Personal Travel – GW Blogs from Abroad

Korean Spring Break: Thailand and Hong Kong

AdminMay 14, 2015

안녕하세요 (hello)! Weeks 10 and 11 on this study abroad journey were fantastic. It was the time of the Buddha holiday, so some classes were cancelled and my friends and I decided to go on a trip to Thailand and then Hong Kong! It was so amazing to be able to adventure around Asia like that. The trip took a total of 6 days in Thailand and 5 days in Hong Kong.

I arrived in Thailand on Thursday night and our hostel was located in a place called Nana. The first sight of Thailand that my friend John and I caught was of Lady Boys lining the street of our hotel and offering tickets to raunchy attractions. It was very confusing because these hot women would be walking around and you were never really sure if they were actual women. The culture in Thailand was honestly so progressive that at the end it was not that big of a deal. It was hot, humid, and everything was in your face, so that night Jesse, Sabrina, Mike, John, and I went to eat Arabic food at 3am. The next day we went out to explore the city. We stopped by a street vendor for 90Baht worth of Thai food(less than 3$). I got basil chicken and rice. Then we explored the metro and city markets and raced Tuk-Tuks (rickshaws) back to our hotel to meet our friends Gabby and Danny, who are abroad now in Tokyo. Later that night we went to the Red Light District of Thailand and there club promoters would yell at you to come see their Ping-Pong shows. Everything at the Red Light District was obviously very explicit and vulgar. We went in to see what a Ping-Pong show was and honestly it was not something I would want to see again.

The next day we explored various temples. The architecture surrounding them was gorgeous and we also explored Khao San Road, a typical tourist shopping district, and bought elephant pants there. That night we ended up at Skybar from the Hangover 2. Everything was expensive but the view was to die for. Sabrina’s birthday was that night at 12am so we went to an ice bar to celebrate. I have never seen an ice bar but essentially you go in and the workers give you bear costumes and you go into a room made entirely of ice. That was a great experience because I had no idea what it was and it was so silly. The next day we went to more temples and then the Weekend Market. At the temples I saw the famous reclining Buddha. Then we took a river boat cruise around Thailand. I drank coconut juice on the boat and I felt like I was in a movie. The weekend market was just your typical tourist market. We took Tuk-Tuks everywhere. The humidity was crazy as well because there was no way you would be able to go through the day with dry clothes. The next day we booked a tour for the Floating market and Tiger Temple. At the Floating Market we essentially sat inside of a long boat and went down a canal where other vendors sold stuff to you off of their boats. Then we got Pad Thai at a local restaurant and took the bus to the Tiger Temple. The Tiger Temple was my favorite experience because we got to see and interact with adult and baby tigers. We got to feed the baby tigers and play with them. I felt overjoyed.

Fun facts about Thailand is that fruits of all sorts are sold for 50cents on the streets all ready for you to eat, it’s very hot, Tuk-Tuks are the mode of transportation, and Pad Thai is still just okay. On Tuesday I left my friends in Thailand to join my friend Alissa in Hong Kong.

Let me tell you that Hong Kong was not what I expected. I imagined stereotypical China and having a hard time getting around. What I saw was western people and familiar stores. However, it was an amazing experience all the same. Alissa and I woke up on Wednesday and went to try local foods. We tried Congee, which is a mystery ingredient in rice and a banana leaf. It was odd but apparently a local favorite. Then we met up with Alissa’s cousin Betty, who works for CNN in Hong Kong, and she showed us around. We went to Hong Kong Disneyland and met Minney Mouse and enjoyed the rides. The castle was under construction and therefore the top tier was made of a box. The rides were 1minute long maximum and cute babies from all over the world flocked the Disney streets. Overall, the experience was very exciting and it was interesting to see how the parks differed from the United States. That night we got typical Chinese food in the city. We ate dumplings, pork buns, string beans, etc. It was amazing. There was not a night in Hong Kong when we weren’t extremely full. All thanks to Betty for showing us around.

The next day we got Dim Sum in the morning at a local Dim Sum place around our hotel. We were seated at a table with random Cantonese speaking people and they showed us how it worked. We ate massive pork buns and dumplings and it was amazing. Tea was served with everything. Then we went to see the Big Buddha at Po Lin Monastery and the village around it. It was really high in the mountains and it was a foggy day, so the Buddha looked ominous. Alissa and I walked around the village surrounding the Buddha and got souvenirs. That night we took the ferry around in Causeway Bay and saw the skyline. It was the prettiest city skyline I have ever seen, including New York City. Afterwards we got Peking duck and Maccha, green tea ice cream, for dessert. The next day was Alissa’s birthday so we celebrated at Stanley Island and market, where we ate three old-school western desserts, and then at a Chinese hot pot place. Then we went out on the town with Betty and her friend to Lan Kwai Fung, LKF.

The last full day was my favorite because we go to go on a Junk boat to an island 1 hour off of the coast of Hong Kong. The junk boat was meant for a going away party of one of Betty’s coworkers. From the boat we got to see amazing mountains and water and eventually jumped into Millionaires Bay next to Sai Kung Island. Hong Kong is such an interesting place in that it’s a city with a high-rise skyline against huge mountains and yet has island with clear, light blue water. I got a chance to meet engineers that work in Hong Kong and with them we swam to the little island. The weather was perfect and not as humid as Thailand. That night we had Szechuan food and then we went back home to Seoul.

Wow I can’t believe that I have the opportunity to do all of this and I would recommend an abroad experience in Seoul to anyone. With that said, I am so happy to be here at my home in Seoul. 안녕(goodbye)!

When in Rome…

AdminApril 20, 2015December 14, 2018

By jdippel529

In Spain, spring break takes place during the Holy Week (Semana Santa), and gives students about 13 days off from school. A couple of my friends and I decided it would be a good idea to make use of the wo weeks and turn it into a eurotrip. So, I am currently writing this blog in a cozy little apartment in downtown Athens where we arrived after a 3 day trip to Rome. Before I left for my trip, I wanted to make sure I made the most out of my travel experience. This is why I finally decided to book a food tour while in Rome. At first, I thought 100 euros was a bit too steep of a price, but once I realized all that it included I knew the tour was a unique opportunity that I just couldn’t miss out on. When in Rome…right?

The EatingItaly Rome Tour, which I highly recommend, passed through the up-and-coming area of Trastevere and included 8 wondrous stops: a long-time family-owned restaurant where we tried fried artichokes and Italian champagne, an ancient wine cellar dug up by the restaurant that lay above, a family-run bakery, two meat and cheese shops, a suppli (fried rice ball) shop, an award winning restaurant where we ate gnocchi, spinach and ricotta ravioli and risotto, and a gourmet and organic gelato place. I cannot stress it enough when I say that it is easy to get caught up in the tourist traps of Rome. This tour, however, stopped at local, family-run places that simply oozed authenticity. In this tour alone, I learned more about Rome than I had going around hte city for 2 whole days.

I never thought that taking a food tour would be so rewarding, but I promise you it was. I was able to make new and authentic discoveries into the Italian culture (culinary and historical), to meet new people from all over the world, to eat things I normally wouldn’t otherwise, and to do something completely on my own. Since I was in London when my friends booked the tour, their time slot was sold out by the time I got around to purchasing a ticket. On a whim, I decided to go on the earlier tour alone. I had never done something like this on my own before, and was naturally a bit apprehensive. Thankfully, it was the best thing I could have ever done. Being on my own forced me to talk and get to know the people in my group, all who were amazing. Our group consisted of a newly wed couple from rural Pennsylvania, 4 friends from Cyprus, Rick Steves (!!) and our lovely tour guide, of course. Yes, that’s right—a celebrity was on the tour with us and I didn’t even know it at the time! Rick Steves, the author and travel guru, happened to take the same tour for research on an upcoming project he was filming in Rome. Since I had no idea who he was at the time, I thought that he just had a cool job, nothing more. Because Rick left before our last stop (some amazing and authentic gelato), I was able to hear our guide talk about how she couldn’t believe a travel wiz like him was on her tour! At that point, I was just mad I missed out on the opportunity for a picture or autograph. Rick, if you’re reading this, an autographed travel guide would be awesome! Thanks for making my special tour that much more special.

Without my friends, I also learned the most important lesson of all: traveling with friends can be great, but the most important journey will always be the one with yourself. Being on my own allowed me to better perceive my experience and transform it into something memorable and lasting. In other words, it was easier to figure out what that time had meant to me, rather then deciding after putting together the opinions of the rest of my group.

So…what to take away from all of this? While traveling, always, always, always seek out an authentic cultural experience, and always make sure you are able to enjoy an experience in the moment, without the thoughts and opinions of others.

Crossing Boarders

AdminApril 19, 2015December 14, 2018

By practiceyogadistrict

Spring break has been spent as an escape from the stifling heat of Khon Kaen. First stop, Laos. Laos borders the north of Thailand. To travel there was an adventure in and of itself. The sleeper bus from Khon Kaen to Chiang Mai in the north of Thailand was standard. Our next task was to hop on the 9am bus from Chiang Mai to Chiang Khong. Though we arrived two hours before this bus left, it was already full, and our next chance to get to the boarder was at 2:30pm. We (Jenna and Anne and I—traveling friends) decided this would be okay, because according to what we had read online, the boarder stays open from 6am-10pm, and according to our calculations we would get there right at 8 and have time to cross before it closed. Cabs and Tuk Tuks awaited us as we disembarked the bus, hassling for our business-- the usual drill. We asked to be taken to the boarder, and every single person we asked said ‘mai dai’ which means I can’t or I won’t because it was closed already. Being the stubborn people we are, Anne, Jenna and I concluded that we could walk there on our own. At night. Through this new city we had never been to. The reason we were so intent on crossing the boarder that night was because we had to meet our guides for a trekking and zip-lining jungle experience at 8am the next morning. We had no idea the distance, but we knew general directions to the boarder crossing. About 10 minutes into our walk we begin to feel drops of rain on our heads. ‘Only a little rain,’ we said to one another, nothing we can’t handle. Then the rain began to fall heavier and heavier- big fat drops of water drenching everything we had with us. It was around 9pm now. Up ahead we saw a bright green sign—Tesco Lotus—the Thai version of Walmart. We ran to it, a safe refuge from the tropical storm we had found ourselves in. As we called the one guesthouse that we knew of the power flickered out in Tesco. You know you are in the midst of something when a supermarket loses power. On our drive to the guesthouse (the owner took pity on us and picked us up from Tesco) we saw countless toppled signs. The next day we succumbed to taking a Tuk Tuk as early as we could to the boarder. What we discovered was that the Thai boarder was open from 8am to 8pm, but the Laos boarder’s hours were from 6am-10pm. Makes sense, doesn’t it? Needless to say, it was a good thing that the storm stopped us. It was 10km to the boarder, not the 3km that we thought. And even if we had made it all the way there, we wouldn’t even have been able to cross.

As we raced in the Song Taew through Huay Xai, a small town on our way to Bokeo Nature Reserve for our three days in the jungle, I took in the new country that surrounded me. The town looked just like Thai towns that I had driven through countless times. Leaving the town, however, I was struck by how green, lush, and untouched Laos nature seemed. Fresh air did me well. The clean sweetness of the jungle air was precisely what I needed, and the joys of hiking, zip-lining, and tree house living satisfied my need for nature.

Now back in Chiang Mai, I am preparing for three days of being relentlessly soaked. Songkran, Thailand’s New Year’s celebration begins today. Instead of the ball dropping, Thais ring in the New Year with a massive three-day water fight. Everyone, whether stranger, family, young or old participate in festivities. The water traditionally symbolizes cleansing from sin, but younger generations of Thais and tourists have turned the holiday into a massive party. It is what it is. Happy New Year, friends! May the adventure continue for another year!

Underneath the coffee tree

AdminApril 14, 2015

If you know me well, you know that I am quite the coffee snob. I am religious about my coffee routines in the morning when I am at home. I grind my beans fresh, and delight in the robust smells of my French Press brewing as I get ready for classes. My coffee is always just the way I like it. You can tell by the way I am even writing about this little routine of mine now that aside from friendships, this may be the biggest thing I miss. ANYWAYS, last week I had an experience that every coffee connoisseur dreams of.

Our comparative study took us up to Chiang Mai and the into the hills north of Chiang Mai to meet and spend a few nights with the Pogonyor tribe, a subset of the Karen Hill Tribe. I knew the villagers were farmers, many of them living a simple life of subsistence farming and selling any leftovers. However, little did I know that they also grew coffee.

We drove up the winding roads for two hours to get to the village, and arrived mid-morning. The air was cool and the sky was blue and the plants were lusciously green—a nice change from down in the lowlands in Chiang Mai where they are burning their crops and everything is dry and lifeless. We were actually at a high enough elevation that there were pine trees. The Pah that was hosting us welcomed us with a coffee feast, if there ever were such a thing. He had a bag of beans sitting on the table. I nibbled on one—immediate cure to my caffeine headache. Pah ground the beans, put heaps of them in a filter over a pitcher and methodically poured water over the ground beans. Comforting smells of rich, robust black coffee, right from the source wafted up towards my face. I felt as though I was at our family cabin in the Cascade Mountains in Washington State. The combination of the smell of pine and the smell of dark coffee brought me back to summer mornings spent there. This was paradise. A pour over coffee, traditionally one of the most hipster drinks you can buy in America, was being brought back to it’s roots. Actually though. I was physically standing under the coffee tree the beans had come from.

Noticing my joy and delight over this little experience we were having, Pah picked the coffee cherry, the fruit that the bean derives from, off of the tree and allowed me to smell it. Then he led me around the side of the house and showed me where he roasts the beans. I was expecting a massive roasting machine like there are in the US. I hadn’t even imagined other ways one could roast the coffee plant. But we turn the corner, and he motions to this little pot on the ground, that essentially a Thai wood burning stove. He then pulled out a contraption that sat on top of it; a small barrel with open ends and a crank on the side that he put the beans in over the fire. Turning and turning them to roast each batch, which would have probably filled three or four bags to sell. Handmade coffee. I was in awe. I will never see coffee the same again.

The Climb

AdminApril 14, 2015

A view of Paris from the top of the Arc de Triomphe

One thing all of my travels have had in common is an overabundance of old (sometimes ancient, sometimes medieval) stairs. Trips throughout Italy, Greece, Portugal, France and, of course, Spain, have all left me waking up the next morning with my calves aching and my quadriceps burning. All of these countries have incredible and unforgettable sights that are only accessible through, yep, you guessed it…stairs. St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome, the Acropolis in Athens, the Arc de Triomphe in Paris, the Torre de Belém in Lisbon, or the hundreds of cathedrals and castles all over Spain (I’ve been to ones in Madrid, Barcelona, Segovia, Córdoba and Seville)—they’ve all got steep and tiny staircases.

FullSizeRender — Me, feeling victorious after a climb up a mountain in Santorini, Greece.

I laugh writing this because such a method of reaching a tourist destination is something I could never imagine being widespread in the U.S. We are a young country, with taller, and more modern buildings that almost always have elevator access. Imagine climbing your way up to the top of the Empire State building? Yea, didn’t think so! Blame it on our age, or blame it on our laziness—whichever the case, America doesn’t do stairs. But Europe, I can tell you, most certainly does.

My various and strenuous climbs all throughout Europe have ironically been some of the most memorable parts of my trips. When my friends and I sit and talk about the memories we’ve made, we almost always end up coming back to the time we were dripping with sweat as we finally reached the top of the Arc de Triomphe, the time we made friends with strangers through our common struggle up St. Peter’s Basilica, or the time I was so scared, that I couldn’t speak without stuttering the whole way down the steps of a Segovian castle. Because of these moments, we actually ended up appreciating the journey more than the actual view that we were climbing up to see. Here, I charter into dangerous waters by quoting the ever so insightful Miley Cyrus: “Ain't about how fast I get there, Ain't about what's waiting on the other side…It's the climb”

11130560_10205229639875146_1026386742_n — My friends and I at the top of a castle tower overlooking the city of Segovia, Spain.

All of those climbs have served as lessons for me, too. There were some pretty great moments when it was about the climb, and what was waiting on the other side. In fact, our journeys up just about a thousand steps are what made what was waiting for us at the top all the more worthwhile. To walk up the hill to the Acropolis and then stand in the presence of some of the most ancient and historical buildings in the world is a truly breathtaking experience—one worth every exerted breath on the hike up. I also learned how unhealthy Americans are, as a society. All of the cathedrals, castles and forts that I climbed, I climbed right alongside people who were three times my age, and maybe even more. Sometimes, they even seemed to be struggling less. For me, it was a true testament to the healthy lifestyle that most Europeans lead, and made me realized that I need to do more things like that once I get back home.

Until next time!

My Top Five Favorite Spots in Brussels

AdminMarch 24, 2015December 14, 2018

By kennatim

Yes, Belgium. Although I am studying in Dublin, this weekend I visited my cousin and awesome tour guide Megan who lives in Brussels. I have loved every second of my Irish experience, but Brussels has exceeded my expectations outright. Here are my top five spots in Brussels.

Honorable Mention: Maison Antoine is steps away from my cousin's apartment. French fries originated in Belgium and no one does them better. This place is to Belgium as Pat's Cheesesteaks is to Philadelphia.

5. The view from the Military Museum-our first stop in Brussels after the airport was this giant structure in a park that looked interesting. Turned out part of the building was a very interesting military museum. For the extra curious, there was a corner door that lead to some stairs. At the top was one of the most amazing views I have seen of our new city we were set to explore. It also helped that we had a beautiful sunny afternoon, which in Ireland happens as frequently as finding a leprechaun.

4. Musical Instrument Museum- a very interesting musical audio tour exploring the world of instruments. Only two euro for students for an extensive museum! The view at the cafe at the top is also grand. A nice Belgian beer with a view goes quite well with a day full of music!

3. Grand Place- the city square full of tourists with selfie sticks. Very neat to walk around, but what was even better was the walkable streets surrounding this area, the same area you might have seen on postcards from Brussels.

2. Delirium- right at the end of the alleyway near Grand Place is a bar that once set a Guiness World Record for over 2,000 beers offered. With 3 floors and a large Belgian beer selection, the best part of one of Europe's most popular bars is the wide variety of clientele: from older Belgians to international students and everything in between.

1. Random yellow waffle truck- I've heard good things about Belgian waffles. But I never expected an authentic Belgian waffle to be this good. My cousin instructed me to find a truck, as trucks make them fresh, and eat it plain like a true Belgian would. With a gooey inside and crispy outside, consuming the waffle was an otherworldly experience. I don't think I will ever be able to eat an Eggo again.