I日本は韓国でない! Where were our Korean friends when we got to Japan?!? We weren't lucky enough that they were able to come with us. We weren't lucky enough that everything was in Japanese, and none of us could speak more than a few words we'd learned in preparation. But what am I giving luck a hard time for? Luck is good 'cause it makes things easy. We got off that 3-hour ship from one country to the other, no problems, got through customs, no problems... The guard just dug deep enough through my suitcase to pull out the Japanese tea I had [View Full Entry]

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I'm dedicating this entry to Dennis because he deserves at the least that much. I didn't know Dennis that well before we had plans to go to Korea. He was always at the same parties as I was and we had mutual friends. We knew each other because we went to the same school. We hadn't talked much but I had always wanted to because I thought he was really cool and he had an awesome motorcycle. When he found out from Bekah that we were going to Korea, Dennis immediately became a most kind and helpful friend, even buying us [View Full Entry]

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After a short stopover at Sukhimvit on the Nut in Bangkok, we left the following day for a flight to Chiang Mai. Every time I mentioned Chiang Mai as a destination, I was told how wonderful it was. However, I was really excited about a hut I had booked in Chiang Dao, which was about a 1½ hour bus ride from Chiang Mai. We took a taxi to the bus station in Chiang Mai. Our taxi driver asked why we were taking the bus to Chiang Dao when we could take his taxi for only 1600 baht. I told him [View Full Entry]

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I was saving 20 US dollars for the visa, but turns out I guess we didn’t need one. We hotel desk hopped until we found a place that was “on promotion” for 500 baht a night. (About $15 dollars a night, the cheapest around Patong Beach from the airport.) We got in a van for 150 baht each that took us straight to our hotel. Our hotel is a fairly good walk to the beach, so they run a shuttle every hour to the beach or Batang Road. After checking in to a very cute bungalow room with a deck [View Full Entry]

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On happiness, which is nothing that you get from happy pizza, when Bekah and I were on our flight to Kuala Lumpur, our flight tickets bore the warning: “Trafficking of illegal drugs carries the death penalty.” We learned more about it from our cab driver later. This is what he told us: ~ If anyone possesses over 14 grams of marijuana they are hanged. Foreigners are no exception. Two Australians had in their possession over 25 grams of marijuana and are currently in court. They will most likely be hanged. ~Malaysia is very strict with drug laws. Malaysia used to [View Full Entry]

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We took the bus to Siem Reap at 7:30 am the next morning. It was the greatest views of the countryside we had had yet. We arrived in Siem Reap at about 1:30 pm or so and were taken by tuk tuk to our hostel, the Queen Angkor Villa. We met Yadira and Angelou at their hotel “The Villa” and went for fruit shakes at the Khmer Family Restaurant. A group of boys selling postcards followed us into the restaurant. They were really clever and had a great marketing tactic. “Where are you from?” A boy would say. “The United [View Full Entry]

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Sitting on a bench at the Dalian airport, with Bekah beside me, I put my head down on my suitcase and sincerely prayed. I did my best not to look at Bekah, so she wouldn’t see my panic. Traffic, and our long wait in the wrong line, brought us to 3 minutes past the check-in deadline for our flight. We could not make the first flight to Beijing, which would throw off our whole string of connecting flights. I did what anyone from Liaoning Normal University would do: I called Selina. All flights to Beijing were booked. The next flight [View Full Entry]

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Sunday my invitation led me to an area where Dandong and North Korea are separated by a very thin part of the river and where Dandong is bordered by the end of the Great Wall. Eager to begin my mission, I was the first one to the tallest part of the Great Wall. From that amazing view, I scoped out the area. I studied the geography of the land. I planned my non-military, non-aggressive tactic. I located an area of a thin river and could make out stepping stones across the river. Bekah joined me as I ran back down [View Full Entry]

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I received a special invitation to be an honored guest at a city about four hours north from where I live. It was signed and dated by North Korea. They don't see many Americans on their soil. I accepted, and I was provided transportation on a bus with a large part of the faculty and a few students from Liaoning Normal University, who will claim to be honored guests as well. But don't believe them. We arrived and were fed. Then we walked across a bridge. However, I didn't realize until the very last minute, thank goodness, that the bridge [View Full Entry]

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At 7:30 pm Bekah and I met at Ke Ji Square and rushed into a cab on our way to Huo Che Zhan (Railway station). I say, we couldn't have picked a better one at that. The cab driver raised our spirits and built up our anxieties about the trip even more. Laughing and joking, we talked about the weather, our appropriate dress, and we requested he drive us to Beijing instead of us taking the train. He said it depended on the (rubbing his fingers together), the qian, the money. I offered him 200 yuan but sadly he wouldn't [View Full Entry]

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