One week in the Perhentian Islands

Our next stop, recommended to us by a friend, was the Perhentian Islands. There are two islands, about 30 minutes by speed boat from the mainland. There were many beaches to stay at on both islands, but we chose to stay on the small island (Kecil), on long beach. It was the largest beach and offered the most accommodations at backpacker prices.

Upon arrival, we decided to check out a couple of accommodations that we had researched beforehand, but didn't book in advance because I had thought there wasn't any need. After checking three different places, we realized that it would have been a good idea to book ahead since nothing was available. Considering we were carrying our huge backpacks up and down the beach now for about an hour or so, Kristin wasn't in the best of moods anymore (mainly because I'm an idiot) and we decided to settle on a place called the Symphony Village. Bad idea. We put our bags in our room and left for supper. After a nice supper on the beach, we were both in a better mood, until we got back to the room. Upon closer inspection, we noticed rat shit everywhere. Overall, the room was pretty gross and creepy. I decided I could handle staying there for one night. Despite my assurances that we'd be alright for the night, Kristin had a bit of a meltdown involving tears and we decided to search elsewhere for a room. After a few tries at different places, we got a room at the Mohsin Chalets. It wasn't anything special, but it was far better than the room we were in at the Symphony Village. We checked out, hoping to get some of our money back since we'd only been in it for a couple hours, but it was of no use. No big deal though, it was only about $20.

That night, we went down to the beach where a small bar was set up renting Hookah's and selling beer. It was really chilled out, and we came here almost every night during the week. The had a ton of different flavors of Hookah, and unlike the bars in Seoul, the wouldn't take it away from you after about an hour or so. Instead, they'd give you a refill. Once again, beer wasn't as cheap as I had hoped, but since it was a remote island, I wasn't complaining.

The bar setup

Beers and a Hookah

The following morning we were on the lookout for a new room closer to the beach and we lucked in. We found an amazing room at the Panorama Chalets. We got a spotless A-frame room, which we stayed in for the remainder of the week. Despite it being far better than any of the room we had stayed in up to this point, it was only about $25 a night. On top of that, the small resort had by far the best restaurant on the beach, and great prices as well. It which showed movies on a big screen every night during supper. Nothing fancy, but considering the island didn't have any power and required the resorts to use generators (usually only from 7pm to 7am), this was a pimp spot to be.

Our home for a week

The remainder of our stay was perfect. The beach, was possibly the best I've been on. The sand was white and the water was crystal clear. On top of that, there was hardly anyone on the beach despite that it was suppose to be the busiest beach among the two islands. During the day we mainly just laid on the beach and read.

A couple days into our stay, we decided we'd like to try scuba diving. Our resort had a dive shop ran by a great British couple. Before we did any reading or studying, our instructor had us out in the water practicing some skills and going on our first dive. It was a pretty unique experience, and one that I don't think you can be entirely prepared for. The whole act of breathing underwater is pretty odd, but awesome as well. The second half of the course wasn't quite as exciting though, because we had to do a bunch of reading and watch a couple hours worth of videos. This wasn't exactly what you'd want to do on a beautiful day on a tropical island, but what can ya do. We went out for a second dive the following day, and it was incredible how many fish we seen. I've been snorkeling countless times, and it doesn't compare to scuba diving. We were able to see a sea turtle, some spotted stingrays, puffer fish and a ton of other fish that I can't name. Kristin and I were both blown away by the how great the experience was. We had to write a small test and we're now PADI Scuba Divers. We were hoping to complete the next step in the PADI certification process and become open water divers, but we never did, so hopefully we can do that on our next vacation, wherever that may be.

The island, despite being isolated, had some really good food. Whether it's a traditional Malay breakfast, I'm not certain, but nearly everyday I had banana porridge. It doesn't sound that exciting, but it was amazing. I still think about it and wish I could have it in the mornings. The few mornings that I didn't have it, I had banana pancakes which were equally as great. Perhaps I have a crush on banana's. We didn't really eat lunch all that often because it was so hot we didn't have much of an appetite. You would think that in the heat we'd drink beer or something along those lines, but instead we heffed it up and had milkshakes. Mars bar milkshakes and they were as good as they sound. The remainder of our meals were either barbecued on the beach or a curry or a mixture of the two.

Spot where we had lunch/milkshakes

Of all the places I've been, I've never been more satisfied or had such a willingness to go back as I do with the Perhentian's. The atmosphere was extremely laid back and exactly what we were looking for. We spent nearly a quarter of our vacation here, and we now wish we would have stayed longer.

Journey to Malaysia Part 2 (Taman Negara)

Our next stop was in Taman Negara. The oldest rain forest in the world. In order to get there, we had to take a bus for about 3 hours and then a small wooden boat for another 2 hours. The boat ride was great. I kept my eyes open hoping to see some animals, but I never saw a thing.

When we finally arrived, it had to be about 35 degrees and 100% humidity. I don't typically sweat too much, but in this jungle the sweat was pouring off of me. We booked a room in advance at a small guesthouse, but upon seeing it, we decided to keep looking around at other guesthouses. After about 20 minutes of looking we said the hell with it and stayed at the next one we looked at because the heat was too much to handle while carrying our big backpacks. The area was incredible to see, as many guesthouses were set up in the jungle, and all along the river there were small floating restaurants.

Floating restaurants

The rooms at our guesthouse were decent, but we ran into a few problems. The first room's screen doors would not lock so we moved to another room. The new room appeared to be perfect at first, but once it got dark out, we realized that the light in our room didn't work for more than 5 minutes at a time.

The first night, we decided we should go on a night safari. After getting all dressed up and coated in bug spray, we were ready to go. However, we forgot our park passes, which were required for any trips. I went back to the room to get them, searched for 5 minutes in light, then the light went out. I tried again for another bit in the dark, no surprise, I couldn't find the passes. Kristin came strolling in and found them in an instant. After all of 10 minutes looking for these passes, I was soaked in sweat. On top of that, we ended up being late and never got to go on the night safari. At this point, I told the front desk about our crappy light and they managed to fix it.

The following day, we went on a jungle trek and canopy walk. The canopy walk was pretty fun, as you were up over a 100 feet from the forest floor. We ended up in a group with about 15 other people so it felt rather touristy; something we were hoping to escape by visiting the jungle. The jungle trek, although very informative about the plant and animals of the rain forest, was slow because we were part of the large group. One highlight of the trek though, was our guides story about how he had seen two tigers a couple years back. He had taken two men on a 5 night trek through the jungle. During this, you hike all day, make camp in the evening and sleep in the jungle every night. Probably pretty cool, but also probably pretty scary at night. Anyways, he encountered two tigers ahead of him, and said he nearly shit his pants but had to remain calm to keep the two men he had with him calm. The tigers continue to follow the three men everywhere. An overweight woman in our group asked if anyone had ever been eaten by a tiger in the area, and apparently it had happened a few times. If you think the tour guide was going to continue with his story at this point, your wrong. Instead, he pointed out that if the tiger were to attack our group, he would eat this woman because she was the biggest meal. Everyone in the group was caught off guard by this comment and just stood in awe. The guide wasn't finished with his insults yet. To top it off, he pointed out that if the tiger ate her, it would be such a big meal that he wouldn't have to eat again for a week! I didn't know how to react, because you don't generally see people insult others so bluntly. I'm not even sure how the tiger story ended, but I'm certain that our guide never got eaten.

Kristin on the canopy walk

The jungle trek

Looking fly

That evening, we went on the night safari. I didn't have high hopes, because the 4x4 that we took went off the park and into a palm plantation. Our guide told Kristin and I that we wouldn't be seeing any elephants or tigers, so I figured this safari was going to be pretty lame. I was wrong though. We ended up seeing a leopard cat, a crazy tree frog, wild boars and even a flying squirrel. We thought at first the flying squirrel was a monkey, because you could only see its eyes. Then, all of sudden the animal jumped from a tree about 200 feet high and flew through the air about 300ft into another tree. Pretty impressive, especially since I thought it was a monkey at first, and he was offing himself.

Feeling that we had seen enough of the jungle, we decided to head out the following day to Pulau Perhentian. Getting there proved to be possibly the worst drive I've been on in my life. Nearly the entire drive was up and down small hills, with a road that was more windy that any back road I've been on in Canada. The drive wasn't really that scenic either, as most of the country's rainforest's have been converted into palm plantations. Kristin and I were both nearly sick, but took some Gravol and made it.

Journey to Malaysia

Well, its nearly August, and I'm about to write about what happened back in April. I have no excuses for not writing sooner. I haven't been working, or really doing anything. However, I started working yesterday, and sure enough, I have decided to write about our month long trip to Malaysia.

Things didn't start out so well for us. Before we could leave, we had to hand in our apartment keys to the on-duty security officer. Due to the ever present language barrier, this didn't happen quickly. As a result, we missed the first bus to the airport. Once we arrived at the airport, we didn't have much time to spare. We got to the counter, only to find out that we needed to hand in our expired Alien Registration Cards, and get a stamp in our passports for it. Kristin and I run to immigration, get hassled about how we should have done this two days before (when the cards expired). Luckily, they just give us a warning and we're able to check in and get on the flight. We are going back to Korea in September, and I'm wondering if we were to do the same thing again, what would happen. Not that I plan on it, but she said it was a warning, so what's the next thing?

While on the flight, we notice a bit of a commotion happening about ten rows ahead of us. I couldn't see exactly what was happening, but some of the flight attendants were continually going to the bathroom holding bloody towels. After a little while, they request the assistance of any medical professionals on the PA. Kristin and I are both pretty curious about what the hell is going on, and she decides to investigate. Turns out, a young Korean boy had a bloody nose. Not a typical medical emergency, but this turned out to be quite the bleeder. After a short while, they get things under control and the crisis is averted. The boy nearly had a second episode when his mother caught him picking his nose. Lucky, there was no blood this time.

Our flight took us from Seoul to Kuala Lumpur. The city is known to have a wonderful variety of food and we certainly got our fill of it while we were there. Our first night, we had Chinese food, and sweat our balls off because of the incredible heat and humidity in the city. Although the food was cheap, the beer was not. It was comparable to Western countries, which seems atrocious compared to most others in Southeast Asia. The high price is due to the country being mainly Muslim. However, it was like heaven whenever you had a cold one, since it so delightful to drink in the incredible heat. Plus, it was Tiger beer, which is now a personal favorite.

The following day, we were keen on having some of the Indian cuisine in "Little India". We found a curry house just down the road from our guesthouse. It was a simple establishment, you got your plate of rice, and then chose the curry that you wanted to top it with. It seemed you could pile as much of it on as you wanted. This presented us with our first big cultural difference. Kristin and I ate our curry with a spoon and fork, while the Indian's ate theirs with their hand, but only their right hand. The left is reserved for other matter's which don't go well with eating. All in all, it was a great meal, and I think it only cost us a couple dollars.

We didn't really have much of a plan of things to do in Kuala Lumpur (KL as the locals call it), so we just got a tourist map and decided to walk around the city. Our first stop was a huge mosque, and we were lucky enough to see it during prayer time. Since it was prayer time, thousands of worshipers piled into the mosque, and around it to do what they had to do. The architecture of many of the mosques is quite remarkable.

We continued our trek around the city and ended up at the National Mosque. Oddly enough, we arrived there at prayer time. Quite a coincidence really. We got stuck in a downpour and had to seek shelter in some sort of religious building for about an hour or so. Following this, we visited a Bird Park and a Butterfly Park. Not really sure why we visited the bird park, Kristin doesn't really like birds, and I'm sure I could have lived the remainder of my life quite well without going, but we did. We just bought a new camera before the trip, so this proved to be a good opportunity to test it out. After all the walking, we decided it was time to head back to our hotel in Chinatown and get some supper.

Later on that evening, we visited the Chinese Market. It was filled with knockoff everything. There was watches, purses, luggage, movies, clothes and even shoes. I ended up getting a Rolex. The guy tried to make me pay nearly $200 for it, but I managed to get it down to about $15 and felt somewhat proud. I've never been good at bargaining because I'm just to lazy to be bothered with it. It's sad though, that some people are actually willing to pay such high prices for fake merchandise. Afterwards, we walked downtown to check out the Petronas Towers and test out our new Tripod. It was given to us when we bought the camera, and actually proved to be pretty useful for the trip. The towers were a marvel to see, and were actually one of the highlights of our trip.

C'est finis

I have just finished my final class.  Off on vacation for a month and back to Nova Scotia on May 12th.

See ya suckers later.

Sihanoukville, Cambodia

After getting off the bus, we grabbed a tuk tuk to the hotel we had booked.  It was night time, and at first, we were disappointed by the location of the hotel.  We had no clue where the beach was in relation to our hotel, and as a result we were not thrilled.  However, after dropping off our bags and doing some wandering, we were able to find the beach, which was only about 200m from our place.  We were pleased with the hotel overall.  We had a large villa, a pool and breakfast for only about $20/night.  It's amazing how much you can get for so little. 

I couldn't believe it when we seen the beach.  Nearly the entire beach had tables and chairs set up for supper.  We hadn't eaten in about 5 hours so we found a nice place to eat.  All the chairs at the restaurant were those big cushion lounge chairs.  I've never been anywhere before that had so many of them.  The beach must have had a few hundred.  I honestly can't remember exactly what we had that night, but I'm sure that it probably cost no more than $5 including a drink each.  Sweet deal, but not the best around.

We decided to have a few more drinks, so we stopped at small shack/bar.  Two of the bartenders were Canadians, and they were only 19 and 20 years old.  They were backpacking across Southeast Asia and stopped in Sihanoukville and were offered a room, food, drinks and some money in exchange for working at the bar.  Pretty sweet deal.  An even better deal though was the 25 cent draft beer they had.  Kristin and I talked to the workers for a couple hours and our bill ended up being about $3.  Some of the restaurants had fire shows at night which was pretty cool, but also scary because many of the performers looked about 12 years old and were in need of practice.

We didn't do a whole lot in Sihanoukville besides laze around on the beach, eat and drink.  During the day time, all the restaurants set up padded beach chairs all along the beach.  Provided you bought something from their restaurant, you could use their chairs all day long.   At night time, the beach chairs were changed for the dinner service.  The best deal on the beach was the BBQ.  For $3, you got fries, salad, garlic bread and a choice of chicken, beef, shrimp, squid, prawns or swordfish.  Couldn't go wrong with that price.

Cambodia is extremely poor and as a result you see a lot of children selling things on the beach, as well as beggars.  We were able to get along with most of the children selling things, because they were easy going and always made a few jokes (despite English not being their first language) but some of the beggars were annoying.  It's one thing to sell something in exchange for money, but to just wander the beach and bother people by asking for money is something else.  The kids sold things like books, bracelet's, fresh fruit and scarves.  All for dirt cheap too.  We bought some bracelet's, not because I wanted them (I never seem to wear them except on vacation) but more just to give the kids some money. We also bought fresh fruit, which a 12 year old girl chopped up in her hands for us.  We got hooked on mango's, and searched for them every day after this.

  

After buying three bracelet's from the two in the video, I was approached the next day by another kid.  I told him I didn't want anymore bracelet's, because I had already bought a bunch.  Showing some wonderful business skills, the boy made me an offer I could hardly refuse.  We play tic-tac-toe.  If I win, I get the bracelet for free, if he wins, then I have to buy one bracelet.  In our best of three series, he won the first game with ease, and then we tied the second.  In the next one, I got first go, and on my second go the boy told me that if I didn't put my X in a specific spot, I would lose.  Feeling that he's messing with me, I ignore his advice and quickly lose.  Now I've got three bracelet's that I'll probably never wear again.  

The weather was perfect the entire time.  It was probably about 35 every day and sunny, and believe it or not, I never got sunburned.  This was my first vacation that I never got sunburned.  It may have something to do with wearing SPF 45 the whole time, but my skin didn't turn red.  It also didn't turn brown or any other shade than white.  I have accepted the fact that my skin isn't meant to tan, only burn or stay white.  It's a sad reality but one I have come to accept.

Vietnam Finale

Our last stop in Vietnam was a small town called Chau Doc.  Our main purpose was to catch a boat that would bring us up the Mekong River, through customs and into Cambodia.  It was suppose to be a pretty straight forward method of crossing the border.  Since I'm easily conned into things, this was a good choice.  We had heard that customs officials at some of the border crossings will make you pay a "fee", which shouldn't be needed, to cross the border.

There's really nothing in the town.  Most of the locals make their living from fishing in the Mekong River which runs through the middle of it.  After some research, we found a small hotel that conveniently was where the boat departed from.  We booked the hotel for one night.  After our bumpy ride in the minivan to get there, we arrived at the bus station.  A scrawny man strolled up and offered to take us to our hotel.  I only mention he's scrawny because as he brings us over to his "ride" we realize its a bicycle rickshaw.  The poor guy had to bike about a kilometer or more carrying Kristin and I, plus all our baggage.  After he drops us off, I think he says the price is 50 dong.  After I give him the money, he nearly craps his pants.  His eyes light up in excitement.  After a little thinking, I realize that the price was probably only about 15 dong, but I couldn't understand him because of his accent.  Oh well, he earned the money.  Following my sweet tip, I'm met by a bunch of local entrepreneurs standing in front of my hotel trying to sell trips for the border crossing.  I tell them no.  I previously mentioned that I had done my research and found out that it was possible to book the boat at the hotel desk. In my opinion, it seemed a lot more legit  to book through them than some random guy standing in front of the hotel.

This hotel was certainly nothing to write home about (I realize I am writing about it now, whatever), but you couldn't beat the $9/night rooms.  They certainly weren't much, as we could hear the people in the next room speaking clearly, which also meant that we could hear every time they got up to use the bathroom.  I can't complain though, because that's obviously what you get for that price.  Besides the rooms though, I loved the place.  They had a little restaurant that was set up on a floating wharf in front of hotel.  From there, you could watch all the locals going about their daily lives on the river.   I feel this was probably the most authentic experience of the trip, because this was definitely not a tourist area and I could learn so much about them just by people watching.

Following a 530 wake up call, I was up and about.  I didn't request a wake up call, but received one from all the local fisherman who get their boats ready to go at that time.  At first I was pissed, because I'm not so great at getting up that early, but I was able to go watch them and their families as they prepared for their daily work and I felt much better.  

The boat left at 8am, and before we got it, we had to pay for our stay at the hotel.  Since the hotel booked the boat, I had to pay for that as well at this time.  Hovering over me like a hawk was a local man, who said I could pay him for the Cambodian Visa process.  Initially I thought I would need this, and considered it, but then realized he was definitely trying to scam me.  I just paid $30 for the boat trip, which included this Visa process, and now a man wants to charge me an extra $30 for the same thing.  I read through his bullshit and proceeded to the boat.  It's clear that my bullshit goggles are on now.

The boat ride was amazing.  We were able to see villages along the river, as well as fisherman and their families out working.  It was apparent that everyone in this area relied heavily on this river for their livelihood.  We sat beside a young cambodia woman who had the cutest kid I've ever seen.  During the entire 4 hour trip I don't think the kid cried once. The Visa process was hassle free, and no one even attempted to scam me. Perhaps the word SUCKER was no longer written across my forehead.  

After about 4 hours on the boat we arrived in Phnom Penh, the capitol of Cambodia.  Our goal 

was to get to a coastal town known as Sihanoukville by the end of the day.  We just got to a bus station in time to catch the last bus of the day.  Unfortunately, the seats we were given were located beside the toilet, which happened to stink, and behind quite possibly the stinkiest person on our planet.  I don't believe he had washed in weeks, and not because he was poor either.  He was playing a PSP the entire 4 hour bus ride.  He had enough money to buy that, but not enough to get a shower or consider throwing on some deodorant.  Some of the other people on the bus actually thought his smell was coming from the bathroom at first. After awhile they realized that although both smells were awful, they were completely different.  Once we arrived in Sihanoukville, I was so relieved to get off the bus and away from that guy.  His stench was so awful that I was frightened at the thought of ever running into him again during this trip.  I never took a picture of him because you can't see stink in a picture.

Returning to the Motherland

It's official.  I've booked my ticket back home.  I'll arrive March 12 at 2am.  I expect my huge fan base to be there.

I'm finished teaching April 7th.  Only 11 more teaching days left.

Big Debut

This year 12 teachers from my school left to go to other schools.  The school had a big farewell dinner at our provinces best galbi (beef and pork ribs) restaurant. During the dinner, all the teachers had little speeches likely saying about how much they will miss the school.  I say likely because I didn't have a sweet clue what they were saying.  We have a few dinner's throughout the year, and although it usually involves a nice free meal, they're pretty boring.

At the end of the dinner, my principal hands out a bunch of different envelopes and my co teacher gets one.  Out of curiosity, I ask what it's for.  Apparently the school has given out money given to us so we can all go out together after the dinner for the next phase of the night.  Phase was the word used, so I wasn't really certain what to expect. I was hoping it just involved having a few drinks, but only time would tell.  As everyone is getting their coats and things on they ask me if I'd like to go to a Norae Bang (personal Karaoke place).  I'd only had about one beer at this point, and whenever I've been to a Norae bang in the past, its usually at the end of a night of drinking.  I'm not liking the looks of it all, but decide to man up and go.

We get there, and I'm in a room with about 13 other women.  No men.  First thing, my principal comes into our room and sings a Korean song and he does pretty well.  Everyone claps.  My principal doesn't speak much to me at school, but with perfect English he asks what my favorite song is.  Trying to stall and not sing, I tell him that I have a few but I can't find any in the song dictionary (it contains songs and their codes) .  Without hesitating, he informs me that his favorite song is Love Me Tender.  He enters the number into the machine (all songs have a specific number) without looking at the book so I'm certain that he's sung this song a good hundred times before.  He starts it up and doesn't even look at the words on the screen, just belts it out.  He was good, really good. Once your finished, the machine gives you a rating from 0-100. Sure enough he got 100.  A Korean man singing an English song and he aces it.  I don't know how they rate a singer, but I've never gotten 100, and I think this may be the first time I've seen anyone get it.  Due to some Korean Norae Bang tradition, he takes out 10 000 Won (about $10) from his wallet, wets it and sticks it onto the TV. I'm under the assumption that if you match the score, you get the money. Thankfully he leaves the room and I continue to stall to put off singing.

My co teacher asks me who sings my favorite song and I tell her The Killers, but unfortunately they aren't in the book.  To my dismay, she flips to the bank of the book which just happens to contain newer songs that have been recently added.  I'm starting to get a little worried and as luck would have it, she found The Killers.  Mr. Brightside to be exact and entered it into the machine.  Within a matter of moments, I'm given the microphone and sent up to sing.  I'm a bad singer, not even OK on a good day so I wasn't too thrilled about this.  However, I give it my best. I quickly realize that all those times when I'd had a bit to drink and thought I was singing pretty good, I'm now pretty damn sure I wasn't. On top of all this, some of the women stand up and start dancing and shaking tambourines.  I'm almost feeling like a rock star here.  Singing it up, women dancing all around me, shaking their junk.  By junk, I mean their tambourines. The song finishes and I get a huge applause.  I think its out of pity but I guess it's better than getting booed.  My score........ 96.  Not quite enough to get the 10 000 won sitting on the TV, but its a nice score and I'm happy its over with.

That's not the end of my singing career at the school though.   A few other teachers belt out their favorite old time Korean songs, and despite the fact that I clearly never grew up in Korea and can hardly speak the language, they always feel the need to ask if I know the song that their singing. Clearly not.  Next, my vice principal comes into the room and says she wants to hear me sing.  I'm not angry, but I'm far from happy.  Not sure of what song to do next, I tell them to pick an old one for me and hopefully I'll know it.  Ohhh, the suspense builds as a couple teachers look at each other with smiles, then slowly turn towards me.  Dancing Queen.  Oh, how could they have known I was a die hard Abba fan?  I manage to persuade one of the other women to accompany me in singing.  Luckily, most of the teacher's know this song, so they all sing along.  As a result, it was hard to hear my horrible voice.  Score this time around is 97.  Somehow I'm getting better.  Not good enough to get paid for it yet though.  Two songs down, I must be done.

A few moments later, my principal rushes into the room and grabs me.  This comes as a bit of relief.  I'm thinking that maybe he wants to get out of this madness and grab a few beer.  WRONG.  Let's parade the white boy around to another room and have him sing for some more people.  It's not all bad though.  This time my principal wants to sing with me.  Must mean he like's me.  What in the world will we be singing together? Yesterday by the Beatles.  I don't really know the song all the well.  He did.  I think there's something wrong with that.  Things went fairly well though.  Sounded just like Paul and John back in the day, with a Korean accent mixed in.  My principal gives me a high five afterwards and leaves the room.  I turn to the TV to see our score.  100. Holy shit, I've done it.  I've never attained this level of perfection in the Korean Karaoke scene, but today was the day.  It started out well at 96, slight improvement to 97 and then with the aid of my principal I can now call myself a pro. 

My fingers and mind can already imagine spending the 10 bucks.  After all this insanity, I feel as though I have earned that money.  Unfortunately though, that's not how things works. If you get 100, even if there's already money on the screen, you don't get to take it.  You have to but more money up.  Who get's all this money in the end? Well, the company that runs this great establishment.  As a reult, it prolonged my singing career.  Once your time runs out they hand the money to the manager who adds some more time to your machine.

I was not quite finished yet though, there was still one more song left for me on this night. Within this new room and new group of teachers, they all come to the consensus that I should sing again.  Like they could read my mind and passion for music they chose my favorite song.  Dancing Queen.  My jaw nearly falls off my face.  I try to explain that I've already sang it once, but before I can get through to them, the music begins in the background and I'm off again doing my best to sound like a blond Swede.  Once the score is revealed at the end, its clear I did not give my best effort, but I'm happy.  91.  That means two things: 

1. I can keep the last bit of money in my wallet 

2. We are finally out of time and so are all of the other rooms.  No more Dancing Queen for this guy.

Vietnam Vacation 3

Yes it has been ages since I made my last post about my vacation, but I'm not getting paid for this, so sometimes its difficult to get myself motivated.

Last I left off, we were leaving Mui Ne and headed to Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City) for New Years Eve.  I feared for my life and that of others at first due to my personal problems, but they were cured by Imodium. This bus ride, although not as luxurious as the previous (no sleeping bunks) was smooth and we didn't have any gross water dripping on us.  When we first arrive in Saigon, I was actually a little uneasy about the whole thing.  The moment we get off the bus, we look around and see a sea of scooters flying up and down the streets.  We wait for awhile in the hope that they will stop and allow us to cross but they never do. We had to turn to the local method.  Just walk across and hope to god you don't get hit.  Scary as all hell, but it works, and they don't even honk at you.

We decided to stay at a small hotel called the Bich Duyen.  If your ever in Saigon, stay here.  It was fairly cheap, and the owner/operator may have been the nicest person I have ever met.He goes above and beyond for the guests!  The moment we arrived he quickly greeted us and gave us a small map of the area telling us about numerous sites to see and also signed us up for a tour the following day.

We were both really tired from the long bus ride, and decided to go grab a coffee.  We found a little spot just down the road from our hotel.  We ordered two coffees and we got two of the strongest thickest coffee's I've ever had.  We both thought they were weird and maybe this place didn't know how to make coffee.  However, this turned out to be a typical coffee in Vietnam.  Sure this is seeming like a brutal story because you don't care about my coffee. I only tell this story because what we thought was just a little coffee shop, was actually a little brothel posing as a coffee shop.  Shortly after we sat down, another foreign man came in, sat down by himself and was quickly joined by two ladies from the back of the place.  Feeling a little awkward, we quickly finished our mud like coffee and left, not wanting to stick around and see what happened. 

Both Kristin and I were still a little under the weather so we took it easy that night. We went out for a supper and had a few drinks.  With a sketchy beginning to this day, and uncertain of whether I was fully over my case of the runs, I thought going easy was a good plan.  It was actually a pretty relaxing night, and to my surprise, at the strike of midnight I didn't see a single firework. Not one.  The Vietnamese follow the lunar calendar (Westerner's follow the solar one) and this wasn't actually NYE to them, but I still expected to see a couple fireworks.  The Asian culture just loves fireworks they could have least fired a couple off.

The following day, we were up at about 7 am (told you I didn't drink much) to go visit the Cu Chi tunnels.  They were created during the Vietnam war by the Vietcong and also by farmers in the region.  They would hide in these underground tunnels while their area was infiltrated by the Americans and then when the Americans would least expect it, they would hop out of a hole and kill them.  The tunnels were extremely small, and you had to squat down for most of it, and in some areas you had to crawl.  I was a little uncomfortable being down there for about five minutes, I couldn't imagine actually living down there.

Through this experience, I gained a different perspective on the first Rambo movie.  In the film, Rambo hides in the mountains somewhere in America, and is chased by the local police.  He sets up all sorts of booby traps which ultimately kill most of the cops.  I originally thought Rambo was a genius when he made all the traps, but in fact, these are the same booby traps made by the Vietcong and farmers to get the Americans.  He was just a copycat.  Our tour guide on the trip showed us with great pride all the traps that were created and how they would hurt people.  Some were not even meant to kill people, but actually just shove spikes into a soldiers nuts. Like this one below:

I would have expected our tour guide to have hard feelings towards the Americans and say a lot of things about them, but he didn't.  Instead, he talked about the great things that the Vietcong was able to accomplish during the war.  His favorite was that they were the first people to shoot a B-52 bomber out of he sky.  A feat never accomplished before because the plane flew at such a high altitude.  He must have talked about this event three or four times on the trip.

Following our trip to the tunnels, we decided to visit the Vietnam War Museum to shed some more light on the events of the war.  We were both shocked at all the horrible events and lasting effects on their country.  Not only was their land riddled with land mines, but much of their economy was in shambles because theirs farmlands had been ruined by chemicals.  The whole experience was very informative and enlightening. I actually felt slightly ignorant that I didn't know about everything that had occurred.  As a result, I quickly downloaded some movies about the war when I got back home and I found it quite disturbing.

We stayed a total of two nights in Saigon and then booked a bus to a small river town called Chau Doc.  Our helpful hotel owner helped us book the bus, but to get to it, we needed to go to the other side of the city.  Once we arrived at the bus terminal, we quickly realised that this wasn't the normal bus stations we had been use to.  This was entirely locals, and a little frightening. Not that I feared for my life, but I just felt as though this was an opportunity that I was probably going to be conned.  There was an old woman who may have been 100, that looked at me ticket, yelled at me and then directed me to the other side of the terminal.  My bus, well minivan, was actually right in front of me, and the old bitch was trying to make me miss it.  Even the seemingly kind elder's were out to get me.

The bus ride that ensued was about 6 hours down the bumpiest roads I've ever traveled. We drove through small farming villages along the Mekong Delta and although it was a long drive it was still really exciting.  I actually loved it.  Well, not all of it.  I kept trying to take pictures, but even with the anti-shock option turned ON on the camera, it was no use.  The camera wasn't meant for these roads.  I'm near useless when it comes to camera's.  I'm not technologically inept. I just don't think to take any pictures, or care to take them for the most part.  When I actually do take them, they usually look pretty crappy and this was just another example of that.

Where's the logic?

I felt I was in need of some new denims and went to Ewha University station in Seoul.  The area has tons of cheap trendy clothes.  I've been there a few times, and actually got my lovely Christmas sweater from there.  Overall, I've been pretty content with everything I've bought in the area.  

After a little wandering around the other day, I stumbled on a new store that had some nice looking jeans for about $20.  I decided to look around the area a bit more before buying anything, and in the end I came back to the jean store.  After about 20 minutes or so of looking through their selection, I finally find a pair that I like.  So, I ask to try them on.  Not allowed.  This doesn't shock me though, because a lot of places in Korea don't let you try their clothes on.  To be more accurate, they don't let foreigner's try their clothes on.  I've asked in many places before, only to get turned down, and then see a Korean come out of the change room with some clothes that he'd just tried on.  

I really like the pants, but now I'm unsure if it's such a good idea to buy them without knowing whether or not they fit.  For only $20 though, I figure I should buy them, and if they don't fit, I can just give them to someone else and they won't be a total waste.  I decide to make the purchase.  After paying, the cashier hands me a receipt and tells me that I can bring them back within a month and exchange them if I need to.  Wouldn't it make more sense to let your customers try on the pants before they bought them? To me it certainly would, to them I guess not.  

I get home, try the pants on, and well, they're pretty snug.  The material also feels super cheap, but I could have expected that.  Now, I have to make the one hour train and subway trek back there just to exchange the damn things.  A trip I could have saved myself from making if they would have allowed me to take 5 minutes to try them on, find out they didn't fit, and get the next size up.  My time is counting down in Korea, and I can't afford to make all sorts of needless trips.

I have one fear about this whole thing though.  Countless stores open and clothes (HAHAHAH, pun wasn't intended, but I seen it after editing and had to leave it) within a month or two all over the place.  Could this be one of those stores? If so, and following with my great luck in 09, they'll be all closed up and I'll end up with a pair of really tight pants that I may only be able to fit nicely into by hoping into my Delorean and traveling back to about 2000.

The Greatest Job in the World!

One of my friends applied for "The Greatest Job in the World" competition.  Go to:

http://www.islandreefjob.com/applicants/watch/l9ZGQDz_UHM and vote for him!

Question

If anyone uses Blogger, and the have a hit counter on their page, please tell me how the hell you add it.

I've searched through so many gadgets that can be added but haven't had any luck.  It must be there, there's over 6000 gadgets. Some count the worlds population, the US debt, there is no way that a counter for hits to my blog is not available!

Edit: Through a couple hours of browsing I have solved my own problem. 

3 Little Tidbits

Graduation

Today is graduation for many of my students.  However, despite it being graduation, they still have to come into school tomorrow for closing ceremonies (not sure what the difference will be). FYI the Korean school year runs from March to February, in case you were confused about grad being held now.  Do I get to have a week and a half off after graduation like many other teachers at my school? No chance, I was informed yesterday that I have been given the privilege to run another English Camp.  One week to prepare for 20 hours of class with one group of students, should be a fuckin blast.

Long Lost Friend

A few years ago, Body Break aired some new commercials, featuring a much lighter (skin color) version of Hal Johnson.  I had faith that it was still Hal, but many of my friends believed it was a different person.  After a few beer, I found Hal's email address and wrote him concerning his new appearance.  He never wrote back.  I thought he was insulted that I may have lost my faith in the Body Break crew, so I wrote again. Still no reply.  I took the hint and never tried again.  It was looking like Hal didn't want to be my friend.  Fast forward to this morning (yes I am writing about it that quickly!), and I get a notification on Facebook that Hal Johnson has confirmed my friend request.  Facebook must have sent him an automatic request because he was on my email list.  I am one of only 8 friends.  I am among a Canadian Athletic and Media legends top 10 friends (according to Facebook). Jealous? Oh, your so jealous!  

What kind of pictures does Hal put on his Facebook page? Well, there's two.  A stunning profile pic probably from 10 years ago, and a recent one where he got his first hole in one.  I'm speechless! Hal Johnson, Mr. Body Break, only just got his first hole in one? I would have figured he'd have a dozen or so by now.  I guess he's just human.

Edit: Hal's hole in one was on a par 4.  Why do it on a par 3 when your good enough to do it on a par 4?

My Changing Luck

I have pretty good luck.  I don't know why I deserve it, but I'm happy about it.  Kristin on the other hand, doesn't seem to have that great of luck.  Most things seem to work out nicely for me, but not for her. 

Two weekends ago, I went to Gangnam for a little gambling and supper. I got much more than I was expecting out of the day. I went to the casino, lost at blackjack and was upset. Not only because I lost, but because I ordered a drink and waited forever to get it, and didn't get it.  It was just a coffee too.  Not like I was trying to get drunk for free. Frustrated, I decided to sit down at baccarat. I won all my money back that I lost at Blackjack, plus more.  I ordered another coffee there and got it! No big deal though. On the bus ride home I was first in line and got a seat. Half way home a young Korean woman standing in the aisle barfed on me.  I was first in line, got to choose any seat I wanted, and I chose this hazardous seat. To top it all off, it was projectile vomit! Sounds scary but luckily, only a little bit came out and I was just spotted. Even luckier, she had a whole package of wet naps in her purse so I was able to get cleaned up. 

Kristin and I are in a bit of a debate about whether the puker was drunk or just sick? I think she was just sick because she had the composure to hold most of the barf in, and also get me some wet naps.  Plus, she said I'm very sorry in English....Twice!  On the flip side, Kristin's argument is that it was 11 pm on a Saturday night so she had probably been drinking.  We'll never know.

Vietnam Vacation Part 2

*If you this is your first read about my vacation, you should read Vietnam Vacation Part 1 first

As the story continues, we arrive in a little coastal town known as Mui Ne.   The first thing we notice as we get off the bus is this really weird smell.  Is it coming from me? Did something happen in my pants while I was sleeping? I was pretty sick.....Surprisingly no.  The smell follows you everywhere you go.  What is it? The water?   

We had booked a room at the Canary Resort.  We had difficulties finding rooms in the area, and settled on this place, but it cost a lot more than the rest of our hotels throughout the trip.  We decided to stroll around and see if we could find a cheaper place.  We stop at one spot, where we were greeted by a manager and he tells us we can get a room there for $50 a night.  This isn't any better than what we were going to be paying, so we decide to look elsewhere.  Before we leave, we are stopped by an Asian man.  He tells us that he's only paying $18 a night for his room.  Close one, I was nearly conned into something else.  Like I told you before, they know I'm a sucker and are just waiting to work their magic on me. The manager then tells one of the employees to show us around, and he shows us a couple of rooms which are shockingly only $18 as well.  They were pretty dingy so we passed and after some useless walking around, we decide to go back to the Canary.   

Upon check in, we are informed that they double booked our room, so unfortunately we have to get bumped up to a deluxe room.  Ahhh, so unfortunate for us.  We check into the room and I find that most of my clothes and all of my underwear are wet.  How it got wet, I don't know, but probably from the same water that dripped onto Kristin during the bus ride.   Some of it had a dark muddy look to it (no, not the inside of my underwear, no need to report that in here), mostly just my shorts and shirts.  I put them in a laundry bag and sent them for washing.  The rest, about 8 pairs of underwear, I drape on the balcony and around the room to dry.   Luckily were in a beach area, so I don't really need my underwear too badly.  I can strut around in the nude.  Or wear shorts.  Probably the latter since bearing breasts is illegal, I don't think bearing bird would go over too well. We head down to the beach, and find that it is much nicer than Nha Trang, although that didn't take much.  It was really quiet there, but like Nha Trang, it was overcast.  A nice theme to Vietnam.    The rest of our stay here was cloudy with the exception of a few hours here and there.

I was still a bit sick at this point in the trip, and now Kristin was beginning to get the same thing. I had a fever, and as a result, did some sweating throughout the night.  The next day after breakfast, we come back to our room and there's two maids in there.  Both of them are kinda acting odd, and are chuckling.  I have no sweet clue why.  Actually, I have a few ideas.  First, maybe they thought it was funny that my underwear were laid out all around the room, or they thought the sweat in the bed was my pee (they might not think this one is so funny though).  We took it easy that day, and mainly just lazed on the beach and read.  We also got to witness a great part of the culture.  While laying on the beach, a little boy comes running down the beach with a chicken in his hands and runs up to a little shack that's built beside our hotel.  

The manager and his prize fighter.

There was animals on this beach, just like the one in Nha Trang, but the ones here were alive.  We later seen the same boy leading about six cows down the beach.  Must be quite the manager/farmer (and all at the age of of about 10).  On a routine bathroom break, Kristin, as luck would have it, noticed a cock fight happening at the shack.  Out of clear excitement, I run up to the room and watch for a while.  

A battle of epic proportions.  Who will win? Sir Cluck Alot or Dr. Bird Flu?

But then I get bored.  I must have lasted twenty minutes or more watching, and even the locals that were present were beginning to leave.  No one must have expected these two cocks to have a marathon slug fest, but they did. I went back down to the beach. After about another half hour or so, the young boy comes strolling back down the beach with a big smile and his chicken held proudly in his arms.  He was the proud owner of a winning chick.

Mui Ne is known for a few things:  Giant sand dunes (red and yellow ones), a fishing village and fish sauce.  We decided to take a day tour and see some of the sights.  We were picked up by an old army jeep that was circa 1970.  The first thing we do is head to a spot known as the fairy stream. I have no clue why its called a fairy stream.  It was a stream, it was in the middle of a red canyon (no comparison to the grand canyon), but there was certainly no fairies flying around.  However, it did allow me find out one mystery of the trip.  The weird smell was fish sauce.  They keep it outside in in giant pottery.  I certainly didn't try it on any of my fish.  Next we checked out a fishing village.  Sort of.  We stopped, took a picture of it, and then kept going.  We continued on to the sand dunes.  The first one, we end up with a young boy, maybe 14 who leads our way (clearly not needed as the dunes were gigantic and you couldn't miss them).  We get two crazy carpets to go sledding on the dunes.  I'm expecting a fast slide, but am let down.  Despite the hill having a very steep slope.  I was only able to travel about 40 feet down the hill on my crazy carpet before I ground to a slow stop due to my carpet getting buried in the sand.  The dunes were pretty nice to look at, but other than that, they didn't serve up too much excitement. 

When we get back to the hotel, I was covered head to toe, in amongst all my hair with sand.  I needed a shower because I spreading sand throughout the whole room.  After the shower, we head into town for a supper and a few drinks.  We end up at a great surf bar, appearance wise.  The service was the shits.   The menu looked great, I ordered some handmade ravioli.  While waiting, we have to listen to our server walk back and forth beside us sliding her feet along the ground in  because she's too lazy to lift them, and creating the most annoying noise.  After fifteen minutes of waiting, the server tells me they are all out. I have no idea why it took this long to figure this out, but it did.  Luckily, I'm a calm guy, I can wait.  I choose some herb chicken to have next.  After five minutes, they tell me they don't have any of that left. What the hell? I've spent twenty minutes waiting for food, listening to this effing server dragging her damn feet, I still have no food, and have to find something else to order.  A few moments later, I'm told that, oh, they now have chicken again.  Did they just go kill some chicken out back for me or was my heavy footed server really that clueless? The chicken ended up being delicious, no complaints about that.  

We headed back to the resort, and in our room on our nightstand is a small mound of dirt.  Where did it come from? A lot of sand came off me when I got in the room earlier, but it certainly didn't fall into a little mound, and then hop off the floor onto the night stand.  Was it a serial killer's trademark? Was he about to leap out of our closet and kick my ass? Nope.  The sand was a mystery.

Oooooh, so mysterious!

We decided we wanted to go to Saigon (Ho Chi Mihn City) for New Years Eve, so we book a bus for the following morning.  As we're eating breakfast, and I start to feel a few rumbles in my jungle.  Not what I need if I'm going to be going on a five hour bus ride.  Kristin, always expecting the worse, packed a little medical bag in her luggage, and lucky for me, there was Imodium. I run up to the room, go past the two maids who clean our room, and notice they're giggling.  Ahah, they're the sand droppers.  As a token of my appreciation for their little prank, I built my own sand dune on the floor of the room for them. Then, I take the pills.  According to directions, you should take two after your first incident, and then one after each successive incident.  There was only two in her bag.  I soon had another incident.  The bus was coming in 15 minutes.  Things were not looking good! I went to a little pharmacy across from the resort and they had Imodium as well. However, it was spelled Immodium (with two m's at the beginning).  This wasn't a time for being picky though, so I pop another pill.  Few moments later, another incident.  Oh good lord, how I'm going to make it 5 hours on a bus if I can't even last 15 minutes here.  I take a another pill, and thankfully, there's no more incidents.  But it does come at a cost.  Taking a bunch of Imodium causes you to get the reverse of diarrhea.....you know what I'm talking about

Vietnam Vacation Part 1

We left Korea on December 26 on a two week vacation to Vietnam and Cambodia.  Our first stop was Vietnam, here's how it went down.

The flight went good, we travelled on Vietnam Airlines, nothing fancy.  We arrived in Nha Trang, and it had a little airport.  My goal before the trip was to be tougher around locals and not get conned into paying the high prices. A huge fault of mine, I'm a sucker and I know it. Coming out of the airport was my first test.  There was a hoard of local taxi drivers who all swarmed me saying they would drive me to town.  

"Where you go?" taxi man.

"Umm, Nha Trang, how much?" me.

"Meter taxi"

"Well, how much will that be?"

"Ummm, $20"

"I'll give you $10"

"No sir"

"Fine, I'll fine someone else," this move usually works for Kristin, and they give in, but it didn't work with me.  No big deal, there are lots of other cabbies I can bargain with and hone my bargaining skills. I roam around, and then realize they all work for the same company and have fixed rates.  I talk to another guy and choose the fixed rate in Vietnamese Dong (currency) as opposed to the meter, which works out to be around $10 US. Things are looking good.  We hop in the cab, and he clicks on the meter.  I assume this is just for comparison purposes, because I've seen this in Korea as well.  We arrive at the hotel, I try to give him the predetermined amount, and he mumbles and asks for more.  I try to stand my ground but he tells me that I need a ticket, which he grabs out of the glove box (looked more like car registration to me) to get the set price.  How in the hell am I suppose to get a pre arranged ticket when I fly from Korea and you pick me up as soon I get off my plane? I'm pretty damn sure this little taxi company doesn't have a website where you can reserve and prepay for a taxi from the airport. Long story short, I failed my first test.  There are plenty more of those on this trip. I do manage to win some.

Nha Trang wasn't what we had expected.  There was a few nice bars, and some good food (I even ate crocodile), but the beach was far from ideal.  I think a storm had just past through as the water was very murky.  We took a walk along the beach, and along the way we noticed loads of coconuts smashed in pieces on the shore. That's cool, that's somewhat expected in places like this, I'm not complaining, it actually gives it a nice vibe.  Also seen a bunch of sandals washed up. Maybe somebody left one of there sandals on the beach, maybe they decide to swim with their sandals on and it didn't work out, I dunno, but that's OK. Then, we see a dead chicken, that could be justifiable if he had just lost a cock fight on the beach. Not a likely scenario but you never know. Then, to top it all off, we see a dead dog just lying on the beach. We decided to go back to the hotel and just laze around the pool all day.  Well, try to anyways.  It poured pretty much the whole day.  On top of that, I got pretty sick, the start of a few ailments.

We stayed two nights and then decided to head to our next destination.  Mui Ne. We book a 4 hour bus ride for about $5 each, and hop on a bus at 8 am.  We were expecting just a regular bus, but instead we got a sleeper bus, with a bunch of beds.  Mine was a little small, but I tried not to complain. Its better than sitting, plus I took some meds for my cold so I'm probably going to fall asleep anyways.  We drive around for about 30 minutes, then stop and pick up some more travelers.  The driver walks to the back of the bus, and tells Kristin and I we have to get off the bus because we apparently didn't book this bus, but instead we have to get on a sitting bus instead.  We hop off, take our bags and sit in a ratty old bus station.  I'm beginning to think this whole backpacking thing isn't as easy as it seems, or I'm just too stupid to be able to do it.  After about 10 minutes, another bus shows up, and we hop on that.  To my surprise and delight, there were beds on this one too.  They're bigger, and they have an adjustable top so you can make them into a seat.  Beautiful, things couldn't be better, for me anyways.  Kristin is sitting in a bed in the middle aisle just below an air conditioning vent and that's great until dirty water begins dripping out of it every time we hit a bump or go down a steep hill.  Which in Vietnam is pretty common.  We hit a rest stop and a few passengers hop off, and lucky for Kristin she gets a new seat.  Everything is going great again, until, yes, more dirty water pours out on her again.  This is probably the point where many of you are expecting me to be a real gentleman and give her my seat and let myself get the dirty water poured on me, but you won't read that here.  Sorry.