The Wonderful Summer

Ahhhh.... summertime. It has been a great one. I was so happy I had the opportunity to be at home in Colorado this summer, not working and just enjoying life. And that's just what I did.

With Macey and Amy in Minneapolis

Somehow I have managed to stay completely busy this summer and haven't even been able to do all that I wanted to. But, I did get to do some pretty great things. I've made my way to 3 states so far this summer and will head to 2 more before taking off for Prague. I visited Jason down in Dallas and my friends Macey and Amy up in Minneapolis (it was my first time in Minnesota, great!). My dad and I flew his plane for a quick two day trip to LA, where we hung out in the city, visited with my cousin Adam and picked up my suitcase that has been sitting at his house for the last 9 months!! We also had a great scenic flight around the Grand Canyon, Lake Powell and The Vegas. (Oh, and we stopped for fuel in Utah on the way there and Arizona on the way back, so I guess that's two more states I've been to this summer if you want to get technical about it.....) And before heading to Prague, I will spend about 5 days in the New York - New Jersey area, visiting friends and family. Jason will meet up with me there and we will take off to Prague (with a day stop in Brussels first) from Jersey. Phew!

Dad and I self-picing on the flight to California at 15,000 ft

We also had a lot of great company visiting this summer. Two of my mom's cousins and their kids came by Colorado for a long weekend during a road trip from California. Jason visited for a couple of weeks, and right after he left, Alicia, my roommate from Barcelona, and her boyfriend, Jimmy, came out for a few days. And of course a few of my great friends from around Colorado came up a couple times to visit. I was so happy to see all of them and had so much fun doing great things around Glenwood with them all. I did so much great hiking and biking this summer once the weather actually got warm enough. And I even faced my fears and went rafting for the first time in about 10 years (Thanks for being a great guide, David!). I went to every Summer of Jazz concert, which was always the highlight of my week. I got to do a little gardening with my mom and loved picking and eating all the fresh fruits and veggies. I made it up to Denver to visit friends a few times and got to go to two great Rockies games with my aunt and uncle.

Jason and I hiking up beautiful Savage Lake

With my parents and cousins up Hanging Lake

Really, what more could I ask for? It's been wonderful. Oh, and one of the best things has been the adorable new cat my family has acquired. My mom and I randomly decided to adopt a cat who was being transferred from one animal shelter to another. He's a very sweet and playful cat, and I'm really going to miss him when I leave!

Sweet baby Miko, the newest addition to the family

Just 3 more days left in Glenwood. It's definitely bittersweet. Better get packing......

Malaysia Wrapup

What a beautiful country filled with wonderful people! After we left the amazing Perhentian Islands we headed up into the mountains to the Cameron Highlands. This area is an old British hill station, dotted with small towns, the rolling hills covered in farms and rain forests. We stayed in a very unique guest house composed of bunker like buildings leftover from around 100 years ago.

Our first full day in the Cameron Highlands we hooked up with 3 other people staying at our guest house and decided to go check out the "Boh Sungai Palas" tea plantation. We took a bus out of town and then walked a few more kilometers to the plantation. The bright green tea fields on the rolling hills were a sight to be seen. We watched as farmers harvested the tea leaves and admired the beauty around us while enjoying a cup of tea at the plantation. After finishing our visit there we decided to continue our trek and head up to the top of a nearby mountain. The book said it was only a 2 hour walk up... we had no idea what we were getting ourselves into. The road all the way up was a steady and steep climb with around a 1000 meter elevation gain (the peak is exactly 6666 ft high... Hmmm...). We eventually made it to the top of the mountain after some confusion since none of the roads and trails are marked. We arrived at the top just in time for the clouds to roll in and cover us in fog which was really beautiful in the middle of the forest.

From there there was a "jungle walk" that we were supposed to be able to take back down the mountain. Well I have done a few different jungle treks by now but nothing like this one. We climbed straight down the mountain through thick mud and over/under/around trees and roots. It was such slow going we only went about half a kilometer in 45 minutes. By the time we made it down we were covered in mud and exhausted. We figured that we had done a 9+ mile hike, and that was after weeks of inactivity at the beach to make it worse. I was sore for days to come after that one.

After another day of easier hiking and touring around the Cameron Highlands we headed south to Kuala Lumpur, the capital of Malaysia. What I love about KL is the international and multi-cultural feel it has to it. You walk down the street and see a woman covered from head to toe in a veil,, Buddhist monks in their red robes and Indian women wearing saris and bindis. And the great thing about it was that there didn't seem to be any tension between the cultures- to an outsider on a quick visit at least. Everone we met no matter their background was very helpful and friendly. It was probably the first city in Asia that I felt like I could even blend into the culture there.

We wandered around the city taking it all in. Visited the Petronas Twin Towers, the ex-tallest buildings in the world before Taipei and Dubai out did them. Got a free tour (on condition that you watch a 15 minute advertisement for Petronas) and went up the towers, to the sky bridge at least. Visited the National Mosque as well as the oldest mosque in Malaysia. Did some shopping and exploring and just enjoyed being in a nice city.

I think many times when people plan their South East Asia trips they don't even consider visiting Malaysia, we met very few people who had been there while we were in other countries. But Malaysia ended up being one of my favorite destinations of the whole trip.

Beach - Burma - Jungle

Oh wow. Since I last wrote we have done so many great things. We said goodbye to our new friends and left Koh Tao on a night ferry (so far this trip: night train, bus and boat. The only thing left is night flight, which I'll do when I leave Bali) which was surprisingly comfortable and rodent-free. We booked a little package deal for our visa run, so we were picked up from the ferry and taken directly to the Thai-Myanmar border. We were stamped out of Thailand, took a boat across the waterway, stamped in and out of Myanmar and sent back into Thailand with a new 15 day visa. We were only in the country for all of about 15 minutes, so I can't say to much about it besides that I was offered every kind of cigarette/alcohol/drug you could possibly want. A few people on our boat returned to Thailand with the cheapest cartons of cigarettes on earth. (Note: like any border town almost anywhere it was a little sketchy, but I have heard really great things about the rest of the country. There were several Burmese people who worked where we stayed in Pha Ngan and they were the some of the kindest, happiest people I've met on my trip).

From the Thai border town we made our way to Khao Sok, a national rain forest on the mainland between the islands we're visiting. We made in there in late afternoon, which meant we went from an island, to another country, and to a rain forest all in less than 24 hours.

We spent two nights in Khao Sok staying in a bungalow for $5/night. We wanted to do some tours around the park but the prices seemed too high even by US standards. So instead we spent a day exploring some of the easier trails by ourselves. We trekked to some "waterfalls" that were so small I don't think they could be considered as such even in the height of the rainy season. But we did see birds, lizards, frogs, snakes, monkeys and scary spiders and bugs. We even saw a giant wasp like thing wrestling with and killing a very big and hairy spider. It was like something off Discovery Channel. And in the late afternoon we got stuck in the forest in a torrential down pour which was actually a lot of fun until leaches started climbing up our legs...

So after that it was time to make out way to our next island destination, the beautiful paradise that is Koh Phi Phi. You may have heard of it for two reasons: it was it hit hard by the 2004 tsunami and the movie "The Beach" was filmed here. It's probably the most beautiful island but also most touristy island we've visited yet and we've done some amazing things here. But all of that is for another posting.......

Party Town, Laos (Vang Vieng)

We took a 6 hour minibus ride through the mountains from Luang Prabang to the small town of Vang Vieng. Vang Vieng is a little town on the river which has become a big backpackers stop and party town in recent years. It's in a beautiful area, jagged limestone mountains and amazingly green forest. But that's not why most people go there. The main draw is the tubing and the bars.

Knowing this and assuming it wasn't really going to be what we were looking for, we only planned for about a day there. When we arrived, we were amazed at the beauty of the place. No one we talked to had mentioned that, only the tubing.

Our first evening there we met up with dome other people in our minibus group: two Brits, an Aussie and a Kiwi. They were all great people and we ended up hanging out with them the whole time we were there. That first night we decided to check out some of the nightlife and headed to one of the many riverside" bars" (which is really just an outdoor area with some tables, a bar and a DJ booth. We hung out drinking and dancing and were still in bed before midnight- arterial this is Laos; early to bed, early to rise.

The next day we were disappointed to wake up to buckets of rain dumping on the village- no tubing today. So our little clan made our way to one of the many restaurants to catch some breakfast and try to wait out the rain. The majority of the restaurants around town have these elevated platforms covered in pillows where you can lounge away your day. They have low tables on the platforms and no walls around the restaurant so it's the perfect place to relax and watch the rain fall. And watch Friends. Fir some reason, every place seems to have obtained a DVD of Friends, Family Guy or The Simpsons and just play them on repeat all day long. It's kind of funny but sure was nice while we had nothing else to do.

The rain eventually let up but it was still too cool out to hang out in the river. So Jason and I decided instead to walk back toward the mountains and see what we would find. We saw some signs pointing the way to caves so we followed them. It ended up being a great little walk, even though I was wearing flip flops through the muddiest roads. We wandered through farmers fields, around herds of cattle and past playing children. We even came across an entire field completely full of four leaf clovers (there's one in my book for safe keeping)! We had to walk over a tiny rickety bridge made of bamboo with a sign reading "only one at a time"- a little scary. Finally we came to where the farmlands end and the jungle begins. You could almost stand with one foot in a field and one in the jungle it was that clear cut. We got into the dense jungle and it immediately got darker and we could hear birds chirping and monkies howling. We felt a world away from the party town we had just came from. We made it to the cave but didn't go in as it was too dark to see a thing. But it was a great adventure getting there.

The next day we did the tubing thing. It was fun fir a day, but I don't know how people stay there fir weeks doing the same thing everyday. But it wasn't really tubing, more just hanging out at bars along the river and occasionally swimming from one to the next. The best part was watching people fly off the giant rope swings and ohhhing and ahhhing at their tricks/belly flops.

We eventually tried to tube the 3 km back to town but the river was too shallow and it was getting too late so we took a yuk yuk the rest of the way.

Seoraksan National Park

For such a small country, Korea has quite a few national parks.  Seoraksan is probably one of the biggest and most popular parks in the country.  It is located in a small mountain range near the ocean on the north eastern coast, right near North Korea.  

We visited Seoraksan a few weeks ago, figuring it would be a great time to explore the mountains and check out the leaves changing colors.  Apparently a lot of other people had the same idea as us, so the park was pretty packed.  But everything is Korea is always crowded, so it probably wasn't too different than it normally is.  

We spent two days there.  On the first, we did one of the main hikes in the park.  It was about 5 hours or so round trip, but we made some stops and took our time taking photos.  It takes you up to the top of this rocky mountain with great views.  I couldn't believe just how beautiful it was.  We sat at the top and enjoyed the views for quite a while.  I didn't want to leave.  The trail up to the top included over 800 stairs.  The last 3/4 of a mile or so was very steep stairs, drilled into the rock face of the mountain.  Not for those with a fear of heights.  I couldn't believe how many little old ladies made it to the top!

The next day we did a little bit of a shorter hike before we had to catch the bus back to Seoul.  It followed along a beautiful mountain stream and eventually ended up at a small cave.  The stream looked like it once was a big river (and maybe it still flows in the rainy season), but now it was mostly dry.  It was a rocky riverbed, and many of the rocky valleys filled up with beautiful pools of water.  The water was crystal clear with a hint of blue, if it were summer I would have jumped right in.  It looked like the perfect place to enjoy a nice dip in gorgeous scenery.  

The cave that we hiked up to was a very small Buddhist shrine.  The cave was only about 25 feet deep, but was packed with people.  Inside, it had a few small steps that led up to a shrine where, of course, you had to take your shoes off.  High up in the mountains, after hiking for hours, take your shoes off and pray.  

My favorite thing I saw in Seoraksan -besides the incredible views of the rocky peaks- were the Chinese characters carved into giant stones.  We saw them in a couple places, once along the rocky river and another time up in the mountains next to a small temple.  The characters ranged in size from about 8 inches to about 2 feet in size.  They looked really nice set against the great landscapes and the leaves changing color.   

It was a really great trip.  The leaves weren't changing color quite as much as we expected them to, but they still looked amazing.  We enjoyed the mountains as well as the small town of Sokcho that we stayed in.  Took lots of great photos, so check them out here.

Gyeong-ju Weekend

A couple weeks ago, we had our last 3 day weekend until Christmas. That's about 12 weeks with NO BREAKS. So Jason and I decided that we better enjoy the time off. We headed down south to the city of Gyeong-ju. It was the capital of the Shilla Dynasty for around 1000 years - thousands of years ago. So, needless to say, there's a lot of history there. It's kind of like the Kyoto of Korea. Kind of.

We spent our first day there visiting a couple of temples. We made our way out to the Bulguksa Temple, one of the oldest temples in Korea. Very nice (see photos). After the temple, we took an extremely crowded bus up a windy mountain road to the Seoukguram Grotto. It was pretty much on top of the mountain, there were great views in every direction. Supposedly, on a clear day, you can see the ocean. But clear days don't really exist in Korea (perma-smog), so of course we didn't see it. But anyway, you take a short walk from where the bus lets you off and come to a shrine built into the side of the mountain. Inside the grotto, there is a giant stone buddha, surrounded by a semi-circle wall with around 30 or so guards carved into it. Walking back from it, we saw the best sunset I've seen in Korea.

Later that night, we walked around and visited some of the sites around the city. First we walked to the observatory, the oldest one in all of Asia. On flat ground and only about 25 feet high... a little different than observatories today. Guess they didn't have to deal with all the bright city lights and pollution. Hmm... Anyway, you can't tell just from looking at it, but there is a lot that went into designing it. There are 12 stones at the base (months), 30 layers to the top (months), and 366 stones in all (days in the year).
From the observatory, we made out way over to the Anapji Pond. It's a big pond with a few pagodas located around it. Everything was lit up and night and it looked really amazing. The perfect place to take an evening stroll. There once was temples surrounding the pond, but they've long sine burned down. Also, when they drained the pond in the 70's for maintenance, they discovered hundreds of relics that had been forgotten in the water and somehow stayed pretty well preserved in the mud.

The next two days we spent hiking around Mount Namsan, a small mountain just outside of town that is covered with shrines. The first day we met a couple of Korean guys who became our tour guides for the day. They were really nice guys, in their mid twenties, and they have actually become good friends since then. They are also from Seoul and were just vacationing for the long weekend as well. We've gone out to dinner and drinks and soccer games with them a couple times since we've been back. It's nice to actually hang out with some Koreans instead of just foreigners for once. The second day we rented bikes and rode around along the base of the mountain and through some rice fields before doing some hiking. Both days we some some really amazing buddhas carved into the sides of rock walls. I think I saw some of my favorite things I've seen in Korea there, but I'll let the pictures speak for themselves.  Take a look here.