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.