Hagwon Politics, Two Things Better in Korea, Drinking Culture, and a Trout Festival. I like long titles.

1) At our Hogwan (English school) they have an Open House twice a year. However, because many parents don't speak English, instead of a meeting at night with the teacher and the parents, parents just come in and, uh… AWKWARD, watch you teach. I had two of them this week (for my two older classes) and they were horrible. They were seriously awkward because the parents just set up chairs about ten feet away from the table and stare. For forty minutes. And, of course, I have one super nitpicky mother in one of my classes whose son was particularly nervous that day. So she was "disappointed" in my class and now (after already giving a list of all my faults, most of which are STUPID) to my boss, she wants to have a meeting with my boss and me next week.  Thank god the school year ends in a month.

2) The school year ends in a month. In Korea their school year is March to February. Public schools get spread out breaks, like year round schools in the states, but Hogwans do not take the same breaks. We were supposed to get a workday in between the last day of this year and the first day of next year, but because of the snow day that happened right after winter break, we have to teach that day. Our schedules are all getting switched around, and most of us won't be teaching the same classes next year. In other words, we have no time to learn entire new curriculums, prep for different language levels, or figure out what we’ll be doing. They won't even tell us what classes we'll be teaching until the last week of February.

3) I thought of two more things to add to my previous list of things that are better in Korea: hooded sweatshirts and take-out soup.

Rather than tiny hoods which don't quite cover your head and squeeze your brains in, while allowing any precipitation that might fall from the sky to soak the front inch of your head, Korean hoods are extra large. The first time I threw my hood on, it literally fell down and covered my entire face. There is actually room inside of the hood. Novel concept.

Take out soup is INCREDIBLE here. In the states they put it into flimsy cardboard cup-of-noodles sized container with an ill-fitting lid. Here they give you a bowl, and put the soup inside the bowl... but inside of a plastic bag that is tied shut. Meaning they put the soup in a bag, tie it shut, and then put the bag into a bowl. So you can eat it from a normal bowl, but when you carry it around the soup magically doesn't spill. It can even fall out of the bowl and the soup just rolls around in the bag. Wow, how easy and smart. Good job Korea. America- fail.

4) I know I've said that in Korea drinking is accepted at a level far beyond that in America, but I have a few stories to demonstrate.

On Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday nights you can find Korean businessmen lying on the street, asleep and drunk.

I went to a large Korean event recently (to be described in a second) and there were parent-child races. Normal. Abnormal: the race was for parent and child to run across the ice (it was an ice fishing festival) while holding a giant inflatable Soju bottle. Soju is Korean rice liquor. Then they do a circle around a wooden bottle painted to look like a Soju bottle. Then the kid climbs in a saucer-style sled and the parent drags them back to the start line. In between rounds, men dressed as wide-eyed, smiling Soju bottles danced to KPop (Korean Pop). That’s good, clean family fun.

One of the teachers at my school had her 28th birthday about a month ago. On the day of, she went to get a manicure in the neighborhood. While talking to the woman painting her nails, she mentioned that it was her birthday. The woman left (mid-manicure) and went to the grocery store down the street. She bought two bottles of Soju. One she gave to my friend as a gift. The other they drank together, taking shots while the woman continued to paint her nails. So, you know, totally normal interaction between a manicurist and patron.

5) I went to an ice-fishing festival, which was actually a festival for trout, believe it or not. It was the Hwachon Sancheoneo Festival, or the Hwachon Trout Festival. My Korean friend Erica invited Tonya, Adeel (who is back in Korean for a few months), and me. We had to leave at 6 am so we could make it to the subway station from which the bus left. The bus was supposed to leave at 8 am, but we were the last ones to get there at 7:55. They literally made us run and took off as soon as we got on the bus.  The bus then took three hours. We got there at 11, and were greeted by an interesting sight: a frozen river with hundreds of Koreans running around on top. We went across a bridge on foot, and on the opposite end Adeel and I found fish constructed of wire and paper. We couldn't figure out what they were at first, but they had flags from all different countries underneath them, as well as dates. When I looked closer I noticed a tiny U.N. insignia on each sign, and I realized after inspecting a few of them that they were all the countries who belong to the U.N. and that the dates were their dates of entry. Why? I have no idea.

We finally got down to the river (we had crossed the bridge because we saw this huge slide that was on the other side, but it turns out that it wasn't a way down from the top of the river bank, but an attraction you had to line up for on the river's surface and then climb a giant ladder to go down) and walked across the frozen surface. It wasn't as difficult as I had originally thought. We walked along the river for a bit, dodging people who were on rented sleds. There were two kinds of sleds. One kind was a small wooden square, on metal runners, which you sat on and two pointy, metal tipped sticks with which you pulled yourself along the ice. The other was a large bench with metal runners and a big handle at the back so someone could push you along. We paid 10,000W to rent one of the large ones for an hour (but they had no system to tell when that hour was up). After a while on the sled we stopped to watch a Soju race (described above) during which I noticed something.

At the first festival I attended in Korea (the Hwasong Fortress Festival) three Korean photographers who wanted to snap a photo of a white chick chased me. It was as if I was a celebrity and they were the paparazzi, and the more embarrassed I got and blocked my face, the more photos they took.  As we sat watching tiny children being hauled across ice by their fathers, all the while carrying giant bottles of liquor, I noticed a photographer about twenty feet away taking photos of me. For ten minutes. When we went to leave and go play with the sled some more, he stopped us and spoke to Erica in Korean. He wanted to get photos of us on the sled. He put me on the front. He made them push Adeel and I toward him and he snapped a bunch of pictures. Then he made us do it again. Again, I was embarrassed and I felt exposed. It was worse than earlier that day when we were walking around and a 40-something year old woman kept yelling "hi" at me and waving until I waved back and said "hi." Then she pointed at me and spoke Korean to her friend for about five minutes. Then she started yelling "bye" at me until I said "bye" back. She laughed as she walked away. Fantastic.

He finally let us go, and I can't even begin to explain how relieved I was. We turned the sled around... and came face to face with another photographer who wanted to take our picture. He rearranged everyone so that Tonya was on the sled with me (me still in front of course, as the whitest person must always be in the forefront). Then he made us run toward him. Then he made us turn around. Then he made us run toward him. Then he made us turn around. After about the sixth round, the first photographer reappeared and started taking photos with him. Again. We probably did about fifteen rounds of running toward these guys while they snapped photos and then turned around and went away from him so we could do it all over. It was excruciating. I hated it. I was so embarrassed. We were all laughing, but I was only doing it because I was uncomfortable.

We kept riding around after the photographers left. At one point we were passing this kid who was sitting on the big sled with his parents shoving him back and forth between them. Just as we passed, his mom missed grabbing the sled and it looked like he was going to T-bone us. I have never seen such terror on a child's face (he was maybe 7 or 8 at most) and he was screaming like he was about to die. Really, it was my legs that were about to die. At the last second his mom caught the back of the sled and stopped him an inch from slamming into my left knee. Crisis averted.

We also noticed some AMAZING modes of transportation. There were these three-foot tall automated robot bears. It's hard to describe. They looked like giant Pooh stuffed animals (and there was actually a Mickey Mouse too) but they could move. They were walking across the ice while strapped to RICKSHAWS that were carrying people. People were literally riding in rickshaws being carried by animated Disney characters. Are you kidding me? That's awesome; I don't care who you are.

We finally took the sled back and went to get some lunch. When we returned the sled we got a 10,000W voucher for food (so basically the sled was a throw in with lunch). We bought a bunch of chicken skewers and some fried rice cake drizzled with honey which were really good even though I'm not a huge fan of rice cake. We were still hungry so we got some Udang, a really yummy soup with thick rice noodles in it.

The opposite side of the river had elaborate carvings in the snow on the riverbank, so we went across to see them. As we went across the ice Erica and Tonya grabbed my hands and tried to pull me, which inevitably ended with me on the ice with a sore butt. A spastic girl sliding on ice without autonomous use of her limbs? Bad idea. Oh well. I lived.

It was worth it when we got to the opposite side and saw the carvings. They had built huge carvings of people, fish, tigers, the freaking Cheshire Cat, and a bunch of swirls and designs. There was even a naked lady and a huge castle too. Inside the castle was a cafe, some signs about the benefits of moving to the countryside, and a big fence with fish tied all over it. People wrote their wishes on the side of fishes and tied them to this fence. I couldn't read a word because it was all in Korean, but I think there's a Dr. Seuss book in there somewhere. Who wants to write it?

We went back outside and I realized that the tiger's mouth was really the opening to a tunnel, Cave of Wonders style.  It was a long tunnel made entirely of ice, with neon lights inside that changed colors. It was really cool. I tried to take pictures, but with the flash you can't see the color and without the flash everything is really shaky.

Over the top of the carvings was a sort-of long ice slide that went at a gradual angle. We got in line for it, even though it was mostly for kids. They had plastic-coated cardboard sheets that you could sit on and slide down. There were stuffed potato sacks at the bottom to keep you from hitting the ice at the end. I thought it was going to be a really gentle, easy ride. OH MY GOD THAT THING WAS FAST. I didn't think about the fact that the ice slide was a slide made of ice and that ice is slippery. Stupid, I know, but it honestly never occurred to me. It was really fun. I actually sent the potato sacks flying over the ice barricade. Erica and Tonya screamed. So did Adeel, although Adeel's was manlier. I didn't make a sound. Who's the man? This guy!

Koh Samui: Crazy Party, Sad Futures

Koh Samui was the most relaxed place we went. We didn't do anything except lay on the beach all day. Our hotel was really nice; it was out in the middle of nowhere, but there were other hotels around. There was a resort a little way down that we were allowed to walk through in order to get to the beach. The beach nearby seemed to be the resort's private beach, as it was only a small tract of sand that didn't span too great a distance along the shoreline and there were very few people there. The beach chairs all belonged to the resort. Right next-door were three restaurants in a row. The first one came recommended and we ate every meal of Koh Samui there because it was so good. Basically all we did was camp out on the beach during the day and party at night.

The second night there we went to a nice dinner and then to two bars we had heard about that were in town. First we went to Arc bar, which was an open-air bar on the beach. We walked down onto the sand, where the beach lounges had been put together in table formations, laid flat with their pads on top, and everyone was standing on them and dancing. We joined in. People around us were drinking from children's sand buckets, which seemed to be pretty typical in Thailand. They would put a small bottle of alcohol and some mixers into the bucket, then stick a few straws in and sell it to you for about $9.  We didn't drink buckets there, just normal drinks. We danced for a bit. A man came up to us with a monkey and put it on Shannon's shoulders. I took a few pictures, and we didn't notice that he did the same. Then he tried to sell her the picture he took, and got angry when she wouldn't pay him or take it. There were lots of drunk people, including a group of guys wearing only their girlfriends' underwear and some random Aussie running around, incoherently dancing in just his boxer briefs. Australians party hard, from what I’ve seen so far.

We left there pretty quickly and went up the street to a place Kristen had read about called the Green Mango. We danced for a few hours, and Melissa, Shannon, and I went home pretty early in the night.  Kristen, Tonya, and Angela stayed out and went to another after hours club.

The next day was New Years Eve, and we knew we were going to head to Koh Phangan, a tiny island to the north of Koh Samui, where there was a huge party happening for the full moon, which happened to be on New Years Eve. The taxi to take us to the speedboat was late, so we missed our boat, but since it was the boat company's fault they let us on the next one leaving. We got to the island and sat down to an AWESOME dinner. I got a cheeseburger because it looked like it might be a real burger, and it was. Hand formed patty, real cheese (not the crap you get in Korea), with the works. Immediately after that we all bought our first buckets of the night. I stayed at only one bucket because I'm in a foreign country where I know none of the language, know no one but my friends who are likewise foreign, I have to go back to work in two days, and there are 16,000 people at this party-- obviously getting drunk was the most terrible idea possible. A few of the girls had two each. We went to a little station where they had phosphorescent paint, and we all got our bodies painted, like pretty much everyone else at the party. Then we danced. For about 5 hours. The crowd was impossible to negotiate, and we lost Kristen and Tonya, though they stayed together. We had set up a meeting point at the beginning of the night, and both Shannon and I got lost at one point or another and had to go there. I was found within about ten minutes of getting lost. Shannon found us again about 30 minutes after she lost us. Angela had met up with a few French guys she met earlier in the vacation, before we got there.  At one point we walked the whole length of the beach, and sat down where there were less crowds. People kept trying to do the lanterns, drunk, and I almost got set on fire a few times from people letting them go too soon right behind me, so that the flaming lantern landed on me, but I was fine. Then some people were setting off fireworks, and some exploded on the ground about 50 feet in front of us, which freaked Shannon and Melissa out a lot.

Shannon, Melissa, Angela, and I left pretty early considering the size and scope of the party, at around 3:30.  We later found out that Tonya and Kristen stayed there until about 6 am or 7, though one of them (I won’t name names) was asleep that entire time, having gotten way too drunk and having passed out in a bungalow.  Keep in mind as I describe my experiences at this party that I am writing this blog fully knowing my parents will probably read it, which means I am cleaning it up considerably.  There was a roman candle fight in the ocean, the constant view of men's backs as they peed directly into the water, lots of people who had drank mushroom smoothies from a place called Magic Mountain, a flaming jump rope, and pretty much every kind of dance-floor sex you can imagine (though none in which I or any of my friends participated because ew).  I doubt I will ever see anything like it again.

The party was amazing until the ride home. At the pier, there were a lot of speedboat companies. Everyone had their ticket around their neck, and each company had a different color of yarn to hang the ticket on. But there was no way of knowing which pier your company was coming to, and people were pushing forward. There were no rails in between the edge of the pier and the ocean, so the people in front were in constant danger of being shoved onto the rocks at the edge of the water. I don't really want to describe what happened in too much detail, but suffice it to say that I almost got cut off from my group and left alone on the island, and then I almost got pushed off the plank walk down to the boat and onto the rocks below. Three guys had to literally catch me, and one of them lifted me up and carried me to the boat. The speedboat took about a half hour, and then the taxi took us home and we went to bed.

Kristen and I stayed another day. We went back to Arc bar that night, which was significantly more subdued than it had been before (most of the people there having been at the New Years party the night before and partied hard enough then to not need more partying). We sat, smoked hookah, and talked to some people around us. Sitting on the beach for a long time, we did notice something that was more than slightly disconcerting.

On all the beaches in Thailand, people would walk by trying to sell us stuff, whether it was necklaces, dresses, or souvenirs. Some of them were children. That night at Arc bar, the majority of the venders were little girls between the ages of 4 and 12. They were the most brazen flirts I've ever seen in my life. One girl, in particular, was about 5, maybe 6 years old, and would sneak up behind tourist men sitting of the lounge chairs and try to throw her necklaces around their necks. She wouldn't leave them alone, would wrestle them as they tried to keep her from doing it, and put her arms around their necks and tried to cuddle against them. She would give them kisses on the cheek and whisper in their ears. She would dance seductively for them. One guy bought a necklace and she tried to kiss him on the lips. He dodged her, but she threw her arms around his neck and plastered his face with kisses.

The awful thing is that her parents obviously didn't just condone this, but put her up to it. People are more likely to buy things from children, especially girls, so parents send their daughters out to do this with strange men late at night. What's worse is that these girls will all probably turn to prostitution when they are older because of a lack of other options, the same reason their parents sent them out to sell plastic crap in the first place. Which is horrible. I, and so many others, truly take for granted that we were born and raised in countries where such a future is rarely foisted upon anyone without their consent.  For girls in developing nations that rely highly upon the tourist trade, such a future is inevitable.  It’s sad.

I don’t mean to end on that note because Thailand was amazing, but that was the note upon which the trip kind of ended.  We sat out on the beach for a little while before leaving for our flight the next day, and that was that.  Back to the freezing winds, biting air, and entertaining yet constant work awaiting me in Korea.

Koh Phi Phi a.k.a. I'm on a Boat

We got up really early on our last morning in Phuket (which was also to be our first day in Koh Phi Phi) and took a taxi to catch the 8 am ferry. We got on the boat and sat on the edge, hoping to take some good pictures and catch as much of scenery as possible. And we did. We listened to "I'm on a Boat" on my iPod a couple of times, watching the perfect blue water and island cliffs go by, and rapping along at the best parts (though, admittedly, that was mostly me).  Then we started catching a lot of splashing water from the front of the boat. At first it was just a little bit, but pretty soon we were getting soaked, so we moved inside.

Before we even reached the island I could tell, just from looking out the window, that Koh Phi Phi was going to surpass anything I could even imagine in beauty. The sapphire water, the large, hilly island, the perfection of the horizon line where the sky and ocean met, which almost disappeared because it blended so well- all these things combined to create this otherworldly splendor spread out before me. I couldn't do anything but stare.

Then we got to the island, and everything I had thought was confirmed. The water everywhere was shallow, the same aquamarine of the ocean at Karon, only infinitely more clear, bright, and blue-green. Below the surface there were dark rocks intermittently marking the white sand. The islands all around were edged by cliffs and filled with hills. Only one of them had structures on it. This was Koh Phi Phi. The pier, toward the middle of the island, had many buildings around it, all small and beachy, with the typical decor one might expect in such a locale. At first I thought this area might be where our hotel was, but as soon as we got off the boat we were told we would have to take a taxi to the end of the island we'd passed on the way in.  That part of the island had a gorgeous little strip of beach, tons of hills, and only a few hotels. Expecting to be led deeper into town to catch a car, we were instead led toward the beach, where our suitcases where thrown into a long tail boat. They took us to the other end of the island, and dropped us right in front of our hotel. They put our suitcases on a dumb waiter/ roller coaster that pulled them up the hill. It was at that point that I took a good look at the stairs we were expected to climb and noticed that they were completely ridiculous and I didn't want to climb them even a little bit.

Too late.

After a five-year long climb we (being me, Tonya, and Kristen) found ourselves at the front desk. Shannon was supposed to be with us, and had paid for her spot in one of the rooms (we were scheduled to be 2 and 2) but she had dropped out to do just a day trip with some other friends, so I got a bungalow to myself. Right away we asked about excursions to Maya beach, which is famous for being one of the most beautiful beaches in the world. They said there was a scuba trip we could take to Koh Phi Lay (another of the islands nearby, where Maya beach is located) with a private long boat. They would take us to Maya beach for an hour first, and then snorkeling. The boat would take the long way and give us a tour of the islands. We signed up, and had a few hours to spend before our tour left, so we went down to the beach. Our whole end of the island was made up of hills, with only a tiny bit of beach before the hills became ocean. The floor was rocky, but absolutely beautiful. There were small striped, tropical fish swimming all around our legs as we stood in the water. It was amazing.

Our tour left, and the long way to Maya beach was fantastic. The islands were even more beautiful close up, as the small boat got much closer than the ferry could. The sides of the cliffs looked like they were dripping, with rocks hanging down in formations reminiscent of water dripping off a body only recently risen from the water. We finally rounded the corner and saw Maya beach. When we got to the actual shore and got onto the sand (which was so fine it felt like walking in flour) I turned around and realized I was standing in the exact spot where my school computer's desktop picture was taken. Maya beach is inside a tiny horseshoe shaped bay, surrounded on all sides by land. Straight back there were hills covered in jungle, and on either side of the beach were huge cliffs. The cliffs mostly blocked the sun, but the beautiful color of the ocean was no different. I spent our entire hour in the water, floating on the glassy surface. Which means I forgot to take pictures there. I'll steal Tonya's.

After an hour there, our boat took us around the edge of the island to the area where people snorkel. There was no beach nearby, but rather a rocky shore at the base of the cliffs, with a tiny, enormously tall island keeping the shallow water protected from the open ocean. We got our snorkeling gear on and jumped off the side of the boat into the water. As soon as I looked below the surface of the water I was blown away. It was only about ten feet to the bottom, which was covered with coral. The coral was all different colors, and covered with sea anenome and sea urchins. We saw some brain coral even, which was surprisingly cool. Everywhere I looked there were tons of different kinds of fish in all different colors. We saw Dory (the Ellen Degeneres fish) from Finding Nemo, bright blue with a yellow spot. We also saw Gill (the fish in the tank who also had a broken fin). That was my favorite fish. It's really called a Moorish Idol fish. They are black, yellow, and white striped fish that have a thin string-like thing coming off the top of their head. The way it moved in the water was interesting. It looked almost like saltwater taffy that someone had stretched too far, rendering it extremely thin.  We also saw Neon fish in all different colors. There were all sorts of different fish; white fish, black fish, blue and yellow striped fish, black head and white butt fish, yellow and white striped fish, orange fish, blue green and purple fish, one fish that looked like a tiny, rounded nosed swordfish, long ones, short ones, some as big as your head (kidding). Another favorite of mine was these schools of tiny fish that would swim in small clumps and, when startled, all immediately turn in exactly the same direction, as if they were thinking as one.  The entire experience was incredible.

The only thing left to express is that I'm really not doing Koh Phi Phi’s beauty justice. From the moment I got there I noticed that the whole area was created perfectly in order to preserve itself. With all the cliffs and hills the islands are impossible to industrialize or even really build on. Of all the islands, only Koh Phi Phi has enough flat areas, and even they are very few and very far between, as is evidenced by the huge staircase to our hotel. There is nothing anyone can possibly do with this place except enjoy it for it's natural magnificence. The water was completely amazing too- a pale turquoise color like you'd think only existed in swimming pools and photo-shopped postcards. Not photo-shopped. Real. Gorgeous. The deep water was a perfect sapphire, turning aquamarine, teal, and pale jade as it got shallower. The plants all around were awesome as well; white flowers, orange flowers, pink flowers, multi-colored flowers, water lilies, palm trees, banana trees, and every other tropical plant you could image littered the hillsides. Everything was aesthetically stupendous.

The only thing I could think was that I didn't deserve it. That no one, in the history of the human world, had ever done anything to deserve it. I still can't imagine anything someone could do to deserve a place like it. If there is any possible way you can ever go, do it. Don't ask questions. Just do it.

Start on Thailand: Phuket

When we first got to Phuket, I was amazed at how warm it was. Compared to Korea, Thailand was paradise. Compared to pretty much everywhere else in the world, Thailand was paradise. We got in later at night, and went straight to our hotel. It was a guesthouse owned by a Korean family, which was great because our living in Korea made them like us more. They were really nice, and we just went up right to our rooms. The place was VERY nice, particularly for what we were paying. The next morning we woke up and went straight to the beach.

We stayed at Patong Beach, which is the big party beach, but the nightlife sucked. Due to its reputation it was extremely popular, and overcrowded. It wasn't even a very nice beach- a bit too reminiscent of Florida for my taste. There were a lot of foreigners there, particularly Germans, Russians, Brits, and (above all) Aussies. Women were walking around topless (even though it's not generally acceptable in Thailand). Most of the men were in tiny little swim trunks and there were thongs EVERYWHERE. Still, it was nice to be in the ocean. The Indian Ocean is saltier than the Pacific or Atlantic (from what I can tell) and much less wavy. The water was extremely warm and comfortable, and it was possible to just float on top of the water all the time.

That morning we were all swimming in the water together, and Shannon saw this little fish swimming toward her. It couldn't have been longer than my index finger, but she kept dancing to get away from it, and it kept chasing her. It started to get really close, and she freaked out and started screaming. She swam over to me and climbed on my back. Tonya, Kristen and I were screaming too, mostly because we didn't know what the hell was going on. The fish kept swimming at Shannon, only since she was on my back it was then swimming toward me. Shannon was clinging on like a starfish, her arms around my neck and her legs around my waist, everyone was screaming, and right as the fish came within range I slapped it and it went flying. Let me tell you, I felt like a badass, even though we all looked like fools.

That night we went out, and one of the first things we noticed (it was hard not to notice) was the Thai prostitutes. There were all dressed in red, hanging out in all the bars along our street. There were creepy, nerdy, old, and/or fat white men talking to them in all the bars, some of the men leading them down the street by the hand, presumably back to their hotels. It was really strange to see something like that so out in the open, when it's something you rarely or never see back home. We went out, and it was fine, though it wasn't that impressive. There were two Thai guys throwing around and spinning burning ropes, which was pretty cool.  On the way home we walked along the beach. I was dancing along the beach happily, ankle deep in the water, when I accidentally flung my wallet (which I was using as a purse and thus holding in my hand) into the ocean. I caught it just as a wave threatened to carry it out to sea. The wallet itself was ruined, but everything inside was just fine.

The next day we went shopping in all the little stalls along the street and in the market area. We all bought a few dresses, and a purse, and some souvenirs. They gave the most outrageous prices at first, and we had to learn to bargain. At first I was terrible. They would laugh at my first offer and agree right away. I got better as time passed, and pretty soon never paid more than half their first asking price. The trick is to offer something ridiculously low, and if they don't agree, you say no and walk away. They usually call you back to accept your stupidly low offer. It was fun. There was one shop in the market that we kept going back to, and the women would start laughing as soon as we started bargaining because we were so stubborn. Kristen would fight with one of the women for about 15 minute every time, and they were both laughing through the whole thing because neither of them would budge. It was entertaining to say the least.

The second day we went to Karon beach, which is just south of Patong. It was a lot less populated and a lot more beautiful. The water was gorgeous, and it felt like a cool bath. Not cold, but cool, and it was the perfect relief from the sun which was SCORCHING that day. We couldn't even walk on the sand at all because it was burning the bottoms of our feet so badly. The color of the water was like liquid aquamarines- a clear, light, perfect blue-green that I have never seen before in nature. It was so clear that even when we went neck deep in the water, which was still pretty waveless, you could see the color of everyone's pedicures. It was gorgeous.

That night, December 26, 2009, was the five-year anniversary of the tsunami that hit Thailand to devastating effects. Before we went out, we walked down to the beach. There were mounds and designs carved into the beach, in the form of flowers, stars, and other shapes. Inside the carved out areas, there were votive candles floating in shallow water. All of these things were monuments dedicated to people lost in the tsunami. The thing that struck me, that I guess I hadn't heard much about at the time, was that it happened at the peak of tourist season. I never realized that many people who lost their lives were simply people on vacation, relaxing their cares away the day after Christmas, only to be killed without warning. All along the beach people were lighting wish lanterns. They were these large cylindrical paper lanterns, mostly white, which only cost about $2. You light a circle of some flammable substance, and then hold the paper of the lantern up until it fills up with hot air, like a hot air balloon. Once it fills you release it, and it flies away over the ocean. Then you make a wish. Our whole group did them. It was really beautiful, and you could watch them fly way high up into the atmosphere, until they were so small they looked like tiny, moving, orange stars. It was beautiful.

The third day Shannon and I went on an elephant trek, which had a couple things included. We went for a ride around the area (which was at the southern end of Phuket island from what I could tell, and a bit inland) in an ox cart. It was okay. It was cool to see the inside of complex where all the stuff was taking place, but the ride itself was a bit boring. After that we got to go to an elephant show. The elephants were all babies, and some were better trained than others. There were three. One of them played basketball and darts. One of them played soccer. The smallest one of all gave massages. I went down and got one. I laid on my stomach on a mat on the ground, and he patted me lightly on the back with his foot. Toward the end he started giving me kisses on the cheek and shoulder with his trunk. It tickled, and was kind of gross but it was definitely cool. Next was the monkey show. I don't know what kind of monkeys they were (there were two of the same kind) but they were pretty funny. They rode tricycles, dunked on a small basketball hoop, climbed up into trees and knocked down coconuts, etc. At the end, one of the monkeys went around shaking hands with people in the crowd and picking up baht (Thai money) that people would throw on the ground. He would pick it up and put it in his trainer's pocket. I went forward to shake the monkey's hand, and instead of shaking my hand he put his hands together and looked up to the sky, like he was praying. Then he slapped me.  Shannon laughed at me, because it looked like he was praying to not have to touch me. So I started to walk away, and he immediately came forward and grabbed my hand. He held my hand and walked me all the way to the outside of the monkey area. It was hilarious. We joked that now we knew that he wasn't praying to not have to touch me, but that I'd kiss him at the end of the date when he walked me to the door.  I don’t know what the slap was for.

Then we rode the elephant, and it was pretty cool. Our elephant was a mama (basically the only word our guide could say in English, except for "banana," which we bought to feed the elephant) and she was 40 years old. Looking at elephants it's difficult to imagine that they could ever be young. They seem to be ancient from youth. Even the babies that we saw in the show seemed to be old and wise, it was something about their skin and eyes. I don't know how to explain it. Maybe it's also something about how slowly they move. It was hard to believe that our elephant was so young. Somehow it seemed young, though some people might consider it old. I don't know. The ride was pretty short, but it was still pretty cool. Our guide sat on the elephant's head, and we sat on a bench on it's back, holding an umbrella to protect us from the sun. It was a good day all in all.

When we got back we all went to our favorite restaurant down the street from our guesthouse by the beach. They had the best Pad Thai we ate the whole time we were in Thailand. Their menu was in English first, then in Thai, followed by German, and finally Italian. There was even a whole page of stuff like weinerschnitzel on the menu. A whole page exclusively dedicated to German food. Interesting.

I will write about the other two islands separately, as one entry with all three places would (from the looks of it) be far too long.