Year of the Rabbit (February, 2011)

Beijing is not skip-able.

When I purchased my visa for China in order to go with my dad in the fall my options were to pay $150 for a one time visa, or $190 for a double entry.  I figured I might as well buy the double entry just in case.  It ended up being a good decision.

Lunar New Year, also known as Chinese New Year, is a very important holiday in Korea, and as such we had a five-day weekend.  Dawn and I decided in November that we wanted to go to Beijing, and it was perfectly within the six months for my second visit to China (Lunar New Year is in January or February).  We bought our tickets and got very excited about the trip.  Then Dawn decided to remain home after going back to Canada for Christmas, so I was going alone.  Another co-worker, Melinda, and a few of her friends from high school who also teach here decided to go to Beijing as well, so I tagged along with them.  It was Melinda, Katie, Meghan, Nick, and me.

When we got to Beijing the city seemed to be closed and empty, nearly devoid of people compared to what I’d read and seen in videos.  We learned that Lunar New Year in China is very focused on family, so everyone goes to their hometowns for the holiday.  That means Beijing is abandoned in favor of smaller cities and towns.  Our first night we went to a local restaurant (the only one we could find that was open) and ate a delicious dinner.  We also tried our first Tsingtao, which is the most popular Chinese beer.  It was the same as Korean beer- watery and piss-like.

We went back to the hotel and played cards for a while before crashing.  We’d all gotten in at different times (I had been one of the last) but mostly we’d gotten in a little bit on the late end, and we were all tired.

The next day was the first day of the Lunar New Year.  An old friend of Katie’s met up with us.  He was Chinese, though he’d studied abroad at her university several years before.  We walked around the neighborhood and came across a huge parade, although we didn’t get to see a giant dragon like you’d imagine in every parade in China.  Maybe it had passed before we got there.  We watched for a while and then crossed the street to a nearby temple that Katie’s friend had recommended.  It was the year of the rabbit, which was both Nick’s and my year.  We thought that meant it was a good luck year, but Katie’s friend told us that it was the opposite- your year is a bad luck year.  There are only two ways to counteract the bad luck: wear something every day of the year, or walk counterclockwise three times around a stone at a specific temple in Beijing. 

That temple was the one where we were, so Nick and I walked around the stone three times, and touched it once, negating our bad luck for the year.  The temple was incredible, and everywhere we looked there were lanterns and people wearing rabbit ears and celebrating the holiday.  

We left in the late morning for lunch, and then headed on to the Forbidden City.

The Forbidden City actually made me a little sad that I had gone to so many palaces in Korea.  The problem is that Korean palace architecture is largely stolen from other cultures, particularly the Chinese style.  The Forbidden City was unbelievable, but it would have been even more stunning if the architecture were completely new to me.  

However, the audio tour was extremely interesting and informative, and told a large range of stories of different emperors and their wives and concubines.  It also explained the historical significance of a lot of the architecture and the individual buildings.  The city complex was huge, and we walked around it for hours.  Afterward we climbed to the top of a hill across the street from the Forbidden City and looked down at the view of the whole city at once.  

It was surrounded by a moat, and though the air was a bit hazy and the view wasn’t as clear as we might have liked, it was still amazing to watch the sun set over the Forbidden City.

That night we were hanging out in our hostel room, playing cards with a guy we had met who came from Liechtenstein.  Suddenly, we heard loud bangs and sounds coming from outside the building.  Nick and I went out into the hallway and opened the door into the alley outside our hostel, only to almost lose our faces to a firework zooming past us.  We ran back to the room to get everyone and then headed back to the door to watch the fireworks.  The alleyway, dirty, littered with trash, with three deflated and empty trash bags breezing lightly in the air, was filled with a barrage of machine gun fire as firecrackers and roman candles shot around us.  There were loud whistles and deep booms, heavier, the kind that rattle in your bones.  Sketchy Chinese men leered at us, their cigarettes glowing as brightly as the punks they were using to light the fireworks.  The narrow alley was full of bright colors and lights and loud sounds.  I felt a bit like a rat in a mazy, tested with a variable of overstimulation from every possible angle, so stunned I could hardly move, frozen in place by a strange mix of adrenaline and child-like wonder.  We walked out into the alley and stood amazed as the fireworks went off all around us.  Then one firework wobbled.  Just as I pointed it out to Nick it tipped, shooting right at us.  We ducked behind a large metal box that looked like a voltage box back home.  It was a pretty intense experience, all things considered.

In spite of the fact that we stayed up late watching fireworks the night before, we got up early in the morning to go to the Great Wall.  The van ride was a little long, but as soon as the wall came into view it was instantly worthwhile.  

The wall was hands down the most incredible thing I’ve ever seen in my life.  It was the only completely man-made place that made me have a sort of transcendent moment where I thought, “How in the hell did I get here?  How is this my life?  Is this real?”  The only other places where that had happened were my first morning in Koh Phi Phi (the natural beauty was absolutely stunning) and at the section of Angkor Wat buried in the jungle, where the trees and plants had reclaimed their land and begun to take over the man-made structures.  But the Great Wall gave me that feeling all on its own.
 

It was cold out, so we’d all worn a lot of layers, but we had to walked several miles along the wall, which was uneven and falling apart in places, to meet up with our guide again.  

By the end we were all carrying our coats and jackets and sweaters and wearing tee shirts.  The view was spectacular, with rolling hills and everything barren in the winter.  

The wall itself was also barren; it was almost devoid of people because of the holiday.  There were some other tourists, but many of our photos and several sections of the wall were almost completely abandoned.  

It was amazing, and so nice to be able to see the wall that way.

At the end of the stretch of wall we walked, there were no stairs to get back down.  Instead there were metal sleds attached to a track.  You sat on the sled and held on to a bar, which you could pull toward your body in order to slow down.  Otherwise, the sled just went down the hill willy-nilly.

That sounded fun to me.

I didn’t hit the brakes more than one or two times, even though there were Chinese men holding signs that said “Slow Down!” at every turn.   Before we had started to sled no one had gone down the hill for five minutes.  I went first and at the bottom almost caught the Japanese businessmen who’d had a five-minute jump on me.  I had to wait a few minutes before my friends finished their descent.  It was amazingly fun.

That night we met up with Katie’s friend again and he treated us to our first duck dinner.  The place he took us was extremely nice, and it was a several course meal.  He told us it was the most famous duck restaurant in China, and that both Nixon and Clinton had eaten there in the past.  We could tell it was expensive. But he wouldn’t let us pay.  The dinner was completely delicious.  

There were slivers of duck flesh that we dipped in sauce then wrapped in a very thin spring-roll type pancake.  There were also platters and bowls with duck hearts and duck brain.  I was the only one who ate the brain, but Nick had some of the hearts as well.  The brain was a little strange, but the hearts were delicious.  I only wish I hated ducks so I could legitimately say I’d eaten the heart of my enemy.  One day.

As I said in the beginning, Beijing is not a place that one should avoid or bypass on a trip around Asia.  It was one of the most interesting trips I’ve ever been on, and there was so much to see and do that it wasn’t boring for a single moment.

So go.  Now.  Do it.  I’ll wait.

Gary Does Korea (And Shanghai)

This all happened in September of 2010 i.e. a really long time ago.

A few months earlier (circa May-ish) I had been talking to my dad on Skype and he was complaining that he had vacation days he was going to lose because he didn’t have anywhere to go.  I squinted at him and slowly said, “You know you’re talking to your daughter… who lives in Asia, right?”  He paused a moment and then said, “Wait, like you mean I could come there?”  Yes, dad.  Good job keeping up, don’t hurt yourself.  We figured out a week when I had some vacation days and he bought tickets to Korea, then I bought tickets for us to travel to Shanghai during my time off work.

Cut to September, and the Chuseok vacation. 

Chuseok is kind of like Thanksgiving in America; a holiday during which people travel to spend time with their families and think about their ancestors.

He arrived on a Saturday afternoon, and we immediately went back to my apartment, dropped off his things, and headed to the air force base for Amanda’s birthday party.  When we got there everyone had already had a few (or more than a few) drinks, but dad just rolled with it, bought a few drinks for us and told a bunch of drinking stories.  It was fun and relaxed.

Monday I had work, and he came with me to meet my kids.  It was a normal day with my kindergarteners, who loved him.  The moment he came in they were crawling all over him, laughing at his jokes.  He stuck around for a while but then got a bit tired and bored, so he went off to read.  He came back to meet my older kids in the afternoon and got along well with them too.

On Tuesday we flew to Shanghai in the morning.  Dad had paid for the hotel room, so it wasn’t just a bunk with a “clean” sheet and pillow and a locker for my things.  It was a two-bedroom suite with an office space and artwork on the walls.  Artwork on the walls, guys.  And not like, Holiday Inn Express artwork.  Like, a step up from the Holiday Inn Express artwork.

We headed out to walk around the neighborhood right away.  There were a lot of restaurants and stores in the area.  We walked through the Shanghai French Concession and looked around for a while, then grabbed some lunch.

Over the next three days we adventured around the city, which doesn’t have as much traditional Chinese history as Beijing, but still has some interesting history.  We went to the Bundt, which is a span of the road along the edge of the Huangpu River.  The buildings were all built during the English occupation, with incredible architecture and art deco interiors.  


The view across the river was incredible, with the Shanghai skyline thrown into relief against the bright blue sky.  We could see the Oriental Pearl Tower across the way.  

We walked along the road looking at the skyline and the old British buildings across the street.  It was a great afternoon.

We went to some really good restaurants over the three days we were there, and ate some delicious food, which was great.

Honestly, this section on Shanghai is short and undetailed for two reasons.  One is that it was a long time ago and I’m having trouble remembering it.  And two is that it wasn’t very memorable because, in my opinion, Shanghai was one of the most skip-able places I’ve travelled.  Yes, there were some cool aspects, but none of it was so groundbreaking that it stuck out in my memory, or so unique that you couldn’t see something similar in another city.  If you have the money to travel to Shanghai, I’d recommend using it to travel somewhere else.

We went back to Korea on Thursday night because originally my company had said we had to work on Friday.  However they changed their minds and gave us Friday off, so my dad and I got to go on a few adventures before he had to leave on Sunday.  We went out to the air force base again with my friend Dawn and her boyfriend Adam who was also visiting.  We went to the 63 building, the tallest building on the opposite side of the Han, which had an amazing view of the Seoul skyline and great cocktails.  We went to a large temple in central Seoul, though I forget the name of it.  We saw a reenactment of the changing of the guards from ancient times, as well as a reenactment of an ancient ritual of some kind.  The temple itself was pretty cool and we saw the Blue House (Korea’s White House) at the back of the temple, across a street and toward the back of a guarded compound.  It was great having him visit.

Like I said before, this entry is short mostly because I can’t remember many details from a trip that happened so long ago and was, for the most part, uneventful.  I could ask my dad if he remembers anything else, but he’s downstairs and I’m lazy.  And also his memory is no better than mine.

Update: I just remembered that we went to the World's Fair while we were in Shanghai, which was why my dad wanted to go there in the first place.  It was pretty cool, and some of the pavilions were amazing.  For the most part, though, it was just a lot of long lines without a whole lot of payoff.  I'm glad we went, but it's not a must-do by any means (obviously, as I had forgotten that we'd even done it in the first place).

Continued Oregon Adventures: Bagby Hot Springs and Oneonta Gorge

Hello, vicarious travelers!

I have had a few busy weekends the last couple weeks, and a few more adventures with the (not so) new-ish boyfriend that I thought I might add in here, for those of you Oregonians looking for new things to do in the area or those of you from far away wondering what the hell Oregon has to offer.

Some awesome things, it turns out, none of which I'd ever done before.

I made a big list of the all the things I wanted to do and see in the United States, and decided that job #1 was taking care of all the Oregon sights unseen.

Last weekend my boyfriend and I both had Saturday off, so he picked me up from work on Friday and we drove out of town, east, toward Estacada.  Just past Estacada is a long, narrow valley with a winding highway right down the center, and we drove along it toward Bagby Hot Springs (which boyfriend helped re-build several years ago when he was working as a carpenter).  It took about two and a half hours from Portland, but that was mostly due to traffic coming out of town.  On the way back it took less than two hours.

Bagby Hot Springs is pretty well described by its name: it's a hot spring that was discovered by some dude named Bagby (let's hope it was his last name).  The water is far too hot to touch for prolonged periods of time, so the water was diverted into tubs using a woodworked piping system, and a nearby stream was diverted into a pool from whence bathers take buckets of cold water to cool their too-hot spring water.  There is one very large communal tub that is right next to the mouth of the hot spring, then a few smaller group tubs and five private tubs a little further on down the hill.  The private tubs are clothing optional, and the smaller group tubs might be as well (the signage was a bit unclear, but there were naked people there, so probably clothing optional, unless they're rebels).

The hot springs is located a lot farther down the valley than most of the major campgrounds, so we tried to find a campsite on our way up there.  Most of the campgrounds allow online reservation, and have thus been full for months.  However, we found one spot that was open in one campground.  If we hadn't found an official spot, we would have just found somewhere a little secluded and off the road to create our own unofficial campsite.  A lot of people had done that along the road.  There were even a few good spots along a hike that was just past Bagby, on the same hillside.  The only problem with unofficial campsites is that the bathrooms are either non-existent or shitty (pun quite obviously intended).

I hadn't been camping since I was a kid and I had completely forgotten just how much gear it entails.  A lot.  A lot of gear is what it entails.  The thing that struck me once we started to get unpacked was just how nature-y everything was.  That might sound stupid, but I've been living in cities for so long, and have spent so little time in forests in the last few years that I was stunned by the ancient behemoths and unrelenting green that surrounded me.  After we got our site all set up, we were tired so we just made dinner, played some cards and crashed.

In the morning we got up pretty early and made pancakes.  As we sat eating we heard a huge crunching sound, and turned to look over our shoulders at the forest deeper into our campground.  At the top of the tree line, maybe 100 feet away, two trees were swaying precariously at the top as one teetered on allowing itself to be broken by the other, and then with a massive CRACK the top of it disappeared and there was a huge rumble of debris thumping menacingly down the side of the hill.  A few rocks and large pieces of wood made it all the way down to the road about fifty feet away from us, rendered harmless as they stopped, their thirst for destruction sated.  We were both amazed at how close it had been, and yet it somehow didn't occur that it might have been closer to others.  It turns out that the top of the tree barreled through another campsite and went over the table, through the fire pit, and stopped within a foot of the tent.  Thank god it stopped, I guess.

After our eventful breakfast we set out for Bagby.  It was about a thirty minute drive from our campground, but it was through a beautiful valley of trees, rivers, and cliffs, so we didn't mind much.  There was a parking lot at the bottom, and rangers that warned us there was no potable water at the top.  We probably should have brought more water with us (note to self for next time) but obviously we survived.  The hot springs were really nice, and we made use of a private tub to have a nice long soak.  After about an hour we left and headed down a twelve mile hike into the Bull of the Woods Wilderness.  We didn't do the full twelve miles, but we did take a detour down a dried up creek bed and do about half the hike.  Then we headed back and went for another hour long soak in the tubs, relaxing and luxuriating in the warm mineral bath.  Along the way back we stopped frequently so I could take pictures of the beautiful valley, and just to get a closer look at things as well.  We hung out for the night and left early the next morning, taking more picture as we continued out of the valley.

Then yesterday (a Monday) we both had the day off again, so we decided to tick another thing off my list and head to Oneonta Gorge.  Boyfriend had been before, but it was my first time and I was really excited.  Oneonta Gorge is a small gorge that runs perpendicular to the Columbia River Gorge, a large and very famously Ansel-Adams-photographed wonder of Oregon.  It's along the historic highway just past Multnomah Falls (another must see if traveling to Oregon).

The hike starts out easy enough, picking your way across dry rocks across a creek, which was made easier for me by the fact that I was wearing water shoes I had just purchased as someone forgot my hiking shoes.  You hike along for a while, trying to keep your feet dry, and then you come to a huge pile of log and boulders.  Not so easy.  On the other side is knee deep water.  Not so dry.  You wade through that for a while and then the water gets shallower.  And then it gets deeper; about waist deep to be exact.  You wade through that and come to a small pool and a beautiful waterfall that rounds out the back side of the gorge.  It's a short hike, and takes only maybe 20 to 30 minutes each way, depending how sure footed and unafraid of scrambling and shimmying and scraping over rocks and logs you are.

There's another trailhead a few dozen yards past the opening of Oneonta Gorge, and the trail takes you along the top of the gorge, although there are too many trees to see well.  However, the trail continues back farther into the woods and ends at Triple Falls, a beautiful sight of three waterfalls cascading gleefully over the edge of the same cliff, distinct from one another and yet only a few feet apart.  We hiked into the creek that feeds the falls and found that there was an almost eerily still pool at the top of each waterfall, two of which went right up the edge of the falling water.  We ate lunch on a log and then sat in one pool for a while, then moved onto a rock right at the edge and watched the water falling just beside and below us.  It was absolutely stunning.  We hiked back down and took a different turn to Horsetail Falls.  When we reached the next waterfall along the path, we assumed it was Horsetail Falls.  The path itself went under the cliffside, right behind the waterfall.  We walked right down to the spot where the falls hit the pond and took a few pictures, then continued on our hike, eager to find the road and get back to the car which we could use to drive for more water.  We never bring enough water.

When we reached the road we very quickly came upon another waterfall, labelled Horsetail Falls.  So who knows what the other one was.  The real Horsetail Falls was also quite pretty, though less so than the other we'd seen that day, in my opinion.  We walked a short way down the road and found our car, then headed back to Troutdale for water before heading back to Portland.

It was a really nice way to spend a late morning/ early afternoon.  I would highly recommend it as a day trip from Portland, and would recommend Bagby Hot Springs, as well.

Malaysia and Bali Circa 2010... So a Bit Belated

During my time living in other countries I went on a lot of vacations and did a decent amount of traveling.  A few times I neglected to write blogs about it, but that stops now.  I’m going to write about the larger trips that I had previously slacked on.  Luckily for me (and my readers) I often take notes in a notebook that is perpetually in my purse, so a lot of the details will remain intact.

First up is a trip I took to Malaysia and Bali from July 24, 2010 through July 31, 2010.  It was my summer vacation from my first job at Maple Bear in Suwon that took place at the end of my first year there, and immediately after the trip I went home to America for two weeks.

The most important thing about traveling I learned during this trip, is the people you travel with.  I went with Amanda and Shannon, both of whom I had traveled with in the past.  For some reason this trip was different, and the whole thing devolved so rapidly that the lesson is one I’ll never forget.

Amanda and I went a day early because Shannon had to work an extra day.  Our plane stopped in another city of Malaysia (we were headed to Kuala Lumpur) but we didn’t realize we were in the wrong spot.  We got off and went all the way through customs before we realized we were in the wrong town.  We ran back and caught the plane before it left.  It ended up being a good idea, however, because we didn’t have to go through customs again once we got to Kuala Lumpur and we got to race through to the taxis.  We got to our hostel, which was pretty bare and utilitarian.  That was fine with both of us because it had everything we needed.  The bathroom was unisex, open air, which made cold showers feel GREAT because it was so muggy there.  The shower was one of those huge round heads that points straight down and it was really nice.  We dropped off our stuff, chatted briefly with a few cute guys in our dormitory-style room, and then headed out to see the neighborhood and find some food.  When we came back we played cards with a good-looking young Australian man for a few hours and then crashed.

We tried to do things the first full day that Shannon might not find interesting, but inevitably we ended up showing her most of those things anyway because they were cool.  Still, the first day was one of the less exciting.

First off we booked a tour to the Batu Caves, which are a hugely popular sight in Kuala Lumpur.  We booked the tour for the day after Shannon was due to arrive so she could come with us.  Then we set off for a walk through our neighborhood.  It was extremely muggy and hot because it was the monsoon season, but hadn’t rained in a few days.  Our first destination was a local shopping area where we walked through stalls filled with local handicrafts and souvenirs.  Neither of us bought much, and we mostly just looked around because we knew Shannon would want to go there as well.

Next we headed to the National Mosque, not having many expectations because we didn’t know anything about it.  I, for one, was stunned by its beauty. It was one of those places that are so open, so simple, so beautiful, that it reminds you that man can do some amazing things- that at heart man is essentially good.  I wouldn’t have expected to have that experience in a mosque; I’ve never felt like that in a church (churches feel so oppressive, with the heavy architecture, dark wood, and stained glass).  Although unexpected, it wasn’t at all weird.  It just felt that way, easy.  We had to wear large purple robes that covered us from neck to ankle, but people stared less.  All day long people stared at us because we weren’t Malaysian and because I was showing some skin.  Generally I try to observe and respect local customs on what clothing is and is not appropriate, but it was just too hot and I couldn’t bear to do anything but stay bare.

Our last stop for the day was the world’s largest free flight walk-in aviary.  There were amazing birds everywhere, and both Amanda and I were taking tons of photos.  Amanda doesn’t particularly like birds, and she was a little scared when they got too close to her, but she kept up with me just fine.  I’ve noticed that when people spend time with me they tend to face their fears a lot, particularly if they’re afraid of things I like, such as the ocean.  Maybe it’s just because I’m adventurous and have a keep-up-or-quit attitude, who knows.  Anyway, the birds were absolutely incredible.  My local zoo in Oregon has a section where you can walk in and feed apple juice to lorikeets.  This place had a similar area, but with ten times more lorikeets and more options on feed.  We were both covered in them.  Amanda was freaking out a little, but she mostly had a good attitude about it.  Then we took tourist-y photos holding larger birds, like owls and hawks.  It was pretty cool and I would highly recommend it to anyone traveling to Kuala Lumpur.

That night Shannon arrived and we prepared for our trip to the Batu Caves the next day.  The tour also offered elephant riding at the end, which Shannon was pretty excited about, and which Amanda had never done.  We took a small van about thirteen kilometers outside of Kuala Lumpur out to the caves with just the three of us, and once again it was extremely hot.  I wore a sundress and flip flops (not typical spelunking attire) because I hate the heat.  There was a huge Buddah statue at the base of a really long set of stairs.  We counted.  Two hundred and ninety two steps up.  At the top the climb was totally worth it- there was an amazing view of the outskirts of the city, and the cave was incredible.  The texture of the walls defies description, and the screams of the birds flying around by the ceiling were deafening.  The monkey climbing up the stairs and climbing around inside the caves were also quite loud, and apt to steal things if you weren’t paying close attention.  Inside the cave were lots of small Hindu statues and shrines, with incense burning and monks milling about in certain areas.  As we prepared for the two hundred and ninety two steps down I slipped, skidded down about five steps, and left behind a decent sized piece of the skin on the back of my butt and one ankle.  So the sundress was, indeed, a poor choice.

We continued on to the elephant sanctuary, where we met several baby elephants, the youngest of which was only ten months old.  One of the youngsters, a two year old, only had three legs, and most of a fourth.  When he was wild he got his foot caught in a trap, and gangrene had set in by the time people found him a few days later.  They had to amputate.  He was my favorite.  He also loved me.  He kept trying to grab me while I fed him and then he wrapped his trunk around my leg when I tried to walk away.  In the water he hit me with his trunk.  We fed them peanuts, rode them a little bit, and went in the river with them. It was fun.  It was a much better experience than riding elephants in Thailand (the first time, though later times were much better). 

Our guide also taught us a lot about elephants on this trip, and after researching them more, they are now my favorite animal.  They are some of the most intelligent animals on Earth, they are one of the most oft cited when making claims that animals have emotions, and they are the only species other than humans who bury their dead (and show respect to other dead creatures by burying them as well).  They also mourn.  They mourn, you guys.  They’re so cool.

On the way back from the sanctuary we passed grass huts.  Our guide told us the people inside were Che Wong- a native tribe of Malaysia with no religion, they believe only in the spirit of the jungle.  There are only about five hundred people in the tribe, and they live only in the jungles of Malaysia.  Some of them are extremely isolated, living deep in the rainforest and living off what they can catch and collect from the forest.  It was pretty interesting to hear about them.

We went to Skybar that night.  Skybar is a bar on the 33rd floor of the Trader’s Hotel.  It was INCREDIBLE.  There was a shallow, long, rectangular, swimming pool in the center, and it was sort of like an infinity pool but not quite.  The lights were dark and the ambiance was very cool.  Two walls were made entirely of windows, which overlooked all of Kuala Lumpur.  There was a perfect view of the Patronus Towers, which are the (formerly) tallest buildings in the world.  Along one of the walls of windows (and along one long edge of the pool) were couches and pillows with a sunken floors and short tables for using whilst sitting on the floor.  We drank some Absinth, but didn’t hallucinate because most Absinth these days is made differently than in the past.  It was a fun time.

The next day we had planned to leave early for Melaka, but decided to leave late so Shannon could see more of Kuala Lumpur.  We went back to the National Mosque, and a guide gave us an hour-long instruction on Islam, which was really interesting, and contributed to the lateness of leaving for Melaka.  Shannon didn’t seem that interested; she was pointing and laughing at some of the pamphlets, and didn’t even really look around the mosque much.  The guide asked us if we would like to do the next call to prayer, and Shannon immediately said no.  Then we left for the Central Market.  We all bought tons of stuff, mostly souvenirs for others.

We finally got to Melaka and walked around.  It was a really beautiful city.  There were remnants of the Portuguese and Dutch occupations mixed in with the more current Malay structures.  We saw little benches pulled by bicycles, with the bicycles decorated lavishly and strangely, one covered in Barbies and most coated completely in faux flowers.

Shannon, being a slow walker on vacation with long legs and speed demon, constantly lagged behind.  She had a sourpuss attitude all day and kept telling us not to wait for her.  Later, after we showered and were hanging out at the guesthouse, she didn’t come to hang out with Amanda and me, staying in her room alone.  We went and invited her and she said no.  She chose to stay alone, it’s not like we sent her off.  When she finally came by she accused me of excluding her, saying I’d done the same at Mudfest.  She said I was only able to have one friend at a time and I kept leaving her out.  I’m sorry, bullshit.  It is not like I actively kicked her out, and it’s your responsibility to include your own damn self.  Yes, I am closer with both you and Amanda than you are with one another, but that doesn’t mean it’s my job to take care of you.  We’re walking too fast?  Either keep up or ask us to slow down.  You got here a day late?  Your fault- you should’ve switched your flight once the school schedule changed.  It was then that I realized that traveling with people can be a bit of a crapshoot, even if you’ve traveled with them in the past.  It’s the people that can make or break your experience of a place.

The next day we flew to Bali in the afternoon.  We had to take a two-hour cab ride from Melaka to the airport first, which was a bit brutal.  Then in Bali we couldn’t find the guy from our hotel, and had to sit outside the Bali airport for a while to wait for him.  When we finally found him we had a hilarious van ride to our guesthouse.  Our guide’s name was Baru, like all first-born Balinese men, and he was twenty-two with a wife and an eighteen month old son.  He was really funny, and we liked him a lot.  He then took us to a local roadside restaurant for dinner, where we got noodles with vegetables and egg and a soda for $1.50.  The hotel itself was beautiful little huts with thatched grass roofs and tons of beautiful flowers and small trees in between.  All good things.

Our first morning there we tried to take scooters to the beach.  We failed. Shannon and I got separated from Amanda when she failed to make a turn, mistook the brakes for the gas, and shot forward through a banner, off a pole, into a stone wall.  Before we ever noticed she was missing she’d been carried off to a hospital (she was fine).  Then Shannon and I got lost about ten times.  We finally passed Amanda on the road and found the beach together.  Echo beach was pretty shitty; there was tons of trash in the water and black sand.  That particular beach was mostly for surfing, I think.  We went back to the hostel, showered, then went for Indian food.  It was a bit of a dud, as days in Bali go.

The next day was my last day, and I was flying out that night.  I wanted it to be packed with fun, so Baru took us on a longtail boat to a nearby island with an animal sanctuary.  We got to pet, feed, and hold sea turtles, hold a giant bat, put a snake on our shoulders, pet a hawk, and hang out with some chickens.  Then we went snorkeling, but the water was choppy and visibility was low.  When we got back he took us to the most popular tourist beach, Kuta beach.  This is the place where I stayed during my second trip to Bali.  It was much nicer than the previous beach, though still covered in trash.  At least the sand was white and there were good restaurants and stalls around for food and souvenir shopping.

That night I flew back to Korea and got back to my apartment just before midnight.  Then I got up at four in the morning, took a cab to the bus to the airport and got on a sixteen turned twenty-three hour flight.  I got to San Francisco just fine, but then my flight home was delayed.  And delayed.  And delayed.  And cancelled.  I was so stressed from my day and a half spent almost entirely on planes and in airports that I immediately burst into full-on sobbing tears.  Downside: I had to wait until one in the morning for a flight home.  Upside: I was crying so hard that everyone on my flight let me get rebooked first.

I’m gonna go ahead and call that a win.