Teaching in South Korea

Tuesday, August 20, 2013

Guatemala Update

Hi Guys!

(Crystal mentioned that since we got internet today she was going to update her blog. I was pretty sure I was too stressed to even think about it, but then I thought "Maybe blogging is the kind of zen activity I could use right now!" So, enjoy!)

I'm actually in the process of setting up a Guatemala blog. I'll let you know the address when I make it all official. In the meantime, enjoy my Guatemala update on my Korea blog.

Our flight to Guate was an adventure in itself.

What ha' happened was:

Before leaving for Guate, we went Target hopping. Don't ask Crystal what she's seen in Minnesota/Wisconsin unless you want the layout of a specific Target. We went to Target in Hudson, Oakdale, Stillwater, and the two in Woodbury. Several times.

Target hopping makes your wallet lighter and your suitcase(s) heavier. We got to talking about sharing an extra (paid) suitcase. I called American Airlines to confirm that as first class fliers, we could have a fourth bag and how much it would cost (you get three free bags in first class). The woman confirmed that we could for $75 a bag.

So we went out and bought a new bag to share. Once we started filling it up, we realized that we couldn't actually share the bag. So I brought an extra suitcase down from the garage and we each had our own fourth suitcase. The more we thought about it, the more we thought we should call AA again and confirm the bags. After being tossed around a bit on the phone, it was finally confirmed that we could each have bags for $150 a bag. That was the price we originally thought, so we weren't too surprised.

Fast forward to August 7th. We pulled up to the curb, and attempted curbside check-in. Something happened with the ticket printing so we had to drag all of our bags inside. When we got up to the counter, we were told that we couldn't have an extra bag because of the summer embargo. We exchanged words:

Us: Soooo, what can we do? What are our options?

Them: Isn't there one bag each you can get rid of?

Us, in our heads: Ha! If we had that kind of power, wouldn't we have shown up with three bags each?!

Us in reality: No, we're moving to Guatemala for two years.

Them: How about whoever dropped you off? Can you just send them home with them?

Us: No, they just left ...

Them: Can you ship them to Guatemala?

Us: No, we were advised against shipping as no one knows if the boxes will even be delivered. Not to mention the import tax.

Them: Hmm ...

Us: Hmm ...

Until we finally asked if we could buy a seat in economy in order to get two more bags on board.

Don't judge us!

So, that was approved. It sucked, but we got over it and went and had a beer near our gate.

Get to Dallas late, but were informed that the next flight was delayed to 530 instead of 430 so it was no real problem. We grabbed super fast, not so good food then went back to see that our gate had been changed. It got delayed

and delayed

until our gate was changed again.

Then it was delayed

and delayed

and delayed some more until we didn't even arrive in Guatemala until around 11.

The up side was that there was no line at immigration and the bag wait wasn't too bad either. We had met 5 other teachers on our plane so that was nice and helped put us at ease. We were greeted with smiles, hugs, and kisses on cheeks that made it all the more welcoming.

We were split according to where we live and were brought to our apartments right away.

Crystal and I were amazed at how much space we have. We were used to studio apartments in Korea. What we have here are two floor - four bedroom - four bath (two full, two half) condos. The one thing I wanted for my apartment in Guate was a kitchen I could move around in and get some baking done. CHECK. What Crystal wanted was enough space for a reading armchair. CHECK. We have a kitchen, a dining room, a living room, a laundry room, a laundry-drying room (no dryers here), a balcony, an atrium, a big sitting space outside the master bedroom and what we think is a food-prep room outside the kitchen. And a small backyard.

That's EACH OF US!

We ran around the first night saying things like, "Oh my god! Look at the walk-in closet!" and "Are you sure all this space is for me!?" It's pretty amazing.

And, for a peace of mind, know that our condos are in a small gated community. The outside wall has tacks on the top of it as well as barbed-wire. There are guards at the main gate that only let us in if they recognize us. If we have company that the guards don't know, they'll call or run to our house to tell us who's here and ask permission to let them in. We're safe and sound here!

I'll try to make time to get the Guate blog up and running and to post a bit about what we've been doing at school. We're pretty stressed, but it'll all be worth it when we start teaching on THURSDAY!

Love from Guate.

Friday, May 17, 2013

Our Time in Bali

I've spent some time thinking about how I wanted to write about our time in Bali.

I decided to chunk it all together in one (long, picture-heavy) entry because Bali was the vacation part of our backpacking trip. I know that may sound weird to someone who hasn't been backpacking. I know I wouldn't have understood it before this trip. Trust me, backpacking doesn't always feel like a vacation! Since it was vacation, we took it easy and all of the days nicely blended into one another.

While staying in Legian, us girls had a nice spa day at the spa connected to our hotel. We got facials, pedis, and back massages. It was all money well spent!

Ready for Spa Day!

The hotel spa

Things got a little awkward when Jacqui and I had to share this bathtub wearing only the teeny-tiny shower cap-sized spa undies we were given. No tops. I'd avoided Korean spas for 4 years only to have my streak ruined at a Bali Spa. We only lasted about 7 - 10 minutes before we got out.

You may not know this, but I don't know how to swim! At our pool in Legian, I learned how to float on my back. You may think this comes naturally, but it doesn't. Every time I tried to float, I'd sink. It was inevitable.

Until one day it wasn't!

Our friend Chris joined us on Saturday night. It had been a good two years or so since we'd seen him. He lives on the island of Java teaching at a kind of international school (a faux one, I think). He teaches 6th grade.

For breakfast, we'd head around the corner to a little cafe that had the best iced coffees in Legian. Then we'd wander the streets checking out the shops and getting a feel for the area.

A small statue outside a temple.

Through the temple gates ...

When Chris arrived, we mentioned to him how we couldn't find the beach. The roads in Legian/Kuta are all one way, save a few main roads, and are quite narrow and confusing. So, after breakfast on Sunday, we went wandering.

There she be!

Chris had to head back to Java on Monday morning (the 6th) and us girls were headed for Ubud! Legian just wasn't our scene. It's a touristy area filled with lots of Aussies and expensive restaurants. We were ready to relax in the yoga mecca of Ubud. Chris helped us book a private car to get there.

(Definitely the way to go after all the bad luck we'd had traveling by bus, train, and mini-vans so far!)

We checked into a family run hotel on one of the main streets of Ubud. We had a bit of ... a miscommunication due to beds. The hotel seemed to think that we should pay per person, not per bed. So even though there was a double and a single bed, we paid for a "roll away" bed. It was all very confusing and not worth the argument.

The view from our front porch. No complaints here!

It was at this very pool where I learned to doggie paddle and breathe under water (plugging my nose, of course). My goal for the trip was to be able to do a cannon ball by the last day.

Mission: Accomplished.

I did more than one. I think I did like 5. I also did laps every day; starting at 50 laps and working up to 100 laps. It was the life.

If you ever find yourself in Bali, go to Ubud.

Go!

There were delicious cafes everywhere. They had vegetarian, vegan, and gluten-free options. While they were the most expensive places we ate, the food and price tag were all worth it. And when I say expensive, I mean that we were paying around $5-6 per meal. You'd never find those prices with that food in the States!

Delicious coffees everywhere!

One of the days, Jacqui and I headed to the Monkey Forest. Just before entering the forest, you can buy some bananas from a vendor. If you do this, you will be greeted by all the monkeys in the forest. We didn't buy any, but got to witness it all.

Mamas need bananas, too!

These two were hilarious. There was a small crowd around them watching the guy in the back pick bugs off the guy laying down. Suddenly, Laying Down Guy lifted his head, looked at the group of us, and chattered his teeth. We took that as a sign to get away. We weren't trying to get rabies.

Jacqui's goal for the Monkey Forest was to get a monkey on her back.

Mission: Complete

At one point, I had to tell her to take her sunglasses off otherwise she'd lose them to her little friend.

Because Jacqui had wanted to see the infamous rice fields, Crystal and I decided to surprise her with a trip to an organic restaurant sitting amongst the rice fields, Sari Organik. It was a place that we'd seen our friend Jill blog about (hi, Jill!).

While I found my dish to be quite mediocre, the views were amazing and it was definitely worth it!

Turn right here. It's a bit hidden, but if you look for it, you'll see it.

Another helpful hint.

Some bikes along the way ...

A panorama view from the restaurant.

My meal; the drink was delicious!

(Sorry, had to cut myself off from adding all of the pictures. It was just so gorgeous, I couldn't help myself!)

Most of our days in Ubud looked like this:

>> Wake up when we felt like it.

>> Get ready and head out to breakfast (we mainly went to a cafe cleverly named, Kafe)

>> Wander around / do something we'd planned to do (like head to the market, Monkey Forest, spa, etc)

>> Get back to the hotel just after noon and get into the pool (it gets pretty hot in the middle of the day, stay somewhere with a pool!)

>> Wander out for a late lunch / early dinner

>> Window show along the way home

It was the perfect vacation for sure.

On the 15th, we headed back to Legian. We stayed at a hotel that I wouldn't really recommend to anyone for two reasons:

1) When we checked in and attempted swimming in the freezing cold pool, one of the bartenders obnoxiously "hit on" me by calling out more than once about how "hot [I] am."

2) The next morning, we had a staff member (we think) come into our room at 8 o'clock without our permission. Crystal and I were still in bed and Jacqui was in the shower. I couldn't see who it was because I'm blind as a bat and didn't have my eyes in. Crystal couldn't see the door from her spot on the bed (and she was sleeping). When the front desk was notified about this, they did absolutely nothing about it.

It's not that we wanted any sort of compensation, we solely wanted them to know what had happened so that it didn't happen to another guest. They claimed to have notified the manager, but we never saw him. They knew we were waiting to speak to him, yet we never got the chance.

In fact, when we went back down to see where the situation was at, we were told that the CCTV had been checked and no one was seen going into our room (an obvious lie) and that the manager was currently talking to staff, but no one had admitted to it yet.

So.

We put Jacqui in a cab that morning (the 16th) and then headed to a nearby hotel for a spa day. We immediately wished we had stayed there instead. The staff bent over backwards for us, despite us not being guests at their hotel. When we were done with our massages (I chose a hot stone massage while Crystal chose a coffee scrub), facials, and pedicures, one of the kind women working at the spa asked if we wanted someone from the hotel to walk us to our hotel because it was now dark outside.

Today, Crystal is on her way home to Australia while I'm on my way ...

back to Korea.

Thursday, May 2, 2013

To Bali!

Crystal and I were both really excited to get to Bali.

>> It was the first place during our travels that Crystal hadn't already been to.

>> I was eager to get away from the place that gave me Dengue and get to more of a "vacation-like" destination (don't get me wrong, I absolutely loved Cambodia)

>> We were going to meet two of our friends from Korea -- Jacqui (a Canadian living in Busan) and Chris (an American who lived in the nearby city of Daegu and then moved to a school in Indonesia!)

When you land at the Bali airport, you're supposed to have two full pages empty in your passport. I'm not sure why, as Indonesia has the smallest visa sticker. This was why I had to get pages added in Bangkok!

As you walk into the immigration area of the airport, go to your left and get your visa. It costs $25, US. We saw a Russian family of three trying to get around getting visas and they looked ridiculous. The immigration officer handled them with kindness and patience. Eventually he had to say, "Sir, if you want to get through, you'll need to go pay for visas. Otherwise, I have to send you back where you came from."

My immigration officer was extremely friendly and chit-chatted with me while he processed my passport/visa. I already love Bali!

As you leave the airport, there will be a taxi stand to your right. Go here to tell them where you're going and to pay for your taxi. They'll give you a receipt and then a taxi driver will take you to his car.

The Legian/Kuta area of Bali is all this twisty, curvy, one-way streets. It's very confusing and a little bit claustrophobic at first. They know what they're doing, so just trust them!

When we got to our fancy shmancy hotel, we checked in. When we booked the hotel we were surprised to find a room with 2 queen sized beds. I took a screenshot of the website that listed that information just in case we ran into some problems. As we were checking in, I asked the front desk woman several times if it was two queen beds. She kept nodding and saying, "Yes, two beds."

Finally I told her that while we were two people now, we would be four people by Saturday. She nodded and took that information into a little back room. We were then approached by the manager and told that the room we booked was for two people. We asked to see the beds to see if four people could fit. When we saw the room, and the two smaller beds, I showed the manager my screenshot.

We exchanged several words that went something like this:

Manager: We didn't put that information on Agoda (the website). Agoda did.

Me: Yes, I understand that. But we didn't know the information was wrong so we booked this room. We need two large beds because we will be four people. If we knew the beds were small, we would not have booked this hotel.

Manager: We do not have two queen beds in any room.

Me: "Yes, I understand. But I did not know that the information was wrong.

He offered us a roll-away bed for a discounted price of $10/a night. We declined as it would put us over budget and the problem at hand was not ours, but his. Eventually, I told him that we would take the room just for tonight and we'd check out tomorrow. I asked him if he could then cancel our other nights.

At first, he told me that we'd need to settle that with Agoda and if they said it was okay, then he also agreed to it. At some point, he started talking about a suite that had a daybed. We asked to see the suite and he happily showed us.

What we saw was a daybed off of the kitchen and a bedroom with a huge king bed. We told him the room was perfect as it was, no roll-away needed, and we'd be happy to take it. With everything settled, we received two free breakfast tickets/day, got the key, and went to relax for a bit.

The daybed to the left of the entrance.

The kitchen & dining room to the right of the entrance.

The bedroom; the roll-away bed went at the foot of the bed

The main part of the bathroom

The left side of the bathroom. It was open-roof. Down a little pathway of stones was this huge, waterfall shower head. It was glorious.

Shortly after we settled in, a roll-away bed was brought in. We thought it was strange since we'd said we didn't need it, but just kept our mouths shut and showed them where to put it.

When it came time for Jacqui to arrive, we went out to the lobby to greet her. It's so nice to be able to meet up with friends we've in Korea ... in other countries!

Wednesday, May 1, 2013

Day 50 & 51 : Siem Reap to Bangkok

(April 30 - May 1, 2013)

We decided to head to Bangkok a day early. Our flight doesn't actually leave until early morning on the 2nd, but we didn't want to risk anything happening that would delay our flight.

And, we were a little sick of the staff at our guesthouse.

We booked a bus from a shop that our tuk-tuk driver brought us to.

We were picked up in the morning by a guy in a mini-van. We assumed we were on our way to a bus, but just like every other time we've moved, we were wrongly informed about our transportation.

Our driver drove us to the border and dropped us off to go through immigration. It wasn't as bad as it could have been, but it wasn't pleasant either. Because we were going by land, everything was outside. There was a roof over the line we were standing in, so at least we weren't stuck under the sun.

In every immigration line, there is at least one person who hasn't followed all of the rules. Whether it's needing to go back and fill out paperwork or not having the proper visa, it always happens. Cambodia to Thailand was no exception.

When we finally made it through Cambodia's immigration and into Thailand's, we came upon a tent at the side of the road. This is where we had to wait for our next "bus."

This was news to us. I'd heard people talking amongst themselves about waiting two hours for their bus to come. I approached a guy who looked like he could possibly be in charge. I asked him how long we would be waiting.

When he told me two hours, I asked him how they expected people to wait outside, in the heat, without food, water, or a bathroom. When he pointed off down some street and told me I could find all of those things down there, I told him his company ridiculous.

Apparently that wasn't the right thing to say. While I was sitting down, he got in my face and started yelling at me. I remained calm and with an even voice asked him why he was yelling at me. He even went so far as to throw our tickets back at us and told us to go back where we came from. So, that was nice.

(Remember, I had Dengue Fever at this point. I was miserable out in the heat and the rash in my hands had just appeared that morning. My hands and my feet had a constant tingling sensation -- as though they were sleeping. I was absolutely miserable. Don't jude me!)

The good news is that it was not two hours before the next mini-van came. It was probably about 30 minutes. Imagine if we had gone off down that road thinking we had 2 hours!

The mini-van dropped us off near Kao San road. Unfortunately, we had to hop in a cab and drive about an hour and a half back in the direction we'd just come from to get to our hotel near the airport. We checked in without any problems and then went down to their restaurant for some food.

Our room. The lighting is terrible, but this was actually one of the nicest places we stayed!

The food was anything but delicious, but what can you do when that's the only option?

We spent all of today lounging at the hotel, getting ready for Bali!!

We made sure to pack some face masks from Korea, for this very occasion!

PS -- It's hard to smile in one of those things!

We're super excited to see a couple of friends from Korea and get back to the beaches.

Sick Abroad

As it turns out, in addition to bed bugs, our not-so-Blissful Guesthouse gave me Dengue Fever.

I wish I were kidding.

We had a horrendous ride from Kampot to Phnom Penh to Siem Reap. There was no food for the entire day, an unscheduled (to us anyway) stop in Phnom Penh, sporadic bathroom breaks along the way, a later than planned arrival in Siem Reap, and then some ridiculous checking in at the new guesthouse.

I thought that was all to blame for the fever and headache I woke up to. But when the headaches right behind my eyes and night fevers continued for days, I finally gave up and went to a doctor.

It was $50 just to see him (get travel insurance, people!!). He asked me a million questions, sometimes the same ones. He took my blood pressure, checked my throat, ears, and nose (that was a new one), and had me lay down so he could squish my guts. Crystal mostly had to answer him because I was just too exhausted. I'd been waking up, taking paracetamol for my headaches, trekking through temple ruins, and then going back to the guesthouse to sleep.

He thought I may have Dengue except that I didn't have the rash and he said it didn't sound like we were in high-risk areas. He decided on a $30 blood test and a prescription for $40 worth of vitamins. (Seriously. Get travel insurance!)

We came back at 2 o'clock for the results. My white blood cell count was low, so he could only say it was some form of viral infection. I was a bit relieved knowing that it meant I should be halfway through fighting it.

And then I woke up the next morning (when we were leaving for Bangkok) to tingly hands and feet ... And the dreaded rash. Dengue Fever.

Everything I've read since says that the Dengue mosquitoes don't care about rural vs urban areas and every map I've seen of infected areas just colors the entire countries rather than areas of it. So. Who knows.

I'm starting to get my energy back. It feels great to actually feel like a person again. There were some moments there where I really had to wonder if I should be crawling to the doctor instead of tossing and turning in bed. I've read it could take up to a month to get my full energy back, but that seems like a long time. Maybe I should start using all those vitamins the doctor gave me, huh?

At any rate, I'm hoping to get some posts up about Siem Reap soon! Because apparently even if I have Dengue Fever, I still make Angkor Wat a priority.

Monday, April 29, 2013

Days 52, 53, 54: The Temples of Angkor Wat

Okay guys, here's the deal.

I've been home for just over two weeks now. I've been attacking my iPhoto almost since I stepped off the plane. I was eager to see what all of my travel photos looked like on the computer and what kind of editing I could do (the answer is: my pictures are terrible. Can we not talk about it just yet?) . But this is what I'm up against:

A ka-trillion absolutely useless duplicates.

On top of that, all of my pictures are mixed up with wrong dates and times. Which is fine when I'm dealing with splitting pictures according to countries and cities. But when it comes to the temples of Siem Reap? I have absolutely no idea. And I think I'm missing a ka-trillion pictures.

I don't know what day I saw what temples. I don't know the temples' names. I don't know a single fact about the temples.

Here's what I know:

On Saturday April 27th, we did the small circuit. It includes the larger famous temples like Angkor Wat and Angkor Thom as well as Ta Phrohm, Banteay Kdei, Baphoun, Terrace of the Leper King, Terrace of Elephants, 12 Prasats, Spean Thma, and Sras Srang.

On Sunday April 28th, we did the big circuit. It includes Preah Khan, Neak Pean, Ta Som, East Mebon, and Pre Rup.

On Monday April 29th, we went to some temples on the outskirts of town. Our tuk-tuk driver (who picked us up everyday around 730/8) wanted to take us to a fishing village and a few other sites, but this was the day that I decided the headaches had gone on too long and Crystal convinced me to see a doctor. Our tuk-tuk driver brought me to an international clinic, waited for me outside, and then brought me back to the clinic at 2 o'clock to pick up my results.

With all of that said, this is going to be a picture-heavy, information-light entry spanning three days. I've named the temples that I can remember. (By all means, if you recognize an unnamed temple, let me know the name!)

Without further ado :

We bought a three-day pass for $40. There are one day ($20) and seven day ($60) options as well. For us, the three-day was perfect. I can't imagine us having spent any longer exploring the temples. Although, if you want short days with a few temples at a time, maybe the seven-day would be better.

In the tuk-tuk ready to go. Can you see the headache behind my eyes?

Of we go!

Once we got our tickets, we headed into the temple grounds. Our tuk-tuk driver would drop us off at each of the temple gates and tell us where to meet him. We were free to take as long as we wanted at each temple and head to the meeting stop whenever we were ready.

Under construction, what a bummer! It was still stunning though. Look at those carvings, can you imagine doing that without today's technology?

Stalker Mode: Can you spy Crystal?

The faces of Bayon

The Terrace of Elephants; can you see the elephants?

I loved all of the trees growing out of the temple ruins

This is at the temple that Tomb Raider was filmed at

How did they do that?

Don't pictures look better with a bright blue sky?

Love the detailed carvings

Those colored rectangles are paintings that someone was selling. We saw a lot of that throughout the temples as well as little kids trying to sell postcards.

Wow, that post took days for me to get to done. Let's get onto Indonesia!