You know it's hot and humid when......

You know it's hot and humid when......

...you put on a wrinkled shirt in the morning and after walking outside for five minutes, your shirt is wrinkle-free.
...you sweat so much you give up on the sunscreen altogether.
...no matter how much deodorant you put on ..... it's never enough!
...your wardrobe now consists of shorts and sleeveless tops i.e. anything that keeps you cool and doesn't show how much you're really sweating.
...you have a countdown mantra for each step going up to your apartment on the fourth floor.
...your refrigerator is empty because you just can't justify walking to the store.
...you dream about the harsh and frigid winter you were cursing just a few months ago.
...you have to promise yourself ice cream as a reward for doing anything outside without aircon.
...you spend too much money on iced coffee just to be able to sit in the aircon.
...you sleep with the aircon remote next to your head.
...all your sentences end up having the word "aircon" in them.

The T EXPRESS

Do you like long lines, expensive hotdogs, and endless vendors selling churros? If your answer is "yes!", you should visit Korea's fabulous amusement park Everland and Caribbean Bay!

Only a three hour drive away from Gwangju, we set out on our journey at 6:30AM to get there before the lines got too long. We arrived around 10AM and spent most of the day at the water park, Caribbean Bay. Unfortunately CB only has about 6 cool rides and it's maximum capacity is 14,000 people at one time. Maximum wait time for us was 1.5hours...for a 20sec ride. But.....true to it's pirate theme, we were allowed to drink beers in line. CB does have a mediocre wave pool that you must wear a swimming cap and lifevest in. Good thing CB provides the lifevest for a small fee... Overall, the CB was kind of a disappointment, but we were in good company with our friends Soyeon and Steven.

After a short nap/rest time we took the shuttle from our hotel back to Everland, for a night experience of SK's 'Disneyland'. As much as a disappointment the CB was, Everland made up for it with it's rollercoaster and rad fireworks show. Everland's famous rollercoaster, the "T-EXPRESS", is ranked the steepest rollercoaster in the world (70 some degrees). A ranking I didn't take too seriously until we were seated in the cart beginning our ascent...big mistake. We waited about 40 minutes for the ride, and I can safely say the wait was worth it. I almost had a heartattack on the ride - it was so scary! If you are interested, check out this video of the ride and relive our rollercoaster adventure: http://vimeo.com/3109322 I thought the fireworks show at Disneyland was impressive, but Everland's show is 10 times better.

We made it back to our hotel and managed to drink a few beers until we passed out from sheer exhaustion.

Jisan Music Festival... sweat, beer, and music

It was a full weekend of music, camping, drinking, and swimming.

Music:
The lineup for Friday night was: Belle and Sebastian, Vampire Weekend with Massive Attack headlining.

Belle and Sebastian were really great - played a few classics, a song from their new lp, and few really old songs. Best moments of the show include: "annyonghaseo" and "kamsahamnida" in a weird Scottish accents, dancing Korean fans, and "Step into my office" and "Stars of Track and Field"!!!! Really great show, and kind of the only band I was looking forward to.

Vampire Weekend was cute and entertaining. They were a real crowd pleaser with lots of dancing (the hopping around kind) and oooooooooh oooohing.

Massive Attack - boring with a weird number screen on stage that kept coming up with random numbers that has no significance to anyone....drank lots of beer to pass the time.

Camping:
I got to the festival a few hours before V, so I was the designated tent assembler. I sweat like I’ve never sweat before but accomplished setting up the tent on a semi-inclined spot right over a root that I had to sleep on… The camping really dirty, almost no bathrooms or running water within a 400m radius, tons of bugs, hot as f @%$, and tons of fun.

Drinking:
Drinks at a Korean music festival are aplenty and relatively cheap, so naturally we drank a lot. Beer was limited to Miller beer, but cocktails ranged from rum and cokes to special buckets of alcohol (like the ones you can buy in Thailand).

Swimming:
The swimming pool at the Jisan Resort was like the best thing ever!!! But first let me tell you a little bit about the weather at the festival: hot, hotter, the hottest and humid, humider, the most humid ever with NO BREEZE at all. So, the pool was a resource for cooling down in between shows, sobering up between shows, and the only form of shower we took all weekend. We had to pay something like 12,000won (10USD) for the day, but I can safely say I would’ve paid twice that much to swim in that pool. It was that awesome. (aaaaaaand the swimming pool had the best bathrooms at the festival)

Extra facts:
-Buying a shuttle ticket to and from Gwangju was the way to go (unless you’re V and the bus to the festival leaves early without you L). It shuttles you directly from the middle of Gwangju to the festival entrance for only 41,000won round trip, and can be purchase online at the festival website.

- The festival had "coupons" that we exchanged real money for. The coupons looked like monopoly money - we used the paper money for beer, food, and more beer (all the vendors only accepted coupon money)
- Really clean festival. The ratio of garbage picker-uppers to the actual festival goers was like 1:5.

So much fun!!!!

The sweaty aftermath of setting up the tent.

Belle and Sebastian

Crazy for Crash, Apollo18. Loud, Korean, punk band.

All four wristbands - entrance, camping, above 19, water park

*see here for a pool picture : https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVN9rONKbvVaP2VOKp8cC_4oC9w5j0QO4Lta2KjsFHMFi1tiYHXsld1HVnNutywRWv-JKKsRH583F2l4aZFhLOGHhO0CriFAEXeGkFIQM-rL6JUoW-Tm3hmyNzvlLczLoEY6a9PMqLxw/s1600/DSC05967.JPG

Summer Camp

Summer camp has been just as fun as winter camp! It really is fun to sit around, eat snacks, make ice-cream, and break pinatas. We try to squeeze some actual learning into all that fun, but summer English camp is just like any camp that you went to when you were ten, except all of it is conducted in a foreign language. We had lots of acitivities, role-playing, and reading, with the camp culminating in a speech presentation and breaking of pinatas.

I will really miss my students, even though they seemed pretty apathetic to my announcement that I was leaving...."Oh, okay teacher. Can we go home now?" Typical middle school students anywhere in the world.

Team "Blackhole" (best name ever!)

Team "LIC" (Who knows what it stands for...)

Team "Monster" (Silly girls, as far from monster students as possible)

Desk-warming

The first day of desk warming was pretty great... no classes to teach, no crazy students to control, no lesson planning. The second day, the novelty was beginning to wear off around 9:10am. I am now rounding the third straight week of no classes to teach and I have yet to find a solution to my boredom... I have however managed to waste hours and hours on the following websites:
- facebook (duh, I seriously hate/love this thing. Why do my news feeds consist of the same 15 people, and why are they all boring?)
- lamebook (terrible and terribly funny at the same time)
- google reader (the ten blogs that I subscribe to... these people cannot post fast enough to keep me entertained)
- various news sites (the guardian, the new york times, sometimes the onion)
- pitchfork (kinda lame since apple bought out lala and you can't listen to things for free)
- Maangchi's youtube videos (Korean cooking with a wacky Korean lady - with bad music in the background)
- facebook (again, yah.......)
- craigslist Seattle (rents really haven't gone down have they?)

Despite what you might think, it has occured to me to do something productive. I do sometimes take an occasional break from my computer staring, sigh-enducing stupor. Sometimes I play badminton with my elementary school students, or clean up my desk, or walk to the cafeteria to eat lunch. And luckily I am still doing yoga three times a week, otherwise I would really feel like a fat slob.

So, if you have any entertainment suggestions for the rest of my summer of desk warming, I owe you a facebook "like".

Question

"Hey what's the first thing you'll do when you get back?" Number one question people ask me when I tell them I'm going back to the land of whole foods, real coffee, and expensive cab rides.

Number one answer:

"Eat me some Taco Bell!"

It sounds a little understated, since it's not really "Mexican" food, but nothing beats a perfectly-crisp-subsititue-the-beans-for-meat- Crunchwrap-Supreme-plus-a-large-baja-blast. I'm pretty sure I dream about this delish snack.

I love you, Taco Bell!

습기

I'm not sure of the exact analogy I would use to describe the affect of Korean monsoon humidity on me. But if I had to choose, I feel like a used-leftover-towelette-left-in-a-hot-car-parked-in-the-walmart-supercenter-parking-lot.

There's something really special about the weather here that manages to make me feel like I'm sweating ALL day. My walk to work leaves me dabbing a sweat-soaked kleenex to my already melted face and wishing there was a shower in my school.

Despite the humidity, we have had some epic thundershowers that put the rainy city of Seattle to shame. 6 straight hours of thunder, lightening, rain, and car alarms being set off by the storm - impressive.

Your Head Very Small

When I first wore a baseball hat in little league, I learned I had a small head. Having given up hats for the most part, I had forgotten how my head size compared to everyone elses until I got to Korea. "Your head very small" is a common follow up to, or replacement for hello. The sunglasses saleswoman was the latest in the many culprits. I think it's a compliment (Korean celebrities tend to have comparatively smaller heads) but saying thank you just feels weird.

What's in there?

"Ga-bang": Korean for bag. Gabang with popcicle stains on it.... it's really hot here, and hard to eat a popcicle on the bus.

Clockwise

1. Wallet - with lots of "man won" in it. "Man-won" = 10,000won (a little over $9.00USD)

2. Umbrella - carrying this around in case of the rain showers that are becoming more frequent as we enter the monsoon season.

3. Pencil case - a staple in every teacher's bag.

4. Foundation - lots of SPF.

5. iTouch - sometimes you just need to tune out all the students you see walking around the neighborhood..."OH! HI TEACHER!!!"

6. Oil strips - humidity has been over 60 % every day here for the past week... gross.

7. Gum - fights kimchi breath.

8. Free handphone - with handphone accessories : electronic bus pass and KIA Tigers themed screen cleaner.

9. 8GB USB - the number one thing I need to remember to bring to school because it contains all the ppts for my lessons... funny how such a tiny thing could be so valuable.

10. Lipgloss and chapstick - gotta keep them lips moist and glossed.

11. Sunglasses - to protect from the blazing sun on my walk to school at 7:30am. Sunglasses are a concept that most Koreans find weird or showy.

Conversation 1 -

Student: "Teacher, I saw you this morning wearing sunglasses."

Me: "Okay, so?"

Student: "Why?"

Me: ".....because it's f*ing sunny, duh!"

Conversation 2 -

Male co-worker: "Ah, Naomi, I saw you this morning wearing ....." indicates to his eyes and a kind of shading motion.

Me: "Yep, just trying to protect my eyes."

Male co-worker: "Oh, you looked like a movie star!"

Me: "......haha, okay!"

World Cup

This week I've been teaching my student's a dialogue about the world cup (see below). It also includes the Korean translation if you need/want to talk about the world cup in Korean.

Person A: Did you watch the game on Saturday?
너 토요일 경기 봤어?
Person B: Yeah, Korea won.
응. 한국이 이겼어.
Person A: Really? Was it a good game?
정말? 경기 훌륭했어?
Person B: Yes, Park JiSung scored 1 goal.
응, 박지성이 1골 넣었어
Person A: Wow! That’s great.

와우, 멋진걸

In addition to talking about the world cup all week with my students - we (well, more me than V) also made a calendar time table. Unfortunately, South Korea is 7 hours ahead of South Africa so, most of the matches will be played at either 3:30am or 11pm... not so ideal for us 9-5ers.

Korea's world cup slogans are:

"Fighting Korea!" - "fighting" is konglish for "go" or "I support" or something along those lines....

"Shouting Korea!" - hmm... I dunno

The big Q and A

Question: What do you do in Korea if wake up one morning, bend over to pick something up, and pull something in your back?
Answer: Go to Dr. Kang's Pain Clinic near Jeonnam National University.

Q: Why Dr. Kang's, when there are so many other hospitals closer to your home, you ask?
A: He speaks fluent English and even used the word "sedentary" during my consultation, he also has a very calm and kind bedside manner. And I didn't know this at the time, but Dr. Kang actually specializes in back pain in addition to his family practice.

Q: What did you do at the pain clinic?
A: I received a series of anti-inflammatory shots directly at the source of the pulled ligament. I also had, what Dr. Kang referred to as "electric shock therapy" (he might want to consider rephrasing this into a slightly less threatening expression). The "electric shock therapy" ended up being kind of like those electric chair massages but with more force and sharper contact.

Q: Did you get any cool drugs?
A: The perscription that I recieved was a mild anti-inflammatory combined with a very low, slow-release pain killer.

Q: How much did it cost?
A: The first visit (consult, shots, and physical therapy) was 17,400won and 2,000won for the perscription. The second visit (consult, one shot, and electric physical therapy, doctors note) was 15,300won and 2,500 for three days worth of pills.
Total for two visits and two perscriptions:
37,200won (about $30 US)

Q: How do I get there?
A: By bus: take any bus that goes to Jeonnam National University Backgate and walk south towards the end of the backgate. It's across the street from the Gwangju Buk Gu Chung (district office)

A Series of Fortunate Holidays

In May we celebrated two holidays (no school!!!)

May 5th - Children's Day
May 21st - Buddha's Birthday

.........and today (July 2nd) we also have a holiday for - Election Day!

So, what do we do with all these free days?

For Children's day we bought tickets to the KIA Tigers game:

beer, chicken and baseball!

8,000won/ticket

10,000won/box of fried chicken

and all the B.Y.O beer you could ask for!

Take that Mariners...

For Buddha's birthday we travelled to the ancient city of Andong.
We hiked up to the Bongjeongsa temple - which is about a 30 minute drive from Andong - and admired the beautiful view and hundreds of lanterns displayed for Buddha's Birthday.....

...And sampled the famously delicious Jjim Dalk (stewed chicken and vegetables in a spicy sweet soy sauce) and drank some Andong Soju.

The following day we walked around the Hahoe village - visited the traditional Korean village buildings (that people actually still live in!), and saw an amazing masked perfomance (which we didn't fully understand, but was awesome nonetheless).

And for Election Day we're planning on celebrating Vann's birthday... homemade cake and everthing!

Yoga

I'm taking yoga classes three times a week with my friend JiSook and we both agree that, Yoga in Korea is HARD.

I'm not exactly sure what it is, but almost all the women in my yoga class are over 35 and are skilled in the art of yoga. I think it has something to do with them sitting on the ground all the time, or maybe it's the kimchi... Whatever it is, these women could kick my butt in a yoga competition. I can console myself with the fact that I am the tallest in the class... but also feel guilty because I'm also the youngest.

Despite the fact that the instruction is all in Korean I think I manage pretty well. My instructor (who is also over 40) takes a personal interest in making sure I understand how to do the positions. Sometimes she parks herself right next to me so that I can see exactly what to do....she's great. Also the toughest yoga instructor I've ever had. On Friday only two other students came so she devoted most the class to pulling and pushing me into the right position. I thought I was going to die.

I pay 50,000won/month (about $45) for three classes/week. Classes are relatively small: ranging from about 9 students to 3 students. Monday and Friday are "extremities class" and Wednesday is "standing class".

Teaching EXP

This semester has given me 3 experiences that made me feel more like a real teacher.
First, I had to break up a fight. The kind with hair pulling and a kid that throws a chair and breaks a computer. I will be ready to block chairs in the future.
Second, I was locked in my classroom, not once, but twice. Punk kids locked it from the outside with a metal pin. Taking the window exit did get me a little dusty. Nice try kids.
And third, on a lighter note, some kids at both schools said I have a nickname. I was amused when they showed me pictures of "Mr. Brush" complete with a brush for his hair (more like a feather duster). Too bad I didn't save the drawings. They weren't bad.

Love Motels

At some point all expats have to blog about Korean Love Motels. They're like motels anywhere but with more interesting rooms, extra privacy protection at the entrances, and the option to rent a room for only a few hours. Get the idea? Anyway, we stayed at 4 different ones on a trip to Pusan/Busan as the prices are pretty reasonable. Overall very clean and mass amenities. Check it out.

Haeundae Beach Area. Sugar Motel. Suite Room. 80,000won ($65-70). Two computers with internet. Huge flat screen TV. Steam room/shower. Jacuzzi tub. Queen Bed. Fridge. Water Boiler.

Oncheongjang area near Hurshimchung Spa. Suite Room. 40,000 won ($30-35). One computer with internet. Large TV. Fridge. Water boiler. Shower. Tub. Double bed + Twin bed. Free VHS rentals.

Haeyundae Beach. Noblesse Motel. VIP room. 100,000 won ($80-85). Projection screen theater. Surround sound. Two computers with internet. Small porch w/ tv and swing. Huge flat screen tv. A bit of a view. Shower/ steam room. Jacuzzi. Fridge. Moving LED star patterns on the ceiling.

Noblesse VIP bathroom with a view.

Noblesse VIP porch. swing, view and tv screen. Tenth floor i think.

The last motel was the Cello Motel, 50,000 won in the Seomyeon area behind Lotte Dept store. Standard big TV, fridge, tub, but nothin special. Overall I really like Love Motels for their character and all their features but N decided they left her a bit creeped out.

Cookies

Not just any cookies but GIRL SCOUT cookies! Thin mints are the sh**. Nothing like cheering up your Monday with a package filled with delicious cookies. Thanks mom!

One-way-ticket

V and I need a one-way ticket to Seattle, non-stop, 1-stop, Asiana, Korean Air, whatever. We’re on our way home on August 26th! See you soon! XOXO

synchronized bowing

In Korea, middle school students are trained to bow and say hello to their teachers in the hallway, in the cafeteria, in the bathroom, basically any time their teachers pass them. And although not all of them bow to me (instead they just say "hi", giggle and run away), I've been able to observe the many styles of bowing.

1. The "I have to pee" bow: I've only observed this type of bow with girls. The bower kind of stands like they have to pee with their hands clasped and bows timidly far away from the teacher, usually with their bum sticking out towards a corner.

2. The "Run and Stop" bow: Bower is running like really fast, hair flowing, they see a teacher stop short... and bow. After the bow their off again at top speed. Not to be confused with the "Run while Bowing" bow.

3. The "Flop" bow: A slightly over exaggerated bow, especially effective if the bower has a little longer hair and makes it look like their doing a very short headbang.

4. The "Sychronized" bow: Students standing in a group spot a teacher all at the same time and somehow manage to co-ordinate their annyong haseyos and bows.

5. The "Ham-it-up" bow: I've only seen the boys do this one. The bower stops short whatever he's doing (eating, walking, whatever), clears his throat, puts his hand over his heart, delivers the deepest annyong haseyo and almost scraping his nose on the ground, the deepest bow.

6. The "Ohhhh!" bow: Students often mistake me for a "real" Korean teacher and do a normal annyong haseyo and bow, then halfway through it they realize it's me. They pause, come out of their bow, make a little 'ohhh!' sound, giggle and say 'hello teacher!'.

col-pop, an UnBCombo

As I am now working at a middle school AND and elementary school I now get to experience a whole new teaching world. Among my many new discoveries in elementary school I have found one of the most brillant combos - designed especially for cute, hungry elementary school kids. The 'col-pop' - the 'col' is for cola and the 'pop' is for popcorn chicken. It holds your snack of popcorn chicken and your refreshing drink of cola all in the same container and allows access to both at the same time!

Lucky for me, the class captains' parents often bring these in for students during the first week of school. I've had 2 already this week! And like, the cola is cola - nothing really special, and popcorn chicken is pretty standard....but it's a col-pop. After eating two, the novelty has not worn off yet, it's seriously so clever that have to marvel it everytime I pop a chicken nugget in my mouth and take a sip of cola.

Those unbeatable combinations

The grilled cheese/tomato soup combo is a great, classic, American unbeatable combination. As I've said before tomato soup is hard to come by in Korea - as is cheese. However I have discovered a truly amazing unbeatable combination in Korea: the kimbap + spicy ramen combo. It is akin to the grilled cheese/tomato combo because it has the same sort of dipping theory. Except, instead of dipping the eater takes a huge kimbap piece shoves it into the mouth, chews a little, and then takes a large steaming sip of spicy ramen to help wash it down. Mmmmm. It's the perfect lunch. So, if ever in Korea and in need of a cheap and quick lunch, I recommend any local kimbap nara and ordering the plain ramen (it will most likely be the spicy kind - because I've never seen anything else) and any kind of kimbap (my favorites are the tuna kimbap, ham kimbap, and Tonkatsu kimbap).






*Although I've made kimbap at home, I've found it's much cheaper, easier, and more delicious to seek out the nearest kimbap nara and chow down.

kkotsaemchuwi

Koreans have been telling me about this special season, called kkotsaemchuwi (꽃샘추위). Which basically means winter is jealous of the flowers. 꽃 means flower, 샘 means jealousy/envy, and 추위 means the cold. And what do you know, this morning I wake up to winter's envy, an inch of fresh snow and still snowing.

Homemade Scrabble

On a day during our vacation when it was raining cats a dogs, V and I stayed indoors a made our own scrabble board game. Scrabble in Korea costs like $40...yikes. It took a whole day to make and we've only used it like 4 times, but it was a fun filled day of cutting and pasting.

Step 1: make board with pizza box

Step 2: cut our tiles until your fingers cramp up

Step 3: cut and glue some more

Step 4: beat V at scrabble with words like fungi

Hemmed and ahhhed

One of the best things about Korea that I have experience and also heard other foreigners rave about is Korea's ability to fast-track things. For example, almost all deliveries are one day, restaurants never take more than 5minutes before food is on the table, when you get your haircut TWO people will dry and brush your hair to minimize your time in the salon, garbage pick up is three days a week, to get from one end of the country to the next on the KTX takes less than four hours. Koreans really know their efficiency.

Anyway, one of my most recent encounters with Korean fast-track was at the department store called Shinsegae. I went to the Levi's store and tried on a pair a jeans, they were a little too long. So, the sales woman pinned them and offered to have them "cut" (hemmed). Why not? She asked me for my phone number and name and she told me she would call me in 40 minutes when they were finished. 40 minutes!!! And it was free!!! I mean Nordstrom won't even hem my jeans for free and it usually takes a few days. So, I go to kill some time by shopping a little more, and she calls me 25 minutes later to tell me they're finished. WOW! They must have a little old lady working in the back hemming jeans like a maniac... at least that's what I picture. How was the 25 minute hemming job, you ask? It was like they were straight from the manufacturer - perfect. See for yourself. Please excuse the lame house slippers.

catsup

Ko Lanta:

We took the train, two ferries and a van ride from Bangkok to the small Island of Ko Lanta. We found ourselves on an island filled with Swedish, Finnish and German families. Ko Lanta was beautiful and incredibly relaxing. I followed a grandma-like schedule : getting up really early in the morning to catch the free breakfast, read corny novels on the beach, slathered 50spf sunscreen on myself religiously (because seriously who wants wrinkly, sun spotted skin), ate dinner before 6pm, and went to bed around 9pm…I was kind of boring.

It wasn't all boring we managed to find a few things to do while in Ko Lanta. We rented a small scooter bike that ended up running out of gas in the middle of nowhere because the gas gauge was broken (curse you lady who rented it to us and said it was 1/2 full) – V drove it most of the time – for some reason I had a hard time braking. We went spelunking in a cave and saw some bats and a huge, fake spider the guide had rigged to scare tourists. Ate lots of fresh seafood and drank fruit smoothies. We took a cooking class and made a spicy, chicken salad, spring rolls, green curry, and sticky rice with coconut and mango. Swam in the ocean and in our hotel pool. Rode bicycles around the island until I refused to ride any more in the 90 degree weather. Drank some smoothies. Went to a hippy bar and drank some Chang beer.

Ko Lanta is very low-key and has really beautiful beaches. Even though it was peak season we often found ourselves alone on a stretch of beach. The locals were all very friendly and the accommodations were inexpensive and very nice. We stayed in bungalows that had small resort areas – pools, restaurant, rentals, etc. Ahhhhhh if only we were there now.

view from our resort's restaurant

spelunking

Thai Cookery School

one of our bangalows

After our 36hour airport adventure back to Korea we had about 36 hours to do some laundry, repack our bags and sleep until we left for Japan.

My school invited V and I on a 4 day trip to Japan sans students - only the teachers and administrative staff.

Summary:
- we took a long, overnight, ferry ride to Japan
- got our tangerine quarantined
- visited like a hundred castles, palaces, and temples
- ate some sushi
- went shopping
- drank some asahi
- rode the ferry home
- V entered a karaoke contest and won 2nd prize
- slept all the way home on the bus

The trip was fun and jam packed. You know those Asian tour groups you sometimes see on the UW campus or at famous landmarks - we were those Asians. Snapping pictures and posing with two fingers we were almost exactly the stereotypical Asian tour group, except we didn't have matching outfits. We might make fun of tour groups like this but I really underestimated them - we visited a 3 temples, one castle and toured a Japanese village all before lunchtime...

Anyway, it was a once in a lifetime experience one of these days we'll go back to Japan to visit it at slower pace.

ferry ride

tangerine quarantine

photo op

sushiiii

The city of tuktuks and Buddha day

Bangkok was a one of a kind experience. We spent most of our time there (2 days) trying to buy train tickets to Ko Lanta. And towards the end of our two days, avoiding all tuktuks and supposed TAT travel agents.

We stayed at New Siam II- a clean, cheap hotel with a decent room and a swimming pool (we didn’t use). It was about a 5min walk from Ko San road – a tourist trap with trinkets and overpriced food.

Finding train tickets to Southern Thailand proved to be relatively difficult, due to tuktuk drivers who refused to take us to the train station, fake TAT travel agents who lied and said all the tickets were sold out, and to everyone else we asked who said it was “Buddha’s day” and the train station was closed. Several hundred bhat later and a lot of frustrated sighs, we found our way to the train station via metered cab and found an honest travel agent that planned the rest of our transportation for us.

With tickets in hand we went back to our hotel, treated ourselves to a meal of fried rice in a pineapple, and prepared ourselves for some of the most beautiful beaches in the world.

*We also visited Wat Pho while we were in Bangkok – massively ornate and beautiful.

Vann in a Tuktuk!

Stupas at Wat Pho