Thursday, March 29, 2012

2 Day Slow Boat to Luang Prabang: Day 2

The final day of our boat cruise down the Mekong. Our group was one of the last to arrive which sucked. The boat today was smaller than the previous. The only spots we found were in the back next to the engine, where it was incredibly loud and insanely hot. I was selfish and left the group and found an empty seat next to an older Australian man with shorts so short I could almost see his shlong.


This boat ride was not as fun as the previous one. I was separated from my new friends and it was a much smaller squeeze. Luckily, the beauty of the boat ride made me forget this quickly. If anyone is every travelling from Thailand to Lao or vice versa, I highly recommend taking the slow boat. Flying may be faster, but I heard that they may be building dams on the Mekong, so this option may not be available for much longer. There is also the option of a fast boat or the night boat. I would not recommend the fast boat because I've heard that it is incredibly uncomfortable and cold and not fun at all. And I would not recommend the night boat because then you couldn't see the beauty of the Mekong! Duh. I have also heard that doing the less popular direction (Luang Prabang to Thailand) is more comfortable with less passengers on board. Both boats I was on were always packed to the brim with backpackers, but I saw boats heading in the opposite direction that were almost empty.


Here are pictures of the scenery to make you jealous:







Anyways, I pretty much daydreamed or slept throughout the ride. We finally made it to Luang Prabang. The German, Brit, and new friends a Kiwi and a Korean found the cheapest guesthouse we could and settled in.

Goodbyes, Episode 2

I said it before, and I'm saying it again. I hate goodbyes.

Recently, we've had three fellow expats leave Inje in the past month due to finished contracts, and the very first Korean friend I made has left to go study in Hungary for five years. Depression slowly seeping in.

Hah, jokes. But seriously, it's the sad circle of life for teachers in a foreign country. On the bright side, at least you get to meet really cool new people who are the replacements! And, as you meet fellow teachers from all over the world, not only can you count them as friends, but also as couches to sleep on during future travels.

In a slightly related note, my 6 month mark is today...

Monday, March 26, 2012

Music Monday

K-Pop time. A Music Monday dedicated to K-pop has been unavoidable. You can run, but you cannot hide from K-pop.

This is BIGBANG. A boy band that belongs to the YG Entertainment label, one of the biggest K-pop labels in Korea. YG Entertainment is known for being liberal with their artists; the artists write most of their own music and their wardrobe and hair and appearance are decided by the artists. The other big labels are known for training their K-pop stars at a ripe age of around 12, and they are trained and controlled by what the label wants. At least this is what I've heard. Anyways, Big Bang is one of the two K-pop groups and I like, and they're pretty popular in Korea. I think I should note that Big Bang beat Britney Spears at the 2011 MTV Europe Music Awards in the "Best Worldwide Act" category. So yup, they're kind of a big deal.


This video makes absolutely no sense to me. I don't know what story they're trying to portray, I can't even detect any political message which is what I originally thought with rioters and the gas masks. Their hairstyles are all extreme and their clothes are ridiculous, and yes coming from America, it was weird to see Asian rappers, but man they own it.

My favorite parts are at 1:10 when T.O.P. starts his sexy rap montage, at 1:25 when Taeyang is looking all peaceful sitting cross-legged, and finally at 1:45 when T.O.P. comes in again with his frosty blue hair and mutters "Wow. Fantastic baby." Swoon. Following that is a nice medley of all band members lip-synching, with their heads cocked, eyeliner-lined eyes, looking all cute, and at this point I can't tell if I'm being sarcastic or completely serious.

Regardless, I have no idea what they're singing about, but this song is catchy, and there is no denying that Taeyang is one big cutie-pie with a hairstyle that looks like a radish, and T.O.P. has the sexiest voice in Korea. Also, this video makes me want to rave while wearing a gas mask.

P.S. I highly recommend watching this video in full screen mode. And probably in HD.

UPDATE (March, 28, 2012)
Here's an article I just found in my inbox! Inside Korea's Pop Factory

Wednesday, March 21, 2012

2 Day Slow Boat to Luang Prabang: Day 1

We finally took off! The boat was full, yet surprisingly comfortable. It was a long boat with four seats on either side of an aisle. The seats were basically taken from a bus or a van and placed on the boat. The only downside of the boat was that the sides were too high so we couldn't see out to the river from sitting. But that didn't matter,  for most of the trip we sat on the side of the boat, legs hanging off, socializing, drinking Chang and Beer Lao, playing games, and meeting people from all parts of the world.

Luang Prabang or bust!
Behind my seat
In front of my seat
The view was amazing. There was something to see in every area of the river. Water buffaloes, remote villages, green mountains, jagged rocks and cliffs. It was so tranquil. The majority of the passengers on the boat were fellow backpackers, and there were some native Lao people traveling to other parts of their country. My greatest form of entertainment on the boat was a chubby Lao boy who would squeeze his oranges at two guidos sitting behind him.
Cute chubby Lao boy with his orange
Every now and then we would stop at a small village on the riverside to drop people off or pick people up. At these stops, it seemed like the entire village was there to greet the boat, and sometimes young boys or girls would jump on the boat and sell us beer or other various things. The boat would also stop at obscure areas where you could see nothing but the jungle, but someone would always get off and walk straight into the jungle. I wonder how far some of these people had to walk into the forests to get to their homes. At one of these remote stops a family exited the boat and the father was carrying a huge sack, he dropped the sack, and out wiggled a full grown pig. It was super cool to see the the way that the people live and how they go about their lives.

Selling Beer Lao
From my temporary floor seat
One of our many stops
Where are you going?
We arrived in Pak Beng, the halfway point of the two day boat ride. After the commotion of finding our packs among hundreds of other packs that were thrown in the storage area, we exited the boat and were surrounded by different hostel and guesthouse workers insisting that their hostel is the best and we should stay there.
Yunsam's drawing of me sleeping (he had a collection of drawings of people sleeping)
Almost to Pak Beng
Pak Beng is small, basically a stopping point for travelers. It's full of hostels and guesthouses and restaurants. We didn't walk around much, only to find food and a pharmacy, but it the town was basically one main road. The electricity and water shuts off at night too. Which was very unfortunate for my German friend who had a case of the stomach flu that night.

Tuesday, March 20, 2012

Journey from Thailand to Laos

My journey to Laos was off to great start. I conked out in the back of the van for most of the ride, with the occasional backpack falling on me. We stopped at the Wat Rong Khun (also known as the White Temple) in Chiang Rai which was weird. I can only describe it as a modern, avant-garde wat. It was pure white, with a sea of hands, skulls hanging from trees and pictures of Micheal Jackson and Osama bin Laden. Unfortunately, due to my lack of sleep, my zombie-self didn't notice the murals of Micheal, Osama, and President Bush. It was a cool wat, but I was too pooped to care. "Wat-ever" is the perfect way to describe my mood at that point, a wonderful phrase coined by my new German friend, Tim.






We FINALLY made it to Chiang Khong, a sleepy town on the shores of the Mekong River. We spent the night at the Boom House which had a stunning view; you could see the river, people going along their daily lives, and across the river, was Laos! Tim and I sat on the patio, drank cold Chang beer, and drowned ourselves in the beautiful sunset that graced the two neighboring countries. I would also like to note, the room I slept in was bigger than my apartment in Korea, AND it had a full sized bed. I hadn't slept in a full sized bed since America. I rolled across the bed until I got dizzy.

My feet, Chiang Khong, Thailand, the Mekong River, and Huay Xai, Laos on the other side! 
We woke up the next morning and trucked it over to another area on the riverside, then walked over to the immigration office. I booked the entire package (ride from Chiang Mai to Chiang Khong, bed in Chiang Khong, 2 day boat to Luang Prabang, and a couple meals) from my hostel in Chiang Mai. It probably would have been cheaper if I booked everything separately on my own, but it was so much easier with the boat and visa situation to book it as a package, so I would recommend doing that. The process of exiting Thailand and entering Laos was simple and disorganized. The immigration offices in both countries were just little buildings with window booths. Here's how it went down: went to immigration office (window), got exit stamp from Thailand, took tiny boat across river to Huay Xai, got Lao Visa sorted (for this, you fill out a form, give the window money, leave your passport, wait around for them to holler your name), then we went to another area of Huay Xai along the river, purchased beer and food for the journey, and boarded our boat.

Informative signs for the Immigration 'office'
An attractive picture of me on the boat on the way to Huay Xai
Immigration 'office' in Huay Xai, Laos

The journey begins.

Tuesday, March 13, 2012

My 26 Hours in Chang Mai Part 2: Night Out on the Town

Chang Mai is sick. I will definitely be back. Delicious food, interesting scents, amazing sites, and suspicious lady boys. 26 hours was not enough time in Chang Mai.

At the Burmese Restaurant (sorry it's blurry)
Our group from the day trek met up again at a delicious Burmese restaurant (which was rightfully called 'Burmese Restaurant'). The food was tasty and spicy and I loved it. Afterwards we hit up the corner 7-Eleven to pick up some beer as we moseyed around Chiang Mai. We eventually stopped at a random bar in the corner. The random bar was literally an open space in the corner of a building. It had a pool table and a nice selection of cassette tapes where we can pick our own songs to play. We stayed there for a bit, hanging out and playing pool, and making our own soundtrack for the night with cassette tapes. If my memory serves me right, Elton John may or may not have been serenading us for some time.
Party at the 7-eleven
After the random corner bar we went to some club that a Thai man recommended to one of our friends, so we had our tuk tuk drivers race to the next place. My tuk tuk won. The club was weird. It was all foreign men and Thai women who approached them as they entered. It may or may not have been a club for Thai prostitutes to hang out, but regardless it was really weird and creepy. We stayed there for one beer then headed over to the reggae bar area. We stayed at these two bars/clubs that were right across the road from each other and they were much more fun. Great music and a good time dancing. Later in the night (about 1:00 am) I left my group and went to another bar with my new three friends from Holland. We went to a popular bar called Spice Club. It stays open really late and essentially it's a place for Thai women to go to meet foreign men and a place for foreign men to go to meet Thai women. It was incredibly creepy, yet I was incredibly entertained. Luckily, I had my nice Dutch escorts keeping me safe from creepy foreign men who thought I was a Thai woman.

Uh-oh. Tequila time.
I finally headed home at about 7:00 am. Walking through the streets of Chang Mai back to my hostel, watching monks walk through the streets, and the people of Chang Mai preparing for the day was a really cool thing to see. I finally found my hostel, and the guys from the day trek who I was with last night were still up drinking, and they just got home as well. We all hung out for a bit until it was time pack up and prepare for my 8 hour drive then 2 day boat ride to Laos that left at 10:00 am. This was the third night of 2012, and of those three nights, this was my second all nighter. I think that my trip was off to a memorable start, and 2012 was definitely starting off with bang.

Look out Laos...

Monday, March 5, 2012

Cheese.

I love cheese. Like a lot. Sometimes my love for cheese can be mistaken for an obsession. Unfortunately, real cheese is impossible to come by in Inje. It's a crime. You would have to go to one of the bigger cities an hour away to get anything close to real cheese. The only thing we have in Inje is something similar to Kraft Singles. Yuck. However, one of my coteachers, Aubyn has a membership to the Cosco in Seoul where they have real cheese, and she was kind enough to purchase extra blocks for me and some other teachers in Inje.

Thank you Aubyn!
This is heaven in a 2 pound block. I am so excited. Real cheese is one of those little things in life that you really forget to appreciate, until you have no access to it living out in the boonies. Nomnomnom.

Music Monday

The Black Keys newest album, El Camino was one of the many albums on repeat during my trip, and my gawd, it is quite good. I thought their Brothers album was good, and this is good another level. 'Lonely Boy' is one of my favorite songs off the album, and this video is simply fantastic. The man in the video obviously stole all my best dance moves.


I love bands with two people. I am always amazed with the amount of noise and sound that two people can make. I also love Dan Auerbach's voice, sexy and soulful. I've been lucky enough to see the Black Keys twice. However, I thought that they almost lost their appeal in large settings. The first time I saw them was at Bonnaroo Music Festival in 2010. They were at one of the smaller stages, and although the night wasn't very clear at this point, I do remember enjoying myself. I saw them again at Bonnaroo in 2011, this time they were one of the headliners on the main stage and I got bored. Don't get me wrong, the music was great and it was a solid show but I found myself waiting for their show to be over so that next performer could start. I think as performers, the Black Keys are much better in smaller scale shows. My favorite moments of the set were when the cameras zoomed in on Patrick Carney's facial expressions when he was drumming away, man he was really into it, and amazing of course. You could also see the pools of sweat forming on his shirt.

Look at all that sweat! Oh that Tennessee heat.

Anyways, I don't know why this turned into a review of the Black Keys performance. But everyone should watch the above video, shake your bonbon a little, and legally purchase El Camino.

My 26 Hours in Chang Mai Part 1: Day Trek

Let me start off my saying that my day/night in Chang Mai was probably one of my favorite days/nights from my trip. I will definitely be back to Chang Mai at some point in my life.

My first train ride was miserable. I felt like I was on a bus driving over a street with potholes, and I was freezing, and constantly felt like the train was going to derail, and I didn't sleep at all during the 13 hour train ride. Nonetheless, it was an experience.

I arrived in the train station. Lost and confused. "Lost girl" look didn't really help. A Thai man laughed at me when I asked for a map. Followed some other foreigners into a truck and ended up at the Little Bird Guesthouse. Met Yuto (from Japan, currently studying in Australia), who coincidentally was sitting next to me on the train, got a room together and met two Canadians who were on the same train as us. After getting our rooms, we all immediately booked a trek for the day which gave us about 45 minutes to get settled and get ready for the day.

The whole gang
The trek was AWESOME. Mainly we had such a great group so no matter what we did, the day would have been awesome regardless. I even met two guys who had just finished teaching in Korea! First we went to an elephant farm where we rode elephants, but apparently my elephant was taken out of retirement for the day so she was rather stubborn and we didn't really go anywhere. We tried singing songs for her to move, she seemed to really enjoy "Edelweiss".

In the jungle

Next we went on a bamboo rafting trip down the river, It was really interesting to see the Thai people living on the side of the river, and seeing how they go about their daily lives. To make this short, I'll summarize the rest: we went on an hour trek through the jungle which was beautiful! The drive up was an experience, there were many close encounters with our van going over huge bumps in the road right at the edge of the mountain. We hiked about an hour though the jungle and came across a waterfall that you could swim in and where the boys in our trek decided to jump off the waterfall.

Bridge over river
Girls of the Long Neck Tribe
Our trek ended at a long neck village. It was really interesting, but really weird. The lock neck village isn't a real village, it's basically a tourist trap set up by tour companies and not the people themselves. I've heard that at some villages the people are basically imprisoned, but the one we went to, it was a tourist trap but the people seemed to be very well off, we speculated that the people probably get some commission. The long neck village wasn't necessarily only people of the long neck tribe,  there were also people from other tribes, refugee tribes from what I understood.

Chaz, Honey our wonderful tour guide, and me
At the end of the trek, we all decided to meet up later for a night out on the town, which gave us about an hour to get ready...