didn't like the most expensive ring in the store...(but i did like the second most expensive:)...the next day my host had to go to work, so i went back up to tokyo on my own...i had grand plans for seeing a number of things, but those plans were derailed when i took one wrong turn...(i will explain this in a minute)...i walked around the imperial palace and after 10 minutes of walking realized that i had missed the turnoff to the yasukuni jinga...this is the shrine which causes so much political turmoil in asia...the reason it causes so much turmoil is that there are 14 class A war criminals enshrined in the shrine along with 2.5 million other war dead...the current japanese prime minister has visited the shrine several times while in office, leading many other asian nation citizens to anger...they see the visits as glorifying japan's military past...since japan has never officially apologized for many of the attrocities committed during WWII, visiting the shrine of these war criminals doesn't make the people upon whom these acts were committed very happy...anywho, enough of the history lesson...i wanted to visit the shrine mostly because of all the political stuff...while walking around the palace, i realized i had read my map wrong, and was in the process of figuring it out, when a japanese businessman asked me if i needed help, and where i was looking to go...after explaing that i wanted to see the shrine, he started to point me in the right direction (according to my map) and ended up deciding to go see the shrine with me...we chatted a bit and after seeing the shrine, he asked me if i wanted to get coffee...why not? i had hot chocolate, he had a beer...somehow, during that time, he invited himself to spend the afternoon with me...this was all fine and dandy, until he made comments like "you are very charming"...and he tried to hold my hand...not exactly what i wanted...so instead of seeing more of tokyo, i told him i needed to get back to my friend, that my afternoon was over...he implied that he would like to come with me, but i pretended not to pick up on that...he also mentioned wanting to come to seoul to see me...now, mind you, all of this was after having general shallow conversation for a couple hours, nothing more...so i headed home, a bit disappointed that i didn't get to see more...when i got back to the apartment that night, i called one of my friends/coworkers from saipan, and we made plans to get together the following day...tuesday morning i got on the train a little earlier than i needed to, in order to try yet another international ATM...i hadn't been able to get any money out, even though i knew i had plenty in my account...this one didn't work either...i still don't know why my ATM card wouldn't work in japan, even though it works in korea...anywho, after that, i met up with my friend in yokohama...it's about 30 minutes south of tokyo, another huge city...i'm told that it's growing quickly, and that there is a lot of money there...anywho, we were super excited to see each other, and spent the first couple hours eating and catching up on gossip...(working in resorts usually creates plenty of drama/gossip)...it was my first japanese food, as i was staying with two americans who had access to a commissary (american grocery store)...very very tasty...just outside of where we ate was the waterfront area of yokohama...in this area is a small amusement park...small in the number of rides it has...one of them, though, is the worlds largest (or it was the worlds largest when it was built) ferris wheel, 105m...the view from the top wasn't super wonderful, but it was nice to be able to look out over everything...after riding the ferris wheel we went shopping...not for anything in particular, we just moseyed through various stores izumi likes...i know that none of this sounds exciting, but the whole point of the day was to spend time with izumi, not see great sights...(of which there aren't many in yokohama, so i didn't miss anything)...that day there was a festival of some sort, though i don't remember the name of it, or what it was celebrating...b/c of the festival, there were a LOT of ladies walking around in yukatas...a yukata is basically a summer version of a kimono...many younger japanese (and by younger, i mean my generation) only have a yukata, because a real kimono is something you buy only once, and is quite a chunk of change...here in korea there doesn't seem to be a lot of variety in the hanbok (traditional korean dress) patterns/cloth but there was a LOT of variety in the patterned cloth of the yukatas...izumi explained to me that it takes two people for one woman to get dressed, because of all the tying that has to be done...i was excited to see all of these women in traditional dress, i hadn't expected to see much...as part of the festival, there was a fireworks show, we found a spot on a field to watch, along with zillions of other people...we got there more than an hour early and there were already TONS of people there, and it only got more and more crowded...the fireworks themselves were great...i haven't seen fireworks like that since my last summer at home in bloomington, at the annual fourth of july fireworks...good times, good times...the next morning i got up early, and went back up to tokyo, where i got onto the shinkansen to kyoto...the bullet train...the normal train to kyoto takes 8 hours...the shinkansen takes 2.5 hours...yeah, it's fast...kyoto was the capital of japan for a long time, much longer than tokyo has been the capital...kyoto is very much the cultural center of the country...there are tons and tons and tons of temples, shrines, and gardens, as well as a few palaces...if you are lucky, you might catch a glimpse of a geisha, though they're not as common as people think...they're actually quite rare...there are about 100 in kyoto, and the numbers are going down...anywho, after a bit of calling around, i found myself a place to stay...it was only 2000 yen a night, which is quite cheap by japanese standards...i got on the bus, and was able to get off at the correct stop by listening very carefully to the announcements and following along on the bus route map carefully provided by the information center...finding the place wasn't so easy after getting off the bus...fortunately, i was able to use what japanese i know to find the place...after getting settled, i walked out and set out to see the kinkakuji...otherwise known as the golden pavilion...it's probably the most visited place in the whole country...you've probably seen pictures at some point...it's beautiful...while wandering around the temple and gardens for a while i met a couple other travellers...one had quit her job in austin to travel asia for a while, and the other is a manager in australia...the three of us chatted for a while, and ended up going together to the next sight, a temple (ryoanji) with a rock garden...the rock garden was created something like 500 years ago, and according to the sign at the extrance, the rocks are perfectly arranged...who decided that, i don't know...we did sit there for a while, each lost in our own thoughts...the next day i got up early and headed out...the bus system is easy and convenient, so i got to see quite a few temples...it was neat, but i have to admit that after the first three or four, they all started to blend together to some degree...at the last i sat down on some steps for a while, and ended up talking to a family from NYC for over an hour...a quiet dinner, and after all the walking i went to bed at the obscenely early hour of 9pm...the next morning i got up early and checked out a couple more temples (including the five tiered pagoda) before hopping back on the shinkansen to tokyo...i would've liked to spend more time in kyoto, and eaten more of the food, but my trip was quickly coming to an end...the last two nights in the apartment across from the beach involved throwing a football on a beach, watching many episodes of west wing, and just relaxing...my flight back to seoul was overbooked, and i was THIS CLOSE to taking the offer of $300 and a hotel night and just going back to korea a day late...but my conscience wouldn't let me do that even though it was really really really tempting...all in all it was a great vacation and i wish it had been longer...the only downside to the country was the expense...japan is not cheap...you can do things that are relatively cheaper, but you can't be cheap...just riding the buses and trains around is going to run you $10 or more a day, depending on how much you want to see/do each day...but when traveling, i don't think about money, or how much of it i'm spending...i don't know when, but i do want to get back to japan sometime...i want to see the northern half of the country, it's quite different from the southern half...another country to put on my list of places of which i want to see more...

GYEONG-JU, KOREA

Monday, May 08, 2006
GYEONG-JU
for the long weekend of childrens day we decided to get out of town again...gyeong ju is one of the best touristed areas in korea outside of seoul and the DMZ...anywho, we took a night train thursday evening, arriving at the fabulous hour of 0400...we took a taxi to the hostel at which we had made reservations only to find the doors locked...we called the number on the door, only to be told they were full, and that they had waited for us...(not likely, since we arrived slightly ahead of time, and we had informed them what time we would be arriving)...so we walked down the street, found a love motel (despite their often poor reputation, they're usually pretty good value for the money,) checked in and went to sleep...
friday was taken up by walking all over the parks in town...gyeong ju was once the capital of the silla dynasty, even ruling the whole korean peninsula from 668 - 918...the area is now known for the silla tombs that are found all over the area...when you think tomb, don't think of what you see in a new orleans cemetary...think egyptian pyramid...the big difference is that the silla made their tombs of earthen mounds over the burial sites, and the egyptians built the pyramids...the silla tombs are only slightly smaller...really impressive...they buried their dead the same way, with plenty of stuff to take with them to their afterlife...in one of the parks, one of the excavated tombs is open for tourists, and it was neat to go .in and see how everything was set up, as well as see what was included in the burial...the next park we walked through wasn't so exciting, but because of the holiday there were a LOT of children out, hanging out with each other and their families...we found the area where an old confucian academy was located...amazingly, we were the only people walking through...the silence was pretty incredible...
we had thought the parks would take longer to walk through so we ended up taking a taxi out to a nearby man made lake...(after taking another taxi back after dinner, we found out that the first taxi driver drove around enough to add 4000 won more onto the fare)...this is an area that is newly developed, more along the lines of big resorts that don't give you any reason to leave their property...aqua world, mini atv and scooter rentals, etc...after a dinner of very disappointing donkas we went back to central gyeong-ju and our love motel...
saturday brought us rain...nothing but rain...after hanging out in our room for way too long (watching tv, playing on the computer, reading, etc) we ventured out, mainly for food...deciding that we didn't have many choices as to what to do, we ended up going to see Mission Impossible III...headed back to the motel room too early, but oh well...
sunday was a lot better...we took a bus out to bulguksa, a buddhist temple 16 km outside of gyeong ju...it's the crowning glory of the silla dynasty, and is on the UNESCO world cultural heritage list...(we did have a discussion as to what qualifies a site to be on that list)...originally built in 528 during the reign of king beop-heung, it was damaged and reconstructed several times, the last time in 1969-73...(the japanese weren't so nice to korean heritage sites while they occupied the peninsula)...while it was neat to see a temple that had been so important in it's time, it really looked like so many of the other temples in this country...after a while all buddhist temples start to look alike...(the same with so many of the castles in europe)...after bulguksa, we took a bus up to seokguram grotto, which is also on the world heritage list...this bus went up the most windy road ever...both of us got motion sickness, which got a whole lot worse on the way down...anywho, in this grotto, there is a ginormous granite sitting buddha...pretty nifty, especially when you think of what it took to build him, and get him up there...there are no nearby granite sources...sadly, you don't get to get up close and personal with him...you only get to view him through a glass wall...originally the area was completely open, but i guess not all tourists were nice to the buddha, so they put up the wall...it's still pretty impressive...
a quick bus ride back down, then another bus ride back to town, where we had an early dinner before picking up our bags where we had left them at the motel, then hopping on the train back to seoul...
another excellent weekend adventure!!!!