Winter Vacation 3: Bangkok, Thailand

The last stop was Bangkok. All of my friends had to be back to work for Monday, but I didn't have to back until Wednesday, so I went to Bangkok by myself. The first day I was there I took a water taxi (a feat to understand in itself) to see the giant Golden Buddha and the Golden Mount.


The next day I went to the Grand Palace, the main attraction in Bangkok, and to Wat Pho. The Grand Palace is HUGE and everything is golden and sparkly, and just WOW! You had to have your shoulders covered and pants on, but luckily I had all of the above. Wat Pho is known for its huge reclining Buddha that was, of course, golden as well.

I also went to the weekend market, which was probably my favorite part of Bangkok. It was a maze of stalls and shops with street performers and musicians on every corner. I wandered around for a few hours, bought a couple of things and enjoyed a Phad Thai lunch (I ate Phad Thai just about everyday I was in Thailand.) This picture doesn't do it justice, because it's difficult to photograph a market's feel.

I had a couple of others things I had planned to do in Bangkok, but a few unfortunate transportation mishaps made them not possible, but it's ok, because I enjoyed what I did get to do. I didn't want to walk around much after dark so every night I went to the movies and watched whatever they were playing in English. They had the nicest theatre I've ever been in with reclining leather chairs. And, it cost only about $4US per movie! I've been asked if I was ever scared or nervous when I traveling over there. I have to say that in all, I felt really rather comfortable. I, of course, played it safe and didn't go anywhere where I knew it would be sketchy, but everyone was nice, most spoke some English and whenever I asked for help, everyone gave me legitimate help. So, in all, my trip was... AMAZING! It was really difficult to come back to school the day after I'll admit. My teacher told me she could tell I was "different" after coming back. I think she meant that the vacation had done me good! It definitely did!

Winter Vacation 2: Phuket, Thailand

Phuket is paradise. Greece is the only other place I can think that I've been that I was at an equal level of awe. So after Cambodia, Rebekah and I met our friend Candice down in Phuket. On our first day we went on a tour of Ko Phi Phi. If you ever saw the movie, "The Beach" and thought it was beautiful, well it was filmed here. It was actually filmed specifically at Maya Bay which is where we went to first. We also went to a place called Monkey Beach, where as you'd expect, there were monkeys. They were probably the most well fed monkeys ever because everyone tried giving them some bread or a piece of fruit or something. We then anchored off for about 45 minutes and got to go snorkeling in the reef. They had some really beautiful fish; the kind you see in aquariums that are every color. We also passed by some viking caves while on the boat (6th photo) on our way to Egg Island. On Egg Island we got some time to just hang out, swim, snorkel more, and tan. You just rent a chair and then relax!

We happened to have a couple of friends who are also teachers in Incheon who were in Phuket at the same time as us. So, we met up with them a few times during our visit. They had been there for about a week, so they showed us good places to eat and good beaches to chill on/bury each other on. The first picture is another kind of tuk-tuk, but it's kind of just like sitting in the back of a truck, not a scooter.

The next day we went on another tour, but this time a sea kayaking tour by night. It started mid-afternoon and lasted until about 9pm. We rode on a big boat and then would go to different locations where a guide would paddle us around. We went into a few lagoons only accessible during high tide and into a few different caves. One of which was a bat cave; a little scary! We ate a really nice dinner and then we made flower offerings to release at sunset. It was made out of all plants and flowers and then we put candles on it. When we put it into the water we made a wish. I'm not gonna tell you what that was. Anyways, Phuket was amazing and beautiful and I finally got a little bit of a tan. It was pretty perfect!

Winter Vacation 1: Cambodia

The first stop on my 10 day SE Asia adventure was Siem Reap, Cambodia. I actually flew into Bangkok, Thailand arriving at about 11pm and then Rebekah G. and I left at 4am to take a bus to Cambodia, so I didn't really see Bangkok until later. We had to take a bus to the border where we had to walk through border control and get our passports and visas stamped. Then we had to take a taxi to the city. In all the trip was, I think, like 9 hours. But we made it!

The first thing we did was check into our guest house (which was nice and only cost like $4 each per night; Cambodia is cheap! Picture above) and then we went on a boat trip to see the floating village. It was a real village, not just a tourist trap, where people actually lived. It was a mix of Vietnamese immigrants and Cambodians. There were floating schools, a basketball court, stores, a bar. The people used the water they lived in to drink, bathe, go to the toilet in. It was pretty incredible to see. We stopped by a school for orphaned children and brought them some pens. That's the last picture. When we were on the boat the drivers threw a rope out and we dragged some kids behind us because they were trying to get to the other side of the village using oars. It would have taken them ages.

The next day we rented bicycles and took ourselves around the Angkor temples. The main one is known as Angkor Wat (first 3 pictures). The next one we went to was Angkor Thom. It was cool because there were faces all over the temple, in every direction (pictures 4-5). It felt like I was in Indian Jones. Actually, the movie Tomb Raider was filmed in these temples. My favorite temple was Ta Phrom. Trees were growing on top of the stones and the roots blanketed over the walls. It looked surreal and because I have always really loved trees this was my favorite. (pictures 6-7). The last few pictures are from the bicycle ride. There were gates and statues spread all about between the temples that were worth a visit in themselves.

After a fun and hot day of biking, Rebekah and I decided we were in need of a massage. (I'm sure you've heard of Thai massages. Even though we were in Cambodia, massages are just as popular .) We went for a full body oil massage, not truly knowing what that entailed. They led us upstairs to a big room divided into smaller"rooms" by curtains. We went behind a set of curtains with 2 pads laying on the floor and they tell us, "Take everything off." At the same time we said, "...Everything?" We looked at each other and after a few laughs we were laying on the pads butt naked. We had an hour long massage that was truly full body, haha. The funniest thing was though, since we were just in one big room we could hear all the other people. It was mostly foreigners, so every time a new person would walk in you'd hear, "...Everything???" haha!

On our last 1/2 day we went to a silk farm. This first picture is a guy picking through some silk worms. I honestly had no idea how silk was made, so it was pretty interesting. Plus, the place we went hires many Cambodians that are disabled and then they donate a lot of their profit to education, so it was a cool place to see. Besides all the sites, being away had other benefits. We got to eat a much bigger variety of food then is available in Korea. We ate real western breakfasts. We also had Mexican food with cheap margaritas, found a vegetarian restaurant, and drank all the fresh fruit smoothies we could find; even more it was all so cheap.


This is from my first tuk-tuk ride. They're the carts attached to the scooters. We rode them a lot over the trip. We made friends with a lot of the drivers too.

And some times I work too!

I thought I might share some photos of my cute little students. These first 3 photos are my English Camp classes. School has been out for like 4.5 weeks for winter break, so for 3 of those weeks I taught English Camp. For 2 weeks I was at a different elementary school working with 3 other teachers with students from the whole district. It was actually super fun. Then for one week I had a camp at my school. I had 3 classes of about 20/25 students and I taught by myself (meaning no translator!). The first picture is my grade 3/4 class; then grades 5/6 class; and lastly my favorite class the school volleyball team. I know it's weird that an elementary school has a team, at least I thought it was strange, but apparently our school volleyball team is really good. They got to go play in Japan a couple weeks ago. The volleyball team is grades 3-6, so it makes it a little difficult since there is such a huge difference in ability, but they are so close and were so excited to come to class everyday. I actually really loved my 3 weeks of camp. The students, for the most part, wanted to be there, there were less of them so I could talk to them more and we could do more fun activities. I wish I taught camp all the time!


In addition to teaching normal classes, I also teach afterschool classes. I teach a grade 1/2 class and a grade 3/4 class, each twice a week. This week is the last week, so maybe I'll get a bit more free time soon, but probably not! Anyways, as you can imagine teaching 1st and 2nd graders is difficult when you speak the same language, but when you speak different languages, it's just chaos! I love them so much because they are so cute and they adore me. (I don't teach grade 1 or 2 in school, so they still think it is special to see me!) But it is SOO hard. I teach these classes alone and this class is, for most of them, their first Englih class ever. I wish I could video a class for you to see because I have no doubt you'd being in tears laughing by the end. They kill me. (I don't have any pictures of my grade 3/4 class yet, but if I can remeber to take some this week, I will pst them. I love them too, but grade 1/2 is just out of control.)