Liars and Tigers and Boars, Oh My! - Day 2 cont.

So back to the tigers...

After we walked the medium-size tigers away from the pavilion, and Blake recovered from his near-death experience (ok, so maybe that's a little exaggerated...), we got to help "bathe" some of the larger tigers. Which basically means we rubbed a little soap on them and sprayed them with hoses while the volunteers distracted them with toys, milk, and/or chicken.  And interestingly enough, they smelled not unlike wet dog.

After the baths, they let us into a fenced play area.  In this area were trees and a rock formation with a small water feature.  They gave us all bamboo poles with different things tied to the ends, like empty dog food bags or colorful rags.  Then they let the tigers in!

I have to admit, it was a little unnerving.  Less because of the dozen or so tigers, and more because of all the people with poles, shaking them vigorously much too close to you and other people.  But there were so many volunteers in there with us, almost as many volunteers as tourists.  And they worked really hard to keep people from putting other people in the line of fire. 

And they were so much fun!  They ran and jumped and frolicked and flipped and plotted and tried to sneak up on their "prey."  There were so many people waving so many different things, it was actually harder than you would think to attract a tiger's attention.  Blake actually got pretty good at it.  Guess I shouldn't be surprised, since he's always able to do the same with our Mo cat and his toys, even though I can't ever seem to do it quite right.

After the playtime, we got an opportunity to take pictures with the biggest cats there.

And then we got to take turns "walking" (i.e., holding a leash attached to a very large tiger while he walks wherever he wants and you walk with him, unless he decides to run or chase something, in which case you let the leash go) a large tiger down to this old quarry, which they've turned into an exercise area for the tigers.  The workers took all of our pictures with our own cameras while we did this...

...and Blake and I got lucky and got a bunch of shots...

 ...because the tiger had to go to the bathroom right as it was our turn.

I mean, c'mon, look at the face.  You know what he's doing.  Such concentration!  I almost want to get him a magazine or something.

And let's just look at that first shot of Blake and me with him again.

 Yeah... You see the red circle?  That's tiger poo.

Thankfully, we didn't step in any.

Eventually we all made it to the old quarry, where several of the larger tigers were chained up, waiting for their playtime.

 You see the worker giving water to that one tiger and kissing him on the head?  I wish!  Amazing!

The workers ushered us into a small area surrounded by about chest high chain link fence.  Which actually was pulled back in one corner.  I tried not to think about why that was.

And then they let the tigers off the chains and ushered them into the play area, which was dominated by a water feature large enough for them all to spread out in.  The workers all had bamboo poles, most of which had bags or other dangling, tiger-tempting objects attached to them, and they would wave the poles around just like we tourists had all done with the younger tigers earlier.

It was quite hot, even though it wasn't even noon yet, and some of the tigers simply enjoyed lying in the water.

And some tigers played with each other.

While others ran and jumped and tried to catch the objects on the workers' sticks.

And sometimes they succeeded...

And some of the workers were crazy enough to get the stick back!  If one of those guys had taken a stick and bag from me, I would have let him keep it!

This one guy was absolutely CRAZY!  He would get in the water and walk around in there with them, while the other workers at least kept some distance between them.  One time he even rode the back of one for a few seconds!

I think he probably knew about 10 English words.  And 4 of them were, "I am tiger man!"  He had a huge tiger tattoo on his chest, and yeah, he was pretty much nuts.  He made me think of the Disney cartoon I watched as a child, Jungle Book.  I imagine that's what Mowgli would have looked like all grown up.  And Shere Khan, come to think of it.

Anyway, after the playtime, sadly, our time at the Tiger Temple was over, and we had to leave.  It was such an amazing experience to get to spend just a few short hours with these magnificent animals.  I will always remember that extraordinary day.

Tiger Temple is so far from Bangkok that the tour companies encourage you to combine something else in the area for your tour.  You could choose from a few different places or experiences, including riding elephants or viewing wild monkeys, but we chose the Erawan Falls, which are a series of 7 different water falls.

The 6th and 7th falls were pretty high climbs, and by this point of the day we were fairly exhausted.  So we only made it to the first 5 falls.  But they were still beautiful.

And after the falls, we dropped the guide back off and headed straight back to Bangkok.  Well, we did make one stop at 7-11.  Thailand has fountain cokes in their convenience stores.  Fountain cokes!  With ice!  You just don't understand.  And I know you're not supposed to drink the water in Thailand, and ice is made from the water.  But we just drank our coke really, really fast before the ice could melt.  I mean, some things are just worth the risk.

And 3-1/2 to 4 hours later, through achingly slow traffic, we finally made it back to our hotel and passed out incredibly early after our truly spectacular day.

Rules for Elevators

When we first moved to Korea, our building was very new.  And the elevators weren't finished yet.  But when they were finally completed and the cardboard was removed - all the gleaming stainless steel unveiled and the lovely astrological floor tiles revealed (just wait, I'm saving that for the next post) - we noticed these wonderfully helpful rules for everyday elevator use.

Of course, we can't really read them.  Or rather, we can read them, sound out the syllables at least, but we have no idea what they mean.  So we have spent many a trip up or down theorizing as to what they might say, using the pictures for guidance.  And the following are what we've settled on...

1. Don't karate chop the buttons.

And especially not with your eyes closed.



2.  Call the Mitsibushi maintenance man if you're stuck.

On the apparently cordless phone that I still can't find anywhere in these elevators.

3.  Don't throw your cat at the door.  And jump up and down on the elevator.

Mo Cat particularly appreciates this one.  Although, we're not entirely sure if you're not supposed to throw him at the door AND you're not supposed to jump up and down on the elevator, or if you're just not supposed to throw him at the door WHILE you jump up and down.  Mo votes for the former, but some days, we vote for the latter.  Depends how many times he has bitten me on a given day.  Seriously, he bit me in the stomach yesterday.  The stomach.

4. Don't crowd the elevator when they need to carry the pig out on a stretcher.

"They" apparently being the Mitsibushi maintenance man and a ghost?  Who is somehow also crowding the elevator with everyone else at the same time.

 Anyway, these are our best guesses.  If you have better ideas, let me know.

When we arrived back this weekend from our latest home leave trip, we found one of the elevator buttons broken.  I guess you really can't karate chop them after all.

To Each His Own

When I checked my hotmail this morning, I found an email from Zales.  It was a sales promotion for "Beautiful Previously Owned Jewelry - Gently Restored to Its Original Luster."  My curiousity got the better of me, and I decided to waste a little of my precious free time perusing some used jewelry.  And even though I know we all have varying taste - one man's trash is another man's treasure and all that - I was still amazed at some of the pieces I saw.  Because not only did some design team think it was a good idea to produce these pieces at some point, but this is USED jewelry.  That means somebody actually felt like it was worth their hard-earned money and bought this stuff.  Amazing.

I'll start with my mildest objection.  These pendants, in and of themselves, are not really so bad.  I myself had one half of a set very much like this as a child.  Only I was probably about 8, and as I recall the set was less than $10 from Walmart.  It probably wasn't even sterling silver.

 My confusion here is really about the market segment this was intended for.  What grown adult would still want to wear it?  And what 8-year-old can afford a FOUR HUNDRED DOLLAR best friend necklace?  Seriously?  And I know gold prices have been at record highs lately, but who's going to spend this much money for a kid's necklace?  I think you'd be better off melting it down and selling the gold.  And the real diamond accents...  Don't get me started.

I suppose the next two items really follow the same line of thought.

SpongeBob.  Wow.  Unbelievable.  At least they kept it to crystal and left the diamonds for real jewelry this time, like this next piece.  Ha!

This next one was at least worth quite a good laugh.

I wouldn't wear this with a bad Halloween costume.  Retail value $150?  Are you kidding me?  150 Won maybe.  Although I wouldn't even pay that for it.

And this last one was Blake's "favorite." 

I think I might buy it for him for Christmas.  What do you think?

Liars and Tigers and Boars, oh my!

8/17/11
We just got back from Bangkok last night. And really, we just got back to Yeosu today. So this is incredibly early for me to be even thinking about a post, even if I don't get to finish it tonight. But this trip was so incredibly amazing, I can't wait to start deciding which pictures to post.

We weren't planning to go on anymore trips for a while. Except for home leave. We've already been everywhere we had planned, and we are actually trying to save for our next home, despite how it may seem. But when we got back from our July home leave, we found out that we had some summer holidays, and we needed to use 'em or lose 'em. A little time on the Continental website, and I had figured out flights we could book with all the miles we've earned over the last year or so.

So off to Bangkok we went, with a quick night in Seoul on the way. We were flying Thai Air because they're Star Alliance and had flights available to use our mileage on the dates we needed. It was direct on the way, and economy, but the only seats available on the way back were business class. Fortunately, it still didn't take that many miles, and we had enough. We'd flown Thai Air last year to Taipei, and I don't remember it being particularly spectacular. So this time, when we had individual televisions with a really good selection of shows and movies, pretty good food (they served us a full meal and then sandwiches later on a 5-1/2 hour flight), and ice in the drinks, I was pretty impressed. I mean, I know that may not sound like much to you, but ice in the drinks on an Asian airline...  I'm tired of drinking tepid soft drinks on planes. I miss ice. And icees and sno cones and fountain drinks at gas stations and Sonic Happy Hour and... Well, you get the idea. Anyway, trust me, it's a big deal.

So we got to Bangkok mid-afternoon. And let's just say the airport was not as impressive as their major airline. But our baggage arrived just fine, and we found our way to the airport train into town. They had an express train that only took 17 minutes, which was nice. We rode the train in, transferred to the BTS line, which is their above ground metro system, and drug our suitcases down a few dirty streets with broken sidewalks to our hotel. But it was pretty close to the station, and it was really nice. The location turned out to be pretty convenient. When we checked in, we were informed we'd been upgraded to a "Royal Club" room, which was pretty big and very nice. We had access to the lounge, with a variety of beverages all day and cocktails and hors d'oeuvres in the evenings, breakfast daily in our choice of 3 restaurants or the lounge, and 30% off dinner and lunch at four of the hotel restaurants for the duration of our stay.

9/2/11
So much for getting this posted quickly...  Oh well, I tried, right?  That should be worth something.

Anyway, where did I leave off?  Oh, yeah...

The first day was pretty simple.  We walked to a small temple nearby the hotel, and had a late afternoon snack at Central World, a HUMONGOUS mall right next to the temple. 

We had looked up a few things to see in Bangkok, but we also wanted to relax.  Our schedule has gotten pretty hectic lately.  Blake's pilot plant is being built right now, and he's preparing to run a project for a customer and to commission the new plant.  But I have to say a huge thanks to Claude Younger, a Sunday school teacher I had in high school.  He noticed a facebook post I had made that mentioned Bangkok.  And he gave some good suggestions.  GREAT suggestions, actually.

Because the experience we had on this trip was truly one of the most amazing in my life!  If you're on facebook, you might have already seen the couple pics I've posted.  Or the several that Blake has.  But trust me, pictures cannot even begin to show you how awesome Tiger Temple was.

This temple is in a rural area about 2 1/2 hours outside of Bangkok (ex traffic).  Having learned our lesson from the Great Wall in Beijing, we actually booked a tour online ahead of time.  We got picked up by a driver our second day in Bangkok at 5:00am.  We rode about 2 hours to a small town near the temple, where our guide met up with us.  After a quick stop at 7-11 to pick up food to take to the monks and a coffee for our tour guide, we made our way another 30-45 minutes to the temple.

We spent about 4 hours at Tiger Temple.  I wish you could all do this some time in your lives!  It was UNBELIEVABLY AMAZING!  I must admit, I was nervous leading up to the actual day.  I mean, tigers are huge, powerful creatures with dangerous, carnivorous instincts.  But we'd read a lot of reviews, and we felt like it was a reasonably safe adventure.  Outside of our usually risk averse comfort zone, perhaps, but it was such an awesome, once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that we thought it worth the risk.  Even though the site manager at work teased us before we left that we should have warned him sooner so he could have posted our soon-to-be job openings already.

Ok, so enough with the rambling, here are the long-awaited pictures.  I wish I could post them all, but here are some of my favorites.

Of course I made friends with their puppy dog.  She was a sweetie, and I shared my blueberry muffin with her.  And then there was Priscilla the goat.  Who tried to share everyone's breakfast.

They also had wild boars and ponies.  I love how the baby boars look like little brown watermelons with legs.

First we gave breakfast to the monks.  They're in the burnt orange robes.  The guys in the burgundy shirts are the workers for the temple.  They work with the tigers and the people who come to see them.

Then we got to see the baby tigers!
We got to bottle feed one that was a little older.  Ours was very messy!

And just pet and love on the two little guys that were just a couple weeks old.

Ok, tell me that precious baby is not the cutest thing you have ever seen?

And we could pet and take pictures with some of the adolescent tigers.

Then we got to walk the medium-sized ones over to a play area.

This was our buddy.  He did really well.  At first.  He didn't lie down or refuse to walk.  In fact, he was the leader of the pack, so to speak.

But when he saw some of the wild boars, he got a little excited.  And he wasn't too happy that we wouldn't let him chase them.

And after that, the swinging shoe laces when Blake walked in front of him were just a little too tempting.

Poor Blake.  It all happened so quickly.
But he was ok.  I think it scared us all more than anything.  But fortunately, the tiger was just playing, and he didn't really bite hard.  And now Blake can say he's been bitten by a tiger.  C'mon - how many people can say that?

Ok, that's enough for tonight.  I'll try to post the rest tomorrow.  But you know me.  I wouldn't hold my breath.

The Little Things 2

I think it's easy to get bogged down by the frustrating things in life, the tiring, beat-you-down, make-you-want-to-pull-your-hair-out things.  Sometimes it's really easy to miss all the seemingly insignificant "little things" that really can warm your heart if you just let yourself notice them.  Ok, so maybe I'm just speaking for me. 

But it's been 9 months since my last mention of them, and I just thought I'd share a few of the little things that have made me smile lately.

 My mom's favorite little house when she was visiting, nearby the apartments.

 Wildflowers growing alongside the road on our way home from work.

 A butterfly on the floor in our parking garage.

 My buddy Mo waiting for me when I get home.

Definitely Blake's favorite - the brand new Popeyes in our very own Yeosu!

 

And my favorite - baby tigers.

Gorgeous sunsets.

 The view from our living room.

 Blake.

Cheesy, I know.  But I don't care.  There's nothing like moving literally completely across the world with someone to make you realize how much you need them.  And how much you love them.

And last but certainly not least, our new office space.  It's still sea cans on the outside, but it's really nice!  With...

A women's bathroom!!!  I just cannot tell you... This is second only to the baby tigers.

And I don't even have to wear a hard hat!

Anyway, I hope you take some time over the next few days to notice your little things.  It will make all your days a little sweeter.

How to Order Pizza in South Korea

The following is a standard dialogue depicting the ordering process with our local Domino's franchise here in Yeosu.  I can't speak for the other Albemarle expats, but this expat family certainly uses this procedure about once a week (at least).

Phone ringing...
Domino's Worker: blah blah blah blah blah Do-mee-no-suh blah blah blah blah blah
(blah = random Korean words we can't understand)
Blake: English?
Domino's Worker:  Yeah, yeah.
Blake:  Ok. One...large...pepperoni...pizza...with...sausage.
Domino's Worker:  Ok.  Pay-puh-roh-nee?
Blake:  Yes.  With...sausage.
Domino's Worker:  Uhhhhhhh....
Blake:  Sau - sage.
Domino's Worker:  Pay-puh-roh-nee?
Blake:  Sau - sage.
Domino's Worker:  Coh-kuh?
Blake:  No, no coke.
Domino's Worker:  Pay-puh-roh-nee pizza. Two?
Blake:  No, just...one...large...pepperoni...pizza...with...sausage.
Domino's Worker:  Uhhhh.....  Coh-kuh?
Blake:  No.  Nooooo Coke.  One...large...pepperoni...pizza...with...sausage.
Domino's Worker:  Uhhhhh.  Just a moment.
Blake:  Ok.
Domino's Worker #2:  Hello?
Blake:  Yes.  One...large...pepperoni...pizza...with...sausage.
Domino's Worker #2:  Ok.  Pay-puh-roh-nee...
Blake:  With...sau-suge.
Domino's Worker #2:  Saw-suh-juh?
Blake:  Yes!  Saw-suh-juh!
Domino's Worker #2:  Saw-suh-juh.  Coh-kuh?
Blake:  No. No Coke.
Domino's Worker #2:  Ham? 
Blake:  No, no ham.  Ok, look, just...one...large...pepperoni...pizza.  That's all.
Domino's Worker #2:  Coh-kuh?
Blake:  No, no Coke!
Domino's Worker #2:  Ok, nineteen thousand nine hundred won.
(Which means we indeed did not get any sausage, as that pizza costs 20,200 won.  This is why we keep asking despite the hassle, because when we do get sausage, it's only 300 additional won, or roughly 30 cents.)
Blake: Ok.  Do you need my address?
...dial tone...

Mom, I hate your cows

Mom,

I just thought you might like to know your cows are doing well. There's still plenty of grass for them to eat, despite the construction. And they seem pretty happy, as you might can tell from their swishing tails in some of the pictures below.  And I didn't see any flies.

See?  Plenty of grass.  They're right across the street from our building.  And they're out there day and night now it seems.  As you can see, almost all they do is eat.  Unfortunately, when they're not eating, they're talking.  Because apparently they are not sleeping.

And they're loud.

LOUD.

We can hear them.  In our apartment.  In the dead of night.  They wake us up.  You know how hard it is to wake me up.  Me!

So we named them.

Ungcheon, for the area of Yeosu we live in.
Gwell, for the name of our apartment complex.
And Moozilla...
Because, well, that one WILL NOT SHUT UP!

And she's LOUD!

Anyway, I just thought you might like to know.  They're good.

Final Thoughts on Korea (from Debbie Adams)

So, I've been home for over 3 weeks now and have had some time to reflect on my Korean experience. And I have to say that on the whole it was very good and, while Korea may not have been on my bucket list of places to visit, I'm very glad that I was able to go and spend as much time there as I did. It not only gave me a feel for what it's like for Wimbreth and Blake to live in Korea on a daily basis and try to cope with the differences in their society but it helped me understand why they get so frustrated at times, and why they always want to eat out so much when they come back to the States-HaHa!

The Korean people in general seem to be different from Americans in several ways, and in particular different from Southerners. First of all, they are not very respectful or polite when it comes to putting others first, such as being first in line, opening or holding doors for others, butting into someone else's way, etc.
As Southerners we are practically browbeaten into being courteous and thinking about someone else's feelings or concerns and we are taught to respect other peoples' rights and to give them personal space. Not so much in Korea. They do whatever is most expedient for them and, if need be, will run over you to be first, get their place, stand where they want to and get what they want. They don't consider it rude or discourteous and are used to being bumped into and/or shoved aside. Having been raised in the South, I don't know that I could ever get used to that sort of behavior.
One of the other big differences I see is in how they treat their children. They seem to have a very 'laissez-faire' attitude, and allow their children free rein in roaming around wherever they want to, with or without adult supervision. Nichole, I'm sure it would drive you absolutely crazy to see how little attention they seem to pay to their children in what we would consider relatively dangerous situations. Apparently, the crime rate is so low in Korea that they seem to have no concerns whatsoever about someone taking and mistreating their children and they allow them to be out and about, even after dark, by themselves in areas where it would be quite easy for someone to snatch them. They let them play near busy streets, ride bicycles unaccompanied and wander around to other parts of the apartment complex with no indication that the parents have any earthly idea where they are. Not only do they not seem worried about kidnapping or abuse but they seem to have no concept of safety from the standpoint of not allowing the kids to play in what we would consider dangerous or even inconsiderate spots, such as right in front of doorways. They rarely appear to correct their children and just watch them when they behave in ways that Americans would consider rude or thoughtless. I can't understand a culture that has no concept of what we call 'manners'. All of that being said, I did find that when interacting in more of a one-on-one situation most of the people we attempted to communicate with were polite and seemed to want to be helpful, especially store clerks and others in a service capacity. But even the average person on the street would usually smile back when we smiled at them first. So, while I may have a tendency to generalize and put everyone into the same bad light, we did meet some very nice people and I certainly don't think they are all rude, inconsiderate or careless.

But I want to end on a good note and tell you a little bit about our trip to Jeju Island. This was a truly beautiful place, and the additional ride over on the ferry to Udo Island was a wonderful bonus as well. Wimbreth kept telling me that some of the water we saw was as beautiful as the water they had seen in Thailand. When we first arrived on Jeju and got on the road after our flight it was rainy and foggy so we weren't sure what to do about sightseeing for the afternoon. We decided to go to the larger of the waterfalls on the island, the only one in Korea that falls directly into the ocean. As we drove and got closer to the shore area, the weather became less rainy and we were able to get out and walk down to the falls and rocky shore and get some gorgeous pictures of the shoreline and an island off in the distance. We took a long walk up to another viewpoint and got more beautiful shots and we passed a museum of some type where we made friends with yet another Korean puppy. I have to say, the dogs in Korea are as friendly or more so than the people, but I guess that tends to be true almost anywhere. After a very full afternoon/evening of seeing the falls and driving we returned to our hotel for dinner and I particularly enjoyed the young man and woman who were playing piano and singing in the restaurant area--mostly American songs that I recognized. Nice way to end our evening.

Next morning we were up and out at a decent time to start our tour of the island. Once again the weather seemed uncooperative as we drove to our different destinations but each time we got closer to the shore itself the weather would clear, so I'm thankful that the Lord was gracious with that. We made stops at a couple of beautiful beaches, where I was able to run around for 15 or 20 minutes enjoying the water, sand and sun and pick up a variety of shells, with Blake and Wimbreth's help. We eventually made our way to the ferry to ride over to Udo Island, and I'm so glad we did because we saw one of the best sights of the trip on Udo. We took our rented car across on the ferry and were just driving around the coastline snapping pictures of the beach and the lighthouses when we came around a corner and had our breath taken away by a gorgeous cliff of rock that dropped down to the ocean and a small beach from which people were leaving in motor boats to take a ride out onto the waves. It was so totally unexpected that we had to stop and take numerous photos--like something out of a tour book only of course much better because we were right there beside it.

As much as I love beaches, I have to say this was the prettiest thing we saw on the whole trip.
We finished out our day with the ride back to Jeju and a stop at one more beach (not the prettiest but definitely the most crowded) then decided to try and squeeze in a visit to the second waterfall. It was pretty, though not as pretty as the first, but much easier to get to. Needless to say, the trip to Jeju was well worth waiting for.

In looking back at all of the pictures today I have to admit I was a little 'homesick' for Korea. Not that I want to move there for an extended period, but there were certainly enough pleasureable moments that I feel like I've at least developed a connection to the place and the people. I hope that the impressions that Bob and I left were good ones and reflect well not just on us but on our country and certainly on our Lord. If you ever have the opportunity to make a trip to Korea I'll be happy to share my memories and my pictures.