Wednesday, January 25, 2012

Hwacheon Ice Fishing Festival

Hwacheon ice fishing festival takes place in Gangwon-do province on the north eastern side of the country. There is plenty to do with ice fishing, bare hand fishing, tubing, snow mobiling, sledding and more. Here is a video of our fun weekend trip!

Hwacheon Ice Fishing Festival

Wednesday, January 4, 2012

Chiang Mai, Thailand



Here is a video recap of our whole Thailand trip!

We unfortunately spent all of December 28th, 2011 traveling from Koh Samui to Chiang Mai in northern Thailand. Our first full day in Chiang Mai we woke up and took a ‘red car’ to the Buddhist temple, Wat Prathat Doi Suthep, on the mountain top of Doi Suthep.
riding in a 'red car'

There are about 300 steps up to the temple where people try and sell you everything. We then took our shoes off to enter this temple covered in gold. From the top you can see the view of Chiang Mai city. Before going back down we took a few pictures with some of the adorable Thai children.




That night we checked out the amazing night market where you can buy anything and everything.

The next day we took a trip to the Elephant camp just outside of Chiang Mai. Here we got to ride elephants and feed them bananas.



We then went on a short hike through the jungle up to Mae sa waterfall where we took a quick dip and then headed back. We then went white water rafting down the Mae rim and then took a short ’bamboo submarine’ ride. It was supposed to be a bamboo raft but we spent the entire time half submerged in the water. We then made the trek back to Chiang Mai.



The next day was new years eve and we took a tuk tuk ride to Tiger Kingdom.

Here we got to sit and play with tigers from 2-3 months old all the way up to adults. It was an amazing experience and so much fun.

  







Later that night we went out in the old city of Chiang Mai where we spent the night meeting new people, lighting off paper lanterns and watching the fireworks to bring in the new year!




Again, below is my video recapping our amazing experience in Thailand!

Koh Samui, Thailand





We took a short flight from Bangkok airport to Surat Thani where we then took a bus to the ferry station. Unfortunately the weather was pretty bad when we got on the ferry over to Koh Samui. About half of the passengers on this huge ferry were getting sick, myself included. Luckily we all survived and once on the island we checked into our guest house and then right to the beach for dinner.


The next morning was Christmas so Cortney and I, along with our new friends, went out for a beachside breakfast before getting Thai massages, exploring the island and getting ready for our Christmas dinner. We ate at a nice restaurant with a live band playing before we road motorbikes to look for the perfect location to light off some paper lanterns.


The next day we took it easy and lay by the beach and the pool. We spent most of our beach portion of our vacation enjoying the nice weather, getting manicures and pedicures and massages.
lighting lanterns 
Dr. Fish 
Chaweng Beach, Koh Samui, Thailand
Lanterns and fireworks