Clare's b'day at Longos with Foreign Teachers 

Koh Samui airport- Customs building 

Snorkelling

Here is a picture of Hugh and Trai when we went Snorkelling on an Island in Thailand. We were quite sea sick on the way back to the shore but the whole trip was really fun. We saw lots of fish and coral. Beautiful colours under the water. I even took a underwater camera so I will have to get the pictures scanned onto the computer so that everyone can see them. I actually returned with a few coral cuts as a memento of the trip. I have to say tat I tried to be careful but gosh that stuff was sharp. I didn't want to end up like Lana Cocroft with her strange disease.


Hugh and Tri at Nangyuan Island resort.

Turtle Rock Tumble

There is a good story behind this picture. There almost wasn't a picture in fact!

Clare and I rented a scooter and spent alot of time zooming about amongst all the Thai traffic while enjoying the breeze. The scooters are really cheap and we found it a good way to look around. It was really liberating to be able to drive again. Even if it was on a 100cc scooter.

One of our trips took us inland on Koh Samui to a coconut plantation/jungle area. There you could go for Elephant treks nice walks or ATV rides. The area boasted spectacular waterfalls so we took a "10 minute" walk into a river valley. It was a rather steep walk and typical of Thai timing the 10 minutes was was probably about 30 minutes!

The windy walk took us over big exposed tree roots and large river boulders. It wasn't marked very clearly but there were guide ropes to help us over some of the terrain. It felt like a real adventure like I was Lara Croft from Tomb Raider. I don't think Clare found it as fun as I did. I have always been a keen rock hopper and adventure playground participant.

It certianly was a world away from the crammed up city life that we are used to in Korea. I didn't see a waterfall that outdid anything in New Zealand but there was a wonderful carved Turtle rock that was about 6 feet long.

It was at this point in our walk that we lost control of the camera and it spilled down the rocks and into the water below. Both Clare and I were yelling while I tried to scramble after it into the water. I don't know what good the yelling did but it made the scene more dramatic. I did manage to rescue the camera however it didn't work for the next 24 hours. We are lucky I guess that the Thai weather evaporated the water out of the circuits.

Our walk took a gloomy turn from then on. We wanted to just get home and mope. The temperature seemed to rise as did the incline of the path. We tried to take a short cut off the beaten path that almost killed us. Clambering up a steep path while hanging on for dear life to roots and grass. We eventually got back to our scooter - a bit dirtier and thirstier.

Good thing is that we have the pictures to show for our efforts.

Turtle Rock

Sea Breeze beach front 

Elephant ride 

Kid Photos

My Columbus class kids in various costumes. The boys are having a special birthday at ECC. They are dressed in their traditional Korean costume waiting to be called up to blow out a birthday candle. The hats aren't so traditional.

The girls are in their swimming suits. Helen in the red is particularly cute with a little rose on her swimming hat. We were swimming at Summer Camp in June which was alot of fun.

Boryeong Mud Festival June16th and 17th.

This trip was a must do according to a number of people who had been last year. Tens of thousands of people each year go to a seaside town called Boryeong on the West Coast of South Korea where they roll in amazing mud. The mud is great for the skin and one weekend a year you can go and slide, sculpt and play in the mud while becoming more beautiful!?

We traveled with Adventure Korea once again. They took us on the 3 hour trip to Boryeong by bus and set up our accommodation for a relatively cheap fee. Mind you we were staying in a guest house where you sleep on the floor! Sun Mi is hiding under the covers after a big night out into the photo below.

Through AK we got to visit the actual mud flats which was about 30 mins out of Boryeong. There we underwent a mock "Boot Camp" dressed up in army pants and black t-shirts while ordered to roll/run/jump in the mud together.

The town of Boryeong was small but it had a decent festival/party atmosphere created by all the visitors. Plenty of BBQ seafood smells to enjoy as we walked around stalls and activities in the township. There were cheap massages available, mud body painting and mud pottery. Clare, Sun Mi, Marie and I all made a piece to remind us of Boryeong.

The weather was a quite wet through out so we had to spent some quality time in Hofs. Many of them overlooked the beach. I really miss the coast so for me the view was as enjoyable as the beer. I don't know how well the town was prepared for the numbers of people that arrived. We managed to drink one Hof dry of beer and apparently Lotteria was eaten out of chicken strips!

Clare and I only went swimming the once but the water was surprisingly warm. There was good surf which was nice to play in.

The trip back was pretty lengthy thanks to flooded roads in Seoul which held us up for an extra hour. We still made it for the last subway back to Uijeongbu.

I'll let the pictures do the rest of the talking.