Wandering Wednesdays.

This little gem was taken on our first trip to Thailand.  It was the start of the Lunar new year and we had a few extra vacation days left over.  We spent the majority of our trip stuffing our faces with ridiculous amounts of pad thai,  tom kha gai, and yummy tropical beverages.

When we weren't in self-imposed food comas, we were exploring as much of Thailand as we possible.  We hopped on a bus to Kanchanaburi and immediately rented ourselves a scooter.  We accidentally stumbled upon Tham Sua temple.  It looked like it was perched in the clouds.  Its beauty was breathtaking and it's where we took this picture. 

We can't wait to get back to Thailand.  It's one of our favorite places to travel to.  What about you?  What's your favorite country and what do you enjoy doing there? 

Wandering Wednesdays.

 

Christmas Eve 2009.  Desert of Dubai, United Arab Emirates. 

As you may know, I love looking up cheap airfare to anywhere in the world.  If I'd have to guess, I probably do it at least 6 days out of the week.  I'm an addict.  In the fall of 2009 I had decided, on a whim, to look up airfare to the Middle East.  I started in Yemen since it's a place I've always wanted to go and ended my search with Dubai.  The tickets were ridiculously cheap from Korea and I figured it would be an amazing way to spend our Christmas vacation.

The boy and I, along with our good friends Sarah Willy and Ed, packed up our travel bags and headed to Dubai on December 23rd.  The picture above was taken on Christmas Eve, the day we arrived.  We spent the day wandering around the Mall of Dubai and craning our necks at the Burj Kalifa.  We then road out into the desert where we spent the night camping out under the stars.  Alone.   It was my best Christmas away from home to date.

Wandering Wednesdays

Ahhhh Mexico.  Besides the sun, white sands, and turquois water; I thoroughly enjoyed that every night was "Ladies Night".  Unlike ladies night in the States, in Mexico it means that drinks are free for all the lovely ladies.  Free.  No dinero. 

Add some burritos, salsa, and refried beans and you've got one happy girl. 

10 points and a unicorn if you know where I am in this picture.

Wandering Wednesdays.

So... it's technically Thursday.  This I know, but I also completely forgot about "Wandering Wednesdays" and I'm trying to make up for it here.

While I absolutely adore traveling abroad, I also thoroughly enjoy experiencing all that the good ol' U.S of A has to offer.  In February of 2009, I traveled to to New Orleans with a few of my best friends to experience our first authentic Mardi Gras.  It was a trip.

Mardi Gras was just as I expected it to be, minus the lack of all the cash and prizes.  To be honest, the only people who were showing off their goods were middle aged women clearly hoping for any ounce of attention they could gain.  My friends and I walked away from the Mardi Gras parade with too many beads to handle.  Apparently all one must do to get beads is enthusiastically yell, "Throw me something, mister!" at the floats.  Some of them even threw us bags of beads.  Bags.

My favorite part of the trip?  The food.  Hands down.  Between the po boys, grits, beignets, fried chicken and mac and cheese, I was sure I was going to return home 50 el bees heavier.  Still, it was soooo worth it.

I also enjoyed walking around the city in general.   There were little cafes and beautifully preserved colonial houses.  I loved taking the trolley around while taking in the sights (beignet in hand, naturally).  As we spent an entire day wandering the street of New Orleans I began to notice the water damage left on the neighborhood cafes.  The colonial houses that I loved were under heavy repair and bore the scars left by Hurricane Katrina.  It had been 4 years since Katrina hit, and New Orleans was still in a state of repair.  The more we explored, the more apparent it became that underneath all of the booze and beads was a city going through a rebirth.  

I'd be interested in going back and seeing if anything has changed.  It seemed like it was a city that was slowly inching its way back to normalcy. 

Wandering Wednesdays.

See that back there? You might have to squint.  See it now?  If you look far, far off into the distance you can catch a tiny glimpse of North Korea.  I think that's Kim Jong-Il flashing the peace sign from the top of that peak. 

This picture was taken during Chuseok, also known as Korea's "Thanksgiving" (although there were no turkeys or mashed potatoes to be seen.  weep).  We had a 5 day holiday weekend and decided that it was time that we took a road trip.  And what better place to road trip to than North Korea? 

We packed up a heavy supply of food (and light artillery) and vowed that our only direction would be North.  Our beautiful friend May was visiting from Bahrain and our fellow travel partner Ryan Sheldon came down to Pohang from Ansan.  We rented a car and didn't looked back.

We actually went to the lesser publicized DMZ area with public access.  It was also far more scenic than the dire and claustrophobic caves in Seoul.  The heavy tension that we heard so much about was almost non existent.  Instead, there were families paying respect and tribute to their family members living on the other side of the line. 

It was still a very sobering experience.  The war has never been resolved and so many families remain separated.  The DMZ is a reminder of how far the Republic of Korea has come since the war, and how far we have yet to go to find peace.

Watch more South Korea videos at tripfilms.com

Wandering Wednesdays.

 

BAHAHAHAHA! This picture slays me.  This was a looooong time ago back in 2006.  It was my first time ever leaving the country (well, besides Canada) and I was on a month long study abroad program in Martinique, an overseas region of France located in the Caribbean.  We were given full course credits for our French degrees and were able to live like the locals. 

We were each assigned host families and my family was pretty awesome, if not unique.  I lived with a single mother and her two daughters.  Mme. Chénard, Marlène, and Carole all made me feel so welcomed and at home.  I had my own private bedroom complete with bath and every morning I would walk into the kitchen and find some form of tropical juice and a pain au chocolat waiting for me.   It was heaven.

As you can tell by the photo, I was able to catch a little bit of sun.  I ended up getting so tan that I was often mistaken for a local.  There were numerous occasions where I was stopped in the street by someone who swooned over my hair.  So many people asked how I got it so smooth and straight and they would also ask to touch it.

On this particular night I let my host sister Carole do my hair and makeup- Martinique style.  I was also trying to show off with the only song that I can play on the guitar.  Just one of the many memorable nights that I spent in their living room.  I would so like to go back sometime in the near future.  Le sigh.

Wandering Wednesday.

Oh yes!  One of my favorites.

This picture was taken in Chiang Mai, Thailand.  This was actually the 2nd time that they boy and I ventured to beautiful Thailand.  All the rumors are true.  The place is magical and we just can't stay away.  

The first time we went to Thailand was on a short vacation that we had thanks to Lunar New Year.  We flew into Bangkok (for peanuts), stayed there a few days and then caught a 3 hour bus to Kanchanaburi.  I remember the first time I caught glimpse of a sak yant.  It was on a beautiful Thai woman at the Chatuchat weekend market in Bangkok.  I thought her tattoo was simply stunning and I secretly made plans to get my own as soon as we arrived back in Korea.

Once we were home I started my research.  I discovered that there was no way for me to get an original sak yant as long as I was in Korea.  Yants are a sacred form of tattooing that's practiced by Buddhist monks in southeast Asia.   These tattoos are catered to each person individually and have many different meanings and connotations.  Each one comes with a blessing and they're said to have "magical powers".  They're traditionally done with a sharpened bamboo rod which is meticulously and repeatedly etched into your skin.

It didn't take much convincing to get the boy on board.  If I remember correctly, we booked our tickets back to T-land almost immediately after I told the boy about sak yants. It was around the same time as the Red Shirt's protests and we were lucky enough to get our Bangkok tickets rerouted to Chiang Mai up north for free. 

We found ourselves at the Funky Monkey guest house which is run by a British expat and his Thai wife.  They were gracious enough to take us to visit Phra Ajarn Gamtorn at his temple and it was there that we received our sak yants.

 

And please, be warned- these hurt.  Hurt real bad.  I did a ton of research beforehand and I read that a lot of people felt that they didn't hurt as much as a normal tattoo.  Well, they were wrong.  So wrong.  I was a little angry about it.  It didn't help either that the boy went first and he smiled throughout the entire experience.  The audacity!

He claims that it was because he expected it to be so much worse as it was his first tattoo ever.  I tried to act all calm, cool and collected, but I did not enjoy it.  I'm sure a lot of it has to do with the location of my sak yant, but still.  I resorted to counting everything in the room to take my mind off the pain.  I counted the tiles on the floor.  I counted the buttons on a woman's purse.  I even tried to count the leaves on a tree. 

After Phra Ajarn Gamtorn was finished with our sak yants, he blew a special blessing onto them.  As is the custom, he only accepts donations for his work.  These donations can come in the form of food offerings or baht, it's completely up to you.  

Five lines offering protection, prosperity, and health.

Blessings catered for a women.  Health and happiness. 

** Author's Note**

I had originally planned to post information regarding Phra Ajarn Gamtorn as well as the location of his temple in Chiang Mai.  As I typed his name into Google I was shocked to learn that he passed away in September.  I'm actually a little overwhelmed.  He seemed like such a spry young man.  He was so kind and generous and had a great personality.  I need to sit down and let this sink it, but I will leave you with  the article that I found.

It is with great sadness that we learned of the death of Phra Ajarn Gamtorn, Abbot and Sak Yant Master of Wat Nong Khem, San Patong Chiang Mai.

Phra Ajarn Gamtorn had suffered from Diabetes and finally succumbed to the disease on Tuesday 14th September 2010 at 2am.

Phra Ajarn Gamtorn, aged 38, was born Baideegah Gamtorn and was given the name Gitisopanoe when he ordained as a Buddhist Monk 17 years ago. Full of humanity and with a great sense of humour, he had become a widely respected Sak Yant Master in Thailand. Phra Ajarn Gamtorn has bestowed his blessings on many thousands of Thai men and women who had the privilege of receiving a Sak Yant from him and latterly, with the growing interest of Sak Yant in the West, his blessings have been taken all around the World by the many foreigners who have visited him over the last two or three years.