Japan

After a pretty crappy three or four days, I was actually quite discouraged. One morning, I kind of just sat in my hotel room and didn't want to go out because it was so stressful with vendors constantly yelling at me everywhere I went: "HEY! HEY! YOU!! HEY! YOU, LADY! HEY LADY! YOU! SHOPPING!! NOW! HEY LADY! CHEAP, LADY, CHEAP! HEY! HEY LADY!!!" A couple of times, a vendor grabbed my wrist and tried to pull me into his shop. It was just a nightmare. I didn't want to deal with it. But, I had four more days and I hadn't really seen the Great Wall and I was just really upset. But, I realized I was just getting beat up and I had to stand up for myself. I was alone and freaked out, but I just had to get agressive and deal with it.

So, I went to the subway station and stared at the map until I got a handle on how to use it and bought a ticket. Then, after riding it a couple of times, I got a good handle on it and used it the rest of the trip. It's only .25 cents each ride, so it was definitely a much better option than fighting with taxi drivers, eh? And then while I was out, I found a tourist center and saw a brochure on a kung fu show!!! My dream!!! I also asked if there was another place to visit the Great Wall that wasn't swarming with tourists. The man said there weren't any buses there and if I'm desperate to go, I'll have to hire a private car, which would be about $100 for half a day. I didn't want to pay that, but, that's the whole reason why I came to China. So, I talked him down to finding someone to do it for $50. I had paid $40 for the other tour, so I thought this was a great deal. I could go there and stay as long as I wanted and there would hardly by any tourists.

That night, I went to the kung fu show. IT WAS ABSOLUTELY MINDBLOWING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I had watched so many kung fu movies and used to watch over and over a DVD of a Shaolin Monk show, and of course, studied Shaolin for over two years,so it was a dream come true to ACTUALLY BE THERE, WATCHING IT, RIGHT IN FRONT OF ME ON THE SECOND ROW!!!!! They did all the animal forms and some unbelievable katas with broadswords, bo's and other weapons and broke iron plates, laid on nails and swords.... I bawled. I honestly sat there and bawled so many times at the fact that I was sitting there watching this in real life before my eyes. I saw it again two nights later.

The next day, I met my driver to go to Mutianyu to see the Great Wall. It took about two hours to get there and I got to see "real China." I could see houses and local shops from the car, and the mountains were such an interesting shape. They aren't like Japanese or Tennessee mountains. Their really sharp and it looks like God carved them with such detail to make the lines exactly how he wanted. Gorgeous.

Mutianyu was astounding. There was hardly anyone there, and I just walked all I liked around the rims of the tall mountains where the wall was built. I was content. I felt like all I had been through was worth coming to this place. At Badaling, most of the wall there had been rebuilt, so in reality, when you add the million tourists factor, it kind of looked, and definitely felt, like I was at a theme park. But at Mutianyu, only a part of the wall had been rebuilt and the rest was original. So, of course, I walked to the original part and felt like I was actually in history, walking around almost two thousand years ago. The mountain was so high that I could see miles and miles out into the other mountains, and in the distance, there were several buildings where the guards used to stand post guarding the wall. They looked like mini castles out into the distance. I sat at one spot for about an hour by one of the old army posts and let my mind wonder. The view brought me to tears, which were tears of relief that I had finally done here what I wanted to do and all the drama that let up to this, and tears of joy, that I was sitting right at that moment on the Great Wall of China and I never thought my life would have turned out for me to have a moment like this. Also, it was a moment where I realized, wow, I've lived in Asia for one year on my own. I can't believe I've done that. This is the ninth country I've been to, the fourth in one year, and a little over a year ago, I was a clueless countrygirl from East Tennessee, completely confused and down and out about my life. Truly spectacular. I spent about four or five hours walking around there and met some other tourists throughout the day from Sweden, Pennsylvania, Israel and Germany of course. It was a day I'll never forget the rest of my life. Yes. Definitely one to tell the grandkids.

On the way back to the parking lot, I cringed when I got to the bottom of the mountain and saw a narrow alley filled with vendor sharks. There weren't many tourists here this time of year, but it didn't stop them from setting up camp. They saw me coming and immediately, again, "LADY LADY HEY LADY HERE SHOPPING HEY LADY!!!" I walked quickly through them, but then I stopped when I saw something I just had to have. An official Chinese army hat, ya know, the big puffy brown fur ones with a red star in the middle. I just had to get it. So, I asked the old man how much it is and he said, "Special price for you, 350 yuan." I pretended to choke. Luckily, I had a little negotiating experience under my belt from Thailand and Cambodia, but the Chinese are much more brutal. 350 yuan is about $44. That's insane. So, after my choking spell I walked off, and of course he came running after me. He handed me a pencil and paper and said, "You, what price." I had really had enough of these annoying vendors, so I decided to aggrevate them back. I wrote down 10. He started dying laughing and walked over to a group of old men who had been watching and showed them the paper. They started laughing really hard too. I was just amusing myself and apparently them too. He asked me where I was from and I said, America. So, he handed me the paper again and said, "One more." So I wrote down 20. Again, histerical laughing. Then, he put the hat on my head and held up a small hand-held mirror. It looked ridiculous but he said, "Ohhh, so beautiful." Then, I started to walk away again, and he said, "Okay, special for you, 200." Again, that is crazy, so, I pulled out a 50 yuan bill and said, "only money, no more." When I started to walk away for the last time, he said, "Okay okay, 50 okay." I took the hat. gave him the bill and walked away very quickly, but as I was walking away I heard the old men laughing, and one of them yelled in English, "CRAZY!! CRAZY AMERICAN WOMAN!! HA HA HA HA!!"

The other vendors saw that I had bought something, so I was really getting harassed on the way to the parking lot. There was just no way to escape. So, I figured, hey, crazy is as crazy does. I ran down the alley, covering my ears and yelling, "la la la la la." Many of them were laughing and some of them just staring, kind of freaked out by this crazy American woman yelling and running away from them. But again, I had just had enough and I just didn't care what anyone thought at all anymore. I had to do what I had to do to get by and I learned a lot from all of this.

Although most of the trip was pretty bad and I went a little bazerk, of course I don't regret going there at all. The Wall was so amazing and I just have a whole new appreciation for being American and I am so glad to live in Japan. I was especially grateful when I got back to the airport in Osaka and the Japanese workers put my luggage nicely and delicately on the airport bus and all bowed as the bus rode away. I almost cried at that moment, with an all new appreciation for Japan.

On Friday, our office was closed so all of us decided to go snowboarding at Mount Daisen. It was incredible!!!! It was my first time, so I was really scared and nervous. It actually took me about an hour to figure out how to even stand up on the board and keep my balance. We started at about 10 a.m. and by about 2 p.m. (with a lunch break thank you very much) I could actually do it. Now I'm really hooked and I want to go again in a couple of weeks!

After that we ate "Kimchi Nabe" at Calvin's house. Nabe is like a Japanese vegetable soup and Kimchi is a Korean cabbage salad. I know, it sounds really bazarre but it is sooooooo good!

To think about what I was doing at this exact same time last year, and then to think, sheesh, I just went snowboarding on a Japanese mountain... wow!

And finally, here are the last of my photos. Koh Samui is the larger of the two islands and much more touristy. This is the island that Bridget Jones's Diary was filmed on.

I tried parasailing and rode a jet ski and again, rented a motorbike and went all around the island. One day, I found a temple that had a "mummy monk" who had been dead for 20 years inside a glass case. I also went to a very exciting and REAL THAI BOXING MATCH!! It was so intense!

One of my favorite days of the whole trip was a tour of the islands on a large speed boat. We went snorkling and sea canoeing around several small, deserted islands, which were about an hour away from Koh Samui. On one of the islands was the Emerald Lake and I have just never imagined water could be that color. From these islands were the most spectacular views!!

After another flight, a nightmareish train ride and more severe travel drama, we managed to get to Koh Phangan from Bangkok. Our train was pretty scary and dirty and random dodgy Thai people were jumping on and off it throughout the night. The only privacy we had for the 14-hour ride was a curtain we pulled across our "beds" and I kept tossing and turning, worrying if one of these "dodgy Thai people" were going to pull back the curtain and mug me. The inside of the train resembled a prison actually, because of the metal luggage bars and tiny compartments. Hmmm, wait, maybe more like the inside of those submarines your see in the war movies... Anyhoo, it was a nightmare.

After we got off the train, which was 2 hours late, we got on a bus to the ferry port. When we arrived there, they told us that there were no ferries to Koh Phangan that night. This was a huuuuge problem because we had non-refundable reservations there and we just had no clue where we were or what we should do. They said we could stay in that town overnight, pay for another bus to Krabi, on the other side of the southern strip of Thailand, or, we could buy another ferry ticket to Koh Samui because, "Government say no ferry, dangerous ocean today." You know, we had just gotten screwed over so many times that I automatically smelled a rat. I got a little tisky with one of the staff and he finally said that we could probably get to Koh Phangan if we first go to Koh Samui. Which all that of course means, buying another bus ticket to another port AND buying another ferry ticket. So, we went to Koh Samui and sure enough, we could in fact go to Koh Phangan from there. We normally would have been so angry because we missed a whole day on the island because of their scam, but, we were so glad to finally get to our resort that we just couldn't get too upset about it.

Our resort was great though. Our bungalow was pretty nice and the beach was great. Koh Phangan is much less developed than Koh Samui, so at times, we were the only ones out on the beach! I enjoyed getting up pretty early a couple of mornings and walking along the beach. I felt like I owned the whole thing! You just wouldn't believe how many coconut trees there are along the beach either. One late afternoon, I found a coconut that had just fallen from the tree and took it to the maintenance man at our resort and asked him to open it for me. He made a small hole for the straw and I drank the milk. When I finished that, he opened it up and I ate the coconut inside. A couple of days, we went to the local market and got fresh pineapples and ate them while we were sunbathing. The fruit was soooo delicious!

I also really enjoyed renting a motorbike and riding around the island. There were so many little jungle roads that were so secluded that all I could see at times were forests of coconut trees and rivers. I literally rode all the way around the island over the course of the week, stopping whenever I liked to catch an overlook for a fantastic view. It was absolutely gorgeous. One day, I was riding around and found an old Chinese temple on top of a small mountain. I was the only one there, besides a little old Chinese lady that was cleaning the steps. From the temple, I could see out to the ocean, so I just walked around and enjoyed the spectacular view for about half the day - I just didn't want to leave.

We had a couple of very rainy days when we got there so we were kinda bummed out for a while. But by Christmas Eve, the weather cleared up. That night, I had Christmas Eve dinner on a restaurant situated on a cliff overlooking the ocean and the next island over, Koh Samui. After I got back to the bungalow, a group of Thai people from a Christian church came by and sang carols. I was so excited because I was actually missing Christmas at home and they were so adorable singing with their heavy Thai accents. I have a video of them singing, so if you want me to email it to you just let me know... Anyway, they invited me to their Christmas program the next night, so, I went and it was again, just so adorable. I have pictures of that below. We had Christmas dinner with our "Adopted Travel Mom" and her family from Canada. It was very very good, but I have to admit it was a little strange having a barbeque and fighting off mosquitoes during Christmas dinner!

Afer a couple of days in Bangkok we took a one hour flight to Siem Reap. It's the second largest city in Cambodia and it's the location of the famous Angkor Wat.

I wasn't expecting a beautiful relaxing time here, I just really wanted to see Angkor Wat and that's all I imagined about Cambodia before I actually got there. It's just an experience I'll never forget.

Our hotel in Siem Reap was ironically amazing. That's what's so strange about Siem Reap. On one side of the road, you've got a four-star hotel with a huge swimming pool and valet parking, on the other, a dirty, smelly, run-down shack with people begging you for a dollar as you walk by. It's just stange because they've tried to boost tourism so much and so soon after a major war that they just haven't recovered. It's just so surreal because you are literally in paradise and a war-torn place all at once. You can still see the burned buildings and so many of the people I saw had such blank and dark expressions on their faces. They are actually very kind people and I never really felt unsafe, it's just that they had zero joy about them at all - but they really have no reason to have any, especially compared to the lives that you and I have. I think that's why I took so many pictures of just people in Cambodia.

Cambodia made me think about so many things, especially how extremely lucky and blessed I am. You know, a bad day for us is getting a speeding ticket or having a cold. A typical day for them is trying to walk around with one leg and/or one arm, bathing in a dirty river (which is also the city's sewage) and begging for their next meal. Once, a boy about seven years old hobbling with one leg came up to me and asked me for a dollar. I know that most believe that giving money to someone who's begging only makes the problem worse, but I thought, "what else is this boy gonna do?" Plus, it's not his fault that landmine was there... But, after I gave him money, many other kids saw me and they all started asking for money too. It was a bad situation and I just had to stop after that because it caused a big scene, definitely not what we wanted.

If you're like me and you didn't know about what happened in Cambodia in the late 70's, you must read about the Khmer Rouge, a radical political party who took control of Cambodia and massacred over 2 million of their own people in an attempt at genocide. If you spoke French, you were murdered. If you wore glasses, you were murdered. If you owned a business or lived in the city, you were murdered. They believed that Cambodia should be cleaned of any trace of anyone who could possibly oppose their communist ideals, so only countryside peasants were spared. It is gut-wrenching to even read about what happened to people. They took groups of innocent people out into the jungle and mass-murdered them by beating them to death and they had the "work camps" similar to those of Hitler's. It is pretty much a Cambodian holocaust. I just didn't realize all of this while I was there, and, I guess at the time it was better that I didn't.

The first night in Siem Reap, we went to a dinner theatre where they had a huge buffet and a traditional Cambodian dance show. It was incredible. The food was so wonderful, it was like very very good and high quality Chinese food, and it's not as ridiculously spciy as some Thai food is.

So, the second day, I went to Angkor Wat. It is truly spectacular. The day I was there it was quite cloudy and there were hardly any tourists, so I really felt completely consumed by it. There are so many narrow, shadowy corridors to walk through. You really feel like you have been transported to and ancient place in an ancient time. There were many monks walking around, so at some points, I could see only ancient ruins and monks praying or appearing to be comtemplating something deep. I actually had a nice conversation with one who had actually been to California. I was really shocked when he came up to me and asked me where I was from because I didn't think they were allowed to talk to women, but he said we couldn't hands and he couldn't look me in the eye, but, he was allowed to practice his English with foreigners. We talked for quite some time about Cambodia and what's it's like for him to live there. He said he loves Cambodia, but his heart is always sad there. I really just can't describe the feeling of walking around Angkor Wat, so I really hope my pictures can say a lot.

The last day in Cambodia, we went to the markets and got Cambodian massages. They were relaxing, but also a little violent! Barbara actually ended up with bruises! They do a lot of stretching as well as deep massaging, but I felt great afterwards. The markets have just as much of an aggressive vibe as those in Cambodia. People are always yelling at you to come look in their shop. They are very quick to haggle though. The only time I coudn't haggle though was in a store that was run by the most charming and adorable little girl, maybe about 8 years old, and I actually gave her more than what she asked for. I got a picture with her too as well as you can see toward the bottom.

That night, we went on a boat ride to "The Floating City" which leads out to a huge lake named Tonle. So many people were living on the river, mainly for fishing. It was, well, it was life-changing. I knew people in the world lived like this, but, to see it up-close in person is remarkable. Again, we had groups of children coming up to us begging for money. Families lived in very small, one-room huts made of straw and sometimes light wood and were taking baths in the very dirty river, which I just didn't understand. The communities were divided up between Cambodian, Vietnamese and Muslum and everyone stays on their side of the lake.

We rode out to the lake and our tour guide was telling us that many people die each year living around Tonle Lake because of sudden flood during the rainy season. I didn't feel to good at that moment needless to say. He said when he was young, his brother drowned in the lake when he went fishing. I asked why then did people still live here when they know it's dangerous, and he said that this place is all they know and they don't care because they can catch the most and best fish here. We stayed to watch the sunset and headed back to our hotel as quickly as possible after that.

Visiting Cambodia just completely changed my life and how I view everything and everyone around me.