Flying Airports 17 Jan

Hilariously I managed to buy 2 brand new Samsung batteries for my camcorder for 15,000 won. They are normally 30,000 won and that's a price that I'm happy to pay! Mike & I had spent much of the previous day searching Seoul for these very batteries and couldn't find anyone who stocked them- let alone had a good price!

Hong Kong airport feels very expensive but really it's just more expensive than Incheon -like everywhere else. We really are so spoiled in Korea when it comes to price jacking up. It doesn't seem to happen often and when it does it's a laughable increase.

The food is delicious! We share a Ginger beef noodle soup, some wonderful wontons and some soy rice-noodle with goose. We pretty well burned through 100,000 won in the 4 and a half hours. Easy come, easy go.

I seem to have lost my new eye mask already - darn it. Obviously this is Mike's doing... I just don't know how yet.

Blogging from my iPod

I'm getting ready for our trip to India and wanting to get back into regular blogging, so I'm testing out Blogwrite lite. So far so good :)

Hangeul Test

There once was a supervisor and once upon a time she decreed that there would be a Hangeul (Korean written language) test. She made some books and she made a test. Then she made us take it. Here's the video made by the reporters that "may" be at the test. Two TV programs showed the video in slightly different versions, so here they both are.

If you've seen one... you've not seen Theresa :)

I teach Englisheee

In the interest of this blog being somewhat understandable; I'll start with me! I'm an EPIK Teacher in Taebaek City, Gangwon Province, South Korea.

Being an English teacher in a small city (town really) means smaller schools and smaller classes. That's a big advantage, particularly as no-one in my school wants me to go anywhere, so I don't have another school to teach at. I was told the other day that the Principal gets "worried" anytime I leave the school. He must have had a heart attack when I came back from my one day visit to Kaeseong, North Korea and said "Guess where I went on the weekend!"

Today has been pretty typical, I have one scheduled class and one *bonus* conversation class. I just found out that my normal class is cancelled due to the province wide exams that will be happening next Thursday. I'm cool with that. None of my material is tested and there is enormous pressure on these kids (my students) to achieve 100% in the exams.

But there is an issue with cancelling my classes.. I get bored. Very bored. What to do? Well there's facebook to mess around on, then there are the wedding videos that I've been making (on pause until I complete my hard drive upgrade), Aussie newspapers to read, skype chat with Mike, games to play, oh and yes - lessons to plan. The trouble is that with being bored is that I'm just not motivated to prepare some lessons. So far today, I've made some photocopies of a lesson that's completely ready to go and started on making an answer sheet for the next picture story. I've also read the news, spent a little time on Facebook and played 5 games. What will happen when I move back to Australia? I'm currently not expected to work much and so have formed the expectation that I don't need to do much work at all.

Does this mean I'm lazy in the classroom? Heck NO! I love the time that I have with my students and I give it my all when I'm in the classroom. When I'm teaching I feel alive and I really feel that I'm doing something that's not just for my own financial gain. These students don't deserve a second rate education and it's programs like EPIK that can make a difference. At least I have the delusion that it's possible.

But the staffroom? Am I lazy in the staffroom? When the students are in their classes? I may as well bring in a pillow and have a sleep. I wonder if my toy Kangaroo would be comfortable?

I'm soooo ready for Sydney

It's hot here. It's been hot for a while and.. I don't like it!

I'm prepared to make an exception for Thailand, which will have summer but, to compensate, there will be stunning beaches, showers (from the sky variety), wonderful thai food and glorious thai massages. Oh the massages..... Just rub my feet and smack me around with some mystery herb balls.

I'm really excited about the flight, thai airways YEAH! And the hotel sounds cool - the windows are in the shape of a L. Nearby there is a bar, where there are no chairs only beds. Sounds weird but cool. I hope Mike can get in, they might look at his hair and say "you've got to be kidding". I hope not though. I'm going to get the pink back in my hair before we travel - not that it lasts a long time but I like it.

After thailand and some very serious relaxing, we'll be in Sydney, for a day then on to Tassy! We realised that if we were going to do any touristy stuff in Australia then we should get out of Sydney. And at the beginning when Mike's family are away. I'm really looking forward to seeing my family and hugging them all. A few times each.

Tassy. The Gangwon-do of Australia. If that gives you any ideas of what Gangwon-do is like, you're probably right. Except that women are famed for their beauty.

Tassy will be great, Mike's found us a cafe in Hobart to visit. He got talking to the owner when he was watching the World Barista Championship. So we'll be paying a visit to Tasmania's Champion Barista. I'm really hoping that they'll be open for breakfast. The plan is Hobart for 2 days then we'll be heading up to Launceston to visit our friends there. Launceston was lovely last time we visited and we're hoping to chill out while exploring the area a bit further.

So I really should get back to packing & setting up my ipod. Enough procrastination!!

Speaking of procrastination.... here are the photos from the English Camp that Mike & I taught at on Sunday and Monday.

sixty ninnnnnnneeeeeeeee!

Last november I started a diet. I have a traditional medicine doctor who monitors me, gives me some herbal tablets to take and has helped me keep on track. I check in with him twice a week, I get on the fancy super scales which give not just my weight & height but also my body fat percentage, hip to waist ratio, muscle percentage in limbs and torso, endermal fat number, some other fat number (which refers to fat on my organs - seems the darn stuff is everywhere!), a bunch of other readings, a comparison to the last 9 weigh ins, my fitness rating (?) and how much weight it says I still need to lose. So I'm getting a lot of information, which helps makes sense of what's going on with my body. We have a chat and he checks what I'm eating (that would be the diet part) and how much exercise I'm getting.

To begin with, I struggled. But stick to the diet I did - well 90% of the time. It really did help me to start losing weight, as opposed to putting it on! However, I did start to worry, what happens when I come off the diet. Will I turn into the Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man from Ghostbusters? That would be horrible. So seeing as the diet does help, I taken a less strict approach with the herbal stuff and really used it to help me change some bad habits.

One of those bad habits has been intermittant to non-existant regular exercise. There's a podcast I've been using called yogamazing, it's free and the instructor is really good. I started by doing one yoga session, 25 to 30 minutes long, in the morning. I got up to 2 yoga sessions before realising I'd best get back to going to the gym. I was stuck above 70 kgs and really didn't want to be. So I plan out a weekdays the gym, weekend yoga or walking or tennis. I'm trying to do yoga at night to balance the gym in the morning, it's something I really need to proritise.

This week has been a yoga week, I've had trouble sleeping and felt that yoga was a better choice than the gym. I get up at 6:30 am for yoga, 5:30 am for the gym. Next week I'm going back to the gym, it could well mess with my weight and that's ok. So long as those body fat percentages keep going down.

So why blog about it? Because today for the first time since I started university, my weight was less than 70kgs!! To put this in perspective my final target weight is between 63 and 65 kgs (to be decided on as I get closer to it).

The first moment of excitment I had was, at the hospital having some health tests done (for my visa renewal), my blood pressure was 120/70 which was a good sign and then the scales had me at 69kgs. I pulled Mike over and said "look at that!!". Then proceeded to do a little jump for joy as there were lots of koreans watching us and I didn't want to be too weird (not that purple hair is...). After the initial elation cleared a little, I realised I couldn't really take the 69kgs as fact, I had my phone in my pocket, a bunch of coins and some other bits and pieces. Also this isn't the super scale that I've been hopping on and off with regularity. I had to have my normal weigh in.

So as soon as the hospital stuff was done, we nipped over to the traditional medicine doctor's office and had my weigh in there. That's when I was happy then sad. You see I can understand some of the super scale's read outs but I always need to wait until we can compare the print out with the previous one. That's when it gives me something useful and understandable. So when I saw 69.8kgs I was thrilled but saddened when I saw something that usually indicates my muscle mass has dwindled and my body fat has increased. There was no little jump of joy here. I trudged into the doc's office and asked him "what's the story?" He looked at it and then double checked. He told me I'd not only broken the 70kg barrier but it was 80% fat reduction and 20% muscle. He gave me the papers to check and all my results, except for the fittness test were substantially better than the last weigh in. I jumped around and gave Mike a slap on the shoulder. It somehow seemed fitting!

I am totally thrilled to have gotten to this point and now I have a party to look forward to. The doctor and his family and friends had said one night that we'd have a party when I broke the 70kg barrier. It'll probably be next week but I don't care. I'm going to wear my pink dress - even if it is far too raunchy in Korea. It's going to be great - so long as there's a side salad to be had :)

If you read this far, I think you deserve a before and after photo.
I chose these photos because Mike (not his hair) is a constant.

Fiji Wedding

This is the first video from Frankie & Steve's wedding in Fiji. It was a beautiful day, if a bit windy, matched only by the serenely stunning bride herself! 2 or 3 more videos will follow very very soon.

CSTV LIVE!!

Free .TV show from Ustream

3 Days in Mumbai

We flew in to Mumbai's Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport on one of Thai Airway's pov pack planes. We were surprised to find ourselves in an airport (in fairness: under renovation) that closely resembled a large bomb shelter. We walked through, regaining the use of our limbs and hoping like hell we didn't get hit up for a bribe or as it is more quaintly referred to a Baksheesh. I located the baggage carousel and we were introduced to the Indian queuing system; a system where the least pushy is last. Then we walked outside, Mike to find an ATM and I to guard the bags. To say the heaving mass of people was a shock would be about right - I mean who brings their entire family to pick up one person at the airport at 1 in the morning? Fortunately Mike finds an ATM that is plugged in (the one in arrivals wasn't) and secures us a fixed price taxi.

We thought we'd gotten away without having to pay baksheesh. Or so we thought, it was just short of 500Rupees for the taxi to our hotel and the guy who got our taxi changed (so that we wouldn't have to wait) wanted a tip. First he said 100Rps then he saw Mike open his wallet (holding all the rupees that we had) and suddenly he wants 500Rps! Mike gave him 250Rps as we weren't about to tip more than the fare! While all this was going on, I was staggered by the yellow & black cabs (non-air conditioned) that were parked across from us and went on for as far as I could see. It was a sea of parked cabs!

Mumbai drivers are something else! It wasn't just that they are constantly on the horn, it was that I thought we would crash so many times. Playing chicken It seems that India drivers operate on a "if you don't crash it doesn't matter how much you miss by" mentality. I noticed that many taxis don't have side-view mirrors - no points for guessing how they got removed. Finally we arrived at the Hotel Manama. We had booked a deluxe room but ended up with a tiny room with a renovated bathroom. I was feeling ripped off and ready to do battle with the front desk but Mike checked out the other rooms that were available and he said we had the best of what was left. I mean Mike could almost touch the wall while laying on his bed. It was all too much but knowing that tomorrow was a new day gave me hope and helped me sleep.

We ventured upstairs to the Manama restaurant for breakfast. If last nights less than helpful service was a downer then the food and help from the solo waiter was a bit upper. Mike discovered his first favourite dish of the trip Aloo Chaat, it was full of potatoes, coriander and cumin - other spices too I'm sure. It was so delicious I completely forgot to take a photo of it - oops!

We walked out of the hotel with a spring in our step and a plan. A walking tour plan! We were armed with LP's Best of Mumbai and had found the walking tour called "Footsteps of the Raj"; seeing as we were staying next to the end point of this walking tour, we decided to do it in reverse! We saw some cool stuff and took plenty of photos! The photos miss out on one important thing: The Maiden Oval. There is an amazing number of boys & men playing cricket, some in whites, others wearing tees and shorts. There are batting nets - all in use and more games than I can count. This seems to go on all day long. Cricket rules Mumbai.

The end of our tour was the Gateway of India. It was massive! It stood looming over the harbour, surrounded by a multitude of people and barren cement. A few different people, all Indians, approached us to have their photo taken with us. It was very weird. It's not like we were the first tourists here, we'd seen plenty of tourists on our tour - some doing the tour in the correct order. I started to wonder if someone was going to pick our pockets or something. Fortunately that didn't happen. What did happen that as we were admiring the hazy view, there's a lot of pollution, a priest of some kind came up to us to give us a blessing, he put string on our wrists and a red dot on our foreheads. He then expected that we "re-imburse his time because he'd travelled so far to bless us" as was explained by a man who'd previously been trying to sell us a boat tour. Mike took care of it and we decided to vacate the area. I couldn't help feeling like we'd just been marked as easy marks.

So as we're walking along in the meagre shade, an Indian man walking towards us says something to Mike which neither of us understand. He seems to be saying Mike has something on him, so Mike stops but then he pulls out two long metal sticks and looks like he's about to put them in Mike's ear. So I yell at him No, No, No! and pull Mike away from him. He shouts something else after us but no way in hell am I going to let some weirdo put something in Mike's ear. Shortly afterwards I work out the trick, the man would have poked around in Mike's ear and then produced an ugly bug from up his sleeve. This would have led to insisting on Mike needing some special cleansing or something, probably at a price. Honestly this freaked us both out and we got away as fast as possible.

We venture back to CST to arrange train tickets to Goa and found we couldn't go through the ticket office if we wanted 1AC tickets (1AC means a sleeper compartment for 2 people only with AC). Fortunately we had some assistance in finding someone to book internet tickets - turns our they were emergency tickets! It cost extra - I think we had to pay a bribe to get the tickets and not be wait listed. So in trying to get to the coffee shop we'd spied earlier, we are caught by 2 small street urchin girls. They tried to attach themselves to us with cries of "ice cream". I clicked faster than Mike as to what was going on and freed myself much faster than Mike did.

We find ourselves a little café called café Coffee Day and we hide from the madness outside. In a surprising turn of events we get chatting to a couple of Korean University Students. It's really nice to swap stories and to agree that Mumbai is in your face. Walking around we find we can't even look at a stall without being harassed to buy whatever we looked near. The chillout does us good but we're not enjoying Mumbai, it's not a fun city but one overflowing with people & cars. We're glad that we'll be moving on soon - Goa can't be worse can it?

After the chillout, we grab our tickets and decide to walk to a mall. We've seen plenty of street stalls today but no actual malls. We end up at Chowpatty beach - near the mall we were heading for but we couldn't find it. It's late enough for dinner by now, so we try a vegetarian joint of Mike's choosing. While we're waiting the standard 30 mins for our food, Mike confesses that right now all he wants to do is hop on a plane and leave. I try to encourage him (quite the role reversal!). After all we have a plan for our second day in Mumbai and then the next day we're out of there!

Elephanta Island. That's our plan - we'll take a deluxe ferry out (apparently it just means larger seats) and hopefully have a better day. We get down to the Gateway of India by taxi and then we manage to find the grumpiest ticket seller to purchase our deluxe tickets from. Our "Luxury" boat took 50 mins to get out to the Island, we saw a few oil refineries and mega ships on the way. At the bottom entrance we are hit with our 5Rps entry tax. It's almost 12pm so we stop for lunch, after giggling over the mini-train on the pier. It's a non-veg thali with a view of a cow & a goat & the people streaming past. It's not brilliant but it's not bad either. Refreshed we start walking up the stairs and are amazed that you can pay to have 4 men carry you up! It's not just that the chair doesn't look comfortable, it doesn't, but surely it's not that hard to walk up. The stairs are lined with stalls, monkeys and trees. It's a lot cooler than Mumbai city and the stairs while long don't go on forever. We reach the top and have to pay an entry charge - this is somewhat more annoying as we don't even get to keep the ticket. While queuing, to pay, we watch the monkeys attack a girl holding a bottle of juice - she squeals and the monkey gets the juice. No one is hurt but these monkeys sure aren't scared.

We start in the main chamber, a cave temple. It's enormous and what remains of the wall sculptures are beautiful. When the Portuguese landed on Elephanta Island they systematically chopped off arms, heads, legs from the statues and wall carvings. It's such a shame as the detail in these carvings is incredible. We even come face to face with the Brahmi - the 3 headed dude and he's very very big! We spend the next 2.5 hours wandering through the smaller caves, taking photos and enjoying ourselves. The crowds aren't too bad as it's a Friday. We head back down the stairs, having decided that trekking to the top of the island just to see some old cannons is not for us. The Island isn't that much cooler! On the way down, Mike finds me a pretty pair of purple earrings and I find a pink bracelet. This price is very cheap and we barely haggle over the price. It's not until that afternoon that I notice that my pink bracelet has had the pink added and now it's transferring to my wrist.

The next day, Mike is feeling poorly, so we hide out in our room until it's time to hop on the train to Goa. I'll tell you all about the train ride in the next post :)

All the photos from this trip are online here.

Here's a map showing the main places that we visited over the 3 weeks.

View Larger Map

Quick Hotel Manama Review
If you are thinking about staying at Hotel Manama - don't bother paying for the deluxe room because deluxe is the one thing it won't be, the rooms are noisy (traffic & pigeons), the bathrooms are NOT spacious, there was no safe in our room - it wouldn't have fit! Also we saw no computers or internet access high speed or otherwise within the hotel.
We requested a double room and were given a twin, which I can accept, but then we were only given 1 towel and no soap - this was rectified quickly but shouldn't have required my complaint.
The rates, if you walk in, are cheaper than their Internet advertised rates and I saw people get given discounts purely for complaining about the first rate given.

Honestly they are convenient to CST and that is all.
The other plus to this hotel is the restaurant, it's delicious, cheap and the solo waiter is kind and helpful - he patiently explained many of the terms on the menu to me over the 3 days.

Having said all this; if I go back to Mumbai, I'll stay in Chowpatti next to the beach - I'll also be prepared to spend more money because Mumbai accommodation is disproportionately expensive.

Squeezy's Watched List 2008

It's that time again... time for a new watched list! So in order of watching:


Movies

• The Golden Compass (2007)
• National Treasure: Book of Secrets (2007)
  
• Waitress (2007)
• Rocky IV (1985)
  
• The Bourne Supremacy (2004)
• Stardust (2007)
  
• Crank (2006)
• Asterix and the Vikings (2006)
• Shoot 'em up (2007)
  

TV Series

• Doctor Who (2005) completed.
  
• Oz & James Big Wine Adventure (2007 ) started. Don't check imdb on this one as they don't have season 2 (which is the 07 vintage as opposed to the 06 vintage). BBC & Wikipedia have series 1 & 2 info.
• Torchwood (2007) started.
• Doctor Who (2006) obtaining.
• 5th Gear (2007) started.
• Top Gear... waiting for the new season.
• Brass Eye (1997) started.
  

Podcasts

• (Cool) Shite on the Tube this show is linked because I'm a huge fan, they watcheth the crapeth so that we don't haveth to and they bring more entertainment than all my other podcasts put together! I heart CSoT!
  
• Yogamazing - 20 to 30 mins of yoga
  
• SModcast - this show I've queued to watch
  
• Diggnation - watch it with Mike most mornings
  
• Wine Library TV - watch it with or without Mike
  
• The Totally Rad Show - I've only watched it once, not totally sold on it
• Gordon Ramsay's Fast Food - found it recently, as I like Gordon's cooking philosophy I like this show
  
• Ford Models How To - chucking on makeup & doing stuff with your hair - it's chick stuff :P
  

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year!

This year Mike & I shared Christmas with a Korean family, Lee's family. Here are a few photos as taken by Mike or Lee on Christmas Eve (that's the party) and Christmas Day.

I've been away

I've been away.. from my blog. There is so much that's happened since my last proper post that I'm not sure where to start. And not being sure where to start has given me the excuse to procrastinate. A lot.

So to bring you kind-of sort-of up to date; here goes.

I've been to Australia, caught up with some friends and family. Missed quite a few people and met other friends in person for the first time. I played the tourist in Tasmania and found it to be a beautiful place filled with absolute sweethearts. (Course can't tell the guys that they are the sweethearts probably ruining their macho rep.)

We went up to the blue mountains with family. Enjoyed the wood fires and the food, oh sigh the food!!! Finally got around to finishing the tennis grudge match against my brother, turns out he's quite good at sledging but not so good at finishing out a long game of tennis. I won by the way! Yeah me!!

We ate Galbi and Samgyeobsal with my Dad and brother. It wasn't all that bad for Korean food but the surprise on the waitress' face when Mike asked for Denjangjjigae was priceless!

I coloured my hair pink. It was going to be a hilarious surprise for Mike but he decided to visit me at the hairdressers - while I had black looking goo on my head. You win some, you lose some...

We got back to Taebaek, packed up our apartment and ran off to Orientation. We had a brilliant five days getting to know all the new people. Which concluded with our wedding anniversary. The ACs (Alex's Cronies) got together and organised a cake, a speech, some red wine. It was lovely. I almost cried but thankfully didn't! I made the video to show what Orientation was like. Everyone liked it. Or they told me they did...

We had major dramas with our new massage parlour apartment and ended up being moved into a second new apartment. Our new place has crappy water pressure and is an extra 10 minutes out of town and we can smell the pig farms when the wind blows the right way. However the new place is lovely, we have great big windows so we can see our view (across the valley and up the mountain), it's quiet in a way that is relaxing and I finally have my own desk!! Anyone who suggests that Mike & I could possibly share a desk doesn't know Mike very well!

Last month I had to teach a demo class, which means I get to be watched and scrutinized. However many of the teachers that should have been there didn't turn up so it was less of an event for me. The teachers that were there thought I did a wonderful job with my co-teacher and that we had actually demonstrated team teaching. Which was fantastic as I wasn't all that worried if we showed a good example, I was trying to show different activities that could be used successfully in the classroom.

Last weekend was the Kotesol conference, it was full of books, lectures, publishers, writers and English teachers. Mike & I ended up with some heavy bags and I'm hoping that we'll be able to put these new materials to good use. I can but hope.

Being in Seoul means there's always a party to go to and last Saturday night was no exception. Mike & I enjoyed a spot of decent thai food before joining up with everyone at Geckos in Itaewon, Seoul. While walking over, I slipped on my pink angel wings as I figured I may as well dress up for a Halloween party. I'd already applied the glitter so I was ready to go. We found the bar and just before we headed upstairs, we stopped to watch a sneaky spiderman scaring people with his web (a piece of netting). I was amazed that people kept walking past a tree where large group of people were standing around laughing. It was all in good fun and the scarees seemed to think it funny too. So we joined up with approximately 35 EPIKers from Gangwon-do and had a great time. I chatted with people, met some gorgeous Korean women, took a bunch of photos then surrendered my camera to Mike and myself to the dance floor. There are quite a few photos that I was surprised (to say the least) to see when I downloaded the contents of the memory card. I'm sure you can work out which is which!

That's as much as I'm willing to talk about now :)

Orientation 2007

Skype me!

The other weekend I bought a new USB memory key because my 1G was too small and it seems to be lost (not even buying a new one has made it turn up!). I got a nice little freebie in with the new USB memory key which was 1 months free voicemail on skype!

So if you have skype and you'd like to leave me a message then click away on the skype icon on my blog.

I really don't know how useful this will be but I'd like to give it a chance.

Well I'm off to see if my students like Happy Feet, I can but hope :)

sucky weekend

It's been a sucky weekend. It started badly with me developing rashes, blister & worse. It was depressing to be all patchy and red. And itchy!! Turns out most of it was "Sun rash" which I took to be heat rash. It only got up to the low thirties this week. It's an uncomfortable way to find out that I really have acclimatized to Taebaek.

Next there was a fight with Mike. All over a stupid email address.

Then we went to watch Spider-man 3 at our outdoor cinema festival. The festival was great, the chairs were comfy enough, I got to make sunscreen and we had some nice food. We'd been warned to arrive early and we managed to get a few seats together in the fourth row. The view was great! The weather was perfect, cool but not cold, for an outdoor movie. Sadly Spider-man 3 was a terrible movie... not worth the $2 festival entrance fee. Too many bad guys, awful dialogue and some super gross dancing (why oh why???). Why was MJ made to be whiny and needy? Her part made me wonder what happened to the girl in Spidey 2? The sandman could have had this movie to himself (as bad guy)! The cg work was gorgeous and that's the best praise I have for this movie. Thoroughly disappointing.

At least the remaining movies that will be shown can not be worse than Spidey 3 - they really can't!

6am is not a nice time to be woken by strange noises. Neither is before 6am. Tell that to my wardrobe! For some unknown reason, the main wardrobe hanging pole fell down this morning at ten to six. It's strange because that was where all our winter coats and dry cleaning was hanging and it hadn't been touched for four days (or so). So why did it fall down? Staples. Instead of using metal fittings for the hanging pole in the wardrobe plastic fittings had been stapled in. No surprise that it fell down. I just wonder why it had to be when I was trying to sleep??

So Sunday morning, later Sunday morning, - time to finish the worksheets that Mike & I agreed to do together. However, as usual, this means I'm doing all the work and he's ignoring it all until he says I'm snapping at him. I get it all done and sent in by 12. Mike did assist on the worksheets, it's just frustrating when he's playing xbox and I'm desperately trying to make a good worksheet for students that I haven't taught for a semester! ARG!!

We decide to get out of the house and head to Samcheok. At least we might be able to go swimming and buy a new fitting for the wardrobe. The skies are clear so off we drive and in less than 20 minutes it's pouring with rain! The rain is the heaving kind that has us watching the river level - trying to see if it will get higher, it doesn't that we can tell. But the beach is out. Oh so out. The rain does lighten up so that we are only mildly wet in our search for lunch. At least lunch was nice, omu rice (fried rice wrapped in an omelet) for me and kim chi jiggye (kim chi soup) for Mike. So we search through home plus and can't find anything that will help the wardrobe situation out - short of buying a new one. I do manage to find a super cute Barbie hot metallic pink & silver bag, Mike poo-hoos it and so I don't buy it. There's not much else to do so we head to Donghae and there in Emart we strike gold! New fittings for the wardrobe. At least that got sorted.

Right, well I think that's what you call a vent. I'm vented so I'm going to get this week over with (it doesn't help that I'm over it before it's even started). And continue the countdown until I get home and see everyone. It's strange that the closer I get to the trip home, the more homesick I am.

I'm going to be more positive tomorrow. As in Monday the 30th of July. I really truely am.

i heart icanhascheezburger

This is THE cutest photo from icanhascheezburger - if you don't believe me then click on the image and see for yourself! Be warned sometimes there are bunnies there too..

Vietnam Travel Tips

Here are a few of my tips on travel in Vietnam.

Hanoi

Need cash? Head to the ANZ bank & ATM on the edge of the lake in the centre of Hanoi.

For tours in and around Hanoi go to Handspan Travel. To find Handspan go to 80 Ma May Street or email them at info@handspan.com Why do I recommend them? Well, Mike and I bought 2 tours with Handspan, the first a sea kayaking trip to Halong Bay and the second an overnight trip to the mountain tribes in Sapa. The first trip was great! We swam in the buoyant waters, kayaked together and ate some great Vietnamese food (the variety was tastily impressive!). Unfortunately Mike developed a migraine on the way back to Hanoi and he was not in shape to go anywhere. So even though it was less than an hour until the tour left (by the time we made the decision), we were given a 75% refund and they assisted us with making our plans for the next day - by which time Mike managed to recover :) So we were thrilled that they helped us out when we would expect to receive no refund in Australia.
Also of note is the Handspan cafe - very tasty, if memory serves!
If I were to go back to Halong Bay, I'd recommend a 1 or 2 day trip because while it's lovely, you see all there is to see in 1 day. Though there is something to be said for knocking back a few beers on a junk at sunset.

Hanoi is a lovely city, the cafés are delicious and so cheap, you can't go wrong just walking around.

There are many interesting and worthwhile museums to visit but don't miss out on seeing Ho Chi Minh's preserved corpse in the Mausoleum. It's a strange experience - you have to surrender your camera seperately to your bag, then it's into the super cold air to gaze upon the old man himself. I really thought it looked like he was about to wake up and say "Chau!". I'm not sure how you can check ahead of time but I do know that Uncle Ho makes a regular trip to Russia for re-preserving.



Between Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City

There are many beautiful cities to explore and while the train is an option -it's very slow. The buses are very regular and cheap. If you've got less time than money then a couple of flights are a good way to cover a bit of ground.

Another option is hiring an Easy Rider - they are easiest to find in cool Dalat. They aren't the cheapest way to get around but these guys speak good english and will take you wherever you want to go for as long as you want to go. Mike and I did a 3 day easy rider trip and it was a real highlight of our trip to Vietnam. They took us to fantastic places for food and rarely did we pay anything over $US10 for the four of us - including the beers! These guys pack ponchos so no need to worry about the weather! Worried about the size of your backpack? Don't be - the normal thing is to strap in on the bike and make a back rest for you.

Ho Chi Minh City

Whereas Hanoi is beautiful, boulvardy, leafy and tranquil (so long as you foget the traffic), Ho Chi Minh City is not! This is the big city - here you get the polution, worse traffic than Hanoi, beggars and a faster pace of life. The markets in HCMC are impressive and well worth the wander and think twice about that "reproduction" watch!

Vietnam

Most importantly when catching a taxi in from the airport to anywhere centre always say that you have a reservation at a hotel (even if you don't) and have an address you want to be taken to. We have been caught out even though we know better and there are some strange parts of Hanoi, that are very inconvenient to be dumped in. Previously we'd stayed in the French quarter and it's a really good choice.

Don't forget your bug spray - the mozzies or sandflies are particularly nasty and hungry! Don't forget your sunscreen!! There is little choice in the supermarkets as to what you can buy if you forget it.

The chemist's are pretty helpful and will sell drugs to you over the counter - it's best if you know what you need.

Other than that relax and enjoy yourself - I promise it won't be hard to do!

Hello Kitty Air

It wouldn't be fair to say I'm anti Hello Kitty more that I'm amused by it. For instance if I had to choose between a black umbrella and a Hello Kitty umbrella well I'd choose Hello Kitty every time.

But would the same hold true for an airplane?

YES!!!

I've just read a post about the plane I saw when I spent far too much time at the Taipei airport. So now I'm decided, I have to fly on the EVA Hello Kitty plane to somewhere sometime soon, be served by Hello Kitty attired stewardesses, be entertained by the Hello Kitty show and eat Hello Kitty food too! Mike might hate it but that's too bad!!!

(Cool) Shite on the Tube makes TV!

www.coolshite.net

I've put this video here because I really like it and it's got Transformers - what's not to love?

Congratulations to the Shiters for a fine first episode!

Fun & Catastrophe

Last week was a terrible week. It was so bad that by Tuesday I was desperately wishing it over and done with! The only thing that kept me going was the eagerly anticipated Ladies Weekend.

So what happened on the Ladies Weekend? Girls stuff!! haha

As I'd decided to be a bit cheap, I had to get up at 5.30 to catch my train to Seoul. The trip went by sadly without my gameboy... *sob* but thankfully with both my ipods. (Ok, yes I'm a geek) Then I made my way to Noksapyeong, a subway station that was hiding very conveniently next to Itaewon (the haven in Seoul for foreigners), caught a taxi to the Hyatt Hotel and waited for my friends to meet me. It was really very hot and muggy in Seoul, so I was grateful that the Hyatt had some lovely shadey trees in their entrance.

Kat & Meaghan met me and we strolled back to Cris' palace. That's right palace, it was so big that her couch would not even fit in my apartment, it was so big her fridge had two doors!!, it was so big that she had a Jacuzzi in her ensuite!!! I was extremely jealous but I hate to think how much it cost. We kicked back and chatted for a while until I realised just how much quality shopping time we were wasting kicking back in the apartment. So Kat, Meaghan, Suzy & I made our way to Myeongdong shopping centre of Seoul, where we spent a few hours pushing through the crowds and buying silly and sensible things.

When we'd had enough shopping and realised that there was not enough time for the jimjilbang (hot spa), we headed back for a Kat nap (she did) and to prepare for the nights' entertainment. Suzy insisted on taking photos of all of us, so here is how we looked.

Kat, Meaghan, Squeezy & Suzy (left to right)

We had a fun night out. We ate at the Aussie Shop - which was delicious!! Meaghan took photos of the US soldiers, much to their amusement. Kat forgot about the "I can't believe it's not Coach" shop in Itaewon due to the rain, the time and the rum & cokes she'd been knocking back! We partied at the Wolfhound then changed to the cool Bungalow. Bungalow had an outdoor Jacuzzi (which Kat, Meags & Suzy still wanted to hop in despite the rain - but I wasn't prepared to strip to my knickers just to so I could drink cocktails in a jacuzzi in the rain!) and rooms with sand floors. I'm definitely going back to the Bungalow! Then it was time to shake our groove thang so we changed bars until we found a song we liked. We danced for a while, having lost our other/new friends but we still had Wade's Canuck hat!

That was pretty well it. The next day we put Suzy on the bus to Incheon Airport and it was a sad moment, particularly for Kat (as they are cousins).

So we split up and started heading home, each of us going in such different directions.

I neglected to mention that I had had a phone call from Mike during a waffle stop (you need serious sustenance for girls only shopping!). Sadly it was bad news. While I was shopping and indulging in some girls time, Mike was on Samcheok beach swimming and doing beachy things. Here comes the sad bit, Mike lost his wedding ring on that beach and even with a bunch of friends helping him to look for the ring it just wasn't to be found. Then the beach was bulldozed - sealing this rings fate. Mike called me to tell me about the loss and I felt my stomach drop to my knees. Then I thought it's just a piece of jewellery, it's not the basis of our relationship and it's completely replaceable. Mike sounded so distressed that I just wanted to comfort him, a bit tricky to do when we were so far apart.

So I hatched a cunning plan! After splitting up from the girls, I raced over to Nam San Tower, round and round, a 350m steep climb and up an elevator, down some stairs and I was at the gift shop. The very gift shop from which Mike had bought a couple ring for me. I picked out a ring for Mike - hoping that I was making a good guess at his finger size, and had it stamped with the very appropriate " Susie heart Mike". I had a nice chat to the lady at the gift shop, I think it helped that I was wearing my couple ring and had obviously been there before. She was a bit stunned that I'd come all the way to Nam San Tower just for the couple ring. But the thing was, I didn't know where else I could go and I couldn't afford to take much time on this because I had my train to catch. By noon on Sunday all I could think of was getting home to Mike.

Our couple rings

With my mission accomplished all that remained was to obtain some reading material (damn my forgetting my gameboy!!), some lunch for on the train and to get myself to Cheongyangni station. I picked up Matilda by Roald Dahl and a magazine at Bandi & Luni which had the benefit of being 1 minutes walk from the subway station that I needed. So with a super speedy subway ride to Cheongyangni subway station, I had some time to kill. I checked my ticket and I had the 2.25 to catch. This gave me about 45 minutes to while away, so I wandered around Lotte, testing lipglosses and buying some munchies, before walking up to the train station (above ground).

If only I hadn't missed my train!! Yep, that's not a typo. I had confused my seat number 2 25 with the departure time of 2pm!!! So instead of waiting 2 hours for the next train, I waited less than an hour for a train to get me 2 hours closer to Taebaek and then changed for a bus. This with no credit on my phone too :( The train man in the terminal helped me to change my ticket and I was given a refund of the difference in price! Seeing as it was my mistake I would normally expect to buy a new ticket at full price, so it was nice to have some help sorting it out. I needed to take a moment because I knew I was about to start crying, unfortunately I couldn't use the ladies toilets to have a private sob because they were packed with people and were squatties. So I grabbed a random chair and tried to compose myself. The curious looks from the Ajumas weren't helping. I had to let Mike know, so I emailed him and after a while I located the pay phones and told him what had happened. Yesterday I had wanted to comfort him and here the tables were turned and I needed a little comfort. So he told me not to stress out, my reply was to sob back at him, he said give me a call and I said I had no credit. Disaster!

I hate buses. And bus drivers!!!!

It was supposed to be an express bus but the driver kept detouring into these teeny tiny villages to drop people off. Then when I was finally in the town just before Taebaek - he changes buses and has a 10 minute break!!!! ARG!!!
So I got home at 9pm - 7 bloody hours of waiting and travelling and all my fault.

It all felt like such a catastrophe! Mike losing his wedding ring and me missing my train.
But I must've had some luck because when Mike tried on his new couple ring it fit even better than his wedding ring had! But it was a lot of fun, hanging out with the girls - I'm glad I went. Next time I'm not going to miss my stupid train!!