jenifer delemont – Page 8

The Oregon Coast Aquarium

The Oregon Coast Aquarium is not in a major city, nor is it conveniently located. It’s on Newport, which is a city name used to frequently in the USA.

In spite of the long drive, I was glad I went. It’s right by the coast so it’s easy to make a day of seeing the tiny aquarium, and then having an afternoon on the beach.

Mostly the aquarium has things that are local to that area, like star fish and seals. You can see these things at the beach too, but seeing them in the aquarium allows for closer look, and for the staff to tell you interesting things about them.

I even stuck around to watch the seals and sea lions eating, which was a good time. I love the way seals sort of squish their way along the land, and yet, they are so graceful in the water.

I think the most interesting part of the aquarium is being able to go through the local Oregon exhibits and see things like living Sand Dollars and colorful sea cucumbers.

After doing the tide pools and the beach, I had seen all those things from far away. However, a close-up look at healthy and well-cared for animals is always appreciated.

In this picture (above) you can see a green anemone, an orange sea cucumber, and a purple sea urchin.

If you were on your own wandering around, you might see all of those in one day. But I promise that you wouldn’t see them all together in one place. So I think that is the real benefit of making the drive and paying the steep admission price.

It is just really cool to see all of the sea life of the Oregon coast packed into one place, where you can enjoy it all in a morning.

Christmas in Paris

I know everyone says that Paris is beautiful in the spring, but I went for Christmas.

It’s not that they don’t have Christmas in South Korea. They do. It’s sort of a date day where you go around with your significant other and look at trees.

Korea is historically a Buddhist country, and it is only recently that Christmas even became a national holiday there because of pressure from the vocal minority who are Christian.

Anyway, instead I went to Paris.

I saw all the things you would expect, like the Louvre, the Eiffel Tower, and the Cathedral of Notre Dame.

However, I also ventured off the beaten path to see Oscar Wilde’s grave in one of the cemeteries.

I hate to be cliche, but the best part was definitely the food. The food in Paris really is the best.

I ate everything! There was a little bakery by our hotel, and every morning the woman there would suggest breakfast pastries and pack us a lunch of meats and cheeses. It was heavenly.

We stayed outside the city and took the train in each morning. It was much cheaper that way, and it was nice to see a little country town.

Friends had suggested this after staying in the city and being kept up all night by the noise. If you are there to party until the middle of the night, then I suppose that is okay. That’s how some people vacation.

But I went to see the sights, and so it was nice to be in a quite village.

London is Lovely

I went to London on a whim while I was on vacation in Paris. It was an inception style vacation within a vacation.

Really it was because my cousin Stacy Spence was going to college in Cardiff, and she agreed that if I took the train over from Paris, she would meet me in London and show me around.

We did a tour where you go around in a bus and stop to look at things, which was really lovely.

Naturally we stopped for Fish and Chips in a pub as well, because I insisted. I had it with a pint of beer that our bar tender recommended.

Honestly, they were not the best fish and chips I ever had, but we’ll leave that to it being a pub outside St. Pancreas Station and not a five star resort or something.

I have to say that the people were nice. When we got lost, my cousin asked for directions to the British museum by saying “Where is that building full of things you stole from other countries?”

Not only did the boys she asked have a good sense of humor about it, but they walked us over to the museum to make sure that we got there okay.

This is not the cold and unfriendly England that folks warned me about, but I guess maybe that’s just how they want us to see them, eh?

Anyway it was really, very nice. It’s made me want to go back for a proper look when I have more time.

Until then, cheers London! You’re beautiful!

Winter in Korea

I am ashamed to say that I spent an awful lot of winter staring out my window at this view.

I know I should have gone out and done more. I should have had snowball fights and built snowmen.

But the truth is, I grew up in Arizona. Snow is beautiful and magical to me. I love to watch it fall.

However, I also love to make some hot chocolate and stay indoors.

Even after I bought the right clothes (long underwear, better coat, etc) it was still just a bit much for me.

But, from the window of a cafe, or my apartment, or a restaurant; it really is lovely.

Hwacheon Ice Festival

If you are ever in South Korea for the second week of January, you should go to the Hwacheon Ice Festival. It’s a wonderful example of a lot of my favorite things about Korea.

First, it is full of all the best festival foods like Hoedeok (a pancake with cinnamon and sugar inside) and other things sold at stands and in food tents.

However, it’s also a festival devoted to ice fishing, so in addition to festival food, you can enjoy fresh fish.

Bundle up, of course.

If you are going to be on the ice with a fishing pole for hours at a time, you don’t want to get cold. I was in layers upon layers and I still think I lost feeling in my feet after awhile, but that’s outside in January, isn’t it?

(Well, in snowy places in the Northern hemisphere, anyway.)

I also really enjoy the racism. No one does racism quite like South Korea.

There is an area for Koreans, and then off towards the back is the “Foreigner Area.” I lived in Korea long enough that I was accustomed to be corralled into “special areas” for people who were not Korean.

It’s not like racism in the USA where you get worse things and it’s institutional and horrible.

You just get separate things.

Sometimes the separate things are nicer. For example in this case, the area was mostly deserted and so it was easier to catch fish than in the main part of the river where everyone else was.

Also, Koreans like to see white people in ads.

So, once I caught a fish I was swarmed by photographers.

They want the ads for the festival to feature smiling white people because it makes the festival seem more popular.

So here is a picture of me having my picture taken by several professional photographers, to be used in promotional materials.

They don’t ask for permission, by the way. I have been on TV and in ads, and I never consented to it. I don’t have to because as a foreign person I don’t have the intellectual property rights to my face. That’s a perk of citizenship, (which foreign people can’t really get.)

Anyway back to fish.

It’s a celebration of fish.

And it’s a festival so there are all sorts of fun things. There is a “polar bear swim” where men jump into the frozen lake and catch fish with their bare hands while in their underwear. I watched. It was amusing.

There is also a giant ice castle that they build every year and fill with interesting facts about fish (you can walk through a tunnel on the inside that is full of “Fish Facts.”)

But obviously the very best part was the rides and games, because that is what makes a festival fun, right?

I enjoyed that they had several things that would be considered “too dangerous” back home, such as races in go carts along the ice, and taking an ATV across the ice.

Naturally, if something is dangerous and stupid, the American in me says to do it. And so I did.

I am still alive to tell the tale, and I highly recommend the ice festival if you happen to plan a trip to Korea in the winter. It’s a lot of fun.

Bangkok Medical Museum

Some very dear friends Chris and Laura were living in Thailand while I was there, and so I went into the downtown area of Bangkok to spend some time with them.

Chris writes a travel blog that focuses on weird things around the world, and so he decided to take me to the Medical Museum.

It’s not really about medicine. It’s more of an anatomy museum. Instead of the usual diagrams and pictures, they have actual skeletons and actual bodies.

I am not usually one to be interested in babies in jars, so I was a little uncomfortable with the whole thing (if I am being honest.) However, some of the exhibits were interesting.

For me, I think I preferred Body Worlds in the US because the plasticized tissue was less degraded and easier to see than the slices of bodies in jars of formaldehyde.

However, I am sure it’s an educational museum for the kids who go a field trips there.

Temples in Thailand

Of course when you are in Thailand, it’s important to go see temples and soak up the different culture.

Some of the temples didn’t allow women, but I went to all the ones that did.

Thailand is a majority Buddhist county, and unlike South Korea, they really enjoy their gold.

There are golden Buddhas everywhere. Some of them are just painted that color, but others are real gold.

With the gold Buddhas, you can buy sheets of gold leaf. It helps to support the temple, and you get to press the gold right onto the Buddha.

The photo (above) is of one such Buddha, covered in real gold.

I sat down to talk to some monks at a “Monk Chat.” They couldn’t talk directly to me, so they spoke through a man who was willing to rely my questions.

Mostly, I asked about why they became monks. The answers varied, but for the most part, they had families who were poor and they needed a place to live.

Everyone tries to follow the teachings of the Buddha, but they seemed to convey the thought that becoming a monk is about finding a place in the world when you need one. They also take and care for sick people if their families can’t.

Much like in a Muslim church, it is important to be covered. When I went looking at temples, I brought a shawl with me to make sure my body was covered.

They do offer shawls at some of the temples that you can use, but I brought my own because I have sensitive skin.

The architecture is really beautiful and unique. Of course Thailand is perfectly modern and they have modern buildings which are just plain towers.

However, with temples they try to use the traditional architecture. The detail is amazing!

This is one of the temples that women weren’t allowed in (above) so I don’t know what was inside.

I thought about trying to peer in, but unfortunately it seemed disrespectful so I couldn’t bring myself to do it.

Even the neighborhood shrines are really neat. I had a tuk-tuk driver who took me around for a day, and he brought me to his local neighborhood shrine to offer a prayer for a good day.

Of course I donated to the temple, as is expected. I thought it was nice that he would think of bringing tourists there as a way to help improve his neighborhood.

This is the prayer the monk offered me in thanks for my contribution. He also gave me some incense to light for the Buddha in the temple.

Each house in the nicer neighborhoods has a little miniature house in front of it.

Many are made to look like the homes they are in front of, and they are meant to be a place for spirits to stop and rest.

Offerings of food, flowers, and alcohol are often left inside.

Jenifer DeLemont in Thailand

I even visited some of the ancient temples that they are trying to restore, in order to preserve Thailand’s history.

You can see the yellow railings around it, because it’s not open to the public during restoration. But it was still cool to have a look.

This is a sign detailing the money being put into the project, and the history of different depictions of Buddha through time.

Behind most temples is a smaller and less grand building where the monks live. This is a dormitory.

Koh Samui Island

A friend asked me to meet her on Koh Samui, which is an island off the southern part of Thailand.

I flew to the coast, and then took a boat the rest of the way. It was a nice journey, and I saw a lot of wonderful things along the way.

When I got there, I checked into my hotel. I hadn’t seen any pictures when I booked it, so I was surprised to find that it had a spider theme. Some might find that unsettling, but it just made me laugh.

Nazialita came to join me, and the two of us spent some time riding motorcycles around the island, renting jetskis, and generally trying to see the place.

We also spent plenty of time just being lazy on the beach.

And of course, we ate a lot of amazing food.

Island food is a little different than the food on the mainland. They cook a lot more pigs on spits and BBQ a lot more.

This seems to be a thing on all of the islands in Southeast Asia, so I have just accepted it.

It was a really pretty island, and since we were mostly there to relax, it fit the bill. There are other islands if you want to eat mushrooms and go to a full moon party or if you are really into scuba diving.

However, Koh Samui is really just a place to kick back and relax, and that was exactly what Nazialita wanted, so that is what we did.

I recommend it if you aren’t planing on doing too much adventuring and you just want to chill at the beach and look up at coconut trees while people walk by selling cocktails or offering to give you a massage.

Food in Thailand

I think my favorite part of traveling is eating. I love food!

This is larb, which is ground meat with spices. It’s eaten by scooping the meat up with the lettuce.

I have always loved Thai food, so getting to eat food all around Thailand was amazing!

This is Tom Ka Gai, which is a coconut soup with chicken and spices.

When I was young, I worked at Thai restaurant in Phoenix and I always used to have a nice, spicy bowl of Tom Ka Gai when I was sick.

It’s like my version of chicken noodle soup.

This may be one of my favorite things in the world.

This dessert is made by cooking rice in coconut milk and sugar, and then topping it with mango.

In English, it is called sticky rice and mango, and it’s awesome!

Most people think of Pho as Vietnamese, but in all of Southeast Asia, it is popular.

I stopped in a little stall while I was out looking at temples, and I was so impressed.

It was just noodles and chicken with some broth, but it was perfect.

Of course I ate Pad Thai too!

I know Pad Thai is what most people think of when they think of Thai food, and that is because it’s amazing.

It’s just a simple noodle dish, but it’s the sauce that makes it great! Sweet and spicy at the same time.

I ate a lot of less attractive-looking Pad Thais from street vendors, and those were good too. But it was hard to get a picture while holing the paper cone they put it in, so you get a picture of the one I had at a restaurant.

Meat and rice is simple, but delicious. This was at a little stand by my hotel.

I know I should be more excited to tell you about the many temples and hikes, but food is really one of my favorite things.

Bangkok Flower Market

One of the places I loved the most in all of Thailand was the Bangkok Flower Market.

A tuk-tuk driver suggested it to me, and as I have always loved plants, I went to check it out.

Basically, it’s just a part of town next to the floating market where they have stalls selling fruits and flowers.

That might not sound exciting to you (and if so I do understand) but I love plants and flowers so much!

The flowers are grown all over the country, and they are sold here to become wreaths and bouquets.

Most of them will become offerings to Buddha in a temple somewhere, but some are also for gifts and occasions.

Giving flowers, offering flowers, and having flowers around is a big part of Thai culture because it is a tropical country with good soil.

Even just walking around the streets I came upon amazing flowers all the time that stopped me in my tracks and made me take a picture.

So, this is my gratuitous post in tribute of the amazing flowers of Thailand.

Please enjoy my bad cell phone pictures of some of the most beautiful flowers and fruit that I have ever seen.

I promise that if I ever go back, I will at least buy a mediocre camera first so I can take less blurry pictures.

Of course, if you did have a nice camera, would you want to take it on vacation?

Probably not…

So bad pictures it is!

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