I hope everyone is having wonderful holidays!!! We deceided to treat ourselves and spend Christmas at a nicer place than normal in Phan Thiet, Vietnam (its a resort and we are each paying about $30 a night, yikes). It is a welcomed break from the 10 bed mixed dorm hostels we have been staying in. Today is Christmas day and we spent it on the beach - rough life I know. No, actually it is really sad not being home with the family and missing out on things. I miss them very much. Last night I did have a pleasant Christmas Eve dinner of pork spring rolls and fried tofu though...
Before coming here we flew from Seoul to Ho Chi Mihn city, and spent four nights there. That was very interesting. There are no crosswalk lights (and something like 10 million people in the city and 5 million motorbikes) and the traffic is constant. To cross any street (4-6 lanes even) you just have to confidently set out and slowly weave through the motorbikes, cars and buses, letting them pass in front of and behind you. It is quite bizarre to stand in the middle of the street and see an advancing hoard of traffic coming directly at you and feel like you are in the right place, and that nothing is strange about it. I think it was one of my favorite parts of being there - definitely some very scary moments - but fun because it was so incredibly different (the girls did not warn up to it so much). We did a lot of walking around and exploring while we were there. We were staying in what has become known as a backpacker area, so it was really fun meeting other travelers there and exchanging stories and advice. We realized as soon as we got to Vietnam that we had primarily packed for cold weather backpacking/work. So we found a few really cheap dresses that will be very handy while here. We also went to the War Remnants Museum (previously called the American War Crimes Museum and recently changed). It was interesting to see the photos and read about the war (also lots of propaganda, but I thought it was important to go there regardless). I could definitely see at least some of the lasting effects of the war in the numerous people I saw affected by "agent orange"/some of the chemical warfare we employed during the war. Many of these severly deformed people were beggars, but there we others that were not. Being in Vietnam was really the first time we felt as if we were somewhere completely different. Japan and South Korea are both such modern countries and many things felt very similar to home. Also, I never questioned my safety in those places. It's annoying having to be so cautious about everything, but also good to be somewhere so new. OH, also while we were in HCMC we went to a waterpark! It was sooo much fun! I think waterparks are pretty gross in general, and had no idea what to expect from one in Vietnam, but it was great! We spent a few hours there, went on most of the slides at least twice - they went really fast and some were pretty scary. The best part was that there was essentially no one else there. We never had to wait in line and it was lovely. We took about a 20 minute cab ride to get there, and I decided riding in a car there is much scarier than darting into the street. Also, it's not uncommon to see a family of five all riding on one motorbike.
The rest of the time we were in Seoul was great. We went to the Demilitarized Zone (the DMZ) and saw the dividing line between North and South Korea, and the 400 meters between the two. So saw North Korea in the distance, and got as close as I could without getting shot (they used to have day tours to the north, but one woman got shot three times, so they stopped - currently trying to get it going again though...). We also went down into one of the tunnels the north vietnamese dug under the DMZ into the south - 70 meters underground! It was an interesting experience to see those things, not terribly thrilling, but I thought we should do it since we were there. It was a bit stange to suddenly be on an organized tour for a few hours - we were on a bus with a guide. We spent our last night a little bit south of the city and crashed on Dobbs's floor (which was so nice of him to have us and our huge bags). He brought us to a Christmas party one of his friends was having and it was really nice to meet all the people he has met while there.
Right now the people in the room next to us are cooking a ton of crabs they bought on the beach today in an electric cooker on the balcony. The girls are eating them, I am not. I thought is was going to be hard for me to avoid having to eat seafood while here, but there always seems to be another option. However, I have tried sooo many weird fish/ocean things while I have been on this trip. Just glad I don't have to eat seafood constantly. That was a lot to write really fast, sorry for any typos. Going to shower and have Christmas day dinner... prob something weird. I hope everone's holidays are going extremely well!! love to all!!
Friday, December 25, 2009
Tuesday, December 15, 2009
Seoul
We are in South Korea! The rest of our time in Japan was great - loved the farm and had a fun last night in Tokyo. We met some guys from Spain at our hostel and went with them to their friends bar, and then we caught the last subway to Shibuya to go to some party. Turns out there was a $40 cover charge, so we opted out of that and all went back to the hostel to hang out there. One of the guys was really into flaminco dancing and gave me a lesson on the subway - I did not do very well. Japan was sooooo expensive so we were ready to leave in that sense, but its also a little sad to leave somewhere I felt so comfortable. It is very exciting to be somewhere new though! I like being in a new place and having to figure out the public transportation.
Our first night in Seoul we went to dinner with a friend from home, Dobbs, who is here teaching English. We went to a fried chicken and beer place, which is a big thing here I guess. It was nice to see him and hear about Korean life from someone who has been here for a while - I think we are seeing him later in the week as well. When we got back to our hostel we were pretty tired from being on the go all day - but a lot of people were hanging out in our hostel so we decided to be friendly and joined in. We are staying at Backpacker Friends and it is amazing - the people are great (the living is fine... we are staying in a ten person mixed dorm and it is too hot in there at night... but its ok, there is only one other guy in that room with us right now). Dr. Kim is the owner and he is so awesome! Last night hje made us Korean BBQ and it was pretty good. There are also a lot of his friends (I think) here a lot, they might live here, they sleep on the floor of the living room. Its great, they are so nice. Last night we also played a lot of games - including shoulders and "never have I ever" - with koreans, a brazilian and an austrailian - it was awesome, and so funny. Today we went to the war museum and it was really interesting. There was one display/video thing that was sooo funny (and def not supposed to be). The translation and acting was so bad that it made it quite wonderful. Tonight we are hanging out with everyone at the hostel - its nice, we all just sit around a big table on the floor and talk, listen to music and play games. Prob going to bed soon though, sooo tired.
Our first night in Seoul we went to dinner with a friend from home, Dobbs, who is here teaching English. We went to a fried chicken and beer place, which is a big thing here I guess. It was nice to see him and hear about Korean life from someone who has been here for a while - I think we are seeing him later in the week as well. When we got back to our hostel we were pretty tired from being on the go all day - but a lot of people were hanging out in our hostel so we decided to be friendly and joined in. We are staying at Backpacker Friends and it is amazing - the people are great (the living is fine... we are staying in a ten person mixed dorm and it is too hot in there at night... but its ok, there is only one other guy in that room with us right now). Dr. Kim is the owner and he is so awesome! Last night hje made us Korean BBQ and it was pretty good. There are also a lot of his friends (I think) here a lot, they might live here, they sleep on the floor of the living room. Its great, they are so nice. Last night we also played a lot of games - including shoulders and "never have I ever" - with koreans, a brazilian and an austrailian - it was awesome, and so funny. Today we went to the war museum and it was really interesting. There was one display/video thing that was sooo funny (and def not supposed to be). The translation and acting was so bad that it made it quite wonderful. Tonight we are hanging out with everyone at the hostel - its nice, we all just sit around a big table on the floor and talk, listen to music and play games. Prob going to bed soon though, sooo tired.
Monday, December 7, 2009
Kusunoki Farm
So Kobe was fun - we were only there for one night, and we just kind of explored. There wasn't really anything we HAD to see so we just went to a few places and tried to get lost. We found an awesome little vegetarian restaurant (even though kobe is known for its beef... it was too expensive for our current budgets) and had a lovely lunch, and continued walking around the more worthwile parts of the city. When we got back that night we watched a harry potter movie, which was a welcomed break from the constant moving around.
Our new farm is amazing. It was a little weird when we first arrived - we were picked up from the train station (apparently we went to the wrong one, but it was not our fault), given a quick tour of the house and left alone for about four hours because everyone was out doing various things. So we hung out in the living room alone and waited for people to come home. We spend the majority of our time with Mariko, a woman who is 55 and sooo fun and funny. Her daughter Ayaiko and daughter-in-law Mihoko both speak english very well, and it is really nice being able to talk to them. Mihoko has two kids, Daichi (a six year old boy) and Aoi (a four year old girl), they are very sweet and we spend a lot of time with them as well. The family has a store, and they work normally at least until 10 each night, so we don't really see the men or all of the cousins very often. Their property includes a community garden, and Mariko has turned it into a cultural center as well. One of the gardeners is a pottery instructor, so there is a pottery class on saturdays, one member is a yoga teacher, so there is a yoga class once a month, one is a weaver... and so on. We got very lucky in that we were here for both a pottery and a yoga class. Yoga was more like streching and moving, and it was pretty cold out. But nice regardless. Pottery was wonderful. The three of us and about eight older ladies all attended suzie's class, which we held in our garage. This week we made small houses that you place a candle in.
Our first job on the farm was to decorate the house "american style"... so it started out looking like a cheap motel, with lights flashing in such a way it could give one a seizure. We made some improvements yesterday. Other jobs have included: harvesting potatos, planting onions, planting trees (one named after each of us...), weeding, packing and prepping the compost (jumping on the 6 foot high pile - adding oil - jumping again,) helping with an english class (more like a giggle fest, on both of our ends... really fun), and various other things. oh, and another "burn" (fire) - thankfully this time we only burned wood and paper (and sweet potatos in tin foil, yumm). We were also told on the first day that wwoofers make something to leave at the house.... so we are making a bench. A few days ago we sorted through a huge pile of scrap wood, found some power and hand tools and started. Not done yet, but it is looking pretty good so far, and very sturdy (we are rather proud). Yesterday was our day off and we went to the Himeji Castle. It was beasutiful and we went to the top of the main tower... for some reason being there made me feel very calm and at peace. Today we cut down and stripped about 200 bamboo trees, and cut them into six foot poles to be used in the garden. It was pretty hard work, but fun. And Mariko took us to a cheap sushi place for lunch, so that was a nice treat. We need to make 500 bamboo poles, so i think that is probably the plan for tomorrow as well.
I am going to try to write on this more often - that way the posts hopefully won't be as long and boring. Generalizing the past is never as interesting as what is going on at present. Anyway, a few neat things I like about Japan: the vending machines all dispense cold AND hot drinks, there is one laundry machine to do the washing AND drying, on some of the trains the seats automatically turn around so one always faces forward, the camaras on cell phones are legit camaras (like 5 mega pixels) and the phones can scan bar codes and take you to websites automatically. Thats all I can think of right now, but there are definitely more, will try to remember....
Our new farm is amazing. It was a little weird when we first arrived - we were picked up from the train station (apparently we went to the wrong one, but it was not our fault), given a quick tour of the house and left alone for about four hours because everyone was out doing various things. So we hung out in the living room alone and waited for people to come home. We spend the majority of our time with Mariko, a woman who is 55 and sooo fun and funny. Her daughter Ayaiko and daughter-in-law Mihoko both speak english very well, and it is really nice being able to talk to them. Mihoko has two kids, Daichi (a six year old boy) and Aoi (a four year old girl), they are very sweet and we spend a lot of time with them as well. The family has a store, and they work normally at least until 10 each night, so we don't really see the men or all of the cousins very often. Their property includes a community garden, and Mariko has turned it into a cultural center as well. One of the gardeners is a pottery instructor, so there is a pottery class on saturdays, one member is a yoga teacher, so there is a yoga class once a month, one is a weaver... and so on. We got very lucky in that we were here for both a pottery and a yoga class. Yoga was more like streching and moving, and it was pretty cold out. But nice regardless. Pottery was wonderful. The three of us and about eight older ladies all attended suzie's class, which we held in our garage. This week we made small houses that you place a candle in.
Our first job on the farm was to decorate the house "american style"... so it started out looking like a cheap motel, with lights flashing in such a way it could give one a seizure. We made some improvements yesterday. Other jobs have included: harvesting potatos, planting onions, planting trees (one named after each of us...), weeding, packing and prepping the compost (jumping on the 6 foot high pile - adding oil - jumping again,) helping with an english class (more like a giggle fest, on both of our ends... really fun), and various other things. oh, and another "burn" (fire) - thankfully this time we only burned wood and paper (and sweet potatos in tin foil, yumm). We were also told on the first day that wwoofers make something to leave at the house.... so we are making a bench. A few days ago we sorted through a huge pile of scrap wood, found some power and hand tools and started. Not done yet, but it is looking pretty good so far, and very sturdy (we are rather proud). Yesterday was our day off and we went to the Himeji Castle. It was beasutiful and we went to the top of the main tower... for some reason being there made me feel very calm and at peace. Today we cut down and stripped about 200 bamboo trees, and cut them into six foot poles to be used in the garden. It was pretty hard work, but fun. And Mariko took us to a cheap sushi place for lunch, so that was a nice treat. We need to make 500 bamboo poles, so i think that is probably the plan for tomorrow as well.
I am going to try to write on this more often - that way the posts hopefully won't be as long and boring. Generalizing the past is never as interesting as what is going on at present. Anyway, a few neat things I like about Japan: the vending machines all dispense cold AND hot drinks, there is one laundry machine to do the washing AND drying, on some of the trains the seats automatically turn around so one always faces forward, the camaras on cell phones are legit camaras (like 5 mega pixels) and the phones can scan bar codes and take you to websites automatically. Thats all I can think of right now, but there are definitely more, will try to remember....
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