Bangkok to Cambodia

Hi guys, looks like I might keep this blog up after tall. So, here is a little run down. We spent two nights in Bangkok, then overland to Cambodia, one night in Battambang, and 1 night (soon to be 2) in Seim Reip where Angkor Wat is located. We are having a fantastic time so far, it's really interesting so far. I'll let the videos I posted speak for themselves. Things I forgot to mention was that Cambodia is a really poor country but the people are pretty amazing and friendly. Although they do become bothersome when they keep trying to sell you stuff. The kids are the cutest. I wish I had more pics of them, but I feel wierd taking pictures of people like they are some sort of spectacle. I'll post these two videos and some pics. I haven't tested the videos, let me know if the audio isn't working. Any specific questions, just email me. Have seen some cool birds, but haven't identified that many. I need to find some time to go out on my own when I'm not on a long bus ride or in a dusty city. On to Phnom Phen tomorrow(capital city), stay for a day or two and check out the killing fields and museum, and then maybe some beach action on the south coast. I'll load some more stuff when enough time has passed.

Videos above, some pictures below. A few of hundreds.

Crazy Bangkok above, huge gold Buddha below.
Below is Poipet, bordertown in Cambodia.

Curt and I being dangerous on Tonle Sap, the huge lake in the middle of the country. The main river draining it reverses flow in the dry season so that it is filling the lake instead of draining it.
There were all kinds of communities that live in stilted houses on the lake.

Battambang. This picture makes it seem more clean and beautiful than it is.

Angkor Wat, followed by other temples (Wats) below.

This pick is for mother. Its me clearing landmines with a stick. Actually not that funny since we have seen a lot of people that have been hurt by landmines. Really sad. Many sell things or play music to try and make some money which is a lot better than begging.

Last Korea Post

This is my last Korea post as I need to pack all my stuff right now! I don't have time to write a proper message or post more pics. We are really excited, but I'm a bit nervous as I have so much to do right now! If I get any time while traveling I will post some more messages, hopefully I can. Thanks for following my blog. See you in December.

Cottage and Classes

We had a three day weekend last week, it was the holiday of Chuseok (Korean Thanksgiving). On Saturday we watched the Daegu FC (Football Club) at World Cup Stadium play a home game against a neighboring city. The team is not great, and that's evident in the final score of 4-1 in a losing effort. Nobody goes to watch the games, I would estimate there were only a couple hundred people there!! The stadium was deserted basically. I have seen more people at a Port Dover playoff hockey game. It was still fun though, Curt and I have seen all of Daegu's sports teams now. We wanted to catch a womens v-ball game, but Deagu doesn't have a team, and we could never find out where and when they played. Time seems to have run out for us. After the game we headed to a country area outside of Miryang, a small city about an hour away. We rented a cottage like place called a pension (I don't know why they are called that) with some friends. Our rental was super tiny, one bedroom that the 3 girls got, and one small living room/kitchen floor that Curt and I slept on. There wasn't really anything to do there except relax, frolick in the nearby stream, play some cards, and barbecue - which was perfectly fine with all of us. There was a reservoir nearby that we hoped to swim in, but it was all fenced off. Probably because most Koreans can't swim very well as I understand it. I think if you can't touch bottom, there is no way you can swim there. Overall it was enjoyable, but the girls got into a few fights with each other about the most rediculous things..don't even get me started. I'll just say that Curt and I tried to avoid it, but somehow got caught up in it a bit the final morning, and it made for a very quiet and awkward ride back to Daegu.

I have one more day of teaching (Monday), Curt finishes today. I decided to photograph all of my classes during my last days, or at least try to. I'll post some pictures below. There has been an influx of new teachers lately, some old, some young. One guy is really cool and we wish he had of been here the whole time we were. I don't think our replacements have arrived yet but who knows. One girl said she is from the town that invented raid, and we told her that's good because if she has one of our rooms she will be using a lot of the stuff to fight off cockroaches.

View of the valley we stayed in, our place is somewhere on the left side.

Our as advertised "waterfront property" - Can you see that sliver of blue to the left of the yellow building?

The reservoir..pretty uninteresting but I did watch a Hobby and a Kestral (two kinds of small falcons) hunting dragonflies and attacking each other.

This is the gang. The girl in the pink dress is wearing a tradional Korean dress called a Hambok.

Our barbecue that was cooked by the owners. We supplied all the food, but they cooked it for us.

Playing in the river / sleeping in the river.

Downstream view of the river.

Now for some of my classes.

So cute, my youngest class.

Guy in the yellow must be ADHD for real.

Great class

More young ones.

One of my favourite classes, really funny group.

September

I've been fairly busy since getting back from the Olympics. Slowly but surely some of my coworkers and friends have departed. We've been going to many going away parties, which are usually a happy event considering that we might not ever seen some of these people again. There is one or two new teachers at our company but I haven't met them yet since they don't work at my branch or live in the dorms - which is fine with me. We aren't exactly trying to make a bunch of new friends at this point, but it seems to be happening anyway. When we go out now, we reflect on how things have changed over the past year... from us being the excited newbies trying to make friends, to now seeing all the new faces that are arriving, or have arrived.

Shelly left last week, and Roy leaves tomorrow, and none of us had got around to trying Bo-Shin-Tong. That's Korean (or is it English?), for dog soup. We all wanted to try it, but for obvious reasons had put it off. It's supposed to have health benefits, (such as enhanced male stamina) just like everything else in this country. The type of dog they use is a big brown dog, not the white fluffy kind we have as pets. People say they aren't suitably as pets because they are not friendly to people, but I wonder if it isn't the metal cages they are raised in that gives them a bad temperament. The old nature vs. nurture debate in a way. Anyway, we tried two different kinds of dog soup, and one type of goat meat soup because we hadn't had that yet either. Anyways, it didn't taste all that bad actually. It had a distinct taste for sure, maybe a bit like roast beef, but different..I don't know. It was good, but not good enough that I'll have it again before I leave or if I come back.

Curtis and I have 12 days until our contract is finished, and we fly out on the 24th to Thailand for a vacation. Itinerary is : Bangkok on the 24th, traveling Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos, Thailand. Dec 1st fly to Hong Kong, Dec 3rd fly back to Korea, Dec 7th fly to Toronto. I can't wait. We are busy trying to make sure we say goodbye to everyone we need to say goodbye to. Friends seem to be coming out of the woodwork actually. One of Korean friends just happened to get a break from the army last weekend so it was nice to see him one more time. It hasn't really hit me that I'm leaving yet, I guess because its still about 2 weeks away, and I'm not headed straight home, but it will be sad to say goodbye. My kids never let me take their pictures but I'm going to try and bribe them when it comes to the last week. I would like to have some photos of all my classes. If I manage to get them, I'll be sure to post some on here. By the way, I'll probably only be making one more post from now until I leave Korea.

This weekend coming up is our last three day weekend. It is one of the biggest holidays in Korea, called Chuseok. It's basically Korean Thanksgiving. Usually its a 5 day holiday, but because the special day fell on the weekend, we only get 3 days. I got my gift set from work today, 3 cans of SPAM, and 8 cans of Tuna. SPAM and Tuna gift sets are actually quite popular here as strange as it might sound. We have plans to rent a cottage type thing somewhere with some friends out in the mountains somewhere, but no plans have been finalized. If it falls through we will probably end up watching Daegu's professional soccer team on Saturday..we shall see. Either way it will be a nice relaxing few days.

Last weekend we went to World Cup Stadium to check out the World Body Painting Festival. Usually its held in Austria, but this year they also came to Daegu for the first time I think... It's a week long event with different things going on but when we went there were models posing for professional photographers before going on stage for the competition. Some of the models went topless, and some didn't, but it didn't really matter to anyone at all. The artwork on the models was impressive and really interesting. For the competition, they basically did some sort of interpretive dance to show off the artwork, and then winners were announced at the end of the night. A Canadian artist came first in one of the divisions which was nice to see. As impressive as the art was, we thought the fireworks at the end might have been the biggest highlight.

Shelly and Curtis chowing down, or at least preparing to.

Nice hunk of dog meat in my bowl (above) . Main bowl of dog soup (below).

World Cup Stadium.

Shelly and our friend Vicky. Vicky works for Colorful Daegu, a tourism agency in Daegu. She has been great to us, always helping us arrange things and answering any questions we have. She is been an awesome friend and got us tickets to this show for half price. She is wearing traditional clothing called a Han-bok (sp?).

Pictures of models below.

This makes it look more like a rock concert, but it was rather tame.