HOLY SHIT

This last weekend Mindy and I decided to give South Korea's version of Disneyland a try. I read about Everland online and was rather skeptical that it would provide anything more than the "thrill" of an elementary school bake sale. Yes, the website listed roller coasters, but really how cool can a South Korean theme park be? I expected a toned down Enchanted Village. What do Koreans know about thrills and adrenaline? The most thrilling thing I had seen a Korean do was maybe walk up to me, say hello in English and then run off giggling. Well, apparently I am a fool because by the end of the day I had nearly lost my voice, I was completely drained and every muscle in my body was aching. Always leaning towards self-preservation rather than risk bodily harm the few roller coasters I have been on in my life have been a difficult sell. Somewhere between dental work and voluntary circumcision. Then again, every ride I have been on I have absolutely loved. It is like getting kicked in the groin, loving it, and asking for more.

Ranging from cars that ride on the rails to ones that are suspended below the rails; to loops, corkscrews, jerks, flips, and drops Everland's roller coasters were a veritable cornucopia of pain and near death experiences. The T Express was probably the most intense as it boasted the "largest 77 degree drop in the world". This claim is coming from a theme park whose poor English...

Can someone tell me what the hell this is supposed to mean?

...is spelled out through the entire park. But even if it isn't the biggest 77 degree drop in the world you need to know what 77 degrees feels like; it feels like you are about to die...seriously. If I had the ability to jump off before we dropped I most definitely would have. Right before we dropped Mindy put it best when she said something to the effect of, "I DON'T KNOW. I DON'T THINK WE SHOULD DO THIS!!! I DON'T THINK WE SHOULD DO THI... HOOO-LY SHIIIIIT!!!" The slow climb to the top of the hill, the painfully slow ride to the edge, and then the split second of silence as the fear suffocates your vocal chords as you begin to drop. That is followed by your head ringing from your own screaming. Sounds pleasant, uh? Whoever the sage individual was that said, "You die a thousand deaths before you actually die" never rode a roller coaster. The real life drops and spins are definitely worse then the thought of experiencing them. I must say though that the thrill is second to none and that I plan to go back many times. When I learn how to imbed videos in this blog you will get an idea of what the ride was like - I videoed the whole ride.

-Scott

Pics In and Around Gwangju

Gwangju is not exactly the most beautiful place either of us have either been too, but it really isn't all that bad. What it lacks in attractive city planning it makes up for in great restaurants, a quaint park, and the opportunities for adventures in a new place. These are just a few pictures to give you an idea of what our "little" city (300,000 people) and "villa" (as our apartment is formally called) are like. We can't stand all the white in it, so we are just beginning to redecorate it. Most of the pictures are of the park and me just messing around with our new camera. The last few are taken from the top of our villa and looking into the surrounding outter region of Gwangju City - we are on the outskirts of it.

-Scott

Look Into the Turn

We had been in Thailand for around two weeks and had made our way to the sleepy little island of Koh Lanta (in Thai, Koh means "island", but I have no idea what Lanta means) off the west coast. Up until this point we had spent a few days in Bangkok where I picked up a guitar for 30 bucks, where we ate 75 cent Phad Thai, and paid $7 a night for a room. According to Mindy, the experienced Thai traveler, $7 was too much. Apparently, leaving the states does not mean we get to leave the crappy dollar behind too. The guitar now only has five strings and has seen its way all the way across Thailand, through the cities, on long bumpy open ocean boat rides, and through down pours. It has made it to Korea safely. Hopefully I will play it again.

Before Koh Lanta we spent three nights on Koh Pi Pi where we scuba dove in some amazing waters, or at least I thought they were amazing until we went scuba diving in the Similan Islands at the end of our trip. So there we were on Koh Lanta lounging by the pool of our cheap $10 bungalow soaking up the sun. By the way, if you are ever in Thailand ensure you stay awake while you are laying in the sun. At one point I woke up, wiped the drool off my shoulder, stared through my waking haze at what I thought were two dead prone flamingos, but were just my two crispy legs. Koh Lanta is a great little island if you are looking for some relaxation, relatively cheap and delicious food (Southern Thailand is a little more expensive than the north), decent beaches, great sunsets, quaint beach bars, and the occasional burka. Yes, I said burka, there is a higher percentage of Muslim's on this island and in the south. I must say I am not only concerned, but a little curious how a woman in complete body coverage, not to mention black material, is able to remain pious in 95 degree heat. I for one would be pretty pissed and I would at least ask my local mosque for a steady supply of ice packs to alleviate my suffering. Call me culturally insensitive.

At some point, as we sat next to our glistening pool and while I rubbed lotion into my screaming culturally insensitive thighs, we decided to rent a motor scooter. It was still early in the morning when we got the keys to our little machine. As we hopped on the little two wheeled demon I took my rightful place, in the back ;-) Mindy started it up and took off down the bumpy dirt road, my hands attached like eagle talons to the passenger grip on the back of the bike. Considering Mindy has owned a Harley I felt like it would be safer for her to drive. Besides, sitting in the back and just chilling was so relaxing. As we zoomed down the highway, weaving in and out of cars, passing on the right and left, over double yellows, and tailing cars within a few feet we passed many other couples who had rented scooters. What was different was that, as far as I could see, the dude was always in the front. At some point during the trip Mindy asked me, "Do you feel emasculated because you are riding on the back and I am driving?" I had to think about it for a bit, but I just said, "No....should I? I mean if you ask me I am getting the better end of the deal anyway!" I mean I have a chauffeur! Emasculated?! You mean "smart". But this whole discussion was a moot point in a few hours. After playing darts at a beach bar with a local I decided to jump on the scooter.

Before I explain what happened I want to make clear that earlier in the day I had driven all over the island with no problem. In fact, I was a stellar scooter driver.

Okay, I started it up and shot down the dirt road and out towards the highway. I pulled up behind another scooter that was waiting for the road to clear to pull out. After he did, I followed suit and pulled up to the road. It was a little busy, but I wasn't too worried about it. I had to take a right and because they drive on the left hand side I had to cross the street. Well, I looked right and left, waited for a car to pass and just hit the gas. All I remember is Mindy starting by calmly saying, "Ok, look into the turn, look into the turn......OK, LOOK INTO THE TURN, LOOK INTO THE TURN!! SCOTT!!!" To put it simply I just hit the gas and headed straight across the street. I, maybe, turned 10 degrees to the right, but essentially just shot across two lanes of traffic and hit the ditch. This was only the beginning as I not only failed to hit the brakes at this point, but I hit the gas instead. I did start to look into the turn once I hit the ditch, so we were riding along side the road in a grass ditch. I am sure it looked pretty comical to those driving by: two foreigners on the back of a scooter, screaming for their lives, and in a ditch; yet, not just in a ditch, but driving in a ditch. Unfortunately, the scene in the ditch was a little different. I was laughing, trying to hide the fact that I had almost killed us and Mindy was trying to keep from killing me. I hopped off and Mindy grabbed the handle bars, hit the gas and directed the scooter out of the ditch, but not before getting a bruise on the back of her calf from a passenger peg. That was the last time I drove a scooter in Thailand.

The rest of the day we drove around Lanta. Coincidentally, we rented the scooter on the first day of the Thai Lunar New Year, SongKran. During this celebration Thais stand on the side of the road with huge buckets of water and a mixture of baby powder and water. When people on scooters come by, and there are thousands of them, you had better follow their hand directions and slow down. If you don't, and a few times we didn't, you will get a bucket of water full-force across your face. If you slow all the way down they will walk up to you and cover you in the white paste. After that you are free to drive off. Mindy said that some foreigners get upset during SongKran. We were also splashed by trucks coming the other way. They had 55 gallon drums of water in their beds and people crowded around it with buckets, laughing, and throwing huge sheets of water onto passers by, including us. The water was great in the oppressive heat and made the rest of the day exciting even if it was a little scary to occasionally get splashed at over 50 km/h. It was such a great memory. Just think what would happen in the states under these same circumstances: There I am, standing in 85 degree heat on Holly Street in Bellingham, with a buck full of water and throwing it on passing bikers, then attacking and painting them with baby powder. I would be arrested for "reckless behavior" and "endangerment" by a bike cop, hand cuffed, thrown in jail, arraigned, and I would have to get a lawyer and plug up legal system.

I will leave you with this parting bit of wisdom. Remember, look into the turn as you may never know what is coming. Whether it be baby powder, a bucket full of water, or a ditch it is always better when you see it coming!

-Scott

Korea

I thought I would drop a quick post about our whereabouts to everyone as the beaches, scuba diving, and rock climbing of Thailand were not conducive to us sitting in front of a computer to say hello to you all.

I am currently sitting in a room only lit by green and blue lights with "gamers" quickly tapping keyboards and yelling out, what I assume, are directions to their gaming friends. Internet is less than $1/hr. Welcome to Korea. After a hellish day of travel from Bangkok, through Taipei, and finally to Seoul we have made it to our trip's final point, yet we are only at its beginning.

Yesterday we learned the true meaning of frustration when we found our bags were not only over the weight limit for our airline, but also so much over the weight limit we had to pay an amount that made me cringe when I handed over my credit card. We made it from Seattle to Bangkok with no problem. Some notification from the airline that we were going to encounter this issue would have been nice. We spent a rather frustrating 30 minutes (the time we had to decide what to do with our bags) attempting to locate an address to send our over weight luggage via mail - the cheaper route. Once we had located the address we had less then 10 minutes to check in so we threw up our hands in defeat. Or at least I did. I am sure Mindy was scheming to take on China Airlines face to face, which has led her to vow to write a letter to them and complain. I feel sorry for China Airlines.

Korea: I must say that my first, yet admittedly superficial, impression of Korea is complete happiness! I am so glad the day in Bangkok was so bad because this place is so good. The people are extremely polite, yet not obsequious; the cities are very modern, clean, and organized (this is something I missed in Thailand), yet the surrounding environment seems to be incorporated into planning; the food is varied and spicy, but not four star thai. The food's spiciness is pertinent because I don't even want to talk about what is going on in our stomachs after three weeks of travel in Thailand. It is westernized, yet decidedly not. The driver picked picked us up at Incheon Airport, which was voted as the world's number one airport from 2005-2007, and driven about 40 minutes outside of Seoul to Gwangju. We were a little concerned after seeing the how nice of a central location in Seoul a fellow English teacher had after she was dropped off - "our place can't be better than this". Well, I don't know if I can say it is better and we would probably prefer to be more central for social reasons, but I can say that we were very suprised at how nice our apartment was. It is brand new, with a bedroom, an office, kitchen, bathroom, washer and dryer, and living room. Further, it is nearly fully furnished with a TV, couch, desk, bed, 2 dressers taller then I am, and radiant floor heating. It is nicer than my apartment in The Ham.

So where does that leave us? Last night we met our Co-Teachers and were introduced to some Korean food, which they fed us until we were stuffed. Mindy was a little dismayed when she found out that she was the one going to travel an hour to work everyday and I was only 25 minutes away even though we requested the reverse - I am more of a morning person and take about 20 minutes to get out the door rather than an hour. We informed them of this mix up, but they said they could not change it at this point. This morning Mindy was asked to come into work for a walk through with the teachers at 7:40am and I was asked to come in at 2:00pm. Needless to say, the disparity in sleeping time may create some resentment over tonight's dinner :-) Today I am going to attempt to locate an electricity converter and some other household items, but Mindy has the language book today and I have a feeling this task is going to be difficult.

I am going to sign off now and try to do something productive with a very large language barrier. By the way, don't expect any pictures of Thailand as I left the camera on a Tuk Tuk taxi in Phuket. Lets admit it though, the only thing we lost was a bunch of couple's pictures in different areas: us on a beach, us in a taxi, us in a bar, us with travellers, et al. We try not to think about the good ones we lost: rock climing, islands, sunsets,....shit. We will post our stories of Thailand later, but I wanted to get you all up-to-date on us.

-Scott

And We are off...

I'm exhausted. We have been going and going for days on end - one event, adventure and obstacle after another. Bags so heavy we wonder if we brought too many of our material goods. Yet, we haven't even left the Seattle airport. After nearly two months of preparation we are sitting, half asleep at Sea-Tac. Mindy, half asleep on the floor, has found a double use for her new Italian leather hand bag, a pillow. I, nearly half asleep in a chair that is simultaneously too narrow and too hard, am looking forward to this next great adventure in my life. Luckily, I get to share this one expedition with someone else. In this nearly empty wing there is only the sound of coffee brewing from one of the few stores open, the echo of footsteps and dragging suitcases. Mindy's head lies just inches away from a very drab 70's inspired linoleum. Oddly, this uninspiring scene is the stage from which we are off to a great adventure.

We have left family, friends, and the familiar for the unknown and the chance to do something that, at any other point in our lives, we would not be able to do. This is something that only a few get to partake in and I am happy to say that I am one of them. It is a rich life and one worth taking advantage of at every opportunity. Even in light of the complete chaos that was the preparation for this trip and the fact that we are going to miss parts of the lives of a few special newborns and our families, sitting here now waiting for our 1:10am flight to Bangkok I think we can say the timing for this trip has proven to be perfect. Perfect because it is an adventure and adventures are always perfect. Yes, we have left our parents and friends behind, but like Mindy said, "Why should we be sad? We are going on an adventure." When she said that I was reminded of one of my favorite sections from Walt Whitman's "Song of the Open Road":

Allons! whoever you are, come travel with me!
Traveling with me, you find what never tires.
The earth never tires;
The earth is rude, silent, incomprehensible at first—Nature is rude and incomprehensible at first;
Be not discouraged—keep on—there are divine things, well envelop'd;
I swear to you there are divine things more beautiful than words can tell.
Allons! we must not stop here!
However sweet these laid-up stores—however convenient this dwelling, we cannot remain here;
However shelter'd this port, and however calm these waters, we must not anchor here;
However welcome the hospitality that surrounds us, we are permitted to receive it but a little while.

Along the way things will, no doubt, have there tough times: two strong headed people travelling together thousands of miles away from everything we know. Then again, like the drab empty scene we currently sit in great adventures start from the most unlikely spots and have the potential for great adversity. No doubt all travellers start from the same spot as we.

We will be back at some point to partake in the hospitality of our friends and family soon enough. We will have more adventures to share with you all and we look forward to the many more adventures that we have missed of yours while we were away. Keep in touch and check in every now and then.

-Scott