I've left Hong Kong and headed back into the real deal China. It's been weird coming back. Natural in a way, like I truly have made a home here. I have even started teaching classes already. I extended my stay as long as possible in Hong Kong in order to hang out with my friend Patrick from Seattle. And speaking of feelings of home. Kicking with Patrick was just quality. It was nice to have hang out with someone who knows more of your story, who knows more of your background and history. Plus it doesn't get much better than traveling around one of the worlds greatest cities with a good friend-watching English Premier League in a Pub and chilling just watching LOST. Speaking of LOST-I'm eight episodes into Season 3.
Anyway...I am back teaching. I had been gone 50 days and it doesn't really feel like it was that long. Been a lot a places, seen a lot of things (isn't that in the song). And now that I am back it's weird to think about. Traveling was a great blessing, I don't think I will ever truly figure out how many or in how many different ways, but I think the big thing is not forgetting the experiences. And those are my summarized sentiments. And...yeah...just not feeling the blogging much more than that right now, so until later.
Monday, February 25, 2008
Friday, February 15, 2008
back to china...kind of
Today is the first time I have really seen my blog since I left the states. China blocks blogger so I have to send my posts to my wonderful sister and she puts them up for me. But right now I am in Hong Kong and I can get on. Which brings me to thoughts about HK and China and how the two are "one country, two systems." I won't say much on the subject, but I have been in HK less than 6 hours now and it just feels so backwards, or rather right. It is just really different from mainland, so you could say it was backwards, but in actually its mainland thats backwards and HK does things well. It's weird and amazing. It's a beautiful city though and I am excited to explore it some more, as well as spend time at a conference with my teaching organization, AND chill with my friend Patrick, who lives here, but is in Spain or something right now and won't be back until next week. But yeah...I can get on my blog and I realize 1.) it really needs a face lift and 2.) I haven't posted in a while. So...
Like I said, I am in Hong Kong. This means that since I last posted I have finished touring the temples of Angkor (just epic) and spent 8 days on beaches in Thailand (just a whole different experience from anything else). I will try and post pictures of the temples when I get back to my apartment so you can see those. They were just really cool. I wish I had some skill in poetry or language to express it. The detail of work combined with the massiveness combined with age and preservation (specifically of Angkor Wat) make you just stop and wish your camera could really capture it so you could stare at the pictures in awe like you currently are. Only when you looked at the pictures you wouldn't be drenched in sweat from the noonday sun and overwhelmed by Japanese tourist groups. Sidenote-I saw the most amazing hat at the temples. Invision the Top Gun logo, but instead of the star there are head phones and instead of top gun it says "hip hop." sounds like a pretty cool hat right? no imagine it on a 70 year old japanese guy in a tour group roaming around Angkor Thom and it is thrust into one of the coolest experiences of my trip. So that's a little about Cambodia (pictures in the future-which will be easier because rumor has it that my friend just found an add on so we can access blogspot).
But I've been in Thailand recently too. Actually this morning I was in Thailand. Woke up at three, got on a four o'clock minibus to the airport, a seven o'clock flight to macau, a twelve o'clock bus to the ferry, a one o'clock ferry to HK, the metro into downtown to get Jen and Chinese visa, then a metro back to the piers, a 5 o'clock ferry to an outlying island, and now I'm here. At a rest and relaxation place for workers in China. Pretty nice. Long day. A little tired I suppose. But Thailand was great. We didnt have much time and we had intended to spend it up north in National Parks and the like, but on a whim decided to go to an island off the east coast first. And rather than traveling all the way up north with the limited time we had we just decided to stick around the coast and go to another island. I'm not a huge beach fan, but these beaches, waters, and islands were fantastic and the thing is, they don't hold a candle to the ones down South. So, pretty much I am going back to Thailand sometime soon. But some highlights/lowlights from the Thailand portion of the trip: Pad Thai, Curry, 7-11 and chocolate milk (I hadn't had good milk in 6 months, it was pretty exciting), more Pad Thai, my sandles getting stolen from the deck of our bungalow resort, the deck of our bungalow resort, the bungalows on the water at the bungalow resort, cruising around Koh Chang (Koh-island Chang-elephant) on a scooter, better yet trekking on elephants around Koh Chang, swimming at sunset in the warmest-bluest-green water of my life, having to go by boat everywhere. Those are just a few of the highlights off hand. I suppose taking so long to post makes it difficult to fit it all in, but like I said, I was on an island, internet wasn't cheap my friends.
Well...tomorrow I might go into Hong Kong or I might stick around the island I am on. I just read my friends blog and which helped me get in touch with the ol' liturgical calendar. Definetly didn't see Ash Wednesday come and go. So I want to slow down and little bit and focus on that. Maybe more thoughts on that later. As for now, thanks for reading my posts even though the page is pretty ugly. Maybe i'll decorate it Guizhou style.
Like I said, I am in Hong Kong. This means that since I last posted I have finished touring the temples of Angkor (just epic) and spent 8 days on beaches in Thailand (just a whole different experience from anything else). I will try and post pictures of the temples when I get back to my apartment so you can see those. They were just really cool. I wish I had some skill in poetry or language to express it. The detail of work combined with the massiveness combined with age and preservation (specifically of Angkor Wat) make you just stop and wish your camera could really capture it so you could stare at the pictures in awe like you currently are. Only when you looked at the pictures you wouldn't be drenched in sweat from the noonday sun and overwhelmed by Japanese tourist groups. Sidenote-I saw the most amazing hat at the temples. Invision the Top Gun logo, but instead of the star there are head phones and instead of top gun it says "hip hop." sounds like a pretty cool hat right? no imagine it on a 70 year old japanese guy in a tour group roaming around Angkor Thom and it is thrust into one of the coolest experiences of my trip. So that's a little about Cambodia (pictures in the future-which will be easier because rumor has it that my friend just found an add on so we can access blogspot).
But I've been in Thailand recently too. Actually this morning I was in Thailand. Woke up at three, got on a four o'clock minibus to the airport, a seven o'clock flight to macau, a twelve o'clock bus to the ferry, a one o'clock ferry to HK, the metro into downtown to get Jen and Chinese visa, then a metro back to the piers, a 5 o'clock ferry to an outlying island, and now I'm here. At a rest and relaxation place for workers in China. Pretty nice. Long day. A little tired I suppose. But Thailand was great. We didnt have much time and we had intended to spend it up north in National Parks and the like, but on a whim decided to go to an island off the east coast first. And rather than traveling all the way up north with the limited time we had we just decided to stick around the coast and go to another island. I'm not a huge beach fan, but these beaches, waters, and islands were fantastic and the thing is, they don't hold a candle to the ones down South. So, pretty much I am going back to Thailand sometime soon. But some highlights/lowlights from the Thailand portion of the trip: Pad Thai, Curry, 7-11 and chocolate milk (I hadn't had good milk in 6 months, it was pretty exciting), more Pad Thai, my sandles getting stolen from the deck of our bungalow resort, the deck of our bungalow resort, the bungalows on the water at the bungalow resort, cruising around Koh Chang (Koh-island Chang-elephant) on a scooter, better yet trekking on elephants around Koh Chang, swimming at sunset in the warmest-bluest-green water of my life, having to go by boat everywhere. Those are just a few of the highlights off hand. I suppose taking so long to post makes it difficult to fit it all in, but like I said, I was on an island, internet wasn't cheap my friends.
Well...tomorrow I might go into Hong Kong or I might stick around the island I am on. I just read my friends blog and which helped me get in touch with the ol' liturgical calendar. Definetly didn't see Ash Wednesday come and go. So I want to slow down and little bit and focus on that. Maybe more thoughts on that later. As for now, thanks for reading my posts even though the page is pretty ugly. Maybe i'll decorate it Guizhou style.
Saturday, February 2, 2008
In Cambodia
I've gone quite the distance since the last time I wrote. We went from the Central Highlands of Vietnam to Saigon (HCMC to be PC) for two days, then on to the Mekong Delta for two more days, a day of traveling, a day in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, another day of traveling, and then TODAY we were to the temples of Angkor. Just amazing temples and architecture. That tied in with the setting makes for just solid moments of awe. Angkor Wat was pretty sweet, but I really enjoyed the Temple of Tam Prohm. They were all cool in one way or another. We have two more days of temple exploring ahead of us and then on to Thailand (I have no idea what we are going to do there). We went to the Killing Fields in Phnom Penh. If you aren't familiar with the genocide that took place there you should stop reading and google it right now to become informed. It was pretty tough stuff to see and really hits you deep, I just hope to keep it with me and not forget it. We also spent a couple days on the Mekong Delta and that was definitely a trip highlight. Basically anytime I get on a boat it moves to a trip highlight and I spent two days on a boat so...I guess that explains it. I hope to post some pictures some day (when I get them downloaded and all that). As for now...the internet cafes in Cambodia are more expensive than in Vietnam thus I feel I am getting cheated and am signing off, so I hope all is well. More stories later.
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