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Week 47 - Y2 (Jan 21st to Jan 27th) |
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Sun., Jan 21:
My last day. I got up relatively early without the
alarm. (Am I turning into a morning person? I can't
seem to stay in bed past 8am anymore) I packed very
quietly so as not to wake up the still sleeping
Israelis, and then it was onto the crazy maze of
streets that is Hanoi. I went to Bach Ma Temple,
which is this little temple close to my hotel. There
were no other tourists there, and actually I felt a
little weird being in there, like I was infringing
upon people's privacy. This temple is also known as
the White Horse Temple, because it is dedicated to a
white horse statue. Buddhism in Southeast Asia
includes a lot of both Hindu and spirit worship
elements, and a lot of temples are dedicated to
specific heroes, or spirits.
After fuelling up with some coffee at a lakefront
cafe, I got quite lost while looking for the Hoa Lo
Prison Museum. I did find it eventually . . . This
prison was used first for Vietnamese "revolutionaries"
during French rule in the 1st part of the 20th
century, and then later for American pilots that were
shot down over Hanoi during the Vietnam/American war.
I was shocked to find how horrible the French
treatment of the Vietnamese was-- they still used a
guillotine up until the '40s! In contrast, the
Americans were treated splendidly, and even nicknamed
the prison the "Hanoi Hilton". I still can't get over
how much Vietnam has suffered as a country, and how
quickly they are recovering and prospering.
Anyway, I didn't really have anything else to do for
the day, so I did some last minute souvenir shopping,
bought some pirated DVDs, and lounged around drinking
coffee in cozy cafes.
Back at the hotel, Linh (the manager of Kangaroo
Hotel, she's fantastic!) offered me a free lift to the
airport minibus stop. Of course, I didn't realize
that this meant a moto lift-- ever tried to take a 25
pound backpack on a motor bike? It's not very fun. I
can't believe the things that people transport on
their bikes here-- stacks of cartons of eggs, live
chickens, huge boxes, families of five. This insane
traffic would never work if everyone had cars. And
strangely enough, I'm getting to like being on the the
back of a moto zipping through wild traffic.
After my flight from Hanoi to Bangkok, I had to move
really fast to make my transfer flight, which ended up
being delayed for an hour, so I didn't really have to
hurry after all. The rest of the flight was
uncomfortable but uneventful, and I arrived safely in
Korea very early Monday morning.
All in all, the whole trip was pretty amazing. The
highlights-- the Karen tribe in Chiang Mai, Angkor
Wat, Hoi An and Halong Bay. It's fabulous to be back
in my apartment, which seems quite spacious to me now,
but I miss travelling already! Can't wait to do it
again next winter . . .
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Monday Jan 22nd,
I'm home and I'm exhausted and definitely feeling ill.
My apartment seems massive now, after a month of tiny
guesthouse rooms and shared space-- massive and very
clean!
And yet, I'm already going through travel withdrawal.
Korea doesn't seem so exciting anymore. I kind of
don't know what to do with myself now that I'm back.
One slight problem-- I seem to have lost my Korean
bank card somewhere on the trip. Since I'm supposed
to teach from 10-4 tomorrow at the hagwon, hopefully I
can make 4000 won last for a day before I can get to
the bank to get the card replaced. I'm also hoping
that it hasn't been stolen and that I'm going to find
my bank account drained.
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Tuesday Jan 23rd
So I showed up for teaching today, still exhausted and
kind of dreading 6 hours of teaching to find out that
most of my classes had been cancelled today because
the PaekChe incoming student auditions were taking
over most of the teaching rooms! One girl did come
for her private lesson, but I only taught for 1 hour.
I was both thrilled and pissed off-- happy to have an
easy day, I needed it; but also pissed because if I
had known that classes were to be cancelled for this
week, I could have stayed on vacation for an extra
week. And there were so many more things that I
wanted to see in Vietnam . . . grr.
Fortunately, this meant that I had time to go to the
bank to replace my bank card. My bank account turned
out fine, and it was relatively easy to get the card
replaced.
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Thursday Jan 25th:
I walked to the post office this afternoon to mail
home some boxes of gifts, and on the way back I came
across this fantastic organic grocery store-- fresh
salmon steaks, real salads, real bread, and good
spices! Oh my god, if I had known this was here
before . . . I'm making a vow to explore my own
neigbourhood more this semester.
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Saturday Jan 27th,
Today, a bunch of my girlfriends from Busan were up in
Seoul, including Miranda and Nicole. I met then for
dinner at Pancho's, as well as my friend Joe from
Daegu, who is currently looking for a job in Seoul.
After dinner, I took our 16 person strong crowd to Bar
Nsna in Itaewon for some drinks before the main
event-- I had heard about an all-you-can-drink for
25000W 80's party at Club Funky Funky in Hongdae, so
we got 4 cabs and hauled over to Funky Funky. Somehow
between Miranda and I, we managed to sweet-talk the
guy at the front door into giving us a 10000W
discount. The bar was packed, and there were a few
live bands playing as well, so it was a good time. At
least for the first little while . . . I've managed to
wreck my foot in a freak accident! At the bar, some
random girl was having an argument with a guy, and
somehow in the midst of it, they managed to knock over
a barstool just as I happened to be walking by, and
ridiculous coincidence, the stool fell square on my
right foot, leaving me in agony! I'm not sure if it's
just badly bruised, or if I've actually broken some
bones (I've never broken a bone before, I don't know
how much it's supposed to hurt!), but for the time
being, I can't walk very well!
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