Another destination during my trip to the southern part of the peninsula was Boseong, a small town on the south western side of Korea. This town, approximately 3 hours from  Busan, is famous for its rolling hills on which green tea plants are carefully managed and harvested. Boseong green tea offers up some of the highest quality tea on the peninsula (with prices to match that reputation).

I'm a big fan of green tea flavored food  so I was excited to visit the Green Tea Plantations where I was able to try a green tea smoothie, green tea bibimbap (below) and an assortment of green tea candies.

If you know me personally or have read my blog before you probably know how much I love to try different cuisines and learn how to re-create them in my home. For me cooking is a great way to unwind after a long day at work, an enjoyable hobby and an artistic outlet. I've been fortunate to have taken cooking classes in Japan, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Thailand and Korea and so I decided to add Indonesia to the list. Finding a cooking class that is the right fit can be difficult - does the class balance cultural insight with the cooking instruction? Do you get your hands dirty or are you, the student, regulated to standing off to the side watching the instructor? And most importantly, for me, are there vegetarian dishes and if so are they popular foods adjusted for dietary restrictions or something that the locals might not recognize? The food I want to learn how to make is every day food - things people eat at home, though typically that needs a bit of tweaking so I can eat it.

I spent as much time researching cooking schools in Bali as I did hotels and guesthouses for my trip. There are a variety of cooking schools on the island, many of them located in or around the town of Ubud. Many of the guesthouses also offer cooking classes and I ended up signing up for one at the guesthouse where I stayed. Unfortunately that experience was highly disappointing so I was very thankful I also had a reservation with fellow travelers at the Green Kitchen Cooking Class.

I found Green Kitchen online when I was searching for cooking classes while still in Korea. I appreciated that they had an entire vegetarian menu in addition to a rural location outside of Ubud. The class cost 330,000 rupiah (~33USD) and included pick up and drop off in Ubud. The only catch was that you needed a minimum of 2 people and since I was traveling alone that created a conundrum. However, I was easily able to find fellow single travelers who were also interested in a cooking class on Couchsurfing and we all signed up.

So, early one morning with three other foreign tourists I hopped into an SUV and we headed away from Ubud for our cooking class.

Our first stop on the way to the cooking class was a local market (pictured above). Most people in south east Asia don't shop at grocery stores like in the United States and other Western countries. Instead they shop at small stands that are part of a larger indoor/outdoor market. Local farmers bring in products they grow on their land and people visit the market daily to pick up fresh meat and produce for their meals.

Our guide led us through the market and pointed out various points of interest, describing some items while explaining the significance of others. He also picked up a few items from the market, produce that they do not grow on their own farm.

The market was similar to those that I have been in other countries throughout South East Asia so the experience was not necessarily new to me. However, we happened upon one stall which will forever make it memorable. A man there sold handmade shadow puppets that are used to tell the Ramayana, a popular Hindu epic. These carefully carved puppets are made out of cow hide and then painted with bright colors. The price of these beautiful pieces of art? A mere $15 USD (I suspect he might have upped the price because we were foreign tourists but the price was still incredibly low). After I happily bought 3 of the puppets we made our way back to the car to the cooking school.

After arriving at the main house we were given a quick tour of the grounds and the family temple before heading out to gather fresh produce for our lunch. This involved a trek through the rice paddies that bordered the small town. If you've never seen a rice paddy up close you might be surprised to know that rice grows in water. The paddies of Bali are typically terraced with water running from the paddy at the highest elevation into those below. Naturally this means that our walk was a bit muddy and so it was not surprisingly that by the end of it were had mud caked on our shoes, up our legs and in my case on my dress (I slipped and fell).

After we made our way through the rice paddies we walked up the road to a secluded out door traditional Balinese kitchen. We sat down and enjoyed a cup of tea before our guide described the typical ingredients of Balinese food including rice, fresh vegetables, garlic, ginger, peanuts and so much more. After we had rested a bit the cooking aspect of the adventure began, we reviewed the recipes for the day and were introduced to various cooking techniques including how rice is steamed in a bamboo basket over a pot of boiling water. We also learned how to break up a coconut and grate it in order to make coconut milk and oil. During our entire lesson we could hear a religious ceremony being conducted at a Hindu temple below in the valley. The chanting offered a soothing background noise to the entire event.

Rather than bore you with the details I'll just post the photos of the cooking lesson below because I believe they speak for themselves.

My final international adventure while living in Korea was also one to which I was truly looking forward. As so many people do I have a "bucket list" of sorts, a series of things I'd like to do during my lifetime. Bali has always ranked pretty high on that list. Photos of the Indonesian island drew me in with lush green rice paddies, shimmering blue waters and Hindu culture. When I pondered where to go during my summer vacation naturally I thought of Bali and quickly booked a plane ticket and started planning out my trip.

Though I spent a significant amount of planning out this final adventure I almost missed out on it. Preoccupied with  making arrangements for this "last hurrah" I incorrectly remembered the departure time of my flight. By the time I realized what I had done I had approximately 3 hours to get to Incheon Airport, a journey that easily takes 2+ hours from Jeomchon, on a good day. This particular day was a Sunday which typically boasts more traffic in/out of Seoul in addition the weather not cooperating with sporadic rain showers. Fortunately Marize, a fellow waygookin in the area agreed to take me. I will forever be grateful to her  - it was truly one of the kindest things anyone has every done for me. We arrived at the airport with just 30 minutes to spare and I was able to check in and get through security and make my plane.

My goals for the trip were to relax, try a variety of Indonesian dishes and explore the Hindu culture of Bali. Overall I was able to achieve those goals and I think it was a successful trip but for some reason I didn't love Bali. Perhaps it was because I felt like a walking dollar sign throughout the trip - I had an especially bad experience at the Mother Temple of Besakih where a government employee harassed me continuously to hire him as a guide and I ended up leaving. I suspect that some of my disappointment also stems from the fact that Bali was one of my ideal vacation locations and it just didn't live up to the hype - it was overly touristy and catered to a type of traveler with which I do not encompass. Another factor was that I was truly looking forward to the familiarity of its Hindu rituals only to discover that the Hinduism of Bali was far removed from those of the Indian subcontinent - I honestly don't know if Indians would recognize the rites and rituals as Hindu. 

However, there were highlights during the trip like the colorful Barong performance, an incredible cooking class, the lush green scenery, gentle warm breeze and an extended day at a spa. And of course I ended up with a variety of handmade good which now decorate my apartment.

With the clock counting down I've still been slowly ticking off items on my "bucket list". Pretty high on that list was a visit to the DMZ. The demilitarized zone (DMZ) is the border between North and South Korea. It is supposed to be the most heavily armed border in the world - which isn't surprising when one realizes that technically the two countries are still at war.

The DMZ is divided into different sections - the Joint Security Area (JSA), the 3rd tunnel, an outlook post and Dorasan Train Station. There are a few tour groups which visit the DMZ visiting the various areas within the DMZ however the USO tour is supposed to be the best mainly because it includes a visit to the JSA (as do one or two others).

Naturally since the USO (Koridoor) tour is one of the best it is also one of the busiest and fills up quickly even though tickets are nearly $100 USD per person. I was fortunate to secure a spot in June and after submitting the necessary information I had a ticket. So one evening after school I traveled up to Seoul so I could visit the DMZ early the next day.

Our trip started at the USO headquarters next to Camp Kim, the U.S. military base located in Seoul. Participants must follow a strict dress protocol - t-shirts must be collared, no shorts or gaucho pants (capris?) in addition to no open-toed shoes. The enforcement of these rules varied - I saw women wearing non-collared t-shirts as well as a guy wearing shorts but I also witnessed a woman being refused on the trip because she was wearing sandals.

The guide for the trip was Brandon, the manager of the USO. We were fortunate enough to have Brandon as a guide in part because of his background - a Korean who was born and raised on the peninsula he moved to the United States at 20 and enlisted in the U.S. army in which he served for 10 years. His service enabled him to obtain U.S. citizenship and therefore disallowed him from serving in the Korean army. Being Korean he could explain aspects of Korean culture as well as share his insight on how Koreans feel about the North/South situation (most aren't for it due to North Korea's economic state). As a former U.S. soldier he could also offer some perspective on the U.S. military involvement on the peninsula. 

After the presentation we were loaded up on a bus and taken to Truce Village within the JSA. This is where North and South Korea meet and is under control of the United Nations Committee and North Korea. If you look at the picture above you can see a small raised area between the blue building - this is the actual border between the two countries. Before being permitted into this area we were given strict instructions by our US military escort such as not pointing in the direction of North Korea. We were permitted to stand at the top of the concrete stairs looking towards North Korea for 3 minutes before being herded into one of the blue buildings for 3 minutes. While we were visiting Truce Village South Korean soldiers stood guard and North Korean soldiers came out of their own building to watch us with binoculars.

After we left Truce Village we stopped at a look out point where you can see into North Korea, specifically Propaganda Village - a "town" consisting of empty hollow buildings and world's third tallest flag pole hoisted on which is a flag so massive that it weighs nearly 600 pounds. The soldiers pointed out that they realized the village was in effectively empty years ago because lights inside of the taller buildings would shine bright and fade in higher floors indicating that it was a single light on the ground floor illuminating the entire building.

After leaving the JSA and Camp Bonifas (where we left behind our military escort)  the rest of the tour consisted of a visit at the 3rd tunnel - one of many tunnels dug by North Korea found within South Korea. It is suspected that there are tunnels as far into the country as Seoul. We then visited a lookout point which you could see into North Korea and finally Dorasan Train Station - where up until recently trains ran to Kaesong Industrial Complex, a factory run jointly by North and South Korea. The factory was closed during the spring when Kim Jong Eun threatened war against South Korea and the United States. At the moment the train station is just an empty building though a woman still sells tickets (visitors can go out to the platform with a ticket) and Korean soldiers stand guard.

My visit to the DMZ (specifically the JSA) was probably one of the most interesting things I've seen or done in Korea. I was a bit surprised because I'm not a big war history buff but it was an interesting experience to see the actual border between two countries still technically at war and observe the precautions taken throughout the entire JSA.

Upon returning to Seoul and concluding the tour I set out for Itaewon, a neighborhood near Camp Kim which boasts a large selection of international restaurants and stores. As I walked there I came across a memorial park for the Korean Civil War. The park was filled with statues depicting the country being torn apart as well as military vehicles used during the war.  Below are a few photos I took at the park - I think it was a fitting end to the day.

With the clock gaining momentum on my remaining time in Korea I've decided to try to make the most of it and get out and see a few things. Due to a holiday and a random day off I ended up with an unexpected 4 day weekend in June. On a whim I checked out the cost of flights to Japan and found a ticket that was less than $200! So, I decided to spend a long weekend in Kyoto and Nagoya. It was a whirlwind trip of a roundtrip ride on the shinkansen, shrines, temples, torii and delicious food. Below are a few pictures from the weekend.

I recognize that I can be a bit loquacious and not everyone wants to sit down and read a lengthy description of someone else's vacation - blogs have replaced the boring slideshows to which travelers once subjected their friends and family. So I compiled a selection of photos from my trip - a snapshot from a favorite moment or simply a photo which  I think represents some aspect of the country I visited or the trip itself. A few of the photos are repeats from the blog entries but many are candid shots from my trips to the countryside.

It was not by accident that my last stop on my whirlwind south east Asian adventure was Cambodia. I decided to end my trip there for two reasons - 1) I knew my last few days of travel would be the highlight of my trip because I absolutely love Cambodia and 2) since I had already been there once I was going to be able to relax and spend more time visiting a couple of favorite spots as well as a few new ones.

Cambodia, a small country nestled between Vietnam, Laos and Thailand is probably best known for the grandeur of Angkor Wat, an architectural marvel, and the heart breaking legacy of the Khmer Rouge, which I saw first hand during my brief stay in Phnom Penh. As with my first visit to Cambodia this trip was woefully too short - how I wish Cambodia had the same lucrative ESL positions as Korea and Japan so I could live in such an intriguing country while also paying down some debt. Since it's unlikely that will ever happen I guess I'll just have to look forward to a return visit sometime in the future.

Though I had visited Cambodia before my first trip centered around the ruins in and near Siem Reap. I only spent a mere hour or so in Phnom Penh while changing buses. On this trip I decided to visit the small city and so I scheduled 1  1/2 days there. Regretfully this was much too short and the next time I return to Cambodia I will have t o spend a bit longer in the city so I can become more familiar with it.

After arriving in Phnom Penh and settling into the hostel my first destination was The Killing Fields, an area outside of the city. The Killing Fields were so named because it was one of the locations where soldiers for the Khmer Rogue killed so-called "enemies of the state" - typically people whose education the government deemed dangerous to its agriculture based society. Below I've posted photos and more information about my visit there.

The rest of my time in Phnom Penh was spent walking around, taking a cooking class, observing Khmer memorializing their king who had passed away a few months before and riding in a tuk tuk so I could see different parts of the city. The city itself was dusty and dirty but the people I encountered such as those in the hostel, the cooking instructor and my tuk tuk driver were friendly and warm.

In the mid-1970's the Khmer Rouge, a communist party in Cambodia, took power of the country and tried to force the population into its own skewed concepts of a proletariat paradise - an agricultural society without intellectuals, cities and the arts. The Khmer Rouge emptied the cities and forced people to return to the countryside where they were expected to farm the land and adhere to the strict policies of the controversial government. In an effort to cleanse the population of perceived dangers the Khmer Rogue tried to wipe out intellectuals, people associated with the former government and any foreign governments, immigrants from Vietnam, Thailand and the likes as well religious followers including Buddhist monks and Christians. An estimated 2 million people died during the 4 years the Khmer Rogue were in power which doesn't even take into account the atrocities against women or the children removed from their families never to see them again.

There are many killing fields in Cambodia, areas where people were executed and then buried in mass graves. The most famous is near the village of Cheoung Ek outside of Phnom Penh which is where I visited during my most recent trip to Cambodia.

The Killing Fields memorial outside of Phnom Penh has a disquieting beauty. From first glance the green landscape, the tall Buddhist stupa, the quiet pond and Cambodia's sunny blue skies give the impression of a local park however instead of the laughter of children one only hears silence except for the occasional murmur of a tour guide explaining the horrific actions that in the not so distant past took place there.

Each visitor is given an audio guide to listen to while walking around the memorial. The audio guides are available in a plethora of languages perhaps indicating the diversity of tourists that visit there or maybe because the Cambodia people are desperate for their story to be told in order to prevent the horrors of the Khmer Rogue happening again.

The audio guide which leads people through the area details what exactly occurred at the Killing Fields years ago - testimonials from people who had lived through the Khmer Rogue are given. Survivors talk about witnessing executions, women talk about the horrors and shame of being raped and even a former guard speaks about the things he was asked to do or that he saw.

During some of my travels I visited sites that are testament to the horror that humans can do to one another. I witnessed the skeletal remains of Jewish prisoners at the concentration camp of Dachau, saw photographs of death and deformities caused by the a-bomb at the Peace Memorial in Hiroshima and met a woman in Vietnam who, as a child, was one of the few survivors of the rape and murder of a dozen women at the hands of soldiers during the Vietnam/American conflict. I had the same emotional and visceral reaction to The Killing Fields as I did to those other locations.  However, at The Killing Fields the memories of the terror there literally are coming up out of the ground as it is not uncommon for visitors to come across pieces of human bone along the paths.

While the entire memorial is a disheartening ode to the evils of man the sign that was the most disturbing, the place that I suspect most visitors shed a tear was the one pictured below.

The tree above was used by soldiers in the Khmer Rogue to beat to death children in order to save bullets. Bracelets were left in memorial of the children. In a spirit house nearby a visitor left a simple origami crane, a symbol of peace in Japan which one can find by the thousands at the Peace Memorial in Hiroshima.

And inside that beautiful stupa pictured above? The bones of hundreds of people found buried in the mass graves at the Killing Fields, a tragic reminder of how cruel people can be to one another.

After an emotional albeit too short time in Phnom Penh I woke up early one morning for the long drive to Siem Reap. Compared to the van ride in Thailand this one in Cambodia was positively spacious (it helps when you don't have your backpack on your lap). The van drove along highways and dirt roads and often through small towns giving passengers a glimpse of different sights throughout Cambodia.

In the early afternoon, nearly 6 hours after leaving Phnom Penh we pulled into the local stop in Siem Reap and I hopped into a tuk tuk waiting for me and headed to my guesthouse. After a quick meal I headed out to check off a few items on my list of must-dos when I returned to Cambodia. During my four days in Siem Reap I re-visited a few of my favorite temples, spent part of the day in the countryside learning about the life of rural Khmer, enjoyed a dance performance which was based on the ancient dance form of apsara, pampered myself with a couple of spa treatments and visited a silk farm where I learned the exorbitant amount of time and effort it takes to make something as simple as a scarf.

During my first visit to Cambodia I had the opportunity to visit Kompong Khleang, a remote rural village where foreigners are a rarity. I still remember the smiles and shouts of the local children who came out to see my travel partner and me. That experience remains one of my most memorable from all of my travels. On this visit to Siem Reap I was interested in another experience away from the tourist saturated temple ruins. While flipping through a guidebook for the area I happened upon an ad for Beyond. Unique Escapes, a tour company that organizes socially responsible trips. After a brief visit to their office I decided on their country side tour where participants would learn about the lives of the average rural Khmer and take part in some type of volunteer work. The goal of the volunteer work was to assist a type 1 family - a family with no consistent source of income nor without any savings, one which typically struggles to eat daily.  Early the next morning I joined 3 other travelers and 2 guides and we drove outside of Siem Reap until all we saw were rice paddies and homes constructed of thatch. When the van finally stopped we hopped out then got into carts pulled by bullocks for a brief tour of the area.

Our assigned work for the day was to weave thatched panels for a family home. Homes made of thatch need to be re-done every few years because the building materials begin to deteriorate from the elements. The process can be lengthy - first the leaves must be collected, dried, then soaked in the pond before being dried again in the sun and then family members begin to weave the panels. However, it was slightly more difficult for this family because the mother had recently given birth and she was busy caring for her new born baby.

After a brief tutorial we began to weave our panels which proved to be slightly difficult due to the stiff nature of the material and the dullness of the makeshift needle. It was an interesting experience but sadly quite short - we only wove the panels for an hour before a brief tour of the nearby rice paddies while the guide told us more about the daily lives of the local people. After returning to our starting point the guide showed us how to make a couple of local dishes, one of which was a type of steamed salad with red ants as a main ingredient. We sat down in a clearing and enjoyed lunch before bidding farewell to the family we were there to assist and walked back to the central point of the village which had a small temple and school.

Altogether it was a good experience  and worth the $30 dollar fee (part of the money went to the family as well as a village fund) though I wish we had been able to spend more time helping the family or getting to know them. I realize it was most likely awkward for the women to have strangers at your home who didn't speak your language and were privileged simply because of the countries in which they were born so I understand the limited interactions. However, I do believe we could have woven more panels since the tour ended a few hours earlier than scheduled.

The biggest draw to Cambodia are the plethora of ancient temples which are scattered around the city of Siem Reap. The most famous is Angkor Wat, a temple which is nearly a millennium old and is the largest Hindu temple in the world. However, Angkor Wat is not the only temple in the area worth visiting - Bayon boasts dozens of carved faces of a Khmer king, Banteay Srei delights visitors with its beautiful red sandstone while Ta Prohm highlights the balance between nature and the temples.

Upon my return to Siem Reap I decided to visit a selection of my favorite temples - The Roulous Temples, Banteay Srei, Ta Prohm, Bayon and ultimately Angkor Wat. This experience was a bit different from my previous visit - in June of 2009 there were minimal tourists at the sites and I even managed to explore the Roulous temples in solitary. However, February seems to be a popular time for tour groups from far east Asian countries and I had a vastly different experience this time around amongst the hundreds of other tourists all clamoring for the same photo op. I guess an upside of the increased number of tourists is that the hawkers outside the temples concentrated more on the tour groups than the individual travelers so for the most part I could get into and out of the temples without receiving the hard sell to buy some small trinket.

Though I had to fight the crowds to see the temples I still marveled at the incredible architecture and detail of the Khmer temples and below are a few photos from my visit.

After a wonderful week in Thailand I boarded a plane for a short flight over to the country of Laos. I didn't know a lot about Laos before I went except that it was supposed to be a beautiful country with a strong Buddhist tradition. My first impressions of the country after I left the airport was that it was much less developed than even the other countries I had visited so far.

Laos is a small country in south east Asia which, like its neighbors China and Vietnam, is a communist country. It's most likely the country in which is least familiar with Westerners - Malaysia has Kuala Lumpur, Thailand is well known for its food, Cambodia has Angkor Wat while Vietnam is renown (sadly) for its war. Laos has none of those things and therefore is a bit more low key. This isn't to say it's off the tourist circuit - it is well known amongst back packers in south east Asia and was surprisingly incredibly easy around which to travel. It just means that Laos isn't over developed with Western stores, restaurants, etc and the tourists keep mainly to specific areas which include the historic city of Luang Prabang and the capital, Vientiane.

My introduction to Laos was through the town of Luang Prabang. Once the capital of the Kingdom of Laos (before it became a communist nation) Luang Prabang is a UNESCO world heritage.

Luang Prabang was probably the most enchanting place I visited during my trip. The series of French colonial buildings in the downtown had been converted into restaurants or guest houses. Lazy rivers bordered both sides of the main part of town and locals and tourists strolled along the shaded streets. Flashes of saffron robes were common sights as monks strode between temples. Once you leave town you encounter a countryside which is rich and green and abundant with sprawling farms and natural beauty.

While in Luang Prabang I enjoyed an elephant ride through a woodsy area, a boat ride down the Mekong, a cooking class, a walk through a wooded area with a towering waterfall and visits to a variety of temples. However, the highlight of my trip there was a daily ritual performed by Buddhist monks which I'll talk about below.

Early one morning in Luang Prabang I climbed out of bed while the night was still dark, showered and quickly dressed before heading out in the dark streets of the town. Though Laos is quite warm throughout the day the mornings are chilly and for the first time since leaving Korea I put on my fleece. While walking to the center of town I encountered groups of tourists also scurrying about alongside locals. Eventually the locals, mostly women, sat down next to the road, unpacking the containers they had with them and began to prepare for a daily ritual.

Laos, like most south east Asian countries has a strong Buddhist heritage. Beautiful Buddhist temples and monks clad in their saffron colored robes are a common sight in Laos. The giving of alms is an ancient tradition in south east Asia. Monks leave their temples early in the morning and walk around town during which devotees offer them sticky rice (monks are not supposed to buy food but eat what is provided them by the faithful). I saw this ritual early one morning in Thailand and again in Cambodia. However, unlike those countries where the monks go about in small groups the daily alms ritual in Luang Prabang is a ceremony which involves hundreds of monks.

The ceremony begins at dawn when the monks, in meditative silence, begin to file out of the temple and accept the offerings from devotees. The ritual has a series of unspoken rules which are guided by Buddhist beliefs and social norms. Devotees are to sit or kneel while giving alms, which typically consists of sticky rice. Women and men should be dressed respectfully - legs and shoulders should be covered. However, with the influx of tourists these unwritten rules were frequently violated and now many restaurants and guesthouses post them for foreigners. These rules were expanded to request that tourists not take flash photos because it disturbs the monks and if they are not offering alms to stay across the street. Sadly, most foreigners don't heed the rules and while I took photos from afar with my camera and telephoto lens I watched other tourists stand in front of the monks snapping pictures and otherwise creating a spectacle. It was disheartening to see a centuries old tradition ruined because some tourists are too self-absorbed to think of anything else but getting a great photo. From what I've heard and read locals have contemplated ending the tradition because it is no longer a religious ritual but a tourist photo opportunity.

The arrogant and ignorant tourists aside it was an interesting ritual to observe. As the monks quietly walk by I realized the sheer quantity of monks in the area (hundreds) and the vast age difference (from 60's-70's to children of 10 or so). I sat across a woman who patiently waited for the monks to arrive and then remained, kneeling, during the entire ritual carefully handing out sticky rice to each monk (many other devotees did not have enough food for all the monks and left before the procession concluded). Not far from this woman sat a young child who sat quietly, his hands pressed together in reverence with a small basket in front of him - a few monks removed rice from their containers and placed it in his basket - it was then that I realized he was there to receive food from the monks and probably was quite poor.

In retrospect the city of Vientiane, Laos' capital and my next stop after Luang Prabang, was a place I could've skipped - or at least only spent a day or so there. Though the capital of the country the city has a very underwhelming rundown feel with little to see or do. Unfortunately I had scheduled 5 days there because I hoped to do use it as a base for a tour in the surrounding area. However, while walking around I realized that unlike Luang Prabang there aren't many tours from Vientiane. I realized by the end of the first day that 5 days in Vientiane would be a waste but as luck would have it I woke up the next morning feeling quite sick - a high fever, muscle aches and chills and so I spent a day and a half in bed resting.The remaining time in Vientiane was spent trying to find something to do until my flight to Cambodia a few days later. This is the downside of planning a trip ahead of time with plane tickets and hotel rooms paid before hand. However, it's how I prefer to travel when out and about by myself so I don't really regret the decision. The lack of things to do was also partially my own fault because I didn't completely read up on the city in my guidebook and I missed the opportunity to visit a silk farm where disadvantaged women are taught how to weave silk.

Throughout my few days in Vientiante I spent my time wandering around the town, enjoying a variety of food (though small it does have a decent number of international restaurants), peeking into different temples and trying to avoid the rain. Though at times I feel like I wasted too much time there I do think that with less to do I was able to recharge myself a bit before the whirlwind final week of my trip.

My Malaysian adventure ended with a short flight from Kuala Lumpur to the southern Thai city of Hat Yai. Thailand is a country which  I doubt I need to really introduce - it's probably the most well known country in south east Asia because of its incredibly popular food, beautiful architecture and friendly people.

Once the plane I was on touched down I began the surprisingly easy journey from there to the town of Pattani. I had expected this portion of my trip to be a bit more difficult since this part of southern Thailand isn't exactly known for being a tourist destination and therefore fewer people speak English. However, my friends had given me wonderful advice and I easily transitioned from the airport to the bus station via taxi and from there in a van full of university students to Pattani where I traveled to for a mini reunion with fellow BSU students.

I split my time in Thailand between Pattani in the south and Chiang Mai in the north - this permitted me to see two distinctly different aspects of Thai culture - the Malay Muslim influenced culture of the south and the Buddhist centered culture of the north.

Approximately 2 1/2 years ago I met a trio of Thai students through my job at the Rinker Center for International Programs at BSU. We saw each other at different events and two of them even presented on Thailand at the Culture Exchange series that I coordinated for the department. Over time we got to know each other better and they joined the occasional international dinners at my apartment, we had dinner together at the local Thai restaurant and before they left they cooked a delicious Thai meal for myself and a few other RCIP employees. After they returned to Thailand we kept in touch through messages and posts on facebook. When I moved to Korea I knew it would only be time before I visited Thailand - and last January I found myself in a hot crowded van on the way Pattani to see them. Below is a photo with me, Mareekee, Arseeya and Nurhakeema (and her daughter).

Pattani was the biggest detour from the typical tourist circuit of South East Asia during my trip. Not many tourists make it to this part of Thailand. The area boasts a large ethnic Malay Muslim population in contrast to the rest of Thailand which is predominantly Buddhist. The state of Pattani is unfortunately a bit infamous in Thailand and abroad due to civil unrest that manifests itself in the occasional bombings (the most recent was approximately 5 months before my visit). If I understood my friends correctly the radicals who set off the bombs do so because they want the state of Pattani to be part of Malaysia with which the population shares more in common including language, culture and religion.

My friends showed me around a bit - taking me to a local mosque, an old Chinese mosque, a local night market and a popular barbecue restaurant. In between those trips I explored Pattani on my own or hung out with them enjoying a mountain of fresh fruit at the local English school that Nurhakeema and her husband own and at which Mareekee and Arseeya work.

Pattani doesn't have a lot of designated points of interest but it is a decent sized town and so each day I would wander around. Since it is an unlikely tourist destination I discovered when I walked around town that I created quite a stir - people stopped to stare at me, a falang (foreigner) and children chased after me to yell 'hello'.

While I was sad to leave my friends behind in Pattani I was incredibly excited for the next stop on my journey - the beautiful city of Chiang Mai. Located in the northern part of Thailand the city is hailed as a cultural center for Thailand with a plethora of restaurants (Thai and foreign), glittering Buddhist temples on each block, extensive night markets, local elephant training camps and settlements of hillside tribes.

Northern Thailand was exactly what one might expect of the country - sunny blue skies with lovely 80 degree weather, saffron robed monks walking along the streets and extravagant temples nearly everywhere. What I hadn't expected was the images of Ganesha (a Hindu god) I found throughout the city - whether outside of Buddhist temples positioned next to a statue of a Buddha or on a poster hanging on the wall of a business. My last morning in Chiang Mai I made my way to the small Hindu temple in the city where I spoke briefly with the Indian priest who told me that many of the regular devotees were in fact Thais themselves.

In addition to exploring temples I also took a day trip outside of town to meet some of the ethnic hilltribes including women of the well-known Karyan long neck tribe. Though the trip itself was a bit superficial at times with the guide herding us out of and into the van for brief encounters with people from the different ethnic groups, some of whom pressured us heavily to buy their goods, it did give me brief opportunities to speak with, albeit limited by language differences, some of the women.  Those short chats were one of the highlights of my overall trip.

After less than 48 hours in Singapore I hopped on a comfy private bus and crossed the border into the neighboring country of Malaysia. Malaysia is a small country in south east Asia which is split between the Malay Peninsula and the island of Borneo. I only had 6 short days in Malaysia so I decided to split my time between the cities of Melaka and Kuala Lumpur.

My first stop in Malaysia was the small city of Melaka, a UNESCO World Heritage site. The city, at one time a vibrant port city, showcases its cultural diversity through intimate ethnic neighborhoods, architecture and food. The focal point of the historic part of town is the Red Square, a cluster of red brick buildings built by the Dutch. The square is situated near a meandering river which is bordered by restaurants and bars in converted merchant buildings.Since I arrived in town on Monday I missed the weekly night market which draws large crowds every weekend. Instead I discovered that during the week the historic district of Melaka is eerily quiet with most restaurants closed by early evening, if open at all.This was a bit frustrating since the restaurants in this area were more likely to have vegetarian fare. Thankfully there was a small hole-in-the-wall that catered to the local Indian population which is where I ate a couple of different meals.

My visit to Melaka was relatively quiet and laid back - a nice adjustment after the hustle and bustle of Singapore. While there I enjoyed visits to the local Hindu temple, a boat ride down the river, a tea appreciation class, a small selection of vegetarian food and a beer or two while sitting near the river.

After a few quiet days in Melaka I packed up my bag and hopped on another bus for a trip to Malaysia's bustling capital city - Kuala Lumpur.

In Kuala Lumpur I met up with Lina, a Malay woman living in the city. We had met via couchsurfing.org, a website that aims to connect travelers and locals. Lina was kind enough to offer to show me around the city and we spent the next two days exploring all it's different sites including the Batu Caves, the national mosque, the national museum and Patronas Towers. With the help of Lina's language skills  I was also able to try a variety of tasty Malay dishes including the incredibly spicy and sour assam.

While the Batu Caves was the highlight of my short visit to Kuala Lumpur (which I detail below) the visit to the national mosque was a unique and eye opening experience. The mosque is only open during set time periods for non-Mulism visitors and the dress code is strictly enforced. If a woman is not fully covered she must wear an abaya, a loose flowing gown, and all women must wear a hijab, a head covering (see the picture below). Men also are required to wear modest dress though they are not required to cover their heads. The mosque itself is a beautiful building with an interesting syncretization of traditional Islamic cultural elements and Malay design integrated into a sleek and modern building. Within the building we observed people praying and a classroom full of children singing verses from the Qur'an.

My favorite part of my trip to Malaysia was a morning visit to the Batu Caves. Located on the outskirts of Kuala Lumpur the Batu Caves are a sacred site for the local Hindu population. Inside and around the caves are Hindu temples dedicated to Murugan, Siva and other deities. One of Malaysia's largest annual festivals is held at the caves - Thaipusam, a popular Tamil festival which draws thousands of Hindus to the Batu Caves.

Visitors to the caves walk there from the train station along a road with stalls set up selling Indian sweets, garlands of flowers and fresh coconuts. Once you arrive at the entrance you need to climb nearly 300 steps to get to the caves themselves and visit the temples inside.  Meandering amongst the tourists and devotees are wild monkeys which I was told are attracted to the crinkly sound of plastic bags and will snatch them from visitors in order to consume the contents.

Our visit to Batu Caves permitted me to observe disaporic Hindus practicing their religion. I was even welcomed by the priests to participate in aarti and archana and was blessed by the priests at different temples.