Lions and tigers and…

The best tourist attraction up here in Chiang Mai, where we’re staying this week, is Tiger Kingdom. Nearly a dozen former SEV teachers have been there on visits to Thailand. It’s what I’ve been looking forward to ever since January, when I saw Erin’s pictures from her trip there. On the flight up here, Jeanette and I decided that would be our first stop the next day.

We woke up this morning and headed down the street for breakfast. The street that our guesthouse branches off of looked remarkably different than it did last night. For one thing, I nearly got hit a few times trying to cross it this morning. Last night, the street was full of vendors and food stalls, all a part of Chiang Mai’s famed Sunday night market. Jeanette and I went to town (or to market? ha!) last night, buying light cotton clothes to make the 95-degree days bearable and picking up a few holiday gifts for family.

So this morning, decked out in our new backpacker attire, we got a tuk-tuk to take-take us out to Tiger Kingdom. Once we got there, we got to hang out with baby lions, newborn tigers, big tigers, and really big tigers. The tigers have all been tamed and for the most part just slept while we were around. We got up close and personal with them, stroking their fur, laying on them and high-fiving their paws. The lions were a bit friskier than the tigers and didn’t appreciate being pet. I may have shrieked and jumped back a few times in the lion pen.

The drive from Tiger Kingdom back to our neighborhood only took about 20 minutes, but that short drive made me realize what it is that I like so much about Thailand. I can walk down the street here without being heckled and hit on, save for the taxi drivers asking if I need a ride somewhere. We drove for miles down some streets without seeing any English signs. This is the real Thailand, much more than Phuket was, with its Club Med, overpriced food and barely legal Thai girls at every bar waiting to pounce on the next senior citizen who walked through the door. Sure, here the backpackers hit up the tourist spots and flood the night market, but walking down the street in their beat-up cotton rags, they blend into the scenery. As much as westerners are out of place in Asia, it doesn’t feel that way here, and that’s a nice change.

Everybody’s gone surfing…surfing Thailand?

Jeanette’s been talking about getting surfing lessons in Phuket since we first decided to come here. Though not terribly keen on the idea, I smiled and went along with it, because, why not? This trip is all about trying new things, right?

After getting over her stomach sunburn (and let me tell you, this was the worst sunburn I’ve ever seen), Jeanette decided yesterday would be a good day to try the waves. We made our way to a surf shop and 20 minutes later were in the water. Anyone care to guess how good I was at surfing?

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Awful. As expected, really. A lack of coordination combined with a lack of upper-body strength meant that I was a surfing failure. I did manage to stand a few times, but fell down pretty quickly. My instructor, a Thai guy with decent English, joked that I was 20 percent surfer. Every time I got knocked off, I’d turn around to see him mid-laughing fit. After our hour-long lesson was up, they offered to let us use the boards for free for another hour. Jeanette took them up on it; I continued to work on my world-class tan.

This morning, I woke up sore all over. It hurts to move, to grab my bottle of water that’s sitting a foot away, to put one foot in front of the other. We’re about to head down to the beach, and the first order of business will be to get a massage. The pain is awful, but well worth it. Will I be surfing again? Likely not. But is it infinitely cool that I can say I learned to surf in Thailand? I daresay yes.

On deck for today: massage, more curry, more beach time (the sky is an amazing blue at the mo’) and hanging out with a couple Brits we met last night at a bar on the beach. Tentatively we’re off to Chiang Mai tomorrow, but seeing as how Chiang Mai doesn’t have a beach and we’ve yet to book our tickets, we may not be out of here until Sunday.

“난 힘이 들때면, lucky in my life”

Was going to blog about a million different things–the day trip we took today, the monkey that scratched me deep enough to draw some blood, the dollar banana-chocolate pancake I just ate as dessert to my pad thai dinner, but once I got to the Internet cafe, my fingers had a different idea.

At dinner, a little girl came around to all of the tables at the open-air restaurant Jeanette and I settled down in. She was wearing a pink top with matching leggings, a flower necklace around her neck. She moved from table to table with an armful of roses, singing in hardly more than a whisper. At each table, she was waved on without so much as a second look. Right behind her was a man selling watercolor paintings; he carried a sign saying he was deaf and needed money. Again, a wave of the hand and on to the next table of tourists.

I’m not sure what surprised me about this. In the Philippines, the begging was everywhere — on the sides of the road, when tuk-tuks were stopped in traffic, anytime a foreigner was within earshot — done by dirty children in tattered clothes; here, the man and girl were clean and looked to be healthy (save for the man’s deafness). Maybe that’s the only difference between them, maybe not. In reality, I know nothing about the lives of the Thais, of the Filipinos. I know what it is to be a tourist in southeast Asia, to haggle over dresses and eat street food that costs as much as a pack of gum back home. I don’t know what it is to serve drinks to foreigners sunbathing on the beach; I am the foreigner sipping cocktails in my lounge chair.

It’s easy to feel like a millionaire here, where a meal costs only a couple dollars. But then you look up from your green curry and see the people who are here forever, people for whom this is not a vacation, but life. In a couple months, I’ll be back in the States, driving my Subaru around and eating mac and cheese on my couch, flipping through hundreds of channels on TV as I text friends and futz around on my Macbook.  The people I’ve met in Phuket will still be here, shouting their wares to every white person who walks down the street, offering a good deal or a new bargain if the foreigner would kindly come inside. I’m fortunate to have grown up in the west; we all are. We waste so much time complaining about the most trivial things, but we don’t know how good we have it. None of us has had to beg his way through a restaurant. We haven’t walked up and down a hot beach mid-day with a fake smile plastered on, trying to sell cobs of corn. We haven’t spent our lives trying to eke out a living from the millions of people who leave our home just as soon as they came. It’s important to keep that in mind as I make my way through this part of the world.

Almost paradiiiiiise

I so do not deserve this.

Hours on the beach, jumping into warm waves, slurping green curry while watching motorbikes speed past, digging my feet into the cool, wet sand as the still-warm water laps at my toes under a starry sky. I’m officially in paradise.

The food is amazing, the beaches beautiful, the water inviting. We leave Phuket on Saturday, which gives me more time to soak in the sun’s goodness (and take a surfing lesson or two). No solid plans this week, just going where the breeze takes us.

Oh, and have I mentioned that Thais love K-pop? Holler!

Can I stay here forever?

“Oh, Melissa”

That phrase is as ubiquitous in my house as “What’s for dinner?” or “How are you?” I can’t tell you the number of times my father has said “Oh, Melissa” while shaking his head and giving a small laugh. “Oh, Melissa” is always a response to me doing something irresponsible. If I tell my father about it before I resolve the problem on my own, “Oh, Melissa” turns into “You think!”–said in an angry tone. “Oh, Melissa” is said in a fake-exasperated tone, almost always accompanied by some laughter. You’d think that after 22 years, my father would be used to me doing stupid things, no?

Needless to say, a lighthearted “Oh, Melissa” is probably the best reaction I’ll ever get.

That all being said, what I’m about to tell you is hopefully going to elicit an “Oh, Melissa” and not a “You don’t think!”

When Donny booked my ticket to Phuket, I was stoked to see that the flight was only four hours long, much shorter than I’d anticipated. So I left SEV at 4:30 p.m. to catch my 10 p.m. flight out of Incheon, giving myself plenty of extra time–just in case. I blame my need for extra time on my father, as well. My father is a half hour early to everything, my mother half an hour late. When my dad dropped me off at JFK to catch my flight to Prague, we were a full six hours early. I didn’t even have a gate to go to!

Got off-topic, oops. So like I said, I departed SEV more than five hours before my flight. On the 01 bus headed into Suyu to catch the limo bus to the airport, I checked my e-ticket one more time, just in case. Sure as shit, the only time (IN A YEAR) that I failed at reading military time (which is pretty standard outside of the States), was when I first looked at my e-ticket last week and saw I was leaving at 10 p.m. So imagine my shock when I checked on the bus and saw that my flight was scheduled to depart at 20:00, or 8 p.m.–three and a half hours away. I knew the bus to the airport would take at least two hours, and Saturday evening traffic would slow things down even more. I spent the entire bus ride nervously tapping my foot and watching as the clock changed from 5:15 to 6:08 to 6:45 to 7:00. At 7:10 (yes, the airport bus uses a 12-hour clock), we arrived at Incheon. I bolted to the check-in counter, made my way through security and went through customs–all in about 20 minutes. Kudos to Incheon, demonstrating yet again why it is the best airport in the world.

I slept for much of the six-hour flight, then caught a cab to the guesthouse where Jeanette’s been staying. Sleeping in the company of snails and lizards, but that’s what this is about, right?

Woke up this morning and had a hearty banana pancake breakfast, as recommended by Erin. Looking forward to indulging in pad thai and green curry in the coming days. We’re planning on staying in Phuket for at least a few more days before heading up to the northern city of Chiang Mai.

For now, just hoping the sky clears up a little bit so we can head down to the beach! So far, loving Phuket and the fact that Korea is hundreds of miles away. I can guarantee that no child will be calling me “Melissa Teacher” while I’m here.

Signing off now…let’s hope I don’t do anything to warrant an “Oh, Melissa.” Oh, and speaking of which, happy belated birthday to my sister and a happy early birthday to my father!

Peace out, Korea!!

Just a quick note to say that I blogged every day since I began the challenge. You all owe me a drink. Get ready to pay up in November!

The journey begins now: Phuket, Thailand in four hours and 10 minutes…

Finishee!

I’m unemployed.

I haven’t been unemployed for more than a few weeks since…ever? I’d say the beginning of freshman year at university. To now have no obligations, no work to get back to–it blows my mind. I leave tonight (my time) at 10 p.m. and land in Phuket just past midnight local time.

It’s been a trip, friends. Thank you for reading and commenting throughout the year, giving advice, calling me out on lapses in judgement and letting me know all of my grammatical errors. I’m not sure how frequent my posts will be once I get to Thailand, but I’ll try and get on WordPress fairly often, if only to make you jealous by talking about the delicious and cheap pad thai I’m planning to eat a ton of.

As per the rules of my blogging self-challenge, I owe the world one more post. You’ll get that as the plane wheels touch off the ground tonight.

Take care of yourselves [and each other] and I’ll see you Stateside in a couple of months!

Tiger dog, tiger dog, does whatever a tiger dog does

Last night was my final night out in Suyu, and I spent it where I spent one of my first nights–Penelope, the local foreigner hangout. A bunch of coworkers and former SEVers came out and enjoyed one of the few nice nights left before the weather turns. While we were there, we made the acquaintance of two Canadians who have been living in Seoul for a few years. One of them brought her dog and sat down with us for a bit. Lemme tell ya, I’ve never seen a dog like this before. Apparently, they’re native to Korea, which would explain why I’ve last night was the first time I had seen that kind of dog. They’re called something along the lines of “tiger dog,” though my memory is a bit fuzzy. Not having played with an animal since my visit to Tokyo’s Nekobukuro in January, I jumped at the chance to pet the tiger dog.

Shortly after our new friends left the bar, some of the Koreans headed out, but not before taking the obligatory Boys Before Flowers picture with me:

So that was my night–Koreans and the tiger dog. Now I’m packing up the rest of my things before heading into Suyu to close my bank account. I sent home my first suitcase today–for 190,000 won. That’s about $175 US. Ugh ugh ugh!! I’ve only got a few more things to send, so here’s hoping it doesn’t cost me an arm and a leg.

Life Update

Hey, you know what I have time to do these days?

Absolutely nothing.

These last 72 hours are a race to the finish. I’ve still got a day of classes, a ton of packing and major apartment cleaning before I hop on that bright, shiny Airbus.

Spent most of last night packing things up/watching The King and I. You know, to mentally prepare and whatnot.

Here are today’s plans:
-Teach six classes (triple Cooking, Police, Bingo and DODGEBALL)
-Figure out if my local post office ships suitcases. If not, Friday isn’t going to be any fun.
-Meet up with a family friend from Rhinebeck who just moved to Seoul
-Drinks with coworkers one last night
-Return all the stuff I’ve taken from the office this year
-Continue packing
-Write tomorrow’s blog entry

My head is spinning…how on earth am I going to be ready to go by Saturday?

I’ve never seen a man eat so many chicken wings

Confession: I have a chicken wing complex. My entire life, I refused to eat wings in front of anyone but my immediate family. As I said in July:

“I won’t eat them in front of anyone I’m not closely related to, which means that up until this point, only my mother, father and sister had seen me eat them. Why? Because eating wings is perhaps the most unattractive thing a person could possibly do, and I refuse to let anyone, except for those who are obligated to love me, see me in such a state.”

Well, I no longer have that complex. Why? Chicken wings are delicious! Especially the ones served at Rocky Mountain Tavern’s Tuesday Wing Night. My coworkers first got into Wing Night back in July. I was on evening shift that month, and every time I went to RMT after I got out, the wings were sold out. Major disappointment. Last month, SEVers started going regularly, and being back on day shift allowed me to go with them. That’s when I discovered the greatness of Creamy Cool (and Lemon Pepper, BBQ and Killer Ouch).

Wing Night has become a fun SEV tradition. It also helps that the bar plays Monday Night Football. MNF is clearly a big draw for some:

Highlights: AMAZING wings, good drinks (I’m talking about you, double Georgia Peach Iced Tea), fairly organized service

Lowlights: Not enough seating for the hundreds of people there (Hundreds? Maybe that’s an exaggeration. Let’s go with one or two hundred.), the tendency to run out of wings several hours into the night

I don’t know what else can be said about these wings except for that they’re the best in Asia. Planet Wings, I’ll be back in America soon. Let’s see if you can match up to RMT’s Wing Night.