Well, well, well! So much has happened since my last post! So I will try and keep it brief! Maybe I will make lists!
I started my winter break and adventures on December 20th when I headed on the overnight bus to Tokyo from where I departed to Bangkok with a fellow Aomori City ALT Steve.
THAILAND was wonderfully fun and exciting adventure, full of delicious street vendors, insane Tuk Tuk drivers and bargaining!
Places Visited: Bangkok (about 4 days), Island of Koh Samui (about 4 days)
Things Seen: Many Wats and Palaces, Amusement Parks, Lady Boy Show, Muay Thai Boxing
Excursions: Day of fishing where we caught and ate our own fish, Elephant ride
Best Meal: SPICY meat, chili peppers, onions on rice with an egg - ate at koh samui on the beach.
Most interesting person met: Mon, the Thai tattoo artist
Steve's Illness: The usualy travel sickness (3 days) combined with terrible tooth pain and having to get a tooth pulled.
MALAYSIA was very neat because it does not seem like there are many tourists and they have an amazing amount of ethnic diversity (chinese, malay, indian) which combines for amazing food and friendly people!Places Visited: Island of Penang(about 2 days), Kuala Lumpur (about 5 day), Melaka (few hours)
Things Seen: Colonial town of Georgetown, Batu Caves, Petronas Towers, many temples and mosques, markets, chinatown, little india
Best Meal: Indian Curry at a place near my hostel
Most Interesting Person met: Three Japanese people we met while waiting in line to get a ticket to walk the sky bridge of the petronas towers. They did not know each other so they were introducing themselves saying where in Japan they were from and then when we were like Aomori, they were surprised -- first because why can we speak japanese and second WHY do we live in Aomori! haah we ended up spending the entire day with them! (they might come visit at Nebuta, our big famous festival held in August)
Steve's Illness: Well -- we spent New Years Eve in Kuala Lumpur (probably the best nye ever), we were wondering why they were selling silly string and foam. Well at around 11 pm everyone in the streets just started spraying everyone with foam, esp us because we are foreigners and it was funny. And it was all a great time covered in foam, people wanting pictures with us. Obviously you are not supposed to get this in your eyes, and my contacts were bothering me so after midnight I went back to the hostel to take them out. Well Steve did not wash out his eyes and the next morning had terrible terrible pain and could not open his eyes at all -- so there was a trip to the hospital.
SINGAPORE was an AMAZING difference from both the two other countries (all differed greatly from one another) but Singapore is so very developed, has insane amount of rules that everyone follows and is the most expensive. While in Singapore we stayed with a man who worked for the British Embassy and he showed us an amazing time! He made great suggestions of where to go and took us out to amazing food that we would def not have tried on our own! For any of you travelers out there I would highly recommend the website Couchsurfing, people are willing to give up a couch and have people from all over the world crash, and not sketchy due to all the recommendations and details required.
Places Visited: Singapore (not a very big place!)
Things Seen: Singapore Zoo (very good), Singapore NIGHT SAFARI (by far the best thing in Singapore), Singapore Bird Park, Sentosa Island (an island that is like a disney resort), the city
Best Meal: Chili Crab or Sting Ray
Most Interesting Person Met: Couch Surfing Host Anthony from England
Steve's Illness: maybe a hangover after Anthony took us Ladyboy/Prostitute watching haha
The trip was great! Loved all the countries I went to, loved all the foods, loved all the people, loved the differences each country had and just all the new sites and architecture I had never seen before!
Coming home I spent three days in Tokyo. I stayed with my friend Steve (different Steve) who graduated a year before me at WAKE FOREST (GO DEACON BASKETBALL!). He works in Tokyo and I was so excited to see him after 1.5 years! It was great, we hung out, ate good foods (the restaurant from the Kill Bill movie, a Ramen museum, a Jamaican place...), and bought SNOWBOARDS!!
Things to look forward to:AOMORI SNOWBOARDING SEASON (NOW the snow keeps falling!)
Feb 6-8 SAPPORO SNOW FESTIVAL
Feb 8 MY BIRTHDAY (and next curling match)
Feb 11 National Holiday: National Foundation Day
PLEASE check out my pictures on Picasa from my travels: I have tried to organize them so you can pick and choose what you want to look at, or you can click on them all and see small thumbnails, click through them all, or view a slideshow.. i believe they should load relatively quickly. And I enjoy any and all comments! :)
