December 2009
95 posts
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Camera Obscura — “Happy New...
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hostels/guesthouses: southeast asia
I had a request to list the places I stayed while on my trip. I know that hearing about places from other people is way more helpful than trying to find one on your own, so I thought it was a good idea. Keep in mind I was looking for places that were easy to meet other people in, so they weren’t necessarily the cheapest. I always tried to stay in dorm rooms when possible, and I know this...
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america
Now that my pictures are all done being posted, I can go back to my normal blogging!
I’ve been thinking a lot about my temporary reintegration into American society, and how it is just as weird as everyone said it would be.
First, there are all the little things that seem so strange. Four-way stops (and any sort of traffic law enforcement), thinking in Fahrenheit (It’s 30?!...
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Fellow blogging teachers
jessicainkorea:
Well, well, well! Looks like other fellow ESL teachers in Korea are already coming out of the woodwork.
Lauraallover blogs about teaching in Seoul.
JimmyDenfield blogs about teaching in… my new city, Gwangju! Sweet! We’ll have to go out for some soju together.
The lovely Hurricanek and thinnerthoughts plan to teach in the ROK early next year.
It’s a Korea ESL epidemic! Do I...
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phi phi
The last part! Here are my pics from beautiful Koh Phi Phi, and here is what I wrote.
Lots of boats.
Since there were so many beaches, none were really that crowded.
I climbed up to the viewpoint, a hellish trek that caused me to pour sweat like I never have before. But it was pretty beautiful.
Monkey Beach
I went on a boat ride, and the water was so pretty.
Maya Beach,...
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railay/tonsai
An amazing, relaxing two days. Read more here!
On the first boat.
To the left is Tonsai, to the right is Railay West.
Where I stayed.
Tonsai was just the beach in the front, then this road that went around in a loop and was lined with bungalows, bars, and restaurants.
Hehe
More fireshows at the jungle party.
Dressed up for the contest.
My 19 year old Thai friend....
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bangkok, part 2
Sawadee-ka, Ronald!
Sky Train
The night market. So nice!
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bangkok, part 1
More of my Bangkok pictures. I love this city!
So much street food. Heaven.
Khao San Road, the place for all the foreigners.
Ellen and Marlene. Marlene’s got a banana and chocolate pancake, one of my favorite foods, mmm!
Try to find all the white cats. There were about five at my guesthouse, maybe more.
The night before the king’s birthday.
Muesli and yogurt...
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ayutthaya
I only spent about half a day here, and the only thing to see is temples. By then, I was just ready to never see another old building again and lay on the beach, so I only visited on. Read about it here!
I love the intercity buses in Thailand, haha.
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lopburi
My dad used to live in Lopburi during the Vietnam War, so it was really cool to visit. Here is what I wrote about it.
The train from Ayutthaya to Lopburi.
So many nasty monkeys!
At a palace there.
This is me in Thailand.
Four on a motorbike!
Yum.
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grand palace, bangkok
The palace was awesome, and I took a lot of pictures. All of my Bangkok posts are here.
So many Koreans in straw hats.
I was wondering what they were all taking a picture of…
Oh, it’s that little Buddha, which turned out to be the Emerald Buddha. I was expecting it to be way bigger. You can’t take pictures inside, which is why everyone crowded around outside.
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yangon, part 2
Housing
This was the worst smelling street I’ve ever been on. The food that people sold in Myanmar was always covered in flies and not very well taken care of.
You can’t really see it, but the old granny on the left was smoking a big cigar.
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mandalay, day 2
Burmese advertising is terrible/hilarious.
Just another street in Myanmar…
Doing laundry in the moat around the palace.
Playing a huge game of chess.
Mandalay Palace. Not worth all the effort I put into getting in!
Mandalay Hill
Hmm…
See that big stone thing on the corner? There is a guy bathing there. People take baths on the streets in Myanmar.
I...
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mandalay, day 1
Mandalay was an alright city, and while I complained about a lot of it in my posts here, Mandalay Hill was actually pretty cool in retrospect.
View from my room.
Around the massive palace.
Kuthodaw Pagoda (from Wikipedia): The world’s largest book stands upright, set in stone, in the grounds of the Kuthodaw (literally - royal merit) pagoda at the foot of Mandalay...
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bagan, day 3
My last day in Bagan was great. I met Kaka’s family and his mom put danaka on me. The last sunset was also incredible, and Kaka and I drank my favorite beer on the trip (Mandalay beer) while hanging out at a temple. I was a little sad to leave.
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This 'gon be my blog about kicking it in Gwangju,...
jessicainkorea:
I’m moving to teach English in the ROK on January 7, 2010. I’ll be in Gwangju, a moderately-sized city near South Korea’s southern border.
Hey! (It seems to only way to get a hold of you is via reblogs.) I’m an avid follower of JGH and have been teaching in Seoul for a year now. I’m home for a little bit in between contracts, but when I’m back and...
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bagan, day 2
Sunrise
Traffic jam
Textile-making village
Lacquerware workshop
We went and sat at a temple, and a ton of little girls came and were crawling all over me. I saw one had an Lee Minho bag, so we talked about our favorite Korean actors. So cute.
Massive spider webs
Sunset number two.
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bagan, day 1
I have so many pictures from my three days in Bagan because it was so incredible. My first day, I walked around for a bit then rented a bike and saw some temples. That was when I met Kaka, my guide/friend for the rest of my time there. Read all about it here.
The market where I was assaulted by a ton of women trying to get my to buy stuff, putting the danaka makeup on me, grabbing me, etc.
...
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yangon, part 1
Since I spent three days in Yangon, two at the beginning and one at the end of my time in Myanmar, I’ve divided them up into those two segments.
If you’ve been reading my blog, you know that Myanmar was a pretty crazy place, and despite it being a bit overwhelming, I loved it. Read all about Yangon here.
I wanted to get a pic of the adorable baby, which you can barely see. It...
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flight of the gibbon
In Chiang Mai, I went zip-lining through the rainforest one morning. It was a lot of fun and the people I was with were awesome. It is a bit expensive for Thailand, though, so if you ever go, trekking may be a better option. I’m just not very into walking around and sweating.
A bit scary.
We also saw a waterfall.
And a group shot, taken from David’s (on the...
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chiang mai
Here are the rest of my pics from my first stop in Thailand. I had a lot of fun, which had a lot to do with running into Dave from LP as well as Marlene.
Being my first time in Thailand, I was surprised by their king worship. There are huge pictures of him everywhere. I found out that there are all kinds of laws that pretty much force people to love him, otherwise they face jailtime....
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chiang mai, sunday market
The Sunday market in Chiang Mai deserves its own post because it was that good. I went with a girl, Emma, that I had met in Luang Prabang. It just went on and on and on forever. If you ever go to Chiang Mai, it is worth it to plan your trip around being there on a Sunday. Here are my posts about Chiang Mai.
Massages
Yum
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luang prabang
LP was so nice. It’s too bad that the weather sucked, though, because there are apparently some nice waterfalls to see outside of the city. It was too cold to go, so I just stayed in town and had a blast. What I wrote.
More yucky liquors.
I loooved the night market.
Lots of crazy kids running around the hostel.
Morning market
Precious
Frogs for breakfast
The most...
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minibus ride from vang vieng to luang prabang
I wrote about this ride here. It would have been completely horrendous if it weren’t for the amazing scenery.
We made a stop. So cute!
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vang vieng, day 2
This was the day that four of us rented motorbikes and went riding around outside of town. It was so beautiful.
Brendon and I on our little bike.
Dan crashed his bike into a fence and the mirror fell off. Oops.
The Blue Lagoon
We went into a cave. It was huuuge.
From the back of the motorbike.
This was hilarious, but also really terrible. We stopped here,...
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vang vieng, day 1
A little town made of five or so streets, filled with restaurants selling the same food and showing the same TV shows, that exists only for backpackers to get drunk and go tubing. Such a weird place, but I had a great time there. Read about it here.
I stayed for three days, but didn’t take any while tubing on the third, so I will divide the photos up into the first two. I didn’t...
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vientiane
Vientiane kind of sucked. I could have seen everything in less than one day, but was there for two. It’s not really the best place to go as your first Lao destination because the rest of the country is amazing. My two short posts from Vientiane are here.
View from the plane. Most of Laos is green, hilly, and unpopulated.
After being in Vietnam and Cambodia, I was amazed at how...
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