***I thought I could add pictures from the hostel computer, but the computer has worms, so we can't/don't want to plug in our usb to add pictures. I promise to add pictures once we get a chance. Sorry everyone.***
Thailand is amazing!! Definitely a favorite for us both.
We got into Phuket, Thailand on Sunday March 13. We had about a 2 hour bus ride from the airport to Phuket Town. There wasn't a whole lot to see around Phuket Town and we weren't close to the beach so we spent the day making arrangements to get to Koh Phi Phi Island. However, we did get our first taste of how cheap Thailand can really be. Our lunch was 1.50/person and our hostel, which was nicer than the hotel we stayed at in Singapore was $6/person. You have to love how far the US$ can go in some Asian counties. Monday, we took a ferry from Phuket to Koh Phi Phi Island.
Koh Phi Phi -
We had heard mixed things about Phi Phi; too commercialized, too overcrowded, etc. Maybe it was before the tsunami, but we LOVED it!!! From the moment we got into town we knew that Phi Phi was the place to be. It just had such a great atmosphere, there were lots of things to do, and lots of shopping. :) It was paradise. We stayed in a bungalow "outside" of town, only a 10 minute walk from everything including the beach, but far enough away we weren't kept awake by the bars until the wee hours of morning. Our first 2 days on Phi Phi were beach days. On our third day there we went diving again. Our best dives yet! The water was so clear we could see for 20+ meters. We saw tons of fish and quite a few leopard sharks, lion fish, and a stone fish. (Diving is becoming an expensive hobby, but it is just so amazing)!! Our last day on Phi Phi was another beach day, but we also rented a kayak and kayaked to Monkey Beach. All in all, Phi Phi was amazing and definitely the place to go for anyone interested in great beaches, great shopping, and great nightlife.
After Phi Phi we took another ferry to Koh Lanta. We spent 4 days in Koh Lanta, all of them beach days. While the beaches of Koh Lanta were beautiful and the sand incredibly soft, there wasn't the same atomosphere there as on Phi Phi. Koh Lanta was much bigger than Phi Phi, which we didn't realize. You needed a motorbike or a tut-tut to get anywhere and I didn't feel comfortable renting a motorbike, so we just stayed on our beach. Koh Lanta was definitely more family oriented, but it was still very relaxing.
On Tuesday, March 22, we left Koh Lanta and took another ferry to Krabi Island. We walked around Krabi Town for a few hours and then took an overnight bus from Krabi to Bangkok. We arrived in Bangkok at 5:30am. Neither of us really slept on the bus, so when we got to our hostel it was bedtime. In Bangkok we've done a lot of shopping and we saw the Grand Palace and lots of temples (or as they call them Wats). Bangkok is the first place we've been able to find sticky rice, so we have enjoyed that every night for dessert. :) We also eat pad thai everyday because it is so delicious and super cheap ($2). On Friday, March 25, we took a tour to Ayutthaya, the second oldest capital of Thailand. We got to see more Wats, ruins, and lots of Buddhas.
Our only complaint about Thailand are the taxi/tut-tut drivers. They are constantly coming up to us and asking us if we want a taxi. It's getting to the point where we are starting to wonder if the sight of seeing white people walking around is strange and if most white people just taxis everywhere. Probably, but not us, we're walkers. The worst 2 times of being harrassed by Thais was when we first arrived at the Phuket airport. You walk out of baggage claim and are bombarded by people asking you, "Where are you going? Taxi? 700 baht! Where are you going? You want to go to Phi Phi Island?" It's a little overwhelming at first, but we just ignored them and went outside where our 700 Baht ride turned into an 80 Baht ride. (700 Baht = $25, 80 Baht = $3, kind of a big difference). The second time that was bad was when we were getting off of the bus in Bangkok. You couldn't even step off of the bus before you were attacked by, "Where are you going? Is this your bag? You need taxi?" Fortunatley Kyle was more awake then me and bargained our taxi down from 700 Baht to 350 Baht. I was too exhausted to deal with the Thai's persistent questioning at that hour.
We leave Thailand on Sunday, March 27 and head to Vientiane, Laos. Laos is the country we are most excited to visit since we have no idea what to expect there and everyone we've talked to who has been there has absolutely loved it! We are excited to see this mysterious country for ourselves and see what we think of it.
I can't believe we're more than halfway through our trip. We only have 20 more days until we're back in the US. We have had a great time, but this backpack travelling is exhausting. I don't know how people do it for 6 months, a year, or more. We've determined that they stay in one place for a long time. It will be nice to be back though, not gonna lie. We miss you all and love you so much! Love, K & M
Saturday, March 26, 2011
Perhentian islands (east coast Malaysia) & Singapore
***I have been waiting to find time and a computer where I can add pictures to the blog. I thought I could at our current hostel, but the computer has worms, so we can't/don't want to plug in our usb to add pictures. I promise to add pictures once we get a chance. Sorry everyone.***
We left Kuala Lumpur and flew to the Perhentian Islands on Sunday, March 6. We had to fly into Khota Bharu, then take an hour taxi to the Kuala Besut jetty, and then about a 30 minute boat ride to the islands. The boat was by far the worst form of transportation we have taken so far. The sea was very rough and our boat would go up on a big wave and then thump very painfully back down. Some of the thumps were brutal! Knock the wind right out of you and make your entire body ache. We ended up getting to the island around 6:30pm and then searched for a hostel. Kyle was trying to find a treehouse hostel that sounded great, but after finding out that it was an hour trek, through the jungle, in the dark, I put my foot down and we stayed at a nice hostel in a dorm and met some other nice travellers. We had a delicious seafood buffet for dinner and then went to bed. The next day was a beach day. We found a nice quiet beach, read, and snorkeled. Within the first 10 minutes of snorkeling we saw a 5ft long black tipped reef shark, along with tons of other fish. After our day at the beach, Kyle and I were both very sunburnt and very mosquito bitten. Then on Tuesday, we signed up for 2 dives and went to the NW of Perhentian Kecil and dove. The highlight of our dive was seeing a sea turtle. Once we got back on the boat, the weather started to get bad. We headed back to the dive shop to get new oxygen tanks but we were too late, the storm had already been unleashed. THAT boat ride was the worst boat ride, and those thumps did not help a very painful sunburnt bum. I was almost launched out of the boat at one time. It was a little terrifying. Once safely back to shore we ended up not getting to do our second dive because it continued to rain all of Tuesday and Wednesday. We had an early flight out of Khota Bharu on Thursday, but we were afraid the rain would prevent the last ferry from leaving, so we left the island at noon on Wednesday and spent the night in Khota Bharu. Nothing really special about Khota Bharu, but our hostel was super cheap and very decent. We left Khota Bharu Thursday and flew back to Kuala Lumpur where we bought train tickets to Singapore and ended up in Singapore a day earlier than expected.
We arrived in Singapore at 10pm an hour later than expected because our train had been late. At the train station we tried to get a taxi to Chinatown, but there were no taxis available and there were 2 groups of elderly people waiting in front of us, so we decided that we could ask for directions and walk. It had started to rain lightly, but within 10 minutes of walking, one of the people we asked for directions offered to give us a ride to Chinatown since it was far and raining. I was hesitant, but Kyle quickly agreed and took the man up on his offer. The gentleman was a very nice and helpful guy named Mark. He gave us some suggestions on things to do and dropped us off in Chinatown. From there we began the dreadful and extremely tiring search for a hostel. After a good 2 hour hunt in the rain we still had no place to spend the night. Everywhere was full (little did we know that some shopping fair was taking place at the neighboring stop and there were no vacancies anywhere). We finally had to give up and get a hotel. An expensive purchase and the hotel was by no means worth what we paid for it. Oh well.
The next day we switched to a hostel and stayed in a 20 person dorm. I would NOT recommend this for anyone. We were woken up at 5am by a group of Germans coming back from the bars and then again at 7am by a fresh arrival of a huge Chinese group that showed up and didn't seem to realize people were still sleeping. Why does Chinese always seem to be shouted? Anyway, we spent the day walking around the city and seeing what there was to see. The food in Singapore is definitely amazing and the people are very friendly and far less rude then some of their Asian neighbors.
Then on Saturday the 12 we went to the Singapore Zoo, which was an amazing zoo! We saw Komodo dragons, even a baby, and a lot of orangutans and a few babies which were very entertaining to watch play. At dinner we got to watch a fire show which was pretty great and quite funny. Then we went to the night safari, which was an entirely diferent zoo, but next to the other zoo and got to see some nocturnal animals. Kyle's favorite was the slow lapis, one of the few poisonous mammals and the only poisonous primate. We also got to ride the night tram and see other animals that you couldn't get to on the paths. Kyle's highlight of the day was when we went into the flying squirrel exhibit and were looking around for awhile beacsue we couldn't find the squirrels. Another gentleman in the exhibit pointed one out to us. All of a sudden the flying squirrel jumped off of the tree branch and flew right at me. I was convinced that the squirrel, who was quite large, was going to land on me, thus I let out a scream of terror. I probably scared the squirrle more than it scared me, but Kyle proceeded to laugh at me for the rest of the evening. We didn't get back to the hostel until late and then had to be up really early Sunday morning to catch our flight to Phuket, Thailand!!
Miss you all! Love, K & M
We left Kuala Lumpur and flew to the Perhentian Islands on Sunday, March 6. We had to fly into Khota Bharu, then take an hour taxi to the Kuala Besut jetty, and then about a 30 minute boat ride to the islands. The boat was by far the worst form of transportation we have taken so far. The sea was very rough and our boat would go up on a big wave and then thump very painfully back down. Some of the thumps were brutal! Knock the wind right out of you and make your entire body ache. We ended up getting to the island around 6:30pm and then searched for a hostel. Kyle was trying to find a treehouse hostel that sounded great, but after finding out that it was an hour trek, through the jungle, in the dark, I put my foot down and we stayed at a nice hostel in a dorm and met some other nice travellers. We had a delicious seafood buffet for dinner and then went to bed. The next day was a beach day. We found a nice quiet beach, read, and snorkeled. Within the first 10 minutes of snorkeling we saw a 5ft long black tipped reef shark, along with tons of other fish. After our day at the beach, Kyle and I were both very sunburnt and very mosquito bitten. Then on Tuesday, we signed up for 2 dives and went to the NW of Perhentian Kecil and dove. The highlight of our dive was seeing a sea turtle. Once we got back on the boat, the weather started to get bad. We headed back to the dive shop to get new oxygen tanks but we were too late, the storm had already been unleashed. THAT boat ride was the worst boat ride, and those thumps did not help a very painful sunburnt bum. I was almost launched out of the boat at one time. It was a little terrifying. Once safely back to shore we ended up not getting to do our second dive because it continued to rain all of Tuesday and Wednesday. We had an early flight out of Khota Bharu on Thursday, but we were afraid the rain would prevent the last ferry from leaving, so we left the island at noon on Wednesday and spent the night in Khota Bharu. Nothing really special about Khota Bharu, but our hostel was super cheap and very decent. We left Khota Bharu Thursday and flew back to Kuala Lumpur where we bought train tickets to Singapore and ended up in Singapore a day earlier than expected.
We arrived in Singapore at 10pm an hour later than expected because our train had been late. At the train station we tried to get a taxi to Chinatown, but there were no taxis available and there were 2 groups of elderly people waiting in front of us, so we decided that we could ask for directions and walk. It had started to rain lightly, but within 10 minutes of walking, one of the people we asked for directions offered to give us a ride to Chinatown since it was far and raining. I was hesitant, but Kyle quickly agreed and took the man up on his offer. The gentleman was a very nice and helpful guy named Mark. He gave us some suggestions on things to do and dropped us off in Chinatown. From there we began the dreadful and extremely tiring search for a hostel. After a good 2 hour hunt in the rain we still had no place to spend the night. Everywhere was full (little did we know that some shopping fair was taking place at the neighboring stop and there were no vacancies anywhere). We finally had to give up and get a hotel. An expensive purchase and the hotel was by no means worth what we paid for it. Oh well.
The next day we switched to a hostel and stayed in a 20 person dorm. I would NOT recommend this for anyone. We were woken up at 5am by a group of Germans coming back from the bars and then again at 7am by a fresh arrival of a huge Chinese group that showed up and didn't seem to realize people were still sleeping. Why does Chinese always seem to be shouted? Anyway, we spent the day walking around the city and seeing what there was to see. The food in Singapore is definitely amazing and the people are very friendly and far less rude then some of their Asian neighbors.
Then on Saturday the 12 we went to the Singapore Zoo, which was an amazing zoo! We saw Komodo dragons, even a baby, and a lot of orangutans and a few babies which were very entertaining to watch play. At dinner we got to watch a fire show which was pretty great and quite funny. Then we went to the night safari, which was an entirely diferent zoo, but next to the other zoo and got to see some nocturnal animals. Kyle's favorite was the slow lapis, one of the few poisonous mammals and the only poisonous primate. We also got to ride the night tram and see other animals that you couldn't get to on the paths. Kyle's highlight of the day was when we went into the flying squirrel exhibit and were looking around for awhile beacsue we couldn't find the squirrels. Another gentleman in the exhibit pointed one out to us. All of a sudden the flying squirrel jumped off of the tree branch and flew right at me. I was convinced that the squirrel, who was quite large, was going to land on me, thus I let out a scream of terror. I probably scared the squirrle more than it scared me, but Kyle proceeded to laugh at me for the rest of the evening. We didn't get back to the hostel until late and then had to be up really early Sunday morning to catch our flight to Phuket, Thailand!!
Miss you all! Love, K & M
Saturday, March 5, 2011
Malaysia
After leaving Korea on Feb 27, in a bit of a rush, we arrived safe and sound in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia Thursday morning. We stayed in the airport for a few hours and caught a flight from KL to Kota Kinabalu, one of the bigger cities on Borneo Island. (Borneo Island is the 3rd largest island in the world and has 3 different countries on it; there is the Malaysian part, where we were, a tiny part on the northern side that is Brunei, and the southern half which is part of Indonesia).
We were recommended a scuba instructor named Neville in KK by friends from Korea (Jamie & Blaine). After what seemed like a wild goose chase, we finally found Neville and signed up for scuba lessons. After 3 days of scuba, Kyle and I are now scuba certified! Hooray! We saw many cute things while diving, the best being a couple of nudibranches, 2 lion fish, 2 blue spotted sting rays, some puffer fish, and numerous reef fish. By the way, sign language is quite handy for diving.
After we finished our scuba course on Sunday, we encountered a problem with our money situation Monday (2/28) as we were trying to get money out of the atm for our river cruise. We had planned to use Kyle's atm card since mine could not get mailed to Korea in time before we left. This was a fine plan until Kyle's pin number decided to not work. After about a week of semi-panic waiting for the new pin to get mailed to NJ, we broke down and had Beth & Gregg wire us money. Actually not as difficult as we imagined, you can do it online, and the fee is only $30, much cheaper than we had anticipated. Just make sure that you include the entire name of the person you are sending it to so that it matches their passport exactly. :) We got the money March 5, just in time for my birthday!!! And all seemed well with the world again!
Back to KK, on Wednesday (3/2), we signed up for a river cruise on the Klias River to search for proboscious monkeys (the ones with the big noses) in their natural habitat. It was a 2hr drive South, on a one way winding road which was a little scary at times, but well worth it. Once we got to the base camp we had tea and some banana fritters (yummy!) and some Malaysian sticky rice (not as good as the Thai's). We then got in our little boat and started looking for monkeys. Within 10 minutes we had already found several monkeys and continued to see many more monkeys, macaques and proboscous, along with a monitor lizard and water buffalo throughout the duration of the cruise. After the cruise, we went back to the base camp, had a delicious dinner, and then went back in the boat after dinner (once it was dark) and looked for fireflies which lite up the mangrove trees like Christmas trees. It was beautiful and very peaceful.
The next morning we flew back to KL which was a rather tiring day. We ended up spending 60RM on a taxi to the airport because our taxi driver dropped us off at the wrong terminal. (The airport terminals in Malaysia are not connected or even located near one another). :( Once we got to KL we wandered arounf for about 3 hours searching for a hostel. :( After being exhausted and weary we settled for one that was alright. We walked around KL trying to follow the Petronas Towers, but got exhausted after awhile and just went back to the hostel to go to sleep.
Friday (3/4), we went to the Batu Caves, a Hindu pilgrimage site. It was pretty cool and once you climb the 300 stairs there are small shrines inside to differnt dieties and TONS of macaques. They're mostly after the leftover food the visitors have brought with them, but we were right next to live, uncaged monkeys. It was a little scary.... We then moved to our worst hostel yet, the Oasis, which fortunately did not have bedbugs, bit it had termites and ants instead. The bathroom didn't even have a sink. After waking up with ants and termites crawling over us, we decided that if we got money the next morning we were upgrading.
Fortunately we did get money on Saturday, which was my birthday. We moved to a MUCH better hostel with a comfy, bug free bed. We are going to have a delicious dinner, compliments to Beth & Gregg for the birthday treat included in the wire. :) Kyle is then going to take me to Chinatown and let me do some shopping on his budget. :D
Tomorrow we leave for the Perhentian Islands. Jamie & Blaine told us that they are the most beautiful islands they have ever been to (and they've been all over), so we're excited. Hopefully we can get another dive in and maybe see some cuttlefish. :)
Hope all is well with you. Good luck Matt as Joseph! Wish we could be there to see you live. I've heard only wonderful comments so far!
Thanks again to Beth & Gregg for helping us out of our money situation!
We love you all! Love, K & M
We were recommended a scuba instructor named Neville in KK by friends from Korea (Jamie & Blaine). After what seemed like a wild goose chase, we finally found Neville and signed up for scuba lessons. After 3 days of scuba, Kyle and I are now scuba certified! Hooray! We saw many cute things while diving, the best being a couple of nudibranches, 2 lion fish, 2 blue spotted sting rays, some puffer fish, and numerous reef fish. By the way, sign language is quite handy for diving.
After we finished our scuba course on Sunday, we encountered a problem with our money situation Monday (2/28) as we were trying to get money out of the atm for our river cruise. We had planned to use Kyle's atm card since mine could not get mailed to Korea in time before we left. This was a fine plan until Kyle's pin number decided to not work. After about a week of semi-panic waiting for the new pin to get mailed to NJ, we broke down and had Beth & Gregg wire us money. Actually not as difficult as we imagined, you can do it online, and the fee is only $30, much cheaper than we had anticipated. Just make sure that you include the entire name of the person you are sending it to so that it matches their passport exactly. :) We got the money March 5, just in time for my birthday!!! And all seemed well with the world again!
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| River Cruise |
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| Baby proboscis monkey |
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| Monitor Lizard, this guy was small but they can grow to be huge. |
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| Buffet dinner |
Friday (3/4), we went to the Batu Caves, a Hindu pilgrimage site. It was pretty cool and once you climb the 300 stairs there are small shrines inside to differnt dieties and TONS of macaques. They're mostly after the leftover food the visitors have brought with them, but we were right next to live, uncaged monkeys. It was a little scary.... We then moved to our worst hostel yet, the Oasis, which fortunately did not have bedbugs, bit it had termites and ants instead. The bathroom didn't even have a sink. After waking up with ants and termites crawling over us, we decided that if we got money the next morning we were upgrading.
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| Batu Cave |
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| Inside the Caves |
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| Chinatown at night |
Hope all is well with you. Good luck Matt as Joseph! Wish we could be there to see you live. I've heard only wonderful comments so far!
Thanks again to Beth & Gregg for helping us out of our money situation!
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| On the River Cruise |
Wednesday, February 23, 2011
♫ OH HAPPY DAY!!! OH HAPPY DAY! ! ♫
We went to school to talk to Kwon, she paid me, but then left out $350. She then started charging us since we stayed in the apartment, even though the only reason we stayed in this shit hole was because we were waiting to get paid!!! Stupid &%#$%*#$. Anyway, we basically said, screw it, and bought our flights this morning to leave tonight. It's been a little crazy here today with many last minute things to do before leaving tonight, but we are very excited. After a long and mostly painful year, it is finally over. Thank the gods!
We are FINALLY done working for one of the worst directors in Ilsan, South Korea! After the past 2 weeks' emotional & financial roller coaster we never have to deal with Kwon's bullshit ever again! HOORAY!
We can finally go on our trip now!!! :D :D We are going to backpack through Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Laos, and Cambodia for the next 2 months! We will probably only get wifi sporadically, but if we have time we will try and update you all on where we are and all of the amazing things we've seen as frequently as possible.
Don't worry too much about us, as I know some of you will. *cough cough* Moms. We're smart travelers and we'll be fine.
We will finally return to the US on April 14 to be very happily greeted by Kyle's family in NJ!
We'll try and update you when we can. We hope all is well with you! Miss you all. Love, K & M
We are FINALLY done working for one of the worst directors in Ilsan, South Korea! After the past 2 weeks' emotional & financial roller coaster we never have to deal with Kwon's bullshit ever again! HOORAY!
We can finally go on our trip now!!! :D :D We are going to backpack through Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Laos, and Cambodia for the next 2 months! We will probably only get wifi sporadically, but if we have time we will try and update you all on where we are and all of the amazing things we've seen as frequently as possible.
Don't worry too much about us, as I know some of you will. *cough cough* Moms. We're smart travelers and we'll be fine.
We will finally return to the US on April 14 to be very happily greeted by Kyle's family in NJ!
We'll try and update you when we can. We hope all is well with you! Miss you all. Love, K & M
Farewell Eaton School
Oh man! These last 2 weeks have been one huge headache with an enormous side of frustration. Just thinking about it all makes my brain hurt….
We need 3 final things from Mrs. Kwon before we could finally say goodbye to Eaton School and be done with her FOREVER!!!! (Don't forget, I have been waiting 355 days for this moment)! The 3 things we need: money for flights home, final paycheck, and our bonus. Needless to say, she put up a fight and was late in paying every single item. To make a long story short: We finally got paid the money for our flights home, and it was even enough money to actually cover our flights back to the US (we were a little nervous she hadn't paid us enough, but I found a super deal and it ended up working out). Final paycheck, actually not too much of a hassle. And our bonus.
Oh the bonus. She was supposed to pay us our bonus with our final paycheck, but said that she hadn't realized Friday the 18th was our last day of work (even though we had met with her several times during the week when discussing flight money issues and she had repeatedly told us, "Friday last day, pay you Friday"). Friday rolls around, no money. We send her a friendly e-mail reminder. She responds that she has to calculate our bonus. We e-mailed her back saying that our bonus is 2,100,000₩. (She was trying to deduct our utilities from our bonus, even though we had already given her a $400 security deposit in April which covered this. And thank God I saved the piece of paper she had written that deduction on!!)! Then we got an e-mail from her saying that it takes a week to get our bonuses because she has to come and inspect our apartment for damages. That's fine, come inspect our apartment, but this should have been done a week ago! We arranged for her to come to our apartment Monday night at 5:00. She showed up an hour and 45 minutes late. RUDE! Then she offered to take us out to dinner, so we said yes, free meal. We were at the restaurant, and 10 minutes after we received our food, she got up, grabbed her purse, and said, "10 minutes waiting," and then left the restaurant. She was gone for about 15 minutes and Kyle & I started to wonder if she had pulled a dine and dash. (In reality, we think she left to go to the bank). We decided to check the bank on our way home, just in case. Kyle & I put our bank books into the atm (where it prints an update for you) and Kyle beat me by about 30 seconds. He looked at his bank book and saw that he'd been paid! "We got paid! We got paid!" We started doing a happy dance, only to then get my update and see that she had only paid me 21,000₩. She had left off two zeros! We texted here letting her know that she didn't pay me enough, while also thanking her for paying Kyle. She apologized and said she'd fix it, her mistake. I reminded her 3 times today, Tuesday, to remember to pay me by tonight. At 9pm, I checked, no money. I texted her, her response, "I'm very sick. Pay you tomorrow." We'll see if she pays me tomorrow. :(
Since we anticipated problems with Kwon, we decided not to buy any of our plane tickets until we had been paid. While this was a good idea because we had planned to leave Monday and it's now Wednesday, the tickets for our flights have increased significantly. :( Stupid Kwon and her waiting around until the last minute for everything. Hopefully we can buy those tomorrow morning because we still have to go to the Pension Office & close our bank accounts.
We'll post again once everything is taken care of. We hope all is well with you! Love, K & M
We need 3 final things from Mrs. Kwon before we could finally say goodbye to Eaton School and be done with her FOREVER!!!! (Don't forget, I have been waiting 355 days for this moment)! The 3 things we need: money for flights home, final paycheck, and our bonus. Needless to say, she put up a fight and was late in paying every single item. To make a long story short: We finally got paid the money for our flights home, and it was even enough money to actually cover our flights back to the US (we were a little nervous she hadn't paid us enough, but I found a super deal and it ended up working out). Final paycheck, actually not too much of a hassle. And our bonus.
Oh the bonus. She was supposed to pay us our bonus with our final paycheck, but said that she hadn't realized Friday the 18th was our last day of work (even though we had met with her several times during the week when discussing flight money issues and she had repeatedly told us, "Friday last day, pay you Friday"). Friday rolls around, no money. We send her a friendly e-mail reminder. She responds that she has to calculate our bonus. We e-mailed her back saying that our bonus is 2,100,000₩. (She was trying to deduct our utilities from our bonus, even though we had already given her a $400 security deposit in April which covered this. And thank God I saved the piece of paper she had written that deduction on!!)! Then we got an e-mail from her saying that it takes a week to get our bonuses because she has to come and inspect our apartment for damages. That's fine, come inspect our apartment, but this should have been done a week ago! We arranged for her to come to our apartment Monday night at 5:00. She showed up an hour and 45 minutes late. RUDE! Then she offered to take us out to dinner, so we said yes, free meal. We were at the restaurant, and 10 minutes after we received our food, she got up, grabbed her purse, and said, "10 minutes waiting," and then left the restaurant. She was gone for about 15 minutes and Kyle & I started to wonder if she had pulled a dine and dash. (In reality, we think she left to go to the bank). We decided to check the bank on our way home, just in case. Kyle & I put our bank books into the atm (where it prints an update for you) and Kyle beat me by about 30 seconds. He looked at his bank book and saw that he'd been paid! "We got paid! We got paid!" We started doing a happy dance, only to then get my update and see that she had only paid me 21,000₩. She had left off two zeros! We texted here letting her know that she didn't pay me enough, while also thanking her for paying Kyle. She apologized and said she'd fix it, her mistake. I reminded her 3 times today, Tuesday, to remember to pay me by tonight. At 9pm, I checked, no money. I texted her, her response, "I'm very sick. Pay you tomorrow." We'll see if she pays me tomorrow. :(
Since we anticipated problems with Kwon, we decided not to buy any of our plane tickets until we had been paid. While this was a good idea because we had planned to leave Monday and it's now Wednesday, the tickets for our flights have increased significantly. :( Stupid Kwon and her waiting around until the last minute for everything. Hopefully we can buy those tomorrow morning because we still have to go to the Pension Office & close our bank accounts.
We'll post again once everything is taken care of. We hope all is well with you! Love, K & M
Saturday, January 29, 2011
Christmas, 2 Months Notice, & the DMZ
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| Matt (12), Jenny (19), me (22), Kelly (16), Danny (21), & Kona |
Shortly after being back in Korea, we needed to give Mrs. Kwon our 2 months notice that we were not renewing our contract. We had been very anxious about how she would react since she doesn’t have the best record when it comes to dealing with foreign teachers. We had Nadia translate our letter into Korean since Mrs. Kwon really doesn’t speak English and we wanted to make sure there were no misunderstandings. Afterwards, everyone wanted to know what her reaction was. Mrs. Kwon’s reaction: "It’s in Korean!” That’s what we got. About a week later we had a meeting with her and one of the other Korean teachers, Anna, played translator. She told us that we could leave 2 weeks earlier than planned since the kindergarten was on leave before the new school year started. We said that we would be happy to leave early, as long as it didn’t jeopardize our bonus. (Legally, we have to have worked for exactly 356 days, so if she didn’t/doesn’t pay us we can no longer go to the Labor Board and argue it since she now doesn’t have to pay us). While this makes us a little nervous since we know she’s sneaky, we haven’t actually had any problems with her specifically. We will keep you posted on how everything turns out. She should be paying us our bonuses asap, and we should be getting our money for plane tickets and our last paycheck by Feb 14. Fingers crossed that everything goes well and that our final weeks in Korea end on a happy note.
With 2 weeks taken off of our sentence we can really start to see the light at the end of the tunnel. Only 13 teaching days left! We’re almost down to the single digits, and yet some of our classes seem to last an eternity. With so little time left in Korea, Kyle and I realized that we still had some unfinished business in the ROK.
For instance, we hadn’t been to the DMZ yet, a must for all foreigners living here. So, this morning, we woke up at 5am, to catch a bus into Seoul and arrived at the military base by 7am. We took a tour bus to the Joint Security Area (JSA) where we watched a short slide show on the history of the DMZ and then toured around the JSA area. We were able to see Taesongdong (SK), one of 2 heavily guarded villages in the DMZ where the residents have a curfew of midnight and don’t have to pay taxes, and the North Korean village, Gijungdong, which is a propaganda town and has the largest flag pole in the world.
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| The world's largest flagpole in Gijungdon, DPRK. Then we went to Checkpoint 3, where we were surrounded by North Korea on three sides. After that we drove by the Bridge of No Return |
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| The Bridge of No Return and then went to the Freedom House, which was built so that families who were separated could be reunited with their loved ones although the North has yet to send any of their people over to the South. Behind the Freedom House is the Military Armistice Commission (MAC) where meetings between the North and South take place. It is in this building that you are able to cross over into North Korea. For most people, the northern inside part of the MAC building is as much of North Korea as we will ever see.
The MAC building is located in between the Freedom House and North Korea's Panmungak Pavilion building which is used as a waiting room for North Korean representatives.
Then we left the JSA and went down into the Third Infiltration Tunnel, the South has only found 4 tunnels that the North has dug to Seoul, but they expect that there are still several more out there. After the tunnel we went to the Dora observatory and got to have a closer look, through binoculars, of
Gijungdong and Gaeseong, an area where factories are located that employ both North and South Korean workers. Lastly our tour took us to Dorasan Station, which is a train station connected to North Korea. |
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| Dorasan Station |
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| She's got a ticket to ride. . . to North Korea. |
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| It was insanely cold & windy |
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