Festive period in Seoul 2008/9

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So this was to be my first Christmas spent away from home and I was expecting it to be slightly weird. Korea isnt a christian place although you would never know that if you looked around the sky at night (giant red crooses illiminate the skies!). Christmas at school was quite good, i guess it helps having kids around that get all excited about anything different happening, we had a singing competition and you would have thought the Korean teachers won a prise for best class they they put in SO MUCH effort, i had one teacher interrupting my lessons to remind them of the songs and get extra things going. So the singing and dancing was good, we had dress up santa competition.. i have a great picture of one of my kids wearing eyeliner better than Captain Jack Sparrow!! but then he saw the pic and started to cry so i had to take it off him.. damn kids ruining my fun!
The staff party was quite strange, have you ever tried sitting down to a meal (which just happens to be the longest meal in the world.. 5-7 courses of slightly different food which ALL tastes the same) where you realise no one else speaks your language or is even going to bother trying to mime certain acts? Its hard!! we had secret santa which actually turned out not really to be secret santa at all.. you just gave your present over.
For xmas eve i did the usual shopping trip everyone does, well everyone that doesn't live in korea! There was none of the pushing or shoving that goes on at home, no one snatching clothes off you that have been reduced to a ridiculous price. It was weird!! i was strolling round a department store wihtout a care in the world. So i decided to chance it and hopped onto the tube to Seoul, the same thing happened there, no queues or anything, infact i got the item i wanted within 5 mins and was headed straight home again. i have to say London is missing out on heated tube seats.. oh wow!! they are great, send me straight to sleep, which isnt really a good thing on the rapid home!
Xmas eve night brought it all back to normal, i typical messy night with copious amounts of booze.....and breakdancing!!!!!! I would like to apologise to the man who had to stay awake whilst i watched a dvd at 6am in the morning.. sorry!

Christmas day meant phoning home whilst still tipsy and wishing the parents, aunt and brother a very hot Christmas in Australia, I’m not too sure my parents were very proud of their drunk daughter!! After opening an amazing present from Claire (thank you so much, you know me too well!) we all trotted off to Seoul for our Christmas dinners, the Irish were off to the Irish pub for a buffet and the English were off to a house with an oven (a rare commodity in Korea) to cook our own chicken, we even had Bisto gravy, well its wouldn’t be a roast without it! Thanks to Ellie for letting us cook in her house, it was lovely! The roasties were a little hard but that what you get for being impatient. Then after drinks and chats we went off to join the Irish in the bar, they were all steaming drunk as expected, I think a good night was had by all but we had to call it a semi-early night so we could catch our flight the next day.

So on boxing day I went on a 6 day holiday in Thailand, as it was a whistle stop tour for Simon we went to the places I had already been to so as to save time getting to know an area. We only just made the last train to Chumpon station and had to sit in 2nd class but it was still good. 8 hrs later we made it to the boat ferry only to be told we had missed the ferry by 10 mins and the next wouldn’t be for another 5 hours!!!!! It was 8 am and over cast but when you only have very few days of holiday you have to make the most of them right? Well we decided to get into swimwear and hit the beach, I also thought it would be a good idea to wash my hair in the sea…. it wasn’t! I got a mixture of shampoo and sea-water in my eye and it was red for the next 8 hrs or so. When the ferry finally arrived it was one of the worst trips I had experienced, except of course for that one that I had in Thailand the year before. This year though I was prepared and had the idea that positive mental attitude would overcome any sea sickness, that and the fact that there was a hot guy sat 2 seats away and I’d be damned if I was going to let him see me puke my guts up!

Koh Tao was just as amazing as I remembered and we even kayaked over to the 3 islands again. Only this time the crossing was treacherous and I had a fear for my life at one stage, ok so slight exaggeration, but the waves were really big at one stage I swear we were surfing along a tsunami wave!! As payment for that trip the sun decided to show its face and of course we had forgotten the sun lotion so we ended up looking like lobsters.

Koh Phangnan saw us staying at the same resort as last year as it was the only one with a room due to it being the run up to New Year and the biggest full moon party of the year. We watched Thai boxing, 7 matches in fact, I’m ashamed to say I was falling asleep by the 6th match and had completely gone by the 7th. I don’t think anyone noticed though….
Spent most of my time relaxing and reading a book whilst sunbathing, ahh bliss!!

We were back in Bangkok for 6am New Years eve and did some sight seeing around the palaces and markets. Obviously we had to stop off at Patpong market, no not for the lady boys, for the pictures and boxing shorts I saw last year and always regretted not buying. Now I have the set, just need to learn to box! We were staying on Khao-san Rd in a hotel right on the strip. By 10 pm the street was heaving so we got a few beers and cruised around. Then we saw 2 elephants in the street and it broke my heart, these giants were being made to bow and snort for the tourist’s entertainment. Would have been a disaster if something had spooked them, about 1000+ people would have been trampled to death! The countdown was good although I had a slight drink induced accident whilst attempting to climb over a rail for a better view! Left a massive bruise on my leg to match the one that was fading from a few weeks before when I was dancing on tables. The next day I went to see the tallest building in Bangkok, something like 997feet, then we flew back to Seoul going from a balmy 30C to minus 2C!!! Oh and we got ripped off by the Korean taxi driver, nothing new there then.

Note to those travelling to Seoul, do not get a taxi from the airport they will charge you over 60,000 won (it should only be 40,000won) and you will have to pay the tolls too. It’s easier and cheaper to get a bus (there are lots going all over Seoul and the outer limits) or the subway. Just say ANIYO to the taxi drivers…. Scam artists!

So yeah, that was my 1st Christmas in Korea. It was good fun and I will definitely do it again.

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Photos

Thailand Koh tao beach
A slightly overcast day on Koh Tao

3 islands together
we kayaked to this island and risked our lives onthe open sea.. it was well worth it!

gorgeous boats near Koh Phangan
on the ferry over to Koh Phangan we saw these just as the sun was setting.