Phuket looks far nicer in daylight...

...in fact, it reminds me a lot of Mexico. Except they speak Thai, not Spanish here (go figure). Today we woke up fairly early (since Japan/Korea are two hours ahead), checked some email, and decided that we needed to figure out our plans for the next two days. Today was pretty easy - the beach sounded like a good idea. After talking with the front desk at our hostel, we booked a trip to Ko Phi Phi Island for tomorrow. For about $50, it'll take us about 1.5 hours to get to the island where they shot most of "The Beach," that really crappy, post-Titanic Leonardo DiCaprio movie. It's also known as "James Bond Island" since one of the movies was shot there, though no one seems to know which one... Dad, Kris, wanna help me out? Anyway, we'll do some snorkeling, get lunch, and swim. Lonely Planet says the place is definitely high on the list of Most Beautiful Places in the World. I'll be sure to take pictures.

Armed with a life plan, or at least a plan for the next day, Rach and I headed to the beach. We'd heard Patong was nice but incredibly crowded, so we opted for Hat Karon instead. Rach bartered with a lady by the beach for sarongs, and we enjoyed the sun for several hours. It was indeed as pretty as people had promised. Except for the 7 topless ladies and countless hairy men in speedos. Those weren't so pretty. We worked out that most of the tourists to Phuket tend to be older and European. Perhaps it's because it's closer and cheaper than Hawaii. Anyway, we also realized we're a little spoiled coming from Hawaii... we probably would have appreciated the beauty a lot more were we not frequent visitors to Waimea and Kaanapali. Most of the people are our hostel are from Australia, New Zealand, and England. Speaking of our hostel, it's quite cute. Not in the best part of town, but it's safe, the staff is nice, and there are always people in the lounge watching dvds.

After grabbing a yummy chicken curry sandwich near the beach, we left Karon (no, not Karen, KQ) and made our way back to our hostel by bus (for a whopping 25 baht each... something like 75 cents), showered, and discovered how sunburned we are, despite the fact we both used sunscreen. I guess I underestimated the intensity of the sun here... we are pretty close to the equator, I suppose. Now we're off to dinner at some place nearby that Lisa recommended.

I'll provide an update tomorrow about our little day trip. :)

And where are the comments, my friends?!

On to to Thailand...

As Rach and I left Seoul this morning, it started to snow. Lots. It was a bit of shock considering we both sacrificied our coats the night before to send to respective people to hang on to since we were heading to a warmer climate (thanks Lisa)... given the snow, we decided we were probably leaving Korea at a good time. On a sidenote, I'd like to point out that the Korean construction design of heated floors blows Japanese kotatsus out of the water. Even though our motel in Seoul wasn't amazing, the floors alone made me super happy.

Right... so on to Thailand. We had an uneventful 5 hour or so flight into Bangkok, exchanged some currency, and hopped on a plane for a 1.5 hour flight to Phuket. We managed to find the airport "bus" (more like a run down van) to the Phuket bus station in town and walked in the dark to our hostel. Phuket seems a bit sketchy at night, not gonna lie. Rachel found some new "friends" on our journey... she discovered that she might be a bit pretentious. haha. I'm hopeful it will look better in the morning. We found a hole in the wall restaurant run by a French guy for dinner- the crepes were pretty yummy.

Oh, and I thought Korea was cheap. Hahahaha... oh man. Two large bottles of water in Thailand ran us less than a dollar.

We're planning on a trip to the beach tomorrow and then most likely a day kayaking trip the following day.

That's all for now. I'm a bit tired since Japan/Korea are two hours ahead of here.

bye!

Helllllllooooo out there,

So I have really sucked at keeping this updated for the past two months. It all went by so quick! For the short rundown:

-Thanksgiving was great... the food turned out far better than expected. It was the full turkey dinner with a Japanese flair. Plus, it was great seeing all of the other Fulbrighters.
-Rachel came to visit soon after for my birthday. We met up with people in Osaka, had some Mexican food (surprisingly not awful), and went to a club... out all night once again. The club was fun, mostly foreigners... Rachel got hit on by strange guys, I told them she didn't speak Japanese, they thus offered to be my lover. Fabulous.
-My cousin Michael came from Australia the next day. I took he and Rach on a massive site-seeing expedition all around Kansai region. I think we were all a little templed out, but it was fun nevertheless.
-Went home for Christmas, which was great. I was really happy to see my friends and family, get some food I'd been craving, and spend some at the beach.


Sooo I returned to Japan on January 11th... finished up my classes for the term, which included me writing a three page paper in Japanese comparing advertising there and back in the US. My TA friend Kyoko tore it apart and made me feel like I really don't know any Japanese. Haha... oh well. It's done. I haven't decided whether or not I'll be taking any academic courses once the new term starts. We'll see if my research keeps me occupied. If not, I'll probably sign up for a course in English...

But the real reason I got motivated to update my blog is that Rachel and I have set off on the big trip we'd been thinking about since winning our grants last April. I met her in Seoul, Korea, two days ago. I've decided that Korea is a lot like Japan, except significantly cheaper and I can't understand a word being spoken around me. I think this is the first time I've gone some place and not known even a single word of the language. It's been interesting. I got on the plane to find someone in my seat... I started to explain to the woman in Japanese what the problem was... and then realized I was an idiot. Haha.

Anyway, Rachel and I got dinner and wanted around the area near our hotel the first night... randomly discovered and ice skating rink and decided to skate for an hour (it was only a dollar!)... watched some TV in the hotel room (Sex and City and Friends... I was so surprised to see it!)

Yesterday we went to Gyeongbokgung Place (the main palace of the Joseon dynasty) in the morning. Structures here are much more colorful than they are in Japan. I was taken aback a bit. After that we took the subway to Myeongdung, which is the fashion district of Seoul. We had some really yummy ramen-type noodles, ate a donut at Krispy Kreme (ya, they have it here, go figure), and looked at a bunch of stores. We later walked to this other major marketplace, called Namdaemun. Apparently people get there at 4am to start buying stuff.

After some confusing directions, we managed to get to Namsan to take a cable car up to Seoul Tower. It's much like Tokyo tower and provided a nice view of the whole city. After that we made it over to Itaewon for some really great Indian food. Itaewon is this area known for having tons of foreigners and American military guys. It was dark and kind of late when we got there so we just got dinner and headed back to our room. There was far more English written there than anywhere else I've seen in Seoul.

Today we ran some last minute errands, wandered around the massive Jongmyo Royal Shrine and park. The shrine houses spritual tablets of kings and queens from the Joseon Dynasty. The buildings there were also quite colorful. Afterwards we got some lunch from Subway (Rach and I had cravings for quite some time), went to Insa-dong, the arts and crafts market (I bought some earrings), and then got pedicures. haha.

After I leave this internet cafe we're off to the post office to mail our coats to our respective homes, since we're heading south tomorrow where it's much warmer. Our coats won't exactly fit in our bags... Tomorrow me make our way to Phuket, Thailand. After that it's Siem Reap, Cambodia, followed by Bangkok, and then on to Sydney. Our hostels have internet, so hopefully I'll be able to update this each day. :)

That's all for now. I'll upload pictures later! Take care!