Urinals, Pad Thai overdose, Angkor What?, 3rd rate copies: My trip around SE Asia (cont.)

Cambodia:
On January 28th we were welcomed into Cambodia by a Dairy Queen located by the gate. Unfortunately, it was only visible through the glass wall of the path leading to the visa processing area and inaccessible to all the arriving passengers. After being away from the US for so long, Dairy Queen looked so appealing and therefore we all made a mental note to seek out Dairy Queen when we are on the departing side of the glass wall.

To enter Cambodia, most westerners have to apply for an entry visa that takes about ten to fifteen minutes to process. The visa cost $20 USD (USD are used in Cambodia because their currency doesn’t have a strong backing). So everyone that has to apply for a visa must go to the ATM located near the visa desk to withdraw USD. It was incredibly strange to see people from all over the world holding US cash while they wait in line to pay for their visa. What made this particularly odd is the fact that I personally haven’t seen USD since I departed from the US in late July. I became quite accustom to the colorful and size distinguishable currency of Taiwan.

Our plan was to stay in the capital of Phnom Penh for the first night, then go to Siem Reap for 2 nights, and return back to Phnom Penh for our last two nights. Once we arrived to our hostel, Woolly Rhino, we met up with Jill’s Colgate comrade Alyssa. Alyssa, who arrived the night before, shared with us some of her experiences at the hostel and in the city. She told us that one of the women at the hostel negotiated a bad price for a tuk tuk to take her up to the killing fields that were outside of the city. The tuk tuk charged her $38 USD (when we go up to the same location later, we were only charged about $12 which was divided between the 4 of us)! Later, she saw the same woman flirting with the same tuk tuk driver and came to the conclusion that the woman helped the tuk tuk driver rip her off. So not only were the people at the hostel a rip off, but the hostel itself was the worst place we stayed during the duration of our trip. The walls were stained with mold, the air conditioner was broken, and the beds were just a pad rather than an actual mattress. If you’re ever going to Phnom Penh, DON”T STAY AT THE WOOLLY RHINO!

The next day we headed out to Siem Reap on the cheapest bus we could find ($5). The travel agent tried to sell us the more expensive bus and even hesitated to tell us about the bus we ended up taking. Upon boarding the bus, we soon realized that we were the only non-Cambodians on the bus. We then concluded that her hesitation was based on the fact that the cheaper bus was rarely taken by foreigners. Which is what most of us preferred. While traveling in Cambodia, we observed the separation of tourists and locals into two separate groups. Tourists were the consumers and Cambodians were the service personnel. Most tourists didn’t travel or eat with the locals, all their accommodations were different. This was a very disturbing reality for me while traveling. I enjoy places where locals go rather than places designated for me as tourist. Immersion into the culture provides a more realistic and raw experience that is not specifically designed to misconstrue my perception of the country.

Our ride to Siem Reap was one of the most humbling experiences on our trip because we were able to see how people outside of the city live and make a living. Many people lived in huts made out of bamboo and their live stock looked frail and underfed. At the rest stops, young girls between the ages of about 6 to 12 would practically harass every visitor into buying the fruit they were selling. In very good English the girls would say, “Lady, do you want to buy some pineapple? Two for a dollar.” It was sad to see the young girls anxiously trying to sell fruit to visitors rather than attending school. I felt absolutely helpless. From my experience in China, I knew buying from the girls would not directly change their situation. I also knew that the money was not going directly to them, but to whoever had them out there selling fruit.

Our bus arrived in Siem Reap on a bumpy red dusted road. We stepped off the bus looking for a car or van to drive us to our hostel. After a couple of minutes of looking around at the various drivers holding hotel signs, we soon found ours. They grabbed our bags and escorted us toward a grey van; soon we saw that our bags were not actually going to the grey van but to two tuk tuks located near the van. They threw our bags onboard promising they would not fall off while in transit, and then we were off to Rosy Guesthouse. At the hostel we were greeted by friendly faces and assisted by the European owners. The rooms were great and had the character of a hotel rather than a hostel.

That first night, we decided to make the best of our time at Siem Reap and chose to buy the 24 hour pass to Angkor Wat. We hiked up a busy trail to what was supposed to be the best Wat to watch the sunset. I made the naïve mistake of wearing white flip flops on the red dusted trail, therefore coating my feet and flops in a nice rustic orange color. The next day, I made the better decision of wearing sneakers (although you can still see the Angkor Wat rustic orange color on them).

We headed out to Angkor Wat nice and early that next day with the plan of seeing 3 to 5 temples and concluding our day at Angkor Wat proper. After our first temple, we purchased $15 elephant rides (which cost about $30 in Thailand) that took us back to the front gate. This meant that after our ride we would have to walk about a mile to get back because that was where we planned to meet our tuk tuk drivers. We were all up for the walk because we knew there was a high possibility of seeing monkeys (we actually ended up seeing a lot of monkeys on our trip, but WARNING: do not feed the monkeys, they will attack! I personally didn’t get attacked because I wasn’t dumb enough to feed them, but I did see others get swarmed by aggressive monkeys). To get on the elephant, I had to climb up a staircase and step on the elephant’s neck to get in the seat. Now I know this may sound a little abusive, but the trainers would guide the elephants by sitting on their necks. Elephants aren’t the most efficient means of travel, they move slowly and the movement of their bodies rocks their passengers side to side with every step. However, that does not take away from the giddy child-like feeling you have while riding on such a large and magnificent creature.

Before actually going to Angkor Wat, we saw three other temples that consumed most of our day. We did not actually get to Angkor Wat until about 45 minutes before the temples closed. Angkor Wat holds true to being the largest religious structure in the world. It was breathtaking that such a massive detailed structure was built in the 12th century. As my co-teacher in Taiwan said, “you must have felt like an ant.” Which is exactly how I felt. Given our limited time, Adam and I decided to watch the sunset in a specific part of the Wat that was not overwhelmed with tourist.

That night, we completed our Angkor Wat theme with going to a bar in Siem Reap called “Angkor What?” We all had an absolutely wonderful time (some had a little too much fun and drank a little too much). The name was not what made the bar so fantastic, it was the $5 and $6 buckets of drinks that would cost the same if not more for just a small glass in the US. So between the five of us, we had four buckets and received two T-shirts (buy two buckets and receive one T-shirt, isn’t that awesome!).

The next day we headed back to Phnom Penh and stayed at a much better hostel than we did the first time we were in Phnom Penh. I would best describe my experience in Phnom Penh as informative. We visited both the killing fields and the genocide museum of the Pol Pot regime. Prior to visiting these sites, I did not have much prior knowledge of the horrific and devastating events that occurred in Cambodia during the 1970’s. It was mystifying to conceive that such horrible barbarous acts could be possible during a period that was less than 40 years ago. I highly recommend both the killing fields and the genocide museum for both the uninformed and the well informed. It is a humbling experience and although it created a solemn mood throughout my day, it was one of the best experiences I had on my entire vacation.

Malaysia and Singapore coming soon...

Urinals, Pad Thai overdose, Angkor What?, 3rd rate copies: My trip around SE Asia

Philippines:I was in Manila for less than 24 hours, but it was surprisingly better than we all expected. Before our departure, we were warned by a few people that Manila would be a little sketchy and we should be extremely careful. It really wasn't as bad as everyone tried to prepare us for; the people were generally nice and carefree. Unlike other countries in SE Asia, the Philippines is a Catholic country. Therefore, it added contrast to see a large cathedral rather than a Buddhist temple. Something that was really unique to the Philippines was the presence of male "urinals" on the street. They were situated on the street like telephone booths, except in appearance it resembled a large barrel on poles with the top and bottom cut out and a vertical slit down the middle to allow men to go in and out. It was hot pink in color and the inside was completely hollow. The main purpose of the urinal was to cover men from public view while they relieved themselves on the street. At first I wondered if it was really necessary. That was before the driver of our Jeepney jumped out of the driver seat while in traffic to relieve himself on another Jeepney parked beside us. Adam said the guy even made the "kind" gesture of flushing the street of his urine with a little water from his water bottle.
After talking to my dad this morning (Monday morning Taiwan, Sunday evening US), I was enlightened with the knowledge that in addition to being stationed in Taiwan my dad was also stationed in Manila. It was nice to be able to compare his perception of Manila (1960’s I presume) to my perception of Manila today. He said that he enjoyed Manila because the people were nice and they cooked like black people. I also made some correlation between the Filipinos and black/Hispanic people. While in Manila I could feel the same essence I feel while in LA or Miami.
Travel trip: Manila has a departure tax of about $15.00 USD and don’t feel afraid to ride on the jeepnies. Also, request the use of meters in the taxi or be prepared to bargain down your taxi driver because they will over charge.

Thailand:
The second stop on our journey was to Thailand. Thailand was probably one of the most anticipated on our 5 country tour. Jill (my one and only roommate for those who are a little behind because I haven’t made a post in like 6 months) and I were extremely stoked about having AUTHENTIC Thai food and beer. In Taiwan, Thai food is one of our favorites (Jill is much more addicted than I). The anticipation of knowing that we were going to have Thai food straight from its original source was so enticing, that we had a Thai food fast before embarking on our trip.
We landed in Bangkok at about midnight and headed to the hotel. The next morning we met up with Beth, her sister Kate, and Kate’s friend Kelly. From there, we headed to Bangkok proper and to the touristiest street in SE Asia: Khaosan Road. The street was crowded with backpackers and old Euro-tourists. Everyone’s skin glowed with the “I went to Thailand for holiday” tan. About every other 3 vendors was a stand that could braid or dread your hair in any/every color you desire. So along with their tans, many of the tourists would also choose to get the bohemian dread hairstyle to accompany their carefree motif.
Amongst this ocean of ultra-tourist commercialism, there was a fountain of milk and honey. Within the streets there were these gods and goddesses of food and drinks on a cart. These wonders would create mouth inspiring Pad Thai and milk tea that would take over your senses and literally make you want to “slap your mama” (Except I would never do that ;-). Eating and drinking was the best part of the trip to Thailand and it was extremely affordable.
That same day, Adam and I split from Jill and Virginia to join Beth and her group. We headed off to Phuket on an overnight sleeper train (highly recommended if you have plenty of time to spare and you’re traveling on a budget). After a lot of confusion and unanticipated spending, we arrived in Phuket about 22 hours after we left Bangkok. The trip should have only taken about 15 hours, but that is all water under the bridge.


Once we finally arrived in Phuket, we were without housing, which resulted in us walking door to door looking for an available hostel. When that began to feel fruitless, we walked into a hostel called the Pineapple. The woman there told us she had no room, but her friend who didn’t speak good English had a dorm room open. She escorted us barefoot down the street to a quaint sky blue building and up the stairs to a 12 person dorm room. The rather large room was filled with empty bunk beds. It was perfect! We stayed there for 2 nights, and rarely ran into the two other guests who shared our room. The cost was only 200 Baht (~$6USD)! And to top it all off, there was an affordable restaurant under the hostel that served the most amazing Pad Thai, Thai spring rolls, and chicken satay that was served with the best peanut sauce I have ever tasted in my 22 years of existence! The restaurant was called the White Elephant and was only in its first month of business. The owners were a sweet couple that just moved to Thailand from France (the husband was French and the wife was Thai). They helped us arrange a taxi to Khao Sok and the husband drove us to this great festival about 15 minutes away from the tourist part of the beach. The festival resembled a Taiwan night market, except some of its delicacies differed. Fried bugs seemed to be a favorite among some of the Thai people. Feeling courageous, Beth’s sister Kate tried a grub. She purchased a serving, but after trying one she decided to give that “tasty” treat to one of the on-looking locals.




If I was to sum up Phuket, I would sum it up by describing its good, bad, and ugly.

• Good: The FOOD (yummy desert alert: fried banana pancake drizzled with chocolate sauce and condensed milk) and the nice people we met
  
  
• Bad: transportation cost and abundance of old Euro-tourist
• Ugly: The bug snack, yuck!!

Our next stop in Thailand before we headed back to Bangkok was to Khao Sok, a national park that houses one of the oldest rain forests in the world. It was absolutely beautiful and it provided a nice change from all the commercialism we saw in Bangkok and Phuket.
We stayed in a “tree house,” which was actually an elevated cabin designed to appear as if the post were actual trees. Behind our tree house was a river that we had to climb down the rocks to reach. When it started raining (like it does everyday in the rain forest), we made our way down on the slippery rocks to the river in our swimsuits. We walked around and played for minute, then headed back to the cabin. The next day, Adam and I did a short hike to one of the many waterfalls in the park. Once we made it to the waterfall, Adam pushed me in!!!! Ok, so he didn’t actually push me. He convinced me that my short little legs would be able to leap to this slippery rock. My body told me that between my lack of coordination and short limbs, I would not be able to successfully make it to the rock, but I tried anyways given Adam’s persuasion. That’s when I slipped and fell into the stream. Adam later ended up falling into the waterfall as well. Except, he fell in full body while only my feet and legs fell in.

After our hike, Adam and I took the bus back to Bangkok to meet up with Jill and Virginia.

Travel trip: While in Bangkok, use a taxi rather than a tuk tuk. Although based on appearance, it would seem more logical for a taxi to cost more given its higher comfort level (AC, enclosure from all the pollution in the streets, and space). In reality, the tuk tuks take advantage of tourist ignorance and often over charge. Also, request the use of a meter in a taxi.

The Matching Game

Following "The Best Weekend Ever," was the start of our 3 week orientation. The first week was designated specifically for the ETAs (English Teaching Assistants) to get settled and accustom to Yilan. On the first day, they introduced us to the MANY acronyms that would be used as our "cool" special Yilan ETA lingo. Here goes our acronyms: FSE (Foundation of Scholarly exchange), ETA, AP (Advisory Panel), LET (Local English Teacher), and TC (Teacher Center). It took us all a little while to get the hang of the lingo and some of us adopted the use of the 3-letter acronyms, while disregarding the 2 letter ones. Every now and again I'll through out the term "AP" when describing the directors and I'll just receive blank stares from my fellow ETAs. The first thing that comes to mind is Advanced Placement and Assistant Principal (which often does not fit into the context of the convo).

On our third day, we visited three schools and went to Wai-Ao beach (black sand beach, GORGEOUS!). This was the beginning of our courting with the schools. At our first school, Yilan Yuan Junior High, we were greeted by the principal and taken into a meeting room where we were wined with water and entertained by a fancy power point. At the second school, Da Fu elementary, we were brought into the gym to be serenaded by Chinese zither players, and wined and dined with water and fruit. At our final school, Geng Fang Elementary, we received a wonderful tour showing the beautiful campus by the beach front and we were refreshed by cool sweet lemon iced tea. By the end of the day, we came to the conclusion that all the schools really wanted to have an English native speaker as a resource to their students.

The matching game really began on Monday 8/11, the day we were introduced to all the LETs. When we all arrived, all the LETs sat on one side of the room and all the ETAs sat on the other side. We soon noticed that there were twice as many LETs than ETAs. That's when we found out that we would indirectly choose who would be a main school teacher and who would be a co-school teacher. It was an honor for the teachers and their schools to receive an ETA, and therefore they felt pressured to get us to choose their schools. Some LETs came off REALLY strong, while others were more relaxed. I think we all were more comfortable with the LETs that didn't constantly say "come to my school, come to my school."

Over the next few weeks, we worked with various LETs on micro-teaching projects while being trained by Dr. Trites. When it came time to choose our LETs, we were all stressed out! Out of the 24 LETs, we all had to choose 6 to rank for our preferences. Many of us liked the same LETs and became really difficult to choose who we wanted to work with. Every ETAs' criteria differed. Some only chose Yilan teachers because they wanted to live in Yilan, while others were looking for someone who would allow them more freedom to enhance their teaching skills. Personally, I was looking for a teacher that could show me how to create a fun learning environment and someone that I knew I could easily get along with for the next 10 months. Most of my teachers were in Yilan (I kind of wanted to stay in Yilan), but one of my top choices was in Luodong.

On Monday August 25th, we all went through our introductions and then participated in a speed dating game. We had two hours to see all the teachers, and the AP split the LETs into two groups. For the first hour we saw all the LETs in the first group for 5 minutes each, and repeated in the second hour with the second group. The speed dating was exhausting but really helped some people in their decision making process. As for myself, I basically stayed with all my same choices. After the speed dating, the ETAs and the LETs had 30 minutes to choose their top 6 preferences.

THE RESULTS ARE IN!!!!!!

The next day, we all walked in anxious to see who we were matched up with and where we will be moving (Yilan or Luodong). On a middle table, there were fold sheets of paper with each of our names. All the ETAs ran over to open their papers to reveal who was going to be their co-teachers. Once I opened mine, I scanned the letter to see Crystal's name for my main school (Siao Wei) and Jenny as my co-school (Cing Gou). Crystal was the only teacher I put down from Luodong cause I knew if I worked with her, I wouldn't mind having to move to a different city and that I would have an amazing year!

The Best Weekend Ever

After settling in to our apartments, we all hung out Saturday night after the Foundation bought us pizza for dinner. On our way to take the left over pizza from the boys’ apartment to our apartment, we stumbled upon a musical performance in the courtyard of our apartment complex. Earlier in the day when we were moving in, we all noticed a small music school right next to a “cram school” (basically an intensive tutoring school used as supplement to public education). As we walked passed that night, the owner of the music school motioned us to come and sit down. We all sat down out of curiosity and kindness. At first we assumed students were performing, but as soon as they began to play we quickly realized that they were advanced musicians. After the first song, I believe, the owner/director introduced the players. Many were laoshi (teacher), one was ta baba (his father), and another was ta erzi (son). They all played traditional Chinese instruments, including the Er Hu and the Pi Pa (I believe that is how it is spelled).





Then on Sunday, we decided to roam around our new city to see what we could discover. We met up around 10 am and worked our way down the street. First we ran into a shop that made dan bing, a breakfast delight that resembles an egg “burrito.” Following breakfast, we continued down the same street and discovered the Music House. From the street it looked like a traditional Japanese style home. When we walked upon it, the sign read “Music House” in English. As we worked our way inside the quaint house, a sweet woman greeted us warmly and motioned us to come in to the house. With the help of the translation of one of our fellow ETAs, Mandy, the lady explained to us that the house was an old government education building and that the interior wood was authentic. Along with explaining the history of the house, she also explained all of the many instruments within the house. After our tour, she invited us to come back to listen to a performance around 2:30 pm.
Following along our same trail, we continued walking down the same street and followed along as it curved to the left. Soon we discovered a distillery and noticed many people coming in and out of the gate. We all decided to walk in, and to our left we read a sign that said “If you haven’t drunk our wine, you can’t say you’ve been to Yilan.”

That is when we all came to the conclusion that having some of their wine would be really important in our tour of Yilan! We walk around the distillery and tasted the different foods and wine. After having our tasted of the distillery, we continued on our journey. We walked through a small market, played a little in Du Du Dong Park, and looked around the tourist info center across the park. By the time we finished, it was time to return to the Music House for the performance. Going back to the Music House was great! The house gave us a place to relax, listen to beautiful music, and cool down. The man who played the traditional instruments was amazing and he even offered us tickets for his concert in Taipei.





Our day was going fantastic. Following the music house we rested for a little while and then went to this delicious veggie restaurant that the previous ETAs called “Mama’s Kitchen.” As soon as we entered, they quickly greeted us, sat us down, and handed us a picture menu that the previous ETAs created for us. The whole time we were there and every time since, an old lady (who we think is mama) attentively but casually takes care of us as if we were all her family. Upon leaving “mama’s,” we all went for dessert at this place that serves this treat that seems like a cross between ice cream and shaved ice. Whatever it is, the treat is amazing and it looks like shavings. The flavors included milk, peanut, green tea, coffee, blueberry, mango, and sesame seed. Dinner and dessert definite was the cherry on top of a fantastic weekend!

Arrival to Taiwan

On August 1, 2008, I arrived in Taiwan on EVA Airlines flight 0001. The flight was extremely long, 13 hours to be exact. Despite the length of the flight, the aircraft itself was quite bearable for economy seats. I remember flying on Delta and United internationally, and they were nothing compared to EVA Airlines. On EVA, each passenger had their own interactive touch screen that gave them the option to watch a movie, pick a television show, or play a game. The leg space was great for an economy seat, and the accommodations for the business and first class elite were amazing.

The people I flew in to Taiwan with were Mary, Jamie, Ann, Brett, Adam, and Julia. Once we made it to Taiwan we ran into a few more girls: Virginia, Evie, Alana, and Jill. Soon Mandy, Nell, Elizabeth and Faith met up with us as well. We all took the shuttle to our hotel. They provided rooms for each of us, but they were not all ready when we arrived so we had to split up between a few rooms for everyone to freshen up. After freshening up, they distributed $20,000NTD to each of us and we headed to the Foundation for lunch boxes. After lunch they gave us more explanations of the living arrangements and expectations. We walked to a local electronic store to take pictures for our ARC (alien resident card). Then we all went to Story Land, an interactive historical children’s museum. After the museum we all went to dinner at a Chinese Muslim restaurant. We were all soooo exhausted, we had landed in Taiwan at 5 am and we didn’t get a chance to really rest until we made it back home from dinner around 8:30 pm, and to top it off we had to have our luggage downstairs by 8:20 am to go to Yilan in the morning.

I woke up the next day well rested and extremely excited to see where I was going to live for the next 11 months. Taipei seemed really nice and similar to Beijing in its size and culture, but I had no real idea what Yilan was going to be like. It took almost an hour or so to travel to Yilan because of all the traffic going through the 3 long tunnels that connect Yilan to Taipei. As soon as we exited the 3rd tunnel, we were able to catch our first glimpse of the county. To the left I could see the Pacific Ocean and a glimpse of Turtle Island that was not too far off the shores. There were palm trees everywhere and the weather and location of the city reminded me of Florida. They split the 16 people in our group up into two groups, one was to live in Loudong and the other was to live in Yilan City. I was amongst the latter group, and thus was going to live in downtown Yilan for the month of August. In September, we will move to our permanent locations depending on our placements with the LETs (Local English Teachers).