Chusok Festival

This weekend is the Korean national holiday Chusok, so today all of our kindergartners were dressed in Korean traditional attire and we played traditional games and made traditional food, which despite the chief ingredient being bogeys was actually quite delicious. We played games and sung songs in the hall and it was just general chaos. There was some kind of Korean wrestling, that the photo is trying to capture, tug of war, arm wrestles and the hokey pokey dance, my personal favourite. In a huge upset Dolphin class (my class) beat Shark class in the tug of war and by using their bottle noses to bruise the sharks' ribs. Because of the general level of excitement and sugar coated treats getting children to pose for a photo post-game was unsuccessful as you can see by me being mobbed by my adoring fans. Looking forward to going to China now and hopefully you can see some intertextual antagonism in Kate's and our blog. 

Chusok Festival

Chusok

Sara - this is for you.  Sorry I didn't post last night. 

Love Penny.

Thailand - part 2

Elephant trekking

On Wednesday we went on an elephant trek. It was pretty neat. The top picture is our elephant and our driver. While we were on it we sat on that seat and our driver straddled the elephants neck.

This is what Cam and I look like when we're on an elephant.


Part way through we got off the elephants and walked. We went to a cave, saw a snake and a spider and some bats, then walked to this waterfall. It's not really that impressive compared to some other waterfalls I've seen, but it's pretty.

Then we got back on our elephant and rode back to their house. We were probably on the elephant for 20minutes at a time. So not heaps. But definately enough. Plus I felt a bit sad for them because they had those big chairs strapped to them.



We could pay $5 to feed our elephant after the trek. We got a basket full of bananas and a pineapple.

The elephant took the food out of our hands with his trunk, just like in cartoons. It was so cool. And he took the whole pineapple, held the green bit, put the rest in his mouth and ripped off the green part so he didn't have to eat it. So smart.






Back at Camp

Wednesday night was our last night on Ko Lanta so we had some dinner and drinks with our friends and said goodbye.

From left to right is Steve (the English guy), Andrea (one of the Itallians) and Michael and Rachel, the Irish couple.






And this is Javi, the Spanish guy who had just spent 5months working in New Zealand.

Javi and Steve were our first friends and our favourties.

On Thursday we went to Ko Phi Phi and I forgot to take any photos with my camera because we bought and underwater camera that we played with instead. On Friday morning we went on a 1/2 day snorkelling trip and went to the beach where The Beach was filmed. It was fun. Then Friday afternoon we took the ferry back to Krabi, stayed in Krabi for a night and flew back to Bangkok Saturday morning.


This is Kieth, you may remember him from our first 2 weeks in Korea. He moved to Thailand to teach english after we'd been there about 3 weeks. He's the only person we knew in all of Thailand and we ran into him at Bangkok airport. Unbelievable. And the girl is his friend from LA who had come to visit.

He showed us how to bus for 34baht from the airport to the city, our first night in Bangkok we paid 800baht to get to the same place.



We spent Saturday shopping, eating and watching the new Batman movie on Imax. We stumbled across some fortune tellers. This one spoke english. This is what he said (after asking for Cam's birth date) -

1. He was born in the year of the Tiger
2. He was born on a Friday
3. He has a very good education
4. He currently has very good work with very good money
5. He will have a good wife in the future
6. His life and money got better on July 17th
7. In his life love, money and happiness will all be very good.
8. He will have a management position in his career.

Then he looked at his palm and said -
1. He has a lucky and happiness hand
2. He will have a happy and long life
3. There will be no great problems in his life
4. He will own good property
5. He is very clever
6. He will have good work with good money
7. He will always have strong health

In November 2009 he will become lucky in money and love. He will have a good wife and good children.


Then Saturday night we flew back to Korea, and got back to our apartment by midday Sunday. We had an amazing trip.

Thailand - part 1

We arrived in Bangkok Saturday evening, had some food and a bit of a walk and then went to bed.

Sunday we went to the Weekend Market. It was pretty big, heaps of stuff. We bought some clothes and stuff. Didn't really purchase much though, seeing as it was our first day and we were coming back to Bangkok.

This is Cam eating some chicken noodle soup. It was delicious and cost 60baht - $2.









This is us in a Tuk-tuk. It was pretty fun being in one but they're out soley to rip you off. They charged us way too much and didn't take us where we wanted to go. Put a bit of a dampener on it.

When we left the market we asked a Tuk-tuk driver to take us to food. This was the convo -
Driver: ok ok, seafood?
Us: no. no seafood.
Driver: no seafood? ok ok ok... seafood?
Us: no seafood
Driver: no seafood, ok ok. mc donalds?
Us: no, no mc donalds.
Driver: ok ok.
(drives for 20 minutes, pulls up to a seafood restaurant and points at it)
Us: no no, no seafood.
Driver: This no seafood.
(there were tanks with fish and crabs outside)
Us: yes, seafood.
Driver: no. no seafood. here good.
(so we look at the menu. not a single dish with no seafood. so we walk away, the driver drives away quickly and that was 200baht wasted)

On Monday morning we flew to Krabi, then took a 2.5hr minivan to Ko Lanta. This is the view from our hotel outdoor. The beach you can see was so amazing. The weather was better than it looks and the water was bluer.

There was a max of 10people on the beach at a time so it was really nice and really relaxing.







On Monday night we drank at a bar of another hotel on the beach front with some friends we made on the minivan over. An American couple, one of whom was teaching in Seoul, an Irish couple who had been backpaking for 5months, a Spanish guy who had just flewn out of Christchurch, he'd been working in NZ for 5 months, an English guy who had just finished backpacking in India for 4 months and 2 Italian guys who had been away from home for 11 months and were really excited about going home soon.

This photo is me with some German guy named Richard. He was a connect four enthusiast and played it as seriously as one plays chess. He beat the English guy Steve, then beat Cam. This is me beating him.


On Tuesday we did a Thai cooking course. We got to wear chefs hats, which was my favourite part apart from the food.

I think I already wrote about it, this is us with our red curry and massaman curry.

Island Hopping

Ko Lanta has been amazing. We're staying in a private bungalow about 20 metres above the beach with amazing views, and we're paying about $25NZ a night.

The weather has been amazing. No rain yet. And finally blue sky, stars, and grass.

On Tuesday we took a Thai cooking course. Learnt to make coconut milk chicken soup, thai beef salad, red curry, massaman curry pasta and then a massaman curry.

Today we went on an elephant trek.

Tomorrow we leave for Ko Phi Phi, the most famous and most touristy of the islands where we plan to do some sort of snorkelling tour around the islands we haven't made it to yet. Then we think we'll have to stay Friday night in Krabi, and Saturday morning we fly back to Bangkok for a day of shopping or something. Then late Saturday night we fly back to Korea.

Thai time

We're in Thailand. Got in last night around 10pm, had some green thai curry and some panang and went to bed.

Today we're off to explore Bangkok.

Tomorrow we head to Krabi, from where we have access to all the islands.

I didn't bring my camera plug thing so no photos until we're back in Korea.