Bangkok
I left the freezing ass cold on January 16th to head for the sweating swamp ass in Southeast Asia. I met with 5 other girls (Ffion, Amy, Jess, Kelsea, and Erin) in Shanghai where we had a layover. Let me first begin by saying that the Shanghai airport is the worst airport I've been too. It literally looks like a warehouse. Anyways, we arrived in Bangkok in the late evening but had booked a nice hostel ahead of time called the Bedstation hostel. The 6 of us had a nice room to ourselves with 6 beds. This hostel was one of the nicer hostels and included a basic breakfast as well in the morning. Our first full day in Bangkok we booked train tickets for the evening which were about 1000baht and would take us all the way to Ko Samui. We then walked around Bangkok and visited the various tourist spots including Wat Pho, Grand Palace, and Khaosan Road. I did some shopping, saw some lady-boys, and ate a scorpion! We walked through the sidewalk markets which were interesting...you can purchase anything you wish including nuts and bolts, shower heads, teas, and even a multiple dvd porno selections! While I had fun, I wasn't too impressed with Bangkok as it was rather dirty, smelly, and had many stray dogs and cats. On the positive side, the pad thai was so yummy and only about 60baht on the street!
Ko samui
After a full day in Bangkok, we took the very comfortable (sarcasm) overnight train to Surat Thani where we then boarded 2 different buses, a ferry, and a then a taxi bus to get to a hostel on the island. Ko Samui and Ko Tao were my favorite locations on this trip. The island, while of course touristy, is very pretty during the day and comes alive in the evening. I did an excursion with Jess and Ffion where we paid 1000baht and were taken in a truck to various sites including a beautiful temple, elephant ride, elephant show, monkey show, crocodile show, sitting with a leopard, seeing the mummified monk, seeing waterfall, and zip lining! This was such a great day and we got to do so much all in one package! The zip line seemed pretty sketchy but was a good experience. During the elephant show, I of course volunteered and layed down in front of 2 baby elephants. The elephants gave me what was called a "Thai elephant massage" with their trunks hahah! I sat with a leopard and it was pretty frightening but these animals are absolutely stunning and have such beautiful fur. I noticed the bigger teeth were shaved down on the leopard as well. While I enjoyed the day, I can't feel but bad for the animals as its similar to a zoo. But then again, at least these animals are fed and sheltered unlike man of the dogs and cats I saw on the streets. After the excursion, we went out for dinner and drinks on the beach!
Ko Tao
After 2 nights on Ko Samui, we took a ferry to Ko Tao. Ko Tao was much smaller and less "party" like. The island was so pretty though! Jess and I went on a boat trip where we snorkeled around the island. We saw some very pretty fish and I got a bit of a tan on the boat! This excursion was 700baht and well worth it. We also did a beach day where I had my first Thai massage on the beach! I ate pad thai everyday and sometimes twice a day! I also drank coconut water everyday and had coconut shakes!
Ko Phangan
After another 2 nights on Ko tao, we took a ferry to the island of Ko Phangan. This is a bigger island but it wasn't nearly as beautiful as the other two islands. This island seems to be only known for its monthly Full Moon Party. Read the link below for more info:
http://www.fullmoonparty-thailand.com/
We spent the day on the beach, eating coconuts, eating pad thai, and then ending our stay at the Full Moon Party which is basically a hugeeee beach party! The hostel we stayed at was really shitty but considering the island was packed for the full moon party, I'm happy we at least had a place to stay. This hostel was literally one room with 50 bunk beds in it that were hard as a rock. The outside toilets had spiders, no toilet seats, and no toilet paper. haha! I needed sleepy meds and some drinks to be able to sleep there!
Siem Reap
For 1500 baht we booked a package deal that would take us from Ko Phangan and into Siem Reap. This ended up being a miserable journey to Siem Reap. (not to mention I had the poopsies on this journey and it can be troublesome when you run out of TP) We started off taking a 7hr ferry to Surat Thani, a 9hr bus bus ride to Bangkok, waited 2hrs, took a 5hr bus to the "border", and then another bus for 3hrs to Siem Reap. Once the bus got to the "border" we unloaded to what was a shitty bus stop and we were approached by some rude men. We were actually about 1.5miles away from the border and found ourselves in a forced scam if you will. We knew ahead of time the price for our visas and what we needed from prior research. The scam is that they have you pay about $45 (10$ more) to do your visa application at their location and you are pretty much trapped to do so since nobody will walk in the scorching heat with their hiking backpacks to the actual border. Anyways, after many aggressive arguments with these men, we got back on the bus and had to go through immigration at the actual border. We then waited another 2hrs or so at the border as there is absolutely no organization for buses to Siem Reap. Long story short, it was a messy trip getting to Siem Reap and painted a bad picture in my mind of Cambodia to start. Thankfully, we stayed at the Mad Monkey hotel for $5 a night! Jess, Ffion, and I met up with Kerry and Jem. The hotel ended up being the best we had stayed at. The beds were so comfy, we had a nice shower, great location, nice pool, and great restaurant at the hotel. Cambodia was far different to Thailand in my opinion and I had more experiences (for better and worse) in Cambodia that I will share. In Thailand I feel as though I was mostly in the touristy areas and oddly compared it to being in South Florida or the Caribbean since it was basically nice beaches with a bit more scenery perhaps and cheaper. In Cambodia I feel as though I saw more into their way of life and basically a different world.
When we arrived in Siem Reap we met a very nice Tuk Tuk driver who agreed to pick us up at 4:30am the next day so that we could go see the famous sunrise at Angkor Wat and the surrounding temples. To my surprise, at 4:30am there he was sitting all alone outside of our hotel waiting for us. It was so cold this morning! The driver took us to get our ticket which was $20 for the day and proceeded to take us to the temple. It was so crowded there! Everyone and their mother was their waiting for the sunrise. I found it a bit humorous as some people were preparing their cameras for the perfect picture...in the perfect spot...for the 30min sunrise hahahah! Afterwards we walked around the temple, saw some pigs, monks, horses, very old ruins, and monkeys. We made our way out were we found our Tuk Tuk driver who took us to a few other temples and a nice ride around the city. The ruins were incredible to see. Its mind boggling how such massive structures could be built so long ago without the technology we have today. I began quickly realize the need for tourism in Siem Reap as it seemed to be the only source of funds for many locals. There were many comments made such as, "America is not king..." "*** America", "Israelis are stingy", "You use toilet you buy something", "Lady what you buy" and so forth. At times I said I was Canadian since it appeared Americans were not among the favorites in Cambodia. If you buy something like a dress for example, they will start at about $9 but quickly start dropping the price to about $3. After a long day of Temple hoping, our driver dropped us off at the hotel. He asked for $15 payment for the day....for 5 of us. I find it hard to understand the significance of the dollar. $15 for 9hrs of work, gas, and time. It seemed like such a cheap payment so we gave him $20 and hired the same driver for the next day. The next day, our driver took us to a floating village outside of the main city where we were staying. To be honest, it was sad and a bit scary at times. I realized how uneducated and greedy many of the people can be as they live in such poverty. Many children begged, ran around naked, and grabbed or pointed at me. It was if we were walking wallets. The floating village was interesting at the people literally live on these house boat things that float on the swampy river. As one point, our boat driver (he was about 13 years old) dropped us off at some touristy shop where we were told to get off the boat and have a look around. We were not interested in buying anything so we simply waited to get back on the boat. We looked into a tank that had some fish in it and then looked down.....under the fish tank was a big bucket...and inside the bucket was a giant ass snake!!! We backed away...then the boat driver called us over and started pointing at something down below the tiny dock we were walking on. We looked down and underneath us was a 13foot crocodile!!! At this point, we had enough and jumped back on the boat and wanted out of there! We made it back to our driver who took us to see a beautiful sunset. On our final day, our driver took us to the Landmine Museum and the Butterfly garden. The museum includes history of landmines and organizations that are trying to locate these landmines. Read more with the link below:
http://www.cambodialandminemuseum.org/about-us
Journey to my Jeju home
Our journey back to Bangkok for Siem Reap was miserable as well. It took 12hrs by bus to get to Bangkok and this included the 2hr wait at the border in the sun with begging children all around. Once in Bangkok, I stayed the night alone as the other girls had earlier flights. My hostel was really shitty and I concluded that I was simply paying $8 to stay in a private locked room. In the morning I took a walk around, had breakfast, had a passion fruit smoothie, and used the rest of my baht to get a facial done. I took a bus from the hostel to the airport. I arrived 3.5hrs early for my flight but China Eastern wouldn't allow me to check in till 2hrs before my flight. I tried to explain that I simply wanted my boarding pass as I had no checked bags but apparently I had to wait. After finally getting my boarding pass, I was stopped at the bag check and of course was lucky enough to have my bag (which was tightly packed) searched. In conclusion, the airport security found my 90% empty tube of Toms toothpaste and claimed it was over the liquid limit. (I found this humorous since I had bought a new tube of Colgate toothpaste that I hid between all my panties (since Korea has shit toothpaste). Also, while the guard was busy throwing away my mostly empty toothpaste, he forgot to check my other bag where I also had a full water bottle! Bwhahaha :D :D :D Anyways, I landed in Shanghai were I found the airport to basically be closed. I was unable to transfer and receive my next boarding pass. I was forced to check out, get a Chinese tourist Visa, and exit the airport. Since there was nowhere to sleep, I somehow stumbled upon a airport worker who helped me book a hotel for the night. I'm quite sure I was being scammed for $80 but it included a free shuttle, my own room, a heater, and nice shower. I took a 1am tour of Shanghai! The receptionist checked me in, kindly gave me wifi access, and took me to my room. When I checked out in the morning, I tried asking for a printed copy of my bill. Needless to say, our communication consisted of a mix between Mandarin, Korean, English, and google translate. The phrase, "Please print me a copy of my hotel bill", in google translate turned into "Damn you from across the hotel" to the hotel receptionist. She simply laughed as she thankfully knew that is not what I ment and that google translate was messing up. hahaha!! We had a good laugh and I was still unable to get my bill. HAHAHA!! Anyways, I made my way back to the airport where I needed to check in...but found myself waiting in a 2hr line to simply get my boarding pass...Holy hell it was a mess and I was getting so pissed off at the Chinese and Korean tourists that I was in line with. Its called a line!!!!! The kind (sarcasm) tourists I was with thought it was okay to stand in line and then invite their whole tribe to cut in line as well. I became more annoyed, my flight was getting close, so I had to take measure into my own hands. I cut the line! bwhahaha!!! I admit to sneaking through those damn ribbon barriers and went straight to the China Eastern receptionist. After going through immigration and then security, (my bag was searched yet again but this time the guard was weary of my battery pack) I just barely made my flight! I made my way back to my Jeju home for some laundry, food, shower, and sleep!
My winter vacation
As a whole, I had an amazing experience in Thailand and Cambodia! I traveled with a great group of girls and did/saw new things. I carried around 4 different currencies, had 3 different visas, scammed twice, had about 12 coconuts, spent an average of $12 a night for hostels, and ate pad thai everyday. While I would not chose to do this same trip over again, (I can find beautiful beaches in Florida, I can cook, and I would not like to see Cambodia again) it was still a neat experience seeing Southeast Asia. Thank you for reading my blog and enjoy the pictures! I'm looking forward to my next adventures in Korea, Taiwan, and Japan!
February work life
My first week coming back from vacation consisted of me teaching my classes anything of my choice. The students have been on holiday and this week was ment for what seemed to be a celebration of moving up to the next grade. Needless to say, I planned fun activities that I used for my winter camps and finished Charlie and the Chocolate Factory movie. After a week of teaching I had a 5 day weekend due to Seollal holiday in which I traveled to Busan again! This time a friend showed me around different parts of Busan including various parks, temples, and beaches. See a few pictures below! For the rest of the month I'm doing what is called "desk warming" on Jeju. Basically, I must come to my main school and "work" at my desk since the students are on break. And since many things are done last minute in Korea, I dont even know what lessons I'll teach, what grades I'll teach, or even which schools I will teach at come March! Needless to say, this time is used for movie watching, postcard writing, web surfing, and taking nice walks around the coast.
Thanks for reading! :) :) :)
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