Two posts in two days!? Can you believe it?!
Itinerary for our South East Asia trip is a little loose right now... And, surprisingly, I'm okay with that. I have our first week planned and beyond that, I'm at the whims of the Gods!
Currently, as I am typing this, I have 1 day left of school. 1 day until my life will be crammed into a 35 Liter Backpack and I will find new places to sweat from.
On FEBRUARY 14th, 2014 (Valentines Day) we will be leaving Korea at 10:35am and landing in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia ( <--- I HATE spelling that country, took me like four tries! ) around 4pm. We are then off the plane and on to a quick tour of KL, we are staying at the Reggae Mansion Hostel, including rooftop bar! It is supposed to rain, but that just makes decision making that much easier. We won't spent the 30usd to go up in the Petronas Twin Towers, because it is going to be cloudy, a 'drive by' will be fine. Our hostel is located near China Town and Little India, so I'm excited to do some looking around (avoid shopping!) and eat some Indian food.... My new found love!!
Then, on Saturday (FEBRUARY 15th) it is back on the plane to head to Chiang Mai, Thailand for 5 days!! I am so excited for Chiang Mai!! We have no set dates but we are doing the Tiger Kingdom (playing with ALL of the size tigers... mother!) and we are also doing the Patera Elephant Experience (where you literally have one day with your own elephant and you learn to approach, speak, feed, bathe, ride, swim, eat.... All with your elephant. No, we do NOT clean up the poo, but to quote the website, "we can if we want."). Those are our two planned days, another day, we might do the Golden Triangle tour where Laos, Thailand and Myanmar meet. It used to be all opium fields, but now is a tourist trap with an opium museum, that I want to see....of course.
The it is on to Phuket via plane again... Flying in SE Asia is super cheap! From Chiang Mai to Phuket, 30USD, cheaper and faster than the train!
FEBRUARY 20th - PHUKET -
Heard it is a stop over, even Rihanna didn't give it a real enthusiastic review... And I'm sure she was staying at a balling hotel. But when in Phuket.....
Patong Beach
Pingpong shows - Bangla Road
Ladyboy/ Caberet shows - Bangla Road
Phang Nga Bay tour - aka - James Bond Island day tour with kayaking and exploration of sea caves
Muay Thai fights
So, with all that in mind, I'm sure we will be busy.
FEBRUARY 23 - Ko Phi Phi
If you have ever watched the weird Leo D. Movie about 'The Beach' and wondered where 'the beach' was filmed ... Ko phi phi is your answer. It is blogged and written about as one of the most beautiful beaches - however, since the movie, tourist have moved in by the thousands! However, we plan to join the to get this once in a lifetime experience. We plan on being beach bums and maybe taking a day tour of the actual 'beach', some monkey harassment and snorkeling.
FEBRUARY 26th - Ao Nang/Railey Beach/Krabi
Again, no plans. But we are probably going to make a stop over in this area.
Then it is on to the other side ....
FEBRUARY 28th - Koh Phangan - Koh Sumi - Koh Tao
Koh Phangan is where they hold the crazy full moon parties, however, we won't be making it during the right time. Mainly heading to Koh Phangan first because it is between Koh Sumi and Koh Tao... Haven't decided just yet which island we want to visit in our time... So I am leaving it up to the locals. If they say Kho Tao is best... We'll grab the ferry and vice versa.
Depending on our dates and if we get side tracked somewhere, we will be flying out of Thailand on...
MARCH 5/6/7 - Siem Reap, CAMBODIA.
Only thing we really have planned here is to visit Angkor Wat. If you don't know, it is where Tomb Raider was filmed.
Then, a six hour bus ride to....
MARCH 10th - Phnom Phen
P.P.wasn't super important on my list, until I started researching and hearing of friends travels to the Killing Fields. This is a site to remember the almost 2 million people who were killed in roughly four years. If you don't know anything about it, much like me a few months ago, take a quick Google search. It's a sad history that I knew nothing of, but that is what is amazing about history - is that I learn something new about our past almost every day!!
Another important thing about P.P. is that we need to get our visa for the 6 hour bus ride to.....
MARCH 13th - Ho Chi Minh City, VIETNAM
ANd this is where Ken takes over for his part of the planning so everything is up to him!
What I know we will see is:
Cu Chi Tunnels -HCMC
Firing off big guns in HCMC
Getting tailored suits and clothes on the cheap!
MARCH 18th - HANOI
Hopefully in Hanoi we will get to meet up with one of our friends from Korea who moved to Hong Kong and have a weekend of Korean mischief. We also want to do a Halong Bay boat tour... Probably just have time for 3 days 2 nights.
From Hanoi, Vietnam we will fly on...
MARCH 25th - Beijing, CHINA
Here we are more scheduled, because we have to be. As a US citizen, to get a visa for China is about 200USD... And that is outrageous! However, you can be flying from one country to another and have a 'Layover 72 Hour No-Visa' stay. In those three days we will be:
Touring the Great Wall of China - 1 day
Forbidden City - 1 day
SHOPPING - as much as I can fit in the time frame and.... In my bag!!
MARCH 28th - Seoul, SOUTH KOREA
We have allotted a one day buffer so that we can grab our luggage, close out our bank accounts with any remaining money (wishful thinking!) and have our butts back to the airport to get our plane our of South Korea on....
MARCH 29th - USA!!
I can't wait to be home, but this is def, a once in a lifetime trip - too much of the world to see to go back to where I've been.
Friday, February 14, 2014
Wednesday, February 12, 2014
The Last Six Months
I am well aware, that making one general blog post about SIX months is suuuuppppeeeer lame, but I think once you take a read you will see we have been a little busy over here. : P
PHILIPPINES - August 2013
After a year in Korea, we FINALLY had a vacation. And I'm talking legitimate timed vacation, not just a long weekend... I'm talking TEN days!! We decided to hit the white sand beach of Boracay, Philippines with 4 other teachers from the island.
I had never done a "spring break" style vacation, mainly because I could never afford it... But at 24, both Scott and I could afford it and deserved it!
We all booked a great hotel called, Nigi Nigi Nu Noos in station one. We each had our own private bungalows, with working AC, and right on the beach!! The hotel had a great restaurant and we were served one meal complimentary. First night I tried the burger... It came out still mooing, sent it back but it was too late! The following 9 days were spent trying to make up for that decision. Note to anyone traveling, avoid beef!!
ACTIVITIES
First day in, we arrived at 6am, and our friends had already chatted up the locals to find out that a big cockfight was to be happening. I am not into cruelty of animals, but I do believe that when you are in another country it just sets you even more apart if you look down at everything they do. Cockfights are just, what they do and I wanted to witness it. It was very educating. People will throw out their bets (verbally) based on past experience or size or what ever other superstitions and people will raise their hands and say, "yes, I'm in at this price....etc...". So, before the fight it is rather loud and then there is this lull that happens when the chickens are dropped into the rink.... Then at once, things go wild again. People are cheering and calling out and when there is finally a winner, the money for the bets are wadded up and thrown across the stadium to the winner. It really surprised me how honest everyone was. If you caught someone else's winning, you handed it right over. With our minds culturally blown, we made our way, via tuk tuk, back to our hotel to sleep off the rough airport layover of 6 hours.... On the beautiful white sand beach!
The next day, Monday, we actually booked a boat tour which included: helmet diving, snorkeling and beach hopping. Helmet dive turned out to be a bust for me, asthma + 15kg cement helmet on your head + limited oxygen being fed in = never happening!! Snorkeling was, so-so it was too deep too see anything... But boat cruising along the island and being able to see Puka Shell Beach was pretty amazing!!
The other days we just lounged on our chairs and drank buckets on the beach. Best decision was
buying floating for $5 a pop and just floating out on the ocean for an entire day!
At night we found ourselves gravitating toward the party scene down near station one. Two of the nights we did a Boracay Pub Crawl... And boy could some stories be told!! Memories were made on those nights! The party scene in Boracay is riddled with drunken backpackers, random Europeans on holiday, packs of Asians (scattered through out... Because their tour package finishes at 6pm almost every night so SOME... Very few, wander outside their hotels to take a look.) Fellow Korean teachers and then..... LadyBoys! Yep, LADYBOYS!!
Another day, Scott and I ventured out of the stations by renting a truck and heading to this zoo we had found online. I'm so glad we did this because our driver took us to this look out point along the way and we were able to see all of the island, as well as seeing a little zoo. When we arrived at the actual zoo, we were more than surprised. It was little and their exhibits weren't the best, but our tour guide knew all the animals and was very familiar with each animals personality. He gave us a personal tour, he let us hold the snake and the birds.... And A BABY CROC!! He actually let us
into the cage with a 16 foot salt water croc so we could take some up close pictures. To die!! That would NEVER happen in America!! Swam with sharks and hung out with salt water crocs.... Not a bad year!!
We had an extra two days on the island after everyone left that we filled with white sand beach exploring! We walked down to station one to see the famous Willy's Rock, which was beautiful and we could climb up and jump off and swim under in the caves. Then we kept traveling along, not even sure what station we were on at that point to find the Spider House and their famous mango smoothies - delicious, but it was not easy to find, via the beach.
The last day was ruined by a typhoon coming in, which foiled our plans of jumping off Ariel's Point, but we found other things to occupy our time...... And by that I mean shopping at D'Mall, of course!
And that is a quick over-view of our 'big trip' to the Philippines!
Next comes....
TAIWAN - September 2013
Taiwan was really an after thought. We hadn't given much thought about anything after our big trip, but soon realized our time was precious and holidays were going to be the only way we could escape Korea and hit the other countries. Chuseok came next and we had four days - where to go?! We have friends who just had moved from Korea to Taiwan to teach and we thought what better place to go than somewhere with a built in tour guide?! Our flights were a little "last minute", but we ended
up snagging 2 first class tickets to Taipei for cheaper than economy - um.... Didn't have to think twice, BOOKED! However it was a 'red eye'... Our first night we just got to a hotel near the high speed rail that we would grab in the morning. We woke up and braced ourselves to do what, we were sure was going to be a multilingual mess of us trying to get a ticket, but it was a BREEZE. At that
point I realized that I was going to really like Taiwan!!
We got to our arranged hotel and met up with our friends - cracked a few Kirins, made up our own drinking game and wandered around the area. It was amazing! Taipei had just everything; the glitz of the neon signs, street shopping, Subway (restaurant), mart drinking and STINKY TOFU. I fell in love almost right away!! We ventures to the famous Shilin night market - where we witness some crazy
street food, a skewer of grilled chicken hearts, to name one. I was deterred from shopping because our next stop was an all you can drink night club... For ~10 or 15 usd!!
We woke up the next morning to the vague memory of tequila shots and X-Rated/7's and a very real pounding headache, only cured by some smiley face hashbrowns for breakfast!
That day was a weather bummer, started out nice - then it began to downpour.... A typhoon had followed us to Taiwan too!! Didn't stop our day at the Taipei Zoo and touring around the city seeing all the sights it has to offer. I think a must see is the National Chiang-Kai Shek Memorial Hall. It's just absolutely huge!
Last on our agenda for Taipei was to visit 'Snake Alley' - where you go to enjoy yourself some snakey stew or BBQ snake.... Oh, don't forget your snake blood and venom shot!! The snake was... Dry and the blood/venom shot was... Wet. Definitely a must if you are in Taiwan, when else and where else are you going to be offered a snake blood and venom shot?!
After our big day we headed back to see our friends new digs and their new town. Their apartment was nice and it was only about 30 minutes via high speed rail to get to Taipei. It made me really think if we made the right decision staying in Korea, I loved Taiwan THAT MUCH! I can't really explain the 'feeling' of being "at home" somewhere, where everything is just so different, but I really had it in Tiwan! I wish we would have had more time - but maybe that would have ruined it for me. But either way, Taiwan was an amazing time and I'm so glad we did it!
Moving on to.....
HIROSHIMA, JAPAN - Novemeber 2013
Remembering that we had already done a speedy 3 day tour of the largest city in the world, Tokyo, and didn't really have the most fond memories, i.e. sleeping in a Karoke Room... We really didn't WANT to go back to Japan, but if I didn't see Hiroshima or Nagasaki - I would have been real bummed out.
We had a busy couple of months after Taiwan - Scott played in two league footballs, which took up almost every weekend. But I was determined to get to H or N, even if that meant going alone. I had also been watching tickets, flying into Hiroshima was a hassle and expensive. HOWEVER, if we booked 3 months in advance with AirBusan, we could fly into Fukuoka for right at 200USD for us BOTH! Booked the tickets! Hell, high water or football games be damned, we were getting there.
So we left Busan at 10am on Saturday (after just barely making our flight...what did I tell you about hell or high water?) arrived in Fukuoka at 10:40am, hopped on th metro to the main station and caught the high speed rail to Hiroshima (~80USD round trip) and arrived by 1pm!
First stop was Miyajima Island right off the coast of Hiroshima. This island is known as 'The Island of Gods' and has many shrines and temples to visit... All at an added price! With our schedule, and the season, we didn't get there at high tide - when it is the most beautiful because the water comes in and everything looks as if it were floating. But, it was still a sight! Another thing to mention is the deer! On this island the deer are OVER populated and they roam free and have become almost like the island pets. The deer will eat papers, your clothes and pretty much anything they can sink their teeth into! They also have a problem with the males, they have to keep their antlers cut down because so many of them fight all the time and I think a bloody injured deer might throw off the vibe 'The Island of the Gods ' has going.
After we had had our fill of the island - maybe walked around for a couple of hours, we headed back on the ferry to the mainland. The neat thing about Hiroshima is that their public transit is cable cars! It was a flat fee, no matter how far you were going so it actually added up quickly if you were using it a lot, so we decided to walk most of the time.
We had learned from our Tokyo lesson and booked a room ahead of time! Our hotel was nice, it was a little bit far from the Peace Park and happenings area... More than my stomach would have liked at that time of the day, but the hotel was super nice and gave us an English map of restaurants around the city. We tried about 3 restaurants, all closed for various reasons until happening upon a nice little Japanese-Mex restaurant with a cold COORS light and BLUE MOON and we were sold!
The next morning (Sunday) we woke up, checked out (the hotel was nice enough to hold our bags for us) and got to the Memorial Peace Park at 10am. It was kind of a grey overcast day, bit chilly because fall had set in, but I can't even describe how somber this place was. No one was running or yelling, cars even seems to be silent around the area, the only sound you could hear was the memory bell being rung. It really set the tone of remembrance, respect and peace.
We continued to walk around the park, looking at everything. The memorial bell, the monument to Koreans who had also died in the explosion, the 'tomb' of unknown bodies, the eternal flame, the bridge that was to be the target for the bomb (which it had missed) - and the bridge actually absorbed some of the blast and distributed the blast so they were able to rebuild and reuse the bridge until the 1980's!! And the most moving, for me, was the last standing structure after the bomb hit. It was literally just a shell of a building, but it had such an impact.
We timed the Peace Park Museum all wrong - thinking noon, everyone would be eating so we could take our time... Good thought, but then it began to rain so everyone came inside. So, we shuffled from exhibit to exhibit. I really wanted to read everything and take it all in, Scott was less interested, but the Japanese people were even less interested?! They just wanted to push they way in, look at the pictures and leave? The exhibits were amazing, they did a great job at putting together the different "parts" to make a timeline that was easy to follow. They also had amazing artifacts left over that were beyond moving! Dolls that had survived, but were blood stained - never to find its owner. A shoe was the only thing a mother was able to identify in her daughter's school. Fine China that someone once thought of as their most prized possession was found melted together under the rubble of their home. All of these 'things' told a different story of each persons experience.
To be completely honest, I did feel a little defensive, being American and all. The museum did an amazing job at pulling at heart strings and kept calling for peace and acting as if it was completely out of the blue, non-provoked. Like as if America was playing a dangerous game of pin the abomb on the countries. I feel ashamed by the fact that the atomic bomb was our answer and I saw the devastation that was created and can never imagine the life of hardships that they had to endure... For generations to come. It was the most moving place I have ever been in my life and I'm proud, as an American to have had the humility to understand both sides of a very devastating part of our history.
After about a 3 hour stroll through the museum, time really got away from me in there. We headed back to the high speed rail. We decided to spend the night at this business hotel in Fukuoka because we had to fly out the next morning, Monday, at 10am... To get home for work at 3pm! Our hotel we stayed at was really cool. We got in and we were greeted by a game of 'putt putt for prizes' - I won a... Bottle of water, and Scott won a beer. I was going to buy a beer as well, can't let him drink alone and they said it was fine, they would bring us up two beers and some snacks! But the party didn't end there, we got to the hotel a little late, but one of the draws to the hotel was free bike rental!! Fun! ..... These bikes had the TINIEST wheels I have seen in my life! It took all I could to get those little guys a turning, but we did and we rode to the river side and around the rail station - just making the best of our weekend that was coming to an end.
This trip was amazing. I realized that planning things can been advantageous, but so can just winging it! I realized that this was Scott and my's first trip/vacation alone and we didn't kill each other, we actually had one of the best times. I realized for the first time that I am a traveler! I make things happen, even when the odds seemed against me, meaning weekends full of football!!
I leave you now with hopes of posting our "big trip" itinerary. I have learned, being a traveller doesn't mean spending money, it means making adventures.... And our next adventure is going to be a big one!!
Always,
-C
PHILIPPINES - August 2013
After a year in Korea, we FINALLY had a vacation. And I'm talking legitimate timed vacation, not just a long weekend... I'm talking TEN days!! We decided to hit the white sand beach of Boracay, Philippines with 4 other teachers from the island.
I had never done a "spring break" style vacation, mainly because I could never afford it... But at 24, both Scott and I could afford it and deserved it!
We all booked a great hotel called, Nigi Nigi Nu Noos in station one. We each had our own private bungalows, with working AC, and right on the beach!! The hotel had a great restaurant and we were served one meal complimentary. First night I tried the burger... It came out still mooing, sent it back but it was too late! The following 9 days were spent trying to make up for that decision. Note to anyone traveling, avoid beef!!
ACTIVITIES
First day in, we arrived at 6am, and our friends had already chatted up the locals to find out that a big cockfight was to be happening. I am not into cruelty of animals, but I do believe that when you are in another country it just sets you even more apart if you look down at everything they do. Cockfights are just, what they do and I wanted to witness it. It was very educating. People will throw out their bets (verbally) based on past experience or size or what ever other superstitions and people will raise their hands and say, "yes, I'm in at this price....etc...". So, before the fight it is rather loud and then there is this lull that happens when the chickens are dropped into the rink.... Then at once, things go wild again. People are cheering and calling out and when there is finally a winner, the money for the bets are wadded up and thrown across the stadium to the winner. It really surprised me how honest everyone was. If you caught someone else's winning, you handed it right over. With our minds culturally blown, we made our way, via tuk tuk, back to our hotel to sleep off the rough airport layover of 6 hours.... On the beautiful white sand beach!
The next day, Monday, we actually booked a boat tour which included: helmet diving, snorkeling and beach hopping. Helmet dive turned out to be a bust for me, asthma + 15kg cement helmet on your head + limited oxygen being fed in = never happening!! Snorkeling was, so-so it was too deep too see anything... But boat cruising along the island and being able to see Puka Shell Beach was pretty amazing!!
The other days we just lounged on our chairs and drank buckets on the beach. Best decision was
buying floating for $5 a pop and just floating out on the ocean for an entire day!
At night we found ourselves gravitating toward the party scene down near station one. Two of the nights we did a Boracay Pub Crawl... And boy could some stories be told!! Memories were made on those nights! The party scene in Boracay is riddled with drunken backpackers, random Europeans on holiday, packs of Asians (scattered through out... Because their tour package finishes at 6pm almost every night so SOME... Very few, wander outside their hotels to take a look.) Fellow Korean teachers and then..... LadyBoys! Yep, LADYBOYS!!
Another day, Scott and I ventured out of the stations by renting a truck and heading to this zoo we had found online. I'm so glad we did this because our driver took us to this look out point along the way and we were able to see all of the island, as well as seeing a little zoo. When we arrived at the actual zoo, we were more than surprised. It was little and their exhibits weren't the best, but our tour guide knew all the animals and was very familiar with each animals personality. He gave us a personal tour, he let us hold the snake and the birds.... And A BABY CROC!! He actually let us
into the cage with a 16 foot salt water croc so we could take some up close pictures. To die!! That would NEVER happen in America!! Swam with sharks and hung out with salt water crocs.... Not a bad year!!
We had an extra two days on the island after everyone left that we filled with white sand beach exploring! We walked down to station one to see the famous Willy's Rock, which was beautiful and we could climb up and jump off and swim under in the caves. Then we kept traveling along, not even sure what station we were on at that point to find the Spider House and their famous mango smoothies - delicious, but it was not easy to find, via the beach.
The last day was ruined by a typhoon coming in, which foiled our plans of jumping off Ariel's Point, but we found other things to occupy our time...... And by that I mean shopping at D'Mall, of course!
And that is a quick over-view of our 'big trip' to the Philippines!
Next comes....
TAIWAN - September 2013
Taiwan was really an after thought. We hadn't given much thought about anything after our big trip, but soon realized our time was precious and holidays were going to be the only way we could escape Korea and hit the other countries. Chuseok came next and we had four days - where to go?! We have friends who just had moved from Korea to Taiwan to teach and we thought what better place to go than somewhere with a built in tour guide?! Our flights were a little "last minute", but we ended
up snagging 2 first class tickets to Taipei for cheaper than economy - um.... Didn't have to think twice, BOOKED! However it was a 'red eye'... Our first night we just got to a hotel near the high speed rail that we would grab in the morning. We woke up and braced ourselves to do what, we were sure was going to be a multilingual mess of us trying to get a ticket, but it was a BREEZE. At that
point I realized that I was going to really like Taiwan!!
We got to our arranged hotel and met up with our friends - cracked a few Kirins, made up our own drinking game and wandered around the area. It was amazing! Taipei had just everything; the glitz of the neon signs, street shopping, Subway (restaurant), mart drinking and STINKY TOFU. I fell in love almost right away!! We ventures to the famous Shilin night market - where we witness some crazy
street food, a skewer of grilled chicken hearts, to name one. I was deterred from shopping because our next stop was an all you can drink night club... For ~10 or 15 usd!!
We woke up the next morning to the vague memory of tequila shots and X-Rated/7's and a very real pounding headache, only cured by some smiley face hashbrowns for breakfast!
That day was a weather bummer, started out nice - then it began to downpour.... A typhoon had followed us to Taiwan too!! Didn't stop our day at the Taipei Zoo and touring around the city seeing all the sights it has to offer. I think a must see is the National Chiang-Kai Shek Memorial Hall. It's just absolutely huge!
Last on our agenda for Taipei was to visit 'Snake Alley' - where you go to enjoy yourself some snakey stew or BBQ snake.... Oh, don't forget your snake blood and venom shot!! The snake was... Dry and the blood/venom shot was... Wet. Definitely a must if you are in Taiwan, when else and where else are you going to be offered a snake blood and venom shot?!
After our big day we headed back to see our friends new digs and their new town. Their apartment was nice and it was only about 30 minutes via high speed rail to get to Taipei. It made me really think if we made the right decision staying in Korea, I loved Taiwan THAT MUCH! I can't really explain the 'feeling' of being "at home" somewhere, where everything is just so different, but I really had it in Tiwan! I wish we would have had more time - but maybe that would have ruined it for me. But either way, Taiwan was an amazing time and I'm so glad we did it!
Moving on to.....
HIROSHIMA, JAPAN - Novemeber 2013
Remembering that we had already done a speedy 3 day tour of the largest city in the world, Tokyo, and didn't really have the most fond memories, i.e. sleeping in a Karoke Room... We really didn't WANT to go back to Japan, but if I didn't see Hiroshima or Nagasaki - I would have been real bummed out.
We had a busy couple of months after Taiwan - Scott played in two league footballs, which took up almost every weekend. But I was determined to get to H or N, even if that meant going alone. I had also been watching tickets, flying into Hiroshima was a hassle and expensive. HOWEVER, if we booked 3 months in advance with AirBusan, we could fly into Fukuoka for right at 200USD for us BOTH! Booked the tickets! Hell, high water or football games be damned, we were getting there.
So we left Busan at 10am on Saturday (after just barely making our flight...what did I tell you about hell or high water?) arrived in Fukuoka at 10:40am, hopped on th metro to the main station and caught the high speed rail to Hiroshima (~80USD round trip) and arrived by 1pm!
First stop was Miyajima Island right off the coast of Hiroshima. This island is known as 'The Island of Gods' and has many shrines and temples to visit... All at an added price! With our schedule, and the season, we didn't get there at high tide - when it is the most beautiful because the water comes in and everything looks as if it were floating. But, it was still a sight! Another thing to mention is the deer! On this island the deer are OVER populated and they roam free and have become almost like the island pets. The deer will eat papers, your clothes and pretty much anything they can sink their teeth into! They also have a problem with the males, they have to keep their antlers cut down because so many of them fight all the time and I think a bloody injured deer might throw off the vibe 'The Island of the Gods ' has going.
After we had had our fill of the island - maybe walked around for a couple of hours, we headed back on the ferry to the mainland. The neat thing about Hiroshima is that their public transit is cable cars! It was a flat fee, no matter how far you were going so it actually added up quickly if you were using it a lot, so we decided to walk most of the time.
We had learned from our Tokyo lesson and booked a room ahead of time! Our hotel was nice, it was a little bit far from the Peace Park and happenings area... More than my stomach would have liked at that time of the day, but the hotel was super nice and gave us an English map of restaurants around the city. We tried about 3 restaurants, all closed for various reasons until happening upon a nice little Japanese-Mex restaurant with a cold COORS light and BLUE MOON and we were sold!
The next morning (Sunday) we woke up, checked out (the hotel was nice enough to hold our bags for us) and got to the Memorial Peace Park at 10am. It was kind of a grey overcast day, bit chilly because fall had set in, but I can't even describe how somber this place was. No one was running or yelling, cars even seems to be silent around the area, the only sound you could hear was the memory bell being rung. It really set the tone of remembrance, respect and peace.
We continued to walk around the park, looking at everything. The memorial bell, the monument to Koreans who had also died in the explosion, the 'tomb' of unknown bodies, the eternal flame, the bridge that was to be the target for the bomb (which it had missed) - and the bridge actually absorbed some of the blast and distributed the blast so they were able to rebuild and reuse the bridge until the 1980's!! And the most moving, for me, was the last standing structure after the bomb hit. It was literally just a shell of a building, but it had such an impact.
We timed the Peace Park Museum all wrong - thinking noon, everyone would be eating so we could take our time... Good thought, but then it began to rain so everyone came inside. So, we shuffled from exhibit to exhibit. I really wanted to read everything and take it all in, Scott was less interested, but the Japanese people were even less interested?! They just wanted to push they way in, look at the pictures and leave? The exhibits were amazing, they did a great job at putting together the different "parts" to make a timeline that was easy to follow. They also had amazing artifacts left over that were beyond moving! Dolls that had survived, but were blood stained - never to find its owner. A shoe was the only thing a mother was able to identify in her daughter's school. Fine China that someone once thought of as their most prized possession was found melted together under the rubble of their home. All of these 'things' told a different story of each persons experience.
To be completely honest, I did feel a little defensive, being American and all. The museum did an amazing job at pulling at heart strings and kept calling for peace and acting as if it was completely out of the blue, non-provoked. Like as if America was playing a dangerous game of pin the abomb on the countries. I feel ashamed by the fact that the atomic bomb was our answer and I saw the devastation that was created and can never imagine the life of hardships that they had to endure... For generations to come. It was the most moving place I have ever been in my life and I'm proud, as an American to have had the humility to understand both sides of a very devastating part of our history.
After about a 3 hour stroll through the museum, time really got away from me in there. We headed back to the high speed rail. We decided to spend the night at this business hotel in Fukuoka because we had to fly out the next morning, Monday, at 10am... To get home for work at 3pm! Our hotel we stayed at was really cool. We got in and we were greeted by a game of 'putt putt for prizes' - I won a... Bottle of water, and Scott won a beer. I was going to buy a beer as well, can't let him drink alone and they said it was fine, they would bring us up two beers and some snacks! But the party didn't end there, we got to the hotel a little late, but one of the draws to the hotel was free bike rental!! Fun! ..... These bikes had the TINIEST wheels I have seen in my life! It took all I could to get those little guys a turning, but we did and we rode to the river side and around the rail station - just making the best of our weekend that was coming to an end.
This trip was amazing. I realized that planning things can been advantageous, but so can just winging it! I realized that this was Scott and my's first trip/vacation alone and we didn't kill each other, we actually had one of the best times. I realized for the first time that I am a traveler! I make things happen, even when the odds seemed against me, meaning weekends full of football!!
I leave you now with hopes of posting our "big trip" itinerary. I have learned, being a traveller doesn't mean spending money, it means making adventures.... And our next adventure is going to be a big one!!
Always,
-C
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