Travel Photo: Skyscrapers in Hong Kong

The skyscrapers in Hong Kong were magnificent! It was so cool to be standing on the street waiting for the light to change to cross and looking up and realizing there was so much more to look at up there.

The first picture was taken on our way back from Victoria's Peak. We met a retired Polish man who spent most of his life in France as an engineer but is now living in Bangkok as a base to travel around Asia. He was talking to us about all kinds of cool things: travel, life, how cheap it is to live in Bangkok, etc. and then all the sudden he says, "STOP! Look up!" and we see the first picture. It was amazing. He said, "I was here this morning and this is a wonderful sight!" Of course, I busted out the camera. He was right; it was a wonderful sight.

We told him we were headed for the Star Ferry and he said, "Oh, I know the way. I'm headed that way too. I will take you." So we walked and talked with him for about fifteen minutes. The passion and love he had for life, travel, exploring, culture, and beautiful sights/things just made my heart smile. This one little walk was such a great experience.

"This is why I love to travel" I told Spencer as we walked away from him, "these unexpected, little single-serving friendships that inspire me and make me feel so alive and passionate." I was smiling from ear to ear. I didn't get his name but the Polish/French/Thai old man totally made my week. I will never forget him.

One Week in Belize: A Travel Itinerary

Sometimes, all you have is a week to see an entire country. I know work schedules can be tight and vacation time hard to come by, especially if you're an American. Luckily, Belize is small and totally doable in a week!

Day One: Arrive in Belize City and take a water taxi to Caye Caulker. Check in to your hotel/hostel. If you're looking to stay at a hostel, we recommend Yuma's Backpacker's Hostel. It's clean, convenient, and there's art in the rooms! 

Day Two: Rent bikes to explore Caye Caulker and sign up for a tour for the next day. Choose from snorkeling the reef, seeing the sea cows, kayaking, diving the blue hole, deep sea fishing, or sunset sailing. Go to the split to play in the warm blue ocean and eat/drink at the Lazy Lizard.

Day Three: Activity of your choice and relaxation. 

Day Four: Travel Day. Take the water taxi back to Belize City in the morning and get on a bus to San Ignacio--the jungle! Explore San Ignacio and decide on which Mayan Ruins to see. 

Day Five: See Mayan Ruins with or without a guide. I really enjoyed having a guide (we used Pacz Tours) at the ruins because he taught us a lot about Mayan culture and what the different structures were used for. It was very informative! Of course, you can also visit the ruins on your own if you want to.

We are at Tikal in the photo above. Tikal is a massive site with many temples and buildings. It's actually in Guatemala but you can do it as a day trip from San Ignacio. There are a some smaller (but still impressive!) Mayan sites in Belize too.

Day Six: Explore the ATM cave. A very unique exploration into the Mayan Underworld (aka a cave!). This trip is one of the greatest adventures you can have in Belize. If you are in Belize, I would NOT miss it! For this trip, it is required to have a guide. We used Pacz Tours for this as well. 

Day Seven: Take a bus back to Belize City and fly home!


Note: All opinions are solely our own. We were not compensated for any recommendations or reviews. 

Travel Photo: Le Tour Eiffel

Spencer took this photo of the Eiffel Tower during our first international trip together in the summer of 2008. I was really nervous to travel together for the first time. I felt like it would make or break us. Thankfully, we had a blast! :) 

Travel Photo: It's a bird! It's a plane!

This is a perfect example of why I love Koreans. They make things fun!!! Even things that can sometimes be horrible, like hospitals, which is what this is! This hospital is in the new downtown of Suncheon and we see it on our current walk home from school. There are more huge apes at the bottom of the building by the entrance holding up two benches.

See more photos from our first month in Korea here

Water

Our apartment community in Suncheon, South Korea has access to fresh drinking water, three times a day, from a really cool boulder thing. Check out the video.

water from destination exploration on Vimeo.

Our Night at a Jjimjilbahng

We're on the bus to a stopover city on our way to the Mud Festival. We're talking about places to stay the night and Spencer and I aren't saying anything because we know squat about Korean lodgings. We are just doing whatever the two guys who have been in Korea the longest are doing. 

"How about a jjimjilbahng?" one guy asks. "Ok." says the other, smiling. 

Me: "What's a ja-jim-bong?" 

The guys basically say, "Oh, it's a place where you can go for up to 24 hours and there are big common rooms to sleep on the floor in. It's only like 5,000 Won ($5) and there are saunas and hot spring water baths. It's the cheapest place to sleep."

At this point, Spencer and I are planning on going to Hong Kong soon and we haven't gotten paid yet so we are down with saving a little cash. We automatically say, "yes. Sure, why not?" We might as well try it out. It's all part of the Korean experience!

Someone asks for directions and we start walking. Me: "What are we looking for?" Guy one: "We are looking for the Korean writing for jjimjilbahng." Okay, I have no idea what that is so I keep walking while looking at all the pretty flashing lights. They find it and we walk in....to an empty lobby with an elevator. Ok, this is fine. Lots of things are on the top stories of buildings in Asia...no biggie. We get to the right floor and see this:

Alllll right....this is okay. We all pay and she hands us shorts and a t-shirt to wear. Then she points for me to go into the girls locker room and the boys to upstairs to their locker room. At this point I realize there are 4 guys and one girl....I will be alone.

I hesitantly walk in the door to the locker room. I take off my sandals and wear their green plastic sandals into the room--here is my first mistake. You only wear the shoes outside of the room, not in it! Even worse, I wore them in the shower....I thought the women were staring at me because I was white. Nope, they were staring at me because I was wearing outdoor shoes in the shower.

The showers were along one wall (no curtains, very GI Jane), there was a hot spring pool in the middle, a bigger cold pool along one wall, and a door to the sauna. There also looked to be a massage table in one corner.

After I got cleaned up, I went to try and meet up with the guys. I walk out into the "lobby" of the jjimjilbahng which is basically a 5'x10' space with the lady behind plexiglass (pictured above). It's then that I realize that I have no way of contacting them. I don't have a cell phone. I can't go into the boys locker room. I can't find the common areas.

Thankfully, the lady saw the confusion and panic in my eyes and after some gestures and hand signals, I went to the 11th floor. I walk into the double doors directly in front of the elevator and put my green plastic sandals on one of the many shelves in the entryway along with countless identical pairs. The room is dark except for a big screen TV playing a movie with the sound on low. There are men sleeping on mats with tiny square pillows. There are doors around the big room, some open, some closed, with Korean signs above them. I don't go in any of the rooms since I don't know what the signs say.
I look around for the guys. I don't see them. 

I get back in the elevator and push every floor on the way down. I see no one and every floor is dark and deserted. I go back to the lobby and sit in the one chair they have available. I sit for a while and think crazy thoughts. "What if this place is huge and I never find them!?" See? Crazy.

After a while, I head back up to the 11th floor. I might have missed them when I was stopping at every floor since there are two elevators. That's probably where they will go because the lady will tell them the same thing she told me, right? Sounds logical enough. I ride up to the 11th floor, the elevator doors open and there is Spencer, waiting for me outside the double doors of the common area! I smiled so big. I was so happy to see him!!  

The rest of the night was spent trying to find a comfortable position on the hardwood floor with only a thin mat and a tiny square "pillow." I saw "pillow" because I'm pretty sure it was foam wrapped in pleather (yuck). It wasn't a good night's sleep but it was cheap and an experience I will never forget.

There Will Be Mud: The Boryeong Mud Festival

The Boryeong Mud Festival was the perfect experience for our first trip out of Suncheon. We took a bus to Gwangju on Friday and spent the night in a Jjimjilbang (Read about our experience here). We woke up on Saturday and took a bus directly to Daecheon Beach for the 14th annual Mud Festival. We had heard a lot about it and decided it was something we did not want to miss.

The festival was super fun! You could wander the central area and play on the mud slides and mud pools. You could relax on the beach or in the water. You could grab some food or drinks and experience some of the best people watching in Korea. There was even a colored mud painting station where we were able to get painted in some refreshingly cool colored mud (pictured above). It was like our own colorful version of sunscreen!

After a mud paint job and several cold beverages, we made our way down to the beach dance area, where a giant cannon was blasting the crowd with water. After joining the crowd, we suddenly saw these strange things being thrown in our direction. After one hit someone near us, we realized what it was -- a small baggie filled with mud. We had just walked into the front lines of a mud war! We quickly realized we were on the receiving end of this war, as we were getting pelted with mud yet had to rely on picking these bags off the ground if we wanted to return fire. No worries though, we were already covered in mud, sand, water, and a little bit of beer. It was all in good fun. A little more mud never hurt anyone.

See our photos of the Boryeong Mud Festival weekend here.

Tips for future Mud Festival travelers:

1. Booking a hotel ahead of time is not necessary, but be prepared to pay a high price. We just showed up with no set plans and were able to get a room in a motel right on the beach. It was really expensive (a decent room with Queen sized bed and bathroom for 180,000 Won) but with several of us sharing a room, it was only about $30 each. I am sure you could find a cheaper price by walking further away from the festival, but expect to pay more for everything during the festival.

2.If you are on a tight budget and want to avoid the high prices, you could probably spend a night in a nearby city. Then take an early bus to Boryeong and spend the day at the festival. You really only need half a day to get the full festival experience. Get there early. Soak in the sun. Play with the mud. Drink and eat and swim in the water. By 4pm, you will have had you fix and you can make your way back home.

3. Bring a swimsuit, suncreen, and a pair of sandals or flip flops that you don't mind losing or breaking. We were able to buy a cheap pair of flip flops for a few dollars. You definitely don't want to be walking around the festival in shoes, and anything you bring with you might break or get lost. People are constantly taking their sandals on and off to jump in the mud. Nothing will get stolen, but everyone is drunk so things sometimes get misplaced.

4. They offer free lockers rentals for foreigners. The lockers normally cost 500 Won and there was a table set up where they would give you a 500 Won coin for free to use. It helped us greatly. Best advice we can give is to bring a digital camera but leave it in the locker. We saw so many cameras get wet and damaged from the mud and rain. We just left it in the locker for most of the day and then went a took it out for short periods of time to take some photos.

5. The festival seems to change every year. We were told if was different in 2010 and we expect it to be different in 2012. This year was the first year that festival goers were charged 5,000 Won to enter the main area with all the mud activities. You can still have a good time without buying the entrance ticket, but you will miss out on the opportunity to do a lot of the group mud events (wrestling, slides, etc.)

6. Be prepared to be around a ridiculous amount of drunk foreigners. No getting around it: This festival is dominated by Non-Koreans. It really boils down to the fact that everyone is drinking a large amount of alcohol while playing in inflatable mud pits like uninhibited little kids. A combination that is guaranteed to put a huge smile on your face.

 Get more information about the Boryeong Mud Festival at the Official Website (English)