Winter Wandering

Whew! What a busy month it has been. Between all my traveling, changes in Cheonan, and starting school again, I can't even begin to give you an accurate update, but I'll give a quick overview.

On January 16th, me and four other American teachers in my program set off for a trip of a lifetime. We would be visiting Cambodia, Thailand, and the Philippines over a total of 12 days. We opted to use a Korean travel agent to plan our trip, which made our trip both very unique and very affordable. The tour company arranged for our group of five to have our own personal tour guide everywhere we went; we traveled in our own private shuttle, and our tour guides took care of everything. This in no way resembled my budget trips of the past (I've been known to survive on only a loaf of bread and a jar of Nutella for as long as a week just to save money). We traveled in luxury.

Traveling with a Korean tour company as a foreigner is perhaps one of the most unique experiences I've ever had. Korean people are both very enthusiastic and very particular about the way they travel. First of all, Koreans love to travel with tour groups, often on huge tour buses. So, if you're in Cambodia and you see a Korean person, look around, because there's probably about 100 more nearby. Secondly, Koreans prefer to eat Korean food when they travel, so tour agencies arrange in advance for their clients to eat Korean food for nearly every meal. In addition, many Korean tourists make sure to have a few Korean staples, such as kimchi, gochujang (Korean red pepper paste), and soju (a Korean alcohol) on hand at all times. We just so happened to have left all of our Korean food essentials at home, but we did eat several Korean meals at restaurants in which we were the only non-Korean guests- like this dinner in particular.

We started our vacation in Cambodia. I was a bit shocked when we first arrived, because of the great poverty in many parts of Cambodia. Some people (many of whom were Vietnamese immigrants) lived in house boats that were merely open-air shacks that float. Everywhere we went in Cambodia, small children with no shoes begged us for money. Our tour guide explained that there is wealth in Cambodia, but that the income gap is great, so that the poor are extremely poor and numerous, while the rich are very rich and few.

The group: Megan, Melissa, Travis, Jessica, and me with our Cambodian tour guide.

We spent the majority of our time in Cambodia seeing the ancient temples, the most famous of which is, of course, Angkor Wat. We also got to take a boat ride across "the largest lake in Asia", Tonle Sap, and watched the sunset with about a hundred tourists from literally all over the world from the top of a small mountain. It was pretty incredible to see a place that people travel from all over the world to visit, and see firsthand the vastness of Angkor Wat, and all of the elaborate hand-carved stone.

Angkor Wat

Angkor Thom

After only a couple of days in Cambodia, it was time to head to Pattaya, Thailand, a touristy beach town about 3 hours outside of Bangkok. There, we got traditional Thai massages, spent time on the beach, and went to a Thai drag show, for which Thailand is famous. And yes, I'm talking here about transexual drag queens. The show was incredible and over the top: you can't tell at all these "queens" are actually men! I even got a picture with of some of these ladies!

Also in Pattaya, we got the opportunity to ride elephants, a total dream of mine!

From Pattaya, we moved to Bangkok, my favorite destination of our trip. There, we got to see the Grand Palace and tons of amazing Buddhist temples. I just love the elements of traditional Thai architecture.

Shoutout to Apple, our incredible tour guide in Thailand for making our time there unforgettable!

Our final destination on the trip was the Philippines. Although we stayed in Manila, we spend our two days there traveling outside of the city. Our first day, we canoed through a beautiful valley. Because we were on the canoe, we weren't able to get any pictures. The second day in the Philippines, we took a boat out to a small island, then rode horses to the Taal volcano, the smallest active volcano in the world.

On the way back, we had a mild scare when one of the pieces of the rickety, wooden boat we were in broke. The piece that broke was one of the protruding wings that stabilized us in the water. that The wind was strong that day and the waves were high, but we made it safely to shore thanks to our skilled sailors.

I wish I could tell you everything we did, and all the great stories from our trip, but it would go on forever. We had a great time!

A few days after returning from my trip to Southeast Asia, I was able to take another trip, this time with my boyfriend, Drew, for 5 days to Busan, South Korea. Busan is about 3 hours southeast of Cheonan by train, and is second in size to Seoul. Busan is situated on the east coast, and we were able to stay on the most famous beach in Busan, Haeundae. Compared with other cities I've visited in Korea, Busan is the most laid back, and had a totally different vibe than Seoul, for example. The difference might be comparable to that of New York and San Francisco: two large cities in America, but with completely different personalities.

Drew enjoying some Busan seafood, for which the city is famous.

Busan Harbor looks similar to the streets of Korea: vehicles parked anywhere they want.

Drew and I on Haeundae Beach, Busan's most famous beach.

At the Busan Aquarium.

Drew at the Busan Modern Art Museum.

Whew! What a whirlwind. Safe at home now in Cheonan, but the adventures haven't stopped.

Stay tuned.