18 month itch

So I have just crossed over the 18 month mark living as an expat in Korea with just under 6 months left of my 2 year contract here. And if I can be honest, it's not always roses and peaches as my Facebook pictures might allude. Surprised? I didn't think so. It's no mystery that life has its challenges, its no different when living as an expat either. You go through immense periods of joy that you cannot contain. But then a week or 2 later you can be feeling the extreme opposite and it doesn't take a lot to trigger that emotion either.

sweet chariot - Inchoen International Airport, Korea

Homesickness, like jet-lag and seasickness, is very real. We all experience it differently and cope with it very differently. For some people it is a few months into their new life where the melt down occurs and for some it can be towards the end of their time away where the longing for home knocks hard on one's front door. Solution: a skype call home, dinner with friends down town or an epic weekend away can, for some, do the trick. For others it can mean booking an expensive plane ticket home to spend merely a short crazy week with the family. Not forgetting the midnight runner, who decides that this is just way too much for them and without notice disappears during the night. I mean literally pack anything they fit in their suitcase - and head to the airport and purchase a one-way ticket home - it sounds extreme, and it is, but it happens more often than we know.

Hyeopjae Beach, Jeju Island Korea

I have been completely grateful for the opportunity to be in Korea, have a good job, pay no rent (that's my favourite part) and all the travel experiences afforded to me in this past 18 months. But the longing for my motherland is on the increase. My friends at home battling with home mortgages, car insurance and little vacation time will probably think I am so ungrateful right now. But it's true. There is still no place like home. Sure there are many unknowns and things I dread upon my return. I am not 100% about the job situation when I get back, the public transport system is not so great which would mean agonizing over the ever increasing petrol price and insurance for a car. I don't miss the politics (every country has politics but at least here I don't understand what they are saying), and certainly not looking forward to 21 days of leave a year compared to the awesome long holidays you get here as a school teacher. And apparently there is something called reverse culture shock too, go figure.

school holidays spent in Vietnam

But there is also a ton of things I miss that make me genuinely excited to come home.  I miss the BF a lot. Skyping has been great but I miss going on a good old fashion date - you know lunch and then movies, sharing popcorn, the stuff chick flicks are made of.  My family - yes  we drive each other insane, but right now I wouldn't mind driving a few kilometres out of town for lunch with the parental unit so mom can show off her latest hidden discovery or pulling an all nighter with the sister with loads of girl talk. I could settle to watching the younger brother win a rugby game or brave being a passenger at his driving lesson. Or follow the older brother (turned 30 on Saturday - wooo hooo) around with his cool arty friends, listening to their conversations trying to figure out how the creative process works or getting free entrances to gigs to watch awesome bands like The Arrows because he is cool and connected like that. Oh and my nephew, the cutest thing you ever laid eyes on. 

Proudly South African - World Athletics Championships, Daegu

I'm looking forward to going to a regular supermarket and know the aisles and what they stock. Doing my own banking (I am a nerd for admin), sorting out my own cellphone contract and not concern myself with immigration offices and visa runs (although traveling has been awesome). It will be great to know about upcoming events because the websites (and the grapevine) will be English, and of course I won't worry about walking into a movie only to find that it has Korean dubbing or is in French with Korean subtitles - yes this happened to my friends! And although I can decipher Hangul (Korean characters), most of the time I don't know what I am reading; I miss being able to read signs, menus and labels on food. I miss being able to just speak and not strain myself to fill in the missing blanks of sentences or have an adult conversation turn into a game of charades. Oh and I miss my mother tongue (hmm I wonder if I can still speak it LOL), you know that expression, feeling, emotion or even joke that can not be translated, its so liberating to be able to just say it and people get it. 

hiking  - not sure which direction to go :(

But it wont be long my sweet friends (who I miss too) - I have already missed baby showers and missing 2 weddings in November :( heartbreaking stuff I tell you! But what can a girl do? So instead of agonizing and longing for home I have made a commitment to myself to be present where I am now, that my last few months abroad will be anything but boring. I have tons to look forward to, including 2 international trips (destination to be revealed soon hahaha you can guess in the meanwhile) and 2 lovely ladies coming to visit me from South Africa, they arrive the day before Christmas - I cant believe how spoiled blessed I am. I am still in awe at God's provision in my life. 

I think it's time I start working on my Korea bucket list - things I want to do, see or eat before I leave Korea. That should keep me occupied - as the saying goes time flies when you are having fun, I so hope that's true.

Final thoughts

How do you cope with homesickness? And what things should I add to my Korean bucket list?

loving lomo: Hoi An

I finally got around to developing some photos I took with my little plastic camera while I was recently on holiday in Vietnam and I must tell you I am in love with the results...Thanks Che, for the inspiration - especially because I am not gifted in the area of photo editing. Hoi An is just gorgeous and a must see stop while visiting Vietnam - its no wonder the whole town is a Unesco Heritage Site, its truly a treasure (full post coming soon).

streets of Hoi An

View from hotel window

herb garden tour before amazing cooking class

favourite picture of the whole trip :) - Dipalesa

I own these streets :)

Final thoughts
Hoi An - simply beautiful

Visiting Vietnam: Halong Bay

On my very ambitious list of things to do over the next months was to visit more of the 7 wonders of nature and the world. Coming from South Africa :) and currently living in Korea, I managed to score with 2 on the list - Table Mountain and Jeju island (post to follow) respectively. I still have more to see of course but have subsequently decided that I don't think anyone can even pay me to visit Komodo Islands - have you seen that Komodo dragon lizzard looking thing?! Not going anywhere near it - thank you very much.

Halong Bay, Vietnam's gigantic limestone karsts and isles, left me awe. There are literally thousands of them -hence making the cut as one of the 7 wonders of nature. Ever so popular, you can imagine there are  hundreds of tour groups offering to take you to see the majestic Halong bay - decisions decisions. Since we had opted to stay in hotels for the duration of our stay, I thought it would be great to branch out and go on a tour with some young people our age - you know meet and mingle with peers, get some travel tips for our onward journey etc. I took some advice of a trusted travel blog and went with Hanoi Backpackers - and although I am still a fan of the blog, this tour was the BIGGEST regret of my entire time in Vietnam. Don't worry this will not turn into a name calling venting session about the tour company, suffice it to say, I did not feel I got 1. value for money@200 USD for 2 days (in Vietnam this kind of money goes a very very long way) 2. the best fit for me - as in, I don't think I was the target audience they had in mind anyway.

The tour was 2 nights (3 days) on a castaway island - our tour group was the only one on the island. We stayed in, i think people call bungalows, to me it was just a wooden structure with a thatched roof over my head and a mosquito net as cover. Although not requiring a tan myself, I did spend plenty of time catching the sun- enjoyed some kayaking and tried my hand at tubing. Needless to say I wiped out twice, struggled to hoist myself back onto the tube much to the delight of the French guys I was sharing the tube with. But in my defense the first wipe out was a matter of urgency. The speed we were going at was so fast that we found ourselves airborne at some points. The pressure of the water was so great that I could literally feel my pants coming off (later I heard I wasn't the only one).  I had to decide between letting go of the tube to keep my pants - or to hang on and arrive back to shore half naked - the latter was not really an option if you think about it. I got a good laugh out of it myself.

We survived the rest of the tour deciding to opt out of the drinking games which I am guessing resemble somewhat of a Spring Break in the US. Enough words - lets see some pictures :

1. Fiesta time 2. lunch on the boat 3&4. majestic Halong Bay 5. bungalows (with cold shower) 6. Castaway island - survivor style

Tips

1. With any popular tourist attraction - some people are bound to be underwhelmed, what, with all that anticipation and excitement. I was quite blown away by Halong Bay myself, the sheer number of them and how they ended up there. My travel companion on the other hand, not so much. She still liked them, but was not convinced by the 7 wonder of nature in the world part and thats okay. My advice, if it's at all possible, try to lower expectations of any place you visit. I happen to be a somewhat easy person to please but a lot of people are not thus leaving disappointed.

2. When booking for your tour double check that the information provided on the website is what they are still offering. On the website, I had read that we would sleep on the boat on the first night and then in the bungalows the second night. This was however not the case and apparently has not been for a while. Although I have no way of knowing whether sleeping on the boat would have been better or worse than the bungalows, I was not given what I was promised.

3. There is tons of travel advice out there, its overwhelming - from the hotel front desk to tour agents and websites - it can all be too much leaving you even more confused on how to spend your hard earned penny and precious time. I've recently become a travel-blog convert, taking a lot of advice from travel bloggers. However travel bloggers must also earn a living and some of the recommendations they give have been sponsored. Despite that I do still believe that the one's I read have integrity and do disclose any kickbacks they get from recommending a certain tour option. That was not the problem. My problem came in from ignoring who I truly am. I knew that they would be party animals in the relatively young crowd but ignored that and painted myself a different picture ignoring the fact that in reality I can be quite an old soul. Although  I was probably of average age with my tour companions, within in the first 2 hours together, I could see that we probably spend our weekends very differently back home and have opposing ideas of what fun is.

4. Travel blogs are a great source of information and I will continue to use them in the future. But before taking any recommendation - I will scrutinize the blogger more in their travel style, look more into what locations they have traveled to before, what activities they enjoy and ask myself is that something I would do and enjoy. This was really a learning curve for me. In Saigon I followed advice of another blogger and thoroughly enjoyed myself and retrospect I can see that our travel styles are very similar.

Final thoughts

If you have the chance do visit Halong Bay :)  please do. If I got the chance to go back I would - but I would want to be the youngest person on the boat - even if it means spending 2 nights with old married couples well into their retirement, I think their stories and wisdom will be far more interesting to me than drinking games.

Visiting Vietnam: Hoi An coming soon