Hanguk juseyo!

Bangkok

2010-03-06T04:06:00.000+09:00

And of course we had to go to Bangkok. But we weren't really into the big city thing, so we only stayed one night, which was enough for us! We went to the palace, some markets, and took some pictures of the lake, and that's about it for us.

And right after Bangkok, it was our flight to our home! Bye bye Thailand, bye bye Korea!

SNUBA at Koh Racha

2010-03-05T03:57:00.000+09:00

We went SNUBAing at Koh Racha. It was the BEST experience ever! We have never scubaed, and in fact, only went snorkeling a few days ago at the Simba trip, so we were very new. But it was so much fun! SNUBAing is pretty much like scubaing, except your tank is floating on the surface, and you are connected by your air tube.

So that way, you have more freedom of movement, and perfect for beginners. We saw so many things! We even fed the fish bananas! It was so much fun! Definitely a recommendation.

Phang Nga Bay

2010-03-04T03:52:00.000+09:00

We also took a daytrip with Simba to Phang Nga Bay. It was also very cool, we went into a cave, went sea kayaking, and had lunch and toured a village built on stilts. We also visited James Bond island, which was full of tourists. We ended with a nice island with gorgeous white sand beaches to relax and rewind.

Koh Phi Phi

2010-03-03T03:45:00.000+09:00

Koh Phi Phi, the infamous Maya Bay (from The Beach). Gorgeous, absolutely gorgeous. Yes, it was very very touristy, but it was still absolutely beautiful there. The cleanest, bluest waters ever, the soft white sands, the islands. It was wonderful.

We went to Koh Phi Phi through a tour from Simba Sea Trips. HIGHLY recommended. They took us to a lot of different islands, offered us snorkeling equipment, fed us a yummy lunch, and also had tons of fresh fruit and drinks for us the entire day. It was awesome.

Koh Yao Noi

2010-02-28T03:30:00.000+09:00

After Chiang Mai, we headed to Koh Yao Noi. This was a small fishing island off the coast of Phuket, but it's very untouristy - in fact, while we were there, sometimes we were the only people in certain restaurants, and walking around, there wasn't many tourists. It was a mainly backpacker type travelers here, because it's mostly bungalows. The beach was nice during high tide, but it was very rocky/muddy during low tide. Also, there was a ton of mosquitoes, but still, the peace and quiet was nice, and the scenery and having almost the whole beach to yourself. Priceless.

Chiang Mai, part 1

2010-02-26T23:14:00.000+09:00

After China, we traveled to Thailand for about 2 weeks before heading back home.

First we stayed 6 nights in Chiang Mai, and had a ton of adventures there.

This is our $14/night hotel. Not too shabby huh? It even had a very nice balcony and a view!

One of the days, we went to Tiger Kingdom, where you can take pictures of you with big tigers. They were pretty big, and kind of scary, because you know how powerful they can be, but it was pretty neat and a little adrenaline pumping to be hanging out with these big lazy tigers.

After Tigers, there are also elephants! We did a program called "Elephant Keeper for a Day" at Patara Elephant Farms, which was AWESOME! We were given a ride to the farm, in the morning we bathed our elephants, and then we rode them to this stream/pond area and had a yummy picnic provided for us, and then we rode back to the farm and relaxed. It was a great experience and a bit scary, because when you are on top of the very tall elephant, the only thing keeping you from falling to the ground is your legs squeezing the elephants' head, because there wasn't really anything to grab other than its head bumps. Nevertheless, a fun experience.

Here's a video of me getting on my elephant

As for the rest of the days at Chiang Mai, we went to the zoo (they have pandas!), went to a few markets, and some temples. Nothing was really as exciting as the tigers and elephants, but they were all fun anyway.

Some pictures of the zoo:

And finally, here's a few pictures of chiang mai's temples and marketplaces.

Chiang Mai, part 2

2010-02-26T03:25:00.000+09:00

For the second part of Chiang Mai, we went to wat phrathat doi suthep, a temple on the top of a mountain, and the nearby phuping palace, which was actually known for the gardens around the palace. The flowers were absolutely beautiful there!

Chinese New Year

2010-02-14T23:10:00.001+09:00

For Chinese New Year, we traveled to China to visit my relatives, and to celebrate Chinese New Year. It was SO cold, but we braved the cold to go outside and set firecrackers, since it was actually legal in China. It was very loud and a bit scary, but I'm glad we did it. Here's a video of it.

Last Days in Seoul

2010-02-14T22:31:00.003+09:00

(This is posted months after the event so I probably won't remember most of it)

We left Korea in mid Februrary. For the last few weeks, we hung out with some friends and ate lots of cake and pizza and Korean food. We went to a teahouse in Insadong with little birds flying around, and a Brazilian barbecue place with lots of meat at songtan.

And in case anyone was wondering, we didn't do anything for Christmas or New Years - it was too cold to do anything anyway, we just stayed in our apartment for most of the time.

Lotte World

2009-12-24T22:24:00.004+09:00

(This is posted months after the event so I probably won't remember most of it)

Today we went to Lotte World. It was pretty much an amusement park inside a huge mall. There was also an outside part too, but it was so cold that we didn't go out. We rode a few rides, and that's about it. It felt like it was mostly for children theme park, but it was okay.

coldness, fall, and games

2009-11-16T08:52:00.008+09:00

I haven't posted in a while, as usual, because I usually don't have anything new and exciting to talk about. The weather is getting pretty cold these days, 30-40s, and to me, that's absolutely freezing! I am not looking forward to the winter at all. I don't know how much my body can take, and plus, the insulation here is, need I to say it, pretty crappy. In fact, our kitchen is half window, and it has ONE pane of class. One pane of glass window vs below freezing weather = very cold kitchen indeed. Even if we cook alot, it's going to be cold, and plus, we don't have an oven here so it's not like we can turn on the oven and open the door to let warmth in.

Anyway, at least, we do have an electric heater, and also getting another one. We also bought a heating pad for the bed, so at least at night we're toasty warm, but it probably means less likely to want to leave the apartment. It's already pretty hard to leave our toasty bed to brave the icy winds of outside.

and just think, this was at LAST November . . .

As for new things we did, last weekend (not this weekend that just passed, the one before), we went to Changdeokgung. It is a palace and garden in Seoul, which supposedly has pretty nice gardens and buildings, and you can supposedly only see it on a guided tour, but when we went into it, we saw a LOT of Koreans just walking around by themselves, so I am pretty confused. I really wonder if only certain people like Engilsh speaking people has to do guided and then Koreans are just off on their own? I'm not sure.

I was wearing a tshirt because it was actually warm last weekend, and then it dropped a lot of degrees.

And then this weekend, that just passed, we attended a Boardgame meetup in seoul. We used to be pretty active in our boardgame meetup back in Texas, so it was a great joy to me to find one in Seoul as well. We all went to a Boardgame cafe and played some pretty fun games: Alhambra (which we love and play many times before) and this bean game Bohnanza, which was pretty interesting as well.

Palace and Dogs

2009-10-12T09:27:00.005+09:00

On Saturday we decided to do some touristy things, so we went to Gyeongbokgung, one of the 5 palaces in Seoul. Yes, we've been here 7 months and still haven't gone to a palace. I wanted to go to Changdeokgung, since it was supposedly nicer, but it was only guided tours and we missed the time, so we went to the other one instead.

The Palace itself was a bit bigger than I thought, although definitely not as big as many of the palaces in China. There was a lot of buildings, and even a pond in the back end of the palace. The buildings were pretty empty and lifeless, it felt like we were going into a lot of ghost towns as we wandered through the complexes. In addition, I felt like they could have done more with the buildings, such as displayed more artifacts or sample clothing or furniture or food or anything, instead of closing off all the buildings and rooms. Nevertheless, it was still a pretty fun day.

After the Palace, we went down to Tomatillos again and got more Mexican food. This time, I got Chili Cheese Nachos and it was so good! I didn't take a picture since I was too busy inhaling it, but it was covered with cheese, and meat chili, and jalapenos.. oh drool. It was great.

When we were stuffed, we headed towards Hongdae. Hongdae is the district filled with young people, since it's in the area that had a few Universities. There was a lot of restaurants, clubs, and cafes. After wandering around a lot, getting lost, we finally found where we were looking for: the bau dog cafe.

Yes, a dog cafe. Not the kind you might think of, but this one is a cafe where you go, pay for a drink, and just sit there while tons and tons of dogs run around and jump on the couch and the windows and you. They had some tiny dogs and some huge massive Huskies there as well. Some dogs were very shy and nervous and some were pretty assertive in their wanting their treats, but overall, it was great just playing with the various dogs and holding some of the small cute ones.

Chuseok Weekend

2009-10-06T10:10:00.007+09:00

So this last weekend was Chuseok, aka "Korean Thanksgiving." We had a four day weekend, Fri-Mon, so we decided to go visit Aaron's relatives in Ulsan, which is in the Southeast area of South Korea. Aaron's mother was visiting from America, so she came with us as we journeyed down there on Friday.

On Saturday morning, which was Chuseok day, we took an early morning walk to the coast of Ulsan to Ulgi Park, which was a coastline park. There was a part of the park called Daewangam Rock, of which several large rocks seemed to rise up from the beautiful clear waters of the sea. It was a pretty gorgeous sight.

Later on that day, we went to Aaron's aunt and uncles house, where they set up all the food as an offering for the ancestors, as a traditional chuseok prayer, which was pretty interesting. Afterwards, we all enjoyed the food as well.

Finally, on the rest of Saturday, we drove to Gyeongju, which was known as the "museum without walls" because of all the temples and shrines and tombs from the Silla empire. We visited a few different places: Imhaejeon Site, Tumuli Park, Seokguram Grotto, and Bulguska Temple.

On Sunday, we visited the Unmunsa Temple, which was a temple for women. It it was pretty scenic, situated near some mountains, and had some interesting paintings and building architecture.

And then finally, on Sunday night, we went out with Aaron's mother, aunt, uncle, and cousins to sing at a Noraebang, and had a lot more fun than expected.

What a weekend!

Hanging out with my friends

2009-09-30T18:48:00.007+09:00

Last weekend, some friends of mine were visiting Korea, so I met up with them in Seoul and spent a day and a half with them, which was great. They weren't from Texas, so I haven't seen them in 2 or 3 years, so it was fun hanging out with them.

On Thursday night, we went to the Hongdae (the nightlife) district, which wasn't as big as I thought, but maybe we weren't in the main areas. We went to this spicy seafood stew place for dinner, which might've been a mistake because it was too spicy. In fact, we were dunking the red-coated shrimps and rice cakes into our water before eating it, and even then, our lips were on fire.

After breathing fire, we decided to hit up a nearby Noraebang (aka Korean Karaoke) for some singing fun, and even though I've been here for like 6 months plus, I haven't done it, so off we went. It was really fun, in fact! They had a TON of English songs as well, anything from oldies to pretty new stuff. We were singing old 90s pop songs like Spice Girls, TLC, and Savage Garden - it was so much fun!

We sang for quite awhile, and by the time we got back to their hotel, it was already 1, so we went to bed ready for another day.

The next day we were pretty lazy in the morning, but we did manage to hit up Insadong during the early afternoon. So after that, one of my friends' relatives came visiting from China, so we all went out for lunch, which was Bulgogi - two kinds in fact. One was grilled on the grill thing, and one was boiled in a soup, which later the broth was made into a noodle soup. The meat was tender and oh so delicious.

When our bellies were full, I wanted to show them Dr Fish, so we all went to that cafe where they bursted out laughing as soon as they put in their feet, since it was an oddly ticklish sensation. Still, we had a pretty good time.

The friend with the relatives left with them after that, so me and my other friend, we walked around the lights of Gangnam a little bit, before taking the subway to Dongdaemun, where they are supposedly some night markets. We didn't find too many stands, but there were some little stages with shows like belly dancers, and even a nausea-inducing looking ride. We stopped here for dinner, of which she had tofu stew and I had galbi (beef short rib) soup, delish! We just walked around the area and finally went back to the hotel.

The next day, I had to leave and come back to my apartment, and so that was my weekend.

Seoul Zoo

2009-09-29T22:24:00.004+09:00

I know I've been overdue with new pictures and reports, so here they are finally.

On September 19 we went to Seoul Grand Park Zoo. The Grand Park itself consisted of the Zoo, an amusement park (Seoulland), as well as a Children's Zoo and Rose Garden, and it was HUGE. We only went to the zoo portion of the park. The zoo itself was decent, but it was lacking a bit on the variety of the animals, and I thought the insect building was quite a bit lacking. I felt like it was half PICTURES of insects and taxidermic insects rather than the real thing. But anyway, here are the pictures of Seoul Zoo:

A Native English Teacher’s Declaration

2009-09-07T23:11:00.004+09:00

I believe that the Korean education system is being deliberately abused by those who have the power to fix it. But who am I to say such things.

If I could recommend anything for any foreigner deciding to come to Korea -- Don’t, without great thought. Koreans have not figured out how to manage money, how to manage themselves, and how to manage foreigners. Money is usually spent making classrooms nicer, not making education standards better. Work standards do not exist and every job is a shot in the dark. Everything here is about eye candy and appeasing the voices of Koreans which demand English programs with no proven effectiveness. They don’t care the cost; they just want to hear and see their spoon-fed lies.

When you first come to Korea, you will be pretty willing to go along with most things because you don’t really understand what your duties are and who is trying to help you in your professional growth. But take my advice, very few Koreans truly want to help a foreigner, they want to use you as a way of furthering their own careers. The foreigner is a status symbol of progress, but it carries with it a big sign that says “use me.”

If you don’t believe me, then ask any foreigner about the teaching demonstration that everyone has to endure. It is a comical farce that will leave you scratching your head in bewilderment. It is the one time of the year you are judged from an outside perspective, but it is meaningless. The setup is rigged well ahead of time and everything is kept nicely scripted. Koreans use this as a way of one-upmanship to other schools, thereby showing their prized steed is worth its weight. Instead, a few internal checks and balances would be much better utilized. Koreans have an indifference to us and our teachings which are shown in their lack of effort and desire to integrate teaching methods, lesson plans, and shared responsibility in the classroom. As long as we are out of the way, and let them do nothing, they’re just fine letting us do what we do.

Koreans are quite content “forcing” foreigners to do the entire lesson planning when it states implicitly in the contract that you are supposed to be working together on them. In all actuality, what is work when it comes to education? It’s not standing there and spouting a few rare words like most Korean co-teachers. It is the lesson plan, the bulk of what you are doing, and for the most part, they care not. I can easily see how one could stand back and go, “oh, they’re doing it just fine without me.” They are content to watch us dance, and play the fool – untrained, unfocused, un-helped, and irrelevant. We are experimenting with the future youth of Korea and we don’t even get a few tips to get us started. But alas, watch what happens when you say the equality is unbalanced… they huff and puff and blow miserly in your direction, how dare you say anything against them, you are the outsider, they hired you and we should be so lucky.

I once asked a middle-aged Korean co-teacher how long she had been a teacher, because she was arguing with me over who should make the lesson plan (although we get paid the same for after school class and I did it all myself for the first semester). With a tearful gleam in her eye, she asked me why I asked, I asked because after all these years, if they still don’t know how to make an English lesson plan, I thought, what hope do they have for the future. She told me that her English was poor and I said, “You should set an example and try to speak even though you cannot speak well.” If some untrained idiot from across the sea can make a lesson plan that defies and astounds the educational standards of Korea's well respected and highly coveted teaching positions, then there is something very amiss. The Korean English teachers will not change because there is no incentive for them to change or make a difference.

We are progressive, we symbolize change, and yet, foreigners are composed of the most ragtag group of people I have ever met. We come from all walks of life – all educational and work experience backgrounds. Some have mentioned there is some instability among our ranks, but that is expected. We are hired with no thought to our ability, no thought to the culture clash that might ensue.

Our contracts are to most, worthless and devoid of value. The MOE (Ministry of Education) likes to dangle them in front of foreigners to show them an idealistic job, when really, there is little truth to them and a lot of societal pressure to not follow certain aspects of it. Recruiters are full of the same lies and half-truths; they only want to get as many people over here as they can. Koreans at your workplace will use the line “but, the other schools do it this way” as if that one excuse could nullify any validity in your contract.

Watch out for the vague terms that they use that mean nothing in reality, words such as assistant teacher (what we are supposed to be), together (lesson planning), paid sick days (we have 15, which are frowned upon heavily).

What about the foreigner, what happens to them in this world of deceit? Half of the people that work in Korea are survivors, and the other half has somehow found a semi-decent patch of work (I suspect more people of this regard to fall into the elementary teaching category). I do wonder what the rate of turnover is in various places around Korea. As if the MOE would release that data, it would scare off potential candidates. Potential candidates is something they seem to have too much of these days, so much so that they can nullify contracts, at will, even if you have packed up, left your native life, and crossed the point of no return.

The foreign teacher is a peon – A lowly servant and treated as such. Human rights, I daresay we have none, none that are clear enough for us to understand and access easily. It’s not like the schools would want to empower those that it wants to use for their ill gain. We are tucked away from high management, and our only outlet is our co-teacher whom has questionable motives of their own. They will stifle your attempts to complain, muffle your attempts to fix the corruption. Their excuse, that is commonly used, is cultural differences, because people aren’t people anymore in the ROK (Republic of Korea). We just don’t understand how teachers are so respected for caring so little.

Feedback, a word that is thrown around a lot in management, yet never exists in this part of the world. Do not act as though you have a voice in Korea, because your views are not welcome here. Who are we to understand the intricacies of Korean education? Who are we, to speak our minds to the face of failure?

The discontented voices of thousands of foreigners are meaningless to the Korean education machine. In the Korean ladder to success, the foreigner is just another rung.

I believe there are two truths, the ideal Korea and the reality that is. I remember watching a documentary of an escaped North Korean, he spoke about the time when he was in an adjustment camp and saw many happy and smiling people on television. Then, when he had a chance to see the real South Koreans, there were none.

Back to School

2009-08-27T08:46:00.002+09:00

Well, I haven't updated in awhile because, well, nothing interesting has been happening.

Today is the first day of the fall semester, so in essence we are halfway done now. Teaching in korea has been quite a journey, with both ups and downs, so don't think it's all fun and games.

During the summer, the 3 weeks after Bali, I had summer camp. At first I was really into planning lessons and games, but near the end, the last week, I was like blah and just let them watch Spongebob and Tom and Jerry streaming from the Internet. The very last day I showed a
movie, Flushed Away, which was actually pretty good. One of the reasons I got less into it is because less people would come to class, like only a few per class, so I was like why bother with lessons I planned when I can just use it in the normal classes in the semester. After all, my coteacher isn't even there most of the time, so it's not like she can complain about it. (Although she did a little bit the very last day since it was one of the 3 days she was there). Other
than that, summer school was a bit annoying in the fact that I only taught until noon, but I had to stay until 4:40 all 3 weeks, which was very annoying. Aaron could go home at his lunch time, but I never get to.

We'll see what this semester holds I suppose.

Bali, Day 9: Ubud

2009-08-04T15:23:00.005+09:00

At our last full day in Bali, so after breakfast we dropped our luggage in the office and set off to explore Ubud. We walked around a bit, there was a lot of souvenir stores and art stores and other types of little boutique stores all over the street.

For lunch, we went to the famous Oka Ibu to get suckling pig. It was pretty cheap too, only about $2.50 for a plate of rice and pork. It was very tender and delicious, and the skin was salty and crisp. It was so delicious, we had to get an extra plate. They also had this soup with chunks of pork and veggies in it, and the broth was flavorful and delicious. The area was pretty crowded, since it was so popular, but we managed to find a table in the corner and stuff ourselves.

After our yummy lunch, we walked around more, buying some souvenirs, ducking into stores, checking out restaurants. We found a little restaurant where we tried Indonesia oxtail soup. It was quite delish as well, spicier than the Korean type, but very good. One of our drinks was a a mint coconut drink, which was very refreshing and delicious.

After walking a lot more, we finally decided to do a massage (our first one in Bali, can you believe?). The place we picked wasn't the best but the massage was good. I got a pedicure (almost not sure if I should've) and Aaron just go a massage and a shorter massage. As I said, the massage was very relaxing and good, and it was in this little curtained area where they had massage beds, but some of the other parts, like the cleaniness and the ambiance, was a bit lacking. However, it was still pretty good, and it was cheap, so I don't have to much other complaints.

For dinner we found this other organic looking restaurant, so we went there for our last meal. We ordered some hummus (won't be getting any hummus in Korea!), a tempeh burger, a veggie burger, mango juice (my last one!).

Finishing up our last yummy meal that doesn't break the bank and saying goodbye to fresh fruit juices, we headed back to the hotel to pick up our luggage and meet our driver.

Extra Entry: The flight back

The flight back wasn't too eventful. We made it to the airport and apparently there is a departure tax for leaving Bali, about $15/person. Luckily we found that out before and we actually managed to spend every cent of our Indonesian money, so we didn't have to convert anything.

The airport in Bali was very dinky, and quite small, but luckly we didn't have to spend too much time there. Since our flight is from midnight to 5, both of us zoinked out the entire flight. At Hong Kong, where we had to wait a few hours, we took short naps here and there as we waited for our next flight.

At this flight, we were actually awake most of the time, and watched Monsters Vs Aliens on the screen. We had a little interesting scenario happen when we landed, because apparently the Quarantine people want to come up and visit the plane. We think there's some "suspicious" sick person on board or something and of course Koreans are uber paranoid about swine flu, so we landed and got the gate and had to sit around for like 45 min or so while the quarantine people came on board and went to the back.

FINALLY they let us go and that was that. By the time we got the luggage carousel our luggage was already there, of course. So we picked them up, and took the long buses back home. And then next day was work, of course.

Bali, Day 8: C Bali Daytrip to Lake Batur and Local Villages

2009-08-04T15:11:00.006+09:00

It was a daytrip today. We booked a tour with C Bali, which does a canoe and biking tour of the Mt Batur/Batur Lake/kintamani region of Bali. We actually lucked out and had a private tour, because the two guides didn't have anyone else sign up that day, so it was just us and them. It was pretty nice though, they were an Austrlian-Dutch couple who lived in Bali for 3 years and love it there, and very easy to talk to and nice and friendly.

First they drove us up to the region, and we had a quick breakfast of some eggs and toast. First we did some canoeing. Actually, the boats look more like inflatable kayaks, but still fun. First Aaron and I had to carry one of the canoes across the street and then down a dirt bath before we can paddle, which was quite a bit of a workout for my weak arms. It was a bit windy so the waves were a little big so paddling back (towards the current) was a bit tiring. The view was quite nice though, with some mountains and the lake in the scenery. Aaron and I rode in canoes with the different two guides since we never canoed before, but it was pretty easy to learn, although that doesn't mean it didn't need upper body strength I didn't have.

After our little canoeing trip, it was lunch. We had baked fish (from the lake), chicken satay, some fried noodles and some fried rice. It was a pretty yummy Balinese meal

After lunch it was our bike tour, which I was still weakish from sick so I couldn't make it to some of the hills, but it was still fun. Along the bike tour we got off and walked through some local villages. The guides had used to live in these villages and now help with donations and schools and such with the village, and so the locals all know and like them.

The kids were especially cute and would smile and imitate our guide and hug her legs and just be happy kids. We also saw some of their local temples and school, and met some more local people. I felt as if this was a great experience because it was actually seeing the locals in their natural setting, not meeting them in touristy markets and them hassling you to buy a sarong. They seemed very happy and smiling and the kids were just too adorable.

After our bike and walk tour, they drove us back to our hotel, satisfied and happy. I would definitely recommend this tour to anyone. For dinner, we went to back to the organic restaurant across the street and I got a veggie sandwich and Aaron got a breakfast burrito. We also tried the Balinese black rice pudding, which was creamy and very good.

Bali, Day 7: two temples and some organic food

2009-08-04T15:02:00.005+09:00

First day back from being bedridden, so it wasn't a very intense and busy day.

First we drove through some rice paddies and scenery to get to the Kertha Gosa Temple. It consisted of a building in the middle of a pond, with lots of pictures on the roof of the temple building, drawing of different scenes. It also consisted of a tiny museum with a few paintings and some artifacts from the past Balinese people who lived in the region. There was a lot of interesting statues around the pond area.

The next temple we went to was the Tirta Gangga, or water palace. It was a bit further from where we live, but it was worth it. It had tons of statues squirting water from their mouths, ponds everywhere, little stepping stones and statues in one of the larger pond areas, a pool to swim in with a separately entrance fee. It was in a gorgeous setting and very scenic and nice.

We had lunch in the restaurant there, which actually caters to weddings there, but the food wasn't expensive (at least to our budgets, to the typical Indonesia budget, probably). I got chicken coconut soup and Aaron got a sampler plate with consisted of many random foods (some meat, some veggies) wrapped in banana leaves, as well as egg and rice.

After this we had a long drive back to our hotel, but we made it back to our hotel area. We checked this local organic coffeehouse/restaurant type place for dinner, where we ordered way too much food: carrot ginger soup, chicken sandwich, viet spring rolls, indian plate, and two juices.

We also tried some different fruits here too. Salak, or snakefruit, has a snakelike skin and when you peel it off, it sort of tastes somewhere in between a tart apple and a hard lycee. Hard to explain it. And then of course I tried my mangosteen again, which I had in China before, it is sweet and soft, almost apple tasting.

Bali, Day 6: Sick Jacki day

2009-08-04T15:00:00.001+09:00

I don't really have too much to write about today, because I was sick today. In the morning Aaron explored the area and went to the local grocery stores and bought some snacks and some fruit. In the afternoon, I felt so ill that we headed to the local clinic, which they took samples from me and we paid a lot for some medicine and some antibiotics. Long story short, I was sick today, went to the doctor, and that is about it. Not much else to say about today. I was just glad that I did have a day that I could rest.

Bali, Day 5: More Temples and Monkeys

2009-08-04T14:49:00.008+09:00

It was another daytrip day today, but it was much shorter than yesterday. At this current hotel, they actually bring our breakfast up to our balcony, which is very nice. We got a sort of omlette and fruit salad for breakfast, pretty yummy. We actually got confused about the time because I thought we set the alarm for 8 but it was actually 7, and we were rushing and was like why is our driver so late when it wasn't even the time yet. That was pretty humorous.

Anyway, when he finally did come, on time of course, we drove to a few places. First we went to the temples at Taman Ayun. They had lots of pagoda-shaped temples, but instead of being round like East Asian, they were square shapㄷd and seemed to be made of straw.

After these temples, we went to the Alas Kedaton Monkey Forest, which apparently has some of the least aggressive monkeys (but I haven't been to the other two, so I can't compare). We were there relatively early so there wasn't a lot of people there. There were some very fat monkeys and some very young monkeys. Unfortunately it was the fat ones that love to come up and jump on top of you (and yes, some of them can be quite heavy) and eat peanuts, but the young baby monkeys are the shy ones. There was a ton of monkeys everywhere, just sitting on the floor, on the fences, on the temples, everywhere. It was almost surreal to be surrounded by so many monkeys in close proximity.

After monkeying around, we went to Tanah Lot. Now, this temple is best during sunset, but we had time now, so why not. From the parking lot to the temple area was a journey, because it was windy roads around lots and lots of vendors and restaurants and people. Finally, we got the water's edge, where we saw the little temple perched on its little island (you could walk in the water to get to the other side, but we passed). The temple itself wasn't too big I could see the location can be pretty nice.

We had our lunch a local restaurant on the way back to the parking lot, of which I had some kind of chicken soup and Aaron got Indonesian fried rice with some satay (meat on sticks).

The rest of the day was uneventful because we were pretty tired and just headed back to the hotel. I was feeling a little sick so I just lay in bed and rested for awhile. For dinner, we tried out a Japanese restaurant nearby. I ordered some cold noodles on a bamboo plate, which I could just top with soy sauce, it was pretty good and refreshing. Aaron ordered some rice with anchovy and seaweed on top, and we shared an eggplant and a something that looked like a crab cake for appetizers.

Bali, Day 4: dance, crafts, temples, poo coffee, and elephants

2009-08-04T14:30:00.008+09:00

It was a long day today. We awoke at around 7 and had breakfast at our lodging - 2 jaffels, 1 poached egg, and some juices. Then we had to check out and catch our boat back to Bali at 8:30. This time it was low tide so it wasn't as bumpy, although there were a few bumps in the middle. When we got to Sanur, we waited for our driver, who turned out to be the brother of the driver we hired, because maybe he's busy or something?

The first thing we did was the Barong and Kris Dance, which was another traditional Balinese dance. The story is pretty much about the good spirit (Barong) and the evil spirit (Rangda?), and how they are fighting through many different characters. There was a monkey and bird in this story as well. No fire dancing here though.

After this, we went to two "touristy-trap" type showrooms, one for batik textiles, and one for woodcraving. The batik place did have some very nice cloth paintings, some were very vibrant, but we didn't buy anything. At the wood carving place, I was surprised by the amount of erotic woodcarvings. We ended up buying a wooden statue of a girl lying on the ground.

After the two showrooms, we drove to the temples. First stop was the elephant cave temple, which was a temple in some rock mountains, there was also some hot springs are there too. The next temple was Gunung Kawi, which required a very long walk down lots and lots of stairs. This temple area were some stone statues in a mountain, and they were pretty big. I wasn't sure if the long staircase was worth it though. There was a little cafe there, where we bought a muffin and some watermelon juice. The third temple was at Tirta Empul, which also had some hot springs, which the place was known of. There was a restaurant there, and it was 2 by then, so we ordered some food - I got some noodle soup and Aaron got some rice and chicken, and of course, more juice and tea.

After our late lunch, we headed to "Agrotourism" which was a farm that grew some spices and fruits and coffee. We got to try a bunch of different teas and coffees, and I especially enjoyed the chocolate coffee. We even got to try the Kopi Luwak coffee, aka "poo coffee," which was the one that passes through the digestive tract of the Luwak animal. It was actually pretty good, tastes like coffee but not as bitter.

After this adventure, we drove up a very long and windy and skinny road to the Elephant Park at Taro. It was a bit pricy, but it was pretty fun. We took a half an hour trip on the elephant, which was both fun and somewhat scary, because the chairs on top of the elephant had no safety bar, and no seatbelt, and it can be pretty bumpy. The ride was pretty nice, in some nice cool forests. Then we walked around a bit and saw some more elephants eating, as well as two baby elephants, which were pretty cute.

After this, we headed back down the windy road and went to our newest hotel. This one was next to some rice fields, and the room was nice enough. It was time for dinner, and we went to a local restaurant near the hotel. We ordered spring rolls, more juices, and steamed fish. Aaron had ordered some other food but somehow they forgot about it, so we just ended up buying some snacks later on.

Bali, Day 3: Nusa Lembongan day

2009-08-03T15:57:00.005+09:00

Today was a nice relaxing day at Nusa Lembongan. First we had breakfast of a fried egg, a jaffle (which is kinda like a stuffed toast with cheese and tomato and egg), and a fruit pancake (covered with honey and some fruits). It was a pretty good breakfast, and all that was about 6 bucks!

We decided to have a beachy day, so we walked along the island until we could see a nice beach, since the beach outside our lodging had lots of boats and seaweed everywhere. We walked for a bit and explored around, sometimes up and sometimes down, and we found a little beach in this little cove area. There was some people there and some boats, but it wasn't very crowded. We found a little area on the side which was pretty quiet and nice, and just sat on the beach, played in the sand, and played in the nice blue water. Soon the high tide came though, and our little area was washed away, but we still had fun there.

After that, we walked back to our place, stopping at a restaurant for lunch, which had a nice view of the water. We had a creamy pasta and seafood kebabs, as well as a very delicious papaya juice, all for 12. At that restaurant, there was a skinny cat with a curly tail. The table next to us started feeding it fruits and bacon, which the cat seemed to enjoy. After lunch we headed back to our room, tried to wash most of the sand away, and just relaxed in our dark cool room, away from the blaring Balinese sun.

Soon after, we just took a little walk around the back roads of the island. We saw many little stores and some residences, and we actually saw a eagle, which was pretty interesting and odd, because it was just perched on a fence. There were also lots of roosters in cages and lots of wild dogs around, but they didn't seem aggressive, most of the animals here seem very relaxed. Soon it was time for the sunset, but this time the sunset wasn't as good because there were clouds in the way.

We then had dinner, which we got a vegetable burger, ginger pork, and a crepe stuffed with rice. Aaron got a papaya milkshake, which he enjoyed a lot. I got banana juice, which was good. After that we went back to our room and showered off our sweat and sand, and I discovered that I had sunburned my belly and Aaron sunburned his lower back.

Bali, Day 2: Journey to Nusa Lembongan

2009-08-03T15:45:00.004+09:00

Today was our adventure to an island. In the morning we mostly relaxed after our breakfast of omlette and banana pancakes, and around noon the boat people came and picked us up from the hotel. This boat company was called Scoot, and they had a fast speed boat that went to the place we will be staying the next two nights - Nusa Lembongan, which was a smaller island off the coast of Bali.

The driver from Scoot took us and an older Australian couple to the beach area, where the boat was anchored to the beach. There was no dock or anything, we had to get on the boat from the beach, getting our feet and half our legs wet in the process. The boat ride itself was 30 minutes of extremely bumpy and splashy ride, it almost felt like a roller coaster at some parts, where the waves were larger. At the end, we were getting a little seasick, so we were glad when we finally arrived at Nusa Lembongan - on the beach, of course.

Then we found our lodging, which was very nice, nicer than we expected. The grounds were gardeny and there was a restaurant that overlooked the beach. Our room was small and no AC but the walls were dark and teakwood so it felt pretty nice when it was out of the blasting sun, and of course there was a fan as well. The bathroom was a little dingy but it was okay, because the grounds were very peaceful and nice. We wandered around a little bit, there wasn't a lot of people here, only some locals and a few western tourists, but not as crowded as Kuta and even Sanur.

The beach itself isn't the prettiest, because there was a lot of shells and seaweed everywhere, but the water was a nice blue and the island was very peaceful and quiet. The major industry on the island was seaweed farming, so as we walked along, we saw lots of seaweed drying in the sun. We were pretty hungry, since it was 3 by then, so we ordered lunch from the restaurant at our lodging. We ordered a chicken steak, a mixed rice plate, and a shrimp burger. I also got mango juice, and it all came out to be around 12 bucks!

After another walk around the island, we went back to our room and just rested for about an hour, before emerging again to see the sunset, which was very nice, especially since our lodging faced west. We sat on the lounge chairs and just enjoyed the sunset for awhile, before noticing it was low tide and we could walk on the beach to pretty far. We found lots of shells with hermit crab like crabs in there, and also a larger spiky looking crab as well. After that we had dinner, which was a big calzone and fried seafood noodles, plus a cocktail for me (I think it had pineapple, banana, and maybe coconut in it? As well as this local liquor called Arak) and Aaron got a super sour limeade soda. All this for about 12 bucks again! It was getting late so we retreated back to our room soon after. Ahhh relaxing, I wish we could stay here forever.