well, vacation is almost over...this afternoon we leave cat ba island to spend our last night in hanoi before flying out tomorrow at 8pm. these 6 weeks flew by. its hard to believe we have visited 4 countries in such a short amount of time. Next time we go on a trip we'll stick to one or two countries. Or we'll be gone a lot longer. give us time to actually get to know a place instead of just the tourist places. except for a few suggestions we kind of feel like we've been herded most of this trip. spending most of the time with fellow travelers rather than locals.
i think living in korea makes it feel this way. besides english teachers and some military the only people to travel around korea are koreans. and except for some places in the bigger cities, you have to try to speak korean. in the countries we've visited i've only really learned how to say thank you, beer, and hi. sometimes just the first two because 'hello' seems to be universal. it was hard to even find a menu that didnt have english, in fact i can't remember one.
spending the last few days on the beach has been perfect. i feel fully relaxed and decently tan enough to go back to teach the kiddies in gumi. soon we'll have a quick internet connection again and ill get all my pictures uploaded and sent out. fun for everyone!
Friday, November 17, 2006
Sunday, November 05, 2006
made it to Saigon
well, our sketchy visas let us into the country, hopefully they'll get us back out too! the visa is just paperclipped into our passports and they stamped that paper instead of in the passport...odd.
we had a decent time in cambodia. it was more expensive than we expected. seeing the poverty was astounding. and then the killing fields and s21. why were we not taught this in school? oh i know--b/c we never got past the 60s. whats sick is that one country killed 25 percent of its own people and left the remaining 75 percent in the stone ages--their words.
on the plus side there's angkor wat and the temples and palaces around it. for those english teachers out there who taught American Get Ready 1--we made up a new song for elephants and frogs, 123. palaces and wats 123. hello palaces hello wats...ill get pictures up when we get back to gumi. its hard to believe we only have 2 weeks left. at least we're in one country the whole time. but we'll still have hte LONG bus rides. the one here was supposed to be 6 hrs and turned into 10. we had to wait 3 hrs to cross a river on a ferry. 3 hrs of people sticking their hands inside the bus trying to get you to buy something you don't want for 3 times the price they offer it to cambodians. children moaning--money, money. i think someone teaches them all how to say it the exact same way.
we finally got to saigon and found a decent guesthouse--even though the electricity was out in the area. thankfully was we were standing outside waiting for caroline, an irish girl we met on the bus, it came back on. the room's pretty nice--hot water, 2 fans, a tv for 6 bucks a night. there's even a window, no screen...but a window is always nice.
today we're just going to chill out. we're going to meet caroline at 1-130 and walk to the reunification palace. our tour director told us there are tunnels under that palace that lead to the river. i'm hoping we can take them.
tomorrow is another sad day. we'll go to see hte war remnants museum and cu chi tunnels. the next day we head to the beach, for some much needed lay around time.
we had a decent time in cambodia. it was more expensive than we expected. seeing the poverty was astounding. and then the killing fields and s21. why were we not taught this in school? oh i know--b/c we never got past the 60s. whats sick is that one country killed 25 percent of its own people and left the remaining 75 percent in the stone ages--their words.
on the plus side there's angkor wat and the temples and palaces around it. for those english teachers out there who taught American Get Ready 1--we made up a new song for elephants and frogs, 123. palaces and wats 123. hello palaces hello wats...ill get pictures up when we get back to gumi. its hard to believe we only have 2 weeks left. at least we're in one country the whole time. but we'll still have hte LONG bus rides. the one here was supposed to be 6 hrs and turned into 10. we had to wait 3 hrs to cross a river on a ferry. 3 hrs of people sticking their hands inside the bus trying to get you to buy something you don't want for 3 times the price they offer it to cambodians. children moaning--money, money. i think someone teaches them all how to say it the exact same way.
we finally got to saigon and found a decent guesthouse--even though the electricity was out in the area. thankfully was we were standing outside waiting for caroline, an irish girl we met on the bus, it came back on. the room's pretty nice--hot water, 2 fans, a tv for 6 bucks a night. there's even a window, no screen...but a window is always nice.
today we're just going to chill out. we're going to meet caroline at 1-130 and walk to the reunification palace. our tour director told us there are tunnels under that palace that lead to the river. i'm hoping we can take them.
tomorrow is another sad day. we'll go to see hte war remnants museum and cu chi tunnels. the next day we head to the beach, for some much needed lay around time.
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