A Long Overdue Post

Greetings and Happy New Year to all!

I am alive and haven't forgotten completely about my blog. Bear with me as this will be a long post. I have much to report.

NOVEMBER

Work in November was easier and more laid back than ever. We had maybe 3hrs each of teaching a day and the rest of the time we played on our computers and chatted amongst each other and the Korean staff. This didn't come without consequence. During the second week of November John and I were called into the foreigner staff meeting that consisted of John, myself, and our supervisor Henry (or as the Koreans say 'Henly'). He had some unfortunate news: "Sorry guys but the school will be closing at the end of the month." To say the least we were shocked. The school had only been open for 6 months up to that point. Isn't it common business knowledge that it takes at least a year if not two years for a business to show profit? Our owners/investors gave the school 6 months and called it quits. Successful business' in Korea all depend on the major investors intuition and feeling about it. So, our main investors decided that there was no way they would show a profit by the end of December and decided to 'get out early'. I didn't agree with this logic, if you could call it that, but what could I do? I am in Korea after all. Needless to say the next two weeks of work were the easiest I had ever experienced.

This shocking news left John and I with some problems. We were no longer going to get paid at the end of each month. Our health insurance was going to be canceled. Our E2 working visas were going to get canceled. We didn't know where we were going to live. Are we going to get any kind of compensation? Return flight ticket? It was a lot to deal with in two weeks time.

From other stories I have heard since, we were very lucky with the school we chose because the people we worked for were really good to us (aside from the fact that we lost our jobs). Our problems were solved as follows: they paid us for the month of November, paid for half of next months rent, returned some of the money we paid for our visa status, compensated us for a return-flight ticket, and let us stay in the apartments they had given us, but we had to put a deposit down and actually pay rent every month. Our health insurance wasn't a problem after all. As long as you show them the insurance slip, the doctors don't care and just bill the government. So we do still have health care, thankfully. At that time we were under the impression that they had to cancel our working visas. This meant that we would have to leave the country and come back through immigration to get 6-month visitors visas (6-months only for Canadian citizens). (We learned after the fact that if they don't cancel it within 14 days then we could keep our E2 status.) This seemed to be a huge and costly inconvenience at first but after thinking about it we saw this as an opportunity to visit a new country. We thought about taking the hydrofoil to Japan for about $300 round-trip (~3hr boat ride one way) but after talking with a friend of ours, he convinced us to go to Cambodia with one sentence: "Guys, you can shoot a rocket launcher and blow up a cow in Cambodia!" After hearing that we were sold on Cambodia and began planning the trip.

DECEMBER

The following weekend we made a trip down to Itaewon (biggest foreigner place in Korea, I have probably already mentioned this in previous posts) to find a good travel agent. Low and behold we did. His name was Ken and he was from Pakistan but spoke perfect English. He hooked us up with a return-flight to Cambodia at a much better price than we could find online. We booked the trip then and there for departure on December 13 at 3pm. It was approximately a 6.5 hour flight there. Not too bad.

A little background info: Cambodia is a 3rd world country fyi, there are basically two types of people here, the extremely rich (Cambodian standards) and the extremely poor. The streets are filled with hundreds of motos (little mortorcycles) or huge 100+ thousand dollar Toyota SUV's. You can't drink the tap water or use it to brush your teeth. Everyone there is only there to take your money (for the most part) so beware. The kids run the streets. They walk around with photocopied books and haggle you all day. The tuk-tuk guys (These are the guys that take you around in a kind of trailer attached to a moto) will haggle you to get rides from them all day long, there are hundreds of them. If you reject the ride they will offer you a prostitute. If you refuse the prostitute, they offer you a lady boy. Anything you may consider illegal back home and somewhat hard to get you ask the tuk-tuk guys. They can get you anything you want.

We arrived in Cambodia at about 10pm or so that Wednesday, found a taxi outside and told him to take us to this hotel that was mentioned in the Cambodian Lonely Planet book. He took us there, we booked a room and settled in.

Our hotel on the left.

Just across the street, the local kids keeping cool.

We had a couple of beers and then were talked into going to one of the clubs there by one of the tuk-tuk guys. The ride was maybe 5 minutes or so, the streets were very dark and I have to admit that I was a little bit scared. It was a total change from what I had been used to. There is one major street where it is relatively safe but once you venture off from there it is pitch black and you don't know anything about your surroundings and apparently it can be very dangerous, although we had no troubles at all during the trip (perhaps we were lucky). The tuk-tuk guy drops us at the club - The Heart of Darkness. This was a club full of foreigners young and old getting drunk at maybe $1.50US per 500ml of Ankor Wat Beer. In addition to the foreigners were plenty of prostitutes trying to make friends with you at every chance they could. We had 3 or 4 beers, hit the dance floor for a half hour or so, then went to the hotel. End of DAY 1.

John not too pleased on the back of a tuk-tuk.

The next morning we woke up, had breakfast at the hotel and made a deal with the owner. We booked our stay with them and their "sister-hotel" for the entire trip, reserved a driver for 4 days. We got driven around in a black benz in a third world country - how terrible of us. It was only $25US a day to take us anywhere we wanted, how could we not?

Oh, I forgot to mention, we were at this point in Phnom Penh, the capitol of Cambodia. We stayed here for another 2-nights, I believe, then we travelled to Siem Reap, another big city in Cambodia where most of the ancient sight seeing was done.

Back to our second day. After breakfast we went for a walk and got familiar with our surroundings a bit. We decided to go see and do a bunch of things this day. First on the agenda
was going to the shooting range to shoot machine guns and throw grenades. This was awesome!

On the way to the range.

The driver took us to this shooting range that was maybe a half-hour away. We entered this heavily fenced off property where there were about 10 Cambodians sitting around and shooting the shit, no pun intended. You could just imagine us, two white guys arriving in a benz and getting out of the car. Their eyes lit up with dollar signs. Cha-ching! They took us to the table they were sitting at and gave us the menu, yes a real menu with all the different guns you could shoot.

Some of the guns you could shoot.

Tommy with the Tommy Gun.

We ordered a beer and two rounds for the AK-47. John and I both took a turn on the AK. It was cool, but not the best. That was $30US each. Next, I had to debate between the anti-aircraft gun or the M60 machine gun (a.k.a. The Rambo Gun). With little persuasion they sold me on the M60. Good choice I think. This had some serious power and surprisingly good accuracy. I was a much better shot with the M60 than the AK-47 (see pics below). It was extremely exhilarating and worth it for $60US. John's second choice was a magnum of sorts, similar to the one Clint Eastwood used in his Westerns. He says this was a lot of fun, but it couldn't match the Rambo Gun. I don't care what anyone says.

Me and the Rambo Gun. Oh Yeah!

Johnny with the magnum.

We were still unsatisfied at this point because we were under the impression that shooting a rocket at a live cow was going to be cheap. Man, were we wrong. It was $200US to shoot one rocket (B-40 rocket launcher I think it was called) and about $200US to buy a cow. We definitely could not afford this. An even more expensive option was shooting a rocket out of a tank - $1500US!!! You normally shoot it into the mountain side but they said we could shoot a cow too. We decided to buy a hand grenade. It was $30US. I paid $20 and John $10. I got to throw it. I had to throw it into a pond they had there. It wasn't a huge explosion of water or anything like I imagined, rather a big bang rippled through the ground beneath you, still pretty cool.

Getting ready to toss the grenade.

After this we headed to The Killing Fields.

The Killing Fields are where soldiers of Pol Pot (leader of the Khmer Rouge) brought all those with any education to be slaughtered. He basically wanted to re-start his country at year zero by killing all those with any education. Insanity, to say the least. Here you can see many of the graves and skulls of those slaughtered here. Very eerie.

Grave sites.

Skulls of the slaughtered.

As we were walking the fields we were spotted by a gang of children. As we approached they offered to pose for a picture. This sounded like a great idea. I snapped the photo and instantly 10 children were yelling at us "Money, money, money. One dollar please...." We were actually broke at the moment and had no more cash on us otherwise I would have gladly paid. They basically strip-searched us for money and to their disappointment didn't find any and left us to bother some more tourists.

The gang of kids.

As we were leaving this small child approached me and began chanting "Do you have any moneyyy, do you have any moneyyy...." It was as if his parent taught him to say that, very rehearsed. The kid was really cute and I found a dollar that I had missed earlier and gave it to him, I couldn't resist. (That chant became a slogan for Tobin, Chris, Krissie, and I later on in December)

"Do you have any moneyyy?"

After the Killing Fields we visited a prison used to hold all of the people who were slaughtered in the fields. Here, again, the educated were brought and interrogated. We couldn't find out from anyone why they were being interrogated.

The prison.

The balconies were caged to prevent suicides.

My theory is that Pol Pot wanted to gain as much knowledge from them to remain very powerful. More knowledge equals more power, right? The people here were kept in very small quarters either individually or in groups. There was a place to hang people that got out of line, otherwise there was a truck that came to pick up a group of these people after being interrogated to the Killing Fields to be murdered. The most horrifying thing about this whole ordeal was that the soldiers doing the killing were children. Maybe from 6 or 7 years of age to their late teens. Furthermore, after all these children did their 'job' for Pol Pot, he threw them a party and put poison in the drinks and wiped them all out. Crazy SOB.

We did a lot that day and were really tired and hungry. We came back to the hotel napped and then went out for dinner at this restaurant that provided live entertainment. No, that that kind of entertainment, but a cultural dance type of entertainment. The food was great and the dance was interesting.

The next day we travelled to Siem Reap. It was about a 4-hour drive in the Mercedes. We saw a few accidents and the country side. Interesting landscape, nothing much in terms of buildings or anything like that.

A head-on collision on the way to Siem reap. As we passed it looked like there was a lifeless body on the road.

Just a nice pic in Siem Reap.

That night, after dinner, our driver took us to a club. This was no ordinary club though. They did have a bar, a dance floor, and karaoke capabilities. But, through a set of door there was a separate room in which you could enter. Inside this room was a stage-like setting behind a pane of glass filled with beautiful Cambodian women. Here you could sit down on a leather couch, have a drink and really decide which female you wanted to purchase for the evening. I think it was something like $45US for the night and $25US for the hour. Obviously John and I aren't into this sort of thing but it was fun to see.

Siem Reap.

The next morning we woke up at 4:30am and took off for Ankor Wat - one of the main things to see in Cambodia. It is an ancient temple that was built in the 12th century for one of the kings - King Suryavarman II. The place is huge and you can buy a ticket for a day, 3-days, or even a week to explore everything. We just went for the day. The reason for going so early in the morning was to see the beautiful sun-rise, but the weather wasn't on our side and it was foggy that morning. The structures here are very detail oriented and must have been extremely beautiful in their day. Here's a bunch of pics from the main temple.

Ankor Wat.

Our driver.

After the main temple we went to the Bayon temple. This is where they shot Lara Croft: Tomb Raider (movie with Angelina Jolie). This was by far the coolest place to see there. I don't even want to try to describe it for you. Just check out the pictures.

Washroom break. Just some instructions.

These two temples took up most of the day. We were told that they had elephant rides to the top of a mountain where there was another temple and a beautiful sunset to see. On our way to the elephants we spotted monkeys on the side of the road. We jumped out of the car and there was about 35 monkeys just hanging out in a little field, playing, fighting, grooming and all the things that monkeys do. A girl came to us and sold us mini-bananas for a dollar and we fed the monkeys. A lot of fun.

John feeding the monkeys.

Three monkeys were on our driver at one point and one of them freaked out and bit his back. Ebola anyone?

We finally made it to the elephants. $15US each for a ride up and $10 down. We just went up. Elephants look really funny from behind when they walk. Their legs look like human legs, it's weird.

On the ol' elephant.

The following day we relaxed for the most part and then went on a boat ride to see the floating village. The village was exactly that. They had everything from houses, convenience stores, schools, police stations, and restaurants that floated on the water. Some people would even deliver goods right to you - convenience boats. Kids would float by us on these tin saucers and ask for money.




That night we decided it was time to visit the very famous Happy Herb Pizza joint. The name says it all. You sit down, order a beer and a pizza and the waiter will ask if you want it happy or not. Obviously we said yes.

Happy Herb Pizza.

We split a large pizza and had a few beers but we weren't feeling happy in the least bit until about 45mins later. We went for a nice walk down the strip and observed Cambodia from a new perspective. It was much more surreal and interesting. After the walk, we went back to the hotel for a few more beers and went to bed.

The next day we checked out the mine museum and a zoo. They have a completely volunteer based crew of people that go around and de-mine the heavily mined outskirts of the major cities making it safer for the locals. These mines were put in place after the Vietnamese pushed the Khmer Rouge (Pol Pot's army) to the north of Cambodia where he set up camp. The Khmer Rouge would do rogue missions where they planted as many mines as possible across the country. Many Cambodians have been affected by them.

A cool and very acrobatic monkey at the zoo.

A really interesting Khmer dish. It was chicken in a curry-like coconut milk sauce with vegetables.

That night and the next night we partied it up. We got massages both nights at $6US/hour. John went for the 4-hand massage, which was $10US/hour. They are great after walking around all day. These are not the same as Rub-n-tugs back home. Strictly massage to our disappointment ;). The first night we went to a club called The Pyramid. It was the only place with a happening dance floor. On the downside this is where all the lady boys (what a great name for them) go to pick up foreigners and show them a good time. They were really hard to distinguish and with the help of another foreigner we were told who to stay away from. You could also tell by the way they played pool - much more aggressive in their shooting than real girls.

The last night we took the girls form the massage place out to a club but they didn't like western music that much I guess and took us to a Cambodian club where we were pretty much the only foreigners.

Masseuse girls.

It was a good time for the most part - John almost got in a fight with one of the dudes there but we backed off because apparently the ones that cause trouble are the rich kids and they usually carry guns and have bodyguards.

By the end we did have a great time although we were completely fed up with all the begging. When you're not used to it you can only handle so much.

We returned to Korea the following Thursday morning at about 6am. Chris and Krissie were scheduled to arrive that night at around 8pm. They came to visit me for about 2 weeks. That was the 21st of December. Our friend Mike Tobin came to visit us as well but arrived on the 26th. That night everyone rested up after all the travelling.


Early afternoon on Friday I got my friend to take us to Moran market. This is a big market here in Korea where they serve pretty much any animal you want (including dogs and puppies) to eat under the most unsanitary conditions. Unfortunately, it was closed (only open on weekends). So hopped on the bus and went to Itaewon. Chris and Krissie wanted to do some shopping. We shopped for a few hours and then went to the Seoul Pub for food and drink. This is honestly the best pub I have ever been to. You will not have a better time in any other pub, I guarantee it. We got there around 6pm. Immediately the owner spotted my friends that lives here (they know each other from previous drinking episodes). The owner, Mister Jung for strangers and Master Jung for his friends, came to our table and the drinking games began. Before we knew it, it was 9pm, everyone was loaded and we were playing the boot game. Beerfest anyone? Basically, there is a large boot-shaped glass filled with beer to drink from. Someone rolls the dice and whichever number it lands on and the one opposite of that are the drinking numbers. (2 and 5 for example) If you roll a drinking number you drink from the boot. You can attempt to finish the whole thing. If you do the previous person that drink has to pay 8,000 won for it (which goes to charity). But, if you spill more than 4 drops, have the beer lose contact with your lips, or puke within 10 minutes after finishing it you lose and have to buy a round of shots for everyone on the game. Makes for great entertainment. If Master Jung gets a drinking number, its over. He does a little dance for you, drops all his jewelry into the boot and chugs the boot. He is a drinking machine. He can drink all night and he is one of the fastest beer-chuggers I have ever seen. He lost only once the 2 times I was there to this large American seasoned drinking professional. This guy was at least twice Master Jung's size. Check out the pics and the movie of Master Jung drinking the boot.

Seoul Pub arrival.

Junior (Master Jungs brother), Toby, and Master Jung. It ain't a party unless Toby spills a drink on himself.

Master Jung taking the boot.

Baseball. Newspaper is the bat and a shot glass is the ball. I am the catcher, Chris the batter, and Master Jung the pitcher. He shoots the shot glass out of his mouth a good 20 feet. I did catch the sot glass but no prize was awarded. Weak!
("I think something is poking me in the back.")

Tobin with the Jung brothers.

Master Jung going for a second boot!

Rules for the boot game.

Master Jung performing one of his many bar tricks.

Jug-off.

Doing a dance.

We basically got drunk from the 22nd to the 24th. Drank on the 25th but didn't really get drunk and Tobin showed up the following day.

We drink here a lot. $2 pints.

Drinking at the Happy Liquor Pia.

Does anyone know who the fat cowboy on the left is?

Toby does look better the drunker I get.

Out drinking.

Butterfly larvae. A Korean delicacy. Tastes like dirt!

On the 24th, friends of our here had a pot luck Christmas party. Everyone prepared great food except for us. We chopped up half of the kielbasa that Chris brought for me. It was probably the first dish to be finished. Success! Everyone ate and drank much. It made for a merry time.

Me and the hosts: Paul and Sun

"Do you have any moneyyy?"

For the rest of the week we visited the National Museum and the War Museum, Dongdaemun (the big shopping area here), Myeong-dong (a popular hang out area with lots of stores and restaurants), and saw a really interesting show at Korea House. They performed traditional Korean dance and an amazing drum show that everyone agreed was the highlight of the night. It was 4 men with different drums. Each started making sounds with their drum and eventually harmonized the sounds into a very trance-like beat that gave you goosebumps as you listened and watched. We also went to Lotte World. It's another amusement park here with half of the rides inside and the other half outside.

On our way to the National Museum.

The four drummers.

Toby got pulled up on stage to join the dance.

WAR Museum:

Lotte World.

For New Years we started the party off at a friends house. We stayed there until about 12:30am to celebrate the new year and then took off for Hongdae. We went to the Ska Bar. A small dungey place that charged $15 a head and sold really expensive drinks but the music hit the spot. We danced there until about 6 or 7am. Good-times!

Pre-New Years.

Hongdae area. Funny random Spanish guy.

At Ska Bar.

JANUARY

Chris and Krissie left here on the 3rd of January. Thanks for visiting, it meant a lot to me. :)

Toby left on the 5th of January. He is missing Korea already and wants to come back. Thanks for coming dude, it was a blast.

Right now I am working part-time as an English teacher and still having a lot of fun here.

Thanks for reading the long post and I promise to post more often.

Last thing, can you guys leave comments please. They are as good for me as my posts are for you.

-Tommy