St.Patrick's Day Korean Style: March 14-18

Between March 14th and 18th, we celebrated two holidays in Korea. The first was White Day on Thursday March 14th. This is a holiday that follows up Valentine's Day in Korea. This time round, it is up to the boys to give candies to the girls that gave them gifts on Valentine's day. Although it sounds like a very odd holiday (I don't understand the origin of this name), it was nice to get candy presents from several of my students. The "it" candy gift to give are those Chuppa Chups lollipops. Not that I am counting, but I got 6 and some other Korean candies. My yoga studio was even handing out the lollipops and wishing the ladies a Happy White Day when I went after school. Ian also received several lollipops at school.

The second holiday we celebrated was St.Patrick's day! But before, I get to that I just wanted to briefly describe my interesting staff dinner the night before. On Friday night, my school organized a staff dinner to welcome the new teachers. We went to a nice BBQ place where we actually had our own private room. Besides the BBQ meats and kimchi, there were some other interesting side dishes. In Korea, when I go out for meals (especially with my co-teachers) and see things I don't recognize I like to try things first before I say no. Jiyoon pointed to two sides and asked if I had tried them before. My answer was no, and after I asked what they were, she offered me some. The dishes were raw cow liver that was diced into 1-inch cubes and sprinkled with sesame seeds and the other was raw cow intestine that looked grey and bumpy. At this point, I was a little nervous and sceptical but tried both anyways! It turns out I wasn't a fan of either since there really wasn't much of a taste. I think people eat it more for the texture which was not something I was too fond of. After dinner, the karaoke machine was set up. My vice principal came over to my table, handed me a book of songs and simply nodded. So I ended up singing Dancing Queen with two of my co-teachers, Jiyoon and Cindy. I also somehow ended up being one of the back-up dancers when my principal sang a Korean song. It was quite the experience singing in front of my entire staff, but it ended up being pretty fun. We ended the night by making a circle, holding hands, swaying and singing an old Korean song, well of course I didn't sing, I just smiled. Needless to say, it was an interesting night.

On Saturday, we celebrated St. Patrick's day in Seoul! After a few skype dates in the morning, and my first outdoor run of the season, we headed to meet our group of friends. We then all headed to Sindorim for the festival held by the Irish Association of Korea. There was a lot of green, Irish music, dancing, green food and green drinks. It was a really fun, sunny afternoon. It was also the most foreigners we had yet to see in one place since coming to Korea. That night we headed to an Irish pub in Itaewon.

Sunday was a lazy day, of reading, grocery shopping, and walking around Bupyeong. We treated ourselves to Coffee Besco, a coffee shop where you get your own private little room to have coffee. One of the best part is that each drink comes with a slice of delicious cake! Here are some pictures from the past few days :)

Dinner table at my staff dinner on Friday night. So many side dishes!

These are the two adventurous side dishes I tried. Raw cow liver on the left and raw cow intestines on the right.... 

The girls before heading to St.Patrick's Day Festival in Sindorim. (Emily, Isabelle, Natasha, me, Arazue)
 This is one of Emily's pictures

Running into taekwondo buddies at the festival. (Adam, AJ, Ian, Mark, Ryan)

Ian and I at the festival in Sindorim.

              Ian and I at Coffee Besco enjoying our coffee and cake on Sunday with our books :)

New school year, hiking and spring time: Saturday March 11th, 2013

This was our first week back at work, and it was the first week of the new school year. Things were a little hectic at first, with teachers running around getting everything ready for the new academic year. Ian came back to work and had to jump right into classes.  I only taught a few classes last week and even this week will not be a normal work week for me.

This past weekend was really nice. On Friday, after our work week our group of friends decided to have a more relaxed night. We just hung out and played board games. We wanted a more low-key night because Saturday we were planning on going on a morning hike. I saw on the weekly weather forecast that Saturday was going to be our first real "spring-like" day, so I wanted to do something active outside.

A group of six of us (Ian, myself, Emily, Ryan, Isabelle, and Adam) got up early and took the subway to Seoul. After getting slightly lost at first, we found Bugaksan Seoul Fortress Wall. The 18.2 km wall was built in 1397 on Bugaksan mountain for protection and to mark the boundaries of the city. The wall was heavily guarded by soldiers. We even had to show our alien registration cards to clear security to enter the area and had to wear a badge around our necks.  We weren't allowed to take pictures from certain places, which was a shame because one area which was prohibited had a great view of the city with Namsan Tower in the background. We didn't see the Blue House, the place where the president lives, but we heard it is somewhere near the fortress walls. The hike along the wall involved a lot of steep steps but it was nice to get outside. It ended up being 19 degrees and sunny on Saturday! After our hike, we had a nice rooftop patio lunch with sangria. I am looking forward to spring/summer and more patio afternoons in the sun!

After lunch, a few of us headed to Cosco to stock up on supplies. Unfortunately, after returning from Thailand Ian and I came home to a broken fridge. It was sad to throw out a block of cheese (cheese is so precious in Korea!), but we got a brand new fridge which is larger and better than the one we had, so maybe it was worth it. 

That night, we went out in Seoul to Hongdae for our friend Maddy's birthday, which was a lot of fun. Sunday was another lazy day of lounging and a little shopping. Here are some pictures from our hike.

Signing forms to enter

Gate near the entrance

Starting out our hike. Ryan, Emily and Ian

Checking out the view. Ian, Isabelle, Emily

The girls (me, Isabelle, Emily)

Feeling like the King of the World!

 Posing on the rock at one of the peaks.

Casual exercise along the hike  

Group shot. (This is one of Emily's pictures)

Sa wat dee kah Thailand! Feb 23 – March 2

Sa wat dee kah (hello) Thailand! This was one amazing and unforgettable week of beaches, snorkeling, buckets, elephants, monkeys, hiking, Buddhas and so much more! This was both of our first times in Thailand, and we absolutely loved it! Here is a look into our trip and Thai adventures.

While packing the night before our flight…

“So should we pack our rain jackets?”
“No, we definitely won’t need them in Thailand”

Well, this may have been a mistake on our part or maybe it was just karma for not packing our rain gear, but whatever the case, we can’t change what the weather brings us.  So although the weather wasn’t the best on our trip, seeing how it was on and off raining for most of the week, we didn’t let it affect our trip. As most of my family and friends know, I like getting a bit of colour while tanning on a beach, but with the weather we had, there wasn’t really an opportunity for this (mama you would be happy). In a way, the weather just pushed us into trying new activities. So here is our trip.

Saturday February 23, 2013

Our flight left at 8:15 am and we were in Phuket by around 12:30. The flight was around 6 hours, and we had to turn back our watches 2 hours because of the time difference. After stepping out of the airport we were instantly swarmed by taxi drivers and hotel representatives. Luckily we were warned about this happening, and we searched out a taxi driver that would run the meter, which is key to not getting scammed into paying a ridiculous fee.  We made it to O’Malley’s hostel in Phuket Town, where we dropped off our stuff and bought our ferry tickets to Koh Phi Phi. After settling in and talking with other foreigners in the hostel, we decided to go check out the famous Phuket Weekend or Night Market. The market was too far away to walk so the people at the hostel recommended we take a motor taxi or rent motorcycles. Seeing how neither of us have ever driven a motorcycle, the driving rules in Thailand are a bit sketchy, and they drive on the opposite side of the road, we decided to take the motor taxi. This means, we both sat on the back of a motorbike (at least we got helmets) and for 50 baht (~ 1.75 CAN), we made it to the market. At first, it was a little scary driving through the streets on a motorcycle, but I felt safe with the taxi driver and I liked being able to see the city this way.

The market was huge and a really cool experience! There were tones of food, clothing, DVD, and other stands. We got there near the beginning, when the shops were setting up because we were told later at night it gets very overwhelming and crowded. By the time we left, the market was in full swing and it was busy! I bought a shirt, an elephant candle holder and coconut chips. Ian bought a bracelet and a shirt. We discovered that Ian is better at bargaining down prices than me. We also tried yummy spring rolls, smoothies, chicken satay and saw a lot of interesting looking fruit. There were a lot of beggars which made us a little uncomfortable, especially those holding young children. Later that night after taking another motor taxi back to our hostel, we hung out with a few people from England and had our first Thai beers, Singha.

Finally Thailand bound!

While walking around Phuket Town near our hostel, we stumbled upon this sign. We always manage to find a sign with Ian's name everywhere we travel. Even the apartment buildings near my school are called "Iann"

More exploring around Phuket Town. It was definitely a poorer area of Phuket, especially compared to Kata Beach area, where we stayed on our last night.

Stray dog outside our hostel. You can sort of see the O'Malley's sign in the background.

This is where we got our motor taxi to take us to the Phuket Market. Again, another stray dog - they were everywhere in Phuket.

On the motor bike taxi. In Thailand, they drive on the opposite side of the road.

At the Phuket Weekend Market. In the clothing section, there was a tarp over most of the shops. Ian and I often had to duck to make our way around. 

We can't escape...

So many funny t-shirts and tanks.

The food section in the market was very busy.

Interesting fruit

The famous, and very smelly durian fruit. We wanted to try and buy one, but we would have to wait three days for it to ripen, and we didn't want to lug the durian around with us. I am not sure if it is evident from the picture, but each one is  about the size of a football!

The crowd got steadily busier as the night went on. 

There were so many interesting looking foods. They sold curries in plastic bags, you can see in the bottom left hand side. There was also an insect stand, with all these different types of insects for snacks, like cockroaches! I wanted to take a picture of the stand, but you had to pay to take a picture.

After looking around the food stands, we settled on spring rolls, and they were delicious!

Phuket Weekend Market by night.

Sunday February 24, 2013

Sunday morning, we were picked up early from our hostel and got a ride to Rasada pier where we took a 1.5 hour ferry to Koh Phi Phi (koh means island in Thai). We stayed there for 5 nights at the Andaman Beach Resort. Once we arrived, we were told the room we booked was not available so we were bumped up to the luxury bungalow which was great news. After settling in, we went and had our first full Thai meal (I had pad thai and Ian had masaman curry). The food in Thailand was amazing! You could eat Western food, but we didn’t really see the point in that, so for the entire week we ate nothing but curries, pad thai, and spring rolls - it was food heaven! This was also when my addiction to mango smoothies began. I had at least one or two daily the entire trip. After lunch, we headed to the beach, went swimming and read our books. At night, we went to the main beach on Tonsai Bay and watched a fire show and had our first buckets. In Thailand, drinks are served in buckets.

Ready to go to Koh Phi Phi!

Boarding the ferry.

First signs of the islands. It was windy!

First steps on Koh Phi Phi!

Long-tail boats near the pier. They are the water taxis for the island. 

First beach experience!

Everyone on the island is proud of Leo and the movie The Beach.

So many elephant statues.

Interesting dinner price listings

Delicious Thai food! 

Thai beer Singha

Drink buckets

Fire show on the beach.

Jump rope with fire. We were too chicken to volunteer.

But Ian went to jump through the flaming ring of fire!

Monday February 25, 2013  

After breakfast at our resort, and after I sent out a mnohaya lita/birthday email to Vera, we went exploring around the island. Ian bough t another t-shirt and I bought a scarf. Monday was probably the rainiest day, so we took the opportunity to do some indoor activities. We went to see Dr. Fish. This is where you sit and place your feet in a tub and mini fish nibble and remove dead skin. I discovered I am a wimp at this – it was so ticklish, I couldn’t sit still. On the other hand, Ian said he actually really enjoyed the whole experience and was able to sit still throughout the whole time.  After Dr. Fish, we had Thai pancakes for lunch. I had a nutella (of course) and mango pancake which was delicious! We then got hour-long Thai massages, which was relaxing since we got to lay down in a bungalow near the beach and hear the waves from the waves, but it was also a very painful experience! Thai massages are very hard and it was a little intense at first. After massages, we read our books, fed my mango smoothie addiction, went swimming, and hung out by the beach.

We were sad to wake up to rain!

While walking around, we noticed a lot of big trees had colourful ribbons wrapped around them. I later found out, that Buddhists believe that old trees inhabit spirits. The tree is wrapped to notify others, and to guarantee that the tree is not harmed. 

After walking around and doing some shopping, we went to visit Dr. Fish.

Just about to put his feet into the tub with the fish, the owners nicknamed Piranha. 

I think it's pretty obvious by the looks of this picture, I really couldn't handle the Dr. Fish experience. On the other hand, Ian looks very calm in this picture.

Ian's feet.

My feet

Thai pancakes as a snack before we get our Thai massages.

Naturally, I got the mango and nutella one! 

Books and drinks by the beach!

Ian was in cat heaven (again) on Koh Phi Phi. There were so many cats and kittens strolling the streets.

Another fantastic dinner.

Tuesday February 26, 2013

On Tuesday, we got up early to head to a new beach.  It was a perfect start to our day because in the morning it was sunny!  We walked around 25 minutes to reach the beautiful Long Beach. This was one of my favourite beaches, because it felt like it was our own private beach with hardly any tourists. Swimming was a lot of fun off this beach. This was also our first monkey spotting. There were a few monkeys roaming around this beach.  In the afternoon, we headed to a Thai cooking class at Pum Cooking School which we signed up for on Monday. This was an awesome experience and we met some great people. Our class consisted of a guy from Poland, a guy from France, a girl from Germany, and us. It was interesting that throughout our whole trip we never met any other Canadians. At the cooking class, we each made our own 5-course traditional Thai meal. We got a cook book and made notes as our teacher taught us about Thai cooking and customs.

This is what we made:
starters: Ian made Popiah Sot (spring rolls), I made Gai Satay (chicken satay)
soup: Ian made Tom Kha Gai (chicken in coconut milk soup with Thai herbs), I made Tom Yum Goong (hot and sour prawn soup with Thai herbs)
stir-fry: Ian made Khao Phad Anadaman (Andaman style fried rice), I made Gai Phad Medmamuang (chicken with cashew nuts)
curry: Ian made Gaeng Keaw Wan Gai (Thai fragrant green curry with chicken), I made Gaeng Panaeng Nua (Paneang curry with beef, but I substituted chicken)
dessert: Ian made Khao Nieo Mamuang (mango with coconut sticky rice), I made Gluae Buad Chee (bananas in sweetened coconut milk)

After our fun afternoon of cooking, we were stuffed! We went out to get buckets and watch Muay Thai fights, which was entertaining. If anyone volunteered themselves they got a free bucket, but don’t worry we didn’t volunteer ourselves. Later on we headed to the beach for the Full Moon Party, which was buckets of fun! We danced and had an amazing night.

We saw huge trees and cool plants on our walk to Long Beach.

My favourite beach - Long Beach

There was a fisherman sitting on the rocks to the right. The island on the left hand side is Koh Phi Phi Leh.

We had to watch out for these little guys strolling down the beach behind our chairs. 

Pum Cooking School. This was where she instructed, and we took notes.

Ian being taught how to make spring rolls. 

Final product!

I am making chicken satay with peanut sauce.

My final product!

Ian with the soups we made.

Ian making the green curry. Our teacher told us that two spoons of the curry paste is added if you want the curry to be very spicy. Ian added just that but didn't level the spoons, and right as he was dropping in the curry, our teacher made such a worried/scared face, it was hilarious! He still ate the curry, but it was ridiculously spicy!

Our dinner table! We had such an international class, it made for great conversations.

Our teacher, Nam and us at the end of the day.

Watching Muay Thai fights later on after dinner. 

Don't worry, I paid for that bucket.

Full moon party on the beach!

Ian jumping through another ring of fire! Unfortunately, he slightly singed his shoulder.

Wednesday February 27, 2013

In the morning, we rented a kayak and paddled out exploring. We kayaked to Monkey Beach, which was a beautiful little beach with bright blue waters and white sand. On the beach, there were so many cute little monkeys roaming around causing trouble. We bought peanuts to feed them from the only food stand on the beach. The monkeys were already excited when Ian was just paying for the peanuts. We were able to feed the monkeys from our hands, as if they were chipmunks. There was one mama monkey with a baby monkey clinging to her that walked right up to Ian and would tug on the bottom of his shorts when she wanted him to give her more peanuts. Another monkey would hold onto my hand with one of his hands as he ate the peanuts with the other, as if to guarantee that I wouldn’t walk away to feed others. The monkeys were also a little sneaky at times. We saw one monkey steal a mango from a tourist, and another monkey steal a coconut from another. It was also interesting watching the monkeys as they seem to have a very strict hierarchy set in place. There was a clear alpha monkey that dominated. The mama monkey also was higher up on the list, which became evident as other monkeys would make sure she got fed first. It was a great morning at Monkey Beach. After kayaking back to the main beach, we had lunch and then went for a hike up to the Pee Pee Viewpoint. The views were awesome, and there was a beautiful garden at the peak. On our way back to our resort, Ian bought a pair of shorts. The rest of the day was spent relaxing and reading.

Monkeys on Monkey Beach

Monkey is waiting for Ian as he pays for the peanuts.

Monkey makes his move!

They sort of swarmed Ian at first.

This is the monkey that would hold on to my hand, and then eat the peanuts with his free hand. 

The beach was also really nice to swim and chill on in between times when we were feeding the monkeys.

Our kayak and Ian

Most other people just took a water taxi to the beach. We were glad we decided to kayak.

This is the mama monkey that would tug on Ian's shorts when she wanted some more peanuts.

This monkey was just relaxing and sitting like a little human, and then was very happy when we came over to feed him some peanuts.

Our delicious lunch: Masaman curry, spring rolls, and of course mango smoothies.

The movie of the week, and probably every week - The Beach.

Flowers on our hike up to the viewpoint

Viewpoint hike

Ian at Pee Pee Point

The garden near the top.

Thursday February 28, 2013

On Thursday, we decided to go on a boat trip to tour around Koh Phi Phi and to neighbouring islands, which was perfect, as it was finally sunny.  We chose one boat tour that went to see the “9 must see places.” We boarded the boat at 10 am and first went to a small beach called Monkey Bay, where we didn’t really stay that long. The next stop was the famous Maya Bay, on Koh Phi Phi Leh. The locals are very proud that the movie The Beach was filmed there, and we saw tons of images of Leonardo DiCaprio. We had to pay 100 Baht (~3 $ CAN) to enter the island as it is part of Koh Phi Phi National Park. The bay was beautiful, with the brightest blue waters I have ever seen, but unfortunately the beach was a little crowded. After swimming and snorkeling in the bay, we decided to walk around the island to explore and get away from the crowd. We stumbled upon Loh Samah Bay, which is on the opposite side of Maya Bay. This was also the next place the boat took us. This was my favourite snorkeling spot. There were so many brightly coloured fish swimming right in front of our noses.

We then boated by Viking Cave and headed for Shark’s Point. We went snorkeling here, but everyone on our boat was a little hesitant to start because of the name. Our guide told us that this was the best place to see sharks. Ian was one of the first ones in the water, and I did jump in shortly after. We didn’t end up seeing any sharks (which I am sad but slightly relieved at). We then went to Bamboo Island, but unfortunately it started to down pour. After about 10 minutes, the rain stopped and we were able to go on the island, which is home to Mo Koh Phi Phi National Park. The island was beautiful, but because it was raining so much, I left my camera on the boat, so I collected a few shells as souvenirs instead. We then went to see Mosquito Island. The next stop was Nui Bay off of Koh Phi Phi, where we went snorkeling again. This was another great spot to see cool aquatic life. The last stop of the day was Monkey Beach (the place we went the day before). It was beautiful boating back to the main area on the island as the sun was setting.

We had a delicious last meal on the island. We had our favourite Thai curries for dinner (Paneang curry for me and Masaman curry for Ian). Later on, we watched a few Thai fights, and then headed to the beach one last time.

Perfect weather to start our day trip!

Boating around

Koh Phi Phi Leh where the famous Maya Bay is found. "Did you know that the movie The Beach was filmed here?" Can't even begin to describe how many times we heard this. 

Coming into Maya Bay!

Maya Bay!

Maya Bay

Touristy snorkelling picture. As you can see, it was pretty crowded near the beach, so we decided to explore.

Exploring around the island

We found Loh Samah Bay.

Steps leading to the lookout over the bay

While boating around the island, we saw lots of caves and incredibly bright blue waters.

The fish in Loh Samah Bay, where we went snorkelling.

Ian swimming at Shark's point.

Viking Cave

The only picture of Bamboo Island, during the down pour!

Just about to jump in the water for some more snorkelling.

Nui Bay

Nui Bay

Nui Bay

Refreshing coconut on our way to dinner.

Ian loving the cat that chose to sit in the chair beside him.

 
Our last meal on Koh Phi Phi :(

Friday March 1, 2013

Friday officially marked 6 months since we started our adventure abroad. It was another early start, as we took the early morning ferry back to Phuket. With our ticket, we got a ride to our hostel in Kata Beach, an area on the opposite side of Phuket Town (where we stayed our first night). After checking in, we arranged for a free ride to Kok Chang Safari. This was one of my favourite parts of the whole trip – we went elephant trekking! We went on a 50 minute trek through the forest. We rode two people to one elephant, and we simply took turns sitting on the elephant’s neck and sitting on a mini seat on his back. Our elephant was named Alex and he was 14 years old. Our guide was great, pointing out cool things as we were on our trek, and taking so many photos of us on Alex. Near the beginning we stopped near a spider the size of my palm that he informed us was extremely poisonous. We also saw a large iguana sitting in a tree. We learnt that “Aiye” means go in Thai, and we used it to help Alex keep moving. He was a funny elephant, stopping to munch on leaves, or scratch up against a tree, or do other goofy things. After the trek, we were able to feed the elephants bananas. I loved meeting all the elephants.

After we returned to Kata Beach, we took a Tuk Tuk (a mini taxi truck that has open windows, and no back door) because a Thailand trip really isn’t complete without riding in one, to Wat Chalong. Wat means temple in Thai, and Chalong is an area in Phuket near Kata Beach. We spent some time walking around the temple that consisted of a few buildings. We saw a few couples were getting married. There were so many Buddhas and elephant statues. We arranged it with our tuk tuk driver for him to wait, drive us to our next stop, and then drive us back to Kata Beach. I had done research and already knew what we should see in Phuket with our limited time, so having a driver with us made it that much easier. Our next stop was seeing Big Buddha Phuket. This was a stone Buddha statue on the top of a hill overlooking Phuket. The Buddha was 45m tall and 25m wide. It was still under construction. The whole project is completely funded by donation, so they didn’t have a date set as to when it will be completed.  It only stated it will be built according to people’s faith. It was really cool drinking from a coconut seeing the city from this view, with a giant Buddha beside us.

We then took our tuk tuk back to Kata Beach and made it just in time to see the sunset over Pu island. Yes, the island across from Kata Beach is called Koh Pu. That night, we went out for a nice dinner, and listened to an amazing musician singing and playing guitar at the restaurant. After a walk on the beach, we grabbed drinks and enjoyed our last night in Thailand. This was a busy but great last day!

Our guide leading us up a steep part at the beginning of the trek. We both had to sit on the seat, while he sat on Alex's (our elephant's) head.

Starting our trek.

The elephant's skin had such a unique texture, that took some getting used to.

The view from behind

Feeding the elephants after our trek.

In a tuk tuk on our way to Wat Chalong.

Tuk tuk Ian

Tuk tuk Nadia

Wat Chalong

We watched as a grandmother showed her grand-daughter how to place a piece of gold flake, the size of a postage stamp on the statues of monks. It is a sign of respect and is considered a religious offering. 

After looking around Wat Chalong, we took our tuk tuk to find Big Buddha looking down at us.

View of Phuket from atop the hill with Big Buddha.

Behind Big Buddha, there was a smaller gold Buddha statue. The gold one looked miniature compared to the big one, but it was actually pretty large.

Ian standing in front of the smaller gold Buddha.

Ian being goofy as I try to take a picture of him. 

This is to show the size difference. The gold smaller Buddha was only about 10m behind the big one.  

The trees all had these bells hung in them.

Looking out from Kata Beach to see the sunset over Pu island on our last night!

Saturday March 2, 2013  

We had a very early flight back to Korea, leaving at 7:25 am. We flew from Phuket to Bangkok, Bangkok to Hong Kong, and then Hong Kong to Seoul. The Hong Kong stop came as a surprise to us, since it wasn’t originally in the ticket we bought, but when we boarded the plane we were told that the flight was flying from Bangkok to Seoul via Hong Kong. In Hong Kong, we basically just had to get off the plane only to line up in security to reboard the same plane.  We did have time for a quick Starbucks as a treat. It was a little frustrating, but I guess we can say we sort of took our first few steps in China. After coming home to Korea (it really did feel like coming home), we were exhausted and missing Thailand already. Now it is back to school and regular work weeks. I can also now spend my time researching our next trips. We are thinking about possibly going to Vietnam in the summer, but everything is up in the air for now. I love trip planning and daydreaming about where to travel next, so it will be fun figuring things out. Enjoy the Thailand pictures!