Our first taste of Durian fruit:
Sunday, January 24, 2010
Sunday, January 10, 2010
where do I even begin?? hmm at the beginning...
I'm sitting in my favorite coffee shop sipping on a cappucino just like I do every monday...what can I say, I like writing in a coffee shop, makes me feel like an actual writer even thought I'm not :)
Anyways this week in Seoul has been a cold one with more then enough snow to last a few weeks. I love snow, makes it feel like I'm in Canada, except I don't think many Koreans share my love for snow. No one in Seoul is prepared for the amount of snow we got last monday, it was alot even in Canada so I don't blame them but was it ever a chaotic day. The snow is amazing, the cold cold weather is not and although its supposed to warm up, even I wasn't prepared for this kind of winter here. What makes it so hard is that a week and a half ago I was still on vacation and going from somewhere of such hot and humid weather compared to here, Seoul weather is the opposite of south east Asia.
Well the point of this post is to write back my Christmas vacation, so here goes (disclaimer: this might be a long one, but that's nothing new)
I'll start with Thailand since it was the first stop...
So after a long stream of flights Tien, Jeff, Mark and I finally arrived on the island of Koh Samui, Thailand late on December 20th. We checked into our guesthouse which was of course lovely and the perfect place to spend 6 days in paradise. Koh Samui has become a big resort town so although the streets don't look it, they're filled with markets and restaurants, but the beaches are incredible and filled with Europeans and boutique-like hotels. Despite the tourism, myself included as a tourist, I loved Koh Samui. I think just being in Thailand is what I loved...finally going somewhere that you've said you'd make it to for 8 years, since high school, is an accomplishment and pretty freakin awesome!! Our week was spent beaching, eating, beaching and eating some more. We ate every different kind of food, Mexican, Italian, Thai of course. We took two day trips: the first was a snorkel trip to Koh Tao which was amazing! We spent the morning snorkeling and the afternoon on Koh Tao lying on the beach until we took the hour and a half boat trip back. On Christmas Eve we went on a private jeep tour of the island with Khai and Paul. Our first stop was to watch a monkey pull coconuts out of the tree, to share coconut milk and hold the monkey on our shoulders. The second stop was to the mummified Monk who just so happened to be sporting a fashionable pair of Ray Bans. Our third stop was to the zoo where we saw an elephant show and then (drum roll please) got to ride a real life Asian Elephant!!! It was amazing and something I also wanted to do and finally, finally I was on one with my friend Khai just love life, what could honestly be better?!?!? After the elephants we went to a waterfall which we then decided to climb and swim in the water....nice and refreshing in the heat and humidity! The we took a very intense and insane trip up the mountain through the jungle on top of the Jeep. I honestly feared my life more then once but mostly I think our guide and driver were just messing with us and feeding off our screaming and terrified looks. We had an amazingly fresh Thai lunch and continued to stuff ourselves with fresh fruit smoothies and yummy dishes! At the top we stopped to take some photos of the view and then kept on our way down the mountain towards the Big Gold Buddha off Big Buddha beach. That's where our tour ended which was probably a good thing because we were exhausted and had to get ready for our Christmas Eve dinner. Dinner was at a Brazilian restaurant decked out in Christmas cheer and was amazing, and of course filling. Being away for Christmas is hard, being away from family and everything you've been used to for the past 23 years but if I had to be anywhere, I'm glad it was in Thailand with some wonderful friends :) Christmas day, our last day, was spent opening presents in the morning and then beaching it all day trying to soak up the last rays of the sun before we took off to Kuala Lumpur. It was an amazing first week and first experience in thailand but its definitely not the last experience there, I'll be back for sure!!
After a very very very long 24 hour bus trip where we changed from bus to boat to bus to van to bus we made it to Kuala Lumpur early on December 27th. After a much needed nap we dragged ourselves out of bed to explore this unknown city. I was really excited to be in KL because it is primarily Muslim but yet is such a mix of cultures and religions and was refreshing in contrast to Seoul. We walked first through Chinatown and Mark and I tried our very first durian fruit. After seeing so many of them on our Jeep tour in Thailand we figured why not BUT have heard many things about it, not all good. Durians have very strong smells which are comparable to an old person who smokes...not joking. We smelt it, yep that comparison is smack dab on, and then we tried it. There is nothing I have ever tried to compare its texture and taste to but it was not one I liked BLAH grosssss!! The first building we arrived at was a Mosque and while we were standing taking pictures we heard the afternoon Call to Prayer which is something I've never heard before and was really cool. Our next stop was Independence Square and more exploring of the downtown buildings. We then made our way to the market to do some shopping and finally it was our favorite time of the day, time to eat! Little India was where we had our first Indian meal which of course was awesome...again our stay in KL revolved around many kinds of food including Malay and Indian. Our second day in Malaysia was spent traveling to the city of Melaka which is a UNESCO world heritage city and right by the water. The city was old, traditional with lots of character and I adored it. The heat that day was unbearable and exhausting but it was worth the trip. We spent the day wandering, being passed by the most flowery decorated rickshaws I've ever seen and taking photos of the beautiful buildings all around us. Our final day in KL was an early one, like many of our days on this trip, to make it to the Petronas towers in time to go up to the top. A stop at Starbucks was necessary everywhere we went and this time it made us later then intended and due to this and the hundreds of other tourists and tour groups we did not get to go up the tower that day BUT did spend alot of time inside and around it. The towers were amazing and are the central landmark of KL and I now totally see why, the architecture was unlike any other building in the city. Next we stopped at the National Mosque and to go inside were required to cover up with hijab. We put on our mauve coloured hajibs and headed inside to learn more about the Mosque and the Muslim religion. It was a very eye opening moment: although I am a very open minded and accepting person, I realized I know nothing about this religion and so it was more of an educational experience for me! After the Mosque we traveled to the Batu Caves which is a Hindu religious site...from one to the other just like that. The caves are guarded by a massive gold Hindu God statue which is followed by 272 steps up to the caves. I'm sure the caves were once beautiful but after many tourits have made their way through they have become very dirty and are filled with really scary monkeys. The Hindu statues inside the caves are colourful and wonderful and the caves themselves and incredible. At the top of the caves is an area filled with monkeys, one of which chased me cause he thought I had food, and usually I like monkeys but these I did not...well I liked the ones who didn't chase me :) This was our last day in Malaysia and early the next day we were taking yet another bus to Singapore for our last stop on our trip. I really loved Malaysia, I loved being exposed to those cultures and the people were the nicest people I think I've ever met...peoples desire to answer our questions and help us everywhere we went was unreal and surprisingly but much needed and much appreciated.
Our stay in Singapore was a short one but a great one and this is a place I hope to return to one day for sure. Our hostel was in Chinatown surrounded by colourful buildings everywhere. We were brave and using our trusty map me made our way to the Singapore Zoo, one of the best ones in the world. With our luck and late arrival the zoo was closed, so we went on the Night Safari there instead. I was sad, I will admit it, I was looking foward to seeing the Orangutans and many other animals, I'm an animal person and I love zoos BUT was not disappointed with the night safari. We saw elephants, flamingos, tigers, leopards, lions, hippos, rhinos, many kinds of deer, antelope, tarpirs, and walked through bat caves. We walked a few trails where we got to get closer to the animals too...it was so much fun and was highlighted by a hilarious tour guide! That night we ate dinner in Little India at a Nepalese restaurant...probably one of my favorite meals of the trip. Our last day in Singapore just so happened to be New Years Eve and we decided to spend this day on a city bus tour...the best way to see the city with such little time! We went to the Raffles Hotel, to the Esplanade theatres and saw the preparations for the NYE celebrations, walked through the downtown and to the Merlion, drove through Chinatown and Little India and spent some time shopping on Orchard street. It was on Orchard street (think Bloor Street Toronto) that I found a Starbucks that just so happened to be serving my most favorite drink...the infamous peppermint mocha!! Can you believe it...I was ecstatic, is that sad that this made me that happy...probably! Whatever it was the best and I savoured every sip :) This rounded off our bus trip and it was time to go back to our hostel and get ready for the night...NEW YEARS EVE!!! Mark and I got all dressed up and headed downtown to the Clarke Quay for our NYE dinner outside by the canal. We had wine, champagne and toasted to a wonderful year before heading over to watch the fireworks...us and a thousand other people! It was packed, crazy packed, and there was nowhere to stand and no way to get as close as we wanted to or even to meet Tien and Jeff. We got as close as we could and counted down to the year 2010 with everyone in Singapore and watched an unbelievable fireworks show!! Unfortunately our 4:30am wakeup call to catch our flight was getting near and we had to find our way out of that mess to get back and atleast get a little bit of sleep. I've never spent NYE in another country but I'm so happy we were celebrating the year 2009 while bringing on 2010 in Singapore with so many people and so much life....what an experience!!
So that's it....my trip in a nutshell, or in a really really long message! The 4 of us had some amazing moments, saw some wonderful sites, met great people and created some first moments, atleast I did, and I could not be more excited to create some more. That's my problem, I love where I go but I'm always looking for somewhere new to explore....that darn travel bug! That's the problem being in Asia with everything so close right!! I don't know where my next stop will be but I am looking forward but will never forget my trip this Christmas!!
Hours later its dark out, I'm still in this coffee shop sitting on the floor (thank goodness they're heated) with no cappucino left which means its time to go but this was a good one, a long one, and a much needed one don't you think?!?!
Until next time,
jane xo
Anyways this week in Seoul has been a cold one with more then enough snow to last a few weeks. I love snow, makes it feel like I'm in Canada, except I don't think many Koreans share my love for snow. No one in Seoul is prepared for the amount of snow we got last monday, it was alot even in Canada so I don't blame them but was it ever a chaotic day. The snow is amazing, the cold cold weather is not and although its supposed to warm up, even I wasn't prepared for this kind of winter here. What makes it so hard is that a week and a half ago I was still on vacation and going from somewhere of such hot and humid weather compared to here, Seoul weather is the opposite of south east Asia.
Well the point of this post is to write back my Christmas vacation, so here goes (disclaimer: this might be a long one, but that's nothing new)
I'll start with Thailand since it was the first stop...
So after a long stream of flights Tien, Jeff, Mark and I finally arrived on the island of Koh Samui, Thailand late on December 20th. We checked into our guesthouse which was of course lovely and the perfect place to spend 6 days in paradise. Koh Samui has become a big resort town so although the streets don't look it, they're filled with markets and restaurants, but the beaches are incredible and filled with Europeans and boutique-like hotels. Despite the tourism, myself included as a tourist, I loved Koh Samui. I think just being in Thailand is what I loved...finally going somewhere that you've said you'd make it to for 8 years, since high school, is an accomplishment and pretty freakin awesome!! Our week was spent beaching, eating, beaching and eating some more. We ate every different kind of food, Mexican, Italian, Thai of course. We took two day trips: the first was a snorkel trip to Koh Tao which was amazing! We spent the morning snorkeling and the afternoon on Koh Tao lying on the beach until we took the hour and a half boat trip back. On Christmas Eve we went on a private jeep tour of the island with Khai and Paul. Our first stop was to watch a monkey pull coconuts out of the tree, to share coconut milk and hold the monkey on our shoulders. The second stop was to the mummified Monk who just so happened to be sporting a fashionable pair of Ray Bans. Our third stop was to the zoo where we saw an elephant show and then (drum roll please) got to ride a real life Asian Elephant!!! It was amazing and something I also wanted to do and finally, finally I was on one with my friend Khai just love life, what could honestly be better?!?!? After the elephants we went to a waterfall which we then decided to climb and swim in the water....nice and refreshing in the heat and humidity! The we took a very intense and insane trip up the mountain through the jungle on top of the Jeep. I honestly feared my life more then once but mostly I think our guide and driver were just messing with us and feeding off our screaming and terrified looks. We had an amazingly fresh Thai lunch and continued to stuff ourselves with fresh fruit smoothies and yummy dishes! At the top we stopped to take some photos of the view and then kept on our way down the mountain towards the Big Gold Buddha off Big Buddha beach. That's where our tour ended which was probably a good thing because we were exhausted and had to get ready for our Christmas Eve dinner. Dinner was at a Brazilian restaurant decked out in Christmas cheer and was amazing, and of course filling. Being away for Christmas is hard, being away from family and everything you've been used to for the past 23 years but if I had to be anywhere, I'm glad it was in Thailand with some wonderful friends :) Christmas day, our last day, was spent opening presents in the morning and then beaching it all day trying to soak up the last rays of the sun before we took off to Kuala Lumpur. It was an amazing first week and first experience in thailand but its definitely not the last experience there, I'll be back for sure!!
After a very very very long 24 hour bus trip where we changed from bus to boat to bus to van to bus we made it to Kuala Lumpur early on December 27th. After a much needed nap we dragged ourselves out of bed to explore this unknown city. I was really excited to be in KL because it is primarily Muslim but yet is such a mix of cultures and religions and was refreshing in contrast to Seoul. We walked first through Chinatown and Mark and I tried our very first durian fruit. After seeing so many of them on our Jeep tour in Thailand we figured why not BUT have heard many things about it, not all good. Durians have very strong smells which are comparable to an old person who smokes...not joking. We smelt it, yep that comparison is smack dab on, and then we tried it. There is nothing I have ever tried to compare its texture and taste to but it was not one I liked BLAH grosssss!! The first building we arrived at was a Mosque and while we were standing taking pictures we heard the afternoon Call to Prayer which is something I've never heard before and was really cool. Our next stop was Independence Square and more exploring of the downtown buildings. We then made our way to the market to do some shopping and finally it was our favorite time of the day, time to eat! Little India was where we had our first Indian meal which of course was awesome...again our stay in KL revolved around many kinds of food including Malay and Indian. Our second day in Malaysia was spent traveling to the city of Melaka which is a UNESCO world heritage city and right by the water. The city was old, traditional with lots of character and I adored it. The heat that day was unbearable and exhausting but it was worth the trip. We spent the day wandering, being passed by the most flowery decorated rickshaws I've ever seen and taking photos of the beautiful buildings all around us. Our final day in KL was an early one, like many of our days on this trip, to make it to the Petronas towers in time to go up to the top. A stop at Starbucks was necessary everywhere we went and this time it made us later then intended and due to this and the hundreds of other tourists and tour groups we did not get to go up the tower that day BUT did spend alot of time inside and around it. The towers were amazing and are the central landmark of KL and I now totally see why, the architecture was unlike any other building in the city. Next we stopped at the National Mosque and to go inside were required to cover up with hijab. We put on our mauve coloured hajibs and headed inside to learn more about the Mosque and the Muslim religion. It was a very eye opening moment: although I am a very open minded and accepting person, I realized I know nothing about this religion and so it was more of an educational experience for me! After the Mosque we traveled to the Batu Caves which is a Hindu religious site...from one to the other just like that. The caves are guarded by a massive gold Hindu God statue which is followed by 272 steps up to the caves. I'm sure the caves were once beautiful but after many tourits have made their way through they have become very dirty and are filled with really scary monkeys. The Hindu statues inside the caves are colourful and wonderful and the caves themselves and incredible. At the top of the caves is an area filled with monkeys, one of which chased me cause he thought I had food, and usually I like monkeys but these I did not...well I liked the ones who didn't chase me :) This was our last day in Malaysia and early the next day we were taking yet another bus to Singapore for our last stop on our trip. I really loved Malaysia, I loved being exposed to those cultures and the people were the nicest people I think I've ever met...peoples desire to answer our questions and help us everywhere we went was unreal and surprisingly but much needed and much appreciated.
Our stay in Singapore was a short one but a great one and this is a place I hope to return to one day for sure. Our hostel was in Chinatown surrounded by colourful buildings everywhere. We were brave and using our trusty map me made our way to the Singapore Zoo, one of the best ones in the world. With our luck and late arrival the zoo was closed, so we went on the Night Safari there instead. I was sad, I will admit it, I was looking foward to seeing the Orangutans and many other animals, I'm an animal person and I love zoos BUT was not disappointed with the night safari. We saw elephants, flamingos, tigers, leopards, lions, hippos, rhinos, many kinds of deer, antelope, tarpirs, and walked through bat caves. We walked a few trails where we got to get closer to the animals too...it was so much fun and was highlighted by a hilarious tour guide! That night we ate dinner in Little India at a Nepalese restaurant...probably one of my favorite meals of the trip. Our last day in Singapore just so happened to be New Years Eve and we decided to spend this day on a city bus tour...the best way to see the city with such little time! We went to the Raffles Hotel, to the Esplanade theatres and saw the preparations for the NYE celebrations, walked through the downtown and to the Merlion, drove through Chinatown and Little India and spent some time shopping on Orchard street. It was on Orchard street (think Bloor Street Toronto) that I found a Starbucks that just so happened to be serving my most favorite drink...the infamous peppermint mocha!! Can you believe it...I was ecstatic, is that sad that this made me that happy...probably! Whatever it was the best and I savoured every sip :) This rounded off our bus trip and it was time to go back to our hostel and get ready for the night...NEW YEARS EVE!!! Mark and I got all dressed up and headed downtown to the Clarke Quay for our NYE dinner outside by the canal. We had wine, champagne and toasted to a wonderful year before heading over to watch the fireworks...us and a thousand other people! It was packed, crazy packed, and there was nowhere to stand and no way to get as close as we wanted to or even to meet Tien and Jeff. We got as close as we could and counted down to the year 2010 with everyone in Singapore and watched an unbelievable fireworks show!! Unfortunately our 4:30am wakeup call to catch our flight was getting near and we had to find our way out of that mess to get back and atleast get a little bit of sleep. I've never spent NYE in another country but I'm so happy we were celebrating the year 2009 while bringing on 2010 in Singapore with so many people and so much life....what an experience!!
So that's it....my trip in a nutshell, or in a really really long message! The 4 of us had some amazing moments, saw some wonderful sites, met great people and created some first moments, atleast I did, and I could not be more excited to create some more. That's my problem, I love where I go but I'm always looking for somewhere new to explore....that darn travel bug! That's the problem being in Asia with everything so close right!! I don't know where my next stop will be but I am looking forward but will never forget my trip this Christmas!!
Hours later its dark out, I'm still in this coffee shop sitting on the floor (thank goodness they're heated) with no cappucino left which means its time to go but this was a good one, a long one, and a much needed one don't you think?!?!
Until next time,
jane xo
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