Blogs from Asia - page 13029

And so, another semester begins. Spring is gradually coming to Yeosu. Well, I use the word "gradually" in quite a liberal way-- it's actually pretty cold outside right now, but the trees are just beginning to bud and, well, two weeks ago it was warm. Unfortunately, a cold snap hit again, and it's currently back to winter weather. Things are going well at school. There is a new foreign teacher here, and it's been great showing her around and helping her out. It's also been good to have someone to regularly speak English with. To top it all off, it's also lowered the number of classes I teach this semester to 13! So, I have 13 classes a week-- 9 classes of third-year students, and 4 classes of second-year students. I'm really excited to be teaching ... read more

Following breakfast at 7am we got a taxi to the bus station and caught an 8:30am bus to Melaka in Malaysia, before we arrived we had to disembark from the bus and go through the border crossing’s from Singapore into Malaysia. We arrived in Melaka around 1pm where we got a taxi to the hotel which is in the Chinese quarter, then we went to the famous rice ball restaurant and had chicken and rice balls from here the trip had a planned trishaw tour of Melaka which took us round the main sites. We arrived back at the hotel at 5pm and had free time. We set off around 11am tomorrow for Kula Lumpur... read more

Left KL and the very helpful Equator staff, for a two hour bus ride to the historic maritime town of Malacca (Malaka). The town has a colourful past and has been influenced by numerous cultures - including the Malays, Portuguese-Eurasians, Chinese and Indians, with Portuguese, Dutch and British influenced architecture. We are staying in a cheap but clean hostel called the 'Travellers Lodge', which has a great roof terrace overlooking a view of the sea. We enjoyed an Indonesian style lunch, before heading off to the city centre. We first noticed a lot of bicycles covered with umbrellas, tinsel and flowers - a common method of transport for tourists! We were very surprised with the amount of tourists visiting the town. Then we had a look at St Paul's church, Christ church and saw a huge ... read more

Well, having been in Hong Kong 5 days now, I'm slowly getting used to just how busy the place is. It's relentless, there doesn't seem to be a place where a crowd of people aren't!! I can't count how many times I've been offered suits and watches by people on the street, every other step they seem to be in your face! As of now I think we've seen everything worth seeing in Hong Kong, including the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, which is a story that has dogged my time here. Unfortunately eating had become a real problem since being ill on the plane, so after three days of vomiting up whatever I'd eaten(delightful image!), I decided to go see a doctor. After a three hour wait, I got to see him, and he gave me some ... read more

It's been quite a while since my last entry. We've already been in Thailand for 10 days now and I must say I'm getting used to living out of a backbag. This is what we've done since we left Bangkok: We took a cab to visit my dad's cousin. He's married to a Thai woman. They live in a small village between Bangkok and Kanchanaburi. They've built a beautiful house and we had the pleasure to stay there for a couple of days. It was so relaxing to be in the country side again after bustling Bangkok. My dad's cousin has been living in Thailand for a couple of years already and he told us a lot about the culture and the Thai way of living. I even found out why Thai people always do say ... read more