Burma (Myanmar)
Burma is by far, the most fascinating country that I have ever been to. 
To get there, we first had to fly to Bangkok, Thailand. We
then took a flight to the capital, Yangon. This is almost the only way to get
there. The airport was extremely small and simple. It was amazing to
think that this was the capital of a large country.
The English developed the town with Western style building and roads a long time ago. At one time it must have been a very prospurous city. The large multi lane roads are now filled with kids playing soccer. The side streets are filled with abandoned vehicles and manholes with no covers. This was our first stop on our tour. After we checked into our hotel, we walked around for hours. Tokyo Donut was the only place in town that could even come close to having something familiar. No McDonalds here!
As the capital, Yangon acts as a distribution center for the
country. Trucks are being filled with goods in transit between China and the
rest of Burma. It was amazing to me to see the ingenuity and creativity at work
with the maintenance of these vehicles. Some trucks date back decades,
and the taxis are old Japanese cars from the 80’s. They are able to keep these
valuable machines working with very little resources. I saw trucks jacked up
with pieces of wood, and cars being held together with pieces of scrap metal.
These people are resourceful.
At Inle Lake, you can see cats performing tricks for Buddhist monks. The monastery is in the middle of the lake. The lake acts as a lifeline for the locals. They have been dependent on it for thousands of years. Large communities live in houses that are built directly on the lake. They use canoes to move around town. Fishing is a big part of the community. They also farm directly on the lake with floating sections of soil that soak up the water for the crops on top. Some of the best tomatoes I’ve ever had. 
Burma was absolutely amazing. It did come at a price. I’ll
never forget the multiple bus rides on dirt roads. Some places took 18 hours by
bus. The roads are narrow and winding. Some of the passengers are not used to the bus travel. Someone always ends up loosing their lunch.
Cambodia
After Burma, we spent a few days enjoying the luxuries of a
mainstream European vacation destination… Bangkok, Thailand. I’ll write more on
Thailand later. After I had my fill of Thai food and cheap beer, it was time
to take the bus to Cambodia.
At about midnight, our bus driver stopped and took our bags out. He points to the border where we were to cross by foot. We make
it to the border patrol office. The officer in charge tells us it will cost $50 each to
get into the country. It clearly states on the wall that the fee is $20. I had to politely
stand my ground and refuse to give them extra American Dollars. They finally
let us through for the correct amount. At this point, I knew I had to keep very
alert. It was quite a change coming from Burma where everyone was just excited
to meet you.
To see Angkor Wat, it costs about $90. All the money ends up
in one man’s pocket. The money is supposed to help the community, but like
everything else in Cambodia, there is corruption. The number of tourists is
overwhelming. In order to beat the crowds and see everything, we had to wake up
at 4 a.m. Angkor Wat is pretty amazing, but we were spoiled after Bagan in
Burma.
We paid for a taxi driver to take us wherever we wanted for
the day. You need a vehicle to see all of the temples within the park. As
soon as we got down the road, he wanted extra money. We had already purchased
the taxi through our hotel. There was no reason for us to give him extra money.
He got angry and made us walk all day. He ended up picking us up at the end of
the day to go back to the hotel. The hotel didn’t care. We started to realize
that they were in on the scam as well. There was no way to argue, so we left.
Laos
Caves, waterfalls, and a little jungle. Laos is an awesome country with nice people. We ended up skipping
Vietnam to have more time to explore this little piece of paradise. We were a
little disappointed on the lack of true jungle. The forest is a large tourist attraction for this little country. Sadly, most of it has
been chopped down for people to farm. All of the animals are either endangered
or extinct. We met a group that had just finished a very expensive jungle
safari tour. They were living in the the jungle for over a week. I
was surprised to hear that they didn’t see one animal the whole trip! They saw
plenty of mosquitoes and bugs of course.
Have you ever heard of the Secret War?? If not, definitely
look into it. Laos is the most heavily bombed country, per capita, in
the world. All of the bombing was done secretively by the United States during the
Vietnam War. The CIA was trying to stop the transportation of supplies to Vietnam
from China on the Ho Chi Minh Trail. The Laos military was not openly
supporting either side. Everywhere you go there is evidence of the
war. Now they have museums dedicated
to education on the Secret War. Within these museums, they have U.S. military
equipment and bombshells on display. The villages have bombshells on display as
well.
Muang Ngoi Nenu was my favorite spot on the trip. It’s a remote village in the middle of the jungle. To get there, we had to take a boat up a river. There are no public roads to this part of Laos. We were there during a wedding ceremony that lasted three days. It was one big party. People from all over the mountains came to celebrate. All of the food in this village comes from the land. If you order a salad, expect to wait 30 minutes. They have to go gather the vegetables from the garden. I must have eaten at least two of the chickens walking around. At one point, we took a hike deeper into the mountains to another village. We were welcomed by a curious farmer that was fascinated by my camera. It was fun using body language to communicate with this guy.
We had the opportunity to do a home-stay in a village near Luang Nam Tha. We stayed with a nice family. They provided food and a place for us to sleep. I was humbled by the amount of material items that they had. My backpack had more clothes in it than they had in their house. The experience left me questioning my own “needs” in life. The family lived in the jungle until they were relocated by the government. They were given a place to live near the highway with access to water. Now they have to hike quite a ways to get the resources that they need from the jungle. Our guide explained how badly they were affected by the government relocation project. It made me think of our own Native Americans.
On our last days in Laos, we stayed in the capital,
Vientiane. In the middle of the night, SangHwa woke up to an itch that she
couldn’t get rid of. We turned the lights on to discover our bed was infested
with bed bugs! They were eating her while she slept. They didn’t eat me for
some reason. We immediately packed our bags and left the hotel. Laos has a
national curfew of 12 a.m. We got out into the streets to find ourselves very
lonely. We only saw a drunk and a hooker in the four hours it took to find a
new place to sleep. None of the hotels would let us in. They were either full,
or following the rules by not letting us enter till 5 a.m. When we finally got
into a nice hotel, we washed everything. For the rest of the trip, we were
living in paranoia of bed bugs.
Thailand
Oh Thailand… so many nice things, and so easy. Thailand
could easily be the tourist capital of the world. It’s like a Cancun
for Europe. The culture is interesting, the food is great, the parties are
awesome, and the weather is nice. Everything in the whole country is catered
towards the tourists in some way. There are enough tourists to keep prices down
as well. SangHwa’s mission was to pet a tiger and ride an elephant. My mission was to play with
monkeys. Mission accomplished.
We spent a day with some tigers in Chang Mai. The tiger that
was assigned to hang out with us was not happy. He was obsessed with his coconut!
He would growl at anyone that came near him. I think he just wanted to be left
alone to chew on his new toy. They kept telling us everything was okay and
encouraging us to pet him. We got out of there before our time was up. I don’t
care how confident those trainers are with the tigers. I heard about what
happened to Roy, of Siegfried and Roy... Tigers can hurt people. We did get some
cool pictures out of the deal.
After we were finished petting the tigers, we had to get
back to the scooter rental place before they closed for the holiday. We rushed down
the mountain to get into Chang Mai as the Songkran Water Festival was just getting started. In order to
cleanse the soul, people throw water on each other for the New Year. It has
turned into what is probably the world’s biggest water fight. We got stuck inside
the largest parade in Thailand. Millions of people were there to celebrate and
poor water on each other. Since I was using the parade procession to get back
to the rental place, we were a main target for the buckets of water. I just
wanted to get the scooter returned before the end of the day. It was an
experience I’ll never forget.
Lopburi is a monkey town… literally. The town has some
ancient temples that were not getting enough attention by tourists. Some monkeys
started to live at these temples when their jungle had disappeared. The town’s
people noticed how the monkeys got the attention of the tourist. They soon
realized that the monkeys were the key to attracting the tourists. Now the
monkeys are held with the most respect because they are the money makers. The
town’s people give the monkeys gifts as an offering for the wealth that the
monkeys bring to the town. I personally feel that the monkeys are no better
than the mafia. They run the town. It reminds me of the movie Jumanji. There
are monkeys swinging from the streetlights, stopping traffic, and harassing old
ladies with groceries. It’s a sight to see. Anything that can be damaged by the monkeys is protected with chain link fencing. We woke up to this guy climbing around outside our hotel room.
On a side note, I got bit one night in the town
as well. It drew a little blood. I have no idea what bit me. There are many bats flying around, so they are my prime suspect. On the long train ride back to Bangkok, I got
a huge rash near my eye as well. I went to a clinic for the two ailments. They
told me not to worry. The doctor said that there is a bug that has potent urine.
The bug might have urinated on me while I was on the train. I was sleeping next
to an open window when the bug incident occurred. I never started to foam at the
mouth or anything, so I guess I’m okay.
Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur
Malaysia is one of those neutral places in the
world where everyone can come in peace. While the Western world is living in
fear of terrorists, Kuala Lumpur acts as a safe haven between disagreeing
groups of people. There is a group of Islamic extremists living in the southern
Philippines. The Filipino government and the MILFs, (Moro Islamic Liberation
Front) have made Kuala Lumpur their place for peace talks. Malaysia has a good relationship
with the West, China, and the Middle East. Most people in the city can speak
English, Chinese, as well as Malay. I assume it’s a great place for global business
without the high prices of Singapore.
I met this couple at the rainforest research cafeteria. I wasn't expecting them to know perfect English. Come to find out, they are from Canada!
Sumatra, Indonesia
Sumatra is a large island near Malaysia. At one time it was
completely covered in rainforest. Now it’s almost completely covered in palm
oil plantations. Since the famous tsunami of 2004 hit the island, tourism has
gone down tremendously. We decided to stay inland for this island.
We flew into Medan, the largest city on the island. It’s not
a pretty place. The city is crowded, and there is not much really to see. We
headed to the bus stop. We were greeted by a very tall man. His English was not
very good, but between his crew of about 10 people, we were able to
communicate. He told us that there were no buses running on this particular
day. He wanted us to hire an extremely expensive private taxi to our
destination. We didn’t believe him, so we went walking around trying to find
someone else to help us get the right bus. We came upon a policeman. He was the
worst liar. At first he wanted to tell us where the buses were, but then
changed his story when he saw the crew of scam artists following us around. For some reason, he acted as if he was obligated to go along with this group of people. We finally decided to try and take a taxi to a hotel
and see if they could give us some advice. All of a sudden, a van pulls up and a guy wants us to get in fast. The driver wanted to get out of there before the group came over. So what to do?? Do we get in this stranger's van, or do we stay
with the scam artists/gangster crew? We decide to jump in. This was the first of three
public vans that we took to get to our destination. The entire time, we had no
idea if they were helping us, or kidnapping us. We felt like we had no choice
but to put our faith in some strangers.
At about midnight, we were driving through the rainforest
threw a thunderstorm. It was creepy, like something out of a movie. The van
pulls up and picks up this guy. The man knew perfect English. He tells
us how lucky we are to have met up with him, and that he can take us to
his uncle’s hotel. Once again, we are putting our faith in some stranger. He
ends up leading us through the forest and across a wire pedestrian bridge. We
end up getting a place to sleep at his uncle’s hotel.
We had arrived at our destination, Bukit Lawang. The place
is famous for it’s orangutan rehabilitation center. The place is amazing for
nature lovers. The town is in the middle of the rainforest. Everywhere you go,
you are welcomed by interesting creatures and strange plants. I was surprised
to find no mosquitoes eating me. There were no bugs bothering me at all. I was
happy to see monkeys everywhere. From our hut, we could watch the monkeys come
out of the rainforest to get a drink of water from the river. We also could
here monkeys walking on the roof, eating fruits off of the trees that were
nearby. At night we did get a good scare. We saw a rat literally climb up the
wall and escape through the roof. We survived.
My mission was to explore the rainforest. Legally we had to
hire a guide before we could go. We ended up only taking the three-hour tour…
Sanghwa didn’t fell like doing a lot of hiking. Even the three-hour hike came
at a cost of $75! A camp out costs over $100 a person. We were able to see several
orangutans in their natural habitat among many other interesting things. We saw
a tonic tree from which tonic water is made. They gave us some bark to chew on.
We also took some frankincense sap from a tree to take home. It is used as
incense in Catholic churches. We also came across a cinnamon tree. We took some
of the bark from this tree to chew on as well. On our way back to town, we
stopped by a rubber plantation. It was interesting to see how they collect the
sap to make latex products. After my short stint in the rainforest, I have a
new appreciation for the wealth of resources available within the forest. It’s a
shame that so much of it is gone already.
Our next stop was to check out an active volcano in
Berstagi! We ended up hiring a tour guide due to the risk of getting lost. He
was a cool guy. He brought some eggs to boil in the hot water on top of the crater. At the top there were holes bellowing out hot steam. It looked like a
different world. The ground was hot, and the vegetation had all died from the
volcanic activity. On our way down, we ended up stopping at a natural hot
spring. It was nice to soak and relax. I remember seeing the royal wedding in
London on the TV in the lobby. It gave me an understanding of how global our
world has become.
Our last stop on our Sumatra adventure was a vacation from
our vacation. We stopped at Tuk Tuk on Lake Toba. The lake was created by a
super volcano a long time ago. In the middle of this lake is an island, Tuk
Tuk. We were staying on an island in the middle of an island. The views were amazing, and the water is crystal clear. I had my snorkeling
gear with me, and it came to great use. In the lake were schools of fish,
and plants. The water was clear enough that I could swim down deep and explore.
It was the beginning of the school break period, so there were many students on vacation. They all wanted to take their picture with me. I felt famous. I think Sanghwa was a little jealous. There were some girls that asked to have their picture taken with her, I think that made her feel better.
It was sad to leave Lake Toba. It would be nice to come back here some day. I’d rather explore new places though. Our
next destination was the Philippines. To get there, we had to take a bus to
Medan, then fly to Kuala Lumpur, then fly to Manila.
Philippines
It was time to get some beach time in. The Philippines is
the perfect place to do this. I wasn’t really looking for a mainstream party. I wanted to see some remote nature spots. We decided to fly down to
Palawan.
Our first stop was Coron. I wanted to come here for some
quick scuba diving. Back during WWII, the Americans destroyed a whole fleet of
Japanese ships. Now there are several ships to explore through wreck diving.
After about the third ship, I was done. We wanted to leave, but we couldn’t!
There was a tropical storm out at sea that kept us from leaving. We ended up
being stuck on the island for an extra three days. With no beach, and nothing
to do but diving, we just sat around and ate food. On the third day, we were
given even worse news. The boat had broke and couldn’t make it. The owner of
our hotel was nice enough to let his staff take his boat and give us a ride to
El Nido, our next destination.
It was my first time on a small boat in the middle of the
tropics. We passed by remote houses on beaches in the middle of nowhere. As
night came, the stars covered the sky all the way to the edge of the water.
There was a full moon that night as well. It’s a good memory for me.
El Nido is a small town on a beach surrounded by little
islands. There’s not much to do here if you don’t like being outside. The
first thing we did was go sea kayaking. It was hard work, but I was able to
paddle us to a remote island in which we had our very own private beach. We spent
a couple hours there snorkeling and swimming around. The dark clouds were
coming in, so we decided to head back.
On our next day, we took a boat tour to some of the local
snorkeling spots. We stopped by a cove next to the filming location of the Swedish
Survivor TV show. I said hello to some of the guys from the show that were
passing by. I was hoping to see some of the girls from the TV show… oh well.
While I was snorkeling around, I bumped my forehead into a
jellyfish. It hurt a lot… I was scared I was going to have a scar on my face. I
still have a scar on my leg from when I was stung by a jellyfish in Cancun.
They threw some vinegar on it, and I survived.
Next we headed to Puerto Princesa. The town has one of the
most beautiful beaches I’ve ever seen. It is also home to Puerto Princesa
Subterranean River National Park. Tourists take a paddle boat into this
enormous cave. The tour guides warn everyone to keep their mouths shut when they
look up. They don’t want anyone eating the bat poop. It was sad to think that
this was our last stop on our great adventure… In the morning we packed our
bags and headed to Manila to take our flights home.
Back to Korea!?
SangHwa and I said our goodbyes and left on separate
airplanes. She was headed to Korea, and I was headed back to Colorado. We
weren’t too sad because we knew we would see each other again in Denver real
soon. The plan was for her to go back to Korea and take the final interview for
her permanent residence visa for the United States. In the mean
time, I was looking for a job. We were planning to meet up in three months. The
plan was too perfect…
After about two months of being separated, I got a phone
call from SangHwa. She told me that the embassy was not able to get her the
visa. They told her it would take another year! This was shocking news for both
of us. It had been two years since I had a real job. I didn’t want to spend
another year as a teacher. I had to choose between being away from SangHwa for
a whole year, or coming back to Korea. I chose to come back.
For the last year in Korea, we were playing the waiting
game. Neither one of us really wanted to be in Korea anymore. We were excited
to start our lives in Colorado. Since we had to be there, we made the best of
our time. We rode our bikes frequently all over. We took hikes and road trips.
I was able to see most of Korea in this time. As long as we were stuck in
Korea, we decided to save our money for the next big trip, Russia and China.
Russia
I was more excited to see Russia than any other country I’ve
been to. I’ve always been fascinated with the people and culture of Russia. I
find it fascinating to think there are towns in Russia in which very few
Americans have been to, or even heard of. The women are beautiful, and the food
is amazing. We didn’t see a McDonald's or Starbucks the entire time we were in
Russia.
We took a boat from Korea, went around North Korea, and
docked in Vladivostok. The city is known as the San Francisco of Russia. As we
docked, I could see why. The city consists of steep, twisting roads that come
right up next to the water. Even though it’s the Far East, the architecture is
very Western.
On our first full day, we took a walk along the beach. To
our surprise, we heard people speaking in Korean. They were North Korean
workers/slaves. The Russian government has made a contract with North Korea to
replace all of the sidewalks in Vladivostok. Since the North Koreans can’t earn
money independently, they are pretty much slaves. SangHwa had the chance to
talk to them briefly, and I said, “Hello! Nice to meet you!” in Korean. They
looked very poor and skinny. After our trip, Sanghwa saw a news report
about some of these workers escaping for their freedom.
Our next stop was Khabarovsk. We took a night train to get
there. Our compartment contained six bunks. In third class, everyone is forced
to invade personal space and get to know each other a little. I didn’t have any
vodka with me, but Sanghwa and I drank a little whiskey. Two older men were drinking
Vodka with cucumbers and tomatoes as chasers. It’s what you do on the train. If
you drink enough, you might be able to actually get some sleep. I couldn’t
though unfortunately. The snoring was extremely load, and I couldn’t escape the
hot humid air. It was much better than the China trains though.
We spent a few days in Khabarovsk looking around at the old
buildings and checking out the museums. In one museum, there were more stuffed
dead animals than I have ever seen in my life. I was surprised to see that the
original Mongolian inhabitants of the region look exactly like the Native
Americans. The facial features and clothing were almost identical. It makes
sense that they would. The Native Americans ancestor's are the Mongolians. I was
also fascinated by the amount of communist propaganda artwork. They are proud
of their history, and they are a strong people with a great story to tell. I
also was surprised to see pictures of their very own 10th Mountain
Division group in World War II.
People are not aware of how much fighting and casualties that the Russians
endured during the war.
Our next stop was Blagoveshchensk. I still have to check on
the spelling when I type it, and I’m pretty sure I still can’t say it
correctly. This town is off of the main Trans Siberian Railway route. We
decided to go here with limited information. I could see on a map that it was
possible to cross the river to China, so it was the perfect place to say
farewell to Russia.
We found ourselves extremely welcomed by the locals. We
happened to be there during a town festival. There was music, dancing, and a
speech by the mayor. We were told it is customary for honored guests to eat
this bread that was baked for the festival. Since we were guests, we both
partook in eating some of the bread with the mayor. The girl holding the bread
was extremely nervous. She had studied English for her entire life, and yet had
never met someone who speaks English as their native language. We both enjoyed
talking to her as she was our translator during the festival.
Our next stop was China. To get there, we had to cross the
river. I was unable to get any detailed information on how to do this, so we
were completely lost. One lady told us to wait in a park with her. Eventually
her son came by. He was a university student, and his English was fairly good.
They walked with us for over a half an hour to make sure that we found the boat
dock. If it weren’t for them, we would have missed our boat. I am very grateful
for their kindness, and all of the kindness we were given in Russia.
China
As the boat landed in China, we could tell we were in a
completely different world. We were in the city of Heihe. For a city with over
a million people, it was quite difficult to get any information on this city before
we left. We found some Chinese college students that told us it was because
there really isn’t much to see there. We made it to the train station to find
out that all of the trains were sold out for the day. Our new Chinese friends
helped us get a bus to Harbin.
The bus to Harbin was a sleeper bus. Everyone is crammed
into these little reclining seats with blankets and pillows. I was not the
first person to use the blankets, or the pillows. The smell on the bus reminded
me of a dirty teenager's laundry closet. SangHwa and I were both extremely
tired, hungry, and a little sick. We were happy to get off the bus when we did.
We arrived in Harbin at about 4 in the morning. To save
money, we decided to hang out and wait for the sun to rise before we checked
into a hotel. This would allow us to check in without paying for one night’s
rent.
The city looks very European due to the fact that it was
built by the Russians. I believe that it was after WWII that the Chinese
claimed ownership of the city. Unlike Russia, the Chinese love American fast
food restaurants. Every corner has a KFC or a McDonald's. We spent our time
looking around at the different shops and watching the people. The Chinese
Wal-Mart was especially interesting.
One of the places that we saw was Unit 731, the Japanese
torture laboratory. We were shocked to see what the Japanese did to the Chinese
during WWII. Some of the experiments included being eaten alive by rats,
removing organs while being conscious, being eaten by bacteria, testing of biological
weapons on mass sections of the local population, being stretched, solitary
confinement, etc. Thousands of people were tortured to death within the
laboratory. The testing of the biological weapons killed thousands more in the
neighboring towns. None of the Japanese scientists were ever prosecuted because
they made a deal with the United States. They had to give the U.S. all of their research. The Japanese taught the American scientists everything that they had learned in exchange
for their freedom.
Our next stop was Beijing. We didn’t buy any of our train
tickets in advance. In China, there are no tickets available until 10 days
before the departure date. We ended up sitting on a bench type seat in third
class for 18 hours. We couldn’t really sleep or lay down for the entire trip.
It stunk and it was cramped. In other words, it was hell. My feet remained
swollen for hours after the train ride.
The average Chinese citizen has money now. With this new
money, they all want to go on vacation. Every national park and tourist
attraction in China has seen large increases in the fees to get in. Some of the
national parks have fees that add up to over a hundred dollars a person to see
everything. Everyone wants to see China, and it’s making everything too
crowded. The first place they want to see is Beijing!
In Beijing, we did the typical tourist things. I won’t go
into too much detail. There are millions of tourists in Beijing. It’s hard to
tell who is a tourist until you find yourself in huge lines to see the
attractions. We spent over an hour attempting to get into the Forbidden City
before we decided to go home. The amount of people crammed together, pushing
and shoving there way to the front kind of took the fun out of it.
Our next stop was Zhengzhou. We only came here in transit to
other destinations. We ended up staying at a very nice Novotel Hotel for a
couple of nights. It was at a good price, and we really needed the break from
the trains and buses. The majority of the guests in the hotel were high level
military personnel. They all drove black Audis and Mercedes. I was bored, so I
stopped into some of the high-end restaurants to take a look. One restaurant
completely reminded me of the propaganda that you would find in North Korea.
There were pictures of Chairman Mao doing friendly things like hugging
children. The entire place was communist red. The waitresses were very
beautiful.
Kung fu was created by Buddhist monks centuries ago.
Bhodhidharma was a monk that came from India and settled in China. He is
credited with helping to create Kung fu with the Shaolin monks. If you know
what to look for, his portrait can be seen all over China, Korea, and Japan. Our
next destination was to see his Kung fu school at the Shaolin Temple in the
Henan province. The monks now make lots of money on the thousands of tourists and students that come to the temple. There are
some foreigners that pay to live and train with the monks. I found it amusing
to see the full-grown adult Western men training with the young Chinese
children.
Among the grounds of the Shaolin Monks, you can observe the
students practicing their Kung fu. There is a performance that you can go to as
well. For the money, I guess it was okay. I wouldn’t recommend it to someone
unless they were planning to be in the area.
Our final destination on our trip was to Guoliangcun. This
place is famous among Chinese artists for it’s sheer beauty. The village is
located at the top of a mountain range with steep cliffs all around.
Originally, the villagers had to make a dangerous hike to get to the bottom of
the mountains. In recent times, they have built a complex, steep road to the
village. Many parts of this road are chiseled into the sides of the mountain
with cliffs that drop down thousands of feet. At the top are waterfalls and a
cave that can be explored. There was a huge military party going on when we
arrived at the village at night. They really knew how to party. The music could
be heard throughout the mountains. They also put on a good fireworks show
before they went to bed. I found them quite similar to my impression of
American soldiers when it comes to letting loose.
Visas…
We are still waiting on the Embassy to allow Sanghwa to take
her final interview for her permanent residence visa. It now looks like she
won’t be able to receive it until April 2013. This was something that came as a
shock to us. With lawyers and money, she could probably be in the U.S. right
now. We are going to wait and hope that things come through without
anymore hitches. Sanghwa came to Colorado on a three-month tourist visa. She
just returned to Korea this November.
Going Home!!
The time had finally come. We were about to fly home from
China. We had been waiting for this moment for a year. It was finally time to
get on the plane. Things got even better when they told us we were being
upgraded to first class! There was a group of Chinese students that were taking
our economy seats in the back of the airplane.
On our way home, we stopped in Seattle for the day. We
rented a car, checked out the fisherman’s wharf, ate some clam chowder, and
headed to the Boeing factory. They have tours where you can see the airplanes
being made and tested. It’s quite impressive. You are not allowed to take
photos inside, but photos can’t capture the immense size of the facility. The main assembly line is in the
largest building by volume in the world. It’s one room with thousands of people
working. At times, it was hard to distinguish the other side of the room. Maybe
it’s time for me to look at glasses…
The Great American Road Trip
After being away from America for three years, I was excited
to take a road trip. I had been craving some nature and open space without
people. Camping, hiking, and mountain biking were on my mind every day for the
last couple of years. I was also really excited to show SangHwa all that
America has to offer. I got her a sleeping bag, flashlight, fishing pole, and
a mountain bike. I was determined to show her the great outdoors.
We planned a large loop around the U.S. We started in Denver,
headed to Rifle Colorado and saw the Rifle Falls. Then we went to Fruita for
some mountain biking, stayed in Palisade for some wine tasting, saw Colorado
National Monument, then toured Bryce Canyon National Park and Zion National
Park in Utah, partied in Las Vegas, stayed in Boulder City and saw the Hoover
Dam, drove to the Grand Canyon, went through Monument Valley on the Navajo reservation, stopped in Cortez, Colorado, drove to Telluride, then Ouray for
the hot springs, went fishing in Silverton, stopped by Pine, and finally
arrived home in Denver, Colorado. The whole trip was just around 2,000 miles.
We took the old 84’ Mercury, Grand Marquis. She held up pretty good. The gas
millage, wasn’t that great though… we were averaging about 16 miles to the
gallon.
SangHwa was a trooper for going along on this huge road
trip. She got sick sometime after the Grand Canyon, so it wasn’t easy for her.
She enjoyed the trip over all. Now she has a new passion for fishing. For the
rest of the time that she was in Colorado, she wanted to go fishing every
chance we got.
Going through the Navajo reservation was another thing that
really interested her. She was fascinated by the similarities in facial
features between the Native Americans and Koreans. Both racial groups originate with the Mongolians. She was also surprised at how much the Native Americans
were mistreated throughout American history. She had no idea of the dark side to America.
I’ve been waiting for this moment for a long time. I’m happy
to be finished with teaching English, and I’m ready to start a career with my
degree in finance. In particular, I’m looking for something to do with business
analysis. I'm looking for a career path that will lead me to a position where I can participate in the financial decision making within a company. I
want to be able to use my creativity to enhance business. With my international
work experience, the idea of working with a global company is intriguing. I
like travelling, talking to people, and business development.
Before I came back to the United States, people would always
ask if I’m worried about finding a job. I really gave it no thought. I was
confident in my ability to get a job based on my previous work experience. I
had no problem getting a job as a stockbroker with Charles Schwab in 07’, and I
have a finance major to back me up.
I am now realizing that being employed in the United States
is not as easy to do as it used to be. To succeed, I will need to eventually
get my MBA, or some other type of professional certification. The United States
is in a very sensitive time.
I am confident that I will be able to get a job in time.
After all of the places I have been, I appreciate what we have here in the
U.S.A. I see too many people depressed and stressed out over their financial
state. It’s difficult to see what you really have until you see what everyone
else doesn’t have. My travels have opened my eyes to the realities of this
world. I have come back feeling like a wiser person. It has let me mature and
look at my life differently. In some ways, I am a different person now. Thank
you for reading. Until the next adventure in life, I am signing off.
