November 2009
57 posts
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mandalay, day 1
ANYWAY…
here is a recap of my day so far.
I arrived at my guesthouse at 10, and found a map of the city. There aren’t too many things I wanted to do here, just see some pagodas, the palace, and Mandalay Hill. I’m staying near the palace and everything else looked walkable, so I decided I would go into the palace through the west gate, come out in the east, then go north to...
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white whine
I realized today, now, that the government here has banned a ton of websites, including Gmail and Google. Usually internet cafes use proxies to go around all the bans, but for some reason the one I’m in now isn’t using one. So I can’t check my email :( and all of the free proxies I know of are blocked.
It’s actually pretty ridiculous how many sites are blocked without a...
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full moons
Because full moon parties are so big pretty much everywhere over here, I should have planned to be somewhere better for the one I would witness. It is tomorrow, and I will be in Mandalay. I barely even want to go there now, after reading that it sucks, so I really doubt I will be celebrating. ::Secretly wishing I were in Koh Pha Ngan::
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last sunset in bagan
My last day here was so amazing, I really can’t believe how incredibly lucky I was here.
I met up with Kaka around 1 and we rode towards his house, which is at least a 45 minute bike ride away. About halfway, we stopped and he bought me sugar cane juice. Yummm.
When we got to his little house, his mom had set out curry chicken and pork, rice, vegetables, and a peanut sauce. Sooo good. ...
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sunrise to sunset
Today will definitely be in the top five favorite days from my trip. Maybe tomorrow, too. Wanna know what happened? No? My posts have been too long for you lately? Sorry >.<
Sooo, I woke up at 4am to meet Kaka, my new Burmese friend from yesterday, at 5. We got on our bikes and headed south to a quiet temple where we were the only people watching the sunrise.
The ride there, though,...
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myanmar: day 3, bagan: day 1
Another long and eventful day. Sorry my posts are so ridiculously long lately, there is just too much going on here! I’ll try to shorten my thoughts:
4am: Woke up for my flight to Bagan, which is an area full of really old temples and historic things.
5am: Hmm, I remember the Yangon airport being pretty nice. Must have just been the international part. No one checked my ID once, and...
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last thing.. i swear!
My weird observations list keeps getting bigger and I keep forgetting stuff.
One MORE, last thing before I say good night to the internet, my only source of outside contact:
They drive on the right side here (in Thailand they drive on the left), but all the cars have the driver’s side on the right.
See, it’s just all these tiny strange things that make this place seem very...
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more more more
When I’m walking around, I’ve noticed that people spend almost as much time staring at my feet as they do at my face. I couldn’t figure it out, until I looked around and realized I’m the only person not wearing flip flops (I’ve been sporting my Cons), and I’m usually the only one around wearing pants since most people wear their Burmese skirt/wraps.
Just...
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I was really not looking forward to having to write this the first time since I knew it would be long and probably terribly boring to read, but I must recount today for my own memory’s sake. Even if it means typing it all again (thank you, crappy internet). There is also a nasty bug jumping around the computer.. this seems to be a theme on this trip. Yikes.
SO my day started a little...
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“Hahaha. Myanmar. Hahahaha!”
– When the guy at my hotel was showing me my room, the electricity went out, causing the lights and TV to turn off. He then laughed and said that, and turned on the handy “emergency light”. Ahh, Asia.
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i could have become a wife today
Because there are so few travelers here, I’ve gotten the funniest reactions from people when they see me. Most just stop and stare, mouth open and everything, and I can feel their heads turn as I walk by. Literally like they are watching a dog walk on its hind legs down the street.
Then there are also the people who see me and instead of being just shocked, they are also excited. I got a...
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myanmar
Today, I flew into Yangon (formerly known as Rangoon) in Myanmar (formerly known as Burma). There are about 4 million inhabitants and I’m pretty sure it used to be the capital before they built a city in the middle of nowhere to serve that purpose.
Immediately in the taxi ride to my hotel I could tell it is way more different than any other place I’ve been, but it was hard to figure...
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if I were in charge...
There would be a McDonald’s in every airport so that I could get my pre-flight McBreakfast fix. Mmmm.
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I seem to have the most ridiculous nights right before I have to travel. Last night, I met up with two people I met in Luang Prabang and we ate and played a very pathetic game of pool. Around 8, one went back to her guesthouse and so I went to Muay Thai with Dave from California.
We were early so we decided to do some dodgy ladyboy bar hopping. The whole area around the ring was super...
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I survived the rain forest! It was a lot of fun and I’ll have some good pics to post in a few weeks. Tonight: Muay Thai boxing. Tomorrow: Myanmar!
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iPhone approved for Korea →
therealericchoi:
They say it could be on sale within the next couple weeks.
I’m telling you, Koreans do NOT like to plan.
I bet you the head of the Board of Communications in Korea was just like, “urrrmmmm…. yeah. Let’s do it.”
Apple calls back, “Great! Shall we set up a time table so your carriers can get some market research going? We could survey suggested selling prices… do a polling of...
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Tomorrow I am ziplining across the rain forest.
Excited/terrified/not looking forward to waking up at 5:30.
Will hopefully survive and have a good recap tomorrow…
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coincidence?
I have heard many stories of people traveling and they run into the same people all over, or they see people from their tiny home town in a remote village in Ireland. So, I know that weird things happen while abroad. But when it really does happen, it’s kind of spooky.
For instance, I briefly met a Canadian guy in Siem Reap. Then I saw him while tubing in Vang Vieng. THEN I saw him...
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How Thailand is similar to Korea: lots of K-pop, girly boys, dogs in clothes, love of cute things.
How Thailand is not similar to Korea: ladyboys, Western tourists.
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last day in laos
After meeting the random Europeans at noon, all of us plus an American girl from the hostel went across the river to a small little town. This guy from London who we were with only works about six months a year then spends the rest over here because he loves it so much. So he knows the area really well and speaks some Lao so that was helpful. In the other town we saw two temples and went into a...
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“Sabaidee!”
– This is the Lao greeting, and they say it all the time. I’ve gotten so used to hearing it, it will be weird to hear something else in Thailand.
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it's 930...
And I’ve already been awake for 4 hours. This morning I went to see the Alms Ceremony, which is when all the monks come out and get their food donations for the day from people in town. It is a big touristy thing, but still really cool to see. Then two friends and I went and got breakfast and Lao coffee.
Afterwards we headed to the morning market and saw all kinds of foods (like frogs!)...
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I had heard the minibus ride from Vang Vieng to Luang Prabang was bad, so I thought ahead and took some of my sketchy Korean motion sickness medicine. And oh, I am so glad I did.
LUCKILY my hostel hooked me and another guy up with a different ride that left a little later, which meant we were the only two in the van. The ride itself was pretty much like being on a rollercoaster for 5 hours. ...
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tubing!
Today I finally went tubing. I went with the same other three I was with yesterday, and it was a lot of fun. We had all heard that most people end up sticking to the first two bars, but we had decided beforehand that we wanted to see more of the river. So we skipped the first two bars, then got reeled in to the third. (Looking back it would have been more fun to just stay at the first three,...
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adventure!
Today, two Canadian guys, an Australian girl, and I rented motorbikes and went on a drive to a cave and a supposedly nice “Blue Lagoon”. We had a Xeroxed map to go on, so we headed off outside of town onto long empty dirt roads surrounded by the most beautiful mountains I’ve ever seen.
After awhile, we came across a place advertising the Blue Lagoon. We thought, “Hey! ...
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Yesterday I bought a bottle of water for 3,000 kip (about 35 cents). The smallest bill I had was a 10,000, so I handed the clerk that. She ended up only having 6,000 in change, so she gave me 1,000 kip worth of chocolate. Only in Laos.
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slow food
I haven’t seen a single McDonald’s in over two weeks now. The only fast food they had in Vietnam were a few KFCs and Lotterias, and in Cambodia I saw two Lucky Burgers. I doubt I will be seeing any in Laos. There also haven’t been many mini marts until now. Before, I had only seen a tiny one in Ho Chi Minh City, but in Vientiane there are a few. Usually Asian cities are...
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angkor
I had read in the Cambodia Lonely Planet that it would be an awful mistake to only spend one day in Angkor because there is so much to see. I had only given myself one day to see it, so I was hoping they were wrong.
I shared a tuk-tuk for the day with another girl from my hostel, and we left at 5am to catch the sunrise. This ended up being super anti-climatic because it was cloudy and dreary so...
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trying.. not.. to.. spend.. my.. money.. like.....
I had told myself before I left Korea that I would not buy a ridiculous amount of stuff. I have been doing really well, especially knowing that I don’t have a ton of room in my bag for extra junk. BUT today I walked around Siem Reap, and it is basically tourist heaven. The whole city is pretty much hotels, guest houses, restaurants, and markets full of souvenirs.
On previous travels, I...
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things I've gotten used to in the past two weeks...
- Cold showers
- Putting on bug spray twice a day
- Being yelled and/or stared at (in a creepy way) by strangers
- Never knowing what day it is
- Big bugs. Like when I was laying in my bed on the two overnight trains I took in Vietnam, and I would turn over and see a couple long creatures crawling on the wall right by my head. Or a small cockroach scuttle under the bed next to me. Lovely.
-...
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today I got a history lesson
Yesterday was the Cambodian indepedence from France day, which would explain the king. That independence was won only about 55 years ago.
I also learned all about the Khmer Rouge and the Cambodian genocide that occured from 1975-1979. I feel really terrible for not knowing much about it when It is comparable to the Holocaust and only happened a few years before I was born. But I was thoroughly...
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ah so that's why I keep seeing bird cages... →
“A frequent site in Phnom Penh is the sparrow vendor, a man with a cage full of live sparrows for sale. A favorite afternoon snack for Cambodians is a couple roasted sparrows and a cold beer. The sparrows are so popular, however, that the demand has depleted the local sparrow population which has led to an increase in the bugs and other critters that the birds normally eat. I’ve...
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cambodia vs vietnam
Before I started my trip, I had been super excited about Vietnam and not so much about Cambodia.
And I don’t mean to knock Vietnam, but after one day in PP I think Cambodia comes out winning.
This is all just my opinion of course, and I’ve met a countless number of people who have fallen in love with Vietnam, and end up spending weeks there.
One noticable difference is that...
Ugh. Sorry for all the typos. Once again, I’m posting on my iPod touch and it’s a pain to edit posts. It kills me to see so many spelling errors!
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phnom penh, or how i got to see the cambodian king
The only things I had heard about PP weren’t very good. I assumed I would be entering a cit full of trash and crime, and there was no real point in going.
What I saw on the bus ride here, though, seemed to paint a much different picture of Cambodia. There were loads of trash and bony animals grazing all along the road, but the nasty stuff was between pretty painted houses and massive,...
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ho chi minh city (aka saigon)
Since I’m only here for a day, and I’m starting to feel very ready to get out Vietnam, I didn’t see as much as I probably should have here. Hanoi has nicer buildings, and a really cool feel in the Old and French Quarters. HCMC might be a little bit wealthier, but it is certainly crazier. And much, much hotter. It was in the 90s today for sure. I guess it’s a pretty...
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my last night in hoi an deserves its own recap
So, my last night in Hoi An was meant to be a relaxing one. I was leaving on a bus to Da Nang at 8am, then catching an overnight train there to Ho Chi Minh City at 1:15pm. I had made plans to chill out, watch TV (!!), and do pretty much nothing. I went downstairs to eat dinner, and there were three North American (accent-eavesdropping) guys finishing their meal and starting a game of cards. I...
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grr
Before I recap Hoi An, which I waaaas going to do, I must vent about Vietnam.
So I’ve traveled a lot, and have been in Vietnam for 10 days now. While I do make plenty of stupid tourist mistakes—mostly paying too much for stuff—I’m trying to get better about it. So today when I grabbed a taxi back to my guesthouse from the War Remnants Museum (I’m in Ho Chi Minh...
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hoi an
After riding on a train for about 15 hours with a bunch of New Zealander 40-somethings on a tour group, I was relieved to arrive in Hoi An. Especially when I saw how amazing my $12 hotel room was. Hot water! Big bed! TV!!! It’s wayyy more relaxed here than in Hanoi, and I don’t really want to leave. It is super touristy, though, which means walking around will get you hassled by...