Four Months Home in the States

After my travels and a 2 week visit to Korea, I returned to the States at the end of July. I hadn’t been home in nearly 29 months. I planned to be home until the end of August, or maybe the end of September. Turns out God had other plans, and I’m finally heading back to Korea - here in mid November!

My time home was great… except for the large amount of debt I acquired. Oops. I’ll be spending my first 8 or 9 paychecks getting that all paid off again. However, it was wonderful to see friends and family! I got to spend time with almost everyone I wanted to, though a few I would have liked to see a bit more/longer. On the other hand, I got to spend a good amount of time with many, which was a blessing. I took surprisingly few photos as mostly my friends and I just, well, hung out. We didn’t really do anything unusual so I guess I didn’t think about taking photos as often as I do when living/traveling abroad.

So what did I do? Well, 4 months is hard to sum up quickly. Therefore, I’m going to write a list of things I got to do (not in chronological order)!

Let’s start with the bigger stuff:

1. Flew to Halifax, Canada to attend Allison and Tyler’s wedding (though they had already gotten married in Korea). I saw a few people I knew from Korea and met many more fantastic folks. It was a very fun 4 days!

Playing washer-toss... turns out I'm awesome at this game!

Beautiful setting for a wedding!

With Ty and Allie, the "newly"weds.

2. Took a few trips to Chicago. On the first, my mom, sister, and I hit up several museums and saw the Blueman Group (always great). On the second I hung out with a college friend, Micah, and her boyfriend. And I did some shopping J On the third trip, I met up with my mom and sister to go see the Lion King musical. Also great.

3. Took the Amtrak out to New York City to meet up with one of my good friends from Korea, Rachel. She’s from London and was visiting the States for a couple weeks, so I met up with her for her last couple days. We had fun hanging out - walking around a lot and doing some of the free stuff (walking the Brooklyn Bridge, the Staten Island ferry, Central Park, Times Square, etc).

Enjoying the fall foliage in Central Park.

On the Brooklyn Bridge.

On the Staten Island Ferry... it was quite cold!

Happy Hour... bottle number 2...

We made friends with the staff at the sports bar where we stopped for Happy Hour (and 6pm) and went out with them after they closed (around midnight)... it was a long, but fun, night!

Sign on our hostel's door.

Enjoying a sunny, warmer day after our long night out!

Final stop: Times Square. It's better at night.

4. Went out to Portland, Oregon for a week, with a day-trip to Seattle. I blogged about that previously, so check it out if you’re curious!

Smaller events:

1. Celebrated my aunt’s 50th birthday (we succeeded in surprising her).

Surprise!

My sister, Aunt Chris, cousin Shawn, myself, and my cousin K.C.

2. Went to my church’s campout. It was fun, but cold!

3. Experienced the Taste of Peoria for the first time.

Angela and I shared some delicious samples (and enjoyed a few individually, too!).

4. Went to the Pulse Fest; was very happy to see TobyMac in concert.

Yolonda and I played "pass the pigs" while we waited for Toby Mac.

Toby Mac!

5. Enjoyed a few First Fridays in downtown Goshen.

ND's Shakespeare in the Park

6. Attended a friend’s Halloween/fall party.

Day-to-day things:

1. Spent hours (as in, very many hours) at the Brew, my all-time favorite coffee shop. I also spent many hours at a few different Starbucks. And the Blend, the coffee shop in my parents’ town, know me and my order.

The Brew!

Starbucks in Peoria

2. Read at least a few dozen books.

3. Drove a lot. I was back and forth between Washington, IL and Goshen, IN almost every week. I rented a total of 4 different cars (a big contribution to my debt).

4. Bought a lot of clothes. Pretty much a new wardrobe. It was much needed after living in Korea for so long and not shopping often. (Also a large contribution to my debt.)

5. Ate at my favorite restaurants, some a few times.

Olive Garden in St Louis with Amanda and Becca.

6. Met many babies and toddlers and other youngsters. My friends have a had a lot of babies since I’ve been away!

7. Hit up the Spring a few times (the one cool bar in Goshen; it opened the year I first left for Korea).

Playing darts at the Spring.

8. Went to see many movies in the theater. Not really sure how many - maybe about a dozen (which is actually kind of a low number..).

9. Also watched a good amount of movies with friends at their homes. And on my computer.

10. Got a cavity filled, a broken filling fixed, and a root canal.

11. Enjoyed many lazy Sundays, sitting around with friends and watching football… Go Bears! Go Colts!

12. Before accepting my new job, spent many hours looking for jobs online, applying, and interviewing. Very stressful at times!

A few more photos:

Tiger Lily, the only cat I'll tolerate.

I made sure to enjoy some Chief ice cream a few times; looks like Jared is enjoying his dad's ice cream.

Laura and I had a couple girls' nights... on our first we ended up at Steak n Shake (due to a very quiet downtown Goshen!).

I LOVE the fall!

But I do enjoy the first snowfalls of the year, too.

With Laura Jo and April.

Family dinner at Chili's - Matt, Liza, and mom.

Rare photo of my dad!

It was definitely nice to be home again (especially since I didn’t have to work!), but I am very ready to return to Korea. I’m arriving about 12 days before I actually start teaching again, though I will have training at my new school for a couple days about a week after I get there. I’m moving into my new place the last weekend of November. I’ll be living in Guri, east of Seoul (but still on a subway line), teaching at POLY school there. After 9 months I’m very excited to be getting my own place again - and I’m even looking forward to teaching again! Can’t wait to meet all my new kiddos, though I still miss my old ones! It’s also going to be nice to pay off my new debt and knock off some more of my old debt (my student loans). Not to mention to start saving and dreaming about my next travel adventures ^^

Back in the USA: Oregon and Seattle!

For the past couple of months, I've been home in the States. I've mostly been in Illinois and Indiana, but I've also taken a couple trips.

My second trip was at the beginning of this month. I flew to Portland, Oregon to visit my friend Amy Marsh; we went to the same church in Korea from 2006-2008. I was there for eight days. We had a great time going around Portland together; she was an excellent host! My time in Portland included a soccer game, tubing down the Sandy River, an improve show, a (surprisingly sunny) day at the beach (including a stop at the Tillamook Cheese Factory and the purchase of too much fudge), the Saturday market (on Sunday ^^), waterfalls and short hikes around the Columbia River Gorge, and some great food – a Korean burrito and several delicious foods (and drinks) during Happy Hour (which, for those of you unaware of Portland happenings, is a big thing there; nearly every restaurant or bar – and even shopping mart - has Happy Hour deals). One of my favorite Happy Hours was spent at a place where not only can you get cheap food/drinks, but also watch a movie in a gymnasium filled with sofas/armchairs for your viewing comfort... So we enjoyed tater tots (and I had an amazing veggie burger) and ruby ale whilst lounging on a sofa, watching a semi-new movie… All for a low price!

While in Portland, I also visited with two other friends from Korea, Sarah Lee and Greg. We all worked at LCI; during my first 2 months at the Ansan branch we worked together (it was their last 2 months). Sarah Lee is quite pregnant (7 months) so we just hung out around their apartment, and their neighborhood a bit, catching up, watching episodes of The IT Crowd, and watching many movie trailers (and even one movie).

Amy and I also went up to Seattle for a day. Our day trip included the Pike Place Market (including the first-ever Starbucks store), Pioneer Square, delicious food at a French café, and the Space Needle (though we chose not to go up; it’s very expensive!). In the evening we visited Jackie and Kevin, two more friends from Korea.

It was sad to leave Portland, but, alas, it had to be done eventually! (go here for photos!)

TEFL International: Ban Phe and Ko Samet, Thailand

After my 2 weeks in Vietnam I flew once again to Thailand, arriving in Bangkok on a Saturday morning. For some time I had been considering taking a TEFL/TESOL course to become certified in what I’ve been doing for a living… And if I’m going to spend a month studying, where better to do so than sunny Thailand?! Thus I found myself with 9 others in a small fishing village a few hours southeast of Bangkok called Ban Phe. Upon arriving I was actually able to unpack my backpack for the first time in months – what a nice feeling! It was wonderful having my own room for 4 weeks!

There were 10 of us officially on the course, and one other who participated in class the first couple weeks; she has already taken a TEFL International course and so was simply training to become a trainer herself. After the first couple weeks she became one of our observers for teaching practice, along with the director, Dave, and the director-in-training, Pete. We had a good mix of nationalities: 3 Americans (+2 if you count the trainers), 2 Canadians (though one didn’t make it the whole month), a South African, an Australian, a Swiss, a Frenchman, a Mexican, and an Indian. Counting the trainers, there were 10 guys and 3 girls. Most of us were in our 20s and we got along well, hanging out in the evenings, studying and practicing together, and watching the World Cup. I was quite thankful for the World Cup as it gave us something to do every night – and it was fun watching with so many countries represented! I myself rooted for South Korea along with the USA, of course.

Other than class, preparing for teaching practices, and watching the World Cup, we mostly just hung out and, well, drank – mostly Sang som (Thai rum). I also went out to Ko Samet – an absolutely beautiful island – several times. The first was through the course; 3 of us enjoyed a relaxing day, despite the rain that drizzled most of the time we were out at the island. The next weekend I headed out again, with 2 guys from the course, to enjoy the Full Moon party (a Thailand tradition!). That proved to be a craaaazy night which included a fire show, buckets of alcohol, World Cup games (I watched both Korea and the US lose – sigh), and a pillow fight. We slept into the early afternoon the next day before heading back to the mainland. The third, and final, time I went was actually the weekend after the course ended. I went out on my own, treating myself to a pedicure and delicious Thai food on the beach; unfortunately, it was drizzling again so my final attempt to get some more sun before leaving SE Asia failed miserably. Oh well.

Other highlights: karaoke (where we discovered one of the guys can NOT sing!), amazing food, lots of joking around, sitting by the beach at night enjoying drinks and laughs, laying out on the beach (when it was actually sunny!), and a hugely fun drinking game (a version of King’s Club) on the last night of our course.

On Friday morning we received our certificates and then we had to say our goodbyes as everyone went their separate ways – a few to Pattaya, a few to Bangkok, one to Chiang Rai, and a few stayed in Ban Phe. I myself stayed in Ban Phe for the weekend – crashed most of the first day (I was still recovering from the drinking game shenanigans on Thursday night….), Ko Samet part of Saturday, and a massage both Saturday night and Sunday morning. I headed off to Bangkok on Saturday afternoon and flew out that night – back to Korea. My SE Asia adventure was finished, but thankfully my vacation was not! I spent the next couple weeks in Korea, hanging out and catching up with my friends (and visiting my former students) before returning to the States. Now I’m job hunting and hanging out around North America. I’ll post about these couple months “home” sometime soon! ^^

In the meantime, check out photos from my TEFL International course in Thailand!

Good Morning, Vietnam!

After my few days in Cambodia I took a bus from Phnom Penh to Saigon, or Ho Chi Minh City. To me, this city felt more like Korea to me than the rest of SE Asia. I think it was due in large part to the neon lights everywhere! I spent a couple days in Saigon; I really liked the city. I spent one day just walking around and exploring part of the city. Another day I went on a Cu Chi Tunnels tour. It was quite interesting, and a little hard as an American. The tunnels were used by the Viet Cong during the American War (known to us, of course, as the Vietnam War). We had the opportunity to go into one of the tunnels. It had been widened for us, and they also added some lights... yet after just a couple of minutes (if that) down in the tunnels we were all ready to be back out and felt no need to go back down! I can't imagine spending hours, days, weeks... down in the tunnels - with no lights, and less space. Wow.
After the tour I headed to the War Remnants Museum, which was filled with photos and news clippings from the war. I really liked this museum; some people have called it biased, but I really don't see how it was - many of the photos and news clippings were from American magazines and newspapers! They were the very ones that our family members read during the actual war. I'm fairly sure this museum presents more of the truth than we'll ever read in our American history books.

After a few days in Saigon I took a sleeper bus to Nha Trang. Sleeper bus, you ask? Well, it's simple - it's a bus with seats that recline, allowing passengers to sleep while traveling between cities. I got on at night, and arrived at my destination early in the morning! I had a seat in the back of the bus, so mine actually reclined fully. I managed to get a decent amount of sleep. In the morning I walked with an Irish couple (who had slept next to me on the bus) to the main backpackers area, found a hotel, changed, and hit the beach! It's an absolutely beautiful beach! I spent about two days in Nha Trang. Unfortunately I spent part of it feeling quite ill, but at least I had an air conditioned hotel room to crash in and rest - and a beautiful beach to walk along (and a refreshing ocean to swim in; the water was the perfect temperature!).

Next, I took a sleeper bus to Hoi An. This sleeper bus was a lot more bumpy than the first; I was once again in the back, this time with 3 German boys to keep me company. We all bumped our heads several times, and were awakened often by bumps that landed us back on our seats that had several random hard places in them. Sigh. Just another joy of traveling! The destination, Hoi An, was great. The town is known for its tailors - you can get anything you want made! There are also many great little cafes. I enjoyed a couple days of walking around, reading at cafes, and had a skirt made (I wanted to have more clothes made, but didn't want to spend too much money - nor did I have enough space in my backpack for much more!).

My next stop was Hue; it's only a few hours from Hoi An so I took a bus in the afternoon instead of overnight. Upon arrival at my hostel I was given a free beer - definitely a good sign! The town itself was ok; the tourist destinations are all historical. I spent part of my day in town walking around the citadel. After a night and day there, I'd seen enough and hopped on another sleeper bus!

This time I headed up to Hanoi. I didn't like Hanoi as much as Saigon. For some reason it seemed louder to me, and the traffic definitely seemed to be worse! In Vietnam traffic often doesn't stop for pedestrians; instead, you just slowly walk across the lanes of traffic and it goes around you! I learned to time it when a car had just passed (harder to walk around) but before too many moto bikes (though they were very good at going around you!). Upon my arrival in Hanoi I went with a girl from my bus to the hostel. We had to kill a few hours before we could get into our rooms, so we decided to walk around a bit. We went to a museum and sat down by the lake for a while. We also signed up for a Halong Bay tour through our hostel. In the afternoon she took a nap, and I treated myself to a movie (have I mentioned that movies in SE Asia were only about $3-$3.50?). Unfortunately I had an awful toothache that night and went to sleep early.

The next morning we headed out on the Halong Bay tour. Our tour consisted of 7 of us foreigners and a Vietnamese family. Our tour guide was nice, and the bay was gorgeous! We walked through a cave during the first afternoon, then dropped the Vietnamese family off at an island where they spent the night. That left just the 7 of us, plus our tour guide and the crew. We went kayaking around sunset and then they anchored the boat for the night. We all jumped in for a night swim before eating dinner. The afternoon/evening on the boat must have made us all tired because we all went to sleep fairly early. The crew, however, had a party! They were very loud for a while, keeping all of us awake longer than we'd hoped. And they kept trying to get us to go join them. Andrea, the girl who I shared a room with, and I went up for a bit, but soon went back down to our room to get sleep. The next morning some of us went for a morning swim before breakfast. We showered and packed up our stuff. After breakfast we all lounged around on top of our boat as we made our way back to the mainland. It was a relaxing morning! I enjoyed the tour a lot, especially getting to know 3 of the girls fairly well. The other 2 girls and the guy were nice, too, but we didn't talk a lot (I think due to English being their second language).

We headed back to Hanoi after lunch. In the evening I met up with Andrea and Jasmine (one of the other girls from the tour); the 3 of us walked to the train station and caught a train to SaPa. We spent the next couple days there. SaPa is up in the mountains, near the Chinese border. Because of it's high elevation it's a lot cooler, which was a very welcome change! It also tends to be quite rainy. We chose to trek to Cat Cat Village our first afternoon there. The day was sunnier and warmer than we'd expected!! But the village itself was nice! After wards we headed to another village that had hot springs... or so we were told. This village was located further down the mountain, so it proved to be quite hot. Not exactly hot spring weather.. once there some lovely mountain women offered to show us the way (they are all over the mountains, dressed in their traditional clothing; they walk and talk with you, offering their help, etc, and then expect you to buy stuff from them - tourist trap!). They ended up taking us to a waterfall "where we could swim" - um, no - dangerous! Instead Jasmine and Andrea waded in a bit and then we hit the dirt path once again. This time they led us to the hot springs. Or, should I say "hot springs": a hole in the ground with a tap of lukewarm water. Not what we had expected!! We decided not to use the "hot springs" and made our way back up the path and around to the village where we drank a lot of cold water before heading back to SaPa. The next day was typical SaPa weather - cool and rainy. We had a nice breakfast and then the girls went to a waterfall while I tried to find medicine for my toothache (which had been bothering me for several days by that time). I had no luck with the meds, unfortunately. We met back up at a cafe that had delicious hot chocolate and then I took a shower before heading back to Hanoi. The girls stayed one more day and returned to Hanoi on Friday.

I spent Thursday in Hanoi. My train got in around 5am, and I couldn't get into my room until after 11... I slept a bit on the couch at the hostel until I could drop my bag off (around 6) and then went to a cafe until I could check in. Then I took a nice nap! In the evening I went to a water puppet show. On Friday I walked around the city a bit, took a nap, and then met up with Andrea and Jasmine. We ate dinner together on the roof of our hostel and then Andrea took off to catch her bus to Hue. Eventually I had to go back to my room and pack up... the next morning I got up bright and early to fly to Bangkok - my next post!

Here's the link to my Vietnam photos!

SE Asia Continued: Thailand, Laos, and Cambodia

A couple years ago I spent a couple weeks in Thailand. During that time I explored Bangkok, Phuket, and surrounding islands. This time around I flew directly to Chiang Mai in northern Thailand. Chiang Mai is a beautiful area. It was a walled-in city and parts of the wall, along with the moat, remain. The majority of the backpacker hostels, restaurants, etc are within this area, as are many wats (palaces). I spent a few (HOT) days walking around and taking in the city. And eating a lot of wonderful vegetarian food! :D

From Chiang Mai I flew to Luang Prabang, Laos. Amazing. Laos is now on the top of my favorite countries list. What makes the country so fabulous? Good question… let’s see… Beautiful scenery. Delicious coffee. Great night market in Luang Prabang (including an all-you-can-eat-for-one-dollar all vegetarian buffet!). You can actually walk in peace without constantly hearing “tuk-tuk, tuk-tuk?” or “moto, moto?”. Wildly fun tubing in Vang Vieng. Free whisky shots all day (and night) long in Vang Vieng – adding to the fun, naturally. Not completely overrun by tourists (yet). Honestly, you just need to experience it! Everyone I’ve met has loved Laos. I think if you’ve traveled a bit around other SE Asian countries first you’ll appreciate it even more.

I spent a few days in Luang Prabang: walking along the Mekong, shopping at the night market, enjoying great coffee at various cafes, chatting with a monk in a small temple, and overall relaxing in the peace and beauty of the town.

My next stop was Vang Vieng for a couple of crazy days! I arrived there in the evening and was soon out dancing and enjoying a bucket of whiskey coke. We followed the crowd and went to a few bars before crashing for the night. The next day we all slept in and took our time getting going. Eventually a group of us headed down to the river for tubing. Myself and Stephen, a guy from Sweden, were the only ones who actually rented the tubes and attempted to make it down the river (we didn’t start early enough, and it was low season – thus a very weak current – so we didn’t get to make it all the way down; just a bit further than the last bar). All along the river are bars that have various drink specials and different types of activities, like trampoline swings and zip lines. Due, again, to time (and also to lack of money) we only made a couple stops. How do you make a stop, you ask? It’s simple – you see a bar where you want to stop, you signal to someone working at the bar, they toss a rope to you, you grab on, and they pull you in! After our day tubing, we made it back up to our hostel (which, btw, was an awesome hostel called Spicy Laos – highly recommended!). A bunch of us bought our hostel’s tank tops (“same same but spicier”) and we all headed out for another night of drinks and dancing, being sure to grab any newcomers and bring them along with us. I ended my night with a banana pancake around 3am. Did I mention the pancakes? And the baguette sandwiches? Stands selling them, at all hours of the day, for very reasonable prices. Oh, also, one more thing to add about Vang Vieng. For some strange reason the majority of the restaurants around the small town show either Friends or Family Guy on a constant loop. We spent a couple hours each day just chilling, eating, and watching a few episodes of Friends. Odd.

My last stop in Laos was Vientiane, the capital. This city is not very impressive, especially after my first two stops. I only had about a day to spend there so I didn’t do much sight-seeing.

I flew from Vientiane to Siem Reap, Cambodia. Siem Reap is a pretty cool town; I wish I had stayed in a hostel closer to the main area. My hostel was very nice, and the people were extremely helpful and kind, but I lacked much communication with other backpackers. I headed into the main part of town after putting my stuff at my hostel and enjoyed some good food and shopping. However, throughout the town there are many, many children selling miscellaneous merchandise and begging for money. Heart-breaking. They know random facts about different countries and even states and will tell you what they know as they try to make a sale.  It was really hard to ignore them, especially the ones that followed me around or that I saw more than once (somehow they always recognized me - even though they see hundreds of tourists a day). The next morning I was up early to catch sunrise over Angkor Wat. After sunrise I continued on to the other main temples. All of the temples were amazing. I called it a day after about 6 bottles of water, and it wasn’t even noon yet! Have I mentioned how HOT it was? It was around 40C (104F) almost every day I was in SE Asia!! I returned from the temples and then headed into the main part of town. I treated myself to Mexican, including a scrumptious mango margarita, before heading back to crash early at my hostel.

The next day I took a bus from Siem Reap to Phnom Penh. I stayed in a nice hostel there, called Hostel Nomads. I met a guy from France at breakfast and we decided to spend the afternoon touring the Killing Fields and S-21 together. We hardly said a word to each other all afternoon due to the, well, horribleness of it all. Can’t believe I had never even heard of Pol Pot before moving to Asia. My last morning in Cambodia was spent chatting with other travelers; we talked through breakfast into lunch. That’s one of my favorite things about traveling – meeting others, from all over, and sharing experiences.

From Phnom Penh I headed to Vietnam… that will be my next post!

Go here for pictures from Chiang Mai, Laos, and Cambodia! ^^

Back in SE Asia: Singapore, Indonesia, and Malaysia

After my fantastic trip down under, I returned to SE Asia. I arrived at the airport in Singapore about 3am and was flying out around 8pm that night. Singapore is a very small country - it's just one big city, really. The airport is quite nice; it won the "Best Airport" award this past year (unfortunately beating Incheon airport in Korea, which I still believe is the best!), but I wanted to do a little more than sit in airport cafes all day! Therefore, I headed out into the city for a few hours during the day. There isn't a lot to do except for shop and buy expensive Singapore Slings at Raffles... so I chose to go to the zoo. I wasn't super impressed by the zoo; it's a very nice zoo, but I've been to so many zoos nothing about it was new to me. It did, however, provide me with something to do for a few hours, and, hey, it's never a bad day when monkeys are involved!

After the zoo and sitting in Starbucks for several hours, I boarded a flight to Bali, Indonesia. Due to having only a few days in Bali I chose to stay in Kuta for my entire time there. The beach was disappointing, in my opinion, and the guys were, um, a bit more "touchy" than I care for... but I managed to enjoy my few days there: swimming and lounging by my hotel's pool during the day and (cheap but wonderful) massages at night!

I flew from Bali to Jakarta... then took a train overnight from Jakarta to Yogyakarta. If I had thought ahead I would have taken a bus from Bali to Yogya, but, um, it was a bit of a last minute decision to go there. The train was an interesting experience. The train station in Jakarta was very hectic and confusing, with many trains coming and going from the same platform. My train was late; over an hour. Nothing was in English so I had to enlist the help of some nice Indonesians to make sure I got on the correct train. The train itself was definitely old, but I managed to curl up in my seat (I had one to myself) and sleep for a decent portion of the night.
I stayed with a couchsurfer in Yogya, which was a good experience. She is married and has a kid so I got a little insight into an Indonesian family for a couple days, and ate some (free!) delicious Indonesia foods. There wasn't a lot to do in Yogya. The Kraton, or Sultan's palace, was a disappointment because you don't get to see much. The Taman Sari, or water castle, was small but nice. There were some cool temples, apparently, to see but they required some planning to get to as they are outside of the city and I only had about a day and a half there. I did, however, eat at a great place called the Ministry of Coffee which was recommended to me by some friends, and my couchsurfing host took me out to a nice little bar/cafe place one evening where we enjoyed some delicious banana desserts.

After a couple days in Yogya I took a train up to Bandung where another friend of mine from Korea (Melissia McGraw) now teaches at an International school. I spent a couple days with her, and sometimes a few of her friends. We enjoyed chatting at Starbucks, went to a peace-promoting concert (featuring an Indie Christian band from the States called North of Here), and also an Angklung performance (that also included a wooden puppet demonstration and some dances). We even got to try our hand at playing the Angklung ourselves, which was quite fun!

From Bandung I took a mini van back to Jakarta and caught my flight to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. I stayed with another couchsurfer in KL. She still lives with her family so I once again got a fairly "authentic" Malaysian experience. I again got to eat some (free - again!) delicious foods, and even went out with her and her friend a couple times to the local restaurants that are popular for snacks at night. They typically serve Indian food and various hot drinks (like milo, coffee, and teas). During the day I had there I went up KL Tower and shopping at the mall located in the first few floors of the Petronas Twin Towers.

After a couple nights there, I headed to the Cameron Highlands for a few days. It was sooo calm and beautiful there! I went on a tour that included many places around the area: a strawberry farm, the BOH tea plantation, a butterfly farm, rose gardens, and a Chinese temple. I spent a lot of time just relaxing, reading, and chatting with fellow travelers.

I returned to KL after a couple days in the Cameron Highlands. I went with my couchsurfing host and her family to Pekan. Her dad led a workshop (or something like that...) at a church there, and then her friend gave the message on Sunday morning. After we returned to KL I had one more day to spend in the country. I actually returned to the shopping mall and basically wasted my day... but that night I went to see Iron Man 2 with my cs host and a couple of her friends before heading to the airport. I spent the night at the airport as I had an early flight out the next day.

From KL I flew to Chiang Mai, Thailand... but I'll get to that in the next post!

For pictures from the Singapore Zoo, Indonesia, and Malaysia, go here!

Two Weeks Down Under!

One of the best things about living abroad is making great friends from all over the world... One of the best things about traveling after living abroad is visiting those friends!

After my mission trip to India I flew down to Perth, Australia for 2 fantastic weeks with my dear friend Katie Brooks. She was an excellent host and took me all around her city and even on a road trip a couple hours north of Perth to Cervantes (where we saw the awesome pinnacles) and New Norcia. We even saw kangaroos in the wild, which was pretty exciting!

I was there during the Easter holiday and ate hot cross buns for my first time ever on Good Friday. On Sunday we hid eggs for her younger siblings to find. I got to hold a koala, feed kangaroos, experience an Australian Football game (go Dockers!), see a hilarious show, do a fair amount of shopping, enjoy a street festival in Fremantle, take a surfing lesson, and overall enjoy some great quality time with Katie. Oh, she also got me addicted to an Australian young adult book series, the Tomorrow series and introduced me to a fabulous Australian movie, The Castle! We also watched another good Aussie movie, Samson and Delilah.

It was definitely a very fun trip… one day I’ll return to Western Australia and the rest of the country, too!

Go here to see photos from Perth and here to see photos from our road trip! 

Also, if you want to watch a short video from the AFL game, go here. The Dockers pulled off a very unexpected win, making it quite the exciting first game to watch!

Mission Trip to Karnataka, India

My wonderful church in Korea, Seoul International Baptist Church, has been a part of the ministry around Bangalore, Karnataka for a few years now. When I began to make plans for my travel, I sat down with Pastor Dan and discussed some mission options. One he quickly suggested was that I spend a week or two in India. I was happy to accept his help in planning a trip there as I always enjoyed hearing updates from teams that went there. In the end I had about 8 days which were spent with Pastor Enosh and his lovely wife Ruth in a village outside of Bangalore. They were great hosts; they fed me so much I literally felt stuffed for a large portion of my time there! They took me out to meet a lot of people involved with the ministry there, and I had the opportunity to pray for a lot of people in untouchable villages and churches around the area.

We spent part of a day in Bangalore so I could see a few places in the city.

We also went to Nandi Hills for an evening, which was quite close to the village where I stayed.

On another day I went with a couple of the other pastors and explored Mysore.

India is a busy and colorful country and I look forward to returning one day to explore many other areas!! 

To see photos from my trip, go here!

Southeast Asia: the Philippines, Round 2 (Palawan, Zambales, Makati)

After 3.5 years of teaching English in Korea, I decided it was time to take a break – a looong break. I began my time off with a trip to the Philippines. After spending another week there (I first went there on a mission trip in January of 2008), I’ve decided I need to go spend several months there, island hopping and relaxing! As for this trip, I spent my first 4 days in Palawan. Palawan is a great island, about an hour flight from Manila. There is a lot to do in Palawan, but as I only had 4 days I opted to stay in Puerto Princesa. To be honest, there isn’t much to do in Puerto Princesa; it’s usually a starting or ending point for those traveling around Palawan as the airport is based there. However, it is a nice place to relax. The bay is a nice little area to walk around. 

I stayed at the Banwa Pension, which has a very nice veranda where travelers can hang out, meet, compare adventures, give each other ideas, etc. I met a lot of people, and talked a lot about places to go (in the Philippines and elsewhere). 

I also went on a couple of tours. The first was to the Underground River in Sabang. It was a great tour – good company, good food, and the river itself was amazing. There were lots of small bats, including tiny baby bats. We got a bit of insight into the Filipino culture on the tour, too, as myself and a girl from Calgary were the only non-Filipinos. One thing that was pretty funny was that many of the stalactites and stalagmites in the cave “resembled” something – whether vegetable, or Jesus’ face, or even the entire Holy family.

The second tour I did was of Honda Bay. If I’d had more time in Palawan, I would have headed north to El Nido, but instead I spent a day island hopping in Honda Bay, near Puerto Princesa. The tour was ok; I had the same guide, and once again it was mostly Filipino couples (and one old Korean guy). We had a lot of time to do what we pleased, which was nice. Our first stop was a large coral reef for some snorkeling. Then we went to an island for more snorkeling, plus swimming and relaxing. We went to one final island before leaving. We had a lot of time at this island; we ate lunch and swam more. A couple of us took advantage of the free (yes, FREE) massages in a shaded area on the beach. It was very nice, but shorter han I’d been told.

Coming back from that tour, we got held up in traffic. There was a festival going on all week (the Balayong Festival) and we’d come across a parade. We got out to watch for a bit and snap some photos. 

On my last day in Puerto Princesa I spent some time at Itoy’s Coffee Haus (note: Americano there super sweet L), found a great vegetarian restaurant (Ima’s), and then watched part of the street dancing (part of the festival). I only watched 3 groups because by that time I was very hot! March is a hot month in the Philippines, and this year they are having hotter-than-usual temperatures, according to all the locals.

After 4 full days in Puerto Princesa, I flew back to Manila and then took a bus up to Olongapo. I spent the weekend at the Aeta Children’s Home where I had gone during my mission trip in ’08. It was great to see the children and teachers again. I swam with some of them (they put in a pool after I was last there), and watched TV with them. As it was so hot they didn’t run around and play much! So instead I just sat with them, and took naps in the afternoon when they were in their dorms resting. I spent my last night in the Philippines in Manila. I stayed at Our Melting Pot, which is a very friendly hostel. I walked to the Greenbelt mall both Monday night and Tuesday morning. It’s a huge place, and quite confusing, but I found some good food (and passed by many places that looked good), spent time at a bookstore, and made myself avoid entering any of the dozens of stores I saw offering me clothes in my size (as I’ll be backpacking the next several months, I’m not allowing myself to buy much, especially clothes that I won’t wear until next summer/fall anyway; I’ll shop in the States when I get there!).

The Philippines is a great place for traveling. It is often overlooked as most people choose Thailand over the Philippines (just as how most people visit Japan, but not Korea). I think it is unfortunate as the Philippines has a lot to offer – amazing rice terraces (I’ve only seen photos thus far, but hopefully on my next trip I’ll make it north of Manila to see them), hundreds of white sand beaches, a myriad of places to snorkel and/or dive, cheap beer and food, and friendly people. Oh, and they speak English! If you’re traveling around SE Asia I highly recommend adding the Philippines to your list of destinations! J

Oh, I was greeted by snow when I arrived back in Korea! Flip-flops + snow = cold toes for the taxi ride home!