Pete's Travels

Back in the USA!

2008-01-25T12:06:00.000-08:00

I made it back! It was a truly wonderful adventure from start to finish. It's nice to be back home, but it's always hard saying goodbye to adventure of travel and all that goes with it. Overall I would definitely go back to Asia again, and I highly recommend it to anyone else who is looking for a different and interesting experience. One of the things I like most about traveling is that it reminds you that the world is a big place, and that there are a lot of different ideas and perspectives out there, and this trip reminded me of this to an extreme. Many thanks to everyone who was part of my travels and for all of you who virtually tagged along. Much love to you all and take care!

49 hours in Tokyo

2008-01-22T20:25:00.000-08:00

As a finally to the trip, I decided to stop in Tokyo on my way back home. I actually have some Japanese who live friends here, so it worked out great. The funny part is that I am only here for exactly 49 hours, and I'm currently on hour 44! It has been crazy stop. Everything that SE Asia has been, tokyo is the oppostite. Crowded, clean, modern and expensive! In Laos, a 9.5 hour VIP bus trip cost $11.50, including lunch! Here, the train from the airport to downtown cost $29, nothing included! My friends have a new baby and a very small place, so I took advantage of the opportunity and stayed at a capsule hotel! Nothing beats sleeping in a tube! For $43 dollars I got a hole in the wall with that was 3' x 3' x 6', cable tv, radio, clock and access to a public bath (not 7 year boy with me this time!). The biggest trouble was that I am 6'2"! You wouldn't think 2 inches would make much a difference, but it does! It was quite an experince! Tokyo is everything you would think it to be, crazy big, neon everywhere, gaint buildings and the people have an obsession with fasion that is unlike anything I've ever seen. I will post some pictures of the hotel and Tokyo soon. Now it's finally time to head back home. One last LONG plane ride across the pacific, customs and immigration in San Fransico and I will at long last be able to sleep in my own bed again. I can't tell you how much I am looking forward to being able to speak to people in English, and to have them understand! And to eat green chile! Stay tuned as I have a bunch of pictures from the trip and a couple more interesting stories to post.

Weaving cooperative

2008-01-19T05:10:00.000-08:00

My friend Jackie in Chiang Mai has worked with this weaving cooperative in the northern part of the country for the past couple of years, and I asked if we could go up and pay them a visit. We did, and it was a pretty damn moving trip. The region is home to MANY different ethnic groups, and many of these groups who live in the mountains and rural areas still live in the same basic state that they have for centuries. The towns have no electricity, running water, etc. One of the biggest crisis's that is hitting these communities is the modern world. Today, many of the villages are occupied largely by only older people and children. The trappings of the modern world lures all the young adults away to the city, and they never return. Along with them goes the group's language, culture and traditions. In another generation there will be little left of many of these cultures. Additionally, this migration tears apart families, separates children from their parents, and leaves the elderly with no one to care for them, and to take raise the children. In an effort to off set loss, this cooperative was started in a village of the Karen (pronounced ker-rin) tribe. The Karen people have a long history of weaving, and the cooperative takes this skill and allows them to make a living doing it. The goal of the cooperative is to provide jobs in the village which will allow people to not only stay in the village, but because the product is a traditional one, the work actually reinforces and preserves the tradition. So far, it has worked great. The coop has been in operation for 15 years now, and 80 members of the village participate in it. The most amazing part for me was Dewey, the fellow who started the group. He was a village member who saw his culture dying before him, and decided to try to help stop it. He started the group with 1800 baht (about $200) and continues it with almost no personal compensation. He was clearly tired and overworked the day we visited, and the most touching part was that he still took over hour out of his day to sit and talk with us and explain the organization and it's goals (thank god Jackie speaks thai!) During this talk you could really get a sense of the deep caring and compassion Dewey had for people and trying to make their lives better. The work was hard, but to him it was unquestionably worth every minute. It was incredible touching and moving. I can say I haven't met many people like Dewey, and the world could use a lot more of people like him. Needless to say some of you have some Karen handwoven gifts when I get back!

This idea of a sewing cooperative is not unique, there are many other similar groups in Thailand. The link below isn't for this group as they don't have a web site, but it is for a very similar group that does the same thing for Karen refugees from Burma.

http://www.karenwomen.org/shop.html

Motorscooter mania!

2008-01-17T04:01:00.000-08:00

This week has been a blur of motorbikes, bazaars and food- it's been great! I can't tell you how nice it has been to be back with familiar faces that speak the language and know the surroundings. The biggest difference about this week has been my mode of transportation, namely the motorbike. Some Thais drive cars, but I'd say 80% of them seem to prefer to travel by motor bike (including my friends here). When I say motorbike, we're talking mostly scooters, with some dirt bikes and a few motorcycles. The funny thing about motor bikes is that they are much smaller then cars, and so they can do fun things like travel 3 wide in a lane, or drive between cars, or on sidewalks! And let me tell you- they do all of that and more! People seem to see motor bikes as basically akin to walking. In fact I've been told (and seen) that ONLY tourist walk anywhere, Thais take their motor bike. And because driving a bike is about the same thing as walking, you can basically drive your motor bike anywhere you would walk! They also seem to believe that because they are not really driving, they don't need to follow the rules made for cars! This "driving" style has been similar everywhere I've been, and has provided a good deal of entertainment as I rode along nice and secure in a taxi or tuk-tuk. But my friends here only have motor bikes, so everywhere we go is an adventure! Being on the motor bike is such a different experience because you are completely vulnerable, plus you are doing the crazy maneuvers, not just watching them. You basically feel like you are about to die a horrible death constantly. I am not sure I can actually express the shear insanity, it is like nothing we know in the US. If you actually worry about what is going on you would just start screaming. The only real option is to just put your trust in fate. Pretty quickly you attain this zen like state where your horror is replaced with a mild amusement. It's actually pretty peaceful, assuming nothing bad actually happens! I think everyone should try it at least once! And let me tell you, driving a motor bike here is 10 times more terrifying, partly because they drive on the left (or as i say 'wrong') side of the road! It's a wild ride!

Bugs? Yummy!

2008-01-14T06:11:00.000-08:00

Sorry for the long gap in posting, I made it to my friend's place in Chiang Mai, and the past few days have been filled with eating, sight seeing, scootering around (yes, I DROVE one!), and catching up with my friends.

The food has been one of the best parts of this trip, I have tried just about anything new or different, just for the sake of trying it. Some of it has been not good, but a lot of it has been wonderful, and I have enjoyed trying it all! The food in this part of the world is a little different then 'western' food (western is what they call any food from North America or Europe). One specific thing that they eat here that is very different is what we could classify as bugs. In the western world bugs are something we try hard to keep out of our food, but here, they are the food! My first run in with eating bugs was in Laos. There was this little old woman on the sidewalk selling something wrapped in banana leaves, and it smelled wonderful. I attempted to asked her what it was, and it was clear that such a discussion was beyond her English ability, and well beyond my Laoscian ability, but she was more then happy to sell me some so I could find out for my self! So I bought some, and I honestly thought it was some sort of fruit, or rice, or possible meat, as these things are commonly wrapped and steamed in banana leaves. Turns out, I was a bit off- it was some sort of larvae. You can judge for yourself in the picture below, but my best guess is that is was wasp or bee larvae, and it was still in the comb. I was rather unsure how to go about eating such a thing, and so I just bit in. I won't lie, it was pretty damn good! I really expected it to be seriously nasty, but it is actually one of the most tasty things I've had on the trip. It's hard to imagine, but once you got it past your lips (and out of sight!), it really tasted, smelled and chewed nothing like what you would expect larvae to be like! From a mouth feel perspective, it really was no grosser then eating green beans. But I do have to admit, that getting it up to your mouth, and getting the visual image of what you just put into you mouth out of your mind, was a little tough! Due to the visual, I only managed to finish about 1/2 of it, but I think if I had it a couple more times, I would really learn to love it! For dinner tonight we went down to the local market (which is nothing like Safeway!), and I picked up some crickets and maggot looking things, both fried. They are both very good as well, nice and crunch with good flavor, they taste nothing like you would expect a bug to. The maggots are not unlike cheeze puffs!

Some folks have commented on the speed of the embedded slide shows (pictures go too fast), and I have looked and looked and can't figure out how to slow them down. So if you click on the little colorful circle in the bottom right corner of the slideshow, it will take you to a new window where you can see the pitures full screen, and control the progression.

More soon!

Pictures from Laos

2008-01-09T00:16:00.000-08:00

I can only describe so much- a picture is worth a thousand words, so here is a books worth of images of Laos. It's a pretty wonderful place, landscape, people, culture, food, you name it and it's pretty nice.

I also wanted to talk about one of the other surprises I've seen here, and that's in the tourist. It's not the numbers that surprise me (there are a LOT), but the type. There are a lot of families here, some with little kids even. In Cambodia at least half of the tourist were families. I think this is a great idea as it definitely gives the kids some first hand experience with different cultures and peoples, though I think little kids (less then 13?) are probably too young to appreciate or remember much of it. I also can't imagine the work of traveling in a foreign country with small children!

Laos!

2008-01-08T01:13:00.000-08:00

Laos has very much surprised me! I knew very little of the country before coming here, and really wasn't expecting much, but it is simply beautiful here. In Cambodia, the people were desperate poor. The locals were hungry and even appeared malnourished at times. None of the locals were laughing, relaxing, no children playing, in fact most of the children you see are working, selling anything they can, or simply begging. It all made one uneasy because as a tourists you are constantly asked "you buy?" It was hard to say 'no' because you could see the desperation in their lives, but at the same time it became very tiresome very quickly. In Bangkok the situation was much the same, except the locals were well fed, they have just become very accustom to dealing with tourist and taking their money. In fact in Bangkok you quickly get the feeling that there are as many people looking to rip off the tourist as there are tourist. In both places there were very strong lines dividing the locals and the tourist- they shopped, lived and ate completely separately. Laos (the locals don't pronounce the 's') is the exact opposite. While still definitely poor, the standard of living here is a major step up from Cambodia, and there is no desperation. And it's a very different kind of poor, the children are fat and happy, and are playing- and not working. Some of the locals are acctually pudgy! The restaurants are filled with tourists and locals- at the same restaurant. Everyone is very relaxed, happy and friendly. No one asks you to buy anything. The mood and environment of the whole place is very warm and welcoming. And the landscape is stunning, simply breathtaking views of forested mountains and wide river valleys. And it's cheap! Hotel $10, lunch $2, steak dinner (not that I eat steak, but still) $4! Needless to say there are a lot of foreigners here, a good many of whom seem to be here for the long haul! I will try to post some pictures soon, though the internet feels like dialup here!

Legacy of war

2008-01-06T04:02:00.000-08:00

Most of this region, and Cambodia especially, has had a long history of violence in recent times. A trip to the Cambodian Land Mine Museum illustrated how the legacy of these wars live on. The statistics of the number of landmines and 'dud' shells (UXO) that are still in the country is astounding. They estimate that there are millions of these things still in the ground. At many of the Wats there are little groups of men missing limbs playing music for tips from the tourist to raise money. One (and no) legged folks are a common sights in Cambodia, but I never put the two together. Evidently, children are the most common victims as they tend to play in wooded areas and off of the well traveled paths, and also they don't know to stay away from mines when they find them. When I thought about it, this really seems to add insult to injury. Not only are these the poorest people I've ever seen, but they also have to worry about their kids being killed by mines. Ironically, the US government deployed and supplied the majority of these mines, and yet they aren't aiding in the clean up, nor have they signed the landmine band. I also learned the nifty fact that landmines are designed to mame, not kill, because a wounded solder is more of a liability to the enemy then a dead solder (they have to use resources to care for the wounded ones).

The whole thing also made me realize how much other countries have influence the wars in Cambodia (well, lots of other places too). None of the landmines and munitions which were used in this country were built in there, they were all build in the US, the USSR or China. Cambodia has been pushed and pulled over and over by the big guys. It would be interesting to see how they would look today if all that energy had been spent making the place better instead of bombing it.

Wats up doc?

2008-01-05T03:00:00.000-08:00

I took over 400 pictures at the Wats (aka temples) surrounding the Siem Reap area. So these are just a select few! There are dozens of Wats there, the most famous of course being Angkor Wat. The whole thing is pretty damn stunning. The shear size and scale of the buildings are massive, and the amount of work it must have taken to construct them is nearly unimaginable. Angkor Wat is the largest religious building in the world, and many of these structures are over a 1000 years old. The Khemr people loved their gods, and it shows! One of the most interesting parts is that that during the past 1000+ years the local populations have switched back and forth between Hindu and Buddhism several times, and each time many of the statues and carvings would be remade (or just destroyed!) to reflect the current religion in favor. Equally amazing is that people STILL worship here, in and among the tourist are people kneeling and praying!

Currently in Vientiane, Laos, which is a quick stop over on the way to Luang Prabang, which will hopefully lead to a river boat ride up the Mekong to Northern Thailand. Saw the Mekong for the first time in my life today- quite a thrill!! And one hell of river!

People on the move pics

2008-01-04T05:36:00.000-08:00

Finally found a place that would work with my camera, but the Internet connection is so slow that it takes for ever to upload pictures. I figure everyone has seen tonnes of pictures of Angkor Wat, so I figured I'd put up something different- pictures of some of the fun vehicles around here!

Also some folks have asked why I didn't get the Vietnam visa ahead of time and the answer is I'm lazy! The issue with Vietnam is that you have to specify exactly when and where you will be coming and going, any variation and it's paper work city. If I had been WAY more organized about this trip, I would have had a real plan and could have gotten the visa ahead of time. As it turned out, I was pretty much guessing at dates arrival and departure dates, and this was on the day I was planning on apply for the visa!

Hope everyone is well!

Cambodia...

2008-01-03T02:33:00.000-08:00

All I can say about Cambodia is yowzers. I've seen poverty before, but Cambodia is a whole new level of poverty. I've never seen anything quite like it. The trip down from the boarder to Siem Reap was quite an experience. It's about 160 km (100 miles) and it took 5 over hours. The main "highway'' (and only road) was pretty much what we would consider a 4 wheel drive only road. We are talking ROUGH. The country side was filled with rice patties, farmers and tiny, little dity huts. I saw a fellow peddling his bike with only one peddle because the other peddle had broken off. He had tied his foot to the good peddle so he could pull the peddle on the up stroke. That's what I call poor. At dinner tonight some kids from the street wanted to eat the stuff left over from my plate. They were way too hungry to worry about any pride. I think it's the kind of poverty that you have to see in order to believe. I've seen it an I'm still not sure I believe it. Do me a favor, and take a minute right now to be thankful for what you have, because there are a lot of people who have almost nothing. The only difference between us and them is that we were lucky enough to be born in the right time and place.

In the 1970's, the Khmer Rouge took control of Cambodia, and for some really bad reason, they decided that it would be a great idea to kill or deport every single person who was educated. Close to 2 million people were slaughtered. It's been almost 30 years after the Khmer Rouge were over thrown, and long term result of their policies on this country is clearly visible. The country has no infrastructure, no resources, and seems to have some serious economic hardship. Being left with no one with any skills or abilities takes a long time to over come.

Siem Reap is the closest town to the Angkor Wat ruins (and many other temples), and it seems clear that tourism is the only real source of income. Compared to the rest of this country, this town is a sharp contrast. There are foreigners everywhere, and where there are tourist, there are people catering to them. It is also clear that this influx of tourist money is a new thing as there are shiny new big hotels, and just around the corner are huts with barefoot children trying to sell you postcards for a dollar. It is a stark reminder of the haves and the have-nots. The temples are amazing, though after 2 days, they are starting to all look the same. I'll write more about them when I can get some pictures to show (I can't post any pictures yet as the computers here are quite old, and they don't want to work with my camera).

I have to take a minute to describe the driving system here (and that is using the word system lightly!). The drive down from boarder was truly insane. The trip was made in a cab (ie a guy with a car) shared with a couple from Australia. Cars were rare on the road, as it was mostly filled with scooters, bikes, people, water buffalo, dogs and occasional big trucks/buses. The road was dirt, and full of LARGE pot holes. The drivers would careen down the road narrowly dodging the endless obstacles. I sat in the front seat, and so I got a first hand view of the craziness. When it got dark, it was even funner! Most of the scooters didn't have lights, and of course none of the bikes, children, cows, etc were visible in the dark. It was a complete free for all, and I am completely amazed that no one was killed. The driver was unphased through it all. Somehow this was all normal for him. Here in the city, things are just as wild. The general rule of the road seems to be that you only have to worry about things that are in front of you. So if you pull out in front of another vehicle, that's THEIR problem, because you are in FRONT of them! IT'S NUTS. Ah, but it does make for some good fun!

Planning to stay here for a couple more days, and then head to Laos, and then to northern Thailand, unless something better comes along!

The good, bad and the trouble with visas

2007-12-31T00:40:00.000-08:00

Falco sang that, "one night in Bangkok makes a hard man humble". I think I understand what he meant! It's a odd town. My orginal plan had been to not even stay in Bangkok, but instead to head striaght to Veitiane, Loas, and stay there while I waited on getting a visa for Vietnam (more on the visa in a minute). This plan was dashed when I could not find a hotel that wasn't full for the day I was planning on arriving. Granted, my search was limited to places online with email booking, and I could have likely just braved it and found a place. But the fact that the 1/2 dozen places I tried were full (it is the high season here) gave me visions of going from place to place in a place with little ability to communicate and no idea where I'm going. That's a little too much adventure even for me! So I decided to play it safe and simply stay in Bangkok where I could confirm a room at a place that speaks English. That hotel turned out to be a nice one too, with airport pickup and a free 'american' breakfast! (the breakfast was 1 fried egg, toast, tea, and deep fried hotdogs- exactly my normal breakfast!). So anyway, I found myself in Bangkok with some time to kill. So far I have been resisting the urge to hide out in my hotel room, although that is the much easier thing to do, it sort of defeats the whole point of being here. So as bit of a compromise, and to ease into the whole thing, I've been sticking to fairly touristy places. Yesterday was a good day, I headed down to the royal palace, visited a set of wats (temples - they are EVERYWHERE) rode in a tuk-tuk, and got scamed at least 3 different times! I had pretty low expectations of Bangkok, and so far it's lived up to them! There are some pretty amazing things here, but there are a good deal of not so pretty things too. There are a LOT of foriegns here. Lots of asians from japan, korea, china, as well as a lot of white folks. I've learned that I really can't pick an American out of a crowd. Everytime I think I've got one pegged, they open their mouths with very broken English. The problem with there being a lot foriegners is that they easy targets, which means there are a lot of con folks looking to seperate the tourist from their money. They call these folks touts. So far basically every person you meet is looking to convience you to take some thing you don't want! most cab drives offer to take me 'shopping' or on a tour of the city. 'Helpful' people on the street who see you reading a map and ask where you are going, are quickly trying to guide me to their uncle's hotel (which is always better then the hotel I'm staying in!), or personally guide me to my destination (for a tip of course). It gets old quickly! It also makes you more then a bit distrustful of everyone! So far I've manage to stay out of most of it, but I ended up at a resurant last night that, while good, was VERY overpriced. The other odd phenomenom is that NONE of the taxi drives know where they are going! I know that getting 'lost' is an old trip to jack up the fair, but I moved to a new hotel to day (close to town, my old one was almost an hour from the city), and it took a dozen taxi drives to find one who knew where I wanted to go. And I had the addresss AND map! It turned out the place was 3 blocks away! Yesterday a tuk-tuk driver took almost an hour to go about a mile, he kept going back and forth. Fortuniately it's a fixed price for the ride! To try and avoid some of these issues, I picked a new hotel near the subway, so I can to and from places on my own! Anyway, on to the visa. Today was a less good day. First thing in the morning I set off fo the vietnam embassy (it's monday here) in order to secure a visa. Turns out it, as well as most everything officail, is closed for the new year. In fact they are closed until Friday! I was worred about this. So with the help of a actually semi helpful local, he pointed me to the TAT, which is basically a travel agency, and will do the leg work for getting a visa for you. It's actually a pretty good deal because for 15 bucks they will wait in line and deal with all the red tape for you! That's where the good news ends! The deal is that because the embassy is closed, they can't do anything until friday, and because there will be a lot of pent up demand on Friday, they won't guarnentee they can get me the visa before Moday. That's a week away. I of course have to leave my passport with them (the visa is attached to the passport at the embasy), which means I really can't travel far while I wait, which means another week in Bangkok. I've only been here 2 days, and I can tell you, I couldn't make it another 7 days! The other big issue with the visa is that it is SUPER restrictive. You have to state ahead of time where and when you come and go, and I'm just not 100% about that yet, which is tricky. So after some reading and thinking, I've decided that vietnam isn't going to happen on this trip, it simply makes things too complicated. So my new plan is to spend more time in Cambodia and Loas, with my friends in Chiang mia and maybe even hit the beach for a while. I think in hind sight, I will see this as the better idea, Vietnam I think is best saved for another trip where I can focus on it alone. The good news is that I can leave Bangkok first thing in the morning!! I will be off to Siem Reap in Cambodia. It's near angkor wat, as well as several other interseting places. It's a 14 hour bus trip and crazy boarder crossing- so wish me luck! I've got a nice place lined up when I get there, it's run by Norwedgends!

Bangkok Baby!

2007-12-29T18:36:00.000-08:00

Well I made it to Thailand! The trip was pretty smooth and easy. I had made arrangement ahead of time with a hotel, so they picked me up at the airport and I picked a place that spoke English! They have wireless too so I am actually typing this on my iPod! It's hard to type so this is going to be short, but I'm just impressed it works. Will post more after I figure out how to use an Internet cafe.

Misc Korea Images

2007-12-28T05:09:00.000-08:00

As I leave Korea behind, here are a few random pictures that caught my interest. It's been a good visit, having a native speaker to guide and translate makes one world of difference. This luxury is about to come to a screeching halt! I'll report on Thailand soon!

Jeju Island

2007-12-27T06:14:00.001-08:00

The past couple of days have been a blur of bus rides, tourist stops and Korean food. We took a short trip down to Jeju Island, which is a small island south of the Korean mainland. During the summer months it serves as the sunny, warm get away for Koreans, but has it's own culture and history which shines through when the tourist aren't around. One interesting Korean regulation I've learned is that building is not allowed on fertile agricultural land. This is why their cities are primary built on the sides of mountains. The reasoning for this is that as a small country with a high population density, they need every available square inch to feed themselves. You see this even in Busan, where any unused spot of land literally has some sort of crop growing on it. It appears that most of this agriculture is small scale (family based), and so also provides income for countless numbers of people. This agricultural drive was the most apparent part of Jeju island, where corp upon crop stretched as far as you could see. Unlike farming in the US, these fields are SMALL, we're talking no more then 200 feet in any dimension. This island was volcanic formed and was hence littered with zillions of lava rocks. These rocks are the most visible resource, as miles and miles of fences, buildings, sidewalks and curbs, and even art were made from them. See the pictures below for some examples. Anyway, I asked to see some ocean and Korean history, and Jeju was the place chosen as the best to see this. This was definitely an off the beaten path kind of place, especially for foreigners, which is exactly what I was looking for! The island is fairly large, and the sites are pretty spread out, so lacking a car, we bused it between spots. Korea is very public transport oriented, so even in the sticks, a bus is pretty easy to come by. We hit some nice museums, botanical gardens, some caves, and a couple of tourist attractions. One spot of note was Kim Nyoung maze park which was started, and is run by an American. The real surprise came in the form of getting 1/2 off admission because we had taken the bus there, which was deemed environmentally friendly. The brochure was all in English, and talked about about the park's commitment to the environment. It was an odd place to find an American, and an even odder place to find a environmentalist American. One additional cool (from my perspective!) finding, is that it rained at one point, so instead of hiking, we decided to go see a movie, and I was pleasantly surprised to find that they only subtitle the American movies here, so the are in English! It was like watching a movie in the US- but much cheaper! Note: I am Legend is a Horrible movie!!

In addition to seeing some sites, we ate a lot of food! This eating included my first venture in to what we Americans would call 'crazy asian food', in the form of a pigs blood and sheep intestine soup! It wasn't as bad as you might imagine, in fact the soup part was pretty darn good. I'd had blood before, and it's always had an odd smell and a bit of an odd back flavor, and this blood was no different. The intestine came in two forms, one which appeared to be thin slices of stomach, which were actually pretty tasty, and the other which appeared to be inch long sections of small intestine. These pieces were VERY chewy and had a rather unpleasant tasting substance inside. I chewed and chewed and got a couple of pieces of the tough stuff down before deciding it wasn't worth it. But the rest of the soup I ate up! It does help to be hungry when attempting such things!

I also visited a karaoke place, which was nothing like I expected. I knew Asians are krazy for karaoke, but I always pictured it like in the movies, a big room with someone up front singing. The reality (at least in Korea) is very different. The karaoke is done is small rooms, with small groups of people, usually friends or family. You rent the rooms by the hour and they have a big couch, tv, and some mikes. A single store will have a dozen or more of these rooms. You sit in these rooms, pick your song, and sing to/with your friends. It's all very private, and would never fly in the US. We don't mind making fools of ourselves in public, but not in private! Evidently, Koreans are the opposite!

Off to Thailand tomorrow! Stay tuned!

Fish markets and naked men

2007-12-24T14:46:00.000-08:00

So I probably got your attention with the naked part, and I'll get to it in a minute, I promise it's worth the wait! ha! To day we headed out to the big market in Busan called the Jagalchi market. It is the very quintessential asian market that we all thing of: a million venders all packed into tiny little areas selling basically everything under the sun. Each vender specializes, and I do mean specializes. One guys will be selling nothing but light fixtures, and the next guy nothing but light bulbs! And the competition was ferece, there would be a least a half dozen people specializing in the same item. There was a group of women who were selling nothing but dried beans, and they all had exactly the same types of beans. I found it really hard to believe that all of them could sell enough beans to make a living. My big score at the market was parts to fix Yanghee's sister's toilet. Oh, and I got the hole in my boot fixed for $10! The market was very night and day from the stores we had visited the day before. Yanghee says that the market is not only the poorer side of Korea, but it is also Korea past, while the fancy stores are the new Korea. You could see this in the shoppers as well. At the market it was almost all 40 year old and up, while at the department stories it was all people younger then 40. After the market we then went to a light house down by the ocean. From here you could see the docks and all the boats coming in and out of the port.

Ok, now for the naked story! I had heard about public bath houses and asked if we could go to one. Yanghee's sister, Sunhee, was excited about this idea because she loves them, but only goes once a year as a treat. So the 5 of us headed to her favorite bathhouse, Jungang haesu lendie. Now the thing about bathhouses is that you are naked in the bathing part, and because you are naked, men and women are separated. This meant that being the only man, I was going to be own my own to figure it out beyond the front door! To add to this, Sunhee's oldest son, Minwoo, who had recently turned 7, was now too old to go into the women side. Minwoo's entire English knowledge consists of 'hello' and 'have a nice day', which is about as much Korean as I know. Also the last time he had been to the bath house was when he was 6, and so he had about as much idea what do to as I did! I also soon found out that he also had about as much interest in soaking in a hot tub as he did going to the dentist. Long story short, with the aid of a friendly fellow who guided me through the basics of using the lockers and getting towels (lots of pointing), I found myself in a room full of naked Korean men, charged with taking care of a naked 7 year old who's number one priority was to find some sort of mistchif to get into! He stated with splashing other people, the dumping water on the floor, then splashing me! He would listen when I told him to stop any one thing, but would quickly find a new thing to do! Remember, EVERYONE is naked, I can't read or communicate with anyone other then gesturing, and I am probably the only non-Korean that has ever been in this place. It was a good adventure!

Day 1

2007-12-23T14:32:00.001-08:00

First day in Korea was a busy one! My host lives with her sister and nefews way up the side of the mountain. It's the opposite of the states- the higher you go the cheaper the housing! No one wants to live up high because it's too much of a pain to walk up the hill! Most people don't drive, and the bus doesn't come this far up, so living this high means you have to climb some STEEP hills, and carry everything with you. But it makes for some GREAT views! After a breakfast of rice soup, we headed off for yanghee's family's temple, which is in her parent's home town, which is about an hour away by subway and then bus. On the way to the train station, we did a little sight seeing around busan. The trip out there was great because we sat at the front of the bus so it was some great views of the landscapes. The temple itself was amazing, SO much detail! the time and effort to create something like this is mind blowing.

Busan or bust!

2007-12-22T13:41:00.000-08:00

I made it to Korea! It was an uneventful trip (the best kind when you're flying!), and somewhere over the Pacific it finally set in that I was actually going on this trip! My route was from Albuquerque, to San Fransico, to Nagoya, Japan and then a short hop over to Busan. I sat next to a very nice Brit on the US to Japan leg. His job was working on a boat laying communication cables at the bottom of the ocean, he'd been all over the world doing it. The jobs you never think of, yet we couldn't live without.
I was very glad to have some one to meet me at the airport in Busan, because after being in route for 22 hours I was in no shape to figure out anything as complicated as hailing a cab in a foreign country! I probably would have ended up sleeping in the airport if it was left up to me! I haven't seen much other then the bus ride back from the airport, and it was dark even then. I promptly feel asleep for 10 hours and awakened at 5 in the am. Much better then awaking at 5 in their pm, which is about 7 am for me, so I hope that I am well on my way to beating the jet lag. Below are some picture of the first leg of my journey.

The Boeing 777 that safely carried me across the ocean. Good plane!!

Damn, I really wanted to play on the travelator!

A vending machine in Nagoya. Hard to see it, but the bottles on the top row are selling sweat! Talk a product for the lazy man, you don't have to bother with making your own sweat, just buy some of this and dump it on. You'll look like you just worked out for an hour!