seoul layover

I forgot to write about our 9-hour layover in Seoul on the way home from Thailand. I think they intentionally make long layovers there, so people visit Seoul. We (Lance and I--Jared and Jane stayed in Thailand an additional day) took a 6-hour tour of the city. If you're ever stuck with this long of a layover, it was really easy to do. We found the tour desk near the exit doors and booked it there, it was really cheap, maybe $20 and included lunch. I'm pretty sure the government is running it to get more people to visit there again. We had 7 or 8 other people on it with us. Hae Suk was our guide. She was nice and tried to teach us some Korean on our 1-hr ride into the city (the airport isn't actually in Seoul, it's on an island outside of town). She taught us how to say a few Korean expressions. The best one (if you're an Arrested Development fan) was annyeong haseyo, which means hello. I had to laugh each time she said it, though because of the show (you should watch it, it's hilarious).

Once we arrived into the city, we went to lunch at a Korean restaraunt. I had a beef soup dish, which was tasty. I'm not much of a fan of kimchi, though. We took our shoes off to eat at our table, which was ok because they had heated floors. We then drove to the Deoksugung Palace (they normally tour a different palace, but it was closed the day Lance and I were there). As we were parking, we passed a group of protestors (around 20-30 people) with signs that were just standing on a sidewalk repeating everything a man was shouting. It seemed very calm. Our guide told us they were protesting because they had lost their jobs. We parked and then walked into the palace and in front of it was a large group of riot police, here's a few of them. They were getting ready, in case anything got out of control. It seemed like overkill to me because the people protesting were barely doing anything and they had at least 40 riot police on hand.I really liked the design of all the buildings in the palace. They were so simple and used natural colors, a huge difference compared to the palace in Bangkok. One neat thing we learned about their living quarters was that underneath each of the buildings was a huge fireplace. This provided the heating for the home and since no one wears shoes inside thier homes, they needed heated floors. The chimneys for the underground fireplaces were piped 20-30 feet away from the building itself.We caught our flight out of Bangkok at 2am and arrived into Seoul at 6am--Korean time, we slept a couple of hours and didn't have showers, so we look pretty awesome here. This day was the longest day I've ever had, after spending a full day in Seoul, we flew 9 hours to Seattle and then were home at 10am the same day. We also went to this river that runs through the city for about 4 miles. It's called the Cheonggyecheon Stream. It had a really nice walk-way, it would be a good place for a run. Oh, do you notice the jackets we're wearing? We were lucky to borrow some from the tour company. Mine fit perfectly, but Lance is wearing a woman's jacket, he has it pushed off his shoulders, otherwise, the arms would be 5" too short. I only laughed at him for a few minutes. At least we were able to stay warm, it was around 40 degrees here, compared to the 80 degrees we had in Thailand.

This picture makes me miss Lance. :( He's in Reno working at a ski resort and I haven't seen him since we got back. Maybe Lance is ok with that, but I miss him, it was fun sharing a room with him for a couple of weeks.

The last place the tour took us was Insadong, which is a shopping street. I actually found a neat wall hanging from a local artist, so I was glad we had this stop, too.

puerto vallarta

My Christmas present to myself was a little weekend get-away to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico on New Year's weekend. It was a nice treat, plus, I needed some warm sun after the crazy snow we had for so long in Seattle. I really didn't do much while I was in Puerto Vallarta, just read, relaxed, sat out on the beach. It was perfect. 80 degrees and a nice beach. I do have one funny story, sorry if you've already heard it.

While I was sitting on the beach, reading a magazine, this older mexican guy sat down next to me and started talking to me (he appeared to be in his late 40s or early 50s). I thought, oh this guy must just want to practice his english with me, so I'll talk to him for a few minutes. He asked me where I was from and I told him Seattle, but then he made the comment that I looked Canadian. I'm not really sure how different Canadians look from Americans, but I was like, ok. And then a few minutes later, he said, no, you look Mexican because of my skin. This is when I wanted him to go away and leave me alone. He didn't leave, just kept talking about how he had been at the bars the night before dancing with all the ladies, but not drinking because he likes to exercise, play soccer, run.... So then he asked me how old I was and I told him 32 (fyi, now I'm 33 because I had my b-day on the 13th) and he tells me he's 34. I laughed because it was so ridiculous. There was no way he was younger than 48. And then he asked me what color my eyes were and asked me to take off my sunglasses, I wouldn't do it and by this point was back to reading my magazine, hoping he would just get the hint. I had to finally say, well, nice to meet you and then he left. So, I went back to reading and then after a while, I hear someone running on the sand and as they pass me, they let out a big breath of air. This happens a few times and then I look up to see who is breathing so hard as they're running. It's the creepy guy! He's running back and forth every few minutes and breathing out every time he passes by. Yep, creepy. I get ready to go after one of the times he runs by, hoping I can get out of there before he comes back, but without any luck. He runs up to me, all sweaty and old. Oh, it was nice meeting you, look out for all the mexican men. He then wanted to shake my hand, I said no thanks you're too sweaty and walked away. Nice, huh?

The rest of the trip was good and relaxing. I really like Puerto Vallarta. It's built up against the ocean and there are mountains behind it, so it doesn't go too far inland. The main part of the old town has old cobblestone roads. All the high rise hotels are out of town, so the town has an nice feel to it. They also have a really nice boardwalk and lots of neat scupltures along the way. There were lots of people there this weekend, from the US and Mexico on vacation. I stayed at the Hotel Rio.

Thailand wrap-up

Go to Thailand! It's a great country to see and I think there's something there for anyone. I of course loved the beaches, the shopping and the Bangkok sites. (By the way, go to the weekend market in Bangkok, it's from 9-6 on Saturday and Sunday and was the cheapest place to buy everything.) I'm definitely going back and next time will go to different beaches and hopefully see some of the ruins.

Thanks for being such great travel partners, Anneka, Jared, Jane and Lance!

the grand palace

Once we finally entered the grand palace, we were so amazed at the colors and how gaudy these temples were. It was very interesting. We did have to wear long skirts or long pants to get into this site, so I rented a skirt and Jared and Lance got to wear some hammer pants for a couple of hours. Everytime I looked at them while we were in there, I started singing to myself, "cant touch this". Anyway, I'll let the pictures tell you how beautiful things were in here.

we were scammed

I'm kind of embarrassed to write about this because I totally should have known better. I had read through the guidebook about scams that people try to pull on you in Bangkok and I was all prepared to tell those kinds of people to get lost. The big scam they talk about is the gem scam. With this one, the scammers will come up to you when you're trying to get into some tourist attraction (like the grand palace) and will tell you the attraction is closed, BUT they know of this other great place. They end up taking you to a gem store where they try to sell you some crappy gems that aren't worth anything.

Here's our story. Lance and I walked down to the grand palace the morning after the king's birthday. We were planning to meet up with Jared and Jane on one side of the grand palace. As we were walking over there, a few people came up to us to tell us that the palace was closed today because of the king's birthday. We just kept walking and I said, ya right. When we arrived at the spot where we were meeting up with Jared and Jane, I noticed the guards at that entrance weren't letting people in. So, I started to wonder, maybe it is closed today and that is so lame! We had to wait a little for Jared and Jane to meet up with us and while we were waiting in this park, a tuk-tuk driver came up to us and was all friendly. He asked where we were from and said oh yes, the palace was closed because the monks were using it this morning since it was the day after the king's birthday. But, it would be opening again at 2pm. And hey, since you're waiting, why don't we take you to another site? (I know, I should have known right there.)

Jared and Jane show up and they tell us people were telling them the same thing as they were walking over, that the monks were using the palace this morning. We didn't want to waste any time and did want to see some more sites, so we asked the tuk-tuk driver and his friend that was another driver how much it would cost for them to take us to see a buddha at another temple. They said 20 baht (which is less than a dollar). (Again, I should have known here, because it was so cheap, but we hadn't taken any taxis in Bangkok yet and didn't really know how much they would charge.) So, we went with them and they took us straight to this buddha, I forget which one it was, sitting buddha? There was even a guy there that talked to us for a few minutes about the buddha and he said something about how the monks were using the palace that morning. So, I thought this must actually be legit.

But then the tuk-tuks took us to a suit store. They stopped and said, look, we just took you to this buddha and we are going to take you to another place, but first you need to go look around in this store, don't worry, you don't have to buy anything, just look around. I was mad at this point and wouldn't even go inside. Jared and Jane went in for a few minutes. So then the driver that had me and Lance came up to me and he tried talking me into going in there so he could get his gas coupon. I refused. He then pulls out his wallet and shows us a picture of him when he was a monk and that he was a really honest man. He just needed us to go into the store so the government would give him his gas coupon. I still wouldn't go in.

But, he then talked us into going to another store and then he would take us to a tourist site. (We should have just taken a real taxi back to the palace at this point.) So, I agreed and he pulled up to a jewelry store! Not the gem scam! I didn't want to go in here, either, but finally agreed so he could get his stinking gas coupon. We walked in and then right back out. And he was still mad at us because we didn't spend enough time in there. Before he took us to the real tourist site, we had to spend more time in the store or they wouldn't get their gas coupon. This is where I asked him, how much is this gas coupon worth, anyway? I wanted to just give him some money to cover the gas coupon, but he wouldn't tell us. It was so annoying. So, they take us to another jewelry store, we walk around in there for 5 minutes and then the drivers take us back to the palace, didn't take us to the last tourist spot that they promised, which was fine with me.

And guess what? When we walked around to the other side of the grand palace, we found the actual entrance, we hadn't walked far enough to find it earlier in the morning and it was open. It hadn't been closed at all. I was so mad we had been scammed by the drivers who wasted our time. I read in the guidebook later that night about this exact scam, so don't go with a tuk-tuk driver that offers a ride for 20-30 baht.

long live the king!

I don't think I've mentioned anything about the King of Thailand, yet. His name is Bhumibol Adulyadej (and yes, I just had to look his name up). Read up on him on wiki, if you want. Anyway, he's pretty much THE MAN in Thailand. I don't think I've ever seen so many pictures of one person anywhere else. They have these huge, 20' tall pictures of him on the streets, all over the place. Like this one in Ao Nang.We went to a couple of movies in Bangkok and before each movie started, they play a video on the King's life, with what must be their national anthem and everyone stands up. I thought that was kind of weird, but he's the king, he can do whatever he wants!

Like, have a national holiday on his birthday. It was December 5th and we arrived back in Bangkok on this day. I'm so glad we made it back this night so we could watch some performances by these little kids on Khao San Rd. They were pretty cute (and notice the huge photo of the King in the background). It was some international school, where they teach the kids different cultures and languages, so they did a bunch of songs/dances in different languages. The videos aren't that great, so I will just put a couple on here.

After we watched these kids for a while, we went to the main road, near the democracy monument. There were so many people everywhere. It was fun just watching all the crazy traffic and people running all over the place. Watch this video, it took longer for the light to change than I thought it would, but look at how all the scooters crawl up to the front of the line and then just take off once the light changes, it doesn't matter if there are people still crossing the road or other cars in the intersection. And yes, 3 to 4 people can easily fit on a scooter. We got pretty good at crossing the streets with all of the crazy traffic.

Everyone was waiting for the huge fireworks display, which was so good. I've never been so close to fireworks like this before. When it first started, there were some going off at both ends of the road and then the grand finale was right over our heads. That part was actually kind of scary because things started falling on our heads! And it was so loud, there were kids crying because it was so loud and people running for cover because all the parts of the fireworks that were blowing up above our heads were falling on us, like I said a little scary. I had some cardboard fall on me and some ashes get in my eyes, but we were ok. Again, not that great of a video because I had things falling on me and getting in my eyes.

After the fireworks display, we found a huge concert going on. It was some Thai performers and they had some fancy dancers. It was fun watching them. Everyone got really excited for this song. Thanks King for having a birthday party. It was a super fun night.

Thailand food and Krabi market

I'm back at it, again. I have a few more posts for Thailand. The food was so yummy and cheap in Thailand. I wasn't necessarily too adventurous with trying crazy things, but I definitely wanted to keep eating Thai everyday, unlike my brothers, who really missed eating pizza and hamburgers after a week of Thai. (They weren't really able to find any good hamburgers, in case you were wondering or milkshakes, I think Lance tried one any time he saw it on a menu.) I loved eating at this outdoor market in Ao Nang, I think this cashew chicken was $2 or $3 dollars (including a sprite, I love their sprites, have I already mentioned that?)I also liked getting these crepes, I don't know how Thai they really are, but they were so yummy, this was banana with chocolate. My favorite was the lemon with sugar, mmmm, my mouth is watering thinking about it. These were like $1.

No, I didn't eat any bugs. I told you, I'm not very adventurous. My co-worker was actually in Thailand the same time I was and he told me he ate the smaller bugs, not these big grasshoppers. All I can say is gross. We actually didn't see any of these bug carts until we were back in Bangkok, so I'm not sure how much these are consumed.When we left Ao Nang, we were supposed to fly back to Bangkok from Krabi, but since the Bangkok airport had just re-opened, we ended up having to stay in Krabi for a night. It wasn't too bad, considering the airport had been closed for a week. I'm glad we were able to spend a little time in Krabi. We found this market while wandering around. All their fruits, vegetables and flowers are so colorful and the fruits we tried were yummy, except this one Jared made us try, I can't remember what is was, but it tasted like, well, I can't say what it tasted like, it's not very nice. That night, we ate dinner at a small street vendor. There were several down by the water. This was probably our cheapest meal. Definitely spend a day in Krabi.