I’m sitting here sipping on tea and having some oatmeal. I’ve been back in Yellowknife for a week and Canada for two. It’s crazy to think that it has been nine months since I journeyed off to Asia and what a great experience it was for a year out of University.My last two-ish months took me across Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, and Malaysia. Leaving Korea was a little harder than I thought. It wasn’t the packing or saying good bye to my students but leaving some great friends behind while they finished up their contracts. In addition, my school wasn’t giving me a specific date to when my last day of teaching would be….I have had my ticket booked for months before knowing my last day of work; they had no idea.
So I bounced out of Busan, S. Korea and of course shit hit the fan once I got to immigration. My alien regi stration card had gone missing. SERIOUSLY! You needed to have your card to leave or you would pay a fine of 100, 000 won. Given that I was going traveling, 100,000 won was not an option especially since I was dinged on my oversized luggage already. I proceed to rip my carry-on and it was nowhere to be seen. SOOO I had to make my way back through security and I’ll tell you Koreans don’t like this happening at all. They were freaking, I was starting to get really annoyed because I had to board in 20 minutes. I got through and ran to Air China where the biotch of a ticket agent wanted nothing to do with me. I asked her where my card was and she said it was tucked in my passport which immigration insisted on keeping! UGH! I told her it wasn’t cause it wasn’t but she told me to go check again. I went back and sure enough it wasn’t in there. From here the immigration dude directed me to inspections where another biotch lady came and yelled at me. Was I going to jail? Was I going to miss my flight? HAHA, dramatic but for reals, it was scary! The lady kept telling me about the fine and all I wanted to do was to punt her and run away. Once again I made my way through security back to Air China. The ticket lady was walking away and I ran after her and she was like one moment and went through a door. I had like five minutes be fore boarding time so I went to her counter and looked around her desk. Sure enough my alien card was shoved under the keyboard to her computer! UGH! I was so irate with Air China and didn’t give them the courtesy Asian bow. YA! I went there. I ran through security and down to my gate and boarded the jet to Beijing where I had six hours to kill before I went on to Bangkok. That experience leaving Korea gave me relief that I was leaving and not having to deal with things like that anymore, but in all honesty I miss that country a ton!
I arrived in Bangkok at 1am with my all luggage thankfully. A family friend was nice enough to let me store a ll my stuff that accumulated in Korea at his apartment in Bangkok that is why I had a pit stop there. I had very detailed directi ons to his place but arriving at night in a foreign country with language barriers is a little unsettling. I wasn’t sure if I was getting ripped off or was going to the right place. Turns out I got to the right place but totally got ripped off on the cost of the trip. I met the landlady and caught a couple hours of shuteye before I had to make my way back to the airport to catch a 6am flight to Hanoi, Vietnam. I was meeting the other five girls I was traveling with there.
Over the two months backpacking we overcame and conquered some of my most beautiful sights I’ve ever seen thus far. The sliding down sand dunes and having a private beach in Moi Ne, Vietnam were some of the most memorable times I had in that country. I wish we gave Cambodia a bit more time because three days doesn’t give a great place like that justice. The people there were amazing and Angkor was unreal. To think that people built and put that much detail into the architecture really blows one away especially with the limited tools they had. In M alaysia, we only took on Kulalumpore because we there on a visa run. The city was nice but three days is more than enough especially if you’re staying in a shady part of town near a bus station.
Now Laos. OOOH LAOS! MY LOVE! I fell in love with this country and it was by far my most fave country out of the lot. The people, food, how cheap everything was, weather, and of course how beautiful the country was perfect. I can’t forget about the river tubing in Vang Viang. This is a must if you ever get to Laos. Just think 30c, cool river water, rope swings, zip lines, music, makeshift bars, sling shots, buckets of drinks, Beer La os, a huge water slide, beautiful green mountains, and of course great people to party with. It’s great. Trust me. OH LOVELY LAOS! Oh and we did a zip line, tree house stay, and Gibbon watching adventure (The Gibbon Experience) in Laos which was amazing and def another great memory.
When I first arrived in Thailand I had kind of a sour taste to what it would be like. “The Land of Smiles” seemed everything but. It was dirty, more expensive, a lot of hassle from locals to get you to buy things, evident poverty, the prominent sex trade, and TOURISTS, TOURISTS, TOURISTS. I know I’m making Thailand sound horrible but it’s far from it. You just need to know where to go and how to get away from those things. Khao Sok, and Koh Tao stand out in my mind as the best places I spent time in. Khao Sok is a national park with jungle trekking, “water falls”, Gibbon calls, and caves. Needless to say it’s not over visited so Lindsey and I found ourselves to be the only foreigners at times. However, you do get attacked my leeches which make you bleed for five hours in spots you don’t want to be bleeding from. OUCH! Koh Tao is an island on the west coast, which is just gorgeous. It’s a smaller island that offers white sand beaches, scooters, monkeys, bays, beach bars, beachfront bungalows, and crazy people like “FRANCE”. We spent a week here and adventured the whole island to the many bays and beaches by foot, scooter, and bikes. Needless to say we didn’t ever think we would be conquering mountains but that was the case on these tropical beauties.
In all, Southeast Asia was unreal. There were so many amazing times had. We saw a lot of tradition palaces, temples, and watts, which were neat to get the cultural feel. The food was also super tasty and the endless tropical fruit awesome. UGH! I want a Nanner Shark right now! We also got a kick out of the menus in restaurants that were about 30 pages long and the translation into English made my day. “French Fried”, “Frit Shark”, and “Chicken No Name” to name a few. Also, we all had the opportunity to endure sickly bowel systems but I think that’s inevitable unless your stomach is made of steal. But that didn’t hold us back from trying traditional native foods. My overall experience in Asia was great. The opportunity of teaching English in Korea opened so many doors of travel and memories for me. I’m stoked I did it now cause I would have not met the people I did in Korea. I’m def hitting up Orlando and going to Disney! I’m holding you ladies to that! I’M COMING! It is nice to be home and not traveling on crammed, sweaty buses for 12 hours and not living out of a backpack but don’t get me wrong I miss it dearly! Long live the elephant dance. ☺
