Chiang Mai

We landed in Chiang Mai airport after a relaxing flight and booked a taxi into the town centre. Already it was prevalent that we were in a very different area of the country. The small and easily navigatable beach villages were a distant memory and before us laid the hustle and bustle of another city, Chiang Mai.

Chiang Mai is much smaller than Bangkok and you can reach most places in the town centre on foot, yet it still remains the second biggest city in Thailand. It’s laid back, its cooler and although tourism certainly has a firm hold on the city it hasn’t taken over. The city is surrounded on all sides by beautifully majestic mountains and the city itself is encased in an ancient wall (most of which is now rubble) and a canal. When we arrived at our hostel on our first day in Chiang Mai we unpacked and then took a short stroll around the canal to see what we could find. We found some temples, we walked between the city walls and along the canal and eventually found some peace on a bench watching the fish laying their eggs.

The hostel we were staying at in Chiang Mai was unlike those we had stayed in before; it was made up of small teak wood bungalows that the owner had inherited from her grandfather. It was quite a sight to behold, the main reception area was full of hand crafted wooden antiques, in the evening bats would fly around, and everywhere you went you could smell the wood and incense.

On our first full day in Chiang Mai the sun was shining, considering it has been monsoon season here in Thailand we’ve been incredibly lucky with the weather; it has only rained in short spasms, usually in the evening. We had heard about Tiger Kingdom a place where you can go along and pet baby tigers and despite the high price tag we hired a tuk-tuk and headed 13km out of town to the small village of Mae Rim where Tiger Kingdom resides. We were a little sceptical about the animals welfare and were worried that Tiger Kingdom was just a tourist trap and whilst the latter does hold true it did seem like the tigers were preferably well looked after.

Our tuk-tuk driver pulled in right at the entrance and we offloaded and walked up the stairs into the reception area. You are greeted with 5 screens which all represent different things you can do at Tiger Kingdom, each has the price tag attached and we opted for ‘Take 3’ which meant that we could go in with the 3 – 5 months old tigers, the 5 – 7 month old tigers and the year old tigers, neither of us had the guts to tackle what Tiger Kingdom just calls the big tigers.

We paid our money and we were ushered through to the park, first up were the smallest tigers and they were strikingly cute, we spend about 15 minutes playing with the baby tigers before moving up through the ranks. The year old tigers were certainly the scariest and considering they were only a year old they were incredibly large, to me they looked like full grown beasts. The keepers kept trying to get us to pose for different photos which more often than not we rejected. Unfortunately that’s what this place is all about (photo opportunities) and you’re certainly not going to learn anything about the tigers here, however it was a worthwhile experience. We read horror stories about Tiger Temple in Bangkok and at least the tigers in Chiang Mai weren’t drugged and weren’t chained up so that was a plus in our books and we had a fantastic time getting to know the tigers and taking our photos with them.

Afterwards we headed to another wildlife orientated park that we had read about. Siam Insect Zoo had a giant collection of insects and you can even interact with some of them. This place was much more educational than Tiger Kingdom. We got to hold giant scorpions and praying mantises and we saw some fascinating insects and at the same time learnt a lot about them.

Our tuk-tuk took us back into the city once we had finished in Mae Rim and that evening we went to the night market or ‘Sunday walking street’ as its called. We spent hours walking through the market and we picked up lots of gifts for ourselves and for friends and family back home. The night was getting late and we strolled back to our hostel after a fantastic first day.

Our second day in Chiang Mai was spent visiting the elephant nature park which is an animal conservation centre and sanctuary up in the jungle near Chiang Mai. We had booked this tour a long time ago and we wanted to make sure that we went to an elephant park that was all about the elephants and not all about photo opportunities and elephant rides. Infact we didn’t want to ride elephants at all as we found it cruel and unnecessary. The park proved our suspicions correct. We learnt so much about elephant welfare in Thailand whilst really getting to know some of the elephants at the park.

The elephant trade in Thailand is truly horrific and Lek the owner of the elephant nature park is really doing good work to protect Thailand’s dwindling elephant population. The park is basically a rescue centre for elephants and some of the stories were incredibly moving. Stories of torture and abuse of the elephants, it was good that they were now in a positive environment away from the hardship they had endured. Some elephants had been blinded where owners had stabbed them in the eyes to get them to perform and obey their owners, others spirits had been broken in awful conditions that had left the elephants scared and alone. I urge you when travelling to Thailand to not only visit the park to learn about the elephants but to not support the street begging elephants or any other tourist orientated non-eco elephant park.

Unfortunately after logging was outlawed in 1989 thousands of domesticated Thai elephants were left out of work and unable to survive in the wild, these elephants are now used in the tourist industry, some in better conditions than others, but if tourists keep on actively exploiting these creatures then they will be bred into the tourist trade, and the cycle will never stop and the wild Thai elephant will be a thing of the past, nothing left but jungle elephant treks and elephant rides.

It was a joy feeding and bathing these wonderful creatures at the park and it’s something I’ll never forget. Their skin is coarse but nice to touch and whilst they are giants they are so gentle and quiet. We spent the day with some wonderful people as well, two tourists from Germany and two from America one whom was just finishing an internship in Cambodia and who had lots of recommendations for our trip there. We had a lovely meal by the river that evening and settled in for an early night after a busy day with the elephants.

On our last day in Chiang Mai we headed to Doi Suthep national park, Doi is Thai for mountain and this particular mountain has a gorgeous temple on top and views of the whole city, when we first got to the top it was incredibly misty but by the time we got to hiking to the waterfall near the bottom of the mountain the weather had cleared and we had amazing views. It was a nice way to bring our Chiang Mai adventures to a close.

As usual there is so much more to write about and its hard to sum up four days worth of awesome experiences in a short blog post but I hope that this gives everyone some idea of what we’ve been doing with our time in Thailand. We’re in Chiang Rai now, about three hours north east of Chiang Mai, but that’s for another blog post.

We’re fighting off insects and trying to cram as much into our adventures as possible, time is flying by and everyday we are getting better and better at this whole independent traveller gig, its certainly not easy, but its very rewarding and I’m sure when I get home I can bore you folks with some more in depth tales of the things that we’ve been doing.

Until then, good night and good luck. 

The Beach (Krabi and Phuket)

"Trust me, it's paradise. This is where the hungry come to feed. For mine is a generation that circles the globe and searches for something we haven't tried before." - Alex Garland

We stuck our thumbs out just off of Khao San Road and hailed a taxi. We told the driver that we were heading to Hualamphong Station (Bangkok largest railway station) and he turned the meter on. Phew. He turned the meter on. This is a sign of a good Bangkok taxi driver, someone whose sole purpose isn't ripping you off. We were dropped off just outside the main terminal and we wandered inside. We were early. Our train didn't leave for another two and a half hours so we found a coffee shop and sat down. After a while a middle aged British 'bloke' from Bournemouth came and sat with us. This was his 11th time in Thailand and he had a lot of stories to tell and advice to give which whiled away the hours until it was time to board our train. It's been something of a frequent occurrence that we'll meet these really interesting and kindhearted people, talk to them for an hour and then leave them forever without even catching their names.

It was time to head South. Four nights was more than enough for Bangkok, we wanted freedom, we wanted peace, the sound of the ocean sweeping onto the shore. The train journey was about 12 hours, overnight, from Bangkok to a small city called Surat Thani, there are no trains that head directly to Krabi or Phuket the two most popular beach provinces in the South and our final destinations. The train was reminiscent of the bumpy Egyptian trains I had taken with my father the year before, we slept in a small bunk in a crowded second class compartment, the toilet was a squat, just a hole in the ground, and the ride was very rickety, surprisingly we both slept reasonably well and we finally got to Surat Thani at 7:30am.

Now, let me tell you young wannabee travelers a story. A story that will not only save you money, but time. Don't buy the combined train and bus ticket at Bangkok station. That's what we did. We thought it would be nice and easy, you buy a combined ticket, you get off at Surat Thani railway station, and then you wait to board a local public bus at Surat Thani to Krabi. Easy. No.

What happens is you get off the train and are pulled over by people the company  (listed on the ticket you bought), they put you on a bus (about an hour late) and ship you off to a travel agency. You'll stay at the travel agency for about 45 minutes whilst they try and sell you things you don't want for extortionate prices (preying on naive tourists), then they put you on another bus that takes you to a remote part of the town you're going to so you are forced to buy a taxi from them that will take you to your hotel instead of getting the local bus for 50 baht, you end up paying 400 baht for the taxi. There is a way around this. Don't buy the combo, arrive at Surat Thani, walk to the local public station and get a bus from there, it'll be cheaper and will probably take the same amount of time, and you won't have to talk to a travel agent.

I like to think I've become a bit of a pro at winding the travel agents up now. I knew what their game was the minute we got dropped off. I said, "they'll keep us here for an hour and try and sell everyone something." For us they wanted to help us get a mini-van from our hotel in Ao Nang (where we were heading to our next hotel in Phuket). I'm a master now. Conversations with Sean and travel agents go like this:

Travel agent: Where you going?
Sean: Karon Living Room hotel.
Travel agent: Oh, bad hotel, very far from beach.
Sean: Yes, I know.
Travel agent: You want change?
Sean: No.
Travel agent: How much?
Sean: What?
Travel agent: How much you pay at hotel per night?
Sean: I don't know.
Travel agent: You don't know?
Sean: Nope.
Travel agent: Where you go after?
Sean: I don't know.
Travel agent: You want to go to Phi Phi islands?
Sean: No, I don't.
Travel agent: Ok, Karon Living Room.
Sean: Thank you. Goodbye.

They'll try and sell you anything. I don't know, works. They can't sell you a mini-van transfer if you don't know where you're going next. They can't sell you a tour if you turn your nose up at all the places they suggest. I'm working on getting this down to a few questions and answers. I'll keep you posted.

So, after all the commotion with the travel agents we finally arrived at our hotel in Ao Nang. We didn't get ripped off too badly by the taxi so we got off lightly. The hostel we were staying at was amazing. We had a private room with a balcony, living space, en suite bathroom and giant bed for 250 baht a night. We were very impressed. The owners had two dogs 'Chilli' and 'Tata' who both became very friendly with us as we were practically the only people staying there. The place was run by a dutch guy and his Thai wife and they kept the place so clean and comfortable.

We got to the hotel at about 1pm so we had the rest of the day to explore. We headed down to the beach past all of the shops and Thai men trying to sell us suits (we were definitely in tourist town) and finally made it to the most beautiful beach. The sea was crystal clear, there were long-tail boats lined up on the shore and palm trees made shade on the edge of the beach. We strolled along letting the waves wash over our feet. This was the life. You swim, you laze around, everyone is so friendly. It's simple. No responsibilities.

Eventually we came across the monkey section of the beach. Natalie yelled, "there's a monkey!" I had no idea there were monkeys on the beach and I got very excited. They were everywhere! There were loads of babies who were so cute, and they were all just chilling out at the edge of the jungle, running around on the beach. They seemed pretty harmless and friendly so we walked through them into the jungle and over a cliff to a more secluded beach on the other side.

By the time we were walking back, the sun was going down and we hung out with the monkeys some more. We watched all the tourists still trying to catch a tan on the beach and we felt empowered that we weren't doing the same thing. Despite being unbelievably beautiful and tranquil this entire area: both Krabi and Phuket provinces, have been ripped apart by tourism. By the package holiday tourist. By irresponsible westerners with no care for the environment or for cultural heritage. Ao Nang luckily still retains its natural beauty and its very clean compared to Phuket (which I'll get to shortly) but most tourists in Ao Nang seemed to be bringing all their baggage with them, intent on holidaying in Thailand without having to learn any Thai, eat any Thai food or in fact do anything remotely cultural. I don't want to sound snobbish but if a Thai person bows to you, the least you could do is smile, you could at least learn the word thank you in Thai, that's one word, its not a lot, I think the world would be a better place if people showed a little more empathy, a little more human decency and kindness. It's a real shame. I'm proud to say I've only eaten Thai food, I bow when I'm bowed to, sometimes even when I'm not, and I've learnt some Thai. I'm only rude to travel agents. I promise.

Anyway, that night we had a lovely Thai dinner and we walked back down to the beach in the dark. By the time we got back to the hostel we were knackered. Time for bed. We played with Chilli for a while. She's the cutest puppy ever, and then...

Then the unthinkable happened.

Of all the things that could have happened. Not this. I saw Chilli's ball sitting below the steps into the hostel. I put one foot onto the step and pulled the other one forward to lean down and pick up the ball. Click. I let out the most awful cry as I grabbed a hold of my knee. It had dislodged itself and clicked itself back into place again. Luckily it didn't fully dislocate and a hospital was definitely not needed so it could have been worse, but now as I write this four days later I'm only just nearly fully recovered.

The next day I limped down to the beach, lucky I could walk at all I suppose, it didn't feel too bad, it was puffed up a little but we took it pretty easy, went swimming in the sea, played with more monkeys, Natalie got a Thai massage, and we relaxed, that day of relaxation certainly  helped my knee out as every day since it has gotten better and better. I can walk normally now, and I can bend my knee all the way. It was still frustrating that it happened during the trip, but its a relief that it happened when we were on the beaches, not doing as whole lot.

The next day we got a long-tail boat to Railey a remote set of beaches cut off from the Thai mainland by huge granite cliffs. This beach was even more perfect and reminded me of 'The Beach'. In-fact the movie was indeed filmed on these beaches but the bulk of it, including THE beach was filmed on Phi Phi island and because of that, getting a boat to Phi Phi is an expensive affair so we opted for Railey and it was perfect. The caves, cliffs and jungles all hung over the beach, the sea was so clear that you could see fishes swimming about beneath the surface. We were very lucky with the weather, despite being monsoon season it didn't rain once whilst we were in Ao Nang, but the boat back to the mainland was a little choppy, it was very much worth it to spend some time relaxing on the most perfect beach, which hardly had anybody on it.

That night we ate at the restaurant next to the hotel and stayed up talking to the dutch owner for a while. We played with the dogs whilst he told us about the tuk-tuk mafia of Phuket and how they have to charge high prices else they'll get beaten up by other tuk-tuk drivers. Savage.

We enjoyed our time in Ao Nang very much and in the morning we got another stupid travel agency mini-van from Ao nang to Karon in Phuket, a very different kind of beach town. We just played the flat fare for the mini-van and didn't fall into any of their sneaky little traps, we talked to an English teacher from Korea who was vacationing here and we finally arrived in Karon at about 4pm. We were very hungry so had an early dinner near the hotel and settled in for the night.

Phuket is a town that really has been consumed by tourism. It's like a Spanish resort, shops selling cheap gifts, hats and sunglasses, overpriced restaurants, western food chains, everything you'd expect from a seaside town in England is here. The beach is still wide, long and beautiful but the weather hasn't been as beautiful as it was in Ao Nang so we've taken it pretty easy. We watched the sea-life on the beach, we've gone for plenty of walks and we've eaten some very tasty Thai food.

We much preferred Ao Nang to Karon. Ao Nang is everything you'd expect from a tropical beach, and I can't describe how picture perfect it was, it was also easy to vagabond there and live very cheaply whilst still having a great time. That's a little tougher in Karon, a place that caters to the resort tourist, we have managed to eat really well and have a good time, we also gave into the tourist tat and played a round of mini-golf. We are pretty beached out after 6 days down here in the south and we're looking forward to heading north tomorrow. We can't believe we're already nearly two weeks into this trip. Time is going fast. We're enjoying it. We're soaking everything up. We're living for the moment. We're trying not to be walking cliches.

I look out of the window at the coconut trees, I squint at the sun, I can hear the sea, and the cars and scooters speeding by on the road below and I still can't believe I'm finally here.

Bangkok

Everything started out so promisingly. We got up on time. We caught the airport limousine bus. We found our check-in counter. We checked in. We cleared security. We cleared immigration. We found our gate. It was clear from the weather that the typhoon was looming. We were confident however that our flight would be unaffected, the board didn't say we were delayed and everything looked promising. Until our plane never showed up. This small delay of forty five minutes lead to a much longer delay of five hours. Most of which were spent sat on the plane waiting for the weather to improve. We finally took off at around two thirty and despite a rather turbulent ascent we had a pleasant flight down to Kuala Lumpur. We sped through the airport in Kuala Lumpur, we changed our flight, we got some dinner and before we knew it we were boarding our flight to Bangkok. Finally.

We landed in a rainy Bangkok airport at about 11:30 and by the time we had cleared immigration and picked up our luggage it was coming on midnight and we were very tired. We approached the taxi counter (something very necessary in this part of the world due to scams) and we got a taxi to our hostel. My first impressions of Bangkok as it flew by my window were that this place was very different from Seoul. It was blurry though. I was tired. It was raining. We pulled up at our hostel and got our bags, there was nobody around when we arrived but with the help of a lovely European couple we figured out that the owner had left a key for us, so we settled in for a well deserved nights rest.

We awoke at about 9am the next day and got freshened up, started the daily routine of sun-cream and insect spray and headed outside for our free hostel breakfast (which is outstanding, we've eaten it everyday). It wasn't raining anymore and it was hot. Really hot. Despite being rainy season Bangkok manages to stay at around 30 degrees with about 60% - 70% humidity. It's sweaty to say the least. We went for a morning stroll to get acquainted with the area we were staying in.

Our first stop was the grand palace and despite it being overpriced we had an amazing time there. The sun was ablaze as we walked up to the gates and we were about to experience our first Bangkok scam. We were ready for it. Somebody wearing an ID tag told us that we couldn't enter the palace because Natalie wasn't wearing appropriate clothing. She was wearing shorts and you're not allowed to expose your knees inside. He said not to worry and that we could come back at 1pm and it would be fine. "Huh." I thought. Before we know it the ID tag man had walked away and another man (a tuk-tuk driver, tuk-tuks are little buggies that parade the city streets weaving in and out of traffic and beeping their horns) took over and started telling us about other sites that he could take us too whilst we couldn't enter the palace. I called bullshit on the whole affair and we entered the palace anyway. Low and behold they had clothes inside that you could rent for free. So, Natalie put a sarong on and we entered the palace. We read signs scattered around the entrance that said not to trust anyone you meet outside the palace. It's disappointing that a tourist industry can do that to a country, turn people into dis-honest money grabbers. It's inevitable in the poorer parts of the world I suppose.

The Grand Palace was beautiful and we spent a good hour walking around looking at all of the temples and shrines and golden pagodas. Once we had had it with the palace we moved onto Wat Pho (the most famous temple in Bangkok). Wat is Thai for temple so all temples begin with Wat. Wat this and Wat that. This particular temple is famous for its giant golden Buddha which was truly breathtaking. Photo's were taken but it was starting to get unbearably hot so we bought a drink and sat down to watch the city go by for a while.

There is a huge tourist industry here, bigger than I expected it to be. You can't go anywhere without seeing backpackers, families or people with expensive cameras around their necks. Well, unless you go to Siriraj medical museum. We jumped in a taxi and headed over to a museum that Natalie had read about and wanted to see. I was dragged along for the ride. The museum is situated in a working hospital and we spent a while walking around trying  to find it. It was interesting in a mentally disturbing, disgusting kind of way, and there's no real need to go into detail so lets just say that they had things on display in that museum that they could never have on display in the UK. We'll leave it at that.

On our first night we went and had Pad Thai on the infamous Khao San Road, a backpacker paradise, glorified in Alex Garlands novel and Danny Boyle's movie adaptation 'The Beach'. It does what it says on the tin. It's a cesspit of debauchery and overly expensive food marketed to the tourist who doesn't know any better. It's everything a back packer wants to avoid all on one road. It was worth seeing for the experience but we haven't walked back down that road since. I guess at the time Garland wrote 'The Beach' in the late 80's / early 90s, Khao San was still a hip place to be, a place where backpackers could commune and share stories over pints of Chang. It gave them a place in the city that was their own, but not anymore, now its just a commercial train wreck.

We enjoyed the pad Thai and settled in for the night. The next day we headed over to the modern side of Bangkok. Bangkok is divided in two there is the old city on one side, this is where all the historical buildings are and most of the tourist industry, then there is the business side, where the high rise buildings and shopping malls live. We started out by heading to the train station to book tickets for our Saturday trip to the South. Then we went to Lumphini park and spent some time watching all of the monitor lizards running around. In the UK we have squirrels in our parks, here they have giant lizards. I've seen an array of wildlife since being here, beautiful tropical birds, giant poisonous millipedes, elephants, loads of street cats and stray dogs, cockroaches the size of my hand, beautiful butterflies. We're definitely in the tropics.

After the park we headed over to Siam Square, we had lunch in the Paragon (a huge shopping center) and then we walked around the streets checking out upper class Bangkok, a stark contrast to the old city, you could be in any metropolis here if you didn't know any better. It's very modern and very exciting. We must have spent the whole afternoon around Siam before catching a bus back to our hostel. Up until that point we had been getting taxis everywhere, but we decided we should give the public transport a shot, well the ticket was cheap only about 15p to get from one side of town to the other but because of Bangkok traffic (oh my god don't even get me started) the journey took just short of two hours. We did meet a lovely family on board though but they got so fed up with being stuck in traffic they got out in the middle of the daily storm and walked. I say daily storm because that's all we've had so far, most of the day has been cloudy and hot, or sunny and hot and then at around 5pm the heavens will open for an hour or two and then it will go back to clear skies again, something I can live with, the evening showers have actually been rather refreshing.

I tried my first Thai curry that night which was delicious, and we had some fruit on a street a few blocks away from Khao San. On our third day we booked a mini-bus out of central Bangkok to go and check out the ancient city Ayutthaya (the capital of Thailand until the late 1700's). Ayutthaya is basically an island with a load of ruins upon it. It was a very interesting place to spend the day. It felt more quintessentially Thai than central Bangkok, elephants walking around, and huge plants lining the sidewalks. The ruins were spectacular and there were still loads left. Inside one of the temples there was a small group of bats which stunk the place out. We spent all day here really walking around the various ruins and seeing the Buddha head which had been submerged in a tree. We got a three o' clock bus back to Bangkok and low and behold it started raining again, right on cue. No matter, we headed out for dinner and had rice and pad Thai and then came back to the hostel and chased a cockroach around the room.

That's been Bangkok so far. I've enjoyed it here immensely and I think it's a great start to the trip and a good introduction to Thailand. I think we stayed for just the right amount of time. Cities can get a little overwhelming. We're taking the train south tonight and we're hoping for good weather down on the Thai beaches. I'll miss our kooky little hostel, we've been sleeping in a small shed, with great air conditioning, beautiful paintings and very friendly staff, we hope our next hostel will be just as good and just as friendly. I have so much more to write about but I won't keep you any longer. I'll blog again soon.

The trip is going so fast, already!

End Times

Well, we are sat in the Incheon Airport Hotel ready to board our flight tomorrow morning. We have packed our bags and we're ready to go. Weather permitting (there is a huge typhoon expected to hit the Korean peninsular tonight) we should be heading out at 9:35am. Good timing, huh? It's set to be the biggest typhoon Korea has seen in over ten years. Oh, joy! Let's keep our fingers crossed for no delays!

So, my last day of school was probably my best day of school. It began as it usually does, I boarded my bus and set off into the mountains. I watched the scenery roll past my window for the last time. It's funny how until something is ending you don't realize how much you take it for granted. The bus pulled into Damok and I walked into school. I still wasn't sure which students knew of my impending departure and which students didn't, so, I said "hello" to anyone I saw as I usually would. I put the cake that I had bought for the teachers in the fridge and set up my classroom for the days lessons.

I taught 5th Grade first thing, we just had a regular textbook class (a pretty good one as textbook classes go) and at the end I announced that I would be leaving. The students were momentarily sad until I offered up sweets. I had a photo with the class and sent them on their way. A big deal wasn't really made which was nice. It felt conclusive. 5th Grade are / were my favorite class along with their teacher and I shall miss them most of all. 4th Grade followed and we played some fun games and I gave them sweets and took a photo, they seemed a little sadder to see me leave and were telling me that I should stay which was sweet.

Lunch rolled around and I said goodbye to Mr. Chae who had to go to Hwacheon on a business trip.

Side note: (best Mr. Chae line ever the day before my leaving dinner): "Tomorrow, I will kill you with soju." I live to tell the tale.

After lunch I gave my final two classes 2nd Grade and 4th Grade afterschool. The 2nd Grade kids all brought me little gifts and notes that they had made for me which was really heartwarming and sweet of them. They were a great class and I was so grateful they had taken the time to make little letters for me. After classes I sorted some last minute administration things out with my co-teacher and then we all ate the cake that I had brought in. The principle gave a small speech telling me that he appreciated all of the hard work I had put in, and that the students will miss me, and how he is always pleased to see my happy face. He wished me good luck and we cut the cake together. It was nice to talk properly with all of the teachers for one last time. They all told me they would miss me and that the students loved me and I'll stop there before this starts sounding egotistical. It was nice to hear all of the positive things that they had to say but I'll take it with a pinch of salt.

Come 5 o'clock it was time to leave. As I was walking out of the door some of the straggling forth graders grabbed hold of me and tried to make me stay, but alas, I was on my way. I waved goodbye to the students and to the school and said my farewells to the teachers and I was on my way, watching the school fade out of view, out of my life.

Natalie and I spent about an hour on Friday evening finishing things up around the house and making sure everything was packed and then we said goodbye to Nathanael, Russell and Deanna and got on our way. Watching Sachang disappear out of the bus window was sad, but it felt like it wasn't the end. It felt like I'd be coming back on Monday. I had made Sachang my home for a year and it was like saying goodbye to a close friend, although I'll miss it, it will always be with me.

We have had a wonderful weekend in Seoul. The hostel we stayed in was very friendly, clean and welcoming and we had a great time there. We got talking to a couple of people from India and Pakistan who were in Seoul on business, who were really lovely.

It was Natalie's Birthday on Saturday and in true Natalie style she decided she wanted to go to the zoo, which was fine by me. We headed out to Seoul Grand Park which really is Grand, it's huge! There is so much to see and do there that you couldn't possible do it in a day. We focused solely on Seoul Zoo and we must have spent about seven hours there, getting our £1.50's worth. We saw a tonne of animals that we had never seen before, huge hippos, naked mole rats, lots of different snakes and insects, bears and wild cats, huge eagles and performing flamingos. It was so hot, we slugged our way back to our hostel and freshened up before going out for dinner. We had our last Korean BBQ and we really enjoyed it.

Other highlights from our last weekend in Korea include the dog cafe (a cafe in which about twenty dogs are running about for you to play with as you enjoy your chocolate latte). A trip to Myeongdong. Lunch in Namsan Park. Shopping at the COEX mall, (although it was stupidly busy) and chilling out on the picnic bench outside the hostel. I sent all of my money home today and thus concluded all of the last things I had to do before I leave Korea.

So, here we are. I'm sat looking out of the seventh floor window at our favorite airport guesthouse, we're about to go and have some dinner and wait for news of the brewing storm. If our flight is unaffected we'll be waving goodbye to Korea tomorrow morning, it's been an amazing year and I've met some truly wonderful people. I'll need some time to get some real perspective before I can accurately make sense of my time here and blog it with a sense of denouement, until then, this will have to do.

Farewell, see you in Bangkok.

For Good

So, it’s the last week of school. I guess it’s time for some reflection. The prospect of writing this blog and trying to sum up my experience in Korea is rather overwhelming and no matter what I write I’m sure I’m not going to do it any kind of justice.

When I first arrived in Korea, I was both nervous and confidant, excited and anxious. The orientation period flew by and I was shipped off to my new home. It took a while to settle in here. The first few weeks of school were tough and adjusting to life here wasn’t easy. The first few weeks were full of exploration and new experiences but by the end of October things started to settle down and I started to get into the swing of life here. I became confident in my teaching ability and lessons have proven to be easier and easier to plan ever since.

The things that made life difficult here almost always came down to communication issues, whether it was with regard to cancelled or re-scheduled classes, or simply not knowing how to ask simple questions. Eventually things just started taking care of themselves. The more I got used to the fact that I’d just have to roll with the punches the easier life became.

The first semester was definitely easier than the second mainly due to having more available co-teachers. I feel like in the second semester I was trusted more to teach on my own which worked against me rather than for me as trying to control a class of kids who don’t speak your language can be a constant struggle, no matter how experienced you get at it.

The kids have (for the most part) been what have made this experience so worthwhile. Although there have been bad classes they have mostly been a joy to teach and get to know and I’m sure that I’ll miss them in the months to come. I haven’t quite figured out how to tell them that I’m leaving yet, I’m really not sure whether they’re aware of it or not.

There are things I’ll miss about living here and there are things that I won’t and I guess I should spend some time talking about those things. We’ll get the negative stuff out of the way first, in list format, things I’m going to be so glad to leave behind:

Not being able to communicate effectively (and therefore struggling to fully engage with the culture), the spiciness of the food, dak glabi stomach (something that I’ve spent many hours on the toilet dealing with), soju, kids that won’t listen when I tell them to sit down, kids that scream, kids that try and poke me, the bitterly cold winters and ridiculously hot summers, the raspy voice of the man in the bus station, the lack of individualism (this is one of the key players in reasons I couldn’t stay here for another year), couples who wear the same clothes,  having to say hello to everyone, soldiers being everywhere, the hill I have to walk up every single day, taking walks and stumbling across army bases that just get in the way, people gozzing everywhere, the smell of smoke, the smell of sewage on Seoul sidewalks, and kimchi. I won’t miss that at all.

Then the things I’ll miss, and long for: kids that laugh at my jokes, engaging with students and having fun with them, school dinners with Mr. Chae who tries to get me to eat super hot peppers, sharing a coffee with the maintenance man every morning, the beautiful bus journey through the mountains, the gushing rivers, the mountains, Korean barbeque, the smiley buzzy faces on my students when they’re enjoying my class, school lunches, the fresh air, the low cost of living and extremely generous pay packet, rides home with my Kindergarten teacher, the five day market, the way Russell sulks when he loses a game, Nathanael’s home cooking, norae bang (karaoke) , and the sense of achievement I get out of my job.

All in all I’m looking forward to leaving, after all, I have a lot to look forward too, this time next week I’ll be at the airport flying out of this country for the first time since January. I’ll be moving onto a totally new chapter of my life and will no longer have to worry about lesson plans and motivational tools. This week will no doubt fly by, today I had my final Kindergarten class and was presented with a lovely booklet full of pictures that my kids drew for me, and a CD of photographs from throughout the year, it got emotional in there. Tomorrow we’ll be heading to the fish restaurant for the last time to get some of that wriggly octopus we are so fond of, Wednesday we’ll be having dinner in town for the last time, Thursday I’ll be having my leaving dinner with my school followed by Birthday cake for Natalie, then Friday marks the end, we’ll be getting on a bus and leaving Sachang-ri behind. Leaving my students behind. Leaving this life behind.

For good.

Hwacheon Tomato Festival

The Hwacheon Tomato Festival has been held in the small village of Sachang for ten years now. The highlight of the event is a huge tomato medal hunt in which five golden rings are hidden amongst thousands of tomatoes that are sprawled out on the road. Everybody dives into the tomatoey, watery mess, throws tomatoes and searches for the rings. I couldn’t quite decipher what the prize was, something worth getting covered in tomatoes for, I suppose.

The festival set itself up on Friday, two large balloons floating above the road highlighted where the festival was. Nathanael and I walked down to the festival on Friday afternoon. At this time there wasn’t much going on, people looked like they were still setting things up. The sun was shining and it was interesting checking out all of the stalls that were on offer, we also watched a small parade that I suppose marked the opening of the festival.

We watched the real opening from the roof of our apartment block. We were merrily  playing rummy when we heard what sounded like bombs going off outside, it turns out it was fireworks and we darted up to the roof to watch the display, which was pretty impressive considering it was all about tomatoes.

Saturday was the main event. The town was heaving with people; I’ve never seen so many people here, so many cars on the road. We were meeting two Korean high school students from Deanna’s’ school. They run the English club there and wanted to hang out with us during the festival. It was good to have some guides. Joshua (one of the students) told us that he had been to the festival every year. He was ready to dive into the tomatos, but Nathanael and I opted for observation. Two giant lorries offloaded the tomatoes onto a red plastic sheet that was sprawled out across the road. Tractors and people with spades proceeded to sprawl all of the tomatoes out across the road. Then it was time to go. Everyone leapt into the tomatoey mess with much excitement, a fire engine started blasting everybody with water and I couldn’t help but think about how many delicious tomatoes had gone to waste. Soon after, the smell hit me. Gosh, it was a repugnant smell and everyone was gleefully covered in tomatoes from head to toe.

It was strange seeing an influx of foreigners in town; I think I’ve only seen one other foreigner in our town the whole year so seeing hundreds of them was strange. They were doing what foreigners in Korea usually do; being loud, obnoxious, and taking photographs of each other making outlandish facial expressions. I guess it’s kind of hypocritical to complain about that, they were just having fun. After the main event we strolled down to the stage set up at the head of the road and watched some Korean party games before a huge spaghetti cook off.

Elsewhere at the festival there were overpriced food stalls, several ‘Olympic’ events, like tomato soccer and tomato archery, its probably best not to ask about these events as they weren’t anything special. There were also several stalls selling tomato based products. I’m not sure how much money the festival bought to the town but I’m sure it bought a lot to the county. The food stalls weren’t anything special but we used them to eat most of our food over the weekend, but if you want to sample good Korean food then festivals probably aren’t the best places.

There has been a heat-wave here over the first week of vacation something that ended on Sunday with a day full of rain, which brought the festival to a close on Sunday afternoon. Outside of attending the tomato festival I’ve done lots of cleaning and packing things up ready to move out. I’ve cooked a lot and played a lot of cards with Nathanael. I went to Chuncheon on Monday to get my haircut and do some shopping; mostly I’ve just been chilling out and awaiting Natalie’s arrival. I’m happy to say that she’ll be arriving this Friday. There’s so much to look forward to, the next few months are going to be something special…

Summer Camp

Well, long time no see my fellow brothers, sisters, comrades. I’ve not written a blog in a while. I’ve been busy, mostly, also I’ve been procrastinating, mostly busy though, I promise.

School ended on July 24^th and starting July 25^th I’ve been teaching an English camp at my school. Today was the last day of camp and I can’t pretend that I’m not happy it’s over. Summer camp has been very different to winter camp. During winter camp I had a maximum of three forty minute classes per day and on one day a week I had only one forty minute class. I also taught winter camp from a textbook. During summer camp I’ve been teaching two, one and a half hour classes, every day. The first class being grades one through two, and, the second class being grades three through six. I had no text book this time around so I had to make things up as I went along. It’s been stressful at times. Summer camp was the equivalent of three weeks of winter camp smashed into eight days.

Camp started off incredibly well; in my first class on the 25^th I had about seven students in the lower grade class and a whopping fourteen students in the higher grade class. The first day of camp I had a super hero theme. I taught sentences like ‘he can fly’ or ‘he is wearing a mask.’ The students got to make their own superhero and play some games and the camp ran incredibly smoothly, I enjoyed it. This continued through Around the World camp on day two, in which I taught the continents, and some basic ‘I’m from Korea’ stuff, and it continued through Amazing Animals camp on Friday which was one of the best out of the bunch. The kids enjoyed the activities and games and there were enough kids in each class to have a lot of fun.

The second week rolled around and students started to drop off, there were only ever four kids in my lower grade class right through to the end after that, and on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday I only had two kids in my higher grade camp which was incredibly stressful. Having planned a class for twelve or more kids and then having two show up really knocks your plans out of the window. You have to be good at improvising.

Monday was Pirate camp which went pretty well mainly down to the fact that the bulk of the class was taken up by making pirate hats and eye patches. We did food on Tuesday, Under the Sea on Wednesday and Weather on Thursday. This was a struggle, whilst the classes didn’t bomb they felt stretched like butter over too much bread. The activities and games felt repetitive and students were losing interest because it was hard to engage such small classes. I did my best though and I’m pretty sure they took something away from those camps. Today was the best out of the whole summer camp even though I was really worried it was going to bomb, I guess taking risks is worthwhile.

Today we had Olympic camp. Luckily, (due in part to the incredibly nationalistic mental state of the country) the kids were really into the Olympics. I introduced the topic, taught them gold, silver and bronze and then got on to teaching them the names of all of the Olympic games and to my surprise even the lower level kids were remembering the long words like ‘gymnastics’ and ‘synchronized swimming’. We then made some medals and had our own elementary school mini-Olympics, something that could have flopped very easily but turned out to be a blast.

I’m glad it’s all over now though. I have two weeks off and then I’m back at school for a week before my contract ends and Natalie and I leave on our travels. The year has gone by very quickly, or at least, it feels that way now I look back on it. The reality is that it dragged in places and there were as many highs as there were lows. It has been a worthwhile experience coming to teach here and I’ve managed to save a great deal of money, most of which I’ll be spending (or have already spent) on the trip.

I feel like a year was enough for me and I’m looking forward to moving onto the next chapter of my life, one that will be filled with many an adventure through many a strange land. That’s what this has all been about. I was sitting in my trailer on Cape Cod this time three years ago dreaming of a day when I would take off and travel around the world, I even pictured myself teaching English in Asia to raise the money for such an odyssey, three years later and I’m proud to say that I’ve achieved that dream. My twenty-one year old self would be proud of me, and I’m kind of proud of me too.

Time for vacation, a well earned vacation.