Visiting Ben; Ko Kret Pottery Village

Our friend and my first swing dance teacher, Ben, lives in Bangkok. The first night we arrived, Ben met us at the hotel and showed us around a bit by taking us to an amazing Thai seafood restaurant. We sat right on the river and ate delicious curry as we caught up on Ben's life since we'd last seen him at the wedding.


Dinner with Ben. We made his girlfriend wait too long and she went home before we met her--oops!
Ben recommended a day trip to the small traditional pottery island, Ko Kret, which was just a little north of Bangkok proper and accessible from the main river. Although we had wanted to find an independent boat to take us there so we could explore at our leisure, we were only able to find a group tour boat. It was ok because we got to see a number of small temples and some interesting scenes along the river, but we only had one hour to explore the island of Ko Kret itself and both Min Gi and I felt like that wasn't really enough time.


One of the royal longboats housed in the Royal Boats Museum

A pottery artist works on Ko Kret.

Typical family home along the river running through Bangkok. This one is pink! Yay, pink!

Ko Kret and other Bangkok Nights

And so I have arrived at the end of our honeymoon travels. It was an amazing two weeks, through two beautiful countries. We ate a ton of awesome food and saw lots of cool stuff and even came back with matching tattoos. I think we're going to do this honeymoon thing every year!

The Sights of Bangkok

In front of the Royal Palace.
We finished our honeymoon in Bangkok. We stayed on a nice hotel just off Khao San Road called Rambuttri Village Inn--our only hotel of the entire trip with air conditioning and a pool, but both were worth it by this point in our journey.


The stone guardians had such funny expressions.
On our first full day in the city, we simply walked around the city and visited the three main historical/cultural attractions: The Royal Palace which houses the "Emerald" Buddha (actually jade), Wat Pho a temple that houses the famous gold Reclining Buddha, and across the river Wat Arun or the Temple of the Dawn.


The huge Reclining Buddha statue of Wat Pho.
The day we visited, there were supposed to be some huge political protests and all the taxi drivers told us not to go downtown, but other than a strong police presence near The Royal Palace, there was absolutely nothing going on. I was actually a bit disappointed because it could have made for some cool pictures.


Min Gi attempts to blend in with the giant guardians of the Royal Palace.

The steps of Wat Arun, Temple of the Dawn, are quite steep. They reminded us a bit of the steep climes at Angkor.

After viewing the Royal Palace in Cambodia and the temples in the capitol city, the obvious difference in the economic situations of the two countries is very noticeable. Too bad they have to be practically at war with each other over sites of their mutual heritage.

Bangkok Sights Album

Ko Chang: An Island Paradise

Unbelievably blue and warm, swimming in the water here was more like soaking in a giant, picturesque bathtub.
After we finished touring Phnom Penh, we hopped a bus that would take us through the land border between Cambodia and Thailand on the Gulf of Thailand all the way to the ferry and then on to the island of Ko Chang, Thailand. Ko Chang is rather large, with several beaches along the coast and lots of mountainous jungle and waterfalls in the center. We stayed in a tiny, rusted-out, dirt cheap bungalow with no air conditioning or hot water, located a five minute walk from Lonely Beach for four nights. It was perfect.


Lonely Beach, one of the less developed "backpacker" beaches on the island.
Ok, I did not plan to get a tattoo. Min Gi has wanted to get one for awhile now, although they are associated with gangsters in Korea and are illegal. (He's a rebel about this kind of stuff. Notice the earring.) But I have never been interested in cutting myself for decoration.

However, in Thailand they use a bamboo needle technique that the artist, a friendly fellow named One, swore to us was less painful than regular tats. Rather than cutting into your skin, they set the ink in by poking you about a thousand times with a very sharp needle. It doesn't hurt so much as tingle. Afterward, the area was a bit sore and swollen for like an hour, but we could go swimming later the same day, which I understand you cannot do with regular tattoos. Min Gi really wanted us to get tattoos together.

I decided that I wanted a moon design because my name, Diana, comes from the Roman goddess of the hunt and the moon (Artemis in Greece). I suggested Min Gi get a sun, but after working with our tattoo artist on my design, Min Gi liked it so much, he decided that he wanted the same one. We each got some Thai writing, mine reads "today" and his reads "Diana tomorrow" because of the song we danced to at the wedding.


Showing off our honey-moon moons. Get it? I know, I groan at my own puns, too.
One day, we rented a motorbike to navigate the winding, mountainous roads along the coast of the island. This is very dangerous. However, it was really fun, and Min Gi is an excellent driver. We made our way to one of the hiking paths for a waterfall and decided to check it out.


Min Gi approves of the waterfall.

However, by far the highlight of our time on the island was taking an all day snorkeling boat trip to some of the coral reefs on the surrounding islands. I had never been snorkeling before, but after a bit of adjusting to the pressure of the mask and breathing through your mouth, I was quickly swimming with the fish. I floated along with iridescent, neon, rainbow-colored fish, darting about giant black sea urchins and clams the size of my head. Absolutely incredible.


Jumping off the second story of the tour boat. I can fly!

I tried so hard not to get sunburn, but I forgot about the backs of my legs while facing down with the snorkel mask and got a pretty nasty burn that faded to a tan you can still see, one month later. Min Gi got burned because he foolishly thought his browner complexion would protect him. He underestimated the power of the sun that close to the equator.

All in all, this was the most relaxing portion of our trip, and the most beautiful views of nature. I would definitely return here for another round in the future:

Ko Chang Album

Arriving Home.

After flying all night from tropical, beautiful Bangkok, we arrived to four degree Celsius rainfall in Incheon. While it is wonderful to be home, the ugliness of Korea's concrete buildings combined with the dreary weather and the looming thought of work tomorrow with nary a clue about what my schedule will look like (oh the last minute-ness of everything!) are ganging up to make me yearn for a different lifestyle, for a new country.

I know that when spring arrives, I'll start waxing bittersweet about my last six months (less, actually) in Korea for a few years, but for now, I'm wishing I was back at the beach with a glass of red wine and no responsibilities but to finish my novel and frolic in the waves with my husband.

Many posts about the places we went are forthcoming. For now, I'll just say that we had so much fun, we've decided to have a honeymoon at least once a year.