Back in Korea. Slightly sickly

Not much has been happening, so not much to blog about. Even my mailboxes have been empty. School has resumed but not many classes are happening, as the kids were mainly preparing for graduation ceremonies. I only taught a few "how was your vacation" classes with some kids. Many went to Japan, which surprised me given the harsh comments I'd heard about Japan. Anyways many wrote that they ate sushi. So I asked how they liked it. Most replied that they did, but one charismatic boy emphatically said "NO. WASABI." I had a chuckle.

The other day I woke up feeling quite groggy. No matter how many hyper sugary instant coffees I had I just could not get myself to wake up. At lunch I couldn't eat, even though they were serving super tasty food for Valentine's Day. Anyways after lunch I felt so achy and fatigued I got to nap in the nurses office in a pink floral heated bed. It was awesome.  I really wanted to feel better because that night was a teacher dinner where we would be eating puffer fish! Puffer fish, also known as fugu in Japan, is that fish that is lethal if not prepared correctly so it's kinda a big deal.

We get to the restaurant and I was just feeling worse and worse. I was seated next to a bunch of teachers that I didn't know and I had forgotten quite how much it was possible to be stared at. At this point I'm pretty sure I had a fever starting, and still zero appetite, but I knew I had to eat this puffer fish sashimi as it was very pricey. With everyone staring at me making me nervous, plus my fever, my hands were shaking and I kept dropping everything. Oh boy was it embarrassing. The fish tasted like any other sashimi only oddly crunchy. It was served in a salad with a SUPER salty dressing. I kept asking for more and more water which only added to my oddness. Eventually I could eat no more and noticed the table was talking about my lack of appetite. So while it looked to be a very fun night, I really just wasn't feeling up to it and had to excuse myself and go home. I am very upset this random sickness came that day, as I normally look forward to wowwing my coworkers with my chopstick skills and ability to eat a lot of anything :(

After that I have been sick for a few days and sadly missed out on the grade 6 graduation (I saw some of it but it was just adults giving speeches in Korean so I left haha), and another teacher lunch. Poorly timed sickness! Anyways I am now slowly on the mend, so don't worry. Just annoyed. Hopefully there will be another teacher dinner soon where I will be in full health and will be able to redeem myself. Of course everyone has been very understanding and concerned. One coteacher particularly was worried because she feels bad when I get sick far from home. They are too nice.

Anyways, here are some pics of life in back in Korea.

Pretty sunset in Gyeongju. That big temple looking building
is actually a kindergarten!

Terrible photo.. but it was just too funny not to post.

"Garten Bier
Beer plaza of the street
If choose best known place in Germany, it is beer plaza Bier Garten of distance. France's cafe drinks wine, if it is place that argue life and art, Germanic Bier Garten adds very popular atmosphere that wetin fun pulling in a cup of beer. Beer hall been called Bier Garten everywhere in Germany has been extravagant and Bier Garten is situating to residentials street. Germanic common people can meet anytime until comfortable middle age couple from company employee who banish daily weariness clean to a cup of beer in this Bier Garten."

I seriously have a headache from transcribing that.

We got a "teacher yearbook" with all our
pictures in it (even  mine!) and it came with
stickers of our names! These say Anne in
Korean! Perfect for my letters to kiddos!

Hehehe. It says "cut cock." Hehehe.

Hanging out with some seagulls in Busan. Gorgeous beach,
even in the winter. The gulls were puny compared to the
rustic guys out in Atlantic Canada!

Pretty walk through the park again. Pretty gondola. Those
are Chinese characters I believe. Don't know why.

My first fighting of a Korean squirrel! It was black, and had
tufted ears like a red squirrel. Cute.

I pass this all the time and figured I'd post it.
This is one of the hagwans, or private schools.
Apparently it's common for kindergarten hagwans
to look like castles?

Hagwans have fleets of vans to go pick up students
from around town. After school we see the vans
everywhere with kids running in and out of them
amongst traffic.
Makes me so nervous.

Before my unfortunate exit, I did managed to get a shot of
our puffer dish dinner. Tada. 

Thailand - Transportation

OKAY This is it. Final Thailand blog post. I wanted to make this a separate post in case anyone out in the internet world was looking for advice on travel transportation in Thailand. And of course in case you faithful readers just wanted more of my lovely prose.

Prior to arriving in Thailand, Amber and I had already booked a domestic flight from nearby Koh Tao to Bangkok so that we could maximize out time on the island and simply arrive in the same airport we'd be leaving to Korea on. The rest of the bookings we did our first day in Bangkok. We needed transport from Bangkok to Chiang Mai. Chiang mai to Bangkok (we dropped Adri off and spent the day around the train station. Didn't get a blog post cause no much happened). And finally Bangkok to Koh Tao. We wanted to book a sleeper overnight train for our journeys, but this was all booked up between Bangkok and Chiang Mai. So we ended up booking first an overnight bus to Chiang Mai, then an overnight sitting train back to Bangkok, and finally the sleeper train and a ferry to Koh Tao.


1. Overnight bus with a/c. Bangkok to Chiang Mai.

We took an overnight coach bus from Bangkok to Chiang Mai. All advice we had read online suggested to avoid buses, so we were very apprehensive when we learned the trains were all booked up. Our apprehension grew when the people who came to take us to the bus were school children. Luckily, our worries were all for nothing. The bus was barely half full, so we had plenty of room to spread around. Each seat reclined almost all the way down. The bus even played 2 movies for us: the new Spiderman and Enemy of the State. They even provided us blankets because it got quite chilly in the a/c. The bathroom was a throne seat, but nothing special. However, there was a restroom break so that we didn't really need to worry.

Travel time: 7:30pm - 5:15am (half an hour earlier than expected) just under 10 hours
Rating: 4/5 Cheap, easy, comfortable. The only flaw was upon arrival we were rushed and it was quite disorienting finding my stuff in the dark bus at 5am.


2. Overnight sitting train with fans. Chiang Mai to Bangkok

For  our way back to Bangkok, there were still no sleeper train seats available, but there were sitting seats. We were unsure whether to pick a sitting seat on the train, or the bus. The travel agent recommended the train for it's view, and again all online literature we had found suggested the train over the bus. We decided to go for a sitting seat. We figured the view would be nice, and while they had fans instead of a/c, how hot could it be during the night?

We'd made a huge mistake.

I can assure you the sitting train was the closest thing to torture I have ever experienced. The seats were hard leather with what felt like metal poles running through the centers (aka right under our tail bones). They were small and the train was full, unlike the bus, so there were no double seats for most of the journey. They barely leaned back. My seat was especially fun because the seat cushion was broken and would slide out from under me.As we jostled along the ancient tracks, every bump reverberated through our spines. The train tracks were also LOUD. Banging and clicking and banging and somehow making the sounds of toenails being clipped. The air quickly began to go stale, despite open windows, and for some reason everyone with control over the fans (every 1/4 people) decided to turn the fans off. The air went from stale, to stagnant, to suffocating. Our bodies were covered in moist air slime. The lights were left on glaringly bright all night. In the slight chance I somehow managed to drift into any kind of sleep, the train would stop every single hour. The sudden extra lack of air circulation and change in momentum never failed to jerk me awake.

None of this even compares to the horror that was the "bathroom." Let's just leave it at that.

When the train got closer to Bangkok the hourly stops stopped. They were replaced by stops every 10 minutes. By this point it was later morning and the sun was beaming in and cooking our sad, broken bodies.

Travel time: 6 30pm - 10 30am. I don't even remember what the scheduled times were. The train took us 14 hours. Note this is 4 hours longer than the bus. How? WHy?!!?
Rating: do NOT do this to yourself.


3. Overnight sleeper train with a/c.

After pretty much almost dying on the sitting train, I was dreading this second train ride with all my being. Imagine my intense relief when it was amazing. We had ended up showering in the train station so we were no longer covered in heat slime. The sleeper train had very cozy sleeping compartments, with blankets, a/c, and a curtain to block out the lights. The moment my head hit the pillow I was out. It was like sleeping on a cloud compared to the previous night. The bathroom was even equipped with a throne toilet, toilet paper AND soap. I felt like royalty.

Travel time: 7 30pm - 5am. We were about half an hour late, but it worked out fine because the ferry to Koh Tao was only at 6am. Apparently though, the following ferry is in the afternoon, so it's a risky transfer since the train can be much later.
Rating: 4/5 - only lost a point due to the possibility of lateness.

4. Ferries

The ferries were big ol' boats. They moved over water. Sea sick people were all gross and sea sick. I enjoyed the ride. Our ferry to Koh Tao was early in the morning and had almost no waves, but our ferry back was so turbulent even I felt a little bit uncomfortable (I don't really get sea sick). Of course it could have been due to the people all around me vomiting into bags more than the actual waves. I love boats though so still had a good time.

Rating: Bring seasickness pills if you are prone.


5. Domestic flight from Koh Samui to Bangkok with Air Bangkok

This was one of the most magical flights of my life. The airport was amazingly swanky. It felt like a resort. It was gorgeous, had amazing shopping, and was mostly outdoors.Orchids were overflowing everywhere, and the landscaping was stunning. There was free WiFi and, get this, FREE FOOD at the terminal. When we got onto the plane were given even more food. It was worth every penny.

Rating: 10/5

Thailand - Koh Tao

Ok as much as I love this socially accepted venue to talk about myself, I'm getting a little blogged out. I will try to keep this one brief. Almost finished!

The last installment of our trip was on an island called Koh Tao. This is an island that is renown for beautiful clear waters, excellent for snorkling and scuba diving. By this point Adri had to return to Korea, so it was just Amber and me. I went on three scuba dives, and one full day of snorkling, and loved it all.

Highlights:
- sea lion
- magnificent anemone with clown fish hiding in it
- Christmas tree worms (a new favourite) that sucked back into their holes when I passed my hands over them
- goby and shrimp symbiotic buddies
- a Joruna funebris which if you google is really cool looking
- crown of thorns star fish
- giant clams
- oh man I could go on and on.

It was a lovely and relaxing few days to wrap up our amazing trip!

Amusing poster.

Amusing poster 2

We obviously had to check out a few lady boy shows.
They were incredible.

Thailand - Elephant Nature Park

After a day and night in Chiang Mai, we were picked up and brought to the Elephant Nature Park where we stayed for 3 days and 2 nights. It was one of the most amazing experiences of my life. It also was probably the closest I will ever come to going to Jurassic Park. The Elephant Nature Park is an elephant sanctuary. Elephants there are not made to do tricks or be ridden. They have all been rescued and are allowed to just hang out and be elephanty. Elephants in Thailand are endangered, so wild ones are protected. However, owned elephants are considered livestock and have the same rights as cows: none. Livestock elephants used to be used for logging, but this is now illegal in Thailand (of course illegally some still are worked like this). Most therefore are used in the tourism industry either to be ridden, or to beg in the streets in the city. We were shown how elephants are trained in Thailand. I think I can handle seeing a lot of things on TV, but watching the documentary of elephant training brought me very close to vomiting and crying. I can't stress enough how horrible it is and I implore anyone interested in elephants not to ride them. Instead, go to the Elephant Nature Park and play with them!!

 Many of the elephants were old and injured, which is why their previous owners sold them. Some elephants had been blinded by previous owners, others had broken hips from forced breeding. Some had happier stories: some were just really old and their previous owners wanted them to have a nice retirement (this was the case for village elephants more than logging or ridden elephants) and a few had been rescued at such a young age that they never had to undergo the torture training. Some little tiny ones were even born at the park!

The woman who created the park is a truly inspirational woman. Her name is Sangduen "Lek" Chailert. Lek means small. Her story is pretty amazing. There is a ton of information about her available here. I was absolutely honoured to be able to meet her and hear her speak.

So what did we do for 3 days? We fed the elephants treats (pineapples, bananas, sugar cane, squash and watermelon), we bathed them in the river, and we just hung out with them. One of the coolest moments of our stay was on the third day. By this time it was only us 3 and our guide, since the rest of our group had left. Being such a small group we just went to sit with the elephants in the morning and relax with them. We sat with two elephants who were friends. One of them had been blinded by her previous owner when she refused to work after the death of her baby, and the other elephant had become her friend and guardian at the park. Anyways, we go to sit right by them as they spoke to each other. It was amazing. They speak using this deep rumblings, almost too low for us to hear, and they were rubbing their trunks gently on each other.

Other highlights include seeing a super young baby. Sadly, his mother has a horribly injured food from a mine, and so they have to be kept in a cage. If outside of the cage, the mother panics when she can't keep up with her baby and trumpets and all the elephants freak out. Annyways, we saw the baby playing with our guide and it was the cutest thing ever. Don't worry though, they go on walks outside their cage too, and once he's older they can roam the park with their friends. Also we saw a pregnant elephant and got to feel her fetus moving inside her. Feels odd to use the word fetus for something that is much bigger than me!!

I really could go on and on about this park. It was absolutely amazing. I also could post hundreds of pictures, but I have restrained myself. Here are a few. It was magical and perfect and you should go. Visit the Elephant Nature Park! They also have rescued dogs, cat, cows and oxen, just in case elephants were't enough to draw you in.

Baby boy running. He was very fast!

Is that fruit in  your hand?

This is the elephant who had broken hips. While healed,
she has extremely uneven legs and walks with a very
crazy gait. 

Just a few months old!! This is the baby baby boy.

This is the food of the baby's mother who can't run. Ouch.
The purple is medicine.

Out for a walk

This woman is Lek, the park founder. It was amazing to
her. The elephants weren't bad either!

OMG WATERRRRR says the baby

Fruit?

The elephant skin was actually very rough, as were the hairs.

Dirt gets pretty stuck on them.

Buffalo and doggies stay at the park too. Here is a brave
doggie being a rascal.

I got to watch this lady eat for a while. It was amazing.

Beautiful baby girl.

Baby boy with his little tusks.

The hairs on the tails were so thick they felt like finger nails.

This is the sleeping place of the elephant with the broken
hip. The ground is elevated so she can get up easily. If
you look closely, you can see the imprint of her in the dirt.
Her coiled trunk can be seen on the right.

Um.. you have some grass on your head.

This big guy was named Jungle Boy. He is one of the two
male teenagers are the park. Because he is a male teenager,
he is kind of a jerk. He's a little aggressive to the other
elephants (aggressively flirtatious) and people. So for
now, while he's a little too rambunctious, he must be
chained to his house.

These are the two friends we sat with while they chatted.
It was amazing. Also amazing is that when the blind
elephant, Jokkia, panics, she trumpets and calls her friend, Mae Perm.
Mae Perm then also trumpets when coming to the rescue.
Meanwhile, Hope, the other rambunctious teenage boy was
raised by Mae Perm so he also joins in for the rescue.

Play with meeee

Oh just eating a banana tree.

Bath time!

We called this herd "the cool kids". They are the biggest
herd that formed in the park and includes the baby girl and
boy. Because the boy can be a little rough, we visitors
aren't allowed to play with him, so they get bath time
with staff only.

After bathtime, some elephants put on a nice fresh layer
of much.

Nice and .. clean?