11 posts tagged “travel”
Near the end of two and half weeks of travel through South East Asia, D and I found ourselves with a choice to make. We had gotten ourselves to Luang Prabang, but we weren't sure which direction to go next. We needed to end up in Bangkok about 4 days later, so we could either fly to Cambodia and spend too little time there, or we could head back into Thailand by plane or bus and see the well known northern city of Chiang Mai. We decided to fly to Chiang Mai, mostly because a 17 hour bus ride was at the end of the list of things I was interested in doing right then. We forked over 100 USD to the infamous Lao Airlines and spent only 1 hour in the air.
I had heard very good things about Chiang Mai before arriving. I was told that it was much smaller and less modern than Bangkok, and that it therefore felt much closer to traditional Thai culture. If you want to study the Thai language, Thai cooking or any other Thai art or sport, Chiang Mai is likely where you'll end up. Many small schools have opened there in the last 20 years to fill the tourists demand for studying authentic Thai culture.
The first thing I noticed off the plane was the slow pace of the city. In the few days we spent there, we only came across one major busy road. Though it is indeed a full-fledged city, Chiang Mai felt much more like a small town. The streets are not crowded, and people are friendly (There are friendly people in Bangkok too, but they are likely trying to sell you something). We were surprised at how laid back the Chiang Mai markets and restaurants really were.
Another thing the Chiang Mai area is known for is the tour package. Whether you want to go rafting, elephant riding or hiking among northern Thai villages, there is something for everyone. We opted to go on a one day tour that allowed us to do all three of those things. We started at an elephant park, where our group took a ride through the forest on elephant back. Then we went down a river on bamboo rafts. I nearly fell off about 8,000 times, but it was a great way to see what the bush looks like. We hiked through the forest to a waterfall, and later we toured around a village, where a native tribe has lived for hundreds of years. It was a day well spent and a great end to our vacation. Our pictures are here.
Laos is a country I had never really heard of until about a year ago. It's nestled between the more well known countries of Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia and China, but perhaps because it is landlocked it hasn't earned the same reputation among tourists looking for beaches. In the last few years, however, more and more tourists have been making their way across Laos by bus or river boat (the only real options for traveling aside from flying) to experience the relatively unspoiled culture. Compared to the busy and crowded cities of its neighbors, Laos is a breath of fresh air. It's also a communist country, but that fact seems to have little impact on most tourists (as long as they aren't trying to do or smuggle drugs).
In the middle of our winter holiday travels, we opted to spend a week making our way north from the capital of Vientiane to the village of Vang Vieng, and then onward to Luang Prabang (a world heritage site). Each place felt very unique, but they were all equally sleepy and relaxed. Vientiane is a rather small capital city, and is best known for its riverfront eateries and sunsets. Vang Vieng is a village of one major street (and no traffic stops) that caters purely to the tourists who find themselves there. The main street is comprised of restaurant after restaurant, serving everything from pizza to french toast (one of the remaining influences of the French colonization of Laos). Even more odd was that each restaurant had at least one giant flat screen tv mounted to the wall playing dvds of Friends, Family Guy and the Simpsons on repeat. If it weren't for the fact that you are sitting on pillows rather than chairs, you could easily drift into thinking you were not in the middle of Laos, but in Canada. This town is also known for its views, as it sits between the mountains, and beside the Mekong river. Many visitors take to the river on rubber tubes. Luang Prabang is the most northern city, known for its European influence in architecture and way of life, which likely had a hand in why I fell in love with this city immediately. I even had thoughts of returning to work with one of the many NGOs that are based there.
Unfortunately, I got a little sick at this point in the trip, which has tainted my image of the city. Plus, I'm not sure I'm ready to move somewhere that requires me to take daily malaria pills. Or that can only be reached by more than a day on a bus through the mountains. Although, you could also fly in on Lao Airlines, the airline with a less than stellar safety record. When we were ready to head back to the north of Thailand, we found ourselves on one of their planes. It wasn't all that bad, but I had my hands firmly gripped onto the arm rests for the entire one hour flight. After a week of hours long bus rides and lazy days, it seemed a much too short ride back to the more modern world.
As a public school teacher in Korea, I have almost 6 weeks off teaching in January and February. During this time, D and I decided to take two weeks of holiday and head south. Hoping to add to my list of 'cities I could live in', we took advantage of a cheap flight from Seoul to Bangkok, via Hong Kong. It seems a lot of international flights around Asia have stop overs in cities like Hong Kong, Taipai, and Tokyo, and with many tickets, you can extend your stay in the stop-over city for several days without an extra fee. Thus, we decided to spent three days in the former British colony before flying to Thailand.
I could definitely live in Hong Kong. Though it's a bit too civilized for D's taste, I loved being in such a modern city that still offered traditional Chinese culture. Sure, it's more expensive than Seoul, but it's also cleaner! You can get any kind of food, electronic, or clothing you can imagine. It has the outdoor markets, and street food of all Asia cities, but you can hop on the subway for a few stops and find yourself in a road that could easily be mistaken for NYC. I can easily say that Hong Kong is the most international city I've been to. We heard dozens of langauges being spoken, and saw people from all over the world. It's full of vibrancy, colour, and culture. I especially liked the odd mixture of architectural styles and shapes. Examples, here.
I was happy to simply wander around Kowloon for hours, but there were some stand out things we had to do before we left. My favourite parts of Hong Kong were the ones that gave me a view. We took a tram up to "The Peak", which is a small tourist village at the top of Victoria mountain on Hong Kong Island. It gives you the quintessential view of the city, and gets your heart beating with excitement. It was almost as good as the shots from "The Dark Knight". The other place I loved was the Tian Tan Buddha on Lantau Island. To get there, you can either take a bus (boring!) or take a gondola on a 20 minute trip up and into the mountains. We decided to splurge (which happened a lot in Hong Kong) and took the gondola on the way up. We made the trip near the end of the day, as the sun was starting to set, and it was one of the best moments of the whole trip. Sadly, the gondola windows do not make for good photographs. But, I love that you can travel for 30 minutes from the city center and then find yourself out in the mountains.
Last month we traveled around South East Asia for about two and a half weeks. We went to Hong Kong, Thailand (Bangkok and Chiang Mai) and Laos (Vientiane, Vang Vieng, and Luang Prabang). It was a wonderful trip, with a nice mix of food, adventure, culture and summer weather! I'll write about each place individually soon, but first I need to tell you about a discovery I've made. I've found the most fantastic travel shoes. They aren't necessarily meant for travel, but when I found them I thought they had all the makings of a good travel shoe, and I was right.
The company that makes these shoes is called TOMS. It was started by a participant of one of my favourite shows, The Amazing Race. While traveling through several developing regions Blake Mycoskie noticed many children were living without proper shoes. He had an idea and sought to help remedy the problem. He started TOMS shoes on the 'one for one' principal that for every pair of shoes he sold, he would donate another pair to a child in a country like Argentina or South Africa. Since he started the company in 2006, TOMS shoes has given shoes to upwards of 200,000 children around the world.
As soon as I heard about this company, I went to the website and decided I wanted to buy a pair of TOMS myself. I looked through the styles offered and settled on these. I loved the neutral colour and the wild animals print inside. Little did I know then that I would end up wearing them while riding an elephant! The next step, of actually purchasing said shoes, proved quite difficult since I live in South Korea. Unfortunately, TOMS doesn't currently send online orders to Asia, so I had to track down one of the 5 or so stores in Seoul that carry TOMS. I went to one in MyungDong, called 'ALand'. I was happy to find they stocked the style I wanted (and also that they have a second hand store on their 3rd floor!), and I happily forked over my $42 USD. I am proof that when you offer a customer something extra (especially something worthwhile) with their purchase, that customer is willing to pay a lot more than normal for your product.
I walked around in my TOMS before our trip, wanting to make sure they 'wore in' before we left. I was pleasently surprised to find they didn't need it. They were comfortable from the minute I put them on and they haven't stopped being comfortable since. I was also happy to feel how lightweight they are, which is the second most important traveling requirement. Comfortable? Check. Lightweight? Check. Two for two. The other benefits of making these my 'travel shoes' revealed themselves once we were on the road. In the past I traveled through warm climates primarily doning flip flops or other sandals. While I adore my flip flops, they do not keep my feet warm on night buses, and they do not protect my feet from mosqitos (who are potentially carrying malaria) or random things on the street I don't want to get on my feet. I was concered that they would feel too hot while I was walking around in the tropics, but I felt really comfortable in them. It was a bonus that my shoes seemed to go with almost everything I wanted to wear.
After two and a half weeks of wear through dirty cities and rough countryside, my TOMS held up very well. The quality of these shoes is very high, and I would trust them to stand up to a much longer trip as well. Obviously, I would recommend other travelers get a pair of TOMS. Not only do they make a great travel shoe, but they also give us an opportunity to improve the quality of life of people we often meet while traveling. Now I need to find a reason to justify the purchase of these lovely TOMS wrap boots.
There are a lot of places to fall in love with on this earth, but I have found there are few places that I feel especially connected too. In fact, I can only think of three such places. Two are from my childhood, and the third is Istanbul. I had no plans to go to Istanbul until a few weeks before I arrived. It was somewhere I wanted to get to, at some point, since I had met about a dozen lovely Turks when I lived in Amsterdam, but it was not on my 'near future travel radar'. Fortunately for me, two things happened which brought it directly to the center of my travel radar, where it would remain my one and only goal until I got myself there. First, my friend Tamara told me she was planning to go to Istanbul in the middle of April to visit our mutual friend Yaprak. Second, my one month tourist visa to Russia just happened to expire a mere two days before Tamara was to arrive. We had to leave the country to apply for our work visas anyway, and I realized, "Why not go to Turkey?". Well, there was no good reason not to go (actually there was, but I didn't know it at the time), so go we did.
I got to experience the tourist side of Istanbul, but also a little of the local side since I had many expert local tour guides who were quick to tell me about the history of their city while also explaining the ins and outs of Turkish culture and politics. My friend's mom even wrote up a guide to the city, complete with any information you could want about every interesting corner of Istanbul. Then she drove us around for an hour pointing out all of the important buildings. Talk about hospitality! Istanbul feels very European to me, but it has a special mix of east and west that I don't think could exist in many other places. The mosques and calls to prayer were two of my favourite things because they reminded me that this place had a lot more history and flavor than other European cities. Not to mention, it is just the prettiest place to put a city. Check out my photos to see what I mean.
I know why my experience in Istanbul made me feel so much at home. It was almost entirely because I was with very good friends. Friends who feel like family. Friends who let you stay at their gorgeous purple hillside house with a garden in the back and a view in the front. Friends who pick you up and drive you back and forth over the bridges countless times. Friends who you can hang out with for days uninterrupted. Friends who drag your butt out of bed for an excursion to tiny islands and share a horse carriage ride with you. I felt so calm, happy and loved being with these people, in this beautiful city. And the food! Talk about a cherry on top. Turkish food is so pure and simple and therefore delicious. Some of my favourite things were Pide (an arabic style pizza), Mercimek çorbası (lentil soup), Borek (a pastry filled with cheese, spinach or meat) and Baklava! Who am I kidding? I loved everything I ate and drank. I even developed a mild addiction to Turkish tea. With three sugar cubes please.
The only thing that tainted my glorious two weeks in Istanbul was the other reason I was there. The visa. I think I have finally learned that embassies do not run the way one would like or expect. They are exceptions to standards, rules, and, in my opinion, common sense. The problem in this case was that what the embassy told us when we called them was quite the opposite of what they told us when we had spent our money to come in person. Very long story short, we did not get our work visas, and so our plan to work in Russia fell through. Despite the outcome, I will not ever regret the decision to go to Turkey. It was two of the best weeks of my life, and now I know I have at least three places where I feel totally and completely at home.
I'm on a train to St. Petersburg. It's the second time I've made the trip from Moscow to the more northern Russian city. The first time was over a month ago, when I arrived in Russia for the first time and made my way to St. Petersburg for two reason: 1) To find a job and 2) To see if I would like to live there for a while. D and I spent three weeks there in total, seeing the city, looking for work, finding it, and beginning to arrange the paperwork. I also made some small attempts to learn Russian, but after three weeks I've only so far grasped the alphabet and some basic (but important!) vocabulary. We found a small language school that was looking for new native teachers and they decided to help us process our work visas so we could work for them. The story of what happened next is a long one, and one better left to another post, so in the meantime, I'll tell you about the beautiful city that is St. Petersburg (formerly known as Leningrad).
Someone told me recently that St. P ranks among the 5 most romantic cities in the world (along the likes of Venice, Prague, Paris, and Istanbul). I have no idea who conducted such research or how they went about deciding on judging criteria, but I would have to agree. You wouldn't think to place a former Soviet city with the others in this category, but maybe that's why it's considered romantic, because it's so unexpected! The beauty of this city is surprising (at least for me, someone who had few previous references to it). I remarked one day how I 've often found myself thinking "This street feels like any typical European neighborhood street", but then I would walk not 100 metres to come across some stunning piece of historical or architectural significance. St. Petersburg is packed full of things for tourists to do and see.
The same negatives exist in St. Petersburg as do in Moscow, however. It is cheaper, but because it attracts so many tourists (especially in summer), the main areas are still quite steeply priced. Despite the large appearance of the tourist industry, there are still very few signs in English, or any other language aside from Russian. But, the metro only consists of four lines, so it is much easier to figure out than the Moscow metro. I think it's definitely true that St. Petersburg is the more 'European' city.
We seemed to arrive at a weird nexus between winter and spring, because for the first five days we were here it snowed and snowed and snowed, but two days later it was warm outside and the snow was gone. I imagine that winters here are just as long and dull as those of Canadian cities, with the added bonus of less sunlight! To balance things out, however, St. Petersburg has white nights in summer, when the sun practically refused to set. It's really too bad we didn't get to experience those, but I did find myself walking home from work at 9:30pm in late March and seeing no sign of the sun setting.
Spending three weeks in a city gives you just enough time to settle in and start to act like a local. For example, we were just getting used to the seemingly redundant practice of buying groceries. Most of the "grocery stores" are small shops that have three or four separate sections (meat, fresh produce, dairy, dry goods). You must approach each section and ask the attendant to gather the items from behind the counter and give you a total of how much you owe. Once you've visited every section you add up your total and stand in line at the cashier to pay and get your receipt. Then you return to each section and pick up your food. I have no idea how this system evolved, but I think I need someone to explain it to me.
We stayed in a cozy little apartment for most of our time in St. P, which was much nicer than a hostel, but also gave us the opportunity to meet some other tourists who were staying in the other bedroom. Coincidentally, perhaps, every couple we met was from England. The best part about this apartment was that it had no phone, no tv and no internet. Although we found ourselves bored at times (all of the files on my laptop are now organized, including pictures!) , it forced me to 'unplug' and just enjoy where I was. I loved getting up and leisurely making and eating breakfast, then reading a book, going out to explore... Of course, almost everyday can look this way when you're traveling, but having internet around always makes it harder for me to accomplish.
I took almost insultingly few pictures in St. Petersburg, probably because I thought I would have many months to take more pictures, but here are those I did manage to snap.
Moscow, on the other hand, is ridiculously expensive. We only spent three days there, mostly because we couldn't afford to stick to a budget. It is, I've heard, the most expensive city in the world. I had a tough time believing that until I saw it for myself. I saw a cup of black tea cost the equivalent of $6. I saw a simple Italian food court dinner cost almost $20. When you're trying to live on less than $40 a day, it seems you can't eat or drink in Moscow. But, in other ways, Moscow is wonderful.
It's full of history, for starters. Even without making any effort to find the historically significant museums, monuments and statues, you will just run into them, because they are so numerous. The metro is one of the most beautiful places to see in Moscow, for which it is unique. In the 1950's, the Soviet government was so pleased with itself for building a metro that is went all out and had every station designed in a majestic manner. If it weren't so dangerous to walk around with valuables in the metro, I would have taken a whole series of photos based only on train stations.
Another special feature of Moscow is its architecture. I was half-expecting big blocks of concrete with few windows, but in fact the buildings in the center of Moscow could be mistaken for the Parisian or Roman variety. Huge ceilings, complimented by huge picture windows, adorned every room I went into. And the churches! Wow. They are like something out of the imagination of the love child of Willy Wonka and Picasso. Not that that would be possible. The spires are so unique and beautiful that people go through all the Visa red tape just to see them in person.
And, with some effort, we did manage to find some "cheap" options, such as a buffet style restaurant called "MY MY", which in Russian letters actually says "Moo Moo". There you can pick and choose your courses (salad, soup, meat, side, drink and dessert) for the bargain price of about $15. What a deal! We also took the metro around the city, which was fairly cheap. Walking between major tourist attractions is also doable. And, if you want to leave Moscow (for, say, St. Petersburg) you are in luck. A basic train ticket between the two cities is only $20 in the low season! We sprung for the four bed cabin and took a night train, but we still only spent about $45 for an eight hour trip and a good nights sleep (those beds are pretty comfy).
The most difficult thing about Moscow is actually not the prices, but rather the language. I had a serious advantage in that my boyfriend just so happens to speak fluent Russian, but if I had been alone or without a Russian speaker, I would be lost. Every other country I have been to has been manageable, I realize now, because even if the signs were not in English, they did use a Roman alphabet. I am able to find my way around because I can recognize or read signs (and because I have an awesome sense of direction, if I do say so myself). In Moscow, everything uses the Cyrillic alphabet, which I had only just started to study. The metro is also very difficult for tourists because the station names are not always visible from the train and the announcement is often hard to hear. We resorted to counting stops on the map.
My first taste of Russia in Moscow was almost exactly how I imagined it would be. I was totally overwhelmed for the first 24 hours and then slowly settled into it as I figured out how things are done. I tried to just go with the flow of Moscow, because I knew I would have three weeks in St. Petersburg to really wrap my head around Russia. Little did I know, I would need all of that time. More to come...
The major theme of our trip to Japan was "cheap". It's what we were and what we looked for. It wasn't always easy, but we discovered that it is possible to travel through Japan on a budget, despite what most travel guides tell you. For a 10 day trip, we managed to come in on budget at around $500 each. Of course, that didn't include getting there, but I still think that's a pretty good number considering we were in one of the most expensive countries there is. Here is how we did it, and what exactly we did.
The biggest way that we cut down our costs was to take advantage of a seasonal discount train ticket that was created for students (over their school holidays), but that has no age limit or requirements. It's available three times throughout the year based on holidays. We happened to be in Japan at the right time. We only found out about it after doing hours of research about traveling through Japan. It isn't very well advertised. The reason? It cuts the price of train travel in Japan by 3/4. It's also half as cheap as taking buses. The downside is that this ticket doesn't allow you to take the high-speed trains, so you can easily spend a whole day getting from Tokyo to Kyoto (which the high-speed train takes 2 1/2 hours to get to). This suited us fine, since we had the time (and lacked the money). Since we moved along at a more leisurely pace, we got to see a lot of the countryside, the coastline, and even Mt. Fuji!
The other big money saver was accommodation. Anyone who has ever traveled on a budget knows the value of good hostels. We were lucky to find several in Japan. A good hostel for us is clean, has laundry/internet, the option of private rooms (although this isn't always possible), and is not fancy in any way. The great thing about Japan is that they have more options for budget seekers. A traditional Japanese style hotel or house is called a "Ryokan" and you can stay in a simple, but lovely room for almost the same price as a hostel. We found one in Kyoto that was exactly what we were looking for. Unfortunately, we made a huge mistake in planning our trip to Japan. We didn't really. Plan, that is. We kept doing things on the fly and booking places at the last minute. FYI, Japan is not the place to do this. We found that out when we arrived in Kyoto around midnight and could not find a single hotel room in even a dingy, broken down place for the night. We ended up walking around for a few hours and biding our time in one of Japan's 24 hour McDonald's. Although, in retrospect, being without anywhere to go for one night is something I'm glad I experienced, it is not a good way to spend time, in general, let alone in a foreign country in March.
Speaking of McDonald's, the other way we kept our money in our pockets was to eat very cheaply. We only ate at McDonald's once (on that fateful night), thank goodness. Mostly, we ate Ramen noodles from the corner store, which will only set you back about a dollar. Of course, after a week of Ramen, you probably won't feel that great, but you can mix it up a little. We also bought a lot of food at convenience marts. In Canada, I'm usually repulsed by convenience store dinners, but in Japan, things are a bit different. They often sell salads, and fairly fresh meals. You can even find fruit in the nicer ones. Again, this is sustainable for much longer than a week, but it's a great alternative to expensive restaurants.
So, that was our holiday: long train trips, being homeless, not being homeless, and eating really cheap food. We also did a lot of shopping in Akihabara (the technology center of Japan), strolling through parks, wandering into temples, getting hair cut (mine, mostly), taking pictures of funny signs and hanging out with people we met at hostels. Japan, in my opinion, is a beautiful country. It's history, art, people, and landscape are all beautiful. When you combine beautiful with cheap, you've got a winner.
There was a week between Christmas and my trip to Canada when all I wanted to do was get away. Luckily for me, I had a week off and a ticket to Bangkok. D and I spent a blissful week touring Bangkok, Phuket and Phi Phi Don. I've been thinking about going to Thailand since I first discovered thai food back in my sheltered small town high school days. My passion for thai food only flourished when I moved to a city with a dozen great thai restaurants. When I decided to move to Korea, one of my main reasons was "It's closer to Thailand than I've ever been!" So, the decision to go there was an easy one for me.
It lived up to my expectations in every way. Not every country does, so I've given Thailand a coveted spot in my list of favorite places. The people were friendly (although bargaining with them was difficult at times), the streets were vibrant, the beaches were spectacular, and the food. The FOOD. It was delicious. Every single time. Pad Thai tastes so much better when you see it made just for you on the street and it only costs 80 cents. I can't say there were highlights, because every day was pretty great in its own way, but some of the things we saw or did include: celebrating New Years Eve on Khao San Rd., eating dinner atop a hotel of 60 floors with a wonderful view of Bangkok, buying a lot of cheap stuff (including a new camera lens from a 5 floor mall full of technology related merchandise), staying on a tiny beach in a bungalow on stilts, swimming in the ridiculously warm ocean (D's first time!), climbing over a mountain with all our luggage (that one goes in the 'stupid' category) and centering most of the trip on eating as much delicious thai food as possible. Mission accomplished.
Also, Big Kudos to D for helping me fulfill one of the silly things I wrote in the 'Future goals" section of my high school year book. To dance on Phi Phi island. It was a vacation I really needed and trip I'll always remember. Mostly because of all the pictures I took.
A day and a half is never really enough time to visit a city you've never seen before. However, I had good intentions to see some of the more famous parts of Seoul in that short time. Unfortunately {or fortunately}, I got slightly distracted by all the STUFF that you can buy in a metropolitan city. I ended up spending the majority of my time there buying books, presents and food. We did go to Itaewon {foreigner district}, Insadong {tourist shopping area} and the Coex Mall {where the only apple store we know of in Korea is located}, so I can tell you about those places.
First of all, I immediately noticed that there are many more foreigners than I expected. I saw them on the subway, on the street and even in front of our hotel. I found it very exciting to start, but soon the awe subsided, as I realized none of them interact with each other. In fact, in the foreigner district of Itaewon, it felt exactly like Toronto. It was a bizarre reminder of what the western world is like and it didn't make me feel all warm and fuzzy. It was just as if I were walking down a busy Toronto street where no one looks each other in the eye or acknowledges the existence of others. I guess I've become accustomed to something else.
Insadong was where our hotel was and was my favourite of the three places we went. The streets are lined with little shops, cafes, and booths selling korean art, crafts, treats, and knick-knacks. I was buzzing a bit with all the possible purchases and I really had to concentrate in order to make is to the hotel without more goods. However, it was a really great place to buy a few presents that I plan to send back to my family.
The Coex Mall was like any mall, except that it felt more like an airport and the food court consisted mostly of korean food. D was a little too excited to be there, I think, but we did find the mother of all book stores, a mac store and some very col projected games on the floor for kids to play with. I think there was also gelato involved. The biggest dissapointment was that the "International Shoe store" didn't have shoes in my giant size.
Not to worry though, because I found a very cute pair of shoes while we were just minutes from the bus station that would end the trip. I had nearly lost all hope that I would find something to cover my enormous feet. It has been a very long three months with only two pairs of shoes. And the very best part is that they were only $10! Since I spent so much time spending money, I didn't pull my camera out as often as I had planned to. The pictures are therefore few, but I hope you enjoy them anyway!
