Phuket, Thailand

Phuket! We had heard that it was paradise and we simply had to go! We spent the first afternoon going on a long run, relaxing by the pool, and then enjoying a nice dinner. The next day, we got up and spent the day at Kata Beach which is simply gorgeous. We took some fun pictures at night when the long boats came in to dock. :)

By the end of our beach day, we decided we wanted to try something exciting, so we booked ourselves a discovery scuba dive for the next day. This was going to be Ryan's first time diving and my second and we wanted to test it out to see if we wanted to get certified sometime in the future. So...we headed out to sea and stopped at a smaller island called, Rachai Yai which was stunningly beautiful. The water was emerald and there were great sea creatures all around!

We did our first dive and then went around to another side of the island for our second dive. I have to admit I was a little nervous but I was feeling pretty good towards the end of our first dive and our second dive was great! Ryan was a pro and did awesome!!

When we got back on the boat, they served pancakes which were amazing and it was a great end to a wonderful day! Our dive instructor was awesome and even took a picture with us at the end of the day! She told us to act like we were under water...I don't think she expected me to be such a goof ball because she couldn't stop laughing, haha.

The next day we went on a speed boat tour to Ko Phi Phi. This tour was awesome - there were only 7 of us on the tour so it was really nice to have such a small group. The captain of the boat was really funny, too, because he told us his name was "Porn" but told us if we were uncomfortable calling him that, we could call him "Captain."

We got to explore the beautiful islands of Ko Phi Phi and do a lot of snorkeling! It really was incredibly beautiful! There were lots of islands with big limestone cliffs and coves with crystal water...it was just awesome! They filmed the movie The Beach at Maya Bay which we had a chance to check out (unfortunately I don't have any pictures because it's super crowded so our boat dropped us off on the other side of the island so we could walk through and stand on the beach which was really fun - it required us swimming to the island, too which was pretty cool but took away any potential for us bringing our camera) but trust me, it's gorgeous!! Google it if you don't believe me. They also took us to a small cove to have lunch and we were the only people on the beach for a bit which was incredible! It truly felt like paradise! We did a bunch more snorkeling and then we headed back to Phuket.

In the evening, we decided to be brave and try the fish spa that we had passed in town a few times. These fish naturally eat dead skin so as soon as you put your feet in, they swarm to your legs and start nipping at your legs and feet - it tickled SO much!! I could barely stand it but we kept our feet in and our skin was so clean afterwards!! It was funny!

The next day, we headed to Cambodia...

Northern Thailand - Chiang Mai

I had always heard great things about Chiang Mai and so I definitely wanted to make it a stop on our trip. The first day, we went ziplining up in the jungle. It was awesome!

The next day, we decided to explore the city so we had the concierge draw us a good map of the best temples (there are over 300 in Chiang Mai) and then we walked that route. We also did a little shopping and of course grabbed some great food. To top it all off, we got a hour long Thai massage for $7 - can you believe it?!

We also rode in our first Tuk-Tuk which was really fun! 

That evening, we decided to sneak into one of the custom tailors that we were seeing everywhere and see if it was worth a try. They said they could do 4 custom button-up shirts for us in 24 hours for a really good price so we got measured and picked out the fabrics.

Afterwards, we had a great dinner on the river and then bought a lantern and released it on the way home. I had always wanted to do this in Thailand so it was just awesome! 

The next day, we went to the Baanchang Elephant Park and spent the day with the elephants. It was such an incredible day! One of the interesting things about this park is that all of the elephants are rescued (from tourist companies that don't take good care of them, the logging industry, etc.) and each elephant has a Mahout that takes care of them. You can tell that they have quite a bond with each other. 

First, they had you change into some Mahout clothes (which turned out to be a good idea because we definitely got messy) and then we got to feed all the elephants bunches and bunches of bananas. 

After that, they taught us a few basic commands which we practiced - up, forward, right, left, and down. It was SOOOO cool! 

Then we went on an hour long ride through the jungle - we were riding bareback on these elephants which was quite an experience! They had given us the largest elephant, too, so he constantly tried to eat during our ride. :) 

Finally, we walked them over to the pond and got to give them a bath which was really great and super fun, especially because he kept spraying us. :) 

That night, we went out for dinner and also checked out the Night Bazaar. We picked up our custom shirts - which turned out really nice and got some mango and sticky rice (we were seriously addicted!). Then we headed back to the hotel to rest up because we were heading to Phuket the next morning. 

Chiang Mai was one of those places that we realized very quickly that we did not want this to be the last time that we visited - it's such a great city with beautiful scenery, extremely nice people, and a very relaxed vibe. We just loved it! I hope we head there again sometime soon! If you're thinking of going to Thailand, make sure to include a stop in Chiang Mai!

Bangkok - Sight Seeing!

The next day, we went down to the water ferry to go to see a few of the famous Bangkok sights! The ferry is funny because you are crammed on there with lots of other people and then you travel down the river to various stops in the city. Traveling alongside you in the river are these river taxis that are long, slender boats that have a giant engine in them - very iconic Thailand.

We went out onto the front of the boat to take pictures and saw the Temple of Dawn which was really cool!

As we got off the boat on our way to Wat Pho (the Reclining Buddha), we passed several street vendors selling freshly squeezed juices and fruits. We got some fresh pomegranate juice and some fresh pineapple which were both delicious! We walked to Wat Pho, got our tickets and went to see the world famous Reclining Buddha. I don't even know how to describe what I thought when I was there but something about it felt magical. It was so impressive - the big, gold statue was just so cool.

The feet were engraved with mother of pearl, too which was beautiful.

Afterwards, we walked over to The Grand Palace and the Emerald Buddha. As we were walking in, they told us that we would not be able to go in if we were showing our knees. They had sarongs and pants for rent so Ryan and I rented a pair so we could go into the temples. These snazzy additions to our outfits certainly added to our pictures (see what I mean in the pic below?).

On our way back to the ferry, we passed some stalls selling food. I passed an older woman selling mango and sticky rice which is my absolute favorite! It was 50 Baht (about $1.60) and it was as fresh as it gets. She peeled the mango in front of me, pulled out some sticky rice, covered it coconut sauce and nuts and put it in a to go container. It was hands down the BEST mango and sticky rice I had ever had!

In the afternoon, we headed to the Chatauchack Weekend Market; it was about an hour away on the Sky Train which was a pretty awesome public transport system - complete with air conditioning which was very refreshing as Thailand is super hot and humid! The market is absolutely gigantic - it's over 35 acres and it has anything you could possibly want. We spent quite a bit of time wandering around and found a few souvenirs that we liked. The best part of our afternoon was meeting up with Ryan's friend, May. She is from Thailand and had worked with Ryan in Houston. We had the best luck because she was going home to see her family during the same time that we were there, so she met us at the market and then took us to her favorite restaurant. It was great to see her and to eat such delicious, authentic Thai food!! :)

The next day, we took it easy and walked around the city a bit and went to a great restaurant for dinner. It was called the Blue Elephant and the food was delicious!

Early the next morning, we headed up to Chiang Mai in Northern Thailand...

Bangkok Muay Thai Boxing

I have spent quite some time dreaming of going to Thailand one day and here we were getting on a plane to head to Thailand and spend 10 glorious days there! Afterwards, we were going to spend 4 days in Cambodia which I was also super excited about - I had seen pictures of Angkor Wat and had always wanted to check it out! I was so incredibly excited and couldn't wait to get there!! Our first stop on our trip was Bangkok, Thailand; we had 2 days there and a lot to see. Our flight ended up being delayed so we got there at dinner time, but that was totally fine.

View from the plane on our way there! 

We got to our hotel and immediately headed out for our first Thai food adventure. We already knew that we loved Thai food so we were especially excited to try it in Thailand! We went to this cute little place near our hotel and Ryan ordered Pad Thai and I ordered Red Curry (these are our all time favorite dishes!) and they were delicious! I do have to admit that the Red Curry was a little spicy for me - I forgot that "Thai" hot is above my threshold and so Ryan graciously offered me his Pad Thai - I am blessed with such an awesome husband!!

Afterwards, we went to Muay Thai Boxing and that was quite an experience - we had ring side seats to the evenings' fights. It was particularly crazy because the fighters were all around 100 pounds. The main event were two fighters who were 138 pounds and those were the heaviest guys of the night -  very different from any boxing events in the US! What made it so interesting was the ritual involved in it. First of all, there were signs around saying that the boxing ring was considered a sacred place and women could not touch it.

Also, each boxer would kneel before they entered the ring and then walk around the ring and perform their own ritual. It entailed punching each corner, and then performing a dance-like walk in the middle of the ring.

During the entire event, this band was playing non-stop - it was exactly the type of music you would expect at an event like this. This guy was rocking out on the oboe for every fight!

Every boxer had a group of his friends/family cheering him on standing behind his corner of the ring...it really made it feel like a local event (despite all of the foreigners sitting around the ring. :) ).

There were about 10 fights during the night and most of them were about 100 - 115 pounds (smaller than me!!). These guys really had no mercy with each other...it was crazy to watch! It was certainly a fun first night in such an awesome country! 

Samsung 5K

Since coming here to Korea, Ryan and I have started running more and we've been really enjoying it! Our friend told us that there was a 5K sponsored by the other shipyard on Geoje island (about 20 minutes away) and so we signed up. I originally signed up for the 10K and so did Ryan, but my calf had been bugging me so I changed it to the 5K the day before the race. Since I had changed the distance, I had to run with someone elses' bib (Rachel). We got to the race to check in and missed the memo that we were supposed to wear white long sleeve Samsung polos that had been provided (this is primarily because we don't work in their yard).

After a little while, there was a dance performance - it was literally a dance team that was performing on the track. There was also a guy yelling out a lot of things in Korean who looked almost identical to the newly internationally famous PSY. Finally, they signalled for all of us to spread out and do some stretches before the race. Once we had all spread out, they started blaring Gangnam Style and had a choreographed routine of stretches led by a woman on stage to the song and of course it involved the horse dance...it was hilarious!

Everyone all lining up for stretches on the field

They had everyone line up for the race on the track behind the starting line and then they started giving us directions in Korean...of which we didn't understand but we figured it out watching all the Koreans start to follow his instructions. They all lined up in single file lines and starting massaging each others' shoulders and then he yelled and everyone turned around and started massaging that persons shoulders...totally goofy. Then they started playing some music and everyone started jumping and clapping and then they started yelling for the 10 seconds before they fired the gun for us to go.

Ryan and I with our friend Kristie - all geared up and ready to run! 

The race was a neat course because it went through Samsung's shipyard which we hadn't seen before. I was feeling pretty good during the race (very surprising because my calf was killing me the weekend before) but I decided to sprint the last 300m to the finish line. It was funny because a few of the Korean men that were running next to me tried to keep up yelling, "Ohhhh, you so fast!" As I hit the finish line, a group of Koreans came up to me and put something around my neck...finally someone came over to explain to me that I had gotten second place for women. I couldn't believe it and I was pretty excited!

Ryan finished his 10K like a champ and they offered us some celebratory kimchi and tofu which I declined politely. Luckily, we found a tent that had some fruit and juice instead so we munched on that.

A bunch of the Samsung employees got together and performed a dance song to...I bet you can guess which song! Check out the video...it was pretty good (the little kid in the green trying to dance like them makes the video even more fun)!

We thought that we had some time before the award ceremony, so we went for a walk. As we were walking back to the track, we heard some award sounding music but I thought the 5K would be the last award because it was the last to start. As we rounded the corner, I heard "Rachel" and I realized that I was supposed to be on stage because I had run under that name in the race. I ran up there and joined the other 7 ladies that were standing there already and they gave me an award (certificate and trophy are both in Korean) and made us turn around and wave to the "crowd."Ryan took a picture of me at the finish line with my trophy - all in Korean - certainly an interesting souvenir for us!

Jingu Lantern Festival 2012

I'm a little behind on the blog and I need to catch up so I'm going to post about a few things that happened a few weeks ago...apologies about the late update, but I'm sure you'll enjoy reading about it a little bit just the same. :) 

We heard about a Lantern Festival from some people at work and decided to check it out. Our friend, Laura, was here on a business trip from Houston so we brought her with us so we could all have a Korean cultural experience together. The festival was in Jingu which is about an hour and a half away from our apartment in Geoje so we drove there in our little red car. We found a parking spot and followed the crowd to the festival. When we got there, we didn't see any lanterns and saw signs for the "Drama Festival" - we thought we must have followed the wrong Korean signs to the wrong Korean festival. Regardless, we kept walking and hoped that we would find the right place. Luckily for us, we found some other expats who clearly knew their way and they told us to keep walking and we would knew when we had hit the lantern festival. And just as they predicted...we knew exactly when we got to the festival...

Start of the Jingu Lantern Festival - notice the floating lanterns in the background

There was a place where you could make your own lanterns with wishes and put them out in the water. Laura and I made some and set them out into the water - let's hope they come true! :) 

There were tons of lanterns floating in the water - it appeared to have several different themes...one of them was countries - there was a lantern for each country (George Washington was representing the US  -good choice, Korea!) and then there were lanterns of characters on the other side of the water. 

The Korean one at the top left was really funny - the 1 flashed on and off; we thought it was a good use of a current event with the Korean Olympic fencer...can you guess the other 3 countries?? :)

These lanterns were such a flashback...I used to LOVE this show! :)

Afterwards, we walked up to the Jingu fortress and it was filled with lanterns depicting entire villages. It was really a site to be seen! 

Lanterns in the fortress depicting a typical Korean fortress - pretty crazy how many there were!

We weren't quite sure what to expect at the Korean lantern festival but it turned out to be a great evening and a good dose of Korean culture! :) 

Last look at all of the floating lanterns on the water before we headed home

Japan: Tokyo & Day Trips from Tokyo

The train ride was really nice because we were able to pass Mt. Fuji - it's an elusive mountain because it is very easily covered in clouds and you can't really see it. We were lucky enough to see the top of it while our train sped by.

View of Mt. Fuji from the train

When our train pulled into the Tokyo station, we made our way via the subway to our hotel. As usual, it was a very small hotel with a hard bed and a small bathroom, haha. I haven't spoken too much about the hotels but they are very minimalist in Japan - at one of them, Ryan could touch both walls of the room if he stood in the middle and stretched out his arms. They also didn't have wifi which surprised both of us - we always thought Japan was super wired, but we learned that Korea is actually much more connected than Japan.

Tokyo Train Station

Anyway...on with our fun adventures - it was really rainy that day, but we decided to go check out the local area to get a feel for the city and then head to Shibuya because we always seem to see that part of Tokyo in movies. We crossed the street and went up to the Starbucks to see the crossing full of people at rush hour. We grabbed a coffee and staked out a spot near the window (this was tough because all tourists head here during rush hour so it was a busy, busy Starbucks - luckily, Ryan and I are good at dividing and conquering...he went to get coffee and I pounced at the first vacant seats. It worked out well).

Shibuya Crossing - lots of umbrellas because it was a rainy day

After that, it was time to head back and then grab dinner. I know that many of you will be disappointed that our first meal in Japan's capital was not Japanese food...nope, it was the classy establishment: Hooters. If you've ever been an expat, you'll understand that simple reminders of home are incredibly exciting, so we stood in line for 35 minutes waiting for a table. We were not disappointed - the wings tasted just like they did in the US!

To make sure that we made the most of our Japan Rail Pass (and we because we loved train rides), one of Ryan's friends who lives in Tokyo gave us some recommendations on day trips that we could do. We hopped on the train and got off at the Shin Yokohama station to visit the Ramen Museum. We had the same reaction - there is a ramen museum?! Yes and it's the most bizarre museum I have ever visited because it has a small exhibit talking about ramen (all in Japanese so I can't tell you what it was about) and then you go into the basement and it is set up as if it is late 1950's gangster style Japan. There are several different mini-restaurants where you can get a bowl of their ramen. They were picked as being the best ramen restaurants all over Japan. We tried a couple different dishes and our favorite was one that was miso based with lots of garlic and ginger - simply to die for!

1958 Style Japan - Ramen Style

Ramen with a Miso Base and plenty of ginger - SO good! 

Round 2 of our ramen tasting - this was really good as well! 

Then, we got back on the train to go to a zen temple where it was said that one of Buddha's teeth is stored. As we have told you before, the train is incredibly relaxing - unfortunately this meant that both Ryan and I fell asleep and completely missed our train stop. No worries, though - we got off and then quickly back on the train very well rested and headed back in the right direction. :) We got there and walked around the temple grounds which was an incredibly peaceful place. We saw the building where the tooth was stored, but of course, you're not able to go in that building. Then we hiked up to the big bell and that wrapped up our visit to the temple.

Temple Grounds

Temple Cat

Monk walking around the Temple

Posing with the bell

Ryan killed this Asian wasp with his bare hands! 

We headed right back on the train and went to see the Great Buddha in Kamakura. It's about a 20 minute walk from the train station and you walk through the cutest neighborhood of Japanese houses. Finally, we got there and we walked up and we couldn't believe how big it was! We had definitely seen this in our history books growing up and it was unbelievable to see it in person! It is a giant, broze, sitting Buddha statue that is over 13 meters high! It used to be inside a temple but a big tsunami washed away the building and so it's been outside ever since. After taking enough pictures, we headed back on the train to Tokyo to get a good night sleep before our next day trip.

In the morning, we woke up early and got on the train to Matsumoto to visit the famous castle there. It was a longer train ride and it went through some beautiful mountainous areas - it was a really beautiful train ride. We got to Matsumotto and walked directly to the castle - it was gorgeous! We walked in and around the castle and really enjoyed it. We were blessed with an extremely beautiful day, too, so we were very lucky! We stopped and tried one of the speciality foods there - oyaki. It was essentially a roll filled with yummy ingredients - Ryan had red beans in his and I had pumpkin in mine...very tasty.

Samurai Suit 

 Then, we got back on the train again and headed to Nagano. You will recognize this name because the winter olympics were here in 1998...we only walked around the city but there are a lot of ski mountains a little ways out from the city - hopefully we will be able to visit these sometime in the future to go skiing. Beyond winter sports, the primary tourist attraction in Nagano is the Zenko-ji Temple. It was built in the 7th century and then Nagano City was built around it. It is also one of the last pilgrimage sites in Japan so there were many people around the temple.

                                                     

They put the hats and caps on because it was starting to get cold... 

Fire breathing statue - smoke came out of his mouth - pretty cool! 

Something about this scene just made me think of Japan...

Lanterns out around the temple area

After a nice exploration of the temple, we grabbed some soba noodles (Nagano is said to have some of the best soba noodles in Japan) which were very tasty and then headed back on the train to Tokyo. It was our last night in the city and our friend had graciously promised to take us to the top of one of the buildings (Mori Tower at Roppongi Hills) to see the city view at night. Before we embarked on that journey, he took us to an unbelievable burger restaurant - it was small but it was easily one of the best hamburgers I have ever had...he said that they use some kobe beef in there which makes it extra delicious.

Soba Noodles, Tempura, and Rice - so Japan! 

At the top of Mori Tower, there is a special exhibit going on for Disney's 110th Anniversary. Basically, they turned their helicopter pad on top of the roof into a crazy Disney tribute - there are mirror covered Disney characters that spin around while bright colored lights shine on them and music plays - the first song is always "It's a Small World" - it was an interesting scene up at the top dedicated to Disney, but the cooler part is that you get to be up on the roof, looking at the panoramic view outside without any windows in your way (the usual look out point is in the building and is indoors). The views were awesome!!

Tokyo Tower 

Tokyo City View - we're purple because of the Disney Lights

It's hard to make out but these are the spinning mirror Disney characters with colorful lights flashing on them...one of the funniest things I've ever experienced...

 Afterwards, we met up with one of our friends who has recently moved to Tokyo. He took us to show us the "real" Japan which consisted of walking through a lot of alleyways looking for small restaurants/bars where businessmen come at all hours to have some yakitori and some beer/saki after work. We found quite a few and had a lot of fun! It was a great night!

The menu was up on the wall in one of the spots we stopped at (those wood panels are all menu items)

On our last day, we headed to the airport on the Sky Train which was a very fitting last activity (seeing as we loved the Japanese train rides so much). A great end to a wonderful week in Japan! :)

Last picture of us in Japan while on the Sky Train :)