Cherry Blossoms! It's Spring!

Cherry Blossoms





After a long and I mean LONG winter, I've finally put my winter coat away and pulled out the t-shirts. This weekend was great! I heard about a Cherry Blossom Festival in Yeouido, Seoul and decided I must go pay homage to the beautiful messengers of Spring. Sarah, Crystal, Loren and I all jumped on a bus- then a taxi to get to Yeouido Park hoping to be surrounded by beauty. Our taxi started to get into some heavy traffic and we could see some blossoming trees on the side of the road so we figured we were there. We said, "Chogi yo" and he pulled over to let us out. We started to walk with the crowd to see what could be seen but ended up in a strange park that was under construction. Where was the famed Cherry Blossom Festival that we travel nearly 2 hours to see? The Koreans seemed to be enjoying their Saturday by having a picnic on the dirt or strolling past the construction equipment and we were seriously beginning to wonder if we were in fact at the Cherry Blossom festival. We kept on walking determined to see what the big deal was and finally found the actual festival. It was beautiful. In typical Korean fashion, the actual Cherry Blossom festival was packed. I'm glad that I'm growing accustomed to crowds.



There were also some beautiful floral sculptures to see along the way.
After the Cherry Blossoms, we hoped in another cab to Itaewon to eat some Thai food and later decided to end the day with a couple beers at one of the many swanky establishments in the area.
Weekends like these really make me glad I moved overseas. I'm glad to say that Korea is slowly becoming home.

Bali

We had a one week break for the Lunar New Year and decided that it should be spent in Bali with our friends, Christine, Craig, Sarah and Derek. We took a red-eye and arrived sometime in the early morning- grabbed our bags and headed out to find the driver we had arranged to pick us up. Everything went smoothly and we hoped into the hotel van and got comfy for our 1 hour ride to Ubud where we would be crashing in our hotel rooms for a couple hours of precious sleep before we explored the inland town.
Upon waking, we found that we were in a beautiful hotel! The rooms at Alam Indah were exquisitely decorated and the grounds were luxuriously overflowing with gardens, and flowers and moss covered sculptures. In front of our hotel doors there were small offerings of flowers and incense inside of green bamboo leaf baskets. These offerings were scattered all over the hotel grounds as well as through out the streets of Ubud; enticing good will from their gods.


The charm we were overtaken by at the hotel also extended into the town. To get to town from or hotel, we had to walk through, "The Monkey Forest." There were monkeys everywhere- and they were completely unafraid to walk right up to us. I had a baby monkey almost climb up my leg before I quickly moved away. Loren had a very close encounter with a monkey too. He got pooped on.



Ubud was a great town to explore- tons of shopping, yummy food and exotic sights to take in. We also walked about 10k through some rice patties and were in visual heaven. I think I nearly lost the group because I was taking so many pictures.


On the way back into town, we passed a temple and there was a procession of ladies dressed in traditional clothing carrying food on their heads. It was truly a National Geographic moment. And, my cameras batteries were dying. Oh well.


The next day was spent shopping!! and relaxing! You could get a 1hour GOOD massage for about $10! So, while us ladies spent our time in the markets, the guys were getting massages. Pretty good trade I thought because we got our massages later too!

In the evening we all went to a restaurant that has free dinner shows and watched an amazing traditional Balinese dance. Here's a snippet.


After 4 blissful days in Ubud, we headed to the beach for some more relaxing. It turned out the beaches, the ones that are said to be the best in Bali, were filthy! We didn't spend anytime in the ocean or on the beach but the town was interesting and full of more great places to shop and get massages so we didn't complain too much. I think I also exhausted my desire to take a tons of pics, because I don't have anymore to share. Loren has some great pics and videos from the beach so he'll be posting those later!