Temples of Angkor

Angkor Temples - check!

hello hello,

That is just us checking off a giant sight that we had to see on this trip, and giant it was. The temples of angkor stretch for miles and miles over several different sites. Once inside one of the sites you had several different temples, some at different levels of decay to examine, yet all left us in awe. The incredible detail, which still survives today, is a mere fraction of the beauty that these temples most of held in their prime. They are a testament to the level of devotion their creators had for "the gods".

Now with that being said, the impact that this visit had on us both will likely only be properly conveyed in person, so this blog will not do. But fear not, as we took roughly 600 pictures between the two of us and we are creating a "flickr"account to get them up, along with some others that we haven't posted...I know I know we need to get pics up, and we both unfourtunatly didn't pack our camera cables so we have been surviving on finding internet cafe's with adapters for our cards. Luckily we have one here and they are being put up as i type this, so enjoy.

We will be staying in siem reap for another couple of days to soak up the sun and let the wonders we have just seen, sink in.
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I paused in this post in the hopes that we would get our pictures up on flickr, but do the the "high speed"interent here we are struggling...but there are at least 3 up on flickr right now...our user name is : jay_dejager and we will alert you when we update that account...

anyway, we love/miss you all

jay/maeve

...bamboo train, 394 steps and dark cave with a dark history...

hello, hello

well, after our first night in battambang we dove head first into a day of excursions. After consulting our guide book and a group of friendly irish folk, we put together our own tour with 3 stops on our agenda. Luckily our hotel has the most english speaking tuk tuk drivers in the city and we negotiated a driver to take myself, maeve, cathal and lindsay for the day, for a mere $15US. Quite a good deal considering the tour would last from 11am to roughly 6pm...a long day for a small tuk-tuk to take and not break down...more on that later.

Anyway, after grabbing a couple fresh bagettes, some water and fruit we set out on our adventure with no expectations in mind. The first stop on our tour was the "bamboo train". The railways in cambodia are quite old and for the most part are not used except for the purpose of taking tourists on a ride through the rural country side. Now let me first lay out what this "bamboo train"really is. My advice to everyone is that when you expect something an asia, even if you except nothing, you should excpect even less, in this case there couldn't be much less. There are two axils, neither attached to each other and a board made with thin bamboo, roughly 6 feet by 10 feet placed ontop of the axils with grooves to hold it "firmly" inplace. The heart of this train is a motorcyle engine loosly attached to the bamboo plank with what apearred to a be a thin washer belt to drive the back axil. Despite the 4 pillows they gave us to sit on, it was quite the bumpy ride. After a short haggle of the price, $3 each, we hopped on and with a roar-er-putter of the engine, we were off. Now having said to not expect much, i can safely say that we got so much more than we imagined. The beauty of rural cambodia could only be seen while riding an old bamboo train, with the scents and butterflies blowing by your face.

The ride went on for roughly 15 mins untill, up ahead, on this single track we see another bamboo train coming right at us. As we slowed down it became quite clear why the train was as simple as it was, because after we got off ours, our 2 conductors simply picked up the train, placed it on the ground and removed the two axils and we were no longer in peril, until a little futher on...a somewhat bigger train presented itself in front of us...one that was not made of bamboo but was transporting it, by the tonnes. So as we jumped off and to the side we were warned this time to stay far back as the doors tend to swing open of this 20 car train roared by. It looked like the tracks were used by locals after-all.

Once we continued on our train we came to the end of the line where their were some shops waiting for us, but it was a couple of kids which lured us down to come see what their mom was doing...knowing we were safe and being told of this before we followed and came across 3 brick kiln's which we roughly got the idea that this is how they make the bricks for the town...they take the mud of the land, mix it with ash of the grains that they burn and allow it to dry. Then they build a giant chimmney with the dry bricks and burn the grains in the bottom to create an even stronger brick...and the process is then repeated. Quite interesting, quite simply, yet very effective as they had thousands of bricks waiting to be shipped. After handing our several canadian flag pins to the kids, one too few which resulted in tears of course, we were back down the track and to our waiting tuk-tuk driver who was having a nap while we were away.

Back on the bumpy, bumpy road and with an hour of driving ahead of us, we all delved back into the beauty that is the cambodia country side, a simple life that seems to be apart from the rest of the universe. Every little house or shack or four walls we passed we were greeted with big smiles, waving hands of children and "hello's!" as it is all the english most cambodia's in those parts know. Whatever it was, we all started to realize that the tuk-tuk ride alone was worth the $15.

Our next stop was a temple located at the top of a mound, quite high jutting out of the flat grounds which surround it. Hailed as the inspiration for the angkor temples, likely only by the locals because as incredible as it was, it seems to pail in comparision to what lays before us, regardless, it was 394 steps to the top and off we went...As we began our ascent, 3 locals kids with fans ran behind us and followed us up, all the while flapping their fans at our calfs to cool us off. roughly 3/4's of the way up we stopped on a flat area and sat, to which the kids sprung over and began to massage our legs, shoulders and backs...we knew what they were after but were just grateful that they were working for it, and it felt damn good. After our massage, we made the last push and reached the summit to find 5 giant pillars each with carvings adourning their sides and areas inside for prayer or mediation. All 5 were in quite rough shape and their aging was quite evident, but the view of the countryside was incredible and the peace found at the top was worth the climb. After taking some pictures, which one of the boys took me to all the best photo spots, again just working for what he wanted...he knew he would get it. After taking some time to take in our surroundings and feeling the clarity which overwhelms you when you feel so small in the grand scheme of things, we descended the 394 steps, fanning continued of course, untill we reached the bottom. Gave each child a $1, thanked them and headed for some water. One of the little girls caught eye of another group about to climb and she fanned away yet again, gotta make a buck.

Once ready to go we found our tuk-tuk driver again, this time he hd found a hammock to relax in before he jumped to his feet for us. "Another hour", he tells us and we all settle back into our home for the day, ready for the bumps, the dust and the simling faces (not just ours, but of the people we pass).

Our final stop of the day is a cave, used during the khmer regime as a killing hole. Not as cheery as the previous stops, but a part of our trip and the histroy of cambodia that cannot be ignored, nor should it. The simling faces of the kids seem so much brighter knowing that merely 30 years prior there was no future for the country let alone and idea that they may have even been born, yet it is here that we found the most edearing child of all we have encountered, and he was our 12 year old tour guide.

As we arrived and got out of our tuk-tuk, there wasn't the same mobbing that has occured prior of people trying to sell us anything, just one child offering to guide us up the mountain to the cave. Unsure at first, he conviced us that we may get lost, and really he was just too nice to send away so he lead us. He is 12 years old, studying english an hour a night at an english school and working to pay for not only his english but his family. With that being said, his english was incredible for someone of his age in cambodia and likely the best of anyone we had encounter yet. As we strated the trek, we picked his brain about cambodia, from its weather to life here and he gladly opened up telling us things we didn't ask but were quite interesting. He knew his history as far as guiding us to our destinations, and of the khmer era, but it seemed that he could not fully grasp the scale of destruction that took place before him, simply because of his age. Yet he lead us up to a prison turned temple, describing how there were educated people held prisoner in small quarters essentially waiting for their execution. Roughly 5 - 10 a day were taken from the prison and walked up the mountian to a giant whiole in the ground, they were then brutally murdered usually with a machette, with their bodies left to fall into the cave. As we began to walk down into the cave, a painting depicted the killings and gave us a grave understanding as to what took place.

As we entered the cave our tour guide slide down the railing, saying this was the easy way, this act alone really drove home how he may know his histroy but is likely disconnected from the actually acts which took place here. The finally rested place of those murdered here was falling into this cave, and he merely slid down as if it was his basement, but as we said he is 12. Regardless, as we descended it became extremly clear how savage a history this country has seen. The remains of nearly 2000 people are still there encased in a glass and gold container with writings of events which transpired in this place. The bodies would gather on the ground in the cave until moved and disposed of by the khmer soldiers. Roughly 2-3 million people were killed under their regime, the boy''s grandmother being one of them as he later told us.

We spent quite a while in silence in the cave trying to understand how this could of been done over and over every day, untill we had our share and made the climb back up and out.Along the trail back to our tuk-tuk we talked more to the boy about his schooling, and what it cost for english school for him. He told us it was 400baht a month, roughly $13...not much but when the average monthly wage in camabodia is $25US, it becomes quite clear why they cannot speak the language.

As we reached the bottom we gave our thanks to the boy and each gave him 100baht, in hindsight we wish we had gotten his contact info in hopes of sending him money untill he finished school, likely he doesn't have a postal address as most do not in cambodia, but we both feel that we want to do more when we get back home, and not to loose the feeling we have now.

Anyway, as we got back onto the tuk-tuk for the last time, we were all dead silent the ride home...that was untill, we hear a crack and see our driver pull us into a driveway. Very confused we get out and see that the frame of our tuk-tuk has snapped and we are at the local welder...basically the only person around with a welding kit. The man jumps into action wearing onyl a thin sheet around his waist and begins to weld the frame shirtless...he did have glasses on so ill give him that, it wasnt until and elder man with a shirt came out, that he took over the weld job and we sat, mouths covered in the dusty cloud of the road.

After roughly 15 mins, we were back on the road and quickly at our guesthouse...we thanked the driver for a great day and all retreated to our rooms to take a much needed shower and clean the dust and irt which was now in every crack imaginable. By far one of the most memorable day in Cambodia thus far.

lots of love
jay/maeve

Khmer love

Jomripsu! (A Cambodian greeting)

Sorry it has been a little while since we have posted. We have been so captivated with the beautiful Kingdom of Cambodia that we haven't gotten much of a chance to get onto the internet. As such, we will be trying to catch up on our experience in Cambodia thus far, and as one may imagine, this will take a few hearty posts to get the stories down.

We began our sojourn to Cambodia last Friday morning, leaving our comfortable guesthouse on the river in Chanthaburi, Thailand to set out via minibus to the Cambodian border. I know we posted last on Wednesday that we would be leaving Chanthaburi the next day, Thursday, but we had such a lovely dinner on Wednesday night - and after a long day of travel already - we decided to postpone the border crossing until Friday morning. We spent the day walking around Chathaburi, experiencing the sort of sleepy town that makes up a lot of Thailand's country. Finishing off our afternoon playing a heated round of Brisk and enjoying some Singha beer, we met a couple, Cathan and Lindsay (Irish and American, respectively) arriving at our guesthouse who were set to travel to Cambodia the next day on relatively the same route we were planning to do. The four of us enjoyed dinner together before heading off to bed to ensure we would all be ready for the full day of travel ahead of us.

The next morning, passports, passport photos, money and tenacity in hand - we headed to the minibus station, determined to have a smooth border arrivial into Cambodia. We had to negotiate with the minibus driver on how much the hour and a half ride to the border would cost us. He said 150 baht - I said 100 baht. He said 130 baht - I said 100 baht. Finally, he agreed and told us we would be leaving at 11 a.m. Because we had about fifteen minutes to kill, Jay and Cathal ventured off to buy water. Lindsay and I chatted for a while in the bus, until we decided to stand outside the bus and get some air - afterall, we had a long enough bus ride in the crammed, stuffy thing, no use in prolonging it needlessly. We stood outside the bus, waiting for the boys to return, when the driver got into the bus (smiling at us in that true Thai fashion) and started the engine. In true typical Maeve scenario form, I said, "wouldn't it be funny if he just drove away with all our stuff?" to which Lindsay chuckled and replied ""yeah, what could we really do?"". Of course, as she completed uttering the words...he drove off. Just like that - with all our packs, our purses and knapsacks. We looked at each other nervously, until my nervousness turned into furiousness which I unleashed on the man who I had bargained with. "Where is he going?!!!!!" "He come back. He he he he. Mi pen rai! ("nevermind!"). As Jay and Cathal returned, we saw their happy faces turn from confused to worries as they noticed the van was gone. We sat waiting for the return of the bus which luckily for us about 15 minutes later returned with one passenger and a full tank of gas, and our packs intact. Phew.

We made the journey to the border, stopping to pick up people in many villages who work or visit family in Cambodia. During the rule of the Khmer Rouge, many Cambodias fled by foot to Thailand and as a result a large amount of Cambodians have settled and raised family on the bordering Thai towns. We arrived at the Cambodian border, apprehensive because of all the horror stories of being swindelled we have heard. The border which we arrived at is not used often by tourists, mostly by commuting Cambodians and Thais, so we knew this would either work for or agaisnt us. We proceeded to fill out the necessary visa forms and give copies of our passport photos. The border official asked for the $20 American (as they accept American money everywhere in Cambodia, as well a Riel - the Cambodian currency) or 900 baht - which is more than 20 dollars American but they were not willing to budge on that. $20 is the advertised price for a Cambodian visa, so if we could get our hands on some American money we could make it across without getting swindelled as we had feared. Noticing a group of older British travelers passing into Thailand the other way, we decided to ask if we could switch baht for dollars since they would be using baht soon enough and we needed the American...a very kind woman traded with me.

I said, "1400 baht is rougly 40 dollars American, a bit more...if you would trade with me, I would be very grateful, because this border man ain't budging." She agreed.
I handed her (what I thought to be) 1400 baht and she traded her 40 American and we both went on our merry way. Once we were done our visa exchange, Jay and I assessed our financial situation...and we were looking much better than anticipated. As I stood examining our funds, I realized that in my haste, I had handed the British woman a thousand baht bill and four 20 baht bills, not four 100 baht bills which would have made the appropriate exchange...and she was long gone. Ooooooooops. Turns out the only person swindelled at the Cambodian border was the woman who traded currencies with me! Teehee.

That was that, and we were in Cambodia. The border was sparse, a few cows lazily grazing and a few taxi drivers eagerly awaiting to know our destination. We met one taxi driver who told us he would take us to Battambang (where we had planned to stay that night) for 300 baht each, a fine deal considering the journey was over three hours on a notoriously unkempt, bumpy and dusty road.

Despite the condition of the road, we couldn't of asked for a finer start to seeing Cambodia. We traveled along a path that is not usually traveled by foreigners and so many Cambodians stopped and stared as we bumped along the road, to the sound of sweet Cambodian "beats"(provided by our driver - who looked like a Cambodian version of Terrance Howard). The sights along the way where too much to take in all at once, but we did our best. We saw chickens plucking away at the earth (and of course I thought of my mum), we saw cows, people lazing in hammocks, beautiful mountains and palm trees. Eventually, once we had passed the town of Pailin (where most retired Khmer Rouge leaders are now living), we noticed a lot of red signs with little skull and crossbones on them...of cours we knew what lay beneath them - landmines, and plenty of them. At one point, we passed a row of the little signs, one of which had a group of people standing around. As we got closer, we saw beneath the sign a huge cavity in the ground, at least 5 feet deep and 8 feet across. Our driver told us that the mine had exploded that very morning, killing three people.

Cambodia is very much moving past the horrific genocide which tore the country apart between 1975-1979. It is moving past the American bombs the preceeded (and perhaps prompted) the genocide, and it is moving past the famine that plagued the country after the genocide. But it must be hard to move past it all when deadly reminders are still scattered throughout the countryside...

As we drove along, we contemplated how much this small country has had to overcome in the last forty years. Over 40% of Cambodia's population is under the age of 15, which means almost half the country is free of the horrific images that their parents and grandparents must see when they close their eyes. Almost an entire generation of people in Cambodia were killed, around 2 million people in a population of just 11. The government has yet to sort itself out, while it claims to be democratic the particular ruling party still controls everything imaginable through corruption. Tourism has boosted the country's economy for the first time and that is a good thing.

We drove along looking into the faces and smiles of all the people we passed, into their humble roadside dwellings, smelling fish drying in the sun and garlic cooking in pans. Our driver told us he had finished high school and not gone to university...but that his son, the eldest one of five, was going to be going to the one unversity in Siem Reap. There is a great hope and future for this country yet.

We arrived in the town of Battambang, which is still very much influenced by the French occupation which ended in the early 1950s. The French left behind a few things, namely: Large riverside French boulevards, French architecture and, best of all, baguettes! They are everywhere, and we have happily indulged.

Khmer food is also very delicious. Amok is Khmer curry - not so spicy as Thai and less potent than Indian curry, but very aromatic and flavourful.

Arriving to our hotel (which was "helpfully suggested" by our driver - don't get me started...) we plunked down in our $5 a night room for a while, until we explored town, ate dinner and drank Ankor - the national beer of Cambodia, of course.

Eating dinner on the streetside, we were accosted by beggers - some children, some mothers with children, some elderly folk - I guess we had the look of newbies because we seemed to be the concentration of their begging. Cambodia is still very much an improverished country and beginning in cities is quite prevalent.

We had arrived in Cambodia, and eagerly awaited our next day's exploits. In the mean time, a few beers and a comfortable bed awaited us, so after our drinks we returned to the room to hit the hay.

Of course, we returned to a bed infested with ants. The roughing it had begun.

Happy Chinese New Year! The year of the Ox....

love (post 1)
Maeve/Jay

Onwards Onwards...Cambodia awaits

Hello everyone!

It has been a little while since our last blog and that is mostly because we were lounging around the pool at doug and tom's beachhouse near pattaya, here in Thailand. Since it is along the eastern coast of the Gulf of Thailand, it made for a perfect (and uber luxurious) stop over between our journey to Cambodia.

Alas, it was time to pull ourselves away from the comforts of the beach house (and from YAT, the sweetest puppy who will one day guard the beach house) so we could get a move on. We left for the beach house last Friday night and this morning, Wednesday, we set off on our journey towards Cambodia. Doug and Tom were so wonderful to allow us to stay at the BH while they went back to Bangkok and reality and something called a job? Not sure about that one though. Anyway, as I said it was time to get on with the journey so today we woke up and took a small pickup bus into town, where we caught a larger (but somehow much more sketchy) "aircon" bus (they really throw around the aircon word in thailand, gotta love 'em!) to Rayong which is a small town near some of the beautiful islands on the gulf. Once we had made it to Rayong, it was straight on a bus to Chanthaburi - where we are sitting in our guest house drinking singha to relive some of the heat.

And boy, it is hot. When we first arrived, the Thais were complaning it was "too cold" for them. They looked at Jay and I as if we were crazed apes jumping about in the "cold" weather (25-30 is no good.) Gladly, the temperatures of this dry season have returned to normal and we are enjoying some hot hot hot dry dry dry sunny weather, but I will take anything over waiting for the 504 streetcar in the miserably cold weather (sorry Rory!)

But I digress...

Being back in Thailand has been wonderful, I knew I had missed it a great deal but you can't really know the wonderful feeling that fills you up in this country. One day here and Jay felt it already too. Haven't been back to my old teaching town yet, planning on doing that on our next round in Thailand, which should be around the 11th of February because Karl is coming to visit! Woot! And after a few days of partying with karl, my mum is coming too! Well, we are some spoiled travelers to be sure.

Tomorrow we will be heading out on the several stop mission to Cambodia. We will take a bus from here (Chanthaburi) to the border of Thailand and Cambodia, where we will cross into Cambodia on a hopefully painfree visa experience. We will travel from the border to a town called Pailin where we will not be staying (what kind of tourism agency advertises a town as the move heavily land mined town in Cambodia!?) but moreso because it is a less exciting alternative to Battambang, a city a few hours outside of Siem Reap. We will probably stay there a few days until the next big move over to Siem Reap, where we will see the temples of Ankor (and be thinking of Aunt Rachele the whole time!)

We are well, safe and full of pad thai. We are missing everyone at home, but, the fun has only started...

Love love and more love, from Thailand....

Maeve/Jay

ler

Welcome to Bangkok...

Sawat-Dee Krap!

Hello! for those not fluent in thai. Not to say that we are, but maeve's is coming back to her just in time for our stay in country #2. We are currently staying with our second set of gracious hosts, doug and tom. I know, I know we are still really roughing it. We are currently staying in 'Bang Phli', a small suburb of bangkok, a short skytrain ride away from what can only be described as the 'insane-yet-practical' traffic of downtown bangkok.

Being that it is roughly 30 degrees outside, and that we are heading to doug and tom's beach house for the weekend shortly, we wanted to give a quick post to update our current location but not a long one as to make everyone too jealous back home.

Here are a few pics of the end of korea, and the 'rough' living we were greeted with here in bangkok.

Much love,
Sawat-Dee Krap!

jay/maeve

a short vid...hope it works

The best damn pedicure this side of moscow...

I presume the title alone would indicate that I, Maeve, am writing this post - but do not be fooled, Jay had one of these special pedicures too and loved it just as much as I did.

Nick and Nicole, our wonderful hosts here in Korea, brought us to a bar in the university district of Kyueng Sung where $3.50 will get you a big ol' bottle of beer and a pedicure...not just any pedicure though, this one is a very unique and you don't have to make any awkward conversation!

Once you have walked up onto a wooden platform in the middle of the bar - which is surrounded by a small pond full of fish - you are invited to wash your feet in one of the several small sinks that are located in the platform. Once your feet are happily cleansed, you move on to the highlight of the pedicure...the removal of all the dead skin and the smoothing of the foot. Walking back to the pond full of fish, you simply need to plop your feet in and the fish come a runnin - er - a' swimmin, hungrily in search of the dead skin of which they feed delightfully. It tickles (!!!!!) but it doesn't hurt as the fish are merely sucking at your feet. At one point, I had over 35 little fishies sucking away at my feet! We kept our feet in the water for around 25 minutes until it seemed the fish were losing interest, we took this to be a sign that feeding time was up!

Pulling our feet out of the water, I was certain I had and never would have another pedicure so effective - those little fish did work! No, your feet don't smell fishy afterwards but you are treated to an aromatherapy soak for your toesies once everything is said and done.

And that, my friends, is the best pedicure this side of Moscow.

We are leaving for Bangkok in a few hours - Jay just checked the weather there and in Toronto, and we are feeling pretty fine, not gonne lie! 28 degrees in Bangkok tomorrow, clear sunny skies...I will take it.

What's winter again?

Lots of love from the smug patrol!!!


xoxoxo

Maeve/Jay

bangkok in our sights...

Greetings all,

It has been some time now since our last post, seeing how it was about our epic trek, we needed some time to recover and take it all in. Now that we have our feet firmly underneath us again, and some downtime at one of the fine "smoke/spit free" internet cafe's...as i type this someone really hocked one in the back, something we are not quite used to but will become so by the end of this all...anyway, we are quite ready to venture to some warm weather and sandy beaches. While we have really enjoyed our stay here in busan, nick and nicole have been more than gracious hosts, we know that the time has come to really dive into the south.

With that being said we have booked our next flight to bangkok departing jan 14th. Upon arrival we will be greeted by doug and tom, maeve's parents friends who reside in bangkok and have offered to put us up for a couple days. The weekend will be spent at their beach house...I know really roughing it still, tough, tough life. We are hoping to be re-energized by the bountiful fruit and endless amount of sunlight which awaits. As much as we have "enjoyed" the kim-chi with every meal we need a change, for both our sake and our bowels.

We hope all is well back home, we really love getting to see comments from everyone along the way. It gives us an energy we cannot find anywhere else here. If we could have you all in our backpacks we would, but for now these words and the photos we post will have to suffice. We are debating opening a flicker account to get some more pics up there...but we will keep you posted on that endeavour.

We will likely have one post left in us here in busan before we depart, but until then we are sending as much sun and warmth through this screen to melt that ice and snow which must be building up around you.

ciao for now,

jay/maeve

Hiking Beomosa and the UN Cemetery

Hi everyone!

Well, another day down and all of a sudden we have been here a week.  We have really taken to Busan, whispers of returning in the fall to teach English have commenced...but, of course, we have a bit more traveling to do before we can make any more large life decisions.  Going to post some pictures from the fish market we wrote about before, but also our hike.

Our hike two days ago was a big hit - and by big, we mean big.  Nick was misinformed as to both the amount of time it would take us to do the hike and the terrain.  3.5 hours downhill turned into 6 hours up and down and up and down... suffice to say we are all very sore but the hike and temple was so worth it at the end.  

We began our hike with a cable car ride up the mountain (hence why we believed we would be taking a hike downhill, but anyway...), which provided us with some of the most beautiful views of Busan.  Beginning our hike, we stopped often and asked the passing Korean hikers for the direction towards the temple.  If they weren't drunk - which a relatively large chunk of them were! - they would smirk and hesitantly tell us the direction of the temple.  We assumed their hesitancy was because we weren't adhering to the fashion trend of the mountain, everyone was wearing North Face hiking gear with high tech hiking poles and boots.  Little did we know...

As we began our descent down the mountain, a kind Korean man who spoke enough English offered to walk down the mountain with us, giving us direction to the temple Beomosa.  He continually told us "it is far, it is far..." and we eagerly said "oh yes, we know!", thinking we had about two hours ahead of us.  Knowing we didn't understand just how far the temple was, he pointed towards an even large mountain which stood ahead of us.  "Temple is OVER that mountain!"  Jay and I looked at each other skeptically but the four of us continued on and once our kind friend left us, we stopped and decided whether or not we should go on.  According to our friend, we had at least 4.5 hours of hiking ahead of us and the sun had begun setting.  Hmmm...

Yet we carried on, pushing up and up hill, periodically cursing Nick for his ill-informed notion of a "downhill trek".  But eventually we silently pressed on, all of us determined to conquer what had now become our Everest.  (I certainly have a flair for the dramatic, don't I?)  Finally, we reached what seemed to be the peak of the mountain just as the sun was setting.  We were breathless (literally and figuratively), enjoying the view of Busan from so up high, and feeling very proud of ourselves for making it up the mountain.  I proclaimed "this must be the top!" and we jovially carried on, expecting a much less strenuous route downwards.

How how naive we were.

After my premature proclamation, we climbed two more summits - steeper and higher than anything we had yet climbed.  On top of it all (mountain pun!), the sun was setting and we were quickly losing light.

Finally, once the downhill pursuit began, we had lost all our light and if it weren't for two flashlights we had packed, well, we would have been LE SCREWED.  We were all exhausted, we had been hiking for four hours and stress began to set in as darkness fell on the rocky path downwards.  Unlikely for us, we had reached the most treacherous terrain where the path literally fell off onto rocks of varying sizes and stability.  

In the distance, we could hear the sounds of drums and gongs and could see the faint lights of Beomosa but we had still become hopeless.  We stumbled upon a small path which lead up to a small temple, which was obviously closed to the public... but we were desperate.  As soon as we began to approach the small temple, we heard an aggressive dog bark.  A white dog appeared in the entrance of the temple, but we soon realized that he was merely alerting his masters of our arrival and so we cautiously entered the temple grounds.  Our eyes, then so accustomed to darkness, widened at the dozens of lanterns that shone in the courtyard of the temple.  Colourfully hanging in strings along the courtyard, they were the most beautiful lights we had ever seen.  We called out but no one came for many minutes, until finally we saw movement in the main building of the temple.  We noticed a large golden statue of the Buddha and instantly understood we had interrupted a monk during prayer.  He hurried out, understanding our distress and attempted to communicate with us that the big temple we sought was but 7 minutes away and we would soon be off the rocky path.

We thanked him profusely and turned to continue on.  The monk called to us and Nick returned to see what he wished to tell us.  The monk handed Nick a pair of mittens, in hopes of giving us warmth with what little he had to give away.  We were re-energized, we continued on and sure enough, we reached Beomosa within minutes.  All of our soreness and fatigue faded away, as we entered the temple grounds with hundreds of lanterns and the sounds of monks chanting.  The four of us sat for a long time, watching and listening, having our own numinous experience at the hand of the Holy Buddha and his sacred grounds.

The pictures we are posting are mostly from that hike - an experience we felt we really worked for.  I suppose part of growing older is not only learning our limits but testing them and constantly amazing oneself to the power of body, mind and spirit.

Finally, today we visited the U.N. memorial cemetery here in Busan.  Almost all the Canadian soldiers (and many, many other nationalities) who fell in the Korean War are buried in Busan at the beautiful monument dedicated to them.  We were not expecting to be so moved but we were moved to tears.  Most of the ages of the Canadian soldiers were 20-25 years old and knowing they traveled across the world to an extremely foreign country to uphold the values of the freedom of the United Nations was very emotional for us.  We attempted to read each soldiers' names, as it was the least we could do to honour their sacrifice.  When will we ever learn with war?

That is all for now.  Much love from Korea,

Maeve and Jay

Ahn nyeong!

Ahn nyeong everyone,  (that is hello in Korean, in case you hadn't guessed!)

Has been a while since our last post, but we have been busy experiencing all the wonders that Busan has to offer!

One of them includes Korean BBQ - which we have delved into and have enjoyed several times now.  Of course, Jay's inner grill master comes out and he cooks up all the delicious meats and veggies that are included in your dinner with BBQ.  Sitting on the floor, enjoying Hite (a Korean beer) and wonderfully fatty BBQ meat has only been one of the delicious culinary wonders we have experienced.

I was warned, before we came, about Kimji.  Kimji is essentially the national dish in Korea - said to cure cancer, SARS, "fan death"... every ailment imaginable really - that Koreans eat with every meal.  It is usually pickled cabbage in a spicy sauce although sometimes it gets tossed up with radish.  It has a bad reputation I will admit but the first dish I had here in Busan was Kimji Ji Geh - which is Kimji soup.  As most of you know, I have a passion for spicy foods and this soup was more than enough to satisfy my desire (it is not appropriate for little girls, sorry Kev).  But I digress...

Yesterday, we went to the fish market which is characteristic of Busan.  A bustling and busy market that sits right next to the ocean, ensuring the fish is fresh and often still too lively as they have their heads chopped off.  Aside from fish there was plenty of squid, octopus, turtles and shrimp...we took many photos and videos so we will be posting them soon, of course they will never do justice to the beauty of that fish market.

Today we will be hiking to Beomeosa, a Buddhist temple that was built in 678 which sits beneath one of the many mountains that nestle Busan.  The hike should take about 3.5 hours.  I will let you know if we survive!

Much love from this side of the planet, and from Sunday morning.  Happy Brunching! xoxo

Maeve and Jay