Oh, Bali.

Hey everyone! Well I just arrived in Bali last night! We almost didn't make it out of the airport because the visa is one whole page in your passport and Brittney didn't have enough space. She didn't realize how full it was and the customs never told her. So, we had to pay off the boss at customs to put the visa over other stamps in her passport- $50. Another customs agent that we first spoke to was charging $200. Lame. Apparently, it is very illegal to do it. I guess if you have enough money you can do anything.

Today we have walked around just a little bit and it's already my favorite place. We are in Ubud right now. It is the town where the woman in the book Eat Pray Love stayed in. It is amazing. Our home-stay looks like a temple- for real. When we arrived last night the town was experiencing a black-out. There was no lights anywhere. We had to walk down this dark alley that was so narrow only one person could walk through at a time. I am a tad afraid of the dark. Just a little... AND I have seen far too many scary movies that start out where girls do stupid things in the dark. I was picturing very bad things until I saw the sign of our place through the moonlight and knew we probably weren't going to die. We walked up to this counter and this guy popped out of the darkness and said welcome. We made it. He brought us candles for our room and we chilled and laughed about it all. The power came on a couple hours later. I guess it happens once a week because of the lack of energy in Indonesia. Cities switch off being without power every evening for about 5 hours. Tomorrow I am going on a cycling tour thingy to see the surrounding country-side. Yeah!

More about Thailand...

Thailand was an amazing place. It was paradise on the islands and the food was SUPER cheap! I had most of my meals including a fresh mango shake for $1-$2. The food we had in Bangkok was not impressive, but everywhere else was great!To me, pad thai was impressive anywhere! We ate mostly on the street at little outdoor food stands along the beach. You could find them everywhere. Depending on your lifestyle choices, you can make Thailand cheap or expensive. All of the places we went to were very touristy. I'm sure there are areas and islands that are more secluded but we didn't have time to find them- or money to get there. In Phuket (one of the most popular islands) we saw the sex industry in Thailand first hand. It was really sad and annoying. There are so many dirty old men who come to Thailand to find Thai women. At most businesses there would be a group of girls waiting to be picked up from the foreigners. We didn't even want to go to the bars there because it was full of Thai women looking for work. There were a lot of transvestites/ trans-gender men who were dressed like women. It was quite entertaining to try to figure out if they were male or female. The markets and shopping in general was a little overwhelming on the islands. The workers were very aggressive in selling and would even grab your arm to get you to come into their store. They were harmless, but it was annoying. We had to be rude and not answer their questions as we walked by or they would harass us to buy something. The funniest thing was they would ask us if we were shopping as we were... shopping. We started making up different things like " No, we are swimming." ha.

So, overall Thailand was great! I had a wonderful time! I think my favorite day was on Phi Phi Lay. We took a boat from the island Phi Phi and went to the island. It is a national park, so it is uninhabited. Our driver took us all around the small island. On the island the movies "The Beach" and "James Bond" were filmed. We went to a small secluded beach and hung-out for a while, went snorkeling, and swimming. I can't even describe how beautiful it was. I wish I could have taken you all with me. The total cost for the day was $7 each. I would have paid $100.

Time to explore Ubud.

Same Same, But Different- so says SE ASIA

Greetings from Krabi, Thailand! I will catch you up on a few days!

Bangkok- It was a very touristy city. We mostly stayed on the famous street of Khaosan Road which is full of restaurants, bars, and shopping. We did encounter a lot of men asking us if we wanted to go to the "ping pong show". You can use your imagination about what that is. Friends of ours warned us about the show and found out for themselves first hand that it was not ping pong. HA! We went to the Royal Palace in Bangkok which was beautiful. If you look at my pics, they are the ones with the gody temple-looking buildings and statues. It is famous for the green Emerald Buddha. People come from all over the world, especially Thailand come to see the statue. It is a very holy experience for them. It was pretty incredible. On our last day in Bangkok we went to a floating market. It was a really interesting way of selling different foods. These old women were so good at multi-tasking- steering the boat, making the food (when needed), advertising by yelling at us to buy, and handing the food to customers without falling in. I know that I would probably fall in the dirty water if I ever went into that business. Good thing I'm a teacher.

We took an an overnight train to the island of Koh Pha Ngan (Southeast of Thailand ).Side note- We saw the movie 2012 while waiting for the train. It was in Thai. I think the movie is much more entertaining in another language. Anyways, back to the train. The train was pretty old and sketchy. To me, it sounded like we were going to crash every few minutes, so I didn't sleep very well that night. Once again, I found myself saying many prayers that I would survive another crazy transportation experience in SE Asia. I was also trying to keep an eye on our belongings. People would come on the train at every stop to get the passengers to buy their food, so theft was very easy. The only casualty was shampoo. Poor thing. Anyhow, we made it to our destination by ferry. We got caught in a minor monsoon downpour, but we are tough. Little did we know it was going to rain the next 2 days. I have NO photos of that island. Sad face. We were happy to leave and head west.

Next we took a ferry and a bus to Krabi, which is where we are now. We arrived yesterday afternoon and had a few hours of sun before it rained. It is a beautiful beach town on the southwest coast. Today we went kayaking through the jungle. We didn't see any crocodiles, but we saw a big lizard thing and MONKEYS- lots of them. The monkeys jumped on our kayak and I almost peed myself. They were looking for food, but didn't find anything so they moved on to the next victims. We were given strict advice not to pet them- duh. Rabies, no thank you. After the kayak excursion, we headed on an elephant trek. Our guide was only 17 and named Amnie. We bonded. We made strange noises in the jungle and sang the Indiana Jones theme song for him. It was so cool. Probably one of my favorite things we have done so far. Very surreal. Not a lot to say other than GREAT DAY! :)

Thailand has been great so far- other than the weather. I guess monsoon season is late this year, but hopefully we will have good weather in the next few days. It is very touristy and nothing like Cambodia. In Cambodia I felt like we were on the "road less travelled" and here I feel like the road is paved with loads of foot prints and trucks. It is beautiful-not get me wrong, but in a different way. I can't wait to see more of the island. Tomorrow we head to the island of Phi Phi (sounds like Pee Pee). It is supposed to wonderful. I will let you know.

So, the trip has been wonderful! I currently have a possible sinus infection, but I got some anti-biotic and should be better soon. A few stomach issues, but we are A-O-K.

Thai food- Good, but not super impressed. Fruit is cheap and yummy. The curries are wonderful. Pad Thai, ehh. I have had better in the states. Here, pad Thai is a cheap noodle dish that is nothing special and sold on the streets for less than a dollar. It seems like the West has made it into a dish that truly doesn't exist in real Thailand. Oh well. :)

My pics are all updated. Check them out if you feel like it.

Hope all is well. Miss you all. I'm having dreams about home. It must be close.

Hello, Thailand

Hello! We made it to Bangkok. It was quite the adventure. We were supposed to get on a bus but for some reason we couldn't get on it, so we were told to get in a taxi at the bus station. We were with another couple in the taxi and it was REALLY tight. We had no clue why we were put in the taxi or where we were going. We tried to ask the driver, but he didn't speak English and would only answer "yes" that we were headed to Bangkok. He drove like a freakin maniac and honked his horn for people/cows to get out of the way. We tried to put seat belts on, but they did not exist. After about an hour we stopped at this "rest stop" and there was a guy that could speak English. He talked to the driver for us and we found out he was taking us to Bangkok for sure. We told the guy to tell our driver to drive like a normal human and that we would take a bus at the border the rest of the journey- we didn't want to be in his crazy self for 10 hours. So the ride was a little better to the border and we ended up catching a bus there, although we had to wait 3 hours (grrr...). Let's just say it was a LONG day! We had some great Thai food for dinner and passed out. ha.

Today we went to the Royal Palace it was amazing. I will try to get pics up as soon as I can. Bangkok is MUCH cleaner than I thought, especially in comparison to Cambodia. The people are really nice and have been very helpful today. I wish we had more time to explore different parts of the city. I know there are crazy sex-crazed parts but we haven't run into it yet- other than prostitutes. Tomorrow evening we are headed to the south of Thailand for some island hopping. We booked this package thingy through the government of Thailand's tourism agency and are supposedly saving a bunch of money- tax free. We will see.

Hope all is well with everyone. I am having a blast, but I am thinking about home in the back of my head. I am so excited to see you- but living completely in the moment.



More later. Love. xoxo

Goodbye Cambodia

Hello! I am waiting for our bus to Bangkok, Thailand! It is going to be a LONG bus ride- 10 hours + the time that is lost WHEN our bus breaks down. ha. I have uploaded most of my pics- the computers are REALLY slow, so I didn't have time to upload them all. I haven't had a chance to delete bad ones or edit them- don't judge. Let me know if the link works or what you think. xoxox

I will miss Cambodia! It was a great country. More about it later. Ta ta.

http://picasaweb.google.com/megan.schwartz09/20091113

Open your hearts and open your wallets

Hello! I am currently in Siem Reap. We had a LONG 10 hour bus ride last night and arrived at 6:30 AM. I am happy that I survived. I was a little worried I wouldn't arrive here in one piece. I kept waking up every few minutes from bumps or the driver screeching on the brakes. Not to mention sitting next to the bathroom and having the wonderful aroma of urine every few minutes. ha.

As I was eating my breakfast this morning, one of the workers here told me that I was lucky to be traveling the world and having such amazing experiences. It's completely true. I am very blessed to be doing what I am doing and I don't take any of it for granted. Seeing this part of the world is very humbling. It reminds me of India. There is a lot of poverty. Many people here have pretty much nothing- living on the streets or in shacks. Kids make a living through hustling on the beach or in the city. However, like any culture, there are people here who have a comfortable life and are not impoverished, however it is probably not what our definition of comfortable is.

"Open your heart and open your wallet."

One of the little girls I met on the beach said she tries to earn money everyday on the beach to pay for her schooling. Her and her friends hung out with us for a few minutes trying to get us to buy something from them and we all chatted. We bought a few things from them and then they started asking us questions about what we do and where we are from. As we were chatting, the girl said she wished she had white skin. I told her not to say that because she was beautiful the way she was. She stared at me for a moment, not really sure what to say. It was almost as if she had never heard those words directed towards her before. Then she snapped out of it and pointed to the two white men sitting near us. They were drinking coke and relaxing. She said if she was white, she could be like those men and drink coke. It was heart-breaking. It was interesting to see things in her perspective. The small things that we are able to do on a daily basis without a thought are things that these children have never done or get to do very rarely. These children are taught to do/say whatever they can to get money, but their eyes are still filled with the innocence of a child. They just have to grow-up a little faster than the rest of us. I asked one of the girls if she had a boyfriend and she looked at me like I was crazy and she said she was too young. She said she wanted to get married one day when she fell in love.

Carol, the ambassador, said she had a few children over at her home not too long ago.The children were from a charity that she supports, which provides education and living necessities to them. These children have nothing and literally live at the local dump, many of them orphans. They were looking at her collection of art and were hypnotised by this one painting. It was a picture of a married couple next to this large, beautiful house. She asked the children why they liked the painting so much and assumed it was because of the house. However, they said they loved how happy the couple looked and wished their own parents were like that or that they had parents like that. These kids have nothing and all they want is to be loved by someone. A free gift.

No matter where you live or what your background is, it seems like all people really need is to be loved. Being loved brings a feeling of safety and a hope for the future. It gives you a fight and a reason to live- to work, to find food, to get educated, etc. Loving is a gift that we can all give, no matter our economic status or situation.

It makes me think, how often do I love without asking for ANYTHING (acknowledgement, a hug, phone call, etc.) in return? I think there is room for some improvement. What about you?

xoxo

Cambodia

Hello! I am currently in Sihanoukville,Cambodia. It is in the Southeast Cambodia on the coast. Today was a rather relaxing day of riding on a bus for 4 hours from Phnom Penh, finding a hostel for $2 a person, getting bombarded by children on the beach, and having dinner. It's very strange to be using US dollars in another country, but Cambodians would rather use them than their own currency. As we were looking for a good place to eat on the beach, a restaurant owner came up to me and said their fabulous deals for the night. Are you ready?? Ok, .25 cents for a pint of beer. So, I had TWO beers for .50 cents. I am still in shock. That's amazing. Today was very refreshing from our very emotionally draining day in Phnom Penh.

Phnom Penh....

We decided to have our hostel take us around to the different locations that we wanted to see being we were on a tight schedule and were still unsure about how safe and easy it was to travel around in Cambodia. We started the day off at the Killing Fields. I'm not sure if you are aware about what happened here from 1975-1979? I wasn't and I am a social studies major. So, here we go...

Pol Pot was the leader of the Cambodian communist movement known as the Khmer Rouge. He wanted to change Cambodia's government into complete communism and force the country to run only on rice production. To do this, he needed to kill basically everyone who was not a farmer or who wouldn't cooperate. This included officers, children, foreigners, intellectuals, the educated, diplomats, and important people. They wanted to get rid of everything- money, schools, communication, religion, culture, etc. They were killed in horrific ways, mostly through injuries from torture and blunt object to their skulls. They estimate that AT LEAST 500,000 people were killed to due Khmer Rouge.

The killing Fields were found in 1979 and more than 15,000 people were killed there. Before the war, it was used as an orchard and a Chinese cemetery. The Khmer Rouge turned it into a place to kill the innocent.They would bring around 300 people a day there and would kill them all immediately. Once the numbers of captured became too large, they could no longer meet their daily "goal". The area is virtually untouched. You can still see teeth and clothes lying on the ground from the victims. There was a big and beautiful looking tree called "The Magic Tree", but it was pure evil. There were microphones hooked up to it that would play music, so no one could hear the cries from victims. There, people were executed and children were smashed against the tree. Awful. In the front of the Fields is a remembering monument that contains bones and skulls that are visible through the glass cases.

Next, we went to the Killing fields museum prison called Tuol Sleng. Before the war it was used a school. It was very graphic and raw as well. There was still blood on the walls and floors. Bats had made it their home. As I entered the school, I felt a feeling of heaviness and almost evil. You could feel that horrible things took place not so long ago. You could tell the school used to be so beautiful and children would have loved learning there. Many of the victims were those who were caught within the Khmer Rouge as traitors. They became very paranoid and killed many, as many as 30,000- 20,000 of them were children.

It was a very tough day. I felt very sad and didn't feel a lot of hope for humanity. The world knew what was going on there, yet we didn't do anything to help them. The Khmer Rouge fell in 1978, but they still held raids well into the 90's. The United Nations allowed them to hold a seat in the UN for 10 years after they fell because they were enemies with Vietnam, who were also ours at the time (Vietnam War). Sickening.

We ended the day on a high note though. My friend Christina's best friend's aunt is the US Ambassador of Cambodia, so we had dinner at her house. It was absolutely amazing. The bathroom had two stalls and Three sinks. It was HUGE, well secured with guards, and was decorated quite well. We had a 5 course meal outside next to the pool. I felt very out of place, but she was really nice and not stuffy. I had to follow her lead on which silverware to use. It was a great experience and she gave us information and advice about our trip. She told us of her secret competition with the Chinese ambassador. She wants to be on TV more than her and she is currently winning. ha.


So, Cambodia. It's a wonderful, dirty, heartbreaking, and happy place. The people are very kind and will usually leave you alone when you tell them you aren't interested- unlike Korea. There is a huge French and Indian presence here. We will spend one more day here and then head up to Angkor Wat, the famous temple that I think is one of the "7 wonders of the world"". Then off to Thailand.

Sorry, I can't really post pictures until I get home. I don't know how.

I hope you learned something.

xoxo
I miss my students already. I hope their new teacher is good to them.

You Rock! Yes, YOU!

Hello Everyone!

It seems like I was just writing you an email explaining my upcoming travels to South Korea, but it has already been a year. Can you believe it? It has been quite a year for me. It has been year full of learning and exploring. Although there were plenty of hard times, it was an extremely wonderful experience and I wouldn't change a thing. By teaching adults and children, I was able to really learn about Korea through the eyes of Koreans. I have fallen in love with the Korean culture, my students, and new friends, so it is going to be really sad to leave.

I will be leaving next Saturday, November 7th for southeast Asia. I will be traveling with two other friends to Cambodia, Thailand, Malaysia, and possibly Indonesia. It will all depend on time and how everything goes. I have to make it back to Korea and catch my flight to the States on December 21st. I will be home right before Christmas. I CAN'T WAIT!

I just wanted to thank you all for your support through phone calls, emails, thoughts, and prayers. I never could have made it through this year without you. I hope you all are well in health and spirits. I will be updating my blog and emailing as often as I can while I am traveling. Hopefully, I will be able to see you all when I am home before I leave for my next adventure...destination unknown.

If praying is your thing, please pray for health and safety during our trip. Thanks! :)

Love,
Megan