A laid back weekend in Seoul?!

This weekend Laura and I decided to go up to Seoul for a winter festival. Once there, we soon learned that the festival was cancelled, but that was only listed on the Korean website (not the English one). All plans of ice fishing with our bare hands were quickly diminished. We made the best of the situation, and honestly, it was great to not have an agenda in Seoul.

M. Chat, French graffiti artist, tagged his famous Mister Cat all over Seoul. This is one in Hongdae by the hostel I stay at in Seoul.

To our pleasant surprise, a second Taco Bell had opened up in Seoul, and just happened to be right next to our hostel! Life was delicious.

Saturday we went to Deoksugung, a palace in downtown Seoul. Our goal was to see the Royal Changing of the Guards Ceremony, but it was cancelled due to cold weather.

We braved the cold long enough to check out the palace grounds and buildings.

It was really interesting seeing such an ancient palace set around a bustling city.

Then we went to a special exhibit at the National Museum of Contemporary Art. It was called Picasso and Modern Art, but was primarily expressionist works. It was a fantastic exhibit, and I would highly recommend anyone in Korea to check it out.

Next, we ventured out to the Seoul Museum of Art, which was hosting a Chagall exhibit, called Chagall : A Magician of Color. Of course the Chagall and Picasso exhibits both did not allow photography.

The museum was hosting a modern exhibit of work that was much more hands on and interactive.

It was an interesting and welcome change after a day full of well-known art.

On Sunday Laura and I went to a cafe called Cats Living. It is a cat cafe, which are actually fairly common in Korea. Neither of us had been to one before, so we stopped in for coffees. It was wonderful.

The basic idea is that you pay an admission to get in (about $7.50) and get a beverage for free. As far as I can tell they can't serve food for sanitation reasons.

You can play with the cats, they had about 30 all together. They were well socialized and friendly. The employees were wandering around, cleaning the cats eyes, giving some medication to others. They all seemed very well cared for.

A lot of cats in Korea have these flat ears and shorter tails. I'm not sure if its breed here or what, but they are quite cute.

There were a group of middle school girls that were pretty awesome too - they spoke some English and were extremely polite. They had bought cat treats - I don't know if she realized the chaos that would ensue from the excited cats, hah.

Last but not least, we wandered to Myungdong for some shopping before heading home to Daegu. It was nice to get away, to see some art - I feel like its been a lifetime since my days of going to gallery openings, the DIA, the GRAM, and local art shows on a weekly basis.

Now I am preparing for my sister, Tricia's, visit. She will arrive on the 30th, and stay for two weeks. I am already compiling lists of things I want her to see and experience during her trip. I can't wait to show off the place that has become my home.

Bangkok, Thailand

As promised, here is the video tour of our tree house resort in Khao Sok.

We left off on Corinne and I taking the night train back up to Bangkok. This is life in first class. We had a private sleeping room with bunk beds, they provided sealed sheets, blankets, and pillows. We even got room service! It was wonderful.

Tuk-tuks! These are the cheap mode of transportation throughout Bangkok. Taxis are easily available also, but for shorter distances these are ideal.

The first day in Bangkok Corinne and I went to the Royal Palace and Emerald Buddha. It is not made of emerald, or even jade. Actually the Buddha itself is rather small and unimpressive after the Tiger Cave Temple. It is a highly revered statue, its clothing is changed by the king or crown price three times a year, to ensure the Buddha is properly dressed for the season. You can see all three dressings if you click the link in "Emerald Buddha" above.

The reason is is worth the trip, however, is the beautiful temple around it and the Royal Palace which is connected. The architecture is amazing, and everything is incredibly ornate.

There is a huge series of these murals with gold detailing. They are constantly under repair, so the pictures look impeccable.

The left is the traditional Thai protector of the temple, and the right is the Thai protector of the palace. I like the contrast.

The following day we went to Wat Pho, or the Reclining Buddha. This temple was much less crowded than the Emerald Buddha, which made the experience a lot more intimate. The Buddha itself is 46 by 15 meters, so it is gigantic. This temple is considered the birthplace of Thai massage. It is also unique because it depicts Buddha entering nirvana.

Corinne and I in our traditional skirts. We haggled fantastic deals for them.

There are over one thousand Buddhas in the temple.

Several Buddhas had small gifts left on or around them.

The next day Tricia and Russ were here! So, we took a river taxi to Wat Saket, or the Golden Mount. It is a modern temple on a man-made hill that is supposed to have a beautiful view of Bangkok. We forgot that this was the first of the year, however, and it is Thai tradition to go to 5 temples in one day. It was insanely crowded, and we didn't make it up to the top.

We did get some pretty views, though, from the walk up.

This is the top of the Golden Mount itself.

This is Russ and Tricia sitting on Khao San Road, getting harassed by the street vendors. We got dinner and then I was off to the airport, flying home to Daegu.

It was a whirlwind trip, but I loved Thailand. I really want to go back again - maybe even move there next. Now I am anticipating seeing my sister, she is going to come to Korea at the very end of the month. Being in Korea again is a huge adjustment, I forgot how cold it is here! Now I have officially been here over five months, though, which is an accomplishment.

Krabi, Thailand

As I have posted about before, I spent my winter vacation in Thailand. The original plan was for my parents and sister to join me, but those plans were changed due to some family issues. My friend Corinne joined me for the trip, with Tricia (my sister) spending the last night and day with us. As sad as I was to not get to see my parents, it was great to experience such a drastically different culture from Korea.

Corrine and I took a night bus to Seoul, flew into Bangkok and immediately jumped on a night train to the province Krabi is in- usually 12 hours south, but our train broke down so it took 14. We spent part of the trip in third class and the other part in seated second class (the pictures are Corinne's from second class). It was very intense. When we finally got there, we took what was supposed to be an hour bus to Krabi (this actually took four hours) and then a taxi to..

... this beautiful resort!

After about 36 hours of traveling, this was exactly what we both needed.

We showered, changed, and immediately got some Thai food!

Then we took our resort's shuttle to the beach! It was beautiful and hot, and most of all the opposite weather of Korea! We ate amazing Thai food, enjoyed relaxing Thai massage, and went to bed early.

The next day we hired a taxi to take us to the Tiger Temple Cave, the Emerald Pool and the Hot Springs. This is Wat Sum Sua, or the Tiger Temple Cave, which actually doesn't have any tigers.

The temple is famous because its surrounded by monkeys, which are known for being rather aggressive and harassing the tourists. Luckily, the temple had recently had the monkeys removed and relocated, because of the issues with tourists, the lack of natural food in the environment, and the fact that the monkeys damaged the temple itself.

Did I mention the temple is at the top of a mountain? It doesn't sound like that far, but I soon realized that this is similar to Korean "hiking" - the steps are incredibly steep, to the point that you have to use your hands, like a ladder. It was entirely worth it though for the view.

The Buddha itself was massive. I wish I had gotten a picture with some scale, but to give you some idea, I didn't reach even the bottom of Buddha's leg!

These three are probably my favorite shots from the temple.

This is the view from the top!

Later we got a chance to relax in the Emerald Pool and the Hot Springs. Both were incredibly beautiful, and if you click the links it will take you to a video of each of them. I was worried about my camera getting wet, so I didn't take a ton of pictures there. They were both surrounded by beautiful rain forest and mountains, it was a sight to be seen.

We spent the night getting Thai massages and relaxing, and in the morning left for Khao Sok National Park. This is a prehistoric rain forest that is supposed to be beautiful. The plan was to stay in this awesome tree house, go hiking, canoeing, elephant trekking, etc.

The plan ended up changing when I broke out in extremely painful hives due to an allergic reaction. When allergy medication had no affect, and with the hives spreading by the minute, we hired a taxi and headed out of the rain forest. We booked another night train back to Bangkok. I will update about Bangkok in the next day or two!